First Day Back
As soon as the Police Day ceremony ended, Chief Lee Chungki returned to his office alone and turned on the electric kettle.
While waiting for the water to boil, he ground some well-roasted coffee beans.
Lee Chungki cherished moments like this.
These trivial, quiet tasks brought him peace.
Finally, the water began to boil.
Right at that moment, he received a call from the Director of the Investigation Bureau at the National Police Agency.
"Hello, senior," Lee Chungki greeted.
"Ah, Chief Lee. I was so busy I didn't even have time to grab a meal with you."
"I know. I was disappointed as well."
"Let's set something up next time. More importantly, it seems you won't have any time to get bored."
"What... do you mean by that?"
"I'm talking about Officer Min, the one who received the award today. He's quite an interesting fellow."
"Did he happen to make a mistake in front of the Commissioner General?"
"Not a mistake. He actually got the Commissioner General to promise him another special promotion if he does a good job."
"Pardon?"
A leaking bucket at home leaks abroad too, as the saying goes.
He had let his guard down.
He should have stayed by his side until the tea meeting was over and dragged him out himself.
"I apologize. I have been negligent in training my subordinate."
"Don't misunderstand. I didn't call to get an apology from you."
"Then...?"
"He said that if we evaluate him fairly and deem him worthy of a special promotion, we should submit the recommendation paperwork anytime. The Commissioner General asked me to pass that message along to you."
"..."
"He promised to reward him as much as he performs. It might look audacious to the high-ranking officers, but if you think about it, he's not wrong, is he?"
"A performance-first mindset can ruin the police hierarchy."
"That's why people call you an old fogey. Try to be a bit more flexible in your thinking. Isn't it greedy to expect loyalty while paying a meager salary? You have to offer cool rewards to give them the drive to work hard."
"You've changed quite a lot yourself, senior."
"Those aren't my words, they're the Commissioner General's. I just got lectured until my ears bled. Anyway, I've delivered the message. Don't make things difficult for me later by claiming you didn't hear it."
"Understood. Loyalty!"
"Right. Good work."
He had thought sending him down to the countryside would keep him from causing trouble, but Min Suho had swaggered around as if to show off.
Wiping out two gang organizations and the corrupt police officers colluding with them all by himself.
The Commissioner General had praised him to the skies, but Lee Chungki's thoughts were slightly different.
The result was good, but Officer Min's actions were violent and reckless.
A police officer should not act that way.
"I had no choice but to reinstate him, but it will be trouble if he runs wild like that here too. As long as I am the Chief, I will never tolerate it."
He was the ultimate authority on personnel decisions here at Seongam Police Station.
If he couldn't be controlled, there was no reason to keep him under his command.
This was a matter he could not compromise on, even if the Commissioner General himself asked.
"Oh, the water has already cooled down."
Lee Chungki flipped the switch on the kettle again to boil the water.
Just as the white noise of the boiling water filled the Chief's office with peace...
"Chief!"
The Detective Division Chief flung the office door open.
"What is it?"
"That man... he suddenly vanished."
"...Who?"
"Hwang Dongchul."
The quiet peace of the Chief's office did not last very long.
"He could have at least told me he was leaving."
The Chief, who had come with him to the headquarters, was nowhere to be seen.
Just in case, I called the guard on duty at the security office, and they said he had already returned a long time ago.
I knew well enough that he didn't like me, but I didn't expect him to be this blatant about it.
I hailed a taxi and headed back to Seongam Police Station myself.
"Well, it's not like I want to get on his good side anyway."
I only needed to get the rewards and status provided by the navigation system.
Since I had secured the Commissioner General's promise, no matter how much the Chief disliked me, he wouldn't be able to easily block my special promotions.
If he found me uncomfortable, I could just treat him like a ghost.
Besides, this was the year the rotation system for Chiefs was implemented, so after a few years, I wouldn't have to see him again anyway.
"Maybe I can try challenging a mission now?"
This was Seongam-si.
It wasn't Sancheon-ri, where you could barely spot a single soul.
It was a crime haven where not a single day passed without trouble.
Though I felt anxious that failing a mission might make Pursuit Mode disappear, I couldn't keep delaying it forever.
"Yeah, let's do it. Time is tight if I want to make it to Inspector."
Now, I could run missions with just my phone, but I wanted to check the mission calmly in a quiet place where no one was around.
The best place was, of course, inside my car.
Just as I turned my steps toward the parking lot instead of the main building...
"Search thoroughly starting from the outer walls!"
A stream of detectives rushed out of the building.
From the Investigation Division, Detective Division, to the Security Division.
It was as if the entire force had been deployed for some kind of operation.
In the midst of the chaos, Team Leader Na Sangdo spotted me and greeted me warmly.
"Oh, you're back?"
"What's going on?"
"A suspect with three prior convictions for violence vanished from the restroom. The detective in charge was found knocked out cold. It's an emergency!"
"What does he look like?"
"Just go inside and get ready to report your return."
"Didn't you say it's an emergency?"
"We'll find him soon. It hasn't even been five minutes since he disappeared. Hurry inside."
"Understood. Be careful."
"Yeah. Let's catch up properly later."
Team Leader Na led his team and ran out of the building.
It wasn't common, but it happened from time to time.
Detectives tended to let their guard down inside the station, while suspects became hyper-sensitive, looking for any opening.
However, cases of actual successful escapes were extremely rare.
"Hello, Officer Song."
"Oh my! Detective Min. You're back already?"
It was Officer Song Hana, who worked in the Detective Support Team.
Since everyone had gone out to search, she was waiting on standby alone.
"Yes. Have you been well, Officer Song?"
"Thanks to you, yes. Ah, the award ceremony was today, right? Congratulations on your special promotion."
"Thank you. But everyone seems to be in a frenzy."
"Yes. A suspect escaped while his statement was being written."
"Which team was handling him?"
"Violent Crimes Team 1. I guess they let their guard down because the suspect was so quiet."
"He probably acted quiet on purpose to escape. Did he show up on any CCTV?"
"He was caught on camera leaving the building, but they can't confirm his movements after that."
He had likely used the CCTV blind spots to scale the wall already.
Otherwise, it meant he was hiding somewhere in the parking lot, but with so many detectives mobilized for the search, the fact that he hadn't been found yet meant...
"Could I take a look at his personal details?"
"Ah, just a moment."
Officer Song opened the National Police Agency database and showed me the suspect's profile.
"This is him. Hwang Dongchul."
Age: 37. Three prior convictions for violence.
Broad shoulders and cauliflower ears.
He had the typical build of a wrestler.
I pulled out my phone and opened the Beomjappa app.
Would you like to challenge the next mission? (Y/N)
I expected an authentication process like in the Commando, but a message notification sound rang out immediately.
Since it was a phone, there seemed to be a slight difference from the vehicle's navigation system.
Fortunately, Officer Song mistook it for a mobile game.
"Do you play games too, Corporal Min?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. Just occasionally when I'm bored."
I glossed over it, switched my phone to vibrate, and tapped the 'No' button.
It wasn't time to start the next mission yet.
I had opened the Beomjappa app to use the Keyword Search function unlocked at Level 1.
Just by entering his resident registration number, I could pinpoint Hwang Dongchul's location.
A few days ago, when I was looking for Grandma Kkotbun, it was in the countryside, surrounded entirely by mountains and fields.
I wondered if it would work properly here, where high-rise buildings were lined up.
"Hwang Dongchul, born July 2nd, 1988..."
While I copied Hwang Dongchul's resident registration number into the Beomjappa keyword search bar, Officer Song was looking over his criminal record.
"His three violent priors were from fighting with gangsters who were extorting money from merchants..."
The story of a suspect who sounded like a righteous outlaw was delivered to me through Officer Song's mouth.
"Oh? This man used to be a police officer. A detective in the Violent Crimes Unit at Hyeongsan Police Station."
"...He was a cop?"
"Yes. He was punished for assault under color of authority and quit. The whistleblower back then was Inspector Lee Chungki. Oh, isn't that the Chief's name?"
Ding!
Right on cue, Hwang Dongchul's location appeared on my phone.
"This is...!"
The bastard is still in the main building.
Seongam Police Station was built with five floors above ground and two basement levels.
The first floor housed the General Civil Service Office and the Traffic Section, while the second floor had the Detective Division and the Investigation Division.
The Chief's office was on the very top, the fifth floor.
"I can't confirm the exact floor."
The navigation map was a flat 2D layout.
It was certain he was inside the police station, but there was no way to tell if he was in the basement or on the rooftop.
However, I had a feeling I knew where he was heading.
"Officer Song, I'm borrowing a pen."
"Pardon? Ah, yes."
"And please pass a message to the detectives who went outside."
"What should I tell them?"
"Tell them Hwang Dongchul is still inside the police station, so they need to get back here immediately."
"What?"
"Please hurry. The Chief might be in danger."
"Pardon?"
"Hurry!"
"Ah, yes!"
While Officer Song contacted the detectives searching outside, I zoomed in on my phone screen to estimate the bastard's approximate location.
"The eastern edge of the building. He must have gone out the east exit and scaled the wall back up."
It was the only way to enter the Chief's office without being spotted by the police.
The building's exterior was red brick, making it perfect for finding footholds.
As long as one had good grip strength, they could easily climb the drainpipe that ran from the roof to the ground.
Climbing vertically up the drainpipe led directly to the window of the Chief's office.
For someone who had trained in wrestling for years, it was a route they could easily tackle.
"This bastard came here targeting the Chief from the very start!"
It was right after the Detective Division Chief left the Chief's office after reporting Hwang Dongchul's escape.
The window curtains, drawn to block the sunlight, fluttered in the wind.
"Did I leave the window open?"
Chief Lee Chungki walked over to the window without much thought.
Just as he reached out to close the window, an arm suddenly shot out from behind the curtain.
Grabbed by the collar before he could even dodge, Chief Lee froze instantly as something pressed against his neck.
It was a sharp, broken piece of tile.
"Shut your mouth if you don't want a hole in your neck."
"Who... who are you?"
"Who am I? Are you really asking because you don't know?"
"...Hwang Dongchul?"
"See? You know. After everything we've been through."
"Put this away and let's talk."
"Why? Trying to buy some time with that fancy mouth of yours?"
"There's no need for this. It's already over."
"What's over? You became the Chief, and I, who worked myself to the bone for you, became a three-time convict. If I kill you, I'll just add one more to my record. It's not over; it's ongoing."
"..."
Hwang Dongchul was a man who had narrowly missed out on the national wrestling team selection and changed his career path to become a violent crimes detective.
He was not an opponent Lee Chungki, who had only walked an elite path, could handle with physical strength.
"Get down. Hands behind your back."
With the broken tile pressing firmly against his carotid artery, the Chief had no choice but to follow Hwang Dongchul's instructions.
A pile of confiscated illegal banners was stacked behind the building.
Hwang Dongchul had cut some rope from there and used it to bind the Chief's hands and legs. Then, he locked the office door.
Feeling much more at ease, he propped the Chief against the wall and brought up the story from ten years ago.
"Do you remember back then? When you were getting beaten half to death by the Sageori Gang, I showed up out of nowhere and saved you. Even when your car flipped after getting hit by a truck, I was the one who called the ambulance and saved your life with CPR."
"I remember. I am still grateful for that."
"And yet, knowing that, you stabbed me in the back?"
"You used brutal violence against a defenseless suspect. If I had left you alone, you would have become a murderer."
"That bastard! He drove a knife into my mentor's stomach. You saved a piece of trash like that and threw me in prison. Do you still want to tell me you did the right thing?"
"Even if I turned back time, I would do the exact same thing."
"Ha! You... you really haven't changed a bit, have you? Well, you were always like that. Looking down on uneducated detectives as simple and ignorant. You're right. We never once had a proper conversation. We just lived doing what we each believed was right."
Hwang Dongchul adjusted his grip on the tile fragment and approached Lee Chungki.
His life was completely ruined. No matter how much he thought about it, there was no recovering it.
Hwang Dongchul could never forgive his former superior who had made him this way.
"Let's end it here. I want to rest too."
It was then. Knock, knock, knock!
"Chief, are you inside? It's Division Chief Han. Please open the door."
It was Han Taekyeong, the Detective Division Chief, who had rushed over from the situation room after hearing the news.
Knock, knock, knock!
"Chief! Can you hear me?"
When there was no answer, Division Chief Han ordered someone to bring the spare key.
Hwang Dongchul spoke to Lee Chungki.
"This brings back memories. I used to work that hard too. I wonder how those juniors will look at you once they hear my story. Aren't you curious?"
Hwang Dongchul wanted Lee Chungki to be condemned.
He wanted him to be remembered forever as a selfish bastard who sold out his colleague for a promotion.
As he walked toward the door to deliver the truth to the clueless juniors...
The window curtains fluttered in the wind once more.