The Fishing Hook
Sister’s number was 999. Brother’s was 0.
After graduating from university, my older sister crossed into South Korea barefoot and alone. I, her younger sister, followed—earning my high-school diploma, naturalizing as a Korean citizen, and landing a public-service post.
We shared the same face, yet our paths had been nothing alike.
The very difference I had hammered home to my National Intelligence Service friends.
“Ri Su-min, you’re still wearing Lady Desterest.”
“What does that even mean…” (10 / 1,243 / 3 years 4 months)
“Chief. Stop pretending you don’t know. You already agreed to become an informant, right?”
“Fine. Desterest?”
“Yes.”
At first I only knew the name. Then I remembered the face I’d seen and looked it up later. Pink dial, gold bezel.
“A boutique version runs seventeen million won.”
“Actually… it’s not just the watch.” (10 / 1,243 / 3 years 4 months)
“And the house and car?”
“Studio apartment right in front of the police station, two overseas cars for commuting. All of them foreign.”
Of course, that alone was no weakness.
My sister Ri Su-jin—Sister 999—was a publicly successful businesswoman. A multicultural marriage-leading company that closed a hundred cases a year.
She had probably bought her “caring” for me because she felt sorry for the patrol cop sister, or because she simply loved me. But the real problem was that Ri Su-min never gave a single damn about public opinion.
“If Su-min had even a scrap of concern for her reputation, she wouldn’t have been flashing her wealth around like it was nothing.”
Public officials—civil-service workers who meet citizens every day at complaint desks, police stations, and fire houses—wearing luxury watches was practically suicide. Even if the purchase was legal, a complaint would trigger internal review, and then I’d be stuck with paperwork for days. Why would anyone wear a watch? The world had just become that stupid.
Yet Su-min clearly didn’t care.
“Ri Su-min, we can use her.”
“I’m already monitoring her.” (10 / 1,243 / 3 years 4 months)
“Yes. Her naturalization records, immigration history, residence, vehicle registration, work records, any incidents at clubs or suspected leaks… Everything. Communications and financial patterns too. Areas I can’t see.”
But that wasn’t enough.
I never believed Ri Su-jin’s younger sister was as clean as she pretended.
Su-min was a lieutenant in the Life and Order Division of the police station. Her assigned area was exactly where foreign prostitutes operated. No doubt she had been feeding her sister patrol information since her junior days. Buying a regular cop was one thing, but having a sister already on the force made her an unbeatable asset.
Proving corruption was difficult, though. And using her would be even harder.
“About a month.”
“To use her to pressure her sister?” (10 / 1,243 / 3 years 4 months)
“Yes.”
“I appreciate the high regard, Chief.”
A month sounded short, but the National Intelligence Service was no longer the organization that spent years building up a single spy cell. One quarter was normal for a clear-cut industrial spy. For me, even a month was an eternity.
The goal wasn’t to send my sister to court. It was time to make sure Ri Su-jin couldn’t flee with her brother or use a sacrificial pawn as a shield.
“I have a plan. Listen and decide.”
The plan to hook Ri Su-min.
As soon as I laid it out, the approval came immediately.
The person who granted my activities wasn’t Chief Lee Kwang-chul, but someone entirely new to me. The same rank, yet the power he held felt stronger.
It didn’t matter who he was.
The important thing was the approval and the promise of support. The Police Security Investigation Unit would have to cooperate, and the NIS was indispensable for that.
“Then I’ll start right away.”
I deliberately looked haggard and stepped into action.
****
Honestly, Su-min didn’t want to leave Korea.
“Is this right? Really?”
Su-min idly kicked her bare feet off the edge of the bed and wondered.
The place she was in was the two-room studio apartment she only used when her shift was split like a shabu-shabu. It was her second home, bought by her sister who earned good money.
A leather-framed queen bed, a closet packed with designer goods, a sofa worth ninety million won covered in chip crumbs.
Her sister hadn’t bought just this apartment.
Whenever she wanted, she used her sister’s card for shopping. She took overseas trips every vacation. She also received a generous allowance.
Su-min felt grateful to the sister who gave her all of it. But…
“I didn’t expect her to leave so suddenly.”
She already knew what her sister did. Recruit girls who wanted to work as prostitutes in Korea through local brokers abroad, register them as marriage hopefuls to create entry excuses, bring them in on short-term or overstay visas—F-6, whatever—and scatter them into the clubs of Gyeonggi South.
Why had Su-min become a cop in the first place? Whether as a junior or a senior, the difference between a regular cop and one planted inside the system was enormous. Su-min had gone in willingly, knowing her sister’s intentions.
‘Still… I don’t have to go with her, do I? I should have protected myself so she couldn’t drag me down.’
Su-min had never been directly involved in the prostitution business.
Yet somehow the situation had naturally turned into the two sisters fleeing together.
“Sumin-ah. I found a nice residence in the Namsan-dong area. I’ve looked at the second and third places too, but I think that’ll be our home. I checked it once—there’s even a balcony. From the balcony you can see the Doisuptep mountain range. How beautiful the view is. Two local Korean assistants who are sharp-eyed and kind-hearted, and you can live comfortably like that, right? Hmm?”
Her sister sounded as if she had a plan. A way for the two of them to live comfortably and safely.
But…
Su-min wanted to stay in Korea as long as possible. As long as money was no object, this was the best place in the world.
“How did I end up getting targeted by the NIS… Hah.”
Muttering a weak resentment toward her sister while fiddling with her smartphone.
The bell rang then.
Was someone coming? Curious, she checked.
“Joo Sung-hyun speaking. Sorry to bother you so suddenly. Just give me a moment, please.”
The man standing at the door was exactly the kind of “extremely dangerous” creature her sister had warned about. I had seen his face before, when we took campaign posters together.
This Joo Sung-hyun looked far too gaunt.
I wasn’t supposed to be careless… but whatever.
I opened the door and confronted him.
Joo Sung-hyun glanced at my thighs and chest, then looked away. His appearance was nothing like what her sister had described.
“Joo Sung-hyun-ssi? I heard the general story from your sister. Since I have no business with you, I’ll just—”
“Wait! Please!”
He had been about to leave when I stopped him.
His collar was loose, his hand clutching a crumpled envelope, and his lips were bitten raw with dried blood.
I had heard that Joo Sung-hyun had been suspended after his “work” with my sister.
It wasn’t strange, really.
Unlike me, most civil servants treated their jobs as their livelihood. I had seen plenty who looked as if the world had ended after a demotion.
“Please. I went to the Audit Office today, and the atmosphere… If it stays like this, I’ll get at least three months’ suspension. If even one article appears, they might demote me or fire me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Please tell my sister. That bastard who scratched me… No, that Chinese illegal… Do something about him. It was all her idea!”
Was Joo Sung-hyun one of the desperate ones? The begging look suggested he was.
‘Don’t be careless.’
This might have been an act.
If I made any promise or admission here…
It could work against her sister. It would mean admitting that the innocence Joo Sung-hyun had suffered was actually orchestrated by Ri Su-jin.
I didn’t fall for it. My sister would never just watch someone get hurt.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Don’t slander my sister.”
“Please… I’ll do anything. Anything!”
“That’s enough.”
Joo Sung-hyun staggered backward as if he might kneel.
Desperation filled his face.
I couldn’t believe this pathetic man had actually moved the National Intelligence Service.
I closed the door. Joo Sung-hyun’s complaints faded into the hallway.
“Actually, my father was an athlete… His career ended because of an injury right before the Olympics. After that he drove a corporate taxi, then a delivery truck, then a bus to support the family. I don’t know how happy my parents were when I got the special promotion. But now I’ve been suspended for ‘colluding with an illegal Chinese.’ I can’t tell them. So please…!”
“I’ll back you up for my demotion. I’ll be loyal to your sister. I’ll keep three hundred thousand won a month in your pocket and be your right-hand man.”
Joo Sung-hyun rattled off such pitiful things before finally leaving.
I reported the incident to my sister. She said she ignored it when I begged her to.
The reply was praise.
[Well done, Sumin-ah. He’s a crafty one.]
How many times had she seen this kind of crafty bastard? In my eyes he was nothing but an empty shell.
I couldn’t understand my sister.
Even though I was a cop, I understood a little, but handing a target over to the NIS… it wasn’t something a poor wretch begging to keep his job would do.
[Sister. What exactly did Joo Sung-hyun do?]
[I can’t explain it in words. Still, you have to trust me.]
I would trust her. But I still couldn’t understand. What had Joo Sung-hyun done?
…
And two days later.
[Don’t let the business go wrong, or the consequences will be on your head.]
I received an anonymous text.
We’ll protect you. Keep the business running and don’t run away.
At first I wondered.
Then a suspicion surfaced in my mind.
Even after naturalizing in Korea, I was still Chinese-Korean, and the sister of an international broker who smuggled over two hundred girls a year through local brokers. The suspicion came naturally.
“Lieutenant Ri Su-min. Can I have a word?”
My superior’s summons. I couldn’t answer in time.
I couldn’t shake the suspicion.
“Could you… Hah. The Security Investigation Unit 1 at the Gyeonggi South Police Agency wants to talk for a moment. They said it’s to monitor the trends in the Chinese-Korean community. Lieutenant Ri is an expert.”
“From the Security Investigation Unit?”
Maybe that was why my sister was terrified of someone like Joo Sung-hyun. Maybe she hadn’t run away because her prostitution ring had been caught, but because she had been exposed as a Chinese spy by the NIS.
“Lieutenant Ri Su-min. Is there a problem?”
This was a completely different issue.