Ri Su-min
Ri Su-min. Born in 1999. A naturalized police officer of Chinese-Korean descent.
Her performance reviews were dismal, but her looks were serviceable.
She had once been scouted as a poster model, and a video featuring her on the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency's official channel had garnered two thousand views.
In the thirty-thousand-strong Chinese-Korean community that swarmed Annam City, she had blended in without the slightest reservation—frankly, she had never just blended. From her patrol days onward, she had been treated like a superior by the locals.
Consider it the aristocracy of the Chinese-Korean social circles.
She had been naturalized, and her accent had disappeared, but that did not erase her identity.
“Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min? When I met your sister on the ferry…”
“Using honorifics is creepy. Just drop the formalities already.”
“I refuse. Do you know how she was dressed when I faced her?”
In the container, she had looked like a disaster.
It could have been because she was on the run, but fundamentally Ri Su-jin had never seemed the type to indulge in luxury.
Chinese-Koreans were like that. Ambitions or current prostitutes had no shame about slapping on fake designer labels, but once you climbed the ladder, they dropped the act.
Ri Su-min was the little sister who had cut the family’s lifeline.
“You’re living in a 800,000-won weekly apartment hotel.”
“….”
Was she sizing me up and then dropping these bizarre remarks just to scare me? The color drained from Ri Su-min’s face, then slowly hardened into a scowl.
And her hands came up defensively, crossing over her chest.
The watch she had once worn—a Daytona—had switched to a Tissot with a diamond mother-of-pearl face.
Now it was obvious: she was a full-fledged fine-watch collector. The only thing worth flashing while on duty uniform was the watch.
The strangest part was that she still wore it.
“You’re on a dispatch assignment to the training center right now, aren’t you?”
“What do you want to say? Just spit it out already…!”
“I’m moving slowly so you won’t be rushed. Just listen.”
“….”
“Probably nothing more than watching videos for the morning sessions. Then in the afternoon you’d just be sorting documents in the office. With those rates, your monthly take-home would be two hundred forty thousand won.”
Two hundred forty thousand.
Compared to the usual two hundred eighty, or even three hundred during special enforcement periods. The patrol days had been different.
She had never felt that gap when she lived off her sister’s earnings. Her income as a prostitute and the overprotection of her younger brother.
To her, the police salary was nothing more than pocket money—money that could vanish in a day on a credit card.
But soon she would learn the subtle difference of forty thousand won.
“Your rich sister won’t be coming back.”
“That… that’s coming out of your mouth?” (0 / 0 / -)
“I saw it with my own eyes. The Public Security Bureau of Shandong Province arresting your sister.”
Not only would she not return; perhaps… no need to say this. She was still Chinese-Korean by nationality.
Either way, Ri Su-min’s lifeline had already been severed.
Yet she still didn’t seem to realize it. Or maybe she simply couldn’t accept reality yet.
“If you keep going like this, in a year you’ll be a debt slave.”
“….”
“A hasty room like that 800,000-won hotel, plus two foreign cars sitting in the garage, that’s at least eighty thousand a month in vehicle maintenance alone… and you’ll probably keep the same consumption habits. What are you planning for dinner tonight?”
“Sushi. Full course, one person.”
Ri Su-min answered honestly, lips trembling.
The gaze that had looked at me with grotesque curiosity sank weakly downward. She had finally understood.
I had not come to correct her habits or reform her.
“Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min?”
I looked at her with pity and took one step closer.
She flinched, reaching for her waist, but she was no longer in uniform; she had no gun belt. Still, the attempt to draw showed her caution was strong.
“It’s time you faced reality.”
“….”
“And for good measure… I did not come looking for a fight with you. Unlike your sister, I have never openly hated you, nor framed you to ruin your career.”
“Then…?”
Instead of answering, I placed a hand on her shoulder while watching her with sympathy.
She jerked away, but when I applied pressure she yielded.
I looked at her bitterly and asked.
“Do you want to have a quiet conversation somewhere? Is that possible?”
The place happened to be right in front of the apartment hotel where Ri Su-min lived.
Lamière Apartment Hotel.
Not a lightweight partition, but double-pane absorption panels. A bathroom inside the room. A hotel-type mattress, as advertised in the brochure.
To Ri Su-min who had led me there, I was simply grateful.
It meant I didn’t need to move the location at all.
…
The moment I entered the room, Ri Su-min’s first question came.
“Why did you come here?”
Before answering, I first invited her to sit.
I did not scan the room with suspicious eyes.
Instead I stood with my arms folded right by the door, showing only the intention to finish my business and leave. I never mentioned her sister being arrested by the Public Security Bureau, nor did I reveal what I was carrying to intimidate her.
On the contrary, I was trying to put her at ease.
“Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min. I did not come here to harm you.”
“I don’t believe you at all.” (0 / 0 / -)
“You don’t have to believe me. In fact, Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min, you should believe me. That way I can return safely to Annam City.”
I’m not here to kill you. Ri Su-min looked at me with a mixture of caution—
“Joo Sung-hyun… what should I call you? Teacher? Anyway, if you stay away from me, I’ll do the same. I’ll report to the National Intelligence Service and get transferred to some distant city where Annam isn’t close, and just work at a district station… like that.”
“Revenge on your sister?”
“I’ll forget it.”
Ri Su-min looked straight at me for once and promised.
I closed my eyes and pretended to hesitate for a moment.
“All right. That works.”
“Really? Is that the end?” (0 / 0 / -)
“Yes. We should trust each other as civil servants.”
Ri Su-min rose from her awkward posture and stared at me.
I gave her a faint smile, then reached for the doorknob. She would truly leave quietly.
But before opening the door, I glanced at the items placed on one side of the apartment hotel…
A watch collection. And a stool filled with luxury handbags and shoes.
Even if sold off as used goods in a hurry, that alone would fetch fifteen million won. If I had been in Ri Su-min’s position, I would have disposed of those first. But Ri Su-min seemed prepared to die hugging them.
A slight flinch from Ri Su-min. I gave her the warning.
“Face reality. Then you can survive.”
And I deliberately turned the doorknob slowly.
So far it had just been pointless conversation.
But Ri Su-min grabbed me.
“What do you mean by facing reality?”
She had asked. Thanks to her, I could use what I had prepared.
If I had simply let her go, I would have used another method. But this was faster.
“You thought I came to offer help, didn’t you?”
“To be honest… yes.” (0 / 0 / -)
“There is a reason. Even if I left you alone, Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min, you would end up in a tragic situation anyway. There was no need for me to intervene.”
Ri Su-min looked puzzled. I showed her my MiChat screen.
“That’s your sister’s phone. I kept it because I couldn’t hand it over to the Public Security Bureau.”
“…?”
“She sent this message to her contacts.”
Ri Su-min took the phone. Her eyes widened wide, the content no doubt.
My little sister is still a virgin. Never touched by a man.
I’ll send useful information you can use. Use it as you wish. It’s compensation for ruining your business.
“Were you the one who tipped off your sister about the enforcement information?”
“There’s no way your sister…” (0 / 0 / -)
“Yes. Ri Su-jin told someone about that fact. Probably using it as leverage to threaten Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min.”
“Ah.”
Ri Su-min’s breathing suddenly grew uneven.
Her sister’s malice.
Even trapped in the container, she had not forgotten revenge against her brother. The malice of Ri Su-jin who, when reporting to her partner, had said “My brother is a virgin, you can do whatever you want.” That fear had come from it. Why tell about her virginity? To turn her into a prostitute, just like her past self.
“So the calls I received in the meantime… were because of your sister?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but probably.”
“How?” (0 / 0 / -)
“I’m sorry.”
In truth, I had manipulated everything. But Ri Su-min believed it was real.
The spherical phone in my hand was also her sister’s.
Ri Su-jin was also the kind of person who could turn her own sister into a prostitute.
And Ri Su-min was still a virgin.
Probably only the three of us—Ri Su-min, Ri Su-jin, and I—knew that secret. Unlike Jung Jae-ho, no one brags about their purity wherever they go. A nineteen-year-old Chinese-Korean woman being a virgin was also strange.
“Your sister… did this to me. How?” (0 / 0 / -)
“She probably thinks the one who ruined her life is all Police Lieutenant Ri Su-min’s fault.”
“You framed her! …!”
“I admit it. That’s why I said I was sorry.”
Again, an apology.
Ri Su-min’s wet eyes narrowed coldly. In the face that had been empty, only poison and resentment filled. Maybe… this was it. Everything is your fault. If it weren’t for you, my sister wouldn’t have plotted to put me in prison.
Then, finally.
“Now what are you going to do? Can you save me?” (0 / 0 / -)
“You’re a police officer. You should receive the organization’s protection.”
“You’re ridiculous! Why would the police protect me?”
“The NIS?”
“Are you stupid?”
Hearing the younger sister call me stupid, idiot, gave me a new feeling. When she got excited, she spoke in Chinese like her sister.
Anyway, it was almost over.
First I would confirm with Ri Su-min.
“You can save me…!” (0 / 0 / -)
“I can send you to a safe brothel. You can sell your body while being protected from those who would bleed you dry.”
“What?”
If she wanted help or advice, she had chosen the wrong person.
Ri Su-min’s eyes widened.
Not just any prostitute. There was another offer I could make her.
“Or there is another way.”
“….”
Ri Su-min, even while glaring at the organization, still wore a watch worth three times her monthly salary.
It could still be used. For various purposes.
I didn’t know if it was good for Ri Su-min herself.
But this was the best suggestion I could make.
“Take it off.”
If she refused, I would turn her into a real prostitute within seventy-two hours.
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