Chapter 166
Chapter 166
Snake (4)
Han Yu-jun possessed the cheat-like ability to hear the voices of all things, but the number of times he’d actually put it to good use could be counted on one hand.
The reason was the cacophony of voices coming from every direction. The voices overlapped, drowning out the suspect’s inner thoughts he actually needed to hear, which meant he couldn’t even conduct a proper interrogation.
What’s more, these ‘voices’ had a contrarian streak, and communication was completely out of the question. Once, the moment Han Yu-jun mentioned he could understand them, the voices erupted in a frenzy, questioning how a human could hear them, and nearly burst his eardrums.
“What happens when you space out? You can’t even properly hear what the friend right next to you is saying. It’s like that.”
“You’re using your ability wrong.”
“Try again.”
He learned how to properly wield the ability he could never control after meeting Son Jin-ho. However, in the process, he frequently clashed with the hard-nosed Son Jin-ho.
“The club infiltration is tomorrow. Are you sure you’ll be okay like this?”
Han Yu-jun’s control over his ability was still not up to Son Jin-ho’s standards, but that wasn’t reason enough to postpone the scheduled investigation.
And that was how the club scene stills that sent fans into a frenzy came to be. The attention-seeking Yu Yeon-seo of the past had his own flashy style, but fans loved this new look, a deliberately roguish appearance he adopted for the role.
“Well then, please enjoy yourselves while you wait so you don’t get bored.”
(Once they get a taste, they won’t know what hit them.)
His conspicuous good looks meant that after only two undercover visits, Han Yu-jun caught the eye of a club promoter suspected of being a distributor for Snake. Now, he was entering the private room the promoter had arranged. The promoter smirked slyly, gesturing toward a silver balloon.
“Your friend’s not much of a talker, is he? What a waste of a good face.”
(Where’d he pick up a loser like this... I’ll let it slide since he’s got a pretty face.)
“He just got discharged from the military not too long ago.”
“Ah, that explains it.”
Han Yu-jun hadn’t come alone. Oh Tae-seong from the cybercrime unit was with him. Since the actor playing the role was also a popular idol, he was included for a fan-service scene along the lines of, “I thought he was a nerd, but wow, when he gets cleaned up...?”
“Wh-what’s with the balloon...?”
Once the promoter left, Oh Tae-seong hesitantly picked up the silver balloon. He was used to tapping away at a keyboard in an office, at best. This was his first time ever setting foot in a club.
“That’s a drug, too.”
“There’s this kind of drug?”
“Yes. Do too much of that, and you’ll end up paralyzed from the waist down.”
(This is insane.)
Oh Tae-seong, horrified, tossed the balloon aside. The promoter didn’t return. He was probably downstairs, finding or contacting his clients, tempting them with the news that he’d hooked a pretty new face. But Han Yu-jun’s team intercepted him.
The promoter, worried that Han Yu-jun and Oh Tae-seong might get tired of waiting and leave, rushed back to the room. He felt a sense of unease seeing the two of them just standing there, not having touched a thing.
“Ah... Sorry about that. Something came up downstairs.”
“Perfect timing. Have a seat.”
“What?”
The moment Han Yu-jun finished speaking, the door burst open. Son Jin-ho and Lee Ah-hyeon entered, blocking the exit.
“Wh-what is this?”
Han Yu-jun showed the promoter his badge and smiled gently. It was a picture-perfect shot, the kind Yu Yeon-seo’s fans would later turn into countless animated gifs.
“A c-cop...”
“We’ll need your cooperation with our investigation.”
Son Jin-ho approached the promoter, dangling a pair of silver handcuffs.
“A silver balloon, huh? I wonder what’s inside. Our forensics team happens to be just downstairs.”
“I-I didn’t do anything! You can take a hair sample!”
“Oh, we’ll be taking one, that’s for sure. But who said anything about a drug investigation?”
(Ah, shit...)
For all his big talk, his skills were lacking. Son Jin-ho glanced at Han Yu-jun, as if to ask, “Well?” Han Yu-jun shook his head. He’d read the man’s mind; he wasn’t even a low-level pawn for Snake, the organization they were after.
“We’re not here to arrest you. Let’s just go down to the station and have a little chat.”
In drug investigations, informants were crucial. And those informants were usually drug offenders themselves. The deal was simple: help us, and we’ll see about getting you a lighter sentence.
After discreetly bringing the club promoter to the station, the narcotics unit’s Team 3 headed straight for the interrogation room.
Han Yu-jun sat down, trying his best to conceal his nervousness. Son Jin-ho, seated beside him, let him take the lead in the interrogation. This, too, was part of his training in how to ‘listen’ properly.
“Yes, Mr. Kim Jae-pil. We received a tip that you’ve possessed and distributed happy balloons, marijuana, and methamphetamine.”
(Damn it, which bastard snitched?)
I read your mind during the undercover investigation at the club. Han Yu-jun tried his best to ignore the clamoring voices in the interrogation room.
“Let’s put the happy balloons aside for a moment. Where did you get the marijuana and meth?”
“...Nothing will show up in a hair test. You should let me go.”
(I can’t say who gave it to me.)
“But you know possession alone is a punishable offense, right? And we happened to seize evidence at the scene.”
(Ah, damn it. I never would’ve guessed a face like that belonged to a cop. Who becomes a cop with a face like that?)
Kim Jae-pil desperately played dumb, but his inner thoughts didn’t lie. Son Jin-ho used Han Yu-jun to pry information from the promoter, Kim Jae-pil, about where he was supposed to meet his supplier. Meanwhile, Kim Jae-pil put up a pathetic smokescreen.
“You don’t know who my VIPs are, do you? You think you’ll get away with this after grabbing me like this?!”
“I take it you know the eldest son of the Muyoung Group?”
“Gasp...!”
Having read his mind, Han Yu-jun grinned. He then read Son Jin-ho’s mind.
‘Should I really do it?’
(Just do it. With guys like him, you have to come on strong. That’s the only way to scare them into talking.)
Son Jin-ho was coaching Han Yu-jun on interrogation tactics through his thoughts. Following Son Jin-ho’s mental command, Han Yu-jun slammed his hand on the desk and shot to his feet.
“I’m going to go to the eldest son of the Muyoung Group right now and tell him you sang like a canary. You still think he’s going to protect you?”
“...Th-that’s...”
“Start talking while I’m still asking nicely. Where did you get it?”
After pressuring Kim Jae-pil and learning the supply route, Team 3 immediately identified the meeting point and set up a stakeout.
“Focus on the sounds. You can tell who’s coming faster than you can with your eyes.”
“...Yes.”
Han Yu-jun broke out in a cold sweat as he focused on the surrounding sounds.
“Captain, wait a minute. That person... their sound is strange.”
“We can’t get a clear read on addicts; their minds are pickled with drugs. What exactly do you hear?”
“A sound that a human can’t possibly make...”
“Get him!”
This was Han Yu-jun’s moment to shine. He sprinted, faster than any of the other investigators, to take the man down.
“W-whoa!”
“Han Yu-jun! Be careful!”
The man pulled a knife and yelled, swinging it wildly as a threat. But Han Yu-jun skillfully subdued him. With a swift movement, he dodged the blade, grabbed the man by the collar, and slammed him to the ground.
“That was too reckless. What would you have done if you got hurt?”
“Still, good job.”
“He should’ve been on our team from the start.”
It was the moment Han Yu-jun, once subtly ostracized and rumored to be a psycho, finally began to earn the respect of his colleagues.
Just as Team 3 apprehended the man and prepared to extract information, they witnessed a shocking sight: Kim Jae-pil’s dead body. They had released him temporarily to pursue other leads, figuring they could always read his mind later, but in that short time, this had happened.
“...This was deliberate, wasn’t it?”
“Looks like it.”
Kim Jae-pil had been killed in the exact same manner as Park Gyeong-sik, the deceased captain of Team 1.
“They’re targeting us.”
Son Jin-ho stared up at the sky, his fists clenched tightly.
“I think I might’ve been duped by the synopsis.”
It wasn’t that Kim Dae-seong’s script was bad. The character, Han Yu-jun, had a cheat-like ability to read minds, so dragging things out would only detract from the story. As a result, the plot moved at a brisk pace.
Yu Yeon-seo was set to showcase a variety of styles, and there were plenty of action scenes. With the director’s solid skills, the fans would surely love it. And from an actor’s perspective, it wasn’t a bad gig.
“Why? You got all the cool scenes, and the reaction to the premiere was insane.”
“That’s true, but...”
Snake had premiered with higher-than-expected ratings, sparking an explosive response and questions of whether this marked the revival of broadcast network dramas. Of course, over 80% of that was just media play orchestrated by M Broadcasting....
However, most of the reactions weren’t about the show itself, but because Yu Yeon-seo was the star—essentially treating it as his personal video pictorial.
(Actually, there was some interference from the higher-ups regarding the script.)
Dramas are typically a writer’s playground, but Kim Dae-seong wasn’t a big enough name to have that kind of total control. They respected him, but they still interfered quite a bit with the plot. This was especially true since the network had invested a significant amount of money into the production.
‘This is why it’s so much easier when I’m the one investing in the project.’
On the set of Snake, he was just the lead actor. Of course, his fame and influence were far greater than before, so they would probably tolerate it even if he decided to be difficult.
His public image had become so pristine lately that he’d considered tarnishing it a bit, but seeing the hardworking staff, he held his tongue and quietly focused on his script.
“When you get hit with a bait-and-switch synopsis, the plot usually goes completely off the rails. As long as it’s not that, isn’t it fine?”
“I guess so.”
For a show under so much pressure, it was holding its own. But writer Kim Dae-seong’s original intent wasn’t to insert fan-service scenes to make the lead actor look good; his primary goal was a public service message: ‘Don’t do drugs.’
(I saw all sorts of things while doing my research. That’s why I wanted to make it R-rated.)
(I wanted to highlight the dangers by showing explicitly what happens to people suffering from the side effects. Bizarre visual effects, the physical problems they experience.)
(But it turned out that the methods for obtaining these drugs were surprisingly simple. So there were concerns that people might try to imitate what they saw in the drama.)
But when M Broadcasting bought his synopsis, they apparently revised the script to make it more palatable for a general audience. So, the early parts of the story, which involved investigating and arresting drug offenders to get to the Snake organization, were streamlined, shifting the focus to action-packed confrontations with Snake in the latter half.
‘It’s not that I don’t understand.’
Yu Yeon-seo didn’t want any controversy attached to a project he was involved in, either.
‘I guess projects don’t always go the way you want them to.’
The only reason the projects he’d been in had gone so smoothly was because he had been involved in the production and investment. He was twirling a pair of prop handcuffs while reading his script when a commotion in the distance made him look up.
“Hello!”
“Oh, gasp... It’s Shin Ye-won.”
This was his real complaint. Future ratings would depend on the plot’s development, anyway. His fanbase wouldn’t be able to boost the numbers in any meaningful way. The only thing that mattered was whether the drama was entertaining.
“Yeon-seo!”
“...It’s been a while, noona.”
Yu Yeon-seo reluctantly returned the greeting from a cheerful Shin Ye-won. Shin Ye-won had received a call from the head of M Broadcasting’s drama department and, thinking it sounded fun, had gladly agreed to a special appearance. She was scheduled to play the role of a top star who gets arrested by Han Yu-jun.
It was a blatant attempt to ride the coattails of The Imperial Seal‘s popularity to drum up initial buzz, rather than serving the story itself. It was a strategy, in a way....
“Have you been well?”
“I’ve been great. Ooh, look at the prop gun on your hip. You look like a real cop.”
He glanced at the behind-the-scenes camera filming him and Shin Ye-won and sighed. The fan service should have ended at the Baeksan Arts Awards. He never imagined they’d be entangled like this for a drama.