“Yong-sun, Whee-in is here. Come down quick.”

If Miss Kim Yong-sun was asked to name one thing she hate, it would be her co-worker’s hyper-activeness; which she don’t mind during working hours. But the day was 25^th of November, the only Sunday she got to relax at home.

Yong-sun was still tired from working the whole previous night. She kicked her blanket in frustration and stormed out of her room. “Wind, are you a ing robot?” Whee-in looked up innocently holding the cup of coffee made by Yong-sun’s grandmother.

“Mind your language young lady.” Granny Kim warned Yong-sun who was sitting next to Whee-in. “Dear, drink it before it gets cold.” Seeing how her grandmother was being lovely with Whee-in added fuel to Yong-sun’s frustration.

“Why don’t you just adopt her?” Yong-sun murmured. She sat down and spoke to Whee-in, “Whee-in, it’s Sunday today. I think I remember clearly telling you to take a good rest today. You have been working the whole month with no break. How come you can still walk?”

Whee-in put down the cup and answered, “I want to talk about the case. I have-“

Yong-sun cut her in between, “I know you started the job recently and you are excited about it. But you see, I have been working on this case for almost a year now. I work day and night just to find that motherf***er and put him in jail or much better, executed.” Her grandmother clears loudly and glared at her.

Yong-sun adjust herself and continued with a polite tone, “So you see, this is the first day I am taking a rest for the year.”

“But you told us not to rest till we find Mr. X.”

Yong-sun pulled her own hair and wailed in more frustration. “Okay, I said that. But we are humans. We need rest to charge our energy. What I meant was not to slack off and neglect your duty.”

“Yong-sun, go brush your teeth. Your breathe stinks.” Granny Kim shoo her away. Yong-sun have no energy to deal with them. She sighs and left the mother-daughter scene alone.

The sound of bathroom door slamming thundered till the living room. Granny Kim turned to Whee-in and placed her hand on Whee-in’s knee. “Don’t mind her impolite words. Ever since she became a detective and left her parents to live with me, she did not have proper sleep nor finish her meal properly. Her temper is also only getting worse. I don’t know what she is doing because she always says I shouldn’t worry. I know she is doing all the dangerous things and what not, so I couldn’t help but pray for her safety every day.” She cupped Whee-in’s face and continued, “Thank you for staying by her side. Take care of each other, okay?”

Whee-in caressed Granny Kim’s hand and assured her, “Don’t worry. She is the fiercest sunbae in the whole department and I got her back.”

After finishing her coffee, Whee-in excused herself and went upstairs to Yong-sun’s room. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Yong-sun was putting on her face-cream. She gestured Whee-in to sit down on the chair by the table and so she did. “Don’t mention about the case ever again in front of my grandmother.” Whee-in lowered her head and apologized. “So, what have you got?”

Whee-in straighten her back and lean closer to whisper, “A witness.”

Yong-sun widen her eyes and hop with her stool closer. “Who? And how did you find them?”

“Well, it was her who contacted me. But she won’t disclose her identity yet. She said that the police are the last thing she will trust and there is a lot of corrupted officials.”

“If she can’t trust us, why did she contact you?”, Yong-sun stood up from the stool and sat down on the bed.

“She read about your interview last year on the MMM magazine. She said you look trustable.” Whee-in pursed her lips and broke eye contact with Yong-sun. She knew the ‘look trustable’ would sting Yong-sun.

Yong-sun scoffed and chuckled, “Look trustable. I see.”

Whee-in continued, “She said she might be followed and doesn’t feel safe in a police station, so she could not come to your office. I don’t know how she got my number but she said she doesn’t need to talk to me and just want me to let her talk with you.”

Yong-sun sighs deeply. “Of course, I must talk to her. This is the first witness of the case. She is a precious piece for this puzzle. That jerk. He keeps getting his way for almost seven years now. How could a person hide his identity so well?”

“Yes, I agree. Who knows? He could be walking freely on the street now.”

“And keep this a secret from everyone. Not a single soul must know of this. She is right. The higher ups are covering up for this person. I knew something wasn’t right when some records were missing and our director told me to drop the case to focus on others.”

Whee-in promised she would keep everything secret and gave Yong-sun the information of the witness.

Finally, the mystery case of an unknown person who has ordered the murder of seven innocent people, two political candidates and one official head will take a turn. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. While working on the case, Yong-sun found out that there were many unreported cases and since there were no witness nor evidence, the cases were closed. Before, Yong-sun believed the murder could be the work of a group of certain people but after analyzing the cases and a thorough investigation, she concluded it was one man giving orders out to contract dealers. To commit such guilty crimes and get away easily, Yong-sun knew one thing. The mystery man is a powerful person.

The door knocked and Yong-sun answered to let her grandmother enter. “Whee-in, I have prepared lunch. Why don’t you join us before you leave?”

Whee-in looked to Yong-sun and Yong-sun nodded. “Thank you, I would love to”, Whee-in beemed.

“Alright then. Come down when you two are done.”

After her grandmother left, Yong-sun informed Whee-in that she will call the witness later that day and update her about it.

>>>

“Yong-sun. I will go for a walk and buy my medicine from the pharmacy too.” Granny Kim put on her shoes and got ready to go out.

“Be careful. Don’t get curious at the park and try that exercising equipment again. I am busy these days. I can’t take care of you.”

“I know. I won’t get hurt and bother you. I put the plum extract on the fridge. Have it if you want.”

Yong-sun took her phone and locked her room. She exhaled and dial the number Whee-in gave her. The ring was on and the other side picked up as if she was waiting for the call. “Hello?”

Yong-sun recorded the call and answered, “Hello. This is Kim Yong-sun.”

The witness revealed herself. She went by the name Hye-jin, a 24 years old woman. Her family was the victim of the unknown murderer and she was the only survivor. Her parents were once rich business men. They had everything they wanted and Hye-jin never knew what was behind the source of their richness. Her father had a connection with the unknown person and had the person help him grow his business. Soon, greed found its way and made her father to cut ties to have everything for himself. That’s was when the misfortunate murder of her family took place one month ago and somehow Hye-jin managed to save herself.

“Did you get to see his face?”, Yong-sun tried not to sound too curious more about the person rather than the victim. She empathized with Hye-jin but she must also get information about the person.

“It’s not He. It is a woman. She is she. That day they killed my family, I heard the leader of the group talk on his phone. He addressed her as she with respect and did as what he was told. I think it was her who came later that night. I was hiding at a spot where me and my baby bother used to play hide and seek.” Yong-sun could hear Hye-jin holding in her voice and crying on the other side.

“Hye-jin. You have to be strong. You must tell me what you saw that night. That way I can only help you and everyone else involved.”

Hye-jin sniffled and answered, “I saw only her back. She is an average height woman and has black medium length hair.”

“Did you see anything else?”

“No. But I think she has a high position in some company.”

Yong-sun rubbed her forehead and asked where Hye-jin was at that moment.

“I can’t tell you that. I am scared. I am hiding somewhere now but I think I will be killed soon. I decided to contact you when I found out you are working on this case, so that I could be of some help. I – I just-“, Hye-jin broke down weeping.

Hearing Hye-jin crying, fearing for her life made Yong-sun realized how frightening death could be. She reimagined her life without her grandmother and without her parents and it gave her goosebumps.

After hanging up the phone, Yong-sun went downstairs and pour herself a glass of the plum extract. Now what should I do?

She wanted to respect Hye-jin’s privacy but she wants to save her too. The next day, she requested the rescue team to track the phone number but the number no longer existed and it’s last active traced back to S shipping port.”

In a hope that Hye-jin was still there, Yong-sun drove down to S-port. But she did not find any woman who resembles Hye-jin.

Yong-sun returned back to her desk and bang on the table with frustration. Whee-in and others in the room peeked at angry Yong-sun. They wanted to asked what was wrong but they were scared to talk to her in the current mood.

Whee-in bit her nails staring at Yong-sun. She picked up one of her files and walked up to Yong-sun. “Sunbae?”

Yong-sun looked up to meet Whee-in’s curious eyes. Yong-sun shook her head slightly and Whee-in knew what happened.