Yong-sun could not sit still in the ambulance. Whee-in and Eric has not been rescued yet. They should be the one to be save first, especially Eric. Yong-sun got down from the ambulance and walked up to the front-line.

“Ma’am, you should not be here. Please go back.” The police on guard stop her from approaching further.

“My junior is still in there. Haven’t they found her? There is also an injured officer in there.”

“We will inform this to the squad. Please move back.”

There was nothing Yong-sun could do. She felt like a useless twig in this operation. She couldn’t save her friend, her junior and even her subordinates. She let them down, losing their lives for her selfish vengeance. The regret was eating onto her and she blamed her wretched fate.

The medics rushed towards the front-line before her. The odd feeling about it made Yong-sun subconsciously followed them. However, the guards held her back to let the medics do their duty.

The blood dripped from the fingers and the fair skin was drenched with blood. The hand hung freely from the stretcher when the medics move the body towards the ambulance. Yong-sun stood there motionless as she watched Whee-in taken away and her eyes were closed.

Yong-sun could see Mr. Jung rushing towards the ambulance; refusing to believe what was right in front of him, he anxiously called for his daughter. She could also see Eric lifted up in another ambulance with the medics hurriedly trying to take him to a hospital. The constant movement and the noise around made her feel dizzy. The ground was swaying in her eyes and the nausea was hitting up to .

Yong-sun vomited white foams right there and soon after, she lost her consciousness.

>>>

The sunlight was bright enough to wake her up, however she just didn’t want to open her eyes yet. She felt her lips crack and dry. The tiredness in her body made her even more lazy to wake up.

The peculiar smell of sanitizers mixed with spirits and the quietness in the room brought Yong-sun to her present mind and instantly opened her eyes.

“Ah! My eyes.” Yong-sun blocked the sunrays with her hand. The bright light hurt her eyes that she had to squint and let her pupils adjust. She had a glucose drip hung by her bed-side and was the only one in the room.

She looked over to the wall clock and it was pass 10 am. Whoever chose her bed by the window of the hospital, it would definitely be her mother.

It was not even months and years that she was trapped inside that dark, lifeless building but the sight of mother walking in and smiling to see her again cause Yong-sun to weep in her mother’s warm bosom and to feel her mother’s tight hug again made her feel so relieved.

The slice of apples looked juicy and Yong-sun quickly put one in while her mother was still cutting the pieces. “It’s so sweet.”

“Isn’t it? Your father bought it for you. Here. Eat some more.”

Yong-sun put another one in. “Mom. Do you know anything about what happened? After I was brought to the hospital.”

“I heard that everyone is safe. I was so scared when I got the news that you are in the hospital. Your dad and I had to pressure the station to find you. We thought we lost you too. Ah! A girl came a while ago. I guess she was involved too. She didn’t say anything to me. Why don’t you go and see her?” Yong-sun nodded, returning a smile as a reply and finished the remaining apple slices.

The door slides open slowly and Yong-sun peeked in her head. What happened to Hye-jin left her traumatized. Being drugged and ually exploited by a group of men and to survive it would absolutely leave a harrowing memory. Yong-sun sympathized with the young woman who now has a fear of touch from strangers.

Throughout the conversation they had, Yong-sun avoided bringing up the incident. She did not want Hye-jin to hate or blame herself. She encouraged Hye-jin to look in the future and live a good life. As a lone survivor of her family and a victim of ual assault, Hye-jin was exposed to suicidal thoughts.

“If you need anything, you can come to me. You are always welcome.” Yong-sun held Hye-jin’s hands tight and promised to help her in whatever she can.

“Thank you.” Hye-jin removed her hands and hug Yong-sun. “Thank you for saving me and taking care of me.” Yong-sun hugged her back and could only nod. She saved the witness but what about the others? Those who have lost their lives and those who are on the verge of death. Yong-sun stared up in the ceiling, not giving the tears a chance to fall.

“Hye-jin. Do you know if Whee-in is alright?”, Yong-sun asked after a brief moment of silence.

“Yes. But the doctors said she hasn’t gained her consciousness.”

“What happened to her?”

“They say she took a bullet for Eric. They are both in this hospital. Eric seems to have a lot of bone fractures.”

Yong-sun let out a relived sigh to know that they survived. “What about you? You are okay, right?”

“I am alright but they told me to stay in the hospital a little longer.”

“Why?”

“They haven’t caught the woman yet.”

The door flung opened and Yong-sun charged in to the Chief Police Officer room, yelling. “After what happened to your daughter, you still let her escaped.” If Yong-sun was in her normal self, she would have punched Mr. Jung across his face by now.

There was not even a bit of emotion on his face. “Ms. Yong-sun. You should not be here.”

“I know. I know everything what you have done. You are a coward and you don’t deserve to be called a father. Your daughter is lying there in the hospital not knowing when will she wake up and you let the woman who did this get away. You are just scared that your truth will surface if you caught her, didn’t you? And what? ‘Don’t be afraid to do the right thing.’ Bull. You and your ing speech. Whee-in don’t deserve this. What will happen to her when she comes back? She will hate-“

“Stop!”, Mr. Jung shouted as he glared at Yong-sun. “What do you know to say that? Please get out before I call security.” He restrained himself from revealing everything out of anger. Yong-sun clenched the recorder in her pocket and stomped out of the station.

>>>

Two days after Yong-sun discharged from the hospital, she immediately joined the investigation of the incident after Byul was announced as a wanted murderer. The drugs recovered from the sight were traced back to the owners. The owners were high profiled individuals who owned big clubs. They refused to admit that they were the suppliers but they were still arrested for selling illegal drugs.

“How did this happen? Is it because we kept the money for ourself?”, the arrested owners were promised never to be exposed by Byul’s right man if they obey her and they fell in the trap for the unexpected amount of money Byul offered. Now, they will spend years in jail.

Yong-sun turned up the news so Whee-in could hear it. Whee-in was still recovering from the wound. Every Saturday Yong-sun visit Whee-in and Eric in the hospital. Hye-jin was discharged from the hospital but she was under daily inspection due to her mental health and as an important witness.

The news reader read out that Mr. L who was a presidential candidate was arrested yesterday evening for his involvement in illegal weapon trades and black market, sending threats to competitive candidates, involvement in crimes and harassment of young girls.

“What? Thank God he was arrested in time.…” Whee-in spiteful words made Yong-sun giggled. “But how did he get caught?”

“His conversation and mails were leaked. There is also a video of him harassing a girl. Someone released everything. We tried to find this person and do you know where that leads us?” Whee-in shook her head. “A school. We search every corner and…we got nothing.” Yong-sun do have a hunch but with the lack of evidence, she couldn’t say anything.

 Within a period of one month, more than seven influential men were arrested. And Yong-sun found it interesting because all of them were related to their illegal works. They refused to speak and let their lawyers do the talking.

However, this time the cases were not something that could be ended easily. The whole nation knew about it and the nation demanded a punishment for them. No matter how long they kept quiet, it was not going to help them. This provoked one of them to spill the beans to save himself.

Soon the fingers started pointing to one another and one by one confessed what the others have done, leading them to their own destruction and to one particular man, Mr. Moon.

The evidence collected by the police and those provided by the unknown person were enough to take Mr. Moon under South Korean custody. After two months long of fight in the court, he was finally sentenced to life in prison.

Yong-sun has never felt so victorious in her life. She could rest at ease now after working so much for the past five months.

After her grandmother passed away, Yong-sun’s mother wanted her to sell the house. However, the memories of her and Granny Kim live there and Yong-sun decided to keep it.

She climbed up to the rooftop to look at the millions of stars twinkling in the night sky. As she lay there, the stars reminded her of Byul. Yong-sun had requested to find a name ‘Moon Seulgi’ who left the country on the day Yong-sun was supposed to meet Seulgi. The report came and the last time the name travelled was from Italy to South Korea three years ago.

‘Byul. You are the one who did this, aren’t you? Making your father spend the rest of his life in prison. You must be happy now. But I haven’t gave up on you. I am going to search for you until I find you.’

When Yong-sun thought everything ended, the next day she stood in the office agape when Whee-in asked her to be a witness. “You want to file a case against your father?”

The incident had made Whee-in to realized what his father intended but he must pay for what he had done. Since there was not much proof to say his father was responsible for covering up the cases, Whee-in wanted Yong-sun to be a witness and tell the court of their conversation with Byul.

“Whee-in, there is no proof to say he is guilty unless we have Byul. My words alone prove nothing. I also wanted to do something about it. Jin and Tae-hyun died for this stupid case he was hiding. But it’s hopeless with no solid proof.”

Whee-in hung her head low to hear Yong-sun’s words. She was filled with anger that she didn’t think through enough. Yong-sun patted her shoulder and moved to her desk.

Another officer rushed in to their office. “Yong-sun, you need to come quick. They found bodies similar to your sketch.”