Your Work is Appreciated

“Did the senator call you?” Lee asked.

“No. Wei?”

So-Mi looked up at the tall detective as they walked towards her scooter.

“Her office told me that they will set a date for next month or so, for the exhibition.”

“I see,” she nodded.

“You ok with that?”

 “I suppose. I don't really need to do anything, right?”

“No, not a thing.”

-----

(Flashback)

“Excuse me. I'm looking for this girl. She left her school bag in my cab,” he asked while showing a picture of a girl on his smart phone.

Detective Lee Min Sung was dressed casually that day.

Blending in the crowd with a plain down jacket and an old baseball cap on.

He stopped a random student at the Sungkyunkwan University Humanities Campus grounds.

“Aahh. That is Choi So-Mi.”

“I see. Do you know how I can find her?”

“She's psych major. I guess you have to call up the department for her.”

“Arasso. Komawo.”

“Sure. No problem.”

(End of flashback)

-----

(Fashback)

Lee Min Sung sat in front of the station's computer terminal and looked up the archived records.

< Choi So-Mi aka Jung So-Mi; 18 years old; Female; Single; Daughter of slain drug addict Jung Hyo-jeung; Adopted daughter of Choi Shin-kyun and Park Jae-hin. Currently attending university at SKK University. >

< Choi Shin-kyun; 68 years old; Male; Married; Retired accountant; Main witness of the Yongeun Corporation CBT case; Currently under police protection programme. >

Interesting, he thought.

(End of Flashback)

-----

(Flashback)

“Anyeong.”

“Anyeong.”

It was Detective Lee again.

How he found her, she did not know.

But he was an investigator after all.

“Can we sit somewhere and chat?”

“Uh,” she nodded.

So they sat at the university cafe, across each other.

He took out a large brown envelope and took out some glossed printed photographs.

“Are these yours?” he asked.

They were pictures of young boys and girls walking discreetly with small toy boxes and passing them to a video game operator.

Ants. A word coined for children who were made to transport small packages of drugs for small time drug bosses.

She sat silent.

“It's ok if you don't want to admit to it. We caught the perpetrators.”

She looked up then. Before looking towards the pictures again.

“Thank you. For exposing their hide out. We've been hunting them high and low.”

He smiled.

“Are these yours too?”

Again pictures were taken out from another envelope.

This time, they were night scenes of men carrying ice coolers, alighting an unmarked van.

Another showed a semi drunk woman being dragged into the same vehicle.

Organ harvesting. Where victims of all ages were captured for their organs to be carved away by experienced medical practitioners and sold to bidders from all over the world.

“We caught them too.”

He put the pictures back into their respective envelopes.

“It is a dangerous past time you have there," he reprimanded her. “But … thank you.”

So-Mi stayed silent. Not admitting nor denying any of his charges.

“But that's not why I'm here," So-Mi looked up at him again. "I'd like to introduce you to someone. Someone who will make sure that your work is appreciated and made into good use.”

(End of Flashback)