Chapter 29. Kwon Jaegwan Goes Berserk (2)
“Thank you for the interview today.”
After finishing her interview with an official from the Ministry of Labor, Yubin hurried to leave.
Even if she departed now, she probably wouldn’t reach Seoul before ten at night.
She immediately climbed into the company car.
“Hyung, please take me to the exam district in Sillim-dong.”
Both male and female reporters called the drivers assigned to the satsumari team hyung.
The driver turned his head toward the passenger seat.
“Why are you going there?”
“My car is there.”
“I thought I’d never have to go back to the Sillim-dong exam district again, but here we are.”
“You used to go there often?”
“Reporter Baek Harok lives there. I drove him home all the time. But now that he transferred to Culture...”
“The place we’re going is Senior Harok’s house. That’s convenient. I don’t need to explain the way.”
Yubin said it without thinking.
But the driver’s expression suddenly turned suggestive.
“Reporter Seol’s car is there? Hehehe.”
“Why are you laughing like that? It’s creepy.”
“No, no. Young men and women do these things. I believe in free love. I understand everything.”
No.
He wasn’t understanding.
He was badly misunderstanding.
“Hyung, it’s really not like that. There was nowhere else to park, so I left it there.”
“Sure, sure. You don’t have to make excuses. Nobody judges people for that these days.”
The more she explained, the worse it seemed to get.
Yubin decided to shut her mouth.
She had been exhausted since morning and soon drifted off to sleep.
“Reporter Seol, we’re here.”
At some point, they had arrived in front of Harok’s building.
“Thanks for today. Drive safely.”
“Reporter Baek has a nasty temper, but he’s actually a really good guy. Give it a shot. Fighting!”
Before Yubin could respond, the driver pulled away.
He drove off carrying an even bigger misunderstanding than before.
Yubin’s car was parked at a slight angle, making it difficult for another vehicle to fit beside it.
So this was why the complaints had poured in.
She was basically taking up two spaces.
Three large no-parking stickers coated with powerful adhesive were plastered across the windshield.
That’s harsh...
Wasn’t putting one on every day a little much just because she had parked there for a few days?
Scratch, scratch.
Yubin tried scraping them off with her fingernails, but they barely moved.
She immediately searched her phone.
How to remove parking stickers...
Pour hot water over them and scrape?
“...”
Where was she supposed to get hot water from here?
Wait.
This was Harok’s place.
No matter how messy his home was, surely he owned something capable of boiling water.
Yubin immediately called him.
Ring, ring.
It was already her fifth call, but Harok still wasn’t answering.
She remembered the way he used to yell at her.
Hey! You’re a reporter and you don’t answer your phone? You call yourself a journalist?
She wanted to throw those exact words back at him.
This old man transferred to Culture and immediately went full civilian mode.
She couldn’t stand around forever.
She knew the password to Harok’s place.
Harok probably didn’t remember, but when Yubin had been second-line on the Gwanak beat, she once came here on an errand.
Harok had asked her to bring him a USB chip from his apartment.
Yubin sent him a message.
[Yubin: Senior, sorry, but I’m going to open your door and go inside. I need hot water.]
She waited a few minutes.
Still no reply.
Yubin entered the villa and stopped in front of Harok’s door.
57XX.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Click.
Entering someone else’s home like this was rude no matter the reason.
Still, the condition of Harok’s apartment the last time she visited eased her guilt a little.
Calling it a homeless person’s den wouldn’t have been much of an exaggeration.
For some reason, walking into a house that filthy without permission didn’t feel like quite as serious a crime.
The living room light was on.
Seriously? He even forgot to turn the lights off before going to work?
But then she stopped.
Did I come into the wrong place?
This wasn’t the filthy apartment she remembered, where there had barely been room to step.
Everything was neatly organized.
For a moment, she wondered if she had entered someone else’s home.
“Oppa, you’re back?”
Yubin had just headed toward the kitchen to look for a pot when a bedroom door opened.
“Aaah!”
Both of them screamed at the same time.
The person who emerged was Harok’s younger sister, Jihyeon.
She was so startled by the sight of Yubin that she fell backward onto her butt.
Yubin froze in place with her mouth hanging open.
A moment later, the two sat across from each other.
“I’m sorry. Senior wasn’t answering his phone...”
“I’m genuinely curious. Do reporters normally go in and out of their seniors’ and juniors’ houses like this? Even when the owner isn’t home?”
Yubin had no excuse.
A pretty female junior showing up at her unmarried older brother’s apartment.
Jihyeon immediately transformed into suspicious-sister mode.
“Be honest. What exactly is your relationship with my brother?”
Something had clearly clicked in Jihyeon’s head.
She began interrogating Yubin.
“What? Relationship? We’re just senior and junior at work.”
“I’ve known my brother for more than twenty years. He’s dated women before, but I’ve never seen one come all the way into his apartment like this.”
Jihyeon had practically already decided Yubin was his girlfriend.
“I’m sorry I made it look strange. But there’s absolutely nothing between Senior Harok and me. He’s just a senior I respect.”
“A senior you respect?”
“Yes. He was my first-line senior when I was a trainee. And we’ve been investigating something together recently...”
Jihyeon still looked unconvinced.
But Yubin was denying it so strongly that pushing any further seemed rude.
After finally escaping Harok’s apartment, Yubin felt bad for causing an unnecessary misunderstanding.
She was just about to call Harok and explain what had happened when her phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
Reporters answered unknown numbers by default.
“Hello?”
“Is this Reporter Seol Yubin?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Jo Yongbok. I’m a paramedic. I have a tip for you.”
...
This wasn’t something that could end with a phone call.
It was the kind of tip that needed to be heard in person.
“Where are you? I’ll come to you.”
Ring, ring.
As Yubin headed toward the meeting place with Jo Yongbok, her phone rang.
First-line senior, Baek Harok.
That callback was fast.
If he weren’t her senior, she would have torn him apart for taking this long.
“Why did you call?”
“Where are you? Didn’t you see my message?”
“I did. Why did you go into someone else’s house?”
“We’ll talk about that later. Where are you?”
“Sauna.”
Oh my God.
Who went to a sauna at night?
