SBT - 1

01. Crossroads

- Code One, assault incident in front of JS Financial Investment building. The victim has reported directly. Nearby patrol cars dispatched.

Yeon, who had been blowing on her hot coffee before taking a sip, suddenly received an urgent radio call. Radio calls were always urgent. Events where time was of the essence desperately sought help.

These were urgent moments where she had to be ready to discard the coffee she held at any time, where her own leisure could be exchanged for their desperation without hesitation. At least, that was the rule in the world she had lived in so far.

“Patrol 21, support received. Responding.”

- Patrol 25, support. On our way.

Following that, the patrol cars responding to provide support answered the radio.

The patrol car made a familiar U-turn and headed towards the location of the incident. The evening sky, with summer fast approaching, was a dark bluish-green, heavily laden with moisture, as if it would rain any minute. The leaves lined up along the street fluttered in the unusually strong wind.

Wait, hadn’t they said the monsoon would start tomorrow? She could handle the cold well enough, but getting heatstroke and having her thought process shut down must be something she inherited from her mother. Her mother would also lose her way for a while while working when the heat poured down.

Hearing about the monsoon made the fact that summer had truly arrived feel real, and she wasn’t exactly thrilled. She liked the rain, but she detested the muggy heat that followed after a typhoon. The term “discomfort index” didn’t exist for no reason. Discomfort index, Yeon was already feeling the premonitions of that discomfort.

“Turn right here.”

As soon as they arrived in front of the JS Financial Investment building, they spotted three people standing in confrontation. A man who was already drunk and incoherent, a man in a black shirt confronting him, and a woman trembling behind the man in the black shirt. The situation was roughly clear.

The woman was holding her breath behind the black-shirted man. She was clutching one of her cheeks, and it looked like she had been hit. A situation where violence was suspected, the urgency crashed in like angry waves.

“You fucking bitch, this bastard is the guy you’re cheating with, isn’t he! You wanting to break up is all because of this bastard! Who said you could break up with me! Huh?”

The man, who could barely stand straight, yelled at the woman and staggered towards her. But then, the black-shirted man, who was hiding and protecting the woman behind him, punched him in the nose, sending him falling backwards.

“Ugh!”

At the short scream, the woman clung even tighter to the black-shirted man, hiding her body. For the woman desperately seeking a place to rely on and hide, Officer Lee made a sharp U-turn and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

“We agreed to stop with the fists, so you better stop before you get hit more.”

“What? You fucking... you’re the bastard who’s been sleeping with this bitch, aren’t you! Huh! Ah, blood...”

Officer Lee, who had gotten out of the patrol car, blocked the man who was raising his voice while drunk. Yeon quickly ran to the victim and embraced her.

The woman, who was trembling so much that Yeon could feel it even just standing close, was in a state of panic. To dispel the fear engulfing her, Yeon warmly put her arm around her shoulder, but the woman was tightly clutching the hem of the black shirt around the man’s waist, her face full of anxiety.

The man, still shouting loudly, couldn’t hide his agitation. Officer Lee was sweating as he tried to subdue the man.

“Um... Director.”

As the woman pulled on the hem of his shirt and called out to the man, the man who had been blocking her all along, showing his back filled with annoyance and anger, turned around. The woman looked up at the man with tearful eyes. Black shirt, black shoes, and following the folded cuffs of his shirt, Yeon raised her head.

“......!”

The man’s eyes widened, as surprised as she was. His brow furrowed slightly and then returned to its place, betraying his surprised feelings. A man with a raw and rough aura. Eyes as dark as his hair, long eyelashes, eyes that looked delinquent.

Yeon couldn’t define what this surprised feeling in her heart meant, whether it was because it had been a long time since she had seen those eyes, or because he was a college senior she had unexpectedly met, and she just stood there blankly. It was a more complex emotion than simple joy, one she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

She had never lost her composure during a patrol dispatch before, but Yeon was so surprised that she couldn’t close her mouth, completely forgetting that she was on duty.

She came to her senses when the support vehicle arrived soon after. Only after the police officers who came to assist subdued the loudly shouting man and put him in the patrol car did the surroundings become a bit quieter. Yeon, who had been standing like a lost person in the encroaching darkness, barely regained her composure. She had to swallow the deep breath she had taken.

“Um, are you alright?”

The woman, nodding at Yeon’s question, was holding back tears.

“Fortunately, thanks to the Director rescuing me.”

Yeon handed her own handkerchief to the woman, who was standing as precariously as she was. She held the woman’s hand tightly and then let go, to comfort the woman wiping her tears and to assure her that she was safe from any potential danger. Following that, Probationary Officer Kim Yoon-hee, who had come to assist, assessed the situation and took the woman away.

Yeon slowly looked up at the man who was staring intently at her. Even though her heart should have wavered at their eyes meeting, he maintained his composure. He stood leaning, with a nervous look in his eyes and a rough aura to match.

“Could I see your ID, please?”

At those words, the man, who had been looking at her for a long time, took out his wallet. Yeon took the ID he offered.

Cha Yi-hwan. And a photo with the man’s face she remembered.

Yeon, pressing down on the edge of the ID and staring as if her eyes were nailed to it, spoke as casually as possible. Calmly, without showing any signs of being shaken by the unexpected encounter.

“As a principle, everyone involved in the situation has to come with us for questioning, so I’ll need you to come to the precinct with us. Will you come with us?”

“Officer Jung!” Officer Lee’s shout urging her on prompted her. Yeon handed the ID back to him. As if to answer her question about whether he would come with them, he took the ID and started walking towards the patrol car.

“Yes, let’s go!”

Yeon walked alongside him and inadvertently looked down at his feet. The man, dressed in clean shoes as if he was off work, was even holding a briefcase.

The man, whose impression was far from gentle and upright, turned back to her with a crookedly furrowed brow. Yeon pretended not to notice his gaze and avoided eye contact as she opened the back door for him.

Eventually, he put his shoed feet into the car. The situation had barely ended, but a strange tension filled the car.

In the back seat, the woman holding Yeon’s handkerchief and Cha Yi-hwan sat side by side, while Officer Lee was in the driver’s seat and Yeon was in the passenger seat. The man who had caused the disturbance had been put in the patrol car that went ahead.

In the car’s atmosphere, which had become quieter than ever, Officer Lee glanced at Yeon while driving. She had hoped he wouldn’t notice the suspicious air, but perhaps her awkward attempts to act nonchalant had instead aroused suspicion. Anxiety was quietly engulfing her.

“What’s wrong, Officer Jung? Is something the matter?”

“No.”

The sky had been cloudy, and then, drop by drop, raindrops began to fall on the car window. Finally, the start of the monsoon. Rain that would continue to fall for a while.

During the drive to the precinct, the unusually quiet car was filled only with the sound of the radio and the falling raindrops. Nevertheless, the intense presence of the man in the back seat complicated Yeon’s thoughts.

The man, who seemed to have sobered up and become more lucid than before, was writing his statement with deep sighs. Perhaps his nose bone had broken when he was hit earlier, as he couldn’t even touch his aching nose and glared fiercely at Cha Yi-hwan and the woman sitting next to him.

When his eyes met Cha Yi-hwan’s, he growled as if to kill him, but he couldn’t bring himself to attack and just gripped his pen tightly. The man was still angry and seemed to feel wronged for being hit. The man who had been grinding his teeth pulled out the tissue stuffed in his nostril and threw it on the floor.

“Look at that. The guy she’s cheating with is that bastard. Who are they trying to fool? Do you think you can break my nose and get away with it? I’m going to sue that director or whatever he is, so you better know that.”

“Please calm down and finish writing your statement. Do you want to spend the whole night at the precinct?”

The man, seething, snapped his pen in his hand and huffed impatiently. When Yi-hwan, who had finished writing his statement first, stood up, the man raised his head, saying, “What, what.”

With a short sigh, Yi-hwan got up, opened his wallet, and took out a business card. Then he approached the man struggling with his statement. The man who had been shouting loudly flinched and scooted back when Yi-hwan came close.

“If you have anything more to say, feel free to sue or do whatever you want, and you can contact that number. If you ever come looking for her like this again, you better be prepared too.”

Yi-hwan smacked the back of the head of the man, who was just glaring at him without answering.

“Answer when you’re spoken to politely.”

“Ah! You can’t do this here.”

Probationary Officer Kim, startled by Cha Yi-hwan’s sudden assault, rushed towards Yi-hwan, but he gave the business card as if tossing it and turned away from the man. Opening the precinct door as if intending to smoke, he lit a cigarette while looking at the falling rain.

Yeon, who had been sipping her instant coffee, looked up at the woman who hesitantly approached her. The woman was holding Yeon’s handkerchief.

“Thank you, officer. I’ll return this to you.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Um... is our director going to be alright? I’m worried he might be getting into trouble because of me.”

Cha Yi-hwan, with a cigarette in his mouth, was visible through the glass door.

“Don’t worry too much.”

The police station would be contacting him soon for questioning, but she had called him “Director.” This woman was his employee.

JS Financial Investment was a new company, not long established, but it was a rising securities firm with high stock price growth. It had even been named the most promising company recently. Although she wasn’t particularly interested in that kind of thing, she liked watching TV and had heard about it on the news from time to time.

And Officer Lee had said that Cha Yi-hwan’s father was a current member of the National Assembly. Come to think of it, during her university days, it seemed like a senior’s father was running for National Assembly.

Well, hiring a good lawyer and getting out would be a piece of cake. Maybe the higher-ups would take care of it before he even needed to hire a lawyer.

Yeon couldn’t say those things to this woman, so she just reassured her not to worry as her answer.

She suddenly made eye contact with Cha Yi-hwan, who was blowing cigarette smoke into the pouring rain.

“Would you like a cup of tea? I’ll get you a coffee.”

Telling the woman to wait a moment, Yeon got up from her seat and poured white sugar into a paper cup, stirring it vigorously.

She still felt the man watching her. The way he looked had always been like that. If she had to describe it in color, it would be like a deep, murky bluish-grey, like a swamp where things were sticky and dark.

It was a gaze that felt somehow unpleasant, yet not entirely so. So, she recognized this gaze that collided and clung to her so intensely as his.

“Thank you.”

Watching her gulp down the sweet instant coffee like it was traditional medicine, Yeon slowly opened the door and went outside. The sound of the falling rain sounded quite romantic. Though it didn’t suit the current situation at all.

“I never thought we’d meet like this. It’s good to see you, Senior Yi-hwan.”

He blew out the cigarette smoke, silently stubbed out his cigarette, and stood facing her.

“Has it been five years? Ah, I work here. Hwayeon Precinct.”

“I know.”

“Yes?”

“We spent hours talking here together.”

“Ah, yes...”

She had spoken to him because she felt she should greet him, but when he responded like that, she had nothing more to say and just watched the rain dripping from the eaves in the darkness. It was natural for people to change as time passed. Back then, his eyes had flickered like a flame, but now they were dry and unfamiliar. Yes, businesslike eyes.

Just as she was about to say something, she heard someone call out, “Director!” The woman who had come out of the precinct was holding Yi-hwan’s briefcase. Hesitantly approaching, she politely bowed her head towards Yi-hwan.

“Thank you so much today, Director. If it weren’t for you, I would have been in real trouble.”

“Alright. Take tomorrow off and let’s see each other the day after.”

“Ah, no. Thankfully, nothing major happened, and I can go to work.”

“When you’re told to take a day off, just quietly take the opportunity.”

“I appreciate your consideration, but I’m really okay. It feels like a special favor.”

“It’s part of employee welfare, not consideration, and definitely not a special favor. I would have done the same for any of my employees, not just Ms. Hee-won.”

“Ah, th-then I will.”

“That cheek, is it alright?”

“Yes...”

Yeon knew he wasn’t that kind of man, but he was taking care of the woman quite warmly.

“Let’s go, I’ll give you a ride.”

“Oh, no. The police officer said they would take me.”

“As you wish, then.”

Should she call him kind, cold, or a director who clearly distinguished between public and private matters? The woman mixed her awkwardness with a smile. Was she a junior new employee? Yeon quietly watched the two of them when Officer Lee opened the door and came out. It seemed he was going to take the woman.

“Ah, then please go in carefully.”

As she made eye contact with the woman getting into the police car, Yi-hwan, with a look that said he had something to say, called her name, “Jung Yeon.” Unlike the words and actions of the delinquent man she knew, his voice was serious.

“You.”

“Officer Jung!”

At the voice calling for her from inside the precinct, Yeon’s heart pounded for an unknown reason, as if she had been caught stealing something.

“Then please go in.”

Yeon hurriedly opened the glass door and went inside the precinct. She had left him standing quietly in the darkness. For some reason, it felt like she had to.