By Zephyria 
Cars with dark tinting were entering the building across the street one by one. Baepsae, who had been silently watching the scene, looked back at Kang Hee-shin sitting beside him. It didn’t feel real that the person who had been heating up the internet all day was right next to him. He felt a momentary surge of pride, but quickly corrected his thoughts. After all, whatever was about to happen today seemed ominous.
“But what are we doing here? Why did you tell me to bring all this equipment?”
“I’ll tell you in a bit.”
“Can’t you tell me now? I keep feeling the urge to pee because I’m nervous.”
While talking to Kang Hee-shin, Baepsae glanced at the backseat. A strange woman was sitting there in handcuffs. He had been told she lived on the fourth floor of the same apartment complex as Kang Hee-shin, but the look she gave him was far from friendly.
“What are you staring at, you otaku brat!”
As expected, she started by screaming. Baepsae flinched and turned his head away. Scary.
Kang Hee-shin, who had been staring straight ahead, suddenly stepped out of the car.
“Stay here for a second. Keep a close eye on that woman in the back.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to make a phone call.”
Once Kang Hee-shin disappeared, Baepsae let out a low sigh. Maybe I should just emigrate. I’ve saved up a decent amount of money. A grim premonition crossed his mind that if he stayed here and kept getting entangled with that man, he might end up back in prison one day. Just then, the woman in the back called out to him, “Oppa~”
When he looked back, she had a tearful expression on her face.
“Can’t you… just let me out of these?”
When he pretended not to hear, she tried to lure him with all sorts of sweet talk. It was a proposal that would have tempted someone crazy for women, but he wasn’t that kind of guy. Being a believer in premarital chastity, he pulled out the cross necklace hanging around his neck and waved it. Begone, demon! For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind…
Unable to listen any longer, Kim Min-jeong kicked the front seat with a thud. This fucking retard, seriously! Baepsae jumped and pulled himself away. While the two of them were bickering for a while, Kang Hee-shin returned. As Kim Min-jeong continued to hurl all kinds of insults, Kang Hee-shin took some tape out of the glove box and handed it to Baepsae.
“Go shut her up.”
“Huh?”
“Tape her mouth.”
“I mean, she is a lady…”
“Since when is there a distinction between men and women among criminals?”
Fair point. Baepsae went to the back and taped Kim Min-jeong’s mouth shut. He ended up getting hit in a few places because of how strong she was before he finally managed to get back to his seat. After some more time passed, a police car arrived at the building opposite them. As he watched in curiosity, a SWAT team appeared shortly after.
In an instant, the sound of sirens swallowed the city center, and Baepsae’s face contorted along with them.
“Looks like something happened over there?”
“I reported it.”
“Why?”
“That a bomb was planted inside.”
“Who planted it?”
“How should I know?”
“Don’t tell me you called from the Prosecutor’s phone?”
“No. The burner phone you gave me.”
Soon after, Kang Hee-shin took off his overcoat, revealing a blue police uniform. Seeing this, Baepsae closed his eyes tight with a look of despair. When he had suddenly come to him, given him police clothes, and asked him to play the role of a cop, he thought he just had to roughly mimic one… If he had known it would be like this, he would have held out until the end.
“You take yours off too, quickly.”
Baepsae reluctantly took off his outer garment.
“Do you know that you’re the one who makes me do the most illegal things, Prosecutor?”
“I admit it. You’re truly talented. A guy like you should be working for the state.”
Let’s just stop talking. Baepsae sighed, grumbling. There was only one reason why he continued to grant these requests. At nineteen, he had been caught for hacking into a government agency server and had spent time in prison. The prosecutor in charge at the time was Kang Hee-shin.
Kang Hee-shin had visited him several times when even his parents wouldn’t, and he had even put money into his commissary account. After his release, he had arranged a proper job so he could make a living. When his only grandmother collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, he had even helped her receive emergency surgery.
At the time, he had been grateful to the point of death, but looking back, he suspected it was all just a ploy to put him to work.
“Sigh, my poor fate.”
During the conversation, Baepsae glanced back.
Was it okay to talk about this with a third party present?
“Prosecutor. That woman is hearing everything we’re saying, is that okay?”
“Doesn’t matter. She’s an accomplice now anyway.”
The woman made some muffled sounds through the tape. Seeing her glare, it seemed she was cursing. As Baepsae pretended not to hear and took out his laptop to start working, Kang Hee-shin glanced over.
“Why is it popping up so much? Is there an error?”
“Hah—I’m installing a security program. Honestly, people from the humanities…”
A short while later, cars began to file out of the underground parking lot of the opposite building. People continued to pour out of the first-floor entrance. Hee-shin watched the scene quietly. Once the civilians had all evacuated, the SWAT team, the bomb disposal unit, and detection dogs began their entry.
Meanwhile, club officials protesting and clinging to the police were also visible. As time passed, the people in front of the building dwindled one by one. Just as the SWAT team, having finished their search, appeared at the entrance, Baepsae hit the Enter key with a loud click!
“Done.”
Immediately, dozens of CCTV feeds popped up on the screen.
The establishment used the entire five-story building, and it even had a basement.
Hee-shin reached back and ripped the tape off Kim Min-jeong’s mouth.
“Ack! Fuck!”
Ignoring her, he shoved the screen in front of Kim Min-jeong’s eyes.
“Look closely, Ms. Kim Min-jeong. Is this where the ledger is? Past the hallway, the end room. Here?”
Kim Min-jeong openly sneered.
“Are you really going in there?”
“Answer me. You said so yourself. That there’s a safe in there. That President Park blabbed about it while he was drunk.”
“Prosecutor. You’re really going to die if you do that.”
Kim Min-jeong mocked him, and Kang Hee-shin replied nonchalantly.
“Dying is my specialty. I’m going to go in and search every inch, so just tell me where it is.”
“Fuck, you call that humor? You smell like a total old man.”
“…….”
Hee-shin nodded, suppressing his anger.
“Then I’ll have to go find President Park and tell him. That I want the ledger Kim Min-jeong mentioned.”
“Fuck, when did I ever say that!”
Fuming, Kim Min-jeong roughly swept back her hair with her bound hands, looked closely at the screen, and then pointed carelessly at one spot. In the zoomed-in area, something like a thick fire door was installed.
“I only heard that it’s inside there. Even the employees can’t go near it except when cleaning. Only the CEO has the card, and only the CEO knows the password. How on earth are you going to get in there?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Hee-shin looked at Baepsae.
Baepsae sighed and grabbed the bag next to him.
“Are you sure about this? You’d better be sure.”
“I said it’s right, fuck! Stop asking. It’s annoying.”
Just then, Baepsae pointed at the screen. “They’re all coming out.” As he said, the SWAT team and the bomb disposal unit emerged and spoke with the establishment manager for a long time. The manager, seemingly angry, was huffing with his hands on his hips while making a phone call.
“Is that person President Park?”
“No. The CEO is in Macau. That bastard is a gambling addict.”
“As expected… the Prosecutor has a plan for everything. Seeing as you timed it exactly for when the CEO is away?”
“I didn’t time it. I just did it and then found out he wasn’t here.”
Baepsae’s chubby cheeks trembled. Can I really trust this man? Am I going to die here today?
Soon, the bus carrying the SWAT team left, and the number of people in front of the shop decreased significantly. Most of the shop employees would have gone home as well, since they wouldn’t be able to operate today for safety reasons. Time passed, and eventually, no one was left inside the club.
Just in case, he checked further, and there was only the employee in the B1 security room.
He was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of the CCTV, monitoring the interior of the building.
“Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.”
Stepping outside, Hee-shin and Baepsae pulled their hats down low and crossed the road toward the club. Ignoring the police patrolling the area, they knocked on the door of a waiting police car. Soon, the window rolled down, and a police officer with a tired face peered out.
“What is it?”
“I’m Sergeant Kim Jin-won from the Ilyang Precinct. Chief Lee Nam-hyun requested support, so I’ve arrived.”
‘Our Chief? Did he request support? I don’t know. Should I contact the station? It’s Friday, so they must be busy. Didn’t the Ilyang Precinct already stop by?’ The two whispered to each other, and the man in the passenger seat glanced at the rank and name.
“It seems like a false report; is there any need to look further?”
“We were ordered from above, so we’ll just do one lap and then leave.”
“Well, sure. We’d be grateful if you did that.”
As they saluted and turned to enter the club, Baepsae closed his eyes tight. Perhaps because the tension broke once they were out of sight, he even staggered and leaned against the wall.
“Wow, fuck, my heart is racing. How can a Prosecutor lie without even blinking?”
“Not Prosecutor, Sergeant. Man, how many times do I have to tell you?”
“Is that the problem right now? This is all a waste of public power. All these people deploying is a waste of taxes! I didn’t want the taxes I paid to be used like this.”
“Yes, yes, thank you so much for paying your taxes. Shut up and follow me quickly.”
Hee-shin, who was leading the way, looked up at the CCTV on the ceiling. Baepsae had hacked the club’s CCTV and set it to play footage from an hour ago. Therefore, they had to leave the place within the designated time as much as possible. Since the elevator had stopped, they turned on their flashlights and hurried up to the fifth floor.
As they approached the CEO’s office mentioned by Kim Min-jeong, a locking device caught their eye. Baepsae took out equipment from his clothes and connected it. After a moment, numbers appeared on a small screen. After pressing the 8-digit password with gloved hands, the door opened.
Upon entering, they encountered another identical door. From that point on, there were no CCTVs at all.
“What is this guy? What on earth is he hiding that’s so great?”
Using the same method to enter, the office finally appeared. It was called an office, but it was decorated like the office of a major conglomerate chairman. However, the safe was nowhere to be seen. Kim Min-jeong had clearly said it was in this room… Just in case, they checked every corner, but nothing resembling a safe caught their eye.
“Maybe he moved it in the meantime?”
“I told you it’s not a size that can be moved.”
“You said the CEO was completely wasted. Does it even make sense to keep a safe like that inside a club in the first place? If it were a house, maybe.”
Hee-shin felt the seams of the bookshelf made of high-quality hardwood. The grain of the top and bottom were strangely different. When he hooked his fingernail and pulled the edge, a part of the material separated, revealing a small button inside. As soon as he pressed the button, one wall began to move slowly.
Seeing this, Baepsae made a face of utter disbelief. A moment later, the sight that was revealed left both of them speechless. There was a safe there that was taller than a person. It was so large that, just as Kim Min-jeong had said, it was absolutely impossible to move.