By Zephyria 
“Be careful. It’s slippery.”
Team Leader Oh’s voice came from ahead. Climbing a mountain in the middle of the night with only one lantern was definitely not easy. Every time a tree branch scratched him, Lee-eum praised himself for wearing long sleeves. On the way, Nam-soo almost tripped and fell, but Lee-eum caught him and pulled him up. Nam-soo laughed and joked.
“Sunbae, let’s hold hands and go.”
“Shut up.”
“Why? Give me a hand.”
Team Leader Oh, who was walking ahead, stopped and signaled, turning off the lantern switch at the same time. In the darkness, the sound of a car gradually approached. A light appeared, and a car passed overhead, quickly disappearing from sight.
“That looks nice. I wish I could ride up in a car too.”
“Shut up. Hurry up.”
“Don’t push me. I’m gonna die.”
They had been dispatched after receiving a tip that a gambling den was taking place in the middle of the mountain, but he had no idea the mountain would be this high. The informant was none other than Kim Deok-soo, who had been caught during the day. He actively cooperated with the investigation, asking for some leniency for his crime.
He wouldn’t have dared to do this when he was a rookie. But Lee-eum had changed. Kim Deok-soo’s intentions were impure, but if it could lead to catching more criminals, he thought there was room for compromise.
Raiding a gambling den was not as easy as it seemed. Usually, when a house was set up in a place like this, cars were placed at regular intervals along the road leading up. They reported the external situation to the inside and, in the event of a police raid, blocked the entrance with their cars to buy as much time as possible for the customers, called dogaek, and the house managers to escape.
This was the reason for entering the mountain, leaving the perfectly good road behind.
“Damn it. I hate drug addicts, but I hate gamblers even more. Why can’t they just gather in a normal house or something? Why do they have to crawl all the way up this deep mountain to run a gambling den, for fuck’s sake?”
“Hey, slow down a bit. My legs hurt.”
“Hold on, I think my bladder’s about to burst.”
Detective Park broke away to pee, and they took a short break in the meantime. Then, they heard a hissing sound from somewhere. Nam-soo, who was shining a light downwards, was startled and made a fuss.
A snake in the light was raising its head and making a strange hissing sound. “What? A snake.” While everyone else casually said a word, Lee-eum picked up a nearby tree branch and swished it, sending the snake flying.
“Wow, Sunbae. Aren’t you scared?”
“What’s scary about a snake? People are scarier.”
Everyone agreed with those words and said a word each. “Yeah, people are scarier. If you meet people in a place like this, you have to run right away. Especially those people who move around in groups without lights. They’re the real deal.”
“That’s us. Moving around in groups without lights.”
“Hey, you son of a bitch. We’re here to catch criminals.”
In the meantime, Detective Park, who had gone to pee, returned, and they lined up again to climb the mountain, which was steeper than expected, and the many tree branches kept poking their faces. How long had they been climbing like that?
Team Leader Oh raised his fist in front, signaling them to stop, and then lay flat on the ground. Everyone went next to Team Leader Oh and took a low crawling position. In the distance, they could see an old warehouse, and light was leaking from it. There were quite a few cars in the open space in front, ranging from vans to imported cars and motorcycles.
It seemed like the game was already underway inside the house, but the problem was the guards guarding the entrance to the warehouse. There weren’t just one or two of them, and they each had something in their hands.
“Aren’t those bastards holding sledgehammers?”
“That’s brutal, shit.”
The big guys continued to communicate with those guarding the entrance via walkie-talkie.
“When is Team 3 coming?”
“They’re coming from the provinces too, so they’re a bit late.”
“Ah, it’s always the worst on the day you have to go.”
“They said they’ll come as soon as possible, so don’t worry. We have to catch the warehouse boss and the managers under him. For the customers, just gather them in one place for now. Don’t take out your guns if you can help it. Got it?”
“Is it okay to throw things to hit them?”
“Hey, that’ll be even harder.”
“Why? I caught someone by throwing something last time too.”
While trivial jokes were exchanged to relieve the tension, Lee-eum checked the body cam attached to his stab-proof vest one more time. As soon as Team Leader Oh’s signal dropped, everyone scattered and moved in an orderly fashion.
Lee-eum and Nam-soo carefully entered the back of the warehouse. They quickly picked the lock on the warehouse door and went inside, where thick blankets were spread out on the floor, and cash was piled up on top of them.
“Police! From now on, put everything you’re holding back in its place, and go over there and stand! Hurry! Stop there! If you go out, you’ll be taken into custody immediately!”
While the panicked customers were in a state of confusion, an employee inside the house brought a fire extinguisher from somewhere. Just before pulling the safety pin and spraying it, Lee-eum flew over and kicked the employee.
With a thud, the employee fell backward, and this time another employee charged with a club. Nam-soo swung his fists, and the inside became a mess, and in the meantime, the customers poured out of the house like a flood.
Shouts were constantly heard from the entrance of the house, where a melee was taking place. Lee-eum subdued the employee on the floor, handcuffed him, and looked back at Nam-soo. But Jeong Nam-soo was nowhere to be seen.
He immediately ran outside, only to find a scene of utter chaos. Seeing the customers screaming and running down the hill all at once, it seemed they had prepared an emergency escape route in advance.
That’s when it happened.
“Sunbae!” He turned around at the urgent call, only to see a large man holding a baseball bat and trying to strike Lee-eum. Lee-eum nimbly dodged and punched the man’s abdomen in rapid succession.
The man staggered but quickly regained his posture and charged fiercely at Lee-eum. Usually, if someone is big, they tend to be slow, but this guy was even agile. In such cases, there was only one major weakness.
After dodging every attack, he put all his strength into raising his fist, aiming for the opponent’s jaw. With a crack, the man staggered backward, and Lee-eum didn’t miss the opportunity and kicked him, causing him to fall backward with a thud.
Lee-eum took a deep breath and turned the unconscious man over, handcuffing him. He soon woke up, screaming and thrashing, but with his hands tied, there was nothing he could do. As he got up from his seat and looked down, the people who had run away were coming back up in droves.
After that, Violent Crimes Team 3 followed, yelling at the top of their lungs. The transport vehicles arrived just in time, so Lee-eum loaded the people from the house into the cars one by one. Meanwhile, the red sun was modestly peeking out its face on the opposite side.
❖ ❖ ❖
Everyone was eating gukbap with haggard faces when the owner slyly placed two bottles of soju on the table. Seeing this, the team leader called the owner.
“Auntie. We’re still on duty.”
“It’s on the house. Have a drink each before you go.”
The gukbap restaurant in front of the police station had been in that spot for decades, and so had the owner. The boss was blunt in her speech, but she was generous and kind-hearted.
“Thank you.”
Detective Lee opened the bottle before the team leader could stop him.
“Just one shot each. We worked like dogs all night. Look at this, scratched and torn by the trees. We look like beggars.”
Everyone agreed and held out their glasses. Soju with gukbap after working all night was like honey. When Lee-eum put kimchi radish soup in his gukbap and ate it, Detective Park, who was sitting in front of him, stared in amazement.
“I’m always amazed. Your face is like an oppa, but your appetite is like an old man.”
“I’m twenty-eight, so I’m not an oppa anymore.”
“But why did you enter elementary school a year early? Wasn’t it hard to fit in?”
Lee-eum, who was slurping the soup, thought carefully. His father had put Lee-eum in elementary school at the age of seven because he was smart. His mother was against it, but she couldn’t overcome his father’s will in the end.
However, contrary to the concerns of those around him, Lee-eum adapted quite well. When he was young, he didn’t know anything and called them Hyung and Noona, but after he grew older, he just treated them like friends.
But Roh Seon-gyu sometimes expressed dissatisfaction with his age. He said, “One year is worth several bowls of rice, so how can we be friends?” So, on a whim, he once called him Hyung, but then he shuddered and hated it.
“It wasn’t particularly difficult.”
“Well, in foreign countries, they call each other friends even if they’re five or six years older. Tom, Frank, hey, and stuff.”
“Then should we do that too? In a foreign style? Hey, Team Leader Oh!”
Detective Lee raised his hand and joked with the team leader, and Team Leader Oh silently picked up the soju bottle. Detective Lee immediately apologized, and the other team members chuckled and laughed. After finishing the exhausting day, they went back to the office instead of going home.
It took quite a long time just to take the gamblers they had brought from the gambling den one by one and write up their statements. As time went by, he became tired and his eyelids drooped. After constantly getting coffee from the vending machine, he went outside for a smoke.
Lee-eum, who was about to put a cigarette in his mouth and light it, noticed a car entering the parking lot and stared at it. The car looked familiar. Sure enough, the person getting out of the driver’s seat was Jeong Dae-han. Dae-han, who got out and was walking, stopped when he saw Lee-eum. He was embarrassed because of the recent incident, but Lee-eum waved his hand as if nothing was wrong.
“You’re here?”
“Where’s Seo Kyung-min?”
“Inside. Go on in.”
The man named Seo Kyung-min was said to be related to another case that Jeong Dae-han was in charge of. Dae-han, who was about to go inside, hesitated and approached Lee-eum. When Lee-eum looked at him with a cigarette in his mouth, he paused with a nervous expression.
“You know… the person who came to your house the other day.”
“Huh?”
“It was Choi Won-joon from Sehwa Construction, right?”
“Yeah… How do you know?”
“Are you close to him?”
“Not really.”
“That’s a relief.”
“What is?”
“He doesn’t have a good reputation. I was worried that you might get caught up in it and become the talk of the town. Just looking at his behavior that day, he didn’t consider you at all. No matter how much it’s a joke, you shouldn’t do such insulting things.”
Lee-eum bit the end of his cigarette tightly. He couldn’t think of anything to accurately explain his relationship with Choi Won-joon. Insulting behavior, huh. That’s right. If it’s an insult, it’s an insult. He should be feeling disgusted enough.
But why did he get an erection? As the forgotten erection incident came to mind, Lee-eum began to be overwhelmed by uncontrollable confusion. Looking back, he thought his face was hot because he was angry when he was kissed so suddenly yesterday, but that was a bit strange too. Originally, Lee-eum was the type to cool down when he got angry.
Could it be that I’m a perverted guy with a tendency to get an erection from being insulted?