Chapter 7: Crossing the Line

The banknotes burning away in his hand turned to ash in an instant and scattered into the air.

As if that still wasn’t enough, Seowan pulled out even more bills from his wallet.

Was he insane?

“Y-you’re crazy?!”

The shocked owner hurried over and reached out reflexively.

But Seowan was faster, setting fire to another bill.

Once again, the notes flared up and vanished in seconds, and the owner watched with a completely stunned expression.

“Why does it just keep coming out?”

Cha Seowan’s expression didn’t change as he emptied the rest of the wallet.

This time, instead of yellow fifty-thousand-won bills, most of it was a thick bundle of white checks.

Poong!

“H-hey!

Wait a second!”

Flicking the lighter on again, he asked the owner—who was shouting in panic—once more.

“Why.

Do you need it now?”

The owner, pale as a sheet, nodded frantically.

Jiwon realized that her hasty judgment—that he was just a boss with a moderately filthy temper—had been a massive miscalculation.

She could say with certainty that even after working for five years in a workplace infamous as a gathering place for all kinds of lunatics, she had never heard of or seen anyone this insane.

Yesterday and today.

Everything she had observed of Cha Seowan over just these two short days felt less like a police officer and more like a straight-up gangster or thug, which only made it more chilling.

Even enduring just two days had been shocking enough—she genuinely wondered whether she could withstand spending an unknown amount of time with someone this unhinged.

Wouldn’t it be better to send an SOS to the squad leader right now?

Feeling a sudden wave of fear, she looked at Cha Seowan standing with his back to the bed.

The man stared out the window with a perfectly calm expression, as if nothing had happened at all.

Who would ever guess that someone who looked so clean-cut was actually a lunatic beyond comprehension?

“If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”

As if he could read her mind, his voice was cold even though he didn’t turn around.

Jiwon, who had been silently staring at his profile, blurted out a question she would normally have swallowed.

“Do you always conduct investigations this… aggressively?”

“Depends on the target.”

He answered indifferently, his gaze fixed outside.

“Most people these days are careful about suspects’ human rights and all that.

It doesn’t seem like you really care about that, Team Leader.”

“Well.

I don’t think I’ve ever really treated criminals as humans.”

That figured.

Hadn’t she seen him crush Jang Gapsu’s hand bones with her own eyes just yesterday?

Should she be grateful that she wouldn’t have to hold back when catching criminals?

Finding one silver lining in all this misfortune, Jiwon clicked her tongue silently.

“Then… did you rent this room just to see this?”

Curious about what he was staring at, she turned her head to follow his gaze.

Outside the wide-open window, close enough to touch, was the window of the neighboring motel.

She’d thought the buildings were absurdly close even from outside, but seeing it from up here, they were even closer than expected.

It was questionable whether this even counted as a ‘window.’

“They’re really close.

At this distance, you could practically go back and forth through the windows….”

“Yeah.

Guess we’ll know if we try.”

She nodded lightly in agreement—then suddenly felt his gaze burning into her.

“Huh?”

As she frowned in confusion, the man suddenly reached out the window and slid open the neighboring motel’s window.

Both windows now stood wide open, facing each other.

Dumbfounded, Jiwon asked again.

“Me?

Are you telling me to go over there right now?”

He tilted his head as if she’d asked the most obvious question in the world.

Annoyance flared up out of sheer disbelief.

“Ha…

If you’re that curious, wouldn’t it be more accurate for you to try it yourself, Team Leader?”

“So your memory isn’t the only thing at single-cell level.

Do you really think I’m asking you to go because I can’t make it across?”

Ah.

So that’s why he brought me here.

Only then did Jiwon realize her role.

Closing her eyes tightly, she ran a hand through her hair.

It seemed Seowan wanted to gauge the likelihood that the underage female victims had been crossing back and forth between the two motels.

Letting out a long sigh, she stepped up onto the window frame.

The view five stories down was fairly terrifying, but if she just jumped straight ahead, it didn’t seem too difficult.

She moved her body and stepped toward the opposite window frame Seowan had opened.

Just as expected, even without a big leap, she crossed over easily.

It looked like even teenage girls smaller than her could manage the distance.

“They must’ve had some kind of confidence, staying holed up in one place for months.”

“You think both motels were being used as prostitution sites, right?”

Seowan nodded at Jiwon, who caught on quickly.

“As soon as we’re back, I’ll file for an additional search warrant.

If we combine it with Senior Jaehong’s statements and push it through urgently, we should get it within a day or two.

Before that—what about that owner from earlier?

Should we arrest him on the spot?”

“No.

For now, we’ll summon him only as a witness.

Just make sure the interrogation times for the two owners don’t overlap.”

He meant to prevent the two—likely silent accomplices—from knowing each other’s situation and apply pressure during questioning.

“Catching the main culprits who ran is the priority.

No need to waste too much energy on side matters.”

“Yes, understood.”

She was a little surprised.

No—quite a lot, actually.

She’d heard he was an absolute monster when it came to catching criminals, and that rumor didn’t seem entirely wrong.

She’d momentarily forgotten that this foul-tempered, filthy-rich madman had entered the police academy as valedictorian, graduated top of his class, and risen through two rapid promotions to become the youngest officer of his rank in the Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency.

That’s right.

Cha Seowan was insane—just in a very different way.

Staring blankly at the man through the window, Jiwon suddenly snapped back to herself and climbed onto the window frame again.

“Then I’ll head back over now.”

And just like before, she pushed off lightly toward the opposite window—

When suddenly, a large, pitch-black creature crawling across the window frame caught her eye.

With grotesquely long antennae, it was unmistakably the cockroach she utterly despised.

“Aaah!”

Screaming reflexively, the tip of her foot caught on the edge of the window frame with a dull thud.

In an instant, she lost her balance, her body pitching forward.

At this rate, she would fall straight onto the man’s body.

In that split second, Seowan instinctively reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist.

Instead of crashing, she descended smoothly, almost like a controlled drop.

“Ugh…!”

Feeling the solid, intensely foreign sensation beneath her, Jiwon squeezed her eyes shut.

‘f*ck.’

Her mind went blank, her vision flashing white.

Why did things like this keep happening to her?

Thump.

She felt the cheap mattress sink and bounce beneath them and slowly opened her eyes.

Her breath caught.

Right in front of her was Cha Seowan’s face, glaring up at her with an irritated scowl.

Disaster.

This was a disaster.

The kind no human effort could prevent or avoid.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Startled by the eerily cold voice, she flailed and planted her hands down—

Unfortunately, right on his chest.

The sensation of rock-solid muscle beneath her palms was unmistakable.

Hard yet taut, and hot to boot, the feeling was unfamiliar to the point of being unsettling.

When had she ever touched someone’s—no, a man’s—body this blatantly before?

Completely frozen by the situation, Jiwon blinked with wide eyes, staring blankly down at the man beneath her.

“Get off.”

His once-smooth face twisted sharply, his voice dripping with irritation.

Only then did Jiwon snap back to her senses and jerk upright as if electrocuted.

“I-I’m sorry!

There was a roach—c-cockroach on the window, and I panicked.

I really hate bugs, so I couldn’t help it….”

Her flustered explanation spilled out in a rambling mess.

At some point, Seowan had stood up and was glaring down at her with a look full of annoyance.

“With reflexes like that, how the hell did you even…

Ha….

Forget it.”

He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, then brushed his shoulders off as if he was done with the conversation.

“You really piss me off.”

Looking at her with pure contempt—like he was staring at a cockroach—he turned and strode out of the cramped room.

Left alone in the room, the bleak silence closed in around her, and her scattered reason slowly returned.

Only then did anger bubble up inside her.

Her cheeks faintly flushed red as she shoved her long hair back.

“Oh please.

You think you’re the only one who doesn’t like the other?”