SU | Chapter 2.14

Ji Youngwon muttered to herself. Yoo Han dusted off the dirt from his knees and slowly stood up. It was unclear when it had ended, but the naked couple had covered themselves with a blanket, enjoying their post-coital bliss.

“If you didn’t capture it properly, you really would be dead.”

Ji Youngwon gestured for him to follow as she moved away from the spot. A crestfallen Yoo Han dragged his eyebrows down and hurried after her.

Back in the room, Ji Youngwon sat at the dining table and removed the left temple of the glasses to extract the SD card. Gu Kangsan discreetly brought over a laptop and USB cable from the car and laid them in front of her. Yoo Han paced back and forth like a nervous cat behind them, worried the sex scene might have been improperly recorded.

Ji Youngwon completed the disassembly of the glasses, connecting the cable to the exposed wire. A red charging indicator inside the glasses blinked on. Yoo Han’s heart twitched as if seeing a warning light.

Ji Youngwon clicked on the file [2X1106] among many dated files and played several recorded videos in sequence. The first file was the scene inside the car when Yoo Han first pressed the recording button.

“As long as I don’t touch it, keep using it.”

“Ah… even when I’m sleeping?”

“Do you think there’s time to sleep? You gotta film the banging.”

Gu Kangsan chuckled beside Ji Youngwon as Yoo Han, embarrassed, kept biting his lower lip with his upper teeth. Ji Youngwon fast-forwarded the video. Yoo Han’s gaze fell on a blue sky and forest, the ground scattered with pine cones, two white dogs, a container box, and a tent with a makeshift ping pong table. The scenes flowed by swiftly.

Yoo Han felt a strange mix of emotions. Just the awareness that someone was sharing his viewpoint was enough to make his face burn. Moreover, throughout looking at the scenery, Yoo Han found himself continually following Ji Youngwon’s profile and back with his eyes, a gaze he hadn’t even realized he had.

Yoo Han paced behind the men, feeling inexplicably guilty, wiping his dirtied white socks against the floor. Fortunately, Ji Youngwon seemed indifferent, her gaze detached as she looked at the laptop screen.

As time passed, a scene where Yoo Han and the woman were talking played. Ji Youngwon moved her hand to switch the playback to normal speed. The woman asking Yoo Han for a lighter. The scene where she reached out to Ji Youngwon on the balcony threshold. Ji Youngwon suddenly pulling Yoo Han by the wrist into her chest. The fragile sound of Yoo Han’s surprised breath—all were vividly captured in the recording.

Ji Youngwon licked her lips dryly as she listened to Yoo Han’s trembling breath through the speakers. Her expression was impassive, but her own breathing became hurried. The fresh scent that Yoo Han had emitted earlier seemed to stimulate her senses once again.

Finally, Yoo Han handing the lighter to the woman moved his gaze inside the room. Gu Kangsan whistled loudly when he saw a man covered only with a towel walking around.

“It seems like we’ve captured enough evidence.”

Ji Youngwon didn’t react.

“Do you know what ‘geumsa’ is?”

“Geumsa?”

“Yeah. It’s a word we often use. It means forbidden love… I’m in a painfully forbidden love right now.”

Gu Kangsan clapped dully as the conversation between Yoo Han and the woman continued.

“Wow… this guy’s something. Isn’t he, Director? He looks so innocent that the woman doesn’t suspect a thing and spills everything easily.”

Should Yoo Han take that as a compliment? He twisted uncomfortably at the praise. Ji Youngwon didn’t comment on Gu Kangsan’s remark and simply nodded.

“Our Han seems to have better acting skills than those bastards.”

Gu Kangsan grinned broadly. Yoo Han forced a smile while continuing to watch the screen. Although he was the type to perform better with praise, being complimented on his deceptive skills wasn’t something he could take lightly.

The video ended with Yoo Han handing over the glasses to Ji Youngwon. After scanning through the next recordings, Ji Youngwon finally clicked on the last scene, the sexual encounter between the man and the woman. Contrary to concerns, the glasses placed near the window had perfectly captured the affair. As the moans continued in the video, Gu Kangsan turned to Yoo Han with a grin showing his gold teeth. Embarrassed to watch, Yoo Han hurriedly escaped to the bathroom.

***

Yoo Han’s sleep was shattered by the earth-shaking snoring next to him. Overwhelmed by fatigue, he had crashed on the living room floor, but Gu Kangsan’s snoring mercilessly broke through his deep sleep. The noise was like drilling nails with a power drill. Yoo Han clamped his hands over his ears in desperation.

He fumbled for his phone and pressed the power button, squinting against the sudden brightness of the screen.

[4:32AM]

Dawn was breaking beyond the balcony’s glass, but it was still dark outside.

When the snoring showed no signs of stopping, Yoo Han finally sat up. Luckily, the lovers’ affair had wrapped up early in the evening, allowing him a brief respite of sleep. Then, from a distance, he heard the faint barking of two white dogs. “Woof, woof, woof!”

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Yoo Han got up completely. He figured he might as well pet the heads of those stained white dogs, which reminded him of a familiar kid from the manpower office where he often went.

Tidying up his messy hair and throwing on a hoodie, he stepped outside. Early November in Gangwon-do felt as cold as midwinter in the city. As soon as he opened the door, a cold blast hit his face like a slap.

“Ugh, cold.”

His sneakers were uncomfortable, filled with dry twigs and sand. After carefully closing the door, Yoo Han sat down to shake out his shoes. Just then, he stiffened under the feeling of someone watching him.

“…….”

The dogs in front of the office started barking again, and Yoo Han slowly turned his head to the right.

A woman with long, flowing hair sat hugging her knees, swollen eyes locked on Yoo Han. She shivered repeatedly, sobbing quietly. Surprised, Yoo Han’s mouth opened slightly. It was still too dark to see clearly.

“Who….”

He whispered, squinting to see better. The woman was not the adulteress from the next building, although she resembled her with similar long hair and physique.

The woman, noticing Yoo Han examining her, sobbed.

“Huh… Speed Errand?”

Startled, Yoo Han blinked. For a moment, he pieced it together. A woman, looking like a soaked puppy outside the adulterous couple’s room early in the morning. Ah. She must be the wife of the adulterer and the client for this case.

“Right? From the detective agency, huh. Are you the person from there…?”

The woman, sniffling, asked again. Yoo Han slowly nodded. Despite the cold dawn, her attire was too light, as if she had rushed out of her house. It was hard to tell if she was shivering from the cold or from crying.

“You’re the client, right?”

Instead of answering, the woman just let tears stream down her face. She looked utterly miserable and pitiable, curled up like a bug. Yoo Han’s eyebrows involuntarily furrowed.

“It’s cold here. Come on, let’s go inside. Yeah?”

Without waiting, Yoo Han approached the client, took off his hoodie, and wrapped it around her back. The woman shivered with the sudden warmth and staggered to her feet.

“Ha, this is just the worst.”

She bit her lower lip hard, as if her pride was hurt.

Yoo Han anxiously watched the woman who hesitated to move. It was unlikely that the adulterer or his mistress would burst out of the door at this early hour, but he felt increasingly restless. After a while, the woman who had been wiping her remaining tears suddenly said,

“I saw the photos and videos you sent.”

“Eh?”

“The moment I saw them, I lost it… like a crazy woman, I came out here at dawn.”

Trying to hold back tears, she covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

“I thought she was just some woman he met at work.”

Yoo Han glanced nervously at the adulterous couple’s cabin, but decided not to press her further. It seemed appropriate to listen to her troubles for now.

“Do you know who the mistress is?”

The woman asked. Yoo Han shook his head as his eyebrows drooped. The woman stared silently at the unfamiliar man in front of her. As tears welled up in her eyes again, Yoo Han also felt a surge of empathy. He had to pinch his thigh hard to stop himself from tearing up too.

“…Who is it?”

He asked cautiously. The woman, as if waiting for this question, vented her sorrow.

“It’s my younger sister.”

Yoo Han looked shocked, as if struck by lightning, and desperately covered his mouth to suppress a groan. The woman chuckled bitterly at the man’s candid reaction.

“Such a mess, right?”

“I’ve never seen such a mess before…” The woman brushed off the remaining tears and stood next to Yoo Han. He turned away, finding it hard to offer any words of comfort, and looked at the white dogs wagging their tails in the distance, trying to calm his troubled heart.

“Hmph. You don’t seem like someone from a delivery service.”

The woman chuckled awkwardly as she pulled the thin hoodie down around her neck. Now that she had cried in front of a stranger, the embarrassment came flooding in.

“Hmm. I hear that a lot.”

Yoo Han responded nonchalantly and grabbed the doorknob. The cold metal felt numbing to his palm.

“Let’s go inside, it’s cold.”

Just as Yoo Han was about to turn the icy doorknob, the door of the adjacent cabin flung open! He had no time to react. Yoo Han quickly tried to open the door. No, he attempted to open the door. But it seemed to be locked automatically; the handle wouldn’t turn to the right. What, what? It’s a key but it locks automatically….

As Yoo Han panicked, a man emerged from the next cabin.

‘Damn!’

Yoo Han understood why Ji Youngwon was good at swearing. He quickly wrapped his arm around the client’s shoulder and turned back, rushing away.

‘That pervert, why is he even out at this ungodly hour?!’

Yoo Han tried to calm his racing heart as he practically dragged the client along. The equally startled woman quickly matched Yoo Han’s frantic pace.

“What should we do?”

She asked, her voice as low as her breath.

“For now, let’s go in there.”

The two white dogs watched the approaching pair and wagged their tails vigorously. Don’t bark, please don’t bark. Yoo Han prayed to the dogs. However, the two creatures joyously jumped and barked loudly. Yoo Han and the woman simultaneously clenched their eyes shut.

Meanwhile, the adulterer was busy searching for a convenience store on his phone, driven out by his mistress’s sudden craving for chocolate.

‘Just like Ji unni.’

The adulterer stretched lazily, looking annoyed. As if out for a morning walk, the couple quickly entered a green tent with a ping-pong table set up inside. The dogs barked excitedly, tails thrashing. The man soon withdrew his gaze and opened his car door.

As if scoring a goal, Yoo Han and the woman breathed out the air they had been holding and crouched low inside the green tent, ensuring their faces were hidden. Yoo Han confirmed the man’s car was driving away and then flopped to the ground. The woman ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.

“Ha, ha… Why does that bastard have to come out so early?”

Her demeanor was drastically different from the tearful woman earlier, making Yoo Han flinch. She sighed deeply and then tucked Yoo Han’s hoodie around her body.

“Doesn’t seem like the door will open. Did you forget to bring the key?”