WARNING: DEATH/MURDER/VIOLENCE
8.02PM
- Call Emergency Center -
"Someone... Someone is trying to kill me."
Corporal Hong held his breath. Instead of focusing on his ears, he was distracted by his loud heartbeat, quickened with a fresh surge of worry.
It was not because he was scared and he could not handle it.
Hong Joochan was one of the top scorers in the National Police Examination for his batch, like he was born to be a policeman. He also dealt a few calls of murder like this before. The words she said were not enough to shake him.
His instincts, however, were churning behind his chest, telling him that this call was not going to be easy.
Her breaths ghosted into his ears, with a heat hot enough to scald him. If fear was fire, it was rapidly spreading into a massive wildfire in no time. That could also mean the woman was at her limits.
She was too close to giving up.
Straightened up, Joochan ran his fingers on his keyboard, already profiling the caller as a woman in her early twenties. He clicked on the location of the call and noted the address at Eunhyeong-dong.
"Someone's trying to kill you? Is that what you said, Miss?" Joochan replied a few seconds later.
"Please help me."
Joochan sensed from the shaky rhythm of her voice that she was shivering relentlessly, due to the cold and the brimming fear.
"Where are you right now, Miss?"
Whimpers amplified in his ears which eventually sounded like her voice was muffled. She was covering her mouth with her sleeves.
"I'm not sure."
The slightest difference in her tone told him she was shaking her head.
"Stairs."
Joochan widened his eyes as he listened.
"I see some stairs nearby me."
Corporal Hong pressed his lips in a line. From the little exchange of words, Joochan deduced that the woman was too afraid to make sense of anything she was saying. She could have given him a street name, or basically the reason she was in that area in the first place. Saying stairs was not helpful at all. It only showed she was desperate to be rescued and she was responding for the sake of it.
Then again, why would a young woman be in the vicinity of the Sungun Port, and in the middle of the large complex alleyways?
"What is it?"
Hearing an external voice from the call, Joochan looked up to his senior who had his head popped above his cubicle. Joochan probably had taken a pause for too long that it was sniffed by the Chief of the call operators.
Joochan composed himself and spoke quickly. "I think the caller is hurt and her surroundings makes it hard to hear her. She also doesn't know where she is."
The Chief nodded. "Put me through."
"Yes, Sir," Joochan transferred the call with a click.
"Hello, Miss. Please stay calm," the chief assured the caller while Joochan watched him in action. "We need an address to dispatch the team."
The chief's words unfortunately did nothing to comfort her as her breaths became erratic. Joochan could imagine she was looking around for more hints of her location.
The more Joochan waited for her response, the more convinced he was that the woman was numbed and helpless. If she could think calmly for at least a few seconds, she could remember why she was there.
"Church."
"Church?" the Chief repeated.
"Banseok Church. I am close to Banseok Church. Please help me. Please... Please help-"
Suddenly, the call was cut off.
Her strong airy breaths were quickly replaced by a beeping tone in his headphones. The only thought Joochan had was that whoever she was running away from had finally gotten her. The suspect could have ended the call for her. That idea alone made Joochan freeze.
Seeing Joochan stall in his seat, the Chief spat in anger and glared at Joochan.
"Yah! What are you waiting for?! Call her back!" the chief demanded.
"Yes sir!" Joochan reached out his hand towards the machine when he began to hesitate.
What if the suspect had not found her yet? What if she was still hidden and the call was disconnected due to her shivering hands? What if Joochan called her back and it gave away her location to the suspect?
"Chief," Joochan muttered weakly, reconnecting their gazes on one another. "I think-"
His hesitation took the Chief enough time to cross the office floor and reach his desk. Without a second lost, the Chief pressed the button for Joochan.
The ringing began and Joochan's doubt became true.
Her cellphone rang loudly that she hurried to hold her phone in both hands, pasting it closely to her ear.
"Please help me."
Joochan held one side of his headphones, pressing it harder on his ear. "I'm sorry that the call was disconnected. I know it's hard but can you repeat the name of the church?"
"It's Banseok Church. Please help me."
"I heard you, Banseok-"
Joochan paused, because her breaths were silenced out of the sudden. She was forcefully holding her breaths, followed by the dreading sound of a footwear grazing the wet floor.
No, her footsteps were too soft but due to his incredible listening skills, Joochan could pick it up.
She was not wearing any footwear. It was her naked feet against the cold tarred ground.
And the fact she was moving, Joochan believed her location was not a secret anymore.
The suspect has already found her.
Her footsteps grew louder, telling Joochan she was taking big yet slow steps.
She then stopped. Joochan continued to remain silent, listening to anything exchanged between the woman and the suspect. The impatient senior was looking disappointed at Joochan's lack of urgency and he decided to call out.
"Miss, are you there?" the Chief spoke.
Swift wind brushed in, joined by a loud bang as though her cellphone was dropped. Joochan jerked at the loud sound, causing the Chief to fidget and step closer to his junior.
"What? What is going on, Corporal Hong?!"
"Yeobseyo? Yeobseyo, are you there, Miss? Miss!"
Joochan continued to call her through the speaker of her phone. His hand was getting sweaty as he gripped his headphone, trying his best to capture any sound.
He finally heard her breaths again.
It sounded distant, definitely a few feet away from her phone. Her breaths were again muffled, either by her sleeves or her hair or even the ground. Joochan heard the heels belonging to a pair of expensive leather boots and the volume of those steps was slowly matching the volume of her breaths.
The suspect found her and she was lying motionless on the ground.
"Please don't kill me."
She was pleading with her overflowing tears.
"Please let me live."
Joochan covered his mouth, knowing well these words would burn on his brain for his entire life.
A weird sound came next, making Joochan hold his breath. Joochan pressed his headphone even harder this time. He heard clickety sounds, like the teeth grazing each other when one was asleep.
Eating a candy? Rolling a lollipop in the mouth? Braces?
It was probably the softest sound in the call, and no one would have heard that through the earphones except Joochan. Out of the blue, an unfamiliar voice reverberated through the air.
"That's why I told you not to run."
The suspect was a male in his twenties too. His deep, husky voice was captured clearly in Joochan's ears. His manner of speech was unlike anyone who would likely be a murderer. His voice carried an air of rich influence and arrogance.
Joochan gulped, cancelling out the possibilities of this being an incidental case. Whoever this suspect was, he was in the right mind to intentionally harm the lady. To hear that he warned her not to run, Joochan could not imagine how far she was running away that she could not even tell her location right now.
The chase in the snowy cold weather was already torturous. And this suspect actually played along.
His train of thoughts was instantly disrupted by the sound of smashing and spluttering. Joochan swallowed hard, the strong tendency to vomit overwhelmed him and yet he stayed on the line, capturing every single decibel of the assault.
At the background, the Chief called for a dispatch team and only passed them the coordinates of her call, with very little help to her exact location. Joochan was fixated and frozen in his stance, his eyes getting watery because he could not stop himself from feeling the pain with every hit she was taking. Despite her pleas, the suspect continued to hit her.
Her voice disappeared. Yet, the hitting persisted. The suspect was hitting someone who was already dead.
That thought made his stomach twist and turn but then, something was off about the sound of every hit.
It was not the first time Joochan heard an ongoing murder over the phone. Mostly, he heard the sounds of stabbing, hitting, tossing or kicking.
This time, it was uniquely different.
The suspect was certainly using a weapon. It was heavy, giving loud yet concise impact. Joochan was undeniably stunned at the sounds he was listening to.
"Corporal Hong."
Joochan could not respond as he was still figuring out the weapon. The Chief slammed his table with his fist, finally getting Joochan to look at him.
"End the call now."
Joochan blinked in hesitation. "But Chief, if I could hear anything more- "
"Stop with that nonsense again," the Chief sighed. "This is not the time to brag about your great hearing abilities. End the call now and send the recording to the team taking the case."
"Yes, sir," Joochan nodded and reluctantly moved his cursor towards the 'End Call' tab.
A snicker popped in his headphones. Joochan could tell that the suspect was close to the phone.
Mustering all his courage, Joochan furrowed his brows in anger, imagining the suspect standing right in front of him.
"Why did you do it?"
Another snicker followed, and the clickety weird noise again. Joochan knew that his question was heard. It was also about to be ignored.
Instead of an answer, the beeping sound rang in Joochan's ears. Irritated, he took off his headphones and threw them on the table. The Chief was about to reprimand him when the Corporal stood up and walked out of the office. He grabbed the paper cup from the water dispenser and poured himself some water.
After chugging it down his throat, Joochan wiped his mouth and sighed loudly. His hand inevitably crushed the paper cup in his hands. One thing about working in this job was that he had to be professional about it and not bringing in his emotions.
But that asshole dared to sneer at him after killing an innocent woman.
Joochan could only blame himself. He wanted to protect people with his gift. He was not fit for fieldwork. When he thought he could still save lives by listening to their calls of help, he was confident. That call, however, just degraded him as useless again.
He could not back down now. He was the first and only witness the police had about the suspect. With his perfect memory of the suspect, he could help the police track him down.
Tossed the crumpled paper cup into the bin, Joochan walked inside the office with his head hung low, thinking he should apologise for his rudeness. He was halted by the sight of the Chief on the phone, looking shocked. His eyes soon found Joochan's and the call ended.
Joochan stood upright and bowed. "Apologies for my rudeness earlier."
"Corporal Hong."
"Yes, Sir."
"Refrain yourself from getting near this case."
Joochan frowned immediately. "Why, Sir? I heard the suspect's voice in the call."
"I didn't hear anything of that sort and the recording definitely didn't show it. So, jebal," the Chief warned him and walked towards his own cubicle. "Forget about that call and resume your position now."
"Did the team find her?"
The Chief stopped in his steps when he heard Joochan's question. "Yes, the team found her dead somewhere near the stairs of the church. She was assaulted terribly on her face that it was disfigured and there was no witness at the scene. We were too late."
"And you're telling me I cannot share what I found."
"It's Detective Choi Sungyoon's fiancée, for God's sake!"
The Chief yelled abruptly, the other officers nearly jumped on their seats and turned towards the two of them. "Do you have any idea who is that, Corporal Hong Joochan?!"
Joochan remained composed in his stance, looking serious and confident in his abilities. Nonetheless, the name of the detective did not ring any bell in his memory.
"Yah," an officer from the cubicle yapped at him for being ignorant. "People don't call him 'Mad Dog' of Seoul for nothing! He is the most dangerous detective you don't want to mess with!"
Another officer shivered intently, and joined in. "The stories I heard about him... Detective Choi is frightening and really mad. He beat his suspects, no matter the number, the weapon or the place the suspect is. Detective Choi will always win!"
"Wait a second," Joochan smirked. "Are you telling me that I could be beaten up by this detective just because his woman could not be saved by us? Or, is it because you think I would spout nonsense to him?"
"Yah, brat!" Chief Seo glared at him. "Are you going against my orders?! Do you want to get demoted?!"
Joochan clenched his fists and shook his head. "I want the suspect to be captured."
"That is the Violent Crime Unit's job! Not yours! You are supposed to answer calls and dispatch the team. That is why you are here, araso?! So, stop mopping there and get to work!"
With a heavy heart, Joochan bowed and spoke softly. "Yes, Sir."
"What did you say?!"
"Yes Sir!"
Walking back to his cubicle, Joochan continued to have his fists balled up in anger. Not only his own chief did not trust him, he was reminded painfully by the fact that he was just a mere call operator.
If the Violent Crimes Unit could not capture him, Corporal Hong Joochan would.
***
Aww poor Joochanie! Next chapter will be Y-centric! Can't wait to share more about this story and the other characters too!! Thank you for reading!