Season one, chapter twenty-three

"And in the middle of my
chaos, there was you"

"Since I'm in such a good mood today, this is on the house" Ms. Chu exclaimed with two trays in her hands upon hearing the news on the television about Man-ho's arrest

"Seriously?"

"My gosh!"

"Is it your birthday today?"

"Gosh, no"

"Song abused his employees often, verbally and physically. He beat Han to death for his 'defiant attitude'" The man on television said

"Did you really hack and tap your employees' phones?" Asked a lady with a microphone in front of Man-ho

"The murder weapon was Han's lanyard, like the one I'm wearing now" He pointed to the lanyard around his neck "Han finally managed to land a job after 26 job interviews, but the lanyard for his own employees card ended up being a weapon that strangled him to death. A young man has created a website to mourn Han's death, and there are already thousands of posts expressing condolences"

The tips of Thea's lips curved upward into a small, happy smile. They could finally rest in peace knowing that Man-ho was now in the safe hands of the police.

"Here, look" Jangmul said putting some photos on top of the table "It's not Baekwon Reservoir. As you can see, it's surrounded by reed fields" He explained

"What about it?" Ms. Chu asked not quite getting what he meant

"Around the reservoir... there isn't a single paved road" He took out his phone to show them the video that Mun's dad had recorded "Get it now?"

"So it's a different reservoir?"

"This is what we'll do. This contains Song Man-ho's ledger for Taesin Group's slush funds. We can use this to take down Cho Tae-sin and those bastards. Let's wrap it up like that" Jangmul explained, showing a USB that probably held illegal information

"Illegally obtained evidence isn't admissible" Mo-tak commented

"Forget the police and prosecutors. We'll report him to the tax office. Then he can't fight back" Jangmul explained

"Sure, we can report him for embezzlement and bribery. But that won't punish him for killing Mun's parents" Hana justified

"Got any evidence? Can you prove that they hired hit man to kill Mun's parents? How will you prove it?"

"We will find evidence. We can do it" Mun said with determination

The place went silent for a few minutes, probably thinking about what to do next in order to find evidence to prove the crimes that all those men had committed and had hidden very well so that no one would find out about it, until now.

"There it is" Mo-tak said suddenly getting up from his seat "The new one"

Thea's eyes seemed to shine as she saw the new car outside the restaurant. She didn't wait any longer to step out the premises with such a big smile on her face that everyone could swear they saw how it radiated excessively, since when does Thea like cars?

"My goodness" Ms. Chu exclaimed in surprise

"Well, this is nothing. It's not bulletproof though" Jangmul said laughing, passing the keys to Mo-tak who was on the other side of the car

"Gosh, we only had the other car for three years. What a waste" Ms. Chu complained, checking the black new car in front of her "I wish it could be salvaged. Too bad"

"Those pricks had a tracker on your car" Jangmul revealed with both of his hands inside his pants pockets

Thea turned around to look at him with her eyes wide open like all the other members of the team. What kind of lunatic puts a tracker on someone else's car? Surely they had their sights on them for much longer.

"What?"

"Those bastards..."

"I bet they were planning to kill all of you at once" Jangmul exclaimed pointing at each of the counters

"Mo-tak" Thea stepped back when the man entered the car with the most serious face she had ever seen

"Hey, where are you going? Come back!" Both adults began to say when Mo-tak started the car and left them all confused

"Mo-tak!"

"That punk"

"The police have stated that the suspect im the three murders which recently took place in Jungjin is the same person, and this news is causing quite a stir. The police put out an APB for Ji Cheong-sin, the suspect. He's 180 cm tall and is on the slim side" Said the man on the television on the news channel

"They've put out an APB" Ms. Chu muttered with her gaze glued to the TV

"He has sharp eyes and a scar near the temple on the right side..."

"We have to track him down before the police do" Ms. Chu said sitting on a wooden chair next to Hana while Thea put some empty bowls on the cart that Mo-tak was pushing

"We can't find him now. He must've totally gone into hiding" Mo-tak explained pushing the cart once Thea finished placing the empty dishes on the cart

"Will we not find him until he kills someone?" Ms. Chu questioned, letting out a frustrated sigh

"72D6542, 92R7089, 86s6260. If you see these license plate numbers, please call 911 or contact the Jungjin police station directly. While the public is extremely terrified and anxious due to the heinous, cruel way he murdered his victims, Mayor Shin Myeong-hwi addressed the people of Jungjin earlier today"

How many more people would it take to find him and put an end to all his evil plans?

"I have a utility pole number. Can you find out where it is?" Mo-tak said with the phone to his ear

The group of counters were sitting around the wooden table waiting for answers. This could be what they had been looking for for days, and maybe Mun had finally found it.

"A utility pole?" Someone asked on the other side of the phone "Hold on"

"Three, seven, nine, five, uppercase D, one, two three. Six, one, uppercase R, three, three. Uppercase L and one"

"Iseon-dong, Dong-gu, Jungjin in Gyeonggi Province"

When the call ended and everyone got up from their seats, Thea grabbed her coat that she had left on one of the wooden tables, hurrying to go after her teammates so as not to be left behind in the restaurant as had already happened several times in the past.

Car trips always seemed to be short, or perhaps because they would finally have the evidence they needed to put behind bars that group of scammers that Thea came to hate in such a short time.

"It's here" Mun said sticking his head out of the car window. Thus the group got out of the car once it stopped, approaching Mun when he took out his phone to check if it was the same number written on his cell phone screen "This is it. My dad was here"

"The 'reservoir' wasn't an actual reservoir" Hana explained letting out a long sigh

"Let's go"

The group walked behind Ms. Chu who seemed to be as eager as the others to find what they were looking for, the reason for what they were really there. Although the place was deserted, it seemed more like private property since it was closed.

Thea approached the iron railing, inspecting if there was any way to open it but it seemed stuck in place and didn't even budge when Thea tried to open it. So she decided to leave it as it was and walked away from it.

"What is that?" Ms. Chu asked with a hand on her forehead shielding herself from the sun

Thea copied her action and looked towards the blue sky where there was a drone that surely someone was controlling from somewhere.

"A surveillance drone" Mo-tak responded before pointing a device at the drone to disable it. Thea sighed as the drone fell to the ground "Just like seven years ago, trucks are still going in and out of this place" He began to say, inspecting the tire marks on the ground

"Let's go" Hana exclaimed, opening the small gate as if it were nothing

"Wait, when did she..." Ms. Chu began to say with her mouth slightly open

Thea smirked in amusement before following the team behind. The place was desolate, dirty and there were large mountains of garbage that people surely came to throw here or perhaps the scammers did.

When they were deep enough into the place Hana knelt on the ground and picked up a paper only to find a dead bird under it.

"Shit" Hana exclaimed with disgust, frowning, getting up from the ground immediately

Thea scrunched her nose up in disgust, feeling her stomach turn at the mere image of that lifeless bird on the ground.

"Gosh, these bastards. They've been dumping garbage here" Ms. Chu exclaimed with disgust on her features

"So Kim Yeong-nim's corpse must be buried somewhere here" Mun murmured without any trace that the smell of the dead bird bothered him, something that made Thea look at him with admiration and wonder how he did it when It hadn't been long since they arrived and she wanted to leave already

Thea really wanted to leave the place, who knows what so many disgusting things they could find there, plus she hadn't signed up for any of this.

"This place is huge. How are we going to find her? They buried her seven years ago"

"Guys, don't you smell this funky odor?" Hana asked, drawing everyone's attention

"Yes, I've been thinking something smells funky" Mun agreed with her

Thea didn't even want to open her mouth to talk because if she did so she would probably vomit right there in front of everyone, not caring if they make fun of her later on. Her sense of smell was the best of them all therefore it was too sensitive to foul smells like these.

"I'm not sure. I have chronic sinusitis" Ms. Chu explained. Thea tried to resist when they began to follow the scent but her feeble attempts were of no use. She closed her eyes tightly as they found a pool of black liquid that smelled horribly "Gosh, it stinks. What's this?" The three women covered their noses as they could not stand the smell

"They should've dumped garbage on top of a waterproof ground layer but didn't bother with it" Mo-tak began to explain "The groundwater is contaminated. They must be draining this water somehow" He pointed out leading the group to where the water came out at the end of the cliff

Thea gasped in surprise when she saw where the dirty water was going. And it was more than certain that all the other people in Jungjin had been using the same contaminated water in their homes.

"My goodness. Those assholes"

"I think Jungjin Dam is over there" Mo-tak pointed

"Jungjin Dam? That means this garbage water is flowing into the city's water supply" Ms. Chu commented as Thea covered her mouth in surprise "I've been making noodles with this water?" She wondered as Mo-tak carefully climbed down to take a closer look at the pipe where the contaminated water came out "These bastards..."

"Looks good, right?" Mo-tak asked with a proud smile on his face pointing at the camera on the tree

"Shouldn't we lower it a little?" Hana asked pointing at the camera making Mo-tak look at her indignantly

"If we report them for illegal dumping will they go to jail?" Ms. Chu curiously asked

"If the police can't do that for us, we'll at least make the Ministry of Environment issues a fine" Mo-tak explained with both of his hands inside his coat pockets

"That's not enough. That water must be wreaking havoc on people's health"

"Hey, just so you guys know, I'm never coming back here. So don't think about bringing me here again, I almost fainted from the horrible smell." Thea began to complain crossing her arms ready to start judging the place "And then that dead bird on the ground..." She covered her mouth in disgust feeling the vomit coming down her throat

"You better not keep talking or you'll actually throw up," Hana exclaimed, scrunching her nose up as she patted her on the back

"How delicate," Mo-tak said, shaking his head

"H-Hey, my sense of smell is very sensitive. I'm not delicate!" Thea defended herself, making the counter team laugh in amusement

And on the way home Thea had fallen asleep in the car, with her head resting on the shoulder of a certain black-haired boy who did not hesitate to lend her his shoulder so she could rest. Whereas the dark and cold night embraced her in its arms.

Author's note;

I really tried to make this chapter a little shorter than the previous ones because I incorporated a lot of different scenes and I didn't want to write too much explaining each one of them. I have several chapters in drafts so I hope to be able to update several days in a row :)

Question of the day: What are you expecting for this month? ✨

It's Jimin's month so I'm a little excited for this month. Anyway, see y'all hopefully tomorrow! 💕