“How did you…”
Go Hyunsook’s face was still frozen in shock.
Lee Jaehyun grinned.
His lips curved in a smile, but his eyes were as vicious as ever.
He was suppressing the eruption of rage threatening to explode from within.
The moment he confirmed Go Hyunsook’s presence, a storm of fury had welled up inside him.
Now, meeting her face to face and subduing her himself, he felt as if his anger was about to burn through reason.
He had really, without a single doubt, drunk the ginger tea and fallen asleep.
If not for Se-re-hen, Lee Jaehyun might still be lying unconscious right now.
Not just his suggestion for this operation, but subduing Go Hyunsook with his own hands—thinking of it now…
If Lee Jaehyun had been the one missing, perhaps Choi Daehyun, lying on that sofa over there, would have met a completely different fate.
No—he definitely would have.
“It’s because I identified Go Hyunsook and Park Yech’an that we were able to come this far.”
If not, the Police Officers would still be wandering in circles.
Naturally, Choi Daehyun would have faced the same fate as in his previous life.
As that thought flashed by, the urge to hurt Go Hyunsook surged up before he could help himself.
He forcibly repressed the impulse and clicked the handcuffs onto Go Hyunsook’s wrists.
“Go Hyunsook. You are under emergency arrest for kidnapping a child in the act. You have the right to appoint a Defense Attorney, the right to remain silent, and the right to request an Arrest Warrant Review.”
That was what Lee Jaehyun said, but it was likely that, aside from a Public Defender, no Defense Attorney would defend her.
Child kidnapping and a Ransom Demand.
A serious felony punishable by a minimum of ten years, up to life imprisonment.
Caught in the act—there was no way to defend her, and exercising her right to remain silent would only hurt Go Hyunsook herself.
Besides, she had tested the Sleeping Pill on the cat in advance, meticulously planning the crime…
At minimum, she would spend decades in Prison, never seeing the light of day again.
“With your age, you might never leave Prison until the day you die.”
Lee Jaehyun exhaled heavily and pushed himself to his feet.
Meanwhile, Oh Min-seok hurriedly circled around the house and entered through the back door.
“…Good work.”
Oh Min-seok glanced at the handcuffs on Go Hyunsook’s wrists, then spoke to Lee Jaehyun.
She was elderly; perhaps the handcuffs were a bit much…
But this was a child kidnapping.
With the victim lying right beside them, this much was only proper.
“To be honest… I wanted to subdue her more forcefully.”
But if he did, Go Hyunsook could very well die for real.
She was old—one wrong swing from Lee Jaehyun’s fist could have killed her.
Then, Lee Jaehyun himself would be charged with Attempted Murder.
More than anything, it would mean Go Hyunsook would not receive proper judgment.
What Lee Jaehyun wanted was clear, just judgment, so he firmly pressed Go Hyunsook’s shoulder and pushed her toward Oh Min-seok.
Go Hyunsook’s face twisted, but she offered no further complaint.
Oh Min-seok quietly checked the handcuffs on Go Hyunsook and looked around the house.
Meanwhile, Lee Jaehyun went to check the child lying on the living room sofa.
The child, just like the cat before, was lying there without the slightest movement, as if dead.
The sight made his heart lurch, and his chest tighten with anxiety…
But as he approached, he saw the child’s stomach rising and falling with each breath and felt a little more relieved.
Though he wore a blindfold, it was clear enough that it was Choi Daehyun.
Lee Jaehyun gently removed the blindfold from the child’s eyes.
“…Choi Daehyun secured.”
Looking at the peacefully sleeping Choi Daehyun, Lee Jaehyun finally let out a sigh of relief.
At his words, Oh Min-seok nodded and tapped his phone before speaking.
“Confirmed, suspect Go Hyunsook secured. The child is also safe.”
—Confirmed. I will immediately notify the child’s father.
As Lee Jaehyun listened to the radio crackling through the phone, he slowly exhaled.
He checked the child’s breath under his nose, even took his pulse, before he could truly relax.
This time, he’d managed to save him.
Failing to prevent the kidnapping had been his own mistake—a deeply painful error.
But at least, he had managed… to keep the child from losing his life.
A wave of tension released all at once, but Lee Jaehyun braced himself and spoke again.
“I’ll request Fire Department support.”
“Yeah. I’ll call for backup from the Capital Region Police Station.”
Since the child had taken a Sleeping Pill, his condition came first, whatever else happened.
After requesting the Fire Department, Lee Jaehyun glanced at Oh Min-seok, who was calling for police support, then slumped down in front of the sofa.
All he could do now was wait for the Fire Department to arrive.
***
Oh Min-seok, the Team Leader, requested backup from the Capital Region Police Station, then looked over toward Lee Jaehyun.
Before the sofa where Choi Daehyun lay as if dead.
Lee Jaehyun sat quietly, watching over Choi Daehyun.
Word was, he hadn’t slept properly for days.
Apparently, it was all because of the cat’s chain of sleeping incidents these past few days…
But that had ultimately led to the kidnapping, so none of that time was wasted.
And once again, Oh Min-seok had to be impressed with that kid.
“He really is crazy…”
It had all started with suspicion—when the cat his colleague raised ran away and then, after eating something bad, died.
A report came in about the cat, and upon checking, the cat was found asleep as if dead.
Of course, you might sense something was off, but few would become genuinely suspicious from that.
Even if you were suspicious, you’d soon brush it aside and return to your work, busy as always.
But Lee Jaehyun didn’t let it go.
He kept digging until he learned that someone had deliberately made the cat fall asleep and carried it around.
“I even heard he suspected child kidnapping from that moment on…”
He’d heard it from Park Daehyung.
After finding the can of tuna and the cat sleeping as if dead while on patrol,
He suggested it might be a rehearsal for a crime, and from there, even predicted a child kidnapping.
Honestly, unless you came from the future, there’s no way anyone could know that—yet he sensed it with just intuition. It was absurd.
“He’s someone I’d kill to have on my team.”
It was the same with the Myung Jinhan incident, and hearing about the other cases he solved afterward made him even more eager.
Who wouldn’t want him?
As a Team Leader, he’d cracked down on illegal medical practices, solved a murder hidden for years, and now even caught a child kidnapper.
And that’s not all.
“He even caught a fugitive scammer just by looking at their eyes.”
Sharp intuition like that usually only develops naturally with experience, or is something you’re born with.
But that kid seemed to have been born with it.
And then, this time—seeing him solve the case like this…
“He’s fundamentally brilliant, that’s for sure.”
“Hm?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
When Lee Jaehyun, seated by the sofa, responded, Oh Min-seok just waved his hand.
But his gaze stayed fixed on Lee Jaehyun.
The social image of Police Officers is still one of suffering through hardships, tracking down criminals by sheer effort.
It’s an image built by movies, dramas, and the media.
No doubt, in the old days, there were many officers like that.
But these days, that’s changed a lot.
Technology has advanced, and now the Support Team plays a bigger role inside the office, tracking down suspects more efficiently than by running around the field.
“A fascinating guy.”
Sipping his coffee, Oh Min-seok stared at Lee Jaehyun with interest.
Criminals aren’t idiots.
It’s rare for fools to leave obvious evidence lying around to be caught.
Especially those who commit serious felonies—they’re even more careful.
Usually, such crimes are meticulously planned.
Plenty of criminals try to outthink the police, so detectives need to be sharper than ever to catch them.
Of course, there are still officers who rely on their strength and chase down criminals in the field.
“I’m one of those types, after all…!”
Oh Min-seok looked down at his shoes.
Shoes caked in dust and dirt from running through crime scenes.
The soles were thick so they’d last longer, but
It was no big deal to throw away a pair worn down by blood and grime.
But even after all that running, it was common to lose track of a suspect.
“But if it’s with that kid…”
After staring at his shoes for a long while, Team Leader Oh Min-seok slowly turned his gaze to Lee Jaehyun.
Today, he realized that Lee Jaehyun was exactly the person he needed.
With him, it wasn’t about mindlessly chasing suspects.
They could think deeply about the criminal, predict their movements, and capture them more efficiently.
The arrest rate would surely skyrocket.
“Honestly, it’s a waste to let him go like this.”
Leaning against the sofa, Oh Min-seok recalled the things Lee Jaehyun had done today.
Feeding a Sleeping Pill to a Police Officer, parents running away with cash at a kidnapper’s demand…
A day of chaos with all sorts of incidents happening back to back.
Yet, in the midst of that chaos, Lee Jaehyun seemed to instinctively know exactly what he had to do.
“Thanks to him, we were able to arrest the suspect without incident.”
If Lee Jaehyun had taken any longer to find the child,
Everything could have turned out differently.
If Go Hyunsook saw the Police Officers enter, she might have fled with the child.
Or she could have threatened them with the child’s life.
In that sense, Lee Jaehyun’s role had been critical.
He’d explored all possibilities regarding the suspect’s connections.
Dug in persistently, leaving no stone unturned.
And at the crucial moment, he’d moved in and locked handcuffs on the criminal’s wrist.
He’d caught a filthy criminal pretending to be a good citizen.
“If only that kid joined our team…”
Oh Min-seok muttered quietly.
Then he gazed at Lee Jaehyun, who sat there, silently watching over Choi Daehyun.
A face deep in thought.
“With him around, any case that comes our way…”
Right now, Oh Min-seok’s team had more than enough cases, and the kidnapping still wasn’t fully resolved, so there was no time to think about anything else.
Once they caught the remaining suspect, Park Yech’an, they’d have to return to the mountain of cases waiting for them.
And countless more cases would come.
Yet, for some reason—
All those cases…
“With him here, I feel like I won’t have to worry about a thing.”
Lee Jaehyun. As long as he was there, it felt like there was nothing to fear.