Chapter 1457: Testing (2) |
“I said, that bastard sexually harassed me!”
Choi Yeon-Ha yelled while pointing with her finger. She looked dangerously close to erupting like a volcano.
However, the policeman standing before her didn’t react in any appreciable way. As a matter of fact, he seemed to ignore her rage completely while calmly asking Han Eun-Sol about the situation.
Han Eun-Sol explained in detail what happened. The officer listened expressionlessly, then subtly nodded before turning around and walking over to the taxi driver.
The two men chatted at length while gesturing this way and that.
Choi Yeon-Ha continued to grit her teeth at this sight. “Why is a damn criminal acting so chirpy?”
Han Eun-Sol frowned deeply. “Is it because he’s not a criminal yet?”
“Hey, does that look like a cop interviewing a potential suspect to you?”
“…”
“What the hell…? Those bastards…!”
Choi Yeon-Ha gritted her teeth loudly.
Her anger was understandable, though. She just got harassed by some random bastard in a foreign land, yet the policeman summoned to deal with the situation was having a good time with the harasser instead. How could she not get pissed off in that situation?
However, even she understood that venting her anger at the police was not the smartest move. All she could do for now was grit her teeth and endure.
“Fuu-woo…!”
She repeatedly sucked in deep breaths and tried to cool herself down. Meanwhile, the police officer seemed to have finished his “questioning” and walked back to where she was. He then addressed Han Eun-Sol in English.
Han Eun-Sol’s expression hardened the more he listened to the officer.
She asked her manager while glaring at the cop. “What did he say?”
“The taxi driver said he had done nothing wrong, and that you simply threw a tantrum because you thought the taxi fare was too much. And that you even tried to assault him while kicking the car’s interior.”
“Did nothing wrong?! My foot! Get the car’s black box out!”
“Noona, cars don’t have black boxes.”
“Why not?! I thought America was a first world country, so why don’t they have black boxes in their cars?!”
“That’s not important right now…” Han Eun-Sol groaned, his expression still stiff.
There were no other witnesses here, never mind any physical proof. No wonder the taxi driver had stopped some distance away from the hotel entrance!
Han Eun-Sol glared sharply at the taxi driver, his anger level rising even higher. However, the taxi driver was smirking away while making sure to stay out of the cop’s field of view.
Han Eun-Sol complained to the officer again, but the latter didn’t budge an inch.
“Noona, this guy is saying you gotta pay for the damages. Your kicks apparently left some kinda marks in the taxi’s interior. He’s threatening to arrest you for this, but that bastard wants to settle things with a simple compensation. He wants two hundred dollars to drop the charges. What do you want to do about…”
Choi Yeon-Ha sharply responded. “Two hundred?!”
“Yes, noona.”
“That bastard! He’s trying to mess with us, isn’t he?!”
Han Eun-Sol clamped his mouth shut. Anyone who knew where that “two hundred dollars” bit had come from would also think the same.
Choi Yeon-Ha glared murderously at the taxi driver, then at the police officer. “Hey, isn’t this that thing? Racism?”
“I don’t think it’s…”
“Why not? Why would this stupid cop ignore us and only listen to that bastard unless it’s that?”
“…”
Choi Yeon-Ha kept glaring at the cop, her expression icy. “Tell him. That bastard isn’t getting a cent from us.”
“Understood.”
Han Eun-Sol attempted to reason with the police officer again. But that conversation ended with him sighing deeply.
“The cop says there’s no other way than to arrest you if we can’t solve this on the spot. Since there are signs of you destroying private property, but no evidence of any harassment, this is the only logical way to handle this situation. Or so he says.”
“Logical?!”
“…Yes, noona.”
“How the hell is this logical?!”
Choi Yeon-Ha alternated her icy glare at the officer and the taxi driver.
No evidence? Sure, she understood that without evidence, a case couldn’t move forward. That much was an easy-enough pill to swallow.
But this situation wasn’t as simple as that. The way she saw it, this bloody cop never had any intentions to handle this case fairly. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be cracking jokes with a suspect accused of a sexual crime in the first place!
Worse still, she noticed the cop glancing several times in her direction while chatting with the taxi driver. The look on his face at the time shouldn’t even belong to someone supposed to be serving the law!
“Noona, he’s saying he’s gonna arrest you if we don’t come to an agreement right here.”
Choi Yeon-Ha chuckled hollowly.
So, is this how America does things?
It didn’t matter which, every country had the good and the bad. That was true for South Korea, and so it should be the same with the United States of America, too. Not everything in this place would be fair or logical.
If Choi Yeon-Ha had been a Caucasian woman, something like this would have never happened. For one, the taxi driver wouldn’t even have attempted to harass her that way, and the cop wouldn’t have been so dismissive toward her complaints, either.
The cop glanced at Choi Yeon-Ha again, then smirked and said something else.
Choi Yeon-Ha noticed Han Eun-Sol tightly clenching his fists and asked, “What did he say this time?”
“…”
“Eun-Sol, nothing will change just because you hold it in, okay? Just tell me what he said.”
“He said… Two hundred dollars sounded like a reasonable deal, so he can’t understand why you got so mad about it.”
“Hah…?” Choi Yeon-Ha alternated her icy glare between the cop and the taxi driver, then smirked derisively. “Wow. So is that how you wanna do this?”
With that, her suspicion had been confirmed. This cop was never on her side. No, he was their enemy.
Han Eun-Sol grimaced. “The cop is saying we should just behave ourselves like good little tourists and go back home.”
“Did he now?” Choi Yeon-Ha smirked derisively again. “Fine. Looks like this moron doesn’t know what a badly behaved tourist looks like. In that case, tell him I’m going to teach him today.”
“Wait, noona…!” Han Eun-Sol sighed deeply. “Confronting cops is never a good idea in this country. With how much power the police enjoy in America, you can’t even argue with them on the spot. Also, we aren’t even American citizens, you know? They are not going to humor us.”
“In that case, tell him to scram,” said Choi Yeon-Ha, her expression distorting in anger. “He can’t even help us, so why the hell is he even here? Tell him to get out of my sight instead of pissing us off some more. I’ll just never come back to this sh*tty country ever again!”
Today’s event, and her previous experiences in China, had finally taught Choi Yeon-Ha that Koreans should just stay in Korea. Whether it was America or China, why did rubbish like this keep happening to her?
Han Eun-Sol talked to the cop again before taking out his wallet, his expression stiff.
Choi Yeon-Ha rapidly reached down and grabbed Han Eun-Sol’s wrist. “Hey, you! What are you doing?”
“…He wants us to pay the taxi driver two hundred dollars. Or we’ll get arrested instead.”
“Don’t you know what paying them off means?!”
“What choice do I have? When the alternative is getting arrested? I can’t let you get dragged off to a police station.”
“I get that, but we can’t give them that money.”
“But…”
Choi Yeon-Ha coldly growled. “They are trampling on our pride here, okay? I’m the victim here, okay? But this bastard wants me to cough up money on top of being a victim of harassment? Don’t make me laugh! I’ll rather waltz into a police station on my own two feet than pay that bastard off! So you better not even think about paying them, okay? You do that, and Imma rip all your hair out instead!”
Han Eun-Sol saw the look in Choi Yeon-Ha’s eyes. And when he realized how determined she was, he had to squeeze his eyes shut. Her pride was one thing they should never have trampled on.
Then again, even Han Eun-Sol was unhappy about paying the taxi driver off to resolve this situation.
Han Eun-Sol glared at the cop and shouted, “We are not paying that bastard a dime, so do what you want! But remember this. We will make sure to lodge official complaints to your superiors!”
The cop’s expression hardened, then spat out a few swear words before yanking out handcuffs from his belt.
“Put your hand out!”[1]
The cop roughly grabbed Han Eun-Sol and spun him around before slamming him against the police cruiser. While bending Han Eun-Sol over the hood, the cop yanked his arm back.
Click!
The handcuffs snapped shut on Han Eun-Sol’s wrists, and he bit his lip, hard, at the sensation of cold metal digging into his skin.
With that, all uncertainty left his mind. This moron of a cop really was serious about arresting him and Choi Yeon-Ha.
The cop finished putting the cuffs on Han Eun-Sol, then threateningly walked up to Choi Yeon-Ha next. She stood tall and glared at the approaching cop.
The cop shouted, “Your hands!”
“…”
“I said, your hands!”
The cop grabbed Choi Yeon-Ha’s shoulder. She furrowed her brow at his forceful grip. He dragged her by her arm toward the cruiser. Unable to win against his strength, all she could do was clench her teeth.
Slam!
He half-threw her against the cruiser’s side, then twisted her arm behind her back.
She growled angrily. “You as*hole! You’re going to regret this. You just wait and see!”
“Shut up!”
The cop pushed her arm up even higher.
“Ouch?!”
“You should’ve complied when you had the chance, lady! What kinda stupid Asian b*tch are you? Know your damn place, okay? Don’t worry, though, since you’ll meet plenty of b*tches willing to show you some love behind bars!”
Choi Yeon-Ha yelled loudly. “What the hell are you saying, you dipsh*t! Speak Korean or something!”
“What the hell? She must really be insane, huh?”
The cop smirked and got ready to slap the handcuffs on Choi Yeon-Ha’s wrists. However…!
Shudder!
The cop jolted nastily and hurriedly backed off when inexplicable icy creepiness suddenly dug under his skin.
What was that all about?
It wasn’t as if something had touched him just then. But the terror invading his heart was like nothing he had experienced until now.
Just as the cop floundered about, unable to understand his own state…
Clomp, clomp, clomp!
His hearing registered a series of quick, loud footsteps. The cop reflexively spun his head in the direction of those unnerving noises.
A… An Asian man?
He could see a young Asian man rapidly walking toward him. Behind this unknown Asian man was another Asian male, who was slightly older looking, and… A soldier in full military uniform rushing toward this location?
A soldier? Why would a soldier be…
Just as the cop’s thoughts reached that far, the Asian man making a beeline to this location stopped before the cop and stared directly into his eyes.
“…!”
The cop lost all abilities to speak when his eyes met the Asian man’s. His heart fell to the pit of his stomach, and his legs suddenly lost all strength. But why?
The Asian was expressionless. Yet, looking into his eyes was enough for the cop to start panicking. He couldn’t think straight at all.
“What the hell do you think you are doing, officer?!”
A loud, urgent cry slammed into the cop’s hearing next. The one who said that was the soldier, not the Asian man.
The cop instinctively knew he had screwed up big time when he saw the soldier’s pale expression and all the stripes and medals on the uniform.
The young Asian man looked to the side and sighed after discovering Choi Yeon-Ha leaning against the police cruiser. He walked up to her, then simply snapped off the handcuff already on one of her wrists.
Huh? What was that? The cop blinked his eyes in disbelief. Did that young man break the handcuff with his bare hands?
Maybe the cuffs were defective? But that couldn’t be. The cop personally maintained them, so…
The young Asian man, Kang Jin-Ho, asked Choi Yeon-Ha. “Are you okay?”
She rubbed her sore wrist a few times while sighing deeply. “Can you, like, wait for five seconds, please?”
“Sorry?”
“I’m really, really emotional right now, you see? If I look at your face now, I might start crying, so give me five seconds to calm down first.”
“Got it. Take your time.”
Choi Yeon-Ha sucked in a couple of deep, deep breaths, then began lightly jumping up and down on the spot. She then turned around to face Kang Jin-Ho.
“…Argh. It’s still the same!” Choi Yeon-Ha hurriedly looked away, then spoke in a still-heightened voice. “What are you doing? Please free Eun-Sol, too.”
“Of course.”
Kang Jin-Ho grabbed the cuffs on Han Eun-Sol’s wrists and broke them off.
“Thank you,” said Han Eun-Sol.
“Mm…” Kang Jin-Ho nodded, then scanned his surroundings before asking both Han Eun-Sol and Choi Yeon-Ha. “I’d like to know what happened here.”
Han Eun-Sol rubbed his neck and squeezed his creaky voice out. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave a single thing out and tell you exactly what happened to us.”
Flames of anger burned brightly in Han Eun-Sol’s eyes.
He then passionately explained the situation in the most succinct manner possible before glancing at Choi Yeon-Ha next. He was silently asking her if he had left anything out. And when she nodded to say he didn’t, Han Eun-Sol looked back at Kang Jin-Ho and finished his explanation.
“That’s what happened.”
Kang Jin-Ho said nothing while nodding once. His expressionless face made it impossible to guess what he was thinking right now.
He slowly turned around and faced Colonel William Reese next. His unfeeling, withdrawn eyes made Reese flinch nastily on the spot.
Kang Jin-Ho slowly pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, then mouthed a cigarette. He didn’t bother to use a lighter and simply flicked his finger to light up his cigarette.
“Fuu-woo…”
After taking a deep puff, Kang Jin-Ho coldly addressed Reese.
“Let’s hear it.”
“…?”
“Let’s hear how you’re going to fix this crisis.”
“A-Assembly Master, sir…”
“Before you say anything else, I should warn you first.”
Kang Jin-Ho loudly gritted his teeth, causing the cigarette in his mouth to get severed and fall to the ground.
“You better not be thinking of sweeping this under the carpet.”
All semblance of color drained from Reese’s complexion after he finally came face to face with Kang Jin-Ho’s rage.
1. This line was in English in the raw. ☜