SECRETS | 2YEON

Yoo Jeongyeon Will Always Find A Way

August the first of the year two thousand and twenty-one was a particularly hot and humid night. I usually never worked on Saturdays, so I had spent the whole day preparing myself for mister Im's party that was taking place later into the evening.

I had woken up early in the morning to look through some other cases, and later rushed to get my hair done; which was a very rare occasion. However, the Ims were paying for everything, and so I couldn't just let this chance go. With a fresh haircut and after getting my stray white hairs dyed after putting it off for so long, I went in for a suit fitting in some extravagantly expensive boutique in some suburb. I made sure to let the Ims know that I don't wear dresses, and that I would never put anything like that on me, even though I was going undercover.

The suit was dark blue and perfectly fitted to my weird proportions. It was made out of the most expensive material provided by that specific boutique. Honestly, I know nothing about clothes, or makeup, or hair, or anything other than my job really. I only know prices and efficiency, and I guess, that dark blue suit was rather efficient, and it looked good. Not going to say the same thing about the price, buuuuut... that's not really the point.

The fitting was over after an agonizing hour or two. The lady there was very invested in details, which to me were boring and useless. Most of the time she was on her knees on the floor, pins and measurement tapes tightly held in her hands, so that I could be getting the most out of my experience. It was quite a lot, and something I didn't really need, or had time for. However, I was hesitant about speaking up. The lady's thick Russian accent intimidated me, and her light blue eyes stared right into my soul in a way that made me feel naked, exposed, and scared, which was a feeling I usually never felt. I'm a very experienced detective, after all.

Looking at the clock, I had about another couple of hours to spend and to really get into the role of Bang Eunkyung — the woman I would be pretending to be at mister Im's party. It was very clear that I needed to befriend Im Nayeon to get closer to finding any clue, so going as my actual self would very much not be beneficial. Even if she's not aware that she's being investigated, I'm sure she is very cautious of the people she brings into her life, and detectives sure aren't the ones to trust. Though, I know that, even if she isn't aware of it now, there is no way she won't know sooner or later. Rich people have connections, eyes and ears in every single corner, especially rich people who commit murder.

And so, with my new haircut, slight makeup, and expensive shoes, all I needed was to feel it. All I needed was to feel Bang Eunkyung; who she really was, what she stood for. All the legal documents and fake friends, relatives, and co-workers that I might need were already arranged. It had been quite a while since the last time I had gone undercover, so I just had to get into character before I arrived at the party, as though to get used to the feeling of acting like Bang Eunkyung and not Yoo Jeongyeon.

Yoo Jeongyeon was born on the first day of November in the year nineteen eighty-three, to father Yoo Changjoon and mother Kim Haeun. Born and raised in Suwon, Yoo Jeongyeon and her two sisters spent most of their days in their parents' restaurant, getting prepared to one day inherit it. Yoo Jeongyeon was not a significant person, she wasn't good at school, nor had any talents. In school, she barely had any friends, because of her cold nature, and the fact that she didn't really like to talk. Her only hobby was reading books and watching documentaries, usually in the genre of true crime, and mystery. Though, she never thought of turning her hobbies into her profession, such thoughts never occurred to her. She was destined to run her parents' restaurant and live a quiet life, which she didn't mind. Yoo Jeongyeon had no aspirations, no dreams, or pent-up frustrations from not being able to follow said dreams.

Until she did.

One day, as her sixteenth birthday was coming up, she simply got out of bed with the need of being a detective. No prior thoughts had led her to that need. Until that point, she thought it would be practically impossible for an ordinary person like her to be involved in a profession like that. But, it really wasn't. Yoo Jeongyeon's determination and stubbornness was enough. Her parents, too, barely objected to her decision, which she didn't expect.

And just like that. Yoo Jeongyeon was detective Yoo Jeongyeon. Yoo Jeongyeon was many different people apart from Yoo Jeongyeon. She was also Kim Mijoo, Lim Hwayoung, Park Aecha, Ha Kyungsoon, Jeon Jessica, and most recently Bang Eunkyung.

Bang Eunkyung was born on the fourteenth of August of the year nineteen eighty-five. Daughter of single mother Kwak Eunsoo and absent father Bang Daniel, a Korean-American military veteran who fled to Oklahoma at the news of his then girlfriend being pregnant. Born in Busan, and raised between Gimpo, Anyang, and finally Ulsan due to her mother's job, Bang Eunkyung grew up as a reserved and shy kid. Despite her shyness, she was able to push through and socialize fairly easily during her school years, while also being active in the local church's choir. Bang Eunkyung loved literature; she loved reading romantic novels and poems as she waited for her mother's shift to end at the bookstore she used to work at. She could sit on the floor all day, with a book in her hands, resting against the tall bookshelves of the store and enjoying the art. Bang Eunkyung also loved music, mostly listening to old vinyls, made even before her own mother was born. As she got older and older, and after having read most classical literature pieces, Eunkyung turned to writing her own things. She carried a little leather notebook with her everywhere, capturing every bit of inspiration on the yellowing pages.

Soon, she had graduated from high school, without going through the university entrance exams. Her dear mother was getting older, and their financial situation remained as bad as it always used to be. And so, she found jobs in different retail stores, while secretly wishing to be a big novelist, who could influence time and history. She wanted to be a novelist whose books would still be on the shelves of a bookstore, even after her death— if books still existed at that time. Bang Eunkyung kept her dream alive by writing in her spare time, without having the courage to attempt and get her work published.

She let the years pass, without doing anything, as piles and piles of unreleased content remained dusted inside cabinets, and large boxes in her car, and basement. The turning point in her life would be meeting businesswoman Im Nayeon— or that was detective Yoo Jeongyeon's plan. Rich people love taking credit for other people's success more than anything in the world. So making Nayeon help Bang Eunkyung become a famous novelist, would only buy her more time to figure out where to find the bodies, while getting closer to the well-kept secrets of her businesses, and the people that hid in the shadows, helping her conceal her thousands of secrets.

But how would detective Yoo Jeongyeon—yes, I'm using the third person for myself. Well, no. I'm Bang Eunkyung, not Yoo Jeongyeon — pull that off?

That's a great question. And the answer is; by winging it, probably.

There's always a way. Yoo Jeongyeon will always find a way.

"Miss Bang?" the deep voice of a man sounded, and a large black limousine stopped in front of the café I had been sitting at for a while now. "Mister Im has sent me to escort you to his mansion. Please, do get in."

Well, let's get this party started.