My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 344

“Family?”

“That’s right. But should I say they’re just like family, in name only?”

“Ah, just people you eat with?”

“Right.”

‘Family.’ The concept of people who eat together carries significant weight in Korea. In times of hardship, sharing a meal meant sharing everything.

However, as times changed and society became more affluent, the significance of the word ‘family’ has diminished considerably.

“You live your life, I live mine… something like that?”

“Well, I expected as much.”

Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for the whole family to go to America, leaving behind a drug-addicted daughter. In a way, Nam Yeon-hwa was likely treated as a disposable child in that family from the start.

She was in a situation where she couldn’t be married off, and she wasn’t capable of securing the family’s future.

“So, she’s isolated within her own family?”

“That’s right.”

“Then, did Nam Yeon-hwa get plastic surgery?”

“Oh, you know about that too? That’s something only whispered among the really rich.”

Jeong I-yeon lowered her voice as she spoke.

“Nam Yeon-hwa had a really severe underbite.”

“Underbite?”

“Yeah, malocclusion, they call it.”

“I know what you mean.”

In the case of malocclusion [a misalignment of teeth when the jaws are closed], the lower jaw protrudes forward, which can make a person look quite unpleasant. In fact, most people with severe malocclusion try to correct it through surgery. Of course, it’s a fairly expensive surgery, but severe malocclusion can be so uncomfortable that people are reluctant to even meet you, and it’s difficult to chew properly.

“But apparently, it’s not a surgery you can do when they’re young.”

“That’s true.”

A person’s bones continue to grow, and while you can predict when and how they will grow, you can’t just cut them based on those predictions.

If you recklessly cut them and they grow incorrectly later, the jaw could be shattered or the joint could be completely broken. So, malocclusion surgery is one of those surgeries that can only be done after they’ve fully grown.

“She suddenly appeared looking beautiful one day, so it’s strange that rumors didn’t spread.”

Even if you only get double eyelid or nose surgery, it’s obvious, so of course it would be noticeable if she had all kinds of surgeries done while correcting her malocclusion.

“So, she’s a socially isolated type?”

“That’s right. Honestly, I’ve met her a few times, but she’s got a terribly high opinion of herself, considering.”

“Terribly high?”

“You know, like she’s showing off.”

“Well, if you have low self-esteem, you have high pride.”

Self-esteem and pride are completely different. Self-esteem is the ability to respect oneself and have confidence in oneself. So, even if external shocks come, you can just laugh it off.

But pride reacts fiercely when someone touches it. For example, if someone calls a rich person ‘nouveau riche’ [newly rich], a person with high self-esteem will laugh it off, saying, ‘Yeah, I’m rich. Jealous? Want me to buy you some Korean beef?’ But if they have high pride, they will react by saying, ‘Where does this beggar think he’s getting off talking to me like that!’

Nam Yeon-hwa was that kind of person. She had been filling the low self-esteem caused by her appearance with the high pride of being rich, and that became even more severe as she fixed her face through plastic surgery.

“The problem is that it doesn’t raise her self-esteem.”

Even if she fixes her malocclusion and becomes beautiful, she has to work hard to raise her self-esteem, and those around her have to help. But that wasn’t the case, and it was exactly when Haengsil Confectionery [a fictional company] was in turmoil, so no one even thought about helping her.

“So, her personality just got worse.”

“Then, what about men around her?”

“Men?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you trying to introduce me to someone? I want you to stop right there.”

“No, it’s just related to the case, so just tell me.”

At that, Jeong I-yeon nodded.

“There are none, and there are some.”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who’s good enough to consider marriage? She didn’t even approach them. Actually, there were none before the plastic surgery.”

But the situation changed a bit with the plastic surgery. She became much prettier after the surgery, but she couldn’t completely erase the past. Of course, the rich families and chaebols [large industrial conglomerates] knew about her past face.

Moreover, malocclusion is known to be caused by genetics.

“How thoroughly do the rich manage their appearance?”

Jeong I-yeon said firmly.

“I’ve been getting body shape management since elementary school.”

“What? You’ve been getting body shape management since elementary school?”

“Oh my! Senior, do you think this idol-like appearance just happened? Now is the era of shaping the direction of bone growth and raising children beautifully.”

Park Do-joon nodded at that. In fact, Jeong I-yeon was pretty enough to be put in any idol team without feeling out of place.

“I know what you mean.”

No matter how pretty she became through plastic surgery with the power of science and technology, the rich know Nam Yeon-hwa’s original face, and even if it’s a genetically possible malocclusion, they probably wouldn’t think of her as someone to meet.

Moreover, her family is virtually collapsing, and if her personality is unpleasant and she’s a drug addict, similar families won’t be interested.

“What about other men?”

“Well, there were some after the surgery.”

The problem is that the men who approached her were not normal. They were either drug addicts or guys who were so obsessed with money that they didn’t care what Nam Yeon-hwa did.

‘It won’t help her self-esteem at all.’

Because that’s not the purpose in the first place. To raise self-esteem, someone has to give affection to Nam Yeon-hwa as a human being, not money or drugs.

“And her whole family ran away to America. My brother said they did a ‘pants run’? What’s a pants run?”

“Ah, there’s something like that. Just understand it as running away in a hurry…”

What’s important is not the pants run, but the existence of Nam Yeon-hwa left behind.

‘It’s a situation where a mental illness could easily develop.’

The problem is what to do next. When you think about it, Nam Yeon-hwa’s face has never been shown in the media even once. She didn’t even come out when she was young because of her malocclusion, and after she grew up, only her name was known in the drug case, but she never revealed her face.

Perhaps because of her face, she didn’t even use social media.

“Did she kill someone or something?”

“Huh? How did you know that?”

“Oh, well… I just thought she was the type to do that.”

But unexpectedly, Jeong I-yeon answered quickly.

“She had a terrible inferiority complex and treated people around her carelessly. She’s actually stabbed someone with a knife before.”

“Stabbed someone?”

“Yeah, well, she covered it up with money back then too. There’s a rumor that she stabbed the housekeeper who worked in the kitchen.”

But she wasn’t seriously injured, and there’s also a rumor that she gave the housekeeper hundreds of millions of won [Korean currency] and shut her mouth.

‘Hmm.’

Park Do-joon’s head became complicated as he listened to that.

‘I understand it overall.’

Low self-esteem. And an inferiority complex towards someone. Obsession with attention. Everything fits the profiling.

“It’s impossible to get into that house, right?”

“No one calls her. Who would want to go there in the first place? She’s a drug addict.”

“Drugs…”

At that word, something flashed through Park Do-joon’s mind.

‘Not alcohol, but drugs?’

It clearly looked like he had accidentally thrown away the body. Then what was the reason for throwing away the body? When you think about it, Nam Yeon-hwa’s second drug case broke out exactly at that time.

‘Was it because she was high on drugs?’

Then it makes sense. And…

“Come to think of it, there was someone who got caught with her at the time, right?”

“Someone who got caught with her?”

“No, I mean when the second drug case broke out four years ago.”

If you remember that time, there was a case where she was involved with a man.

“Ah, that time? That man?”

“Yeah, unlike other cases, it seemed like the two of them were a bit affectionate?”

“A man at that time?”

“Yeah, I don’t remember who that man was?”

Since it was before the regression, the memory wasn’t deleted. But the man was almost forgotten, overshadowed by the name Nam Yeon-hwa. Even then, the power of Haengsil Confectionery was still alive, and Nam Yeon-hwa’s grandfather was the CEO of Haengsil Confectionery.

“Ah, I remember that. That man didn’t open his mouth, right?”

The man desperately tried to protect Nam Yeon-hwa. He said that Nam Yeon-hwa never did drugs and claimed that he didn’t know her.

Logically, that’s an absurd claim. If he didn’t know Nam Yeon-hwa, he shouldn’t have claimed that she didn’t do drugs. Anyway, the man tried to protect Nam Yeon-hwa, but other drug offenders had already spilled the beans, so his claim couldn’t be accepted, and since he already had a history of being punished as a drug offender, he couldn’t escape the drug investigation, so Nam Yeon-hwa was eventually arrested as a second drug offender.

“Come to think of it, I don’t know what happened to that man.”

“Why that man?”

“Just. I was wondering if he’s alive.”

“I remember that too. The first one caught seemed to be a man.”

Originally, the case wasn’t aimed at Nam Yeon-hwa in the drug case. Nam Yeon-hwa was just caught up in the investigation of a general drug case.

“Hmm…”

Park Do-joon’s head started spinning as he listened to that.

Looking into the case wasn’t difficult. It wasn’t illegal information, and it was a fairly big case.

“The case at the time was bigger than I thought.”

Song Pil-man said while looking at the case records at the time.

“Drug cases are usually like this.”

“That’s true.”

It starts with one small guy, but they arrest a bunch of guys who do drugs together. The same was true of that case. The case that started with catching one drug delivery man grew to that point.

To be exact, the delivery man who thought the item being delivered by quick service was strange took the item to the police station.

It didn’t make sense to have a major in law books delivered by quick service, so he asked them to bring it to him.

If you have enough money to deliver by quick service, it was a bit far enough to buy a new book, and even if it was a real book, if you left it for a day, you could just watch it with your friends that day.

Decisively, he was delivering a major in law books and it was an item to be used right away, so there was no reason to wrap it up tightly and send it.

Feeling intuitively that something was wrong, the quick service delivery man took the item to the police station, and the police opened the item.

And it was true that a law major book came out from inside. However, the inside of the book was neatly cut, and drugs and syringes were found inside.

The case started with the arrest of both the sender and the recipient.

“Senior, this…”

“Yes, the autopsy record clearly stated that it was cut.”

Park Do-joon’s face hardened as he looked at the case records. The reason was that the man who tried to protect Nam Yeon-hwa until the end at the time was listed as a shaping technician.

A shaping technician, that is, a person with a job dealing with meat.