The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 101

Since it was just past lunchtime, people finished their cigarettes and brushed past my shoulders as they came out. Most of them were people I knew, so I gave a light nod before stepping onto the stairs leading upward. The group that had just left seemed to be the last, as the open rooftop was empty. However, I checked for human presence one more time properly before approaching the railing with him.

The wind welcoming March blew across the empty rooftop. Although the bitter, cold remains of winter still lingered in the air, there was a scent of spring imbued with a faint warmth.

I took out my Zippo lighter and lit a cigarette. Lee Chaeha, who had been quietly staring at the old lighter I held, discovered the engraving on the surface with his delicate eye for detail.

“There are English initials written on it. Are they the name of your late father?”

“Yeah. My father’s name. Don’t worry about useless things and take a drag of this cigarette.”

A faint look of dissatisfaction spread across his face, which had lost its guard compared to when we first met. However, he soon returned to a calm expression and accepted the cigarette I offered with his soft lips. As I shielded it with my hands and lit it, the orange flame flickered around Lee Chaeha’s lips before disappearing.

He took a shallow draw from the cigarette. Just enough to light it.

“Officer Lee.”

“Yes.”

“Lately, a hypothesis has been circling in my head.”

“What hypothesis?”

“…The thought that Lee Gilyoung might be innocent.”

The movement of his lips, which had been drawing on the cigarette while looking out over the railing, stopped. Perhaps because he was always just taking the smoke into his mouth, the smoke he had inhaled escaped effortlessly from between his reddish lips as soon as he held his breath. His dark, translucent-looking pupils moved slowly toward me a few beats later than the smoke.

He asked back with a thoughtful, yet cautious look.

“Is it a trap?”

I let out a soft laugh before I realized it. Lately, I’ve been laughing frivolously quite often when Lee Chaeha is in front of me.

Lee Chaeha maintained his expressionless face and added in a neat voice.

“Please don’t laugh and answer me.”

“It’s not a trap. I won’t get angry.”

“…”

“It’s okay to give your opinion as a family member. You can defend your father as much as you want.”

Doubts still pooled in Lee Chaeha’s moisture-filled eyes.

“…Why have you changed your mind? The password was entered twice.”

“I know. If you only think about that, Lee Gilyoung is the culprit.”

“I also put my feelings aside after reading the statement, so why is the Prosecutor suddenly…”

“Because if the culprit is different, it’s strange that CEO Kang Woosung and Grandma Park, who was a doctor, were murdered in the same way with an 8-year gap. I knew that, too. I just hadn’t thought about it deeply, using the excuse that there was enough physical evidence that Lee Gilyoung was the culprit. When that incident happened, I was nineteen, and I came across countless news reports and newspapers about the murder. Since then, the culprit in my head had always been Lee Gilyoung. I couldn’t just change my conviction without any particular evidence just because a similar murder occurred eight years later.”

While I spoke step by step, Lee Chaeha moved his trembling fingers to take the cigarette again and inhaled the smoke. I watched as his square-shaped front teeth bit down hard on the edge of the filter and let go, and as the area around his round pupils welled up. Seeing him desperately holding back tears, my hand moved before I was even conscious of it.

My brain told me I shouldn’t touch Lee Chaeha. Even if no one was watching, it was the office, and walls have eyes, after all.

Still, the impulse to reach out to him wouldn’t subside. I could only barely suppress the desire to press my lips against his and breathe in the breath he exhaled.

I caressed the sunlight that had landed transparently on Lee Chaeha’s white cheek, and rubbed his trembling lips with my thumb. He didn’t avoid my touch, but he struggled to regulate his trembling breath and tried to maintain a calm expression.

There was no way the rigidity that had hardened over a long time of enduring pain would crumble easily, even though he didn’t have to do that in front of me anymore. I was the same, so I couldn’t reveal all my inner thoughts to Lee Chaeha. I still carried secrets I hadn’t told. However, at the very least, I didn’t want to tell lies, so I answered honestly to the extent that I could.

“But when I look at Officer Lee, I waver. Surprisingly… it makes me think that if Lee Chaeha, after going through all those things, still loves someone, perhaps they are worth believing. I’ve never thought of myself as emotional.”

I barely withdrew the hand that had been touching Lee Chaeha, and slowly drew on the cigarette I had only lit but hadn’t smoked. The end burned red, and the bitter, heavy smoke circled my lungs and escaped.

“It’s ridiculous. To be asking this now. After I pushed you so hard and criticized you.”

“…No. It is not ridiculous at all.”

A voice with a strong core continued.

“I have been waiting for a long time for someone to ask me that. Even after I found out about the password. Because even then, the suspicion that it might not be Lee Gilyoung hadn’t disappeared. In my heart, I wished that the Prosecutor would be the first to think it wasn’t him. I coveted hope, shamelessly.”

Only lately have I realized how rare the tears I saw in the playground were for Lee Chaeha. His eyes turned red, but he wouldn’t let the tears fall.

I exhaled the bitter cigarette smoke and added.

“As you argued, Officer Lee, if someone else committed the murder, there’s no need to reproduce the murder method so precisely. It’s not like they are going to frame the already dead Lee Gilyoung. And it’s too similar in detail to say it isn’t the same perpetrator. Even the location where the awl was inserted… It would have been difficult to know that even after receiving reports. But now that I’m assuming it’s not Lee Gilyoung, there is one thing that weighs on my mind.”

“Is it because of the password? That is what weighs on my mind the most as well…”

“No, the reason I started thinking like this. I don’t know if I’ve finally discarded my stereotypes and started to interpret the case correctly by following the evidence, or…”

I hesitated for a moment before adding.

“…Or if I’m wavering because of Lee Chaeha.”

I simply cannot think rationally about this case.

“So, Officer Lee, try to persuade me logically.”

I can no longer think objectively about the things Lee Chaeha is involved in. I end up doing things I wouldn’t normally do.

He didn’t open his mouth right away. He carefully chose his words, took a shallow draw of cigarette smoke, and looked down at the quiet Danhyun City visible from the district office rooftop for a long time. Only after he had neatly organized all the words and sentences that came to his mind as usual did Lee Chaeha part his lips.

“People’s behavior changes, whether big or small, immediately after committing a murder. As a son and as an investigator, I have replayed that night many times, but in every way, my dad remained the same. He was affectionate, he joked, and even woke me up after he returned from work and I was already asleep. He even showed me a wad of cash, saying he had received a million won as a bonus from CEO Kang Woosung. It had only been 30 minutes since he killed someone; is it possible to act that calmly after a first murder? Would he have killed someone, stolen money, woken up his son to show off, and even given him pocket money? If he was really such a person, why do I have only good memories of my dad?”

Lee Chaeha still didn’t shed tears, but his voice trembled pitifully like leaves shaking in the wind.

“I can only ask you to trust my memories, Prosecutor. My dad was not the type of person who could act as if nothing happened after committing a murder. He was too full of emotions for that. He was a bit of a scatterbrain. He was a Mister who meddled, laughed easily, and would buy several bags of vegetables if he discovered a grandmother selling things on the street. A person who would call a friend ‘CEO, CEO,’ but wouldn’t lose his pride and would brag that he had a successful friend nearby.”

The Lee Gilyoung described by Lee Chaeha was certainly a far cry from the person I had imagined. And from the son who was right in front of me, too.

Lee Chaeha’s emotional description, which was close to achromatic—unlike Lee Gilyoung, who was said to be emotional—stopped at that point. His eyes, which were always filled with moisture, were brimming, but he endured it until the end without letting the tears fall. His voice trembled and rose as he sometimes failed to overcome his agitation, but his emotions never truly erupted.