The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 106

The locked door was a rampart that could crumble at any moment. With that precarious screen behind my back, my body slowly heated up as we rubbed our soft tongues together and I listened to his ragged breath. Yet, the fingers clinging to my shirt remained stubbornly cold.

Suddenly, I felt a desire to share my body heat with Lee Chaeha. So that spring could finally come to his fingertips.

Thus, I searched for and gripped his hand once more, but his freezing fingers barely became lukewarm; they could not grow any warmer than that. I wondered—could it be that I was making him even colder? By dragging him into something that might put him in danger, just as Chief Tak worried.

I wanted to push away the complicated thoughts trying to breach my mind, but I am not the type of person who can easily shake off a doubt once it takes root.

Especially when it comes to Lee Chaeha.

The search and seizure warrant for Oh Jahyeon went through, but the arrest warrant was dismissed. The reason given was that the risk of flight was remarkably low. Normally, it isn’t difficult to secure an arrest warrant for narcotics offenders, but it seemed the lawyer Oh Jahyeon hired was a former local judge of the Danhyun District Court.

As soon as he received the notification of dismissal, Prosecutor Joo slammed the door harshly and walked into the inner office alone. Barely audible, rough curses drifted outside—uncharacteristic of a man who rarely used profanity unless we were having sex. Officer No’s eyes grew round, and after slightly shrinking her shoulders, she sent a message to the group chat that excluded Prosecutor Joo.

Officer No: Officer Lee, why is the Prosecutor so angry? It’s my first time hearing him curse.

Lee Chaeha: Because the arrest warrant for the narcotics offender was dismissed.

Officer No: He doesn’t usually react like that because he has no expectations for judges… It must have been an important matter this time.

Chief Song, who was thoroughly well-versed in the branch office news because he knew so many people, answered in my stead this time.

Chief Song: I think he’s even more sensitive because it’s a case he’s teaming up on with Prosecutor Yoon. I believe they said the suspect is a casino director.

Officer No: A casino director? No wonder it was dismissed. At any rate, the problem is that they let all the privileged bastards off.

Chief Song: Exactly my point.

Officer No: There are so many problems with that casino. They say the crime growth rate in Danhyun City has exceeded 200% since the casino was built.

Without joining the two people’s conversation, I merely watched, let out a small sigh internally, and stared at the closed office door.

If there was a saving grace, it was that we had executed the search and seizure warrant against Oh Jahyeon before the substantive examination of the arrest warrant. Last week, alongside the investigators from Prosecutor Yoon’s team and Chief Song, I searched Oh Jahyeon’s house and office. It was an investigation proceeded with rapidly in order to find hidden drugs.

Fortunately, drugs remained. Inside the safe in Oh Jahyeon’s office.

Because she wouldn’t give us the password, we even had to call in an expert to cut open the safe, but it was worth the effort. Narcotics components were also detected in the newly collected hair and blood samples of Oh Jahyeon. Since the judge dismissed an arrest warrant that had been requested with all of that attached as additional evidence, it was understandable for Prosecutor Joo to be furious.

Thinking the situation had calmed down to some extent, I rose from my seat and cautiously knocked on the attached office door.

“Prosecutor.”

“Come in.”

Hearing the readily given answer, I looked to the side, and Officer No and Chief Song simultaneously made eye contact with me, sending worried glances. Chief Song belatedly crossed his arms in an ‘X’ shape, signaling me not to go in, but since I had already knocked on the door, I couldn’t take it back. Especially since I was the type to be scolded particularly harshly whenever I made a mistake, it was natural for them to be worried.

Sending them a look that it was fine, I was about to turn the doorknob when the office door suddenly rattled open. He glanced down at me with a fierce gaze and then looked to the side. The two people who had been sitting and watching this way awkwardly bowed their heads.

“Why aren’t you coming in after going through the trouble of knocking?”

“…I am sorry.”

As soon as I followed him inside, the door clicked shut behind my back.

“Prosecutor, since we have secured the drug evidence, we can just summon her for interrogation.”

“I know.”

The voice returning after a long time was fierce.

“If by any chance she fails to appear multiple times, an arrest warrant will come out automatically then.”

“Is there any chance she won’t appear? Knowing everything, you’re speaking nonsense…. You know she has a lawyer glued to her, so there’s no way she’d make such a rudimentary mistake.”

I, too, had spoken knowing that the probability was almost zero. It was a comment meant merely to comfort him, but because he was angry, his razor-sharp personality grew even more acute, and I ended up getting scolded for nothing.

He soon placed his hands on his hips, looked up at the ceiling, and let out a deep sigh. Although I also wear a suit to work every day, I don’t wear a tie often, but since he was even wearing a tie, his neck looked even more stifled. I wanted to step closer and loosen his collar, but it was precarious to touch him during the day. Unable to bring myself to stretch out my arm, I merely curled and uncurled my fingers.

In the meantime, Prosecutor Joo composed his emotions and brushed back his slightly stray hair.

“Set the schedule for Oh Jahyeon’s summons and send the request for appearance. Although the probability is low because her lawyer is glued to her, she’s a drug addict, so she might fail to show up on schedule. Just like Officer Lee wishes.”

“I will send the request for appearance immediately.”

As I approached the doorway to leave, a voice flew from behind my back.

“Officer Lee.”

“Yes.”

I turned my body back, but Prosecutor Joo was merely standing by the window staring blankly at me, making no words or actions. His dark eyes slowly scanned me as I stood holding the doorknob, but that was all. As his gaze lingered, a hot reaction came to my cheeks without fail.

“Never mind, go on out.”

Only then did his thick fingers slightly pull down the tie that tightly choked his neck. His shadowed features, the outline of his fingers—everything was handsome enough to make it difficult to pull my eyes away.

Feeling my throat parch, I swallowed hard with difficulty and left the inner office. After flashing a slight smile toward the two people who looked as if they were asking if I was okay, I sat down in my seat.

I shouldn’t have, especially when there were people outside. In truth, I had felt an impulse to embrace him. And it seemed Prosecutor Joo felt the same way. Recalling his face as he stood with his back to the window and his fingers gripping his tie, my thirst grew more severe. To quench my throat, I drank the coffee contained in my tumbler.

Following Prosecutor Joo’s instructions, I immediately sent the request for appearance to Oh Jahyeon. Oh Jahyeon, as expected, complied with the summons.

Appearing at the prosecutor’s office on the scheduled date alongside her lawyer, she thoroughly exercised her right to remain silent. Even when Prosecutor Joo and Prosecutor Yoon entered together to question her, and even when Prosecutor Joo and I entered completely alone to question her, she did not open her mouth.

Every single time they appeared, Oh Jahyeon and her lawyer were faithful to their vow of silence, like clerics who had entered a monastery. The only times she spoke were when she said she wanted to rest for a moment.

“I can go out and smoke a cigarette for a bit, right?”

After getting thoroughly on Prosecutor Joo’s nerves with her right to remain silent, Oh Jahyeon would frequently go outside, smoke a cigarette, and return.

“Go ahead.”

Prosecutor Joo answered with a sigh and pushed the documents necessary for the interrogation to the corner of the desk. Once Oh Jahyeon left the interrogation room with her lawyer, he rose from his seat with a heavy frown.

“Let’s go smoke a cigarette ourselves too.”

“Yes, Prosecutor.”

“The DNA found on the glove last time. Did the surname analysis results for that not come out yet?”

“The National Forensic Service says it will take some time.”

It was the first time Prosecutor Joo and I had vacated our spots during Oh Jahyeon’s interrogation.

Instead of the rooftop we usually went to, we followed Oh Jahyeon outside. While smoking, I contemplated whether we should proceed with the trial without Oh Jahyeon’s confession, and then walked back toward the branch office entrance.

It was a day when the sunlight was fully ripe, fitting for the end of March. Standing beneath the blue Haneul, Oh Jahyeon’s figure caught my eye from afar. She, who kept her mouth firmly shut the moment she entered the prosecutor’s office, was smoking a cigarette under a leafy tree, talking with her lawyer with a smiling face.

Narrowing my eyes, I intently observed the cigarette held in Oh Jahyeon’s hand. It wasn’t a regular cigarette, but an electronic cigarette.

An electronic cigarette.

Since there are many people who smoke electronic cigarettes these days, it was an item with nothing peculiar about it. The moment I casually turned my head, intending to follow behind him, a piece of Prosecutor Joo’s voice that my mind had completely forgotten was dredged up from the deep sea.

‘The single syringe needle mark left on the neck and the nicotine concentration cannot be explained.’

A syringe needle and nicotine.

Suddenly feeling a chill, I grabbed the arm of Prosecutor Joo as he was walking up the stairs, and then let go.