The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 139

“How are you going to compensate for Lee Chaeha’s life? Can you take responsibility for the long years that young child had to endure without parents? Fucking hell, you son of a bitch. Say something, give me some kind of excuse!”

I sobbed throughout the entire time, listening to Joo Taeson’s desperate voice in my stead.

It was fortunate that the fierce rain masked Prosecutor Joo’s pained voice and my own weeping. Otherwise, the whole world would have stolen and listened to our sorrowful cries.

Finally, Chief Tak, who had fled to the end of the alley, disappeared. Prosecutor Joo stood still in that spot for a long time before he seemed to regain his senses, walking slowly back to me. His hair and smooth skin were soaked through with rainwater. Just like his sad heart.

The whites of Prosecutor Joo’s eyes were red. Watching them, I thought:

Joo Taeson is my mirror.

The color of the whites of my eyes must be exactly the same as his.

“…Are you alright?”

It was impossible that he could be, but I had no choice but to ask. He didn’t even think to enter the villa entrance and was still standing outside in the rain; I grabbed his arm. Cold raindrops fell onto the sleeves and the backs of my hands as I reached out toward the entrance. It was so freezing that I couldn’t think of it as spring rain.

I pulled him slowly. Even though I didn’t exert much force, he moved gradually as if pulled by gravity, stepping into the entrance. Water dripped steadily from his clothes and hair. Thinking he might be crying, I looked quietly into his eyes, but he was not.

He, too, was a person accustomed to suppressing his sorrow. That was likely why, even when he was young, he chose to shut his mouth rather than express his emotions.

Prosecutor Joo let out a small sigh, then checked my complexion.

“Are you alright? You need to go to the hospital.”

“No. There’s nowhere to treat.”

“Still….”

“I don’t have any wounds, and I didn’t hit my head, so I’m fine.”

He lowered his gaze obliquely to examine my neck, then bit his lower lip hard.

“Did you cry?”

“Yes.”

I cannot show a falsehood to a mirror. I admitted it honestly.

Having sent Chief Tak away, he wore a face completely different from the one I had seen at his residence just moments ago. I had seen a similar expression on him before. It was a few months ago, when we had turned on a notepad in the prosecutor’s office to talk, avoiding other people’s ears. The message we exchanged then came vividly to mind.

‘Will there be any danger for you, Prosecutor, and me?’

‘No, Officer Lee is in danger.’

And his expression when he seemed to have discovered a misaligned gear.

It seems Prosecutor Joo had already known back then that I would be the weak point in this case. I gripped his thick fingers, which were lying powerlessly in the air. This man, who was always strong, was still trembling.

Even though I knew it wasn’t my fault, I felt endlessly sorry—because I couldn’t provide any protection while he was having such a terrible conversation with Chief Tak, because I couldn’t properly respond to the intruder’s intrusion, and because I ended up becoming his weakness.

“First, let’s go up and change the password. And replace the door lock tomorrow. For today, just come to my place….”

“No, if I change the password, I think it will be fine to stay at the residence. If he had intended to kill me, he would have already done it.”

“You… can’t you do something about that stubbornness of yours?”

Prosecutor Joo spoke in a low voice, but with a tone that sounded like he was trying to soothe me.

To hear that from a man who is much more stubborn than I am.

I moved my aching Adam’s apple and swallowed hard. I didn’t even have a thought of talking back.

Because Prosecutor Joo’s expression looked precariously close to collapsing at any moment, and because he seemed unable to endure the betrayal of Chief Tak that he had witnessed directly before his eyes, I felt endlessly sorry for him. I looked up at Prosecutor Joo quietly.

The boundary line I had forcibly redrawn between us is all a facade.

The resolution to return to a public, professional relationship is also all nonsense.

Could there be a relationship more private than this? This is a connection and a pain that has been tangled together since 15 years ago.

Joo Taeson thought correctly.

He is my only comrade.

He is the only person who can demand an accounting for my pain from Tak Sung-woong, and the only existence who can shout in my stead. Even if I have to feel guilty because my father was guilty, even if I have to get hurt, in the end, I cannot escape.

I had already thrown my body into this Dead Sea a long time ago, and it had been a long time since I had drifted along with Joo Taeson.

I thought wrongly.

If I turn away from Joo Taeson until the end, I will only regret not having left more wounds for him to engrave.

Prosecutor Joo sighed and this time swept back his soaked hair. Rainwater pooled at the ends of his black hair before falling.

“…Then let’s go up first. I need to confirm with my own eyes again, slowly, that you have no wounds.”

I couldn’t refuse even that, so I went up to the third floor with him.

Prosecutor Joo entered the residence password at will. As soon as we went inside, he took off his wet shoes and asked in a trembling voice:

“How did you know the residence password?”

“You told me the password when you were drunk before, Officer Lee. I memorized it then. It’s because you’re so careless that the password leaked to Chief Tak. From tomorrow on, cover it properly when you press it.”

“Yes.”

I wondered when that had happened, that he remembered it.

I immediately took out a fluffy white towel from the bathroom and handed it to Prosecutor Joo. Prosecutor Joo roughly wiped his wet hair and clothes and examined me under the fluorescent light.

His black eyes, which seemed to have barely calmed his agitation, scanned my body thoroughly. His fingertips were cautious as he felt around my neck to see if any marks remained.

“There might be a mark left.”

“How did you know to come up?”

“Because the lights in Officer Lee’s house didn’t turn on for a long time. I was turning the car around to leave, but it felt strange, so I came back. I kept watching from below, and just in case, I came up.”

After finishing his explanation, Prosecutor Joo walked to the entrance. Then he changed the password at will and notified me of the number.

Standing before me again, he wiped his face with his hand and fell into thought for a moment. I knew what Prosecutor Joo was going to say to me. It was something I had already heard several times.

“Get off the case, Officer Lee.”

“I work in the 512th Prosecutor’s Office; if I pull out now, do you think they’ll believe we’ve let go of the case?”

“Then go to another prosecutor’s office.”

“Prosecutor.”

It was foul play for him to spit out so easily the words to go somewhere else. Prosecutor Joo might not care if I’m not there, but I do.

It was Prosecutor Joo who dragged me into this work.

I wanted to honestly confess my changed heart, so I opened my lips.

“Prosecutor, I am….”

“Forget it. Stop now.”

As if he had misunderstood what I was about to say, he cut me off sharply without listening to the end. I was clutching my still-trembling hands, but he suddenly stepped forward, a large stride toward me.

Since our bodies were close enough to touch, I reflexively retreated one step, but it was no use as Prosecutor Joo moved his body close again. Large hands grabbed my arms and pulled me. I was helplessly bound by him.

The black eyes that had approached closely were jet-black, as if no light could enter them. A heavily locked voice flowed out from between his tightly closed lips.

“Do you know the one mistake I made when I started this work?”

Rainwater that hadn’t been fully wiped off fell from his hair onto my cheek.

“It’s that I didn’t know you would become my weakness.”

The word I had kept in my mind flowed exactly from Prosecutor Joo Taeson’s mouth. Strength was put into the hands that held me. It hurt, but I didn’t pull away and looked up at him.

Whether his neat lips were speaking words that hurt me or bitter words that would break me down, I wanted to stand on my own two feet and hear them straight. My heart was inertially prepared to be shattered to pieces. Even if it was broken into pieces so small they couldn’t be put back together, I had finally finished my resolution—to endure, and to let the wounds be engraved.

Finally, his lips parted slowly.

“I should have known I would come to love you.”

With his low-toned voice, my world stopped.

His straight eyelashes were trembling violently.

“So I should have known you would become my weakness. I didn’t know that in time.”

“Prosecutor….”

“If it hadn’t been you whom Chief Tak touched today, I wouldn’t have been this enraged. I would have exercised restraint somehow. I would have tried to act rationally. But because of you, my emotions are running wild, and I feel like I’m going insane.”