The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 193

“No, I haven’t seen it. It’s not our case, either.”

“It looked exactly like a vitamin drink at first glance. How can you live eternally by drinking that? If you drink it on an empty stomach, your blood sugar would just spike.”

Before I could even stop her, Administrative Officer No Seonhui stood between Prosecutor Joo and my desk, playing the video on her phone. Prosecutor Joo watched the phone as it moved back and forth between us, out of courtesy.

On the other hand, I couldn’t just look at Lee Mooncheol’s video casually. Of course, it wasn’t our office’s case, but he was a suspect who had escaped right in front of my eyes. A criminal I, not Prosecutor Joo, had failed to apprehend.

Even if the situation made an arrest difficult, what if I could have caught up somehow, or if I hadn’t almost fallen? If I had at least seen the license plate accurately when I missed him, I could have tracked him faster.

In the video, Lee Mooncheol was talking loudly while climbing a mountain.

[You cannot experience the efficacy of this Water of Eternal Life just by drinking it. As much as you share good energy with those around you, and as much as you spread the news that you can live eternally, the heavens will reward you with health. Look at the medicinal herbs I picked from Hallasan Mountain today. I eat these herbs every day, which is why I’m overflowing with energy for hiking. If you pray through a body purified by the energy of the mountain like this, the power of the heavens will dwell within you. For the past 30 years, I have gone into various mountains to train and treat sick people with prayer….]

“He’s a real psycho, right? Plenty of people climb Hallasan at 60, it’s ridiculous. It doesn’t look like medicinal herbs, it looks like a bunch of weird weeds. And the account number and the price of the Water of Eternal Life are written under this video—it’s an absurd amount of money. You could buy a box for 5,000 won, but he sold them for 500,000 won.”

Administrative Officer No Seonhui signaled with her eyes that she wanted to use worse profanity and then turned off the vlog. As soon as Officer No returned to her seat, I searched for Lee Mooncheol’s vlog and watched a few more videos. My throat went dry with a sudden wave of guilt, especially because there were so many videos of him lecturing to the elderly.

The office messenger blinked.

It’s not our case. Stop watching it.

How did you know? I was just curious. What kind of person he is, what kind of case it was.

I know you’re hung up on missing him. As if I wouldn’t know that. I was watching as I chased after Officer Lee, and it was absolutely not a distance that could be caught. It has nothing to do with you tripping.

How does he know my thoughts so accurately? He was already a sensitive person, but these days he seems to read me even better.

If Lee Mooncheol had fumbled, it might have been a catchable distance.

Did Lee Mooncheol fumble?

No.

Exactly. There’s no need to push yourself into a corner with useless hypotheticals.

Just as I felt he might be a little cold, one longer, uncharacteristic message popped up.

It’s because Officer Lee is a person with a sense of responsibility. As a fellow investigator, I really like that side of Officer Lee, so I don’t want you to have an overly difficult time because of it. You did as much as you could as a support investigator, and you did your best in that situation. Another investigator wouldn’t have been able to keep up to that point. That was true in reality, too.

I read the message several times, ruminating on it, and then carefully sent a reply.

Was it really not a distance that could be caught? Even before I got hurt?

Stating the obvious. Even before the surgery, you couldn’t have caught up to that distance. No matter how much I adore Officer Lee, I can’t lie about something like this. It’s not in my character.

That was true. No matter how much he is my lover, he doesn’t have the personality to give empty praise regarding work. Perhaps that’s true in our daily life, too.

If you don’t believe me, check it yourself on the CCTV. We agreed to check and move on beforehand, didn’t we?

It seems Lee Mooncheol parked the motorcycle in that alley after confirming it was a location not captured by CCTV, right?

Yes.

At that moment, Prosecutor Joo’s phone rang. He opened the door to the secondary office while answering the call.

“Yes, Detective. I’m wondering if you’ve found out what I asked…”

His voice leaked out through the gap of the opening and closing door, then cut off. It seemed to be a call regarding an ongoing case. I rested my chin on my hand, read the message he sent a few more times, and then shut down Lee Mooncheol’s paused vlog without regret.

If Joo Taeson judged that I had done my best and that I wouldn’t have been able to catch him even before I got hurt, then that must be the truth.

The temperature of my heart, which for a long time had been easy to chill and slow to recover, warmed up quickly.

I shook off the obsession with a case that wasn’t mine and picked up the documents I needed to process today. I slipped on my blue thimbles out of habit.

Soon, the sound of the administrative officer typing, the sound of me rustling through papers, and the faint sound of Prosecutor Joo talking on the phone in the secondary office filled the afternoon in the 512th Prosecutor’s Office.

The CCTV image quality was poor. Prosecutor Joo and I were captured faintly in the corner, to the point where it wasn’t even clear if we were sticking together or not. The only people who appeared clearly on the CCTV were the children zipping by on their kick scooters.

It was certain that Lee Mooncheol had checked the CCTV angles in advance. He didn’t even appear properly on camera entering the alley to get on the motorcycle, so the investigator in charge of Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho’s office came to find me several times. It was because of the statement about the red backpack. They confirmed whether I had really seen the red backpack and whether it was certain he had loaded it onto the motorcycle in advance.

Lee Mooncheol’s whereabouts were unknown. The motorcycle he abandoned was found quickly, but neither the red backpack nor any trace of Lee Mooncheol could be found. Since Danhyeon City still has many run-down areas, there were places where there were no CCTV cameras, or if there were, the image quality was so poor that it was difficult to verify. It was certain that Lee Mooncheol, a ten-time recidivist for theft and fraud, had planned his escape route perfectly to avoid CCTV.

The fact that Yoon Gyuho had failed the arrest operation became a laughingstock in the district office for days. News that the 2nd Deputy Chief Prosecutor had been enraged and thrown a cup during a prosecutor’s meeting swept through the morning messenger. The investigators in charge were passed down the venting of frustration by Prosecutor Yoon and wandered around here and there looking for Lee Mooncheol, looking miserable.

Strangely enough, from a certain moment on, I wasn’t being gossiped about by people. If it were the past, I, who was at the scene where the suspect was missed, would likely have received the most criticism. Now, I even heard people saying that being able to catch the license plate number was entirely thanks to Investigator Lee Chaeha. The days when it felt like the world was following my every small mistake to expose it felt like a distant past.

I knew that all these changes were thanks to Prosecutor Joo. It was because my superior, Joo Taeson, held Lee Chaeha in high regard as his subordinate. That evaluation influenced other people’s way of thinking and blocked rumors that could have easily gone in a strange direction.

I was once again grateful that I could work with him. Grateful for our fate, where Joo Taeson and Lee Chaeha could save each other.

I cooperated with the investigators from Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho’s office as much as possible and listened to my colleagues’ laments at times, continuing my work busily.

The second case to be processed today was the theft of high-end wine. Since the person who committed the theft was a 70-year-old grandmother who collects scrap paper, I discussed it separately with Prosecutor Joo. Because Section Chief Kim and Officer No were in the office, he used a business-like tone.

“Why did the police forward this with an indictment opinion without opening a Minor Offense Review Committee? Even if the grandmother who collects scrap paper committed theft, the amount couldn’t have been that large.”

“It’s a high-end wine called Pertus, so it’s said to fetch 8 million won per bottle.”

“And the number of bottles stolen.”

“There were 6 bottles in one box.”

He thought for a moment, then sighed and underlined the document he was looking at.

“48 million won. The amount is too large, so I’ll have to indict her. Is the victim adamant about refusing a settlement?”

“Yes, they are in the position that she must be punished. Ms. Ji Young-sook, who committed the theft, is a basic livelihood recipient living barely from day to day and is elderly, so even if the victim had an intention to settle, it would likely be difficult for her to provide compensation.”

“I will look into it, but… the amount is just too large.”