The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 20

The personnel transfer had happened faster than I thought. However, because people often said that even Grade 8 clerks are assigned to a prosecutor’s office, I hadn’t realized that the surrounding reaction would be this negative. I had judged poorly. I was the one who had passed Prosecutor Joo’s test and earned the qualification, but there was no way for others to know that fact.

Countless thoughts bloomed in my mind like cumulus clouds. I bit my lower lip and, pretending that nothing was the matter, began reading the fine order that had arrived from the court. Before I could even transfer the fine details and amounts into the system, the Section Chief’s voice sought me out from behind my back.

“Chief Lee Chaeha, could we talk for a moment?”

“Yes, Section Chief.”

I answered and stood up from my seat. Enduring the stinging glares that pierced my skin, I followed the Section Chief into his private office inside.

“Should I bring you some coffee?”

As I closed the door, I asked a stiflingly stiff question that, had Prosecutor Joo heard it, would have surely elicited a deep sigh. The Section Chief shook his head lightly. We sat down with the desk between us. He asked straight to the point.

“What’s going on? Are you on speaking terms with Prosecutor Joo Taeson?”

“No, I am not.”

“Then why did Prosecutor Joo Taeson point you out specifically and request that you be transferred?”

“…We have no relationship. Serving together on the autopsy duty a few weeks ago is the extent of our connection.”

“Aha, an autopsy. Right, there was that.”

Since I had filed the duty report, the Section Chief also knew about that incident. The person across from me spit out more dark clouds as he spoke.

“I guess you must have impressed him while serving duty. I don’t know what you did while working on just that one case together, but… while moving to a prosecutor’s office isn’t strictly a promotion, it’s a place you naturally go through if you want to advance, so it’s a career milestone in its own way. There were several people next in line, but since you, someone who has only worked for two months, got the transfer…”

Even while clearly knowing my experience. It seemed the two years I worked as a police officer had been neatly erased from the Section Chief’s mind. If I hadn’t had that experience, Prosecutor Joo Taeson wouldn’t have paid any attention to me in the first place. But I couldn’t refute it. The Section Chief said, without soul.

“Anyway, congratulations.”

“…Thank you.”

“They want you up there starting tomorrow. The investigator there is going on overseas training, and they said they’d use up all their vacation time before leaving. It was originally scheduled for next week, but the schedule was moved up because of that. Hand over the work you were handling back to your immediate superior.”

“Understood.”

“You may go.”

I stood up, bowed my head, and stepped outside. Once I knew the definite reason, the air in the Fines Section felt even denser.

At lunch, because my superior left earlier than the set time, I thought he had gone to the restroom, but it turned out the people in the Fines Section had gone to eat lunch without me. Since it was a small branch office, I didn’t have any peers either, so if the people in the office ditched me, I had to eat alone. I didn’t mind eating alone, but the situation of running into them in the company cafeteria after leaving was uncomfortable.

Whether it was good luck or bad, my appetite had vanished, so I just worked during lunch hour. I was typing away, organizing the tasks I’d been handling alone, when a shadow was cast on the glass door. I looked up and saw it was Prosecutor Joo. When I raised myself halfway to bow, he, whom I expected would just walk past as usual, opened the door.

“Why are you alone?”

He had said he didn’t want to use honorifics, but it seemed he had decided to speak informally to me altogether. I didn’t dislike that much, so I answered crisply.

“I have indigestion. I didn’t eat lunch.”

“Was the transfer too fast for you, Chief Lee? Still, this is childish.”

He is very quick to notice.

He looked around the empty office, then turned and walked away briskly. I propped my chin in my hand and let out a sigh.

The fact that Prosecutor Joo knew about the Osong Apartment Grandma awl murder case that the President Kang Woosung incident committed by my father was a risk, but I didn’t refuse the investigator position. I was more greedy because he was someone I respected. Because of the fact that he cleared my name back when I was a police officer and did not turn a blind eye to Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon. And because, even though his attitude was cold, he acknowledged my abilities and chose me.

However, even the work I did hard to please Prosecutor Joo resulted in me being marked by the organization once again. I had to forcibly swallow the nausea rising from being sickened by the absurdity of life. It was the same in my school days. Whether we played dodgeball or soccer, I was always the student who remained until the very end because my friends didn’t choose me.

Only at 6 PM did I rise from the bed of thorns I had been sitting on all day and went around the office to greet people. Regardless, I had to ensure the finish wasn’t something to be faulted. Even if I were to hear backstabbing, to at least prevent them from cursing me to my face, I had to show courtesy first.

“Thank you for everything,” “I learned a lot,” “Since we are in the same branch office, I hope to see you often.” I went around greeting everyone respectfully. After greeting the Section Chief once more separately, I packed my things and went up to the prosecutor’s office.

If the atmosphere in the Fines Section was like this, what would the reaction of the staff in the prosecutor’s office be?

Fearing that I would once again be excluded from the group I belonged to, my limbs went limp. Gripping the blue evidence box containing my personal belongings, I knocked on the door of Room 512 and opened it cautiously. Prosecutor Joo was not at his seat, and Investigator Song Haneul, whose face had become familiar after encountering him once in front of the staff quarters, stood up and welcomed me.

“Oh, Chief Lee Chaeha. Congratulations on the transfer. Let’s get along well.”

“Thank you, Investigator.”

“This is our Administrative Officer, No Seonhui.”

Administrative Officer No Seonhui was a woman in her early 50s and one of the veteran officers at the Danhyeon Branch Office. She handled very important roles, such as managing the prosecutor’s office schedule and organizing the flow of documents. Officer No guided me to an empty desk and welcomed me warmly.

“Leave your things here. We met before, right? Nice to meet you. Another handsome person has been added to our office.”

Investigator Song responded sociably.

“Officer, you’re including me in that, right?”

“Of course. It’s just that you’re overshadowed by Prosecutor Joo, but if not for Prosecutor Joo, Investigator Song would be our branch’s number two…”

The officer’s eyes, which had been speaking, turned toward me and suddenly the number went down.

“No, number three.”

“Wow, isn’t that a bit much?”

“It’s just that I’m so bad at lying.”

Since I had never heard good things about my appearance, my cheeks grew hot from shyness. Of course, a deep sense of relief was included in that temperature. My body temperature, which had been cold all day, finally returned, to the point where the heat from the heater warming the office felt hot.

Actually, I had been sitting there pretending to be calm on the outside, but from the moment I checked the personnel transfer notice until quitting time, I was scared the whole time. It was because I felt that if the atmosphere in the Fines Section was bad just because a rookie was assigned to the prosecutor’s office, there would be no answer to my future company life if the staff in the prosecutor’s office also disliked me. Prosecutor Joo also wasn’t exactly looking at me in a positive light.

I didn’t meet Prosecutor Joo, but thanks to the warm welcome from my colleagues, I left the staff quarters with the feeling that I wouldn’t die the next day. It was a bit awkward to meet a staff member from the Fines Section in front of the branch office, but I bowed my waist and greeted them first. The other person’s attitude was frosty, but that much was a level I could easily endure.

Prosecutor Joo, who said he comes to work at 6:30, was naturally sitting in the office reading documents at 8:30 when I arrived.

“Hello.”

“Yeah.”

Yeah… I see. It was informal speech, but the feeling was different from the rough informal speech that the detectives used.

After casting a glance at Prosecutor Joo, who didn’t even look at me, I took off my coat, hung it up, and sat at my desk. The key to the cabinet I was to use was placed next to my keyboard.

After hesitating for a moment, I mustered the courage to ask.

“Prosecutor.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you use informal speech with other employees as well?”

“No.”

“Then, do you only speak to me like that even when others are here?”

“No, I should use honorifics then. It ruins the atmosphere.”

“I see….”

Should I be glad that he uses honorifics when others are around, at least? It seemed like a choice he made for the sake of his own reputation, but I knew that if a prosecutor pointedly mistreated only me, an atmosphere where everyone ignored or bullied me could form, so that was much better.

Because the head of the prosecutor’s office is the prosecutor, no matter what anyone says.

Even in my school days, if even teachers avoided or mistreated me, the bullying by the children was much more severe.