The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 3

“At 7:00 AM on the 12th, the body of Mr. Kang Woosung, president of Casino World in Danhyeon City, was discovered in his home bedroom by his eldest son, a third-year high school student. Police believe Mr. Kang was murdered by Mr. Lee, a driver employed by the casino, and have placed Mr. Lee under emergency arrest. Mr. Lee is known to have debts of approximately 30 million won, and it appears he attempted to extort a large sum of cash by threatening Mr. Kang with an awl, leading to an accidental homicide. However, the amount Mr. Lee stole after killing Mr. Kang was a mere 950,000 won.”

950,000 won….

It was the 1 million won that President Kang Woosung often gave my father as a bonus when work ran late, minus the 50,000 won pocket money he had given me the previous night. My father had said he received that money yesterday, too.

“Mr. Lee stabbed the victim’s neck multiple times with an awl, and police have secured testimony that Mr. Lee had previously been involved in violent incidents while working at a taxi company. According to colleagues….”

My stomach went cold. The blood that had been filling my body with heat drained beneath my soles in an instant. The blood leaked out as if I had never been warmed, as if I had developed such a large hole in my soles that I hadn’t realized was there.

My uncle clicked his tongue loudly.

“Good grief, it’s so embarrassing…. Since there’s no one among your father’s relatives who will take you in, I guess you have to stay at our house. Keep quiet, stay out of sight. Listen well. You know my temper, right?”

“…”

“This brat really…. I’m only holding back because you’re the son of the late Eunyoung.”

Although my uncle’s voice buzzed like a large wasp, I continued to stare at the TV screen with vacant eyes. Even with my uncle’s subsequent berating and lamentations, I could neither properly respond nor move. The image of my father, now a criminal, flowed through my mind, becoming a different kind of eternity than my mother’s.

In truth, my soul had already left the solid ground at that moment and was sinking endlessly into the dark water. Deep beneath a sea so cold it extinguished all body heat.

I could not paddle my arms or legs; I just sank deeper and deeper, looking up at the surface I had finally left behind with black pupils. The water’s surface shimmered like the light of the gold buttons that had flashed under the reporters’ camera flashes at the police station. The body heat I had felt when my mother held my hand for the last time in the hospital now turned into sunlight, rippling along the surface of the water that I would never be able to reach again.

‘That man is not my father. The gold buttons are the same as the ones on my father’s clothes, but… someone might have bought and worn the same clothes. So, it can’t be my father…. It must be a misunderstanding….’

I repeated that thought until the sunlight vanished and I could no longer breathe.

But in reality, my consciousness already knew that the fact about the gold buttons didn’t matter. Because even before I discovered the gold buttons, I had already noticed that the person sitting there wearing someone else’s jumper was my father….

Even if he was wearing unfamiliar clothes, there was no way I could fail to recognize my father’s profile, which I had seen countless times—hundreds, thousands of times—since my life began.

As I sank endlessly into the dark sea, I intuited dimly: what was about to happen from now on would be different from any despair I had known before, and my father had essentially left this lonely planet forever, following my mother.

This sinking would not allow my feet to touch ground.

In November, a late autumn rain relentlessly soaked the square gray building standing under a gloomy sky. Every time the swirling wind swept through the downpour, cold water splashed onto the back of my hand holding the umbrella handle and the hem of my coat. Raindrops beaded up and fell off my brown leather bag, which I wore over my shoulder.

‘Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, Danhyeon Branch’

I passed through the building’s cold fence, which I had yet to get used to, and shook the moisture off my black umbrella in the foyer. I took off the umbrella tip cover, put it in plastic, and took out the handkerchief I had prepared that morning.

Someone grabbed my shoulder while I was busy wiping my damp autumn coat. I trembled so violently that it was embarrassing, and I looked up. The moment I stiffened my facial muscles, thinking I had made a mistake, the Executive Division section chief asked with equal surprise.

“What are you so startled about?”

There was no need to ramble on that I tended to be easily startled if someone touched me without notice. Nor that I disliked being touched by anyone. It was better to be cautious than honest.

I bowed my head and greeted him in a monotonous tone.

“Hello, Section Chief.”

“It’s been a month since you started working, right? How is the fine collection department?”

“It’s fine.”

The section chief grabbed the ID badge hanging around my neck to check the photo and name. I was shocked again inwardly at his unabashed behavior, but fortunately, this time, not a single muscle in my body reacted. I walked along with him, keeping a reasonable distance as the section chief headed toward the Executive Division.

“Still, the Danhyeon Branch is one of the better places to work, with less workload. Right?”

“I suppose so.”

“What do you mean ‘suppose so.’ Everything is fucked up.”

It was a conversation that naturally invited a sigh. Because police and prosecution staff frequently deal with criminals, many of them have rough language and are experts at offending others’ feelings.

The section chief kept talking as we walked.

“By the way, aren’t your parents upset that you were assigned to the fine collection department?”

“…No, they aren’t.”

It wasn’t unpleasant because he asked without knowing my family history, but it was an even harder question to feel happy about. I barely answered, fearing that staying silent would leave an impression of being arrogant. I wanted to adapt well to this job.

From the moment I was thirteen, the moment the top and bottom of my world flipped, a scarlet letter—‘Lee Gilyoung’s son’—was stitched onto my chest. Even the friends I was close with all turned away and avoided me.

I had thought things would get better after graduating from the elementary, middle, and high schools where the rumors were rampant, but even after entering the police academy and becoming a police officer, people’s attitudes toward me didn’t change much. It was because I had lived with the scarlet letter for a long time. Now, people couldn’t read the crime embroidered on my chest, but they could detect the ominous scarlet hue drifting around me from a single word I spoke or a single gesture I made.

“Hello.”

I barely arrived at the Fine Collection Department in the Executive Division, greeting people whose names and positions I didn’t know as I encountered them. Fortunately, the section chief who had made me uncomfortable since morning went straight into his own office.

As I sat at my desk with warm coffee in the tumbler I had brought, my mentor at the desk next to me entered the office with a sigh. We were both Grade 8 prosecution officials, but I was a newborn who had only been working for two months, while my mentor was a person with three years of experience. The reason I was Grade 8 was thanks to entering with my police experience.

The mentor’s heavy sigh, which he let out with a dark face, made me expect a tiring day, just like the weather. As soon as the man sat down, he threw his head back, yawned loudly enough to pierce the ceiling, and rummaged through the document rack to find three files. Two thick files were unfailingly passed to my desk, and one thin file remained on his.

“Chief Lee Chaeha, these are the documents to process this week. One is for the non-payers we need to call because they’ve been put on the wanted list for not paying fines, and the other is for the non-payers we need to hand over to the apprehension team. Figure out their wanted locations and send them to the apprehension team.”

“Yes, senior.”

“I’m sick to death of people who don’t pay their fines, really.”

“Since they say there’s an personnel reshuffle soon, couldn’t you potentially go to a different department?”

“My gut feeling is bad. Since we’re not moving work locations, I think the duties will remain the same. I want to endure as long as possible at the Danhyeon Branch, but I’m still too inexperienced to go as an investigator in the investigation division. Ha, I need to get promoted to Grade 7 quickly and escape the fine collection department. Chief Lee, how is it working in the fine collection department?”

“It doesn’t seem easy. Everyone tries not to pay their fines, and the majority are people in difficult circumstances. There are also too many people who keep curses on the tips of their tongues whether I call them or they get caught.”

“Exactly. I didn’t graduate from college to do this. It’s really frustrating when you hear them cursing out loud while drunk.”

My short morning chat with my mentor ended as the hour hand pointed to 9. One by one, people began to sit at their desks, tapping on computer keyboards or picking up telephones. I took a sip of coffee, braced my nervous heart, and checked the list of people I needed to call today.

The first was a middle-aged man who had to pay a fine of 4 million won for obstruction of business and assault. I already had a bad feeling.