The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 40

Would it hurt to just let it slide? Since it was difficult to endure Prosecutor Joo’s cold attitude outside of work, I packed up the lunchbox to head back to the official residence as soon as possible. As I put on my coat, I asked him a random question.

“I assume you’ve finished the non-indictment disposition documents, so what case are you looking at?”

“Arson. The eldest son disguised it as a joint suicide and killed both his parents and his younger brother.”

“Must be for the insurance money.”

“That’s right.”

Recently, I’ve grown to really like the phrase ‘That’s right.’ It was a sentence Prosecutor Joo only used when I said something correct.

“Would you like to head home together, Prosecutor?”

“Why.”

I didn’t have anything particular to say. I picked up my brown leather bag and spoke in an apologetic tone.

“I thought you might be tired.”

“I’m fine. I rested well over the weekend.”

“Then I guess you’ll be on a date this weekend.”

I shouldn’t have said that, but I couldn’t suppress the curiosity that arose during dinner and probed him a little.

Did I make it obvious? Prosecutor Joo opened a Manila file, slipped a thimble onto his finger, and looked up.

“What is the intent behind saying that?”

Hot heat, uncharacteristic for winter, flooded my cheeks and earlobes. I felt even more embarrassed because I realized immediately after asking that it was a mistake. I felt like he had read my intentions.

Prosecutor Joo stared straight at me as I must have been turning red, and replied.

“I don’t have one. A lover.”

“I apologize if I overstepped. I was just curious…”

“That stiff tone again. Let’s go. I don’t know why your face is all red.”

Even though he said he didn’t know, his tone suggested he knew everything, so my heart dropped to the floor and barely managed to climb back up. It felt like the tip of a hook was scraping the inside of my chest.

“Goodbye.”

I hurriedly wrapped my scarf around my face to cover it, stepped out, closed the office door, and let out a deep sigh. My body was exhausted from running here and there without eating a proper meal. I was also on edge because I hadn’t driven in a long time and Prosecutor Joo’s car was a foreign import. Traffic in Danhyeon City was light, so I barely managed to avoid any accidents while running the errands.

Lately, it felt like my days had 48 hours. Since I was doing two people’s worth of work, relative time had stretched. On top of that, having a conversation like the one just now drained even more of my energy.

I saw a walnut pastry truck near the official residence on my way home, but I didn’t buy anything today. Because of the lunchbox Prosecutor Joo had bought me, I was full, and the pastries didn’t look as appetizing as they did last time.

A few days later, a staff member from the forensic science department secretly informed me of the results of Oh Jahyeon’s blood test.

“I even had to work overtime yesterday to do the test in secret. Please pass this on to Prosecutor Joo.”

“Yes, thank you.”

As soon as I left the forensics department, I took out the results from the document envelope and looked at them.

Oh Jahyeon’s drug test result was positive.

The substance was methamphetamine.

The examiner had meticulously performed a full component analysis. There is no such thing as the same drug in this world. By comparing the components, one can determine whether it was made in the same place as the methamphetamine that burst in Koryoin Mr. Kim’s stomach or not.

However, unfortunately, we could not compare Oh Jahyeon’s methamphetamine with the methamphetamine components that killed Koryoin Mr. Kim.

Mr. Kim’s blood was old and had been discarded, and the police had cremated the body without even reporting it to the prosecutor.

When I contacted them, they said they thought the case had been closed with a non-indictment disposition. They explained that since it was an unattended death with no suspicion of crime, it had just been processed in the usual way.

A body with no surviving relatives. They must have judged that there would be no problem with cremating it.

Prosecutor Joo and I went up to the rooftop for the first time in a while. The sky was low and cloudy, as if it were about to scatter snow at any moment.

Prosecutor Joo familiarly took a cigarette pack from his jacket, and this time, he handed me a cigarette too. He inhaled the smoke deeply, while I continued to smoke by puffing it in my mouth, wary of my superior. I expected him to be angry about Koryoin Mr. Kim’s body being cremated, but Prosecutor Joo just clicked his tongue once.

“I let my guard down. I should have moved first to prevent the cremation.”

It was a nuance that there was definitely someone behind the Koryoin Mr. Kim case.

While the cremation had been fast, the situation wasn’t so incomprehensible that it would warrant a conspiracy theory. From the police’s perspective, it was a case where the prosecution had stopped conducting further investigations after it was forwarded with a non-indictment opinion, and it was a body of a Russian national with no family to claim it.

I exhaled a short puff of smoke and opened my mouth.

“It has been quite a while since the incident, so I think the police judged that it was closed.”

“That could be.”

“Then what are you going to do now? There’s nothing we can do… are you going to issue a non-indictment disposition for the Koryoin Mr. Kim case as well?”

“No, not yet. The stolen goods I was waiting for haven’t arrived yet.”

He paused for a moment before adding.

“Because I’ve already set the trap. It’ll get caught eventually.”

It seemed to be the trap for the second piece of stolen goods he had mentioned earlier. After rubbing out the cigarette he had burned quickly until it was short, he stared down at me quietly. To be precise, he stared at the cigarette resting between my lips.

Why did I do it? What gave me the courage? Even though I remembered the night I was drunk when he asked if I didn’t mind sharing a cigarette, I impulsively pulled it out.

Prosecutor Joo had always been the one testing me, but for the first time, I felt the opposite sentiment. I held out the white cigarette resting between my fingers toward him.

“Would you like to smoke more?”

“…Sure.”

I wasn’t sure. I thought he would refuse. Because he had said it bothered him.

However, Prosecutor Joo took the wet cigarette filter into his mouth and slowly took it from me. Along with the sound of his deep inhalation, white smoke rose into the air like mist.

We looked down at Danhyeon City from the rooftop in silence, but in reality, it felt as if we were watching each other with every nerve in our bodies mobilized.

A week later, I bumped into Chief Tak Seong-ung on my way to work. When I greeted him from a distance, Chief Tak welcomed me with a bright face and took me to the cafe on the first floor to buy me coffee. While waiting for the coffee, I bowed my head.

“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”

“Is the work manageable? I heard rumors that you’re working very hard. Thanks to you, Taeson seems quite relaxed lately.”

“No, sir. I’m sure it’s difficult for the Prosecutor to teach me.”

“Prosecutor Joo only teaches people whose working style he likes.”

“Thank you.”

Whether it was true or not, I was just grateful for that kind of view. When people are mean to others, they distort everything. Like a certain teacher who evaluated Lee Chaeha, a middle school student who endured bullying because he didn’t want to fight with his friends, as ‘gloomy.’

Perhaps the scarlet hue that had been hovering around me since I came to the prosecutor’s office had faded. Chief Song, Officer No, and even Chief Tak, whom I met occasionally like this, were all kind to me.

That was why, even while suffering from daily overtime and being scolded by Prosecutor Joo, I occasionally felt that life was worth living. A sensation both unfamiliar and familiar. It was the world’s hospitality I was feeling for the first time since I was thirteen.

Of course, most of the staff in the prosecutor’s office, excluding them, treated me like an invisible person. It seemed that my supervisor in the fine-payment division was spreading bad rumors about me, as slander regarding my personality and work skills was circulating. But I didn’t pay much attention to it. I was just grateful that they were only whispering behind my back.

Chief Tak ordered extra coffee for the people in the office.

“Look at my mind. Please take these for the office staff, too. It might be annoying since you’re the youngest and have to run coffee errands often.”

“It’s not annoying. Thank you.”

We waited while sipping the coffee that had come out first. Chief Tak checked on how I was doing with a generous expression.

“Prosecutor Joo, he doesn’t let anything just pass by, does he? That guy is thorough by nature.”

“I’m learning a lot.”

“Officer Lee really speaks very nicely.”

Chief Tak clearly remembered even my name, though I was just a low-level staff member. I felt good, and just as a clumsy smile was about to spread, the cafe staff thankfully interrupted my expression.

“Your coffee is ready. Would you like me to put them in a carrier?”

“Yes, please.”

I put even the coffee I was drinking into a carrier and carried a total of four cups, two in each hand.

I got on the elevator with Chief Tak. Because we had started work early, there was no one else in the elevator but us. Chief Tak looked up at the floor indicator and asked.

“Officer Lee and Prosecutor Joo, you met through that, what was it… the Koryoin case, right?”

“Yes.”

“I heard that Prosecutor Joo still hasn’t processed the work that ended a few months ago.”

“I thought he had processed it.”