The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 6

My heart, startled by the sudden mention of my full name, shrunk tight before expanding again.

“Yes, I am on duty for the post-mortem examination. I…, I didn’t know you remembered my name, Prosecutor.”

“Is there any reason to forget? You’re wearing your ID badge, too.”

His large hand naturally grabbed my ID badge, pulled it taut, and then let it go. Unlike when the section chief did the same thing, I didn’t feel even a little bit uncomfortable. The pressure from the lanyard remained around my neck before slowly fading away. He pulled his gaze from my ID and added:

“Two years ago, right?”

“That’s right. I was truly grateful for that time.”

“It’s nothing. I just did my job. I didn’t know you had transferred to the Prosecutors’ Office.”

Prosecutor Joo spoke as if he had just discovered me now. Even though he hadn’t acknowledged me when I went around doing my initial greetings to the investigation division after I was hired.

His expression was unreadable; I couldn’t tell if he truly remembered just now, or if he had just wanted to pretend not to know all this time.

“Then, keep up the good work, Chief Lee.”

“Yes, Prosecutor.”

Prosecutor Joo bid me farewell in a cool voice and walked toward the stairs again. The rumors about him hounding his investigators like prey, and the conflicting rumors that he was unexpectedly kind and good at joking, came to mind simultaneously. He was the kind of person for whom neither extreme would be strange.

I returned to my desk, counted the bills Oh Jahyeon had thrown, and paid the fine immediately. The amount was exactly 6 million won. Not wanting to make a fuss, I acted as if nothing had happened and started my next task, but my mentor poked me in the side.

“Sorry. I meant to tell you, but it slipped my mind.”

“It’s fine. I heard Oh Jahyeon is a director at the casino?”

“Yeah. She’s currently a director at the Danhyeon City Casino, and she’s also the youngest daughter of Osong Construction. Osong is a successful local company here in Danhyeon City.”

I never told anyone that Danhyeon City was my hometown. I was afraid that my father’s forgotten name would attach itself to my back once again.

So, even though I knew more about Osong Construction than my mentor did, I listened while pretending not to know. My mentor continued:

“They kicked her out of Osong and gave her a position at the casino. She’s just a director in name only; she’s basically just stealing a paycheck.”

“Why did they kick her out of the family?”

“They say she doesn’t get along with the Osong chairman. Looking at her personality, isn’t the answer obvious? Anyway, next time there’s an unpaid fine for Oh Jahyeon, don’t call Oh Jahyeon—try calling the casino’s secretarial team instead.”

“Yes, thank you.”

He had heard me talking on the phone with Oh Jahyeon in the morning, yet he had remained silent until now; it was certain that my mentor hadn’t told me on purpose. Are we not colleagues? Is he that reluctant to show even that much goodwill?

However, in the end, my mentor had only seen the residual image of the ominous scarlet light drifting around me. I could move past his malice if I thought of it as nothing more and nothing less than that. In any case, there was no one at the Danhyeon Branch who could correctly read the scarlet letter of ‘Lee Gilyoung’s son.’ That was enough.

Perhaps thanks to being put through the wringer at lunch—an act that served to ward off bad luck—my work flowed smoothly until it was time to leave. However, between tasks, Prosecutor Joo’s greeting, knowing as he did my duty schedule, kept hovering in my mind. So, just before leaving work, I logged back into the prosecution intranet I had logged out of. I had a hunch about how Prosecutor Joo knew my duty schedule.

I went into the November schedule and checked the name of the prosecutor on duty for today. As soon as I confirmed that my hunch was correct, my eyes widened to the point where the inside of my eyelids felt stretched. When I had checked yesterday, the person on duty was definitely a different prosecutor, but now it had been changed to Prosecutor Joo Taeson.

A prosecutor and a post-mortem examiner on duty do not spend the night at the branch. After work, we each wait at our respective housing, and only meet to investigate whether a death was caused by crime when we receive a call from the police that a body has been found.

Therefore, even on days when we are on duty together, if no body is found, Prosecutor Joo and I have no reason to cross paths. Moreover, the nights in a small city like Danhyeon City usually pass without any incidents, so the probability of working together was even lower than in a large city. Still, in my position, the idea that I might get to work with a prosecutor I respected wasn’t a bad coincidence to have.

Holding an umbrella in one hand and a boxed lunch I bought at a convenience store in the other, I walked in a zigzag to avoid puddles. Only after one of my dress shoes sank into mud I had accidentally stepped on did I barely arrive at my housing. Irritated by the water on my body and my soiled shoe, my mouth drooped just like the falling raindrops.

A modest studio apartment of about 230 square feet was the housing assigned to investigators like me. I leaned my wet umbrella against the entryway, and diligently picked up the TV remote to chase away the silence filling the room. The voices of laughing and chatting celebrities pushed out the heavy stillness inside. That was how I alleviated my loneliness and took off my damp coat.

I ate my lunch box while watching variety shows and opened the mail I had been putting off. They were items I’d bought hoping to decorate the barren studio, but I’d been too busy to open them. After cleaning up the house until late, I turned my phone’s ringtone to the maximum volume in preparation for any potential situation and got into bed. But I couldn’t sleep.

I was on duty, so I couldn’t take sleeping pills; for two, three hours, I lay there with my eyelashes lowered, counting the aimlessly flowing time. Behind my dark eyelids, the times that had passed were projected in front of me like a movie. I watched the things I had already experienced in my mind again, faced people I no longer met, and chewed over my old, miserable past.

I was struggling to fall asleep, even shallowly, in the terrible darkness when I jolted awake, trembling all over at the thunderous ringing of my phone. I jumped up to check the phone, and a number that wasn’t saved floated on the screen.

The time was 5:00 AM. The premonition that it was Prosecutor Joo Taeson sent a strong shiver down my spine. I took one deep breath and pressed the call button.

“Hello.”

— This is Prosecutor Joo Taeson.

“Yes, Prosecutor.”

— A body has been found; I think we need to go. Does Chief Lee Chaeha stay in the housing in front of the branch?

“That is correct.”

— I’m coming to pick you up now, so come out immediately. I live near the Danhyeon Branch, too, so I can get to the housing area quickly.

“Understood, Prosecutor.”

I hurried to prepare and went out; the last autumn rain that had fallen all day was still in full swing. It seemed to be an autumn monsoon.

Cigarette butts floating in the murky water were quickly swept into the sewer. Standing in the pitch-black darkness, I realized that I was actually going to perform a post-mortem exam with Prosecutor Joo Taeson. It was my first job with someone I respected, and I wanted to do well.

“Let’s do well. Don’t make any mistakes.”

A faint breath puffed out in curls past my whispering lips. I wandered around the villa entrance alone, feeling unnecessarily nervous. The entrance sensor light, which had turned off after finishing its job, sensed my anxiety and kept blinking above my head.

A strange Mercedes with dark tint pulled to a stop in front of the housing. As I hopped in, Prosecutor Joo Taeson looked at me from the driver’s seat. The gaze that had felt somewhat soft in the daytime now, on a rainy dawn and facing him up close, felt overwhelmingly cold and piercing.

“Hello, Prosecutor Joo Taeson.”

I folded my long, dripping umbrella, laid it on the floor, and fastened my seatbelt. I forced my shrinking shoulders to straighten.

“The nationality of the body is not our country. The name and appearance are Korean, but a Russian passport was found.”

He got straight to the point of work. Unlike his chilly atmosphere, his touch as he turned the steering wheel was smooth.

The car entered the road, and the sleeve of his suit jacket on the hand gripping the steering wheel slid back, revealing the watch on his thick wrist. The glass face and the luxurious silver frame of the wristwatch caught the light from the streetlamps on the road, glistening.

“They say it looks like a heart attack, but we need to check it ourselves. Chief Lee Chaeha, you’re from the police, so you’ve seen a lot of bodies, right?”

A piece of my past, which had been playing on a loop inside my closed eyelids tonight, was printed in black and white.

“…Yes, I saw many when I was on active duty as a police officer.”

“Why did you quit the police?”

It was a question that suddenly touched upon my private life. I didn’t intend to show any sign of discomfort, so I answered in a tone that hid my emotions.

“I didn’t adapt well, so I wanted to start fresh.”

“Still, it’s a waste. If you’re from the Police Academy, you would have reached the rank of Superintendent soon, and a Superintendent is higher in rank than a Grade 5 civil servant.”

“It’s fine. It’s not much of a waste.”