The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 77

Every time our flesh pressed and brushed against each other, my skin tingled so much that I had to curl my toes tightly inside my shoes again. I was trembling, and I quickly became short of breath. His tongue dug inside, rubbing against the wet mucous membranes, and entered so deeply it felt like it would block my throat. It wasn’t entirely soft, but compared to the kisses we shared over the weekend, this felt much closer to the first kiss I had always imagined.

“Ah….”

As a small moan escaped, the tongue that had been licking as if pressing down on my mucosa pulled away. He sucked on my lips, bit my lower lip, then let go and whispered.

“Don’t make moaning sounds. Not if you don’t want to get caught at work.”

Without giving me a chance to answer, he overlapped his lips with mine again and pulled away. Cautiously, multiple times. So that saliva connected like silver threads, and so that the sound of our lips, thoroughly drenched in saliva, bumping together stickily could be heard.

His two large hands cupped my hot cheeks. Even the sensation of his thick knuckles pressing against my thin skin was erotic.

Gathering my courage, I was the first to carefully probe between his lips. He sucked on the tongue that had crossed over to his side slowly and deeply. A moan threatened to overflow, but I forcibly endured it. Prosecutor Joo imprisoned my tongue as if drinking my saliva, sucking on it and biting the tip until it felt numb. All the while, his prominent nose tip pressed softly against my cheek.

The lips that had been ravishing me as if to melt me pulled away slowly and regretfully, and Prosecutor Joo’s voice reached me from close by.

“Officer Lee, if I had known it was your first kiss back then, I wouldn’t have done it like that.”

Because our breaths were close enough to travel back and forth between each other’s mouths, the breath reaching me felt incredibly vivid. His excited breath was humid and hot, like a desert in the middle of the day when it rains.

I carefully tried not to exhale my surging breath in a mess and barely managed to reply.

“It’s still rough, Prosecutor.”

“Are you sure that bastard, that Baek Youngjun, never did anything like this to you?”

“He never did.”

“If he had, I would have cut out that bastard’s tongue.”

“I don’t think you’d commit a crime….”

“Well. Because of you, sometimes I do things I wouldn’t normally do.”

Things he wouldn’t normally do—what could that mean?

It didn’t feel like he was talking about us sleeping together.

Prosecutor Joo pulled his lips, which had been touching precariously, completely away and looked down at my face, which must have been ripened to a deep red. Only after stroking my cheek as if he truly cherished me and pressing his lips to my eyelids did he pull his body back. His long fingers, instead of touching me, now picked up the wooden chopsticks.

He cut the chopsticks so neatly, too. Without being ruffled, even though he had just kissed me.

On the other hand, my fingers were trembling from the lingering effect of the kiss, so I couldn’t break the chopsticks properly. The moment I pulled them, the top part snapped in the middle, breaking in the worst possible way. A sigh escaped on its own. I had no choice but to try to eat like that, but Prosecutor Joo took the chopsticks held in my hand and offered me his own, which were snapped perfectly.

“An investigator’s fingertips should be capable. Eat with these.”

“You don’t have to switch with me.”

“Don’t climb up. We’re at work.”

“Yes…. Thank you.”

While eating the gimbap with the neat chopsticks Prosecutor Joo had given me, I glanced at his hands. Prosecutor Joo’s hands were much larger than mine, so it looked a bit uncomfortable for him to move the chopsticks that had been broken into a mess. Every now and then while eating, I smoothed over the end of the neatly broken chopsticks.

He had even ordered spicy cold noodles and tteokbokki, so the dinner was very large by my standards. If it was going to be like this, I could have just eaten the small gimbap or the egg gimbap.

Prosecutor Joo was eating his food in rhythm with my pace, so I quickly swallowed the tteokbokki and said.

“You can eat faster, Prosecutor. Since there’s so much, I don’t think I’ll be able to eat it all anyway.”

“Okay.”

Even while saying he understood, Prosecutor Joo swallowed the gimbap slowly. For a person who eats quickly to have to eat slowly must be frustrating. So, I increased my eating speed a little more than usual. Just enough so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable.

Prosecutor Joo popped open a can of cola with one hand. He offered one to me, and I just took it, fearing I would seem difficult if I said I didn’t drink carbonated beverages. Prosecutor Joo took a sip of his cola.

“I went to the charnel house where Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon is last time, and I saw Chief Tak there.”

It felt like the first time he had talked about anything personal besides work. Prosecutor Joo would persistently dig into my private life, but he had never told me what he spent his time doing.

“Chief Tak?”

“Yes, Chief Tak said his older sister passed away when he was in his teens. He came even though it wasn’t the anniversary of her death. It wasn’t a holiday, just a weekday, yet he dropped by after work…. They must have been very close.”

“How did you know it wasn’t the anniversary of her death?”

“I checked it briefly over his shoulder. It was written on the urn. The urn was larger than the others, so it was easy to see.”

His observational skills are truly excellent. Prosecutor Joo would have done well if he had been a detective.

People who identify and remember the slightly protruding, heterogeneous parts that ordinary people just pass by cannot fail at investigations. Even noticing the size of the urn was so like Prosecutor Joo.

“Did you go because it was Prosecutor Yoon’s anniversary, Prosecutor?”

“Yes. I usually go often, but that day was just before the anniversary.”

“You said you had been close with Chief Tak since you were young.”

“Chief Tak even paid my tuition for my first semester of college. Even when my father passed away, he stayed for all three days and went through the burial and the crematorium with me.”

I had heard it several times and knew it, but I felt again what a truly close relationship they had. Chief Tak’s gentle impression came to mind. Even Prosecutor Joo’s nerves, which were always pulled tight, felt loose only when he talked about Chief Tak.

Prosecutor Joo finished his meal and glanced up at the clock.

“It’s already nine-thirty. If you have nothing else to do, head home.”

“Are you planning to look at more documents before you leave, Prosecutor?”

“Well…. Should I head home, too?”

“You should. We have to go out for field work tomorrow and investigate together, anyway.”

“I suppose I should. Officer Lee, it’s been a while since I’ve finished work early; shall we go watch a movie together?”

Nine-thirty wasn’t an early finish, but the act of going to see a movie with him was incredibly wonderful. I felt a sense of expectation that might end in vain, wondering if we would spend time together in something like a date from now on.

There was no reason to hesitate, so I nodded immediately.

“Yes, that would be wonderful.”

“Let’s go, then. Let’s book the tickets now.”

I struggled to suppress the flutter rising in one corner of my heart and finished tidying up.

We traveled as usual in Prosecutor Joo’s car. There was only one movie theater we could go to near the prosecution office. It was the theater I had gone to with Chief Song. Except for around the casino, most of Danhyeon City was a rural area, so the choices for movie theaters were limited.

My cheeks flushed red, unable to hide the tremor of having come to watch a movie just the two of us. I discovered my face reflected in the movie theater elevator mirror and was startled, fanning myself with my hand as if it were hot despite it being winter. Prosecutor Joo looked down at me vacantly from time to time. With his sharp eyes, there was no way he didn’t know the red light had turned on again, and I was grateful that he pretended not to notice for some reason.

Before entering the theater, I lingered for a moment in front of the concession stand.

“Prosecutor, shall we buy popcorn?”

“I don’t eat snacks. Buy it if you want to eat, Officer Lee.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Although I was full, eating popcorn was also one of my joys. I didn’t want to eat alone, so I left behind a slight sense of regret and entered inside with Prosecutor Joo.

While colorful advertisements were passing by ahead of the movie screening, Prosecutor Joo stood up from his seat without a word and went outside. The movie was about to start. I thought he had received an urgent call, but soon he returned, a small box of popcorn in his hands. I was a bit surprised, lifting my eyes in a circle, and accepted the popcorn he handed over nonchalantly.

“Thank you.”

“I thought you wanted to eat it.”

“Eat with me.”

“Okay.”

I picked a piece of sweet popcorn and popped it into my mouth. Prosecutor Joo stared at my lips as I ate the popcorn the whole time, then finally ate a large handful. Occasionally our fingers bumped inside the box, but I didn’t feel like avoiding them even a little bit.