The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 90

Though it was much better than being outside, I was trembling and at a loss for what to do, so Prosecutor Joo stepped toward me and unbuttoned his coat. He spread the coat tails open and pulled me into an embrace, as if wrapping me in a blanket. The inside of his coat, which had looked thin, was surprisingly warm thanks to his body heat. Naturally, I buried my face in his chest and wrapped my arms behind his waist. He held me firmly as I nestled into him, blocking the wind.

While savoring the welcome warmth, I felt another heat faintly bloom within my chest. It was because I could truly feel that the relationship between Prosecutor Joo and me had changed completely since last Saturday.

Hugging each other in the middle of a stakeout. My heart pounded anew—not because of the cold, but because my emotions were on the verge of overflowing.

Suddenly, I wanted to look into those black pupils I had faced so many times. I rested my chin on his broad chest and lifted my eyes, but Prosecutor Joo was already looking down at me. The dim streetlight filtering through the small window illuminated his straight nose bridge and sharp eyes. He lowered his head, pressed his soft lips against mine in a light kiss, pulled away, and after leaving a short kiss on my forehead, he held me even tighter.

I wanted to pull away like a contrarian, purely because of the affectionate little kiss he had left behind. My heart was thumping so hard I worried the beat might transmit through my padded jacket, so I tried to pull my arms away, but Prosecutor Joo didn’t allow my escape.

A white puff of breath escaped from between his neatly shaped lips.

“I want to do it again, now that we’re like this.”

“…Do what?”

“You know, so why ask?”

I hadn’t expected that. Surprised, I unconsciously tightened the fingers I had wrapped around Prosecutor Joo’s waist. He furrowed his brows slightly, as if it hurt.

“Why are you pinching me?”

“I’m not pinching you, I was just… surprised…. How can you want to do it again after doing it so much already?”

“Because unlike you, Officer Lee, I have good stamina.”

“I have good stamina, too. If you were a bit more affectionate, Prosecutor, I wouldn’t lose as much energy.”

“Was I not affectionate today? Compared to Saturday, I think it was a great improvement. Getting that level of treatment from me is what I’d call affectionate.”

It was an answer that laid bare exactly what he thought of me. My fingertips trembled slightly, but I talked back even more forcefully on purpose to hide it.

“…I don’t know. I don’t think you’d act like this toward a lover.”

I had barely managed to express my dissatisfaction, but Prosecutor Joo smiled leisurely and stroked my hair.

“I’ve never had a lover, so I wouldn’t know.”

“…You’ve never had a lover?”

“Just one-night stands and short meetings, several times. Are we exploring each other’s pasts now? Too bad. I already know that I’m everyone’s first for you, Officer Lee, so I’m not curious about anything. This kind of time is a loss for me alone.”

“Why is it a loss? There might be someone who liked me, or someone I liked….”

In truth, even if there were, it would all converge on the conclusion that I’d never actually dated anyone, so from Prosecutor Joo’s perspective, there was nothing to be curious about.

“I think I’m the first person you’ve ever liked, too, Officer Lee.”

“…Why would I like you, Prosecutor?”

“Mr. Lee Chaeha.”

Hearing him call my name abruptly, without any title, made his embrace feel stifling. My heart sank, and lukewarm sweat beaded on my forehead. I tried to bow my head, but he nudged my forehead with the tip of his nose, so I had no choice but to look up again.

“You might think you’re good at hiding your thoughts and emotions, Mr. Lee Chaeha, but you’re too young to deceive me.”

“…”

“As young as you are, you’re also fragile.”

I could have answered that he was only six years older than me, but I couldn’t, because even to my own eyes, the man holding me looked far more like an adult.

I had felt that way from the beginning. Ever since I heard the news that a rookie prosecutor had defied the Chief. Even more so from the day I first sat across from Prosecutor Joo Taeson in the investigation office a few years later.

I knew that the adult before me, unlike myself, was someone who knew how to steadfastly navigate and endure social life.

Because of that, even though Prosecutor Joo knew how to read the scarlet letter of being ‘Lee Gilyoung’s son,’ he helped me so that I would have no trouble adjusting to the investigation office. No rumors about me or my father ever spread in the Danhyeon Branch Office. Perhaps because of my background, he sometimes treated me emotionally or gave me wounds, but that was acceptable.

My body, which had been trembling in the dawn cold, finally calmed down under Prosecutor Joo’s body heat. He checked once more to see if I was still shivering, then brought over two plastic chairs from the corner. After taking a handkerchief from his coat’s inner pocket and wiping off the dust, he sat me down first and then took a seat beside me.

“Now, take off your shoes.”

“Why would I take off my shoes?”

“If I tell you to take them off, you take them off.”

As I slipped my feet out of my shoes, he leaned over and pulled my two feet toward him. Startled, I curled up my ice-cold toes, and he wrapped his two hands around my freezing feet, calming me down as I stared at him with wide, rabbit-like eyes.

“You were wearing dress shoes, so I thought your feet might be cold.”

“You don’t… have to go that far for me.”

I answered, wiggling my toes inside my black socks. Feeling both embarrassed and grateful, I silently took a heat pack from my pocket and put it in Prosecutor Joo’s lap, but he took the heat pack out and used it to warm my feet instead. I stared down quietly at the large hands holding my feet.

We waited for over three hours, soothing the cold, before we finally heard a sound from outside. By then, I had stood up from the chair again and was nestled deep in Prosecutor Joo’s arms. Startled by the unfamiliar noise, I lifted my head, but the sharp eyes on the other side were already fixed toward the gap in the door.

The strength in the hands that had been holding me slowly loosened, and we walked cautiously toward the door.

At the break of dawn, beneath the blue-tinted dawn sky, I saw Han Sujin’s bleak back. It seemed she had spent the night somewhere and come by the first bus. A bottle of soju was placed on the grave, and after bowing, Han Sujin sprinkled soju over her parents’ grave. She then sobbed for a while. When I looked up at Prosecutor Joo, he blocked me with his palm, as if telling me to stay put.

Han Sujin stood in front of her parents’ grave for quite a while before suddenly turning her body toward the shed where we were. However, after coming only a few steps, she stopped and bent down at the waist. Lying at her feet was a thin but sturdy-looking rope.

It was common for criminals to hang themselves or drink poison in places where they could see their parents’ graves. Whether it was because they thought of the parents who gave them life at the final moment or for some other reason, I didn’t know. It might have been a psychological desire to end life where it began. The moment Han Sujin retrieved the rope, Prosecutor Joo lowered the hand that had been blocking me and gave a signal, pointing to the door with his index finger.

Prosecutor Joo threw the door open quickly, and I ran out toward Han Sujin alongside him. Startled by the sudden noise, Han Sujin jumped in shock. As soon as she saw us, she threw the rope away, climbed over the grave, and began to run blindly.

In terms of physical stamina, Prosecutor Joo was far ahead. However, she was familiar with the local geography, so she evaded us longer than expected. She had started dashing quickly, choosing only the narrow mountain paths.

“Ms. Han Sujin!”

Prosecutor Joo shouted loudly and pulled ahead of me. I couldn’t beat him in speed anyway, so there was no point in trying. Instead, I checked the direction Prosecutor Joo and Han Sujin were running in, quickly looked around, and chose a left side path to start running. I judged that it was pointless for both of us to chase in the same direction.

The direction I jumped into was so overgrown with branches that it could hardly be called a path. My breathing, which had reached my head, rang in my ears. I hacked through the random branches and grass, running for quite a while before finally confronting Han Sujin. Even though I only caught a glimpse of her profile, a powerful sense of terror at being caught clung to her.

I threw my body at her, grabbing Han Sujin and tumbling. Because it was winter, the ground was exceptionally hard. I wrapped my arms around her body to protect her as much as possible, causing a strong impact on my back as we fell. Ultimately, Han Sujin gave up on fleeing. Instead of resisting, she just lay there, sobbing helplessly.

Prosecutor Joo, who had been running right behind, stopped abruptly and pulled the handcuffs from my leather bag. His thick fingers skillfully clicked the handcuffs onto her wrists. A voice filled with heavy, labored breath flowed out from between his neatly shaped lips.