The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 97

“No, it’s not that I’m trying to say anything.”

Prosecutor Joo added, pulling up just one corner of his lips.

“It just looks like a three-month-old puppy is frowning.”

“…Is it to that extent?”

“Yeah, it’s to that extent.”

I knew my appearance didn’t exactly command intimidation, but I wondered if I really looked like a three-month-old puppy. Isn’t a three-month-old puppy the age where they just fall over while walking? I’m nearly thirty, after all.

Prosecutor Joo chuckled this time and ruffled my hair. He seems quite at ease, unaware of how my heart plummets every time he does something like this.

Prosecutor Joo removed his hand and returned to a thoughtful expression, his black eyes turning dark for a moment. After tracing his alcohol-dampened, straight lips with his thumb and lowering his gaze diagonally, he slowly shifted his eyes back to me.

“Officer Lee.”

“Yes.”

“I have a strange feeling.”

Perhaps the drink I mixed for him was too weak; he opened a fresh bottle of soju and added a bit more to his glass. The clear, cold liquid flowed out with a glug. I checked his pace and downed my own drink. Half of my second glass was already gone, and my head felt lightly dizzy.

“Let’s say we somehow manage to link Oh Jahyeon to Koryo-in Mr. Kim. If everything works out really well, we could arrest her on charges of abandoning a body, find the evidence, and make her serve time. Since we’d be able to use the polygraph, we could ask about everything: President Kang Woosung, her husband, and even the case of Grandma Park, who was a doctor. Then I’d be able to confirm if my hunch was correct.”

“…”

“Even so, there’s a high chance the last three cases won’t make it to trial. The events are too old to find evidence sufficient for a conviction.”

I knew exactly what Prosecutor Joo was worried about.

I took a bite of chicken and drank a little more. Since each glass contained half a bottle of soju, I had already finished nearly an entire bottle. That was exactly my limit. Stung by the smell of alcohol hitting my brain, I squinted my eyelids as much as I could, blinked, and opened my lips with effort.

“But even then, Prosecutor, you would at least know the substantive truth you wanted to find.”

“Only we would know it.”

It was true, but surprisingly, I wanted to give him some hope.

“The polygraph will surely tell us the truth.”

“What if Oh Jahyeon is a psychopath? Psychopaths don’t react to polygraphs.”

“I don’t think so. She’s too emotional for that.”

Prosecutor Joo chewed on my words for a moment and then slowly nodded. Because he is obsessed with this case, he is feeling irrational anxiety, uncharacteristic of Prosecutor Joo Taeson. Even while knowing the statistic that psychopaths are a very small minority among criminals.

“If Oh Jahyeon was the one who abandoned the body, who on earth helped her?”

“What if the case of Grandma Park being stabbed with an awl wasn’t a direct murder, but she incited someone else to do it? That person wasn’t caught unlike Lee Gilyoung, so couldn’t she have asked him?”

“Let’s assume she incited that case, too. It’s been seven years already—would she still have that same errand boy by her side? I’ve investigated Oh Jahyeon; she doesn’t have any close confidants she’s known for a long time. They say everyone changes frequently because they can’t handle her personality.”

“What about Osong? Couldn’t Osong Construction have cleaned up for her?”

“Even after kicking her out of the house and distancing themselves like that?”

“They would want to avoid family disgrace. If she contacted them after causing an accident, they might have helped.”

“…That is a possibility. On the day the body was discovered, the burner phone number you found at the nearby base station—was it 1225?”

“Yes, the Christmas number.”

As we drank and talked about the case, the alcohol was disappearing rapidly.

I started on my third glass. To try and get less drunk, I relied on the chicken, while in my head, I kept replaying the scene where Koryo-in Mr. Kim was discovered.

It was November; heavy rain had poured for days due to the autumn monsoon. The garbage and cigarette butts that dirtied the alleyway meant nothing, but the one glove that had looked new still bothered me. It was a glove that had been soaked in rainwater, so no DNA was found.

“Prosecutor, do you remember the single glove found in the alley where Koryo-in Mr. Kim was abandoned?”

“I do.”

“Shall we have that glove tested for DNA again?”

“Nothing will come out of it.”

“I judged that it was highly likely to be a glove dropped by the person who cleaned up for Oh Jahyeon. It feels like a pity to just let it go. I understand that only the surface of the glove was tested back then. What if we finely shred the glove this time and check if DNA comes out from the cut surfaces?”

“…That’s a good idea. If DNA comes out, we might be able to check if an ex-convict was involved.”

“If it’s a rare surname, we could even identify the family name. Seoul might be different, but Danhyeon City has a small population, so identifying the surname would be a big help. And since it’s someone who helped Oh Jahyeon, it’s unlikely they’d be a drifter.”

“I’ll make the request again tomorrow when I drop off the drugs.”

Once I finished the third glass, the world started spinning rapidly. I could practically feel the fact that I was living on a rotating Earth.

Feeling nauseous, I parted my lips to beg Prosecutor Joo to stop drinking, but my voice started slurring—it was my drunken habit.

“Prosecutor…. I think I’m, hic, starting to get drunk….”

“I’m nowhere near there yet.”

Prosecutor Joo was already mixing his fourth glass of somaek. Four glasses meant we were each drinking two bottles of soju, which was well past my capacity.

“Come on, drink up.”

“Prosecutor-nim…. You said last time you’d match my limit of one bottle.”

“It seems Officer Lee wants to do a one-shot.”

“…No.”

“What is the state of mind I want from you?”

“If you tell me to do it… I do it.”

“You know well.”

Since I had drunkenly caused a scene last time after downing a bottle and a half of soju in 30 minutes, I didn’t want to drink more, but since I was told that even if we had sex together, when ordered to drink I had to drink, there was nothing I could do. A tiresome hierarchy.

Still, I drank more slowly than last time, and since my stomach wasn’t empty, I thought I might last, but once two bottles of soju went in, my straight-backed posture began to slump. And it wasn’t just two bottles of soju; it was two bottles mixed with beer. They say this kind of company dinner culture has almost disappeared everywhere except for the police and prosecution these days.

I complained inwardly, but I had no choice but to empty the glass. The world began to spin wildly.

“Officer Lee, you have to drink more. Are you tapping out already?”

“This… tiresome, Prosecution culture….”

I thought I had said it inwardly, but the voice leaked out through my relaxed lips.

“Mr. Lee Chaeha, are you drunk again?”

Prosecutor Joo’s playful voice settled over the top of my head. My head fell toward the table, reaching a point where I didn’t know where it would end.

“Yes….”

My eyelids fluttered, and I couldn’t put any strength into my neck. My shoulders grew narrow, drooping downward following my head.

At that moment, Prosecutor Joo, who had been sitting across from me, came to my side. He sat next to me and touched my flushed cheeks, heated by the alcohol, and sucked on my lips, which were tainted with the smell of alcohol. It wasn’t a peck, nor a kiss; he sucked and chewed on my protruding lips as if eating them.

Even in my drunken state, I was sure. This isn’t a kiss.

So, I pressed my lips shut to prevent him from doing it. Prosecutor Joo scoffed.

“Why are you acting all chaste all of a sudden when you’re drunk? You give it away just fine when you’re sober.”

“Don’t know….”

I didn’t have the strength left to say at length that I hated weird kisses.

What could I do when I was so drunk I had no energy? The world was spinning, and Prosecutor Joo’s face looked fractured, so I gathered my arms and dropped my head between them.

Prosecutor Joo wrapped his arms around my curled-up shoulders and lowered his face, following me as I slumped toward the floor. He tucked away my hair that kept falling over my face, peered at me from close up, bit my earlobe, and whispered,

“Is Prosecutor Joo still giving you a hard time?”

“…Now, you’re giving me a harder time….”

I heard a soft laugh. I wanted to see his expression since I’d never seen him laugh like that, but my head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, so I couldn’t lift it.

“In what way?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but I was so drunk I hiccuped.