Chapter 1.7
“I come here just to make sure.”
When I took the business card out of my pocket, the man snatched it from my hand. The tips of my fingers flinched. He put the business card inside his pocket, then said,
“I take this back since you’ve come to the right place.”
“…”
“Then, shall we take a look if it’s real?”
The man smiled as if he was excited and led the way. At this point, I thought he must be telling the truth, but I wasn’t stopping him. He walked to the entrance and put down the bag he held in the scanning device, and after walking past the metal detector, he looked back.
The eyes looking at me curved with a smile. He waited for me without saying anything. I wondered if there was another entrance used by the prosecutors, but I felt like I would look weird if I looked for another entrance, so I walked inside.
The only item I brought along was only the man’s card. Taking off the padding jacket where I put the card was and putting it on the scanning device, I walked past the metal detector. Nothing happened.
“Good work.”
He talked as if talking to a dog that brought back a frisbee, and before he saw me pull a wry face, he walked away. I wore my padding back and followed him.
“Next time, call me before you come. You have to register in advance so that you can get a visitor identification from the first floor and go up. Ah, but you have to own an identification card.”
I did have an identification card, but I didn’t really willing to give that just to come here. Since I gave no response, he flashed his eyebrows and touched a card into a machine next to the entrance. Once the door opened, we took the elevator.
As we got off the elevator on the 4th floor, there was a quiet corridor. I chased after the sound of the man’s soles tapping against the floor. In front of the room where the man stopped, there was a nameplate attached to the door.
[Prosecutor Yeon Woojeong]
As I turned my eyes away from the nameplate, the man looked at me as if he was waiting, then he opened the door. An old man, who had been sitting inside the medium size office, stood up.
“Welcome back, sir.”
“Yeah, I will go out again. I have a guest, so I’ll have lunch first. Have a good lunch, too, sir.”
“Yes.”
On the man, Yeon Woojeong’s table, there were a lot of documents piling up. There was also a desk nameplate, but I couldn’t read it because it was written in hanja. Anyway, he was a prosecutor who used this prosecutor’s office. I didn’t know what kind of scheme he had to bring me in, but at least he wasn’t lying.
Despite the fact that he was a real prosecutor, I didn’t need to be intimidated. I already knew how many incompetent and shitty prosecutors were out there, without the need to look at the news. I only needed a place to sleep, and I just needed to moderately exploit this man, then left. Although, it was impossible for me to stab him in the back.
“Let’s go.”
Yeon Woojeong left his bag and went out. We took the elevator again, and this time we went to the underground.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Rice.”
“Rice?”
Rice. As I got off the elevator while hearing Yeon Woojeong’s mumbling, the Benz I saw last time was waiting for us. I never imagined I would ride in this car again.
“Do you like this car?”
I sat in the passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt. The question made me glance at him. It wasn’t even mine, but regardless of whether I liked it or not, I didn’t like how he guessed my thoughts at will, so I hardened my face.
“This doesn’t suit you.”
“Oh, yeah? Then what car suits me?”
As we left the dark parking lot, the bright sky entered my eyes. All the people around this area were wearing neat attire. I had put my feet on the place I never thought of before. I thought I really didn’t want to come to the prosecutors’ office ever again.
“Audi.”
“Audi? Isn’t that an expensive car?”
Does this man know what the price of the car he is riding now is? It didn’t mean we had to be well informed before we bought something, but his indifferent attitude while riding a thing with numerous zeros behind it wrenched me inside. But, since nothing would change just because my mood was ruined, I quietly stared outside the window.
The car stopped at a public parking lot. I followed Yeon Woojeong out of the car, and Yeon Woojeong left the parking lot to an alley. There were a lot of restaurants that looked like they had been operating for a long time in the alley. Amongst those, he entered a small restaurant with a black ‘seolleongtang’ word written in the white sign.
“There’s only seolleongtang here.”
There were only two menus, seolleongtang, and special seolleongtang. Yeon Woojeong ordered two bowls of seolleongtang, saying that the portion is large.
As seen from the outside, the restaurant was small inside, and there were wooden tables attached in clusters where you could feel its years through the traces left there. The news was airing on a small old TV set on a shelf close to the ceiling. Yeon Woojeong’s gaze was directed there.
I thought his neatly dressed appearance didn’t suit him, but strangely, it suited him in this old restaurant.
The owner brought over a water bottle and two silver cups, then side dishes one by one. Kkakdugi, geotjeori, large peppers, onions, and ssamjang. His movement was slow and made me frustrated.
“What about breakfast, did you have it?”
“No.”
“Well, there’s nothing to eat in the home. But, it will come today.”
“What?”
“Lunch box. It’ll come in the afternoon, so can you take it when it comes?”
He asked for a favor casually, as if I would be in his home in the afternoon. When I nodded, the corners of his lips raised up.
Soon, seolleongtang and steamed rice, plain noodles were served. After pouring in a very small amount of salt, Yeon Woojeong poured half of the rice in his seolleongtang bowl. I contemplated whether or not to put the rice in entirely, then I took a spoonful. It was warm and tasty. How long has it been since I ate fresh rice? It was bad to keep reminded of this.
I had to focus on the current moment. Things that I can’t have for now, and things that I can gain, myself, my circumstance.
“Woah, you’re here again, Prosecutor Yeon?”
I turned my head faster than Yeon Woojeong in response to the voice that suddenly addressed him. A man with formal attire and wearing silver-rimmed glasses sat next to Yeon Woojeong. His companion hesitated, then sat next to me.
“Hello, sir.”
“Yeah, is it good?”
“As you can see.”
The man wiped his hand with a wet towel and glanced at Yeon Woojeong, who looked like wasn’t eating for real. On the other hand, Yeon Woojeong didn’t look at the man except when he greeted him in the beginning. I thought I knew the reason. The man’s eyes were displaying bad interest.
An interest in making the other person shows their other side that is unknown to others, then wanting to use that to pressure them. It seemed like the man was also a prosecutor, like Yeon Woojeong. The prosecutor I thought of was like this man.
The man looked at me as though he noticed my gaze. His eyes were filled with ridiculing intentions.