The other employee also nodded as if in agreement.
“This place is a reclaimed land with port docks and a huge industrial complex, so there are some so-called tough guys. There are even rough ones with unclear nationalities. At night, try not to go alone toward the docks or the industrial complex as much as possible.”
“The Branch Office Chief said something similar.”
Jaeha laughed casually while downing a soju glass.
“There are many CCTVs and vehicle black boxes, but still, shadowy places are shadowy. It’s different from the crowded metropolitan area. Until you make your rounds greeting people and familiarize yourself with the geography, only go around downtown.”
“It’s not like this is Harlem or something.”
“Seaside areas are originally rough. The prosecutor who was here before almost had a major incident once.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I can’t tell you the details, but anyway, he almost had a major incident, and he took leave as is and later went to a different region.”
The two employees took turns giving Jaeha warnings. They especially warned him to be careful because Assemblyman Hwang’s people were grinding their teeth.
“I can protect myself. It’s a different area from here, but I’ve been to other seaside places.”
“But isn’t this Assemblyman Hwang’s constituency? With your build, Prosecutor, one or two people would be fine, but do those bastards go around in ones or twos?”
“Especially since Taeryoung Chemical is lying in wait, don’t stand out too much.”
The prosecution staff spoke freely toward the prosecutor. Rather than being rude, it was a truly worried tone.
“Taeryoung Chemical?”
“Yes. Assemblyman Hwang is deep with Taeryoung Chemical. Since it’s a factory handling chemical pharmaceuticals, there are some close calls on the environmental side. But Assemblyman Hwang moved his city council members and got him out of it in various ways, but Prosecutor Seo sent it through. They probably won’t look too kindly on you.”
“Ah, that’s what you mean.”
It made perfect sense. The side where Kyungrok and Kyungwoo were wasn’t chemical but food distribution.
Since Vice Chairman Jung Taesu took control of the chemical side following the Kim Gilsu incident, relations hadn’t been that good. Assemblyman Hwang seemed to have connections to both sides.
“Anyway, now that we’ve told you, until you make acquaintances with the local council members, don’t go to rough places.”
“We’ll arrange meetings with city council members.”
The employees were sincere.
“Since you’re saying all that… I understand. Thank you for the advice.”
Smiling pleasantly, Jaeha passed around his glass. Only after receiving an answer that he would do so did the employees’ serious expressions relax a bit, as if relieved.
Afterward, they spent time talking about other employees in the branch office and funny incidents that happened in the area.
After the drinking session ended, Jaeha took a taxi to the apartment he’d just contracted. His car was still left parked at the branch office parking lot.
Perhaps because it was a first occupancy, there was no human smell inside at all. After casually tossing just his jacket on the desk so it wouldn’t wrinkle, he lay down on the floor.
“I should have brought a pillow and blanket even if it was troublesome.”
The luggage was scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning. Tonight, he had to spend it like this anyway. Just then, the phone he’d plugged into the outlet vibrated. He should answer the phone, but he was too tired.
If it had been right next to him, he would have answered, but the mobile phone happened to be one step away. Getting up to get it was currently an impossible mission for Jaeha.
‘If it’s Director Baek, I should answer.’
Even thinking that, his eyes slowly closed. With the long-distance driving, organizing the new office, finding a house, and even drinking, his body wouldn’t budge as if crushed by a rock. Jaeha fell asleep just like that.
Vrrrrr. Vrrrrr. Vrrrrr.
The vibration was loud from early morning. Jaeha, who had woken up because he suddenly needed the bathroom, went to the bathroom first and then picked up the phone while returning to the bedroom.
The number displayed on the screen was an unknown number.
“Hello?”
—Geez, boss! We’re delivering your stuff, how can you not answer the phone all this time? We’re entering the toll gate now. Please tell us the address.
It was the moving center. When taking out the luggage from storage service, he’d agreed to contact them sometime today, but he didn’t know they’d call this early.
“Just a moment.”
Coming to his senses, Jaeha took out the real estate contract from the briefcase he’d brought in when coming home and recited the address.
—We’ll arrive in less than an hour. Be ready.
“Yes. Please come safely.”
After hanging up the phone, Jaeha quickly washed his face first. Then he took off the dress shirt he’d been wearing since yesterday and changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants he’d brought himself.
Wearing slippers, he first stopped by a nearby convenience store to buy bottled water and coffee before returning. In the meantime, looking at his phone, the missed calls from the moving center exceeded fifteen.
While opening bottled water and gulping it down while swiping through the red numbers, he discovered Director Baek’s name. A call had come late last night.
“Damn.”
Looking at the time, it was still too early in the morning to make a call. Just as he was about to scroll up, the moving center called again.
—We’ll arrive soon.
“Yes. I’ll be outside.”
Below Director Baek’s name, two more numbers starting with 070 appeared.
“Working even at night, must have met an exploitative employer.”
Red text seemed like it would continue, but Jaeha didn’t check anymore and pressed the lock button.
The truck carrying the moving luggage arrived. Though it was a single-person household, there was still quite a bit of luggage. Among them, what he’d been waiting for most eagerly was the bed and complete bedding set.
All morning, he sweated profusely moving luggage with the center employee. The lady who came out together instantly organized the kitchen. As soon as they received lunch money after the luggage organization was finished, they quickly disappeared, saying they had another move at dawn tomorrow.
Jaeha called Director Baek while eating jajangmyeon alone.
—Why is your call so late? Now that you’ve gone down, you’re already treating me like someone you won’t see again.
“I apologize. Yesterday I went to the company to greet them and immediately looked for a house, so I couldn’t call.”
—The move?
“It roughly finished just now.”
—Really? Is the house okay?
“I found it in a hurry so it’s a bit expensive, but not bad.”
—The office?
“The staff members are helping a lot. I heard the Branch Office Chief is your classmate.”
—Right. Judicial Research and Training Institute 33rd class. A guy I bickered with a lot. Doesn’t he totally look like a bald turtle?
At those words, Jaeha almost spit it out. He urgently drank water and barely escaped the crisis.
—Still, he’s a guy you can trust. His career advancement is blocked though. Because of his head, he couldn’t catch a wife.
Whether it was an insult or praise, Director Baek cackled.
“Is that so?”
—He’s sensitive about his hair, so you with your thick hair would have caught his eye at first sight.
Come to think of it, he remembered him asking on first meeting if his hair was a wig.
—I bought drinks for my Ministry of Justice classmate and deliberately sent you there. You know? Don’t cause trouble and stay put nicely. When the time comes later, I’ll call for you.
“I’m really grateful that you’re looking after me. But is this really being sent to not cause trouble? Somehow I can’t believe it.”
Then Director Baek laughed again.
—Are you a guy who won’t cause trouble? Then where should I send a crazy bastard who hits home runs on every case sent down by sponsors?
“If you want me not to cause trouble… send me to an island?”
—Islands are closed off, so rather, very delicate power dynamics work there. A guy like you would blow up the island and have some left over. Not causing trouble is best, but if you’re going to cause trouble anyway, might as well do it properly.
“That means… you sent me thinking I’d cause trouble?”
—To catch a tiger, you have to enter the tiger’s den. That’s what makes you Prosecutor-nim, isn’t it?
Assemblyman Hwang’s constituency and where Taeryoung Chemical was located. From Jaeha’s perspective, it was indeed a tiger’s den.
—No matter how much of a parachute hire, a guy who fell under me, I have the generosity to pull you out, so give it a try. If you’re going to hide away pathetically, don’t embarrass me and just take off your uniform quickly.
“Thank you for the opportunity.”
—When you come up later, buy me lots of drinks. Expensive ones.
“Of course. I’ll settle in and contact you soon.”
—Then, good luck.
Director Baek hung up refreshingly too. He was truly a straightforward man in many ways.
*
Kyungwoo, who had stayed up all night with open eyes, stared blankly at the black screen. The sofa was wide and cold especially today. Even the fragrant whiskey tasted bitter as if laced with medicine.
“Whew.”
It was full daylight. Still, the phone showed no sign of movement. The whiskey newly opened at dawn had already hit rock bottom. Far from getting drunk, his mind only became clearer.
—Don’t show your face for the time being. Unless you want to die by my hands.
It wasn’t a relationship intimate enough to whisper ticklishly, so it was the kind of thing he could naturally say. There was no reason to become this powerless. He was also the one who first brought up keeping distance for a while.
He realized only after Jaeha agreed. Cooling-off period. Given Father and Noona’s personalities, and for Jaeha’s and his own safety, he’d simply judged it had to be that way. It was the most rational response. That his heart wasn’t like that—not realizing that was purely his own oversight.
—This is a matter of mutual trust.
He now understood what Jaeha’s words meant. When Jaeha actually left an envelope and disappeared, Kyungwoo felt a severe sense of betrayal. The emotion he must have felt when Kyungwoo unilaterally mentioned a cooling-off period would be similar to this.
The last call was worse than not having it.
—This is dating violence and blackmail!
He was right. At that moment, anger had explosively erupted. Reason didn’t work at all. If he hadn’t suddenly braked then and had arrived at the District Prosecutors’ Office and faced Jaeha, fists might have flown. And he might have confined him somewhere.
“Crazy.”
The moment that thought reached there, Kyungwoo shuddered with goosebumps. He was disgusted with himself. Kyungwoo lay sprawled on the sofa and squeezed his eyes shut. The chill permeating his entire body was terrible.
The interior of that old bathroom at Myeongbu Hotel was vivid.
Drip. Drip.
A bathroom decorated with old-fashioned ivory tiles. A hard bathtub. Water droplets falling from the silver faucet created ripples in the half-filled bathtub. There was a fishy water smell. What was in the bathtub was definitely a child, but strangely the bulk was large.
A back with protruding bumpy spine. Squirming shoulder blades. Thick neck and shoulders. Straight arms. Masculine cheekbones revealed past a sharp jaw. Stubborn eyes.
It was Seo Jaeha. And the hands restraining him were his own.
“Gasp.”
Startled, Kyungwoo opened his eyes wide. He seemed to have dozed off without knowing. Breathing heavily, he looked around. The space was too unfamiliar. Even though bright light reached every corner, darkness seemed to creep out from somewhere and was about to cover him at any moment. He was on the verge of screaming.
“Damn it.”
Kyungwoo got up from his seat. His hands and feet trembled. Staggering, he ran into the bedroom. He opened the mirror cabinet in the powder room and rummaged through several medicine bottles.
Crash.
Medicine bottles swept away and poured down below. While forcibly focusing his blinking vision, he searched for tranquilizers. He opened the cap and pulled out several things inside and swallowed them on the spot.
“Damn it.”
It would take time for the tranquilizers to take effect. Kyungwoo climbed onto the bed and rolled his body tightly in the sheets. His spine shivered for no reason. Cold sweat came out and hair stuck to his forehead. His heart lost its rhythm and ran wild as it pleased. The terrible sensation of someone groping his body overwhelmed his entire body.
“Damn it.”
He closed his eyes.
‘This is Seo Jaeha. Seo Jaeha. You damn bastard. It’s Seo Jaeha.’
Until the tranquilizers took effect, so that the evil spirit of Myeongbu Hotel would no longer come looking for him, Kyungwoo stubbornly repeated Seo Jaeha’s name.
