For some reason, he kept encountering Sewan in the most terrible situations of his life. He was just confused about whether it was because it was a bad relationship or because it was inevitable.
“Mr. Kim, what is this? It’s okay. I was right next to you the whole time since I came here and saw everything you were doing. I’m your alibi. You don’t have to be too scared.”
Perhaps thinking he was sweating coldly because of the police investigation, Mintae, who had been carefully watching the situation from a step away, carefully spoke to him. Sagyeong half-responded, half-didn’t respond to his words, and blankly stared at Sewan, who had moved away to the direction where Prosecutor Hwang Jisu was standing at some point. A contradictory sensation of the very long and slender back view being both unfamiliar and familiar surged up.
After meeting again as adults after more than ten years, he seemed to have become a doctor. The memory of hearing that his mother and father were also renowned scientists came to mind. Fortunately, he seemed to have found, after struggling, what reason he should live for from now on.
To such a person, what he probably wanted to say after “excuse me” was probably that.
Don’t you know who I am?
‘It seems like he can’t even remember me…… Is it meaningless now?’
Although he hadn’t particularly looked for him, it felt a bit useless and awkward that he had occasionally thought of him in the meantime. At the same time, relief came that his time, which had almost stopped, had flowed leisurely, and he was glad to see him become a splendid adult.
Sagyeong, who unconsciously gripped his hand tightly, quietly looked down at the palm that had been briefly held by him because his heart’s pounding wouldn’t stop.
‘But why is my heart beating so noisily?’
Only the place that had touched him was burning red to an unusual degree.
* * *
Every year, the number of deaths in the Republic of Korea approaches 300,000.
Although there were many cases of reaching death according to the natural flow of life such as aging, the onset of disease, or unexpected accidents, on the other hand, thousands of corpses whose cause of death could not be found even by coroners and public doctors dispatched to crime scenes would lie on the NFS autopsy tables as cause of death unknown.
The National Forensic Service, with its main office in Wonju, Gangwon-do, was in charge of autopsies of unnatural deaths brought in like this by installing medical examiner’s offices in five branch offices distributed throughout the country and several universities with medical schools in Korea. The Korea University Medical Examiner’s Office, where Sagyeong, a forensic investigator, worked, was one of them.
<One, we pursue only scientific truth.>
<One, we maintain dignity as national public servants and keep our conscience as scientists in performing our duties.>
The NFS Ethics Charter attached to the branch office lobby in panel format was positioned in a prime location directly at the entrance where one’s gaze would reach at least once on the way to work. Below it was attached the NFS oath. Thanks to this, the effect of unintentionally engraving the ethics charter and oath in one’s heart every day and straightening one’s collar occurred.
Sagyeong, who was passing by the panel above his head, breathed heavily for no reason.
Since it was his first day at work after the shocking incident that occurred at the New Year’s concert, this path to meet a new corpse was a bit burdensome.
Sagyeong, who had put his bag down in his research room, saw the memo written on his desk and immediately headed to the director’s office.
When he knocked on the door, hearing a light response from inside, he slightly turned the doorknob. Inside, team members who had already come to work and the director were sitting around having a chat.
“Director, the memo said you called for me…… Oh, everyone’s here.”
As he entered, the director pointed to the sofa and responded.
“Yes, there’s a very important notice. Sit down, Researcher Kim.”
Probably what she had gathered them to talk about would be about the new medical examiner who was coming. Here, one medical examiner, two forensic investigators, and one forensic photography specialist formed a team of four to conduct autopsies. All the other teams had their personnel filled, but only his team had been missing a medical examiner position since a while ago.
Sagyeong sat down, roughly gauging the words that would come out of her mouth. In the quiet, when the director turned on the television, the narration of a documentary about the universe pierced his ears.
– Chaos is a theory that tries to explain phenomena that appear unstable and irregular but actually have their own order and rules. This proves phenomena that appear stable but are not stable, or the opposite. Representative examples showing this theory include the turbulent flow phenomenon of water, typhoon or earthquake mechanisms…….
Beep. When the director changed the channel, the New Year’s concert incident that Sagyeong had directly experienced a few days ago was being covered as one segment of the news.
The Republic of Korea had been in an uproar these past few days because of that incident. As a result of checking with post-mortem reactions such as livor mortis, the man had been poisoned with a drug of unclear composition. However, even when all the on-site CCTV footage was reviewed, the person who injected the poison into the victim was not found, nothing unusual was found in the food, and there was no one among the concert attendees who had a grudge relationship with him, so the case fell into a labyrinth.
Moreover, it seemed that performing such an act conspicuously at a gathering of families of crime victims greatly hurt public sentiment.
It seemed that if they did an autopsy, they could accurately find evidence and start the investigation in earnest, but unfortunately, it was mountain after mountain because the family was firmly opposing it for religious reasons. They came out strongly saying they would even protest in front of the Prosecutor’s Office if an autopsy warrant was issued.
“Are you okay, Mr. Kim?”
When Sagyeong, who was watching the news, slightly clenched the hands placed on his knees, the director asked gently in a worried tone. Sagyeong nodded while smiling awkwardly.
“I got a bit better after resting for a few days.”
“You must have been very shocked that day. I was worried.”
“A little. But I’m really okay.”
Even Sagyeong, who had seen too many terrible sights in his life and had trained many mental muscles, was a bit shocked that day. Although he touched corpses every day, they all lay on the autopsy table after cooling down cold. That warm sensation at that time, which was different from them, was very unfamiliar, so he didn’t know how many times he showered after returning home late at night. Even so, he felt guilty because he was sorry.
Sagyeong, who deliberately shook off that memory from his head, changed the subject.
“But Director. What you’re going to announce is……”
“Ah, right. You must have heard from Researcher Park. We decided to recruit one medical examiner at our branch office. I had a lot of worries about how to rotate the team efficiently if we kept leaving only that team’s medical officer position vacant, but we were really lucky.”
She continued speaking while showing a relieved smile to the team members.
“Originally, this person should have been working at the main office from this year, but since they’re from our university, I earnestly submitted a petition asking them to come here. And they also gladly accepted. We have Dr. Gi Sewan.”
Sagyeong, who had been slightly stroking the spout of the teacup placed in front of him with his fingertips, flinched and looked directly at the director. He wanted to think positively that he had misheard, but the expression of Researcher Park sitting across from him was already proving that he had heard correctly.
“Dr. Gi, Gi Sewan?”
His voice trembled a little unintentionally.
He had inferred from the situation of the on-site autopsy examination that day that he had become a doctor, but he didn’t know that the medical examiner who would come here would be Sewan. The fact that he met the conditions that Researcher Park had told him last time as information about the new medical examiner was a matter that could be considered at least once if he spread his wings of imagination a little, but he wondered if he had been out of his mind these past few days.
“That’s right. Probably Mr. Kim and Mr. Park saw him on the day of the concert, right?”
Sagyeong’s mouth, having lost words to say, shut tight.
Autopsies were conducted every day. He had to see that there were almost no days off. Nominally, it was weekday work with punctual departure at 6 o’clock, but because close cooperation with investigative agencies was necessary, sudden overtime was frequent, and weekend work was no exception.
In simple terms, it meant that unless there was some extraordinary incident, he would have to face Sewan every day from now on.
Whether he remembered him or not was a matter for later. In the first place, Sewan and himself had nothing good from encountering each other frequently. Although quite a lot of time had passed, the remnants of the wounds that his mother and his father had inflicted on their families still remained vividly.
Above all, due to the aftermath of that incident, Sagyeong’s mother crossed the Sanzu River. When he saw Sewan, he would naturally recall the events of that time. But the bigger problem was that he himself bore no guilt whatsoever.
“Dr. Gi’s hands are incredibly accurate and fast. Everyone will quickly realize that his appointment is a great fortune for our research institute. He starts work today, so greet him when you run into him. Dr. Gi’s room is on the first floor, directly facing the lobby. Oh, and Mr. Kim, please help him adjust a lot. Since you’re already acquainted.”
He couldn’t even answer this and just moved his lips listlessly. The director seemed to not think much of it and gestured that they could leave now.
“I’m done talking. You can all go. Good work today too.”
Naturally, colleagues left their seats and went outside. Sagyeong, who had remained until the end, also had no choice but to stand up. The words asking if he could change teams rose up to his throat, but when he met the director’s puzzled eyes looking at him, it wasn’t easy to bring them out.
Eventually, Sagyeong, who had left the office without any gain, slowly walked alone through the corridor where a chilly wind was blowing strongly. To head to his research room from here, he inevitably had to pass through the lobby direction. Naturally, he had to pass by Sewan’s room, which was said to be directly facing the lobby.
Sagyeong, who had stopped in the middle of the path, stood in front of a firmly closed door. He could see ‘Medical Examiner Gi Sewan’ written on the newly hung nameplate. On the wall sign next to it, a square-shaped magnet was attached in a precarious manner to the ‘Absent’ slot.
‘It was real. What do I do now?’
