Hardboiled Scenario

Chapter 14

 

The messages exchanged with Jae-in over two weeks were so brief that they could be seen at a glance without scrolling. It was often the case that once a message was sent, there would be no response.

“But if I keep getting ignored like this, it just makes me more stubborn.”

[If you don’t want dinner, let’s have breakfast instead.]

That’s why I sent that. I was curious how she would respond to this. After sending the message, pressing down my pride with each character, I tossed my phone onto the desk.

When her eyes narrow and lift at the corners, she looks just like a haughty cat, but she’s not acting coy.

Is she avoiding me, or is she really busy?

Even though her replies are late, she always responds, making me want to keep prodding her.

Ah—, am I perhaps feeling a bit lonely?

 

“You’re still a vibrant thirty-five, surely your New Year’s resolution isn’t to work yourself to death in isolation?”

 

I recalled the nagging I received after hearing those words in the office of the chief prosecutor, whom Inspector Eom Hae-young had tried to set me up with recently.

It truly felt like a curse.

I worked overtime even on Christmas Eve, and if I had to work overtime today, on New Year’s Eve, I would rather submit my resignation. When I was about to reach for another document in the empty prosecutor’s office, my phone buzzed on the desk. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the message with a puzzled expression.

Just four words could make my heart flutter.

[Shall we?]

“The more I see her, the more she really drives me crazy.”

🍓

Jae-in drove her car on the road, following the navigation’s guidance.

Heading to the destination while directly behind the wheel. It was a somewhat impulsive decision, not part of her original plan.

She hadn’t intentionally been avoiding the man. The timing just hadn’t been right. But then, remembering how he had emptied that sickeningly sweet cocoa to the last drop after receiving the message “If you don’t want dinner, let’s have breakfast instead.,” she found herself smiling without realizing it.

Why was that? Even when she asked herself, she couldn’t easily find an answer. Moreover, she had a feeling that her connection with him wouldn’t end there.

[Shall we?]

Shortly after sending that text, her phone rang.

Despite it being a call from a man who should have made her uncomfortable and burdened, she strangely found herself answering.

—”Do you know what it means to have breakfast together and still agreed so readily?”

As soon as she answered, the man asked a blunt question, his cynical tone underscored with a faint chuckle.

“It probably doesn’t mean meeting at dawn to eat triangle kimbap at a convenience store, right?”

—”Haahh…”

“Having breakfast is usually something you do after spending the night together, isn’t it?”

—”So you knew and still agreed?”

The playful laughter that followed the question somehow made her ears feel hot, her lips involuntarily going dry.

—”So when?”

“Is today not good?”

Right. Strike while the iron is hot, as they say. Tomorrow’s schedule was cleared to write an autopsy report, so if time was to be made, today was the best opportunity.

“If it doesn’t work, then that’s that.”

—”What time?”

“Even if I leave now, it’ll take about an hour.”

—”Deal.”

The meeting place was Hotel Capriccio, where Jae-in and Muyoung had first met.

Even now, as she was going to meet Seo Muyoung, Jae-in’s principles remained unchanged.

Jae-in wanted to be still and settled. However, Seo Muyoung had a way of throwing stones into her calm waters, creating ripples in her heart.

No matter how much she closed the door and bolted it, light would seep in, and the wind would flow through. Moreover, the human heart is more organic than any other being, leading to inevitable chain reactions.

Even if the medium causing the chain reaction is affection. With time, it will become a faded memory, like a cookie tin buried in the ground.

Something that has considerable value at the time, but becomes so dim with passing time that you forget where you buried it.

[Seo Mu-young ♥]

That’s why she decided to leave him be, just like his name saved in her phone.

🍓

Muyoung entered the hotel lobby and checked his watch.

Even if they had left at the same time, there would be a time difference with someone coming from Yangcheon District.

It was also his first time waiting for a woman whose purpose was sex, which made Muyoung shake his head slightly and smirk.

While he had no desire to become a fool who couldn’t take what was offered, he wanted to get to know her better through conversation beforehand.

So instead of getting a room and going up first, he decided to wait for her in the lobby where he could see the entrance.

Meanwhile, his gaze shifted to the massive sculpture in the center of the lobby. Mu-young stopped in front of it with leisurely steps.

A mirror reflecting a puddle on the floor, and an upside-down statue hanging from the ceiling, formed a straight line.

He tilted his head back fully to look up at the sculpture.

“Is it some kind of Greek mythology?”

It seems to be expressing some kind of agony, but the feeling is strange. This time, he lowered his gaze to look at the floor.

But the statue reflected in the mirror had a completely different face.

While the statue hanging upside down from the ceiling was writhing in pain and despair, in the mirror, it was smiling, immersed in joy and ecstasy.

For Muyoung, who couldn’t understand the profound world of art, this discrepancy didn’t quite resonate. It just seemed bizarre.

Then again, there are countless works priced in the millions that are called art despite being nothing more than random splashes of paint.

Just as Muyoung was about to turn away, having lost interest, a woman stumbling along bumped into him.

With a short scream, she collapsed right there on the floor.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Muyoung quickly bent his knees to check on the fallen woman.

“Are you alright?”

At a glance, she had a very frail build. It was understandable that such a woman would fall after colliding with a man built like a totem pole. But something seemed off about her condition.

They hadn’t collided hard enough for her to lose consciousness… Muyoung’s gaze sharpened as he observed the woman trembling and seeming out of it.

“If you’re badly hurt, let’s go to the hospital.”

As if finally coming to her senses, the woman flinched and hurriedly gathered the items that had spilled from her handbag.

Lipstick, foundation, lighter, and a card wallet among other things. Despite none of the items seeming particularly important, Mu-young quietly watched the woman fumbling around.

Swollen eyelids visible between her disheveled hair. Chapped lips with a torn wound. And bruise marks on her wrist, visible whenever her coat sleeve rode up.

Muyoung stood up, following the woman who was staggering to her feet, and lowered his voice so only she could hear.

“If you need help, just say the word.”

The woman pulled her white mink coat up to her neck, but her hands were still shaking as if cold.

She glanced at Muyoung and sneered instead of crying. Just like the statue hanging above.

“Or I can give you my business card, and you can think about it and contact me later…”

While Muyoung was reaching into his jacket to find his card, the woman ignored him and started walking away.

“Hey!”

Despite his call, the woman didn’t look back. She just hurried away, her high heels clicking urgently as if wanting to leave this place as soon as possible.

The woman pushed open the hotel doors with difficulty and got into a waiting taxi, disappearing from view.

Muyoung replayed the image of the woman’s retreating figure in his mind with deepened eyes. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

“Haahh—, how unsettling. But I don’t have the right to interfere on my own.”

Then he noticed a business card on the floor.

It seemed to be the card the woman had dropped earlier. Muyoung bent down to pick it up.

The rectangular card had no name, number, or address written on it. There was only the letter ‘C’ in Textura font, embossed in gold in the center of the black background.

🍓

The hotel building across the intersection came into view. The navigation announced that the destination was approaching. At that moment, the screen on the phone mounted on the holder switched, and a call came in.

It was her mother.

“Hello?”

—”Where are you? Are you on your way home from work?”

“Yes, I’ve left work.”

—”Have you had dinner?”

Jae-in’s brow furrowed at her mother’s gentle tone, asking about her well-being.

“No, I’m about to eat now.”

—”How could you not eat until this hour? You’ll ruin your health. Do you want to come home? I’ll prepare something for you. I’ve made mackerel stew that you like and a few side dishes.”

“I have a prior engagement today. I’m on my way there now, almost arrived.”

There was a moment of silence over the phone at her refusal.

In the past, Jae-in would have anxiously watched her mother’s reaction, but now she kept her mouth shut unless her mother spoke first.

—”An appointment? You? Is that how you say you don’t want to come home now?”

Sure enough, instead of a gentle tone, an irritated voice came clearly through the Bluetooth speaker.

—Your sister just came home crying. She says she can’t live with her husband anymore. Come right away to see your sister’s face and we have things to talk about.”

“I told you I have an appointment. I’ll come tomorrow.”

—”When tomorrow? No. I have plans tomorrow too. Do you think I’m just sitting around at home because I prepare side dishes for you and take care of the house?”

Her mother was insistent despite Jae-in saying she had plans. She acted as if Jae-in’s wishes didn’t matter, expecting her to comply as she always had before.

“That’s not what I meant.”

—”What did you tell me when you moved out? You said you’d come whenever I called, didn’t you? You know your father was furious about an unmarried girl living alone, and I barely managed to persuade him, right?”

It was a story she had heard countless times.

That they allowed her independence based on that one promise. Persuasion and permission. Her mother rapidly fired off words, bringing up an argument from five years ago.

—”Did you think I wouldn’t know that you’ve been lying about being busy and avoiding us every time?”

“I wasn’t avoiding you, I was really busy. And today I really have an appointment—”

—”Are you perhaps meeting a man?”

“……”

—”Well, who would want to meet someone like you anyway. Enough, no need for useless long talk. If you don’t come today, just know you’re no longer my child.”

🍓

Thank you for reading! ♡