Hardboiled Scenario

Chapter 16

 

Jae-in parked her car in front of the playground of her family’s apartment and turned off the engine.

The streetlights illuminated various spots in the playground, but it was empty, probably due to the winter season. Jae-in sat in the car, watching the swing moving by itself, recalling the past.

Twenty years had passed, but the memory was as vivid as if it happened yesterday.

Fifteen. Second year of middle school. It was two days after the end of the midterm exams for the second semester. On that chilly early autumn day, Jae-in was kicked out of the house wearing only slippers on her bare feet.

Without even putting on a coat, she came out and sat on that swing over there, just crying her eyes out. Not knowing what changes would come to her life after that day…

Her phone, placed in the holder, rang again. It seemed her sister was going to nag about Jae-in not coming when she was long overdue. The caller was her older sister, Jung Jae-hee.

After not answering several calls, text messages came in succession.

Where are you, why aren’t you coming, the food is getting cold, why aren’t you answering the phone, I’m worried.

A wry smile escaped at the word “worried.” Her mother and sister were no different.

🍓

As soon as she rings the doorbell, the front door swings open with an irritated curse.

“Why are you here so late? I thought my neck would fall off waiting.”

Her upturned eyes and voice were full of annoyance from the start.

“I’m the one who canceled plans to come here, so why are you irritated as soon as you see me?”

“What plans? You don’t even have friends to contact.”

“Do you know all of my friends?”

“Weren’t you an outcast when you were in school? Do you know why outcasts are outcasts? It’s because they don’t know why they’re outcasts. There’s no room for improvement.”

Losing the will to argue against such illogical words, Jae-in passed by her sneering sister and entered the house.

“You’re here? We ate first because you came so late.”

Her mother came out of the kitchen with a clean dining table visible behind her. It was past 10 PM. She wondered if the table had even been set in the first place.

“What? Should I prepare food for you?”

“Why prepare anything again? You should take care of your own food. See, this is how you are at home, it’s clear how you’d be outside. If you had come quickly when we told you to, you could have eaten.”

Jung Jae-hee, who had approached at some point, stuck close to her mother and quipped. Seeing that sight made Jae-in lose what little appetite she had, and there was no need to force herself to eat and get indigestion.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Right. Eating too late at night, that’s not good if it becomes a habit.”

Who was it that told her to come eat at this late hour, now changing her tune. It had only been an hour and thirty minutes since the phone call. Even though she probably wouldn’t have been able to eat properly anyway, it still stung.

Her mother, who had crossed the living room, spread out a mat on the floor, sat down, and called Jae-in.

“Jae-in, come sit here for a bit. Jae-hee, you sit too.”

Jae-in sat opposite her mother without even taking off her coat. Despite living in this house for decades, it felt as awkward as being in someone else’s home.

Jung Jae-hee, walking over sluggishly, sat on the sofa behind their mother. Then, crossing her arms, she looked Jae-in up and down.

“Where’s father?”

“It’s Friday, isn’t it? He went night fishing with his friends.”

“And Jae-yeol—”

“Hey. That’s not important right now.”

As Jae-in kept talking about other things without asking why she had been called, Jae-hee, unable to contain her frustration, cut in.

Her most unpleasant trait was that even if someone else was bleeding profusely from a knife wound, she would find the hangnail on her own finger more painful.

“What is it this time?”

“This time? Look at you! How much have I done for you to react like this without even listening? And what’s with your tone since earlier? Are you looking down on me just because you’re making some money?”

One comment led to ten in return.

Feeling a sudden wave of fatigue, Jae-in swallowed a sigh and kept her mouth shut.

If they were just colleagues and not family, she could have just ignored it…

“See that? That’s how she is, Mom. Ever since she was young, just because she was good at studying and Dad doted on her, she’s always looked down on me… Look at her now. I’m telling you, being good at studying isn’t everything. She’s rotten to the core.”

Why did I study so desperately…

It was to quell her father’s anger, who was furious at her sister for barely maintaining passing grades despite all the tutoring and academies, too busy playing with friends. It felt like that was the only way to become a member of this family.

But now to bring up her character, there’s a limit to nonsense.

“You two are still fighting at your age? I hear other sisters are busy taking care of each other, can’t you stop? It’s giving me a headache.”

“What did I do? Mom, can’t you see? It’s not me, it’s her who’s the problem.”

Jung Jae-hee acted extremely wronged despite being the one who had been one-sidedly lashing out, and their mother naturally took the older sister’s side.

“And Jae-in, even if there’s only a year difference, she’s still your older sister. Don’t you think Jae-hee would feel bad if you disrespect her like that?”

As expected, the arrow of blame turns towards her. As always, Jae-in was the one at fault. Then and now. There was no point in arguing, it would only hurt herself.

Instead, she held her breath tightly. As if she had fallen into the sea.

When she was younger, she at least struggled to get out, but now she does nothing. She only wished to sink deeper into the abyss.

No matter how rough the waves are on the surface, it’s peaceful below as if nothing is happening.

“Anyway. I’m getting a divorce. I can’t live with that man anymore.”

Thinking she had sufficiently put her younger sister in her place, Jae-hee gets to the main point.

“You’ve saved up some money, right? How much do you have?”

🍓

The interrogation room inside the prosecutor’s office wasn’t narrow or dark like in movies or dramas, and there was no lamp with a conical shade. The LED lighting was bright, there were windows for ventilation, and the glass for observing the interrogation room was transparent.

Except for the somewhat bleak atmosphere, one could proudly say it was perfect for having a cozy conversation. It was quiet, so concentration was easy.

In this atmosphere, Yoon Jun-young, who responded to the second summons for questioning, looked unwell, as if he had been through a lot of emotional turmoil.

Unspoiled purity. A kind face. The image that actor Yoon Jun-young appealed to the public was that of a church boy next door.

He was actually a member of a large, famous church or something.

They say physiognomy is science, but how could someone who looked like he should be playing guitar and singing hymns be involved in illegal drug use and rape resulting in death?

Section Chief Cho inwardly clicked his tongue.

Twenty-nine is when one should be at the peak of popularity, tsk tsk.

“I have no comment on that part.”

Yoon Jun-young was very different from the first summons.

“Well, our client says he’s not sure either.”

Whenever Muyoung asked a question, the lawyer sticking to him like gum would first listen to the answer in a whisper, then relay it after editing and adapting.

“He says he doesn’t remember.”

Their attitude was extremely cautious, as if they had been informed that the indictment would be changed.

Muyoung found this very irritating. They say one wrong word could get you charged with a crime you didn’t commit, but this was like having a professional interpreter.

Who here doesn’t understand Korean? Do they think the prosecutor’s investigation is a joke? Such shameless behavior.

“This is a personal question, but…”

Muyoung’s gaze, which had been quietly observing this behavior, became skewed.

“Do you still go to church these days?”

“Why are you asking that?”

The lawyer’s eyes widened as he sharpened his tone. As expected, he came out quite defensively.

“Do I have to ask even such a trivial question through a lawyer?”

Sarcasm burst out involuntarily at the sight of someone who freely pried into others’ mouths acting as if his own mouth was gilded.

“At this rate, we won’t finish today. Let’s take a short break.”

 

Muyoung stood up and stormed out of the interrogation room.

Stopping at a distance from the room, Muyoung posed a question without a subject to Section Chief Cho, who had followed him out.

“Isn’t it strange?”

“Yes. It’s definitely strange.”

Section Chief Cho seemed to have noticed the oddity as well.

“It’s a different lawyer from the first summons. Which firm are they from?”

“They said it’s from Law Firm Odaeyang.”

“Odaeyang for a celebrity drug case…”

Odaeyang wasn’t just a law firm that took cases for high fees. As one of the top 5 law firms in the country, Odaeyang was known to be selective about their clients. While Yoon Jun-young was a fairly successful celebrity, he wasn’t A-list. Therefore, saying it was excessive wasn’t enough.

And although he hadn’t noticed at first, the relationship between the client and the lawyer seemed peculiar.

Usually, lawyers gauge their client’s intentions before answering, but for some questions, it strongly felt like the client was watching the lawyer’s reactions.

As if the power dynamic had been reversed, then why?

Muyoung recalled those few questions. It was when he presented the list of individuals who held drug parties in the penthouse and asked additional questions.

When asked if anyone on the list shouldn’t be there, he answered readily that there wasn’t, but when asked who was missing from the list, he glanced at the lawyer and kept his mouth shut.

The unknown DNA found on the victim’s body wasn’t in the Prosecutors’ Office database.

Was he an innocent citizen, or someone from the upper echelons who could easily evade the law despite committing such acts?

For now, the important thing was the conviction that this could be a weapon to pressure Yoon Jun-young.

“There’s something I want to confirm. Could you please get the lawyer out for a while and buy me some time?”

🍓

Thank you for reading! ♡