HB Chapter 23

Chapter 23

 

Muyoung, who had entered Jae-in’s lab, placed the suitcase and paper bag he was carrying on the round table. He took off his coat and laid it on the sofa, then pulled out one of the paper cups from the suitcase and handed it to Jae-in. His actions were so natural that it seemed like he had been here many times before.

“Drink it while it’s warm.”

“Coffee?”

“I remembered the poison someone handed me the last time I was here.”

Jae-in, who had been staring blankly at Muyoung’s movements, tasted the coffee. It was a caramel macchiato, a perfect blend of warm milk and sweet caramel.

It suited Jae-in’s taste for sweet things perfectly. The man was surprisingly attentive, contrary to his seemingly indifferent and fierce impression.

He was a strange person, both rude and kind. Even the menu he had brought showed this. Sandwiches and salad, nothing too heavy to eat.

Muyoung set the table, pulled out a chair to sit down, and gestured for Jae-in to sit as well.

This is my lab, yet who’s inviting whom to sit…

Jae-in swallowed a deep sigh and sat across from him. She wasn’t the type to eat regularly anyway, but on autopsy days, it was even worse.

But once again, Muyoung casually stepped over Jae-in’s boundaries.

“Stop right there.”

“Stop what?”

“Acting like we’re close, like you know me.”

“We haven’t even started yet, and you’re already scared? Cute.”

“I…”

Jae-in started to say something, then closed her mouth. She actually knew. That it wasn’t this man’s fault.

It was her own weak heart that kept expecting something from the man’s actions as he approached without any particular thoughts.

It wasn’t him who was embarrassed by the crumbling of her defenses at the slightest consideration, it was her.

If Muyoung was a flowing river, she was a stagnant lake.

Even if he stayed for a while and then flowed far away again, she neither wanted to nor could flow with him.

Knowing this, her heart still fluttered. But Jae-in knew well that in the end, only the one left alone would worry.

Expectations always lead to betrayal.

“About the body I autopsied earlier, it came directly from the prosecutor’s office, but was Seo Muyoung-ssi the prosecutor in charge?”

Jae-in decided to change the subject to work.

“It’s not my case.”

“Then?”

“I’m involved in the case.”

At Jae-in’s questioning look, Muyoung shrugged, taking a big bite of his sandwich. After chewing and swallowing the mouthful, he continued in a monotone voice.

“I’m a suspect.”

Jae-in’s fork, which had been poking at the salad, suddenly stopped. She looked at Muyoung with wide eyes, as if to say, “What do you mean by that?”

“It was found in the trunk of my car. The body you autopsied today.”

“Ah… I see.”

Jae-in wasn’t surprised that the body was found in Muyoung’s car. She resumed using her fork. She put a piece of finely chopped chicken breast and romaine in her mouth, chewing slowly without asking any more questions.

“Is that all?”

He had cut to the chase, but wasn’t that reaction too indifferent? Here was someone who might be a murder suspect, sitting right in front of her.

He had expected her to be shocked, but her nonchalance was almost disappointing. But Jae-in went even further.

“There were no fractures, but she died from strangulation. From pressure on the back of the neck while lying face down. Even with narrow nostrils, they would have been open, so death wouldn’t have been immediate. She would have gradually fallen into a state of dying.”

Jae-in calmly recited only the facts revealed by the autopsy.

“There are marks around the neck as if something was rubbed against it, but that’s not the direct cause of death. We’ll need to investigate further what that was, but what led to the woman’s death was hands.”

As she spoke, she glanced at Muyoung’s hands resting on the table.

To compress the carotid artery with the thumb and middle finger, hands of that size would be able to tighten from behind to the front in one go.

“Hands of a man with large, long fingers and thick knuckles, like Seo Muyoung-ssi’s.”

“If I were really the culprit, why would you tell me all these details?”

“Aren’t you a suspect?”

“Do you not know what ‘suspect’ means?”

A suspect is someone who needs to be investigated, even if the criminal charges aren’t clear. In other words, it meant that he could become the culprit at any time if evidence was found.

“Seo Muyoung-ssi, you’re not the culprit, are you?”

“Why not?”

“Did you kill that woman?”

A bold gaze fixed on Muyoung’s face. For a moment, the smile disappeared from Muyoung’s face.

“I’m asking out of curiosity because you’re so certain it’s not me. I wonder what Jeong Jae-in-ssi knows about me to be so sure.”

Despite his sharp words, Jae-in continued eating a few more bites of salad without answering, before finally putting down her fork.

“I don’t know about the psychology of criminals. I’m a forensic pathologist, not a profiler.”

She was someone who analyzed when and how a person died, and what their suffering might have been like as they approached death. Sometimes, she would imagine those situations.

But always from the perspective of the deceased person. So naturally, she didn’t know about the psychology of criminals who killed people.

“If Muyoung Seo is the culprit…”

Jae-in stood up from her chair and walked towards Muyoung. She then made him stand up.

“Your hand, please.”

Looking up at Muyoung’s face, which was only visible when she tilted her head back completely, Jae-in pulled his hand and placed it on her neck.

As befitting a large man, his long and large hand immediately enveloped Jae-in’s slender neck. When a surprised Muyoung tried to remove his hand, Jae-in stopped him by applying force with both of her hands.

“What are you doing now—”

She tightened his grip around her neck herself. Jae-in’s face gradually reddened as her throat was constricted.

“First, you’re not the type of person who would kill someone as a joke.”

If he had really killed someone, he would have watched the process of death approaching the victim. He would have lost his reason due to unimaginable resentment and anger.

“Personally, if you really wanted to kill someone, you wouldn’t have done it from behind, but like this, huh, strangled them from the front.”

Secondly, he’s not the type of man who would lose his composure over trivial insults or incidents, if only for the sake of his pride.

Jae-in, with a deeply furrowed face, pressed her nails gently into the back of Muyoung’s hand that was gripping her neck.

“If you had, there would have been signs of resistance on your wrists or the back of your hands. Like the victim’s nail marks.”

As if to demonstrate, Jae-in managed a faint smile despite her severely constricted throat.

Even though he could cut off her breath with just a little more force, he was instead trying to spread his fingers apart.

“And someone who had killed a person wouldn’t be able to eat so casually with the autopsy doctor of that corpse.”

If he were such a psychopath, he wouldn’t be showing such a pale, shocked expression right now.

“Is that, answer enough?”

Jae-in loosened her grip on Muyoung’s hand on her neck and let out a small cough. Muyoung, with a bewildered face, quickly withdrew his hand.

It was strange how he seemed more choked up than Jae-in, who was actually being strangled.

“Haah…”

Muyoung ran his hand, which had just been wrapped around the woman’s neck, through his hair and let out a long sigh. Somehow, he felt a surge of irritation.

“I appreciate your trust, but what if I were really the culprit and seriously tried to strangle you? What would you do then?”

“Ahem—, ah, well, then there’s nothing I can do. I’d have to defend myself and stab your neck with whatever I can get my hands on.”

He knew she had eccentric tendencies, but… Really, he couldn’t tell if she had a plan or not, it was impossible to grasp.

“Then how would you avoid this?”

“!!”

Retreating in shock here wasn’t his style, and her flushed cheekbones from the choking looked pretty.

Muyoung suddenly grabbed the nape of Jae-in’s neck with his large hand, pulled her towards him, and twisted his head to devour her lips.

Muyoung thrust his hot tongue between her surprised, parted lips, along with his heavy breath, ravaging her mouth as if to choke her.

“Mmph…!”

His movements were persistent, wrapping around her tongue that had dried up to her throat from the sudden kiss, sucking it like a candy. The hand gripping the nape of her neck tightened, and Jae-in’s neck bent further back.

Jae-in, robbed of every breath she tried to take by Muyoung, gasped and flailed her hands. At this, the corners of Muyoung’s mouth, pressed against hers, loosened slightly. Jae-in, finding an opening, desperately sought air, and just as she managed to take a breath, the gap closed again.

“W-wait, Seo Mu—mmph!”

“Why are you saying ‘wait’ now?”

“I need, to breathe.”

“That’s for you to figure out.”

Muyoung coldly retorted as he covered Jae-in’s lips again. Jae-in had to swallow saliva instead of oxygen.

The saliva, with a faint hint of coffee, was bitter yet sweet. However, her vision began to blur as he kept constricting her breathing. She tried to push against his chest and twist her head, but Muyoung was immovable like a solid wall.

Even as she felt helpless against the man’s strength, which pinned her down with just one arm around her waist, she gradually forgot to resist due to the warmth spreading and tightening in her lower abdomen.

It was only when Jae-in’s fingers, which had been gripping Muyoung’s shoulders, began to lose strength that he loosened his grip on the nape of her neck.

Muyoung grasped Jae-in’s chin, who was panting heavily, and met her eyes. His dark eyes, staring intently at her, were unfathomably deep.

“I didn’t think it was something that needed comforting.”

He muttered, cursing with what sounded like an exclamation through his long, twisted lips.

“But I needed it. Comfort.”

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