Hardboiled Scenario

Chapter 7

 

Tears welled up in her eyes, which held a mischievous gleam.

Her long, slender neck connected to her round shoulders, and below that, her beautifully shaped, swaying breasts and slim waist.

Her skin, with its graceful and soft curves, grew more and more red, stirring up impatience in the man.

That woman will probably meet another man through a dating app this weekend too. Where will they meet? Will she go straight up to a hotel room again? Will she spout nonsense about Lamaze breathing again this time?

The woman he had slept with just once kept coming to mind, disturbing Muyoung’s thoughts. That woman who had turned away coldly like an ice princess.

I shouldn’t be such a pathetic bastard.

It’s not like we had some amazing sex. It was good. We were compatible. And… she was pretty, yeah. She was pretty.

Like how her brow furrowed slightly when she inhaled sharply.

Or the shape of her plump, rounded lips when she exhaled a sweet sigh.

The brown irises, misty with tears, and her reddened eyes when she sobbed.

“Ah—, fuck… This is ridiculous…”

Just picturing it in his head made his lower half grow heavy. Muyoung cursed himself as he confirmed his half-erect manhood.

“You’re fucking healthy, not knowing your owner’s feelings.”

This guy clearly has no shame.

No wonder they say men in their eighties can get it up as long as they have the strength to hold a spoon.

To think he was jerking off while remembering the person who used him and threw him away, was like rubbing salt into his own wounded pride.

“I should get back to work.”

Heaving a deep sigh, he flipped to the next page of documents.

🍓

“Dr. Jeong, how many night shifts did you take this week?”

“Only two this week.”

As Dr. Go Young-hee came to her office near quitting time, Jae-in replied calmly.

“Ah, what should I do? I feel bad asking this favor, but the night shift today… Do you think you could cover for me?”

Dr. Go looked apologetic but wasn’t particularly considerate.

“My child seems to be sick. They’ve had a fever since yesterday, and there’s no one to take care of them. My husband is at an overseas seminar, so I need to go.”

Jae-in had already covered two consecutive night shifts, and now after a one day break, she was being asked to cover again. It was a hellish schedule. Young-hee probably knew that.

“Dr. Jeong, you’re not married yet and don’t have kids, so it might be hard for you to understand, but I’m sorry, please do me this favor. I want to ask someone else, but no one has the flexibility right now. You know we’re very short-staffed.”

Despite her pitiful situation, she smiled and clasped her hands together, pleading. Jae-in, who had been staring at her, nodded.

“Sure, I’ll do it.”

“Really? Thank you, you’re a lifesaver!”

“That works out then. A person is needed to take the night shift anyway, and as you said Dr. Go, it’s true that I don’t have a family to care for or a child to look after, so I should do it for you.”

“What? Oh, why would you say it like that…”

“Am I wrong?”

“No, well, um, anyways, thank you. Let me know if you need anything next time. I’ll cover the night shift for you then. I’ll get going now.”

Jae-in had merely repeated her own words back to her, but Young-hee hurriedly left, forcibly hiding her displeasure.

She probably wouldn’t give it any thought normally and would just use Jae-in when needed, expressing brief gratitude before forgetting about it. But that was fine.

However, Jae-in swallowed a bitter smile as she gazed at the woman’s receding back.

Everything was a lie—that her child was sick, that her husband was away at a seminar, that she would cover a night shift for Jae-in next time.

Everyone tells lies.

Not just bad people, but even good people don’t always tell the truth.

There are lies in compliments meant to make others feel good, and in the affectionate words of a mother soothing her crying child.

Even the pastor’s words about going to heaven if you believe in God are technically lies. Because they are alive, and have never died and gone to heaven themselves.

Jae-in understood them.

It’s hard to state your situation exactly as is when asking for a favor. White lies are essential to maintaining harmonious relationships in society.

In a world full of lies, white or black, there was only one type of person who never spoke lies.

The dead.

Wearing a blue surgical gown and latex gloves, Jae-in entered the autopsy room. She nodded in greeting to the two medical examiners who had arrived before her.

On the autopsy table lay a corpse, neatly covered with a pure white cotton cloth like a blanket.

Before beginning the autopsy, Jae-in stood next to the table where the corpse lay.

She clasped her hands below her waist and closed her eyes.

May you rest in peace without pain in that place.

Jae-in stood here again today to hear the final words left behind by the dead.

🍓

Beep beep—!! Beep beep—!!

A sharp and chilling alarm rings out. The muscles on his bare back twitch as Muyoung, lying face down, extends his right arm.

Beep beep—!! Beep beep—!! Beep beep—!!

His thick forearm with prominently bulging veins fumbles around on the bed, searching for his phone.

It should be somewhere nearby. He widens his search radius to the sheets, pillow, and further to the nightstand, but the phone remains elusive.

He briefly considers enduring it for 5 minutes until it turns off on its own, but the noise is extremely grating even when he covers his ears.

“Haa…”

Muyoung finally lifts his face from the pillow and reluctantly raises his upper body.

Every time he wakes up, he regrets setting such an awful alarm tone, but nothing else is as effective.

Whoever first created this electronic sound must have been a skilled torturer.

The moment it assaults your eardrums, chills run down your spine and goosebumps spread all over your body, making it impossible to bear without getting up.

He turns off the alarm that went off precisely at 6 AM and steps out of bed.

Wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs, he stretches his arms above his head with a yawn, his hands nearly touching the ceiling as he rises.

After loosely rotating his neck side to side to relieve the stiffness from sleeping, he trudges to the bathroom. Having fully shaken off his drowsiness while washing up, he stands in front of the sink.

Wiping the foggy mirror with his palm reveals a robust, flesh-colored figure. Muyoung faces his own reflection with indifferent eyes and roughly swipes back his wet hair.

Squeezing a dollop of white shaving cream into one hand, he slathers it thickly around his mouth and chin and begins shaving.

For a few minutes, only the sound of the razor grazing his skin and the rippling of pooled water can be heard. Suddenly, he sets down the razor and leans his upper body closer to the mirror.

The red marks that had been etched at the juncture of his neck and shoulder have disappeared without a trace.

“…It faded faster than I thought.”

His touch lingers wistfully on the spot where the marks had been. Along with it, her voice echoes in his ears like an auditory hallucination.

 

“I have to suck something longer than I thought. My jaw hurts…”

 

A tone that was somehow sensual rather than monotonous, slightly lower than pure but with a soft resonance.

Than I thought. Than I thought. Than I thought. How many thoughts did she have? The phrase he heard most often from that woman was “than I thought.”

“She must have thought sex was like muscle training. Is it because of her job?”

Ah, thinking about that woman again. Damn, this is a sickness. Muyoung lets out a low lament, annoyed as he turns his head.

One night that was too intentional to be coincidence, too impulsive to be fate. Just that much.

Muyoung washes the cream off his face thoroughly, shaking off the memories of the woman as well.

🍓

“Good morning.”

Muyoung enters the prosecutor’s office and bows in greeting to Inspector Eom and Section Chief Cho as he walks to his seat.

After hanging his coat and jacket on the stand and sitting at his desk piled high with documents, Eom Hae-young pours him a warm cup of citron tea and holds it out.

“What’s with the citron tea?”

“An acquaintance sent me a whole box of citrons, so I tried making tea with it for once. It tasted pretty good. Instead of always drinking instant coffee, have this sometimes for your health.”

As expected of the lab mother, she takes meticulous care of her team members.

“What time did you leave last night? The dark circles under your eyes make it look like you didn’t sleep well.”

“As always, I left long after the sun had set.”

“I get that there’s a lot of work, but are you at least eating properly? You skipped breakfast today too, right? This is why you need someone at home to take care of you.”

“But you take care of me, Inspector Eom.”

“I mean besides me. You need a woman! From what I heard from Section Chief Jo, that arranged date didn’t go well either.”

Section Chief Cho, suddenly called out, quickly denied, 

“I didn’t say anything. I swear.”

“But what woman would welcome a husband who works late every single day? I keep telling you to gloss over some cases that can be glossed over. You’ll die from overwork at this rate.”

“I hear this nagging every day, but why does my heart ache every time when it’s from you, Inspector Eom? You don’t really wish for me to die, do you?”

“Goodness. What would I say to Prosecutor Seo? He’s the most stubborn one in our whole district office.”

She lives to nag him endlessly, but Muyoung just laughs because her words are full of affection.

“Alright, if you’re done nagging, shall we start work?”

At his words, the atmosphere in the office changes. The languid ease unique to mornings is replaced by a sharp and taut air.

Today especially was eventful from early on, with over a dozen drug addicts who had held a hallucination party being summoned one after another.

“Today’s the day, isn’t it? When that actor is coming.”

🍓

Thank you for reading! ♡