Chapter 2
At U-gyeong’s single remark, the atmosphere inside the interrogation room froze instantly.
Baek U-gyeong was that kind of man. A natural-born apex predator, he exuded a sense of intimidation that could seize the very flow of the air with just one word.
“Whoa. Holy sh*t. Scary. He’s exactly like those prosecutors in the movies.”
Even the suspect, who had been shaking his leg in an arrogant posture, subtly pulled his splayed legs back together while pouting.
“Excuse me? Ah, haha! It seems life in America suited you well, Prosecutor. Being so grim is… exactly the ‘American Style’!”
However, the middle-aged lawyer was not intimidated.
In fact, seeing him approach U-gyeong with such a slick demeanor, one could feel the grit of a veteran who had been through everything.
“Do you know what my nickname is?”
“Must I know?”
“Have you ever heard of the ‘Prosecutor General of the Night’ or the ‘Backdoor Chief of the Central District Prosecutors’ Office’?”
So what? With an answer written in his eyes, U-gyeong shifted his crossed legs and folded his arms. His attitude said: Go ahead, keep barking.
“Prosecutors get assigned to different districts every two years, right? But me? I’ve been frequenting the Central District Office for twenty years! I am the Representative Attorney of the Golden Castle Law Firm, Hwang—”
“Get out.”
“Pardon?”
This time, even the steadfast lawyer was flustered.
“I don’t say things twice.”
“Wait, I’m the lawyer here! Why—why should I leave?”
U-gyeong gestured with his eyes toward the power of attorney form the suspect had submitted.
“…If you are not a formally registered attorney on the power of attorney, you cannot, in principle, accompany the suspect into the interrogation room.”
Eun-jae quickly added what she realized he was about to say.
It was because she didn’t want the atmosphere to get any more hostile.
She also wanted to prevent the worst-case scenario where the investigation was dragged out because of this.
If that happened, she would have to spend more time sitting so close to Baek U-gyeong that their arms almost touched.
“Attorney, you are not on the list of retained lawyers. Therefore, as the Prosecutor said, you must leave.”
U-gyeong’s dry gaze fixed on the side of her face.
Tension washed over her, but Eun-jae pointed out the rules clearly, without trembling.
“No, I told you I’m the head of the firm! It’s common practice for the representative attorney to just sit in even if they aren’t on the form. You don’t know that?”
The lawyer looked around in disbelief, but no one was on his side.
Even the young lawyer he had brought along was just breaking into a cold sweat, overwhelmed by the pressure.
“No, I—gosh! This is ridiculous. Agh!”
Fuming with his hands on his hips, the lawyer suddenly pointed a finger at Eun-jae.
“Hey. You’re just an investigator! Why are you acting out when you’re not even a prosecutor?”
The lawyer began to attack Eun-jae’s status.
“……”
Eun-jae didn’t react. Being treated poorly as an investigator was something she experienced often.
But of all times, for it to happen while he was there. A wave of embarrassment and sorrow washed over her.
“Now that I think about it, you’re quite insolent, aren’t you? How dare a mere investigator talk back to a lawyer! I, huh? I’m much more—”
SLAM!
A sudden roar cut the man off.
As U-gyeong shot up from his seat, his chair fell backward with a loud crash.
The lawyer froze, his mouth still shaped around the nonsense he was spewing.
“Get out. Now.”
“Uh, uh… well…”
“Don’t speak informally to my person. You mere lawyer.”
The man, as massive as a mountain, strode over and opened the door himself.
“And don’t get cocky with a prosecutor. Know your place.”
“You…!”
The verbal abuse he had spat at Eun-jae was returned to him in full. The lawyer’s face turned beet red.
“I’ll—huh? I’m going straight to the Deputy Chief’s office! Prosecutor Baek U-gyeong! What, the grandson of Doyoung Group? Even so, you’re just a rank-and-file prosecutor!”
Even as he scrambled to pack his bag and exit the door, the lawyer continued to provoke U-gyeong. Of course, U-gyeong didn’t feel even a scratch.
Click. The situation was settled as soon as the door closed.
“Whoa. Thrilling. Prosecutor-bro, your vibe is too much.”
The immature suspect babbled a few words before finally falling silent.
“Let’s begin.”
Returning to his seat, U-gyeong opened his laptop with a clean, composed face as if nothing had happened.
“Ah, yes! So, my client has been illegally—to those women—”
The young lawyer, now fully intimidated, began to pour out testimony he hadn’t even been asked for yet.
Though the start had been rocky, the investigation proceeded quickly.
‘Please. Let there be no more trouble.’
Eun-jae felt relieved by the calmed atmosphere and immersed herself in the investigation. She only wanted to focus and finish this quickly.
‘My person. My person. My…’
She tried her best not to dwell on the words Baek U-gyeong had uttered earlier without any particular meaning.
However, Eun-jae’s wish to finish the investigation smoothly and quickly was not granted.
This time, the immature suspect was the problem.
“…!”
Tap.
With a faint sound, someone touched the tip of her foot under the table.
Eun-jae instinctively looked at the suspect sitting across from her.
“When the hell is this going to end?”
Yawning deeply, the suspect twisted his body while looking at Eun-jae.
Then, his foot touched Eun-jae twice more.
…If she felt it was intentional, was it just her imagination?
It wasn’t pleasant at all to have a sex offender with murky eyes staring at her while touching her leg.
Eun-jae straightened her back and moved away from him. She pulled her legs back tightly toward her chair.
“Ugh. So boring. Man, this is tedious.”
The man pretended to stretch his body and slid his lower half way down.
At the same time, she felt a vivid sensation of something sliding up from her ankle to her shin.
“Ah…”
Chills ran down her spine. She almost screamed.
But she couldn’t show signs of being flustered during an investigation. Eun-jae maintained a blank expression, pretending to be as calm as possible.
“What are you doing?”
It was exactly the timing when she was supposed to hand the evidence list to U-gyeong.
Not receiving what he wanted, he flicked his empty hand and glanced at Eun-jae.
“Here is the evidence list.”
Eun-jae quickly handed over a file. But it wasn’t the file he was looking for.
“I’m sorry, Prosecutor. I will give it to you again.”
The flow of the interrogation was slightly interrupted as she handed over the correct file.
In the meantime, she felt a disgusting sensation touch the top of her foot again—tap.
“Yaaaawn. Let’s just cut it here, shall we? The lawyer already admitted everything.”
The smirking suspect sat in a posture that was nearly lying down, openly playing footsie. She really wanted to cry.
…Should she just yell at him to stop?
What kind of aftermath would that cause? It was just as she was falling into deep thought.
“Get out.”
A dry command fell.
Eun-jae doubted her ears.
“Pardon?”
“I said, get out.”
Looking into U-gyeong’s pitch-black eyes as he stared at her, she snapped back to reality.
It was a bewildering situation where a prosecutor suddenly told his investigator to leave the interrogation room.
“Is there… some kind of problem?”
She asked for a reason as politely as possible, but U-gyeong crushed even that.
“Investigator Jeong Eun-jae, you are being a distraction.”
“……”
She was even more bewildered. What was suddenly so distracting?
Was it because of that one minor mistake she made just now?
It was unfair. She had endured the suspect’s bizarre provocations and tried so hard to finish this interrogation well.
But here, where the prosecutor was the center of everything, such behind-the-scenes circumstances didn’t matter.
“Yes, Prosecutor. I will leave first.”
Eun-jae gathered her papers without lingering. Walking as straight as possible on trembling legs, she left the interrogation room.
“Huh? Pretty noona. Where are you going? Did you two fight? Is it okay for people on the same team to fight? Huh?”
She didn’t even hear the suspect’s taunting. She only felt resentment toward the cold man’s indifferent face visible through the closing gap of the door.
The story of Prosecutor Baek U-gyeong’s intense first investigation heated up the District Office for days.
It seemed the kicked-out law firm representative had gone around talking about it on purpose.
“Kicking out Attorney Hwang… he’s really something. It makes me feel so refreshed.”
Even Eun-jae’s colleague and fellow investigator, Park Mi-jung, whom she met in the elevator, brought up U-gyeong’s story.
“Eun-jae, you must feel so reassured?”
“About what.”
“Where else in the world would you find a prosecutor who takes an investigator’s side? It’s my first time hearing about it. He’s so cool.”
She didn’t bother to correct her by saying that the “cool guy” had kicked her out at the end, too.
“Working with a prosecutor like that makes the job worth it. Your team is totally hot right now.”
“Is it…”
…Right. She just had to do her job.
She had gotten hung up on that strange phrase “my person” for no reason, made a mistake, and couldn’t even talk back after being harassed by a pervert.
“Born with a silver spoon, incredibly handsome, and even his personality is perfect. The welfare level is better than a conglomerate. I’m feeling a sense of relative deprivation.”
Her friend’s high praise continued.
Ironically, Eun-jae had already applied for a transfer to get away from Baek U-gyeong.
In her heart, she wanted to take a leave of absence or even quit immediately, but that was difficult because of the reality holding her back.
So, she wanted a transfer as the next best thing. She didn’t know how soon it would happen, though.
“Hey. Next time your Oppa is around, call me. Let me get a look at him.”
“O-Oppa?”
“If he’s handsome, he’s an Oppa!”
Unaware of her burning frustration, her friend said things that sounded like a flower garden.
“Ah, thanks to Baek U-gyeong Oppa, the entire Central District Office feels secure~”
“This is driving me crazy.”
A sigh escaped involuntarily. …Coincidentally, the title Eun-jae used when calling him was also ‘Oppa.’
Suppressing her suffocating feelings, Eun-jae stared at the elevator’s floor indicator.
They finally reached the 5th floor where the evidence storage room was located. As she waited for the door to open with a ding—
“Huh? What? Why is it doing this all of a sudden?”
With a clunk, the elevator stopped.
