November 2005
Creak.
Yeom-ja, taking out bundles of ten thousand won bills tied in tens from the cash box, looked forward.
The door, which she had planned to fix but neglected due to a dispute over estimates with Mr. Park from the nearby hardware store, shook violently.
Yeom-ja frowned, quickly put the money back into the cash box, and closed it.
Perhaps because of the heavy rain, it was a day when the villagers’ footsteps ceased quite early.
There had been no customers for several hours, which should have been welcome, but seeing the wet floor, her brows remained furrowed, unable to relax.
“Do you have ’88’?”
A man in a black raincoat approached Yeom-ja without shaking or wiping off the water.
Drip, drip. As the man moved, trails of water formed.
To create so much trouble just for cigarettes.
“One?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, geez. I’ll give it to you, so stop moving and stay there. Honestly.”
Yeom-ja braced herself on her knees, stood up, and snapped.
The man didn’t respond.
Yeom-ja turned around and skillfully found a sky-blue pack of cigarettes from the haphazardly stacked tobacco display.
A rustling sound followed.
Her back ached.
Yeom-ja carelessly tossed the cigarettes onto the counter and massaged her back.
“2,800.”
Despite the obvious 2,500 won price tag, she boldly added three hundred won.
The man, who had been standing still, obediently took out three one-thousand-won bills and placed them next to the cigarettes.
Yeom-ja picked up the wet bills, opened the cash box, and reached for the coin compartment.
“I’ll just take a lighter.”
The man picked up a plastic lighter that had been placed in front of him instead of change.
“That’s 300 won, though?”
“…”
At Yeom-ja’s displeased words, the man paused and looked up.
From under his raincoat hood, which almost covered his eyes, his pupils, which had not been visible until now, glowed strangely.
Yeom-ja’s mumbling lips were sealed shut as if glued with a glue stick.
“…I’ll just give it to you. Take it.”
Yeom-ja quickly lowered her eyes and closed the cash box.
Ding, the sound echoed particularly loudly in the suddenly silent supermarket.
The man’s gaze turned towards the cash box.
For a while, a subtle silence hung in the supermarket.
Yeom-ja, feeling unnecessarily awkward, looked out the window behind her and thought, ‘No one’s coming anyway.’
She meant she was going to close up the shop.
Fortunately, the man seemed to understand the implication of Yeom-ja’s words.
He smoothly pulled out a yellow fluorescent lighter from the front slot of the box where lighters were kept and turned around.
The man followed the trail of water he had made and opened the store door.
The door again rattled loudly as it opened and closed.
Only then did Yeom-ja seem relieved, she patted her chest, then looked at the closed door and opened the cash box.
Seeing the wet bills, she clicked her tongue and took out the bundles of ten thousand won bills she had tied again.
Yeom-ja hastily tidied up the area, then glared irritably at the trail of water the man had made.
She hesitated, then shook her head.
I’ll clean it tomorrow, I guess.
I can ask Young-ho from across the street.
That foolish guy will happily pick up a mop if I give him a pack of gum.
Yeom-ja snorted and approached the door, which was shaking as if it would be torn off.
Outside, it was completely black.
It was a quiet village, and the pouring rain gave her an eerie feeling of being in darkness.
But that was all.
Yeom-ja knelt down, hoping the pounding rain wouldn’t come into the store.
It was because of the lock at the bottom of the door.
Yeom-ja thought she must change this door and reached for the lock.
It was then.
Kkiri-rik, kkiik.
A chilling sound of metal scraping against metal echoed right in front of Yeom-ja’s nose.
Rain lashed down on Yeom-ja’s legs and face.
Startled, Yeom-ja quickly raised her head.
A long, dark shadow, as black as the outside, fell over Yeom-ja’s face.
“W… What?”
“But, ma’am.”
“If cigarettes are 2,500 won and a lighter is 300 won, that’s 200 won too expensive.”
Thwack.
A dull thud heavily cut through the sound of pouring rain.
Thud.
The sound of the closing door cut off the dying scream.
The door, slammed shut with violent force, didn’t rattle as it had before; it closed perfectly, locking into place.
Flash!
A momentary flash of natural light swept through the now silent supermarket.
The man, with the fallen woman at his feet, simultaneously pushed back and removed his raincoat hood.
“Why didn’t you give me the change, you bitch.”
The man calmly stepped squelch into the spreading pool of blood beneath his feet, as if he had just done what he was supposed to do.
A red path of blood slowly overlaid the trail of water the man had made.
***
“Ah, damn it!”
A coarse shout fiercely cut through the space, which had turned cold from the subtle war of nerves.
It was Chang-hyun’s expletive, yelled out in indignation immediately after hearing the details of his crime.
Chang-hyun couldn’t stay still for a moment while Jung Yoon explained the case.
He tried to interrupt Jung Yoon’s words several times but failed due to Jeong Rok’s restraint.
Finally, when Jung Yoon fell silent, Chang-hyun, with a flushed face, immediately screamed.
Jung Yoon’s hands, which had been dryly typing on the keyboard, stopped, and his eyes subtly shifted, fixing on Chang-hyun, who was sitting opposite him.
Chang-hyun, who had been huffing and puffing in the pale afternoon where no emotions could be read, cringed as if doused with ice water.
Jeong Rok, sitting a little away to Jung Yoon’s left, watched this, then rolled his chair loudly towards Chang-hyun.
“Our Chang-hyun’s voice gets loud in front of the CCTV, doesn’t it? Why didn’t you walk around with your shoulders proudly back in front of CCTV all the time?”
Jeong Rok, sitting backwards on a chair and hugging its backrest with the CCTV behind him, smiled brightly.
His voice was gentle.
“…No, I didn’t mean it towards you detectives.”
“Right? Our Chang-hyun isn’t that kind of bad guy, is he?”
“Oh, of course! Detective, I’m really not!”
Chang-hyun’s eyes lit up at Jeong Rok’s friendly tone, and he raised his hand as if making an oath.
Jung Yoon’s disdainful gaze towards him went to the handcuffs on his wrist.
Clank, clank, the sound of metal clashing was loud.
“But only we hear what you’re saying right now, don’t we?”
“…Huh?”
“In this space, as long as I, and our detective Woo Jung Yoon here, are with you, if one more curse word comes out of your mouth, it means you’re dead. You know what I mean, right?”
Jeong Rok continued calmly.
Chang-hyun’s hand, which had been raised high, slowly lowered and fell onto the desk.
“You know me well, don’t you?”
“Yes… Yes.”
“Yes, so what. What did you say earlier? I forgot, hey.”
Jung Yoon, also fed up with Jeong Rok’s incessant nitpicking, shook his head.
It was because Chang-hyun’s face grew paler and paler the gentler Jeong Rok’s voice and tone became.
Chang-hyun trembled as if he would collapse the kinder Jeong Rok was to him.
“I really… I didn’t do it. Like I said, I’d steal from cars, not houses! Someone who only robs houses doesn’t suddenly kill people! Oh, I’m really going crazy!”
His attitude was completely different from when he was cursing.
Lowering his eyes and whimpering softly, Chang-hyun argued without confidence.
“If you keep denying it and refuse to admit to the crime, the investigative agency can find out the truth, and you might receive a harsher punishment in a later trial.”
“I’m denying it because I didn’t do it! No, detective. Detective! Oh, really, you know me! At most, I’d break into an empty house, am I someone who’d kill a person? I can’t even punch. I’m too timid…!”
“You’re too timid to break into empty houses?”
Jung Yoon’s voice was sharp, cutting off Chang-hyun’s words, whose face was beet red from injustice.
Stung by the direct hit, Chang-hyun couldn’t continue speaking and just gaped his lips like a carp, looking around cautiously.
“If you were a little more timid, you might have killed someone too.”
For someone saying such terrifying words, his face was too neat.
Chang-hyun’s eyes became busy.
Quickly scanning from Jung Yoon’s face to his sitting posture, Chang-hyun instinctively felt that this side would be much more difficult and immediately lowered his voice.
“…No, I didn’t mean it like that. What I mean is, I can’t do things like that.”
Jung Yoon scrutinized the quickly deflated Chang-hyun with a keen gaze.
Then Jeong Rok, rolling his chair back over, smiled broadly and said playfully.
“Shall we just get rid of your timidity entirely? I think that might make a better picture.”
Jeong Rok held his left hand in the air and squeezed it hard, as if crushing something.
Chang-hyun cleared his throat with a series of hacking coughs.
“It’s problematic if he dies.”
“Oh, is it?”
Jeong Rok clicked his tongue, expressing regret.
Chang-hyun, dumbfounded, gritted his teeth.
In the slightly calmer atmosphere, Jung Yoon casually asked for some personal information, and Chang-hyun obediently answered.
Then, from somewhere, he suddenly became agitated again, vigorously beating his chest, slamming his fists on the table, and then extending both hands forward, shouting:
“This is really some kind of excessive investigation or something. It was like this last time you brought me in too! I should have really sued everyone back then, damn it!”
Jung Yoon, who had only been listening with his ears and keeping his eyes on the monitor, suddenly whipped his gaze towards Chang-hyun.
Startled, Chang-hyun flinched, his shoulders hunching. Chang-hyun’s chin shriveled like a wrinkled walnut.
His muttering, chattering voice was filled with a crying tone, as if he were truly wronged.
Jung Yoon’s expression gradually became serious. Jeong Rok, who had been teasing Chang-hyun with a constant sly grin, was also the same.
“You were investigated?”