Chapter 124
Chapter 124
Spend enough years as a detective, and you end up seeing every kind of filth there is.
Physically, biologically, politically, in far too many places, the rot was right out in the open.
Honestly, narrow, grimy back alleys were almost better. Crimes happened there, sure, but they were crimes you could actually close. Nobody bothered to cover anything up, and no judge had any reason to go easy. The consequences just fell where the individual's wrongdoing dictated.
But the more a place gleamed with splendor and polish, the more likely the whole thing was twisted.
Arrest someone, and they'd walk free on lack of evidence. Even if a case made it to trial and secured a conviction, expensive lawyers would whittle the sentence down to the bare minimum. And plenty of times, the work just stopped dead because someone higher up had been paid off.
Exactly like last time, when he first laid eyes on this girl.
"In that case, I'd like to speak with you privately. Would that be all right?"
The person introduced as a district office official said that.
He'd known the higher-ups in the police would shut this down again, so he'd pulled the district office into it, deliberately expanding the scope just to get back through the door here. His superior had raged at him, furious enough to blow a gasket, but he figured it was for the best. He was already planning to stick it out a little longer, then quit.
...He wouldn't go so far as to claim everyone with money was a criminal, but the bigger the crime, the more often the person committing it had serious money. Once this case was done, he intended to walk away from this whole world and never look back.
He only felt sorry for the rookie who'd been following him around.
The world's largest chaebol family. A girl ranked among the richest teenagers on the planet. But in the end, she was still just a kid in her mid-teens. The anxious tremor in her eyes made one thing plain: something was very wrong here.
More than anything, he hoped the girl would just be honest with him. Tell him everything.
*
Shit. How much am I supposed to say?
Climbing the stairs to my room, I felt a thread of anxiety coiling tighter.
Sure, I knew this situation was an opportunity. A chance to screw over Choi Na-kyung, whatever it took.
The problem was, I had plenty of my own skeletons.
Throwing tens of millions of won around at school to my friends; there's no way that looks normal. Helping a friend bribe the school. Spending a yearly salary's worth of money while basically treating a friend like a maid...
Wow. Looking at it one by one, every single thing is insane.
You were the one who thought all that up.
Well, yeah.
To be honest, my sense of money was probably completely shot. Once I found out my net worth was in the trillions, spending a few hundred million here and there just didn't seem like a big deal.
...Is that weird?
And then there was this one, whose sense of money was even more wrecked than mine.
Actually, strictly speaking, hers wasn't wrecked; it was more accurate to say she'd never had one to begin with. She'd probably never handled real money in her life.
...
Yeah, that seemed to be the case.
The place I led the official to was the room I'd been living in.
"...Ah..."
The moment she saw my room, the official lost her words.
A room bigger than most whole apartments. Would do that to a person, I figured, until the official's gaze snagged on the massive bed, and the other bed beside it.
"..."
Uh. Is this dangerous?
...She's not looking at the beds and jumping to weird conclusions, is she?
Belatedly, I remembered: this was a world where scandal could happen between women. Two beds, or just one enormous bed—either could send someone's imagination down a strange road.
I mean, okay, considering the expression Choi Na-kyung wore every single time she looked at Sara, it wasn't exactly a wrong assumption.
Still, thanks to the awkwardness, I managed to avoid flopping onto the bed out of habit.
A little stiffly, I adjusted course toward the table. The official simply followed in silence, gaze drifting around the room.
Standing by the table, I hesitated for a moment.
Should I offer her a seat first?
But she just waited, saying nothing, so after a beat of awkwardness I simply sat down.
"Well then,"
Only once I was seated did she find her own chair and settle in, flipping open a notebook she'd been holding in one hand.
"My name is Kim Seul-gi, from the Health and Welfare Counseling Center. It's nice to meet you."
Her voice was gentle as she introduced herself.
"Ah, yes, hello..."
My response came out a little awkward. She smiled at me before continuing.
"As I mentioned downstairs, we received a domestic violence report and came here because of it. May I ask you a few questions about that?"
"...Sure."
Like she was trying to put me at ease, she kept her expression and tone soft the whole time. I nodded.
The thought crossed my mind that she really didn't need to go that far, but then again, she didn't know me, and if she'd genuinely come on a violence report, it made sense.
"You might have to bring up some painful memories."
...You okay with that?
I asked Sara.
What's there to be okay with?
Sara sounded genuinely curious.
This might mean talking about your past.
Not that I planned to spill everything. Getting further entangled with these people right now would only complicate the story. Even if Choi Na-kyung eventually faced legal judgment, I couldn't just start yanking out every memory with zero preparation.
"In that case, first..."
Click. She pressed the ballpoint pen tip out as she spoke.
"Have you been injured recently, by any chance?"
"Injured?"
An indirect way of asking if Choi Na-kyung had hit me?
"No."
I shook my head.
At least I'd never been hit. That was what Sara had said when we talked at night, too. The emotional abuse was severe, but there'd never been physical violence.
...Or wait. Psychological violence—is that violence, too?
Maybe she caught the flicker of hesitation on my face, because this Kim Seul-gi person jotted something down in her notebook.
Then she let her eyes drift sideways across my room once more before asking.
"Have you... ever experienced unnecessary physical contact from your mother?"
"...Excuse me?"
The question made my head go blank. I stared back with a slightly dumbfounded look.
Ah. Right. Right.
This was a world where same-sex relationships were comparatively accepted as ordinary.
I couldn't pin down exactly when it had started, but for a very long time in this world, loving someone of the same gender was just taken as a natural possibility.
And naturally, that meant sexual crimes counted the same no matter the gender involved.
Friends around the same age clinging to each other? That could be friendship. But a much older adult wrapping her arms around a child, pressing her body close? That was pedophilia.
"..."
And Choi Na-kyung had done exactly that.
...Thinking about it again now, it was horrifyingly serious.
I couldn't bring myself to answer and just closed my mouth. The official's eyes sharpened.
...You...
And I was angry at myself, too.
What Choi Na-kyung wanted was Sara's body. She might not have acted on it outright yet, but that situation could blow up at any moment.
And even if Sara herself wanted to be held by Choi Na-kyung, I should have stopped it. Wrapping yourself around your adoptive daughter, touching her thighs, pulling her by the waist, stroking her face—wasn't that obviously wrong to anyone watching?
If the person doing it had been a man instead of a woman, I would have refused.
Objectively, sure, Choi Na-kyung was beautiful, but... sexual crimes aren't defined by someone's looks.
Look, I'm fine, though...
Sara's voice was small, but I shook my head.
I'm not fine.
Even if it was for the sake of memories, I couldn't leave Sara in Choi Na-kyung's hands. She hadn't done anything extreme so far, but who knew what Choi Na-kyung would do next.
This was a woman who had put a child barely starting high school into a wedding dress. What I meant was: this could genuinely become dangerous.
"Something happened, didn't it?"
The official asked.
But...
Could I actually say yes here?
I still had no real evidence. And I probably never would. Because I was going to make sure of it.
"..."
When I just sat there in silence, she eventually seemed to give up. After a moment, she offered me a small smile and said,
"You don't have to tell me everything if it's too hard. We can wait as long as you need. Whenever you find the courage to talk properly, you can do it then."
Hearing that, I let out a quiet sigh of relief inside.
Because I'd managed to get through today somehow.
"Just to be on the safe side, we'll stop by here regularly to make sure Miss Sara is staying safe and sound. Would that be all right?"
"What?"
Caught off guard, I blurted it out. But she must have taken my surprise for delight, because she simply nodded back at me.
...I am so screwed.
*
After finishing what barely qualified as a counseling session, I came back downstairs, and found a whole different problem waiting.
The two police officers were sitting there with faces frozen solid. Ha-neul, So-hee, and Su-a couldn't sit still, and Yang Hye-in just stood there, expressionless.
...Now what.
Had they gotten into a fight with the police or something?