Chapter Text
Yeo-jin was determined to understand Hwang Si-mok.
The first time they met, Prosecutor Hwang was irritable and in a hurry to go after Kang Jin-sub. That time, Yeo-jin found him aloof and disrespectful. Although, at the end, even when they both ended up going after Kang Jin-sub together and both got slightly injured from the chase, Prosecutor Hwang took it upon himself to drag the suspect to the Prosecutors’ Office instead of Yeongsan Police Station. Because of this, she also thought he held no regard for the law enforcement.
When Yeo-jin met him again for the second time, they almost bumped into each other in the police station he so disrespected. When she tried to exchange the usual pleasantries and introduce herself, he immediately blew her off. Definitely rude, she thought. Still, as she watched him work his way through the few evidences the team was able to acquire from the scene, she couldn’t help but begrudgingly admit he was focused and good at his job. He needed to work on his manners though.
The third time they met, Yeo-jin cornered Prosecutor Hwang in the courthouse for more information about the case. When he stayed silent throughout her whole tirade, she huffed and thought he was the most uncooperative being she has ever had the grace of meeting. As she had started to walk away, she was surprised that he responded. Before they knew it, they were back to Park Moo-sung’s house, scouting for more clues and evidence. She watched as he worked with eerie concentration in timing and reenacting the possible scenarios of the crime. She had even almost tazed him because his acting as a criminal was too convincing. In her defense –literally–, as far as she was concerned, she was alone in an abandoned house at night with an emotionless, unreadable stranger who had started heading her direction with a knife. Other than that, it was an uneventful night.
When the anonymous tip of Prosecutor Hwang being a “raging psychopath” in his past made its way to mainstream news coverage after his public declaration that he would catch the real culprit within two months, Yeo-jin actually felt bad for him. It was odd; she herself assumed the same that night in Park Moo-sung’s house, but she felt that she knew better now. In fact, she was probably more affected about it than he was.
So, when she saw him that night in the perfume store, she approached him without hesitation. He had been working tirelessly to solve the Park Moo-sung and the added Kim Ga-young case, and in exchange, he was dubbed a psychopath and a possible suspect in a case he had just stumbled upon. He probably didn’t care for her meddling, but she felt compelled to take him out to dinner anyway. Still, when he ended up sharing more information about the Kim Ga-young case on his own volition, she felt an unexplainable feeling of accomplishment. She finally found someone who – probably? – looked at her as an equal on the job.
After her encounter with Prosecutor Seo Dong-jae on the bridge, she was fuming mad. She couldn’t believe someone could be so absolutely arrogant and pompous and conceited and annoying. She couldn’t believe someone like him became Prosecutor Hwang’s senior. When they met up by the Han River shore, Detective Jang recounted their encounter with Prosecutor Seo, which she immediately waved off.
“That man over there doesn’t even care about those things,” she quickly added, not wanting him to feel pressured that he had to say anything about it.
Prosecutor Hwang then started rolling up his pants and took a net for himself to start fishing for the evidence in the murky river. She sighed in exasperation. There he went again, working with clear focus on finding what was disposed of. She didn’t know if she should feel offended that he didn’t trust their investigation enough or admire him for his dedication to the job. She couldn’t bring herself to leave him alone though, despite being already cold and tired. She quickly sat beside him, patted him on the back, and started rolling her pants up with him. He looked at her in what seemed like slight annoyance after her slap on his back, which she found incredibly amusing. It looked like she was right about him having emotions after all.
A few days later, Prosecutor Hwang called her despite his busy schedule and had asked to meet in a pojangmacha nearby to discuss the interlapping cases.
“By the way, what makes you think that you can trust what I’m telling you?” Prosecutor Hwang had asked.
Yeo-jin didn’t even know where to begin. Of course she trusted him. She had witnessed firsthand how he always went the extra mile in the pursuit of justice without crumbling under the pressure of his superiors. She admired that part of him.
“Who says I do? I don’t trust you,” she had replied instead while motioning that she was still watching him.
To her surprise, Prosecutor Hwang actually smiled. He had a sense of humor, after all. And a pretty smile to go along with that.
After their string of arrests and exposés as part of the Special Investigation, Yeo-jin was glad that Prosecutor Hwang had finally wound down a little and even acquiesced to having an informal team dinner on her rooftop. That was short-lived though. She received his call not even an hour after the party that someone had broken into his apartment and left a rather alarming threat. While scouring through his room for any bugs or traces of the culprit, she saw her drawings on his desk. She couldn’t help but smile, touched that he actually kept them with him.
She returned to his apartment a few minutes after leaving, planning to just drop some hot chamomile tea to help him sleep a bit easier. When he invited her in, she tried to school her shock into a passive expression. During their conversation, he had brought up that he rarely had dreams anyway and doubted he would have a hard time falling asleep. Even so, she offered her companionship as much as she could. Contrary to popular belief, Prosecutor Hwang Si-mok was still human, after all.
They shouldn’t have left him alone. She shouldn’t have left him alone. Of course Prosecutor Hwang would be affected by the death of his junior. When she found him unconscious in the hospital bed, she felt her heart sink. They had just lost a young soul, and she didn’t think she could bear to lose another one. The doctor had told her that he fell unconscious due to the pain and stress from being unable to express his emotions, which was brought on from a surgery he had from his childhood. Yeo-jin almost cried at the unfairness of it all. Everyone who thought he was cold and rude truly misjudged him. He probably didn’t care, or maybe he got used to it. But she cares, and she doesn’t want to get used to the idea of people thinking of him as such.
Yeo-jin, along with everybody else present, had witnessed Prosecutor Hwang’s emotional outburst during Prosecutor Young Eun-soo’s funeral. She was partly surprised about it, but at the same time, she knew it was bound to happen. He had been holding everything in for so long, but he had to express himself somehow. When she met with him later to discuss that case, Prosecutor Hwang stayed silent all throughout. She felt resignation fill her as she watched his eyes shakily analyze the evidences. He was blaming himself and shutting down as a result of it. All she could do now was stay by his side and support him.
Prosecutor Hwang, to his credit, was still able to focus on the job despite the emotional turmoil he had been going through for the past few days. He had finally figured out the serial killer was Prosecutor Yoon Se-won. She felt chills run all over her body when he had told her. She couldn’t believe she was fooled by him and invited Prosecutor Young’s potential murderer to her house. She couldn’t even imagine what Prosecutor Hwang was feeling.
After Prosecutor Yoon Se-won was arrested for the murder of Park Moo-sung, the assault on Kim Ga-young, and also the alleged murder of Prosecutor Young Eun-soo, Yeo-jin just wanted to hide away from the world. She couldn’t help but blame herself for what happened to Prosecutor Young, especially when she was the one who invited her over to her house and accidentally made her a target.
When her phone started ringing among the messy pile of comic books beside her, she reached out and answered it without even looking at the caller ID, already knowing whom it was.
“Are you home now?” Prosecutor Hwang asked.
“Yes, I’m home,” she replied resignedly. “The place where I said something unnecessary and caused someone’s death. I’m here now.”
While she went on a long monologue expressing her guilt and grief, Prosecutor Hwang listened quietly. After speaking her feelings out in the air, she felt a bit lighter that she was able to share this burden with someone else, and – to her surprise – he offered her words of comfort that she didn’t think she deserved. When she heard him express guilt as well, she quickly jumped in to say he didn’t do anything wrong.
She carefully asked why he never told her about his surgery and told him she’d try to help him when she can. He, in turn, revealed that Prosecutor Yoon denied that he murdered Prosecutor Young. So, while Prosecutor Hwang still had to investigate and confirm this for himself, this alleviated her guilt a little bit.
Yeo-jin wasn’t sure if Prosecutor Hwang called just to check up on her. A part of her thought so, as he even went out of his way to share his own thoughts and comforted her before ending the call. And maybe – hopefully – Prosecutor Hwang found solace in her too.
When Yeo-jin met Prosecutor Hwang in that abandoned building in Hongje-dong, she saw firsthand how grief and resignation engulfed him when he failed to save Chief Secretary Lee from falling. He was silent all throughout, from when she escorted him back down to the open field to when the police backup arrived, and she hoped he didn’t blame himself for what had happened. Even Prosecutor Seo testified that Prosecutor Hwang had tried to save Chief Secretary Lee.
He didn’t speak to her about it though. In fact, he immediately threw himself back into work instead, opening up new investigations to expose corrupt officials, politicians, and businessmen using the evidence left by Chief Secretary Lee. She watched as he worked tirelessly in an attempt to stop the violent and corrupt cycle by the higher ups of society. In return, she put in everything she had to support his efforts, one of which was arresting Prosecutor Young’s real murderer.
Yeo-jin was surprised when they suddenly saw him back on the news to address the old cases they had now closed and new ones that have been opened. He hadn’t told her anything about it, which she felt confused about. When he suddenly quoted her on national television for everyone to see and hear, she was stunned to silence. But of course, Prosecutor Hwang has once again proven himself to be a great listener and someone who considered her words seriously. If she felt in any way flattered or proud, she made no indication to the others about it.
Reading Assistant Officer Choi’s text message to her about Prosecutor Hwang being transferred to Namhae made her blood run cold. It was so sudden, and she wasn’t prepared to say goodbye to someone who had undoubtedly become one of her close confidantes – dare she say, friend? – through his unusual, quirky personality.
Oddly enough, meeting up with him in the pojangmacha that night felt cathartic. Yeo-jin teased Prosecutor Hwang like she usually did, all the while checking up on him. She had even given him one of her drawings that she personally thought bore an uncanny resemblance to him, though he didn’t think so, as her farewell gift to her. They talked as if nothing had changed, as if they would still meet up the next day and keep working together, as if this was just the beginning of their friendship instead of the end.
Had she already unraveled the mystery that is Hwang Si-mok? She had barely started, and he wasn’t the best conversationalist, to be honest. She did most of the talking whenever they were together. If anything, he probably knew more about her than the other way around. As she amusedly watched Prosecutor Hwang slurp the bowl of udon he ordered for only himself, she realized that there was more to him that she wanted to know more about. Despite the distance that would be between them starting tomorrow, she can foresee herself subjecting him through many messages and calls, and she was certain he’d respond every single time.
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Si-mok was desperate to keep Han Yeo-jin by his side.
When Si-mok first met Inspector Han, he thought she was incredibly loud and bothersome. He almost lost sight of Kang Ji-sub while chasing after him because of her interference. She slightly redeemed herself when she helped him chase after Kang, but he immediately took charge of the case and dragged him to the prosecution office before she could interfere more. It was the prosecution’s case, after all.
Funnily enough, the more they met, the chattier she became. Si-mok remained stoic the whole time, but he found himself welcoming her conversations. Although he found her demanding at first, he quickly readjusted his thinking and realized that she was just direct with him. He was generally an untrusting person, but something about Inspector Han just radiated righteousness.
When he stated that the only emotion he could probably feel was a superiority complex over others, Inspector Han was quick to rebut his conclusion. She told him that his emotions were just hidden away somewhere, waiting to be unlocked. She even drew a nifty little drawing of a brain split into segments to demonstrate her point. If anything, maybe another emotion he had was amusement over her drawings.
Their chase after Prosecutor Seo was… eventful, to say the least. For him, that is. When Detective Jang was telling him about how Prosecutor Seo practically manhandled Inspector Han, Si-mok wanted to apologize for getting them and especially her involved in that. When she waved off his concern before he could even offer it, he felt a dejection that he never felt before. Not knowing how else to express his concern, he picked up one of the nets and made his way to the murky river. She had done enough for the case, and he should take over before she got hurt again.
Surprisingly, Inspector Han didn’t leave him there alone when he basically gestured her to do so. Instead, she sat down beside him and intended to join him in his search too. He felt her slap his back, and he jolted out of surprise and slight annoyance. Even when he tried to keep a straight face, she saw through him and found it funny that he would get annoyed over something so petty. She even drew a ridiculous face on a small piece of police notebook paper just to show his irritation and forced it into his pocket.
When Si-mok got back to his apartment, he found the drawing in his pocket again. Was that how Inspector Han saw him? Should he try being more approachable? He didn’t know why or when he even started to care about what Inspector Han thought of him. Before he knew it, he went to his mirror and compared the drawing to his face and tried to practice smiling. He looked and felt ridiculous though.
After the informant left a note to Sungmoon Daily, Si-mok found it to be a lead towards the case. He immediately called Inspector Han to meet him in a nearby pojangmacha to discuss the details.
“By the way, what makes you think that you can trust what I’m telling you?” he asked in the middle of their conversation, genuinely curious. He doubted he exuded trustworthiness and approachability to those around him. Him being labeled a psychopath probably made more sense.
“Who says I do? I don’t trust you,” she replied without skipping a beat. She gestured her two fingers going back and forth between her eyes and his.
Inspector Han was ridiculous.
“You smiled! You smiled just now, didn’t you?” Inspector Han suddenly exclaimed.
“Did I?”
“Yes. You have a pretty smile.”
Maybe Si-mok didn’t need to practice in front of the mirror after all.
Things were going well in the investigation. Too well, in fact. So, when Si-mok discovered that his house was broken into, he thought that it was just about time something bad happened anyway. After Inspector Han and Detective Jang collected evidence of the break-in, he was ready to turn in for the night when the doorbell rang again. He found it odd since he wasn’t expecting anyone anymore. When he opened the door, he was greeted by a concerned Inspector Han holding out an extra cup of hot chamomile tea for him. He found himself inviting her back in, which he wasn’t sure if he did it out of courtesy or if he actually sought her company at the moment. Maybe both.
Si-mok thought he could handle it better, he really did. For all its worth, he tried to be professional for the sake of getting to the bottom of Young Eun-soo’s murder. He was both her colleague and her senior after all. Young Il-jae even entrusted her career with him. After overseeing his junior’s autopsy with his own eyes, however, he was overwhelmed with emotions he couldn’t comprehend. His vision started to blur, and his hearing was muddled with static. He held his head between his hands in a desperate attempt to stop the headache that was flaring up.
The next thing he knew, he was on a hospital bed, hooked up on an IV line. He ripped out the needle from his skin, thinking that he didn’t really have time for that. He quickly checked himself out of the hospital and headed back to his apartment. He checked his phone and saw multiple calls and messages, most of which came from Inspector Han.
To his surprise, he had gotten a message from her just an hour ago saying, “Is your head feeling better? Let me know if you need someone to drive you home from the hospital.” Si-mok had absolutely no recollection of how he ended up on a hospital bed even, let alone the memory of Inspector Han visiting him at his lowest and weakest. He didn’t know how she found out about his confinement or condition either. Sending a quick reply to tell her he was fine and was back home, he supposed he was fortunate that it was Inspector Han that found him. He didn’t think he could bear for anyone else to know about his condition and see him collapsed other than her. At least it was the one person he trusted the most.
Si-mok didn’t know what had gotten into him. While he did feel a little – a lot – of guilt on his end that he wasn’t able to prevent Prosecutor Young’s death, he knew for a fact that he had done everything in his power to hinder her from meddling with matters far above her. If anything, the only thing he regretted was underestimating her stubbornness to uncover the truth about her family’s issues.
With Young Il-jae placing the heavy burden and responsibility of protecting his daughter from the corrupt higher-ups and the rising tension of the Young family against the other prosecutors, Si-mok found it difficult to stay silent like he usually would. His outburst was unwarranted, and maybe he shouldn’t have antagonized anyone and made the Young matriarch cry harder. But for the first time in his life, he was honest with his anger and frustration, and he let everyone know that he did his damn best to protect his junior. He quickly pulled himself together, paid his respects, then left to continue his investigation.
Si-mok had already planned to meet Inspector Han in the police station after to discuss the evidence her team had collected from the scene. He knew she was there when he had blown up, and he wondered if she thought lowlier of him now for his tactless behavior. To his surprise, when he arrived to meet her, she said nothing of the incident and just moved right on to business. As he reviewed all the pictures and reports strewn on the table and listened to her recounting their findings, he felt her concerned eyes watching his every move.
She did all the talking that time; he couldn’t bring himself to speak another word after what he had just done. He just hoped that Inspector Han excused his rude behavior this time and wouldn’t give up on him like others had.
After Prosecutor Yoon’s arrest, the whole Seoul Western Prosecutors’ Office was bustling to keep up with their cases on top of dealing with the sudden media attention they were receiving. Si-mok interrogated Prosecutor Yoon himself, determined to get to the truth of the connected cases. He was disgusted with Prosecutor Yoon as he tried to justify his wrongdoings by sounding like an unremorseful vigilante for what he had done; but moreover, he was disgusted with himself for taking too long to capture him and even for working with him. Still, when Prosecutor Yoon told him he wasn’t the one who attacked Prosecutor Young, he decided he should look into other possibilities.
Si-mok headed to the pojangmacha he frequented after work that night. He didn’t usually care for drinking, but he would allow himself this time to take his mind off of the jumbled mess of cases for the meantime. It wouldn’t do for him to collapse again from overwhelming stress at such a dire time.
He decided to call Inspector Han and tell her the recent developments on their investigations, but he immediately noticed her tone was… different? He probed carefully, not wanting to pressure her to speak but at the same time wanting to be a shoulder she could lean on. He listened attentively as she talked, trying to reciprocate the consolation he had always received from her.
Si-mok himself felt so much burden weighing on him, even when he knew full well he did everything he could. He did his job and so much more. But maybe it still wasn’t enough? Should he have pushed himself further? Right then, Inspector Han’s voice pulled him out of his spiraling thoughts.
“Why didn’t you tell me about your brain surgery?”
“It’s nothing important,” he replied. He didn’t think it mattered in the grand scheme of things anyway. It happened, and that’s all there is to it. He also didn’t think anyone cared to know.
“Is the pain gone?”
“Yes, it’s gone.”
“That’s all I needed to know. Tell me if the pain comes back. Well, there’s nothing I can do even if you tell me.”
Si-mok wanted to tell her how wrong she was about that. Throughout his whole adult life, no one had ever checked up on his general well-being or asked him on how he was doing. He didn’t mind, and he had also gotten used to it anyway. Inspector Han was the first one who had approached him with no ulterior motive in mind but to see how he was doing. To be honest, he had been annoyed at first. But in time, he had come to realize it was just because he wasn’t used to receiving genuine attention from others and that he actually appreciated having someone to care for him.
“You should still tell me if it hurts. I can at least take you to a hospital.”
He stayed silent for a while, not knowing how to respond to such kind words. He couldn’t put into words his gratitude, so he decided to just let her know that Prosecutor Yoon denied having any involvement with Prosecutor Young’s murder to alleviate the guilt she had been placing on herself.
He ended the call, not wanting to disrupt her rest any further. When he hung up and drank the rest of the liquid in his shot glass, he realized he had barely touched the bottle of soju at all. Despite having the original intention to drink to minimize his stress, he didn’t need it anymore— not after hearing Inspector Han’s genuine concern for him. He paid the bill and headed home feeling lighter, and it wasn’t because of the alcohol.
Chief Secretary Lee contacted Si-mok first and even chose the place for them to meet up. He immediately called Inspector Han to follow and call for backup and rushed there himself. It was an odd location, but he didn’t have time to ponder on it. He expected indignance and defiance from his former senior when he finally got cornered, but all he received was quiet cooperation— which was extremely suspicious. And his gut feeling was validated when he realized Chief Secretary Lee was slowly taking small steps back… towards the ledge of the open, abandoned building.
“Sunbae-nim,” he tentatively called out, a hopeful attempt to stop the man from his deathly trance. All he received was a sad nod to the title before more steps were taken. Si-mok had no choice but to run and grab the man, but ultimately, he didn’t make it. Instead, he was forced to watch as Lee Chang-jun fell to his death.
Si-mok was frozen in place at the scene he had just witnessed. His senior was now sprawled on piles of unused floorboards on the ground. He watched from above as Prosecutor Seo hesitantly and fearfully approached Chief Secretary Lee’s body, trying to shake him awake. When Inspector Han finally made her way up and saw him, she quietly asked if he had pushed the older man. Si-mok stayed silent. Of course he hadn’t, but he still felt responsible for not being able to stop him. Thankfully, even when he didn’t say anything in his defense, she understood him immediately.
He poured himself into more investigations and prosecutions after, using the evidences left by the now late Chief Secretary Lee. He had also asked Inspector Han to look into Woo Byung-jun’s escape to Taiwan, as he couldn’t trust anyone else to do the job except her. Slowly but surely, more and more cases were starting to open, and he worked on them all, which he used as a way to alleviae his guilt.
Once the wave of investigations was finally slowing down, Si-mok thought he would finally be able to catch a break. His wishful thinking only lasted a few minutes. Chief Prosecutor Kang had just informed him that, due to his heavy involvement in the prosecutions regarding powerful figures in Seoul, the higher-ups have decided to immediately transfer him to Namhae County. Whether this move was for his safety or for their convenience remains to be seen, but he had an inkling which one it really was.
Strangely enough, he had a sinking feeling hearing this announcement. He generally never cared about moving from one place to another, a benefit on his nonchalance, but this time felt different. He felt more rooted and grounded to Seoul in a way he never had before, even when he literally spent most of his life in this city. He couldn’t pinpoint the reason— that is, until his phone started ringing, and he saw the caller ID: Inspector Han Yeo-jin. Then, it all made sense.
News of his transfer spread fast, and Inspector Han reacted to this almost violently. He held back a contemplative smile as she went on about how he should’ve been rewarded for his efforts instead of being sent away. So many things had happened over the past two months, from from Park Moo-sung’s murder to Lee Chang-jun’s twisted sense of justice launching numerous proceedings for everyone involved, but one thing was constant for him: Inspector Han’s unwavering support and concern for him. And he didn’t take that lightly.
Si-mok met Inspector Han that night in the usual pojangmacha they had spent many nights visiting when working together on a late night. Unfortunately, this would be the last time they could share a meal together for who-knows-when, and this upset him somehow.
When Inspector Han handed him another drawing –a cartoonish man with an exaggerated grin on his face that was somehow supposed to resemble him– as a gift, he instinctively sighed and complained it looked nothing like him. While he felt genuine amusement for the drawing and a whole sense of gratitude for everything she had done, he had never been good with expressing himself with words. So, he settled for pouring her a drink, congratulating her on her promotion, and apologizing that he couldn’t attend the promotion ceremony.
Si-mok wasn’t someone who had a lot of personal belongings. He usually only kept essentials, like his clothes, books, money, and so on. It came to his surprise that while he was unpacking to settle in his new office, he found Inspector Han’s drawing of a smiling him. It didn’t feel right to just stash it away in a box, so he opted to display it beside his computer monitor where he spent most of his time staring at. More than a ridiculous drawing that made him smile often, it also served as a reminder that she had always reached out to him and stayed by him throughout the whole ordeal in Seoul, and he couldn’t have achieved as much as he did without her support. So, whenever anyone asked him about it, he told them it was a significant gift from a close friend.
It wouldn’t do well for Inspector Han to find out about this arrangement though. She would never stop sending him drawings if she knew.