Chapter Text
“You go first, it’s cold!“
“I will wait till you get inside!“
“I will wait till you get back to your car.“
“No, I will wait for you to get home safely.“
“It’s really cold, just go. I need you to be strong and healthy!“
“Just cook me chicken soup if I get sick.“
“I don’t know how to cook, you’ll need to teach me first.“
“If you invite me inside…“
Si Mok watched the scene unfolding in front of him without emotion. Which wasn’t exactly unusual for him. “Is this really what Yeo Jin watches every week?” he asked himself with a neutral curiosity. He checked his phone and scrolled up to double-check one of her messages. It was definitely the correct channel. Every Saturday and Sunday evening for the past month, she sat down to watch an hour of… this. He had to admit to himself that he didn’t expect her to like something with almost no plot. Couple of days ago, the policewoman practically ordered him to watch an episode, claiming that it was for his cultural enrichment and a “passive social interaction practice”. She then spent some time diving into an alleged drama behind the scenes, and claiming that this TV series was “the perfect rom-com brainrot”. He was too afraid to expose himself as even more culturally lacking to ask what a “brainrot” is.
Last Thursday, after their now traditional bi-weekly dinner, he just went to his car after quickly saying goodbye. If he was to take notes from the drama, he should’ve waited for his friend to get in the car, but she should do the same for him so… It is a classic example of a deadlock, he decided. Surely this is not what Yeo Jin meant when she said it will be good for his social ineptitude(not her words, exactly). This seemed awfully inefficient and potentially unhealthy for both parties, he decided after imagining them standing stiffly at a parking lot. It was January, the coldest time of the year. She was so thin that she was guaranteed to get sick if they tried saying goodbye like that. In which case, he would need to cook her soup, but he was in the same predicament as the heroine of the drama - he didn’t know how. Si Mok looked back at his work notes for the next week, following the episode with only an occasional glance. There were a lot of scenes repeated with different angles, and the background music frequently sounded like what he could describe as inspirational. In short, it was easy to follow while still progressing with his work at a good pace.
During his solo Monday lunch, the prosecutor crafted a long message to Yeo Jin. He wasn’t sure what feedback she expected from him, but he felt the need to let her know that he took her recommendation seriously. He didn’t feel as a right person to judge the acting or scenography, so opted for writing down his guess as to what had happened previously and what will happen next. A subplot concerning an obvious petty crime was used to stage the meetings between the main characters. Figuring out the plot so far was offensively easy with the amount of flashback scenes he saw.
“Aigoo, it’s a romantic comedy not a detective show, Mr Prosecutor! Just enjoy them falling in love! Winter is for cute dramas. I will recommend a crime show to you in spring.” - her response was puzzling. He read the message again, feeling a tightness in his throat, not for the first time since he met her. It was a feeling for some reason. One of these four sentences made him feel something and he couldn’t even say which one. At that though his eyebrows tightened too. For all the talk about his feelings’ existence from Yeo Jin, he still had trouble finding and naming them.
“Hello, Prosecutor Hwang. I didn’t see you earlier!” Kim Ho Sub suddenly showed up in front of him, carrying an empty plate on a tray. The prosecutor sometimes ate lunch with the investigator, but usually the latter was spending his lunch break networking with other employees.
“I didn’t see you either,” Si Mok replied dryly.
“Are you working through lunch again? You should relax on your break, Prosecutor Hwang!” Ho Sub sat down at the table, not missing any opportunity for a chat, even if it was mostly one-sided.
“No. Do you watch dramas?”
“Sometimes. There’s so much being made these days that I don’t keep up with all of them though,” the investigator responded without showing a trace of surprise. He was used to Hwang’s direct and random questions. In the end, they always led to a case. “Are you doing a celebrity case?” he leaned in excitedly.
“Do you watch ‘This Is Not Normal’?”
“Oh, there is a lot of gossip about the main cast, is it really about it?” Ho Sub’s eyes got huge. Si Mok thought that even if he was working on a case involving celebrities, he wouldn’t tell him, unless he wanted the whole office to know about it.
“No, so do you watch it?” the prosecutor repeated calmly. The other man’s expression changed into something unexpected, a mix of disappointment and… distaste? It was a rare expression on this usually happy face.
“Actually, I do.”
The silence stretched, both men unsure about what question will follow.
“What do you think?” Si Mok finally nudged the other man.
“What do I think? I will tell you what I think but you can never repeat that to my girlfriend,” Ho Sub whispered and continued, not expecting any response from Si Mok who didn’t even know up to this moment that he had a girlfriend. “She loves this shit. I have to watch it every weekend. I’m counting down the days till it finally finishes so it’s my turn to select something with an actual plot. The drama is more boring than a Monday morning! And it’s such a huge hit! Everyone loves it, but I swear this is the blandest, plotless…”
“Right!” Si Mok interrupted this passionate speech, his tone neutral but bearing a slight tint of excitement at finding a voice of reason in his collegue.
“Wait, do you watch it too?” Ho Sub asked in disbelief. “I didn’t know you watch dramas.”
“I don’t. A friend asked me to watch this one.” Si Mok clarified laconically.
“A friend? That is one bad friend,” the investigator quipped.
“It was Senior Inspector Han.”
“Really? Do you keep in touch? I haven’t talked to her in ages. Why did she recommend it? There’s so many great crime dramas, she should’ve recommended one!”
Ho Sub’s expressive face was pure surprise. He didn’t expect the stoic man to have any friends, if he was being honest. While their work relationship was good, he couldn’t remember even one time where Prosecutor Hwang asked him anything personal, or had a personal call during work, or well, anything personal to say. Asking about this damn drama was probably the closest thing to being friendly that he could imagine. On the other hand, there was a subtle something between those too back then. He remembered noticing it when they were working together on the special investigation, all cramped in that small room for hours. Those years ago, Prosecutor Hwang looked completely unprepared for a simple friendship, let alone acknowledging that perhaps a coworker has a tiny crush on him. Ho Sub, attuned to the subtleties of office drama, had his thoughts about it, although he figured that it’s probably for the better that Inspector Han’s feelings are so firmly unacknowledged. He already felt sorry for poor Eun-Soo, who was not subtle at all.
“Yes.”
“Sorry?”
“We keep in touch.”
“And she recommends you dramas, and you watch them?” Kim’s eyebrows raised, a curious smile playing on his lips. Actually, even this was better than that drama - entertaining a thought of those two somehow being friends. His mind couldn’t go any further past that. He really, really liked Hwang Si Mok; it was just really, really hard to imagine him doing anything romantic. Sure, he was somehow nicer and more open here in Wonju, but still so painfully formal.
“It was the first time. I don’t think…” Si Mok trailed, looking pensive, as if he was trying to solve a really difficult problem. “I don’t think I liked it.”
“We are the last two sane people in Korea then. I can’t believe Inspector Han...“
“She’s a Senior Inspector now.”
“Right. Senior Inspector Han is watching this. Times must be hard for her too,” the investigator nodded his head.
Prosecutor Hwang looked at him intensely, with a focus that felt slightly too strong for such a light topic.
“Why do you say that?”
“This drama is just pure fluff, no plot. I guess, it’s nice to watch after a tough day. My girlfiend says it helps her reset after work” Ho Sub said authoritatively. “She’s a nurse,” he added with visible pride. Maybe the whole of Korea had a difficult time now, that’s why they liked this. Yes, this must be it.
Hwang Si Mok sighed. Was it still bad for her? She rarely talked about her office when they met, dodging his questions and redirecting them to the topics she handled at work, instead of what she experienced from her coworkers. He kept writing to her about small things daily, hoping that it would make a change, but he was now realising that he never saw proof that it did. Was he taking the offhand comment of Ho Sub too seriously? They didn’t even talk, so how could this man know her state of mind better than Si Mok - who saw her so frequently, who wrote to her every day? Si Mok had a sudden urge to call her into the interrogation room, get honest answers, and plan to fix everything based on the transcript. He couldn’t even feel or recognize his own emotions, but he desperately wanted to make her less unhappy. The objective hasn't changed since autumn, but maybe his methods should. By his moral standards, she was a good person. It was only logical to want a good person to be happy, an ultimate good emotion as he understood.
Si Mok abruptly stood up, and Ho Sub did too, reflexively. They left the cafeteria together, and only after entering his office Ho Sub realised two things: Prosecutor Hwang remembered to say goodbye to him at the door, and that his question didn’t lead to a case at all.