Chapter 14: Cracks Beneath the Calm

“What are you doing here.”

“Ah….”

Instead of answering, Ji-won let out a trembling breath and hurriedly wiped the dampness soaking both her cheeks as she stood up.

Turning her head away, avoiding his gaze, swallowing her sorrowful breaths one after another, she looked anxious and flustered—like someone caught in a moment they desperately didn’t want seen.

Even so, he wanted to know.

What on earth had made this small but seemingly sturdy woman cry.

“Did something happen?”

“…No.

Nothing happened.”

“Then why are you crying.”

“I’m not crying.”

“Because you were startled.

Were you tense, afraid something might happen?”

“No.

It’s not that….”

As she kept denying it, her voice wavered at the end.

Whatever she had been tightly suppressing seemed to burst out all at once.

Seo-wan reached out and lifted her chin, which she had lowered to avoid his gaze.

Moisture clung thickly to her unusually round, large eyes.

Her pale red lips trembled, tightly pressed together, and her eyes shimmered beneath his hand with sorrow.

For some reason, staring at her tear-soaked, miserable face made an unfamiliar feeling surge up inside him.

Her face, pale enough to look translucent, her cheeks flushed red, her wet lips trembling endlessly.

Was he insane to find the pretty face of a crying woman strangely alluring.

Suddenly, he wanted to trace that clear, delicate face with his fingertips.

To press his fingers between those parted red lips.

Then to lick away the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes, to softly swallow her fragile earlobe—.

‘You sick bastard.’

Forcing those vulgar thoughts away, Seo-wan sharply furrowed his brow and clenched his teeth.

A sudden wave of self-loathing crashed over him.

He was furious with himself for harboring such absurd fantasies while looking at a woman who was crying in pain.

It was so ridiculous he wanted to crack open his own head and check whether his brain was still intact.

Of all people, why her.

This foolish, pathetic woman—why.

Facing his deeply scowling expression, Ji-won seemed to misunderstand its meaning completely.

She abruptly turned her head away and fully dodged his touch.

A brief silence settled between them.

Just then, Jo Min-jung’s voice calling for Seo-wan echoed from afar.

“Team Leader.

Team Leader, where are you?”

Using that voice as her salvation, Ji-won turned and fled first, as if escaping.

In that dark corner without even a streetlight, only a man captivated by unfamiliar emotions remained behind.

Eighteen suspects arrested.

Twenty-two child and adolescent victims rescued at the scene.

One hundred and four related witnesses and persons of interest.

He’d vaguely expected it, but once the arrests were complete, the scale of the case proved far larger than anticipated.

Above all, the fact that it involved sexual crimes against children and adolescents left everyone horrified.

Perhaps because of that, the media continued to pump out sensational coverage throughout the interrogations and investigations.

On the muted TV screen, news related to the case was playing yet again today.

“Did you see it?

This morning there was some insane post digging up the victims’ personal info.”

Min-jung burst in with a flushed face, venting furiously.

“I don’t know what the higher-ups are even doing these days.

Instead of arresting monsters like that.”

“No, how can they say something that disgusting to the victims?

Are they insane?

By their logic, if you’re bad at school and like to play around, you deserve something like that happening to you?

What’s the point of catching those bastards and throwing them in jail if people are like this and judges have no ethics?”

At Min-jung’s heated words, everyone shook their heads but couldn’t come up with a proper response, letting out deep sighs instead.

After all, among the suspects arrested was the son of a well-known law firm’s CEO.

Apparently, he’d already assembled a star-studded team of former high-ranking defense attorneys.

They should have felt relieved—thinking the suspects would now face judgment and punishment under the law.

Yet instead, it felt as though they were being let go already.

And that was precisely why.

“There’s nothing we can do.

We just do our jobs.”

Jae-hong replied calmly.

Min-jung slammed her fist onto the desk, forcing her boiling anger down.

“Alright, alright.

Enough getting worked up.

No one has plans tonight, right?”

Captain Hwang, having finished his report in the team leader’s office, stepped out and tried to lift the gloomy mood.

For nearly two weeks now, they hadn’t even been able to leave on time, let alone make dinner plans, so everyone looked at him like it was an obvious question.

“If nothing’s up, let’s have a team dinner tonight.

We never properly welcomed our team leader, and the case is wrapped up, so let’s do it.”

“Oh, great idea, Captain.

What’s the menu?”

Jae-hong’s gloomy expression brightened instantly.

“Beef.

Team leader’s treating.”

“Yes!

Beef!

Team Leader, I love you!”

At the sound of beef for the first time in ages, Jae-hong cheered and shouted a sudden love confession toward the closed team leader’s office door.

Captain Hwang chuckled and asked Ji-won and Tae-oh, who were walking into the office, whether they’d join as well.

“You two don’t have plans tonight either, right?

Team dinner.

Welcome dinner for the team leader and a case wrap-up.”

“Oh, we’re eating out tonight?”

Ji-won asked back, looking a bit troubled.

“Why.

Something going on?”

“My grandma told me to come home early today.

When I said the case was over, my great-aunt said she’d come over today.”

“What, that still isn’t resolved?

That guy still won’t withdraw the complaint?”

Ji-won gave an awkward smile and nodded.

“What the hell.

Isn’t that guy completely insane?

Suing an old lady who’s barely getting by just because she took the wrong package?”

Listening from the side, Jae-hong suddenly snapped and shouted.

Just then, the team leader’s office door opened with a click.

“Guys like that who only bully the weak are absolute trash.

Think about it.

Would he have done that if some powerful person took his package?

It’s because she looks easy and powerless that he pulls that crap.

I guarantee it—he’s got some kind of victim complex.

The kind of guy who can’t even make a peep in real life.”

Ji-won coughed loudly, trying to warn him with her eyes, but Jae-hong remained blissfully unaware and kept badmouthing Seo-wan.

Cha Seo-wan’s cold-faced presence drew closer and closer.

Unable to endure the pressure, Ji-won rushed over and physically covered Jae-hong’s mouth.

“Those loser types are—mmph!”

“Senior!

Senior!”

That ghostlike presence finally stopped right in front of Jae-hong.

Only then did Jae-hong realize Seo-wan was there, scratching the back of his head with an awkward smile.

He still looked completely unaware of the nonsense he’d just spouted.

Seo-wan’s eyes flicked between Ji-won and Jae-hong, filled with deep contempt.

Unable to endure it, Ji-won looked away first.

As if amused, Seo-wan turned his head and spoke in a relaxed tone.

“Let’s all head out early today.

You’ve all been working nonstop without even going home.”

With that one sentence, the office atmosphere instantly lifted.

Six-thirty in the evening.

For the first time in ages, real quitting-time smiles bloomed on everyone’s faces.

Caught up in that excitement, Ji-won helplessly pulled out her phone and sent her grandmother a message.

That she’d be late again today.

In the tense atmosphere, with silence all around, the only sound filling the small room was the sizzle of meat grilling solemnly.

This awkward mood had begun when Seo-wan declared he wouldn’t drink even a single drop of alcohol.

At a team dinner—one doubling as his own welcome dinner—he wouldn’t drink at all.

For Team Three, famous for drinking until blackout at every gathering, this was incomprehensible.

Jae-hong and the others took this declaration very seriously, worrying he might be rejecting them.

Whether he knew or not, Seo-wan’s expression remained utterly relaxed as he spoke flatly.

“Make yourselves comfortable.

Don’t mind me.”

“Ah, then we’ll just have a drink ourselves….”

Once he gave permission, Jae-hong awkwardly filled Captain Hwang’s empty soju glass.

Only then did Min-jung pour Jae-hong’s glass full.

From the very end of the table, Ji-won, who had been silently watching the heavy scene, felt a firm resolve settle in her eyes.

She couldn’t keep putting up with Cha Seo-wan’s tyranny any longer.

“I’m having a somaek.”

Just as Tae-oh was about to fill her glass, his hand froze, and everyone’s gaze turned to her.

Unfazed, Ji-won pressed the service bell firmly.

“Ma’am.

We’ll take beer too.”

Seo-wan’s gaze on her was openly disdainful, but Ji-won had no intention of backing down.

How long were they supposed to keep tiptoeing around that awful man.

If he didn’t want to drink, fine.

But why ruin the mood of a perfectly good team dinner.

If he really wanted to praise the team’s hard work, he could’ve quietly handed over his card and bowed out gracefully instead of making everyone uncomfortable.

Seriously.

There’s something wrong with his personality.

Shaking her head, Ji-won slammed her chopsticks against the bottom of her glass.

At the tips of the long chopsticks, a pale swirl of alcohol spun wildly.

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