Stranger

“Oh, yeah? Then what car suits me?”

As we leave the dark parking lot, the bright sky enters my eyes.
All the people around this area are wearing neat attire.
I put my feet on the place I never thought of before.
I think I really don’t want to come to the prosecutors’ office ever again.

“Audi.”

“Audi? Isn’t that an expensive car?”

Does this man know what the price of the car he is riding now is? It doesn’t mean we have to know well before we buy something, but his indifferent attitude while riding a thing with numerous zeros behind it wrenches me inside.
But, since nothing will change just because my mood is ruined, I quietly stare outside the window.

The car stops at a public parking lot.
I follow Yeon Woojeong out of the car, and Yeon Woojeong leaves the parking lot to an alley.
There are a lot of restaurants that look like they have been operating for a long time in the alley.
Amongst those, he enters a small restaurant with a black ‘seolleongtang’ word written in the white sign.
(TN: Seolleongtang=ox bone soup)

“There’s only seolleongtang here.”

There are only two menus, seolleongtang, and special seolleongtang.
Yeon Woojeong orders two bowls of seolleongtang, saying that the portion is large.

As seen from the outside, the restaurant is small inside, and there are wooden tables attached in clusters where you can feel its years through the traces left there.
News is airing on a small old TV set on a shelf close to the ceiling.
Yeon Woojeong’s gaze is directed there.

I thought his neatly dressed appearance doesn’t suit him, but strangely, it suits him in this old restaurant.

The owner brings over a water bottle and two silver cups, then side dishes one by one.
Kkakdugi, geotjeori, large peppers, onions, and ssamjang.
His movement is slow and makes me frustrated.

“What about breakfast, did you have it?”

“No.”

“Well, there’s nothing to eat in the home.
But, it will come today.”

“What?”

“Lunch box.
It’ll come in the afternoon, so can you take it when it comes?”

He asks for a favor very naturally, as if I will be in his home in the afternoon.
When I nod, the corners of his lips raise up.

Soon, seolleongtang and steamed rice, plain noodles are served.
After pouring in a very small amount of salt, Yeon Woojeong pours half of the rice in his seolleongtang.
I contemplate whether to put the rice in entirely or not, then I take a spoonful.
How long has it been since I ate fresh rice? It’s bad to keep reminded of this.

I have to focus at the current moment.
Things that I can’t have for now, and things that I can gain, myself, my circumstance.

“Woah, you’re here again, Prosecutor Yeon?”

I turn my head faster than Yeon Woojeong in response to the voice that suddenly addresses him.
A man with formal attire and wearing silver-rimmed glasses sits next to Yeon Woojeong.
His companion hesitates, then sits next to me.

“Hello, sir.”

“Yeah, is it good?”

“As you can see.”

The man wipes his hand with a wet towel and glances at Yeon Woojeong, who looks like he doesn’t eat for real.
On the other hand, Yeon Woojeong doesn’t look at the man except when he greets him in the beginning.
I think I know the reason.
The man’s eyes are displaying bad interest.

An interest in making the other person shows their other side that is unknown to others, then wanting to use that to pressure them.
It seems like the man is also a prosecutor like Yeon Woojeong.
The prosecutor I think of is like this man.

The man looks at me as though he notices my gaze.
His eyes are filled with ridiculing intentions.