Notorious ⊷ Haechan

22 ⊷ Annoying

a round of applause for my man Mark, everybody

⊷ 22

Tense. 

Distant. 

Haechan talked the way he always did. He looked the way he always did. 

Nothing was out of the ordinary but Ji-yoon couldn't help but notice that something was off with him. If the time and place were different, she would have asked about it right then and there. 

But being nothing more than a step away from the chief prosecutor's office, she didn't want to start a conversation that would probably take a little while to finish. 

Instead, she remained silent until the secretary opened the door for them and led the two inside the big office of Mark Tuan. 

Mark Tuan the chief prosecutor. 

When he looked up, his eyes lit up. The smile he offered wasn't really enthusiastic but it was genuine nonetheless. He got up, walked up to the two. 

Two? 

He frowned. 

"You brought a friend?" he wondered as the doors to the office closed. "Someone I know?" 

"Someone I know," Ji-yoon said in return. "I know you don't trust others but he is alright." 

Frowning, Haechan looked at her from the corners of his eyes.
"Just 'alright'?" he mumbled which she chuckled at. 

Unhappy, yet unwilling to make a big deal out of it, Mark nodded. 
"I will take your word for it." He motioned them to take a seat before sitting down himself. "So, why did you want to see me?" 

The question left behind silence. It was okay to ask, of course, but Ji-yoon frowned at how Mark pretended not to know what she wanted or what she was going to say. 

It had not even been a couple of days since Renjun and Jisung had visited him. 

Unwilling to play along, Ji-yoon relaxed on the soft sofa of the office. She glared at Mark judgingly who tried to hold her eye contact. 

Emphasis on tried.

"Why make me come here? You could have just talked to my friends," she said. 

"Yes," Mark agreed quickly but, equally fast, added, "But you know I don't just trust anyone that comes in here and claims to be friends with my friends." 

Which she couldn't argue with. 

Instead, she hummed, agreeing reluctantly. "Tell me then," she ordered. "Where is your integrity? How could you agree to let the bodies get cremated?"

Sitting up straight, Mark shook his head, pressed his hands into the sofa cushions next to him. He looked exhausted but also defensive. He didn't want to talk back but he wasn't going to let her say things like that so easily either. 

"Ji-yoon," he said sternly, calling her name with disbelief from how she made it sound like he was sabotaging the investigations on his own initiative. "I don't want to stand in your way but what am I supposed to do?"

She quickly noticed the change in behaviour, how he sounded upset all of a sudden. It was genuine anger, unhappy about the fact that she could even dare to imagine that such a scenario might be true.

"Do you know why less than half of our population thinks that the prosecutor's office is credible?" he asked. "Because it's full of bribery and assholes."