Chapter 28.1

Chapter 28.1

Luck always came at the most unexpected moments.

“A parole review?”

It was when I had been assigned to help clean the chapel before Christmas. Holding a mop, I stared blankly at the middle-aged man who had just brought me the news.

“Yes. They say there will be a parole review sometime after Christmas, around the New Year. I heard No. 7059 has been incarcerated for over two years. Is that right?”

“…Yes. I served two years somewhere else and was transferred here.”

“Then you meet the basic requirement. They say only model inmates with good conduct records will be reviewed. In your case, we have Doctor Ahn’s word, and you are devout enough to give testimony, so I will write an opinion letter for you as well.”

“Really?!”

When I lit up, the pastor laughed heartily.

“So you have to be careful not to cause any trouble until then. With you, No. 7059, I am not too worried since you live so faithfully, but if you get caught up in some pointless incident right before the review, everything will go up in smoke. You understand?”

“Yes, yes. I will be careful.”

It felt like a dream. Maybe things were going to go more smoothly than I had thought.

When I got out, I would definitely go to church. I would make huge donations.

“Thank you so much…”

The pastor spoke again, looking pleased.

“I am only doing what I can. More than me, our warden truly cares for the inmates like his own children, and he is passionate about sending even one more person back to their old life. That is why opportunities like this exist. You have never met the warden, have you, No. 7059?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will see you at the Christmas service. It will help with the review, so make sure you prepare your testimony well, all right?”

I nodded again and again. They say heaven helps those who help themselves. I had to cling to this chance that had come to me like a stroke of luck.

Because of that, I had to be even more careful with how I behaved and carried myself. After coming back from solitary, the Wangnyeo had been quiet for a while, but lately she had started picking fights again, and Yera looked like she would not let anything slide if she found even the smallest excuse, so I tried all the harder not to provoke them.

The things and snacks I had gotten from Deputy Ki, and the cigarettes Dr. Ahn had given me as the last favor before she died, I handed over to them without a fuss for that very reason. Since I thought I would be leaving soon, none of it felt precious or wasteful. I was especially mindful of Eyes and gave her a tub of Vaseline that was still practically new.

I gave Sole the Heart Sutra and the last pack of cigarettes I had kept, plus two packs of Choco Pie. When I handed her the book and cigarettes, Sole stroked my head and cheeks again and again with her rough palms.

Outside, the old woman who was closer to a grandmother spent her days with an empty face and hollow eyes, but strangely, whenever I spoke to her, she would show something like a real human expression. Like that time when I woke up and she stroked my hair. For some reason, I did not mind it.

“Do you know why Sole ended up in here?”

I had heard she had the longest sentence among the inmates in our shared cell, and that had always puzzled me. You never really know someone just by looking, but Sole just seemed like a plain, worn-out old woman.

“They say she burned the soles of her husband’s feet with coals from the stove.”

Eyes answered while sucking every last bit from the Apollo wrapper I had given her.

“Her husband went completely berserk, they got into a fight, and a fire broke out. The house burned down to the ground. Her husband and her daughter both died in it.”

“……”

“He must’ve been a real son of a bitch. How bad do you think he was for her to go that far? And they say Sole isn’t even that old, not as old as she looks. At most, she’s like our mom’s age. Think how much she must’ve suffered to age that fast, unni-ya.”

So that was why she was called Sole.

Hearing it, the nickname felt a little sad. Then something else occurred to me.

“What do they call me?”

Come to think of it, I had never heard anyone refer to me by a nickname. At my question, Eyes flinched for a second, then muttered low.

“You? They just call you the crazy bitch.”

“…….”

“Sure, we talk like this now, but when you first came into our cell, unni-ya, sorry to say it, you were really a crazy bitch, like textbook level. Crying all the time, muttering, laughing, talking to yourself, and then all of a sudden claiming you were Geummi. You made such a huge, noisy mess back then.”

I could believe it. I smacked my lips at the bitter taste in my mouth and did not argue.

After that, for about ten days, everything was perfect, ever since the moment I woke up in prison. I behaved flawlessly as a model inmate awaiting parole review. Thinking that I would be leaving soon naturally made my heart more generous.

Given the situation, there was no way I still had lingering feelings for Deputy Ki. If anything, I had to be even more careful not to get tangled up with him and cause trouble.

After the last time we met in the storage room, I thought everything had been reset back to zero.

Between his pride and his obsessively clean nature, I thought that once he came to his senses, he would brush it all off as if nothing had happened. But that was not the case at all.

Deputy Ki was more persistent than I had expected.

“Wh, what are you doing? What if someone sees us!”

I was cleaning the infirmary when he suddenly grabbed me from behind.