Guess who didnt realise they posted the same chapter twice? Sorry everyone, enjoy the real chapter 3!

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One week later

 

               “Ok Eunji.” You whispered, staring up at the big grey building in front of you. “You’re a high-powered, kick- woman who is going to march straight into this office and…” And what? Make the DOI regret that she didn’t work there anymore? Change the face of offender relations? “And do your best.” You nodded, that was all you could hope for at this point. You needed to face forward. Paris had been… something else. But you couldn’t afford to think of it. Paris had been a gift, Paris had been gut-wrenching, but it was over. This was now.

               You walked to the front desk. This time, there were no clicks from your heels, you were in ankle boots that were much more comfortable and let you walk with a longer stride. Around you, the building wasn’t a collection of steel and clean lines like the DOI had been. The walls were a beige that had probably looked professional a decade ago. The windows were smaller, the ceilings lower.

               But the receptionist had a vase of bright flowers on her desk. A small touch, but a heartfelt one. The entire difference between the DOI and Red Leaf Restorative could be brought to that one difference. The building might be old, but it was filled with people who cared.

               “Good Morning,” The receptionist smiled at you brightly, “What can I help you with today?”

               You smiled back at her, “I’m Kang Eunji, I was-”

               “Oh yes yes,” The woman began rifling through papers, picking up a stack of them. “Here’s your ID badge and if you follow me I’ll show you to your office.”

               She led you to the elevator and you felt your neck bristle as you got in. The doors closed and there the two of you were, both looking forward, silence stretching out like an ocean between you…

               “I like the flowers on your desk.” You said. Anything to fill that horrible elevator awkwardness.

               “Oh yes they are lovely aren’t they? My husband had them sent for my work-anniversary three days ago, I’ve been here seven years now.”

               “Seven? Wow congratulations, you must really like it here.”

               “It’s a good company, it does good work.”

               The elevator doors opened, thank goodness. The receptionist, you’d have to grab her name, led you to room 619, a small plaque beside the door read;

               Kang Eunji. Restorative Case Manager.

               It was real, it was yours!

               “Here you are, you can set up everything as you like inside. If you need anything else just give me a call, reception is always extension 0 on any phone in the building, and we can get the maintenance boys to look into it if you want any big furniture moving, ok?” She passed the pile of papers into your arms, “these are all of the initiation trainings for you, your username and login is on top, and I think that’s everything! Like I said feel free to give me a call if you need anything.”

               She gave you another warm smile and walked back to the elevator, and you bit a grin as you ducked into your office.

               Your office at the DOI had been a coveted one. It had had a window, with a view. It had a sit-stand desk that you’d never stood at, and the whole thing had reeked of expensive taste. You’d loved it then, but looking around, you knew that you loved this more.

               There was no window, there was a scuff on the cabinet, the desk was built for one level and the wheely chair looked like it only went up and down. The walls were the same beige colour as the rest of the building. It was the bare scraps of an office, no one had made their mark on it yet, it was bare bones ready for you to build it into something. It was yours to do as you would see fit.

               “I’m home.”

               Immediately, you set to going through all of the initiation trainings, safety trainings, government compliance trainings. All the things HR would need to check off before you could actually get into the meat of the work. By the time all that was over, the time on your phone showed that it was already time to go home. Take note, you would need to buy an actual clock for the office.

               You couldn’t wait to fill it, you’d have to take Yun-Hee and Hei-Ran shopping with you.

               You were thinking about how to decorate to keep it professional, but still show your own character, when there was a soft knock at the door.

               You swiveled, “come in.”

               A woman opened the door. She was motherly, weight held around the middle and in her jowls, but she had kind eyes as she smiled at you. “I hoped I would catch you before you head home, busy day so far?” She looked around, “we’re going to have to get you a second chair.”

               Oh if she could only see your plans for this office. But you stood anyway, just to be equal.

               “Yes, mainly just trainings today.”

               The woman nodded, “best to get those out of the way today. My name is Lin, by the way, Mr Shin told me that you’ll be shadowing me for the week, just to get you settled.”

               “That sounds great.” You tried not to think of the last person who had been asked to mentor you, of Yoona who had threatened Baekhyun and treated human beings like garbage.

               Lin looked nothing like Yoona.

               “My morning is free tomorrow, I don’t have a lot booked this week but I have a meeting with a client on Thursday you’re welcome to come to. So how about tomorrow morning you and I grab a coffee and I’ll give you a tour of the building? There isn’t much but we can chat along the way?”

               “I’d love that.” You said.

               “Great, I usually get in around 9:30, so I’ll meet you at your office for 10?”

               She only got in for 9:30? At the DOI you were getting to work for 6:30, what kind of hours did everyone else work here, you wondered, and made a note to ask her tomorrow. “I can’t wait.”

#

               As it turns out, Red Leaf Restorative did not have its own coffee cart. It made sense when you thought about it, but you’d been so used to the DOI that it just hadn’t been something you’d considered. Of course regular workplaces didn’t have coffee carts.

               However, like most workplaces, there was a starbucks across the street.

               Lin was kind, insisted on paying for your coffee, and true to her word when she said there wasn’t much to see in the building. The first floor was the receptionist, and all floors other than the sixth were owned by other agencies. Within the sixth floor that belonged to Red Leaf, there was an outside ring of boardrooms and meeting rooms, and then an inner ring of offices.

               “We had to let the meeting rooms have the ones with windows because otherwise our funders wouldn’t give us the time of day.” Lin said, not without a grin in her voice, “lesson one Eunji, always keep the stakeholders happy.” She showed you her office, as well as Mr. Im’s office, “he had the pick to get an outer ring office but he didn’t want to be different than the rest of us. Of course, anyone can work in any of the meeting rooms as long as they don’t have a booking, so you don’t have to stay shut up in your office all day.”

               She explained the door policy, keep it open means welcoming visitors and welcoming chats, closed meant to knock, and put the sign on the handle if you didn’t want to be disturbed. “It used to be don’t disturb if someone had the door closed, but we had a girl working for us who never had her door open, and that meant that she just never got to know any of us, so we changed it. If you’re on the phone, make sure you put the notice on your door handle.”

               She explained the hours of work when you asked about them, “oh no you can come in whenever you like. As long as you do your hours for the week, and besides,” she’d swept her arm around the office, “look, there’s barely anyone here today. With all the meetings and places we have to be, you can’t expect everyone in the office at the same time.” That was perfect for you. At the DOI it had always been that if you weren’t visible, you weren’t working. Here it seemed to be that if you were absent, you were assumed to be working elsewhere. “And you don’t have to let someone know whenever you’re heading off somewhere. That’s what voicemail and email is for, if someone wants to get a hold of you they can ask and wait in line.”

               You’d followed her for the next two days, watching the general flow of her days, the emails in and out, the meeting with parole officers she booked for next Tuesday. She talked about her files, and on Wednesday afternoon she told you about the meeting you were accompanying her on tomorrow.

               “We’re going to see Neeha, I’ve been working with her for two months now, she’s only 17 but her parents are pressing full charges, we’re trying to minimise the damage on this one, get her records sealed or a lighter sentence. Her parents though,” She shook her head, “they’re angry.”

               “What did she do?” You’d asked, picturing Park Ha-Young and her baby, at odds with her parents.

               “She signed up for a loan under their name, and put their house as collateral. They don’t have the money to pay it off, their choice is to go bankrupt or to sue for damages, which will end in a criminal conviction on their daughter.”

               “What did she need the money for?”

               Lin smiled, “That’s the perfect question. She was trying to go to university. She wasn’t accepted on any student loan applications based on her parents income.”

               You shook your head, she’d gone about it the wrong way but all this girl wanted to do was get an education.

               See, this was work that needed doing. This girl didn’t need sticking in a jail cell, she needed help, she needed to atone for what shed done, but she was at the very start of her life.

               “We each have a niche, I suppose you could say.” Lin said the next day. She’d met you at the office in her car and offered to drive you. “On paper, we each take all kinds of files, but as you learn your strengths you end up taking the files that fit them. I, for example, was an accountant before this. So I usually take on cases with a financial aspect. Do you have any idea what kind of files you’d be drawn to?”

               Chen’s face flit up in your mind. It always happened like that, you would go a couple of days without thinking of him and then there he was, his lips curling and his brows wiggling at you.

               Can’t stop thinking about me, can you?   

               “I’ve worked with gang’s before, so perhaps that?”

               Lin in a breath, “that’s a tough one, but there’s lots of work for you there that’s for sure.”

               Half an hour later, Eunji was being pat down by armed prison officers, passing through a metal detector, leaving her phone and belongings in a locked box with security. Neeha was small, scrawny. Her skin was pallid under the jailroom lights. Her hands were in cuffs, secured to the table. She could have passed for 14.

               And then an hour later, Eunji was back under the metal detector, collecting her belongings from security, being pat down on her way out. The air outside seemed fresher, the sun brighter.

               “Your first time inside?” Lin asked, and though it sounded more like a statement than a question, you nodded anyway. “It gets easier, but try to remember this feeling. It’ll drive you on the harder days.”

               She didn’t clarify and you didn’t ask. When the harder days came, you would know what she meant.

               The drive back was filled with discussion of the conversation, Neeha wanted to settle, she wanted to do anything that would get her out of jail, but that wasn’t their place. They weren’t laywers, they weren’t any kind of legal counsel. They were there to represent all the kinds of justice that could take place outside of a courtroom, that didn’t involve jails, that advocated for Neeha and her parents to come to a solution. It required creativity, and wasn’t applicable for every case. But it was work worth doing.

               Eunji felt alive when she approached her building that night. Today, she and Lin had given hope to a girl who had none. They were out to right a wrong. The parents were angry, but they didn’t want their daughter to be labelled as a criminal. Together, perhaps they could figure out a solution.

               And then she had checked her mail, and found the letter. It had no return address, just her name and details printed neatly on the front.

               She knew that handwriting.

               In her apartment she stood still for minutes, holding it over the trash. Just let go. Just drop it. It’ll fall in the trash and you’ll never have to see it again.

               Just

               Let

               Go

 

               She sighed, putting it on the side of the kitchen counter. If she couldn’t throw it away, that didn’t mean she had to open it. Not today, when today had been such a win. When she was finally on the right track and finally knew she was going in the right direction.

               What about when the baby comes? How are you going to be going to prisons when you’ve got a crying baby at home?

               The thoughts tickled at the back of your mind. That also, was a problem for another day. It would all work out, you would make it all fit in your life, you just had to figure out how.

               You pulled pizza out of the fridge, and then wrinkled your nose at it. It was only from yesterday but maybe it had gone bad already? Rice and beans it was then. Cooking, your mind drifted back to Ha-Young. Had she been shipped off to the country house yet, where she would remain for the duration of her pregnancy? How was she faring? Did she have anyone to talk to?

               Families usually kept the location of their country houses fairly private, but there must be something, if you could find out where it was then you could go to visit her. Her parents had told you to keep your distance but they could go screw themselves. You didn’t follow orders, not anymore.  

               Rice and beans balanced on the arm of your couch, you pulled your laptop towards you.

               “Alright Park family, let’s see what you’ve got.”

 

 

 

               You arrived to the office bright and early on your second week, and it was midmorning by the time your email pinged. It was from Mr. Shin.

               Hi Eunji,

               We’ve just received a file that could be right up your alley. When you have a second, drop by my office and we can talk it over.

               You were out of your seat in a heartbeat. A case, a real case just for you! You knocked on his office door, and heard a muffled ‘come in’

               He looked up, “Ah, Eunji, come on in. Take a seat.” He shuffled some papers around and pulled a file folder to the front. “Take a look.”

               As you opened the file, you were hit once again with a sense of deja-vu. How long had it been since you’d opened a file folder and seen Chen’s face for the first time?

               But this face was different. His jaw was stronger, his nose broader, there was no playful lilt to his lips, no light to his eyes. And around his neck, the collar of a prison jumpsuit.

               “His name is Daesung.” Mr. Shin said, “he was held and charged with possession. He’s been denied bail, denied visitors, denied everything, held in high security.”

               You flipped through the pages, “all that for possession charges?” There had to be more background here.

               “It’s a situation I believe you may be familiar with.”

               “they know he’s linked, but couldn’t pin that on him so they got him on whatever charge they could and made it hold.”

               “Bingo. They’re not letting him out anytime soon, but it’s our job to ensure that when he goes back on the streets, he’s got options that keep him on the straight and narrow. Maybe you can find something that’ll make them let him our early, find a deal, if he was just held on possessions then he should be allowed bail by now.”

               “So what do they think he’s done?”

               “He’s believed to be part of an underground network, I don’t know anything else.” He gave her a wry smile, “you’ll find that getting information from lawyers or prison officers can be quit e difficult. Not many people believe in restorative justice.”

               “Better to let them rot in jail than to actually try and reform.” You said, nodding. That was the problem you’d encountered with the DOI.

               “I wanted to run it by you before I assigned it, I understand if it might be a bit too close to home for your first case.”

You looked up from the file, “no I’ll take it.” He deserved just as much of a chance as any other.

You spent the rest of the workday trying to find anything you could about Kang Daesung, but there wasn’t much. A news article saying he’d been caught on possessions like what was written in your file, but nothing about a gang, nothing about any kind of graduations or ceremonies under that name, nothing. And then at the end of the day you just… went home.

No worrying about broken laws, no worrying about the ethics of your workplace. It was wonderful, it was freeing. It was like you were so used to wearing a heavy backpack and now it was gone, your shoulders were light and almost bouncy.

 

You stopped outside your apartment door, hearing raucous laughter coming from beyond it. You smiled softly, opening the door and seeing your two greatest friends lounging on your couch. At your entrance, they both opened their arms wide.

“Eunjiiiii!”

Yun-Hee had been visiting her family for the past few days, so your reunion with the both of them had had to wait until now.

You dropped your satchel on the ground and rushed over to them, bending over the back of the couch to get your arms around both of them.

“How were your parents?”

“Same boring retiree’s as always,” Yun-Hee said, fluttering her hands, “now tell us about your new job! Tell us about Paris!”

You flopped onto the couch between them, “it’s amazing. My boss is amazing, the work is amazing. And Paris, wow Paris was amazing.”

They both squealed, settling into the couch and throwing their legs over yours. They a bottle into your hands and urged you to continue,

“My Airbnb had this great view over the city, and I took walks along the Seine and went to this great bakery in a market for croissants-”

“Croissants?” Hei-Ran said, “hurry up to the guy in your bed! He spoke Korean on the phone!”

You faltered, then grinned. There had been an unfortunate timing incident when they’d called to check in on you…. But you could share some details, it wouldn’t hurt.

“He was from here, he was also in Paris on holiday, we met on our first night there.”

“And?”

“Oh he was gorgeous.” You sighed, sinking down into the couch, “dreamy and handsome, amazing in bed, really the whole package.”

“What’s his name??”

You smirked, “a girl’s got to have her secrets.”

Hei-Ran yelled but Yun-Hee shushed her, “and what did he think of all the lingerie we packed you?”

“Oh he loved it.” You said, and you all collapsed into laughter together.

“Anyway, what we really need to talk about,” Hei-Ran said, “is your birthday next week!”

You groaned, but you loved it. They always made such a big deal of your birthday. Truly, they were the sisters you’d never had.

“Where do you want to go? Fancy dinner, crummy dive, dancing?”

“Maybe you want to invite this mystery man of yours?” Yun-Hee wiggled her eyebrows but you just laughed.

“We didn’t exchange contact details, we told ourselves it was just for Paris.”

They rolled their eyes but let it drop. No doubt they would bring it up later, but for now, your birthday was the primary issue.

“I’m going to get more drinks while you think of some good options.” Yun-Hee said, collecting the empty bottles and worming out of the pile you had all huddled into.

“I don’t know,” you said, “I don’t need anything major, karaoke could be fun?”

Hei-Ran nodded, “A little toned down, but I suppose you are getting on in years.” You hit her with a pillow and laughed as she picked up one to hit you back.

“Eunji, what’s this?” Yun-Hee’s voice came from the kitchen, and you looked over.

Your heart plunged, as if the whole happy evening was doused in cold water. She was holding the letter in her hand, the one you hadn’t opened. The one that had been sitting on your kitchen counter ready to gather dust.

“It’s nothing.” You said quickly, but they weren’t dropping this one.

“It’s got no return address.” She said, flipping the letter over, “who’s it from?” Her eyes widened, “from your mystery man?”

Hei-Ran looked between you, a grin growing on her face, “well you’ve gotta open it!”

Yun-Hee held it out to you, “you have to.”

You swallowed, “It’s from my parents.”

The air changed.

“Oh.”

Yun-Hee looked back at the letter, changing how she held it, “so we should tear it up then?”

“Throw it in the trash?” Hei-Ran offered. “Burn it?”

“We can do it for you.” Yun-Hee’s voice was soft, gentle.

But you shook your head. “I haven’t decided yet.” Why had they contacted you after all this time? It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, had they been keeping tabs on you? “Just put it back on the counter.”

You knew that they would destroy it in a heartbeat if you asked them to. They would never again ask what was in it, unless you chose to share it with them.

Yun-Hee returned with beers, with no letter in sight, and immediately started suggesting new places for your birthday. The laughter returned, and the memory of the letter faded back into the background.