Chapter 16.1

Chapter 16.1

Wangnyeo came back from solitary confinement.

After nearly ten days of punishment, she returned pale, puffy, and haggard. Her face looked almost drained of life, like someone who’d left a piece of herself behind.

I half expected her to grab me by the hair the moment she saw me, but surprisingly, Wangnyeo stayed quiet. When she entered the room, she did glare at me like she could kill me, but then she just threw down her pillow, lay facedown, and fell asleep snoring.

“Of course she’s out of it, unni-ya. Solitary drains everything out of a person,” Eyes whispered next to me as we walked around the yard.

“You’ve been there before, Eyes-ssi?”

“Nope. But I’ve heard things. They say there’s not a sliver of light in there, barely enough space to sit your butt down. If you want to sleep, you gotta lean against the wall just to lie down a little. You eat, crap, and piss all in that same dark, tiny hole… ugh, just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.”

Eyes shuddered as if even imagining it disgusted her.

“Can you imagine Wangnyeo in there with that huge body of hers? It’s a miracle she didn’t go insane. People usually calm down for a while after coming out. How long’s it been since she got out? You think she’s gonna march right back into that hell just to yank your hair? That’s a heavy price for a bit of payback.”

If that was true, solitary confinement was a pretty effective punishment. Just knowing Wangnyeo wouldn’t mess with me for a while made me feel like I could finally breathe again.

“Feels good to see a bit of sunlight, huh, unni-ya?”

Eyes was right. The sun was out today. The Cheongjin Women’s Prison was in Cheongjin County, a place I’d never even heard of back in Kim Geummi’s days, and people said cloudy weather was more common here than sunny days. Even the damn climate was miserable.

“Oh? It’s Deputy Ki.”

My head turned automatically at her voice. Outside the watchtower that overlooked the yard, Deputy Ki appeared, wearing his cap low over his face like always.

“Damn… he’s looking extra fine today.”

“…”

Even in that dull, ash-gray uniform and regulation cap, nothing special in color or cut, Deputy Ki stood out. The long legs under those neatly pressed pants, the broad, solid shoulders filling out his shirt like it had been tailored for him, everything about him carried a quiet kind of authority.

My eyes drifted on their own to the left side of his pants. Even without looking closely, I could picture the outline of what was tucked along his thigh.

Just then, Deputy Ki turned his head toward me. No, more precisely, I could feel his gaze through the brim of his cap aimed somewhere in my direction.

“Ahem…”

I cleared my throat for no reason and looped my arm through Eyes’s. She followed my quick steps without complaint, chattering about every bit of gossip under the sun, but none of it reached my ears.

Before long, the buzzing sound of the loudspeaker echoed over the barbed wire, signaling the end of exercise time. The inmates scattered around the yard began lining up in a long queue toward the entrance of the cell block.

For some reason, I wanted to stay out in the sun a little longer. So I walked slowly on purpose and ended up at the very end of the line. From there, I could see the guard stationed at the entrance checking each inmate as they went in, and Deputy Ki standing near the outer wall of the yard, his hands clasped behind his back as he observed the line.

The queue grew shorter until only Eyes stood in front of me.

After outdoor time, there was always a light body search before going back into the shared cell. Only after passing it could we walk through the checkpoint into the cellblock corridor.

Usually, it was nothing serious, but if luck turned sour, you could end up with something nasty.

“Inmate 7059, remove your top.”

Guess I was the unlucky one today.

It was one of the guards often seen around the yard checkpoint, a guy who looked to be in his mid-twenties. According to Eyes, he’d only been here a few months, but it seemed he’d already learned how to be an asshole.

“Did you not hear me? Take your top off.”

The reason sounded official enough. They were checking to make sure no inmates were sneaking contraband or forbidden items from the yard.

Since prison uniforms didn’t have pockets, people got creative with hiding spots. Waistbands, hems of pants, even between their br2!s.ts.

Still, the ones before me only got a quick pat-down, while I was the only one told to strip to the chest. Some luck I had.