Case number 2024-EQ-0215.
Offender: Park Jongsoo, male, 51. Habitual drunk driver.
Blood alcohol concentration: 0.214%. Driving the wrong way while blackout drunk. Hit three people in a crosswalk.
Victim 1: Lee Jeongmin, female, 28. Nurse. Compound fracture of the right leg. Torn ligaments. Currently uses a walking brace. Deemed unable to return to work.
Victim 2: Lee Soonok, Jeongmin's mother, female, 57. Cervical spine injury. Reduced sensation in both arms. Requires assistance with daily activities.
Victim 3: Choi Yoonho, male, 8. Jeongmin's nephew. Skull fracture. Cerebral hemorrhage. Regained consciousness after three weeks in a coma. Currently has speech impairment and left-sided hemiplegia.
Taekyung laid out the three victims' medical records side by side.
One accident. Three bodies. Three entirely different harms.
"Assessor, the offender's attorney in this case is a little unusual."
Jungyeong held out a file.
Taekyung read the attorney's name.
Han Seojin.
"I know."
"You know her?"
"I know the name."
Han Seojin. An attorney who specialized in defending offenders after the Equivalent Retribution Act took effect. She appeared in the media often. She was famous for opposing the Equivalent Retribution Act. Her win rate wasn't particularly high, but every case she took stirred up public opinion.
Jungyeong turned a page.
"Here's a summary of the attorney's statement. There are two central arguments. First, drunk driving isn't an intentional crime, so applying the Equivalent Retribution Act at all is unjustified. Second, if the harm suffered by the three victims is added together, it's physically impossible to carry out equivalent enforcement using a single offender's body."
Taekyung read the statement.
"The second argument is correct."
Jungyeong stopped.
"It is?"
"Park Jongsoo has one body. If you break his right leg, injure his cervical spine, and fracture his skull, he dies. If you add up all three victims' injuries and enforce them on one body, that's not equivalence. It's excess."
Jungyeong thought for a moment.
"Then how do you assess it?"
"There are two methods."
Taekyung picked up his pen.
"One: assess based on the most severe harm and process the rest as supplementary punishments. Two: assess all three harms independently, then design the enforcement order and recovery periods so they're carried out sequentially within the limits one body can withstand."
"Is there precedent?"
"No."
Jungyeong smiled. It was a gentle smile.
"You're making another one?"
Interview room.
Han Seojin was already there.
When Taekyung opened the door, Seojin was seated, reading a file. A dark Bordeaux-colored suit. Unlike Taekyung, who wore only black. Her hair was tied back.
Taekyung sat down.
"Attorney Han."
"Assessor Yoon. It's nice to meet you."
Seojin set the file down. Her eyes were sharp, but the corners of her mouth were slightly raised.
"You read my statement, right?"
"I did."
"What did you think?"
"The second argument is valid. The first isn't."
Seojin tilted her head.
"If it wasn't intentional, why apply equivalent retribution?"
"Drunk driving is intentional."
"Are you saying the accident was intentional?"
"The act of drinking and taking the wheel was intentional. The accident was the result of that intent."
Seojin was silent for a moment. Then she laughed.
"You must have it easy, Assessor. When you hide behind numbers, you don't have to see the people."
Taekyung's expression didn't change.
"When I see the people, the numbers waver."
"That's the problem."
"No. That's why I look at the numbers."
Seojin's smile vanished. Her eyes changed. For the first time, she looked at Taekyung properly.
"Choi Yoonho. He's eight years old."
"I know."
"Can you turn the pain that child went through into a number? The fact that he'll never play ball again, even though he's loved it since he was three? The fact that his friends tease him because his speech is slurred?"
Taekyung was silent for one second.
"We have to."
"Why?"
"Because if we don't, we can't punish him."
Seojin stared at Taekyung. For a long time.
"...You're kind of a scary person."
Taekyung didn't answer. He opened the file.
The harm assessment took five days.
Taekyung interviewed each of the three victims. Lee Jeongmin was composed. Because she was a nurse, she knew the prognosis of her own injuries precisely. Lee Soonok worried about her daughter and grandson more than about her own injuries. Throughout the interview, she kept both hands on her lap, her fingers trembling faintly. Cervical spine injury. She couldn't stop her own hands from moving. Choi Yoonho couldn't meet Taekyung's eyes for the entire interview.
Taekyung asked,
"What did you like best at school?"
"...Gym."
"What about now?"
Yoonho didn't answer. His left hand trembled on his lap. Left-sided hemiplegia. An eight-year-old boy's left hand no longer obeyed him.
Taekyung set down his pen.
Harm assessment report. Eighty-nine pages.
Taekyung chose sequential enforcement.
Stage 1. A fracture corresponding to the compound fracture of the right leg. Recovery period: four months.
Stage 2. Nerve damage corresponding to the cervical spine injury. Recovery period: six months.
Stage 3. Head trauma corresponding to the skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. Equivalence will be established if speech impairment and hemiplegia occur afterward. If they do not occur, an additional assessment will be conducted.
Total enforcement period. At least fourteen months.
The final sentence of the report.
'The offender changed three people's lives with a single choice. Each person's harm is independent, and the offender must live three lives.'
Legal review.
Jungyeong read the report and set down his pen.
"Sequential enforcement. Fourteen months."
"Yes."
"Attorney Han Seojin won't sit still. She'll call it cruel and inhumane treatment."
"Is fourteen months cruel?"
Jungyeong looked at Taekyung.
"Ms. Lee Jeongmin will use a walking brace for the rest of her life. Ms. Lee Soonok can't eat by herself. Choi Yoonho is eight years old, and he can't move his left hand."
The gentleness disappeared from Jungyeong's eyes. An edge showed through.
"I'll approve it."
The day before enforcement.
Hyunwoo was reviewing the enforcement plan. Taekyung entered the Enforcement Division office.
"Sequential enforcement is a first."
Hyunwoo spoke without looking away from the plan.
"We have to break him three times and restore him three times over fourteen months. After each break, we have to manage him until he's ready for the next enforcement."
"Is it possible?"
Hyunwoo looked at Taekyung.
"Have you forgotten that I used to be a surgeon?"
The same hands would do both the breaking and the healing. Taekyung knew the weight of those words.
"I need to confirm one thing."
Hyunwoo spoke.
"For Stage 3, you wrote that there would be an additional assessment if speech impairment and hemiplegia didn't occur after the head trauma."
"Yes."
"I'll cause them. Without error."
Taekyung looked at Hyunwoo. His eyes were the same as always. Cold and precise. Taekyung knew that Soo-hyun's hospital room lay behind those eyes.
"Please."
That evening.
Taekyung was in his office rereading Choi Yoonho's interview record.
'What did you like best at school?'
'...Gym.'
'What about now?'
No response.
Taekyung closed the record.
He looked down at the burn scar on his left wrist.
Eight years old.
That was about how old Seoah had been when she was hit for the first time, too.
Taekyung didn't turn to the next page. For a while, he did nothing.
Then he put the record in a drawer and turned off the light.
End of Chapter 3.