Case No. 2024-EQ-0215. Sequential Enforcement, Stage One.
Enforcement Chamber, Basement Level 2, the Equivalence Authority.
Park Jongsoo was strapped into the enforcement chair. His face was sallow. Ten days since the alcohol had left his system. His hands were trembling. Not from withdrawal. From fear.
Hyunwoo entered the enforcement chamber. Leather gloves. Black suit. Two medical staff followed, pushing in the equipment.
“We will begin Stage One enforcement.”
Hyunwoo’s voice sounded like a surgical briefing. Calm and low.
“We will enforce fractures corresponding to victim Lee Jeongmin’s compound fractures of the right leg. Comminuted fractures of the tibia and fibula. Rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament.”
Park Jongsoo screamed.
“Just this once! Please, just this once! I’ll quit drinking! I’ll never do it again!”
Hyunwoo didn’t answer. He adjusted the equipment.
“Lee Jeongmin was crossing a crosswalk at the time of the accident.”
Park Jongsoo’s sobbing subsided.
“The light was green. Lee Jeongmin’s right leg was broken in three places. Two surgeries. He still can’t walk without an assistive device.”
Hyunwoo positioned Park Jongsoo’s right leg in the brace. He adjusted its position down to the millimeter. Lee Jeongmin’s CT images appeared on the enforcement chamber’s monitor. The angle of the fracture lines, the extent of the comminution, the location of the ligament tear. Hyunwoo looked back and forth between the images and Park Jongsoo’s leg as he aligned the instrument.
“Same position. Same angle. Same force.”
Park Jongsoo began to cry. Mucus ran down beneath his chin.
Hyunwoo’s hand moved.
There was a sound. The sound of a bone breaking is duller than you’d think. Park Jongsoo’s scream slammed into the walls of the enforcement chamber. One of the medical staff turned away. Hyunwoo didn’t.
The second fracture. The fibula. Hyunwoo readjusted the instrument. He confirmed the second fracture line in Lee Jeongmin’s CT image and applied force to the exact same spot.
Park Jongsoo’s scream cut off. His throat had gone hoarse. His mouth hung open, but no sound came out.
The third. The anterior cruciate ligament. Hyunwoo adjusted the knee brace. This part required greater precision. The ligament had to be ruptured without touching a blood vessel. Hyunwoo’s fingers found their position over Park Jongsoo’s knee. A surgeon’s hands. Hands that knew what would snap when he pressed where.
A short sound. Park Jongsoo’s body arched like a bow. The brace creaked.
Without removing his gloves, Hyunwoo checked the time.
“Stage One enforcement complete. Elapsed time: forty-three minutes.”
Taekyung was watching the monitor in his office.
The sound was off. On-screen, Park Jongsoo’s mouth was stretched wide. His body convulsed. Hyunwoo’s hands never stopped.
After the enforcement ended, Taekyung wrote the report.
‘Stage One enforcement complete. Comminuted fractures of the tibia and fibula, rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. Confirmed equivalent to victim Lee Jeongmin’s injuries. Recovery period: four months. Stage Two enforcement date: to be determined according to the medical staff’s assessment.’
The door opened.
Jungyeong entered. His face was more rigid than usual.
“Attorney Han Seojin held a press conference.”
Taekyung didn’t take his eyes off the monitor.
“What did she say?”
“‘For the state to repeatedly destroy and repair one person’s body over fourteen months, only to destroy it again, is torture. This isn’t equivalent retribution. It’s systematic abuse carried out by the state.’ That’s a direct quote.”
Taekyung leaned back in his chair.
“Torture.”
“Public opinion is split. One side says it’s satisfying. The other says it’s cruel. ‘Sequential enforcement’ is number one on the portal’s real-time search rankings, and ‘Attorney Han Seojin’ is number two.”
“What about the victims?”
Jungyeong paused briefly.
“Lee Jeongmin contacted us. He wants to see the enforcement footage.”
Taekyung looked at Jungyeong.
“Denied.”
“He’ll ask why.”
“Enforcement isn’t a show for the victim. Once the punishment is over, we notify him of the result. That’s sufficient.”
Jungyeong nodded. Then he stopped as he was about to leave.
“Chief Assessor.”
“Yes.”
“Attorney Han Seojin isn’t completely wrong.”
Taekyung looked at Jungyeong. There was an edge in Jungyeong’s eyes, though his gentle tone remained unchanged.
“Breaking and repairing someone over fourteen months, then breaking them again—it’s a different question whether a person can endure it, even if it’s legally justified.”
Taekyung was silent for one second.
“Choi Yoonho has to endure it for the rest of his life.”
Jungyeong didn’t answer. He closed the door and left.
That night.
Hyunwoo was washing his hands in the Enforcement Division office.
His leather gloves lay discarded on the sink. Water ran from the faucet. Hyunwoo’s hands were clean. It wasn’t as if they were covered in blood. But he kept washing them. He lathered them with soap twice, rubbed between each finger, and scraped beneath his nails.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Hyunwoo didn’t look in the mirror. He watched only his hands.
With these hands, he had broken a man’s leg in three places today. With those same hands, he would go to Suhyeon’s hospital room tomorrow morning and hold her hand. On a good day, Suhyeon would smile and say, “You came?” On a bad day, she wouldn’t recognize Hyunwoo.
Hyunwoo turned off the faucet.
He dried his hands and put his gloves back on.
He opened the documents on his desk. The Stage Two enforcement plan. Cervical spine injury. Four months from now.
Hyunwoo picked up his pen.
At the same time.
Taekyung hadn’t gone home. He was reviewing the file for the next case in his office.
Case No. 2024-EQ-0223. Dating violence.
Victim Kang Yujin, female, twenty-five. Repeated assaults over eight months of dating. Facial contusions, cracked ribs, damage to the eardrum. And psychiatric records. Post-traumatic stress disorder. Panic disorder. Social avoidance.
Offender Lee Dohyun, male, twenty-seven. No prior record. Statements from coworkers: “He’s not that kind of person.” “He was really nice at work.” Statement from his supervisor: “He was the kind of guy who bought meals for the junior employees when they worked late.”
Taekyung laid the two kinds of statements side by side. Kang Yujin’s statement and Lee Dohyun’s coworkers’ statements. It was hard to believe they were talking about the same person. On one side, she had been repeatedly beaten for eight months. On the other, he bought meals for junior employees.
Taekyung opened the psychiatric records.
Physical harm could be assessed. If he broke her ribs, they broke his ribs. If he damaged her eardrum, they damaged his eardrum.
But what about panic disorder?
Could they give the offender panic disorder? Even if they could, would it be the same panic disorder? Kang Yujin’s panic came from the memory of being beaten by someone she had loved. Trauma mixed with betrayal and fear. Could they create the same conditions for Lee Dohyun?
Taekyung set down his pen.
The Equivalent Retribution Act was entering territory it could not answer for the first time.
He pressed a finger beneath his right eye.
Equivalent retribution for psychological harm.
It had to be turned into a number. Could it be? Should it be?
Taekyung opened the first page of the psychiatric records again.
Kang Yujin’s statement was written there.
‘He was a good person at first. He really was. That’s why it was even scarier. The face he made when he cried and apologized after hitting me was exactly the same as the face he’d had when he first confessed his feelings.’
Taekyung placed a finger over the sentence.
How do you turn this into a number?
End of Chapter 4.