Hello! Yay glad to be the starter for this category and I hope more people come along to add to it because Sketch was an amazing show. Also, I really need a second season because they left us with so many questions. Without further ado, a continuation from the prison scene when Shi Joon refuses to see Shi Hyun.
"Ah… Yoo Shi Joon declined your request to see him."
The lady's face falls – the prison officer feels a pang of sympathy.
"Is there a message I can carry to him for you, miss?"
She seems to think for a moment, before she shakes her head.
"It's okay, officer. I will come back again tomorrow."
He nods telling her to go safely.
The lady is there again, arms crossed, pacing about in the waiting room.
He brings her the same news, but this time, he cooks up an excuse for her.
"Ah… He's currently asleep, would you like me to wake him?"
The officer knows that the lady will not.
She shakes her head.
"Has my oppa not been sleeping well recently, officer? He doesn't usually nap in the afternoon…"
He shakes his head.
"I'm afraid it's just that there's not much to do here in prison. He's also in a single cell, so, he doesn't have much to do."
She nods slowly, "I see…"
The next day the lady is back, with books.
"I can bring him books right? I checked the website last night, but I couldn't find limit for how many books I could bring at a go."
The officer isn't sure how to gently say 'no' and so he tells her, "We have to screen the books first."
She nods understandingly and he wonders, maybe she's part of the police force as well?
"These are just some of our childhood story books…"
As he walks down the corridor, flipping through the pages to make sure nothing is concealed, he can't help but wonder if this is why, a childhood with books about unsolved crimes and Sherlock Holmes.
After all, Yoo Shi Joon hasn't acted up, is well on his way to becoming a model inmate.
He passes the books through the bars and he tells the former prosecutor that, "Your little sister brought these."
Shi Joon looks at the books with a fondness the officer is moved by, the way his fingers slide across the cover and crack open yellowing pages.
"Will you tell her to bring me newspapers next time, officer-nim?"
A mellow voice – one rarely used. The officer nods, "I will relay that message for you."
Yoo Shi Joon dips his head, a soft 'thank you' and the officer walks back out.
Glad.
Glad that he has better news for the lady who has waited a week for her own brother to say something.
On the surface, the lady is unruffled as he tells her, "Yoo Shi Joon requests that you bring him newspapers the next time you come," but the next day confirms his feelings.
The lady comes with every paper from the past week – struggling with the pile even (he's sure if she could carry more she would have brought the papers from all nine provinces) – with ease he lifts the pile off her.
"Let me just quickly scan through them, yes? I will bring them to Yoo Shi Joon after."
She must indeed be part of the police force.
She hasn't attempted to hide personal letters in the stack.
"If I would like to write a letter for him, would he be able to write back?"
The officer nods.
"Yoo Shi Joon hasn't made any trouble. If he would like to write back, he can put in a request to be given writing time. We will however, still screen the letters."
The 'if he would like to' is probably the biggest catch.
The officer carries off the stack to the separation unit where the prosecutor is kept.
Sometimes he is confused too.
How can someone who looks so principled and upright have killed three people?
The investigation is on-going, he was not offered bail – the officer ought to keep his judgement till the trial but, he doesn't understand.
The prisoner is polite, always his 'thank yous' and deference in the way he nods, quiet and not causing trouble unlike his neighbours.
He knows looks are deceiving. He's worked long enough to know that but – at least for Yoo Shi Joon, he needs to know more first.
[in the tumult of their country's tumbling economy and the exposure of foreign powers and high ministers manipulating the nation's currency – they arrested the ministers.
Three posts are empty. Minister of National Defence, Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The nation's largest law firm has lost its CEO, as have a handful (not one but a handful) of banks.
He can't forget the way Yoo Shi Joon just sagged in relief as he read the headlines of that day.
A face turned towards the light filtering through the bars and eyes closed in sheer exhaustion – half-lidded eyes meeting the guard's questioning ones and his cracked lips part.
"Officer, will you hug my sister for me?"]
"Will Oppa see me today, then?"
The officer cannot bring himself to hug the lady who obviously wants a hug not from a proxy but the real human.
"He's sleeping… after he read the news, he just fell asleep, he looked so at peace for once, miss."
There's an edge of sleeplessness to the lady's eyes, but her eyes are warm, relieved and at peace.
"I'm glad…"
As the officer turns away, she calls out.
"When he wakes up, will you tell my oppa that I'll be requesting bail for him?"
Bail for a murderer? the officer wonders, but only nods his head.
"Thank you…"
"Shi Hyun-ah, you can't do it like this."
Her eyes flashing – "Why not, oppa?"
The officer, holding the bail allowance, holds the cell door open.
Bail for a murderer indeed.
The lady is tugging on her brother's prison garb – green-grey with a yellow tag.
"Come on oppa, hurry up and change, we're going home."
The officer jokes a little, "Oi Yoo Shi Joon, quickly, out. We need your cell for someone else."
The lady laughs – her brother relents, if only to make her happy.
They emerge from the cell and the officer closes the door.
No one else is going in there.
The lady is yammering away a mile a minute as her brother changes behind a curtain.
He pulls the curtain aside, prison clothes folded neatly, pressing a gentle hand to his sister's head.
"Oppa is fine, Shi Hyun-ah. So stop worrying so much."
The officer can't help but feel this disconnect, between a loving brother and a heartless murderer, but having seen a handful of murderers he can't help but feel that even monsters are human.
Yoo Shi Joon certainly looks the part of a prosecutor, a pressed white shirt and black pants, black tie.
Standard enough, but why the formality?, "Oppa, come on, we're going to see Lawyer Kim."
The officer smiles a little, trying for pleasant, "I hope to not see you all again then?"
Yoo Shi Joon shakes his head.
"I'll see you soon enough, officer-nim. It'll be at least twenty years."
He's a prosecutor indeed, but the officer can't help but think, if he knew this, why would he kill three people?
"While the intent of the defendant may be good, and indeed they helped in averting a crisis for our country, it does not acquit him of the crime of murder. While our laws do not criminalise 'lack-of-action', instigating murder is a crime. He faces four counts of instigation to murder, and three counts of murder, of a police officer, a prosecutor and an army sergeant. The prosecution would like to refer to the evidences submitted."
And the first question was asked – Shi Hyun holds her breath.
"Defendant, how do you wish to plead?"
(Shi Hyun is torn. Torn between knowing and not knowing and her oppa being stuck alone in a cell for years and years – she's not sure she can take that even if Shi Joon says okay.)
"Guilty on all counts," he says it quietly, before the lawyer on his side can interject.
Lawyer Kim closes his eyes.
Shi Hyun exhales.
The judge looks over at Shi Joon and asks softly, voice carrying in the utter silence of the courtroom.
"Defendant, are you aware that highest sentence for your actions is execution?"
"I am aware, your honour."
The prosecution falters in the face of one of their own – one who has committed a crime but does not try to game their situation and then they ask from the judge.
"The prosecution will ask for 20 years imprisonment, due to mitigating factors as the defendant has admitted to the crimes and is repentant. Additionally, he has been seen as having good behaviour while in holding.
(Most of the evidence we have relies on witness testimony and it would not hold water without his confession.)
Further mitigating factors are the intent of the defendant and his role in averting the economic crisis that recently passed us by. Given that there has been precedence, allowing chaebols to reduce their sentences in light of their contributions, we ask that the judge makes a fair ruling."
It's not an open hearing. There's no newspaper that will dare to report on this. It's too controversial – a question if pre-emptive measures and vigilante justice can be allowed.
Shi Hyun is praying (both for a long and short sentence) her tears are dampening her cheeks, but Shi Joon doesn't even look at her.
She can't stay any longer.
Her hand is on the large, heavy oak door and then her brother called out.
"Shi Hyun-ah…"
Her sobs crack the silence of the courtroom as she sinks down to the floor.
"Don't cry… Oppa loves you and I'm so, so, so sorry."
(Shi Joon could have made this very, very hard for the prosecution but he can't put Shi Hyun through all of that again. He can't)
(He's crying. If they had a jury trial, he might have gotten an even lower sentence.)
"I sentence the defendant to 5 years of imprisonment and 5 years of community service, to be served concurrently. Community service may take the form of pro-bono legal work in the courts of law."
(10 years, that was the price of 3 lives.)
(5 years of his life, that was what it took to save his world.)
Shi Joon is satisfied – he was ready to give up his life.
[obviously, the law is corrupt. But in his favour.
It is not right.
But Shi Joon is grateful. It is an affirmation that his actions were correct.
Even if it tears Shi Hyun apart, he would do it all over again.
He just… just needs to make sure that Shi Hyun doesn't find out.]
Can I just say that my knowledge of the South Korean legal system is limited to my prison and crime dramas?
So apparently, non-self defense murder carries 20 years. Let me just... uh do this and say that Shi Joon gets a better ending, also because we always see those chaebols getting off scot-free and the courts rarely mete out executions.
Also, Shi Joon and Shi Hyun are my favourites, ahhh why is Lee Sun Bin with shorter hair so cute and holy Lee Seung Joo makes a great oppa for her.
And... I'm writing more Sketch fanfiction in the coming days, just until I get over this.
If you loved Sketch too, drop me a review so I know that k-drama fans are still here okie
Much love you all :)
Kayo