The interview with Baek Seo-yeon began at twelve-thirty in a conference room on the upper floor of the regional coordination office.
She arrived with her legal representative, a composed woman named Attorney Yun Ji-ae who had clearly made the journey from the nearest large city in the two hours available and who sat down beside her client with the efficiency of someone who had been briefed thoroughly in transit. Baek Seo-yeon was forty-one, precisely and carefully presented, with the manner of a person who understood that how you occupied a room was itself a form of communication. She sat with her hands folded on the table and waited for us to begin.
I led the interview. Kaien was present but did not speak; this had been our arrangement before we entered. His presence was informational — a signal of the investigation's weight and origin — and also observational. He watched Baek Seo-yeon the way he watched everything that required careful attention.
