"You've been reusing wreaths, haven't you?"

"Sorry? Reusing wreaths?"

Tae-ung's Flower Shop, next to the Sokcho intercity bus stop.

Han Jiyun, who had come in in a fresh mood and was trimming the flowers bought at the market before dawn, was thrown.

Right on opening time a man in his late forties with a belly on him had burst in.

"A tip-off's come in. You'd do better to admit it straight."

The man had a notebook out, and drove at her one way as though he were questioning a suspect.

His eyes seemed more interested in Han Jiyun herself than in the business he had come on.

She is a woman with looks rarely seen in Sokcho.

Heh heh. This missus is a tidy one.

"Who are you?"

"Me? This is who I am."

The man took something out from his breast pocket.

—PUBLIC OFFICIAL'S CARD

—Officer, Jang Gwanyong

—Sokcho City

A public official's card, briefly filled in, with an identity photograph.

"And so?"

"And so? Missus!!"

Jang Gwanyong roared it out with neither bottom nor end to it.

"Did you display the reusing seller's trade name?"

"……."

Han Jiyun shut her mouth at Jang Gwanyong's pressing.

Feeling it now? Caught you nicely!

Most retail flower shops reuse their wreaths.

It was a thing allowed by custom to begin with, and under pressure applied from the flower-growing farms a penalty law came in for it.

"Haa."

A sigh escaped Han Jiyun's mouth.

A glance is enough — she is plainly at a loss.

"You know the fine is ten million won?"

Jang Gwanyong judged he had a proper case in hand, and made a queer smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Mister."

"……??"

And the look the flower shop's mistress turns on him is a strange one.

It is an eye that looks at Jang Gwanyong as though he were pitiful.

"An official is in the execution of his duties here——"

"We don't sell them."

"……??"

"Our shop doesn't handle wreaths at all."

"……!!"

Jang Gwanyong's face went pale on the instant.

Flower shops as a rule handle a…