Chapter 1: Im telling you, Im innocent
If destiny takes hold of you once, it takes hold of you forever. From the moment you’re born, everything happens in sequence, one thing after another. If you’re born poor, chances are that you’ll live poor and you’ll die poor, and if you’re born wealthy, chances are that you’ll live wealthy and die wealthy. If you get caught up in it once, you’re caught up in it until the end.
There are exceptions, of course, but I’m not one of them. Because I’m a murderer, raised as an orphan with nothing to his name.
“I didn’t kill her,” I mutter.
These are the words I’ve been habitually muttering to myself for twenty years.
Ho-un stops eating and glances at me. “Why is he looking so down when he’s about to be released?” he asks.
“Would you be happy about it? He’s served the whole twenty years before he can leave,” says another inmate.
“But at least he’s leaving.”
“I suppose. I’m just glad it’s not a life sentence.”
I put down my spoon.