Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 175

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

A Dangerous Meeting (1)
*
*
*
That afternoon.
Kim Young-jun left his office earlier than usual.
He was meeting with Congressman Baek Ki-ho.
The meeting place was a Korean traditional restaurant near Namhansanseong.
Kim Young-jun sat in the back seat of the vehicle, his gaze drifting toward the window.
‘…Become in-laws?’
Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s voice continued to echo in Kim Young-jun’s mind.
-Let’s become in-laws.
To become in-laws meant to become family and forge an alliance—and if that happened, they would surely lower their guns aimed at each other.
‘In-laws….’
Kim Young-jun began calculating the gains and losses of becoming in-laws with Congressman Baek Ki-ho.
There was no concept of a modern political marriage in Kim Young-jun’s mind.
He thought only of his own losses.
Kim Young-jun and Congressman Baek Ki-ho were men dividing the same faction in two.
‘If we joined forces….’
We could truly seize this nation in our hands.
It was even possible that our combined power could grow larger than that of President Park Mu-hyuk or Lee Sung-yoon, the man called the real power of the Ruling Party.
‘The problem is….’
Congressman Baek Ki-ho had said he would challenge for the presidency first.
A presidential term lasted five years, and the political arena was a chaotic world where yesterday and today differed.
There was no way to know how the world would change during those five years, or how the current faction would splinter.
‘And….’
By then, Congressman Baek Ki-ho might have a change of heart.
There was a fairly high possibility he would pull in someone else rather than the awkward Kim Young-jun.
He might even be branded the worst president, blocking my path forward.
‘Can I trust him?’
Kim Young-jun’s eyes narrowed. But there were limits to anticipating things that hadn’t happened yet.
And after continued deliberation, joining hands with Congressman Baek Ki-ho seemed advantageous in many ways.
‘I’ll listen first and then decide.’
Kim Young-jun stroked his chin, shifting the direction of his thoughts.
‘Who could it be?’
Congressman Baek Ki-ho officially had only sons.
His eldest son was a judge, and his second son worked at a securities firm in New York, or so I’d heard.
The credentials of both sons were not inferior compared to my daughter Yumi.
As I continued these thoughts, we arrived at the meeting place.
After stepping out of the car, Kim Young-jun didn’t enter immediately but placed a cigarette between his lips.
Then I slowly shifted my gaze, surveying the surroundings.
A meeting between the Prosecutor General and one of the Opposition Party’s power brokers.
If any trailing journalists were present, it would be troublesome.
To Kim Young-jun, accusations of being a political prosecutor were like enemies that eroded his approval ratings.
But there were none. Whether the Korean Traditional Restaurant had been rented entirely or not, no vehicles besides Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s were visible in the Parking Lot.
There was no sense that any journalists had latched on.
Only the sound of insects chirping in the grass could be heard.
“He is waiting for you.”
Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s aide stepped forward and bowed deeply to Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun.
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun flicked his cigarette butt into the ashtray and nodded.
“Let’s go in.”
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun walked inside with heavy steps.
The aide watched his retreating figure in silence, lost in thought.
‘History….’
The aide regarded the meeting between Congressman Baek Ki-ho and Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun as history.
Though it would never be officially recorded, this moment was certain to be a meeting that would shake South Korea’s future profoundly.
The two men had been in the same circle, yet they mixed like oil and water.
They had divided the power brokers who controlled South Korea and merely glared at each other.
And now these two were meeting.
Moreover, if they even shook hands, they would surely hold South Korea’s next decade in their grasp.
*
*
*
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun and Congressman Baek Ki-ho exchanged no words for some time.
Only glasses passed between them, while silence filled the space.
It was Congressman Baek Ki-ho who spoke first, refilling Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s empty glass as he opened his mouth in his characteristically measured tone.
“Since no one’s listening, let’s speak frankly. You’re planning to enter politics once your term ends, aren’t you?”
“Well, isn’t that what everyone expects?”
“We know it, but the people don’t. And they shouldn’t.”
This time, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun took the bottle and refilled Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s glass.
Then Congressman Baek Ki-ho loosened his necktie and continued.
“Let’s set aside idle talk for now. First, I promise you the position of Minister of Justice. Build up your approval ratings appropriately, then run in the general election. Next, our party’s leadership, and then the presidential election. A simple yet perfect plan, wouldn’t you say?”
It was a tempting proposal.
But Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun was not a man to be swayed by such offers.
He raised his glass and spoke quietly.
“Plans are merely plans. When variables arise and those variables become problems, plans go awry. Before that happens, I’d like us to resolve the matter of our mutual trust.”
It was time to speak of in-laws.
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun pictured the images of Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s first and second sons in his mind.
But Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s words differed from what Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun had anticipated.
“Your son Kim Yun-hwan and my daughter Lee So-hee—they seem like they’d make quite a fine couple…. What do you think?”
“…!”
Kim Young-jun’s eyes twisted with fury. He glared at Congressman Baek Ki-ho with a terrifying expression.
At that moment, the air in the previously calm space began to freeze over.
But Congressman Baek Ki-ho met Kim Young-jun’s gaze without concern and opened his mouth.
“When making a promise, they say you need a finger to stake, don’t they? Why don’t we wager with fingers that don’t hurt when cut?”
“Your jokes are excessive. Even if Yun-hwan has his shortcomings, he can’t be compared to someone who won’t even make it into the family registry, can he?”
“Think bigger. If you step into the political arena as Prosecutor General, do you think you can prevail? Do you find it amusing that lawmakers just flap their mouths? Those people swarm like ants when they smell prey. Without my help, you won’t be able to withstand them with your power alone. Even a fierce praying mantis that raises its front legs before a cart will fall to a swarm of ants.”
*
*
*
At that moment, outside the sliding door.
The aide stood there.
He was keeping watch to prevent others from approaching.
And the conversation between the two men reached his ears as well.
Kim Young-jun and Congressman Baek Ki-ho were mercilessly scraping at each other’s wounds.
‘What… what is this?’
The aide unconsciously held his breath, tensing as he gauged the situation.
He believed this meeting was a moment in history.
But it wasn’t.
Giants were never meant to coexist from the start. A thunderbolt could strike at any moment without surprise.
And then Kim Young-jun’s voice came.
“I’ll be taking my leave.”
His tone was dry and flat—the collapse of negotiations.
If Kim Young-jun left that room like this, war would break out.
A bloody clash between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Opposition Party.
Only the Ruling Party would benefit.
‘No, this can’t happen.’
Just as the aide was debating whether to open the door and stop the two men, Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s voice rang out.
“Is Lee So-hee so displeasing to you? Even if you take my corruption as a dowry?”
“….”
“The relationship of in-laws ends with divorce. But the dowry remains.”
“….”
“Let’s do this together. And divide everything equally. Power and money both.”
The aide exhaled with relief.
He heard the sound of Kim Young-jun sitting back down.
Then came Kim Young-jun’s voice suggesting they have a drink, and the aide began to laugh silently.
The aide understood.
These two had no genuine concerns about South Korea’s future.
They were merely greedy and selfish men who wanted to see the limits of power.
But being with them meant the sun would rise on the aide’s future as well.
The aide leaned against the wall, sketching out the blueprint of what was to come.
*
*
*
At that very moment, I was driving toward Chuncheon.
The hazy sky had brought rain with it, and the air felt damp and oppressive.
‘This mood is suffocating….’
I arrived at a bar in Chuncheon, where Lee So-hee sat waiting in a small private room.
“…Kim Yun-hwan?”
“Yeah.”
Lee So-hee swept her hair back and shook her head. Then she added a sigh-laden word.
“That lunatic. He sees me as merchandise. A commodity to be traded for favorable terms. My mother bound me the same way, and now he’s doing it too….”
Congressman Baek Ki-ho had called her, apparently.
Out of nowhere, telling her to get married.
“He was being unusually affectionate about it.”
Congressman Baek Ki-ho had said to Lee So-hee:
-As your father, my heart has always ached for never having done anything for you. So I found you a good family, a good man.
That man is Kim Yun-hwan.
Lee So-hee naturally refused, but the voice that came through was coercive.
A threat—did she want to see her mother suffer again? How much longer did she think she could continue her career as a prosecutor?
Congressman Baek Ki-ho possessed the power to turn that threat into reality.
In other words, not a request, but a command.
Recalling that voice, Lee So-hee lifted her head and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t want to show her tears.
“…It feels like I’m being sold off. This isn’t the Joseon Dynasty. What is this?”
Lee So-hee spoke as if unmoved, but her shoulders trembled faintly, betraying her.
I looked at Lee So-hee and brought a glass to my lips.
And I tried to think as rationally as possible, not emotionally.
Emotion was a waste in moments like this.
I had to view the world through reason alone.
‘Kim Yun-hwan and Lee So-hee.’
The process of how these two became entangled, and the consequences that would unfold from it.
The prediction wasn’t difficult to make.
Two former enemies taking action to fill each other’s gaps, preparing to seize power, with Lee So-hee caught in the middle.
‘But Kim Yun-hwan, of all people….’
I’d been hearing Kim Yun-hwan’s name frequently of late.
Jin-young had nearly abandoned his dreams because of that bastard, Lee So-hee—who loved her work as a prosecutor—was in the same boat, and my father’s company went without saying.
‘This won’t do. Not at all….’
I wiped my lips.
And I continued thinking.
In my mind, various methods of drawing out Kim Yun-hwan without clashing with Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun kept appearing and disappearing in succession.
And shortly after, Seo Jin uncrossed his legs and opened his mouth.
“…Want me to stop it?”
Lee So-hee shook her head while staring at the ceiling.
“Never mind. I just wanted to vent, but you’re the only friend who knows my situation. That’s why I called. Thanks for listening to my pathetic complaints.”
Lee So-hee knew Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s power better than anyone.
His cruel nature as well.
She had witnessed it since childhood.
“Sigh, I guess I’ll just have to get married….”
Lee So-hee believed Seo Jin couldn’t defeat Congressman Baek Ki-ho.
Seo Jin prepared to fight within the rules of law, but Congressman Baek Ki-ho was a man who operated outside it.
If he wanted something, he didn’t care about the means or methods.
To Congressman Baek Ki-ho, law was merely a tool to be exploited and a means of governing the common people.
Yet Seo Jin’s voice was dry.
“If you want, I can stop it.”
“What?”
Lee So-hee’s gaze slowly turned toward Seo Jin.
She wiped away the tears glistening at the corners of her eyes and looked at him directly.
Seo Jin’s eyes and voice always inspire trust.
His past actions and words are proof of that trust.
Even that formidable Congressman Baek Ki-ho seemed like he could truly be stopped.
Lee So-hee murmured, looking at Seo Jin.
“…You’ll stop it?”
Seo Jin chuckled playfully.
“Your makeup’s smudged. I thought you looked pretty, but your makeup….”
“Hey….”
“If you cry and then laugh….”
“Hey!”
“Anyway, will you let me stop it? In exchange, you pay for the drinks, and you cover the cab fare back to Seoul. That should be enough for my hourly rate.”
Lee So-hee, who had been dazed for a moment, blinked. Then she nodded.
If it could be stopped, if she could avoid marriage, the cost of drinks and cab fare didn’t matter.
“Do you have a way? I’ll do anything I can.”
“Well, there are a few things… First, Kim Yun-hwan’s mother—my aunt by marriage. She loves her son dearly.”
Could Kim Young-jun’s wife accept Lee So-hee as Kim Yun-hwan’s bride? It seemed like there would be quite the marital dispute.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————