Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 202

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Growing Wings (1)
To arrest Kim Young-jun, the Prosecutor General, and Baek Ki-ho, the congressman.
A refusal to entrust this nation’s future to them.
An offer to gather their corruption and hand it over.
Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul drained his makgeolli in silence, then slowly turned his gaze toward me and opened his mouth.
“I thought I’d live out my days as an old man in the back room, but it won’t work. I need to open the door and step outside.”
His acceptance of my proposal.
Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul refilled his glass with makgeolli and continued speaking.
“Is the only collar Kim Young-jun was going to put around my neck the illegal loan I took out? Or is there something else?”
“That appears to be all of it.”
“Summon me soon. I’ll tell you the date.”
“…!”
My eyes widened as I stared at former Congressman Gong Dae-chul.
I had no intention of dragging him in.
Yet former Congressman Gong Dae-chul was saying he would come to the Prosecutor’s Office of his own accord.
“What do you mean….”
Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul held the makgeolli glass in his hand and spoke.
“If I’m arrested, Kim Young-jun won’t suspect you, will he?”
That was when an unfamiliar voice reached my ears.
“The illegal loan you received—dirty business from more than five years ago—but the passage of time doesn’t erase wrongdoing. The price of sin must be paid.”
The voice belonged to the President’s Chief Secretary.
The Chief Secretary, who had appeared without warning, casually approached and sat beside former Congressman Gong Dae-chul.
He turned toward me with a smile and opened his mouth.
“I’m Chief Secretary Choi Seo-woo.”
“…!”
My gaze shifted to former Congressman Gong Dae-chul. He was chuckling as if he had known the Chief Secretary would come, tossing out a joke.
“Hey, you there. What good does it do to throw an old man in prison?”
“Didn’t Lee Sung-yoon, the floor leader, say that if you commit a crime, you must pay the price?”
“That bastard….”
Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul clicked his tongue and brought the makgeolli glass to his lips. Then he filled an empty glass with makgeolli, placed it beside the Chief Secretary, and continued speaking.
“I won’t be dragged away like a fool. The presidential election will be chaos, and it’s the job of an old man in the back room to throw kindling into that chaos.”
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun intended to humiliate former Congressman Gong Dae-chul and break the ruling party’s approval ratings.
But former Congressman Gong Dae-chul was a water dragon who had rolled through the political arena for a long time—now that he knew his opponent’s scheme, he had no intention of going down easily.
Moreover, the fact that the Chief Secretary had come here meant that detailed discussions with the Blue House had been concluded before meeting me.
Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul smiled faintly.
“Don’t worry and summon me.”
“Understood.”
I bowed my head without asking further questions.
Then Congressman Gong Dae-chul tore up some pajeon and placed it on the plate in front of me, and the Chief Secretary opened his mouth.
“Prosecutor Seo Jin, there’s one thing I’d like to ask of you.”
The Chief Secretary pulled out his phone and handed it to Seo Jin.
The screen displayed a series of disappearance cases erupting in rapid succession.
Young women in their early twenties were the targets—incidents occurring nationwide.
The police were striving to resolve the case, yet they had uncovered no leads whatsoever.
Online, only urban legends and folklore continued to spread.
“If the Prosecutor’s Office resolves the case and the judiciary imposes severe punishment, the government’s approval ratings will naturally rise.”
“…!”
“I’ve looked into Prosecutor Seo Jin a bit. You specialize in cold cases, don’t you? From Dongnam County to the chimney incident in Chuncheon. Can you resolve this case as well?”
With the presidential election looming, the ruling party was preparing a grand spectacle.
Once the case was solved, the media’s focus would shift.
Congressman Baek Ki-ho’s name would vanish from the news, and the portal websites’ main pages would be decorated with stories about the case.
And when the President’s lip service—”Impose severe punishment”—echoed across the nation, momentum would build for the ruling party.
My gaze slowly turned forward.
Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul and the Chief Secretary.
Joining hands with them would certainly give me wings upon my shoulders.
That moment when I could grasp everything I had aimed for could arrive suddenly.
But there was a problem.
“However, do you trust me?”
I was Kim Young-jun’s nephew—on the surface, someone in the same boat.
I couldn’t fathom why they would trust me so readily and make such an offer.
Then the Chief Secretary smiled enigmatically.
“As I mentioned, I’ve looked into Prosecutor Seo Jin a bit. About a decade ago, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun conducted a search and seizure on your father’s company, didn’t he?”
“…!”
“I’ve also heard that Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s wife quietly accumulated shares in that company using borrowed names. Recently, she forcibly placed his son into that company as well. If I were Prosecutor Seo Jin, I don’t see how Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun could appear favorable to you. Am I wrong?”
The Blue House’s intelligence network was formidable indeed, even delving into Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s borrowed accounts.
The Chief Secretary placed his phone back in his pocket and continued.
“The President doesn’t care who takes the next presidency. However, he believes it shouldn’t be Baek Ki-ho. Not because of party differences, but because that man cares only about his own interests, lies flow from his mouth—that’s the kind of person he is.”
“….”
“First, we must lower Baek Ki-ho’s approval ratings. We must push him out of public attention. Exposing his corruption and going negative comes later. So I’ll ask again: can you resolve this case?”
I silently raised my glass.
The Chief Secretary and Former Congressman Gong Dae-chul laughed broadly and clinked their glasses against mine.
The Chief Secretary brought his glass to his lips and spoke.
“Then, I’ll trust only Prosecutor Seo Jin.”
*
*
*
“So you’re saying you were away from home last night?”
“It’s not being away from home—it’s a disappearance!”
At a police box in Seoul.
The officer gazed ahead with an indifferent expression.
A middle-aged man with an anxious expression.
His daughter had just started university, and after saying she’d work on a group project with friends, she hadn’t returned home.
“Her phone’s been off since last night! I even asked her friends, and they said she went home around nine, but….”
“Does she have a boyfriend?”
“…What?”
“No boyfriend?”
The middle-aged man’s face contorted. His daughter had vanished, and they were asking about a boyfriend.
“Listen here!”
As the middle-aged man’s voice rose, the Police Station Chief approached and intervened.
“Oh dear. My apologies. Please come over here and explain calmly. So your daughter went out yesterday to work on a project and hasn’t come back, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“If you give me your daughter’s phone number, I’ll contact the telecom company and try to locate her. And…where did your daughter go with her friends to work on the project?”
“I heard it was Seongnam.”
The Police Station Chief picked up a pen and carefully wrote down the middle-aged man’s words.
“Has she ever stayed out late before?”
“No. She always came home before ten.”
“I understand. We’ll look into it, so please go home and wait for now. She might come back, so try not to worry too much.”
The middle-aged man bit his lip.
His daughter had disappeared—how could he not worry? But all the middle-aged man could do now was go home and wait, just as the Police Station Chief said.
“…I understand.”
The middle-aged man left the police box.
The Police Station Chief then handed the paper he’d written to an officer and furrowed his brow.
“How are you responding to complaints like that? Are you insane?”
“I apologize. But what should we do about this?”
“Just contact the telecom company. She’s probably passed out drunk in some motel.”
He made no effort to check the CCTV footage from where she’d gone missing.
Instead, he was cursing the father who’d come looking for his missing daughter.
“Shouldn’t we at least verify? There was another missing person report last time too.”
The Young Police Officer spoke up, but the Police Station Chief rebuked him instead.
“If I have to verify every case of someone staying out overnight, who’s supposed to handle public safety? Huh? Don’t you know how kids are these days?”
“There have already been three missing person reports in the last two months….”
“We found one of them passed out drunk, didn’t we? This one’s the same. It’s either running away or drinking.”
“But this girl always came home by ten….”
The Young Police Officer stared at the documents the Police Station Chief had written, feeling something was off.
At his expression, the Police Station Chief erupted in anger.
“That’s enough! Don’t respond to every person who comes in with complaints like this.”
Just then, the door opened and an unfamiliar voice was heard.
“Then when should I come back?”
The officers’ gazes snapped toward the door.
The person who appeared was Seo Jin.
He was entering together with the middle-aged man who had just stepped out.
The Police Station Chief and the officers’ faces stiffened as they recognized Seo Jin.
Seo Jin was the man who had arrested the Police Chief of Jongno Police Station.
The police’s enemy.
If the middle-aged man who had returned had heard what was just said, if he had spat out accusations, there was no telling what might happen.
“I, that is….”
The Police Station Chief tried to make excuses. But Seo Jin stood before them with his usual composed expression.
“I asked. So when should I contact the police?”
“…Yes?”
That’s what people pay taxes for, and that’s what officers receive their salaries to do.
But I could understand the police’s position too.
They too suffered from grueling work.
Trivial complaints, responding to what seemed like major incidents only to find them absurd, and then when night fell, dealing with intoxicated people.
Seo Jin exhaled a sigh and looked at the Young Police Officer.
“I came because I heard missing person reports come in frequently here. Could you…give me that?”
“Ah, yes.”
The Young Police Officer hastily handed over what he was holding.
Seo Jin gazed intently at the documents.
“Please give me all the recent missing person reports. And you….”
Seo Jin guided the middle-aged man to a table in the police station. Then he sat down and continued his questioning.
“If you have any phone numbers of friends you know, could you give me those as well?”
The middle-aged man hurriedly wrote down the numbers, and Seo Jin handed them to the Young Police Officer.
“Call this person and find out where you last parted ways.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And check all the CCTV locations in that area. Contact the telecom company and track their location as well.”
Initial response is crucial in cases.
Nearly every location in South Korea has CCTV, and vehicles have dashcams.
If we move quickly, no matter how meticulous the criminal, they will inevitably be caught.
Seo Jin’s gaze turned toward the Police Station Chief.
The Police Station Chief’s expression was displeased. He didn’t like this young prosecutor suddenly appearing and giving all these orders.
Seo Jin rose from the table and approached the Police Station Chief.
It was difficult to solve a case without the police’s assistance.
Moreover, this case had to be handled quietly so that Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun wouldn’t find out.
In other words, I needed these officers’ help.
Standing before him, Seo Jin whispered so only the Police Station Chief could hear.
“Police Station Chief, why do you think I came all the way here?”
“Yes?”
It was rare for a prosecutor to show up at a police box and make a fuss.
But the fact that I came here meant….
“This…is an order from above.”
“Above, you mean above?”
“Not the Prosecutor’s Office… something higher than that.”
The Police Station Chief swallowed hard.
He had started as a Young Police Officer and climbed to Police Station Chief, but had long since abandoned any hope of further promotion, choosing instead to pursue work-life balance and accept his station in life. Yet now, it seemed an opportunity had presented itself.
“If you succeed, you’ll get a special promotion.”
“…!”
I caught the flicker of desire that crossed the Police Station Chief’s eyes.
Now it was time to work.
I sat down across from the Middle-aged Man and spoke in a gentle voice.
“Your daughter—I promise I’ll find her. So please, go home. And if she returns, contact me immediately.”
My voice carried absolute conviction.
“Please, I’m begging you.”
The Middle-aged Man rose with tears glistening in his eyes and left the Police Box.
My gaze then shifted to the jurisdiction map on the wall.
I mentally plotted the location where the incident occurred and traced it across all of Seoul.
“Here it is.”
The Young Police Officer approached with a printed map.
The location where she parted from her friends, and the last position traced through the telecommunications company.
The distance between the two points was barely three hundred meters.
The telecommunications tracking had cut off at nearly the same time her friends claimed they had separated.
In other words, something had happened in that brief window after parting ways.
I turned my body.
“Let’s go.”
“Pardon?”
Now it was the Young Police Officer’s turn to be taken aback.
He was witnessing the absurd sight of a prosecutor heading to the crime scene in person.

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