Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 213

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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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Loyal Dog (3)
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Slide.
The sliding door opened, and Seo Jin’s Father Kim Jun-man entered the Korean Traditional Restaurant with a pleased expression.
Seo Jin’s Aunt Eom Si-young, who had been sitting in the room, rose to her feet and bowed slightly, but Kim Jun-man stopped her.
“Oh, please, make yourself comfortable. Haha.”
Kim Jun-man laughed heartily. Just a few days ago, he’d met his younger brother Kim Young-jun for drinks, and now that his sister-in-law had come to visit, he was simply in good spirits.
Kim Jun-man settled into his seat and spoke.
“I had so much I wanted to discuss with you, and I’m grateful you’ve come like this.”
Kim Jun-man knew the relationship between his wife and Eom Si-young wasn’t good. That’s why he wanted to mend things between them however he could. He believed that was what family harmony meant.
Kim Jun-man filled a cup with water and spoke.
“How is Yumi doing?”
Kim Jun-man didn’t ask about Kim Yun-hwan. He thought it was proper etiquette not to mention the name of someone in the Detention Center.
But then, Kim Yun-hwan’s name spilled from Eom Si-young’s lips.
And in a chilling tone at that.
“Have you heard about Yun-hwan?”
“Haha.”
As Kim Jun-man laughed awkwardly, Eom Si-young continued quickly.
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Please, tell me. If there’s anything I can help with….”
Eom Si-young believed that Kim Young-jun had abandoned his efforts. That’s why she’d come to find Kim Jun-man and speak with him.
“You know many influential figures in politics and business, don’t you? You even control media outlets. So I was hoping you’d help.”
“Pardon?”
“Yun-hwan is suffering. I visited yesterday, and he looked so gaunt, crying as he saw me….”
“Sister-in-law, Young-jun is in a difficult situation. How could I possibly….”
But in that moment, Eom Si-young’s expression transformed. The melancholy in her eyes vanished, replaced by a chilling murderous intent. Her voice turned glacial.
“This isn’t a request, brother-in-law.”
It was a threat. As Kim Jun-man’s brow furrowed, Eom Si-young twisted her lips and spoke.
“My husband and I hold a considerable stake in Jaejeong Construction. And my father—he made an enormous investment when Jaejeong Construction was just starting out.”
“Sister-in-law, I remain grateful for the help we received from your father. However, we’ve already repaid the investment with interest. And the stake you and Young-jun hold….”
“Oh, I haven’t finished speaking yet….”
Eom Si-young smiled slightly. But her eyes didn’t smile. They fixed on Kim Jun-man with a frigid gaze.
Kim Jun-man found that smile ominous. The Eom Si-young he’d observed all this time was unpredictable, and her nature was extreme.
And Eom Si-young’s voice continued.
“My father is over eighty years old and still so frugal he won’t even change his clothes. He’s rolling in money, yet if he finds scrap metal or waste paper, he picks it up and sells it. He calls it a hobby. But there’s something else my father likes to collect, you see?”
“…!”
“Whenever he invests in a company, he walks around the area collecting every speck of dust. He did it before, and he does it now. How much dust has fallen from Jaejeong Construction? Just from what I know, there must be several boxes worth.”
“…!”
“If your daughter—the one who cut ties to support her husband’s success—comes crying to you and asks to see what you’ve provided for her all this time, will you turn away? Or will you comfort her and say she’s worked hard? Aren’t you curious?”
Kim Jun-man’s fists clenched. He bit his lip and spoke in a low voice.
“Sister-in-law….”
“Please, Brother-in-law.”
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At that moment, in the Hotel’s Underground Parking Lot.
Seo Jin was meeting Choi Ji-beom, whom he’d seen with his aunt during the psychometry session.
Seo Jin brushed past Choi Ji-beom and spoke in a low voice.
“This is going to be a long conversation. Tell the naked woman to go home. We’ll talk in that room.”
“Kim Seo-jin!”
“Or would you rather we talk here? I’m being considerate of your age—standing for too long must be tiring, right?”
At Seo Jin’s dry tone, Choi Ji-beom’s expression hardened. But he couldn’t let Seo Jin go.
Understanding what Seo Jin was trying to say and what he was thinking was also part of his mission.
Choi Ji-beom nodded, brought his phone to his ear, and spoke.
“Get out. I’ll call you later.”
That was it. Choi Ji-beom walked ahead without another word—a signal for Seo Jin to follow.
Seo Jin turned his gaze toward Jang Seok-min and whispered softly.
“Wait nearby, and if things get loud….”
“Should we go in if it gets loud?”
“No. Call the Police. You can’t handle this guy.”
“What?”
These were the men who cleaned up the dirty messes of Chairman Um, one of South Korea’s biggest power brokers. Thugs like Jang Seok-min were nowhere near his level.
“…Prosecutor?”
“Call them.”
Seo Jin waved his hand and walked, and in that moment Jang Seok-min saw it.
Heavy footsteps echoing, and several men in dark suits appeared from nowhere, following behind Seo Jin and Choi Ji-beom.
At a glance, they were no ordinary men. Jang Seok-min swallowed dryly without realizing it.
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Moments later, Seo Jin sat in the VIP Room of the Hotel and looked around.
Judging by the moisture on the floor, the woman had just finished washing and left.
Seo Jin smirked and sneered.
“You were going to unbuckle your belt with someone younger than your daughter? How pathetic.”
Seo Jin provoked him, but Choi Ji-beom leisurely retrieved a bottle of wine and replied.
“For someone my age, that’s not called pathetic—it’s called vitality. Care for a drink?”
“I don’t drink with gangsters.”
Choi Ji-beom sat across from Seo Jin, poured wine into a glass, crossed his legs casually, and leaned back comfortably before asking quietly.
“Why did you come looking for me?”
“Did you kill the man my aunt met in the past?”
I asked bluntly. But Choi Ji-beom’s expression didn’t change.
“I don’t commit murder.”
“Then, did my aunt kill him?”
For a moment, Choi Ji-beom’s eyes narrowed. But it was fleeting. Soon he shook his head with a low chuckle.
“Is what prosecutors do accusing innocent citizens of murder?”
Choi Ji-beom’s composure wasn’t mere bravado. He was someone who had met countless prosecutors before. I regarded him as beneath me, looking down on him.
I leaned forward toward Choi Ji-beom and whispered in a low voice.
“I’ll ask again. Did you kill him?”
“I said no.”
“You can be honest. It was thirty years ago. The statute of limitations has already expired. I just want to know the truth.”
Choi Ji-beom narrowed his eyes and studied me. Then he tapped the armrest of the sofa with his palm and opened his mouth.
“Truth is beautiful when it’s hidden. So let it remain beautiful. And this is the limit. If you try to learn more, it becomes dangerous. I might have to kill you.”
It was an outright threat.
But if I were the type to back down from such a threat, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.
I opened my bag and pulled out a stack of documents, placing them on the table.
When Choi Ji-beom’s eyes shifted toward the documents, I tapped them with my finger and spoke.
“I see you’ve torn up indictments several times, and each time, the prosecutor assigned to your case moved to a nice house. Did you give them generous money?”
“What does it have to do with me if they moved to a nice house?”
He didn’t seem interested in answering.
I laid down another stack of documents.
“Other charges.”
Starting with tax evasion, corporate predation, stock manipulation, and violence.
I tapped the documents before him with my finger and spoke.
“I don’t need money, so what are you going to use to tempt me?”
Choi Ji-beom shook his head as if dumbfounded. Then he glared at me with savage eyes and opened his mouth.
“You think you can put me in prison with just this? Do you really think you can?”
“What can’t I do? I’m a prosecutor, and putting bastards like you away is the easiest thing in the world for me.”
Our savage gazes met in the air. And a quiet smile played at the corner of Choi Ji-beom’s mouth.
This time Choi Ji-beom leaned toward me and spoke.
“Listen well, young prosecutor. I won’t betray Chairman Um.”
“Did I ask you to betray Chairman Um? I only asked you to tell me about my aunt’s past.”
“To me, that’s the same thing. Go ahead and arrest me.”
He wasn’t afraid of prison.
He spoke as if he were going out for a stroll.
Choi Ji-beom put a cigarette in his mouth and continued.
“Ten years, twenty years, I’ll take whatever sentence. Life imprisonment is fine too. The Chairman has money and power. The judge will follow his word, and I’ll be out soon. When I get out, he’ll give me an even bigger reward. It’s the age of living to a hundred now. It’s better to suffer for one or two years and live comfortably for thirty or forty years. If you don’t even know that, what kind of prosecutor are you….”
Choi Ji-beom exhaled cigarette smoke leisurely and glanced at me.
But something was strange. I was giggling. Soon I was laughing so hard I was holding my stomach.
“Khahaha!”
Choi Ji-beom had encountered countless prosecutors over the years who boasted of their prowess, but he had never seen anyone behave like Seo Jin.
This went beyond arrogance—it was madness.
After laughing for a long while, Seo Jin finally spoke.
“I’ve never met this Chairman Um, but I have to say I’m envious of him. He’s got dogs that play dead whenever he throws money at them. Puhaha!”
At the word “dogs,” Choi Ji-beom’s brow, which had remained calm until now, furrowed deeply.
Choi Ji-beom stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and spoke menacingly.
“If you’ve got no more cards to play, stop. And I won’t tell the young lady about what happened today, so make sure you’re careful from now on.”
“….”
“Get out. My patience ends here. I don’t enjoy being spoken to informally by some green kid.”
But Seo Jin didn’t leave.
Instead, the smile at the corner of his mouth deepened.
“I learned something recently.”
How Kim Young-jun had summoned Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk.
How he had cornered Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk through people around him.
“Make the righteous hear the screams of those around them.”
“What?”
“I’m curious. A loyal dog—what would he do if he heard his children screaming?”
Choi Ji-beom’s movements froze.
His eyes blazed with fury as he glared at Seo Jin as if to devour him.
But Seo Jin pressed on without hesitation.
“Chuseok is coming soon. You’ll meet your son and daughter, make songpyeon together, play yutnori.”
“…!”
“I wonder what you’ll tell your ancestors when you perform the ancestral rites. ‘My daughter was caught smuggling money overseas for tax evasion’? Or ‘My son…’.”
Choi Ji-beom couldn’t hold back.
“Stop!”
“Then talk. Who did you kill? Where did you bury them?”
Choi Ji-beom’s fist clenched savagely. He looked ready to kill Seo Jin on the spot.
And it wouldn’t be difficult. It would be easy to call in the subordinates waiting outside, twist those fragile wrists, and throw him out to die.
“You… really want to die?”
That’s when Seo Jin’s phone vibrated, and the name of Investigator Lee Dong-young appeared on the screen.
When Seo Jin pressed the speakerphone button, Investigator Lee Dong-young’s voice filled the room.
-Prosecutor, we’ve finished organizing the information on Choi Min-woo and Choi Min-ji. Should we file for a warrant?
“Process it in five minutes. If you don’t hear from me, relay it to that prosecutor.”
-Understood.
Seo Jin pressed the call end button and looked at Choi Ji-beom.
“What now? Even if I die, your children’s crimes won’t disappear.”
“I have power. I can get them out quickly.”
Then Seo Jin’s phone vibrated again.
The caller ID showed Reporter Lee So-hee. When Seo Jin pressed speakerphone, he heard her voice.
“Prosecutor, we’ve finished writing the articles on Choi Min-woo and Choi Min-ji. How should we proceed—start with Jirashi or go with a major outlet? Burying this seems like child’s play.”
Of course, Lee So-hee wasn’t a journalist—she was a prosecutor. This was something I had arranged beforehand.
But the method worked. Choi Ji-beom’s face, which seemed unshakeable, was turning ashen.
I studied Choi Ji-beom’s expression as I spoke.
“We’ll be in touch.”
I continued as I hung up the phone.
“If you want to see your children’s faces on Chuseok, you’d better talk. Who was it?”
“….”
“The statute of limitations has already passed! Speak!”
I glared at Choi Ji-beom with eyes blazing with fury and slammed my hand against the table with a sharp crack.
Choi Ji-beom squeezed his eyes shut. He was deliberating on how to respond. And then he made his decision.
‘I have to say I did it.’
Just as Choi Ji-beom was about to speak with a heavy sigh, I cut him off.
“If you claim you acted alone, I’ll assume Chairman Um hired you to do it.”
“…!”

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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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