Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 217

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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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Remembering (3)
The Director swallowed hard, his gaze fixed on me.
As tension deepened across his face, my smile grew more pronounced.
Then I pulled out a manila envelope and placed it on the table.
The Director hastily opened the envelope and examined its contents.
All photographs.
A photograph of a young woman getting into the Director’s car.
A photograph of that car entering a hotel.
A photograph of the Director entering a hotel room with the young woman.
Photograph after photograph after photograph.
Watching the Director’s eyes widen in shock, I chuckled softly.
“During my time as a prosecutor, I’ve encountered all manner of sexual offenders. What exactly is this compared to that?”
“….”
“Make your choice. Will you be a public official implicated in corruption, or a father who’s been intimate with your daughter’s friend?”
“….”
“Why make it so difficult… A corrupt official goes to prison in disgrace. A father who’s been intimate with his daughter’s friend? That’s simply a broken home. Choose—your family or your reputation. That’s all.”
The Director closed his eyes tightly, then opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
“I’m, I’m sorry. Just, just one more chance….”
“You don’t need to apologize to me.”
“Please… just one more chance….”
The Director rose abruptly and fell to his knees, his body trembling as he bowed his head.
“Please, just give me one more chance.”
I regarded the Director with cold eyes.
“Director… You simply need to do your job. Reporting what the evidence remembers—that’s your responsibility, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again….”
“Have you decided?”
“Prosecutor! Please!”
I placed my phone on the table and pressed the call and speaker buttons. Jang Seok-min’s voice came through.
-I’ve arrived at Shinma Apartment Unit 2302. Should I ring the doorbell?
The Director’s face went pale.
Unit 2302 was his home. Someone arriving there meant….
I picked up the photograph and tossed it toward the Director, then instructed Jang Seok-min.
“Ring it.”
Ding dong! Ding dong!
As the doorbell chimed, his wife’s voice came through the phone.
-Who is it?
The Director spoke urgently.
“Wait, just a moment! I’ll comply! I’ll do it! I will!”
I watched the Director’s pathetic expression and smiled quietly. Then I spoke to Jang Seok-min again.
“Hold on for a moment.”
Then Jang Seok-min’s smooth voice came through the phone.
-Chicken delivery?
-Huh? I didn’t order anything.
I ended the call and opened my mouth to address the Director.
“So, shall we begin our conversation?”
*
*
*
“You said you’d block it. The media and the National Forensic Service both. The Director of the National Forensic Service has received considerable help from my father, hasn’t he?”
Kim Young-jun’s House.
The Prosecutor General sat on the sofa in the living room.
Eom Si-young, Seo Jin’s Aunt, walked slowly in front of the Prosecutor General as she spoke.
“You know how it works, don’t you? People kneel before money. The Director of the National Forensic Service will side with us, and everything will be as if nothing happened. Today, tomorrow—every day will be the same.”
Eom Si-young pulled back the curtains and continued speaking as she gazed out at the garden.
“So now, shouldn’t we talk about our own affairs?”
The Prosecutor General shook his head.
“Yoon-hwan… we can’t do anything until the presidential election is over. The Ruling Party said they’re watching my movements. We can’t underestimate their intelligence capabilities.”
The Prosecutor General lit a cigarette and continued.
“And… you’re the owner of that land.”
“So?”
“The Victim’s Mother is still alive. There’s a growing possibility she’ll appear on television with the Ruling Party’s backing.”
“And?”
“If the Victim’s Mother appears on a Current Affairs Program crying tears of blood, asking for your DNA to be tested…”
The Prosecutor General enumerated the risks that could very well exist. But Eom Si-young, who had been listening leisurely until now, burst into laughter.
“My goodness? I thought you were smart, but you’re not? You still don’t know what kind of person my father is?”
“…”
“He said he’d send an actor to that house. Someone who will cry and beg, saying he did it, that it was his fault, that he’s sorry.”
“…”
“With the Director of the National Forensic Service’s power, the evidence will change and there will be a confessed criminal. So what can you do to me? Sorry, but there’s nothing this country’s law can do to me.”
“…”
“Why wouldn’t a Prosecutor General understand? The only people the law can catch are beggars…”
*
*
*
“Let me say it again. All your debts will disappear. Those who tormented you demanding interest payments will vanish. The statute of limitations has already passed anyway—you won’t have to go to prison. It’ll all be over once your face becomes slightly known.”
It was a park bench.
Choi Ji-beom placed a cigarette between the lips of an elderly man in his sixties. The man exhaled smoke and nodded.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Read it. This is what you need to say from now on.”
Choi Ji-beom placed a piece of paper on the man’s lap.
…he was a friend. We had a drink when he mentioned breaking up with his girlfriend, but we got drunk and started arguing. The fight continued all the way to the rooming house, and eventually…. I’m sorry. I was scared, so I buried my friend’s body in his ex-girlfriend’s villa. I thought that way I could escape suspicion.
“You don’t need to memorize it all. You were comforting a friend, you fought, and he died. So you buried him in your ex-girlfriend’s villa to avoid suspicion. Just remember that context.”
Choi Ji-beom patted the man’s shoulder as he continued speaking.
“People in this country forget everything quickly. The finger-pointing lasts only a moment. But the debt disappears. Think of it as a gift from heaven.”
“….”
“And… you might not even face any finger-pointing. There’s a good chance it never happened in the first place. If you understand, go apologize and come back.”
The man rose unsteadily to his feet. Then, swaying slightly, he made his way toward the apartment where the Victim’s Mother lived.
Choi Ji-beom watched the man’s retreating figure and clicked his tongue in disdain.
“Pathetic bastard. This is what happens when you get old and poor.”
Choi Ji-beom left those words behind and walked leisurely toward his vehicle, hands in his pockets.
But from a distance, there were eyes watching Choi Ji-beom’s back.
It was Seo Jin.
*
*
*
Moments later, at the Victim’s Mother’s House.
An Elderly Man stood before the door.
With trembling fingers, he pressed the doorbell, and as the chime sounded, the Victim’s Mother opened the door.
“…Who is it?”
The man stared quietly at the Victim’s Mother, who peered through the gap in the door.
Nearly ninety years old, her forehead and eyes bore the marks of a life of hardship—it was like looking at his own mother.
But the man suppressed his emotions.
He had to deceive the Victim’s Mother so the debt would disappear. Only then could he see tomorrow’s sunrise.
The man opened his mouth hesitantly.
“I, I… your son….”
“You’re about to say you killed him, aren’t you?”
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice whispered in the man’s ear.
The man felt his heart skip as he slowly turned his gaze.
A neat young man stood behind him.
It was Seo Jin.
“Come inside. It seems you have much to discuss.”
“W-who are you?”
“Prosecutor.”
“A prosecutor?”
“How predictably you move… You never deviate from my expectations.”
Seo Jin pushed the man into the house by his back.
The man entered the entryway without resistance, and Seo Jin slowly closed the door behind him.
The Victim’s Mother blinked. She had heard from Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk that Seo Jin would be coming. But when an Elderly Man suddenly arrived with him, it was difficult to understand what was happening.
Seo Jin smiled gently at the Victim’s Mother and opened his mouth.
“Mother, could I trouble you for a cup of tea? And I have some things to discuss with this gentleman—would it be alright if we used a room?”
“Yes, of course.”
As Victim’s Mother tilted her head and moved to prepare the coffee, my gaze shifted toward the man.
“Let’s go inside.”
The man furrowed his brow at this unexpected turn, but since his goal was to enter the house anyway, he removed his shoes and stepped inside. He followed me into the room I indicated.
A cluttered space overflowing with miscellaneous items.
I sat down carelessly and spoke to the man.
“Have a seat.”
The man licked his dry lips and sat across from me. Soon coffee was placed between us, and Victim’s Mother closed the door and disappeared into the living room.
I picked up my coffee cup and spoke.
“Why did you come? To apologize as if you’re the murderer? Don’t do that. False testimony carries punishment.”
My eyes seemed to know everything, but the man shook his head, his voice trembling as he answered.
“I… I killed him.”
“Stop spouting nonsense.”
“I’m telling you, I killed him!”
“I know. How much debt do you owe those bastards?”
“What?”
“You’re sitting there because they promised to forgive your debt, aren’t you?”
I placed a small recorder in front of the man and continued.
“I’ll pay that debt for you. Then you won’t have to face accusations, and you can live in peace. If you’re afraid of their retaliation, I can even arrange for you to go abroad.”
“…!”
“In return, there are two things you need to do: when the recorder starts, tell me what instructions you received and why you came here, and bring me evidence that they gave those orders.”
But the man wasn’t convinced. Instead, he spoke as if he might cry.
“I’m telling you, I killed him!”
The man was over sixty. It was hard to trust me when I suddenly whispered about giving him candy.
In situations like this, you have to show the candy directly.
I pulled out a white envelope from my pocket and placed it down.
“Five hundred million won to pay off your debt.”
“…!”
The man’s pupils trembled. His debt was three hundred and twenty million. But five hundred million meant he’d have one hundred and eighty million left after paying it off.
Then I pulled out another envelope and placed it down.
“Three hundred million won to enjoy in Southeast Asia until their retaliation ends.”
“…!”
The man unconsciously swallowed hard.
And he reached out to check inside the envelope.
Checks were visible.
‘Eight hundred million.’
But it wasn’t over.
I pulled out a document envelope and placed it down.
“Finally, a contract for an officetel where you can live comfortably when you return from abroad.”
I picked up the recorder, watching the man’s wavering pupils, and placed it on top of the document envelope as I continued speaking.
“They say a single word can pay off a thousand debts, don’t they? How fortunate. You can toss out a few words and pocket hundreds of millions.”
The man with his eyes tightly shut nodded slowly.
“I… I’ll talk.”
“Evidence?”
“Would fingerprints remain on paper, by any chance?”
“Of course.”
When Seo Jin smiled faintly, the man pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and set it down.
“The person who gave me instructions handed me this paper. There should be fingerprints on it.”
Seo Jin’s eyes shifted to examine the paper.
It was a script containing the words he was supposed to spout when meeting Victim’s Mother. If fingerprints were on it, it would be excellent evidence.
“Good. Let’s begin.”
Seo Jin pressed the record button, and the man opened his mouth.
“…I borrowed money from a loan shark. And because I couldn’t repay it, I was threatened with death and assaulted. But then that loan shark came to find me…”
A smile deepened at the corners of Seo Jin’s mouth.
Now there was no escape route left for his aunt.
The evidence wouldn’t change, and the actor who would have claimed she committed murder had turned his back.
Though the statute of limitations had expired, the deeds his aunt committed to evade justice would face the world’s condemnation.
She would have to face judgment with a desperation so pitiful it was grotesque.
‘And…’
Seo Jin planned to conduct a search and seizure simultaneously.
The travel bag he’d discovered at his aunt’s home.
Inside lay all the assets his aunt held under false names and traces of tax evasion, perfectly preserved.
‘Eom Si-young is finished.’
As Seo Jin’s eyes gleamed with cold intensity, the man’s voice also ceased.
The man looked at Seo Jin and opened his mouth.
“It’s… finished.”
“If Choi Ji-beom contacts you, tell him you apologized. And stay hidden until you leave Korea. That will be safer.”
Seo Jin laughed coldly. Now it was time to hear his aunt’s screams.

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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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