Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 239

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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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Cutting Throats (5)
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After parting ways with Lee Eun-ha, I returned home.
I stood before the bookshelf, studying the writings left by the original Seo Jin.
Crooked handwriting, symbols only I could decipher.
‘What did you see back then….’
I had dismantled everything belonging to Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun. I exposed the black hands reaching into Jaejeong Construction and severed the funding channels. I assisted Chairman Um in concealing his assets, causing him to lose the fortune he’d anticipated.
And by recruiting prosecutors from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae, I tore away Kim Young-jun’s hands and feet.
Now, if I bring down Baek Ki-ho, even the hill he could lean on will crumble. Just as Chairman Um said, I must face the downpour alone. There will be no shelter.
‘Kim Young-jun is finished.’
Yet I cannot rest easy. Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun still possesses influence. Politicians, journalists, and wealthy individuals who reluctantly follow him because he holds their weaknesses.
Moreover, there are two more things that make Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun terrifying.
One is that he climbed from nothing to the summit. He will resurrect like a zombie the moment he glimpses even the smallest crack.
The second is that Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s nature lies beyond my imagination.
‘He….’
He remained composed even when discovering that Kim Yun-hwan was not his son. He showed no panic when Eom Si-young was arrested. Instead, he sought to exploit it. And there are strong suspicions he may have killed his own parents.
‘That mentality—willing to kill even blood relatives if they serve his purpose….’
This is why I’m pushing Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun toward the cliff’s edge. I’m driving him forward until I can flick him off with a single finger. Only then can I kill the monster called Kim Young-jun. I wanted to witness his final thrashing.
‘So, what did you know?’
I posed the question to the writings left by the original Seo Jin. Those words felt like a letter from the original me to the current me. But this unfinished letter would not reveal the truth to me.
I shifted my body and picked up my phone, searching for Shin Ji-yeon’s number. Then I raised the phone to my ear and spoke.
“I’d like to meet.”
-Now?
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Shortly after, I stood at Shin Ji-yeon’s Commercial Building.
The hot summer had passed, and a pleasantly cool breeze now blew. Then, I heard the sharp click-click of high heels approaching from behind.
“I brought beer.”
Shin Ji-yeon handed me a beer and stood beside me. She cracked open a can and continued.
“When’s the search warrant coming? It’s getting difficult to hide the evidence I’ve secretly prepared. Come get it soon.”
After receiving my call, Shin Ji-yeon had been gathering evidence of the bribes Shinma Group had given to Baek Ki-ho and his associates.
“Is there much?”
“Looks like dozens of boxes.”
“I’ll need to bring some skilled investigators.”
“I understand, but it won’t be easy to catch my brother. Even if he’s caught, there are plenty of people willing to go to prison in his place.”
Shin Ji-yeon was worried. She too had staked her life on this game. She must cut down her brother to claim the throne. The future of a king’s child who fails to claim the throne is predictable.
But my voice remained unhurried.
“Don’t worry. If Baek Ki-ho is implicated, there’s nothing they can do. Would a mere employee have rattled the cage over bribing a presidential candidate?”
“I like your confidence.”
Seo Jin turned slowly toward Shin Ji-yeon and spoke.
“There’s one more thing I need to ask of you.”
“Go ahead.”
“About forty years ago, the government built apartments in Wonju as a national policy. Shinma Construction was the contractor. And Shinma Resort was developed in that area.”
“And?”
“There was trouble over land compensation, and people died.”
Shin Ji-yeon’s gaze slowly shifted toward Seo Jin. He met her eyes and continued.
“I’m not thinking of shaking Shinma Construction over that old matter. I’m simply curious about who those hired thugs were back then.”
Shin Ji-yeon let out a soft laugh.
“My, you certainly hold Shinma Group in high regard, don’t you? Do you really think records from something that long ago would still exist? Even if they did, they’d all be destroyed by now.”
“I know there are special staff who handle the company’s behind-the-scenes work. People the executives don’t know about. People who share information only within the family.”
“That’s conspiracy theory. No such thing exists.”
Shin Ji-yeon denied it flatly. But Seo Jin stepped closer and lowered his voice.
“The world is full of surprises. And thugs can betray you at any moment. That’s why Shinma Group keeps individual records of those men—so you can use their families as hostages if they try to stab you in the back. Since I know this, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t dismiss it as conspiracy theory.”
Shin Ji-yeon’s crimson lips twisted. Then, without further denial, she admitted it plainly.
“How did you know?”
“Well… I have my own sources of information.”
Back when I was Seo Jun-kyung, I’d investigated Shinma Group to bring them down. I never thought that research would prove useful in this way.
Shin Ji-yeon’s gaze turned toward the city lights below. She was deliberating—whether helping Seo Jin would be beneficial or not.
But that hesitation was brief.
“Fine. I’ll give it to you.”
“Thank you.”
“In exchange, spend tonight with me.”
“…Pardon?”
Seo Jin was flustered by her request to spend time together. Seeing his expression, Shin Ji-yeon burst into laughter.
“You’re thinking strange things, aren’t you? Would your older sister lay a hand on her younger brother? Don’t worry.”
“…Is that so?”
“No matter how much I hate my brother, he’s still my real brother. I can’t find peace. So let’s have a drink together. You’re the only one I can confide these worries to.”
An autumn breeze swept through, tousling Shin Ji-yeon’s hair. Though she possessed everything as a tycoon, in this moment she looked lonely.
Seo Jin crushed an empty beer can and tossed it into the prepared trash bin before answering.
“Do you like chicken? There’s a place nearby that fries it really well.”
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A few days later.
Seo Jin checked the email that had arrived from Shin Ji-yeon.
The names of those who had handled the matter back then.
Seo Jin printed the list and handed it to Investigator Lee Dong-young.
“Could you look into this for me?”
Lee Dong-young narrowed his eyes and scanned the list of organizations written there.
“Gang organizations?”
“It happened before I was even born….”
“I’ll look into it right away.”
Lee Dong-young rolled up his sleeves.
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‘Park Jung-gil….’
The name that had escaped Lee Dong-young’s lips.
Years ago, the man had led a gang organization backed by Shinma Group, trampling farmers beneath their boots. After the war on crime, he’d reinvented himself as a security company owner, living a facade of respectability. Then, as an old man, he’d retired from the industry and lived in leisure—until he vanished several years ago.
‘The timing….’
Park Jung-gil would have known about every crime that occurred back then. Yet the timing of his sudden disappearance eerily aligned with Seo Jin’s fatal fall.
‘There’s something here.’
I turned the steering wheel without hesitation.
I arrived at a sprawling apartment complex in Songpa—a place that had been redeveloped and transformed into something gleaming and new.
I entered a coffee shop in the shopping complex within the complex and ordered two cups of coffee before taking a seat at a table.
After a brief wait, the door opened and a middle-aged man stepped inside.
“Prosecutor Seo Jin?”
The man was Park Jung-gil’s son—the son of a gangster, yet living an ordinary life. After retiring from his company, he’d been running his own business.
“But what brings you here…?”
The man sat across from me with a tense gaze, his question careful and measured. It was natural for him to be nervous—a prosecutor from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office didn’t simply drop by.
I offered him a warm, reassuring smile.
“It’s nothing serious. I came because I have some questions about your father’s disappearance.”
I knew men like Park Jung-gil well—gangsters who worked alongside corporations and politicians. They kept records of their crimes.
And to prepare for the day they might be cornered, they left those records with people they could trust—their children, for instance.
But….
“Oh, did you find my father?”
The man’s eyes widened as he asked. His voice trembled, his hands quivering slightly. Yet his expression held more fear and bewilderment than relief.
I narrowed my eyes.
‘Something….’
Something was off. Those eyes weren’t the eyes of a son worried about his father.
‘What is it?’
Suspicion flooded my mind relentlessly. It felt as though Park Jung-gil’s son sitting before me was somehow involved in his disappearance.
In a world where children kill parents and parents kill children, it wouldn’t be surprising if this man had a hand in Park Jung-gil’s vanishing. But I didn’t probe that suspicion immediately. I put on an apologetic expression and spoke.
“No, I came because I’m curious about it myself. There have been many cases of elderly people going missing recently—ever since your father disappeared, actually. So I’d like to ask you a few things. Was there any sign of trouble before he went missing?”
As I finished speaking, the man exhaled a tense breath and answered.
“No, there wasn’t. He was mentally sharp and full of vigor, so I never worried about anything like that. Though… he did drink a lot, so I was concerned about that.”
The man was hiding something. By casually mentioning alcohol, he was hinting at family discord. I decided to follow his lead for now.
“Alcohol?”
“Yes, at his age he still drank two bottles a day. That day was no different. I told him to stop drinking, but his voice grew louder… You may not know this, but my father has lived a rough life.”
“So after you argued and he left, you lost contact with him?”
“…Yes.”
The man lowered his head. His struggle to feign distress was painfully transparent.
Seo Jin observed him and formed two conclusions.
-Someone had given him a script.
-The son was merely a parrot reciting it by rote.
But I couldn’t be certain yet.
“If he lived roughly, what kind of work did he do?”
“…Ah, well… Something like a gang member.”
Shame, fear, and revulsion flickered across the man’s face simultaneously as he answered.
The shame came from embarrassment over his father’s former profession. The fearful glint in his eyes suggested childhood domestic abuse. The revulsion was anger toward a father who, even in old age, remained mired in alcohol and cigarettes.
‘He’s involved.’
My suspicion that the man was connected to Park Jung-gil’s disappearance had now hardened into near certainty.
As I absorbed every expression and prepared to ask more questions, my phone vibrated on the table. It was Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
I rose and stepped outside the coffee shop, bringing the phone to my ear.
“Yes, Prosecutor.”
-The Prosecutor General called me in. He’ll ask about your trip to Wonju.
“He’ll probably ask about the Wonju trip. I can deflect it…”
As I spoke, I glanced through the window at the man inside the shop. He was moving frantically. He pulled out his phone and hid it beneath the table, apparently sending a message.
“I’ll call you back.”
I rushed back inside. The bell chimed as the door swung open, and the man startled. He scrambled to conceal his phone. I snatched it from his hands. His eyes went wide.
“What—what are you doing? Give it back!”
His voice was urgent, desperation written all over his face. He grabbed my hand, trying to wrestle the phone away.
But that was the moment.
My vision flooded with black and white.
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“As you know, your father, Park Jung-gil, has committed many crimes. He’s intimidated people, assaulted them, and even murdered.”
The man sat with his head bowed, listening to the heavy voice. It continued.
“Even now, when he drinks, he causes trouble, fights with neighbors… Looking at your face, it seems your father still comes and hits you.”
Bruises marked the man’s cheek. His old glasses were held together with tape. Someone had beaten him.
The person across from him spoke with deliberate calm.
“I’ll give you two choices. The first is that your father’s crimes are exposed. He was a gang member. A murderer. If that becomes known, you’ll be pointed at by the world. You won’t be able to live in this neighborhood. I heard you have a daughter and son in high school… The trauma would be severe at that age. They might even be bullied.”
The man trembled, his lips moving toward the person across from him.
“What…what is the second option?”
“I’ll help you overcome poverty. I’ll help you escape this shabby residential area. Of course, there’s a condition. Park Jung-gil must have something hidden away. Bring it to me.”
The man’s pupils darted frantically. He was trying to recall what Park Jung-gil had hidden. But nothing came to mind. Park Jung-gil had simply gotten drunk and caused trouble.
Then the other man’s voice continued.
“Hand your father over to me. I have no intention of harming him. I plan to keep him in a sanitarium until I get what I want. The air is fresh there, so it would be perfect for him to quit drinking.”
“But… no matter what…”
“Two billion won.”
The man’s body flinched. Slowly, he lifted his gaze to look ahead. Sitting across from him was Kim Young-jun.

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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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