Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 40

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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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Outskirts (2)
Kang Chi-ha swallowed hard without realizing it, his fists clenching tight.
Tendons bulged from his neck as his eyes darted about.
That was when it happened.
Lee Jae-seung turned his head toward Kang Chi-ha, who had paused in place.
“You coming?”
“Oh, no. Yes, I’m coming.”
Kang Chi-ha composed his expression and averted his gaze.
Then he followed hesitantly behind Lee Jae-seung.
But soon he stopped in his tracks and forced an awkward smile.
“Chief Prosecutor, I apologize. Something urgent just came up….”
Lee Jae-seung’s brow furrowed.
It was Kang Chi-ha who had contacted him first about having tea.
Yet now something urgent had suddenly come up.
“What is it?”
It was difficult to keep someone who claimed to be busy.
Lee Jae-seung waved his hand dismissively.
“Fine, let’s meet when you’re not so busy.”
“I’m truly sorry, haha.”
Kang Chi-ha bowed repeatedly toward Lee Jae-seung.
Then he hurriedly excused himself.
All while stealing glances at Chae Sung-ah being dragged into the building by a female investigator….
But Kang Chi-ha didn’t know.
That my gaze was following his retreating figure.
*
*
*
“Do you have it or not?”
“I don’t!”
In the building with the Namdong Construction sign, there was Hong Ju-dae’s office.
Kang Chi-ha paced in front of Hong Ju-dae’s desk, his face contorted with frustration.
“You never sent any messages, right?”
“How many times do I have to say it? No! I don’t have it! Attorney Kang, I don’t even know how to use KakaoTalk!”
Hong Ju-dae wore an aggrieved expression while Kang Chi-ha heaved a deep sigh.
“You gave it all in cash, right?”
“Of course!”
“Damn it… why did this useless thing have to surface.”
Kang Chi-ha loosened his necktie and exhaled an exasperated sigh.
Until now, Kang Chi-ha and Hong Ju-dae had only worried about the hospital administrator.
But then this prostitution ring business came out of nowhere.
Hong Ju-dae asked carefully.
“Attorney Kang, could this become a problem?”
“For an ordinary person, it wouldn’t matter. They’d just pretend not to know and weather it. But you and I—our faces could be exposed.”
“…Exposed?”
“Those bastards love seeing us destroyed, and the journalists who feed off that won’t just sit idle.”
Hong Ju-dae’s expression grew grave.
If this got out, it would be utter humiliation.
He opened his mouth hesitantly.
“We can stop it, right?”
“We have to stop it. Absolutely. I’ll think about how.”
Attorney Kang Chi-ha lit a cigarette.
He exhaled smoke with a grave expression.
*
*
*
“Six runaways from Seoul gathered in a gosiwon in Dongnam County. A runaway teen ring that came together through the internet.”
-Runaway Teen Ring: A group of runaway teenagers who rent a studio apartment or motel and live together.
My gaze fixed forward.
In the small conference room, I could see Prosecutor Lee Myung-soo, Lee So-hee, and the investigators.
In the quiet, my voice continued.
“Under the direction of Chae Sung-ah, known as the ‘madam,’ they engaged in sex trafficking targeting soldiers and tourists. These are the names of people stored in Chae Sung-ah’s phone.”
The screen changed, displaying a file with names and contact information organized neatly.
Nineteen pages total with ten names per page—roughly one hundred ninety people.
“But there’s a problem.”
All transactions were in cash, so there’s no physical evidence.
All we have is Chae Sung-ah’s testimony and contact information.
They would naturally deny everything.
“I have no idea why my number is there!”
“I have lots of numbers saved that I don’t recognize!”
“It’s circumstantial evidence! You don’t know what circumstantial means?”
As the contact list on the screen turned page by page, silence fell over the conference room.
The sheer volume of contacts made it obvious.
Chae Sung-ah had treated the students she brought into the runaway teen ring like slaves.
Though her shell was barely twenty, the creature inside was pure evil.
“Wait.”
Prosecutor Lee Myung-soo raised his hand.
“Go back to the beginning.”
I turned the pages backward.
Prosecutor Lee Myung-soo’s gaze fixed on a particular contact number.
He narrowed his eyes, studying it, then picked up his own phone and compared it with a saved number.
Then I chuckled.
-Porsche: 010-××××-××××.
It was Kang Chi-ha’s contact information.
Lee Myung-soo shook his head in disbelief, muttering under his breath.
“I kept wondering why that dropout kept showing up so often, and that’s the reason? A lawyer, no less… Pathetic bastard.”
Lee Myung-soo slowly rose to his feet.
He felt there was nothing more to see.
Lee Myung-soo looked at me and gave his instructions.
“Runaway teens who fled to the coast, a pimp who pushed peers into sex trafficking—solid material.”
“….”
“Go ahead. I’ll brief the Chief Prosecutor myself, so you won’t need to file a separate report.”
“….”
“And I’ll arrange an interview with the local press. Throw in some emotional appeal too.”
I bowed deeply to Lee Myung-soo.
Lee Myung-soo tapped my arm twice, then turned his head toward Lee So-hee.
“By the way, Lee So-hee. Criminal Division 3 is busy—can you help Prosecutor Kim?”
Lee So-hee shrugged.
“Prosecutor Seo Jin said he has no one else to give orders to.”
That’s what happens when you’re the youngest.
Everyone on the team is a senior.
It’s a miracle if they don’t ask you to make coffee.
Lee Myung-soo nodded with an understanding expression.
“I’ll ask the Chief Prosecutor of Division 3. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
Lee Myung-soo waved his hand and left the conference room with a parting “Do well.”
And so only Lee So-hee and I remained in the conference room.
But her expression as she looked at the screen wasn’t good.
“What’s wrong?”
“I really hate guys like that. Bastards who treat women like toys.”
As Lee So-hee bit her lower lip with a look that spoke of past pain, I waved my hand in front of her eyes.
“Don’t let emotion into the case.”
Even with pure logic, you can lose.
But if emotion gets involved, you’re destroyed 100% of the time.
Work should be handled dispassionately.
Lee So-hee exhaled a sigh, suppressing her anger.
Then she nodded and opened her mouth.
“Okay. Right. I need to be cold about this.”
“….”
“But I have a question. How do we climb up to the hospital director through this case?”
Receiving the question, I perched my hip on the table and crossed my legs.
“We can escalate this.”
Dongnam Central Hospital was a case I’d already probed three years ago.
Significant resources had been deployed—Kang Chi-ha with his Porsche, attorney Woo Myung-soon from Seocho-dong, and many others.
“But what if we dig it up again?”
As I’d mentioned before, exhuming old cases and tearing them apart is a way of disrespecting your seniors.
A prosecutor whose ink on his credentials hasn’t even dried yet showing disrespect to his seniors is practically begging to be marked as a problem child.
“But if we uncover evidence through ‘coincidence,’ that’s another matter entirely.”
I was trying to minimize risk as much as possible.
“First, we separate Hong Ju-dae from the hospital. Make him preoccupied with the prostitution charges so he can’t focus on the hospital for now. Then I’ll meet with Director Jang Yong-min.”
Jang Yong-min was the director of Dongnam Central Hospital—essentially the figurehead running the hospital.
I smiled faintly and continued.
“And we’ll have to persuade him nicely.”
Lee So-hee forced out a laugh.
I’d clearly said I’d persuade him nicely, but it absolutely didn’t sound that way.
My voice sounded sinister.
I stepped down from the desk and opened my mouth.
“Then let’s begin.”
*
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The interrogation room door creaked open and Lee So-hee entered.
Chae Sung-ah, who’d been sitting in a chair, lifted her head toward Lee So-hee.
Lee So-hee set down documents on the table and spoke.
“Hey.”
But Chae Sung-ah’s eyes weren’t obedient.
Usually, even adults tremble when they sit in an interrogation room, yet eighteen-year-old Chae Sung-ah remained composed.
Lee So-hee sat across from Chae Sung-ah and asked.
“Confident, are we?”
“I’m a minor.”
“And?”
“I looked it up. If it’s not beating or threats or anything like that… just two years? It’s like when guys go to the military. I guess that’s what happens to me too. Sounds fun, right?”
In that instant, Lee So-hee slammed the documents she was holding down on the table with a bang.
Chae Sung-ah flinched at the sudden noise.
Lee So-hee stared at her with cold eyes and smiled icily.
“Sorry, but who said two years?”
“…What?”
“One hundred ninety contacts in your phone. Among them are local gangsters.”
Chae Sung-ah’s eyes filled with bewilderment as Lee So-hee’s voice continued.
“I’m going to prosecute you as a parasite connected to organized crime syndicates, preying on your peers.”
“…Gangsters?”
“Yeah, but two years? She hung around with gangsters and lured kids her own age, and she’s only serving two years just because she’s a minor? Are you insane?”
Chae Sung-ah shook her head.
She’d looked up the prison sentence for running a prostitution ring.
But she hadn’t checked the sentencing guidelines when organized crime was involved.
If it was four years, five years instead of two….
Five years is a long time when you’re a teenager.
“No, that’s not it.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Really, it’s not!”
“Then who are these people?”
Lee So-hee pushed photographs of Hong Ju-dae and Kang Chi-ha across the table toward Chae Sung-ah.
Chae Sung-ah’s mouth opened urgently.
“These, these uncles aren’t gangsters!”
“Then what?”
“They’re just perverted bastards!”
Lee Myung-soo, watching Lee So-hee’s interrogation from outside, burst out laughing without thinking.
He thought the description “perverted bastard” fit Kang Chi-ha perfectly.
Lee Myung-soo, chuckling to himself, brought his phone to his ear.
The call connected, and Kang Chi-ha’s voice came through.
-Yeah, Prosecutor Lee.
“Attorney Kang Chi-ha, who makes good money and has real talent!”
Kang Chi-ha’s voice sharpened at the mocking tone.
-What is it?
But Lee Myung-soo’s voice remained smug.
“Is it because you have so much money? You went from a money-grubbing attorney to just a perverted bastard, didn’t you? You’re still in Dongnam, right? I’m too busy sending summons, so why don’t you stop by for a moment.”
-…What?
“Stop using informal speech and use formal language when you come, you bastard.”
*
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At that moment, in Hong Ju-dae’s office.
Kang Chi-ha’s face had gone rigid.
“Damn…damn it.”
It was faster than expected.
He’d planned to silence Chae Sung-ah through a prosecutor he knew and pressure her through force via Woo Myung-soon, a lawyer in Seocho-dong, but….
‘Now there’s no time for that.’
Kang Chi-ha’s eyes darted around frantically.
‘What do I do? What do I do?’
Kang Chi-ha’s anxiety transferred entirely to Hong Ju-dae.
Seeing Kang Chi-ha breaking into a cold sweat, Hong Ju-dae shot to his feet.
“Why? What’s going on? What is it!”
“We need to get out of this. Just a moment, just a moment. Let me think.”
Attorney Kang Chi-ha clutched his head, lost in thought.
*
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*
At that moment, Seo Jin arrived at Dongnam Central Hospital.
After parking the car, he entered the hospital.
He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.
Where Director Jang Yong-min was located.
-The doors opened.
Seo Jin stepped out of the elevator.
In the quiet hallway, the sound of his footsteps echoed—thump, thump, thump.
And then.
“How may I help you?”
The secretary standing guard in front of the director’s office asked.
Seo Jin pulled out his credentials and held them before the secretary.
“Prosecutor’s Office.”

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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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