Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 41

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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 (3)
“…A prosecutor?”
The secretary’s eyes widened.
She examined the ID I presented multiple times.
Then.
“Just a moment, please.”
The secretary hurriedly opened the door to the director’s office.
After casting a quick glance at my expression, she stepped inside.
The secretary’s behavior inside the director’s office was unusual.
She was pressing her hand to her chest, exhaling the breath she’d been holding.
Director Jang Yong-min, who had been working, frowned as he observed the secretary’s grave expression.
“What is it?”
“There’s… a prosecutor here.”
“A prosecutor?”
“Yes, a prosecutor.”
The secretary nodded rapidly.
She had worked as Director Jang Yong-min’s secretary for a long time.
She didn’t know the details, but she was well aware that illegal activities were occurring at this hospital.
So she trembled with anxiety, but Director Jang Yong-min’s eyes narrowed.
“A prosecutor came?”
After a moment’s thought, he hastily shoved the documents on his desk into a drawer.
Then he picked up his phone and searched for Hong Ju-dae’s number in his contacts.
He was about to press the call button when he shook his head.
‘No, that won’t do.’
Hong Ju-dae’s voice echoed in his mind.
-Why are you so fearful? Do you see a turtle every time you look at a pot lid?
Director Jang Yong-min scrolled through his contacts.
The last person he found was Eom Il-seop, the National Assembly member from Dongnam County.
He wanted to use Eom Il-seop’s influence to stop the prosecutor.
So he reached for the call button….
“You seem busy.”
With a soft click, the door opened.
I had entered.
Director Jang Yong-min lowered his phone, and the secretary’s face went rigid.
I smiled faintly and continued.
“I waited, but you didn’t come out, so I let myself in. I know it’s impolite, but you’ll offer me a cup of coffee, won’t you?”
It was an audacious tone, but Director Jang Yong-min suppressed his irritation and gestured to the sofa.
“Please, have a seat. Secretary Sung, bring some coffee.”
“Oh, yes.”
As the secretary bowed, Director Jang Yong-min took a step toward her.
And in a voice too low for Seo Jin to hear, he whispered.
“Contact the hospital director. Tell him to step out.”
The secretary nodded with a grave expression.
But that was the moment.
Seo Jin crossed his legs and spoke with a regretful tone.
“By any chance… are you whispering something like ‘Tell the hospital director to step out’?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m sorry, but that hospital director is currently in a meeting with one of our staff members. There’s no need for him to step out, so there’s no need to contact him.”
Jang Yong-min’s face turned pale.
Seo Jin’s purpose for coming had become clear.
He suspected Samujang Hospital.
Seo Jin moved his lips slowly as he looked at Jang Yong-min.
“Sit down.”
Jang Yong-min stumbled forward and sat across from Seo Jin.
“You can leave.”
When Seo Jin pointed to the door, the secretary dragged his trembling legs out of the director’s office.
Only then did Seo Jin’s gaze turn toward Jang Yong-min.
“This is Samujang Hospital, correct?”
“I don’t know where you heard such things, but it’s slander. Samujang Hospital? This is legitimately a hospital that I operate under my own name.”
Jang Yong-min made excuses while cold sweat dripped down his face, but Seo Jin’s suspicious gaze did not waver.
“You came to Dongnam County ten years ago, didn’t you?”
“…”
“You acquired an orthopedic clinic on the verge of bankruptcy, but its sales were lackluster?”
“…”
“Yet two years later, this hospital’s sales began to surge dramatically.”
Seo Jin tossed the documents he’d brought onto the table.
Documents regarding the hospital’s sales figures.
Jang Yong-min’s gaze shifted to the papers.
The sales had begun to increase two years after the acquisition.
Hong Ju-dae appeared before Jang Yong-min, who had been preparing to close down.
“I heard there’s a place called Samujang Hospital.”
“I’ll invest in it.”
“I don’t have bad intentions. I just thought a good hospital should exist even in a rural area like this.”
Though he initially refused, Jang Yong-min needed money.
His phone bill was overdue, and he couldn’t even afford to pay utilities.
His wife at home spoke with difficulty.
“The children’s academy fees are behind…”
Jang Yong-min made his decision.
He didn’t want to come all the way to Dongnam County only to become a beggar.
In the end, he accepted the investment, and that marked the beginning of his illegal activities.
“Among the kids who came to work on the farm, some are looking for part-time jobs during winter.”
“Can’t we just admit them to the hospital?”
“Alcoholism or mental illness works great!”
“Should we give the public health doctors’ kids some spending money and have them transfer patients to us?”
“What do old people know? If we smile appropriately, they’ll just lie there on their own.”
Jang Yong-min, the director, lowered his head.
‘Ugh….’
My face stiffened and my heart pounded wildly.
But then.
‘Wait, there’s no reason I’d get caught, is there?’
Hong Ju-dae only invested.
In cash, at that.
He doesn’t come to the hospital.
I’ve placed my own employee as the hospital’s administrator and am pulling the strings from behind.
‘If I keep my mouth shut, I’ll never get caught.’
Jang Yong-min lifted his head.
His face was confident and composed.
And with dry eyes, he looked at Seo Jin and spoke deliberately.
“So? We increased our revenue through hard work. We gained regular patients one by one, and the local community came to trust us. That’s the only reason for the revenue increase. If I had to find another reason, it would be our kindness. Some rural hospitals still speak authoritatively and use informal speech, but we don’t do that.”
Jang Yong-min sank back into the sofa.
An attitude of extreme composure.
An attitude that said: try if you can.
But then Seo Jin drew a slight smile.
I enjoyed watching that shameless face contort.
Seo Jin leaned forward toward Jang Yong-min and opened his mouth in a low voice.
“Well, we can look into that slowly. Anyway, the reason I came today isn’t about that. We’ve caught several runaway juveniles.”
“Pardon?”
The conversation had suddenly shifted away from Samujang Hospital.
To runaway juveniles.
Jang Yong-min tilted his head in confusion, and Seo Jin’s voice continued.
“Those kids were engaged in sex trafficking. We found over 190 contact numbers in their address book alone.”
“And?”
“Hong Ju-dae’s name is in there.”
“What?”
“You know who Hong Ju-dae is, don’t you?”
Jang Yong-min’s expression hardened, and he couldn’t hide his panic.
Seo Jin’s voice grew even quieter.
“We’ve secured evidence that Hong Ju-dae placed a puppet administrator and is conducting transactions with you, Director Jang.”
“E-evidence?”
That was the moment.
The world before Seo Jin’s eyes drained into black and white as psychometry unfolded.
It had happened just moments ago.
The secretary rushed into the director’s office the instant Seo Jin appeared.
“A, a prosecutor is here.”
At her voice, Director Jang Yong-min’s eyes narrowed.
“A prosecutor? Here?”
His pupils darted frantically as his hands moved with urgency.
He shoved the documents on his desk into a drawer and crammed them into the trash bin.
The movements were desperate, almost frantic.
The world regained its colors.
Before me stood a flustered Director Jang Yong-min.
“Evidence, you say!”
A cornered rat always bares its teeth.
Director Jang Yong-min grew angry instead, and at the sight, I let out a low chuckle.
Originally, today’s objective had been merely to corner Director Jang Yong-min.
But an opportunity like this had presented itself.
“If you have evidence, let’s hear it!”
I rose abruptly, watching Director Jang Yong-min bark with indifferent eyes.
Director Jang Yong-min flinched, tracking my movements.
But I strode toward the trash bin, uncrumpled a piece of paper, and smoothed it out.
“A ledger for issuing fake medical certificates?”
“Th, that’s trash! Trash! It’s trash, I tell you!”
“The trash here is you.”
Director Jang Yong-min’s eyes widened in shock.
His lips trembled, but no words came.
Soon his entire body began to shake.
I dropped the paper from my hand and walked toward Director Jang Yong-min.
A dry voice escaped my lips.
Jang Yong-min, I’m placing you under arrest on suspicion of violating the National Health Protection Act and the Medical Benefits Act.
But Director Jang Yong-min began to laugh.
Kekeke, like a madman.
Then he looked at me, his lips twisted into a sneer.
“Say, Prosecutor? Turning a blind eye is also a way to live, you know.”
….
“Do you think there’s someone behind me?”
I let out a short laugh.
“Even if the president himself were behind you, you’re still getting detained, you bastard.”
The door to the director’s office opened and investigators entered.
They pinned down Director Jang Yong-min’s body.
In that moment, Director Jang Yong-min turned his head and glared at me.
“Prosecutor! Does our country look that beautiful to you? I’m curious if it will really become that way! Why did it stop three years ago?”
“You’re asking because you don’t know? Three years ago, I wasn’t here. So have hope—and see what becomes of you.”
Seo Jin’s voice as he spoke was chillingly sinister, and his gaze was not that of a man in his twenties.
Jang Yong-min’s face drained of color, his eyes twitching at the corners.
Seo Jin tapped Jang Yong-min’s shoulder lightly, then brushed past him with an icy expression.
*
*
*
“Prosecutor Seo Jin is incredible, right?”
It was the Outdoor Smoking Area at the Dongnam District Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigators who had rushed in after leaving Jang Yong-min in the Interrogation Room were gathered, smoking cigarettes.
“I thought he’d be clumsy since he had no experience, but he could handle narcotics cases. His eyes are so fierce—I thought he was a snake.”
The investigators who hadn’t rushed in looked at him with disdain.
“So he appeared in a movie once? What does that have to do with handling narcotics cases? Do you know how many lunatics work in that field?”
“No, I thought the same thing, but when I saw that hospital director whimpering, I was convinced. Lasers shooting from his eyes.”
“The director must have been a coward. Those scholarly types need five years of rolling around before they can face criminals. He’s still got a long way to go.”
Then Lim Jung-taek, an investigator who had been quietly smoking, opened his mouth.
“Five years? I think he needs ten. But there are people born with it in this world.”
“What do you mean?”
“Monsters. I felt it eating with the prosecutor, and if you read his fortune, it’ll show. Either a gangster or…”
“Or?”
“The Prosecutor General.”
“Bullshit.”
*
*
*
And at that moment.
Seo Jin was moving toward the Interrogation Room where Jang Yong-min was, exhaling a sigh.
‘What do I do?’
I’d made a mistake.
There’s an order to investigations.
Especially with this case.
Since it was a battle with the hospital—a specialized domain—I needed to move even more carefully.
So today’s objective was simply intimidation: driving Jang Yong-min to the edge of a cliff.
Yet on the first day of the investigation, I’d uncovered Jang Yong-min’s misconduct.
A list of fake patients found in the trash and drawers.
‘This is real luck.’
Seo Jin exhaled a sigh.
I’d caught him, but…
‘What do I do?’
There was another problem.
A case my senior colleagues had handled three years ago.
It had been closed as unfounded and had remained dormant ever since.
Reopening it would be disrespecting my seniors.
Or treating them as criminals.
And on top of that, a local figure and even a National Assembly member were involved.
In truth, that wasn’t particularly concerning, but I couldn’t predict what obstacles might arise during the investigation.
That was when it happened.
“Seo Jin!”
At the loud call of my name, I turned my head.
The District Chief and Chief Prosecutor Kim Gwan-yong were approaching from the opposite direction.
As the District Chief drew near, he tapped my shoulder lightly and spoke.
“The hospital?”
“I was fortunate. I confirmed they were trying to hide documents….”
I was offering various excuses when the District Chief shook his head.
I stopped speaking and looked at the District Chief.
The District Chief nodded.
“Bury it.”
With those words, all my worries vanished.
The District Chief is the king of this office.
With such backing, there was no reason to hesitate.
I bowed my head.
“Yes.”

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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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