Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 51

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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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Bait (1)
I had arranged to meet Kim Yun-hwan on Sunday.
I twisted my wrist to check the time.
‘Today is Wednesday.’
Not enough time to craft the perfect bait and dig the trap.
I needed to move quickly.
I brushed off my hands and picked up my phone again.
“Detective, could you get Heo Jung-il’s high school yearbook?”
*
*
*
A tavern in downtown Chuncheon where music blared loudly with a thump-thump-thump rhythm.
Three men tilted soju bottles and giggled.
“That bastard retaking the exam is drinking more than me.”
“You don’t know drunk boxing? When you’re drunk, the answer becomes clear.”
“So you marked number three?”
“Even if I mark number three, I’ll get into a better university than you, asshole.”
“What? That retake bastard is disrespecting our school?”
Soju bottles accumulated one after another until seven lay scattered about.
Their faces flushed red and their tongues twisted.
Yet the words spilling from their mouths remained nonsensical.
Then the one with brown hair fidgeted with his soju glass, gauging the mood before carefully opening his mouth.
“…Did you hear? Jung-il, that bastard, got his trial date set.”
Everyone flinched at those words.
But wait.
The one with slanted eyes slammed his soju glass down and scowled.
“You’re saying unlucky shit. Why are you bringing up that bastard?”
“Well, just…”
“It’s the past, the past. Don’t dwell on things that are already over. Do you know how much I cried at his funeral?”
Brown hair laughed and nodded.
Then the slant-eyed one continued.
“I even put in 300,000 won in condolence money! I emptied all the money I earned from part-time work. So I’m not sorry anymore.”
“…”
“And I’m not ignoring Jung-il either. When I succeed, I’ll put in a hefty deposit for him. Just wait and see, damn it.”
The slant-eyed one’s voice grew louder.
Even in a tavern with such loud music, it was audible from the next table.
The large, quiet one shook his head.
“Let’s stop. We swore to keep our mouths shut until we die.”
At those words, the two men fell silent.
The oath from that day surfaced in their minds.
Jo Jun-tae, who now attended a prestigious university in Seoul, had gathered them all in one place.
And in the darkness, he spoke with a chilling gleam in his eyes.
“Forget it. Today never happened. As long as we keep our mouths shut, no one will know. If it comes to light, we all die. And think of it this way—Park Se-gwang and Heo Jung-il are worthless to this world anyway. We just killed insects today.”
The burly one spoke, gripping a soju glass in his hand.
“We killed insects.”
It wasn’t until 2 AM that their drinking session ended.
The one with brown hair stumbled toward home, swaying and waving his hand.
And as he passed through alley after alley, the brown-haired one stopped in front of a utility pole.
Under the flickering streetlight, he placed a cigarette between his lips and began fumbling with his belt.
“Kim Yong-woo?”
Kim Yong-woo—that was the brown-haired one’s name.
He heard an unfamiliar voice calling him and turned his head.
He gazed at the strange shadow approaching him with bleary eyes and opened his mouth.
“…Who?”
“Prosecutor.”
The owner of that dry voice was Seo Jin.
Seo Jin pulled out his identification from his pocket and showed it to Kim Yong-woo.
At the same moment, Kim Yong-woo’s eyes flew wide open.
His heart pounded violently, and cold sweat began to pour down.
The alcohol drained from his system in an instant.
Kim Yong-woo forced himself to laugh.
“…A prosecutor?”
“Yeah.”
“But why?”
Kim Yong-woo pulled up his pants and began backing away hesitantly.
Seo Jin walked toward Kim Yong-woo with heavy steps and spoke in a flat tone.
“You know, don’t you?”
Just one sentence.
Kim Yong-woo’s face crumbled.
Like a guilty man whose feet grow numb, he recalled the word ‘murder’ and was already imagining the worst scenario—being dragged to prison.
“Ah… Ah….”
He let out strange moans and slowly shook his head.
Then.
“Do you… have a warrant?”
“….”
“Do you have one?!”
Kim Yong-woo hurled his lighter at Seo Jin.
The lighter struck Seo Jin’s chest and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
Seo Jin stared at the lighter that had fallen to the pavement, then lifted his head toward Kim Yong-woo.
He was desperately trying to flee.
But he’d drunk a lot.
His legs had gone slack, and he’d lost his sense of balance long ago.
I could grab him any moment now.
After exhaling a sigh, I seized the lighter that had fallen to the ground.
Then I charged toward Kim Yong-woo.
Just a few steps.
With a rough grip, I seized Kim Yong-woo’s shoulder.
Kim Yong-woo cried out in alarm.
“Let go!”
But I ignored his voice and lightly swept his leg out from under him.
Crash!
It happened in an instant.
Kim Yong-woo lay sprawled on the ground, staring up at me.
“Huff, huff.”
His ragged breathing came from a place of pure terror.
Because I, looking down at him, appeared like the grim reaper itself.
And my voice reached Kim Yong-woo’s ears with a chilling edge.
“Are you more afraid of falling from the 15th floor? Or of facing punishment?”
“…!”
“You laughed while committing murder, but now you’re terrified of getting caught?”
“….”
“How selfish.”
My voice was devoid of all inflection.
Yet Kim Yong-woo’s breathing grew even more ragged.
His eyes reddened, trembling violently.
Though drunk and young, he could feel it unmistakably.
‘There’s nowhere left to run.’
‘My life is over.’
Kim Yong-woo shook his head with tears streaming down his face, and a pitiful voice spilled from his lips.
“It wasn’t me. I told him to go to the hospital. I’m serious. Really. Please believe me. I was trying to call 119.”
“That so?”
“Yes!”
I slowly bent down.
Then I rummaged through Kim Yong-woo’s clothes.
I found a cigarette, pulled it out, placed it between his lips, and lit it with the lighter I’d brought.
“Sit up.”
Kim Yong-woo quickly raised his upper body.
My voice continued.
“Smoke.”
Kim Yong-woo did his best, as though smoking his last cigarette in life.
I inhaled the smoke and exhaled it slowly.
Then I gazed at Seo Jin with desperate eyes.
The message those eyes conveyed was singular.
‘Please… save me.’
Seo Jin, watching this scene unfold, gently grasped Kim Yong-woo’s shoulder.
And with a benevolent voice, he spoke words of demonic intent.
“Do you want to live?”
Kim Yong-woo nodded several times.
And he meant it sincerely.
Seo Jin tightened his grip on Kim Yong-woo’s shoulder and continued.
“There is a way.”
*
*
*
It was Friday evening.
Seo Jin closed his laptop and spoke.
“Let’s call it a day early, shall we?”
“Really?”
The administrative officer’s eyes widened in disbelief, and she asked again.
“You’re not about to say something childish like ‘Just kidding!’ or ‘You’re on a hidden camera show!’ are you?”
The administrative officer was a woman in her late twenties.
Since meeting Seo Jin, she’d been working overtime every single day.
On early days, she’d leave at nine or ten at night.
Any semblance of a life outside work had vanished, and so these conversations circulated among her colleagues.
“You were so happy when that handsome prosecutor arrived, weren’t you? But he’s not what you expected?”
“I was happy at first, sure. But you can’t live off a pretty face, right? He’s a workaholic. There’s a rumor he sleeps only two hours a day. The rest of the time, he just works. Actually, I bet he works even while sleeping.”
But now, out of nowhere, an early dismissal.
And on a Friday night, no less.
“Yes!”
The administrative officer clenched her fist triumphantly.
Seo Jin smiled faintly and turned toward Investigator Lee Dong-young.
“You should head out too, Investigator.”
“I still have work to finish. I’ll organize things and leave.”
After finishing his sentence, Investigator Lee Dong-young turned his head and focused on his tasks.
I wanted to grow closer to Investigator Lee Dong-young soon so I could meet his daughter, Sung-ah, as well.
But Investigator Lee Dong-young maintained a strictly professional demeanor toward me.
And he kept a certain distance at all times.
‘Slowly… take your time.’
I let go of my impatience.
Unlike when I was Prosecutor Seo Jun-kyung, there was now quite an age gap between me and Investigator Lee Dong-young.
So he thought they could be distant for now, and if he gave his sincere effort, he believed they could grow close again like before.
“Then I’ll head out first.”
Seo Jin bowed to Investigator Lee Dong-young before leaving the office.
Seo Jin got into his car and started the engine.
Since he’d promised to meet Kim Yun-hwan on Sunday, there was quite a bit to prepare.
Seo Jin planned to hand over the apartment fall-to-death case to Kim Yun-hwan.
He would frame it as a cruel plan by high school graduates fresh out of school, completely omitting Prosecutor Jo Yong-jun’s name.
-A shocking incident where classmates were pushed off an apartment rooftop after planning the perfect crime.
-Perfect to capture the world’s attention.
-Moreover, there’s even a twist—Heo Jung-il, who’s currently in custody, is actually a victim.
‘And….’
-Kim Yun-hwan wants to be recognized by Prosecutor Kim Young-jun.
-But he’s feeling the limits of his ordinary talent.
-On top of that, he got caught associating with a friend who committed misconduct.
-Prosecutor Kim Young-jun gave him a thorough scolding.
-He’ll want to prove something.
‘The problem is….’
-How to make him take the bait.
Seo Jin couldn’t hand over the case openly.
That would be the same as shouting ‘I’m the culprit!’ himself.
So Seo Jin wanted to create a situation where Kim Yun-hwan would secretly steal the case.
“Hey, I totally blindsided that bastard Seo Jin! This case was originally something Seo Jin was going to handle, but I snuck it away! Hahahaha!”
Everyone had to believe it was Kim Yun-hwan’s own choice.
Only then could he escape responsibility when things blew up.
‘So how?’
Seo Jin stroked his chin.
The place to set the trap was Seoul, and the location where he’d meet Kim Yun-hwan was limited.
To make Kim Yun-hwan’s gaze naturally turn toward the case there.
‘Should I just toss the case file in the back seat and naturally slip away? Or….’
While he was continuing his thoughts, Seo Jin’s phone vibrated.
The caller was Kim Yun-hwan.
Seo Jin pressed the call button and opened his mouth with a genuinely warm voice.
“Hey, hyung.”
But the voice that came through sounded ominous.
-Hey, I’m sorry.
Seo Jin’s brow furrowed sharply.
“Sorry?”
-A friend’s wedding is on Sunday. So Sunday’s going to be difficult.
He couldn’t delay any further.
Heo Jung-il’s trial would begin soon.
That’s why Seo Jin had arranged such a tight schedule.
But begging Kim Yun-hwan to meet him now would be foolish—it would expose his desperation.
For now, he needed to settle for sounding regretful.
“Oh, really? I was hoping to see your face after all this time, catch up on things. That’s too bad.”
-But what kind of advice do you need? Gangwon Province is different from Seoul, so I’m not sure what I could tell you.
“Well… there is something. I’ll tell you when we meet.”
-Is it because you want to come back to Seoul?
Kim Yun-hwan’s voice was thick with excitement.
He looked down on Seo Jin, considering him several steps below himself.
His tone carried the emotion: ‘So you’re finally bowing your head.’
-You bastard, that’s it. You want to come back to Seoul.
“….”
-But you know I have a dog, right? Ppolong. So lately I’ve been watching this TV program about dog training, and there was this crazy dog that bites people on it.
Kim Yun-hwan chuckled and suddenly launched into a story about dogs.
Seo Jin remained silent, trying to discern his intention.
Kim Yun-hwan continued.
-You know what the trainer said? A dog with a bad temperament can be fixed and trained, but a crazy dog can’t be helped—it has to be put down. So I thought about it too, what do you do with a crazy dog? But no matter how much I think about it, there’s only one conclusion: you have to kill it.
“….”
-But since I haven’t raised many dogs, I have trouble telling at a glance whether a dog is crazy or just has a bad temperament. So I’m thinking of watching it slowly while I raise it.
That dog was referring to me.
A warning not to bare my fangs at him.
Or advice to behave well if I wanted to come back to Seoul.
When Seo Jin didn’t respond, Kim Yun-hwan’s voice continued.
-So, what about today?
“Today?”
-Sunday is difficult, but today should work. Do you have any plans? If you’re free, I’ll head over there. Two hours should get me there, right?
“You’re coming?”
-Yeah, I’m curious how you’re living in that shithole. I also want to know why people go on so much about Seoul. Hahaha!
As I heard his booming laughter, I smiled silently.
I’d been wondering how to make him pay for all the annoying things he’d been spouting…
But the prey was walking right into my trap.
He was rushing forward without a shred of suspicion, convinced he was the one in control.
With someone like this, I needed to be nice.
I opened my mouth with genuine warmth in my voice.
“Today works fine. If my brother’s coming, I’ll make time no matter what.”
-Good, then I’ll head over. Let’s drink like the old days, one last time.
“Yeah, let’s drink till we die.”
Just you.

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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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