Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 89
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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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I’m Really Curious (3)
Without realizing it, Madam’s eyes darted past Seo Jin’s shoulder.
Jang Gil-joo stood there.
But the detective was equally helpless.
It was difficult for a detective to restrain a prosecutor who charged forward recklessly.
Especially when said prosecutor was practically glued to Seo Jin’s side.
Contacting superiors was out of the question.
‘Damn it.’
Jang Gil-joo ground his teeth and avoided Madam’s gaze.
And as Madam watched his reaction, her heart sank into her stomach.
She realized there was no ground left to stand on.
Then Seo Jin’s voice cut through.
“Stop scheming. There’s only one thing you need to do right now. Unlock your phone.”
Madam’s gaze shifted back to Seo Jin.
His eyes were so cold they made her legs tremble.
And then, suddenly.
“Aaaah!”
She clutched her neck, staggered, and collapsed to the floor.
“Boss!”
The waiters, who had been watching anxiously, rushed over.
They checked her condition and frantically patted her cheeks.
But Madam didn’t open her eyes.
There was no movement at all.
“Call 119! Hurry!”
The waiters’ voices overlapped as the tense atmosphere dissolved into chaos.
Resentful gazes turned toward Seo Jin.
“Being a prosecutor means everything!”
“Damn it! We’re calling the police!”
“If you have power, the powerless are criminals?”
Jang Gil-joo stepped urgently to Seo Jin’s side and whispered rapidly.
“Prosecutor, let’s leave now. These people deal in dirty business, but we’re at a disadvantage here. Coming in without a warrant and taking her phone like this—people will call you an abusive prosecutor!”
But Seo Jin shook his head.
“A person collapsed. Can we just leave? That’s not right. Shouldn’t we wait for 119 to arrive and check if there’s anything wrong with her?”
“Prosecutor!”
“Call 119.”
“Why are you still holding onto this woman’s phone!”
“Call 119.”
Seo Jin’s voice was resolute.
Though Jang Gil-joo continued to protest, his stubbornness was impossible to break.
“Sigh… I wash my hands of this. I clearly warned you.”
Jang Gil-joo stepped back, waving his hands dismissively.
Yet the distorted expression on Jang Gil-joo’s face gradually softened into composure.
His eyes alone shifted, stealing a glance at the CCTV camera.
The CCTV had captured everything.
From the moment I entered the Room Salon to when Madam collapsed.
And finally, the scene of Jang Gil-joo trying to stop me.
Jang Gil-joo lowered his head and laughed silently.
‘I thought I was dead.’
Remembering when I snatched Madam’s phone, my heart still clenched.
Because my phone number was in there.
‘But it’s over.’
Madam had collapsed and was in no condition to unlock the phone.
Once I upload the CCTV footage to the internet today or tomorrow, everything will be wrapped up.
The title would be ‘Young Prosecutor Trying to Drink Free Alcohol at a Room Salon’.
‘Perfect.’
The public doesn’t trust the Prosecutor’s Office.
An arrogant young prosecutor’s abuse of power would cause an uproar, and Jang Gil-joo would simply need to prepare his popcorn.
Jang Gil-joo waited for the paramedics, anticipating the devastated expression that would soon cross my face.
Now I just needed to pretend to help the paramedics and slip out of this space—a perfect happy ending.
Detective Eom Young-jin’s death would be buried forever.
‘I’m sorry, Young-jin. I’m truly sorry.’
Jang Gil-joo silently apologized to Detective Eom Young-jin.
And moments later.
Bang!
The Room Salon door burst open and paramedics rushed in carrying a stretcher.
“Over here! Over here!”
The waiters explained the situation to the paramedics.
She suddenly collapsed while talking with the prosecutor.
Get her to the hospital quickly!
Jang Gil-joo assisted the paramedics.
“She was unconscious for about seven minutes!”
Madam was loaded onto the stretcher.
And as Jang Gil-joo followed the paramedics out, he clenched his fists tightly.
‘It’s done.’
But that was when it happened.
A chilling voice came from behind.
“The pattern was Z.”
It was my voice.
Jang Gil-joo’s footsteps, which had been following the paramedics, slowly came to a halt.
And the moment he turned his head slowly toward me, his phone buzzed with a vibration.
I stepped toward Detective Jang Gil-joo and opened my mouth.
“Answer it. You have a call, don’t you?”
“…What?”
“I said answer it.”
I slowly lifted Madam’s phone.
Veins bulged at Detective Jang Gil-joo’s temples as he stared at the screen.
A cop.
Detective Jang Gil-joo stumbled backward.
“W-well, that is….”
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
My dry voice made Detective Jang Gil-joo’s face stiffen like wood.
His pale face drained of all color.
“P-Prosecutor….”
I brushed past Detective Jang Gil-joo without a glance.
Then I looked down at Madam on the stretcher and spoke.
“Stop playing dead and open your eyes. Or do you want to get in an ambulance and go to the Prosecutor’s Office with everything—real and imaginary—tangled together?”
At that moment, Madam’s eyes snapped open.
*
*
*
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office was in an uproar.
Seo Jin, who had said he was going to the Police Station, had suddenly brought in a detective and a Room Salon madam.
Though he had a track record of resolving unsolved cases and difficult situations, his priority now was to adapt and read the atmosphere.
Besides, Seo Jin was still a prosecutor with limited experience.
It would be remarkable if he didn’t feel nervous in front of the senior prosecutors at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office who shone like stars, yet he’d brought in a detective.
“Wow… he’s insane. He’s not even thinking about relations with the police?”
“Yeah, he just goes straight ahead. The Prosecutor General backing him is pretty solid.”
“But even if he’s the Prosecutor General’s nephew, it doesn’t make common sense, does it?”
“I heard from a colleague of mine in Gangwon Province that he was the same there too. Completely relentless.”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun furrowed his brow as he walked down the hallway.
‘I told him to be careful!’
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun had warned the Jongno Police Station Chief.
To be wary of Seo Jin.
But the Chief had dismissed it as detective play and ignored Seo Jin, and now this mess had resulted.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun twisted his wrist to check the time.
Then he hurried toward the Interrogation Room.
He needed to confirm what the detective was spouting.
That was the priority now.
“Sigh….”
At that moment, in the Interrogation Room.
Detective Jang Gil-joo exhaled a heavy sigh as he regarded Seo Jin.
At first, he’d dismissed him as some hot-headed rookie.
The type who’d just become a prosecutor and acted like the protagonist in a movie.
But as the interrogation wore on, Detective Jang Gil-joo felt his throat tighten.
The relentless, dragging persistence was torture in itself.
The unexpected questions and controlled pacing felt almost like those of a seasoned detective.
But he couldn’t reveal everything here.
His life had been exchanged for his partner’s death.
Detective Jang Gil-joo had no choice but to hold his ground.
Detective Jang Gil-joo’s voice resonated through the interrogation room.
“I’ll be honest with you. You wouldn’t understand since you haven’t married yet, but at my age, your wife stops being a woman and becomes family.”
“….”
“And I started to wonder if I was just an ATM bringing in money. I was lonely. That’s why I went to the Room Salon often, and the Madam knows my contact information. That’s all there is to it.”
“….”
“I regret that a police officer like me frequented a Room Salon.”
Detective Jang Gil-joo denied everything.
“That’s all I have to say.”
Seo Jin let out a soft laugh and opened his mouth.
“So that’s it? But I’m curious what the Madam might say if we interrogate her.”
Detective Jang Gil-joo’s face hardened.
He hadn’t coordinated his story with the Madam, and there was a high chance their statements would contradict each other.
Then Seo Jin’s voice continued.
“She’s not the type to keep her mouth shut out of loyalty, is she?”
“…Whatever that woman says, I’ve told you the truth.”
Detective Jang Gil-joo had something to rely on.
It was Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun.
By now, he’d be watching from beyond the glass wall and relaying his statement to the Madam.
Detective Jang Gil-joo believed in this and closed his eyes as if he had nothing more to say.
Seo Jin tapped the documents and rose to his feet.
“I’ll have some food brought for you, so go ahead and eat.”
Seo Jin left the interrogation room.
He walked down the hallway toward where the Madam was being held.
But at the end of the hallway, he saw Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun approaching hurriedly.
“You’re interrogating the police officer? Are you done?”
The man in front of him asked the question with a slight smile on his face.
What emotion lay hidden behind those narrowed eyes was impossible to discern.
But Seo Jin could sense it.
He was anxious right now.
“No, I’m still in the middle of it.”
“Is that so? What are you saying? If he’s a police officer with plenty of interrogation experience, he won’t open his mouth easily. So what? Should I help you out a bit?”
If you didn’t know better, he’d seem like a genuinely considerate senior.
And based on this pretentious personality, he even had a good reputation within the Prosecutor’s Office.
But that only worked on people who didn’t know him.
I had already experienced what he was capable of.
Just seeing his face as he approached so naturally made me feel sick.
In that moment, I recalled what the Police Chief had said during the psychometry reading.
“How did you become such a coward? You weren’t like this when you took down Seo Jun-kyung, were you? Huh? Are you scared because he’s the Prosecutor General’s nephew?”
Based on that statement, I pondered why Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun had appeared here.
-Detective Jang Gil-joo, the Police Chief, and Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun, all messily entangled together.
His reason for being here was painfully obvious.
He’d heard about the interrogation and wanted to sabotage my investigation.
My gaze shifted back to Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun.
If I left him alone, he’d definitely find some way to interfere.
There was a need to restrict his actions.
So I decided to turn the tables and throw dirt in his face instead.
I picked up my phone, pretending to check a message, and pressed the recording app firmly.
Then, placing the phone back in my pocket, I carefully opened my mouth.
“No, there’s no need for your help. But….”
“But what?”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s eyes gleamed.
He was trying to extract information by any means necessary.
I opened my eyes wide and spoke.
“People are saying that Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun is in collusion with the Jongno Police Station Chief.”
At the same time, Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s eyes widened.
His pupils became visible, which they hadn’t been before.
Fury blazed in those eyes.
“…What did you say?”
“I mean, there’s a Police Chief behind that detective, and people are saying some ridiculous nonsense about how the Police Chief and Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun are working together….”
“This crazy bastard!”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun cut me off and tried to enter the interrogation room.
But I reached out and blocked his path.
Then Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s menacing gaze turned toward me.
“Move.”
“I apologize. It’s probably nothing, but just in case it’s somehow connected to the case, it might be better if you didn’t go in….”
“Are you suspecting me?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you suspecting me? Or move!”
I ran my hand through my hair.
Then, slowly looking at Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun, I opened my mouth.
“That’s exactly why it looks suspicious.”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun finally looked at Seo Jin carefully.
The vacant stare that had been fixed in his eyes vanished without a trace.
A sharp, transformed gaze now pierced through Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s lips twisted.
No matter that he was the Prosecutor General’s nephew, he was still a junior far beneath him.
It felt absurd that this kid—someone he’d never even deigned to look at—was now glaring at him with such intensity.
“This bastard….”
“Did you collude with the Police Chief?”
“Hey!”
“Did you?”
“So… what if I did?”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun leaned his face forward toward Seo Jin and continued quietly.
“Answer me. What if I did? So what? Who do you think would believe you or that cop? Prosecutor General’s nephew? Don’t you realize that title will become a noose around your neck instead? One rumor that you’re a spoiled brat disrespecting your seniors, and it’ll be entertaining to see what people think of you.”
“….”
“If you understand, shut your mouth and get out of my way. I’ll go into that interrogation room myself and see what that idiot has to say….”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s voice grew quieter.
And within his narrow eyes, his pupils began to tremble urgently.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun slowly turned his gaze to the side.
“Th-Prosecutor General….”
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun was glaring at Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun with a terrifying expression.
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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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