Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 9

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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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Rebirth (7)
I stepped into the courtroom.
Tap, tap, tap—my footsteps echoed as I walked toward the prosecutor’s desk.
I set down my briefcase and turned my gaze toward the gallery.
Reporters, the victim’s husband, and others waiting for their cases, along with spectators.
But Lee Jung-woo, the friend who had come with me, was nowhere to be seen.
I checked my wristwatch.
‘Will he make it in time?’
*
*
*
“But seriously, you don’t remember anything at all?”
“Nope.”
It had been twenty minutes earlier.
In the car heading to the Court, I had asked Lee Jung-woo to stay quiet until the trial ended.
But he ignored my request and kept talking.
“You don’t remember? Then… you don’t remember borrowing 300,000 won from me?”
He was peddling amnesia like a cure-all.
I spoke firmly.
“I do remember. I never borrowed it.”
“What about that bicycle you were going to give me?”
“I remember that too. I said I wouldn’t give it.”
“Ha, so you remember everything. Too bad about the bike and the money, but at least there’s that.”
Lee Jung-woo chuckled and looked at me.
His eyes held genuine affection for me.
Then trot music suddenly poured from his pocket.
His ringtone.
“I’ve been into trot lately.”
Lee Jung-woo smiled and brought his phone to his ear.
“Yes, Detective Park. The Woo Su-jin case? Right. I did ask you to let me know first. Yes, I’ll buy you a drink.”
Lee Jung-woo discussed the Woo Su-jin case with the detective, and I naturally listened in.
Lee Jung-woo’s voice continued.
“What? Woo Su-kyung’s phone? You found it in the circular straw pile? How did it end up there?”
That was the moment.
I slammed on the brakes and pulled the car onto the shoulder.
The sudden stop startled Lee Jung-woo.
“What? Why did you brake so suddenly?”
I couldn’t answer.
The world turned to black and white, and my psychometry ability activated without warning.
“Mom is passing by the Supermarket right now after finishing her company dinner.”
The rural road echoed with the chirping of field insects.
A woman stumbled through the darkness.
She wasn’t on a call with anyone.
The screen displayed a recording indicator.
“The boss gave me money for a taxi today. I’ll use it to buy Mom a Christmas present. Jiwoong gets sneakers, Jeongwoong gets Turning Mecard. Maybe Dad will come this Christmas. If he does, we’ll scold him.”
That was when it happened.
A harsh engine roar pierced the night.
Headlights flashed, and the woman’s gaze snapped toward the blinding light.
Crash!
The phone slipped from the woman’s grip and tumbled into the rice field.
Then came the ragged breathing of a man on the road.
“I hit her. But, ah, she’s still breathing. What do I do? Should I wait? If I wait, she’ll die… Ah, damn it. What if someone sees?”
I knew who owned that voice.
It was Jang Dong-ik, the driver of the vehicle.
“Why? Why did you suddenly brake?”
The world regained its colors, and Lee Jung-woo’s voice reached my ears.
I shook my head, my hand pressed against my forehead.
‘I didn’t even touch the object, yet I saw it?’
It deviated slightly from the rules I had established.
But there was no time to dwell deeply on my ability now.
“Jung-woo, bring me the evidence.”
“What?”
“Take that phone to the courtroom.”
*
*
*
I took my seat, recalling the memory from twenty minutes ago.
Sitting here after my rebirth, my emotions felt fresh and poignant.
I tapped my fingers rhythmically against the desk, my eyes closed.
The air in the courtroom differs from the air outside.
A heavy atmosphere so oppressive that no one dares raise their voice weighs upon everyone present.
In this space, I am the executioner.
I must sever the guilty’s neck and exact vengeance on behalf of the victim.
If I fail to do so, my presence here holds no meaning.
Today’s guilty party is Woo Su-jin.
She murdered the mother who raised two children while even skimping on transportation costs.
The motive: one billion won in insurance money.
For that pittance, two children will spend their entire lives yearning for their mother.
I continued my thoughts, my fingers drumming against the desk.
Then I stopped the rhythm and ran my palm across the prosecutor’s desk, feeling its surface.
The prosecutor’s seat I thought I would never occupy again.
The prosecutor’s robes I thought I would never wear.
A prosecutor’s life has begun anew.
In my past life, I was framed as a sexual predator, murdered under the guise of suicide—all because I lacked power.
This time will be different.
Unlike my previous life, I will devour everything.
This trial is the beginning of that plan.
I opened my eyes slowly.
Across from me sat defense attorney Koo Sang-jin.
His oily face glared at me with arrogance.
I could hear what that gaze was saying.
‘You can’t do this.’
The defendant Woo Su-jin kept her head bowed.
Her shoulders trembled faintly as her fingers fidgeted.
Though her long hair obscured her face, I could discern exactly what expression lay beneath it.
Woo Su-jin desperately wished for this moment to pass, to be declared not guilty, and to walk free.
She felt no remorse toward her brother or niece.
Only herself mattered.
Watching the two of them, I smiled quietly.
The deeper they struggled, the wider the chasm between them would grow.
“Prosecutor, please state the charges.”
The judge’s voice rang out.
I rose slowly from my seat.
Every eye in the courtroom fixed upon me.
As a junior prosecutor, I had taken charge from investigation through indictment to trial.
A single mistake could unravel all my efforts thus far.
My heart could not help but race.
My mouth should have gone dry, my focus blurred.
But I was different.
My voice carried composure from the very first word.
“The defendant Woo Su-jin conspired with her elementary school classmate Jang Dong-ik and her biological sister Woo Su-kyung to commit murder. The two maintained contact through mobile phones registered under false names, meticulously planning the killings….”
As I continued speaking.
Defense attorney Koo Sang-jin’s brow furrowed.
‘Arrogant bastard.’
Koo Sang-jin despised that composure of mine, found it utterly distasteful.
‘Let’s see how that expression changes by the end of this trial. You’ll stand there alone. No one will comfort you, even if you weep.’
Koo Sang-jin bit his lip and glanced sideways at the defendant Woo Su-jin sitting beside him.
Woo Su-jin had trembled faintly and kept her head bowed from the very beginning until now.
Her crimes were being laid bare before everyone.
If her body weren’t trembling, that would be the strange part.
‘I need to calm this woman down first.’
Koo Sang-jin leaned toward Woo Su-jin and whispered softly.
“It’s alright. Nothing is confirmed yet. This is merely procedure.”
Woo Su-jin nodded, and Koo Sang-jin continued.
“Deny everything the prosecutor says. Follow only my words. Then you can go home.”
“…I haven’t done anything wrong. Really, I haven’t.”
“That’s right. You haven’t. Listen carefully. You are innocent. Remember what I’ve told you all this time. The living must live. What will happen to your nieces and nephews if you go to prison?”
Criminals tend to compartmentalize themselves—separating the version of themselves that committed the crime from their everyday self.
And they rationalize their actions by inserting absurd justifications into the circumstances of the crime.
‘Yes, it had to be that way. It was unavoidable. I’m not that kind of person.’
They convince themselves that they were never that kind of person, that the situation simply left them no choice—their own excuse, their own absolution.
They forgive themselves, and guilt washes away.
Woo Su-jin was no exception.
The trembling that had gripped her body ceased.
Slowly, she lifted her head toward Koo Sang-jin.
“…That’s right. It was for my nieces and nephews. My brother wanted it too.”
Koo Sang-jin nodded at Woo Su-jin as if in agreement.
“Yes. Your brother wanted it as well.”
Koo Sang-jin smiled like a demon.
Now there was no need to worry about Woo Su-jin’s mental state.
‘Done.’
Koo Sang-jin turned his gaze toward the gallery.
It was packed with reporters, including journalists from major news outlets who had dismissed this rural case as beneath their notice.
As Koo Sang-jin surveyed them, his eyes hardened with intensity.
Defeat here would mean the end of his career as a lawyer.
JTJ’s representative Jang Taek-jun had said it plainly.
Clients don’t judge good from evil—they only judge skill.
Those clients were watching this case unfold.
Without clients, a lawyer is merely a self-employed businessman who knows the law.
‘Look at it this way. If I win, I could connect directly with VIPs.’
If he lost, the public would condemn him as the lawyer who defended a devil, and clients would dismiss him as incompetent.
But high risk, high reward.
If he won, the public would praise him as a righteous lawyer who stopped the prosecution’s overreach, and clients would recognize his ability.
‘I can do this.’
Fortunately, his opponent was a trainee prosecutor, and the supporting prosecutors were washed-up figures exiled from the capital.
Koo Sang-jin smiled quietly.
Then the judge’s voice rang out.
“Defendant Woo Su-jin, do you admit to the charges brought by the prosecution?”
Woo Su-jin’s gaze shifted from her bowed head to the judge.
There was no guilt in Woo Su-jin’s face.
I stared at the Judge with an unnervingly composed gaze, my voice devoid of inflection.
“No. I did not kill my sister.”
But that was not the end of it.
Woo Su-jin’s eyes shifted toward me.
Then she continued in a dry voice.
“Prosecutor, please believe me. Why would I kill my sister? I miss her even now. I need to go home. Without me, who will raise our nieces and nephews?”
The courtroom stirred.
Her voice was genuinely aggrieved and pitiful.
The whispers of people seated in the gallery reached my ears.
“Is she really innocent?”
“Seems like it, doesn’t it? No human could act like that, right?”
“They say the prosecutor is inexperienced. Guess he pushed too hard trying to be a hero.”
Of course, those whispers were directed at me.
But I smiled faintly.
‘I’m curious.’
What lay beneath that shamelessly brazen facade when it shattered.
That’s what I wanted to see.
“Then, Prosecutor, begin the defendant examination.”
I rose from my seat and stepped forward toward Woo Su-jin.
I looked down at her with cold eyes and opened my mouth.
“Woo Su-jin, you’re the beneficiary of the deceased’s life insurance policy worth one billion won, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about it?”
“Yes.”
“How did you find out?”
“…My sister told me. She said she didn’t know what might happen to her, so if something went wrong, she asked me to take good care of the children.”
“You have usurious debts?”
“I run a business at the Market. I needed cash, so I borrowed money temporarily and paid it back right away. There’s nothing strange about it.”
Woo Su-jin answered all my questions without hesitation.
Utterly shameless, brazen, and without a shred of conscience.
I opened my mouth again.
“Then I’ll ask about the deceased sister. The deceased was essentially divorced from her husband, correct?”
“Yes, they’ve been living separately ever since they married and had children.”
“But her husband didn’t claim that?”
“That’s because he wanted to split the insurance money! Otherwise, he would have sent money!”
“There is evidence he sent money irregularly, though not large amounts.”
“Ha! So he had some conscience after all. But I never heard about it.”
I regarded Woo Su-jin quietly and continued.
“Why did you use a cell phone registered under someone else’s name when contacting Jang Dong-ik?”
“Jang Dong-ik gave it to me as a gift. I didn’t know it was registered under someone else’s name. As for why… he said he wanted to contact me using that phone.”
“Why?”
“…Because we were dating.”
“You met at a class reunion, started dating, shared talk of insurance money, and conspired to commit murder—to kill her, correct?”
“That’s not true!”
The moment her voice, raw with desperation, filled the courtroom, Koo Sang-jin’s lawyer rose again.
“Your Honor! The prosecutor is harassing the defendant with baseless speculation!”
“Sustained. Prosecutor, confine your questions to objective facts.”
Despite the judge’s words, I turned directly toward Woo Su-jin and pressed forward.
“Then I’ll continue my questions regarding the phone.”
“I already told you—she gave it to me because we were dating!”
Woo Su-jin’s answer came out like a shriek, and Koo Sang-jin’s lawyer stood once more.
“Your Honor! I object!”
“Prosecutor!”
But I didn’t stop.
“Not Woo Su-jin’s phone—her sister Woo Su-kyung’s phone!”
“…!”
“Were you aware that your sister was using the voice recording function on her phone to keep a diary?”
Why would I suddenly ask about a diary?
Woo Su-jin’s pupils trembled uncontrollably.
As she wrestled with how to answer, she nodded slowly.
“…She recorded it occasionally. But why?”
“The victim was recording her diary at the time of the incident. But there was something else recorded besides the victim’s voice.”
“What?”
Woo Su-jin’s face drained of color, her bloodshot eyes fixed on me.
“…Something else was recorded?”
At that moment, the courtroom doors opened and Lee Jung-woo entered.
Seeing him, I turned toward the judge and spoke.
“Your Honor, we have just recovered the victim’s phone. Though this evidence was not previously admitted, I believe it is crucial to uncovering the truth in this case….”
No one knows what that evidence is.
But one thing is certain—it will tip this judge’s scales decisively in one direction.
The reporters licked their dry lips and whispered among themselves.
“I thought there would be fierce arguments….”
“Me too. I never expected Koo Sang-jin to be so helpless.”
“Who is that intern?”
It was one-sided.
Koo Sang-jin could do nothing.
Even now.
He simply sat there, dazed.
Then he staggered to his feet.
“I, I object….”
But Koo Sang-jin’s voice could not continue.
Woo Su-jin clapped her hands over her ears and began to scream.
“Aaaahhhhh!”

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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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