Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 90

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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 (4)
Choi Hee-jun found himself instinctively stepping backward without realizing it.
Kim Young-jun’s gaze was terrifying, and there was nothing Choi Hee-jun could do.
Then Kim Young-jun’s voice flowed out.
“Move.”
Choi Hee-jun hastily twisted his body, and Kim Young-jun brushed past him with an indifferent expression.
In that moment, Choi Hee-jun’s mind was in turmoil.
‘Since when? Did he hear? If he did, how much?’
There was no way to know.
But there was one thing I had to do.
“I-I’m sorry.”
As Choi Hee-jun hurriedly bowed his head, Kim Young-jun stopped walking.
And he slowly turned his gaze toward Choi Hee-jun.
“For what?”
“Pardon?”
“What are you suddenly sorry for?”
“Well, that is….”
Choi Hee-jun’s eyes narrowed.
I didn’t know from where Kim Young-jun had heard it.
What I needed to do now was minimize my own wrongdoing.
“I was educating Seo Jin….”
“Hee-jun.”
Kim Young-jun’s voice was affectionate.
At that incongruous tone, Choi Hee-jun harbored a brief hope.
Perhaps he would say, “If you have something to teach, then teach it.”
But delusion is free.
Kim Young-jun was unfastening his watch.
“Talking behind someone’s back is fine. But you shouldn’t get caught.”
I had hoped otherwise.
But Kim Young-jun knew everything.
Choi Hee-jun felt his heart freeze.
In an instant.
Crack!
Kim Young-jun kicked Choi Hee-jun’s shin.
“Ow!”
Choi Hee-jun grabbed the spot where he was struck and staggered backward.
“I’m sorry! I’m truly sorry!”
Choi Hee-jun’s voice was desperate.
A life lived receiving only praise.
During school, everyone acknowledged me as long as my grades were good.
After becoming a prosecutor, no one dared say a word to him.
That’s why violent situations terrified me, and Kim Young-jun seemed like a demon incarnate.
“I’m sorry!”
But Kim Young-jun didn’t stop there.
He approached Choi Hee-jun slowly and seized the man’s mouth in an iron grip.
“Your mouth is always the problem.”
Choi Hee-jun’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.
“Should I cut it off?”
“Ugh! Ugh!”
“How can you run your mouth so much when you’re this much of a coward?”
Kim Young-jun was appointed during an era when violence ran rampant within the Prosecutor’s Office.
He was different from Choi Hee-jun, who had been raised delicately.
“Hee-jun, stay out of my sight. Don’t involve yourself in Seo Jin’s case. If I hear you’ve been involved in this case….”
Kim Young-jun’s gaze turned toward the Interrogation Room.
“You’ll be sitting there as a witness or a defendant.”
Kim Young-jun’s voice sounded like ice.
Choi Hee-jun felt his knees buckle and could only nod with a pathetic expression.
Seeing this, Kim Young-jun released the grip on the man’s mouth.
Then he smiled faintly and patted the man’s cheek twice.
“Go.”
Choi Hee-jun bowed repeatedly.
He left the spot without ceasing to mutter “I’m sorry.”
There would be no more challenges from Choi Hee-jun toward Seo Jin.
The problem was….
“Will it be alright?”
“What?”
Kim Young-jun’s gaze turned toward Seo Jin.
In that gaze, any memory of Choi Hee-jun seemed to have already vanished.
The violent glint in his eyes had evaporated, and he now looked at Seo Jin as a kind uncle.
“No. It’s nothing.”
I’d been caught speaking ill of the prosecutor’s office behind his back, so I couldn’t afford to gossip elsewhere.
Besides, I’d only taken a kick to the shin.
And I certainly didn’t have the audacity to act foolishly in front of the prosecutor.
“What was that about being connected to the Police Chief?”
“Ah, I was just probing.”
Kim Young-jun looked at Seo Jin with a bewildered expression.
“…You were probing?”
I couldn’t possibly mention psychometry.
“Since yesterday, he’s been involved in an unusually suspicious way. It’s excessive to call it mere senior interest. So I threw it out casually, but he overreacted. I’ll keep watching.”
After hearing Seo Jin’s explanation, Kim Young-jun laughed for a long while.
Playing around with Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun, who had rolled through this world for quite some time.
“So, are you still conducting the interrogation?”
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun had also heard the news that Seo Jin had apprehended the police officer.
And he was curious about how the investigation had been conducted and how the interrogation was proceeding.
There was the reason of being a nephew, but he wanted to know the truth behind the ability that had swept through Gangwon Province in such a short time.
Whether it was luck or genuine skill.
So I was about to tell him to continue the interrogation, but that’s when it happened.
Bzzzzt.
My phone vibrated.
-The search warrant for the Room Salon has been issued.
As I put my phone away, I opened my mouth to Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun.
“The warrant came through. I’ll step out for a moment and be right back.”
I bowed respectfully to Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun and rushed down the hallway.
Watching my retreating figure, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun chuckled.
And his eyes gleamed as he thought.
‘Seo Jin, you’re a prosecutor. Being a prosecutor suits you best.’
Entering the office, I put on my jacket and pulled out my notebook from my pocket, flipping through it briskly.
A single phone number was written there.
‘Jin Yun-hee….’
The administrative official who had framed Seo Jun-kyung as a sexual offender.
Now she was running both a coffee shop and a pojangmacha, living well.
I traced through old memories for a moment.
The time I had briefly stolen her phone at the pojangmacha run by Do Gwang-hyun and Jin Yun-hee.
The contact I had found then was the number I was looking at in my notebook now, saved under the name ‘Jagi’.
I suspected that the owner of that contact and Jin Yun-hee were in an inappropriate relationship.
So I had looked up the name, but it was a burner phone.
After that, I hadn’t paid attention to it.
I was young, and I believed that if I tightened the screws slowly, I could see the brutal truth.
But as I took on this case, I began to pay attention to this number again.
‘Perhaps….’
I was beginning to think I might meet the owner of this contact at the end of this case.
Then my phone on the desk vibrated with a low rumble.
A message from Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae.
-Did you meet the prosecutor general? How do you feel?
Even when I had just faced Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun, Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae had sent a message saying ‘The prosecutor general is heading to the interrogation room. Do well!’
Thanks to that, I had managed to use the situation well, but….
‘Why is he acting so friendly?’
Of course, I knew the reason.
Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae was now in the doghouse.
He couldn’t even properly straighten his shoulders at the District Prosecutor’s Office, receiving cold stares from Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun.
So Jo Woo-jae, the Chief Prosecutor, intended to share the situation with Seo Jin and the Prosecutor General.
It wasn’t bad news for Seo Jin either, so he was playing along.
-He didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.
-Really? That’s a relief.
Seo Jin slipped his phone into his pocket and smiled faintly.
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun would call Jo Woo-jae again someday.
There was no one better suited than Jo Woo-jae for handling dirty work.
‘But….’
By then, the situation would have changed considerably.
Looking at Jo Woo-jae’s recent circumstances, land prices in Chuncheon were skyrocketing, and he was jumping around excitedly.
But if land prices plummeted, that place would become hell.
Whoever extended a hand at that moment would become the master.
Seo Jin would seize Jo Woo-jae’s leash, and he would stand at the forefront, shielding Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s eyes and ears.
Seo Jin left the office, waiting for that moment.
“The Prosecutor General told me not to move! There’s nothing I can do!”
At that moment, Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun was holding his phone to his ear, biting his lip.
The person on the other end was the Jongno Police Station Chief.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s mind was urgent, but the Police Chief’s voice was leisurely.
-My goodness, this guy. Jang Gil-joo really said that? You’re believing that now?
“Then it’s not true?”
-Prosecutor Choi, our guys keep their mouths shut. You’ve been hooked by that detective-playing prosecutor right now!
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s eyes widened.
‘Could it be?’
Now that he thought about it, something felt off.
Just now, like a thief with itchy feet, he’d moved without thinking in his urgency, but Detective Jang Gil-joo was a veteran.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s face twisted.
‘This bastard….’
The Police Chief’s voice came through the receiver.
-Send that guy Seo Jin the same way as Seo Jun-kyung. Then we’re done.
“Ha….”
-And right now, meet with that Madam first. Find out what’s at the Room Salon and steal some documents. That’s the priority.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun shook his head.
Even if he’d been hooked by Seo Jin, he couldn’t take Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun lightly.
“You said it was difficult.”
-I’ll contact the congressman.
“I received orders from the Prosecutor General!”
Giggling laughter came through the receiver.
-Prosecutor Choi, if you mess this up, it’ll snowball into a scandal. Even Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun can’t touch it. Don’t you know that guy’s watching politicians’ faces because he wants to become the Prosecutor General? So don’t worry and move now.
“….”
-Go on. What you should fear right now isn’t Kim Young-jun—it’s your own life.
Choi Hee-jun’s voice was thick with threats as he ended the call.
‘Fine….’
There was no choice now.
Even if it was the Chief Prosecutor’s order, I had to meet that Madam.
The moment a bribery ledger surfaced, my entire life would shatter in an instant.
“I apologize. The order was that no one but Prosecutor Seo Jin could enter….”
Outside the interrogation room.
An employee blocked Choi Hee-jun’s path.
But Choi Hee-jun flashed a friendly smile.
“I know. That’s the Chief Prosecutor’s order, right?”
“Pardon?”
“I came here at his request. Prosecutor Seo Jin asked me to ask this woman one thing before he left for the search and seizure.”
There was no way someone of Prosecutor Kim Young-jun’s stature would issue an order specifically preventing Choi Hee-jun from entering.
That’s what Choi Hee-jun had anticipated, and his assumption proved correct.
The employee stepped aside without resistance.
“Then I’ll get to it.”
Choi Hee-jun turned the doorknob and entered the interrogation room.
The Madam sat there with a cold, calculating gaze.
Her eyes lit up the moment she saw Choi Hee-jun.
Choi Hee-jun sat directly across from her.
He switched off the recording device and spoke in a low voice.
“Keep your head down so I can read your lips. You have the ledger, don’t you? Where is it?”
“Release me first.”
“Where is it? They’ve already started the search and seizure!”
Choi Hee-jun pressed her fiercely, but the Madam remained silent.
She believed that ledger was her only bargaining chip for survival.
“Listen, you’re going to destroy everything trying to save yourself. So tell me. Where is it? Please, hurry! We don’t have time! Once they complete the search, they’ll find everything!”
Over an hour had passed since the search and seizure began.
Even if it was well hidden, discovery could come at any moment.
Choi Hee-jun was anxious, but the Madam held firm.
“Let me out first.”
But beyond the glass wall of the interrogation room, Seo Jin stood watching.
His cold eyes observed both Choi Hee-jun and the Madam.
Though no sound carried through, the conversation’s nature was transparent.
“I’ve allowed him in as you instructed, sir.”
At the employee’s voice, Seo Jin’s gaze shifted.
The employee who had blocked Choi Hee-jun at the door came into view.
“Thank you. Could I ask one more favor? I’d like to borrow something.”
Seo Jin held the employee’s phone and a document envelope in his hand.
The employee blinked and nodded.
“Yes, well.”
Back in the interrogation room.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun pressed Madam with a quiet voice.
“You don’t have anyone else you can trust right now, do you? I promise you. Where is it?”
“I’ve told you a hundred times! Let me out first. That’s the priority. How much have I put in your pocket so far?”
“Hey! Do I look like I’d lie to you?”
“How am I supposed to trust you people?”
Madam’s eyes were bloodshot with rage.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun clenched his teeth.
“Please, just trust me.”
At that moment, the interrogation room door burst open.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s gaze snapped urgently toward the door.
Seo Jin stood there.
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun forced his stiffened face to relax and opened his mouth.
“Don’t look at me like that. I just came to see what kind of person we’re dealing with….”
“Found the ledger.”
“What?”
“I found the ledger.”
Seo Jin raised his hand.
As the yellowed envelope swayed, Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s expression shattered.
“Y-you found it?”
Seo Jin looked at Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun and smiled quietly.
“We’ll be discussing you as a defendant soon enough.”
Seo Jin turned away from Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s cracking face and shifted his gaze to Madam.
“You hid it well, didn’t you?”
Madam was terrified.
She muttered without thinking.
“H-how did you…?”
“Why? Did you think we wouldn’t find it? Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun, you’ve been quite generous with yourself. Didn’t think it would come back to haunt you?”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun staggered and shot Madam a demonic glare.
He now believed this entire situation was entirely Madam’s fault.
If she’d only spoken up sooner, he could have extracted it using the investigators.
“You stupid bastard! You should have said something earlier!”
“I thought it was just the shop! I didn’t know they’d search our house!”
“What? Your house?”
The search warrant had clearly been issued for the Room Salon.
But suddenly she was talking about her house.
When Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s pupils dilated with confusion, Seo Jin’s laughter rang out.
“Ah, you hid it at your house?”
Prosecutor Choi Hee-jun’s head snapped sharply toward Seo Jin.
“…What the hell are you saying right now?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? I’m saying you’re completely screwed.”

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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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