#142

Prosecutor Jeong Jae-jin, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and black suit pants, stood in the middle of the yard with a yellow document envelope tucked under his arm, looking around the house. He didn’t forget to raise his head and look at the blue roof.

Tae-heun also looked up at the blue roof, following his gaze. Two men were being dragged down by the group that had gone up there a little while ago.

Damn it. I didn’t check up there either.

I was so eager to get with the man that I didn’t even realize the danger lurking. Even if I had, sex would have come first. Crazy bastard. He cursed inwardly and narrowed his brow.

When a signal was sent from above, Prosecutor Jeong also simply made a fist in response. Curses and shouts echoed through the quiet space.

Prosecutor Jeong’s gaze swept over Tae-heun. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, then narrowed his eyes and sized him up. Then, his gaze lingered on Tae-heun’s upper body. If it had been the Man’s upper body, he might have suspected sex, but thanks to the Man’s clumsy foreplay, Tae-heun’s upper body only had a few mosquito-bite-like marks. Nevertheless, the man nervously followed Prosecutor Jeong’s gaze. Tae-heun calmly put on his shirt.

Two police officers, having tied up the man they caught in the chicken coop, shouted, “Nothing unusual!” What else could he be if he wasn’t unusual? It was absurd.

The police officers who had been searching the house also seemed to have finished their business, stepping down onto the porch in their sneakers. The Man, still unaware of what was going on, just blankly watched their actions.

“Stand by,” Prosecutor Jeong ordered the police officers in his usual indifferent voice. “Oh, and take Yoon Ki-beom with you.”

The the man tensed up when his name was called. His Adam’s apple moved noticeably.

“It’s okay, Ki-beom. It’s nothing,” Tae-heun reassured the Man. The the man couldn’t even think of a reply, just moving his lips without saying anything.

Even though the man hadn’t done anything wrong, the two police officers instinctively walked as if surrounding him from both sides.

With its owner gone and the gate closed, the dogs, which had been barking incessantly even while tied up, became quiet. They seemed to understand the situation better than most people.

“What brings the Prosecutor here?” Tae-heun asked, sitting on the porch with a sarcastic tone.

He was an unwelcome guest. Why now of all times? It was the best time. Of course, the man and the village weren’t in good shape, but the relationship between Tae-heun and the man was closer than ever.

“Just stopped by to see your face,” Prosecutor Jeong said insincerely.

“What is this place?”

“The countryside? Rural area?” Prosecutor Jeong replied nonchalantly. “The air is good.”

He pretended to sniff the air. It was unsightly.

Prosecutor Jeong, as he had done before, scanned Tae-heun again with a somewhat surprised expression.

“If it weren’t for your voice, I wouldn’t have recognized you. Looks like you’ve been living comfortably? Look at your body.”

It was a compliment. He always twisted things like that, but his tone now was close to admiration.

“You’re even tanned. That’s something.”

“This isn’t a tan, it’s burnt.”

“Well, whatever. Not bad.” He chuckled.

“Is that henna on your fingernails?”

“Yeah. Ji-hye did it for me.”

When Tae-heun stretched out the back of his hand towards Prosecutor Jeong, Prosecutor Jeong recoiled.

“You crazy bastard,” he said, laughing.

Then, he frowned as he looked at Tae-heun’s face.

“What happened to your face? Did you grind it on cement?”

“Something like that. But it’s still better than yours, Prosecutor.”

“You little shit, really.”

“Why? It’s true.”

“Yeah, you’re great.”

Prosecutor Jeong shook his head silently, laughing.

He laughed a lot, unlike his usual self. As if Tae-heun’s current appearance was unfamiliar and strange, Prosecutor Jeong repeatedly examined Tae-heun with an expression of disbelief. Like looking at a monkey in a zoo.

“Did you get caught?” Tae-heun asked casually.

But it wasn’t really casual. He rummaged around the chest area of his t-shirt, which had no pockets, looking for a cigarette. Then, Prosecutor Jeong took out a cigarette from his own shirt pocket and sat down next to Tae-heun. He offered him a cigarette.

“Yeah,” Prosecutor Jeong replied briefly.

Tae-heun took the cigarette and put it in his mouth. Prosecutor Jeong lit it for him with a lighter and put one in his own mouth.

“Detective Oh didn’t come?”

He should have come, of course. Detective Park too. The tortoise and the hare. Both of the detectives who were responsible for Tae-heun in this operation were missing.

“That’s how it turned out,” Prosecutor Jeong replied with a troubled expression.

“How did they get him?”

“Park Dong-Hee.”

“Shit. I knew it was going to be trouble.”

Tae-heun scratched his eyebrow.

They should have pulled him out of the operation for sure during the duffel bag incident, but Tae-heun and Prosecutor Jeong had taken it lightly.

“A room salon, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“Obvious, isn’t it? A minor. They took pictures and videos, so he’s completely trapped. How could he resist?”

It was a common tactic. Bribery or sexual favors. But it was strange. If it had been Detective Park alone, it would have been understandable that he was deceived, but Detective Oh would never have fallen for it. Even though he had lost trust because of the Kwon Il-taek case, it was clear that he was a veteran detective. He wasn’t the type to fall for such an obvious trick in the first place.

“Nam Ji-hoon, that bastard, is bold. There’s no way Detective Oh wouldn’t have recognized it, so how did he deceive him?”

“It’s not that he’s bold, it’s that he chose his target well. No, a minor.” Prosecutor Jeong smiled bitterly.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Park Dong-Hee, that idiot, fell for such a shoddy trick.

“Exactly 20 years old, an adult.”

“But Park Dong-Hee believed she was a teenager?”

“Yeah. They probably subtly implanted it in his mind. ‘She might be a minor, the girl you slept with is a teenager.’ You know your own tactics.”

“Oh, we don’t use that kind of thing anymore. This isn’t some neighborhood corner store.”

Tae-heun took a deep drag of his cigarette. He felt frustrated.

“But why me of all people? There’s no way they could have known about me.”

He felt unfairly treated.

Most of those who set traps demanded money. Or it was important information, but there was no way those bastards could have known about Lee Seon-jae. Of course, they wouldn’t have asked for information about him.

But why did Park Dong-Hee sell him out?

Prosecutor Jeong just smoked his cigarette in silence. He frowned and stared into the air, then flicked off the ashes.

“The boss of Nam Ji-hoon is a guy named Kim In-sung, who used to be quite famous in Incheon. But he was pushed out because of one mistake.”

That’s how he ended up in Hanseong City. It used to be Hanseong Township just ten years ago, so you can imagine how much he was disliked. Moreover, there was an organization that had been rooted in this area for a long time, so there was nothing he could do as a lone wolf. He became a stray duck on the Nakdong River.

After wandering around for nearly a year, lamenting his fate, Kim In-sung soon pulled himself together. He struggled to become the best. He thrashed around very hard, and thanks to that, he swallowed up Hanseong City in three years. But that was the best he could do.

“How much can you earn in this kind of countryside? No matter how hard you try, you can’t earn enough to advance to Incheon. But the guy has perseverance. He doesn’t know how to be discouraged. He worked even harder. He scraped together money with his eyes burning.”

Prosecutor Jeong paused for a moment after saying this.

“Then one day, the guys and girls under him ran away with a bag of money? And the amount was so large that Detective Oh had to get involved. How dare they skip over Kim In-sung and eat the money themselves? They were completely out of their minds.”

Kim In-sung beat Jang-mi and two thugs to a pulp. He was about to cut off their fingers and toes to prevent them from ever setting foot in this business again, but thankfully, Jang-mi handed over three hidden bills.

There was no need to hear more. Tae-heun thought of the three bills that Detective Oh had failed to recover.

“Unfortunately, all three bills were counterfeit. Jang-mi’s eye for detail was extraordinary. She noticed that there was something strange among the money she had taken and hid only that. Anyway, Kim In-sung was overjoyed. Even a simpleton like him could see that they were made with skill. Of course, there would be a technician who made them. He was dying to know, wouldn’t he be?”

He couldn’t even laugh.

“The person who made them is me?”

Prosecutor Jeong nodded.

“At first, I was skeptical too. But after hearing Jang-mi’s story, it seemed like it could only be you. And Park Dong-Hee happened to say that it was a bonus he received from you. What more certain information could there be?”

Kim In-sung took great care to seize the perfect opportunity that had come his way. The country bumpkin took his time and investigated a little more. He looked into whether any organization had lost counterfeit money, and who the owner of that duffel bag was in the first place. At the same time, he sent Nam Ji-hoon to Tae-heun. Being found by Tae-heun was also planned.

“Anyone can see that Park Dong-Hee is easier to deal with than Detective Oh or you. It was already rumored that Park Dong-Hee and Detective Oh were like brothers ever since they went to the room salon. And Detective Oh knows that it’s not polite to finish things without any compensation when you mess with a woman who clearly has a pimp.”

“Shit.”

Somehow, Tae-heun had become the mediator connecting Detective Oh and Kim In-sung.

“From Detective Oh’s perspective, there’s no point in messing with those bastards, so he would have tried to wrap things up somehow. Well, it’s also a hassle. It’s good for the guy who caused the trouble to apologize, so he sent Park Dong-Hee without thinking. From Kim In-sung’s perspective, it was like a gift from heaven. He treated him with the utmost care 24 hours a day. He even fed him drugs. Where’s the strength to resist alcohol? No matter how sharp Detective Oh is, he’ll lose his senses if he drinks and plays hard. Sincerity moves Heaven, they say. Oh my. Park Dong-Hee is a detective too? There was a reason why that little shit was acting up.”

Prosecutor Jeong shook his head and flicked off the ashes again.

Park Dong-Hee went missing on Monday evening, during the height of rush hour in Hwangmu Township. Neither the Helper nor Prosecutor Jeong considered it very important. After all, Park Dong-Hee didn’t know much, but his betrayal wasn’t even in their expected scenario. There was a good enough reason for that. Prosecutor Jeong hadn’t put Park Dong-Hee into the operation solely on Detective Oh’s word.

But the expected scenario went awry in a spectacular fashion. Park Dong-Hee had been absent without leave for two consecutive days, Tuesday and Wednesday, before finally coming to see Prosecutor Jeong this morning.

Completely manipulated by Kim In-sung’s threats, Park Dong-Hee blurted out anything. Kim In-sung needed information about the technician who made the counterfeit money, but without knowing that, he spilled the beans about the operation. He even told them in great detail about the brand of underwear Tae-heun wore. Thanks to that, Kim In-sung hit the jackpot.

Oh my, he couldn’t help but exclaim.

“I’m sorry. I trusted that bastard’s background too much.”

Prosecutor Jeong apologized sincerely.

“An apology, unlike you, Prosecutor. Are you about to die?”

Tae-heun scolded him for no reason.

It wasn’t that Prosecutor Jeong hadn’t done his best. It would be great if everything went according to plan, but that was impossible from the start.

Still, it was a shame. Prosecutor Jeong, who had emphasized from the beginning of the operation that people were the most important thing, ended up being held back by his own people at the most crucial moment. Tae-heun didn’t say anything more because Prosecutor Jeong must have been more distressed than anyone else.

143 – Chapter Title Without Number