Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: The Trap Backfires
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Im Seoran softened her stiff expression and playfully furrowed her brows.
"You're mistaken. My name is..."
"You can drop the act now. We both don't have time, so let's get to the point."
When Lee Daehyuk pointed at the sofa with his hand, Im Seoran hesitated.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't understand.
How did he know her real name?
"......"
"Have a seat."
As she wavered,
Lee Daehyuk's sharp voice rang out.
The man who had kept smiling all along now fixed her with a chilling gaze.
Step by step—!!!
Overwhelmed by that look, Im Seoran sat down on the sofa.
"Why are you doing this? Weren't we having a good time? Or did I do something wrong?"
"Beer."
"......!!!"
At that single word, Im Seoran's heart sank.
No way.
'It can't be. It isn't.'
The trap set under Kim Hyun-seung's orders was a secret no one else knew.
There was no way Lee Daehyuk could know she'd spiked the beer with drugs.
Even Jeong Soo-chang, who had brought Lee Daehyuk to the Gold Moon, didn't know the exact method of dosing him.
But Im Seoran suppressed her agitation and asked innocently.
"Why the beer? Don't like it?"
Im Seoran pretended complete ignorance with a baffled expression.
Seeing her desperate performance, Lee Daehyuk honestly felt like applauding.
Even to him, using psychometry, it seemed perfectly genuine—like she truly knew nothing.
'Too bad.'
If she'd shown that acting skill on set, she'd be a star by now.
Lee Daehyuk cut to the chase with cold eyes.
"I'll make it simple: two choices. Accomplice or witness. Pick one."
"I have no idea what you've been talking about. If I'm not to your liking, I'll just go."
Im Seoran stood up from the sofa.
She didn't care about the mission or the money anymore.
She needed to get out of here as fast as possible.
But.
"If you open that door and walk out, what do you think I'll do?"
Im Seoran's hand froze on the doorknob at Lee Daehyuk's words.
"...What exactly are you going to do?"
"I'll call Kim Hyun-seung first. Tell him you spilled everything."
"What?"
"If I'm fine, he'll have no choice but to believe me. That guy's not kind enough to forgive failures—or betrayals...."
Tremble—
Her hand trembled on the doorknob.
It didn't matter anymore how Lee Daehyuk had figured out the trap.
But one thing was clear.
If he really did that,
'Kim Hyun-seung—that bastard won't let me live.'
The answer was already decided.
"...What do I have to do?"
"Quick on the uptake. I like that."
Lee Daehyuk, seated in the chair, smiled broadly.
***
Thirty minutes later.
In front of the hotel where Lee Daehyuk was staying.
Reporter Bae's face flushed slightly as he looked up at the hotel.
It felt like getting a Christmas present early.
Lee Dae-hwan's attitude nagged at him a bit, but what could he do?
Doubts and questions were luxuries before a scoop.
'Right. I'm a reporter. Think only of the story and the readers.'
Reporter Bae desperately ignited his journalistic spirit to suppress his unease.
A strange sense of heroism even welled up.
But the other reporters, summoned by his call, looked visibly anxious.
"Is the scoop really up there?"
"Even if it is, can we just barge into a hotel room like that?"
"Yeah, this could cause headaches later. And there are hotel security guards too."
"......"
Reporter Bae couldn't hide his bitterness at the junior reporters' questions.
Worrying like this before a scoop.
'These kids today have no journalistic spirit.'
The reporters he'd brought were all from different newspapers.
Lee Dae-hwan wanted the scoop broken simultaneously across multiple papers, not just one.
So Reporter Bae had used his connections to gather friendly juniors from other outlets.
'They should be kowtowing in gratitude for letting them write the story. Worrying about that? Pathetic.'
"Don't worry. People who'll help us are coming."
Reporter Bae reassured the juniors.
He wanted to snap at them, but what choice did he have?
He needed these idiots to satisfy Lee Dae-hwan.
One clueless junior asked,
"People?"
"Yeah. We just follow them."
The other reporters looked puzzled at his response.
Follow who?
But instead of answering, Reporter Bae nodded toward the street.
"Here they come."
The reporters turned to look.
On the street, detectives were pouring out of two police vans that had just arrived.
"We're going in with the detectives?"
At the junior's question, Reporter Bae clapped his back.
"Yeah, man. Enough chit-chat—let's move. Huh?"
Reporter Bae quickly chased after the detectives rushing into the hotel.
The juniors stood there dumbfounded.
They'd gotten the heads-up from Reporter Bae too.
Something about a chaebol heir in this hotel doing drugs with a woman.
Snapping photos on-site and writing it up would definitely be a scoop.
But a nagging sense of wrongness lingered.
'How did Bae hyung know about this?'
'Come to think of it... the detectives aren't stopping him.'
These were detectives who usually shunned reporters at crime scenes.
But today was different.
They were leading Reporter Bae into the hotel as if they'd planned it from the start.
"Whoa... this feels off."
"Hey, don't jinx it!!!"
The juniors exchanged glances.
They were worried, suspicious.
But what could they do?
A reporter's instinct whispered otherwise.
"......"
After a brief hesitation, the junior reporters dashed into the hotel after the detectives and Reporter Bae.
***
Hotel, Room 1413.
The detectives tipped off by Kim Hyun-seung in advance, and the reporters.
And Team Leader Yoon Dong-cheol, on Lee Dae-hwan's payroll.
They headed straight to the room with Lee Daehyuk and Im Seoran, without a second thought.
"Team Leader."
A detective approached Yoon Dong-cheol as he stopped in front of 1413.
"Is it okay to bring reporters in? Could cause issues later."
"That's why we're insuring against problems. What if the reporters don't get their photos? How do we handle the chaebol kid denying it?"
"Ah...."
"We blow it wide open from the start with ironclad proof. Got it? Media and police are comrades against evil."
Yoon Dong-cheol patted his team member's back with an uncharacteristically friendly tone.
"Yes, understood."
The detective finally shut up.
But.
'Even so... who's gonna clean up the mess later?'
Like Reporter Bae's juniors, the detectives felt a slight unease toward Team Leader Yoon.
But they couldn't pinpoint it.
So the other detectives chose to stay quiet.
With his team member silenced, Team Leader Yoon knocked on the door of 1413.
Knock knock—!!!
"Seoul Eastern District Police, Violent Crimes Unit Team Leader Yoon Dong-cheol. Need your cooperation for a moment."
Rustle—rustle—!!
Only rustling sounds from inside, no reply. Yoon smirked.
'Yeah, try to hide. Doesn't matter.'
They'd compel a voluntary escort and test him anyway—drugs would show up in his system.
Evidence? Flush it or whatever—he didn't care.
After a pause.
Still just rustling. Yoon raised his right hand to knock again.
But.
Creeeak—!!!
Before he could, the door swung open, revealing a man.
"Yoon Dong-cheol, Team Leader? Yawn. Prosecutor Kim Il-jung."
The one who opened the door was Prosecutor Kim Il-jung, in a tracksuit with a ponytail.
He pulled out his prosecutor ID from his pocket and continued.
"Here. Showing ID in case you think some impostor's scamming you."
"......!!"
"......!!"
Reporter Bae and Team Leader Yoon's eyes widened simultaneously.
Their target was Lee Daehyuk.
But out pops this random guy.
Prosecutor Kim Il-jung, infamous in prosecutorial circles as the "thorn" and "mad dog."
"Huh? Oh right... You're Team Leader Yoon Dong-cheol?"
"...Yes."
"Team Leader, we've met a few times, right? Wow, meeting in a hotel like this—great to see you."
Kim Il-jung smiled and extended his hand.
But in the stunned atmosphere, Yoon shook it while unconsciously glancing at Reporter Bae.
A look asking, 'Am I missing something? Is this the guy you meant?'
He was a disowned son, sure, but Kim Il-jung was still chaebol.
No disowned chaebol shows up in a tracksuit ponytail doing drugs in a hotel.
As expected, Reporter Bae shook his head.
Their target was Lee Daehyuk.
'What the hell is going on?'
Reporter Bae's instincts screamed something was wrong.
In situations like this, best to keep quiet.
He swiftly stepped back, signaling his juniors with his chin.
Time to bail.
The juniors, reading Reporter Bae and Yoon's reactions, realized it too.
"Ahem!"
"Hmm!"
They started backing toward the elevator.
But just before,
Prosecutor Kim Il-jung called them back.
"Leaving already? You there, first one bailing. You look like the boss—come in. Team Leader, you too."
"Yes?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you two. Someone wants to talk."
Reporter Bae and Team Leader Yoon exchanged glances at Kim Il-jung's words.
'Someone?'
Not Kim Il-jung—someone else had something to say.
In the end, after hesitating, the two followed Kim Il-jung's gesture into Room 1413.
***
The two who entered Room 1413 were greeted by.
"You're here."
Lee Daehyuk, sitting on the sofa.
He stood to welcome the guests.
"Hello. I'm Lee Daehyuk."
"...Eastern District Police, Team Leader Yoon Dong-cheol."
"[West Sea Daily] Reporter Bae Jong-chan."
Team Leader Yoon and Reporter Bae introduced themselves in turn.
But even as they spoke, they felt like they were barefoot on thorns.
'Damn, something's definitely wrong.'
'This bastard... knows everything.'
Moreover, up close, Lee Daehyuk was no pushover.
He'd slipped the trap unscathed, and though oddly dressed, he had a prosecutor with him.
He had real "power" befitting a chaebol.
Sensing their stares, Prosecutor Kim Il-jung spoke first.
His tone sharp now, unlike before.
"Just to clear up any misunderstanding: I'm not this guy's lackey. And he's not my sponsor or anything."
"......"
"......"
Yoon and Bae didn't respond.
If not a sponsor or special connection, why was he here?
Faced with their skeptical looks, Kim Il-jung gave up explaining.
'Sigh, me getting this misunderstanding... Kim Il-jung, you're tarnishing the pride of Korea's prosecutors.'
Sighing inwardly, Kim Il-jung recalled what happened just tens of minutes ago.
.
.
.
A night two days before Christmas, end of the year.
No plans, no friends, so he went jogging to sweat it out.
Then a text from Lee Daehyuk popped up.
- Come to Yuseong Hotel Room 1413 now. Christmas gift awaits.
He ignored the first one, of course.
'Finally showing his claws, huh. Learned all the dirty tricks....'
But as if reading his mind, another message followed.
- Giving you a shot at your year-end bonus.
"......!!!"
Kim Il-jung's eyes widened.
Year-end bonus?
Meaning another chance to rack up merits.
"Kuh. This guy's got me pegged."
Kim Il-jung hailed a taxi in his tracksuit and raced to Yuseong Hotel.
There, he met Lee Daehyuk and heard the gist.
"What the fu××, those son-of-bi×× bastards!!!"
Naturally, upon hearing everything, Kim Il-jung exploded.
And right then, reporters and detectives showed up.
He wanted to arrest them all, but what could he do.
He had to endure for Lee Daehyuk's "plan" ahead.
In the end,
At Lee Daehyuk's request, Kim Il-jung let only Reporter Bae and Team Leader Yoon into the room.
To use psychometry on them.
"Prosecutor Kim, step out for a bit. Anyway, nice to meet you both. Heard a lot about you from hyungnim."
Lee Daehyuk calmly lied and offered handshakes.
Boss, Become a Chaebol