Trampling the Chief Prosecutor (1)
A few days earlier, Jin Yong-hwa, chief prosecutor at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, had been tearing at his own hair. He had been confident he could secure a guilty verdict in Seok Dong-hoon's criminal organization formation case. He knew the charge was no easy matter for a prosecutor and that legal interpretations could split in Seok Dong-hoon's favor. Still, he had pushed the indictment with certainty because he had prepared several countermeasures in advance.
First, Seok Dong-hoon's arrested associate had already been convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated intimidation. The criminal conversations between that associate and Seok Dong-hoon had also involved a violent plot to kidnap a chaebol family member. In cases of such classic violent crimes, the judiciary tends to hand down heavy sentences even when legal opinions differ. Moreover, to contest the charges on legal grounds, Seok Dong-hoon would need a lawyer, and few attorneys would willingly defend such a dangerous criminal. Jin Yong-hwa had even used his father Jin Myeong-deok's name—former chief prosecutor—to pressure major law firms into refusing the case. He had assumed a court-appointed public defender would be assigned at best, and that the defense would focus only on sentencing leniency rather than arguing innocence.
If necessary, he had planned to leverage his father's influence as a three-term lawmaker to pressure the court through media campaigns demanding a guilty verdict. But then everything went wrong. A lawyer Seok Dong-hoon should never have obtained had appeared. Kwon Ho-gyun of the QS Group? Though relatively new to the bar, he had a reputation in legal circles for never having lost a case. On top of that, he was a direct son of the QS Group. This was not an opponent Jin Yong-hwa could challenge with his father's connections alone. Recently, Kwon Ho-gyun had reportedly moved beyond being merely Chairman Kwon Byung-do's son to become the de facto second-in-command of the entire group as head of the Central Management Headquarters. If Kwon Ho-gyun applied pressure to the prosecution's leadership, Jin Yong-hwa might be forced to drop the case himself.
Even though Kwon Ho-gyun had done no such cowardly thing, Jin Yong-hwa was now being completely outmatched in the legal arguments. The preparatory brief was written with such precision that it perfectly exposed every legal loophole in the indictment that Jin Yong-hwa had deliberately ignored. With Kwon Ho-gyun as Seok Dong-hoon's lawyer, any thought of a media campaign had been abandoned long ago. The other side's media influence was several times stronger, and if the case became public and ended in acquittal, the humiliation would be unbearable. With the ongoing debate over adjusting investigative authority between prosecutors and police already drawing criticism, any article suggesting a prosecutor had fabricated charges against an innocent person would be fatal. Jin Yong-hwa could end up branded a traitor within the organization and forced to shed his prosecutor's robe before long.
Conversely, Jin Yong-hwa now lived in fear that Kwon Ho-gyun might publicize the case himself. He had heard that the QS Group's Central Management Headquarters had a dedicated public relations team that specialized in handling the media. If they decided to unleash a barrage of attacks aimed squarely at him personally, he knew he would not be able to withstand it.
Haah. Jin Yong-hwa released his grip on his head and let out a deep sigh while staring at the ceiling of his office. Maybe I shouldn't have filed the indictment in the first place.
In truth, there had been voices inside the prosecutors' office advising against indicting this case. Jin Yong-hwa had simply forced it through using his discretion as chief prosecutor. He had been confident, and he had personal reasons that made it necessary. The upcoming general election was the problem. His father, Jin Myeong-deok, was aiming for a fourth term, but the party atmosphere made it impossible for him to secure a safe district. His past achievements from his first term had faded too much to dominate the election as they once had. So Jin Myeong-deok had pressured his son, a sitting prosecutor, to deliver a high-profile investigation that would attract media attention.
But Jin Yong-hwa was not a particularly capable prosecutor. When he looked back at his father's past, he saw the perfect model: Jin Myeong-deok had once stood at the forefront of the war on crime and crushed numerous criminal organizations with the criminal organization formation charge. If Jin Yong-hwa could replicate that, it would be ideal. Then, by chance, Seok Dong-hoon's associate had been brought into the prosecutors' office, and Jin Yong-hwa had thought he could round up the entire gang.
But Kwon Ho-gyun's intervention had ruined everything. Even after unusually postponing the trial date twice, Jin Yong-hwa could see no viable solution. That night, he took the indictment he had written and the preparatory brief Kwon Ho-gyun had sent to his father's house, hoping that his far more accomplished father might find some clever countermeasure.
"Father, could you take a look at this?"
Jin Myeong-deok, who had been watching television, turned his gaze toward Jin Yong-hwa and accepted the documents with a curt tone. "What is it?"
"It's a case I indicted. I think it might draw quite a bit of media attention once the verdict comes out."
At the mention of the media, Jin Myeong-deok's interest seemed piqued. He began flipping through the pages one by one. When he finished reading even Kwon Ho-gyun's preparatory brief, he suddenly shouted at Jin Yong-hwa.
"You actually indicted this? You?"
Jin Yong-hwa shrank his shoulders and asked timidly, "Would it be difficult to get a guilty verdict?"
"Why did you charge this under criminal organization formation? You should have investigated further, found evidence that these people actually committed crimes, and then indicted them on those charges."
"Well, I couldn't find actual evidence of the crimes, but the election is coming up soon and I wanted to help with your campaign, so..."
Wham! Jin Myeong-deok's voice rose again and struck the ceiling once more.
"When did I ever tell you to indict just anything? I told you to catch real social evils that would definitely result in guilty verdicts with heavy sentences and eliminate them. And what? This will draw media attention? Yes, it will. Very well. A prosecutor who dragged an innocent person into court as a defendant."
"I don't want it to turn out that way either. Is there no way? Should I withdraw the indictment now?"
"What? Withdraw the indictment? Do you have any idea how fatal that is for a prosecutor? Do you know how many people have had to take off their prosecutor's robes after doing that even once?"
"I'm sorry, Father."
And then came the words that carved a Grand Canyon-sized wound into Jin Yong-hwa's heart.
"They say beans come from where beans are planted and red beans come from where red beans are planted, but how did a dragon like me produce a mere water snake instead of an imugi? How am I supposed to show my face to my in-laws, you brat!"
It was painfully clear that the dragon referred to Jin Myeong-deok himself, and the water snake was Jin Yong-hwa. Jin Yong-hwa had first heard those words on the day he failed the bar exam for the tenth time. From that day on, the father who had once doted on his only son no longer existed. To avoid hearing those words again, Jin Yong-hwa had gritted his teeth, taken the bar exam twice more, and finally passed. Even after becoming a prosecutor upon completing the Judicial Research and Training Institute, he had tried to become a son his father could be proud of by attempting to eliminate the great evil that was the QS Group. But things had never gone as Jin Yong-hwa wished, and throughout his career as a prosecutor—multiple times before, and again today—he had once more become the water snake born of a dragon.
All the years he had spent working nights at the prosecutors' office, and even the unwanted remarriage to the JB family he had accepted to please his father, now felt utterly meaningless. Jin Yong-hwa suppressed his despair and asked, "What do you think I should do?"
"You're the prosecutor, not me. You created this mess, so take responsibility and clean it up properly. If this leaks to the media and affects the next election, I'll make you pay for it."
The next day, having barely slept, Jin Yong-hwa returned to his office and came up with a scheme. If he could just get Kwon Ho-gyun to withdraw from this case, he believed he could handle the aftermath using his father's connections. Kwon Ho-gyun was a lawyer, and he was a prosecutor. Both were legal professionals, but the decisive difference was that he possessed investigative authority. Therefore, Jin Yong-hwa could brand Kwon Ho-gyun as a criminal suspect, apply pressure, and force him to act as desired.
Conveniently, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office—which received all manner of financial crime cases—had received a complaint naming Kwon Ho-gyun as a suspect. The case was massive in scale and entangled with numerous political and business figures, making it a frequent topic of discussion both in the media and within the prosecutors' office. Since everyone in the office knew that Jin Myeong-deok, the former chief prosecutor, was Jin Yong-hwa's father, obtaining a reassignment of the case was simple. Jin Yong-hwa rushed to the deputy chief prosecutor's office, returned with the desired case file, and smiled with satisfaction.
* * *
Eureka! Jin Yong-hwa must have felt like shouting something like that while writing the summons I was now looking at from home before heading to work. His intentions were painfully transparent. He planned to turn me into a suspect and then extract concessions through an illegal plea deal in exchange for dropping the charges against Seok Dong-hoon. If a prosecutor had made a mistake in the indictment, the proper course was to withdraw it—not to propose an illegal judicial transaction with the defendant's lawyer. It was truly disgusting.
The case Jin Yong-hwa wanted to investigate me as a suspect for was none other than the Daebong Bio stock manipulation incident. Someone must have identified everyone who profited from the manipulation and submitted a complaint to the Southern District Prosecutors' Office. My name was included among those who had made around 300 billion won. Pfft. Did Jin Yong-hwa really think he could trap me with this?
Looking at the summons, I activated my ability and viewed the future verdict with myself as the defendant and Jin Yong-hwa as the prosecutor in the Daebong Bio case.
Order. The defendant is not guilty.
The outcome was entirely expected. Of course, I had been able to profit because I had seen this case's future in advance, but I had never actually participated in the stock manipulation. I had simply kept buying as the stock rose and sold when it rose too suspiciously. Jin Yong-hwa would never find any evidence of my crime in this case. Why? Because I had committed no crime. Naturally, I had no intention of accepting any judicial transaction he might propose. By sending this summons, Jin Yong-hwa had merely succeeded in offending me. I had already disliked him for trying to frame QS Display and for being Jang Mi-ye's fiancé. This was perfect. Seok Dong-hoon's acquittal was a given, and now I would thoroughly trample Jin Yong-hwa as well. The fact that he was a chief prosecutor only strengthened my resolve. During my days as an ordinary prosecutor in my previous life, I had endured so much harassment from chief prosecutors. As I indulged in pleasant fantasies about how I would crush Jin Yong-hwa, I glared at the words "Chief Prosecutor Jin Yong-hwa" written at the end of the summons. At that moment, my upgraded ability activated, and a document unrelated to the verdict appeared before my eyes.