The Prosecutor General Is Tired (4)
"Excuse me? Are you telling me to halt the indictment?" Prosecutor General Han Bon-chan nodded at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office prosecutor who was staring at him with a bewildered expression.
"Yes, I said halt it. Do I have to repeat myself?"
"B-but, this was ordered by the Chief District Prosecutor..."
Han Bon-chan cut the prosecutor off. "Hey, you son of a bitch! Who’s higher, me or the Chief District Prosecutor?"
"But the Chief District Prosecutor said it was ordered by you, sir..."
"That Prosecutor General is standing right in front of you, you idiot! How on earth did you pass the bar exam?"
At Han Bon-chan’s roar, the prosecutor bowed his head. "I-I apologize. I will halt the indictment immediately."
Only then did Han Bon-chan smile and pat the prosecutor on the shoulder. "There, isn't that much better? Don't even think about changing your mind after I leave. If you listen to someone else and get transferred to some godforsaken place, no one is going to take responsibility for you."
Han Bon-chan’s voice was low, whispered, yet it felt like a blade against the tongue. At those words, the prosecutor imagined himself being demoted to a dead-end post. "T-that will never happen."
"Good. That’s the right attitude. Very good."
Han Bon-chan had personally visited five district prosecutors' offices, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. For regions outside Seoul, such as Daejeon and Daegu, he had called the prosecutors directly to order the suspension of indictments. This was exactly why he had been recruited.
Looking at the internal regulations of the prosecution, the Prosecutor General ultimately had the power to forcibly halt indictments for any case. This was something no one else could do. Furthermore, if he colluded with the Minister of Justice, he could manipulate the appointments of every single prosecutor. Basically, the power to appoint prosecutors lay with the Minister of Justice, but the Minister was required to consult the Prosecutor General. If the two were on the same team? It was effectively easier to shuffle prosecutor positions than to put together a child's puzzle.
If a prosecutor defied Han Bon-chan in this situation? It was no different than saying, "Please send me to a dead-end job."
'Ah, now I feel at ease.'
Returning to his office, Han Bon-chan first took out the lunch box his wife had packed for him. Recently, his future had been so uncertain that he hadn't been able to digest his food properly. That was why, while others were out at company dinners or eating out, he had been living on porridge from a lunch box. Naturally, it was porridge again today. But unlike yesterday, Han Bon-chan didn't just hold the lunch box; he downed the porridge as if it were soda. Yesterday, he had eaten it with the spirit of a craftsman, one spoonful—no, half a spoonful—at a time, but today he gulped it down.
"Ah, still hungry."
Han Bon-chan smacked his lips and stood up. Illness often stems from the mind. Thinking of the vast amount of money piled up at home, Han Bon-chan, with a very healthy state of mind, was about to leave his office to grab a bowl of soup and rice.
Creak— Thud!
"Argh!"
Han Bon-chan, hit in the forehead by the door that had suddenly swung open, screamed and collapsed to the floor.
"Prosecutor General, what on earth have you done?!"
The shout of the Deputy Prosecutor General. Entering the room were the Deputy Prosecutor General, the Chief of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, the President of the Legal Research and Training Institute, the Chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, and other influential prosecutors.
"Ugh, damn it. Don't you guys know how to knock?"
Han Bon-chan, still crouched and rubbing his forehead, spoke, but the Deputy Prosecutor General ignored him and repeated his own words.
"No, I'm asking you, what on earth have you done!"
When his feigned pain didn't work, Han Bon-chan stood up with a look of disappointment, smacked his lips, and headed toward his chair. Then, settling his body into his plush office chair, he exuded the aura of a Prosecutor General and opened his mouth.
"Why, what's the problem."
Han Bon-chan had returned to his demeanor from ten days ago. However, such an aura did not work on the Deputy Prosecutor General and his group now.
"Of course it's a problem! Why on earth! Why did you halt the cases we indicted? Huh?!"
Having seen the Prosecutor General's ambiguous behavior frequently of late, and now that the plans they had painstakingly prepared were being crushed because of him, the Prosecutor General's aura naturally wouldn't work.
"You bastard, who do you think you're shouting at!" Han Bon-chan roared, but it didn't work either.
"No, for fuck's sake, how much did you take to pull off such a crazy stunt? Huh? You've trampled on the futures of your junior prosecutors, and you can still talk so confidently?"
The Deputy Prosecutor General's shouting continued. The prosecutors standing behind him seemed to want to say the same thing.
"What did I do?"
But Han Bon-chan was dealing with them leisurely, as if it were nothing at all.
"You took money and halted the cases other prosecutors indicted!"
"I did halt the cases. But what's wrong with that? It's the Prosecutor General's authority, isn't it?"
"You took money!"
"Me?"
Han Bon-chan paused as if he found it absurd, then spoke again. "From whom?"
"Obviously, you took it from the government!"
"I didn't take anything. I just halted them because, in my judgment, your actions were incomprehensible. The cases you indicted this time, no matter how I look at it, seem like an attempt to tame the legislature. Should we be looking out for our own interests while punishing Japanese collaborators and traitors?"
Han Bon-chan was speaking only the most reasonable truths.
'You idiots, do you think I won the Prosecutor General position by playing Go-Stop?'
Han Bon-chan was already certain that these guys were wearing recording devices everywhere. In fact, some of the prosecutors standing behind the Deputy Prosecutor General were hiding recorders. If Han Bon-chan answered that he had taken money? At that moment, his suspension of the indictments would become an act performed in exchange for bribes, leaving room for them to be overturned. However, Han Bon-chan did not fall for the Deputy Prosecutor General's trap.
"You took money!"
"I told you I didn't!"
"Ha! Are you really going to stick to that? I wanted to give you a chance, but I guess that won't work."
"A chance? For what?"
"Just wait a moment. You'll get a call soon."
The Deputy Prosecutor General glared at Han Bon-chan as if he wanted to kill him, then wore a vile smile.
Time continued to pass with both sides in a standoff. Five minutes.
The Deputy Prosecutor General, with a mocking expression, said to Han Bon-chan, "It's too late to regret it now. You are the Prosecutor General, yet you trampled on the dreams of all other prosecutors. You will never be able to receive the courtesy afforded to former officials."
Ten minutes.
"It's about time for the call, isn't it?" At the words of the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office Chief, the Deputy Prosecutor General giggled and nodded.
"Yeah, it's almost time. Guys, when the Prosecutor General leaves later, everyone give him a big send-off. Like a last supper, we should give him a big final farewell, right?"
As the other prosecutors all laughed and nodded, Han Bon-chan put on an anxious expression. At that, a deeper sneer began to hang on the lips of the Deputy Prosecutor General and the other prosecutors.
Fifteen minutes.
The situation became a bit strange. Even though the Deputy Prosecutor General had said a call would come, there was still no contact. Enough time had passed that if there had been a hot cup of tea, it would have gone lukewarm.
"You're getting on in years, are you okay standing the whole time? Sit down. That way, you'll have at least a little strength in your legs when you leave later. Hahahaha!"
The Deputy Prosecutor General still had a mocking tone. However, no matter how much time passed, the call the Deputy Prosecutor General was waiting for did not come.
Twenty-five minutes in.
Ring-ring—!
As the office phone suddenly rang, the Deputy Prosecutor General brightened and ran toward it.
"What are you doing, you bastard. That's my call!"
The Prosecutor General picked up the receiver faster than the running Deputy Prosecutor General. The Deputy Prosecutor General, as if it didn't matter, bared his teeth in a grin and looked at Han Bon-chan. And a moment later.
Han Bon-chan wore a depressed expression and handed the receiver to the Deputy Prosecutor General.
"Hehehe, it's already too late to regret it."
The Deputy Prosecutor General opened his mouth toward the receiver again. "Yeah, did you handle the job well?"
[P... please, save m... me...]
"......!"
The Deputy Prosecutor General realized that things had gone wrong and stared at Han Bon-chan with a horrified expression.
"Y-you. What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. Really."
Han Bon-chan really hadn't done anything. He simply knew that bodyguards would be on standby around his house at all times. The Deputy Prosecutor General had originally tried to mobilize all his connections in the judiciary to get a search and seizure warrant for the Prosecutor General's house. However, he had failed, naturally. That was why he had mobilized organizations to raid the Prosecutor General's house. It was an insurance policy in case the Prosecutor General didn't admit to bribery charges. And the moment Han Bon-chan heard the voice on the other end of the line, he knew that his guess about what the Deputy Prosecutor General had plotted was true. The two times he had put on a bad expression were purely to tease the Deputy Prosecutor General.
"By the way, seeing junior prosecutors dare to enter the Prosecutor General's office makes me feel quite unpleasant. Wouldn't you mind leaving?"
"Junior prosecutors, who is a junior prosecu..., gasp! D-don't tell me...?"
The Deputy Prosecutor General's complexion, who had been talking back, turned deathly pale.
"Yeah, you've all been relieved of your positions. That's why you're junior prosecutors."
If the Deputy Prosecutor General had succeeded in securing physical evidence of the Prosecutor General's bribery. If he had secured a statement that sounded like an admission of bribery. Or, if the government and the National Assembly hadn't been in perfect collaboration from the start. The prosecution wouldn't have been defeated so helplessly. However, Yoon-gi's scheme, which had been arranged over ten years, had brought the entire prosecution to ruin by bribing only one person: the Prosecutor General.
"Hey! Get the junior prosecutor gentlemen currently in my office to clock out!"
As Han Bon-chan picked up the phone and gave the order outside, security guards entered and dragged the Deputy Prosecutor General—no, the group that had now become junior prosecutors—outside.
"Ah, I'm hungry. I should go eat some spicy Jjamppong."
They say that in life, everyone faces a major crossroads at least once. And Han Bon-chan was the only one among the high-ranking prosecutors who had made the right choice.
* * *
If it had been the 2010s, the prosecution wouldn't have collapsed this easily. Or, to be more precise, Yoon-gi wouldn't have been able to seize control of the National Assembly so easily. Because the wealth level of South Korea's affluent class is beyond imagination. But it was 1988. Even if Yoon-gi used only a small portion of his wealth, he could persuade any lawmaker or government official he wanted. Even just comparing simple currency values, there is roughly a three-fold difference between 1988 and 2020. But the difference in real value is much greater than that. Even just thinking about the food sector, there is a difference of more than five times.
In particular, the weakening of the chaebols' power was a huge help. If the chaebols had been in a situation where they could pay attention to things other than their current businesses, there would have been more interference. But the companies were currently pouring their efforts into management to make up for the losses they had suffered during the chaebol wars, and they couldn't spare the attention for politics. Furthermore, this bill was strictly for the liquidation of pro-Japanese traitors. As a result, the chaebols' backlash was relatively weak.
"It passed!"
Confirming the National Assembly's vote, YS stood up and clenched both fists. Finally, South Korea had adopted the principle of concurrent punishment rather than cumulative punishment regarding the punishment of criminals. Now, if someone committed 10 counts of robbery, they wouldn't be punished as if they had committed 1.5 counts, but would be able to receive punishment befitting 10 counts. Of course, just because concurrent punishment was adopted didn't mean one would automatically get 10 times the sentence for 10 counts. But it was certain that they could now hand down a sentence befitting the person who had pulled the stunt.
"By the way, I'm always amazed. Yoon-gi, you seem to realize justice, but you don't insist on righteous methods, do you?"
At YS's words, Yoon-gi shrugged his shoulders. "Isn't the expression 'righteous method' incorrect? Just because one uses an unconventional method doesn't necessarily mean it's an evil method."
If someone were to learn of Yoon-gi's path decades later, how would they evaluate him? They might point out that there were problems with his methods, but it would be difficult to describe him as a villain. Furthermore, they would face great difficulty in proving that Yoon-gi's actions were illegal.
"Ah, that would be correct. Anyway, I like it. Rather than losing to traitors while paying attention to useless parts, it's better to just do it hot and heavy. Good, good!"
YS was wearing an extremely satisfied expression. Yoon-gi was smiling at that sight. N, who had been watching the two, asked, "Then, is the prosecution side settled with this?"
Yoon-gi shook his head. "No, we have to investigate the materials the prosecution used to blackmail the lawmakers and clean out the ones who need to be purged. It's a general election next year. At the same time, we have to punish Himura and the traitors."