Hardboiled Scenario

Chapter 1
Prologue

 

Muyoung rubbed his stiff neck with one hand while gripping the steering wheel with the other.

It was past midnight. Outside the car window, pure white snowflakes were swirling. It was the first snowfall, three days after the new year began.

Despite the late hour, people sparsely dotted the streets, presumably indulging in a drink or two to mark the change of year.

The headlights of passing vehicles illuminated their slightly intoxicated faces. They all had excited expressions.

Muyoung slowly drove his car to avoid people who had stepped into the street to hail taxis.

People welcoming the new year would listen to the sound of the New Year’s Eve bell or make wishes while watching the sunrise.

Gathering in groups of three or five with family, lovers, or friends, they harbored hopes that their destiny might change, just as the new year had dawned.

However, for Muyoung, only the last digit of the year had changed.

While they drank, laughed, and chatted, Muyoung worked overtime today as well.

It wasn’t as if criminals stopped committing crimes just because it was a new year, on the contrary, they seemed to be more active than ever with renewed spirit and determination.

Police officers were busy without a moment’s rest, and as a result, a pile of cases were also transferred to the prosecutor’s office.

“I’ve mostly sorted out the witness interview for tomorrow… There are a few indictment cases with deadlines coming up soon.”

Tap, tap, tap. 

The rhythm of his index finger tapping on the steering wheel quickened. Muyoung arranged the next day’s schedule in his mind while waiting for the signal to change with indifferent eyes.

“If I had left work on time, the section joining Olympic-daero would have been as crowded as a marketplace, but it’s nice that it’s quiet.”

He was muttering consolatory nonsense like, “It’s all done, I just want to get home quickly, wash my body with hot water and lie down,” when he passed the Nonhyeon intersection where the green light had come on.

At that moment, something caught the corner of his eye, and his head instinctively turned to the left.

“―!”

A dump truck suddenly emerged from the bus lane on the opposite side of the road, right in front of him. The moment he perceived the danger, the distance between the car and the truck narrowed in an instant.

It was a moment too short to show any reaction.

Bang!!!

An ear-splitting roar erupted.

Screeeeech!!

The sound of tires burning the asphalt surface sharply cut through the intersection.

The moment the truck collided, the driver’s side window shattered into pieces. Shards of glass reflecting the dawn light scattered before his eyes.

Soon after, 

Bang, bang, bang!

The car that collided with the dump truck smashed into the median strip.

 

“If you keep that up, you’ll get hit in the back of the head one of these days. Be careful.”

 

How many days had it been since he heard those words?

 

“Even rats can lose their tails without knowing it’s being hunted.”

 

Was this what they meant by “without anyone knowing”… And in the middle of the city?

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, and everything in front of him was completely white. A painful groan burst through his clenched teeth.

As he lifted his forehead that had been buried in the airbag that automatically deployed due to the strong impact, all the shapes that rushed into his field of vision looked distorted.

The light-diffused figures were all blurry and nothing was clearly visible. His vision was spinning and his head was throbbing so much that he couldn’t come to his senses.

It was hard to control his body, just like a drunk person.

People startled by the sudden accident began to gather one by two. The murmur of voices was noisy.

What happened? There was an accident. 

The dump truck hit and ran away. 

It’s a hit-and-run. A hit-and-run.

That person is hurt. He’s bleeding. Oh my gosh, what should we do?

Hey, are you okay?

Shouldn’t we report this?

It felt as if time was flowing slowly for him alone. The lips of the people gathered around the car seemed to be moving incessantly, but strangely he couldn’t hear them.

Something was wrong.

As Muyoung barely unfastened his seat belt and got out of the car, someone supported his staggering body.

What the hell is going on… His consciousness flickered like a disconnected fuse, and he held his head.

What kind of bastard has the nerve to crash into a South Korean prosecutor’s car and then flee?

The moment he realized that the palm of his hand on his head was damp, the fishy smell of blood rushed into his nostrils.

 

“There’s more than one or two people holding a grudge.”

 

No way… It couldn’t be.

Even though he couldn’t come to his senses due to the ringing in his head and the persistent tinnitus, Muyoung’s train of thought kept running endlessly.

It must be an accident… It has to be an accident. If not, it means this is an assassination attempt.

As smoke rose from the hood of the vehicle lodged in the central divider, people’s murmurs grew louder. His head hurt as if it would split.

“Kyaaaa!!”

Before his thoughts could be sorted out, a woman’s shrill scream sharply cut through the chaotic scene.

He couldn’t hear any other sounds, but the woman’s scream penetrated Muyoung’s eardrums.

The sound of sirens, dully ringing in the distance, was getting closer and closer.

Muyoung strained his eyes to find the woman who had screamed. The woman, whose face had turned pale blue, was pointing at something.

The place her trembling finger was pointing at was the wretchedly crumpled car trunk.

Something was visible through the half-open trunk.

An arm? A leg? Something shaped like a human mannequin was sticking out awkwardly. Something that shouldn’t be there, that couldn’t possibly be in his car.

“Ah… Fuck. I’m screwed.”

With those softly muttered curses as his last words, Muyoung’s consciousness also snapped off like a broken film.

🍓

In front of a desk with a nameplate that read [Prosecutor Seo Muyoung], Seo Muyoung was sitting by the window, and two well-dressed men were sitting across from him.

One guy was a lawyer, and the other…

“So, you’re saying that someone put drugs in the drink you unknowingly consumed?”

In response to Muyoung’s question, which lacked any enthusiasm, the middle-aged man wearing an expensive suit shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Why are you doing this when you’re a pro?” and “Isn’t this a common occurrence?”

“They said if I didn’t want to be reported, I had to give them money, not just drugs. It’s an obvious tactic, but there’s no choice. Our client has a social reputation to maintain.”

The lawyer’s badge adorning the corner of the man’s lapel sparkled conspicuously.

How annoying.

Muyoung put down the investigation report and curled his hand into a fist, pressing it against his temple. Naturally, his head tilted slightly.

“How much did you give?”

“It started with a million won, but the demands kept growing until it reached 300 million won.”

“So, you gave a million won, and then 300 million won, and even after giving all that money, the blackmail continued?”

“If you look at the account transfer records, you’ll see that all the relevant materials have already been submitted as evidence during the police investigation.”

Hundreds of millions of won must be pocket change to him, he must be loaded.

Muyoung swallowed his muttering and glanced at the man sitting next to the lawyer. The immature kid who hadn’t opened his mouth once since entering the prosecutor’s office and was only biting his thumbnail.

Despite wearing a luxurious watch worth tens of millions of won on his wrist, he looked like he couldn’t even eat properly, and Muyoung couldn’t help but sneer at the sight of him only ruining his poor thumbnail.

The accompanying lawyer naturally interrupted the conversation, so they were well-matched.

“What’s your occupation?”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Occupation. You said you were blackmailed and extorted for an amount in the hundreds of millions of won?”

“Ah…”

“The statement here says you’re unemployed, so where did that large sum of money come from?”

“Prosecutor Seo, what does that matter? In this case, our client is not the suspect but the victim. I’m telling you, he was blackmailed.”

The lawyer hastily changed the subject. And they claimed that they were blackmailed by a so-called “pongdang,” a term for a scammer.

Bullshit.

The guy had no job, and his parents weren’t high-ranking either. It was clear that he was either involved in illegal activities or became a nouveau riche through cryptocurrency.

“It must be frustrating to have your money stolen by a blackmailer, and you’ve gone through a lot of trouble bringing a former chief prosecutor turned lawyer whose retainer fee alone is in the hundreds of millions of won. You should use that money to buy yourself a meal.”

Any other crimes would be revealed with further investigation. Muyoung decided to first muzzle the lawyer who was repeating the same claim like a parrot, exactly as written in the statement.

“Section Chief Cho.”

“Yes, Prosecutor Seo.”

He called out to the Section Chief, Inspector Cho Kyung-soo.

“Are the detailed forensic results for Kim Hyung-kwon-nim ready?”

“I have them here.”

Section Chief Cho Kyung-soo, who had been observing the situation, cleverly handed over the documents as if he had been waiting.

“There are a lot of pages for a simple case of drugging.”

One page, two pages, three pages. Four pages. Muyoung, who was reading through them halfheartedly, closed the pages he had flipped through and placed the results in front of the lawyer with a thud, as if throwing them.

“Let’s say you were spiked with ecstasy.”

He gestured for them to check it out. Then he leisurely leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. The lines of his firm muscles were clearly visible under the tightly stretched shirt fit.

“What’s the point of looking at it? We’ve already checked everything. I’m telling you, my client is the victim. He can’t be held responsible for something he did unknowingly.”

It was truly a ridiculous situation. In 21st century South Korea.

“This is getting a bit tiresome now…”

Muyoung spoke as he indifferently observed the lawyer’s expression, who had been confidently defending the suspect, gradually becoming more serious.

“The saying that there’s no crime for the rich and no innocence for the poor. How long has it been since the person who said that died, and you’re still spouting that nonsense? How uncouth.”

He uncrossed his arms that had been crossed over his chest and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk.

The glint in Muyoung’s dark eyes became clear, and his red lips curved into an elegant arc.

Like a predator cornering its unwitting prey, he was sufficiently threatening with just his sharp gaze.

🍓

Thank you for reading! ♡