Chapter 19
It was a disaster caused by the naive assumption that he would have changed after being punished.
At that time, I didn’t realize that living with a drug addict was like being an unstable buoy floating on a sea where storms constantly rage.
Angry that my mother wouldn’t give him money to buy drugs, my father unleashed merciless violence and, in his delusional state, set the house on fire.
My father, enraged at my mother for not giving him money to buy drugs, exercised merciless violence and even set fire to the house in his deranged state.
It happened just when I had been promoted to private first class in the army. The devastation of seeing my mother’s charred corpse is something I still can’t forget even after more than a decade.
Thus, my innocent mother passed away, and my father, who went from being a drug offender to a murderer, survived.
It was truly hell.
My father, enraged at my mother for not giving him money to buy drugs, exercised merciless violence and even set fire to the house in his deranged state.
It happened just when I had been promoted to private first class in the army. The devastation of seeing my mother’s charred corpse is something I still can’t forget even after more than a decade.
Thus, my innocent mother passed away, and my father, who went from being a drug offender to a murderer, survived.
It was truly hell.
Drug use, arson, and manslaughter. Yet, the court ruled he was mentally impaired.
Fuck. What a shitty law. A druggie kills someone after using for his pleasure, and he’s considered mentally impaired… I was left speechless at the absurdity.
And again, ten years later. I faced the unending downfall of a human being once more.
After his release, my father, an old and ugly beast, desperately searching for drugs with his decrepit body.
Even the hideous beasts of hell wouldn’t be as repulsive as him.
I despise drug addicts. Even if it’s the parent who gave birth to me. Drug crimes also have the highest recidivism rate.
Hope and disappointment repeat daily. It’s a crime that starts by dragging down those closest to you and eventually pulls everyone into hell.
I wanted to wipe out these vile beings with a life force stronger than cockroaches.
I became a prosecutor, and I no longer sent my father to prison. Instead, I had him forcibly committed to a mental hospital.
If I couldn’t sever the familial bond, I had to confine him somewhere out of sight. That’s how I escaped hell. But my father was still trapped in his own endless hell.
Standing on the muddy ground, blankly watching the house being swallowed by surging flames, it felt like a flashback of my life.
Flashback?
A bitter smile escaped through my tightly pressed lips.
Of all the things to reminisce about, why am I recalling such a past?
With so many urgent matters to handle, I don’t have time for such idle…
At that moment, Muyeong’s eyelids flew open from a strong pain striking his crown as if hit by lightning.
“Ugh!”
The first thing he felt as he sprang up like a spring from the hard bed was a stabbing pain in his shoulder. Following that, a dull ache circled around his temples.
As he came to his senses, he realized his whole body hurt.
“Haa…”
Groaning with mixed curses, he tried to raise his hand, but there was only a clanking sound of metal, and it wouldn’t budge.
“What the…?”
Puzzled, he looked down to see his wrist handcuffed to the bed’s side rail.
“This… What on earth…”
He tried to remember what had happened through the hazy pain. On his way home from work, there was a traffic accident at an intersection. He couldn’t remember anything after that.
A dump truck that ran a red light hit his car, and its speed was very fast.
The opposite lane was downhill. Even a slight press on the gas would cause insane acceleration. The truck driver never hit the brakes.
Just as he was finding this a bit strange, there was a flash of light. After that, it was as if the film had been cut—he couldn’t remember anything.
He could find out the details of the accident later. But what were these handcuffs about? Clearly, he was hit by a truck, so why were his wrists handcuffed…
Just as he needed an explanation for what was going on, the hospital room door opened.
“Prosecutor Seo!”
Cho Kyung-soo, who was entering the room while on the phone, widened his eyes upon discovering that Muyoung was awake.
“J-just a moment, Deputy Chief. Prosecutor Seo has woken up. Yes, ah, yes. I understand.”
After informing about Muyoung’s awakening, Chief Cho hung up and quickly approached.
“…Section Chief. What is all this about?”
Muyoung asked with a hoarse voice. Section Chief Cho’s face turned serious.
“That’s what I want to ask you, Prosecutor Seo. What kind of accident did you cause? Huh?”
“No, what do you mean I caused an accident? I was the victim of an accident.”
“Haah…”
Section Chief Choi grabbed the back of his neck and let out a heavy sigh, examining him with a dark expression.
“Your forehead was cut and required seven stitches. There are signs of a concussion, but they said there shouldn’t be any major issues. Your collarbone has a slight fracture, but fortunately, it doesn’t require surgery, so we’ll monitor it for a month or two.”
Muyoung, who had just regained consciousness, listened to Chief Choi’s explanation with one ear and let it out the other. That wasn’t what he was curious about.
“Regardless of my physical condition, shouldn’t you explain this first? I’m more curious about why I’m wearing this.”
Muyoung rattled the handcuffs connecting his wrist to the rail.
“Those handcuffs…”
Chief Cho glanced briefly at the hospital room door before speaking. He clicked his tongue, frowning as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying himself.
“A body was found in the trunk of your car, Prosecutor.”
“What… was found?”
“A body.”
Muyoung frowned and asked again.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
It was the most absurd thing he had heard recently.
“Why would there be a body in my car?”
Is this a New Year’s gift? If so, it’s too much of a prank.
He even suspected that Section Chief Cho might be making fun of him. But Section Chief Cho’s expression didn’t look like he was joking at all.
If this was a joke, he had chosen the wrong profession. Only then did Muyoung realize it wasn’t a joke and muttered a short curse.
“I need to check this myself. Do you have the initial investigation materials? Which police station responded to the scene? Nonhyeon? Banpo?”
What he was most curious about was the identity of the body. To understand how it ended up in someone else’s car, he needed to know who it was.
“Well, the Deputy Chief is on his way to the hospital now, so let’s wait.”
“Why is the Deputy Chief coming?”
“When a subordinate gets into an accident and is taken to the hospital, and a body is found in that subordinate’s car trunk, wouldn’t the prosecution be in an uproar?”
It was obvious that a current prosecutor’s car being found with a body in the trunk would be prime fodder for those who feed on sensational news stories for clicks.
“But does that mean you put handcuffs on me without even confirming the facts? You’re treating me like I’m already a suspect.”
“……”
“Surely… that can’t be.”
A dark shadow fell over Section Chief Cho Kyung-soo’s face.
“As of now, you’re the most likely suspect, Prosecutor.”
“Haha, ha……”
There’s no way our country’s police could be that stupid. What would a prosecutor gain from committing murder? If they wanted to, they could fabricate crimes and lock people up.
But sometimes, the investigation reports that came to the prosecution were full of absurd content.
Especially the motive section. Every time he saw statements with ridiculous motives that seemed worse than makjang dramas, he couldn’t help but laugh.
So for him, is it passion or revenge, something like that?
Okay. Let’s say, putting everything else aside, that he did commit murder. But isn’t a prosecutor a prosecutor for a reason? If he had buried the body where no one could find it, that would be one thing, but unless he was insane, why would he drive around the city center with a body in his trunk…
Even things that don’t make sense logically can be made to fit if you force them. Sometimes investigations are planned from the start to fit a certain narrative.
No one is without fault, and no one can withstand being picked apart and scrutinized until death.
Muyoung slowly ran his hand from his forehead to his chin with an incredulous sigh.
As Eom Hae-yeong, the administrative officer, always said, Muyoung felt like he was a protruding stone that had been hammered down, fallen backward, and broken his nose.
“Hah… It seems I’ve been thoroughly set up…”
“Set up?”
“What’s all this? Where’s everyone looking?”
It was then that a familiar angry voice was heard from outside the quiet hospital room. Muyoung and Chief Cho’s gazes turned towards the door.
Without knocking, the door was roughly pushed open, and a middle-aged man strode in.
“Deputy Chief, you’re here.”
Baek Yong-jae, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor. He was the highest commanding officer in Muyoung’s department. Cho Kyung-soo quickly ran to close the door and then stuck close to him like an aide in the small hospital room.
“Well, well, Seo Muyoung, feeling lucky, are we?”
Baek Yong-jae’s gleaming eyes, looking at Muyoung in his patient gown, seemed to be viewing a hopeless case.
“Ha! You stubborn bastard. I thought you were being a bit too quiet lately, but you just had to cause trouble. Your scale is Hollywood-level, you bastard.”
“Deputy Chief…”
“What, you have something to say to me?”
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Baek Yong-jae, speaking in a Gyeongsang province dialect, wasn’t particularly imposing in stature, but his eyes and expression were far fiercer than those of most larger men.
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