The Chief Prosecutor

The pleading look in Won Hayeop’s eyes, which he had directed at me just a moment ago, changed in an instant.
He now openly revealed the gaze with which he had been secretly observing me.

“You knew?”

His voice also dropped a notch, as if this were his real voice.
The low, deep tone pierced my ears.
He shifted his body, which had been perched on the edge of the chair expressing anxiety, to lean back deeply.
In an instant, the habit of looking down on people for decades was laid bare.
I watched him silently and then nodded.

“Yes.”
“Since when did you know?”

As soon as his identity was revealed, Won Hayeop very naturally started speaking down to me.
For a moment, I had the illusion that this was not our office, but Won Hayeop’s Chief Prosecutor’s office.

‘The atmosphere they exude is similar, but the texture is different.’

If Won Youngoh applied pressure to people like a vise when necessary, Won Hayeop was the type to literally crush them.

“I was certain from the handshake. Your hands were too clean.”

A person’s profession sometimes leaves its mark.
Just as taxi or bus drivers’ left faces and hands are usually tanner.
Won Hayeop’s hands were clearly those of someone who had held a pen his entire life. I could feel the distinct calluses between his middle and index fingers.
Won Hayeop’s eyes twinkled as he lightly raised an eyebrow.

“Well, your observational skills are somewhat passable.”
“Yes, thank you for the compliment. But what brings you here? I don’t think Attorney Won Youngoh would want to meet with the Chief Prosecutor.”

Won Youngoh shuddered at the mere mention of his family.
I felt a gaze not only from the front but also from the side.

‘Attorney Cha…’

Jeong Donghyeok was looking at me, showing a flicker of agitation that only I could notice.
Won Hayeop shrugged as if my words were of no consequence.

“You don’t need to worry about a touching father-son reunion. My business today is with you.”
“With me?”
“Yes, Attorney Cha Yohan.”

Through those words, I noticed one other thing in Won Hayeop’s eyes.
It was curiosity.

[Congratulations to Won Hayeop, eldest son of Won Cheoljung, on his appointment as a prosecutor]

It was like that in those days.
A time when a dragon emerging from a humble stream would have its name and success displayed on a banner at the stream’s main point.
His father called the villagers and threw a feast.

“Our family has finally produced someone with a ‘Sa’-titled profession!”
(TL note: In Korean, prestigious professions like doctor (uisa), lawyer (byeonhosa), and prosecutor (geomsa) often end in ‘sa’.)
“I knew you’d make it, Hayeop!”
“Mr. Won must be so proud of his eldest son!”
“Oh, thank you all for coming.”

His parents, instead of showing humility at the compliments, laughed heartily and accepted all the drinks the people offered.

“Be careful.”
“I’ll visit often.”
“You must be tired, no need to come all this way.”
“But still.”

Won Hayeop left behind his joyful yet sad parents and his beloved hometown and headed to Seoul.
When he was first appointed, he had only one wish.

‘Let’s make all the sinners pay for their crimes.’

So that they couldn’t dare to live extravagantly even after committing a crime.
Won Hayeop lived as he had wished.

“Prosecutor, thanks to you, my son was able to clear his name. Thank you. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Prosecutor.”

The criminals he put away threatened him every day, telling him to watch his back.
Conversely, the people he sought to save all held his hands and expressed their gratitude.
Even if he couldn’t go home every day, even if he had nosebleeds every morning, those words of thanks were enough to make the job worthwhile.
Then, one day.

“Hey, Prosecutor Won. It’s hot today, let’s go get some body-nourishing food. How about the samgyetang place in front?”
(TL note: Samgyetang is a ginseng chicken soup, often eaten for health.)
“Yes, well. Let’s do that.”

He shouldn’t have gone to that place.
That’s what he thought at first.

“…There’s an unexpected guest.”
“Oh, say hello. He’s a guest of mine, and he happened to be in the area, so I suggested we have a meal together.”
“That’s some strange timing, senior.”

Won Hayeop did not hide his hostility but showed it plainly.
A bustling samgyetang restaurant on a summer day, and the parents of the suspect, who seemed to have been waiting.
The man, dressed in a high-end suit that didn’t fit the shabby, old restaurant, extended his hand to Won Hayeop.

“Ah, a pleasure to meet you, Prosecutor Won. I’ve finally met you. I asked Prosecutor Lee to arrange for me to see you.”

The man’s son was the suspect in a case that the higher-ups were pressuring him to wrap up.
Not a suspect, a defendant.
Won Hayeop pretended not to see the man, gave a slight bow to his senior, and tried to leave the restaurant.

“I’ll be on my way.”
“Hey, Prosecutor Won. Are you going to be like this? Are you going to embarrass your senior? Where did you learn such manners?”

Dragged to the table, Won Hayeop didn’t even lift a spoon, but the man smiled and paid for Won Hayeop’s meal as well.

“It seems it wasn’t to your taste today, Prosecutor Won. I’ll treat you to a better meal next time. See you then.”
“…There won’t be a next time, then.”
“Haha, I’ll make sure to discipline this one properly next time. Get home safely, sir.”

The senior prosecutor said, waving at the man who was disappearing with his luxury sedan.
And on the way back to the prosecutor’s office, he said.

“You won’t last long in this field if you keep acting so stiff, you punk.”
“Senior.”
“Hayeop, you probably feel like a hero right now, don’t you? Because people bow and say ‘thank you, thank you’.”
“What are you trying to say?”

He chewed on a broken toothpick and then jabbed the air with its tip as he continued to speak.

“Are you going to take off your prosecutor’s robe today, or just grit your teeth and let it slide this once? There’s a reason the higher-ups are telling you to drop it.”
“Is he that influential a person? If such a person committed a crime, he should receive even more appropriate punishment. Isn’t that why we all became prosecutors?”

Won Hayeop couldn’t understand.
Didn’t they pass that difficult bar exam and decide to dedicate their lives to this profession to catch criminals?
By practicing the ‘Prosecutor’s Oath’.
But the senior prosecutor clicked his tongue as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have and put his arm around Won Hayeop’s shoulder.

“That’s only when there’s food in your own bowl. You think being a prosecutor is a secure job? It’s not. The quality of your bowl changes depending on who you catch.”
“……”
“There are more than a few guys who want to take this case from you right now. Do you know why? Because they want to turn their lives around.”

The senior tilted his head back and looked up at the building in front of the prosecutor’s office.
Won Hayeop followed his gaze and half-tilted his head back.
That the people in this space lived with different thoughts from his own.
It was unbelievable.

“Hey, Prosecutor Won. You can’t be a lawyer with your personality. How can you stand to defend those criminals? A guy who even confronts his superiors like this.”
“I am not giving up on this case.”

Tap.

The senior prosecutor, with the toothpick back in his mouth, patted Won Hayeop’s shoulder as if pressing down on it.

“Just close your eyes and let it go this one time. Otherwise, I think you’re really going to lose your job. I’m giving you a life lesson as your senior.”

Won Hayeop thought it couldn’t be true, but his senior was right.
As he continued with the case, the pressure from the higher-ups grew.
He heard rumors of an internal investigation.

“…An internal investigation? I haven’t taken any bribes or committed any breach of trust, does that make sense?”
“That’s why I told you to listen to me back then. Go to the Chief Prosecutor right now, tell him you were wrong, and that you’ll quit this case.”
“Is that really the only way?”
“Otherwise, you’re going to be out on your ass. Do you have the money to open a law office?”

It was an excessively realistic pressure.
No law firm would take on a newly appointed prosecutor who had been dishonorably discharged, and Won Hayeop had no money to open an office.
In the end, he had to choose.
After countless rationalizations, the conclusion he reached was to ‘maintain the status quo’.

“Good choice, punk.”

Did his senior’s congratulations mean a situation like this?

[Why did you send something like this to the house? It must be hard enough for you to get by.]
“What? What are you talking about, Mother?”
[Didn’t you send this? A whole bunch of rice and meat arrived in your name this morning… Is something wrong?]
“Ah, no. I’ll call you back.”

The numerous gifts sent to his parents’ home, which he didn’t know how they found, and the high-end wine that arrived at his doorstep gradually began to feel monotonous.
Once.
This one time was the beginning.
With that one time, Won Hayeop’s life leaped to a place he thought he could never reach.
Watches, golf clubs, and even cars.
Until such gifts became a matter of course.
The things Won Hayeop enjoyed now were things his past self could never have dreamed of.

Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da.

The woman who held his hand to the tune of a cliché wedding march looked at him with a shy face and smiled.
He no longer had any deficiencies to fill.
There was no longer a house he could call his hometown.
He brought his parents to his house in Seoul and lived as if he had been born into wealth.

“Congratulations, Chief Prosecutor. You don’t have much further to climb now. Haha.”
“You flatter me.”
“Speaking of which, I heard you have two sons, Chief Prosecutor. If they both take after their father, they must be in the same line of work.”
“Well, one of them is.”

His sons’ dream since childhood was to be a prosecutor.

“I want to be a prosecutor like my father.”

That’s what his second son had said when he was young.

“As your son, and as a fellow prosecutor, I cannot live with the shame.”

With those words, Won Youngoh left home.
When he cut off all family support, Won Hayeop thought his son would come back soon.
Because it’s not easy for the things one has enjoyed to disappear in an instant.
But his son, as if to spite him, took off his prosecutor’s robe.
Then, he appeared as a lawyer at a new law firm.

“Justice? What kind of place is that?”
“It’s a place co-founded by Attorney Hyeon Yeongje, who is also a former prosecutor like the young master, and Attorney Yoon Eunho, a former judge.”
“Yoon Eunho, you say?”
“Yes, Chief Prosecutor.”

Yoon Eunho was that young judge who held his head high even at a young age.

“I didn’t know he became a lawyer…”
“They say he was close with the young master since their time at the training institute.”

‘Youngoh isn’t the type to be moved by sentiment.’

His second son strongly resembled his own young and ambitious self.
But he was colder and more rational than Won Hayeop himself. So he had secretly worried that he might break one day.
Now, that son says he is ashamed of his father who did not break.

“Still no word from Youngoh today? He’s really not answering your calls either?”
“He’s not. I told you not to be so harsh with him.”
“Why is that my fault? His father and his brother are both doing it, but he’s the one who left home because he didn’t want to.”

As his wife sighed, his first son returned with his babbling grandson.
Next to him was his daughter-in-law, who was also a prosecutor.

“Were you two fighting again?”
“Fighting? What are you talking about. Doyeong, come to your grandpa.”
“A-bu.”

Won Hayeop held the young Won Doyeong in his arms and laughed with joy.
Won Ojun then spoke to Won Hayeop.

“Ah, Father. I heard Youngoh opened his own office.”
“An office? After leaving the law firm?”
“Yes. It seems he’s trying to hire other lawyers, but it’s not going well.”

That’s all he heard.
That he had opened an office, and that he mainly took on pro bono cases.
But at some point, his son’s name and ‘Dike’ began to be heard everywhere.
From the assault incident that nearly made his wife faint, to his son’s name appearing in the media and the news like a tidal wave whenever he thought it was forgotten.
In the midst of all this, Won Hayeop found out one thing.

“I was certain from the handshake. Your hands were too clean.”

That tidal wave had begun with the appearance of the young lawyer who now sat before him, showing not a hint of tension.