You Have Been Defended

Comparing the document on my desk with the screen in front of me, I bit my lip. In the special prosecution initiated by the corruption of the Wooshin Group, I, the head of the investigation team, was supposed to handle the second trial. However, without any prior notice, the person in charge of the second trial had been changed. I closed my eyes tightly and leaned back in my chair. Cho Munyoung, the former senior prosecutor, was the most passive person in the special investigation team. Personally, I believed he should have been removed from the team. Yet such a person had become the prosecutor in charge of the second trial.

“Deputy Chief, please look at this as well.”

Secretary Oh Yanghoon, who had been standing quietly in front of me, handed me two sheets of paper.

“What is this?”

“You’ll understand when you see it.”

He reluctantly pushed the documents toward me without saying more.

This was something I had anticipated the moment the person in charge of the second trial was changed. The same announcement had likely already been made to the media. I immediately turned to the next page of the document. It was a printed article from an online news site.

“

—

Congratulations on your promotion!”

Before I could finish reading a paragraph of the article, a commotion began outside. Ignoring the flustered secretary, I opened the door. The doors of all the prosecutor’s offices swung open simultaneously. Prosecutors rushed out, all neatly dressed in suits, forming a line.

“Congratulations on your promotion to Prosecutor General, Chief!”

The first deputy chief prosecutor led the chant, bowing deeply to Hwang Youngchan at the center.

“Congratulations on your promotion to Prosecutor General, Chief!”

All the prosecutors echoed the same words like parrots, bowing at a 90-degree angle. Their deep bows made them look more like gangsters than prosecutors. As I followed the sight of the prosecutors who wouldn’t straighten their backs, my gaze eventually met Hwang Youngchan’s. He stared at me calmly. I wasn’t in the mood to congratulate him. His promotion had been achieved by stepping on me. Still, I bowed deeply like the others and said,

“Congratulations.”

“Enough. The confirmation hearing is still ahead. Nothing’s certain yet. Everyone, return to your offices and get back to work.”

Hwang spoke nonchalantly and entered his office. The sound of his office door closing prompted the prosecutors to finally straighten their backs. Following the Prosecutor General nominee’s orders, they quietly returned to their offices without any further chatter. The hallway, which had been bustling a moment ago, turned silent.

I immediately strode toward Hwang Youngchan’s office.

“Come in.”

Hearing his permission, I opened the door. Hwang was seated at his desk, flipping through documents as if nothing had happened. Even as I stood right in front of his desk, he didn’t look up.

After a moment of silence, I finally spoke.

“Congratulations on your promotion.”

“From what I saw earlier, it didn’t look like you were too eager to congratulate me.”

“Oh, did it show?”

“Not being sincerely congratulated by a junior I value… Seems I misjudged you.”

“It seems so. That must be why you excluded me from the special investigation team. If you’d known what kind of person I was from the start, you would have kept me out of the team entirely.”

Hwang removed his glasses and looked up at me.

“So you’re trying to set things right.”

“Setting things right by expelling me on the grounds of a retaliatory investigation I didn’t even conduct, is it?”

“Of course, it was something that needed to be addressed. Don’t you think?”

“I’m not sure it was something worth addressing to the extent of exposing my family history to the media. Besides, I have never done anything that would compromise fairness.”

“Well, that might just be your own perception. Everyone has a blind spot when it comes to objectively seeing themselves. As Chief Prosecutor, I had to prioritize fairness.”

Hwang Youngchan spoke with a stern expression.

“The media describes you in this way: a fearless prosecutor who challenges big corporations. FM robot. Quite the praise, isn’t it? For a prosecutor who should embody integrity, there’s no greater compliment.”

He stood up and walked closer to the window, looking out with his back turned to me.

“But I’ve always wondered if you truly deserved such evaluations.”

“May I ask why?”

“When your father passed away due to the side effects of a drug made by Wooshin Group’s pharmaceutical subsidiary… Of course, it was never definitively proven to be a side effect, so it’s just speculation. Your father might have had other complications.”

At that moment, I recalled his voice at my father’s funeral, patting my shoulder in consolation.

The drug Antrozole, manufactured by Wooshin subsidiary Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals, was the one that caused my father’s death. Despite its side effects, it is still legally sold today. Eight years ago, he cursed Wooshin, but now, oddly enough, he seems to be protecting them.

“Please, continue.”

“For years, you’ve personally investigated the Wooshin Group. Not just them—anytime a major conglomerate scandal broke, you’d zero in on it with fierce determination.”

“That’s correct.”

“Your actions seemed less like those of a prosecutor seeking justice and more like someone consumed by revenge.”

“That’s a misunderstanding on your part, Chief Prosecutor. It seems you’ve been looking at me through tinted glasses. I had no idea you thought that way.”

“Really? I still remember hearing your voice in the restroom at your father’s funeral when you were just a junior prosecutor. I believe the exact words were,

”

My father’s death was the turning point that decided the course of my life.

Even now, as I haven’t brought Wooshin Group to its knees, the pain remains lodged in my heart. Hwang Youngchan kept using my father’s death as fodder for these base arguments.

It was a profound insult.

Just as I began to waver, he finally turned to face me.

“You’re like a broken train—spewing toxic fumes, speeding recklessly along the tracks, not letting passengers off where they should, a runaway locomotive.”

“Perhaps your eyesight has deteriorated, Chief Prosecutor.”

“Cha Ju-han, don’t be rude.”

“Very well. A runaway train, you say. Could it be that you’re worried this train might crash into Wooshin Group and explode? Of course, it wouldn’t be the train you’re worried about—it’d be Wooshin Group.”

“You’re quite deluded. Haven’t you seen the personnel announcement yet? I still care about you. I’ve taken measures to cool down this runaway train and bring back the Cha Juhan I used to know, even preparing for your promotion to Chief Prosecutor.”

He rummaged through his desk and handed me a document.

A Legal Research Officer.

This is a position that’s often seen as a stepping stone to promotion, possibly even to Prosecutor General, if you don’t stay there too long. However, it’s also a place to sideline someone, making it clear they’re being excluded.

For me, it was undoubtedly the latter.

“Why take a break? If you’re going to promote me to Chief Prosecutor, just do it directly. Especially given your unusual career trajectory. The Chief Prosecutor of the Central District is no longer of High Prosecutor status, but you skipped two levels and were promoted directly. Considering the hierarchy, it’s likely many senior prosecutors will have to retire because of you. Personally, for such a personnel move, I wonder what kind of deal might have been involved.”

“Cha Juhan. How far are you planning to go?”

He reprimanded me again for my rude remarks. There was nothing left for me to lose.

By now, public opinion must have turned against me. I had been dismissed from the Special Investigation Team, with the reason being suspicions of a retaliatory investigation.

All the talk about promotion was just lip service—it was effectively an order to resign. Given that I’d already been excluded, there was nothing I couldn’t say to the man leading the organization.

“For example, perhaps Chairman Go Sangjun worried that if the tenacious Cha Juhan handled the second trial, he might push for a 15-year prison sentence.”

“And?”

“Chairman Go approaches someone known for favoring me. He proposes trading information about my weaknesses for the position of Prosecutor General. A double-promotion is unprecedented, but given the rumors that 80% of Central District Chiefs become Prosecutor General, it’s not so shocking.”

Hwang gestured for me to continue, his expression unwavering.

“There’s a problem. The so-called FM robot Cha Juhan has no apparent weaknesses—except for one. His father was a victim of Antrozole, and this gave him a grudge against Wooshin. That’s something only that ‘someone’ would know. Fortunately, for Chairman Go such a minor issue is enough leverage to remove Cha Juhan.”

“An interesting story. And?”

“Removing me outright would seem too obvious. It would look like deliberately sidelining a principled prosecutor. So instead, they disguise it as a promotion, reassigning me. Then they appoint the most passive, Wooshin-friendly prosecutor from the Special Investigation Team to handle the second trial. Should I predict what this prosecutor will say in court?”

“I’m curious to hear how your novel ends.”

“They’ll say,

”

“Haha, that’s absurd.”

“In the end, Chairman Go and that ‘someone’ get their happy ending. And as for Cha Juhan, who trusted that ‘someone,’ he…”

“Betrayal from the ‘someone’ was beyond Cha Ju-han’s imagination. Thus, the story ends with Cha Juhan being tragically cast aside after being thoroughly exploited.”

Hwang Youngchan slowly nodded. As if reviewing a film, he gave a brief response.

“You have a talent for fiction. If you’re going to leave your post, becoming a novelist wouldn’t be a bad choice.”

“The main story is over, but there’s still an epilogue.”

“Is that so? I’m curious. Tell me.”

“Cha Juhan visits every media outlet and exposes the entire truth. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but he has to squirm somehow. During the confirmation hearing for whether the ‘someone’ is fit to be Prosecutor General, he creates a massive scene. As a result, the ‘someone’ fails to become Prosecutor General.”

“I see. I see. The Cha Juhan in your story is too reckless. What if Go Sangjun blocks him when he goes to the media? Even if there’s a journalist willing to hear him out, what if no one believes it?”

“That… I’ll have to think about when the time comes. I haven’t fully fleshed it out yet.”

“Good luck with that. I hope your story succeeds. I’ll be watching as one of your readers. The epilogue isn’t very interesting. I’m not a fan of unrealistic plots. The main story was intriguing, though. It’s best to leave on a high note, Writer Cha.”

Hwang Youngchan, signaling the end of the conversation, sat back at his desk and picked up some documents.