Into The Thrill

"You."
"What are you talking about so abruptly? Barging in like this."
It was Kim Han-se who had burst through the door of the prosecutor's office. Woojin, who had been discussing work with the chief, turned towards him as he approached grumbling. In Kim Han-se's hand was a report on the investigation into the corruption of Chief Prosecutor Park Hyung-soo, who had recently received a prestigious alumni award.

"Why does this end up flowing to me? Who else but you could do something like this?"
Kim Han-se growled fiercely. Woojin snorted in disdain.
"I'm not the one, but shouldn't whoever it is be thankful? You wouldn't have been able to shake him off even if you came back from the dead."

"An investigation that ignores illegal surveillance, procedures, internal rules, and approvals is not an investigation."
"Then just pretend you don’t know."
"What?"

Kim Han-se bristled, seeming about to grab Woojin by the collar any moment. Unable to hold back his anger, his eyes seemed to flare red. The elderly Chief Hwang cautiously got up and approached to mediate between them.
"Prosecutor, our prosecutor knows nothing. He's been so busy with trace investigations lately. He hasn't slept properly for days."
Woojin nudged Chief Hwang, who had come between him and Kim Han-se, trying to stop the argument, signaling him to step away. Chief Hwang stepped back awkwardly.

"If it’s found out through illegal surveillance and you can’t handle it, just cover it up. It’s not like anyone told you to do this. Why make such a fuss? If it goes against your principles, then don’t do it."
"If this gets out, you'll be hit too."
Kim Han-se's face became serious, as if he was concerned for him.

"So, you knew I would be hit and yet you let it leak to me? That doesn't make sense. In your eyes, I'm nuclear waste without blood or tears."
"Yeah, you’re human trash."
"Whether I'm human or trash, why would I risk taking the blow myself just to leak intelligence to you? Why would I do such pointless things?"

"You must have already cut off your tail. You're currently handling Chief Prosecutor Park Hyung-soo’s case, aren’t you? Since you can’t do it yourself, you leaked it to me. Am I wrong?"
"I'm part of Chief Prosecutor Park Hyung-soo's line. If this person shakes, you'll go to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office before I do, and I ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) don't plan to see that happen."
"..."
"Don't go after the innocent. Crush those who are guilty."

Woojin’s piercing gaze seemed to see right through him. Kim Han-se slammed the door and left. A micro-expression of contempt briefly crossed his face.
A righteous man who can't stand injustice, a man who stakes his life on the realization of justice. Wasn't that what the era demanded from a true prosecutor?
Was he the prosecutor of the year or the month? That was the assessment Kim Han-se had received when he got the award from the chancellor.

Somehow, despite acting so boldly, Kim Han-se, who hadn't been pushed out from the Central District Prosecutors' Office’s Intelligence Division, had been a classmate of Woojin's at the training institute, competing for top ranks. Woojin distinctly remembered feeling quite upset when he thought Kim would go on to be a judge but ended up applying to be a prosecutor.
"I really don't understand. Where else can you find someone as good as our prosecutor, what do you mean by human trash? You should see Prosecutor Kim Han-se’s foul mouth."
Chief Hwang grumbled, apparently displeased with Kim Han-se for coming to the prosecutor’s office and insulting his superior in front of his clerks.

"Well, I might seem like human trash to the apostle of justice. Didn't you see Prosecutor Kim bumping into the prosecutor general? I can't even mimic that."
Woojin didn't care much about Kim Han-se's assessment of him, but he wasn’t feeling great. After all, he did objectively recognize Kim's upright investigative style, even if he didn't like it. That's why he was bothered by such evaluations coming from someone like him.
"And does that make sense? Chief Prosecutor Park Hyung-soo is exactly the one who could make our prosecutor move up to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. It doesn’t make sense for our prosecutor to leak that corruption material."

"I wish Kim Han-se wouldn't touch Prosecutor Park, but you know his personality. He just won’t cover it up."
"Wow, someone's really sharp to have leaked that to Prosecutor Kim."
"That's right. It's over now."

Woojin had removed Park Hyung-soo from his mental list. The material that had flowed to Kim Han-se was collected through illegal channels without the clerks knowing.
Woojin often leaked troublesome matters to Kim Han-se, knowing that he would handle them without bending under external pressure, and not knowing what was backing him but really hoping to send Kim, whom he found displeasing to even look at, to some remote rural district office. This was killing two birds with one stone.
He didn't regard him as a competitor or rival; Woojin simply disliked him beforehand and despised Kim Han-se's character. Woojin hated his foolishness in valuing fairness and propriety over important things. Of course, such genuinely righteous and just people were needed, but such stories didn't work for those who ruled above them.

Changing the world like that would be insufficient even if one person poured their entire life into it with all their effort and passion. Unlike him, Woojin knew that to realize justice, there must be illegalities on top of illegalities.
Woojin was flexible enough to justify the means for the sake of the end, while Kim Han-se considered such achieved purposes meaningless in that way. He called Woojin human trash, and Woojin called Kim an idiot.
"It’s late; please go home now. From tomorrow, make a chart according to the order of case progress and pull up a list of people involved."

"Will do. See you tomorrow."
As Chief Hwang and the clerks left for home, Woojin was left alone in the office. He often stayed alone late at the office. Overtime and all-nighters were routine for him.
He had a backlog of cases waiting for his handling, and even more that he had set aside without review, just waiting for the three-month validity period to expire. The number of general criminal cases had greatly reduced since he moved to the special department.

He had more than five urgent cases, just considering the target investigations, planned investigations, and intelligence investigations. The officetel he had secured near the district office had long since turned into a changing room.
He casually had dinner with the kimbap his clerk had bought and sat at his desk sifting through internal investigation materials from HanKyung Group. He was planning to speed up the investigation so that as soon as Kim Han-se touched Prosecutor Park Hyung-soo, he would blow up the follow-ups.
Kim Han-se spoke as if Woojin was orchestrating all this from behind. Even Chief Hwang, who worked with him, had no idea, but like an animal with a keen instinct, he had noticed. That’s why Woojin disliked Kim Han-se, but he couldn’t ignore him.

Alone in the quiet office, his phone vibrated.
It was an unknown number.
Waiting for a contact from a finance team employee who would give a disadvantageous testimony related to HanKyung Group’s slush funds, Woojin thought it must be that person and answered the phone.

"Hello."
"..."
"Hello. Please speak."

He waited patiently, but the other party remained silent. Woojin looked at his phone screen and just ended the call. If they wanted to testify, they would call again anyway. He didn’t want to push them too hard. Sure enough, the phone rang again soon after. He slowly answered it.
"Yes."
"..."

"I promise protection and rewards for whistleblower tips, along with subsequent actions."
"..."
"Hello?"

There was no response from the other end. He sighed, inaudible. It was clear from the displayed number, yet no one spoke, an intention he couldn't understand. Then, he furrowed his brow.
"Is it difficult for you to speak? I'm starting to track this number now."
As soon as he mentioned starting location tracking, the call abruptly ended. Woojin contacted the rapid response team. He instructed them to approach cautiously as it was an important informant and provided the phone number. About an hour later, he received a call from Sergeant Kim Seok-ho from the rapid response team.

"Thank you for your efforts, this is Sergeant Kim Seok-ho from the rapid response team. Yes, we found her, but it seems like a prank call. It’s a young lady who's drinking, just a civilian. What should we do?"
"A young woman? It was an informant call to my number. Could you please find out how she got this number?"
Woojin had been waiting for a call from a deputy chief in the finance department regarding the HanKyung Group's slush funds. The deputy chief of the finance team was a 45-year-old middle-aged man living in Mok-dong, Yangcheon District, Seoul. His wife was a tutoring instructor, and they had two children, one in high school and one in middle school.

Without hanging up, the rapid response team officer asked someone how they had made a prank call using Woojin's phone number. After a moment of rustling on the other side of the machine, someone else took the phone.
"I did it."
"..."

Up to that point, Woojin, who had been holding a pen and scanning the internal investigation documents, looked up, startled by the unexpected voice. He stared sharply at a point in the void.
He bit the pen he was holding to his lips. An indescribable expression appeared on his face.
"I did it."

"Who are you?"
He twirled the pen in his hand that he had just taken from his lips. A smile appeared on Woojin's face.
"Don't know? Better if you don't."

The voice remained defiant, unabated in its arrogance. Woojin had liked Moon Haewon's brash attitude, but he no longer wanted to indulge it.
"Put Sergeant Kim on."
Haewon remained silent. It must have been quite bitter for her to try to test him in such a manner only to receive Woojin's cold response.

Moon Haewon had never begged anyone, nor had she clung to anyone. Too accustomed to receiving, she didn't know how to give.
Woojin ordered in an increasingly sinking voice.
"Put Sergeant Kim on."

"…Is that all you have to say?"
"Switch the phone."
"Is it my fault? Who acted in a way that could be misunderstood? It was a situation that anyone could have misunderstood."

It indeed would have been a misunderstanding by anyone.
Woojin remembered encountering Haewon at the swimming pool that day. However, he had never dreamed that Haewon had seen him in the lounge with Soyoung.
It was quite unpleasant. Moon Haewon's unpredictability wasn't new.

Haewon knew too many things she shouldn't, things that would do her no good to know. She even knew about the relationship between Lee Taeshin and Woojin. Moon Haewon continually defied his expectations. She said unexpected things and acted unexpectedly. Woojin, as was his nature, did not like developments that strayed from his expectations.
"Don't escalate things, just switch the phone."
"…I'm sorry."

And now, unexpectedly again, she threw a punch. Woojin felt the anger he had towards Haewon, who treated him like trash, melting away momentarily. He hung up the phone.
"I'm sorry."
It was an unexpected counterattack. He hadn't expected an apology to come so quickly. It had only been a week. Actually, Woojin had secretly thought that he would never hear from her again.

Haewon's unpredictability lay here. She sharply attacked a vulnerable spot Woojin didn't even realize he had. After a brief pause, Woojin called Sergeant Kim.
"This is Hyun Woojin."
"Yes, prosecutor."

"I'm sorry. That person was a suspect who had recently undergone a psychiatric detention, and it seems she harbors a grudge against me."
"Ah, is that so?"
"I didn't know she would call using a different number. I was waiting for an important informant call. Sorry for the inconvenience. It was my mistake."

"Oh, no, not at all. It's fine. You're too polite."
"You've been troubled for nothing."
"We were nearby anyway, so it's fine."

Woojin politely apologized to Sergeant Kim and hung up the phone. He noted down the number that had called. Although he didn't know who it was, since Moon Haewon had used the phone, it was necessary to record it.
He got up from his seat and stretched his neck and shoulders, which had grown heavy from sitting in one place for too long, and made another call somewhere. Standing in front of the window, he watched the dimly lit lawn in front of the Central District Prosecutors' Office and the headlights of cars passing by.
"I'm hanging up."

"Ah, yes."
The man seemed to be swallowing something, perhaps having dinner.
"Your report is late. Please report every hour. It seems you've moved locations; where are you?"

"I haven't moved, but I've joined two women. They don't seem to know each other. The women just sat down and started drinking together, and I was about to report that when two men came and asked them something before leaving. I couldn't hear the details because they were eating. It seems they had business with the women, not the target."
"I see. We can't take our eyes off for even a moment. You need to report everything thoroughly and in detail. What they eat, what they drink, whether they drink soju or beer, and even what snacks they have, everything."
"Oops, sorry. The target is moving. I'll report thoroughly."

The person monitoring Moon Haewon hastily ended the call.
Thirty minutes later, a text arrived stating that Moon Haewon had entered a bar near a hotel.
[21:30 A man is approaching]

As he read the real-time text updates, a call came from Haewon. Woojin did not answer. He let it ring. A second call came through, and a text from the monitor arrived.
[21:43 A man is touching the target's shoulder and back, getting close]
The third call came, and this was the fourth. He accepted the call.

"Someone said they'd buy bread. What should I do? Can I just eat it? You said no. You said no one else either, that you'd annihilate anyone who did. Now, isn't it like that anymore? Are we over? We've been together for a year."
Haewon's voice trembled as if she was about to cry. She was drunk, swaying with the influence of alcohol as she poured her heart out to Woojin. Woojin's face was reflected in the window. He did not hide the smile forming on his lips.
"Don't call. It's disturbing."

Woojin spoke with a cold voice as if he was witnessing the scene.
"Are we really over?"
"I'm going to block you, so delete my number."

"You said not to strip in front of other bastards... Can I strip now?"
"Hang up."
"Brother..."

The text from the monitor was delayed.
Even after saying he would hang up, Woojin did not end the call but silently savored the sobbing coming from the other end of the phone.
Haewon was crying. Moon Haewon was crying because of him. Woojin felt a thrilling pleasure. It had been a long time since he felt so excited. He held his breath and listened to Haewon's sobs. He had thought she was only good with her hands, but her voice laden with tears was even more pleasant to listen to than her playing.

Woojin found this situation very intriguing. It had been as interesting as watching a chief prosecutor being dragged away by the Inspection Service. The man who had repeatedly hindered his investigations was now in prison. After his release, he ensured the man couldn't even be a lawyer.
"I was wrong. I... I was wrong."
Moon Haewon was begging without even realizing it. There were times he wanted to make her kneel. He wanted to make her beg, crying and pleading, and hearing her beg like this, not in bed but this way, wasn't so bad either.

 
Hyun Woojin didn’t give any answer. Not yet. His relationship with Moon Haewon needed more thought. Woojin had already spent more time on him than he had anticipated—and more than he wanted to. His plans kept falling apart.