Chapter 123 : Areum Cleaning
Areum Cleaning
A few days later, a café near the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
Jo Moo-yeol, the department manager of the Anti-Corruption Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, waited there for someone after work.
Aggravated by the situation in which he could not proceed with any of the important investigations, he was filled with nothing but irritation.
At that moment, the wind chime on the café entrance jingled as a man walked in.
He slowly approached Jo Moo-yeol and greeted him.
"Good evening, prosecutor Jo Moo-yeol."
After confirming the man's face along with the voice, Jo Moo-yeol froze stiffly.
"You... Kim Seong-tae?"
It was a face he had seen several times even after verifying the identity of the informant.
"That's right."
"Was it you, Mr. Kim Seong-tae, who sent me those messages...?"
"Isn't that why you came here, prosecutor?"
About a year ago, the only trace of missing Kim Seong-tae was a black box recording from a car near a PC bang.
Moreover, his coworkers didn't know much about him, and since he was an orphan with no relatives, not even the smallest clue was found.
Jo Moo-yeol sighed deeply.
"You just dropped those tips and disappeared... What have you been doing all this time?"
"I had a lot built up—there was nothing else I could do."
"What does that mean?"
"I was almost killed by the very people I followed. Deputy General Manager Jung Yoon-ju was among them too. The only way I could survive was by reporting in that way."
At Kim Seong-tae's explanation, Jo Moo-yeol furrowed his brow.
"... Is that true?"
"That's also why I was in hiding for nearly a year."
"But weren't you a security guard for Taeshin Group? Why did you almost get killed by Deputy General Manager Jung Yoon-ju and the others?"
"That was only a cover—I was actually part of an organization called KOOU. Anyway, here is a video of my confession and other evidence."
Kim Seong-tae took out a blue SD card from his coat and placed it on the table before standing up.
"If you would rather come to the prosecution office with me..."
"Didn't you hear who I said almost killed me?"
"Ah..."
Because it was the name of Deputy General Manager Jung Yoon-ju, the number two at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, which stood right across from the café.
"I don't care what you do with the evidence on the SD card. Just don't ever look for me again."
"Kim, Kim Seong-tae!"
Despite Jo Moo-yeol's call, Kim Seong-tae left the café in quick strides.
Of course, Jo Moo-yeol didn't just sit idly by; he followed after him.
But Kim Seong-tae had already turned into the alley behind the café and immediately disappeared from view.
Just then, a black van stopped on the road behind, and Jo Moo-yeol was grabbed and pulled inside.
"What the hell are you—!"
Jo Moo-yeol's cry was cut off. The closed door and the vehicle sped away from the scene.
...
...
...
At the same time, at the Taeshin Asset Management M&A/PEF office, Baek Si-hwan was getting ready to leave work.
Suddenly, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
【010－△△△△－9339】
It was the number of a burner phone that Chairman Baek Ji-woong used for emergencies.
Startled, Baek Si-hwan put down his bag and went into a small, empty conference room.
"Yes. Please speak."
He responded in a heavy voice, and Baek Ji-woong spoke from the other side.
[Can you talk?]
"I'm still at the office, so not for long. But why are you calling?"
Baek Si-hwan had recently even refrained from meeting Baek Ji-woong regularly to avoid leaving any trace of their relationship.
n this situation, a direct call to the office from anywhere was enough to make him tense.
[Did you see the latest article about the prosecution?]
"I saw it. You mean about Kim Seong-tae, whom we dealt with a year ago, coming out as an informant."
[That's right. That's why I called. Are you sure about what you handled back then?]
At that time, Baek Si-hwan had visited to confirm the escape after Pyo Jun-woo, from the KQ security team, was caught, and ran into Skull.
After confirming that some were leaking information, he killed them with a gun to be sure.
After all, Baek Si-hwan had even suffered for a while because of a knife wound to the shoulder thrown by Skull at that time.
"I'm sure. I made sure everything was handled cleanly through cleaning so that the bodies wouldn't be found."
[You left before cleaning was finished because of your injury back then. Are you still sure?]
Faced with a follow-up question, Baek Si-hwan sensed something strange.
"If you check with Areum Cleaning, you should be sure. And I wasn't the one who killed Kim Seong-tae—it was Skull. He stabbed him in the neck, making survival impossible."
[Then how do you explain Kim Seong-tae appearing in the middle of Seoul about an hour ago?]
"... Kim Seong-tae appeared? That's impossible."
[That impossible thing actually happened, which is why I'm calling you!]
By now, irritation was thick in Baek Ji-woong's voice.
"Regardless of the process, when I returned after Skull was done, Kim Seong-tae was definitely dead. I'd stake my life on it."
Baek Ji-woong let out a sigh at Baek Si-hwan's very firm voice.
[Are you saying someone is playing games?]
"Someone's definitely up to tricks. Where did he show up?"
[He met the department manager at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office who got the tip and handed over other evidence. We chased after him because of the urgency, but Kim Seong-tae escaped and we only secured the prosecutor.]
Baek Si-hwan's expression grew darker upon hearing the explanation.
"It's a trap."
[... What? A trap?]
"Do you have anyone at the site besides regular agents—a senior officer, for instance?"
Baek Ji-woong hesitated for a moment out of surprise before answering.
[Probably Shojo went to check on things.]
"That's exactly what they want! You need to quickly gather backup and move right away."
[What?]
"Get Shojo out of there immediately. If you send me the location, I'll head there too."
Just then, Baek Ji-woong's urgent shout came through.
[No! You stay where you are.]
Unexpected at this response, Baek Si-hwan was bewildered.
"Excuse me? But..."
[If teams get mixed up in a critical situation, it could backfire. Better to let Shojo's group handle it.]
"If it really is a trap set by the enemy, our own forces won't be enough."
Baek Si-hwan recalled the incidents at Daemyung Detective Agency and the UID safehouse.
At that time, their agents' skills weren't lacking—it was just that the enemy's ability was overwhelmingly superior.
He realized he needed to prepare countermeasures regardless, not letting down his guard.
[Let's leave it at that.]
The call ended there.
Standing quietly in the conference room, Baek Si-hwan wondered how the situation was unfolding.
But since he couldn't disobey the orders of his superior, Baek Ji-woong, he grew increasingly anxious.
He returned to his seat, then knocked on the division director's office door.
Knock knock—
"Director, if there's nothing else, I'd like to leave work now."
Inside were Kang In-hyuk and security guard Hong Yu-geon.
Kang In-hyuk, seated at his desk looking at a monitor, turned toward him.
"Alright."
"See you tomorrow, then."
Having finished his farewells, Baek Si-hwan immediately headed for the elevator, taking out his phone.
* * *
How many hours passed?
Jo Moo-yeol, who had blacked out, slowly opened his eyes.
"So in the end, you couldn't catch him?"
A familiar voice echoed nearby.
Someone answered from another direction.
"Sorry. Kim Seong-tae was more agile than we expected."
"Still! How can you lose him in the middle of Seoul?"
Amid conversation some way off, Jo Moo-yeol checked his own state.
His head was covered by cloth, so he could only see faint and patchy blobs of light.
There was also a pungent chemical smell stinging his nose.
"Ugh, cough! Cough—!"
The coughing echoed in the damp room.
Concurrently, the conversation halted, and the sharp sound of high heels approached.
Click— Clack—
"If only you'd kept quiet like I told you."
It was a voice right in front, through the cloth.
Jo Moo-yeol recognized its owner.
"Really... Deputy General Manager Jung Yoon-ju?"
Even though he thought it might be her when he heard the voice earlier, he had doubted it.
With a short laugh, an answer followed.
"Hmph. Does that really matter now? Since the first tip went to the Anti-Corruption Division, I had someone keep tabs on you just in case. Of course, my suspicions were right. The informant came to you directly, after all."
He still couldn't verify if it was really Jung Yoon-ju due to the cloth on his head,
but from everything he heard and her unmistakable voice, Jo Moo-yeol groaned inwardly.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Don't you already know the reason? Ah, bring that over. The SD card Deputy Department Manager Jo received from Kim Seong-tae."
A man nearby, Kim Hyo-jun—Jung Yoon-ju's closest aide and a WID Grade 2 agent—brought over a tablet and SD card. He was the one who had spoken with her earlier.
Connecting the SD card to the tablet and opening the folder, Jung Yoon-ju's expression gradually hardened as she checked the contents.
"Kim Seong-tae, this crazy bastard... Was he following me all this time?"
At the same time, Jung Yoon-ju's sharp gaze shot at Kim Hyo-jun.
Due to her position, he couldn't provide close bodyguard detail, so he had only watched from afar.
But since another shadow had gone unnoticed, she rebuked him.
"... Sorry."
"Haaa—!"
On the screen were recent photos of Jung Yoon-ju with the main culprits of prosecution corruption, along with the account details of corrupt prosecutors, the source of which was unknown.
If this had been exposed by Jo Moo-yeol, even the Prosecutor General would have had to press forward with a full investigation.
At that moment, Kim Hyo-jun looked at another man approaching and spoke.
"President Lee has arrived."
A middle-aged man with a large, fleshy build cautiously approached, glancing around anxiously.
Jung Yoon-ju pulled out a red mask from her coat, as if slightly drunken.
The man was startled and spoke first.
"Sh-Shojo, what brings you to a humble place like this?"
This man was Lee Bong-soo, the person in charge at the place they were currently at—Areum Cleaning.
"I need to check something. About Kim Seong-tae, who was supposedly handled here about a year ago. Are you sure he was dealt with?"
Lee Bong-soo's brow furrowed as he started thinking.
"Kim Seong-tae? May I check the records, if you'll allow?"
"Go ahead."
Lee Bong-soo stepped out and entered an office on one side of the building.
Not long after, he carefully fetched a file and handed it to Jung Yoon-ju.
"As you said, the agent named Kim Seong-tae was retrieved and handled by us."
Inside the file was a Polaroid photo of Kim Seong-tae's corpse. The face was identical to the Kim Seong-tae Jo Moo-yeol had met hours before.
Jung Yoon-ju's expression hardened.
"Are you sure this is Kim Seong-tae?"
"Who would I lie to in front of? I assure you—it's definitely him!"
"Then a dead man has come back to life? Or is someone using a disguise...?"
A photo, sent by agents, captured the meeting between Jo Moo-yeol and Kim Seong-tae.
Kim Seong-tae's face had no notable discrepancies compared to the corpse photo just confirmed.
If it was a disguise, it meant a professional had been involved in this case.
Jung Yoon-ju's face turned frigid as she was about to speak again.
"Immediately—"
Thunk—
Suddenly, all the lights went out and darkness enveloped them.