— Kim Jungu. Are you planning to take the fall alone?
— ……
— Your boss told you not to worry? You take the hit by yourself and they’ll treat you like a hero?
— It’s not like that….
— Then what?
— My wife is sick, she’s in the hospital. She got hit by a car while working during her pregnancy…. If I go inside, what happens to her?
— Are you sure the organization will look after her?
— ……
— Think carefully. If you go down for this, you’ll never see your wife’s face again until the day you die.
— ……
— I’ll help you. Keep your wife alive and get your sentence reduced. How does that sound?
He was certain he’d said that. That he’d help. Had he kept that promise? No — more to the point, had this bastard already served his time? How many years did the judge hand down back then. Aah, damn it. I can’t remember.
“You fuuuucker!!!!! Die!!! You piece of shit!!!!”
He dodged the man lunging at him with the knife — and his foot slipped. The instant he crashed down flat on his back, the man climbed on top of him. Just before the blade reached his throat, he seized the man’s arm and held it back. The moment he looked into the man’s face, twisted with rage, the memory returned.
The fact that the man’s wife had died in the hospital.
The doctor had said it was unavoidable — that the sepsis had advanced too far, and that she had held on as long as anyone could have hoped.
He had informed the man of that, of course. And he’d thought it was over.
“You said you’d save her! You said you’d save her, you bastard! You said you would!!!”
The screaming man’s face was that of a demon. The tip of the blade pressed down to just below his jaw, and the arms holding it back were beginning to shake. He turned his head to the side — and spotted a rock, roughly the size of a fist. Heesin stretched his arm as far as it would go, grabbed it, and in one motion brought it cracking against the side of the man’s head.
The man cried out, reeled back clutching his head — and Heesin shoved him off and kicked him away.
He fled down the steps in a rush, and the man came after him, blood streaming down his face.
“Stop right there! I said stop!”
Heesin pulled out his phone and dialed 112.
“Don’t come near me! Come any closer and I swear I’ll end you!”
“Give me back my wife! Give me back Sujeong!! You bastard!!”
He’d had about enough of that. The anger building inside him became impossible to contain.
Instead of waiting for the police, Heesin stopped halfway down the steps and spun around.
“Hey, bastard! Say what you mean! Is this my fault? I tried to save her too! I paid her hospital bills! I did everything I could! What am I, God? The doctors couldn’t save her — what exactly do you want from me?! If anything, you should never have lived the way you did in the first place! If you hadn’t, your wife would never have been out working and gotten hit by a car!”
His shout left the man’s face crumpling into something wretched. Has he got another knife hidden somewhere? He stepped back warily — but the man came barreling straight down at him. I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you and go to heaven and meet my wife there!
Lunatic. Neither of us is getting into heaven. Why can’t he see that?
It was clear the man wanted to take out his rage on a prosecutor rather than the boss who had put him up to the crime in the first place. Eyes completely gone, he charged like a bull — and then launched himself bodily through the air. Heesin dodged just in time to avoid a collision, but lost his footing and lurched sideways.
“Hey!”
He reached out to grab him — a second too late. He could only watch as the large man tumbled end over end down the staircase. Ah, you idiot. He ran down after him to check his condition, and bright red blood was already seeping from his head, staining the white snow.
The state of him was worse than expected. Heesin shook him in a panic.
“Kim Jungu! Hey, Kim Jungu! Hey! Come on, stay with me!”
The man neither moved nor made a sound. Kang Heesin scrubbed at his face, wet and wrecked from the snow. He brought a trembling hand to the man’s nose — and felt nothing.
Damn it…. He grabbed his phone in a hurry and pressed 119. Just before hitting the call button, Heesin bit down hard on his lip. A torrent of thoughts rushed through his mind. His superior’s words about handling himself carefully during such a critical period crossed his mind.
Even if it was self-defense — would that be enough?
And Yun Sena?
He was already a son-in-law that family wasn’t entirely keen on.
But if he left this man here?
He looked up, confirmed there was no one around and no CCTV in sight, then picked up the umbrella he’d dropped and began backing away. He turned to leave — and now the snow was falling so heavily he could barely see in front of him. His heart hammered and his breath came short.
Just get out of here first. Leave and think.
He made his way down the alley toward his car — and a message arrived just then.
— Oppa, what are you doing…?
His footsteps slowed.
— Watch out for colds. Apparently there’s a bad flu going around.
Heesin stopped before he could reach his car.
The next message that arrived was what stopped him cold.
— I want to grow up fast and become someone like you, oppa.
Damn it….
He squeezed his eyes shut and couldn’t move from where he stood. His younger sister’s single text hit him like a bucket of ice water. Snow was piling up on his head and the whole world was turning white — but inside him, a rotting stench roiled like filth poured over everything he was.
A moment later, he turned around and ran back the way he had come, the snow driving harder against him.
He pulled out his phone and made the call he hadn’t been able to make before.
— Hello, this is 119 Emergency Services.
“Someone fell on the stairs. Please send an ambulance to this address — the address is—”
He stopped mid-sentence. Kim Jungu, who had been lying at the bottom of the staircase just moments ago, had vanished without a trace. Buried under the snow already? He went closer to check — but there was no sign of him anywhere. He looked around in bewilderment, spotted footprints, and ran after them. Down at the base of the hill, clear tire tracks were pressed into the snow.
“What on earth…”
There had been no one there. As he turned to look, he only now noticed there was a blind spot further into the alley. Where the vehicle had been parked, the snow was only just beginning to settle.
How long had it been there? No — more to the point, who was it?
The first thing that came to mind was the organization Kim Jungu had belonged to.
But would they have any reason to follow him all the way here and wait until he’d been knocked unconscious in an accident?
At the point where the alley met the main road, a security camera was aimed in this direction.
He knew someone at the control center — he could look into it right now. And then what? He was trying to work through it all in his head when his phone buzzed. He opened the message with a tense expression — and found a photo attached. Sent from a restricted number.
A photo of him standing over Kim Jungu’s collapsed body.
His breath stopped. The shot was utterly exposed — his face, blank with shock after the accident, captured in merciless detail. He almost wished they’d been targeting Kim Jungu. That they’d dragged him away and buried him somewhere.
But unfortunately, Kim Jungu wasn’t the prey.
<The Apostle of Justice Who Fights Evil>
He stood motionless, staring at the message. The headline from a news article he’d seen about himself once. As if to mock it, a close-up of his own face arrived immediately after. He shoved the phone into his coat pocket. Then he looked up at the sky. The blinding snowfall that had made it impossible to see ahead was slowly beginning to ease.
He drew in a long, deep breath, and white mist scattered into the air. He did it again, and again — then turned and walked back up the way he had come. It was as though someone had grabbed him by the ankle and was dragging him down with every step, but that wasn’t a feeling he was unfamiliar with.
It was something he’d grown used to his whole life. Something he’d lived with all his life, this relentless, suffocating weight.
I’m only just starting to break free — it can’t be like this….
He couldn’t make it to the car. He collapsed onto the steps partway and sat there.
The hand that reached into his pocket for the cigarette he’d hidden away trembled faintly. He couldn’t bring himself to light it, and the cigarette crumpled in his grip. He buried his face between his knees, limp, and sat there for a long time. All around him, a silence like death. Then he lifted his head and stared straight ahead. The unsteady look in his eyes had begun, quietly, to harden.
“Damn it…. Fine. Let’s do this.”
With his resolve set, he got to his feet, brushed himself off, and headed back the way he’d come, phone already in hand.
And this time, he dialed 112 without hesitation.
— There has been an attack on a sitting prosecutor in the middle of the night. Reporter Kim Seonyeong is at the scene. Reporter Kim, are you there?
— That’s right. Two days ago, a violent attack on sitting Prosecutor Kang occurred at this location, sending shockwaves through the public. The suspect has been identified as the key perpetrator in a case Prosecutor Kang handled three years ago, and it has come to light that following his release, the suspect had been continuously contacting Prosecutor Kang and making threats.
— I understand the motive behind the threats was connected to the suspect’s deceased wife?
— That is correct. According to testimony from those close to him, the suspect, surnamed Kim, held deep resentment over the death of his wife, who had been hospitalized and ill at the time of his arrest.
— So his position was that the prosecutor’s decision to arrest him led to this situation?
— Yes. However, what we uncovered during our reporting tells a different story. It has been revealed that Prosecutor Kang personally covered a significant portion of the medical expenses for the suspect’s wife.
— A truly shocking case. A gesture of genuine goodwill that came back as a blade of revenge? He showed kindness to a wild animal and was met with betrayal. We understand the prosecution is also taking this incident extremely seriously?
— Yes. Prosecutor General Jang Incheol stated in a briefing earlier today that no challenge to state authority will be tolerated, and declared that every effort will be made to apprehend the fugitive Kim, with severe punishment to follow upon arrest.
“Young master?”
Someone called out to Im Gyeong while he was absorbed in the news.
Standing before him was a neatly suited man, holding a passport.
“It’s time to board.”
Im Gyeong shifted his gaze to his phone. The live comment section beneath the news was flooded with an unending stream of praise for the prosecutor. Amusingly, photos of Kang Heesin were scattered throughout the comments, accompanied by an equally unending stream of admiration for his looks. Im Gyeong watched in silence, then held out a hand toward the man.
He took the passport, removed the boarding pass tucked inside, and handed it back to the man.
“Tell my mother I want to stay a little longer.”
A look of consternation flickered across the man’s face.
Im Gyeong’s mother, Im Seonghui, did not like her son staying in Korea for long stretches.
“But, madam will—”
“Tatsuki.”
Im Gyeong cut the man off.
Then he put on his sunglasses and smiled.
“Please don’t ruin my fun.”
