“Yeah, that’s right. Later, ‘Yeot’… What?”
Hyun-cheol, who had expected a normal answer, unconsciously agreed with Jung Yoon’s words then stopped.
‘Yeot?’
Hyun-cheol, his eyebrows drawn together, stared blankly into space, repeating the word to himself.
Jung Yoon merely glanced at him indifferently once before returning to his work.
“Ah… you wanted to give him ‘yeot’.”
…it was for that purpose.
But all that caught his eye was Moon Jeong-rok’s seat, which felt like the root of all evil. Hyun-cheol stomped over and suddenly kicked Jeong-rok’s empty chair, sending it sliding away.
Jung Yoon looked up at Hyun-cheol, startled by the noisy rolling of the wheels.
“Huh? Why? Oh, that. I just, I just wanted to try it.”
Hyun-cheol forced a smile.
“Ah… you wanted to try it.”
Jung Yoon nodded, mimicking Hyun-cheol’s reply.
“Even if you kick that hard, it won’t budge.”
“Huh?”
“The team leader’s chair. I think I’ll buy one like it next time. I’ve kicked it a few times, and there’s not a single scratch, it’s perfectly fine.”
Hyun-cheol scowled as if he’d seen something unspeakable, at Jung Yoon’s words, mumbled without taking his eyes off the monitor.
He then muttered something unintelligible about a misjudgment into thin air.
Regardless, Jung Yoon focused on organizing the evidence.
The matching fingerprints already proved that Park Chang-gyu was at the crime scene, and if the DNA matched, the user of the condom would also be identified.
Essentially, even at the warrant hearing, the situation wouldn’t be unfavorable.
Despite this, his nervousness was unavoidable.
The opponent was a lawyer from a major law firm.
He couldn’t gauge how they would have prepared.
Jung Yoon wanted to strike at Park Chang-gyu’s weak point and tighten his grip even more firmly.
He knew that such excitement was a flaw in a detective’s qualities, but facing a culprit who brazenly feigned ignorance was unbearable.
And he also wanted to solve this case as quickly as possible, then move on to the next.
That way, the day he would confront the person who killed him would also draw nearer.
Although the culprit in the current case deviated from what he had seen in the original work, Jung Yoon never abandoned his belief that he would someday inevitably meet the person who killed him.
If it had gone astray, he would just set it right himself.
To do that, he first had to put the murderer in front of him on trial.
Jung Yoon, no longer expecting a confession, stood up to check the DNA results.
“Hey, excuse me… Detective…”
It was then.
Just as Jung Yoon was about to exit the office, he ran into someone pushing the door open from the other side.
“Father… Jeong Yong-joon… How…”
A surprised Jung Yoon looked back and forth between the two tear-stained faces, then froze again at the face quietly entering behind them.
The woman quietly bowed.
Jung Yoon also bowed deeply. Having three people in one space felt awkward, and Jung Yoon struggled a bit to choose his words.
Then the woman held out her phone first.
「Yong-joon promised to tell everything.」
Jung Yoon looked down at the phone screen with large letters, his eyes wide with surprise.
Beside it, Jeong Yong-gil carefully extended a black diary and a pair of scissors in a transparent plastic bag.
“What’s this?”
“I-I found it in Yong-baek’s room. I’m truly sorry, Detective. Detective, we did everything wrong, hiccup.”
“That fucking bastard…”
From the day she left after being questioned here, the woman said she had been trying to persuade Jeong Yong-joon.
At first, Yong-joon reportedly trembled in fear as soon as he heard Park Chang-gyu’s name, adamantly refusing and saying it couldn’t be done.
The woman, who lacked intuition, found it unusually strange.
So she relentlessly tried to persuade him every day.
Then Yong-baek’s death was revealed, and only then did Yong-joon break down.
After learning of Yong-baek’s death, Yong-joon confessed everything to the woman, rambling in incomplete sentences.
Having learned all the facts, the woman didn’t stop there nor did she run away.
Although she didn’t know what her relationship with Jeong Yong-joon would be like afterward, she still wanted to free him and told his parents everything.
Initially, his parents didn’t believe her and treated her like a madwoman, but they too broke down at the mention of Yong-baek’s name.
Yong-gil said he searched Yong-baek’s room all night, half-believing.
He had wished so desperately that it wasn’t true, but when he found a notebook and blood-stained scissors between the bed frame and mattress, Yong-gil said he cried for days, sleepless with betrayal and guilt.
“To be honest, I wasn’t entirely against leaving Yong-baek as just a victim. But then, I felt like we wouldn’t be able to catch that bad guy. That wouldn’t be right, would it? That bastard even killed Yeon-ju… That’s not right.”
The notebook he received contained a detailed record of everything that had happened, from the time he witnessed Yong-joon’s crime until now.
Of course, there was no mention of the last incident, but it seemed Yong-baek never forgot to fill and hide his diary every time he came to the village.
It was difficult to know what the meaning of him recording this was.
However, for now, it served as concrete evidence that made it difficult to dismiss Yong-joon’s confession as a mental issue.
Moreover, the abusive and violent acts that Yong-joon and Yong-baek suffered from Park Chang-gyu since their school days were also meticulously recorded.
This level of detail would be helpful in considering extenuating circumstances if Yong-joon were to be tried later.
The records were detailed and accurate, as if they had been professionally advised.
They also contained confidential details that only someone who had actually experienced them could possibly know.
The scissors brought along were also sent to the National Forensic Service.
If the owner of the dried bloodstains could be identified and fingerprints or DNA collected, this would also be good news.
Subsequently, all the team members who checked the notebook Jung Yoon had brought were enraged at Park Chang-gyu.
Unspeakable sadistic acts were being inflicted upon the brothers.
And yet, Park Chang-gyu, who made them participate in murder for his own amusement, was brazen even while committing all sorts of cruel crimes that no human being should be capable of.
“Did you find any evidence? It seems there isn’t much time left.”
Like this.
“Park Chang-gyu, your father did a lot of good deeds in Deokdong-gun.”
“It’s my father’s hometown. He loved it.”
Park Chang-gyu thought Jung Yoon’s question was out of the blue, but he answered diligently as he always had.
His face was as calm as ever. Jung Yoon forced a smile.
“Did Mr. Park Chang-gyu know that Seo Jun-shim was in a relationship with your father?”
It was for this very moment.
As expected, Park Chang-gyu’s expression instantly turned cold.
Park Chang-gyu, who had been giving well-prepared answers at opportune moments without faltering, closed his mouth for the first time.
Jung Yoon smiled, a knowing smile.
Driven by the sole desire to somehow, someday, crack that triumphant facade, he began to reveal the things he had prepared one by one.
“It’s true that Mr. Park Chang-gyu’s father truly loved that village. Is that why he couldn’t help but lay his hands on the women in that village?”
“You’re going too far. If you continue to defame my father’s honor like that, I won’t stand by.”
He had deliberately provoked him.
Jung Yoon, who brought up the topic of Park Chang-gyu’s father, possibly a trigger, to make him agitated, checked the time and continued.
“Mr. Park Chang-gyu.”
“I know you won’t confess anyway. But I’m just curious.”
“About what?”
Jung Yoon knew that his fight with this bastard wouldn’t end here.
However, he also didn’t want it to end as an easy fight.
“The reason you murdered Jeong Yong-baek.”
Park Chang-gyu’s lips trembled slightly at the dry tone, as if spoken by a complete stranger.
“I didn’t kill Yong-baek.”
“Was it because of your father’s affair with him?”
“…What?”
Jung Yoon feigned a look of genuine curiosity.
He tilted his head, speaking in an exaggeratedly inquisitive tone.
“Oh… I apologize. I’ve again made a remark that defames your father’s honor. I just got curious.”
“What are you even talking about…”
“Just pretend you didn’t hear it. Oh, another detective will come and explain everything about the warrant hearing. Though I’m sure you know it very well already.”
“Tell me straight, properly. Can you take responsibility for what you just said? It’s a lie, isn’t it? You made that up to make me talk.”
Park Chang-gyu, who had been docile all along, couldn’t control his rage, trembling all over.
He seemed so shocked that the whites of his eyes turned red, and he didn’t even seem to care how he appeared.
Jung Yoon, who had been tidying up and about to stand, pulled out his chair again and sat directly in front of Park Chang-gyu.
“Yes, it’s a lie.”
The tension in the interrogation room was palpable, each word exchanged a careful maneuver in a game of psychological warfare.
Jung Yoon, despite his internal turmoil, maintained a composed demeanor, his detective’s instincts guiding him.
The narrative unfolded, revealing layers of deceit, cruelty, and the desperate attempts of those seeking justice.
The story of Yong-baek, his silent suffering meticulously documented, became a powerful testament against the unrepentant Park Chang-gyu.
The weight of the evidence, coupled with the raw emotions of the families involved, painted a grim picture.
The pursuit of truth, however arduous, was Jung Yoon’s unwavering objective.
He knew that this case, deeply rooted in a dark past, was more than just another investigation; it was a personal reckoning, a step closer to confronting his own past and the individual responsible for his demise.
The intricate web of relationships, betrayal, and violence slowly untangled, bringing the protagonists closer to a confrontation that would determine their fates.
The air crackled with unspoken threats and thinly veiled accusations, each character playing their part in a grim drama where justice was a distant, yet attainable, goal.
The meticulous nature of Yong-baek’s records, a silent cry for help, resonated with Jung Yoon, strengthening his resolve.
The fight was far from over, but the pieces were finally falling into place.
The confrontation with Park Chang-gyu was a test of wills, a battle of wits that Jung Yoon was determined to win, not just for the victims but for his own peace.
The silence in the room, punctuated by the faint hum of the monitoring equipment, served as a stark reminder of the gravity of the situation.
The world outside ceased to exist, replaced by the four walls of the interrogation room, a crucible where truth and deception clashed.
The pursuit of truth, often a lonely path, was illuminated by the flickering hope of justice. Each character, a pawn in a larger game, moved with purpose, their actions shaping the inevitable outcome.
The intricate details of the diary, a silent witness to unimaginable horrors, provided the leverage Jung Yoon desperately needed.
The emotional toll of the investigation weighed heavily on him, yet he persevered, driven by an unyielding sense of duty.
The story was a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unspeakable evil, a reminder that even in the darkest of times, hope endures.