The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 39

용su Middle School, 2nd Grade, Class 3.

A large man is knocked down by the fist of a middle school student.

Thump!

Shin Hae-su fell sideways, sending chairs and desks crashing down around him.

Baek Jeong-pil, emboldened by seeing Hae-su, who he had been slightly intimidated by, fall with one punch, raised his fist and examined it.

‘Damn, my fist *is* strong.’

Hae-su, still on the ground, said to Baek Jeong-pil, who was approaching him, “That’s assault on a police officer.”

“What? Police officer?”

At the word ‘police,’ Baek Jeong-pil stopped. He glanced around at the other students in the class.

“Screw you, you son of a bitch!”

Thwack!

Baek Jeong-pil kicked Hae-su, who rolled back from the force. Jeong-pil, now excited, followed up by slamming a desk down on Hae-su.

Crash!!

Hae-su silently endured Baek Jeong-pil’s assault and crawled out of the classroom, while Jeong-pil’s gang gave him thumbs up.

“Wow, Baek Jeong-pil is really hardcore, even the police are groveling.”

“So cool, damn, beating up a cop.”

His brutality terrified the other students, and no one even considered stopping him.

Crack!

“Come here, you bastard!”

Baek Jeong-pil, further fueled by his cronies’ enthusiastic reactions, broke a mop hanging in the corner, grabbed the handle, and stormed out of the classroom.

Thud.

The moment he stepped out of the classroom, he felt a thick hand clamp down on his neck. The world spun.

Thwack!!

He didn’t know what happened. One moment he was standing, the next he was on the floor of the hallway, and the cop he had been beating up was stomping on his neck.

“Ugh, cough!”

He struggled to get away, but the pressure on his neck only intensified. He couldn’t breathe; it felt like his neck would break.

The police officer looked down at him with a chillingly cold expression and said, “Juvenile, you’re on camera. Wash your neck and wait [prepare for the consequences].”

Hae-su removed his foot from Baek Jeong-pil and headed towards the broadcasting room. Jeong-pil guessed why he was going there, but he didn’t dare to follow.

*

Shin Hae-su indicted Baek Jeong-pil and two others for aggravated assault and extortion against Lee Kyung-joon, and additionally charged them with obstruction of official duties.

At Baek Jeong-pil’s house, his mother was looking at the indictment when Jeong-pil came in. She turned to him, her face etched with worry.

“Jeong-pil… what is this…?”

“What, what is it?!”

Jeong-pil, who had been on edge since Hae-su’s visit, approached his mother with a fiery look in his eyes. His mother flinched and stepped back.

Jeong-pil, who had been raised by his mother while she worked at a restaurant, often resorted to violence against her.

Jeong-pil snatched the indictment from his mother and looked at it, his face twisting in anger.

“Damn it… is it because of that detective bastard? Ha… shit.”

“Jeong-pil, what did you do?”

“Shut up, you bitch!”

Jeong-pil roughly pushed his mother away, his eyes filled with rage.

*

Vroom, vroom-

On his way home from work, Shin Hae-su parked his motorcycle in the parking lot and was about to head towards the entrance. At that moment, three unidentified men, who had been hiding between the parked cars, revealed themselves.

They were wearing hats and masks to conceal their faces, and they were holding steel pipes and baseball bats.

Two were small, and one was large. All of them were trembling, clutching their weapons.

Hae-su chuckled.

“I have no idea who you are, but nice to meet you.”

At Hae-su’s words, the large thug became enraged and shouted, “Kill him!”

Responding to his command, one of them swung a baseball bat. Hae-su slightly twisted his body to easily avoid the blow, grabbed the thug’s slender wrist, and twisted it.

“Aaaagh!”

In the meantime, another thug swung a steel pipe. Hae-su shoved the thug whose arm he had twisted forward as a shield.

Thwack!

“Ugh!”

The thug who had swung the pipe was visibly flustered when he hit his friend.

“J-Jeong-seon!”

“You son of a bitch! Don’t say my name-”

Snap.

“Augh! Mom! Shit! It hurts so much!”

Hae-su completely broke the arm of the thug he was holding, Jeong-seon, and threw him aside. He then grabbed the thug who was flustered and stepping back and slammed his face into a concrete pillar.

Thud-

The thug collapsed, leaving a smear of blood on the concrete pillar.

“Cough…”

Now, only one person remained: the large one who resembled Baek Jeong-pil. He also had a frightened look in his eyes, but he didn’t run away. Instead, he swung a steel pipe.

“You son of a bitch! Die!!”

Whoosh-

A terrified attack is a blind attack. Hae-su slightly twisted his shoulder to avoid the blow and kicked his shin with his toe.

“Argh!”

The large thug collapsed forward weakly. Hae-su slowly approached, grabbed his wrist holding the steel pipe, and twisted it.

“Ugh!”

“I need to give you special treatment.”

Crack-!

“Kaaaaagh!!”

As his elbow was bent backwards, the bone tore through the flesh and popped out.

Hae-su pressed his knee into his back, who was writhing in agony, and lifted his other arm.

“Ugh, no, no, no! I, I was wrong! I was wrong!”

Hae-su paused for a moment, brought his face close to him, and said in a chilling voice, “Do you know what words I hate the most?”

“S, save me…”

“Rehabilitation.”

Crack!

“Kkaaaagh!!”

Baek Jeong-pil writhed on the floor in agony from the intensity of the pain he had never felt before. He didn’t even notice that his hat and mask had come off.

The other thugs, terrified by the brutal display, forgot about their broken arms and trembled in fear.

Beep, beep, beep-

Hae-su got up, wiped the blood that had splattered on his face, and picked up his phone.

“Yes, I’d like to report a trio of robbers. They had weapons. I’ve subdued them.”

***

Trial day.

Baek Jeong-pil and his two accomplices, Lee Kyung-joon and his father, and Shin Hae-su attended the court.

Despite the passage of time, Baek Jeong-pil had casts on both arms.

Although it was a major event that could shake up the lives of the victims and perpetrators, school violence was a common occurrence for the judge.

The trial proceeded quickly.

“Kim Jeong-seon and Park Seong-sik are sentenced to Protective Disposition No. 7, and the leader, Baek Jeong-pil, is sentenced to Protective Disposition No. 8.”

No. 7 is two years of probation, and No. 8 is one month of commitment to a juvenile detention center.

“W-what?”

“What is this!”

People stood up, furious. Kyung-joon’s father was so shocked that he couldn’t speak, his mouth agape. Baek Jeong-pil wore a bitter smile.

“However!”

As the judge shouted loudly, the courtroom became quiet, and attention was focused on him.

“Defendant Baek Jeong-pil is sentenced to two years in prison for obstruction of official duties, stalking, and attempted group aggravated assault, and Kim Jeong-seon and Park Seong-sik, who participated in the group aggravated assault, are sentenced to six months in prison.”

“Huh?”

“Huh!”

“What?!!”

“N-no…”

Bang, bang, bang.

People were dumbfounded because they didn’t understand what it meant right away.

However, Baek Jeong-pil, who had previously searched for related precedents on the Internet, was in despair, his mouth wide open.

After getting out of the juvenile detention center, he would have to go to a juvenile prison again. The sentence was an unusual ruling.

The judge, who had been supported with scholarships from the Daesung Group, was doing his job perfectly.

“No, no, no! You son of a bitch!!!”

Baek Jeong-pil, who had lost his mind, rushed at Hae-su, not Lee Kyung-joon.

Hae-su took a step forward before others could stop him, tripped him, grabbed him by the collar, and slammed him down on a chair.

Crack!!

Jeong-pil, whose chair broke and hit the floor hard, coughed and had difficulty breathing.

Hae-su brought his face close to him and spoke in a low voice, just loud enough for him to hear, “There’s still a gift left. Look forward to it.”

Jeong-pil’s eyes widened. By now, Baek Jeong-pil was terrified of anything Hae-su said.

*

A few days later, Shin Hae-su was sitting face to face with a middle-aged man in an office.

“Detective Shin, it’s been a while. You’re still in good shape, or rather, are you in even *better* shape?”

“Warden, are you still running Room 7 these days?”

The middle-aged man was the warden of the juvenile prison. Hae-su had a connection with the warden from when he was a detective in Naeju and was in charge of a case where the warden’s son was being bullied.

“Room 7? Of course. There’s always plenty of trash needing a place. Why? Do you have someone to put in there?”

“Yes, he’ll be coming in a month… please make him feel like 2 years is 20 years.”

“If Detective Shin comes to ask in person, he must be a tremendous piece of trash. I understand. I’ll give him special treatment, make him feel like 200 years, not 20 years.”

“Just in case…”

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about suicide there. The kids try to commit suicide so often that they’re experts at stopping it.”

“That’s a relief. Prison should be hell… it shouldn’t be romantic.”

Hae-su drank a cup of green tea with a satisfied look on his face.

Shin Hae-su, known as a righteous police officer who doesn’t chase after money or fame and only chases after criminals.

In fact, the time he felt most rewarded was when he properly punished a criminal, rather than when he received thank-you notes from victims.

*

Lee Kyung-joon was hospitalized for six months and was discharged without any lasting injuries. He decided to transfer to another school.

Kyung-joon’s father also changed jobs from a demanding company to a less stressful one and devoted himself to rebuilding his relationship with Kyung-joon.

He occasionally visited the Violent Crimes Division of the Gangjin Police Station with drinks as a gesture of gratitude.

“Detective Shin, that… on rainy days…”

Hae-su interrupted him.

“You endured it well. I’ll be rooting for you.”

Kyung-joon’s father’s eyes widened at Hae-su’s words. He lowered his head and smiled slightly.

“Yes, thank you… thank you.”

***

At Shin Hae-su’s house, Hae-su was cooking, and Haru was frantically tapping on his phone in the corner.

Tap tap tap tap tap.

“Ah, what about it? Why is he being like that when he’s the one who’s trolling [intentionally provoking others online]?”

Hae-su’s hand, which was scooping soup with a ladle, stopped. He sighed softly as he looked at Haru.

Because he’s a violent crimes detective, he’s been too busy to pay attention to him. As a result, Haru has only learned Korean online and keeps using strange slang.

He doesn’t know what it means, but it’s clear that it’s not normal.

“Haru.”

“Haru is here, ah, yes, yes?”

Haru reflexively answered, then hurriedly threw down his phone, stood up, and put his hands together.

Although the house has become more comfortable, it is still in high landlord mode for Hae-su [Haru still treats Hae-su with deference].

“Do you want to go to a 학원 [hagwon – private academy]?”

“Yes? What kind of…”

“Korean language 학원.”

*

[Friends Korean Language 학원]

Hae-su chose the closest place so that Haru could walk there.

“Ah, you look Korean, but where did you live before?”

“Ah… Israel.”

“Ah…”

Haru can see, hear, write, and speak, but his Korean isn’t proper.

Hae-su wanted him to learn social skills by interacting with people in a place where he could use proper Korean, rather than just learning the language.

Before leaving Haru at the 학원, Hae-su faced him.

“Haru, you can do well on your own, right?”

Haru, who can now do everything from separating garbage to playing games and grocery shopping on his own, is ready for the next step.

He will gradually take steps, and later he will help him find a job and become independent.

“Yes, don’t worry.”

‘I’m worried…’

*

It was a week after he sent him to the Korean language 학원.

He was writing a report on a drunken assaulter in the office when he received a call from the 학원. Hae-su stopped what he was doing and hurriedly answered the phone.

“What’s wrong?”

-Ah yes, Haru…

“I’ll be right there.”

Hae-su stood up and 박차고 [literally “kicking off” – a phrase implying sudden and energetic departure] left the office.

<#39. Fulfilling Retribution> End