The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 1

A Prosecutor’s Rise to Success! – 1

Prologue

-Do you agree that chaebols [large, family-owned business conglomerates] are also accomplices?

-I’m sorry. I will try to show a better…….

-Don’t evade the question. Do you agree that chaebols are also accomplices, as the people are shouting?

-I am taking the public’s opinion very seriously and reflecting on it.

-Can I take that as an admission of being an accomplice?

-I will try to show a better side of myself.

-Say a word of apology to the people.

-I am reflecting a lot on this situation. I am truly sorry for causing concern to the people with this disgraceful matter.

-Will you promise to break the chain of collusion between politics and business?

-I think there were many reckless things I did. Looking back on what I’ve done…….

-I asked if you would break the chain of collusion between politics and business.

-In the future, I will not yield to any pressure or coercion and will strive to show the image of a thoroughly good company.

-Are you saying you will break the chain of collusion between politics and business?

-Yes, I will break it.

Awesome.

Damn awesome.

The head of WG Group, the most successful company in Korea, is cowering before that man, unable to refute him.

The golden badge on his lapel.

That one badge explains the man’s position.

That is power.

Power is something that can never be beaten by the fists or money wielded by neighborhood bullies or school gangs.

That is what modern society holds.

The ultimate ‘gap’ [disparity or advantage].

The ‘gap’ of all ‘gaps’.

That is power.

The real power is not money, but authority.

Money just attracts more money, but power naturally attracts money.

I don’t want to become a member of the National Assembly [Korean Parliament].

I just want to do whatever it takes to seize power.

Power to truly hold people in my hands and shake them.

However, becoming a member of the National Assembly or the President is still too far away for me.

What can I do?

What paths can I take right now?

I don’t want to be satisfied with being a city councilor or mayor in the provinces.

I need to go to a higher level.

Police?

No, they can’t even stand up to the prosecutors.

Prosecutors.

Yes, prosecutors.

Among those who hold power, there is no one who doesn’t have any dirt on them.

They have to grovel before the prosecutors to keep that power. Otherwise, they will dig up that dirt and throw them in jail.

A prosecutor who can grab and shake even those who have power in their hands.

A prosecutor who can bring down even a member of the National Assembly holding a hearing.

That is true power.

So, I became a prosecutor.

Unidentified Text Message (1)

Clink!

A clear and cheerful sound is heard as glasses clink in the air.

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks.”

The man sitting across from me, scratching his head shyly as he tilts his glass, is Shin Yong-ho.

He’s my high school classmate, college buddy, and even a classmate from the Judicial Research and Training Institute [a postgraduate program for aspiring judges, prosecutors, and lawyers].

Beyond being just close friends, we’re practically family.

He has been newly appointed to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office this time.

I came to have a drink with him to celebrate.

I thought we would rot together in the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office for the rest of our lives, but he made it all the way up here.

I’m envious, but I’m not jealous. I sincerely congratulate him, and I’m genuinely happy as if it were my own accomplishment.

“When are you going up?”

“The official appointment is in two weeks, but I need to find a place to live and do other things, so I’m taking a week off starting next week and going up right away.”

“You son of a gun, you’ve really made it. Good for you.”

“I got lucky. If I get the chance later, I’ll pull you up too.”

“Hahaha, forget about that, just pay for the drinks today.”

“Of course, man. I’ll take responsibility for the 2nd and even the 3rd round.”

“Sounds good!”

I dipped the ribeye in front of me into the salt and sesame oil and put it in my mouth.

The tender and juicy meat burst in my mouth, and it melted away and went down my esophagus without me even chewing it much.

I’m always eating pork belly, but now that my friend has made it, I get to eat Korean beef ribeye.

Success (出世) [pronounced ‘chulse’, meaning career advancement].

As the word implies, it means rising to a high social position or becoming famous.

Like any other prosecutor, I jumped into the bar exam with a big dream of making a name for myself and finally passed.

When I passed, it was a given that the village would hold a feast, and banners were hung in my alma mater middle and high schools and all over the neighborhood. I also thought that I had risen to one of the axes of power in Korea.

But the reality was nothing special, especially for a prosecutor who was assigned to the provinces.

I was in charge of handling petty cases such as theft, drunk driving, prostitution, and fraud, and the amount of work was beyond imagination. In terms of time, I had to handle one case every 15 minutes.

It looks good on the outside, but it’s not only a meager salary because it’s a civil servant’s salary, but sometimes I get cursed at by the victims for the first time in my life even though I handled it according to the law, so the mental stress is enormous.

At first, I thought everything would be over if I just became a prosecutor, but this is the reality for prosecutors like me who have no money or connections.

If I live like this, I won’t even get promoted to a senior prosecutor, and if I don’t get promoted because I’m too old, I’ll open a law firm and provide legal services.

It’s really just a gilded lily [something that appears valuable but is not].

Prosecutors who are assigned to the provinces have dreams of success in their hearts, but they forget their aspirations because they are blocked by the wall of reality.

I was so busy adapting to this Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, where I received my first assignment, that the embers of my desire to gain true power gradually faded away.

To be exact, it’s not that it faded away, but that I made it fade away.

It’s only natural that I devoted my whole life to success and studied for more than 10 years to become a prosecutor.

Not only me, but most prosecutors do.

There is only a difference in the desire for success, but it is impossible for anyone to completely forget and eliminate this feeling.

I still have the ambition for success in one corner of my heart, but I was trying to ignore it.

Otherwise, I would only suffer from the gap between the path to success I had dreamed of and the reality. Because I dreamed of and desperately wanted success more than anyone else.

Shin Yong-ho is my closest and dearest friend.

When I heard the news that he, who I thought would spend his whole life in the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, was going to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the embers of success that I had been suppressing in my heart began to come back to life.

The flames that started to burn in an instant grew so big that I couldn’t control them, so big that I wondered if it was possible to ignore this feeling and ambition.

It was clear that it wouldn’t be easy.

Shin Yong-ho, who went to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office among the prosecutors who were trying to ignore their dreams because they were so painful to look at, is just a special case.

“By the way, how did you get the appointment?”

“Ah, this is a little embarrassing to talk about…….”

“It’s okay. What’s there to be embarrassed about between us?”

Shin Yong-ho looked around and leaned his body towards me.

“Seo-joon, you really have to keep this a secret.”

“Okay, tell me.”

“I’m telling you because I trust you.”

“Tell me.”

He looked around again and lowered his voice.

“You know Kwak Tae-won, right?”

“Our high school classmate? I heard he’s in business.”

“No, not him, but Gwangju Mayor Kwak Tae-won.”

“Ah, the mayor of Gwangju. I know him, I saw his face at the inauguration ceremony before. Why is he……?”

“I told you I got a new investigator this time, right?”

Shin Yong-ho put down his chopsticks and said seriously.

“I was surprised that he came in as an investigator even though he’s a level 9 civil servant.”

“That’s right. Usually, investigators are level 7.”

I was wondering why he was suddenly talking about an investigator when he was talking about Kwak Tae-won, but I decided to listen more.

“Still, it’s not that level 9 civil servants are common, but it’s not like they don’t exist at all.”

“That’s true. But when I worked with him, he wasn’t very good. I felt something was wrong, so I checked his background and found out he was specially recruited.”

I smell something fishy.

“It turns out he’s Kwak Tae-won’s nephew. His parents asked Kwak Tae-won for a favor because he’s been taking the civil service exam for 10 years and keeps failing.”

“Isn’t that complete corruption?”

“Of course, it’s corruption. I think they took him out as a prosecutor’s office employee on purpose because they were afraid of getting caught if they took him to the city hall. But corruption isn’t the only problem. If I leave him alone, he’s too incompetent, even if he’s specially recruited. I’m so frustrated at the thought of working with a stubborn old man who’s even older than me. So, I was going to expose him for corruption.”

Before I knew it, I was starting to get absorbed in the story.

“You know Senior Prosecutor Lim Seong-jin from Seoul, right? Suddenly, I got a call from him asking to meet me? When I talked to him, he was 10 years my senior at the Judicial Research and Training Institute and a senior at my university. And he asked me.”

From a minor recruitment corruption case, the name of the most successful senior prosecutor in Seoul these days is coming out.

I feel like I’m peeking at the back of a power that is connected as intricately as a spider web.

“It turns out Kwak Tae-won had some kind of connection with him.”

“So, you buried it?”

“He said he would bring me into his line if I buried it. To be honest, how can I throw away this opportunity? My performance has been so bad lately that I might lose my job here if I’m not careful. I have to go up. If I was born with a dick, shouldn’t I try to succeed once? That’s why we all became prosecutors.”

That’s right.

I didn’t become a prosecutor because I was burning with a sense of justice or had a grand mission to create a just world, but because I simply envied power and wanted to taste it with my own hands.

I would have made the same choice as Shin Yong-ho.

It’s just that I haven’t had such an opportunity yet.

He urged me once again.

“If this leaks out, I’m going to get fired right away. Not only me, but Lim Seong-jin’s line will be wiped out.”

“Don’t worry. Am I crazy to let information leak out? I don’t want to see you die either.”

“Thanks.”

Shin Yong-ho smiled and leaned back on the backrest.

“Actually, my mouth was itching to tell someone, but I couldn’t. I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Yeah, man. We have to trust each other, otherwise who would we trust?”

“That’s right.”

With a relieved face, he refilled his empty glass.

“What does your wife say? She must be so happy that you’re going to Seoul.”

“She’s jumping for joy. As soon as I told her, my wife called her parents’ house right away, and my father-in-law bought me an apartment without hesitation. He’s been calling me a prosecutor son-in-law, but I guess he didn’t like that I was stuck in the provinces, but now he seems to like me a little.”

“Good for you.”

I tried to swallow the envious feelings that kept rising up and clinked glasses with him.

I don’t want to become a petty person who envies his friend because envy turns into jealousy.

***

Shin Yong-ho went up to Seoul.

I call him occasionally, and he says it’s a whole new world there.

Instead of dealing with petty cases like before, he only picks out big ones to solve, and sometimes he’s even featured in internet articles and newspapers.

Seeing that he even held a press conference after arresting a drug smuggling organization a while ago, it seems like he’s definitely doing well.

He says he’s so happy and having fun, and he said he would definitely pull me up when he gets settled.

I say thank you, but I don’t expect it.

I don’t want to hope for luck, and I don’t want to want it.

I know better than anyone that it’s harder to have expectations.

It was all about living a life that was swept away by the flow.

Shin Yong-ho is a special case, and most Korean prosecutors live like me, looking at documents without even making a sound.

However, it was just a little frustrating and difficult that the embers of success that he had thrown into my heart were still burning brightly.

As time passed, the contact with Shin Yong-ho gradually decreased, and then one day, the contact was cut off.

Shin Yong-ho must be busy working as a prosecutor and providing for his family, and I’m living a life that’s swept away by work as usual.

That’s how friends are. It’s okay if you don’t contact each other, as long as you can meet and talk comfortably at any time.

About two years after Shin Yong-ho went up to Seoul, my cell phone rang while I was working.