Chapter 24
The bastards I want to catch right now...!!
Let's solve this problem first. And I think you may be misunderstanding something...
I can see people's futures.
The reason I knew where the Dorongi gang boss was was because Go Il-nam had actually put in the effort to catch him.
Even if you say you want to catch the bosses of the Red Bird gang and the Incheon Union right away, you can't do it without any investigative effort.
Damn...
A future where he caught them through effort.
Or a future where he caught them because luck was on his side.
If there is no such future, he can't catch them.
He seemed a little disappointed.
But only for a moment.
Well, that's fine! It means we can catch them either way!!
Just knowing it wasn't some vague, abstract future seemed to satisfy him greatly.
So... a match-fixing case. Hm. There were guys who pulled something similar in the past.
Back then, it wasn't baseball but StarCraft.
There are guys like that among the ones running illegal private sports betting.
They blow it up into a huge scheme with some event or another and all that nonsense.
And then they subtly wedge themselves in.
I caught one of those before.
Oh-ho.
And when StarCraft was at its height, I also suspected something when Han Jin-ho got hit with three straight bunker rushes.
Oh-ho.
But it was real. Good grief, the game was over before the chicken even got delivered.
More surprising was that there wasn't even a shred of match-fixing in it.
Gu Nam-cheol, who had been rooting for Han Jin-ho, reportedly shed blood tears and focused on his studies then.
StarCraft, huh. I played quite a bit too.
Yeah, yeah. People call it an old folks' game these days, but back in our day...
Gu Nam-cheol and Kang In-jeong were earnestly reminiscing about the past.
I don't really know much about it.
I don't really know StarCraft, but... the one with the 'Ullari' thing...?
Ullari?!
Isn't it?
No, it isn't! How can you use such an unprincipled abbreviation...!
Gu Nam-cheol, still huffing, let out a sigh.
Anyway, this is my specialty. I'll make sure we catch them properly.
Well, that's certainly something to look forward to.
The prosecutor and the police joined forces.
And they even told him when the match-fixing broker would show up.
Not only that.
Since the target, Kim Ju-hyung, had said he'd cooperate no matter what, things should go well.
Just in case, I looked into Gu Nam-cheol's future.
It's going well.
Kim Ju-hyung, Kang In-jeong, and Gu Nam-cheol cooperate and catch not only the match-fixing broker but also the illegal private betting ring behind him.
The only disappointing part was that they couldn't catch the boss.
I told them what I had seen.
Why can't we catch the boss?
Well, we're short on manpower, too. It seems like a bit much for one person. It'd be better to work with another prosecutor.
Cooperate, huh...
You can't save the world by yourself. You shouldn't handle this one alone either.
Hmm...
After thinking for a moment, he took something from his desk.
It was a list of prosecutors at the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office who currently had room to work together.
One name among them caught my eye.
How about this person?
Yang Won-ju.
A classmate of Gu Nam-cheol.
At my words, Gu Nam-cheol's expression stiffened.
He and I don't get along.
But if you work with anyone other than him, I don't see a future where you catch them.
After agonizing over it for a while, Gu Nam-cheol could only nod in the end.
If you can't catch the boss, then what can you do?
***
Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office prosecutor Yang Won-ju was stunned.
It was because of the man standing before him.
...What do you want?
No. I mean...
A Judicial Research and Training Institute classmate and rival.
The guy whose work style he disliked had spent the last 30 minutes refusing to leave the room.
If you've got something to say, say it quickly and get out.
He disliked Gu Nam-cheol.
It wasn't just because they were rivals.
His work style was too extreme.
The law is important.
And when you're the one enforcing that law, you absolutely have to follow it.
But Gu Nam-cheol used the fact that he knew the law well as an excuse to tiptoe right up to the line.
And since the prosecutors' office had to clean up the mess he made in the process, how could anyone possibly look on Gu Nam-cheol favorably?
Hey.
What.
I... how should I put this...
That wasn't all.
Back at a company dinner once.
He had gotten into a huge fight with Gu Nam-cheol.
Since then, he still hadn't properly apologized even once.
That had stayed in Yang Won-ju's heart.
So, back in the year before last...
Yang Won-ju's hand, which had been flipping through documents, stopped.
The year before last.
The day his relationship with Gu Nam-cheol completely went south.
What I said at that dinner.
.......
I'm sorry. I'll apologize.
...Just with words?
Ah! Fine! Fine!
Gu Nam-cheol straightened up.
And then.
He bowed.
Yang Won-ju was startled by the sight.
He was a guy whose pride could pierce the heavens.
And yet he bowed his head.
He was even the type to stay stiff in front of a chief prosecutor.
I was wrong. Honestly, I was drunk when I said it, but the fact that I never apologized until now... I'm really sorry. It wasn't something I should have said so carelessly.
Then say it.
...Say what?
Yang Won-ju put the documents down.
Say that Nodde is the best, strongest team, and that they'll win the championship within five years. Come on. Say it. Strongest Nodde.
...No matter how you look at it, Nodde isn't the best and strongest team, is it? 'Disband already this season, you bastards!' or 'Those bastards need to be audited once. I'll go audit them myself, you motherfuckers,' and...
Say it.
Tch.
Gu Nam-cheol squeezed his eyes shut.
A fan of the Ria Tigers.
For a man who had been a Ria Tigers fan from birth, calling his greatest rival Nodde the best and strongest was enough to crush his heart.
But.
Even so, he had to do it.
Catching criminals mattered more than this kind of thing.
St... strongest Nodde. They'll win the championship within five years... they will.
Good.
Yang Won-ju chuckled.
The apology from that proud bastard.
And hearing a rival team's fan cheer had lessened his hostility toward Gu Nam-cheol a little.
Of course, his hatred for him hadn't disappeared.
But one stone that had been filling his chest had definitely been removed.
Maybe this was a chance for them to have a better relationship.
Well, we'll see about that.
So? Why'd you come here all of a sudden?
Ah, well, you see.
Gu Nam-cheol carefully started explaining.
Yang Won-ju was dumbfounded as he listened to the story.
What?
A fortune teller?
Has he lost his mind?
No! I'm telling you, he gets everything right! He even got the location of the bastard boss of the Chorongi gang right!!
Hmm.
That's a little intriguing.
So Yang Won-ju headed to his room with Gu Nam-cheol.
There, he saw him.
A man in his twenties with an impassive face.
The young man, who looked as if he'd only just shed his boyishness, was smiling faintly.
Are you Kang Noah?
Nice to meet you, Prosecutor Yang Won-ju.
Hah. I don't know what you told him, but honestly, I find it hard to believe.
Would you like to draw one?
A tarot card was held out.
Yang Won-ju reluctantly drew a card.
It was the reversed Empress.
Expecting him to spout some ridiculous tarot-card interpretation, Yang Won-ju fell silent at the words that followed.
The CEO of Je-nam Construction is hiding slush funds through a shell company called Louisville Company. If you investigate that, you'll be able to catch the CEO of Je-nam Construction.
Je-nam Construction.
It was a local construction company. Recently, the owner had been caught after taking bribes and then disappearing without paying construction costs, employees' wages, or severance pay.
He claimed he had no money.
He insisted the company had already gone bankrupt, but Yang Won-ju knew otherwise.
Men like that always had money hidden away somewhere.
But unfortunately, he still hadn't found it.
How...?
You'll catch him through your own efforts, Prosecutor Yang Won-ju.
I saw the future.
His future.
He was saying it as if it were nothing.
Yang Won-ju clenched his fist without realizing it.
***
In short, Yang Won-ju decided to join us too.
It was only that he disliked Gu Nam-cheol; he was probably just as eager to catch criminals.
Anyway, that's all I can do for now.
Since I could see a future where we caught the boss with Yang Won-ju on our side, that future wouldn't change unless something unusual happened.
With two prosecutors now on my side, moving around would be much easier from here on out, right?
After riding home in Kang In-jeong's car, I lay down to rest for a bit.
I was tired after being out and about all day.
-Ring-ring!!
Who could it be at this hour?
When I picked up my phone, it was PD Jang.
Yes, PD Jang.
Hello! Mr. Kang. You've been well, right?
I'm well if I'm well and not if I'm not. So what's up?
It's nothing much, but there's someone who wants to meet you.
Me?
Who would a TV station PD be introducing?
A celebrity?
Or someone from the broadcasting world?
Ms. Joanna.
...Who is that?
Huh? You don't know Ms. Joanna?
I'm not really familiar with celebrities...
She's the one who sang 'Silver Rain.' She's an outstanding composer and singer.
Ah. Silver Rain.
I know it.
A song sung by a Korean-American singer.
The older boys and girls at the orphanage had played it for me all the time.
He was clearly a proper fan, because he eagerly talked about how amazing a singer and composer she was.
She's American, isn't she? Why is an American here...?
She came to Korea yesterday and is resting now.
Oh, I see. But why would she...?
She likes the occult.
And in the midst of that, she saw me blowing up online and fell head over heels.
She wanted to meet me in person somehow, but couldn't find a way. Then while she was looking, someone told her I'd gone to a filming set with PD Jang, so she called.
She could've just requested it on the show.
She said she'd already applied several times, but never got picked.
Ah. I see. Then it can't be helped.
Let's meet.
.
.
.
And so, two days later.
Normally we'd have met at the cafe in our neighborhood, but now there wasn't even a cafe left to go to.
So we headed to the Signiel Hotel, where she was staying.
I went to the hotel where I'd once worked part-time, and where Han Yu-na had worked.
Oh!! Noah hyung!!
That was when I was waiting in the VVIP lounge, sipping a caffè latte.
A glamorous blonde mixed-race woman smiled as she walked over.
A pretty female singer was calling me hyung.
...Is this for real?
Nice to meet you. I'm Kang Noah. You speak Korean well.
Hehe. My mom's Korean, so I learned it when I was little. Anyway, just talk casually! Hyung! I'm a fan! Please sign this!!
A world-famous pop artist was a fan of a streamer with 300,000 subscribers.
Not bad.
I smiled and signed the T-shirt she held out to me.
Mm!! Awesome!! Ah, Alice should've come too!
Alice?
Our company's boss. She said I'd probably cause trouble if I came on vacation, so she came with me. She's drinking at the bar right now.
Really? It's a little awkward to say this right after meeting you, but here.
I held out a tarot card.
When she saw the tarot card, she shook her head.
Could you do hwatu fortune-telling instead?
There's nothing stopping us.
When I took the hwatu cards out of my bag and held them out, she happily flipped one over.
It was the Eight Brights.
Though that's not really something to say to someone who's grinning like that...
You'd better cut ties with Alice.
Alice was the company president and producer who had been with Joanna since she first became a singer.
At that name, her face started to twist.
.... Why?
She's going to steal your songs.
........
And she'll hand those songs over to a singer Joanna absolutely hates.
She'll stay at No. 1 on the Billboard charts for several months.
The furious Joanna will sue, but lose, and get pummeled by public opinion.
...That's... impossible.
That woman is a lot trashier than you think.