Chapter 13

Chapter 13. The Original Informant

The next day, Harok went to the newsroom.

The moment Park Mungyu saw him, he grinned and called out.

"Hey, Baek Harok."

"Yes."

Harok still had a hangover from drinking alone the night before. He looked at Park Mungyu through half-lidded eyes.

"Weren't you going on vacation?"

"Something came up, so I postponed it."

"Is that so?"

Harok ignored Park Mungyu's mocking expression.

Annoying bastard.

Does he really find it that entertaining to watch his junior suffer like this?

Harok settled down at the very end of the social affairs desk.

"That'll be your seat for the time being, so clean the desk."

He really has to get one last jab in...

"Hey, stop picking on Harok. He's a junior who reports well and writes well. Why are you treating him like that?"

Han Seungjin from the political affairs department had finally had enough and scolded Park Mungyu from the side.

"What did I do?"

"Come on. In this case, the editor-in-chief was the one who screwed up. So why are you being so harsh on Harok?"

Exactly.

Even a senior from another department was defending him, while the senior from his own department was busy attacking him from behind.

"Harok, come over here."

Han Seungjin called him over.

Han Seungjin was currently the National Assembly team chief in the political affairs department and was considered a strong candidate for the next, or possibly the following, political affairs department head.

Back when Harok was a trainee, Han Seungjin had been a crime desk editor in the social affairs department.

There was a large gap in seniority between them, so they had never been especially close, but Han Seungjin had always been fond of Harok.

"Yes, Senior."

Harok immediately got up and hurried over.

Park Mungyu shot him a sideways glance, grabbed the cigarettes from his desk, and stood up.

"Things might be hard right now, but just hang in there."

"I plan to."

"If I become the political affairs department head or the social affairs department head later, I'll definitely bring you onto my team."

"Even hearing you say that means a lot. Thank you."

"Yeah, you little punk."

Han Seungjin lightly patted Harok on the head.

"Oh, Senior."

"Yeah?"

"You know Bang Woncheol, the Senior Secretary for Civil Society at the Blue House, pretty well, right?"

The moment the name Bang Woncheol came up, Han Seungjin's expression stiffened slightly.

"Of course. When he was a trainee, he even worked as my second-line reporter for a while..."

"Why exactly did he stop the dumpling article from being published?"

"How did you know about that?"

Yubin had overheard their conversation and passed it on.

There was no way Han Seungjin would know that.

"What secrets are there in a newsroom?"

"Well... that's true."

"You're in the political affairs department, so haven't you heard anything?"

"I was curious too, so I pressed Woncheol about it. But he wouldn't give me a straight answer."

"Could it have been an order from the VIP?"

Han Seungjin hadn't paid much attention because it was a social affairs story.

But as Harok kept digging, he started to get curious too.

"Would the VIP really care about something as trivial as dumplings?"

"Probably not. Then maybe it was a personal request from someone inside BH. Or maybe Bang Woncheol himself is directly connected to it."

"Directly connected?"

"That's what I'm starting to wonder."

Tap, tap, tap.

Han Seungjin lightly tapped the side of his head with a ballpoint pen and nodded.

"Now that you mention it, I'm curious too. Why did Woncheol try so hard to block the dumpling story?"

"Could you look into it for me?"

"Sure. I'm meeting the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs soon anyway. I'll ask."

"Thank you, Senior."

Bang Woncheol.

Why did you stop the dumpling article from going out?

Are you connected to whoever planned all this?

If you are, I won't forgive you either.

Harok pulled up his memories from his previous life again.

In that life, Bang Woncheol had become a three-term National Assembly member.

Why didn't I know he used to work at Daehan Daily?

Harok searched for his profile online.

Bang Woncheol hadn't worked at Daehan Daily for very long.

After only two years, he transferred to a broadcasting company and worked as a television reporter.

Then, when the current administration took office, he abruptly joined the Presidential Office.

Right.

So after working in the Presidential Office, he ran for the National Assembly.

The details of this life were already significantly different from his previous one.

Bang Woncheol.

You threw sand in my path, so I'll return the favor.

Tap, tap, clack.

Scroll.

With nothing in particular to do, Harok sat in the newsroom searching for articles about the dumpling scandal.

Most of them were the same reports he remembered from his previous life.

The overall progression was similar, except that because Harok's article had appeared earlier, the direction of public opinion had been completely reversed.

Throughout the search, Hong Yunjung's words kept echoing in his mind.

A conglomerate conspiracy?

If that were true, maybe his article had ruined part of their plan.

For a moment, Harok allowed himself to hope.

But when he read the articles about dumpling manufacturers, it didn't seem that way.

There were still plenty of stories about companies staggering on the verge of collapse.

Even if Harok had created the first opening for a reversal, consumer trust had already been lost and was recovering very slowly.

If the plan had been to shake up the dumpling market, then whoever designed it had certainly succeeded in that respect.

So, was it TS Group?

Or another conglomerate entering the dumpling market?

Hong Yunjung definitely knew more than she had said.

Maybe she actually knew who had planned it.

Then why call me over as if she was going to reveal something, only to hide the planner's identity?

Does she want me to investigate it myself?

If he went back to the beginning and examined everything step by step, would he find a clue?

Anyone capable of engineering something on this scale had to be difficult to approach.

And if the person was connected to a conglomerate or chaebol family, even exposing the truth wouldn't necessarily lead to punishment.

After all, he would be trying to tear down a fortress built from money and power.

Fine.

I have time.

I'll watch how the dumpling market develops and investigate this piece by piece.

If he kept climbing, eventually he would reach the person who planned the entire scandal.

Then he would put undeniable evidence in front of them and expose every part of the filthy conspiracy that had shaken the entire country and destroyed people's lives.

That bastard had ruined Harok's previous life.

And in this life, because of him, Harok had already been dragged before a disciplinary committee and put through hell.

I have to catch him.

And I'll make sure he pays for what he did.

Harok decided to begin with the original informant.

A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step.

He needed to understand how the first button had been fastened, and why it had been fastened that way.

He kept scrolling.

First, he went through the headlines of all the major articles that had come out so far.

Then he found one that included the investigation timeline and clicked it.

The first person to report the garbage dumpling issue had been Sergeant Park Junhyeong of the National Police Agency's Foreign Affairs Division.

The Foreign Affairs Division handled crimes involving foreigners inside Korea, along with international crimes and similar cases.

Why did a Foreign Affairs detective start this investigation?

Harok had never questioned it before.

Even now, it seemed strange.

Why this man?

There was no point simply sitting there wondering.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Harok called the National Police Agency's Foreign Affairs Division.

"Could I speak with Sergeant Park Junhyeong?"

"Who's calling?"

"I'm Baek Harok from Daehan Daily."

"Yes, Reporter Baek. Please hold."

Once Harok identified himself, it wasn't difficult to get connected to Park Junhyeong.

"Sergeant Park Junhyeong, this is Reporter Baek Harok from Daehan Daily."

"If this is about the dumpling investigation, I have nothing more to say."

The moment Park Junhyeong heard the word reporter, he put up a solid wall.

That was the fate of a social affairs reporter.

Situations like this happened all the time.

Unless you were appearing in a heartwarming article, being mentioned in a social affairs story usually didn't end well.

That was why people tended to avoid interviews with journalists, especially social affairs reporters.

Park Junhyeong also seemed to have suffered considerable stress after his original tip had grown into the nationwide garbage dumpling scandal.

"Please don't be like that. I only want to ask a few simple questions."

"I told you, I have nothing to say."

"Sergeant, you're a public official whose salary is paid by taxpayer money."

"So?"

"For whatever reason, your tip ended up turning the entire country upside down. Don't you think you should feel at least some sense of responsibility for what happened?"

Harok was appealing to his conscience.

If Park Junhyeong had been stressed by the dumpling scandal, that at least meant he wasn't completely shameless.

"Res... responsibility?"

"Yes. Your tip started the investigation, and several companies ended up closing because of it."

"Are you saying that's my fault?"

"No, not necessarily. But even if it's only one percent, or less than one percent, there is still some responsibility... No, if you dislike the word responsibility, then at least some compassion for the people involved."

Silence followed.

"Keep it short."

"Thank you. Then I'll get straight to the point."

"All right."

"How did you first become aware of the garbage dumpling case?"

"I've already told other reporters. Back in February, I went fishing, but the fish weren't biting. I asked the nearby fishermen why, and they said it was because of wastewater from a factory."

"The fish were dying because of the wastewater?"

"Yes. It seemed suspicious, so I looked into it further. The problem was a pickled radish factory upstream. I followed the waterway and found the factory. Then I found boxes nearby stamped with 'Made in China'..."

Park Junhyeong spoke smoothly, almost like he was reading from a script.

He had clearly told the story many times before.

But that wasn't what Harok had called to ask about.

So he interrupted.

"Did you go fishing alone that day?"

No reporter had ever asked him that before.

Harok could feel Park Junhyeong hesitate.

At that moment, Harok's instincts flared.

There's something here.

"Why aren't you answering? Did you go alone?"

"Well... I wasn't alone..."

"Were you with fellow police officers?"

"No. I went with friends..."

"Friends? Could you tell me who they were?"

Silence.

"That's my private life. Why does that matter?"

If it doesn't matter, why can't you answer?

Harok wanted to ask.

Still, Park Junhyeong had a point.

There was no obvious reason he had to reveal his friends' identities.

"Then let me ask it differently. That fishing spot was called Bongam Fishing Site, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you normally fish there often?"

"No. That was my first time. Fishermen go to different places all the time."

Of course.

But someone had suggested that location.

That was what Harok wanted to know.

"Were you the one who suggested going to Bongam Fishing Site?"

"No."

"Then who suggested it?"

"One person in the group."

"Can you tell me who that person was?"

Silence again.

"Why are you so curious about that?"

Park Junhyeong was finally starting to sound irritated.

Is it someone he can't talk about?

If there were nothing strange about it, he could simply answer.

"Then let me ask one more way. When fishermen choose a new fishing spot, do they really pick somewhere without checking it in advance?"

"Why are you asking things like that?"

From the tone of his voice, Park Junhyeong also seemed to realize that choosing that particular location had been unusual.

That was probably why he was reluctant to identify the person who had suggested it.

If Harok assumed there really had been a planner behind the scandal, the situation roughly looked like this:

Someone in Park Junhyeong's fishing group had chosen Bongam Fishing Site.

But that person might not even have been someone Park Junhyeong knew well.

Maybe a friend of a friend.

Either way, because of that person's suggestion, they had gone to Bongam Fishing Site.

And there, Park Junhyeong discovered the pickled radish factory releasing wastewater.

In other words, the person who chose the fishing site had likely been acting under instructions from the planner.

They had naturally joined Park Junhyeong's fishing group and guided him toward discovering the factory.

Whoever arranged it must have known Park Junhyeong was the type of person with a strong sense of justice.

They knew that once he discovered the factory, he wouldn't simply ignore it.

And now Park Junhyeong himself seemed to suspect something about the situation.

That was probably why he refused to say who had gone fishing with him that day.

"I'm trying to get closer to the truth of the case."

"What good is the truth now?"

"There's a saying that if you don't reflect on what happened, the same thing will happen again."

"Are you saying I should reflect on what I did?"

Why does he keep twisting my words?

Who told you to reflect? I'm saying society as a whole needs to reflect.

"That's not what I meant..."

"Let's stop here. I have nothing more to say."

Click.

Park Junhyeong angrily hung up.

"H-Hello? Hello?"

Who had gone fishing with him that day?

And who had suggested Bongam Fishing Site?

Was it really so difficult to answer something that simple?

Harok immediately called again.

"Sergeant Park Junhyeong, please."

"He just stepped out."

"Could you give me his mobile number?"

"That's a little..."

It didn't matter.

Getting a police officer's cell phone number wasn't difficult.

For now, one thing was clear.

Park Junhyeong himself also suspected there was something strange about the person who had suggested that fishing site.

Finding out who that person was was now only a matter of time.

All right.

Whether you're the planner or the mastermind, just wait.

I'm going to expose everything about you.