You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 36

‘I can’t afford to mess up here.’

I was worried that Kang Min-jae, who is particularly empathetic, might get agitated.

He was the one who comforted Na Eun-sung the most when she was struggling with cyberbullying because of this incident.

I placed my hand on his trembling fist under the desk.

It was a warning that I wouldn’t let him off if he made a mistake here, but Kang Min-jae looked at me, seemingly surprised.

And he answered in a voice too small for the other side to hear.

“I’m okay.”

What did he misunderstand?

I took my hand off Kang Min-jae’s fist and opened my mouth.

“You said you started discussing with the PD [Production Director] in 2006. Do you have any evidence to prove that?”

“Of course.”

“The PD’s testimony would lack credibility.”

“Haha, is that so?”

“But that’s strange. Generally, drama writers proceed with copyright registration as soon as they have a rough outline that they can discuss with the PD. Why did writer Jung Hye-jin, who has a lot of experience, register it in 2007, a year later?”

“It was because the completion of the synopsis was delayed due to reviewing other works. We don’t register the copyright as soon as the concept is out.”

Yu Jeong-won immediately retorted.

“I see. So, the concrete settings and details that has now, which was just an idea back then, must have been added in May 2007. Then, it’s hard to rule out the possibility that you added the settings after encountering after the contest in March 2007.”

“……The synopsis was completed in May 2007, but the settings were completed before that. You know the requirements for a synopsis. It should explain not only the simple settings but also the future plot to a certain extent. It just took time to complete that part.”

“I see.”

“……Attorney Cha, you’re being very rude.”

I just said ‘I see’ and agreed, but I couldn’t understand why I was being called rude.

I wanted to end this meaningless war of nerves now.

There was nothing more I wanted to get from them.

“So, please suggest what you want.”

“Writer Jung Hye-jin feels sorry that the aspiring writer’s manuscript couldn’t be written because of the prior publication of . Writer Jung Hye-jin has gone through her aspiring days to reach her current position, so she knows how heartbreaking it is to have to discard a manuscript prepared for a contest.”

“Yes. And?”

“Although she absolutely did not plagiarize, she empathizes with the aspiring writer who loved her work so much……”

“Just get to the point.”

I thought I knew what they wanted.

Yu Jeong-won’s long preamble had a purpose.

It was a futile strategy to somehow reduce the image damage that inevitably occurs when proposing a settlement.

I didn’t want to hear it.

“Due to Na Eun-sung’s indiscriminate claims, not only but also writer Jung Hye-jin and Pure Island Media have suffered considerable image damage.”

If they did something wrong, they should naturally suffer image damage.

Was I misunderstanding the way of the world?

“I emphasize again that it is not because we admit plagiarism, but we are willing to pay Na Eun-sung a small consolation money to minimize the damage to our image, if you withdraw the lawsuit.”

“Are you just hoping for a simple withdrawal of the lawsuit?”

“That’s not it. We want you to release a press release mutually confirming that Jung Hye-jin did not plagiarize Na Eun-sung’s scenario.”

“How much are you thinking of as consolation money?”

At my question, Kang Min-jae grabbed my thigh tightly.

And he leaned his head towards me and muttered softly.

“What are you saying, attorney? Settlement, what……”

It sounded like he was saying, with gritted teeth, what are you saying.

I took Kang Min-jae’s hand off my thigh and looked at them.

Yu Jeong-won answered with a ‘that’s what I thought’ expression.

“It’s 100 million won [approximately $75,000 USD]. The same treatment as the grand prize of the 2007 Pure Island Media contest.”

Isn’t that too stingy?

Numerous media outlets are talking about how their income from exceeds 20 billion won [approximately $15 million USD].

But only 100 million won.

The compensation that could be obtained if we win the trial is much larger, so why would we be satisfied with only 100 million won?”

“100 million won is a bit hard to accept. It’s the same as the grand prize amount, but the benefits of winning the contest are not just the prize money of 100 million won. It includes the honor of having a drama aired under your name and the writer’s fee according to the broadcast time. Shouldn’t you convert it to that extent to reach an agreement?”

At my words, Yu Jeong-won whispered to Kim Hyun-chul for a moment.

After a short conversation, she said again, full of spirit.

“Okay. Considering up to 10 million won [approximately $7,500 USD] per episode for a new writer’s fee, we’ll offer up to 300 million won [approximately $225,000 USD].”

“I don’t think you’ve calculated the honor of having a drama aired under your name.”

Yu Jeong-won answered with a satisfied smile.

“I don’t know how much Na Eun-sung is thinking, but 300 million won is the upper limit we’re thinking of.”

They must have thought we took the bait.

It seemed like they were convinced that our purpose in coming here was to determine the settlement amount from the beginning.

If I were determined to negotiate, I was confident that I could get more than that.

But before coming here, Na Eun-sung said that she had no intention of settling, no matter how much they offered.

Even if they called for more than 1 billion won [approximately $750,000 USD], her voice, earnestly asking me to refuse on the spot, was still vivid in my ears.

“I see.”

“Na Eun-sung is not here, so you’ll need time to discuss it. Would you like to call her? Or should we give you more time?”

“It’s okay.”

“Do you mean you’ll agree to 300 million won?”

“No.”

The expressions of the four people sitting at the opposite table hardened at my answer.

It was quite a sight to see.

“I have no intention of settling.”

“Hey, Attorney Cha!”

“I’ll see you in court. Oh, before that, if you receive the complaint and are willing to pay the amount of damages we requested, please contact us anytime.”

The amount of damages we wrote in the complaint is 7.67 billion won [approximately $5.75 million USD].

It is the sum of 70%, or 7 billion won [approximately $5.25 million USD], of Pure Island Media’s net income of 10 billion won [approximately $7.5 million USD], and 70% of Jung Hye-jin’s writer’s fee of 960 million won [approximately $720,000 USD], which is about 670 million won [approximately $500,000 USD].

I don’t know if they can handle it with such a small amount of only 300 million won.

“Then, I’ll wait for your call.”

On the way home, we went to a small hangover soup restaurant nearby.

Because I had to pay for the meal due to the bet we made before the meeting.

Kang Min-jae, who wanted to bet on ‘they’ll deny it,’ seemed to be in a good mood as he unexpectedly became the winner of the bet.

Throughout the meal, he began to talk about how I flattened Attorney Yu Jeong-won’s nose.

“Ah, I was surprised because I thought you were going to settle, Attorney.”

Kang Min-jae said, placing a glass of water and a spoon in front of me.

“That’s impossible.”

“I see. I guess I don’t know you well yet, Attorney.”

Kang Min-jae said with a bright smile.

“Which one do you want, seonji [congealed ox blood] hangover soup?”

“Give that one to me. Please give the gopchang [grilled small intestine] stew over here.”

Kang Min-jae, who kindly organized the traffic for the clerk who appeared with the earthenware pot, started eating like someone who hadn’t eaten for days.

The person who had been complaining until just now that hangover soup was too meager for the price of the bet was nowhere to be found.

“I’ll go get the car.”

After finishing the meal, Kang Min-jae ran to the parking lot.

In the meantime, I called Tae-shik.

-Hello.

“It’s me.”

-What’s going on?

“I just checked. There’s definitely a printout history at the printing shop.”

-Yes? What is it?

“What else would it be but Na Eun-sung’s script.”

-Ah, that. ……No, wait. Are you saying that you just confirmed that there is definitely a printout history, now?

“So?”

-Then you sent me here to find something that might not even exist? Huh?

“So? Isn’t that what you guys do?”

-……Ah, damn it. Seriously, that’s too much.

“If you completely discarded the printed materials, search the web hard drive to find the printout history.”

-No, how do I access the web hard drive?

“Hack it or whatever. I don’t have to tell you how to do that.”

-How do I cover the cost of bringing someone who knows how to hack! How expensive are those guys!

I briefly took the phone away from my ear at Tae-shik’s shout coming through the speaker.

“Are you done talking?”

-……No, I’m not done yet. What about the cost of the poster outsourcing because I lied about losing our cat? Huh?

“What’s with the cat again. Good work.”

-Ugh, damn it! Vicious lawyer! Exploitative lawyer! Ugh!

After returning to the office, I sent Kang Min-jae home and called Na Eun-sung to share the meeting details.

Na Eun-sung expressed surprise at the fact that they offered 300 million won.

In fact, I was also surprised.

Easily raising the settlement amount to three times the amount initially offered was nothing more than showing the other party how much you wanted to settle.

However, I don’t think Yu Jeong-won is a lawyer who doesn’t even know that kind of psychological warfare.

Then there is only one conclusion.

From the beginning, they treated us as people who wanted to settle and sued, and they looked down on us very much.

It wasn’t just a laughing matter.

It was also proof that Na Eun-sung was seen that way by some of the public.

Winning the trial and restoring her image was also our job.

Anyway, now that we’ve experienced it once, Yu Jeong-won will start preparing for the trial diligently from now on.

It was a situation where I raised the difficulty of the trial myself, but I don’t think it was a bad choice.

Rather than dragging it out to the second and third trials and wasting time and energy, it was better to end it in the first trial after both sides had made full preparations.