You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 46

“Boss, it’s Taeshik. Oh my, oh my, what should I do? Suddenly, this lawyer guy named Cha Juhan or something barged into the print shop and, oh! Aigo [Korean exclamation of frustration], aigo!”

Taeshik began to put on a flamboyant act into the receiver.

“He threatened me, saying he already knew everything, demanding I hand everything over—all the hard drives and USBs—telling me to open the drawers, open the cabinets, making a huge fuss… Boss, I’m really sorry. I was threatened, I couldn’t help it! He said he’d just check and return it! Waaah!”

Taeshik’s pitiful voice echoed loudly in the office.

It was late, and I was worried a noise complaint might be filed.

“Where am I now? I’ve been dragged to Cha Juhan’s office, aigo, Boss. You need to come quickly… The USB? That guy took it! I’m really sorry, Boss… Hurry, hurry and come. Aigo, let go of me! Hey, I said let go!”

Even though no one told him to, Taeshik acted as if his arm was being pulled in the air.

I wanted to tell him that his call wasn’t a video call, but he was completely engrossed in his performance.

“Yes, yes! I’ll text you the address! Yes! …Hehe. All done.”

He proudly hung up the phone and plopped down on the sofa.

“Ah, acting a bit made me thirsty. Can’t I get a glass of water?”

The print shop owner, having received Taeshik’s call, hurriedly arrived at the office.

Looking pale, he shouted at us as soon as he entered the office.

“Are you people crazy?”

The arrow was aimed squarely at us, who had become the axis of evil.

“Let’s calm down and sit first. Kang, get him a drink.”

“Yes. What kind of juice would you like…?”

“Never mind that, Taeshik. Taeshik, you shouldn’t have done this. No matter how much you were threatened, this isn’t right! What did he threaten you with?”

The print shop owner was hopping mad, and Taeshik, who hadn’t thought that far, looked at me with a troubled expression.

“We’re protecting Mr. Jang Taeshik’s cat.”

I answered concisely.

Taeshik had been loitering around the print shop looking for his cat and became a part-time worker, so what else was there to say?

He acted like he would give his life for the cat he was raising, so wasn’t this a sufficient reason?

Actually, that reason wasn’t very important, so I just made something up.

The key was to persuade the print shop owner before he became more hostile.

“Let me get straight to the point. We are currently pursuing a copyright lawsuit against Blue Island Media and writer Jung Hyejin.”

“…I know. I saw it on the news.”

He barely suppressed his anger and sat down in the chair.

If we had intentionally gathered these shortcomings of Blue Island Media, he would have been watching the case as well.

There was no need to explain at length.

“We need your USB for that lawsuit. It contains the manuscript of Na Eunseong, our client. You received it from Blue Island Media, right?”

“No, I didn’t.”

The owner said firmly.

He had no intention of cooperating willingly.

“Then can you explain why that file was on that USB?”

“A Blue Island Media representative visited and left it behind.”

[Lie]

In the old days, I might have thought his words were plausible enough to be true.

But the letters floating above his head sparkled as if to tell me not to make such a mistake.

“I see. Then, can we have a confrontation with that representative? Why did they make the mistake of leaking a USB containing only the works that Jung Hyejin plagiarized to the printing house? And why did they collect such files? I can’t shake the impression that the representative had some sinister thoughts.”

The printing house owner’s eyebrows twitched.

The reason he didn’t want to give this as evidence was very simple.

He didn’t want to be caught collecting Blue Island Media’s weaknesses with sinister intentions.

The reason he didn’t want to be caught was also twofold.

First, because Blue Island Media was a major client and he didn’t want to be disliked.

Second, to use it when he needed it.

“You’ve been dissatisfied with Blue Island Media, haven’t you?”

The owner looked at me, surprised.

Taeshik had never said such a thing to me, so the owner must have been hiding his feelings until now.

“The reason people collect each other’s weaknesses is very simple. It’s to use them someday.”

When Taeshik first found it, I thought he accidentally didn’t delete it.

But after seeing all the files in the [P] folder, I changed my mind.

“I found out that Blue Island Media is famous for its abuse of power.”

In fact, I had never heard such rumors.

It was a kind of leading question, but with a little thought, it was easy to infer that such rumors were openly circulating in the industry.

Isn’t it a place that abuses its power in contests and to assistant writers?

There was no guarantee that they wouldn’t do the same to other clients.

“A, abuse of power? What’s that?”

Ah, was it before the word ‘abuse of power’ was even coined?

Not only the owner, but also Kang Minjae and the assistant director, who were listening to me, tilted their heads in confusion.

“It means that those in power act arbitrarily. Well, anyway, they’re famous for such behavior. Have you ever been asked to make unfair deals?”

The owner didn’t answer.

He still seemed undecided.

“Sir, this is a law firm. If you’ve been subjected to unfair demands, we can help you resolve them.”

Kang Minjae began to persuade him.

No one could follow him when it came to throwing things out there first.

I took my eyes off Kang Minjae, who was sticking close to the owner and adding words, and met the owner’s eyes.

“Are you worried about losing Blue Island Media, a big client?”

“…”

“We can help you with that too. Isn’t that right, Director?”

I looked at the assistant director.

Before the print shop owner arrived at the office, I had consulted with the assistant director in advance.

“Yes, we can help you. If you can’t maintain your relationship with Blue Island Media, do business with our film company. We’ll have more orders than Blue Island Media. I’ve already discussed it with the CEO.”

The assistant director’s film company received more investment for not appearing as a witness in the trial.

Anyway, the film company’s CEO, who was said to be his senior, was already angry at the abuse of power from the moment Blue Island Media said they would withdraw their investment because of such a thing.

The film company’s CEO was waiting until the investment came in, and then he was going to screw them over somehow.

He had already received the investment, so he didn’t care anymore.

“…”

The owner sighed.

And he remained silent for a long time.

“…Can you promise?”

“Yes?”

“I mean, can you promise you won’t say anything different later!”

“Don’t worry about that. It’s recorded, and this is a law firm.”

Kang Minjae said, emphasizing the words ‘law firm’.

The owner shouted, “Aish!” [exasperated sound] and rubbed his forehead.

“Those Blue Island Media bastards keep screwing me over every time we make a contract, so the unit price goes up every year, but they don’t give me the money! That’s why I was collecting their weaknesses. What power does a small printing house like ours have? No matter how much we appeal, they don’t listen, and they just say they’ll switch clients!”

The owner vented his anger.

“Then, how did you know that Jung Hyejin was plagiarizing those contest scripts and keep them?”

The owner, unable to contain his upset feelings and with his face flushed, answered readily.

“There’s a kid named Jimin among our employees who’s interested in scripts. I think she’s an aspiring writer.”

“Is it Ms. Ha Jimin?”

Taeshik, who had been quietly erasing his presence in the corner, chimed in.

He had been cowering because he was a major criminal who sold the owner’s USB for a cat, but suddenly his face lit up.

“Oh, yeah. Jimin. She’s been working with us for six years…”

One day, when Jung Hyejin’s drama aired, that employee, Ha Jimin, recognized it as the script they had printed last year.

But what they printed last year was not Jung Hyejin’s script, but an aspiring writer’s script submitted to the contest.

The owner, realizing that Jung Hyejin was plagiarizing the works that made it to the second round of selections, began to keep them whenever contest printing orders came in.

Then, he started comparing them with Jung Hyejin’s new dramas and collecting them one by one.

That work was helped by none other than Ha Jimin.

That’s how it accumulated and formed the files in the [P] folder.

One of them was Na Eunseong’s manuscript.

“But, if they find out that you’ve been collecting this all along, they might make an issue out of it… saying it’s illegal evidence.”

Kang Minjae said, as if suddenly remembering.

That part is not a problem.

“Blue Island, they usually say it’s a hassle to upload the manuscripts to the web hard drive again, so they just tell us to keep them. There are so many cases where they have us reprint things that have already been ordered.”

That was a fact that even Taeshik knew, so it was a publicly acknowledged matter between the two companies.

“If they try to use that against you, we’ll bring the unfair contracts where you lowered the printing prices due to their abuse of power to the surface and give Blue Island Media a public shaming.”

They were already going to be publicly shamed for repeated plagiarism, but if that was limited to Jung Hyejin’s solo actions and they cut off the tail, Blue Island Media would have a chance to recover.

They could change their name, stay quiet for a while, and then produce a new work.

But if this incident spread and led to abuse of power controversies, the situation would be different.

Because the first time the word ‘abuse of power’ appears might not be in the future, but right now.

“Then, Lawyer, we can file a request to reopen the trial with this and that old man’s notes.”

Kang Minjae said excitedly.

But I didn’t answer, and I picked up the USB and pondered for a moment.

“No, I think there might be a more interesting way.”