You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 75

[The country is in turmoil these days. The whole nation is abuzz with the sex scandal involving Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs, Ji Myung-ho. It feels like the entire Republic of Korea is suffering from measles.]

The radio playing in the car on the way to the office fills my ears.

The Republic of Korea in early March 2009 is still noisy.

Major news breaks almost daily, and the people lament the state of the nation.

Yesterday was the judgment day for the damages lawsuit filed by the victims of the ‘Jangmyeong High School Lee Hyuk-min’ case.

Only a few months ago, the whole country was talking about this case, but yesterday’s report on the verdict was just a few lines in a box article in Iljung Daily.

I wasn’t particularly disappointed.

Originally, interest in a case gradually decreases in the order of introduction, development, turn, and conclusion.

In fact, by the time it reaches the conclusion, it’s safe to say that almost no one really knows about it.

Cases are covered up by other cases.

As always.

[To those of you who are tired of the Ji Myung-ho gate story, let’s briefly change the subject. Ah, of course, this may also be a somewhat tiring topic. This was also a hot potato last winter.

So, the Jangmyeong High School case. Do you listeners remember? Lee Hyuk-min, who was at the center of the Jangmyeong High School exam paper leak and school violence, received disposition No. 10, equivalent to long-term commitment to a juvenile detention center, at the juvenile court held last month.

Our Ten News also covered the case in depth.

But, it is said that this case is not completely over? Yesterday, March 2, the opening day of elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide, two victim students who suffered school violence from Lee Hyuk-min won a lawsuit for damages.

The verdict was that 5 million won [approximately $4,000 USD] should be paid to plaintiff A and 11 million won [approximately $8,500 USD] to plaintiff B.

It may have been the best judgment within the bounds of the law, but it must have been a wound that could not be healed even with billions of won for the victim students.

Let’s take listener opinions.

9612, the School Violence Act must be revised. It seems like there are many problems in the current state. You said.

Yes, in fact, this case was under the influence of the Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against School Violence, which was completely revised in 2008. But it still seems insufficient, right?

In particular, this case was even more shocking because it occurred under the tacit approval of the principal, using the status of the son of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education superintendent.

2091, my child is a high school student, and I was so shocked when I saw the news about that case. You said.

Ah, I’m sure you were. My niece is also a high school student…]

In this situation where the ‘Ji Myung-ho Gate’ is a mess, I didn’t expect there would be a broadcast reporting the results of Lee Hyuk-min’s civil trial.

It might be unfortunate for Lee Hyuk-min’s side, who thought their story was finally buried thanks to Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs, Ji Myung-ho.

Yesterday, the day of the civil trial verdict, Lee Hyuk-min did not appear in court, but I heard that he was behaving very well in the juvenile detention center.

He may not be repenting, but he seems to be trying to get parole.

And before the civil trial, the superintendent of education dismissed the law firm Jang Young’s defense team a week before the appeal trial.

Perhaps he thought Jang Young was incompetent after seeing his son receive disposition No. 10.

Jang Young ended up getting mud on their face for nothing, so I guess there will be a lot of cursing about me when I go to the legal community again.

I parked in front of the office and was about to go into the cafe on the first floor when the phone suddenly rang.

“Yes, this is Cha Ju-han.”

-Prosecutor Prosecutor Cha. So, you left the prosecutor’s office and are living well on your own, huh?

A pleasant woman’s voice.

It’s Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin, who used to use the room next door when I was a prosecutor.

“It’s been a while, Senior Prosecutor.”

-It has been a while. Sigh, our Prosecutor Cha, no, Attorney Cha, I couldn’t even send a wreath to your opening. I’m sorry. It’s been almost a year since I contacted you. Why does time fly so fast? I keep forgetting to call, even though I keep thinking I should.

“It’s okay. I didn’t even have an opening ceremony.”

-Still. No, there was a rumor that if anyone sent a wreath to Attorney Cha’s opening ceremony, the chief would not let them off. So, I was being careful. Please forgive me just this once.

“Is that so?”

It was before I took on the Kim Hyung-joon case and attacked my own family, but it seems like they had been grinding their teeth since then.

Well, I did push back a bit before I left.

-He’s so petty, that guy.

Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin whispered.

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

When I was serving Hwang Young-chan in my previous life, he didn’t act narrow-mindedly towards me, so I didn’t really know about that.

I thought I had developed a good eye for people while digging into Wooshin back then, but I guess I trusted Hwang Young-chan too much since he was the first person I met as soon as I started my legal career.

I was touched by the way he called me regularly even when I was in the Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office, and even came down to buy me meals.

Was it because I had no one to lean on after losing my father?

-Anyway, Attorney Cha, you’re becoming more and more famous? You’re going to live a long life, really. You’re getting cursed by the bucketload. This time, you’re attacking the superintendent of education.

“I didn’t attack the superintendent of education, I attacked his son, Lee Hyuk-min.”

-You’re funny. People who know roughly know. It’s being hushed up, but in the prosecutor’s office, it’s said that you and Yoon Se-yeon, who they used to ignore, are a perfect match and did this together.

“Think what you want.”

-My husband also talks about Attorney Cha. He’s at Jang Young.

“Ah, that’s right.”

-The person who defended the superintendent of education this time seems to be a classmate of my husband. He was terribly scolded by the representative after being dismissed and was making a fuss about killing Cha Ju-han?

“The sparks flew in the wrong direction. It was wrong to defend such a person in the first place.”

-How can a salaried lawyer be picky about that? Anyway, Attorney Cha must be happy. You can work comfortably in your own office. Let’s meet up sometime soon. With Attorney Kang.

“Yes, that would be great.”

-Attorney Cha, you’re buying. You’ve made a lot of money. I need to see Attorney Cha’s face and find peace of mind after a long time. Ugh, why are my kids so ugly? It’s so annoying. I don’t feel like going to work.

I could almost hear Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin’s voice, saying that she comes to work to see my face whenever she’s bored.

-Ah, I have to go in. There are so many cases, so many. I’m so tired of it. Let’s set the date later.

“Yes, please do. Go in.”

-Okay, bye~.

After hanging up, I went up to the office and saw Kang Min-jae, who had come to work earlier, staring blankly at the calendar on the wall.

I wondered if he didn’t even know I was coming in, so I clapped next to his ear.

“Ah, geez, you scared me! Aish, seriously. You surprised me.”

“What are you so lost in thought about?”

“No, Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin called today and said she wanted to meet up. She said she wanted to see the three of us, so I was looking at when would be a good time.”

It seems she called Kang Min-jae before me.

“You can decide that later.”

“That’s true. Now, the most important task for us is to decide what to eat for lunch today.”

Kang Min-jae said with a grin.

With Park Jin-cheol’s case completely closed, there is no longer any work that requires a lot of focus in the office.

I did quite a bit of consultation while proceeding with Jin-cheol’s case, and I did receive a few cases, but they were not very demanding.

In fact, they were even reluctant to entrust them to us, but they were persuaded by Kang Min-jae.

We are still just a small neighborhood law office, but people seem to be intimidated after searching online before coming.

Everyone who came for consultation asked, ‘It’s smaller than I thought,’ ‘Is it just the two of you? I thought there would be a lot of staff,’ ‘Is it very expensive here?’

Every time, Kang Min-jae held on to their pants, saying that we also handle a lot of small cases.

I thought he only wanted to handle big cases, but it seems like any case that can get money is good.

“We need to start marketing again. Ah, it would be nice if we could do corporate advisory or something.”

“Do you have any knowledge in that area?”

“No, well. I can study, right? I’ve already studied some. And we did well in copyright law even though we had no experience.”

“Okay, grow up to be an all-rounder and become independent someday.”

When I said, shaking my head, Kang Min-jae shouted.

“Again! Again! I thought you wouldn’t say that anymore, but you’re telling me to leave again?”

“No, I mean that you seem to have big dreams, so I’m telling you to achieve those dreams.”

Kang Min-jae glared at me and turned on his laptop.

He’s pretending to work by clicking on various things, but he’s probably playing Minesweeper.

“Let’s eat sweet and sour pork and drink Chinese liquor for lunch, like we talked about last time.”

“Daytime drinking?”

“Why, you don’t like it?”

“No. I love it. How about calling Tae-shik and eating together? He helped a lot with the Lee Bin case.”

“Call him, then.”

Kang Min-jae, who was about to pick up his phone, suddenly stopped.

“Attorney. Do you know someone named Jung Young-joon?”

“Jung Young-joon? Chairman Go Sang-kyung’s son-in-law.”

“Chairman Go Sang-kyung? Was that the Wooshin Group?”

“No, Wooshin Group Chairman Go Sang-joon’s younger brother.”

“Ah, Yangjin Group. Jung Young-joon is the son-in-law of that self-made chaebol [family-owned conglomerate], right?”

“That’s right.”

Kang Min-jae looked at me with wide eyes, as if surprised.

Seeing his expression, I suddenly had a thought and checked the date.

March 3, 2009.

It’s not long after the Ji Myung-ho gate broke out.

Then…

“Jung Young-joon’s sex video must have been released.”

I don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember that Go Sang-kyung’s son-in-law’s sex video was released around the spring of 2009, causing a stir.

Because of that, Jung Young-joon was kicked out of Yangjin Group empty-handed.

I remember it clearly because it’s about Yangjin Group, a subsidiary of Wooshin Group.

“How did you know? This is the first article, two minutes before it’s released?”

Kang Min-jae looked at me in surprise, and I shrugged my shoulders.

“I just guessed.”

“…How can you guess this? Reading the article, it says that the video has been circulating secretly even before the article was released? Attorney, you’ve seen this video, haven’t you?”

I did see it.

10 years ago.

“No, I haven’t?”

“Come on, you have? This is unbelievably lewd, they say?”

“…”

“I’ll read the comments to you. I saw this video, and looking at Jung Young-joon’s picture, it seems to be him. But he looks like a pervert. I was really shocked after seeing it. I thought that kind of thing only happened in porn, but I was shocked that he actually does that kind of XX. Is it because he has a lot of money?”

Thinking about it, that seems to be the case.

I didn’t watch the video properly, I just checked his face when Manager Oh showed it to me, asking if it looked like Jung Young-joon.

Well, I think there was something like a whip.

“Attorney, you’re a pervert.”

“What are you talking about right now.”

“…To watch something like this. You pretended to be so clean, but it was all made up. Do you think it makes sense that you guessed it? Seriously. Anyone can see that you saw this video in advance when it was circulating. You pretended to be so clean, but you were a complete fraud.”

I was speechless.

As I looked at him as if I was dumbfounded, Kang Min-jae put his hand on his forehead and lowered his head.

“Ah, it makes me so curious when they say that. But I’m a lawyer. Watching something like that is secondary victimization. Let’s not look it up. Let’s not look it up.”

Kang Min-jae put his hand on his forehead and muttered as if he were chanting a spell.

“I’m different from a perverted lawyer. Maybe this is Jung Young-joon being used to bury the Ji Myung-ho gate and divert public attention elsewhere. I am Kang Min-jae, a Korean lawyer who adheres to morality and law.”

After muttering like that for a while, he stood up with a refreshed face.

“I’ll call Tae-shik and come back.”

Saying that, he looked down at me with a subtle smile on his face.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at me for a long time.

I sighed and opened a book, but I could even feel the heat from the gaze pouring down on my head.

“I said no.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Kang Min-jae answered mechanically and went out to the veranda.

And as soon as the veranda door closed, I could hear Kang Min-jae’s laughter, which he seemed to have been holding back.

I was annoyed.