Chapter 19

School Bully Han Tae-seong (1)

The rich aroma of coffee.

The only menial task Park Dong-yeop performed in this office was brewing coffee. Originally, even that had been Manager Choi Yu-gyeong's responsibility, but one day he had become obsessed with hand-drip coffee and insisted on doing it himself.

“Attorney Park.”

“Yes, Manager Choi.”

“Are you really going to be all right with this?”

“With what?”

Choi Yu-gyeong glanced toward a corner of the office.

A desk and partition hastily purchased secondhand. It was Bareum's workspace.

“Why? Do you not like having so many people crowded into such a small space?”

“No, you know perfectly well that's not what I'm talking about.”

“Don't worry about the money. We've got the fee from CEO Kang's case coming in. And I'll be appearing on television again soon······.”

It had already been seventeen years since law schools were established in this country.

Older adults still considered being a 'lawyer' a prestigious profession, but reality was quite different. With thousands of new attorneys entering the profession every year, running a tiny practice with one lawyer and one office manager, without graduating from a top-tier law school or having a major law firm's name behind you, was no different from being self-employed.

“Attorney Park.”

Choi Yu-gyeong let out a short sigh before continuing.

“You know perfectly well I'm not talking about money or space. Yes, I know you feel indebted to that boy. I understand why you kept going all the way down to Gimcheon to visit him. But that doesn't mean you have to go so far as to give him a place in the office. To be frank, Attorney Park, seeing that boy makes you uncomfortable every time, doesn't it?”

The stream of water from the drip kettle, which had been moving in circles over the coffee grounds, faltered for a moment.

“Uncomfortable······. Yes, well, that's true. After all, I suffered such an utterly ridiculous defeat. I got a seventeen-year-old kid who avenged his parents and sibling a sentence of four to eight years. Anyone would call that sheer incompetence, wouldn't they?”

“Incompetence? Anyone else would have struggled to get a better result. You worked incredibly hard on that case, Attorney Park. Public opinion was on your side too.”

“That's right. Thanks to a few passionate speeches, I gained this image as a righteous, hot-blooded court-appointed attorney and started getting invited onto television programs. It's thanks to that case that someone like me, who didn't even graduate from law school, can run a respectable business under my own name.”

“Attorney Park······.”

“But I'm not doing this simply because I feel indebted to him. I genuinely want that boy to live a good life from now on. If enduring a little discomfort on my part can make someone's life better, isn't that discomfort worth putting up with? Especially when that person is the benefactor of my own life? Don't you agree, Manager Choi?”

“Well, that's······.”

Just as Choi Yu-gyeong was about to answer,

—Jingle.

The bell attached to the office entrance rang.

Dong-yeop and Choi Yu-gyeong both turned toward the entrance.

A neat shirt and trousers. And a black backpack.

It was Jeong Bareum, a twenty-one-year-old ex-convict whose face had yet to lose all its youthful appearance.

“Good morning.”

“Oh, Bareum. Want some coffee?”

“No, thank you. I'm not very good with bitter things.”

“Sure. There are some sweet drinks in the break room, so help yourself whenever you want. Now then, Manager Choi. Our part-timer's here, so let's get to work with renewed energy. Give Bareum some suitable tasks to handle. You've been incredibly busy lately, haven't you?”

Choi Yu-gyeong nodded with an unmistakably displeased expression.

“Yes, understood.”

________________

A part-time job at a law office.

It was a far cry from the legal profession depicted in television dramas. Well, that was only natural. The characters in those dramas were all lawyers, at the very least. Naturally, their lives were about ten billion light-years removed from the daily routine of a part-timer who had dropped out of middle school and obtained his high school equivalency certificate.

“Now then, Bareum, first label these documents by case, sorting them chronologically by year and date, and organize them in the cabinets. Once you're done, put the documents with blue sticky notes over there through the shredder. The ones with red sticky notes are for submission to the court, so make three copies of each and leave them on my desk. Can you manage that?”

The office manager's gaze was sharp.

She looked as though she was convinced I would cause some kind of trouble.

“Don't be too nervous. I'll check the copies once more before going to court anyway, so just make sure nothing gets mixed up. But only shred the ones marked in blue. If you accidentally destroy the wrong originals, the two of us might end up working all night trying to find replacements. So make absolutely sure to check everything two or three times.”

“Yes, I'll keep that in mind.”

I returned to my seat and began rapidly sorting the documents.

It was nothing more than simple manual labor, but when I thought about how horrific tragedies that had destroyed people's lives could be summarized in just a few sheets of A4 paper, it seemed remarkably fitting for the 'law.'

At the same time, these piles of documents were also the traces left behind by evildoers trying to escape the law and virtuous people crushed beneath it. A place where potential subjects for my scales gathered of their own accord, without my having to go out and search for them. That was the most practical reason I had volunteered for this part-time job in the first place.

As I mechanically checked the case titles and dates on the covers and labeled the documents, my gaze stopped on one particular file.

[Case: Abandoned Building Rooftop Fall Resulting in Death Following Assault]

[Suspect: Lee Ji-hun (17)]

It was the very case I had noticed in Attorney Park Dong-yeop's office yesterday.

For reasons I couldn't explain, it had strangely caught my attention ever since. Ah, perhaps it was because the suspect, Lee Ji-hun, was seventeen. The same age I had been when I pulled the trigger in court.

According to the police report, it was an impulsive killing that occurred following an argument between classmates. The witness statements from the other classmates present at the scene were also extremely straightforward, and the case had been referred to the prosecution without any particular reason for further suspicion.

“What? Were you looking at Lee Ji-hun's case?”

“Ah, no. It just caught my eye while I was organizing the files.”

“Why? Did it remind you of yourself?”

“Not exactly. I was just thinking that this kid would end up going to Gimcheon too.”

“······.”

The attorney fell into thought for a moment.

“What was Gimcheon like? No, what's the point of asking? Of course it must have been terrible.”

“Yes, well······.”

“You have no idea how worried I was every time I heard about another incident there. I kept wondering whether it involved you. Seriously, what is that place, some kind of lawless territory? Why are there so many incidents? Its incident rate seemed to be at least twice the national prison average.”

There was no particular need to mention who was responsible for that incident rate right now.

“Yes, well. They're all hot-blooded youngsters, so quite a few things happened.”

“Right. Ah!! Come to think of it······.”

His words trailed off, and he soon shook his head.

“Ah, never mind. What am I thinking? Hurry up and finish that work, then sit down and study. Why did Manager Choi give the kid so much to do? She should've just given you a few simple chores and let you study.”

“No, it's fine. More importantly, is there something you need my help with? Like telling Lee Ji-hun some vivid firsthand stories about how dangerous Gimcheon is?”

!?

Attorney Park Dong-yeop's eyes widened.

“How did you know?”

“Well, I could tell just by looking at this. He admitted to what he'd done so readily during the police investigation, and he isn't making any particular effort to reduce his sentence. This is exactly the kind of case you find heartbreaking, isn't it?”

“Just like you?”

“Yes, just like me when I said I wouldn't appeal.”

“······.”

“Besides, there are still eleven months until the college entrance exam. I wanted to work here partly for the money, but also because I wanted to help you if there was anything I could do. I doubt I'd be much help, but if there's something I can do, I'd like to try.”

“Could you make Gimcheon sound as frightening as possible?”

“Yes. At the very least, I think I can describe it more vividly than your analogy about threatening someone with death.”

“Hey, that's······ Damn it. All right. I'd appreciate your help.”

____________

The boy Lee Ji-hun's eyes were hollow.

For someone as sensitive as Attorney Park Dong-yeop, those eyes were enough to remind him of a certain boy from four years ago.

“Ji-hun, say hello. This is Jeong Bareum. He's an employee who's recently started helping me.”

“Jeong Bareum. If we're being precise, I suppose I'm something like your senior.”

“Senior?”

The question 'What on earth does that mean?' was written plainly in his eyes.

“It's nothing special. I was sitting where you are about four years ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don't know if you've heard about it. There was a crazy high school student who fired a gun in court.”

“Don't tell me?”

“Yes, that was me.”

For the first time, surprise appeared on Lee Ji-hun's otherwise expressionless face. Of course, it lasted only a moment. He soon returned to his original blank expression.

“Did the attorney ask you to persuade me because you've been in my position before? If that's the case, it's no use. I killed my friend. So I'll accept my punishment without complaint.”

An overwhelming sense of self-loathing.

I abruptly rose from my seat and leaned across the table toward him. I placed my hand over his, whose skin was dry and cracked from the cold air around the desk.

“Accept your punishment without complaint, you say.”

They were truly bitter words.

Because none of the 'real' evildoers who had triggered my scales so far had ever said anything like that.

“Who decides what punishment you deserve?”

“Pardon?”

“The government told me that the murderer who killed my entire family was deeply remorseful, so he should spend four years in prison.”

His eyes wavered.

“I don't know exactly what you've done wrong. But there's one thing I know for certain. Whatever you did, it can never be forgiven simply because those solemn gentlemen sitting up there, swinging their gavels, handed down a punishment. At the very least, that's not how I felt when I was the victim.”

“······.”

My voice gradually grew more emotional.

I had thought I'd forgotten everything, but the moment I spoke of that day four years ago, a fierce rage surged up from deep within my chest once again.

“You think going to Gimcheon will atone for your crime? Don't make me laugh. You think something like that counts as genuine atonement? Beg. Beg for forgiveness, and keep begging. Even if the other person says they can't forgive you, keep begging.”

“But the person I should beg for forgiveness is already······.”

“Dead? Yes, I know. But do you think your dead friend is the only person you owe an apology to? The parents who lost their precious child in an instant. The younger sibling who lost a dependable older brother. The grandparents who lost a grandchild they treasured more than anything. Every single one of them is someone you should beg for forgiveness until your hands and feet are worn raw. What? You'll accept your punishment without complaint? Don't make me laugh. A human life has been lost. Do you seriously think spending four or five measly years in prison can pay for that?”

A passionate outburst laden with emotion.

The boy's face turned deathly pale.

“B-Bareum.”

“P-please, just leave. I don't want to talk anymore. Officer!! Officer!! I want to end this visit. Right now!!”

The boy sprang to his feet as though having a seizure and shouted toward the closed door.

Soon, the correctional officer waiting outside opened the door and entered.

That marked the end of today's visit.

On the way back to the office,

Attorney Park Dong-yeop, who had been driving in silence for some time, let out a heavy sigh and spoke.

“Bareum.”

“I'm sorry, Attorney Park.”

“No, no. I'm the one who should apologize. I dragged you into something like this and stirred up your old wounds.”

“My wounds?”

“Well, you see······.”

I shook my head.

“Ah, if that's what you mean, it's fine. It doesn't bother me anymore. I was just putting on a bit of an act.”

“An act?”

“You said you didn't want that kid sent to Gimcheon, didn't you? Even to me, Lee Ji-hun looks exactly like the kind of kid who'd become everyone's errand boy wherever he went. If someone like him goes to Gimcheon, he'll really die. According to the case records, although it's classified as assault resulting in death, the two were fighting, and he accidentally pushed his friend off the building, causing a fatal fall. If he simply shows genuine remorse, he probably won't end up in Gimcheon. Isn't that right?”

“Y-yeah······. That's right, isn't it?”

“So that's why. That's why I did it.”

Attorney Park nodded with a bewildered expression.

Of course, he still looked half-convinced that my anger had truly been nothing more than an act.

“Anyway, good work. Certainly, if Ji-hun shows genuine remorse, just as you said······.”

It was an interesting case.

Although his idea of atonement was limited to the kind of thinking one might expect from a seventeen-year-old boy, Lee Ji-hun's confession that he had killed his friend was undoubtedly sincere.

Yet surprisingly, Resonance of Sin hadn't reacted to this boy who openly admitted to killing someone. What exactly could that mean?

“Should I reorganize the case records and leave them on your desk when we get back to the office?”

“Yeah, sure. I'd appreciate that.”

Perhaps······ perhaps an opportunity to obtain the third fragment had arrived much sooner than I'd expected.

The attorney's luxury sedan moved with remarkable smoothness.

“By the way, Bareum, have you thought about getting a driver's license?”

“No. For the time being, I plan to focus on studying for the college entrance exam.”

“Really? Of course, that makes sense. Yes, that's exactly what you should do.”

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

Thank you!!