Chapter 24

Then What About Lee Ji-hun?

“Mm-hmm, hmm-hmm.”

The rich aroma of coffee spread through the office along with Attorney Park Dong-yeop's humming.

Normally, I wondered why anyone would drink that bitter black water, but when I smelled the aroma, I found myself just a little tempted.

“Attorney Park, did something good happen?”

“Ah, Manager Choi. You see, when I came to work this morning, normally, after I leave my house, if I catch the first traffic light and drive at forty kilometers per hour, I always get stopped at the second light, without fail. No, seriously, the speed limit is forty, so does it make any sense to set it up so that if you actually drive at forty, you immediately get caught at the next light? That's why everyone drives at fifty, you know? But you know me. I never speed. I think they probably set the timing back when the speed limit used to be fifty. Anyway, I filed a ton of complaints with the district office about it. Maybe that's why? Today, I was driving at forty again, and would you believe it, I just passed right through. Ah!! Justice is still alive in the Republic of Korea. The Republic of Korea is still a country worth living in. That's what I felt. Hahahahaha.”

I had only tossed out a casual question because he was humming so cheerfully, yet an excessively long answer came pouring out. Manager Choi Yu-gyeong, whose hands still hadn't left the keyboard, spoke again.

“Attorney Park.”

“Hm?”

“You really want to be on television more often, don't you? You're just dying to talk, aren't you?”

“······Was I talking a little too much?”

“Yes, a lot.”

Even after that light jab, Attorney Park Dong-yeop laughed heartily in good spirits and took a sip of coffee.

After watching Park Dong-yeop for several days, I had to admit he was a remarkably strange sort of person. He grew angrier at the system than anyone else, yet tried harder than anyone to preserve it, while at the same time sparing no effort to change it. What a contradictory human being.

—Whirrr, whirrr.

The sound of the shredder running came out at regular intervals.

There were quite a few documents to shred today.

And between those dry grinding sounds, the voice of the morning news anchor from the wall-mounted television cut in.

[Good morning, viewers. Our first story this morning concerns a shocking reversal in the recent case involving the fatal fall of a high school student from an abandoned building in Ansan.]

Ansan, abandoned building, teenage high school student, fatal fall.

Keywords that were far too familiar flowed from the news anchor's mouth.

Park Dong-yeop, who had been leisurely tilting his coffee cup only moments ago, suddenly froze. Manager Choi Yu-gyeong, who had been tapping away at her keyboard, also stopped for a moment and raised her head.

[Police had originally planned to refer the case as ‘assault resulting in death,’ concluding that Student Y had impulsively pushed his friend during an argument between classmates. However, early this morning, another classmate, Student H, who had been present at the scene, appeared at a police substation and confessed that he had orchestrated the entire incident, prompting a full reinvestigation.]

“Wait a minute, Manager Choi. This is our case, isn't it?”

“Yes, teenage high school student falls to his death at an abandoned building in Ansan. If they're saying Student Y committed assault resulting in death, it sounds like our case.”

“The case file. Give me the case file. And call the police station. No, wait. Can we even get through to the station right now?”

“If we can't, I'll make it happen. Even if I have to find another way besides calling the station.”

The atmosphere in the once-relaxed office changed in an instant.

“Here is the case file for the Ansan abandoned building rooftop fall and assault resulting in death.”

“Thank you, Bareum. Attorney Park, here's the case file.”

“Thanks. I'm going to check this quickly, so Manager Choi, make the call.”

“Yes.”

“Manager, I'll call the police station.”

“Will you? Then put Attorney Park on as soon as you get through.”

I picked up the office phone and dialed the number of the detective in charge that the manager had given me.

Naturally, the line was busy.

By now, every phone in the entire station was probably ringing nonstop from reporters.

“The line is busy. I'll try some of the other detectives.”

As I reported dryly and dialed other numbers, the television screen switched to another scene.

CCTV footage from outside a police substation in Ansan. The image was mosaicked, but the figure crawling across the ground was still grotesque enough.

[At the time of his surrender, Student H was found to have suffered a severe spinal fracture and complete paralysis of the lower body, forcing him to crawl into the police substation across the floor. During questioning, he stated that ‘he had brutally assaulted both victims and threatened the terrified Student Y into forcibly pushing the victim.’ Witnesses also stated that he sobbed and begged officers to please lock him in prison.]

Park Dong-yeop's hand, which had been rapidly flipping through the documents, stopped for a moment.

“He crawled in with complete lower-body paralysis······ and begged them to lock him in prison?”

[Regarding this case, a criminal law expert stated, “An act committed under irresistible violence, harm, or threats against which there is no means of defense is not punishable,” and assessed the possibility of Student Y being found innocent as high. As for Student H, the expert explained that “because he effectively committed murder by using his friend entirely as a tool, he would qualify as what is known as an ‘indirect perpetrator’ and would likely face punishment effectively equivalent to murder.”]

“Attorney Park. I've got Detective Kim Dae-myeong on the line.”

Park Dong-yeop hurriedly took the receiver I held out.

“Ah, Detective Kim. This is Park Dong-yeop. I just saw the news. Han Tae-seong turned himself in? No, what on earth suddenly happened?”

The detective's exhausted voice faintly leaked from the receiver.

Just as Park Dong-yeop furrowed his brow and focused on the call, the anchor's urgent voice once again cut sharply through the office.

[However, this case does not appear likely to end as a simple case of juvenile delinquency. The father of Student H, who turned himself in, has been identified as Mr. H, a former enforcer captain for a criminal organization active in the Ansan area. Overnight, a gruesome murder and group assault occurred at a nearby billiard hall.]

Park Dong-yeop's gaze reflexively turned toward the television.

Footage showed the entrance of a billiard hall cordoned off with police tape and bloodied injured men being carried out on stretchers.

[All fourteen people found at the scene were transported to hospitals with severe injuries involving badly fractured joints, while Mr. H himself was confirmed dead at the scene with his cervical vertebrae completely crushed. Police are focusing on the fact that the victims' unusual injuries bear a strong resemblance to those seen in the recent ‘Medical Student Torture-Murder Case’ currently being pursued by the Special Investigation Headquarters, and are expanding the investigation while considering the possibility that the same perpetrator was responsible.]

“······Detective. I'm watching KBC News right now. Is it true that Han Tae-seong turned himself in begging to be saved while paralyzed from the waist down?”

Attorney Park Dong-yeop's voice had gone stiff as he spoke on the phone.

[Haah······. Yes, Attorney. It's exactly as you just saw. Han Tae-seong didn't turn himself in. He ran to us begging to be saved. The entire Ansan station is in chaos right now. So we're seriously overwhelmed at the moment. We'll summon Lee Ji-hun again from our side, so let's meet then.]

“Ah······ Yes. Understood. Thank you for your work.”

Click.

Park Dong-yeop put the receiver back in place and rubbed his face dryly with both hands.

“Ha, fuck. Seriously······.”

The television continued repeatedly showing the chaotic billiard hall and gangsters being carried away on stretchers.

A slightly uncomfortable silence.

Manager Choi Yu-gyeong was the first to break it. As always, she spoke in a dry tone.

“I'll just shred the appeal documents we'd been preparing for Lee Ji-hun's case.”

“Yes, please do.”

After answering, Attorney Park Dong-yeop roughly pulled down his tie and sank into the sofa.

“What the hell is this······.”

Irritation? Or perhaps emptiness.

Manager Choi, who had resumed tapping at her keyboard, glanced up at him.

“You don't seem very pleased.”

“Of course I'm not.”

As though he had been waiting for Manager Choi Yu-gyeong to ask, Attorney Park Dong-yeop quickly opened his mouth.

“I think I've said something similar before, but cases should never be resolved this way.”

“Because vigilantism is wrong?”

“Exactly!!”

Manager Choi Yu-gyeong's gaze briefly passed over me.

“But realistically speaking, justice was served because of it. Otherwise, our client would've gone to prison despite being innocent, and you would've dragged the case all the way to the Supreme Court trying desperately to get his sentence reduced. To be frank, the only person punished here was the villain, and everyone else ended up happy. Isn't that right?”

Attorney Park Dong-yeop firmly shook his head.

“That's true. It was clearly police incompetence. And judging solely by the result, this case was resolved extremely well. But even so, we must obey the law.”

“Yes, yes. You're about to start talking about Leviathan again, aren't you? Sure, I understand that's the ideal. But reality is different. For example, you said earlier that you absolutely never speed on that forty-kilometer road, right? But suppose Bareum or I were dying. You'd speed then.”

“······Yes, of course I would. Someone's life would be at stake. I'd probably run red lights too. But the law itself would sufficiently understand circumstances like that. It certainly doesn't mean routinely doing such things is right.”

“The law may be wrong, but you still have to obey it. But depending on the situation, even I might break it. However, breaking it is still wrong in principle, so you people must never do it. Isn't that a little too hypocritical?”

Attorney Park Dong-yeop looked at me with slight surprise when I suddenly entered the conversation.

Then he nodded.

“Hypocrisy. Yeah. It is hypocrisy. You're right.”

A brief silence.

Attorney Park Dong-yeop continued.

“The best thing is to be good. But Bareum, after living for thirty-five years, I've realized something. I'm not a good person. This is a rather painful confession to make about myself, but I'm materialistic, and I'm a petty man who can't easily turn away from my own interests.”

“······Well, you don't have to criticize yourself quite that much.”

“So I thought about it. Or perhaps you could say I compromised. I'll at least keep the line that I'm capable of keeping. And if I do something wrong, I won't pretend it wasn't wrong. Hypocrisy is worse than goodness. But isn't it still better than openly committing evil?”

A bitter smile.

I opened my mouth again.

“Attorney Park. But that law telling people to drive forty kilometers per hour. The law that charges a forty-thousand-won fine when you break it. What if that law was made by people who can pay forty thousand won without caring? How long are we supposed to just keep watching people who break it constantly?”

“······.”

“Will everything truly be solved if we keep filing complaints like you and merely change the timing of the traffic lights? Don't we also need to show the people who can casually pay forty thousand won that if they keep crossing the line like that, eventually something serious might happen?”

Attorney Park Dong-yeop gave no answer to my words.

Was it because he had no logic with which to refute them?

Or was it consideration on his part, fearing that this conversation might cut too deeply into my past and hurt me?

The heavy silence lingered in the office for quite some time.

And the one who broke it was Manager Choi Yu-gyeong.

“Ah, but there's one thing I don't quite understand about that dark hero. Why did he cripple Han Tae-seong like that but simply let the other kids go? Strictly speaking, they were accomplices too.”

“Who knows? I'm not sure, but perhaps he has some kind of personal standards or convictions.”

“Convictions? Attorney Park, you talk like you absolutely hate that dark hero, but maybe you don't dislike him quite as much as you claim?”

“No, I dislike him. It's just that criminals of that type often do have their own convictions. Regardless of whether those convictions are right or wrong. The question is how long he'll be able to maintain those convictions, just as I sometimes bend my back before reality.”

Manager Choi Yu-gyeong nodded.

“Ah!! And looking at it, there's one more thing I'm curious about. Then is there any chance that dark hero might come after our client Ji-hun? Even if he was coerced, our client was still the one who actually carried it out.”

“I'm not sure······.”

“Personally, I don't think so.”

“Hm? Bareum, why do you think that?”

“Because the targets that dark hero punishes seem quite clear to me. People who mock the net of the law as they slip through it, or people whom the law arbitrarily forgives. But Ji-hun admitted his crime himself and willingly stood before the judgment of the law. In that case, he wouldn't fit the dark hero's justification or standards.”

____________

A billiard hall in Ansan.

The entrance was chaotically cordoned off with yellow police tape.

Two large men wearing worn leather jackets ducked beneath the police tape and entered. The floor was covered in bloodstains and vomit scattered everywhere.

“Ugh, the smell. This is really strong.”

“Sure is.”

Park Chang-su pinched his nose as he looked around the crime scene.

Gu Dae-cheol, on the other hand, stood rooted in one spot, staring at the scene.

“Chang-su.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“Go get the case transferred to us. This one is ours.”

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

This is the first time the subtitle format has changed.

Tomorrow will continue with the Breakthrough arc.

Thank you!!