CI 1.2

The start of his day was bewildering in various ways. Yeo-il checked the address again to make sure he had come to the right place and paced in front of the entrance, wondering whether to contact the head attorney.

And precisely at 9 o’clock, a woman who appeared to be in his mid-40s was unlocking the office door when she noticed Yeo-il.

“Ah, the new attorney starting today! Oh my, the boss should have told me you were such a looker—I would have at least drawn on my eyebrows before coming.”

She had her hair completely wrapped up in a thick headband made of towel-like material and wore a loose dress. Since the only attorneys here were the head attorney Bae Gi-dong and Yeo-il, she must be the office staff.

She looked quite different from the doll-like secretaries Yeo-il had seen at large law firms during his studies, but her friendly and straightforward impression was reassuring. Yeo-il bowed his head with a shy smile.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Son Yeo-il.”

“You’re here early, Attorney Son. Then from tomorrow, you can open the office door. I’ll need to make a copy of the key for you. Let’s see, where’s the key… Oh, look at me. More importantly.”

She handed Yeo-il a thick stack of papers from the desk.

“This case has a court date next week, and the opposing counsel submitted a preparatory brief the week before last. The boss said we need to submit a rebuttal brief by tomorrow.”

“What? By tomorrow?”

“Yes. These are the case files, and these are the materials provided by the client, so you need to draft an outline by this afternoon and get approval. Over there, that’s your desk.”

She pushed the dazed Yeo-il toward a shabby desk in the corner of the office.

“You brought your laptop! Good thinking. Use that. There’s a desktop over there, but it’s so old it’s practically useless.”

“So… I need to write a draft brief by this afternoon?”

“Yes. The boss said it’s a simple one.”

Even a simple brief was a big mission for a complete novice who had just started work today. Feeling overwhelmed about where to begin, he wanted to seek advice first.

“Will the boss be here soon?”

At Yeo-il’s naive question, the woman waved his hand with a light laugh.

“Soon? Not at all. The boss lives in Seoul, so on Mondays he doesn’t come in until the afternoon.”

That meant Yeo-il had to write the brief for the 380-million-won case by himself. Yeo-il felt dizzy but steeled his resolve. The boss would give final approval anyway, and despite appearances, Yeo-il had been an ace who never missed being top of his class at the country’s best law school.

‘Let’s do this. I’ve been through all sorts of things—there’s no reason I can’t handle this now. Just this morning, I had to scrape about a liter of semen from my behind.’

Oops. The thought that came to mind as he tried to gather his resolve was a slight mistake. He had momentarily forgotten that he had decided to treat that incident as something that never happened.

Yeo-il washed his face with his dry hands a couple of times, then diligently read through the case files. Fortunately, it was an even simpler case than expected, but it took considerable effort to organize since all the key issues were missing from the previously submitted complaint. It was actually a blessing to be busy, as it kept intrusive thoughts at bay.

By the time he completed the brief, skipping lunch in the process, the head attorney appeared at the office. Dressed in golf attire with a slight smell of alcohol, he joked around, making it unclear whether he had come to work or to play.

“Well, well, our new attorney is here. Manager Kim, did you greet Attorney Son? He’s quite the elite lawyer. He’s too talented to come down to this rural place.”

Yeo-il never dreamed he would become a novice lawyer at such a small office. After all his planned opportunities fell apart and he belatedly searched for a new job, this office, which offered the most money among available options, was his destination.

Though he had been pushed into coming here, Yeo-il didn’t think his choice was bad. There were hardly any Korea University Law School alumni who would come to this kind of rural area, and there were only a few law offices, so he wouldn’t have to get involved with people in the industry.

‘Thanks to that, I ended up entangled with someone who seems least related to the industry… No, does he even look like a potential client? No, nothing happened yesterday!’

Burying the chaos in his mind, Yeo-il submitted the brief he had just completed to his employer.

“I look forward to working with you, sir. I’ve drafted the brief you mentioned.”

His heart pounded as he waited to see how his first brief as a lawyer would be evaluated. Though Attorney Bae didn’t give the impression of being diligent, he must have considerable expertise after working in the field for decades.

He put on his multifocal glasses and scanned Yeo-il’s brief for about 20 seconds. Then he pointed out exactly three things.

“Attorney Son. First, the staple goes here, not on the side. About 1cm down from the top center. And indent each paragraph by two spaces throughout.”

“Ah, yes.”

“And… oh, here. In the last paragraph, it seems you pressed space twice, just delete one. Very, very good work, Attorney Son.”

Attorney Bae laughed heartily while patting Yeo-il’s shoulder.

‘Is that all? Comments about staple placement and spacing? What about content edits? Did he even check if the issues I identified were correct?’

Yeo-il waited for additional feedback, but Attorney Bae simply instructed him to file the brief with the court, then left again, mentioning an afternoon golf appointment.

‘What? Submit it to the court like this? But I’m just a trainee!’

While Yeo-il was trembling with anxiety, Manager Kim approached quietly and handed him a USB drive.

“Oh, the previous attorney asked me to give you these handover materials.”

Yeo-il grabbed it as if it were a straw and checked the contents. Among the various systematically classified materials, a txt file titled <To the next Attorney> caught his eye.

[Attorney Bae takes on any case indiscriminately and doesn’t do a damn thing. He leaves everything for the junior attorney to handle alone, then throws a fit when the win rate drops. Escape as soon as you find another position.]

The blunt message sent chills down his spine. Had coming to Yongju City been a completely wrong choice?

Attorney Bae Gi-dong’s office in Yongju City was as chaotic as his bad feeling suggested. The more case files he reviewed, the more he found cases that had been taken on haphazardly without considering the chances of winning or the office’s capacity, then handled carelessly.

The situation required overtime work daily, but the cases didn’t require exceptional knowledge or skills. Most were small cases that could be handled with simple procedures. Yeo-il’s accumulated qualifications might never be put to use.

‘Is this what it feels like to live out the rest of one’s life?’

Humans are ultimately creatures of adaptation, even with complaints. Monday again, a week since he started work. Yeo-il was managing reasonably well. Although it was a rural town where he needed to drive to the town center to visit a Starbucks, Yeo-il rarely bought expensive coffee anyway.

He liked not having to deal with many people. Attorney Bae was out most of the time except for the couple of times he met clients for consultations at the office, so he didn’t interfere with Yeo-il’s work, and Manager Kim ate lunch alone because she was on a diet. It was a decent work environment for Yeo-il, who had lost all his social energy after being pushed around near the end of law school.

Today too, Yeo-il’s face was dry and expressionless as he bought kimbap for lunch on his way to work.

Bzzt, bzzzzzt.

At least until the vibration of his phone broke the silence.

‘Here we go again.’

Yeo-il pressed and blocked the unknown number that appeared on his screen. This was the only thing disturbing his peace—contact from the gangster from his one-night stand.

He had thought their connection ended when he blocked his number, but that was a miscalculation. The very next day, a message came from another unknown number, but with a writing style as distinctive as a fingerprint.

[Baby, why aren’t you responding? Making me worry… Call me when you see this~~ The weather’s nice, wouldn’t it be good to go somewhere quiet and cozy for some freshwater snail stew? And eat something else while we’re at it^^* How about it?]

Wow. Damn.

Yeo-il shuddered and blocked that number too. Then this crazy guy began calling with about twenty different numbers. He seemed like someone who had been around the block, so it probably wasn’t his first one-night stand, but why was he suddenly clinging to Yeo-il?

Yeo-il had gone straight to the hospital for an STD test the day after rolling around with him. Receiving a clean result was at least a relief, but there were still restrictions on his life. Last weekend, Yeo-il was afraid of running into that man, so he couldn’t go to a bar and had to mix soju and beer at home.

‘It’ll stop after a while.’

There was no reason to worry too much about a lunatic’s strange whims. Yeo-il headed to the office with his kimbap.

Until about 10:30 a.m., he went through his regular morning routine. Yeo-il reviewed the files of cases that Attorney Bae had randomly taken on, while Manager Kim, like stagnant water, finished her tasks in no time and was surfing the web. Unusually, Attorney Bae had come in early, but he had just stopped by briefly before a lunch appointment.

“Well then, Attorney Son, good work today. I have a luncheon at the Chamber of Commerce, so I’ll be on my way…”

“Wait, sir! Boss Won said he’s coming for lunch today!”

“What? Boss Won? Oh dear, should I cancel my prior engagement?”

Wondering who this Boss Won was to cause such a reaction, Yeo-il looked toward Manager Kim, who, being quick-witted, mouthed ‘the building owner.’

“When is he coming?”

“Well, if he’s coming for lunch, probably around twelve or so?”

“Oh my. This is a problem. Let me see. The Chamber of Commerce contact…”

Judging by everyone’s panic, this building owner seemed to be quite the demanding type. Manager Kim, who had been flustering about, looked at her phone again and turned pale.

“Oh my goodness, Boss Won says he’s arriving now!”

This was followed by the elevator arrival sound and the entrance door opening. And a familiar voice.

“Well, well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen all of you?”

It was the glib voice that had made Yeo-il’s heart sink throughout the past week whenever it suddenly came to mind. It seemed that the gangster who had spent the night with Yeo-il was none other than Boss Won.

Could there be anyone as unlucky as him in this world? Yeo-il frantically looked around the office, but there was nowhere suitable to hide. Before he could do anything, Boss Won strode into the office and shook hands with Attorney Bae.

“Boss Won. Thank you for visiting despite your busy schedule.”

“Me? What could possibly keep me busy? Let’s see. Our Manager Kim… you’ve lost a lot of weight!”

“Oh my, I’ve only lost 1kg since this time last year, does it show?”

Manager Kim, who had been verbally committed to dieting for three years, burst out laughing at Boss Won’s joke. In the friendly atmosphere, Yeo-il stood awkwardly near the partition, trying to somehow avoid Boss Won’s notice.

“Attorney Son, it’s fine, come over here and say hello.”

Perhaps misunderstanding Yeo-il’s hesitation as shyness, Attorney Bae gestured to him with a hearty laugh.

“Boss Won. This is the new attorney who just joined our office.”

“Oh my, hello, Mr. Attorney.”

Boss Won offered a handshake with a triumphant smile, as if saying ‘caught you, you rascal.’ It was clear this wasn’t a coincidence; he knew Yeo-il was at this office and had come looking for him.

He appeared perfectly normal on the surface. Dark eyebrows, long eyelashes, and refreshing lips with dimples that appeared when he smiled. His pomade-slicked hairstyle accentuated his neat forehead.

To be honest, he wasn’t just normal but strikingly handsome, like a living sculpture. He was the type who could attract both gay men and heterosexual women, but Yeo-il had no interest in getting involved with anyone, handsome or not.

‘His looks are fine… but why is he dressed like that?’

Not to be nitpicky, but Boss Won was wearing clothes that anyone would find strange. His suit jacket was neat, but underneath he wore a dizzying, colorful patterned silk shirt for reasons beyond comprehension.

Even without the tattoo visible through his partially unbuttoned shirt, that shirt alone would have made him look like a gangster. Yeo-il wondered why thugs always wore such shirts—perhaps they had group purchases?—but he gathered all his social skills to greet him calmly.

“…I’m Attorney Son Yeo-il.”

“Even your name is pretty. I’m Hee-yeon. Won Hee-yeon. Here, I should give you my business card.”