CI 1.5

Ha. What kind of nonsense is this? He touched his buttocks but it’s not sexual assault?

On a Friday morning, when everyone should be happy, Son Yeo-il’s face twisted deeply as he opened the consultation memo file to write up a criminal case opinion. Unfortunately, in the footnote of that nonsense was boldly written “Client insisted this be included in the written statement.”

The statement was so absurd that just reading it made his head ache painfully, yet Son Yeo-il had to write it with his own hands and submit it to the court.

Does this make any sense? Is this why I struggled so hard all my life?

Every lawyer faces such moments, but surely there must be offices that maintain certain standards. However, Son Yeo-il’s boss, Attorney Bae Gi-dong, was someone whose motto was more like “If the client says bark, we’ll bark enthusiastically!” rather than maintaining professional standards.

For a brief moment, in his frustration, Son Yeo-il wondered if it was likely he wouldn’t have had to deal with such situations if he hadn’t come to the countryside and had just followed his planned career path. Then, as if startled by his own thoughts, he quickly shook his head.

No, that’s not right. I’d most likely be seeing unpleasant things there too.

He tried to convince himself that it was better to do difficult work with peace of mind, but there was no way writing such statements could bring any peace of mind. His troubled state even made him think about cigarettes, which he didn’t even smoke. And then…

Cigarettes…Come to think of it, I haven’t smelled smoke since Tuesday. Did he really quit?

He briefly thought of Boss Won, who had joked about quitting smoking. Not wanting to dwell on such matters, Son Yeo-il hastily stuffed away the thought, thinking, He probably just scrubs himself clean before coming here so the smell goes away temporarily.

Anyway…he won’t come today.

That single fact was the only consolation for the exhausted Son Yeo-il. From Monday to Thursday, Boss Won had shown up at the office during lunch hour like a debt collector pursuing a delinquent borrower. Each time, Son Yeo-il would anxiously watch the clock before inevitably being dragged out to eat lunch with him.

But today would be different. Yesterday, Son Yeo-il had mustered the courage to make him promise to skip lunch today. He thought that even a gangster would keep his word.

Son Yeo-il, expecting “a rare peaceful lunch hour,” had even gone so far as to buy a salad on his way to work. Just as he was excitedly stretching his shoulders at the thought of peacefully eating his salad alone:

“Oh my, it’s already this time!”

Checking the clock at a slightly later time than usual, Manager Kim made a fuss as she took out his eyebrow kit. Recently, she had been busy drawing his eyebrows around lunchtime. It was clearly behavior conscious of Boss Won’s visits.

“Aish, why won’t this cooperate? Attorney Son. Please look at me. Are my eyebrows uneven?”

Manager Kim poked her head out from behind the partition to show off her hastily drawn eyebrows. His excitement, like a young girl’s, was cute, but Son Yeo-il thought she would be greatly disappointed to learn that Boss Won wasn’t coming today. Seeing Son Yeo-il’s expression turn subtle with worry, he laughed even more brightly.

“Attorney, you’re not upset that I wasn’t drawing my eyebrows this morning, are you? I could handle one handsome man without eyebrows, but I can’t face two handsome men, hohoho. But, today Boss Won seems to be late. I wonder if something happened?”

She tilted her head to one side and took out a luxury lip gloss from her pouch. To think that she was wasting his precious lip gloss for Boss Won who wasn’t even coming was just too bad. With a feeling of pity, Son Yeo-il finally decided to tell her the truth.

“Um, Manager Kim. Actually…”

“Jang-ja-ga-jang jang-ja-ga-jang~.”

But before he could even say “Boss Won won’t be coming today,” a familiar humming suddenly reached his ears. It was a familiar tune. No way. Why? Before he could fully grasp the situation, the office door flung open.

“Hello! Oh my~ The weather is extremely nice today!”

With a booming greeting, Boss Won strode into the office. Son Yeo-il was dumbfounded. Why on earth did he come? He was sure their conversation had gone well.

“Hey there. Manager Kim, all is well with you?”

“Oh my, you see me every day and ask me that every day. Ohohoho!”

Son Yeo-il didn’t understand what was so funny, but Manager Kim would just burst into laughter at anything Boss Won said. While she cackled, Boss Won turned to look at Son Yeo-il with a greasy smile.

“Attorney Son, why do you grow prettier by the day?”

Manager Kim responded to even this remark as if it delighted her, clapping her hands.

“It’s true! You were already handsome, but since having meals with Boss Won these past few days, your face has become so glossy!”

It was an exaggerated expression, but not entirely wrong. So Yeo-il had similar thoughts this morning while washing his face in the mirror. His skin was smoother, and his once hollow cheeks had filled out, returning to their former smooth, egg-like shape.

During every lunch, Boss Won treated him to hearty meals like roast duck or grilled meat specialties. His claim of knowing all the good restaurants seemed true, as everything was so delicious that even Son Yeo-il, with his limited appetite, ate heartily every day.

It was a situation where he couldn’t help but gain weight, but since he had lost weight so rapidly over the past few months, that was rather fortunate. The problem wasn’t the weight but Boss Won himself. Yesterday, after their fourth lunch together, Son Yeo-il suddenly felt a fundamental doubt form in his mind.

Was he serious about eating lunch together every day? Have I been taking this issue too lightly?

After eating a lot of marinated ribs for lunch and dusting off his jacket that smelled of food, fatigue overcame him right then. Continuing to eat meals with a gangster uncle was more burdensome than he originally thought.

His loud, colorful silk shirts that he changed daily were bothersome, and the dragon tattoo that appeared whenever he rolled up his sleeves was irritating.

Furthermore, he wasn’t just an ordinary gangster uncle but one desperate to seduce Son Yeo-il. His unsophisticated method of constantly making remarks that bordered between sexual harassment and flirting was quite a torment. Recalling what he had said during today’s meal gave him goosebumps all over his body again.

This won’t do. Every day really doesn’t seem right.

They say you don’t spit in a smiling face, but in urgent times, such rules didn’t matter. Just as Boss Won was bringing him a handful of nurungji candy from beside the counter, Son Yeo-il boldly confessed something.

<Boss Won. This really won’t work. Having you do this every day is a bit burdensome.>

What he originally wanted to say was ‘I’d like to have a peaceful lunch for once!’ but seeing Boss Won’s puzzled look as if to say ‘Hmm? What burden?’ Son Yeo-il roundaboutly made an excuse about work.

<I’m used to not eating lunch and just working. And I’m still not familiar with the new routine.>

Blink, blink. Boss Won’s refreshing eyes blinked slowly. While he was worrying about how he would respond if he persisted in his refusal, Boss Won unexpectedly nodded his head obediently.

<Oh, really? I didn’t know it was burdensome! Alright. From tomorrow, I’ll restrain myself.>

Is it really going this smoothly? He doubted his ears for a moment, but Son Yeo-il thought this was the natural progression of things. He must have realized that hanging out with Son Yeo-il for the past few days wasn’t very fun at all.

Son Yeo-il wasn’t particularly charming, and he was always busy either frowning, refuting with “That’s not right!”, or ignoring whatever Boss Won said. He thought he’d probably find it more fun to hang out with someone more cute and flirtatious.

You said you’d restrain yourself, so why did you come again!

Seeing Boss Won appear boldly despite his promise, Son Yeo-il’s gaze turned fierce. Perhaps misunderstanding that Son Yeo-il was angry because he was late, Boss Won joked around and tugged on Son Yeo-il’s arm.

“Oh my. I’m sorry. The traffic was so bad that it would have been faster to just put the car on my head and run. Come on, put on your seatbelt. Ah, would you like this first?”

Boss Won seated SonYeo-il next to him in the backseat and gave him something from his pocket. With his appearance and demeanor, it seemed like he might hand over drugs, but what he held in his hand was a pink lollipop.

Even though Son Yeo-il hadn’t asked him to quit, he was practicing quitting smoking to keep his promise to him. Perhaps feeling bored without something in his mouth, he constantly had candy on him. Son Yeo-il waved his hand in refusal and asked seriously.

“No thanks. More importantly, Boss Won. About what I said yesterday.”

“What did I say? Ah, you mean when you told me to cherish our baby’s T-shirt for the rest of my life?”

“I never said anything like that?”

Son Yeo-il’s face turned bright red in an instant. He was concerned that Hong-shik, who was driving and listening, might misunderstand the situation. While Son Yeo-il was dumbfounded, Boss Won was tilting his head as if to say ‘Hmm? But that’s right’ right in front of his face.

To be honest, something similar had been discussed, but the context was different. The conversation about the T-shirt was actually one of the main reasons why Son Yeo-il thought, “Having lunch with this guy every day is really too much.”

The story began by going back to Tuesday, when the two had lunch for the second time. That day, Son Yeo-il had neatly washed Boss Won’s T-shirt that he had worn and returned it to him. He didn’t want to remind him of that incident, but he couldn’t keep someone else’s clothes either.

He thought he would take the opportunity to tease him about what happened that night when he saw the shirt, but the other man asked an unexpected question.

<Why are you returning this?>

<It’s your shirt, Boss Won.>

<Between my baby and me, there’s no such thing as yours and mine.>

<Stop calling me ‘baby’.>

<Ah right. Between my husband and me…>

<Don’t call me ‘husband’ either!>

I had promised myself this morning not to even blink no matter what that man said, but Son Yeo-il lost his composure again and snapped at him. Only after taking a deep breath did he manage to regain his calm expression.

<Anyway, it’s useless to me, so I’ll return it to you.>

<Useless? Hmm, why’s that?>

Somehow the feeling was off. He wondered what could possibly be useful about it. Just then, duck meat and vegetables arrived at their table, and Boss Won picked up a shiitake mushroom and started making sexual comments saying, “This looks like a cock but it’s precious!” so the subject was awkwardly dropped.

And two days later, yesterday, Thursday. Son Yeo-il was as displeased about Boss Won not returning the T-shirt he had left at his place as he was about to have lunch with him for the fourth consecutive day.

Why doesn’t he return my clothes? Shouldn’t there be a returning T-shirt if there was a departing T-shirt? The sizes are different anyway. It’s not like he’s going to wear it, so why…

With the marinating ribs cooking in front of him, Son Yeo-il glared daggers at Boss Won’s chest, which looked about twice the size of his own. The fact that he was wearing a swirl-patterned shirt made it even harder to look away. By the time he realized he had been staring for too long, Boss Won’s lips were already beginning to twitch.

<Oh my, you’re staring so intently. My nipples are going to wear out.>

<What? No, I was just…>

<Don’t just look, try touching it properly. Hmm? Won Hee-yeon never neglects his morning workouts. It’s even firmer and thicker than it looks.>

<That’s not what I meant.>

<No? Well, I guess. What good would it do to touch a man’s breasts? But down here there’s something even firmer and thicker…>

As he pretended to unbuckle his belt, if the space between them hadn’t been blocked by the duct that sucked in the meat smoke, Son Yeo-il might have grabbed Boss Won by the collar right away.

When Son Yeo-il’s small, plump lips twitched, the pervert-like Boss Won became even more excited and cackled. Thinking it would be better to ignore him, Son Yeo-il decided to change the subject.

<That’s not it, I was wondering when you’d return my T-shirt.>

<T-shirt?>

<Yes. You know, the one I…left at your house.>

<Do I…really have to give it back?>

Boss Won asked, wrinkling his dark, straight eyebrows. What kind of question was “Do I really have to give it back?” after taking someone else’s clothes? Was he going to say something like “What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours” again?

Unlike Boss Won, who wore all sorts of clothes that made you think “Who would pay money for clothes like that?” perhaps because he had too much money, Son Yeo-il was actually in a position where even one T-shirt mattered.

<Yes. Please return it.>

At Son Yeo-il’s firm answer, Boss Won was unusually fidgety.

<Well, this is quite troublesome. Actually, that thing…>

<What’s so troublesome?>

<I’ve been putting it to very good use.>

At that moment, Son Yeo-il realized where Boss Won was “using” that T-shirt. Just as Son Yeo-il’s mouth was about to fall open, Boss Won said something even more shocking.

<If you really want it back, I can return it, but there’s something, you know, stuck on it. Should I wash it first, or just give it as is?>

<No, no! Just keep it.>

Son Yeo-il hurriedly waved his hands around, and hoping that this topic wouldn’t come up again, he busily wrapped meat in lettuce and inhaled the ribs until his small cheeks puffed up.

Even looking back at what happened, it  still seemed absurd to him. Son Yeo-il was the one who had his clothes taken and was being harassed, yet Boss Won acted as if he was the righteous one, bringing up the T-shirt issue with a beaming smile on his face.