CI 4.5

After that, he thought he would understand not just intellectually but emotionally that he no longer needed to fear him or feel intimidated in his presence.

Seeing Son Yeo-il’s determined answer, Won Hee-yeon didn’t try to dissuade him any further. However, he insisted that he must personally drive Son Yeo-il to the family court on the day of mediation.

Because of that, Son Yeo-il had made some excuse to Head Attorney Bae and was now traveling in Won Hee-yeon’s car. In truth, Son Yeo-il much preferred sitting in his boyfriend’s passenger seat rather than accompanying his boss.

“Oh my, we’re here. You’ve worked very hard, my husband.”

“There you go again. You’re the one who has worked hard, Hee-yeon.”

Despite pretending to be nervous, Won Hee-yeon was indeed the best driver. They had come up at a leisurely pace, even stopping to eat at a rest area, but still arrived with plenty of time to spare before the scheduled appointment.

After parking in the family court parking lot, Won Hee-yeon greeted Son Yeo-il with a sunny face that didn’t reveal a trace of the worry or anxiety that must have been boiling inside of him.

“Go on. I can wait all day, so take your time with your business.”

He really was such a reliable and wonderful boyfriend. Out of habit when parting, Son Yeo-il pursed his lips and leaned toward Won Hee-yeon’s cheek, but then remembered they were in a public place and hurriedly turned to get out of the car.

The sound of Won Hee-yeon laughing heartily could be heard from inside the car. Feeling needlessly embarrassed, Son Yeo-il pouted his lips before taking a deep breath to compose himself. It was time to work now.

Going up to the mediation room, Son Yeo-il found Oh Yu-na, dressed more brightly than usual, and Head Attorney Bae, who had arrived unusually early, in the corridor. Since Son Yeo-il had handled all the consultations for this case, Head Attorney Bae was asking Oh Yu-na various questions about the case, though they were practically strangers.

The straightforward Oh Yu-na reluctantly responded to Head Attorney Bae’s words while failing to hide her expression that said, “My lawyer is someone else. Why do I have to talk to this old man?” When she spotted Son Yeo-il approaching, she waved her hand happily.

“Attorney, you’re here!”

“Ah, Attorney Son has arrived.”

“I’m late. I apologize for my tardiness.”

“I just came a bit early because the bus schedule was awkward. Anyway, the opposing party hasn’t arrived yet…Oh wait. No, that’s not true. Isn’t that him, Attorney Son?”

Turning his head in the direction of Head Attorney Bae’s subtle chin gesture, Son Yeo-il saw Koo Dae-hyun approaching from the opposite corridor. Though he had only submitted a perfunctory response and shown little reaction, making them wonder if he might, in fact, not show up, fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t planned to completely bail out.

Koo Dae-hyun, who had always appeared arrogant, had perhaps become more deflated in the meantime, as his complexion appeared to have darkened. Walking with hunched shoulders and dragging his feet, he noticed Oh Yu-na and forced out an awkward smile as he addressed her.

“Honey. Have you been well? It’s been a while.”

“…”

“Since we’re face-to-face right now, could we talk a bit? We’re not the kind of couple to end like this. Honey, uh…h-honey?”

Though Oh Yu-na completely ignored his words, Koo Dae-hyun, despite his visibly shaking eyes, continued to speak in a slimy manner. Instead of answering him, Oh Yu-na turned her head and asked Son Yeo-il, “Hey, Attorney. Is it okay to talk to the opposing party like this before a lawsuit?”

For a moment, SonYeo-il almost burst out laughing with a “pfft” and lowered his head halfway to manage his expression. When Koo Dae-hyun wouldn’t go away and continued to linger despite the blatant slight, Oh Yu-na shot directly at him with annoyance, “Mr. Koo Dae-hyun, didn’t I clearly warn you before that if you contact me or try to act familiar one more time, I’ll report you for stalking?”

Koo Dae-hyun finally became speechless and turned his gaze away from her. Instead, he glared at Son Yeo-il, who was standing a bit closer, with eyes full of hostility, and whispered in a small voice that only Son Yeo-il could hear, “Isn’t all this Attorney Son’s doing? Did you really have to go this far?”

Son Yeo-il didn’t bother to answer him. It was hard to understand his mumbling completely, and there seemed to be no good reason to bother with exchanging words outside the courtroom. Anyway, soon after, the parties from the previous mediation came out of the room, and it was Son Yeo-il’s turn to enter.

“Well, let’s sit down. Plaintiff Oh Yu-na and her representative are here. And Defendant Koo Dae-hyun himself is here.”

After confirming attendance, the judge continued in a dry, businesslike tone, as if not wanting to waste energy on such an obvious case.

“After reviewing the record, it seems maintaining the engagement is difficult anyway. The plaintiff will want the case resolved quickly, and the defendant is likely in the same position since his salary has been provisionally seized, so I scheduled a mediation date first. Do either side have any proposed settlement terms?”

At the judge’s question, Koo Dae-hyun clenched both fists and spoke in a theatrical tone.

“Difficult to maintain the engagement, Your Honor? I think differently!”

“Um…Defendant. You did receive the complaint and evidence…correct?”

The judge shuffled through his notes, seemingly perplexed by the unexpected response. He appeared bewildered that someone who was supposed to be a lawyer would say something so absurd when the evidence was as clear as day.

“The text messages submitted as evidence by the plaintiff—I don’t think I need to show each one individually. Are you claiming that any part of these has been fabricated or altered?”

The judge’s tone suggested he didn’t even want to mention those unseemly messages. Unable to outright lie, Koo Dae-hyun changed the subject while sweat poured down his forehead.

“R-Rather than that! Your Honor, you know how it is. These things can happen in life, misunderstandings arise, and so on. The most important thing is that I want to restore my relationship with the plaintiff.”

Though he had eventually gotten in after repeated failures, Koo Dae-hyun had attended Korea University Law School, so he must have known that what he was saying was nonsensical and held no legal significance.

Nevertheless, the reason he continued his unseemly behavior in court following his disgraceful conduct in the corridor was likely because his engagement to Oh Yu-na was the last straw he could grasp.

He seemed to genuinely believe it. That if he could somehow restore his relationship with Oh Yu-na, the current gossip about his identity and broken engagement would gradually subside, and he could regain the trust of his father, who believed that one must establish a normal family to function as a proper person.

While everyone in the mediation room looked at him with cold expressions on their faces, Koo Dae-hyun continued solemnly as if he had something up his sleeve.

“Because I still! Consistently! L-Love…”

As Koo Dae-hyun stammered while trying to say something he didn’t mean, and Oh Yu-na slightly covered her lips with her hand as if nauseated, suddenly someone knocked on the mediation room door. The judge, perhaps also wanting to stop this farce, quickly said, “Come in.”

The door opened, and three men in suits entered. One of them was a face Son Yeo-il recognized—the Koo & Chang attorney who had clashed with Son Yeo-il in the Yongju branch court.

“Who are you?”

“I apologize for being late, Your Honor. We’re from theKoo & Chang Law Firm, representing the defendant.”

“Representative? Have you been appointed?”

“Yes. We submitted the appointment letter today.”

This was completely unexpected. When Son Yeo-il had checked before leaving Yongju City that morning, Koo Dae-hyun had not yet appointed a lawyer. The judge, tilting his head to one side in confusion, checked the electronic record and replied with narrowed eyes.

“Ah. It seems it was submitted just now. But isn’t the defendant himself an attorney at Koo & Chang? This isn’t a common situation…I think I need to review whether there’s any legal issue with the appointment relationship.”

“That part is fine. Defendant Koo Dae-hyun has resigned from Koo & Chang as of today and is no longer affiliated with Koo & Chang. I’ve brought the resignation letter and power of attorney in paper form as well.”

Inwardly surprised, Son Yeo-il glanced at Koo Dae-hyun’s face. Koo Dae-hyun had turned deathly pale, as if hearing this for the first time.

This bastard, he didn’t appoint a lawyer but was appointed one? He didn’t resign but was forced to resign?

The judge seemed to have similar questions as he continued tilting his head. He looked concerned about potential procedural issues.

“The documents seem to be in proper form, but…I didn’t hear anything about this from the defendant himself during our proceedings just now.”

“We had the defendant attend alone first since the firm’s internal approval process wasn’t expected to be completed today, but it was processed faster than anticipated, so we rushed to attend. Koo Dae-hyun probably didn’t know that representatives would appear today.”

While the Koo & Chang attorney spoke calmly as if there were no issues, Koo Dae-hyun opened and closed his lips resentfully beside him. Seeing his attitude, which suggested he might raise his hand and shout “I object!” to the judge at any moment, the Koo & Chang attorney grabbed Koo Dae-hyun’s shoulder and asked the judge for permission.

“May I speak with my client in the corridor for a moment?”

When the judge nodded, the attorneys escorted Koo Dae-hyun out to the corridor, almost as if escorting a prisoner. Confused by the sudden turn of events, Oh Yu-na whispered to Son Yeo-il.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. But it doesn’t seem to be a bad situation.”

Son Yeo-il’s prediction was correct. After about five minutes, the Koo & Chang attorneys returned to the mediation room, followed by Koo Dae-hyun, who looked as if his very soul had been extracted by whatever he had been told.

The subsequent mediation process proceeded with suspicious smoothness. The Koo & Chang attorneys acknowledged all of Koo Dae-hyun’s liabilities in this case and accepted the settlement terms proposed by Oh Yu-na’s side as is. They even agreed to pay the full amount of damages, which had been inflated to twice the market rate to increase the case value.

Koo & Chang added just one condition to the settlement: “The case details and settlement terms shall not be disclosed to outside parties.” It essentially meant they would pay a large sum as hush money.

It seemed that Koo & Chang’s CEO Koo had personally decided to silence his son and resolve the case, as his unimpressive son had thoroughly embarrassed both the law firm and the family.

The rumors have already spread completely. Does the confidentiality clause even matter? I guess the higher-ups at Koo & Chang aren’t yet aware of the anonymous board opinions circulating around LoWithUs.

In any case, it was an overwhelmingly favorable proposal for Oh Yu-na. Even Son Yeo-il, who detested Koo Dae-hyun, could see that, so Head Attorney Bae seemed to think they’d hit the jackpot. Unable to hide his excitement, Head Attorney Bae urged Oh Yu-na to accept the settlement terms quickly.

However, Oh Yu-na hesitated and couldn’t give an immediate answer. She wasn’t short on money to begin with, and this lawsuit was more about venting her anger than it was about money. She didn’t seem to have fully vented her frustration yet. The experienced Koo & Chang attorney seemed to have read Oh Yu-na’s mind and carefully approached her, bowing his head.

“Regardless of whether the mediation is successful, I sincerely apologize to Oh Yu-na for the distress caused by this case. The CEO specifically asked me to convey this to the plaintiff.”

The fact that someone who wasn’t even a party to the case was apologizing seemed a bit strange, but it was still the best way to appease Oh Yu-na’s feelings. At this point, any apology from Koo Dae-hyun would only sound like a last-ditch struggle or insincere hypocrisy.

After contemplating briefly, Oh Yu-na finally decided to accept the settlement terms. The entire procedure was wrapped up efficiently with the finalization of the wording and signatures from representatives and parties.

One unnatural aspect of the smoothly proceeding process was that Koo Dae-hyun, a party to the case, kept his head down without saying a word. Son Yeo-il could roughly guess what he might have been told when he went out to the corridor with the attorneys earlier. He had clearly been severely reprimanded and strictly warned not to open his mouth.

It looks like that person has now been abandoned by his father too.

Koo Dae-hyun, sitting there with his body crumpled and hunched, looked utterly pathetic. Since everything he had originally possessed belonged not to himself but to his father, he could only become insignificant the moment he lost that protective halo.

Son Yeo-il briefly looked at him as if he were just past residue that no longer needed to be feared or even worried about, then turned away, feeling a sense of relief was over him in regard to the whole thing.

Head Attorney Bae, who would once again receive a substantial contingency fee, left the court first with his face in full bloom. Son Yeo-il moved toward the court parking lot with Oh Yu-na to see her off. Oh Yu-na asked Son Yeo-il as if she couldn’t believe the situation.

“Is this case really over now?”

“Yes. If the terms promised in the mediation aren’t fulfilled, there might be more to handle, but judging from the atmosphere at the hearing, that’s unlikely. I’m glad it was resolved well.”

“Yes. It’s over. Though I have to say, it feels a bit disappointing though.”

Not satisfied but disappointed? Could it be that Oh Yu-na still had lingering feelings for Koo  Dae-hyun? As Son Yeo-il opened his eyes wide in confusion, Oh Yu-na gazed at him thoughtfully.

“Attorney Son. You don’t date women, do you?”

“What? Oh, n-no…”

Faced with this completely unexpected personal question, Son Yeo-il stuttered a response. Oh Yu-na clicked her tongue, seemingly dissatisfied with his answer.

“Tsk. What a waste.”

“What? Uh, umm…”

“I’ve been thinking lately that there might be truth to the saying that all the good men are gay. Or maybe, though I hate to admit it, it’s a matter of my taste? All the men who catch my eye happen to be of a different orientation.”

While Son Yeo-il stood there bewildered, wondering what on earth she was talking about, Oh Yu-na burst into laughter after seeing something over Son Yeo-il’s shoulder.

“Oh my, there comes your boyfriend, Attorney. His angry face is seriously scary. I’d better go now—I wouldn’t want to tangle with such a frightening person and get my bones crushed. I hope to see you again if the opportunity arises.”

“Ah, g-goodbye.”

She left a cheerful farewell, wiggling her fingers, then turned around. Immediately after, Won Hee-yeon approached and grabbed Son Yeo-il’s arm.

“Baby. What’s this all about? Nothing happened, right?”

“Ah, yes, rather than something happening…I did hear some strange things…”

Son Yeo-il trailed off, but Won Hee-yeon furrowed his brow as he watched Oh Yu-na’s retreating figure. He seemed to have roughly grasped the situation despite only seeing it from a distance.

“T-That one. I always said that person was suspicious, didn’t I? Wow. A wife’s intuition is truly terrifying.”