A New Plea

I believe that among human desires, none is as fickle as appetite.
Just as the same food can be loved or hated depending on the person.
One day it boils over like crazy, and another day it disappears as if washed away.
It was even more so for me, who had lived for years having lost what people commonly call an appetite.
I had jumped to a conclusion based on Choi Yikang’s reaction when I suggested we go for a meal.

‘Just a few minutes ago, I thought he didn’t really like eating.’

But watching Choi Yikang eat, I felt good.
He was eating quietly and neatly, without me even noticing when he had started his third bowl.
Not greedily or voraciously.
But really, with all his might.

[It’s like when you first came here, Attorney.]

‘I ate that much, no. That well?’

[You weren’t quite at that level. But still, you ate every single side dish so deliciously and earnestly back then. A person who used to barely eat bread for every meal.]

‘Ah, that’s right.’

I smiled inwardly and glanced at Choi Yikang again.
I shouldn’t pressure him while he’s eating.
I turned my gaze and looked at Kim Eun-gyeom and Gu Seongju next to Choi Yikang.
Kim Eun-gyeom had already finished his meal and was showering Won Youngoh with an endless barrage of questions.
Won Youngoh was answering, moving his chopsticks elegantly.
Kim Eun-gyeom smiled brightly, waited for Won Youngoh to swallow his food, and then spoke again.

“Ah, Attorney Won. And about that trial a while ago. The Seojin Hospital case.”
“Yes.”
“The victims in that case…”

Meanwhile, Gu Seongju was chatting with the owner.

“Ma’am, the rolled omelet is absolutely delicious. This tender thing is just swimming in my mouth.”
“Oh my, this gentleman has a way with words. I did pay special attention to it, but! Hoho.”
“Everything is so delicious. How do you make such food? I feel sorry for my wife, but I’m in big trouble because I think I’ll be thinking of your table when I go home tonight.”

The owner of the Family Diner burst out laughing, gently waving her hand in the air.

“Then just come again in the evening with your wife!”
“You can’t be surprised and think I’m a ghost if you see me again in the evening, right? Promise me, quickly.”

Gu Seongju put down the rice bowl he was holding and held out his pinky finger to the owner.
The owner, letting out a laugh higher than she had ever before, hooked her finger with his.

“Hoho, our attorneys have brought a very amusing person. Yes, it’s a promise. If you come again in the evening, I’ll give you a ton of freebies.”
“Thank you. Then I’ll get back to eating now. One more bowl of rice, please.”

Lee Ilwoo and Jeong Donghyeok, who had been watching Gu Seongju and the owner like I was, burst out laughing in unison.

“I thought he’d be similarly blunt since he worked with Attorney Won for a long time, but I guess not.”

Jeong Donghyeok shook his head at my words and answered.

“Attorney Won’s playfulness is no joke either. I think Office Manager Gu and he will get along very well.”
“That’s right, Attorney Cha.”
“I knew he prepared jokes sometimes, but is Attorney Won that playful? Was I the only one who didn’t know?”
“Perhaps…”

And so, the enjoyable meal that left me with a question came to an end.
As if waiting for that timing, Jeong Donghyeok’s phone rang.

“Yes, this is Jeong Donghyeok. Ah… yes, I’ll be right there.”

All eyes turned to him.
Jeong Donghyeok was unfazed and comfortable even under the now doubled, burdensome gazes.

“I think I need to get back to the office quickly. It seems a new client has arrived.”

“Ms. Seonghui.”
“Ah, Attorney. You’re here?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“It’s no big deal.”

Ha Seonghui had contacted Jeong Donghyeok on behalf of the new clients who had arrived while we were out for lunch.

“Shall we go up together?”
“Yes, yes.”

And so, we went up to the office with the elderly couple who had been waiting at the cafe.
Our steps quickened to match theirs, as they seemed to be in a hurry, as if being chased by something.
I hurriedly guided the two of them not to the table, but to the more comfortable sofa.

“Thank you for waiting. What brings you here?”
“Waiting this long is nothing. Attorney, you’re a wonderful person who does good things, right?”
“We’ve seen you on TV, and on our phones, we’ve diligently looked up what you’ve done. We’ve seen all the people you’ve helped. Please save our son.”

As they spoke, the elderly couple held my hands with faces that looked like they were about to cry.

“Ma’am, Sir. Please calm down first and speak slowly.”

Following Jeong Donghyeok’s words, they took a deep breath and began their story as calmly as possible.

“We have a late-born son. Both of us are retired, but our son is about the same age as you, Attorney.”
“We wanted our son to become a civil servant like us, but he said he wanted to do what he was good at. He was good with computers since he was young, so we respected that.”

They lamented, beating their chests.

“But we never thought it would turn out like this…”

Wiping away their tears for a moment, the elderly couple continued.

“For about half a year after he got a job, he sent us a considerable amount of money every month to help with living expenses. At that time, we just hoped things would stay this way without any worries.”

And so, six months after their son started working, he was sent to the Philippines for work.

“He said he wouldn’t be able to come back for a few years, so it was so hard to send him off. But what can you do, it’s work. And then, after nine months, we got a call from our son…”

We all remained silent and focused on the couple’s story.

“Our son was arrested in the Philippines for opening a gambling site.”
“…An illegal gambling site, you mean?”

At my question, they waved their hands frantically.

“No! Attorney, our Donghyeon would never do such a thing. He said he was doing the same work he did in Korea. P-program development.”

A large sum of money, the Philippines, program development, an illegal gambling site…
As the information was layered on, numerous pictures were drawn in my head.
I nodded to them as if to calm them down and asked.

“Was he arrested by the local police in the Philippines?”
“Yes, yes. They said they collaborated with the Korean police.”
“Is he currently in custody?”
“Yes… we’ve been meeting with other lawyers for days without distinction, but they all said that since the evidence is so clear, reducing the sentence is the best option.”

They said, in a choked voice, that they had found me after searching all over the internet.

“The people you helped said that you really stand on the side of the unfairly treated, that they were helped in the same way. Please help us, Attorney…”

I fell into thought for a moment.
The longer I remained silent, the more their anxiety would grow.
But I also needed time to judge.
Because I had to check whether they were really being unfairly treated or not.

‘First of all, everything this couple is saying is true… but I can’t rule out the possibility that their son lied.’

Because even with my skill, if they heard a story and believed it to be true, and relayed it without any falsehood, it would still register as the truth.
Opening an illegal gambling site was a common occurrence, if you could call it that.
All you had to do was route the IP overseas and continuously shut down and reopen the site.
And make all payments in foreign currency.

‘But that doesn’t mean I should take it for granted.’

Recently, with the increase of illegal gambling sites that look just like real game sites, it has become easier for not only adults but also students to access them.
But there was one thing that bothered me in the elderly couple’s story.
This kind of crime is like digging up potatoes; if one gets caught, they all get caught in a line.
That’s why the evidence is also usually clear.
No matter how much you circumvent it, once you’re caught, it’s bound to be revealed.
Because these guys’ method was to move their already-tamed customers together in a scoop, rather than looking for new ones.

‘That’s why they focus on reducing the sentence by cooperating with the investigation as much as possible, they don’t say they’re innocent or that they’ve been wronged…’

Criminals of this type actually acted strategically, reducing the scale and putting forward only the branches, excluding the trunk.

‘The pros are usually in cahoots with the local police, so there’s a high chance they would have fled before getting caught in the first place.’

There was one more thing that bothered me.

“Was this company your son’s first company?”
“Yes, yes. That’s right.”

Every market has its own invisible rules.
No matter how illegal the field, they had their own regulations, and those usually revolved around efficiency.
An efficiency that was terribly devoid of humanity.

‘No matter how good a developer you are, it’s difficult for a recent graduate at a startup to send a large sum of money to their parents for nearly half a year.’

[Then?]

‘He probably got set up. Then it’s not just this couple’s son. They said it was a company, so the scale must be considerable.’

There was also a high possibility that the registered owner of that company was not a real person.
Because that’s their method.
While I was lost in thought, Jeong Donghyeok gave the two people, who were trembling like an aspen tree even though it was almost summer, a warm cup of tea.

“Here, you two, have some of this while you wait.”
“Thank you…”

In the meantime, Won Youngoh gestured cautiously and called me into his room.

“Attorney Cha, something seems strange, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“This gambling thing, if the guys who opened an overseas gambling site were caught, I should have heard something, but I haven’t.”
“It’s quiet?”

Won Youngoh crossed his arms out of habit and leaned against his desk.
Following a habit I had learned from Lee Ilwoo, I stood in a way that covered Won Youngoh’s mouth.
After frowning for a long time, Won Youngoh opened his mouth.

“Excessively so. At this point, it’s the kind of material that reporters should be excitedly writing about. Is it an embargo?”
“I’ll look into that side.”
“If I were Reporter Baek, I’d be waiting for you too.”
“We’re all just helping each other live.”

At my words, Won Youngoh made a strange expression and gestured with his eyes towards the elderly couple outside the glass door.
They seemed to be praying somewhere, leaning on each other.

“Helping each other live… Do you want to help them too?”
“If they’re really being unfairly treated.”
“Then go meet their son first. I’ll look up the company that Mr. Lee Donghyeon supposedly worked at. What was the name again? CnK Soft?”
“Yes, that’s right. A startup in Gangnam.”

Swoosh.

Won Youngoh moved his long legs concisely and stood up straight.

“If the picture we’re thinking of is right, then they’re really audacious guys. In the middle of the capital of the Republic of Korea… In a way, it’s a kidnapping.”
“We have to root them out, guys like that.”
“I sometimes think, Attorney Cha, you would have done well as a prosecutor.”
“I wouldn’t have been as good as you, Attorney Won.”
“I did fly a bit during my time as a prosecutor. But I like it better now.”

Won Youngoh smiled dashingly, shrugged, and answered.
At that moment, I became genuinely curious.
The reason why Won Youngoh, who was an ace prosecutor that everyone acknowledged, liked the life in this small office better.

“Why?”

Won Youngoh sat down and opened his mouth again.

“The words a prosecutor hears are usually fixed. ‘I was wrong.’ And another is, ‘Please punish them.’ It doesn’t go beyond these two.”
“……”
“An apology is not my part from the beginning, and the verdict is ultimately the judge’s part. There is a gap as wide as the sky between a recommendation and a sentence.”

As he said, no matter how much a prosecutor recommended, it was up to the judge’s decision.
That fact tasted bitter.
Won Youngoh, with a bitter face, raised one corner of his mouth into a strange smile and lowered his voice as if sharing a secret.

“But the people who come to us ask us to help them.”

Sometimes, when Won Youngoh said things like this, it hit me how warm-hearted he was.
And also the fact that he craved justice more than anyone.
Won Youngoh looked me straight in the eye and added.

“So go and help, Attorney Cha. As your heart leads you.”