The Unfair Contract

“A lawsuit?”

Ah, right. There could be cases like this.
A civil case, not a criminal one.
She hadn’t come to ‘Dike’ to ask for a defense of her own crimes, but to uncover the other party’s wrongdoing.
This also required a lawyer.
I had been so accustomed to the continuous stream of criminal cases that I was momentarily taken aback.

“Yes. Is it impossible?”

At my reaction, she bit her lip and asked back.
I shook my head and answered.

“No, it’s possible. Before that, can I hear your story?”

After a moment’s hesitation, clutching her bag, she spoke again.

“…I’m currently working at a call center for a major telecommunications company. Ah, my name is Ha Seonghui.”
“Yes, Ms. Seonghui. Please speak comfortably.”

Ha Seonghui, who seemed to have practiced this story several times, continued to speak slowly.

“The working hours stipulated in the contract are 8 hours a day, but I’ve never been able to leave on time.”

Ha Seonghui briefly blinked her eyes, which were darkened with fatigue.

“Even after the closing time, if I don’t meet the daily call quota, my salary gets cut. Then my younger sister and my… livelihood will be in danger.”

Ha Seonghui’s face looked pained as she spoke.
Her parents had passed away in an accident when she was in high school, and now she had a younger sister who was in high school.

“That day, I was also leaving late because of the call quota, but the problem was the last call.”
“Was there a conflict with a customer?”
“Yes.”

Ha Seonghui nodded.
The next situation could be easily inferred.
Wanting to sue the company over a problem with a customer would mean that the company had shifted the responsibility.
Ha Seonghui narrowed her brows as if recalling that day.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but that matter is past the deadline and difficult to process.”
[If a customer asks you to do it, you should do it. Why are you so talkative? Do it!]
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, ma’am. But that matter…”
[Ah, this blockhead is so talkative. Do you know who I am? Get me your supervisor! It’s always kids like you who can’t understand what I’m saying that make things worse.]

While Ha Seonghui was pressing her throbbing forehead with a headache, the angry voice continued through the headset.

[What’s so difficult about that? I said get me your supervisor! This one can’t even understand the word ‘get’. I don’t even need to see her to know how her parents raised her!]
“Haa…”

For a moment, she couldn’t hold back a sigh.
The overtime that had been repeated all week, her exhausted body, and her younger sister’s face trying to hide her disappointment…

“Unni, I really don’t have to go on the school trip. It doesn’t seem like it would be that much fun anyway. I’ll just study.”

But that was probably a once-in-a-lifetime, four-hundred-thousand-won school trip for her sister.
And that was the remaining amount after receiving support from the state.
But Ha Seonghui couldn’t bring herself to tell her sister to go.
Because 400,000 won was their sisters’ monthly living expenses.
She hated this situation, where her younger sister, who knew this, was being so considerate.

‘It’s hard.’

It was a thought she had tried so hard to avoid.
But the moment the other party brought up ‘parents’ over and over again through the headset, the reason she had somehow held onto faded.
In the past, Ha Seonghui was a student who was always at the top of her class.
Until her parents passed away when she was in the first year of high school.
She had been working at the call center since she graduated from high school.
A-holes like this were not a one or two-time occurrence in a day.
But on that day, she couldn’t control her emotions.

“…They weren’t parents like you. In fact, I pity your children for having a parent like you.”
[What, what? What did I just hear! You crazy b*tch, you’re just running your mouth off because you have one. Just you wait, I’m going to file a formal complaint!]
“…Go ahead.”
“Ms. Seonghui!”

Her supervisor, who was monitoring the call, took the call as soon as he realized the commotion.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. Our staff’s response was inadequate. I will take responsibility and have her apologize. I’m sorry. …What are you doing? Apologize, quickly!”
“…I don’t want to. I’m not apologizing.”
“Ms. Seonghui, what’s wrong with you! Are you crazy?”
“I guess so.”

She wanted to escape from this absurd and dirty situation.

‘If I apologize today, my life will continue to be the same.’

She had a premonition.
A premonition that if she kept giving in and bowing her head in situations like this, her vision would eventually be only of the floor.

Swish.

Ha Seonghui let out a sigh with a relieved expression and took off the headset from which the berating voice was still coming.

“I’m quitting. It’s past closing time anyway. I’ll submit my resignation tomorrow.”

If not this company, would there be nowhere else to make a living?
And so, Ha Seonghui left the company.
A full moon floated above her head.

Vroom.

She looked out the window for a long time on the bus home.
Even at this late hour, she could see people walking somewhere, each in their own way.
Looking at their phones, looking around to find their way, or looking up at the sky…
With a group, or alone.
When she pressed her forehead against the window, her breath would fog it up and then disappear, over and over again.

‘…I want to disappear too.’

After finally letting out the anger that had been building up for years, her mind was relieved, but the future was bleak.

‘But I can do it. I can do it.’

In times like these, she had to think positively.
Because instead of regretting what she had done, she had to find a way.

<This stop is….>

Step, step.

Ha Seonghui got off the bus two stops before her home and walked and walked.
As her thoughts continued, her pace quickened and then slowed down, over and over again.
As she was walking, the time, which had also been flowing steadily, was approaching midnight.

Beep, beep-beep, beep.
Tiriring.

“Oh, unni, you’re back? You’re late again…”

Ha Yeonhui, who had fallen asleep on the floor while waiting for Ha Seonghui, raised her head and looked up at her.
Ha Seonghui took off her worn-out sneakers in the narrow entrance and squatted down in front of her sister.

“You should have at least covered yourself with a blanket.”
“It’s still hot.”
“It’s autumn now. You’ll catch a cold.”

The sisters’ one-room apartment was chilly, unlike Ha Yeonhui’s words.
Ha Seonghui pulled the old blanket and covered her sister’s shoulders.

Swish.

But it slipped off as Ha Yeonhui suddenly sat up.

“…Did something happen, unni?”

Ha Seonghui answered as calmly as she could.

“…Ah, I was trying to surprise you.”
“What is it, what happened? Did that bastard say something strange again?”
“No, Seonghui. Unni quit her job.”
“…Huh?”

As if it were an unexpected remark, a look of bewilderment appeared on Ha Yeonhui’s face.
It was the call center that she had been telling her to quit all along, but her sister had said she would try to hold on until she graduated.
Something unusual must have happened.

“What is it, really. Are you okay?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be okay. I thought about it on my way home, Yeonhui. Shall we open a cafe? Unni will get her severance pay, and we can add the money we’ve saved and open a small one.”

She knew that her sister wanted to do baking.
There was only about a year and a half left until Ha Yeonhui graduated.
Ha Seonghui wanted to do what she wanted to do now.
While living a simple life with her sister.

“…Yeah, unni. I’ll grow up quickly and help you.”
“What do you mean, grow up quickly. Grow up slowly. Adults aren’t that great.”
“Then you’re the only one doing that not-so-great thing, unni. Let’s do it together. I’ll grow up quickly.”
“Oh, my little sister seems to be all grown up already.”

Ha Seonghui hugged her sister, who was looking at her with a face that was now completely awake, with an exaggerated tone.
Because she felt like she was about to cry.
But as she held the only family she had left in her arms, she felt an indescribable sense of relief.
She felt like she could endure the things and the time that would come her way.
That was until the next day.

“Ms. Seonghui? You know what I’m about to say, right?”

She thought that the narrow, windowless conference room was like an interrogation room from a drama or a movie.
Because this was a space she had never been in for the past five years.

“The company’s position has become very difficult because of what you did yesterday.”

The man who was sitting in a arrogant posture with one leg crossed over the other in front of Ha Seonghui was the ‘bastard’ that Ha Yeonhui had referred to.

“That person said he was going to post everything you did yesterday online. But fortunately, he agreed to the terms we offered.”
“……”
“But come to think of it, this is all your fault, Ms. Seonghui. So you have to take responsibility for it.”

Ha Seonghui had been called to this conference room as soon as she came to work to sort out her resignation and severance pay issues.

“It was quite a large sum. Enough for you to have to pay it off for a while even if you had done ‘something else’ instead of this job.”

The manager of this call center, Director Gi Seongjin, smiled with a sinister expression.

“You can thank me for stopping the company from suing you for all the losses you caused.”

Ha Seonghui felt her vision turn yellow in real time.

“You told Team Leader Kim that you were quitting yesterday, right? You would have been fired anyway, but well.”
“…Director.”
“All those costs will be deducted from your severance pay, so you know.”
“Director! This is unfair treatment! The customer was the one who insulted me first!”

Her new start was crumbling from the beginning.

“The salary the company gives you is for enduring that. You can go now.”
“Where is the law that allows this!”
“You signed a consent form when you joined the company, right? It’s all written there. This isn’t illegal, so even if you go and tell someone, you’ll just be made a fool of.”

‘Consent form?’

Ha Seonghui didn’t remember it.
She had barely managed to write her labor contract after a few months.

“Ah, get out! Do you want to be reported for obstruction of business as well?”
“It’s unfair! Director! How can something like this happen!”
“Do you want me to make it so you can’t set foot in this industry ever again? Do you think you’re the only one who’s suffered a loss here? I’ve had my incentives and everything cut because of you! Do you want me to sue you too? Shall I make your already sh*tty life hit rock bottom?”

‘A typical line.’

By the time the story was over, tears were welling up in Ha Seonghui’s eyes.

“…This is why I came to see you, lawyer. I’ve been seeing you on the news for a while now, and I thought you would listen to my story.”

Jeong Donghyeok, who had been listening to the story next to her, handed Ha Seonghui a box of tissues.

[How can something like this happen… What are you doing, lawyer. Hurry up and say you’ll take the case.]

‘Gram, are you crying?’

[Ne-nio.]

I was silent for a moment and silently finished the rest of the tea.
It was a situation that was enough to be unfair.

‘A consent form can be easily fabricated if the date is left blank.’

I calmly asked Ha Seonghui, who was wiping her tears.

“Do you remember exactly what kind of consent form it was?”
“What? Yes. It was a severance pay offset consent form.”

As expected, it was as I had guessed.
I nodded and smiled.
Ha Seonghui, who was flustered by my smiling face, looked back and forth between me and Jeong Donghyeok.
Jeong Donghyeok also had a look that said he didn’t know the question, and then he had a look of realization.

“There will be no problem with your severance pay, Ms. Seonghui. Instead, I’d like to make you a proposal.”
“Wh-what kind of proposal?”

One idea had already come to my mind.
I grinned and asked Ha Seonghui.

“I think it’s possible to get compensation for mental distress. Would you like to proceed?”