Playing the Part

“Are you out of your mind, Seonghui? Bringing a man to the company? Is this place a playground? What, is he your boyfriend? Do you think I’ll be scared if you bring some nerdy-looking bastard?”

Ha Seonghui didn’t waver at Gi Seongjin’s yelling and looked at him.
Then she spoke with a firm expression.

“I still have something to say.”
“Do you really want to be reported for obstruction of business?”

Gi Seongjin openly sneered at the unkempt-looking man next to Ha Seonghui.

‘What’s with that shaggy-haired nerd?’

Anyone could tell he was a nerd who only studied, with his nerdy glasses, long hair covering his forehead, and a red plaid shirt.
Even the way he wouldn’t make eye contact was pathetic.
Gi Seongjin openly sighed and pointed to the conference room from before.

“Here, I’ll do you one last favor, so go in and wait.”

But even after thirty minutes, Gi Seongjin didn’t enter the conference room.
Ha Seonghui waited with patience.
She didn’t want to get caught up in this petty power struggle.

Creak.

Gi Seongjin appeared only after an hour had passed.

“Wow, you’re patient. I had some urgent business.”

But Ha Seonghui didn’t believe him.
Not just her, but everyone who worked at this company would think the same.

‘He probably just pushed all his work onto someone else and played games on his phone somewhere.’

Thump.

As soon as Gi Seongjin sat down in his arrogant posture again, Ha Seonghui opened her mouth.

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s unfair treatment. I can’t accept what you said. I,”
“Just a moment.”

Gi Seongjin cut Ha Seonghui off and flipped over the phone she had placed on the table, tapping the screen.

Tap, tap.

“Hey, you, whether you’re her boyfriend or her brother.”

As Ha Seonghui, who had bitten her lip, reached out her hand, the man handed over his phone without a word.
Gi Seongjin tapped the screen and checked several times to see if it was recording, then returned the phone.

Swish.

Ha Seonghui could feel Gi Seongjin’s eyes scanning her bag and pockets for a moment as he stood up.

Tap.

Gi Seongjin, who was sitting in an even more arrogant posture than before, put his feet on the table.

“I have to check if you’re illegally recording, don’t I? Kids these days don’t know the law. Illegal recording, that’s a crime too.”
“Director.”
“Are you going to keep bothering me like this? As I said last time, not only will I offset the damages from your severance pay, but I’ll also include today’s obstruction of business, so do as you please.”
“……”
“I told you last time, right? There won’t be any more favors.”

Gi Seongjin, who took Ha Seonghui’s silence as compliance, became even more arrogant and boasted again.

“You’re a high school graduate, Seonghui, right? What are you going to do to make a living with that kind of resume? There won’t be a place for you in this industry anymore. Whatever you do, I’ll go and ruin it all.”

Then, the man who had been silent all along spoke.

“…I’d like to know the reason why you’re doing this.”

It was a polite and quiet tone.
There was also a hint of timidity.
As if he had barely mustered up the courage to speak.

“You, what. Are you her boyfriend? You brought some nerdy-looking bastard and all you have to say is… It’s because I suffered a loss.”
“…What on earth did you lose, Director? You’re blaming everything on me!”
“What do I care if a b*tch like you gets insulted by her parents? Why should my incentives be cut? My plan to change my car was ruined because of you!”

At Gi Seongjin’s yelling, Ha Seonghui couldn’t hide a laugh and let it out.

“Ha, for just that reason…”
“See, if you had just bowed your head once, this wouldn’t have happened. Is it my fault that your parents died early? Did I kill them!”

After that, all sorts of insulting remarks followed.
Among them, there was also clear sexual harassment that would make anyone who heard it frown.
Ha Seonghui barely managed to hold her trembling hands under the table.

“Aish, f*ck. Do I really have to explain this to you? This is why you shouldn’t use blockheads like you.”

Gi Seongjin continued to talk by himself for several minutes.
Even words he hadn’t intended to say just flowed out of his open lips.
After pouring it all out for a while, his lips finally closed.
Gi Seongjin himself didn’t know why he had gotten so angry, but he felt refreshed.

‘Ah. I’ve been tired lately, so this is good. I feel like my indigestion is all gone.’

It’s not like anything big is going to happen just because I vented my anger on a kid like this.
Ha Seonghui’s face, flushed red with anger and shame, was quite a sight.

‘She’s usually so stiff.’

But suddenly, the man who had been sitting quietly next to Ha Seonghui started to fidget with his phone.

“What are you doing? Are you going to start recording now?”

The man put his glasses down on the table with a thump and rubbed his eyes with a tired expression.

“I’ve heard enough.”

Tap, tap.

[…whether her parents get insulted…, …it’s not a good thing.]

“What? What?”

‘I definitely checked it all earlier.’

Gi Seongjin was flustered by his own voice coming from the man’s phone.
His legs, which had been propped up on the desk, were now firmly on the floor.

“Yes, the recording is fine. From now on, you can talk to me. I’m Cha Yohan, Ha Seonghui’s lawyer.”
“What?”

I slid a business card towards the flustered Gi Seongjin.
Thanks to Gi Seongjin, who looked back and forth between my business card and my face several times, silence returned to the small conference room.

[I didn’t know these skills would be so useful right away.]

‘Yeah, thanks.’

There was a time when I wished for appropriate rewards in life.
When I jumped up a level, someone would praise me for it and hand me something to prepare for the next step.
I had thought that maybe that was why people got so into games.

‘A clear stage and an appropriate reward.’

After resolving the client Lee Hyeonsu’s traffic accident case, the hologram gave me two more basic skills.

‘<Transparent Recording> and <Emotion Amplification>.’

I wondered if I would ever have a use for the latter.
But seeing how Gi Seongjin was acting today, the effect was very clear.

[Still, it shouldn’t have been this effective of a skill. It seems Ms. Ha Seonghui had a lot of pent-up feelings towards that person.]

<Emotion Amplification> was a skill that, as the name suggests, took the client’s side and amplified the negative emotions of the opposing party.
Enough to induce a situation where the opponent makes a verbal mistake like this.
I nodded slightly and started the conversation again.

“Now, shall we sort out the situation? First, the threat and blackmail are sufficient from the conversation just now, and also. Ah, and attempted fraud.”
“Fr-fraud! What are you talking about! No, what do you mean by that!”

I tapped the gray table twice with my index finger.

Tap, tap.

“I’m talking about the severance pay offset. A few days ago, in this very conference room, you forced my client to accept unfair treatment as if a matter that had become invalid due to a law revision was still legally effective.”
“Th-that’s!”

I leaned back in my chair and spoke again.
Now, the leisurely posture was on our side.

“Ah, did you by any chance know about that matter and try to embezzle it personally?”
“I-I’ve never done that!”
“And you were also sexually harassing her in between. Will it be okay if all of this is revealed to the company?”

The moment all of this was revealed, not only would Gi Seongjin’s career be over, but if public opinion gained momentum, it was obvious that he would become a scapegoat.
Seeing the person who had been openly ignoring me until just now groveling like this as soon as I revealed my identity, I didn’t feel very good.
I used that not-so-good feeling and spoke again.

“Twenty million for a settlement.”
“Tw-twenty million?”

Gi Seongjin asked back, and Ha Seonghui looked at me with surprised eyes.
I nodded and added.

“With that money, ‘everything’ that happened in this conference room will be as if it never happened. My client will keep her severance pay, and you, Mr. Gi Seongjin, will keep your career.”
“H-how can I get that much money right away? Lawyer, if you could just lower it a little…”
“You should be telling your circumstances to my client, not me.”

At my words, Gi Seongjin, who had had a servile look until just now, glared at Ha Seonghui again.
Ha Seonghui, keeping her eyes on Gi Seongjin, called out to me.

“…Lawyer.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“Instead of getting a little less of a settlement, can’t I just hit that bastard once? I think that will make me feel a little better.”
“Y-yes! If you just lower the settlement, I’ll take a few hits! As many as you want, Seonghui!”

I sighed at Gi Seongjin’s reaction, who was clinging to me with sparkling eyes as if he had found a solution, and shook my head.

“No.”
“Why?”
“Yes! I’m fine with it, I am! I’ll take as many hits as you want, Seonghui, and think of it as a beating fee!”
“The moment you hit that bastard, no. That person, the perpetrator will be you, Ms. Ha Seonghui.”

Ah, I don’t usually point fingers.
My index finger, as if it had a will of its own, was pointing at Gi Seongjin.

“Not only will all the previous agreements be null and void, but that person could also countersue you. That’s what that person wants. Do you want to do what that person wants?”

At my realistic story, Ha Seonghui shook her head with difficulty.
I stood up from my seat and added to Gi Seongjin, who was looking at us with a vacant expression.

“We’ll be in touch with you formally soon.”

Ha Seonghui threw one last bombshell at the dazed Gi Seongjin.

“You said I was bringing my boyfriend to the company, right? The lawyer who listened to my story for just one day understood you better than I did. I didn’t think it would be like this, but.”
“Ha Seonghui!”
“Thank you for ignoring me until the end.”

And so, we left the building.
It was entirely my idea to come like this.

‘Let’s go to the company together tomorrow. Does that director person know about your younger sister, Seonghui?’
‘He probably just knows that I have a younger sister. He probably doesn’t know her gender.’
‘At a company where you’ve worked for five years… I can fully imagine what kind of environment it was. Yes, then I’ll see you in front of the company tomorrow. Evidence is important not only in criminal cases but also in civil cases.’

Though Ha Seonghui was also flustered by my appearance, who had come in disguise.

“…L-lawyer… your clothes…”
“I chose an outfit that would make the opponent let his guard down as much as possible.”

But it was too effective.
I headed for the car I had parked nearby with Ha Seonghui.

‘To think that the only colored clothes in my closet were this kind of plaid.’

[…What’s wrong with plaid?]

‘It could be. Thanks to that, I wore it well.’

[I feel kind of bad…]

I got in the car and added the words I couldn’t say in the conference room to Ha Seonghui.

“There’s someone who will take revenge for you, Ms. Ha Seonghui. You don’t have to worry.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I know a friend who is a professional in this kind of thing. I’ll take you home.”
“Ah, no. If you drop me off at the bus stop in front, there’s a bus right away.”

As Ha Seonghui told me, I moved the steering wheel and a bus stop soon appeared.
Ha Seonghui got out of the car without hesitation.

Thump.

“Thank you for today, lawyer.”
“I just did my job. I’ll contact you again. Get home safely.”

Vroom.

After arriving in front of the office, I parked the car for a moment and sent a text message.

[Can that person solve it?]

Uh, definitely.

Vibrate.

As soon as I climbed one step of the stairs, a reply came.
The reply was very clear and simple.
It was just like Im Suho’s personality.

[?]

I shamelessly sent a reply.

[Ah, I sent it by mistake. It’s nothing to worry about. I’m sorry.]

While the ‘read’ sign appeared again soon, the first text message came into view without having to scroll up.

[Gi Seongjin 010…]

Vibrate.

[Don’t bother me when I’m busy]

My, how heartless.
Even though he says this, he’s probably already looking into Gi Seongjin.

[You didn’t really send it by mistake, did you?]

‘No way it was a mistake.’

Tomorrow, Gi Seongjin’s life story and all his past misdeeds will be laid bare on the internet.