The Hidden Camera

While I was looking for more evidence, Choi Suhyeok silently watched the split screen for a long time.
The only space without a camera was this room.
The parking lot, the front of the main entrance, and even the back of the building all had cameras.
There were no blind spots.
Choi Suhyeok turned his gaze to Park Hyeonsang with an expression of having seen something he shouldn’t have.
Park Hyeonsang screamed as if in a frenzy.

“What! I, I needed to have an insurance policy too! Do you know how scary those guys are!”
“Don’t talk nonsense, you piece of trash. Do you think this is the first or second day I’m seeing a bastard like you? A perverted voyeuristic bastard has a lot to say. Ah, if I had my way, really.”

I agreed with the words Choi Suhyeok spat out, clenching his teeth.
I didn’t hear the rest of his words, but I felt like I had.

‘To have hidden such a full-fledged secret space, he must have been repeating the same act for a long time.’

“This is…”

How far does human malice evolve?
At times like these, I would have such thoughts.
Because after a few searches, I had found the computer mainframe hidden in the cupboard.
I was disgusted by the way it was decorated to look like an ordinary cupboard.

“No!”
“Shut up. What do you mean, no? Lawyer Cha, is there an original?”
“Yes. The files are all alive. I don’t know if this is a misfortune or a blessing.”

I found a folder where the videos were obsessively organized by date, cut into two-hour segments.
At that moment, even I couldn’t hide my look of contempt.

‘Yesterday’s video is…’

After glancing at Park Hyeonsang once, I moved the mouse to find the early morning hours that Kwon Saeha had talked about.

“Help, help me!”
“Shut up, you bastard!”
“Hey, guys. Leave his face alone. It’s important.”
“Yes, boss!”

The video began with Kwon Saeha being dragged out of a car.
After that, it showed him being beaten in the room, and then the scene where drugs and cash were set up around the unconscious Kwon Saeha was all recorded.
Even the scene where the police rushed in and arrested Kwon Saeha shortly after the guys had left.

Thump!

I slammed the space bar nervously at that scene.
The gangsters in the video were all laughing cheerfully. Among them, there were also guys who were secretly pocketing the cash they were setting up.
I felt sick at that clear malice.
Choi Suhyeok also kept his mouth shut.
I don’t know if it was for the same reason as me, or if he was holding back from throwing Park Hyeonsang to the ground right now.
In this deliberate silence, the only one whose eyes were darting around was Park Hyeonsang.
After a few minutes of thought, I opened my mouth to make a decision.

“…I’ll make you an offer that is far too generous for a person like you.”
“What, what is it! I’ll listen to whatever it is, so tell me quickly!”
“If you honestly confess everything you know about those people, then at least you won’t be ‘wronged’.”

At my words, Park Hyeonsang asked back with a face that couldn’t hide his hope.

“…What will happen to me if I accept that offer? Am I innocent?”
“Haa…”

An unrestrained sigh escaped my lips.
Ah, I don’t want to treat him politely anymore.
I slowly ran my hand through my hair and opened my mouth again.

“Being wronged and being innocent are different things.”

As I cut off my polite language, the one who looked at me with surprised eyes was Choi Suhyeok.
I met his eyes and smiled.
And then I returned to my usual self and continued.

“Illegal cameras, so-called hidden cameras… Since it’s a place like this, you won’t be able to avoid the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, and with this size of a room, you’ll get a prison sentence without a doubt.”
“Wh-what are you talking about! You said it was an offer!”
“And aiding and abetting kidnapping, aiding and abetting assault. Ah, what else was there. Right, aiding and abetting drugs. That’s three charges of aiding and abetting already, isn’t it?”

I frowned and slowly folded my fingers as I listed Park Hyeonsang’s charges one by one.

“Aiding and abetting is as serious as the act itself, but I guess those guys didn’t tell you that?”

He probably thought he could just take some money and keep his mouth shut.
I slowly began to disassemble Park Hyeonsang’s computer mainframe.

“But, well. It has nothing to do with me. I’m going to tell those scary people that you, Mr. Park Hyeonsang, personally handed me this, begging me to save you.”

Then I turned around and waved the hard disk I had separated in my hand.

“Ah, I don’t even have to go to the trouble of going all the way there. This insurance of yours, Mr. Park Hyeonsang, will be the decisive evidence of all the crimes you’ve committed so far.”
“You son of a,”

Choi Suhyeok stopped Park Hyeonsang from cursing any further.
Just enough so that it wouldn’t be called excessive suppression.
I slowly waved the hard disk in front of Park Hyeonsang’s bloodshot face.

“But will your body be intact when you’re released from prison, Mr. Park Hyeonsang? I don’t think so. You should think about it too. There’s a high possibility that you won’t even be released at all.”
“Ugh…”
“Because your scary business partners in the video will be going in with you.”

As if my words were a hypnosis, recalling the worst, he contorted his face as if he were really hurt somewhere.
It’s probably because of what he’s seen so far.
I found that point even harder to bear.
Because I remembered Kwon Saeha’s face in the interrogation room, full of fear.
I slowly straightened my back, which I had bent to meet Park Hyeonsang’s eyes.

“The inside of ‘school’ is a bit small, isn’t it? Ah, you don’t know because you haven’t been there yet. You’ll find out this time.”

“Drink up.”
“Thank you. Ah, it seems like it’s really winter now.”

Choi Suhyeok handed me a warm vending machine coffee.
I held the paper cup, which was warming my fingertips, and talked with Choi Suhyeok on a bench outside the station.
It was after secretly putting Park Hyeonsang in the interrogation room.
Choi Suhyeok took a sip of coffee and then turned his head towards me.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you like that.”
“Like what?”
“Hmm, threatening someone? I didn’t know you could make a face like that, Lawyer Cha. I thought you only knew how to smile.”
“Well, people have many sides.”
“And the way you’re acting like nothing happened now, it’s really. It’s hard to figure you out.”

I smiled at Choi Suhyeok’s words and took another sip of the sweet vending machine coffee.

“Sometimes when I meet a client.”

Though this is a story from my Yoon Eunho days.

“There’s a moment when I realize the client is lying.”
“……”
“It’s the opposite for you, isn’t it, Detective Choi?”

Choi Suhyeok crumpled the now-empty paper cup without answering.

“The moment you feel the suspect is innocent.”

I swallowed the last sip. A sweet taste lingered on my tongue.
Though it would soon become stale.

“Half of it was sincere, and half of it was venting. I was angry at those guys who did that to Mr. Kwon Saeha, but also at Park Hyeonsang for not showing any remorse.”

Swish.

I carefully took the crumpled paper cup from Choi Suhyeok’s hand.
Unlike before, there was no strength in Choi Suhyeok’s hand.

“So I wanted him to feel at least a little of the fear that Mr. Kwon Saeha must have felt.”

I put Choi Suhyeok’s crumpled cup inside my cup and threw it towards the trash can on the bench.

Thump!

The two cups drew a parabola, hit the corner of the trash can, and went in.

“You were curious if my words earlier were sincere, weren’t you?”
“……”

Silence is mostly an affirmation.
I also nodded once and got up from my seat.

“The punishment should be as much as the crime. According to the law. So please investigate well.”
“…Where are you going?”
“I have so much to do right now. I’ll be in touch.”

Unlike me, who had gotten up, Choi Suhyeok sat there for a long time and followed my back with his eyes.

Skyscrapers and skyscrapers.
A place where the sun can only shine through the gaps.
But now, everyone was in an equal darkness.
Even at this late hour, the lights of ‘Justice’ never went out.

“…I’m sorry, CEO.”

In the direction the secretary was bowing, there was Hyeon Yeongje, who, as always, was openly showing his displeasure.

“CEO Hyeon, are you tired these days?”

It was a statement that could not have been more insulting to one’s pride.

‘Everything was proceeding according to plan without a hitch.’

The ‘Justice’ without Yoon Eunho was Hyeon Yeongje’s own.
At first, it was good.
Everything was smooth.
The requests that he couldn’t take on because of Yoon Eunho’s opposition brought in money. Hyeon Yeongje’s choice was not wrong.
Whether it was a corporation or an individual, he took on all cases that made money without discrimination.

“Uh, CEO… two senior lawyers who are in the process of finishing their cases have expressed their intention to resign next month.”
“The reason?”
“…It’s the same reason as the two lawyers who resigned last month.”

It was good at first.
Because the lawyers who had followed Yoon Eunho, who had never agreed with Hyeon Yeongje from the beginning, had also left.
He could just fill the empty spots with other lawyers he wanted.

“I hear ‘Justice’s’ win rate has been dropping since CEO Yoon passed away.”
“I also heard that lawyers and staff are continuously resigning. Thanks to that, other law firms are having a field day. Where can you find people like that?”
“Ah, I heard that too. They used to not even take my calls, but it seems there’s some internal problem.”

It was inevitable that he would be the subject of gossip.
Because there was a limit to how much he could control people’s mouths.

‘But, investments are a different story.’

The heads of the companies that had promised full-fledged retainers and investments in the future were continuously postponing their meetings.

“…Because of these gangster bastards.”

It was a mutter filled with anger.
The secretary reflexively bowed a little lower.
He thought he could just control the atmosphere.
With that thought, Hyeon Yeongje took on the request from ‘Mix Entertainment’.
He already knew that they were not good guys.
It was a client and a request that Yoon Eunho would never have taken.
But Hyeon Yeongje accepted it for that very reason.

‘Because I can’t be wrong.’

With such arrogant thoughts.
Since there would be no error in his decision, and since the CEO of that agency had offered a success fee and a large legal fee, there was even less reason for Hyeon Yeongje to refuse.

“Hey, that guy is lying. Why would we do something like that? That guy is our product. It’s a pain in the ass to have lawyers, whether they’re Nike or Dike, attached to him.”

In reality, he had accepted as soon as he heard that the other party was Won Youngoh’s ‘Dike’.
The picture Hyeon Yeongje had in mind was not this.
A false accusation of assault by an idol who was after money, and ‘Justice’ that protected an innocent company.
He had tried to turn the eyes of the companies back to him like that.

“Your Honor, I submit additional evidence.”

It was a face he had never seen before.
That lawyer had figured out everything, from the motel owner’s testimony and video, the identities of those who had confined and assaulted Kwon Saeha, to the past deeds of the clients who had now laundered themselves as businessmen.

‘There’s no way out for the detective either.’

Since it was such a high-profile case, the loss also spread widely by word of mouth.
After the headline of ‘That’s Facts’ was posted on the portal, the companies quietly raised their hands. With a clear indication that they would be cutting ties.
But even in the face of these big problems, Hyeon Yeongje kept thinking of only one thing.
It was the eyes of the lawyer he had seen for the first time in the courtroom.

‘He seemed to know me.’

Because in that lawyer’s eyes, there was pity instead of the elation of victory.
Hyeon Yeongje recalled that gaze and fiddled with the phone in his hand for a long time.
His gaze was fixed on a single number.

Thump.

But he eventually flipped the phone over on the table.

“Hey, Secretary Yang.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“From now on, if other companies mention terminating their contracts, lower the legal fees. Say that we will share a portion of the damages in case of a loss. And.”

Hyeon Yeongje stood up and looked down at the large floor-to-ceiling window as he spoke.

“Dig up everything on that guy named Cha Yohan.”
“Yes, CEO.”

He couldn’t collapse like this.
After all the things he had done to get ‘Justice’.