The Weight of Justice

The expression on the face of Won Youngoh, reflected in the window, was surprisingly calm.
The emotions that had been revealed when he was in the room with me until just now had completely disappeared.

‘He doesn’t know Won Youngoh is involved.’

He must have known about Won Doyeong’s existence, but since Won Youngoh was not officially involved with the family, it was understandable.
Won Youngoh’s quiet question brought a sense of tension like the calm before a storm.
Oh Uiseong waved away that tension with his thick hands.

“Haha.”

‘He’s laughing?’

I revealed my thoughts instead of deceiving them.
Oh Uiseong smiled as he was and moved his thick lips.

“Do you know what happens when a person like me coughs once in the direction of the ‘common people’? They point fingers at me, saying it’s ‘abuse of power’. Just like in the current situation.”

Oh Uiseong extended his hand to the man in the seat next to him.
The man took out a document envelope from a brand-new briefcase and handed it to Oh Uiseong with both hands.

“The day will come when those people will also realize that what I am bestowing upon them now is mercy.”

Swish.

Oh Uiseong slowly handed the file he had received to me.
As if he were bestowing a favor upon me now.
The logo on the document envelope was familiar.
I reached out and held the end of the document. The word ‘Justice’ was covered by my hand.
However, Oh Uiseong did not release the strength in the hand holding the envelope, creating a strange standoff.

“As I recall, you said you didn’t have time. Am I wrong?”

Swish.

Only then was the envelope handed over to me.
I opened the envelope and took out the few documents inside.

‘This is…’

When I had seen the logo on the envelope, it was a small suspicion, but as I turned the pages of the documents one by one, I became certain.
I raised my head and asked a question not to Oh Uiseong, but to the man in the seat next to him.

“You seem to be a lawyer from Justice. What is your name?”

The man took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to me.

‘Kim Hyunwoo…’

It was a name I didn’t remember.
I had heard that the lawyers belonging to Justice were gradually moving to other law firms, and it seemed that the vacancies were being filled accordingly.
I placed the business card and the documents together on the table and opened my mouth again.

“Did you write this document, Lawyer Kim Hyunwoo?”
“…What? Yes. That’s right.”

Kim Hyunwoo was not yet skilled at managing his expression.

‘A rookie.’

Won Youngoh, reflected in the window, also nodded as if in agreement.

“Are you sure you’re the one who wrote it?”
“That’s right.”
“That can’t be…”

As I answered with a trailing voice, unlike my firm tone until just now, Kim Hyunwoo looked at me with a confident expression.
There was only one reason I had said this.
Because a very familiar feeling was emanating from the documents they had handed me.

Step.

I handed the file to Won Youngoh, who had come up behind me.
A lawyer’s appearance in court was important, but his appearance outside of court was also very important.
Because every little thing could become a key that swayed the trial.

‘In that sense, Hyeon Yeongje is a very cunning person.’

One day, not long after establishing Justice, he had said this to me while tilting his glass.

“A trial is like poker.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The one who hides more cards and bites more wins. An expression is a hint, a gesture is a fatal move.”

I came to understand those words in a trial a few days after that.
Hyeon Yeongje had deliberately left a gap.
Because he was confident of winning.
If the opponent tried to exploit that gap, he would strike them down. The moment they realized they had fallen into a trap, the opponent had already lost.
The same was true in the opposite case.
Hyeon Yeongje’s bluffing was often a topic of conversation even among lawyers.

“I really didn’t know he would go in that direction.”
“I heard it didn’t even go to trial this time.”

If he was caught in a fight he couldn’t win, he wouldn’t drag it to court, no matter what method he used.
Of course, ordinary people would usually scatter before they could even figure out Hyeon Yeongje’s technique.

‘But he can’t fool my eyes.’

The time we had spent together was also a factor, but I was a judge before I was a lawyer.
A person has their own preferred context and words.
And it is usually others who discover that.
In this document, Hyeon Yeongje’s unique style was revealed in parts.

‘It seems he tried to hide it…’

The file that Kim Hyunwoo had brought did not have the sloppiness of a new lawyer, but rather, intentional traps were placed everywhere.
A trap that gave off a sweet scent and opened its mouth, waiting for the opponent to fall in.
I met Kim Hyunwoo’s eyes and smiled slightly. I stole the opponent’s gaze with a smile and quickly scanned him.
Kim Hyunwoo also smiled back at me.

‘That’s right, they usually learn to manage their expressions last.’

Experience and career were not assets that could be obtained through study alone.
It was something that was fought against time and accumulated.

‘He’s probably happy inside.’

He would think I had fallen for it.
I could tell just by looking at the confident and arrogant smile of Oh Uiseong next to him.
But now, I was also happy.

[It seems they think their plan has succeeded.]

‘Completely. Well, an ordinary person would have fallen for it.’

They were expecting a moth to a flame. And they were revealing it instead of hiding it.
In the meantime, Kim Hyunwoo opened his mouth again.

“Oh Seunghyeon is a delinquent minor in the first place. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who doesn’t know the meaning of a delinquent minor.”

I deliberately kept my lips shut and nodded slightly.

“Since he can’t be held legally responsible even if he wanted to, my client is trying to offer compensation as a gesture of comfort. Then it’s a matter that will end simply.”
“Hmm…”
“Is there a need to go to court for such a small matter? It would just be a waste of time for both of us.”

I rubbed the corner of my mouth, pretending to be thinking.
As if to show off.

‘Still, his acting isn’t bad.’

Kim Hyunwoo continued to speak in a tone that suggested he wanted to end it here, but his true feelings were different.
In fact, he was trying to lure me to court.

‘Should I give him the answer he wants? That way, they’ll also think we’ve let our guard down and relax as well.’

[Yes, that would be good. Because that’s the result we’re hoping for too.]

I lowered the hand that had been rubbing the corner of my mouth and placed it on my knee, straightening my back.

“Why do we have to decide that?”
“What?”

Kim Hyunwoo, who had been speaking nonchalantly until just now, frowned.

“A lawyer does what the client wants. My clients want a trial, not this kind of compensation, and I respect their wishes. So I’ll see you in court.”

It seemed that it was Oh Uiseong, not Kim Hyunwoo, who did not have my answer in his expected answer sheet.
His face contorted more and more with every word I said.
It was not acting, but real.
In other words, it was an undisguised displeasure.

‘How dare you.’

Oh Uiseong was saying that to me with his eyes.
And because he was so fixated on me, he was missing what kind of expression his lawyer was making.

‘He’s relieved.’

Thanks to that, I could easily deduce that Kim Hyunwoo, or Hyeon Yeongje, had not shared the situation with Oh Uiseong in advance.

‘That’s also like Hyeon Yeongje.’

It was either because Oh Uiseong would show it, or because he just thought of Oh Uiseong as a pawn.
Either way, the Kim Hyunwoo in front of me would not know that the fact that Hyeon Yeongje had intervened had been revealed even more.

‘He’ll just be relieved that he did as he was told.’

Oh Uiseong took a deep breath, so loud that his breathing could be heard, and then spoke in a louder voice.

“Kids can be like that!”

I slowly leaned back against the plush sofa and calmly asked a question that was also an answer.

“Why can kids be like that?”
“…What?”
“Why can kids be like that?”

I got ahead of Oh Uiseong before he could open his mouth again.

“A terrible memory from childhood mostly doesn’t disappear even after decades. It becomes a shadow that holds onto the child who has become an adult for the rest of their life.”
“……”
“What do you think you would have done if it had been the other way around?”
“My son would never have something like that happen to him!”
“Yes, he did do something like that. As a perpetrator.”

I could see my face looking at Oh Uiseong in the window.
It was a calm face without any emotion. It was just a very cold gaze.
I didn’t want to send even a handful of emotion.
To a person like this, that was just a waste.

“Just as you are doing this for your own son, my clients are also trying to do the ‘waste of time’ you mentioned for their own son.”
“Hey, Lawyer Cha!”
“To show their child. See, it’s nothing.”

That was the feeling of the parents who had come to us.
The feeling of hoping that the world of their child, who had to live on, would not be broken.
I looked straight at Oh Uiseong and continued.

“That this is something you can win. Something you can overcome. That you have a mom, and a dad. That you have a family to protect you. Like that.”

Swish.

I slowly stood up from my seat and looked down at Oh Uiseong, who was now looking at me with bloodshot eyes.

“If a child can be like that, does that mean the victim can be wronged because they’re a child? The victim is not the only one who is wronged.”
“I’ll make you regret it.”
“Regret and repentance are what you should be doing, Councilman. Because you’ve made the victim’s family wronged as well.”

The moment I spat out those words, I strangely couldn’t see Won Youngoh’s face.
I let out a light sigh and added one last thing.

“The things a child can do are things like secretly sneaking out of the academy to play with friends, or secretly eating one more ice cream that their parents told them not to eat. Things of that level.”

No answer came back.

“Please leave now. It’s almost time for my client to arrive.”

I extended my arm and gently pointed to the door.
Oh Uiseong literally kicked his chair and stood up.

“Just you wait.”
“Yes, I’ll see you in court. It will be at a set time then.”

I neither bowed my waist nor my head to them.
Oh Uiseong glared at me one last time and then left the office.
The anger he couldn’t handle was seeping out from his thumping footsteps.
But the footsteps of Kim Hyunwoo, who was following him, seemed somehow cheerful.

Chime.

The sound of the wind chime, which had been inaudible due to the loud noise when they had entered, now rang cheerfully and softly in the office.

‘Haa, people like that are always the same.’

People who, when you mention empathy, insist that it doesn’t apply to them, and who get angry just for having imagined the what-if.

‘I don’t know why they think they’re the only exception.’

And so, as I was briefly laying out a complaint that wasn’t a complaint to myself.

Clap, clap, clap!

The sound of unexpected applause was heard, and when I turned my head, Lee Ilwoo was clapping.

“…Mr. Lee Ilwoo?”

Clap, clap!

And Jeong Donghyeok joined in. As I looked closely, he had a very moved expression.

‘What are they doing?’

Clap, clap!

And finally, even Won Youngoh.
The cheerful sound of applause filled the office without a gap.

“…What are you all doing? Why are you suddenly clapping…”
“I see you in a new light, Lawyer Cha.”
“I feel the same. It felt like I was watching a trial.”
“I’m relieved that our Lawyer Cha seems to have become much stronger.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at their respective reactions.

“I was worried that I had pushed him too hard, but was it okay?”

Won Youngoh nodded at my question.

“They will think we are very excited. Without even knowing that we have read all of their tricks.”

As expected, Won Youngoh also knew that they were intentionally luring us to court.
As soon as he heard Won Youngoh’s answer, a look of certainty immediately appeared on Jeong Donghyeok’s face.
Lee Ilwoo, as if it didn’t matter what it was, sent me a round of applause until the end.
And so, the promised trial date approached.