The Unused Trump Card

Won Youngoh, who must have arrived at some point without us noticing, was leaning against the wall by the door, listening to our conversation.
He strode over to the table with large steps.

Thump.

Placing his sleek briefcase on the table, Won Youngoh took off his jacket and shrugged once.

“I will formally hire Mr. Lee Ilwoo. The hourly wage was bothering me anyway.”

He sat down naturally and blended into the conversation as if he had been there from the start.

“When did you get here? I didn’t hear you.”
“From the part about requesting cooperation from the police.”
“So you were here almost from the beginning.”
“I waited quietly, watching for the right moment, so as not to break the flow. Thanks to that, I got a dramatic entrance.”

He was, in many ways, a man of great patience.
We all burst out laughing at Won Youngoh’s nonchalant reply.
But Won Youngoh continued in a more serious tone than ever.

“It might not match an agent’s salary, but I’ll hire you for enough that you won’t have to worry. However, there’s overtime pay, but no hazard pay. Officially, that is.”
“Then I’ll cover the hazard pay. I think we can match Mr. Lee Ilwoo’s original salary then.”

As I backed up Won Youngoh’s words, three pairs of eyes turned to me simultaneously.

“Uh, Attorney, didn’t you say you’re not monetizing your channel?”

My channel had grown explosively and was now progressing slowly.
As Jeong Donghyeok said, I hadn’t enabled monetization, so I wasn’t earning anything from it.
But apart from that, I had one reliable trump card left.

‘I had already considered that I couldn’t work with Mr. Lee Ilwoo like this forever.’

Literally, he was on a leave of absence and had a place he needed to return to.
There was no one more trustworthy than Lee Ilwoo.
However, his affiliation was ultimately with the state.

‘If a person like that is going to make this choice, and if I’m one of the reasons, then I have to take some responsibility too.’

The issue of money was also fine without relying on Won Youngoh.
I never thought the day would come when I’d have to use this method, though.

[But besides the salary… are you really okay?]

‘It’s enough.’

[But where are you getting the money from… Don’t tell me?]

‘I’m not exactly an ordinary person.’

Who else gets to live a second life in a different body and with a different name?
During my time as a judge, and as a co-CEO of Justice, I never really had a place to spend money.

‘To be precise, I didn’t have the time to spend it.’

[But Attorney Yoon Eunho’s body is already… And we both confirmed that all of your assets were donated.]

As Gram said, we had once found a few news articles.

[The assets of the late CEO Yoon Eunho of the law firm ‘Justice,’ who passed away in an unfortunate accident, were donated today to various organizations according to the will he wrote during his lifetime. During his life, he also contributed to society through pro bono cases…]

It was news that all my assets had been donated to the organizations I wanted after I died.
I wasn’t disappointed. If anything, I was relieved.
Gram, who had been quiet for a moment as if contemplating something, asked another question.

[…Did you by any chance commit some sort of corruption?]

I almost let out a dry laugh.

‘You have a tendency to vilify me sometimes. It’s clean, honest money.’

[Then why until now…]

The three of them seemed to harbor the same question as Gram.
I opened my mouth again to the three of them, who were pondering with different expressions.

“Mr. Lee Ilwoo has been through a lot for us, and I’d like to take this opportunity to repay him.”
“I make sure to pay you a decent salary, Attorney Cha… but it probably won’t be enough to cover Mr. Lee Ilwoo’s hazard pay, that is, his incentive.”
“…The Attorney I know would not have accumulated wealth dishonestly. I’ve known you for several years.”
“Attorney Cha, you don’t have to do this. It’s okay.”

‘It seems no one is on my side today either, right?’

[No. Even I find it hard to believe.]

Hmm, is that so.
I gave a deep nod and answered the three of them.

“Then I’ll just have to show you. I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going all of a sudden?”

Won Youngoh asked, bewildered, as I stood up from my seat.
I had only one destination in mind.

“Um, a place similar to a bank.”

My plan to go there alone was immediately overruled.

“We don’t know when or who might approach you. Let’s go together.”
“Mr. Lee Ilwoo is right. If they heard the news about the NIS, they’ll think now is the perfect time.”
“I also agree with Attorney Won.”

Lee Ilwoo was firm, and the other two were as well.

Vroom.

“I’ve gotten so used to your driving, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”
“I’m a decent driver.”
“More than decent, I think. I’ve been in quite a few people’s cars, and your skills are the best.”

In the car that moved as if gliding, I asked the question I couldn’t ask when we were all together earlier.

“Have you ever thought about another profession? Or something you’ve wanted to do, something like that.”

Lee Ilwoo, who was driving smoothly, smiled playfully and answered.

“Hmm, unemployed? Haha, just kidding. I have thought that I should probably do what I’m best at.”
“That would probably be physical work.”
“Yes, I had similar thoughts when I quit Taekwondo. That’s how I became a soldier. I didn’t think about it for long.”
“Come to think of it, you’ve lived a very dense life, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”
“Pardon?”

Lee Ilwoo, who had stopped the car at a signal, asked back and looked at me.

“That’s the face of someone who’s heard that for the first time.”
“I really have heard it for the first time.”
“That’s strange. I thought you would have heard it at least once.”

Lee Ilwoo tilted his head with a slightly confused expression.
I calmly laid out my thoughts.

“I think becoming the top in any field is a very difficult thing. Especially if you’re representing the country.”

All of Lee Ilwoo’s competition videos had been taken down, but fragments of information about him could still be found.
As if they thought it would be strange to erase everything.
I smiled at Lee Ilwoo and opened my mouth.

“Besides, as a medalist, you would have been exempt from military service, but you chose to be a soldier.”
“…You saying things like that all of a sudden makes me feel so awkward. I don’t know what kind of expression to make.”
“I’m being completely sincere.”

Though that part seemed to make Lee Ilwoo even more embarrassed.
I pointed out the window where the signal had changed and continued.

“They say that when a person challenges something or chooses something new, they feel immense fear. They get eaten away by the anxiety of failure. Even for things that haven’t happened yet.”
“Things that haven’t happened yet…”
“That’s why I admire people who challenge new fields. There are choices you have to make even when you know you’ll get broken and shattered.”

Because a beginning isn’t always just exciting.
In fact, it gets scarier as you get older.
Because you become able to calculate the responsibilities that follow failure with more clarity.

“I’ve only walked one path. Because this is all I know how to do, I wanted to at least be good at that.”

I added, smiling at Lee Ilwoo.

“That’s why you look amazing in my eyes, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

Lee Ilwoo cleared his throat a few times and then slowly continued.

“In my eyes, you look even more amazing, Attorney. To be honest, I used to think that the law was unkind to victims. You changed my mind.”

As Lee Ilwoo said, the law was unkind.
Furthermore, Lee Ilwoo was someone who had experienced that firsthand.

“…The reason I quit sports was because of my family. My father passed away suddenly, and our family’s finances took a huge hit. It wasn’t for a grand reason like you might think.”

He calmly shared his story in a low voice.
Occasionally, he would even smile with a look of relief.

“All I knew how to do was use my body, but sports cost too much money. I couldn’t prepare for the next competition. I had to quit, as if I were being kicked out.”

He squeezed the hand on the steering wheel once, then stretched out his fingers.

“My younger sibling was young, and my mother worked day and night without rest. I also did manual labor continuously.”

My gaze unknowingly went to the numerous scars and calluses on Lee Ilwoo’s hands.

“But still, things didn’t get better. That’s why I went to the army. Maybe it was an escape.”

Lee Ilwoo honestly confessed that his choice was, in fact, just an escape.
Without knowing that that very part was what made him stronger.

“I don’t agree with the saying, ‘There’s no paradise in the place you flee to.’ What do you think, Mr. Lee Ilwoo?”

Even to my random question, Lee Ilwoo gave an answer after some thought.

“Even if there’s no paradise… wouldn’t you at least be able to breathe for a moment?”
“Yes, I think so too. You have to live first to prepare for the next step. Just like your choice, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

‘No paradise in the place you flee to’ – could there be a crueler saying?
Of course, I knew it meant to overcome trials and adversity, but there are times when you just can’t win.
Lee Ilwoo burst out into a pleasant laugh.

“I’ve had a thought while spending these past few months with you, Attorney… I think that thought gave me conviction today.”
“What kind of thought?”
“Even skilled agents hesitate to jump into a fire. Fires are especially difficult to calculate survival possibilities for.”

It would be a blatant lie if I said I wasn’t scared at that moment either.
But I couldn’t give up on the possibility by being defeated by fear. Especially when a person’s life was at stake.

[200 meters remaining to destination.]

“But I had a thought. That this person will never change.”
“Your thought won’t be wrong, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

I could say it with certainty.

“Password confirmed. I will guide you, customer. Your companion, please wait in the lounge for a moment.”

The place we arrived at was a building in Seocho-dong, not far from the office.
From the outside, it wasn’t a fancy building, but inside, there were probably things hidden worth hundreds of billions.

Thud, thud.

Following the guidance of the experienced employee, I walked down a corridor filled entirely with a low, red light.

[An anonymous safe… Are you sure this isn’t illegal?]

‘I told you it’s not. What reason would I have for that? I had nothing to lose.’

This place assigned a coded safe number and a password to individuals.
Even the owner couldn’t retrieve the contents if they forgot both.
Which also meant that even if you weren’t the owner, you could open the safe if you knew both.
In front of the thick steel door, Lee Ilwoo looked at me with a face full of questions until the door was completely closed.

“Then please use it at your convenience.”
“Thank you.”

The employee guided me to a small room.
I entered another safe opening password, different from the one before.

Clank.

As I opened the similarly thick steel door and entered, a space the size of a one-room apartment appeared.

[…What is all this?]

‘What, did you think there would be bundles of cash like in dramas or movies?’

Gram seemed flustered seeing a room full of paper bundles instead of money.

[Of course. In movies, places like this are always like that.]

‘These are the case files I’ve handled. Once I got attached, I couldn’t throw them away. But keeping them at home took up too much space.’

[Then why did you entrust them to a place like this? There’s no gold in the safe…]

‘The vaults at the first-tier banks were already full. And it’s not just the things you can see that are money.’

I opened a drawer in the corner and took out a USB drive.

[What’s that?]

Hmm, about 5 billion won?