The Client Behind the Flowers
Above his head, a red exclamation mark hung in the air like a warning.
I had to stop him.
At the flower shop in front of Yegi’s place, the group of customers came to a halt.
The man trailing behind them walked at a measured pace, then let out a slimy grin and reached a hand into the side of a box that had been crudely cut open.
Damn it. I’m too late.
The instant light flashed from inside the box, I knew I had to drag his attention away, even if it meant provoking him.
“Hey, you bastard!”
“……”
The moment the man glanced over, I pulled a gas gun from my pocket.
“……!”
I disengaged the lock and pulled the trigger.
Shhhhk!
“Aaaagh!”
The man clutched at his face as the tear gas hit him.
Clang!
Along with the box, the weapon clattered to the floor.
He dropped the weapon?
Had he never been arrested before, never even had a rope tied around his wrists? If so, then this was my chance.
Now.
While he staggered from the gas, I kicked the weapon far out of reach.
“Eek!”
“Ma’am, call 112!”
The man, face slick with tears and snot, glared at me and snarled.
“You’re dead!”
Even with his eyes burning from the tear gas, he rushed straight at me.
In moments like this, I had to stay calm.
Here he comes.
Whoosh.
His fist shot toward my right chest.
I twisted quickly and let the punch slide past.
Thud.
I slapped it away with my hand, ducked low, and drove my elbow straight into his chest.
“Ghk!”
As the man stumbled backward, the police came surging in behind him.
“Police!”
The officers closed in around him.
There had been a murder threat, and they had been patrolling the area around Express Bus Terminal Station in case something happened, so it looked like the full team had been dispatched, all sixteen officers at once.
The subdued man shouted through the gas.
“I won’t let this go! You hear me? I won’t let this go!”
I ignored him and went to the shop owner, who was trembling all over.
“Yegi’s auntie, are you all right?”
“Lawyer boy, a-are you okay?”
“As you can see, I’m fine.”
Thank God I had thrown him off with the insult and kicked away the weapon right away. Even if I’d been wearing body armor, if I hadn’t gotten rid of that blade, the future would have looked grim.
The owner took one heavy step after another and seized my hand.
Tears poured from her eyes in a rush.
“Thank you, truly. I—I thought I might go before I even got to marry off Yegi. Hic.”
“Please calm down. It’s over now.”
“Are you all right?”
The police officer who came over asked about the situation.
I explained that I had seen the weapon, fired the gas gun, and kicked the weapon away, making it clear that it had all been self-defense.
“……”
“Is there a problem?”
If he didn’t believe me, they could check the store’s CCTV. Simple enough.
“No, sir. You knew exactly what you were doing. Then do you have a permit for the gas gun?”
“I do.”
I had obtained that permit after purchase. It had taken ten days before it was approved.
If it hadn’t been for the courier, that really would have been close.
“You carry the permit on you?”
“I was carrying the gas gun, so yes.”
“You’re textbook, huh. All right, we’ll need you to come in as a witness later.”
“Understood.”
After the paramedics and police left, Yegi’s auntie, who had briefly disappeared, came back out of the shop carrying an electric kettle.
“You all must have been frightened. Have some herbal tea.”
She poured flower tea into paper cups, and a few people held theirs with tissues because the cups were too hot to touch.
The group of customers blew on the tea and sipped cautiously.
“I’m starting to calm down now.”
“I’m glad. Madame Moon, I’ll give you the flowers you reserved today free of charge, aside from the deposit.”
“No, no, you don’t need to do that! This isn’t something Yegi’s family did.”
“Still. Please think of it as consolation flowers. Would you like another cup?”
After pouring more herbal tea, Yegi’s auntie came over to me.
“Lawyer boy, do you want a cup too?”
“I’m fine.”
“Tell me if you change your mind.”
I turned down the herbal tea she offered and stared into the empty air.
Mission completed.
Hah. So it really had been a murder threat.
If I had gone by Line 9 and something had happened in front of the office, then...
Maybe the sight of a blood-soaked scene would have brought back the day my mother was hit by a car.
The thought alone made me dizzy. I opened and closed my hands, which were still trembling in short, involuntary bursts.
Still, the mission’s complete. The main one should show up before long.
I walked over to Yegi’s auntie, who was speaking with the group of customers.
“Auntie Yegi, I should get going.”
“Come by and see me later.”
“Yes, come whenever it’s convenient.”
“Lawyer, thank you.”
“You saved my life.”
“It was nothing.”
After greeting the customers as well, I turned to pick up the key that had fallen to the floor.
Step, step.
It should have fallen around here.
Maybe because the scene had been so chaotic, I couldn’t find the key even after bending my knees and scanning the ground.
“Excuse me.”
“……”
“You’re looking for this, right?”
Tap. Tap.
The tip of a woman’s shoe, belonging to someone who looked to be in her fifties, pointed at something.
It was the office key.
“That’s right.”
She looked like one of the group customers who had come to Yegi’s flower shop, holding a paper cup in a tissue-wrapped hand.
No matter how small the thing lying on the floor was, using a foot to point at it instead of a hand was poor manners.
Still, you never knew what kind of circumstances someone might be in, so I didn’t say anything and stood with the key in hand.
Since she was a customer of the flower shop owner, I kept it polite.
“Thank you.”
“Not at all.”
But instead of heading back to the flower shop, the auntie kept staring at me intently.
Left her companions behind, huh. Is she planning to retain me?
Sure enough.
A mission has been assigned.
Take on the current case.
📍 Location: Continent Law Firm
🎁 Reward: Evidence
However, the current case must end in a ruling favorable to the accused.
Success: evidence.
Failure: system deletion.
Note: the accused will be immediately recognizable.
Oh. So if I take on this auntie’s case, it means I’ll meet the accused? In that case, let’s play dumb.
Walking into a law office while out with acquaintances to have a little fun? That was the same as saying it just wasn’t my day.
So I had to test the waters carefully, just enough to get a taste.
I deliberately took my gaze off the auntie and moved the fire extinguisher and the chair I had placed near the door over to the consultation table.
She’ll probably speak up around now.
“You said earlier that the flower shop owner here is a lawyer. Is this a law office?”
The auntie pointed toward the office with elegant fingers.
Bingo.
I smiled and nodded.
“Yes. It’s in an underground shopping arcade, but it’s still a law office.”
“Then do you do consultations?”
“Of course. The consultation fee for a same-day appointment is 100,000 won. Time doesn’t matter.”
“...That’s not bad.”
“At a major law firm, time is money, so there’s no helping it. I’m not that merciless.”
“Hmm.”
“Please, have a seat.”
I led the auntie to the consultation table.
She took a disposable wet wipe from her luxury bag, cleaned the chair, and sat down.
“I wasn’t being told to come along just because there’d be nobody around after that murder threat.”
In situations like this, if I blurted out something like, “Well, that’s true, but you came to me because of this,” and kept running my mouth...
I’d only sound like a scheming gossip monger.
Especially in consultations, simple answers were best.
“I’m glad nothing happened.”
“Right. Hoo. Anyway, I’m not sure how to even start the consultation.”
“What you tell me is confidential, so please speak freely.”
“……”
The auntie glanced at the office door, then broke the silence and spoke.
“This isn’t about me. It’s about my son.”
So the son is the accused.
“He contacted me recently. He said the police had questioned him and that he was being taken to the detention center.”
Detention center.
Being held there meant there was solid evidence and a risk of flight.
What stage the case is at matters.
Had the police finished their investigation?
Was the prosecution still investigating, or had they already indicted him? That part mattered.
“You’re saying more than twenty-four hours have passed since you heard from your son?”
“Of course. It’s been quite a while.”
...And yet she’s calm.
“Madam. If we count from the moment the investigating authorities detained the accused, the prosecutor can hold him for twenty days. Has that period passed?”
“Not that much. I think it’s only been about five days.”
So he’s just been handed over to the prosecution. If he’d already been indicted, the mission would have said defendant instead of suspect.
“In that case, can we apply for bail?”
“We’d need to look at the situation, but if your son was detained by the prosecution while still under investigation, it should be possible through a detention review. If he’s already been indicted and is before the court, then bail would be the route.”
I had wanted to confirm which stage it was at, but that was unfortunate.
“Detention review? What’s that?”
“It’s a system where a suspect in custody petitions the court if they believe the detention is illegal or unfair. That petition is only available while the case is still under investigation.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yes. I need to know exactly where your son stands right now before I can respond properly.”
We exchanged a few more words, but the auntie revealed only the barest minimum.
What am I supposed to do in a case like this? What is this?
This felt less like discussing the facts of a case and more like a client testing the attorney’s basic knowledge.
It reminded me of when I had first made senior at Continent Law Firm and clients would size me up as if I were interviewing for the case.
It’s been a while since I ran into this.
Still, there was one thing I could infer from the auntie’s eyes and answers.
The odds were very high that her son had committed a crime.
If the ruling has to be favorable to the accused, then the only option is acquittal.
The system wasn’t going to encourage defending a criminal, so there had to be an underlying assumption that he was being wronged.
What kind of case is this, that she’s laying down cushions like that? I can probably narrow it down to a few things, but since she won’t talk, I’ll have to take the plunge myself.
“Madam, could you tell me everything you know about the case?”
“...From what I heard, it sounds like he was bitten by a gold digger.”
Just as I thought.
Gold digger.
That narrowed the field of crime down to one among many.
From the suspect’s side, it meant a scam built around sex.
“On his way home from work, a woman asked him for help. She said some strange man had been following her. So he went with her as far as the police station near his apartment, then went straight home.”
Nothing wrong with that so far.
“But a day or two later, the police showed up at his company. They said he was the perpetrator in a sexual assault case.”
“At his company?”
“Yes. The victim, that woman, had seen my son’s employee badge.”
“Mm.”
Not an easy case.
If he’d been detained, that meant the evidence must be solid.
If I had a detention request or the suspect’s interrogation record, it would be easier to assess, but there’s nothing to be done.
The job of solving the case was mine.
“Madam, I think if you want proper counsel, I’ll need to meet your son.”
“...You mean?”
“Would it be all right if I took this case?”