The Bouquet Hid the Recorder

“Their brotherly affection is deep, but the plaintiff, Oh Yoon-sik, has also been helping Lee Kkot-soon with housework ever since the IMF crisis.”

He took out the trash and pressed the button on the robot vacuum, playing the role of a househusband in all but name.

Whether the IMF crash had made him introverted, or whether he had simply drifted into that kind of life, he had no real outside activity apart from seeing his siblings.

I had said he still had acquaintances, but according to the old lady, those ties had all been cut off during the IMF years.

He spent his days watching sports on TV at home, napping, eating when he woke, and drifting through life without much will left in him, until he had become just a little detached from society.

“I’d appreciate it if you would understand that he’s no different from an ordinary person who looks things up when he doesn’t know them—so much so that he only learned there was even a driver’s license test for illiterate applicants after consulting a lawyer.”

The judge let out a dry cough.

He seemed to have gotten a rough sense of what kind of man Oh Yoon-sik was.

“Plaintiff Lee Kkot-soon?”

“Yes, yes.”

“You said the reason you are representing plaintiff Oh Yoon-sik is that he’s illiterate, correct?”

“That’s right. My husband is the third of seven siblings. He was born the eldest son, but even in those days—when the eldest son was supposed to sell the family ox and go to school—we couldn’t afford to send him to elementary school.”

Even when schooling was technically compulsory, children were often kept home once farming season began.

And if a child started school late, there were plenty of families who would then keep the younger sibling home instead, saying it looked disgraceful for an older and younger sibling to end up in the same grade.

Oh Yoon-sik had been the same way.

It’s hard to understand from today’s perspective, but Mother told me that’s just how it was back then.

“So from a young age he worked odd jobs, then settled into construction work. He had tried to attend night school, but the work was so grueling that he missed his chance to learn to read and write.”

“No matter what you’re trying to study, once you miss the right time, it isn’t easy. I’ll take plaintiff Lee Kkot-soon’s arguments into account.”

That the judge said he would take it into account didn’t mean it had any formal legal effect.

Still, it left the judge with the impression that Oh Yoon-sik was truly illiterate—and that he was a man of genuine innocence.

The old lady sat back down with a look of quiet satisfaction, pleased that her testimony had gone so smoothly.

“Attorney Cha Do-hyuk, please continue.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

It was time to speak about the third piece of evidence, Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 3.

“As for the location where the incident occurred, I submit the testimony of a witness who saw it at the flower shop in the underground mall at the Express Bus Terminal Station, along with a YouTube video and the mall CCTV footage.”

This was evidence rebutting the defendant Oh Yoon-bok’s claim that he had never intended to hit Oh Ye-ji in the first place.

If he really hadn’t meant to strike her, then why would he have knocked over the flower basket sitting on the Yeji’s Flower Shop stall?

After that, Oh Ye-ji appeared and the argument escalated, and Oh Yoon-bok raised his hand.

The weight of the evidence was on our side.

“That’s one of the key issues here.”

The judge looked toward the defendant.

“I watched the video of the defendant, Oh Yoon-bok, striking her, and it doesn’t match the defense’s version of events. What does counsel for the defense think?”

“The defendant is elderly, so there’s a time lag between thought and action.”

“No, miss, that’s not what I mean! Your Honor, I got angry because that girl Ye-ji started hurling insults at me, her uncle, so my hand went up!”

Attorney Seon clenched his jaw.

We still had arguments left to make, and he’d already blown the whole case wide open and ended it in one shot.

That was why, truth or lie, there had to be consistency. Like ours.

“Defendant Oh Yoon-bok.”

The judge, who had until now seemed warm and genial, hardened his expression.

“A defendant’s rights must be respected in court, but I can have you removed for speaking without permission. Stop causing a disturbance.”

“……”

“Defendant Oh Yoon-bok, did you assault Oh Ye-ji at 10:40 a.m. on December 5, 2023?”

“…It wasn’t assault. But Ye-ji did get hit.”

“Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 3 is admitted into evidence.”

The judge declared it admissible, but in truth it had become a fact both the plaintiff and defendant acknowledged.

That was what the law called an undisputed fact, and even a judge could not issue a ruling that ran directly against an undisputed fact.

The evidence review resumed, and I submitted the paperwork summarizing the phone calls between ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Oh Yoon-sik and his brothers, along with a few other minor CCTV clips.

After asking a few questions, the judge repeated that she was accepting the materials into evidence.

It was already time to discuss the sixth item.

“I submit the soap flower that defendant Oh Yoon-tek gave plaintiff Oh Yoon-sik on November 29 as evidence.”

Suddenly, the judge smiled as though he found it interesting.

“I was wondering about that myself. Why submit a soap flower as evidence? Are you saying the plaintiff was sincere about the written pledge because he accepted a gift?”

He put it delicately, but what he meant was clear enough: wasn’t the soap flower actually evidence favorable to the defendants?

It suggested the plaintiff had no room to argue the contract was invalid.

That’s why I submitted the soap flower and the recorder separately.

“First, this soap flower was a product sold six years ago by Lee Kkot-soon’s flower shop, and it was the bouquet given ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to defendant Oh Yoon-tek’s daughter, Oh Su-a, as a graduation present.”

A murmur of “Huh” rose from the gallery.

“Attorney Cha Do-hyuk, isn’t a soap flower just a manufactured item? It could be sold at other flower shops as well. Are you certain it was a product sold by Lee Kkot-soon’s shop?”

“This soap flower had been tied with the signature ribbon used by Yeji’s Flower Shop, Lee Kkot-soon’s former shop, with the store’s English name embossed on it.”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I attached the invoices and transaction records from the company that had made the embossed ribbon.

The judge was definitely going to assume we had swapped out the ribbon ourselves.

So I also submitted the ribbon company’s notice explaining that they handled bulk orders.

I wanted to make the point that reproducing an old ribbon would cost a not-insignificant amount of time and money.

Once I did that, the judge’s theory would collapse.

And if I attached the current signature ribbon as well, I could argue that it was too different from the old one to be mistaken for it.

“In addition, I attached the exclusive finished-product photo that had been provided by the soap flower manufacturer to Yeji’s Flower Shop at the time under Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 6.”

The judge flipped through the papers, then opened his microphone again.

“Confirmed. Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 6 is admitted. Plaintiff, continue.”

The final piece of evidence—the recorder—needed to land with impact.

“The problem was that on the day the plaintiff signed the written pledge, the youngest brother, Oh Yoon-tek, brought the soap flower as a gift. He had hidden a recorder in its base.”

“……!”

“W-what the hell!”

Oh Yoon-bok clapped a hand over his mouth in a panic, but the words he had already blurted out would be preserved forever by the court clerk.

“Defendant Oh Yoon-ja melted the bottom of the soap flower she had received from the youngest brother, Oh Yoon-tek, at her Gangnam house, inserted the recorder inside it, and also illegally recorded the proceedings of plaintiff Oh Yoon-sik’s case.”

“I don’t know where you heard such grotesque nonsense, but there are things you can say and things you can’t!”

“Defendant Oh Yoon-bok, one more unauthorized outburst and I’ll have you detained instead of merely removed from the courtroom!”

After warning Oh Yoon-bok, the judge gestured for me to continue.

“In addition, I attached the purchase record showing that the recorder was bought using funds from plaintiff Oh Yoon-sik’s family account, and I have requested an official inquiry into the NMarket purchase history of defendant Oh Yoon-ja and five others.”

If the factual inquiry proved the truth of our side’s argument, then it would also establish that the written pledge had been signed under the defendants’ deceptive conduct.

And Oh Yoon-sik’s consistency as a sucker was there, too. So was the difference in how the plaintiff and defendants carried themselves.

Our argument would be enough to persuade the judge.

“So you filed an official inquiry request with NMarket? Against all the defendants?”

“Yes. If we confirm the date the recorder was purchased, the recipient of the delivery, and the address, proving the facts won’t be difficult.”

I had seen Oh Yoon-ja opening the package through psychometry, but I couldn’t tell whose account had been used to buy it.

If there’s no purchase record anywhere, I can always have a private investigator trace the defendants’ children, so I’m not worried.

Still, if I could help it, I wanted the purchaser—the spearhead of this whole mess—to be Oh Yoon-ja.

Only if I break her this time will this never happen again.

Even after drafting the inheritance division agreement, Oh Yoon-ja had still gone on about inheritance and forced the written pledge out of them; whatever the outcome of this ruling, she might try to stir up trouble again with that Bubal-eup property.

That was why I had to keep her from making a move at the outset if this complaint was ever going to amount to anything.

I hadn’t gone to all this trouble for nothing.

The judge, silent for a while as if in thought, turned the microphone back on.

“Is there a witness who saw either the plaintiff or the defendants at the barbecue restaurant in the alley on November 29?”

The judge was exercising his power to clarify the issues.

That power to clarify meant that when he found contradictions in the parties’ statements or some vague point, he could break through the normal adversarial structure and demand correction or supplementation.

So he thought the barbecue restaurant part of our argument was too vague. I’d thought the CCTV would be enough, but he didn’t treat it as sufficient evidence.

In court, evidence was generally divided into documents, recordings, and testimony.

Even though documents carried the greatest weight, there was no absolute rule saying ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one kind of evidence was always superior to the others.

Some judges, however, still viewed testimony as more objective when oath-taking and cross-examination could resolve their doubts.

...So he’s not a testimony-supremacy type.

I didn’t know exactly what kind of temperament Judge Moon Yu-jin had, but the way she nodded and moved on when she accepted a fact told me enough.

She wasn’t the sort to scrutinize everything. She was the sort who went over the big issues with care.

“If there’s a witness who can testify from a neutral position, that would help. Submit a witness application form with the person’s identifying information, and I’ll review whether to accept it.”

Then this was going exactly as expected.

“I’d like to apply as a witness Gyeong Su-won, the part-timer in the alley who saw Oh Yoon-sik sign the written pledge.”

At last, the long stretch of evidence submission on the plaintiff’s side came to an end.

“Does the defense have any evidence to submit?”

“…I’ll submit the evidence attached to our response brief. I’ll present Defendant’s Exhibits No. 1 through 2.”

Among them, Defendant’s Exhibit No. 1 was the same recorded call we had already submitted as Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 1.

With the same evidence, most judges wouldn’t bother checking it. But this judge might verify it anyway, for the sake of procedure and the reliability of the recording.

The judge turned on the microphone.

“Defendant, if it’s unnecessary, I may decline to admit it as evidence.”

“…Understood.”

At counsel Seon’s reply, the judge let out a small sigh and played the recording of Oh Yoon-ja calling Oh Yoon-sik on the morning of November 29.

Unlike the recording we had submitted, this version had been chopped up into pieces.

They really were something else.

How many pyeong the land was. How much they expected the compensation to be. Everything that had spoken of sibling affection and the idea that, whatever the law said, family had to be taken care of—gone, erased cleanly.

From this recording alone, Oh Yoon-sik sounded like a man desperate to hand the land compensation over to his siblings.

If the defendant who submitted this maliciously edited recording has no reasonable explanation, then this is practically the same as an implied admission of the plaintiff’s version. So what exactly is he planning to do?

The old lady sat on the right, fists clenched, glaring at Oh Yoon-bok.

“Oh Yoon-bok.”

“…I-I didn’t do it.”

Of course, it hadn’t been Oh Yoon-bok.

He didn’t even possess the kind of high-probability causation that would have made the lie plausible.