The Judge Who Wouldn’t Look
"For the plaintiff."
The presiding judge tapped the bench with his gavel.
"Proceed with the examination."
"Yes, Your Honor."
"Mr. Kim Yo-gi, I understand that because of this edited broadcast, the Indonesian advertising model contracts were canceled, and the companies involved launched a major promotional campaign for Twice, causing enormous losses. Is that true?"
"Yes, it is."
"Could you tell us about the Indonesian advertising model contracts?"
"One was for Lemoni, an organic food and beverage brand, and the other was for Garunda Food's crackers."
Lemoni was one of the hottest brands going these days, a company that ranked near the top among organic labels.
Garunda Food, meanwhile, was one of Indonesia's industrial giants. In Korean terms, you could think of it as the Samsung of the food business.
"What was the value of the advertising contracts?"
"I'm in the performance planning team, so I don't know the details, but I believe Lemoni was 100 million won for three months. Garunda crackers were 350 million won for three months."
Unless there were special circumstances, the contracts could be extended up to three times.
When I mentioned that the figures were comparable to what top stars in the Indonesian entertainment industry earned, the courtroom—and even the gallery—broke into murmurs.
At last, it seemed they were feeling the scale of Twice's popularity.
I glanced at Jo Ji-han in the defendant's seat.
He sat there without the slightest movement, like someone who already knew how this lawsuit would end.
Let's see how long he can keep that face on.
"That's a surprisingly large sum."
I started gently.
"Weren't there any rumors surrounding those ads? If the contracts were on par with top Indonesian stars, I imagine there would have been talk locally, even if nothing surfaced in Korea."
"Rumors spread in both Korea and Indonesia. The rumor was that, instead of Twice, the contract should have gone to a particular Korean girl group."
"Did anyone from Yuria Entertainment ever mention those ads?"
"According to the audit, we believe an employee at the Indonesian company broke the confidentiality clause and spilled everything to a Korean investment firm."
"An Indonesian employee told a Korean investment firm? That's odd."
I gave Kim Yo-gi the signal.
Now she had to answer with a firmer tone.
"You said rumors spread that the contract should have gone to a particular Korean girl group instead of Twice. Do you know which girl group that was?"
"Yes."
With flames wrapped around her whole body, she glared at Jo Ji-han.
"I believe it was Dailya, the company Jo Ji-han PD invested in."
"......!"
The courtroom erupted in uproar.
"Dailya?"
"The company Jo Ji-han invested in?"
The defense attorney stared at Kim Yo-gi with the look of a man who had just been blindsided.
"Your Honor, I object! The plaintiff's witness is questioning with evidence that hasn't been submitted."
"It seems the defense hasn't checked the evidence. Your Honor, please look at Exhibit 3, page 284."
While the presiding judge and the lay judge hurriedly examined the KakaoTalk chat logs submitted as Exhibit 3,
Attorney Lee Joo-heon and Jo Ji-han whispered to each other.
I could guess exactly what they were saying.
He'll claim it's illegal evidence.
"Your Honor, the plaintiff has submitted illegally obtained evidence without the defendant's consent."
Just as expected.
I had been waiting for this moment.
Exhibit 1, the unedited version of Come In, It's Time to Work, which Assistant Director Park Woo-chul had given me.
Along with it, Exhibit 2: the script compilation and production log we had tracked down together.
"Exhibit 3, the KakaoTalk conversations from the company-owned laptop Jo Ji-han PD used, were all obtained by request from AB Broadcasting Station."
The reason I had disguised the evidence he had handed over, and the evidence Han, the CEO, had worked to obtain, as properly requested materials was because of the issue of illegality.
"The defendant was never informed of these facts by the company. And even if the KakaoTalk conversations were found on a company-owned laptop, that still amounts to a violation of privacy."
When examining an employee's PC or similar devices, the purpose, items under review, duration, and method of the investigation had to be specified, and the employee had to give consent.
In other words, what the defense was arguing now was that because Jo Ji-han's consent had not been obtained, the illegality could not be cured.
"Attorney Lee Joo-heon, the defendant, Jo Ji-han, signed an agreement stating that he would not remove company work product outside the company, and any personal information was deleted in the presence of a third party."
"......!"
The flustered defense attorney turned to stare at Jo Ji-han, whose face had twisted as if he'd just bitten into filth.
Jo Ji-han must have been uneasy about his fight with the head of the entertainment division.
Did you think he'd throw a tantrum for no reason?
The CEO had said he had casually shown the script compilation and production log I found to the head of the entertainment division, wearing a slick smile as he did it.
He said Jo Ji-han PD had been leaking company secrets to some entertainment agency after investing there, and that Yuria had found the evidence, right?
Using that as the basis, we had asked the station for Jo Ji-han's laptop as well and laid everything out as evidence free of illegality.
Impressive, isn't it?
He'd gone after the entertainment division from the drama division, then taken advantage of a chaotic moment to process everything legally.
Was this the American style?
Then Attorney Lee Joo-heon spoke up.
"Your Honor, the defendant was pressured by the company to sign an agreement over matters unrelated to this incident."
"Your Honor, they are not unrelated matters. The defendant used internal broadcasting information to invest in Dailya, and in the process he deliberately drove down the value of Twice, which was competing with Dailya."
The chief judge, wiping away cold sweat, stared fixedly at the lay judge.
"As can be seen from the script compilation and production log in Exhibit 2, he made this video while prioritizing personal feelings over everything else."
I raised my voice even more.
"To criticize Twice, a self-produced idol group, he wrote lines like, 'I have to decide and move forward. This is our song,' as if he were expressing some noble self-respect."
I pointed to the timeline attached to Exhibit 1, the unedited version.
"But in the video, he covered that line over a scene where the member lowered her gaze because the contact lenses felt unnatural, and to create an icy feeling, he used a dark blue filter and a sound effect like a heart dropping!"
To make the member look unreasonable and impossible to deal with.
The malicious editing continued until the video ended.
That's why I attached a comparison table between the script and the timeline of the video.
I didn't know whether the court had actually reviewed the KakaoTalk messages during the hearing, but—
"If you look at the table attached to Exhibit 1, it becomes even clearer. This was compiled based on the opinion of a video and sound specialist with more than ten years of experience. For reference, the opinion statement was also submitted."
I'm sorry to Kim Yo-gi for questioning her as a witness, but I had to say this too.
"The defendant spread negative shorts about Twice through an ad agency tied to Indonesia, for the purpose of defamation."
"Your Honor, the plaintiff is insulting the defendant with unverified claims."
"This information came from the Telegram on Jo Ji-han PD's PC. Apparently, because a third party was present, he didn't have time to delete it."
"......"
"Ah, there was also a chat about promoting the program, and that promotion was the Twice episode that clearly had a deliberate intent behind it."
The journalist sitting in the gallery flexed his fingers.
This was an unexpected scoop.
He should leave the courtroom quickly and report the damage Twice suffered because of Jo Ji-han PD.
That way, we could move on to the next step.
"Ahem, I'll verify that later. Is the plaintiff's examination of the witness finished?"
Something's wrong.
The witness examination hadn't gone the way it had been prepared, yet the presiding judge made no comment about it.
He could ask me directly.
It felt as though he'd made up his mind to ignore what I said.
He hadn't even cross-checked the evidence.
"For the plaintiff?"
For now, I shook my head at the judge's impatient prompt.
"...No."
"Continue."
"Yes."
I picked the wrong fight.
Swallowing my anger, I continued the witness examination so there would be a record in the trial transcript.
"Ms. Kim Yo-gi, you gave positive assessments of the company here in court, and on your personal social media you were promoting good deeds related to Twice. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"But in the February 2 broadcast interview for Come In, It's Time to Work, didn't you say things like, 'Work life is hard,' 'Twice is emotional,' and 'It's difficult to support them'?"
"Not at all. I never said those things. On the contrary, I'd like to ask Jo Ji-han PD why he stitched my interview together like that."
Stitched together.
The moment I explained to the court that this was called malicious editing in the broadcasting world, the defense attorney objected, saying I was insulting the defendant.
The judge admonished us soon after, but I let it go with a nod.
Right now, it was more important to finish this argument safely.
"How did the interview begin?"
Before the interview started, Jo Ji-han PD had asked about the duties of the performance team, so I spoke briefly about my work.
"Then, when the PD asked whether the job was difficult, I answered, 'It is hard. But I learn and gain so much more from it.'"
"Did Jo Ji-han PD ask anything else?"
"Yes. He asked what kind of person I am, whether I have a sense of calling for this profession, and how fans should be treated."
"And what did you answer?"
"I said, 'I'm the kind of emotional person who becomes happy the moment I see our Twice smiling on stage.' 'That's why I enjoy working at the company.' 'From a professional standpoint, I'm glad I get to support them.' 'It's impossible to satisfy every fan.'"
First,
he cut out "I enjoy working at the company," then attached the adjective "hard" to the end.
That became, "Work life is hard."
Second,
he combined "Twice" and "emotional person."
Third,
he stitched together "support" and "difficult."
It was absurdly precise.
"How did you know for certain that it had been stitched together?"
"I'm not a video professional, but I work in entertainment, so I was able to get a feel for video structure just by observing it."
Her experience editing NewTuber videos probably helped too.
Kim Yo-gi looked toward the bench.
"It was stitched together because Jo Ji-han PD stretched out my interview scene and aired it in a way that made it seem like he was lost in regret."
"This can be confirmed from Exhibit 1, the unedited version, C. Timeline starting at 4:36:51. That's all."
The presiding judge said he would review the evidence I had pointed to,
and the court recessed briefly.
I walked over to Team Leader Yu, who was seated in the gallery.
He and the legal affairs staff greeted me warmly.
"Lawyer Cha, good work."
"You handled the argument really well. We even forgot about the KakaoTalk part."
"You're completely flattening the defense attorney. We might actually win this cleanly."
I lowered my head and gathered myself.
"It may be hard."
They looked puzzled. The witness examination had gone exactly as I wanted, so why was I saying we'd lost?
Team Leader Yu fell into thought, but Attorney Kim Seong-woo and Attorney Byeon were both—
"...Huh? I don't get it."
"Judge Yang Seung-nam isn't interfering either."
I needed to explain.
I wish Yang Seung-nam would just toss a bomb into the court himself.
However rigid the written-submission system was, it was a serious problem that not only the presiding judge but the entire bench didn't even seem to know how the evidence was attached.
And there was more.
"They didn't give the defendant a chance to rebut our evidence."
"Huh!?"
"Well, that's true. They only used the preliminary hearing as a substitute. A half-baked one, but still."
"The very fact that we're seeing the evidence now means the lay judge, who is the presiding judge, didn't review it, doesn't it?"
"...It was submitted ages ago."
As Attorney Byeon had said, the fact that they hadn't even looked at the evidence was unexpected.
If there hadn't been enough time, a trial preparation date wouldn't have been scheduled in the first place.
For a moment, I remembered the judicial corruption case that had happened in the Seoul Western District Court years ago.
In that case, the judgment had already been written before the argument even began.
It made me wonder whether they'd prepared a ruling unfavorable to the plaintiff from the very beginning.
If you can't expect a fair trial from a judge, there's only one answer.
"Team Leader Yu, we need to create grounds for a judge's recusal. Within three days."