A Glorious Debut
After wrapping up the debut battle and finishing an interview that stretched well over an hour, I returned to the law firm and found my name already splashed across the portal main page.
[Breaking News] QS Group’s third son revealed as ‘Kwon Ho-gyun,’ top scorer on the bar exam.
— Will the QS Resort president escape embezzlement charges?
— QS and JB clash again — this time, a dramatic comeback victory for QS?
— Kwon Ho-gyun, the nation’s top bar exam passer, speaks on justice.
The final headline caught my eye, so I clicked it. The article had taken my interview remarks and spun them into a lengthy treatise on various theories of justice. Not bad. No matter what kind of justice I actually pursued, being seen as a just person was always useful. People cherry-picked whichever version of justice suited their interests, and they conveniently believed that anyone perceived as just would advance those interests. Thanks to these articles, I had become someone whose existence benefited the public at large.
The comments were worth a look. Quite a few were surprisingly agreeable.
At this rate, I might end up with a fan club. With the media blowing the trumpet this loudly, Chairman Kwon Byung-do would surely be satisfied. What interested me most right now was Oh Il-mu’s reaction. He had left the courthouse first while I stayed behind for the interviews. If he remained sulky and prickly even after such a decisive result, he would be useless as a stepping stone. If he acknowledged the outcome cleanly and submitted, he could walk the path to the QS Group chairman’s office alongside me. His influence in legal circles and within the QS family was nothing to dismiss.
Meanwhile, while Kwon Ho-gyun was leaving the courtroom in triumph, Jang Gang-tae, president of JB Construction, was raging in his office after receiving a report on the day’s proceedings.
“Graaaaaah!”
Until the previous hearing, everything had been going perfectly. He had successfully painted a QS affiliate president as an embezzler and humiliated Oh Il-mu, the longtime thorn in JB’s side, in front of the cameras. The cost had been minimal — a mere 350 million won. If the trial had ended there, it would have been flawless. Then that brat Kwon Ho-gyun appeared out of nowhere and ruined everything. Somehow he had known about the account transfers between Jang Gang-tae and Song Jeong-pil and exposed them. Today in court he had even uncovered the forgery of the contract termination agreement and submitted it as evidence. How was that possible? Had Song Jeong-pil betrayed him? Or had JB Construction’s in-house counsel, who knew every detail, turned traitor? Either way, the fact that one of his own people had defected to QS was unacceptable. If Kwon Ho-gyun had uncovered everything through some uncanny ability rather than an internal leak, that was even more infuriating. The president of JB Construction had been bested by a rookie lawyer — and that same rookie had used the very case to hold a press conference, all but naming Jang Gang-tae a shameless fraud devoid of justice and vowing to drag him into court as a forger. The 350-million-won plot of land was no longer the issue. Jang Gang-tae needed to restore his trampled pride and, above all, avoid his father’s scolding for being played by QS. He grabbed the office phone and bellowed.
“Get Attorney Han Gwang-su in here. Now!”
A moment later, it was not the lawyer but Jang Gang-tae’s secretary who entered.
“What? Why are you here?”
“I checked with the legal team as you instructed, sir. Attorney Han Gwang-su submitted his resignation and left for the day.”
“What? He makes this mess and then resigns?”
“Yes. He left two envelopes for you. One is the resignation letter. I don’t know what’s in the other.”
The secretary placed the two envelopes on the desk and quickly exited, clearly unwilling to endure another outburst. Staring blankly after him, Jang Gang-tae picked up the envelopes. The resignation letter contained only a single line.
— I hereby resign for personal reasons.
Sensing that the second envelope held the words left unsaid, Jang Gang-tae carefully opened it and unfolded the paper inside.
Dear President Jang Gang-tae,
Because of an attorney’s duty of confidentiality, I could not write the following in the resignation letter that must pass through HR.
As I have repeatedly told you, this lawsuit should never have been filed. Fabricating evidence to win in court is not as simple as it sounds. I can no longer bear your anger, and it goes against my conscience. Therefore, I am resigning.
“Graaaaaah!”
Just as Jang Gang-tae screamed again, his phone buzzed.
“I’m heading to JB Construction now.”
It was a message from his father, Jang Iksu, the chairman of JB Group. Jang Iksu had a peculiar habit: when he intended to praise someone, he summoned them to his own location. When he meant to scold them, he went to theirs. After the previous hearing, when Jang Gang-tae had landed a solid blow on QS and Oh Il-mu, he had been generously praised at JB Group headquarters. Now his father was coming here. He had clearly seen the articles about what Kwon Ho-gyun had told the reporters. Though he wanted to throw something, he could not afford to make a mess with Chairman Jang Iksu on the way. Knowing full well that his own short temper came from his father, Jang Gang-tae’s face slowly drained of color and filled with dread.
When I returned from the courthouse to the law firm, an unfamiliar stillness hung in the air — one I had been too busy to notice before. With no client consultations scheduled, only Oh Il-mu and I occupied the space, so the quiet was perhaps inevitable. While I considered hiring a staff member to handle the growing paperwork and routine tasks, the door to Oh Il-mu’s office opened. He stepped out, bowed his head, and greeted me.
“Welcome back, young master.”
Formal speech. The old form of address. This must be his way of declaring surrender. Curious about the reason behind such an unconditional capitulation, I continued the conversation.
“Attorney Oh, there’s no need to go this far. You’re my senior both in age and legal experience.”
Oh Il-mu smiled — not a mocking smile directed at a subordinate, but one conveying genuine warmth.
“It’s fine. When Chairman Kwon Byung-do is present, I’ll address you as Attorney Kwon to avoid making you uncomfortable. But when it’s just the two of us, it’s only proper that I show respect.”
Then a thought struck me — the opinion letter he had covered in red corrections.
“Does that mean I no longer need to write the opinion letter you requested?”
“That was terribly rude of me. I should have asked for your opinion on the case rather than presuming to review yours. Until yesterday, to be honest, I assumed your top score on the bar exam was the result of Chairman Kwon Byung-do’s influence behind the scenes.”
“And after checking, you changed your mind?”
“Well, I didn’t ask the chairman whether he pulled strings through other channels, but after watching how you handled the case, I realized that passing the bar exam at the top — let alone the judicial exam — would be only natural for you.”
I chuckled. I knew exactly what he was saying. As one lawyer to another, he was acknowledging my ability to manage a case. It was understandable; I had salvaged a case he had driven straight into a quagmire. To Oh Il-mu, the bar exam — “that trivial test, not even the judicial exam” — was something he could have sat on the drafting committee for without issue. Moreover, the original Kwon Ho-gyun’s admission to law school would have been impossible without Oh Il-mu’s connections, which was why he had looked down on me. Accepting his surrender, I stepped closer and smiled back.
“Thank you for acknowledging it. I did pass the bar exam on my own merit. By the way, you mentioned bringing someone from the QS Group legal team to handle the practical work at our firm, correct?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I’d also like to bring someone from QS Delivery, where I’m the majority shareholder. What do you think?”
“That’s fine. The chairman said he would leave the business side of running the firm entirely to you, so do as you wish.”
“Good. And I’d like to bring Yeo Eun-ju from QS Security as well. Is that all right?”
Oh Il-mu nodded.
“Of course. We rented an entire floor, so there should be plenty of space for anyone you think we need.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way, young master,”
“Yes, Attorney Oh.”
“Would you mind keeping the firm’s name as it is for now?”
The current name was ‘Oh Il-mu Law Firm.’ I had no strong attachment to it, but I hadn’t planned on changing it either. His specific request to keep it intrigued me.
“The name doesn’t matter much to me, but why do you ask?”
“Well, while you were away today, a client came by. It’s a long story — would you care to have a drink after work? It’s been nearly a month since I started serving you, and I haven’t even bought you a proper drink yet. There’s also something important I’d like to discuss.”
With the major matters settled, I saw no reason to refuse. I also had something I wanted to impress upon Oh Il-mu.
“That sounds fine.”