Chapter 131
Today, as always, Taesik flung open the office door with a booming shout, but the moment he spotted the office manager, he clamped his mouth shut tight.
"Lawyer, isn't that the team leader?"
He sidled up to my desk, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Yeah."
"......Why's the team leader here?"
Sensing a threat, he ducked behind me, eyes fixed warily on Oh Yanghun.
Taesik and the office manager knew each other well. Back when I first met Taesik as a prosecutor, Oh had been in the room too. My first encounter with him had been my first with Oh as well.
At the time, Taesik was one of those suspects who treated prosecutors with utter disrespect—using informal speech, curses, and even shouting matches.
I wasn't exactly kind to suspects myself back then, and Taesik was a hot-blooded early-twenties punk. Unable to hold back, I shot to my feet intending to give him a piece of my mind, when Oh suddenly appeared.
He grabbed Taesik's earlobe and yanked hard.
"You little shit who killed a man—where do you get off talking down to the prosecutor? Every damn day for three months straight, right up until trial, should I drag you in here? You'll sit in the corner of the prosecutor's office for hours, no agenda, then get sent packing. At first, it'll be fun getting out of detention 'cause you're bored. But as time drags on? It'll be hell. Want me to do that to you, you punk?"
That was early 2000s—back when profanity flew freely in prosecutor's offices. Oh often went tough on troublesome suspects.
I heard later that Taesik had figured, since he was the guy who'd killed someone, everyone would cower around him. Even the pretrial detainees sharing his cell were too scared to talk properly once they heard murder charges.
But then this friendly-looking, easygoing uncle type grabs his ear and yanks? Total shock.
There were more stories between Oh and Taesik, but they all boiled down to Oh's unexpected force cowing the guy.
That didn't mean Taesik hated him, though. When evidence emerged that he might not have killed anyone after all, Oh had run himself ragged alongside me to prove his innocence.
He might cower, but deep down, he was grateful.
"Not Taesik? Jang Taesik!"
Oh jumped up, delighted, and headed my way. Taesik gripped my shoulder hard, trying to back away from the approaching office manager—which dragged my wheeled chair along with him.
"What're you doing? Let go."
I tried prying his hand off my shoulder, but Jang Taesik just shook his head vigorously.
"Taesik-ah. Let me see your face. How many years has it been?"
Kang Minjae always marveled at how this hulking brute turned into a lamb around me, but I was just the mid-boss. Oh was the true Jang Taesik tamer.
"T-Team Leader! Long time no see. Ah, you look way younger than back then—er, no, even more youthful. Haha. Never thought we'd run into each other here......?"
Resigned to no escape, Taesik sprang up and bowed a solid ninety degrees to Oh.
Oh patted his head fondly.
"Hey, you rascal. You've grown a lot."
Oh kneaded Taesik's biceps, marveling at the muscles that could bend a steel pipe like taffy, poking here and there.
"Ehehe, don't touch! Heh, that tickles."
Taesik, weak to tickling, twisted away giggling. The mountain of a man looked utterly ridiculous.
I shot him a twisted glare, and he finally snapped to, clearing his throat.
"Ahem. Grown? My height's the same."
"You were just a kid back in the prosecutor's office. Now you're a full-grown man. Haha."
"What? You're the old man here, sir—with that salt-and-pepper hair, practically grandpa territory. Haha. Yeah? I'm turning thirty soon, so maybe 'old man' fits. Hahaha."
Did he think speaking fast and small would make the earlier jab inaudible? Oh found even that cute and pinched his cheek.
"You little punk. So what brings you here?"
"Lawyer had me on a job."
"The lawyer did?"
Oh turned to me, surprised.
"Heard Taesik was running a detective agency, so I hired him as an investigator. He does solid work."
"No kidding? Talk about a late bloomer finding his calling. Detective work—not bad, right?"
"Haha, of course not."
"Long as he skips the illegal poker."
I moved to the consultation sofa as I spoke. Taesik grumbled that he'd quit the illegal games, oblivious to the [Lie] hologram floating over his head, even in death.
"Where's Kang, anyway?"
"Kang went for coffee. Oh, gotta tell him to grab some for Taesik too."
"Nah, I'm good. Kang'll share his aloe juice later."
The one person in our office who used formal speech with him—Kang, the sole guardian of Jang Taesik's ego, untarnished anywhere else.
"Oh, Sanggil went up to that protester pretending to be a reporter and asked about the situation. That cool?"
"Who'd buy a bald thug claiming he's a reporter?"
"Bald? Sanggil grew his hair out. Sure, he looks rough at first glance, but those eyes? Pure as a cow's. Total doe eyes."
I handed Oh the MP3 Taesik offered. It held a recorded conversation.
Plugging it into the speaker, the voices spilled out.
The protester was the victim's older brother, and the victim was currently hospitalized. That's how the statement began.
To sum it up, here's what went down.
A month ago, Go Yunseong, head of headquarters, visited a new apartment construction site for inspection. The victim, a deputy manager in the apartment division, was filling in for his out-of-town team leader and accompanied him on-site.
Then, a site worker old enough to be his father made a mistake in front of Go Yunseong.
Go Yunseong unleashed a torrent of abuse right there in front of everyone. The victim stepped in, thinking it had gone too far.
Go Yunseong flew into a rage and lured him to a secluded spot, where he beat him senseless. The victim's account painted Go Yunseong's eyes as those of a madman as he pinned him in the corner and kicked relentlessly.
Not satisfied, Go Yunseong ordered his entourage to join in. Some held the victim down while the rest pummeled him alongside Go.
The victim yelled at Go Yunseong that he wouldn't let it slide—he'd report it to the union and take legal action.
Go Yunseong taunted, "Oh yeah? Pissed off? Then hit me. Come on, hit me."
But the victim, already beaten to a pulp, could only glare without landing a blow.
That's when Go Yunseong pulled his stunt. He ordered his entourage—the ones surrounding the victim—to hit him.
When they hesitated, he grabbed their hands and slapped his own face with them.
"Sanggil said even he was floored listening to it. What kind of psycho does that?" Taesik interjected midway.
I paused the MP3.
"Go Sangjun's kids are usually good at image control. There've been minor scraps, but nothing this bad."
Oh had heard the gist from Choi Jonghyeon, but the details clearly shocked him.
The incident itself was outrageous, but I wasn't surprised at all.
Go Yunseong was always unhinged. Chronic drug abuse left him barely able to speak without a fix.
"Go Sangjun can't even control him. He's the spoiled maknae, right? Let's hear the rest."
The victim passed out on-site and was rushed to the hospital.
But his nightmare didn't end there. Soon after, he got devastating news: Go Yunseong had filed civil and criminal charges against him for assault.
Everything after matched what Choi Jonghyeon had said. The victim had tipped off the union about the beating, but when Go filed charges instead, the mood shifted.
Even if Go was a lunatic, he'd been hit, so wasn't the lawsuit fair? The police shipped it to prosecutors fast, and they indicted. That sealed it.
First trial was in a month and a half.
"Just from this statement, I can't fathom why police sent it up or why prosecutors indicted. No evidence for a nonexistent crime, and not caught red-handed."
Oh tilted his head.
I agreed, but with Wooshin Group's influence? Framing a powerless employee was child's play.
"Best to meet the victim and get his full statement."
"You taking the case?"
Oh eyed me worriedly.
"Haven't met him yet, so undecided. But if this is all true, I should."
Taesik handed over a memo with the protester's contact from his pocket.
"Told him to call if more questions."
"Office manager, I heard from a reporter friend. Said if you wanna hear details and can help, reach out."
"No one's buying a rough-looking bald guy's 'I'm a reporter' schtick."
Taesik grumbled.
I watched Oh head off to call, then replied casually.
"I never said the reporter was Sanggil."
Too bad. The one I meant was Choi Jonghyeon.