Chapter 142
Kang Minjae's face twisted in disgust. "Sexual harassment?"
Seo Hyejin nodded gravely, and at that moment, I suddenly recalled the cluster of nurses I'd briefly passed in the lobby earlier. Among them, the young one who had watched Seo Hyejin—heading off with us—with lingering concern right up to the end.
"That nurse got demoted here with you, didn't she?"
Seo Hyejin let out a heavy sigh and nodded.
I wanted to say I wasn't surprised—I already knew Go Yunseong was out of his mind—but the truth was, I was shocked. He'd beaten an employee just for calling out his mistake, with his whole family scrambling to bury it. They'd even leaned on the prosecution to smother the evidence. And now here was the perp himself, lounging in his hospital bed like it was nothing, groping a nurse. Wooshin had shipped off two perfectly healthy nurses to some rural branch to hush it up—again. How many lives were they ruining to shield one deranged youngest son?
"It was just a few days after Go Yunseong got admitted. One of the nurses under me... her name's Han Youngseon. I'll just call her Youngseon."
Seo Hyejin crushed the empty can in her hand with all her strength. Her fingers started trembling.
"Go Yunseong was a total asshole from day one. Treated the nurses like his personal slaves. Once he settled in, he got bored out of his skull. Wasn't even really hurt, but stuck wrapped head to toe in bandages and casts—must've driven him nuts. And wouldn't you know it, Youngseon caught his eye."
Apparently, Go Yunseong took a liking to Han Youngseon from the first glance. The guy who barked "Hey!" at nurses without even bothering to remember their faces acted totally different with her. Pretty face, huh? How old are you? What's your name? Got a boyfriend? Every time she came in to check his vitals, he'd start harassing her with sleazy come-ons.
Everyone on the ward already knew he was Wooshin Chairman Go Sangjun's youngest son, so Youngseon put up with it—uncomfortable as hell, but answering his questions bit by bit, playing nice to keep the peace.
"He got bolder, kept telling her to sit by him, grab her to make her stay and 'hang out.' It piled up, and Youngseon was suffering. She even begged me to cover her shifts there."
The head nurse sensed trouble and told Youngseon flat-out: don't go into that room. From then on, whenever there was a call or a check needed, she'd drop everything and handle it herself. Couldn't risk sending in another young nurse and starting the same mess over.
"First time I went in, he threw a fit: 'Why's an old hag coming in when you've got all these young pretty ones?' So I warned him—this ain't a room salon; don't treat nurses like that."
It must've taken real guts for a head nurse to say that. But Go Yunseong didn't even flinch. Instead, he spat back that she'd better shut her mouth if she didn't want to get fired.
Still, she kept the young nurses away from that room. The trouble started when Go Yunseong took matters into his own hands.
"Youngseon stops showing up, so he starts hunting her down. Had his entourage summon her by name—like she was some hostess. The guy was boozing in his room every night, even made her sit and pour his drinks."
Youngseon told him off multiple times to stop, but he ignored her. First couple times, he'd laugh it off like Why you playing hard to get? Later, pissed at her constant rejections, he'd unleash a torrent of abuse.
"Youngseon cried every day. Kept saying she was quitting, multiple times a shift. I reported his bullshit to upper management daily. But they just said he wasn't the type to reason with—hang in there till discharge."
Not just the nurses—even the hospital director overseeing Wooshin Hospital treaded lightly around Go Yunseong. All anyone offered was Eight weeks and he's out; tough it out. The head nurse had no choice but to tell Youngseon the same.
A week dragged by like that, and Go Yunseong grew cocky, convinced no one here could touch him no matter what he did. He had his goons smuggle in sketchy drugs, shooting them straight into his IV line like a lunatic. Anyone coming in and out of his room could tell—he was desperate to kill the boredom of bed rest.
Then one night, Youngseon was on duty. Another summons came from Go Yunseong's room.
"She said he reeked of booze that night," Seo Hyejin recalled. She suspected not just alcohol—probably drugs too.
Same routine: sit, pour drinks. Fed up with the treatment, Youngseon finally snapped and yelled at him. Go Yunseong flew into a rage and slapped her.
The head nurse, roused by Youngseon's sobs echoing through the night ward, rushed in to find her flung onto his bed. His hands were all over her body. In that instant, Seo Hyejin lost it and lunged at him.
"That wasn't just harassment. Sounds like attempted rape to me."
"Yeah... well, I made a scene, and his entourage held me back. But even they knew shit would hit the fan if he actually went through with it on Youngseon... so they stopped him."
By the time things calmed, it was 2 a.m. The head nurse soothed Youngseon, sent her home, and prepared to make it official.
Go Yunseong caught wind and moved to bury it. His lawyer approached Youngseon with a settlement offer: it was a drunken mistake, won't happen again. If seeing him was too hard, they'd give paid leave till discharge plus a chunk of cash.
"Youngseon said no to all of it—she wanted to pursue it. I was ready to back her. But in the end..."
Seo Hyejin pointed bitterly at the name tag reading Byeolma Hospital.
"How's Han Youngseon holding up now?"
"Lost all her drive. She's young, bright future—getting shipped out here like this? Can't blame her."
"I see. Understood."
"..."
"One more question."
"Yes."
"Why tell us this story?"
As I asked, Kang Minjae jabbed my side. Probably griping that I was being too blunt again, but this needed clarifying.
If Han Youngseon wanted to go public, I'd help in a heartbeat. Hell, it'd be mutual benefit. With Seo Hyejin's testimony and her case, I could prove Go Yunseong's eight-week injury was fake. And she'd drag his buried assault into the light, get him punished.
But it all hinged on her will. Seo Hyejin said she'd lost her fight. Dragging someone like that to court felt wrong—like exploiting Oh Sanghyeon's victim for his innocence plea.
"I want the world to know what Go Yunseong did to Youngseon. Even if everyone calls him a thug, he's still Go Sangjun's son. He'll snag some cushy spot at the company, live fat and happy."
"Probably."
"But that doesn't make it okay. No matter how loaded his family is, he can't treat people like trash. Shouldn't he suffer at least half what he put Youngseon through?"
Seo Hyejin's voice cracked, thick with emotion. Her eyes reddened.
I knew that feeling. You can't grasp the humiliation of being trampled by them until it happens to you—how lightly they value your life, your dignity. Indescribable.
Oh Sanghyeon, beaten to a seven-week pulp just for speaking up. Han Youngseon, assaulted for having the "wrong" looks. Same rage burning in both.
"If Han Youngseon finds her courage, we'd love that. But we can't force it."
"I get you. Sigh... I'll talk to Youngseon, convince her. And even if I can't, I'll testify in court that Go Yunseong's not hurting one bit. With or without her story, I need to see him pay. I'll dig for any other evidence too."
She clenched her trembling fists. Pure, fierce resolve: she had to witness his downfall.
"Thank you."
Her word alone wasn't ironclad proof, but add Han Youngseon's and Go Yunseong's eight-week diagnosis crumbles. That torpedoes his claim of injury from Oh Sanghyeon.
But we had more to do. We also needed to prove that Oh Sanghyeon had been assaulted by Go Yunseong.
"We'll head out now. Talk to Han Youngseon and reach out via the number on the card."
Kang Minjae bowed politely as he spoke. Seo Hyejin stood, bowing back.
"Hope your clients shake off their false charges soon."
"We'll make it happen."
She walked us to our car. Kang Minjae told her to head back, but she insisted on seeing us off properly after we'd come all this way.
"We're really going now!"
As Kang Minjae gripped the gearshift, Seo Hyejin—who'd been mulling something—spoke up.
"Oh, Lawyer."
"Yes?"
"Meet a guy named Kim Uicheol sometime."
It came out of nowhere. Kim Uicheol. Rang a vague bell.
"Don't know him? Looked like a site laborer."
"How'd a nurse know him?"
"He visited Go Yunseong's room once. All his other visitors were slick types—this guy was shabby, stuck out. I held onto his ID."
A construction grunt visiting Go Yunseong's room? Suspicious as hell.
"Thanks for the tip. We'll check it out."
"Sure. Drive safe. I'll call."
As we pulled away, I grabbed my phone.
"Office manager. Look into a Kim Uicheol among the workers at Oh Sanghyeon's site."