Chapter 38
ZZZING.
I was on my way home from work when the sudden vibration rang out. I pressed the call button.
"Lawyer! Big trouble!"
It was Taesik. Only after hearing him did I notice the message icon in the status bar.
"I was driving. What's going on?"
Taesik was the excitable type anyway, but he wasn't one to call something "big trouble" over nothing.
"Those Blue Island lawyer bastards showed up at Na Eun-seong's place. Sanggil texted you! He didn't call 'cause he was scared it'd blow his cover..."
"What?"
I whipped into a U-turn without even checking if it was legal.
"Did Na Eun-seong let them in?"
"Not sure if she let 'em in willingly, but they went inside. Some chick was trash-talking you like crazy."
It was a wedge-driving tactic. Resorting to such low-rent methods? I let out a hollow chuckle, but I couldn't just sit this out. A slick-tongued lawyer toying with a naive client was child's play. And Na Eun-seong was fragile to boot.
"Got it. Have Sanggil confirm if lawyers are heading there, and tell him to call me right away if they do."
"Yep."
I started to dial Kang Minjae but stopped. I remembered how he'd gotten fired up over Yoo Jeongwon's words at our first mediation meeting with Blue Island Media. No point risking him showing up first and escalating things—this was mine to handle.
"Here it is."
I pulled up to the rundown building. Sure enough, a foreign luxury car that screamed out of place was parked out front—proof Yoo Jeongwon had come calling. I parked haphazardly and bolted inside.
"Lawyer!"
Sanggil lit up when he saw me, but I didn't have time for him. I brushed past and hit the buzzer for Na Eun-seong's door.
"Na Eun-seong, it's Cha Juhan."
A clatter from inside, then the door swung open. She peeked out cautiously.
"Lawyer? What brings you here this late?"
She looked like a kid caught red-handed, eyes wide with fear. A pair of beige heels sat in the entryway. Yoo Jeongwon was still inside.
"You're with Lawyer Yoo Jeongwon."
Na Eun-seong went pale in an instant. I sighed and shook my head.
"I'm not here to blame you. Mind if I come in?"
She hesitated, glancing back inside as if exchanging signals with Yoo Jeongwon. But she'd know better—turning me away now would only erode her own trust.
If she'd badmouthed me behind my back, she needed to do it to my face to call it conviction.
"...Sure."
Finally, she flung the door wide. Yoo Jeongwon looked up at me from the living room floor with a beaming smile. Two mismatched cups sat on the low table—one drained of juice, Yoo Jeongwon's. They'd been here a while.
"Oh my, Lawyer Cha. Visiting a lady living alone this late? Isn't that a bit rude?"
She emphasized rude, clearly hammering home my supposed impoliteness at mediation. She'd whined about my rudeness then too—nothing new.
"When a client needs help, I don't check the clock."
"And who decides when help is 'needed'?"
"Na Eun-seong and I, of course."
"Did Na Eun-seong call you?"
Na Eun-seong shook her head stiffly, still standing ramrod straight.
"Let's say it's a situation where Na Eun-seong needs help, per your advice. But how'd you know to come? You didn't have her tailed, did you?"
"Tailing? Perish the thought."
I locked eyes with Na Eun-seong, who flinched at the word.
"We tailed you."
What I'd assigned her was closer to protection, but tailing worked fine. Sanggil had shadowed her precisely to catch Blue Island Media contacts like this. Luckily, she mostly stayed home unless heading to the supermarket or our office—no real cause for suspicion.
Agreeing with Yoo Jeongwon here would only rattle Na Eun-seong more.
"You tailed us?"
"Yeah. Not illegal."
Yoo Jeongwon laughed in disbelief.
"What, got something to hide that you'd go to those lengths?"
"Not me—it's Blue Island Media I figured might pull shady moves. And here you are, proving me right."
"Listen here, Lawyer Cha Juhan!"
She shot Na Eun-seong a sidelong glance, gauging her reaction.
"Shady? Watch your words."
"If it's not shady, why contact my client personally, bypassing her legal representative? Looks like you had something to say she shouldn't hear from me—which means something you couldn't say openly. Call that anything but shady?"
Something crunched underfoot—a torn scrap of paper. I picked one up. Not shredded too fine; easy to recognize. A printout from a legal community forum post about me, complete with the savage comments tearing me apart.
"Ah, so you printed this and showed it to Na Eun-seong."
I held it out; Yoo Jeongwon's face flushed. She knew how crude this was. Credit where due, though—she'd sussed out Na Eun-seong's fragility without her showing up in person. That's why this gambit.
If Taesik hadn't tipped me off, I'd have been in real trouble. Na Eun-seong looked shaken by Yoo Jeongwon's pitch.
"Na Eun-seong."
"...Y-yes?"
"Tell me—what did Lawyer Yoo Jeongwon say when she came here?"
"Lawyer Cha, that's crossing the line. Na Eun-seong, you don't have to say if you don't want to. Even lawyers don't have the right to know everything about you."
Na Eun-seong's eyes trembled as she looked at me.
"True, no right. But for client and counsel to stride toward victory in sync, it's best to know case-related matters. That said... if you don't want to tell me, don't."
I turned to Yoo Jeongwon.
"But Na Eun-seong wouldn't have found this post herself. Looks like you showed it to her—comments and all, clearly to badmouth me. Shall we infer?"
I pressed on without giving her an opening.
"Most comments gripe that I pissed off prosecutors by calling out their screw-up in the Kim Hyeongjun case I handled before. So I bailed to civil suits where I wouldn't tangle with them... something like that, right?"
"You sure keep tabs on your rep, Lawyer Cha. Digging up stuff like this."
"Who wouldn't?"
No sense denying—I'd started this for my reputation from the jump.
"Na Eun-seong, take a look. He's admitting it himself. Lawyer Cha took your case for his own rep. Even if he loses, he'll get fame as the lawyer who stood up to big money. That's why he took it for peanuts. If he really wanted to win for you—or cared about you—he wouldn't have been so rude at mediation."
Yoo Jeongwon drove it home like sealing the deal. Plenty to badmouth me over; I was curious what she'd picked.
"Ah, so that's your pitch."
"Don't act like it's not true. Rude at mediation—even if you think Writer Jeong Hyejin was at fault, it was reckless. Na Eun-seong, how can you trust a lawyer like this for such a huge trial?"
She gazed at her with feigned concern. Even I, who'd figured her acting chops couldn't touch my experience, wanted to applaud.
"Na Eun-seong. True, I said I'd take only three million won upfront. But we have another deal, don't we?"
Time to drop the sparring with Yoo Jeongwon and steady Na Eun-seong. I'd dragged this out just to prove to her I could hold my own verbally.
"...Yes."
"Success fee on victory: a cut of the damages. I'm claiming 7.67 billion won from Blue Island Media. A percentage of that—you get the scale, right, Lawyer Yoo Jeongwon?"
"Even so, if you lose, it's still an insane fee structure."
She snapped back quick, but her face was stiff. Na Eun-seong must not have mentioned it. Predictable—Yoo Jeongwon probably monologued without pause.
"And that success fee's outrageous. All I hear is a lawyer chasing cash and glory."
A Taegwang lawyer lecturing me on money and fame? Absurd.
"Fine, say that's it. Fame for taking a tyro writer's side against giants despite loss—or fame for winning. Which is bigger?"
"The latter, obviously. But neither's meaningless."
"Right. So if I'm chasing money too, as you say—would I slog through this for three million? My aim's the hundreds of millions in success fees. So I'd pull every trick to win. Agreed?"
Yoo Jeongwon went mute, trapped in her own contradiction.
"Na Eun-seong. A lawyer chasing money and fame to win by any means—or one chasing morals, win or lose be damned. Which do you want?"
She gave a faint smile.
"One who'll win by any means."
And above her head, the word [Truth] sparkled.