Life, Once Again!

“Yes, please speak.”

Dongwook leaned against the fridge and picked up the call. It was 2 a.m. Lights would have been turned off even for overworking people, and it was time for people doing labor to be sleeping, but Dongwook’s work was not over. The same was true for the private investigator that he was calling. They were continuously exchanging information while tracking down the various suspects. The materials given to him by Park Okhwa and the information given to him by Lee Miyoon were becoming a sharp nail.

“Wait there and track the person down. Yes, I think we’re almost there. It might be a few days, or it might even be tomorrow. Let’s work just a little harder.”

He got a call from another private investigator as well. After a short conversation, he finished the call. He inputted the information he was getting in real-time and organized it. As he knew that his opponents were no small fry, he had to be on his edge. He took his hands off the keyboard and put a cigarette in his mouth. His brain was craving some caffeine. He desperately wanted to drink some Red Bull, but he made do with nicotine instead. He was rather ignorant when it came to health matters, yet even he ended up searching things about ‘problems related to overconsumption of energy drinks.’

He also only smoked about halfway before putting it out. The cloudy smoke rising into the air looked like a part of his soul. He could feel his body becoming exhausted. He was going to spend two months in Guam or Bali or someplace with good sunlight once he was done with this. He used the cold night air to get a hold of himself before realizing that it was New Year’s Eve. Today was the 31st of December, and it was going to be quite a busy night for him on the last day of the year.

He rubbed his eyes and looked at the photo on the wall. He put up a photo of YM’s chairman near the ceiling. Practices that stemmed from the chairman reached all sorts of places. They were all extremely evil deeds, but as long as these connections were solid, it would be hard to pin crimes on them. As such, he needed evidence solid enough that those connections wouldn’t have any effect; he needed evidence that would make an appeal an insult to the court itself.

The bell rang. Dongwook left the veranda open and walked to the door.

“The snow has finally calmed down.”

A man walked in, dusting his wet hair. A nail, no matter how sharp, would only become a toy in the hands of a child. The man in front of him was the person who would use the nail the right way.

“I’m sorry for calling you all the way here when you must be busy, lawyer Park.”

“It is me who insisted on coming, so you don’t have to be. Not only that, it was the request of a friend of mine too.”

Dongwook offered a seat to lawyer Park Sunggoo.

“Would you like a cup of warm coffee?”

“I won’t refuse that offer. It is a little too early to sleep too.”

Dongwook whipped up a coffee with a coffee stick and put it down in front of lawyer Park. He had gotten to know this person through the president, who told him that this person would be the one handling the problem. Although he knew that the two were close, he only recently found out that lawyer Park was a big shot. He willingly abandoned the route of becoming the head prosecutor of the Seoul branch, which was known to be the route to becoming the Prosecutor General, and instead became the head prosecutor of the high court, which was known to be practically an exile. Later, he became a lawyer for businesses. His name could be easily found on large cases related to foreign patents, and he was always at the head of the lawyer groups when chaebol families ran into problems. When he found all this out, Dongwook realized that not anyone could just become close friends with president Lee.

“How are things?”

“Things are going smoothly because there are two whistleblowers on the inside. The various flights, movement routes, and decisive photos we got from Japan shortened our work by a lot.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Lawyer Park emptied the coffee in one go and scanned the wall. He seemed to be looking at the faces of the culprits.

“What do you think is the most important when it comes to a brawl?” lawyer Park asked.

“Breaking your opponent’s nose.”

“You’re right. People don’t say that the first to strike will win for nothing. However, it is not a brawl we’re doing, instead, we’re fighting with the law, which can be infinitely hard for some but infinitely flexible for others. What do you think is the most important when you fight with the law?”

“I don’t know. While I’ve been working as a journalist, I’ve never had the chance to be close to the law.”

“It’s a target. A specific target. The most common mistake that a rookie prosecutor makes is to set the target of the lawsuit vaguely. We need to decide on a size that we can take down for sure. With that in mind, I’ll have to say this beforehand, but that person isn’t something you and I can take down no matter how hard we try.”

Lawyer Park’s finger was pointing at YM’s chairman. Dongwook smiled and nodded.

“It’s not a cataclysm I want. I don’t want social justice to be served or anything like that either. I’ll be satisfied as long as I can make some people realize that you shouldn’t touch people struggling to survive doing the right things.”

Dongwook pointed at Hong Janghae placed beneath YM’s chairman. He also pointed at Lee Miyoon as well.

“You’re quite firm.”

“Will it be hard?”

“What do you think? Do you think it’ll be hard?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Preparations are going well, but I’m not sure if it’ll work or not. If it just ends as just an ‘occurrence’ then I don’t think I’ll be able to live in this country any longer.”

“It might end as just an occurrence. I know that better than anyone. This country is rotten down to the core. It’s so rotten that people like me receive money to hide those rotten parts. I earned quite a lot. Perhaps I’m no different from the ones you put up there.”

“But while you earn like a dog, you spend like a monk. I unintentionally found out that you are sponsoring an incurable disease foundation and even working as a free lawyer.”

“It’s self-consolation at best. It’s something like a self-suggestion, telling myself that I’ll be able to avoid hellfire only by doing good deeds.”

Lawyer Park stood up. He took off the photos of Hong Janghae and Lee Miyoon from the wall and placed them on the table.

“You’re quite lucky, journalist Kim.”

“What?”

“This is not something I should say to the lady who got caught up in the accident, but it is fortunate for her that you’re next to her. And for you, you’re fortunate that Lee Junmin’s next to you. It is nearly impossible for an ordinary person to oust a person under the protection of the chairman. Not only is it difficult to legally gather any evidence, even if you do, it’ll be hard to gather any prosecutors bold enough to attack YM. Even if some do, they might be pressured by their superiors to sink it down.”

Lawyer Park grabbed Hong Janghae’s photo before folding it in half. He pressed it down firmly along the crease before easily tearing it apart. Hong Janghae’s head was decapitated from the body and placed on the table.

“But it’s not impossible for me.”

Dongwook gulped. He suddenly felt that this man, who was nearing his sixties, was a giant. He felt just like president Lee.

“If we go for Hong Jangahe right away, things will become arduous and dragged out. You should always do your work the most efficient way.”

“Who are we striking if not him? Lee Miyoon?”

“A lizard’s tail isn’t cut off by the person that catches it. It’s cut off by the lizard itself. If we aim for Hong Janghae from the get-go, the lizard will try to struggle to live. It wasn’t caught yet, and it’s not in danger. That’s why we need to give him a tempting offer to cut it off himself so that we don’t have to go through bothersome matters.”

Hearing lawyer Park’s words, Dongwook looked at YM’s chairman’s face on the wall. Lawyer Park continued,

“It’s impossible to take him down, but we can go up to him. We just have to show him that we bite and we bite hard. In this industry, people prefer to deal with something before they get wounded.”

“Will the chairman extricate Hong Janghae first? I heard that Hong Janghae is his confidante.”

“Journalist Kim. There’s not a single finger among your ten fingers that doesn’t hurt when you bite. But if you have to cut off one of them, don’t you think people would choose to cut off their pinky finger?”

Lawyer Park asked him for the materials he had gathered until now. Dongwook showed him the files he organized on his laptop.

“Although all this evidence was acquired through illegal means, it’ll become effective once we toss it around some places. Even if it doesn’t have any effect in court, it’ll be more than enough to shake the media. YM’s chairman is a monster, a perfectionist, and above all, someone who loves the name of YM. He’s someone who’s obsessive over those matters, so this might go easier than we expect.”

“You’re saying he’ll make a compromise by extricating someone rather than taint the name of the company?”

“That’s the logic in this market. It’s similar to how your junior was caught up in this matter. It is easier to socially kill your junior rather than create a just business company according to your junior’s sense of justice; that’s why they simply chose that option.”

“I knew about it, but still, it comes off quite heavy.”

“That’s how it is in the world, isn’t it? There are unjust events happening everywhere. Horrible, unsightly cases occur several times every day. But you feel it’s okay. It’s not about you after all. People like me live in the crevices of such psychology. It’s a good world.”

The cold in the room was definitely not due to just the cold night air. Dongwook sighed in relief. After all, this man might have been the bane of his existence if he was an enemy.

“Rather than that, Maru gets caught up in matters like this quite frequently.”

“Maru, you say?”

“I helped him out with a similar matter before. Though, that one was child’s play compared to what we’re doing now. Oh, what is he up to lately? Since he has a foot in this matter, I should tell him about this.”

“He’s in Ulsan for a shoot.”

“So being the actor that he should be.”

“I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

Lawyer Park pulled his chin in and spoke,

“Then let us focus on our work as well.”

Dongwook nodded.