Chapter 9
The next day, as soon as Woo-kyung arrived at work, he was summoned to the 20th floor. After straightening his tie neatly, he walked into the office with confident steps.
“So, Cha Woo-kyung, you’ve decided to just go ahead and do whatever you want, is that it?”
As soon as Woo-kyung entered the office nonchalantly, the sharp criticism flew at him as if waiting for him.
Jungyul Law Firm, Senior Partner Min Sung-hyuk.
The nameplate standing neatly on the wooden table caught Woo-kyung’s eye.
He was Woo-kyung’s supervising attorney and the longest-serving lawyer at Jungyul Law Firm. Sung-hyuk, his brow deeply furrowed, slammed a complaint down on the desk irritably, as if to make a point.
“Have they already contacted you?”
“What? ‘Already contacted’?”
The picture was clear even without looking. The Shin Yoo Group side, which Woo-kyung had turned upside down, must have been making a fuss, saying how dare a mere lawyer touch them, that he was arrogant, that it was defamation, and so on.
The cliché repertoire never changes.
But a formal complaint is quite ahead of schedule.
Woo-kyung, who had already foreseen his own distant future, smiled with a calm face.
“Cha Woo-kyung, you should reflect a little.”
“I am reflecting.”
Sung-hyuk, who had been complaining that he wouldn’t die from being disbarred but that his head was pounding, rubbed his temples softly, leaned halfway forward, and swallowed a laugh.
The air, which had been frozen just moments before, began to thaw little by little.
“How are you going to handle this mess? You’re about to become a senior soon, why do you keep causing trouble like this?”
“You’re here, Senior.”
“Me? I’m going to wash my hands of you. What are you going to do? Seems like you’re ruined.”
“It’s true I’m ruined. Well, since I’ve fallen out of favor with you.”
*If only he couldn’t talk.* Sung-hyuk deeply regretted having taken on this troublemaker of a junior, whose audacity overflowed.
Attorney Min owed a debt to Chairman Cha. When he was moving from orphanage to orphanage, Chairman Cha recognized his exceptional talent and acted as his guardian until he reached adulthood. He believed that his growth into such an excellent lawyer, capable of holding a key position in the firm, was also thanks to Chairman Cha’s great generosity.
But when Chairman Cha entrusted his only grandson to him, Sung-hyuk felt a sense of responsibility he never had before, but he was also sometimes afraid of Woo-kyung, who fearlessly dug into things here and there.
Sung-hyuk shook his head from side to side, then tossed a document.
“Here, a special assignment for you.”
“Special assignment?”
“You’re lucky. Prosecutor Baek from the prosecution has also been keeping a close eye on the Shin Yoo Group embezzlement case.”
“So, they’re going to swallow up all the materials we’ve collected?”
“Hey, think positively. What good would it do to get on the prosecution’s bad side? Since things have turned out this way, let’s work together smoothly on the joint investigation and see it through to the end.”
It was as if Woo-kyung had accumulated some kind of karma; whenever he took on a case, agencies that usually didn’t cooperate well would provide smooth assistance, and evidence that was impossible to obtain elsewhere would pour in.
Sung-hyuk thought he was a guy born with ridiculously good luck.
Woo-kyung, who had been looking at the document with a tense face, grinned.
“How’s married life treating you?”
“Well…”
When Woo-kyung had informed him of his marriage like a notice not long ago, Sung-hyuk was flabbergasted.
He was one of the very few close associates who knew about Woo-kyung’s marriage.
More than that, amidst the constant pestering of those around them who were eagerly targeting Woo-kyung, just as Sung-hyuk was about to make arrangements, the guy went and got married. Sung-hyuk couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.
“With your picky taste, if you chose her, she must be the real deal, right?”
*His taste.*
Well, it was true that until now, he had dated without discrimination regarding his own status or profession.
It at least meant she wasn’t a complete dud. But at the critical moment, a different problem surfaced.
*’Woo-kyung, don’t tell me you can’t get it up?’*
Woo-kyung, who had been scolded for only going after good-looking women when trying to date.
Even when they went to a hotel, his lower half, which had hesitated at the last moment or shown no reaction to the eager touches of women, began to ache.
All because of that one disheveled gaze of Lee Yeon, who did nothing more than clumsily push her tongue in and move.
Woo-kyung, who had barely suppressed the lower half that surged up against his will, found it absurd and felt self-loathing.
“I guess so. Must be my taste.”
“How bland.”
Woo-kyung pointed to the documents he received, thanked him again, and said his goodbyes. Just as he was about to leave the office, a question popped into his head, and he abruptly asked Sung-hyuk.
“Senior, regarding Shin Yoo Group, besides what we investigated, is there another issue about wage arrears?”
“Hmm, oh, are you talking about that perhaps?”
Sung-hyuk adjusted his glasses quietly and answered.
“It seems the construction site manager habitually stole the workers’ wages.”
“That sounds malicious, doesn’t it? In the end, he didn’t pay the wages and ran away.”
“But the problem is, the construction company maintains that they have already completed disciplinary action against the manager and wrapped up the matter, so they are not responsible.”
“So they’re trying to avoid responsibility. The probability that it was planned is also high.”
Hearing that, Sung-hyuk quietly let out a breath.
“That’s true, but were you interested in this side of things?”
“Not really. I just became a bit interested this time.”
“But is it okay for you to be involved with Shin Yoo Group?”
Sung-hyuk looked at Woo-kyung with a puzzled gaze.
“Why wouldn’t it be? Well, I’ll be going then.”
At his words, Sung-hyuk waved his hand irritably, telling him to go quickly.
After leaving the office, Woo-kyung, feeling stifled by the neatly tied tie he hadn’t worn in a while, loosened it leisurely and headed to his office.
“No schedule for today, right?”
“No, that’s true, but… Actually, Ms. Kim Seong-sook stopped by a little while ago. She said she absolutely must meet with you.”
When the administrative employee answered with an awkward face, Woo-kyung slightly furrowed his brow.
“I told her you weren’t in, so she left.”
“Tell her I’m not in next time too.”
It was uncanny; she always showed up without fail precisely when Woo-kyung was in the office. The sound of her high heels startled more than a few employees.
In her hand, instead of a business card, was a large luxury bag. She would pull an envelope with profile photos from her bag, an excessively bright smile plastered on her lips.
Woo-kyung was disgusted by the imposing manner of the middle-aged woman who appeared in flashy suits.
*’This time, it’s a really good family. The daughter of a judge’s family, and so pretty. With specs like this, she’s more than capable enough to support you, Attorney.’*
He refused the matchmaking offers that bordered on coercion every time, but because of the woman who didn’t know the meaning of giving up, Woo-kyung could only shake his head.
*’Attorney~ You’ll grow old alone if you just focus on work like that.’*
Woo-kyung let out a hollow laugh.
“Then, I’ll be heading out for the day.”
“How long has it been since you came in?”
“Who knows.”
Woo-kyung, who had been smiling brightly, hurried into his office.
***
Lee Yeon pressed her temples firmly with her fingertips. She had wasted time resubmitting an assignment file because a teaching assistant said the one she submitted earlier had been deleted.
*’Couldn’t you just send it again anyway?’*
In front of the teaching assistant, who shrugged with a brazen face, Lee Yeon’s expression instantly froze over like ice.
Perhaps because her standing, built up over time, had fallen since the day she attended the gathering, the TA had begun to subtly torment her.
Even Lee Yeon, who usually took things in stride, got angry when she heard the file was deleted, but there was no use crying over spilled milk.
This time, she submitted the assignment directly to the professor, then slowly took off her blue-light blocking glasses.
“What time is it now?”
Rubbing the bridge of her nose with her fingertips, Lee Yeon stood up and looked at her wristwatch. It was already past 7 o’clock.
Patting her heavy shoulders, she opened the bathroom door with half-closed eyes to go wash up.
But the moment she opened the door, an unfamiliar shape caught her eye through the misty steam.
A thoroughly drenched body under the shower stream, thick biceps, and the bare, sturdy nude form of a man still under the flowing water.
In that moment, a flustered Lee Yeon calmly collected herself and spoke.
“Wh-who are you?”
At that moment, their eyes met exactly. It was Woo-kyung.
“Yoo Lee Yeon?”
Lee Yeon’s eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat.
“Cha Woo-kyung, why are you here at this time?”
He turned his body leisurely, and his sculpted nude form inadvertently overwhelmed her field of vision.
Startled, Lee Yeon tried to step back, but she slipped on the water pooled on the marble floor, lost her balance, and staggered.
“Eek!”
Just as her body tilted, someone’s arm wrapped around Lee Yeon’s waist like lightning.
“Are you okay?”
Pulled close as if being hugged, Lee Yeon’s upper body touched his damp, firm chest. The distance was close enough to steal her breath.
Water droplets falling from his wet hair splashed onto Lee Yeon’s cheek, and his pupils beyond the steam deepened and intensified.
Lee Yeon froze, unable to say a word, blinking as she remained held in his embrace.
