The next day, early Saturday morning, Do Chae-hee, who arrived at Hong Nan-hee's office, received the tasks she had to do from Hong Nan-hee. The list was endlessly long.
"Can't you do it?"
At Hong Nan-hee's words, Do Chae-hee immediately shook her head.
"No!"
"Then please do it."
Do Chae-hee stood there and checked what she had to do first.
It was interviewing Kim Hyun-ki, that is, the suspect in this case. Of course, it makes sense that this should be done first, but...
The problem was that Do Chae-hee wasn't ready to face that boy directly yet.
"But, but shouldn't you interview that friend yourself..."
"I told you, I don't have time."
Hong Nan-hee, who was still burying her nose in documents, didn't even raise her head at Do Chae-hee's question. She looked so busy that Do Chae-hee couldn't say anything more.
"There's already Ho-san's interview..."
"If you don't want to do it, you can quit, you know?"
"Who said I don't want to do it?"
"You keep adding this and that, so I thought you didn't want to?"
At Hong Nan-hee's words, Do Chae-hee made a pained sound. She only realized how foolish it was to try to win against a lawyer with words.
Do Chae-hee sighed deeply.
"Okay, I'll go meet him."
At those words, Hong Nan-hee briefly raised her head.
"I've organized the necessary content for the interview there, so listen carefully. I've prepared a recorder too, so make sure to record. Ah, and one more thing."
Hong Nan-hee pointed to a corner and said:
"Just in case, disguise yourself with that when you go."
"Disguise?"
"Yes."
In the place Hong Nan-hee pointed to, there was a briefcase, thick sunglasses, and a navy coat.
"It's an artifact that blurs recognition. You're a police officer, right? If it's found out that you went for an interview on the lawyer's side, wouldn't it be troublesome for you?"
"...Why does a lawyer have this kind of artifact?"
"Because there are times when it's needed."
Do Chae-hee gathered the artifact from the corner. Hong Nan-hee winked.
"Go meet that friend once."
* * *
"I'm the lawyer who will be handling Kim Hyun-ki's case."
"A lawyer?"
The man at the detention center looked at Do Chae-hee as if wondering if that guy had a lawyer.
"I'd like to meet the client."
"Ah, I see."
Her heart was pounding crazily. Fortunately, the man didn't recognize Do Chae-hee. Rolling her eyes behind the sunglasses, Do Chae-hee swallowed hard.
How much time had passed?
"This way, please."
The detention center was cold. Even though it used the same structure, same paint, and same lighting as other ACD buildings. It was strangely chilling to the bone. Do Chae-hee walked steadily down the corridor towards the visitation room where Kim Hyun-ki was waiting for her.
"When the visit is over, please let us know through the intercom here. Our staff will come out. All processes are recorded on CCTV, so please be cautious."
The staff glared at Do Chae-hee as if saying 'Don't even dream of any foolish thoughts'. Do Chae-hee nodded and stepped forward.
Kim Hyun-ki was sitting in a chair, wearing awakener-specific restraints. Do Chae-hee said to Kim Hyun-ki, who was looking at her with a bewildered face:
"Ah, hello?"
"...Who are you?"
"I'm a person from lawyer Hong Nan-hee's office. I came to defend you in this case."
"M-me? Why?"
Kim Hyun-ki's eyes were full of wariness and suspicion.
"You know someone called Jeong Ho-san, right?"
"Did he send you?"
At that name, the wariness instantly melted away. In that brief moment, Jeong Ho-san had succeeded in winning this young child's heart. It was curious to the point of wondering what method he used.
"I'm going to help you in this case. I can't say you'll be found not guilty, but I intend to do my best to ensure you receive a fair trial and can make your voice heard."
Kim Hyun-ki's pupils shook at those words. Do Chae-hee, who swallowed hard, placed the briefcase on the table.
Do Chae-hee, who took out carefully prepared documents and a recorder from inside, looked at Kim Hyun-ki and said:
"Then, shall we slowly talk about what happened that day from the beginning?"
* * *
After finishing the interview with Kim Hyun-ki, Do Chae-hee carefully completed the tasks Hong Nan-hee had assigned. She stopped by the evidence room to secure necessary evidence and met with merchants around the scene to hear their stories.
After finishing all her tasks like that, Do Chae-hee headed to Hong Nan-hee's office.
It was already past evening, approaching night.
Hong Nan-hee was still working in that cramped office.
"Aren't you going home?"
"I told you, I'm busy."
"E-eat this while you work."
Hong Nan-hee gave a hollow laugh seeing the convenience store bag in Do Chae-hee's hands.
"What's this, a bribe?"
"Just, I thought you might be working without eating anything until this hour."
Seeing Hong Nan-hee's skinny build, she naturally thought she would be skipping meals and working. Hong Nan-hee shrugged and took the bag from Do Chae-hee's hands.
"So how was it?"
Do Chae-hee opened her eyes wide at Hong Nan-hee's question. Hong Nan-hee asked while sipping an energy drink:
"How was it working as a day lawyer?"
"Well..."
Do Chae-hee rolled her eyes. What should she say?
"It was really different. From when I worked as a police officer."
"Where, how?"
Hong Nan-hee asking that question seemed to already roughly expect the answer. But even so, she was curious. What this stubbornly closed-minded police officer Do Chae-hee would say. Do Chae-hee slowly traced her memories and opened her mouth.
"At first, I thought there wouldn't be much difference because it was an interview. Talking with suspects, talking with witnesses at the scene. It was always what I did."
But actually experiencing it, many things were different.
'Police officer' Do Chae-hee's interviews were always aggressive. Regardless of time and situation, Do Chae-hee approached people to get the information she wanted. Why? Because solving the case was the most important thing to her. Solving the case meant catching the culprit, and she ignored everything else.
But the lawyer's interview was different.
"I ended up listening a lot. Asking what really happened that day, asking why they made such choices. So in the end, I found myself empathizing and immersing in that person's situation."
"Unlike police, we lawyers have to unconditionally take the client's side. We have to think from that person's perspective about their choices, explain the reasons why they had no choice but to make those choices, and defend that person."
Police officer Do Chae-hee didn't need to deeply understand Kim Hyun-ki's intentions and situation. But as a lawyer, in a situation where she had to defend him, she couldn't do that. Do Chae-hee listened to Kim Hyun-ki's words for hours.
Why he came to make such choices, why he was driven to this point.
It was a story she had already heard through Jeong Ho-san, but hearing his story face-to-face with Kim Hyun-ki was even more desperate.
After that interview ended, Do Chae-hee looked back on the interviews she had done as a police officer.
"As a police officer, I did the worst interviews. Saying I would solve the case, I even barged into a terminally ill patient's room and demanded answers."
The day she barged into Han Jo-hee's hospital room saying she would solve the Kang Yi-sin case. Do Chae-hee showed not even a shred of courtesy to Han Jo-hee. It was the same for Han Seo-hyeon who was guarding that hospital room.
What did she say to Han Seo-hyeon who blocked her that day?
-I understand the circumstances, but there's something I absolutely need to confirm with him personally...
There was no sympathy for Han Jo-hee to be found anywhere in those words. Even though she was trying to waste a terminally ill patient's precious time just to solve the case, there was no apology in Do Chae-hee's actions.
It was the same even after getting scolded by Han Seo-hyeon.
-I made a mistake in my haste. Then I'll leave a questionnaire, so please answer later if possible. I really want to catch that bastard.
If she were to evaluate herself then now, it was really...
'The worst.'
Without any consideration or anything. Just someone obsessed with catching criminals. And yet, she defended herself saying 'I'm doing this for the victims'.
"Thinking about it now, I feel this way. Was I really trying to catch the culprit for the victims? Or was I just acting intoxicated by my own sense of justice? If I had really thought about the victims, I shouldn't have acted that way, should I?"
At Do Chae-hee's words, Hong Nan-hee casually threw out words:
"You might not be so bad at lawyer work? Since there are things to learn like this."
"That..."
"I thought you probably thought all lawyers were bad people until now."
Do Chae-hee's shoulders trembled finely at Hong Nan-hee's words.
"T-that..."
"Why do they defend criminals, why do they get out people who should be sent to jail. Yes, you can think that way. I sometimes think too, ah, is it right to defend such trash?"
Hong Nan-hee, who said that, shook her head and added:
"No, not sometimes. I think that every day."
"You think that too, lawyer?"
"Haha, Do Chae-hee. Do you know why I quit a successful law firm and am living in such misery here in the first place?"
Do Chae-hee's pupils shook at that question. Certainly, when she looked up Hong Nan-hee's career, there were a few years of experience at the best law firm. Do Chae-hee was curious too. Why Hong Nan-hee left that law firm and opened a private office.
But seeing and experiencing Hong Nan-hee, she had one certainty.
"Didn't you leave to help the weak? To realize justice in this society..."
Hong Nan-hee burst into laughter at Do Chae-hee's words.
"Hahaha, huff, huff! Haha, no. I wish I had become like this because I'm a good person, but it's the exact opposite. I left there because I have a nasty temper."
"What?"
"Yeah, I have a nasty temper. So I couldn't stand it. The dirty things. I knew in my head that if I just closed my eyes once, if I just endured what was happening in front of me once, a happy life would unfold, but with this temper I couldn't endure it. So I quit."
"Uh..."
"Well, not because of some plausible sense of justice. Just, I couldn't stand it, it was disgusting."
Hong Nan-hee recalled that time.
"It was something I just had to close my eyes and endure once, but ah, that moment felt so trashy. Those people, and me trying to somehow get in their good graces while sucking up to them. Just..."
Hong Nan-hee smiled.
"So I left. And I tried to give those disgusting people I saw there a taste of their own medicine. I took on the opposing defense in that case."
"...H-how did it go?"
"How did it go? I just got crushed."
"What?"
"What, did you think this was some fairy tale that ends with 'and so the protagonist lived happily ever after'? How could a rookie lawyer like me overturn a trial with eight lawyers called the best attached to it? That's why I told you. I have a nasty temper. What can I do when I want to charge in even though I can clearly see it's a losing battle?"
In the end, she lost, and was almost buried because of it, but Hong Nan-hee didn't regret that incident.
Well, she did regret. That she should have prepared a little better, that she should have spoken up a little more. But she didn't regret leaving that company that day and taking on that case.
"What people in the world misunderstand is, they think you have to be nice if you don't have power."
Hong Nan-hee continued:
"But, the truly shitty thing about the world is that the less power you have, the less you can live nicely and prettily. Even this safety tax is like that. What if you act nicely? You just have to go out and die. Dying slowly, nicely. So you have to raise hell. Saying you're going to die, that you can't live if things become like this."
Most of the people Hong Nan-hee saw were like that. Tough and loud-voiced. They all became that way to survive.
"Only those with power can live nicely. Why? Everything goes smoothly their way, so why would they crumple their faces and raise their voices? They can just smile elegantly and do what they need to do."
Right?
Do Chae-hee couldn't say anything to Hong Nan-hee asking that.
Why?
Because she too, strictly speaking, was a person from a world that had only lived 'nicely'.