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Chapter 10 - Background Check
Act 02
Slam! Sehun, in his luxurious suit, got out of his sedan when he arrived at the company’s parking lot. He skillfully balanced his phone between his ear and shoulder. As he meticulously buttoned his cufflinks, he walked in big strides toward the building.
Secretary Tak, who had been waiting for him at the elevator since before his superior’s arrival, handed Sehun a briefcase. He then gestured for Sehun to take the lift that he had caught in advance. Nimbly getting on the elevator, Sehun briefly listened to the person on the other line before he sharply replied, “If you were in such a rush, you should have sent it to the litigation group. I rarely ever handle lawsuits.”
“To my knowledge, you sometimes do litigation for people you’ve advised. Can’t you do something about it for me?” the other person on the line pleaded.
“That’s why you should have shopped for your lawyer wisely from the get-go. Tell me, do you start eating anything just because you’re at a buffet? The standard is to start with the most expensive and delicious dishes.”
The client on the line was the representative director at a semiconductor company who became involved in a civil suit while in the process of investing and building his portfolio. He lost significantly during the first trial after he was represented by another law firm, almost the size of Doguk. Since Sehun refused to pick up this client’s call, he must have felt anxious because he kept sending people to pester Sehun for the past few days. Presently, Sehun was graciously listening to his case.
However, Sehun didn’t seem interested at all even after picking up, so the man started to sound more desperate. “You know that I wanted to retain you from the very get-go, no? I contacted you too. But the other party’s director and his wife knew you guys well, so as another businessman, I thought I should retain some good faith. I thought I should go down the right path at least now. Why don’t we meet? Please?”
Sehun frowned and waved his hand at Secretary Tak. The prepared secretary showed Sehun his schedule and pointed to a good day for a meeting. Sehun replied upon seeing that, “Let’s meet over the weekend. Please visit the firm this Saturday at 12 p.m. I’ll schedule a meeting at that time. You’ll need to send me all your doc*ments in advance, and that includes the doc*ments already shared and those that are privileged—that means all your evidence and other doc*ments about circ*mstances that you kept hidden from the court. I need to know everything about how you acc*mulated your assets. If there are any omissions, I refuse to represent you.”
“All right, all right. I believe in you, Attorney Kang. Should I send someone over with the doc*ments?”
“Of course. Oh, and if you call me three times and I don’t reply, don’t call again. It means I’m intentionally ignoring you, not that I’m unable to take them. I’m doing this for you because you came to me first. I’ll be hanging up now,” Sehun said coldly, then quickly hung up and tossed his phone to his secretary.
Secretary Tak caught it skillfully and said, “He is quite well advanced in age, so a Hanwoo lunch would be appropriate.”
“Do as you see fit. The doc*ments in question will probably be delivered in person tonight, so please organize those into easily readable sections and leave them on my desk by tomorrow at noon. Plus, bring me the record of the recent judgment on the case by noon. Grab an associate with some free time to print out precedents.”
“An associate with free time? Does our firm even have that? Excluding one person, I mean.”
Sehun knew very well what the question between the lines was and retorted, “Not Yoonshin Do. Find one among the juniors of another team. If there are none, just use an intern.”
“Do you trust Attorney Do less than a law student? Oh, right. While we’re on that topic, here. This doc*ment has additional information on the cases that Attorney Do has worked on.”
Sehun snatched the doc*ment in Secretary Tak’s hands and was about to reply when the elevator made a ding as it arrived on the floor of his office.
Sehun briskly walked ahead toward his office as he read through the thick stack of papers. Slightly at his side, Secretary Tak followed close behind. The employees who saw the two bowed respectfully toward Sehun, who ignored all of them. He instead threw a question at his secretary. “Is there anything else that you dug up?”
“No, it’s the same as the last report. I looked through everything, but there was nothing where the two of you were related, privately or publicly. I simply summarized the facts that were there.”
Sehun investigated Yoonshin through his secretary and personally interviewed the junior lawyers who went to school around the same time as Yoonshin, but he came out with nothing. Even if they were the same lawyers, a big-firm lawyer and a human rights lawyer were in such distinct fields that nobody knew of any specifics. Based on the rumors that the juniors occasionally heard, their impression of Yoonshin was that he was on the smart and staunch side.
Sehun nodded then flipped back to the first page and concentrated on absorbing the information. All the details of Yoonshin’s files were printed.
“He’s all clean. Will you retract your doubts about him now?” Secretary Tak asked.
“Shut up,” Sehun dismissed.
“This is a waste of human resources. You hate wasting manpower and time the most.”
“I’d advise you to shut up before I tell you twice.”
With the final warning, Secretary Tak closed his lips tightly. Sehun’s surroundings grew quiet. He skimmed through the rest of the doc*ment.
‘Wrongful dismissal, infringement of employment law, workplace accidents
’ he read in his head.
Although Yoonshin was still a small fry, his life and career path overlapped those of Sehun’s teacher, who was both Yoonshin’s father and the Minister of Justice. The father and son couldn’t seem to stand watching people in unjust situations.
‘He’s just like his father.’ Sehun clicked his tongue and tried to keep advancing, but an obstacle appeared out of the blue in front of him. He stopped and looked up to see Mihee obstructing his way while waving a coffee in each hand.
“Our dear Senior Attorney Kang, you’re always exactly on time to work. The other partners need to learn from you,” Mihee said.
“What are you doing first thing in the morning?”
“I missed you so much that I waited for you.”
“I can’t accept a married woman’s feelings. There’s this thing called ethics in business. Move.”
“How cold, Sehun.”
If she didn’t move, Sehun was going to go around her. He walked past Mihee toward his office. Secretary Tak, who tactfully retrieved the doc*ments from Sehun’s hands, rushed ahead. The secretary opened Sehun’s firmly closed office door and carefully placed his briefcase, cell phone, and doc*ments on top of his desk.
Finally, the owner of the room entered the office and was about to sit in his seat, completely ready to start working, but once again Mihee barged in and impeded his way about his day. Sehun furrowed his brows.