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Chapter 5 - Condition Precedent
Sehun wanted to protest, unable to accept the situation, but Mihee raised her hand and stopped him from what he wanted to say. She instead picked up the receiver to the intercom and called her secretary. “Attorney Do is waiting, right? Tell him to sit in Attorney Kang’s office. I’ll send Attorney Kang down in 10 minutes.”
After her short conversation, she placed the receiver back down and made a small flick with her head, pointing at Sehun to leave. He laughed hollowly as he witnessed the situation unfold, “So this was why.”
“Sehun, just try him out first. It’s not too late to talk about this after. He’s a really smart kid.”
“This was why. He’s the first lawyer to come in with his connections since you brought me here. It must mean that he has some value for you to bring him, although not as valuable as me. But we have more than just a few partners at our firm and over 20 departments, so it’s odd to shove him to me, who’s unwilling to take him on. There’s a reason you need to place him next to me other than his inherent abilities as a lawyer.”
It was a bullseye. To begin with, Sehun was quick on the uptake, so Mihee didn’t expect to fool him. She could only grin awkwardly in response. Thanks to that, he grew more certain of his conviction. “You’re not even trying to hide it.”
“Don’t be so fussy. From the moment you went with me to test the waters, you knew that he was the son of our former teacher, Professor Do from Korea University Law School, who taught us civil procedure. They’re alike in many ways.”
“I don’t work for sentimental reasons like that. Do you seriously not know my market value?”
“It’s not just for sentimental reasons. A lot depends on this. When I say he’s the son of Professor Do, it also means he’s the only younger brother of Soohan Group’s second son’s wife, Ikyung Do. You saw Ms. Do at our professor’s funeral last time. Don’t you remember?”
Sehun reminisced on what happened in his past and suddenly bit down on his lip very hard. He looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment. Mihee noticed that his reaction was different from before and asked, “Sehun Kang. What’s the matter?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sehun dismissed.
“Anyway, Sehun, you have to bend to this one. It’s for the sake of the firm. You know that I don’t normally ask you things of this nature. That’s how important this is.”
Due to the profit-centered structure, the firm couldn’t be divorced from business with large corporations. Plus, they were important clients that the firm couldn’t afford to lose. What brought money to a law firm were not the lawsuits by individuals. Most of the profit came from resolving disputes between corporations or advising corporations on their investments and selling companies.
Among the domestic companies, the general president of Soohan Group was connected to Mihee’s father, the executive director of Doguk. Thanks to that, since the firm’s founding, Soohan Group deferred many of their matters to Doguk. In addition, when subsidiary companies needed legal advice for their projects, they were referred to Doguk. With the firm’s position in mind, this was a request that they couldn’t ignore.
Sehun stared at the woman sitting across from him before he leaned back hard enough to make the couch creak. Perhaps he couldn’t express his feelings in their entirety through his knitted brows because his hand gestures were also filled with annoyance. “Was it Soohan? Or Director Ikyung’s personal request?”
“Ikyung represents Soohan. I’m the company’s corporate lawyer and our firm deals with numerous matters with Soohan and its affiliated companies every year. It’s not something to be easily ignored.”
“Did they say they would terminate our retainer if we didn’t accept her brother?”
“She didn’t say that, but it’s something we need to be prepared for if we refuse the request. She personally asked that her brother be placed under your wing and that you teach him how to survive hell.”
Sehun scoffed out loud. “You think this is school? It’s the first time I heard that I have qualifications to be a teacher instead of a lawyer.”
“That’s the superficial reason, but I think she wanted to protect her brother since he works without taking care of himself. In that aspect, Sehun Kang is a fine shield.”
“So, she wanted a babysitter, not an instructor. I don’t have a hobby of raising children either.”
“Don’t be like that. Just run the numbers in your head.”
‘Hah
’ Sehun sighed in defeat as his eyes clouded over with complicated thoughts.
Mihee promptly read his thoughts and added, “Think about it this way—a corporation hawk like you, taking care of a family member of someone of the Soohan clan. You lose nothing from this deal. You know full well that this practice is practically a battle of information and networking. Following that, a golden goose just landed in your arms. Of course, the company is bound to give us big cases since we have the brother. It’s not bad, don’t you think?”
Sehun listened patiently up to that point, then he narrowed his eyes. “So in the end, this is a special favor from Soohan. And a threatening one at that.”
“Let’s call it a compensatory favor. In exchange for giving him a salary, what we gain is very big.”
Yoonshin’s character aside, this wasn’t a bad deal for Sehun when he only looked at the positive points. With no exception, family was a weakness for all of humanity. Pursuant to that, Sehun would be holding onto Soohan’s weakness. Despite the fruit not being ripe for the picking now, he would be sowing the seeds for the future. Since Sehun was one of Professor Do’s pupils, he had an even better reason to take this job.
However, there was something that still didn’t sit right with him. Rather, he got a nagging feeling about it.
Why him?