Chapter 7

The Cute Junior

‘Just because I don’t hang out with her doesn’t mean I’m an idiot who doesn’t know the rumors going around the department……. Still, calling someone a rabid mad dog is a bit much.’

The argument she had made was not bad. It was realistic enough and, although it was a predictable argument, she had come close to being a professional lawyer in the way she represented the defendant.

The only problem was that she had chosen the wrong direction for her argument. If she had claimed diminished mental capacity due to prolonged emotional abuse instead of self-defense, she would have beaten him.

Even so, she had been an opponent who was not boring for the first time in a while.

He was about to step forward to tell her that, but then he saw her sitting there with her knees pulled to her chest and her head hanging low.

Pretending not to notice her, he stepped back and went down the stairs.

Ever since the year-end party, Kang-hyun found it strange whenever he saw Sena acting like a cat with its fur standing straight up whenever she saw him.

Sometimes, when she cautiously watched him and quietly tried to avoid him, he felt like teasing her just for fun.

But today did not seem like the right time.

She had come all the way to this empty place just to cool down her anger by herself.

He did not know exactly when it had started, but from quite a young age, Ryu Kang-hyun had been able to read the feelings that other people did not show.

Whether it was because he had good observation skills or because he was quick to notice things, he did not know.

But when he was young, he considered it one of his more useful abilities.

When he first saw Gi Sena at school after returning from the military, he found it amusing to watch her pretend to be a good person.

She laughed brightly even at the boring jokes of returning students, and even when someone made an unreasonable request of her, she never showed that she disliked it.

She had joined so many clubs that there was hardly a bulletin board anywhere on campus that did not have her name on it.

‘A fox who knows how to behave.’

That was his first impression of Gi Sena.

She occasionally did strange things, but she was not the type who would cause him any trouble, so he did not pay much attention to her.

That changed after he saw her drunk and making a confession that barely even made sense.

Gi Sena was a foolish bear wearing a fox’s mask.

And she was rather cute, too.

As Kang-hyun thought about the year-end party and took out another cigarette in the secluded spot, Sena came down the stairs with dragging steps.

She looked around, let out a deep sigh, and walked toward the ashtray.

Then she crouched down and began picking up the pieces of paper she had scattered earlier, one by one.

“Ah, why did I tear them into such tiny pieces? It’s so hard to pick them up. Hng…….”

She gathered the pieces, each about the size of a thumbnail, then looked up at the sky and sighed.

Still crouching, she crawled around picking up the pieces.

‘Ah, this is so annoying! I should have just crumpled them up.’

Then she let out another long sigh.

She stayed crouched there for more than ten minutes, cleaning up the mess she had made.

Kang-hyun watched her and let out a small laugh.

Who is even going to see her doing all that?

He shook his head in disbelief.

And then, once again.

The day after she had called Kang-hyun a rabid mad dog, she suddenly came to see him.

Her expression looked like she would rather die than admit that she had lost.

Did she come because she was angry and felt wronged? Or did she come to openly curse at him?

But they were in the library, so there would be too many people watching.

She could not even say something unpleasant to someone openly in front of others.

So how was she going to approach him?

Kang-hyun watched Sena with an indifferent gaze while thinking about all the possibilities.

But contrary to his expectations, she suddenly said,

“If I had argued diminished mental capacity, I probably would have won.”

Then she quickly disappeared.

For a moment, Ryu Kang-hyun was completely stunned.

Only much later did he realize what her words meant.

And then he burst into loud laughter.

It was probably the first time he had laughed that loudly during his university years.

She was ambitious.

She hated losing and had a strong competitive spirit.

She did not use other people to get what she wanted.

Instead, she made the effort herself and earned things fairly.

And there was one more thing.

She knew how to look back on her own mistakes, and she quickly found another solution.

A lawyer should be able to recognize the moment their argument is wrong, admit it quickly, find a better way, and make another move to win.

“If you’re asking about her qualities as a lawyer.”

Kang-hyun placed the teacup he was holding onto its saucer and continued.

“She is a better lawyer than anyone.”

On the day he came to K Law Firm as a partner lawyer, Sena’s reaction when she encountered him on the stairs was still the same as it had been when they were university students.

Her face twisted horribly as if she had seen something she should never have seen.

For some reason, seeing that expression made him feel relieved.

If she’s still the same person she was back then.

“She would be a problem if she were only ambitious, but she is the kind of person who works just as hard to satisfy that ambition.”

Kang-hyun looked down into his teacup and smiled faintly without realizing it.

An unexpectedly generous assessment had come from Ryu Kang-hyun, whom Gi Jang-su had thought of as blunt and cold-headed.

Since things had already gone this far, Gi Jang-su decided to share his concerns.

“She seemed to have had high hopes of becoming a partner lawyer this time. But the directors don’t seem to have much confidence in Sena. She’s still young, and there have been various complaints about her ability to bring in business.”

“I see.”

“What do you think? You said she was a good lawyer. Do you think Lawyer Gi has enough ability to make the directors of K Law Firm shut their mouths?”

“Hmm…….”

Kang-hyun fell into thought at Gi Jang-su’s question.

He stroked the tip of his chin with one hand and looked quite serious.

“Build a team.”

At the word team, Gi Jang-su looked puzzled.

Ryu Kang-hyun looked at him with eyes full of certainty.

“Lawyer Gi Sena is currently a senior lawyer specializing in family litigation. I think it would be better to develop that field. We could establish a family law center that can handle various detailed areas of law, and if Lawyer Gi Sena becomes the head of the center, it would help her establish her position within the firm.”

“A family law center at K Law Firm.”

“A specialized family litigation team wouldn’t only handle divorces. It would be a task force that could handle inheritance, division of property, and everything that happens within the boundaries of a family.”

“Then what about the civil or criminal cases that arise from those matters?”

“For civil cases related to family law, Lawyer Gi Sena would probably be better than I am. And if she needs an adviser for anything else related to them, I can handle it, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

K Law Firm had several lawyers specializing in divorce, but they all worked individually.

If they formed a team, it would appear to be focused on family law on the surface, but it would also be able to comprehensively handle the hidden civil and criminal matters connected to those cases.

If that happened, they would certainly stand out from other firms in terms of both revenue and business development.

Reading Gi Jang-su’s thoughts, Kang-hyun raised his sharp eyes.

A bold light flashed through his dark pupils.

“These days, times have changed. Even chaebol families are getting divorced.”

“I made the right decision bringing you in as a partner lawyer.”

At Gi Jang-su’s hearty laugh of satisfaction, Kang-hyun took another sip of tea as if it were nothing special.

Then he bent his wrist and checked the time.

“Think it over slowly and let me know. I have another meeting, so I’ll be going.”

Ryu Kang-hyun stood up and slipped his jacket onto his arm.

Gi Jang-su looked at him with renewed admiration.

His straight posture, good eyes, and quick mind.

Above all, he liked the way Kang-hyun properly understood Sena, who was ambitious and full of vanity.

‘No matter how many times I look at him, there is no one better than him.’

Once again, Gi Jang-su chose Ryu Kang-hyun as the man he wanted as his daughter’s husband.

“Haah…….”

Having lost her goal overnight and losing her motivation along with it, Sena leaned back in her chair.

All that came out was a sigh, and her heart ached.

She could not read a single word in the file she was holding.

She had long since lost interest in the consultation file she had been looking at for several days.

It was just an ordinary divorce case.

The couple had divorced over an ordinary reason, reached an amicable agreement, and even the custody claim had ended smoothly without any room for dispute.

There was nothing that required her to use her brain.

It should have been nice not to waste time on pointless things for once.

Yet somehow, there were only boring cases piled up, and she could not concentrate at all.

“Ah…… I’m so annoyed.”

For several days now, the position that had seemed close enough to reach if she just stretched out her hand kept appearing before her eyes.

“I had already planned everything, even the furniture and its arrangement…….”

She had planned to put the table facing away from the window, with an open bookshelf on the side.

And on top of it, she would display all the snow globes she had collected over the years……

“What good is any of that now? Someone else has already moved in as the new owner…….”

The more she thought about it, the more the bastard Ryu Kang-hyun, who must have been laughing at her, came to mind.

He had probably never gone somewhere and complained about wanting something.

While she had struggled desperately even though she wanted that position so badly, how had Ryu Kang-hyun managed to catch the directors’ attention and simply take the position?

It felt so unfair and frustrating.

Instead of putting down the paper she was holding, Sena picked up her phone.

She searched through the numbers saved in her phone and called one of her training institute classmates who was working at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office.

—“Gi Sena calling me? What happened?”

“Prosecutor Park, are you busy?”

—“Yeah. A little. I’m busy. The petty cases are reproducing on their own.”

“Oh, then I’ll call you when you’re free.”

—“I have time to take a call from Gi Sena. Tell me.”

“It’s nothing important, but…….”

Sena trailed off and fell into thought for a moment.

She wondered if she should really bother someone who was busy just to ask this.

Then she dismissed her doubts with the shallow justification that this was not an investigation into his personal life.

It was only natural that she should know what kind of person the man who had become her superior was.

“That Prosecutor Ryu Kang-hyun. The one who was in the Special Investigations Division at the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office. Do you know him too, Prosecutor Park?”

—“……”

Instead of answering, she heard the sound of him getting up from his chair and moving somewhere.

Then came the sound of a door clicking shut.

Soon, the other person spoke in a lowered voice.

—“Why are you asking about Prosecutor Ryu?”

She had only asked whether he knew him, but his reaction was strange.

“I’m just curious.”

—“So why are you curious? He left the prosecution, didn’t he?”

“I know. He came to our law firm as a partner lawyer.”

—“Ah……. He went to K Law Firm? That’s unexpected.”

“What is unexpected? Are you looking down on our law firm?”

—“No. But aren’t Prosecutor Ryu and you university classmates? Why are you asking me? Aren’t you close?”

“No. He’s my senior, so I never had a chance to become close to him.”

We’re enemies. Complete enemies. Every time we meet, sparks fly.

Of course, I’m the only one who feels that way.

“So I was also curious about his working style. Besides, I never have to deal directly with prosecutors, you know? Unless it’s a family court judge.”

—“Hmm. I’ve never worked with him either, but he’s pretty famous at the district prosecutors’ office……. I’ve only seen him twice in person. He’s notorious.”

“What is he famous for?”

—“For being completely serious at work. He doesn’t care whether someone is above or below him. He’s thorough. When he was in the Criminal Division, they say he would even go to the scene for verification if there was anything slightly strange about the case materials. The investigators were sick of him. When he was in the Special Investigations Division, he even appeared on the news several times, remember? As an investigating prosecutor. He was probably the one who summoned all those members of the National Assembly one after another.”

“Ah…… You mean that case two years ago when everything blew up over a former National Assembly member being accused of accepting bribes?”

—“Yeah. A lot of well-known political and business figures were involved, so things were extremely difficult for us too. For almost half a year, we worked overtime every single day, gave briefings to reporters, and so on. I bet quite a few people at the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office nearly died from exhaustion.”

It was a case that had been talked about so much that it appeared on the news every day, so Sena knew about it quite well.

She had not known that Ryu Kang-hyun had been one of the prosecutors assigned to the case.

“If he handled such a huge case, he must have had a lot of influence at the district prosecutors’ office. Why did he suddenly leave?”

—“……”

“What? Why did you suddenly go quiet?”

—“Ah……. Sorry. That’s confidential, so I can’t tell you.”

“……Isn’t that the most important part?”

—“All I know is that he turned the district prosecutors’ office upside down before leaving. I also worked at a different office, so I don’t know the details. Anyway, an official notice was issued. That’s why I can’t say anything more.”

“An official notice?”

—“Even if you ask someone else, they’ll probably give you the same answer.”