Chapter 13

I Was Wrong

She really could not understand what Jung-hee was talking about. Who had benefited from whom? And where had that ridiculous rumor even come from? It was absurd.

If Sena had really lived by benefiting from him, would things between her and him have fallen apart this badly?

Park Jung-hee, who was now a public defender, kept going on and on about Ryu Kang-hyun when he was a prosecutor and begged Sena to arrange a meeting with him.

Even while they went to a nearby restaurant to eat, Jung-hee said that the rumors from their school days had been exaggerated so much that she regretted never becoming close to him. She kept subtly asking Sena to let her benefit from her friend, and Sena became so exhausted that she could not even tell whether the food was going into her mouth or her nose.

Unable to listen anymore, Sena put down her spoon with a sharp clack and spoke.

“You probably have no idea why you think that, but Senior Kang-hyun and I really aren’t close. I only found out he was coming to the law firm on the day he came. The Representative and the directors recruited him on their own. I didn’t even contact Senior after we graduated.”

She did not mention that they had argued yesterday.

Because the atmosphere had become a little awkward, they left the restaurant and moved to a coffee shop. On the way there, Jung-hee talked about one of the cases she was handling, but as soon as they sat down, she went right back to the same subject.

“But you really shouldn’t treat Senior Kang-hyun like that.”

Sena did not know what exactly she was not supposed to do, but Jung-hee’s expression was quite serious as she spoke like she was giving her advice.

“Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

“That thing back then. What was it? During Criminal Law, when you gave all the people who had free-ridden a D and they made things difficult for you.”

“That was so hard for me! Senior Kang-hyun caused the trouble and then acted like it had nothing to do with him. The seniors kept dumping their work on me. I struggled all by myself.”

Even now, anger rose in Sena’s chest when she thought about it. How could she forget?

During the festival preparations, she had worked until dawn and either spent the night in the student council room because she could not go home or had to take a taxi.

On rainy days, she went around putting up promotional flyers until even her underwear was completely soaked, and no one helped her. That was why she had even gone to find Ryu Kang-hyun.

Instead, he had scolded her.

But Jung-hee suddenly said something completely unexpected.

“You know Senior Kang-hyun went after the student council officers because of you, right?”

Who did what because of whom?

Unable to picture the situation at all, Sena asked in disbelief.

“What?”

It seemed as if she could vividly remember what had happened ten years ago as though it had happened yesterday. Jung-hee’s eyes shone brightly.

“He said that the free-riding incident was his own decision, so they shouldn’t touch you. He told them that if they had something to say, they should come to him instead of bothering a junior who knew nothing. He even said that if they bothered you one more time, he would make the whole thing public, even if he had to put up posters all over campus. He completely turned everything upside down.”

At Jung-hee’s words, Sena remembered how the atmosphere had suddenly changed.

Throughout the festival, the seniors had taken care of Sena.

She had simply thought that maybe they finally felt sorry for her and left it at that.

But to think that Ryu Kang-hyun had turned everything upside down behind the scenes because he had recognized how hard she was working.

She had never imagined it.

People’s memories were never perfect. They became distorted and were often edited according to what suited them.

“Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand?”

“I saw it with my own eyes. He calmly tore into those seniors, and it was terrifying. He didn’t raise his voice, but he was still frightening. The student council president even called the seniors who had been bothering you and practically begged them not to do anything so embarrassing again. That’s why I remember it so clearly.”

“No way. Why would Senior do that?”

At Sena’s doubtful response, Jung-hee let out a disbelieving laugh, put down the straw she had been playing with, and crossed her arms.

“Look at you. Who do you think helped you get such good grades? You learned by watching, listening to, and studying beside Senior Ryu Kang-hyun, and that’s why the professors liked you. Why do you think that senior did mock trials with you? Honestly, even without doing that, he had already passed the second round of the bar exam, and he could have filled his credits by helping the professors with their research projects.”

“That was because the professors always paired me with Senior Kang-hyun. Did I do it because I wanted to? He criticized me every single time until he stripped away every bit of pride I had.”

“Even though that senior was famous for his harsh words, there was even a rumor that you leveled up after going against him once. He only did it with you. Do you know how jealous everyone was behind your back?”

“……”

“And as far as I know, he actually took care of a lot of his juniors behind the scenes. During group projects, he would deliberately take the role of leader and explain in detail what the juniors needed to prepare. That senior who went abroad as an exchange student was just so noticeable that he made everyone else look less impressive. Honestly, Ryu Kang-hyun was actually a pretty good senior. You really didn’t know?”

“I didn’t know…… This is the first time I’ve heard any of this.”

“To put it bluntly, out of all the juniors, you were the one Senior Kang-hyun took care of the most, you idiot.”

“……”

Sena only blinked, looking as if she truly had no idea.

Jung-hee let out a long sigh.

“You really are something. I didn’t think you were like this, but you’ve gone too far. You get along so well with everyone else.”

Jung-hee clicked her tongue as she watched Sena sit there with a stiff expression, lost in thought.

Sena was not someone who showed people that she disliked them, but Jung-hee had occasionally noticed that she was unusually cold toward Ryu Kang-hyun.

She had assumed Sena was simply acting that way because they were close, but judging by her friend’s expression now, Jung-hee felt that she needed to give her some honest advice as a friend.

“If you know now, then at least make an effort. Honestly, Senior Ryu Kang-hyun was like that even when he was a prosecutor, but he’s someone who has a lot to learn from, whether it’s his way of working or anything else. If he can benefit you, then benefit from it. It’s not like you’ll lose anything. You work at the same company now.”

After lunch, Sena returned to the office.

Her stomach felt uncomfortable, and there was a sharp pain around the pit of her stomach. She thought she might have indigestion. She considered going to the break room to look for some emergency medicine, but then she returned to her desk.

There were only a few minutes left before her meeting with a client.

With clumsy hands, she flipped through the consultation notes on her desk. Then she accidentally knocked the stack of documents she had placed underneath them onto the floor.

They were the documents about the Family Law Center that Ryu Kang-hyun had given her.

Sena stared blankly at them near her feet before bending down to pick them up.

“It seems the value I see in you is different from the value you see in yourself.”

His words kept circling around in her head, making it feel as though someone had hit the back of her head with a hammer.

Value.

Sena thought carefully about what her own value was.

Why did she keep clinging to other people’s recognition and envious gazes?

By showing off her abilities and existence, she wanted to be recognized, and that recognition seemed to prove her value.

In reality, people were not interested in how hard someone else had worked. They simply envied what the other person had.

They did not care whether something had been easy to obtain, whether someone had been lucky, or what kind of effort they had made. They easily criticized people who had something they themselves could not achieve.

Sena knew those kinds of people well.

There were countless people like that around her.

That was why she never showed those people how difficult things had been for her or how frustrated she had become.

She simply smiled, acted kindly, and modestly lowered herself.

Neither side wanted to know about the other, and neither side was going to make any effort to understand.

Even in the same law firm, there were countless people who had worked with her for years but still tried to belittle her achievements.

“Ah……”

She had been disappointed by those people many times and hurt by them many times.

And yet, of all people, Ryu Kang-hyun had recognized her value.

Until now, Sena had never really wanted to know Ryu Kang-hyun properly.

At first, she had been too busy running away.

Later, she had been too busy confronting him and fighting with him.

On top of that, blinded by her inferiority complex, she had also been belittling Ryu Kang-hyun’s efforts.

“They say the guilty person gets angry first. That’s exactly what I did.”

And yet she had thought that he laughed at her whenever he saw her.

Unlike Sena, who was still trapped in the past, he had already moved one step ahead.

No, two steps ahead.

The reason Sena had developed an inferiority complex toward Ryu Kang-hyun was simple, yet also quite complicated.

Ryu Kang-hyun was different.

Instead of worrying about what other people thought of him, he simply moved forward toward his goal.

No matter what people around him said, he had a firm belief that the judgment of what was right and wrong belonged to him.

Sena hated that about him.

Because she realized that while she struggled desperately without knowing anything about how hard he had worked, even trying to catch up with him as he moved ahead was already too difficult.

“Gi Sena. When did you become so pathetic?”

Just yesterday, she had praised herself again and again for being a cool woman, a capable and impressive professional woman.

But in reality, she was jealous of people who were better than her and drowning in self-doubt.

She really hated the way she had become.

“Come in.”

The permission came from inside almost immediately after Sena knocked on the office door.

Sena straightened her back and deliberately acted even more confident as she opened the door.

After confirming that Sena was the person who had knocked, the man took off the protective glasses he had been wearing and rubbed around his eyes.

“Are you busy?”

“A little. Tell me.”

“I brought the list.”

Instead of answering, Ryu Kang-hyun stretched out his arm across the table. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

Sena walked straight toward him without hesitating.

More than anyone, she wanted to take this opportunity.

She did not want to throw it away by hating and envying Ryu Kang-hyun without even knowing what kind of person he really was.

Even if people pointed fingers at her and called her greedy, she was confident she could do well.

Sena watched Kang-hyun as he checked the documents she had handed him.

With sharp eyes, he quickly scanned through the names on the list.

She had even prepared separate profile files so that she could easily explain anyone Kang-hyun might not know.

But she did not even get the chance to open those files.

“Are you satisfied with this?”

“Excuse me?”

“If these are the people, do you think your team will run properly?”

“Ah, then I should work hard to make sure it does.”

“Then I’ll take it that way. Prepare the personnel appointments.”

The permission came so easily that all the tension in her body suddenly disappeared.

“Wait a minute. That easily?”

“What are you unhappy about this time?”

“No, it’s not that I’m unhappy. Senior, did you really check everything properly? Do you even know the lawyers listed there?”

And she had a point.

It had not even been a month since he had joined as a partner lawyer, and he still did not have a secretary to assist him.

Among the lawyers Sena had put on the list, there was even a new employee who had joined later than Ryu Kang-hyun.

At Sena’s question, Kang-hyun nodded toward the thick file binder sitting on one side of the table.

Wondering what it was, Sena opened it.

“……”

The binder contained profiles of more than a hundred lawyers, including K Law Firm’s advisory lawyers, internal and external directors, and even the legal assistants and junior office staff.

“Did you memorize all of this?”

“There will be even more in the future. You don’t think I failed to memorize this much, do you?”

His expression seemed to ask what exactly she was trying to say.

“No.”

She had said everything she needed to say about work.

But strangely, she could not bring herself to leave, so she stood there scratching her cheek.

Kang-hyun gave Sena a quiet look, as if asking whether she had something else to say.

There was something she absolutely needed to tell him.

Whatever the past might have been, she had definitely been wrong about what happened at the bar.

She lightly wet her dry lips with her tongue.

Then Sena tightly closed her eyes and spoke.

“I…… was wrong. Senior.”