The Lawyer Who Reads Tomorrow - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 2

 

 

Looking at it again, the message on the mobile phone displayed the same text.

 

Obituary.

Kim Wook-han, Chief Judge of Seoul District Court.

 

“….”

 

A hollow laugh burst out. So it wasn’t a dream after all.

The seawater that had blocked my airways and filled my lungs wasn’t a lie.

 

…I really died? Me?

I examined the message once more.

 

“Korea University Hospital Funeral Hall Special Room 2….”

 

No matter how many times I looked, the absurd text wouldn’t disappear.

 

I turned the mobile phone off and on again.

The unfamiliar-feeling mobile phone was a different model from the one I had used before.

There was nothing particularly unusual on the screen after booting was complete.

 

That is, except for this damn notification message about my own obituary.

 

“…There’s nothing else.”

 

It felt like someone was playing a prank on me.

I had died, yet I was about to attend my own funeral.

Just how wrong did things have to go for me to end up in such an absurd situation?

 

I didn’t even know whose body this was yet.

 

Bzzzz-.

 

Just as I was sitting on the bed staring at the mobile phone, it started vibrating again.

 

[Senior Lim Do-hyuk]

 

“…Lim Do-hyuk…?”

 

It seemed like a name I’d heard somewhere before.

There were countless names of people I encountered at the Court, too many to remember all of them, nor had I ever tried to.

 

Who was it again.

Seeing that this body’s owner had Hae-il’s Work Diary, there might be some connection.

 

I picked up the mobile phone that kept ringing incessantly and answered the call.

 

“Yes.”

-….

 

This Senior Lim Do-hyuk person had called first but gave no response.

I opened my mouth again, as if urging him.

 

“What is it?”

-…Sung Tae-hyun?

 

He called me but didn’t even know who I was.

I felt like I was sinking even deeper into an incomprehensible quagmire.

 

I briefly considered hanging up the phone before continuing to speak.

 

“Just get to the point.”

-…I heard you weren’t feeling well, did your liver pop out of your belly?

 

Now he was showing his true colors.

Of course, my liver might have popped out of my belly.

After all, ‘I’ was dead.

 

When I was about to attend my own funeral, what was there to be afraid of?

 

“Senior Lim Do-hyuk.”

-The way you’re talking, you’re definitely Sung Tae-hyun….

 

Now I knew.

Sung Tae-hyun. That was this body’s name.

 

Maybe I should have become a police officer instead of a judge.

Far from having nothing at all, to have this level of deductive ability in such a mind-boggling situation.

 

Well, I had been the first among my class to get promoted to chief judge.

 

“What do you want.”

-…You got the obituary, right?

 

Ah, so that was the purpose.

It seemed this ‘Senior Lim Do-hyuk’ person was indeed from the legal field, as I had suspected.

 

“Yes.”

-Let’s go together.

“…What?”

-Let’s go together. You have to go to Seoul anyway.

 

What? The aftertaste was a bit bitter.

 

“This isn’t Seoul…?”

 

Right, that was also a problem.

 

Going to Seoul.

Originally, I was in Seoul until just a moment ago.

After finishing the first trial verdict in Seoul, I was on my way home from work when I was kidnapped by those damn gangster bastards.

 

But I suddenly woke up in a different region.

Well, even this body isn’t mine.

 

-…You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?

“I am hurt, actually.”

 

I was in pain.

Only then did I realize.

The note that looked like a suicide note, the thick white smoke that filled the room.

 

The owner of this body had died.

That’s probably why I could exist.

 

For me, this might be a second chance, but the owner of this body, a person named Sung Tae-hyun, could never return again.

 

My existence was proof of that.

 

-…You’re hurt? Where?

 

The man asked in an urgent voice, different from before.

He said he was a senior, so were they quite close?

 

In a situation where I still knew nothing, it felt awkward to rashly say something.

Then it would be better to be honest.

 

“My head.”

-…Your head?

“I can’t remember anything.”

 

Memory loss was one of the methods defendants often used to get reduced sentences.

 

I was drunk and can’t remember,

I hit my head and lost my memory,

I have a mental illness so I can’t remember, and so on.

 

Who would have thought I’d use it this way.

 

-You can’t… remember?

 

The man seemed flustered.

A few seconds of silence flowed through the mobile phone.

Then a rapid voice burst out as if suddenly accelerating.

 

-I’ll come right now, so wait.

“You don’t need to come-“

 

The call ended.

 

* * *

 

“So, this place is Sejong City?”

“Your speech is too casual.”

“Ah, sorry. Sejong City?”

 

The man appeared before me in less than ten minutes.

 

He must have been quite close to this body, that is, Sung Tae-hyun, as he already knew the address of this villa where Sung Tae-hyun lived alone without being told.

 

That’s not easy to do with company colleagues.

 

Anyway, contrary to his appearance, he was quite kind and answered all my questions.

He also seemed to trust that I had lost my memory.

 

“…Sung Tae-hyun. Thirty-one years old, a junior at Haeil Law Firm working in the M&A Team?”

“Right, and you’re the one who kicked away the chance to be at the Head Office and came to the Branch Office.”

 

Why would he do that.

 

Haeil is known as the best law firm in the country.

I didn’t think so.

But that was the public assessment anyway.

 

To join such a firm right after getting a lawyer’s license, then voluntarily come down to a branch office.

As if reading my bewildered expression, the man called Senior Lim Do-hyuk let out a long sigh.

 

“That’s why I said, why did you do such an absurd thing.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“You did it. Even if you can’t remember, what you did is still what you did.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk let out another long sigh.

At first, he analyzed me as if he would dissect me, but now he seemed somewhat adapted and didn’t point out every word I said.

 

He also seemed to have given up.

 

“…Anyway, I can’t remember.”

“Right, I understand well that you can’t remember.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk said he was a senior lawyer who was my immediate superior in the team I belonged to.

 

Although it differs slightly by law firm, at Haeil, lawyers who weren’t partners yet, that is, associate lawyers, were managed by dividing them into juniors and seniors.

 

Both Sung Tae-hyun and Lim Do-hyuk were associate lawyers, but it meant there was some difference in experience.

 

By the way, I thought he was young, but he really was a rookie.

I didn’t have many opportunities to encounter lawyers who were this new.

 

“Have I been having a hard time lately?”

 

I had forgotten, but this was the first question I wanted to ask.

Unlike the real ‘me,’ Kim Wook-han, who was murdered by those Cheondong scumbags, it didn’t seem like Sung Tae-hyun had been in any accident.

 

At least Sung Tae-hyun’s body that I was moving around in was perfectly fine.

It didn’t seem like those bastards who tried to kill someone would have made such a clumsy finish by leaving the bathroom door open.

 

Then what happened to Sung Tae-hyun, who was said to be somewhat timid at the law firm unlike the real me, was something he did to himself.

 

That’s the conclusion I reached.

 

“….”

 

Lim Do-hyuk looked at my eyes with a somewhat surprised expression.

 

“What, do you have something to feel guilty about?”

“…It’s not that. I was wondering if your memory came back even a little.”

“I’m asking because I don’t know.”

“…Right.”

 

Why is he rolling his eyes like that?

 

“Well… you were always having a hard time.”

“Why?”

“This and that, everything. You know? Working life is a bit different from studying.”

“….”

“You were such a yes-man too. I told you, do things in moderation.”

 

That’s true.

There’s a huge gap between studying while only looking at your goals and being thrown into society.

 

I was like that too.

Everyone has a time when they’re a newcomer.

Besides, a junior who just joined would have an even harder time.

 

By my age, most people have forgotten those days, but during associate years, there are truckloads of lawyers who are happy just to be able to sleep in a bed.

 

“Hmm.”

 

Moreover, it’s Haeil.

 

Haeil Law Firm. The workload would naturally be murderous.

Park Ji-hwan, who attended my trial, was also a representative lawyer at Haeil.

Since it’s a large law firm, whenever I handled major cases at court, I inevitably had to meet lawyers from Haeil.

 

Not only that.

 

‘They were also famous for their dirty media play.’

 

Every time my name appeared out of nowhere on internet portal news platforms, it was when I was handling cases involving Haeil.

So how could I view them favorably?

 

…Never mind. Right now I needed to focus on Lim Do-hyuk.

 

“I heard there were family problems too.”

“…Family….”

“Your mother. Didn’t she contact you today?”

 

I shook my head.

 

Sung Tae-hyun’s mother?

I hadn’t received any particular contact since waking up.

 

Lim Do-hyuk clicked his tongue and stood up.

 

“Are you somewhat organized now?”

“Well… yes.”

“Then let’s go. The team leader already went up to Seoul.”

 

Right, it’s my funeral after all.

 

I’d been to funeral halls a few times, but this was my first time participating in my own funeral.

Lim Do-hyuk had already finished preparing and was about to open the front door of the small studio apartment.

When I casually followed him, Lim Do-hyuk pointed back inside the room.

 

“What?”

“Clothes. You’re not going dressed like that, are you?”

 

Ah. Right.

I was making frequent mistakes today.

After dying once, I had naturally developed humanity that I thought would never exist in my life.

I nodded and closed the door again.

 

A lawyer attending a chief judge’s funeral in pajamas,

I almost made it to the news.

 

* * *

 

The funeral hall was quiet.

 

I never thought I’d see my own funeral with my eyes wide open.

The Court Chief, with bloodshot eyes, stood guard wearing mourning clothes.

 

I never thought we’d meet like this.

 

The Court Chief who held onto me until the end after Choi Yoon-ho’s verdict was finished—yeah, he wasn’t a bad person humanly speaking.

Rather, he was on the affectionate side.

Since there was no family to stand guard, if it weren’t for the Court Chief, the funeral wouldn’t have been properly held.

 

“Thanks for coming.”

 

I just didn’t expect him to be this sad.

 

The Court Chief was literally the Court Chief.

If you asked whether I was such a beloved subordinate to him, it was actually the opposite.

Not just in the Choi Yoon-ho case, but in almost all verdicts, the Court Chief and I never shared the same opinion.

 

“…No, Court Chief.”

“Everyone should at least have a meal before leaving.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk, who had gone ahead, moved to join his partner lawyer who had arrived earlier.

 

Considering Sung Tae-hyun’s position as merely a first-year junior, I too should have followed my direct supervisor, the partner lawyer, like Lim Do-hyuk did.

 

However, I didn’t follow them and stopped for a moment.

Because I locked eyes with a photograph that captivated my gaze so intensely I couldn’t dare take another step.

 

Inside the memorial room was quiet.

 

Among the pure white flowers, the photo I had submitted when first appointed as a judge had become a portrait of the deceased.

 

It was an awkward feeling.

All the emotions I had been putting off came rushing up like a torrent.

 

I really was dead.

There is no Kim Wook-han in this world anymore.

Was I better off than the owner of this body, Sung Tae-hyun, whose death wasn’t even known?

 

‘…Cheondong.’

 

I fixed my gaze on my photograph, which showed me smiling brightly.

 

‘So young.’

 

With a face as young as Sung Tae-hyun’s, I was smiling as if I couldn’t even imagine the end of that life.

I had no idea that the one who first put the judicial robe on me would become the chief mourner.

 

I didn’t shed tears.

From the moment I fell into the seawater and my airways were blocked, my only remaining goal has been Cheondong.

 

‘I’ll dry you up from the roots and kill you.’

 

My teeth ground together involuntarily.

 

Choi Yoon-ho?

No. The Chairman standing at the top of Cheondong and his children.

I will dig up every corruption that Cheondong possesses and bring them before the judgment of the law.

 

‘Wait until then, you bastards.’

 

I stared intently at my portrait photo through another’s eyes.

This is Kim Wook-han, who I can no longer be.

 

From when I first entered the court until now, attending my own funeral.

 

As a judge, I judge fairly according to my conscience, by the Constitution and the law.

 

…I kept everything I said in the judicial oath.

So even though I died, I have no regrets.

 

“Cheondong.”

 

There’s just unfinished business remaining.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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