Chapter 36 – Noh Si-an’s Number 010-9011-xxxx

It was a late evening, a day when the rain poured heavily.

A village in Namchu-ri, Chungseo-gun.

The weather had been cloudy since the afternoon, and after a few drops fell, by sunset, it began to rain so heavily that it was hard to see in front of oneself.

A man was walking alone along the dark entrance road of the village. A narrow two-lane road with several abandoned houses on one side and rice fields stretching out on the other.

“Ugh, it’s raining too much.”

The night of Namchu-ri, which already had few streetlights because not many residents lived there. With the rain falling, all traces of people coming and going were completely cut off.

Shhhhh—.

The sound of rain pouring like rods, and the sound of water flowing through the farmland waterway in between. No other sound could be heard at all.

The man was heading toward the reservoir. He particularly liked night fishing, so he used to walk two or three times a week to a reservoir slightly away from the village to fish.

However, today it rained so heavily that even fishing in the rain seemed difficult.

At that moment, the cell phone kept in the man’s bosom rang.

Ring ring— ring ring—

“Ah, you startled me.”

The man shifted his umbrella to one hand and answered the phone. While the man was talking on the phone, his shoulder became damply wet from the falling rain.

“Yeah, it’s me! Fishing is out of the question in this weather. I should just go home… What? You’re coming to pick me up? Yeah… Okay… You mean here?”

A car seemed to be coming from afar. The headlights were particularly bright.

“Yeah… Hold on, a car is coming.”

The road was narrow. The man tried to step aside to one side for a moment.

It was a large car. The car, with its headlights brightly lit, approached the man at an incredibly high speed.

Vroooom!!!! Crash!!!!

Dazzling headlights rushed over him.

“Ugh… Aaaah!”

That was the last sight the man saw alive.

Flash!

The studio lights turned on, and the reenactment scene stopped on a large screen located on one side.

The host, Jeon Jae-mu, continued his explanation with a serious face.

“The victim, Mr. A, was found dead under the rice field dike the next day.

The autopsy result was death from shock due to multiple fractures and excessive bleeding. The police concluded it was a death by traffic accident and began searching for the culprit.”

“Oh, did the incident happen in that small village? Then a hit-and-run? Murder?”

“The prime suspect is Mr. B.”

“Ah! There was a suspect.”

“However! Suspect Mr. B was also suddenly found dead.”

“Gasp, the suspect died suddenly?”

“Yes. The police concluded that Suspect B caused the death of Victim A in a traffic accident and made an extreme choice himself as the investigation closed in.”

Another panelist continued speaking.

“However, it is said that the bereaved family strongly protested. They say it is strange for a person to be hit like that on a two-lane round trip road even if it was a rainy day, and there are many suspicious circumstances before and after the incident… Therefore, they want a reinvestigation.”

‘The progress of the show is different.’

Geum Nae-yeong was comparing the dialogue between the host and panelists with his own script. A significant portion of the script was different. Meanwhile, the broadcast progressed rapidly.

“Ah, then does that mean it wasn’t a traffic accident?”

“That’s not it. However, from the perspective of the bereaved family, the problem was that the perpetrator was not clearly identified, and no clear signs of an accident were found on the truck presumed to be the offending vehicle.”

“There are no signs of an accident on the truck?”

“Yes. If a person had collided, traces would have remained on the car body, but they say it was very clean.”

“Hmm… That is indeed a strange thing.”

“I see. Then first, let us listen to the opinions of the experts. Lawyer Geum Nae-yeong! If it remains an unsolved case, isn’t there usually no further investigation?”

The question host Jeon Jae-mu asked at the end was one newly added to the revised script.

Having not received the new script, it was clear that Geum Nae-yeong was hearing that question for the first time. The corner of Noh Si-an’s mouth went up slightly.

‘How on earth will he respond without a script? Now, shall we see? How far does his skill go.’

Watching Geum Nae-yeong sitting there expressionless, Noh Si-an felt pleasure. That tickling sensation that rises when teasing a small animal.

“Lawyer Geum Nae-yeong?”

When the host called him again, Geum Nae-yeong stared directly at the camera.

There was no trace of agitation at all.

“An unsolved case is simply a case that has not been resolved; if the statute of limitations remains, the investigation can be resumed at any time the moment new evidence or clues are discovered.

However, due to the limitations of the investigation techniques at the time, there are also many cases that still remain unsolved.”

Geum Nae-yeong answered perfectly, exactly like the script. Noh Si-an’s brow furrowed.

‘Huh? Look at this bastard?’

Meanwhile, Geum Nae-yeong leisurely answered the host’s questions one by one, glanced at Noh Si-an, and then turned his head back.

‘…Foolish people misunderstand me. They think Geum Nae-yeong must be naive and lacking because he lacks social skills. So they easily target me and try to bully me.’

But the result is always their defeat.

The point where they make the biggest mistake is their own intelligence.

Devising ways to bully others is not intelligence, but merely a revelation of a low-class personality.’

Before the program started.

Geum Nae-yeong watched from right next to him as comedian Park Kyeong-gu flipped through the script from start to finish after greeting him.

And he automatically memorized all of that content. Exactly at Park Kyeong-gu’s speed. It was not difficult even after noticing that the script was different.

Because all he had to do was pull out Park Kyeong-gu’s script from his memory and zoom in on it.

Since he saw it from the side, it was not the complete content, but that was enough to pull it off perfectly.

***

Beep-beep-beep—

“Dad, I’m home. Sheesh, I told you to clean up a bit!”

Ju Ha-yul walked in as she opened the front door.

“Oh, you’re here?”

In the living room, Office Manager Ju Yong-hae was already deeply absorbed in the TV program starring Geum Nae-yeong.

“Uh? This is the show with Geum Nae-yeong, the lawyer oppa!”

“Yeah. By the way, did you bring your homework?”

“Of course! I brought it!”

Ha-yul took out the holiday food and side dishes her mother packed and placed them on the table.

“She said to heat this up and eat it, and stir-fry this in a frying pan. But with Dad’s personality, there’s no way you’ll stir-fry it, so if you’re not going to eat it, just freeze it right away.”

“Oh my, why did she send so much. Dad just ordered pizza.”

“Oh yeah!”

Ju Ha-yul smiled for a moment, then took out a sheet of paper from her bag and spread it open.

“‘Write an empirical essay on the difference between modern families and traditional families spending holidays.’ Ah, what does this even mean? Anyway, I have to shoot a video while doing this for my performance assessment.”

Plop.

Ju Ha-yul took out the songpyeon dough her mother had put in a plastic bag.

“Oh my, in our time, the assignment was to practice making kites or kicking jegi. Do you have to do all this kind of stuff nowadays?”

“Of course, Dad. If I just run this through ChatGPT and write it, the teacher will catch it all. And I also have to film a video of making it.

So I have to include our family story with you, Dad. I have to do the same with Mom too.”

“Is that so? Well, but there must be many households where parents do it together all at once. I wonder if our daughter is okay with this?”

Ju Yong-hae muttered as he glanced at Ha-yul’s expression.

Ha-yul smiled widely as she held the songpyeon dough in her hand.

“No, probably half of them are similar to me? Filming separately. Still, there aren’t many houses that readily send kids to K-pop dance academies like Dad does.”

“Is that so? Hahaha.”

Ju Yong-hae felt good at his daughter’s praise.

“Here, bring that over. Dad will stamp out the shape with this. With a rice bowl.”

“A rice bowl? Mom said this has to be shaped by hand…”

The two shaped songpyeon together in a friendly manner while watching Geum Nae-yeong on the TV.

“Now, the only evidence appears. There was a CCTV video in this case.”

The scene of the accident at the time was broadcast on the screen.

A video of a very brief moment caught from a very far distance.

Late at night, even the rain blocked the view, so the video quality was terrible. The video was even cut off in the middle due to poor preservation conditions.

Almost frontal. Two slightly bright lights in the far distance flashed after driving for a short moment, and that was it.

The figure of the victim who must have been nearby was not even visible. Therefore, it was difficult to distinguish whether it hit a person or simply passed by at high speed.

The video analysis expert shook his head and said.

“Analysis is difficult with this level of quality. A vehicle passed by quickly… it’s barely about that much.

The speed was fast, but looking at the angle of the light, it did not run along the roadside.

Rather, it ran right in the center of the road. Perhaps it drove safely on purpose because of the rainy road.”

Sighs burst out from the panelists.

“Sigh…”

“It’s regrettable. If only it hadn’t cut off in the middle.”

“Why did it have to rain, of all things…”

“Now, then, how do you see this scene, Lawyer Geum?”

The camera focused on Geum Nae-yeong.

“Huh? What is that?”

On the zoomed-in screen, instead of Geum Nae-yeong’s face—

[Law Firm Gankyeok]

Corporate Litigation Team Leader

Attorney Noh Si-an

TEL: 010-9011-xxxx

Noh Si-an’s business card was filling the screen.

[Lawyer Geum? The camera is rolling.]

The writer hurriedly held up a whiteboard, but Geum Nae-yeong did not budge.

He held Noh Si-an’s card up to the frozen screen and stared at it intently.

“Baha-ha! Dad, what is that? That’s so funny!”

Ju Ha-yul burst into laughter while looking at the screen, pointed her phone at it, and took a picture.

“Who is Noh Si-an? Why is Geum Nae-yeong, the lawyer oppa, showing someone else’s business card?”

“Huh?”

Ju Yong-hae, who was shaping songpyeon, stopped his hands, looked at the screen, and widened his eyes.

“No… why… is he holding Gankyeok’s business card?”

In an instant, the real-time YouTube chat window exploded.

└ What is Lawyer Geum doing?

└ Why is the business card Law Firm Gankyeok?

└ Noh Si-an? Is it a girlfriend? What is the relationship between the two lol

└ Isn’t Noh Si-an a guy? It says attorney?

└ Intelligent viral marketing? lol

└ Noh Si-an’s number 010-9011-xxxx lol

“Hey, switch the screen! Switch the screen to the next segment, and quickly check why Geum Nae-yeong is doing that!!!”

At the PD’s urgent instruction, the host turned to the next segment, but unfortunately, the next turn was Noh Si-an’s. He continued the content.

“Sigh… It reminds me of the unfortunate stories of the past. There are many cases that remained unsolved because the quality of old CCTV was so low.

Above all, the hearts of the victim’s bereaved family… must be really hurting. Since it’s already an incident from ten years ago, how much must they have suffered.”

A few tears welled up in Noh Si-an’s eyes.

“Oh dear, it seems our Lawyer Noh Si-an is really heartbroken. He got a bit choked up just now.”

“No, it’s not. I also provide pro bono defense services for unfair victims. That’s why I suddenly got emotional…”

“Oh… good picture. Camera three, zoom in!”

At the PD’s instruction, the screen immediately zoomed in on Noh Si-an with red eyes.

“Now, viewers. If anyone knows about this case, please call our station to report it. The contact number is 02-233…”

While the narration continued, Noh Si-an wiped away his tears with a handkerchief.

As the main camera showed the host and the comments continued, he took out a powder puff placed under the table and lightly touched up his makeup.

“Then… we will continue with the interview of the bereaved family.”

“…As the bereaved family, we just hope the truth of the case is revealed clearly…”

Once the interview screen ended, Noh Si-an quickly jumped in and spoke.

“At Gankyeok, to comfort the victim’s heart…”

At that moment, Geum Nae-yeong lowered the card and suddenly blurted out.

“Ah. I got it.”