Chapter 4 – If You Get Divorced This Year

“Eighty million won. Reflecting the average annual salary for legal office staff with over 10 years of experience… I think about this much is right. If you want more, you may tell me.”

Ju Yong-hae’s eyes went wide. Eighty million won was too high an amount.

“P-pardon? E-eighty million? I don’t receive that much. That’s an amount given at large firms, and I know that the earnings of the attorneys here are not even seven million won a month···”

When the office manager answered cautiously, the corners of Geum Nae-yeong’s lips rose slightly.

“Don’t worry, it’s not a salary I cannot pay.

You just have to do your job properly. Whether it’s a large law firm or a small joint office, if it is the same work with the same productivity, the compensation should be similar.

However, the structure will be slightly different.

I will stably guarantee the base salary, and add performance bonuses based on the volume of cases processed and the recovery rate.

Since the performance comes out as numbers, you won’t feel it is unreasonable.”

‘What, even performance bonuses are separate..?’

Geum Nae-yeong’s face, with a light smile, looked friendly, but his eyes were not smiling at all.

Office Manager Ju nodded blankly as if he had hit an unexpected windfall.

“Then··· can I come to work starting tomorrow?”

“Yes. If you do not like my terms, you may refuse. But if possible, please start tomorrow.”

“···Yes. I will come to work.”

“Great. The staff issue is resolved, so I will see you tomorrow.”

Having said that, Geum Nae-yeong started looking at the internet again. Whether Office Manager Ju left or not, it was an attitude of not caring at all.

“Ah··· uh··· yes…”

The office manager quietly walked out of there.

And he carefully sat down on his new desk chair with a thud.

‘My final annual salary was··· fifty million won, but eighty million?’

In fact, Office Manager Ju Yong-hae had been in a very depressed state since a month ago.

In his late 50s.

Once he stopped working as an office manager, what would he live on now··· he lost sleep at night due to worries. The bitterness that his 20 years of experience had now become useless.

‘But to raise my annual salary by t-thirty million won? In an era of forty thousand lawyers, when office manager positions are also shrinking··· is this a term I can accept···?’

The office manager, with a still out-of-mind face, slowly swept his hand across the desk as if to check if reality was real.

‘I guess that dream is real···’

***

That evening.

Sizzle···

On the well-heated stone plate. Green onions were stir-fried in chili oil, spreading a savory and fragrant scent around. Subsequently, when the pork well-marinated in red seasoning was thrown in, the sweet and spicy scent blended together, filling the kitchen.

Sizzling..

A delicious sound arose from the edges of the meat that seemed slightly charred. The glossy seasoning seeped into the meat, cooking it to a mouth-watering color.

“Wow, the smell is killer···”

Geum Nae-yeong’s father picked up his chopsticks and reached toward the sizzling stir-fried pork.

At that moment, Mother’s fierce gaze flew over.

Clack.

As the fully cooked stone plate stir-fried pork came down on the table, Mother pushed the stone plate in its entirety in front of Geum Nae-yeong without hesitation.

“Eat a lot, our Nae-yeong.”

Mother also neatly placed other side dishes in front of Nae-yeong. Father smiled awkwardly and withdrew his chopsticks.

Because of Father’s coin scam, they had sold the apartment they lived in and moved into a small villa where it was hard to even put a dining table.

Two rooms and one narrow living room. Now, a small folding table had become the dining table for the whole family.

The three sat in a circle on the floor.

Hot steam rose from the white rice placed on the old table, and the smell of freshly stir-fried pork whetted the appetite.

“How is the office? Are the people okay?”

Mother did not show it, but inside, she was full of worries.

Had her son’s slightly different personality been noticed in the new place? The worry she had always harbored in her heart since Nae-yeong’s high school days crept up again.

Nae-yeong took a large spoonful of white rice. And he put a piece of stir-fried pork on top of it and put it in his mouth.

From the meat slightly imbued with a smoky flavor, the spicy seasoning stung his tongue, and the savory oil of the pork and well-cooked green onion scent spread throughout his mouth.

Feeling the savoriness of the meat on the tip of his tongue, he felt good.

“I am still exploring. Once the personality analysis of each is complete, dealing with them will become a bit better.”

“Is that so? If you attend for a bit, you’ll see people’s personalities, and that should be fine.”

“I noticed the average age of the lawyers working at this law office is high. Running to trials is a bit difficult, and

the atmosphere was mostly running on registration or simple application cases.”

At the end of his words, Nae-yeong put another piece of stir-fried pork into his mouth. The tender meat tasted sweet the more he chewed. The spicy seasoning of the stir-fried pork blended with the sticky grains of rice, bringing a rush of savoriness.

Watching that, Father spoke cautiously.

“So··· you said you are leading a separate office inside that firm and even taking charge of its operation, right?”

Putting seaweed, which had been baked with care by brushing sesame oil on it sheet by sheet, into his mouth, Nae-yeong said.

“Yes, first of all, I hired an experienced office manager today.”

“You hired him? Yourself?”

Mother asked in surprise.

“Yes. He was originally working there, and since he has 20 years of experience, it felt reliable.”

“Is that so? Oh dear, well done, my son.”

Mother smiled with a pleased look and said.

“So, is there only one staff member right now?”

“No. There is another person who handles accounting jointly, and I plan to hire an administrative employee under the office manager as well. I am thinking about how to recruit them.”

“Yes. Good thinking.”

Mother looked at him with a proud face, quietly pushing the fried egg Nae-yeong liked in front of him.

“Even if it is uncomfortable, please bear with it for a bit. It will return to normal within six months. We might even go to a better place than where we lived before.”

At Nae-yeong’s calm words, the parents nodded silently.

***

The next day.

Geum Nae-yeong arrived at the office early in the morning and turned on his computer.

After rummaging through online bulletin boards for a long time, he started typing.

LawTalk Bulletin Board

[ Lawyer graduated at the top of law school, counsels on any legal issues. Consultation fee is ‘free’ ]

A rookie lawyer with no notable experience. He did not have fame from appearing on TV, and promotion and advertising cost money but the growth was too slow.

So the strategy he chose was simple.

The message of ‘affordable, and free’.

To make a first entry into a saturated market, an aggressive penetration strategy is needed.

Offer high-quality services for low or free prices, and cognitively simplify complex legal services with the message of ‘free’ and ‘cheap’.

To this, add word of mouth through online communities, that is, social proof.

If this flow continues properly, it will lead directly to an increase in litigation retention rate.

That is the goal for this year.

While he was uploading the promotional post like that, a cautious knock sounded from the office door.

Knock, knock.

“Yes?”

The person who poked his head through the opening door was Office Manager Ju.

“Attorney, are you busy right now?”

“No. Go ahead.”

“Attorney Seo In-ja asked to see you for a moment.”

“Me? Understood.”

Attorney Seo In-ja.

Former judge of the Family District Court, a person who was called the master of family cases in her youth.

He heard that now she was of age, she mainly handled free consultations or simple lawsuits in the joint office.

Her profile naturally came to Geum Nae-yeong’s mind.

He knocked on the door of Attorney Seo In-ja’s office.

Knock, knock.

“Attorney, did you call for me?”

As Geum Nae-yeong greeted at the door, Attorney Seo In-ja, who was holding a book of poetry open on her desk, raised her head.

“Ah, Attorney Geum Nae-yeong. Come in.”

White hair that looked well over seventy, and like the glasses hanging on the bridge of her nose, wrinkles of time were deeply carved on her face.

However, her attire was neat without any disarray, and her expression was decorous.

The inside of the office seemed to show her long experience as it was.

Thick lawsuit document envelopes were arranged in rows on every bookshelf, and a few well-tended flowerpots were catching the sunlight.

“It’s the first time seeing you since our interview. Did you organize the office well?”

“Yes, I organized it well.”

“I see. What would you like to drink? Shall I give you some tea?”

Attorney Seo In-ja tried to take out this and that from the small tea cabinet next to her.

“No, thank you. I only drink Americano in the morning.”

When Nae-yeong declined, Attorney Seo In-ja immediately spoke next.

“It’s not good for young people to drink too much coffee. It ruins the stomach.”

Even as she said so, she eventually held out a teacup.

“Still, try this. It’s jujube tea. It’s sweet and good.”

As Geum Nae-yeong sat opposite her, Attorney Seo In-ja slowly drank her tea, scanning Nae-yeong thoroughly and saying.

“···I wonder whose son he is, he really is handsome. Your parents must have been delighted.”

At the unfamiliar goodwill, Geum Nae-yeong remained silent first.

And soon, the main point appeared.

“It’s nothing else, but a divorce lawsuit came in··· would you like to do the consultation together? You haven’t been at Nine for long after finishing your lawyer training. It’s good to accumulate a lot of practical experience.”

At those words, Geum Nae-yeong immediately understood the situation.

‘This is not a simple suggestion. It could be genuine goodwill, or a test disguised as goodwill.

But whatever it is, what is important in social life is the response. Accepting it with a smile, that is the attitude of those who possess emotions.’

“Yes, that sounds good.”

Geum Nae-yeong smiled, and Attorney Seo In-ja replied with a pleasant smile.

“She will be here soon, so let’s see her together then.”

Knock, knock.

“Attorney, the client has arrived.”

The door opened, and a middle-aged man entered Attorney Seo In-ja’s room.

“Hello···”

Thick fatigue was written on his face as he entered.

A typical example of people coming for divorce consultations these days.

Geum Nae-yeong took a look at him, then quietly moved to sit next to Attorney Seo In-ja.

The man who came for the divorce consultation glanced at Geum Nae-yeong.

‘Seeing his clean and handsome figure, he must be an office staff assisting the attorney···’

He immediately spoke to Attorney Seo In-ja.

“I’ve brought all the materials here.”

The man took out a thick stack of documents from his bag.

“This is the household account book kept so far, this is the tax receipt, and also all the acquisition tax and property tax.”

Geum Nae-yeong quietly took the documents the man had meticulously prepared and began to flip through them.

While his hands flipped the documents, like an invisible scanner, Geum Nae-yeong’s eyes clicked, clicked, reading the documents rapidly and entering them into his head.

Even while Attorney Seo In-ja inserted interjections like ‘Oh dear, that must have been the case’ or ‘You must have had a very hard time’ to the client’s story, Geum Nae-yeong did not take his eyes off the documents.

“That crazy wife drinking and coming home late, saying it’s hiking or a savings club day, is a mild thing.

We decided to manage the commercial building together, but she only pretended to clean once or twice at first, and now she doesn’t even show up.

Yet she asks for the rental income to be split exactly half-and-half and put into her account. She is a very tiresome woman.”

The man poured out bad mouthing about his wife like a rapid-fire gun, and Geum Nae-yeong stopped his finger at a sheet of tax details.

“With my wife’s personality, if I sue, she will probably glare with burning eyes. While being scammed out of savings club money, she can never cut off that meeting··· I still held on out of affection, but I couldn’t bear it this time.

I told her I would file a divorce petition this time, so if she doesn’t listen to me, please file the divorce petition right away. I really can’t live with her anymore. That’s why I prepared all the documents.”

Attorney Seo In-ja pushed up her glasses as if accustomed to it.

“Then··· you mean you will leave the document organization to our staff, and file it as soon as you give the word, right?”

“Yes. Soon, I will bring this to a complete showdown.”

The client nodded, putting strength in his eyes.

It was at that moment.

“If you get divorced this year, it is 1.8 billion won. If it is next year, it is 1.5 billion won.”

Geum Nae-yeong raised his head and said.