Chapter 50 – Are Those Words or Farts

“Hello? Office Director, this is Kim Su-seon.”

Kim Su-seon’s urgent voice, who had gone on an errand to the accounting office, was heard over the receiver.

“Huh? Did you go to the accounting office? Why aren’t they answering the phone there? Is there a problem with the line?”

“No, it’s not that… The office door is closed. Also, something like a registered mail confirmation notice from the post office is stuck on the door. It seems like there is no one inside.”

“Huh? It’s closed? What is going on, really… Understood, Su-seon. Thanks for your hard work, come back slowly.”

After hanging up the phone, Kim Mi-young stood blankly for a moment, then tilted her head.

“No matter what, there’s no way an office would close on a weekday… It’s not like we’ve only dealt with them for a day or two… Are they sick or something… It is extremely strange.”

As she muttered as if to herself, Office Director Yeom raised his head over the partition.

“Is it common for an accounting office to close its doors so recklessly? Sometimes they go on group incentive trips abroad when business is good, but… they usually leave one or two employees behind because business contacts must be maintained.”

“Exactly. I don’t know why.”

“To work so irresponsibly. Tsk tsk. Then it can’t be helped. We have no choice but to change our client… It’s not like that’s the only accounting office.

Office Director, there must be many among the lawyers who know good accounting offices. Ask around. I think one of Lawyer Seong’s classmates was an accountant…”

Kim Mi-young nodded.

“I guess I should… But I still feel somewhat uneasy…”

A few days later.

A strange middle-aged man entered the first floor of the Teum Law Firm.

Lim Seon-hee, the receptionist at the reception desk, bowed her head first to greet him.

“Welcome. How may I help you?”

“I am from the court.”

“Pardon? The court? What business does the court have to come all the way to our office?”

As Lim Seon-hee tilted her head, the man held out a document.

“A forced auction has commenced on this building. So I came to investigate the current status.”

At those words, Lim Seon-hee’s expression stiffened.

“A forced auction?? Wh… one moment, please.”

Although she couldn’t understand exactly what it meant, hearing the words ‘the building went to auction’ did not sound ordinary.

Lim Seon-hee hurriedly contacted Office Director Kim Mi-young.

“So… in yesterday’s drama. It turns out, that woman’s adopted daughter was actually born and secretly abandoned by that woman’s mother, so the two are actually sisters instead of mother and daughter. There is no makjang drama like this.

What’s more, that adopted daughter is dating the son the woman previously had with her first love. Are those words or farts… Hahaha.”

Office Director Kim Mi-young was leisurely chatting while eating fruit with colleagues in the lounge.

Knock, knock.

“Office Director, they are looking for you at the first-floor reception.”

Deputy Kim said, poking his face through the gap in the door.

“Me? On the first floor?”

Kim Mi-young set down her fork and stood up from her seat.

“Why are they looking for me…? Everyone, there should be a cake left by a client yesterday in the refrigerator. Share and eat some of that. I will go take a call from the lower floor and come back.”

Kim Mi-young closed the door to the lounge and put the phone call from the first floor to her ear.

“Yes, Seon-hee. Why are you looking for me?”

“Office Director, they say they are from the court. This building… went to auction.”

“What? Auction? What does that mean? No, how long has it been since we signed the contract here? An auction… No, that’s nonsense… That is…”

After blurting out those words, Kim Mi-young felt a chill down her spine.

A certain scene flashed through her mind.

‘That accounting office that said if we rented the first, second, and third floors as a whole while saying the third floor was empty, tax would be saved…’

The accountant she hadn’t been able to reach since a few days ago suddenly came to mind. Kim Mi-young bit her lip tightly.

‘Th… surely not… No. They must have come to the wrong place. Let’s head down first.’

As she walked down to the first floor with an uneasy heart, a court bailiff standing with a expressionless face caught her eye.

Showing the documents, he began speaking in a low voice.

“I came to investigate the current status. The name of the representative of this law firm is Seong Seok-yeon, is that correct?”

Kim Mi-young nodded with a stiff expression.

“So you contracted under the name of the company representative, but… the deposit is quite large. Much larger than the other floors of the building.”

“Yes… because tax issues and such were entangled, we set the deposit a little… large as guided by the accounting office…”

Kim Mi-young’s words mumbled and grew smaller as if dying out.

Checking the documents, the bailiff’s words were all true. The building going to auction…

Suddenly, it felt as if the solid ground were collapsing.

The bailiff made a brief note, asked for various information, and left after offering a formal greeting.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

After he left, Kim Mi-young slumped onto a chair in the consultation room.

Her fingertips trembled violently.

‘What on earth is going on…’

She stared blankly into space and murmured to herself.

‘What do I do… I led the effort to push for the third-floor move. Sigh… Plus, listening only to the accounting office and even suggesting to raise the lease deposit, there were too many parts I suggested doing…’

Just then, Ju Yong-hae, who was passing through the hallway, saw Kim Mi-young sitting with a lost expression through the consultation room window.

“What is it… why is she like that? Looking out of her mind and blank, exactly like someone who had their share of a rotating savings club stolen.”

A few minutes later.

“Office Director, Office Director! Did you hear?”

“Yeah, what?”

“This building… they say it went to auction.”

“To auction?? Why would this building go to auction? There has never been an issue all this time…”

“Sigh. I don’t know. Everyone is anxious right now. They say a bailiff came and left today. Are we getting kicked out?”

“What? A bailiff?”

The moment he heard those words, a thought flashed through Ju Yong-hae’s mind.

‘Ah, so that’s why Kim Mi-young was sitting in the lounge like that.’

He entered the consultation room straight away. Kim Mi-young’s face was already ash-gray. The story he heard from her was simple but shocking.

That the Teum building had indeed gone to auction, and she had verified the documents directly from the bailiff.

“Calm down first. I will look at the register and verify it properly.”

Ju Yong-hae comforted Kim Mi-young a bit, sat down in front of the computer, and tapped the keyboard rapidly.

[Certificate of All Registered Matters]

12-19 Seocho-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul

Rank Number / Purpose of Registration

·

·

8. Seizure

9. Decision to Commence Forced Auction March 3, 20**

‘What, compulsory auction?!’

Ju Yong-hae doubted his own eyes upon seeing the register. Then he hurried to check the status report.

Click.

[Case Number: 20**Taegyeong1233 Compulsory Auction of Real Estate]

Real Estate Information: 12-190 Seocho-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul

Checking the register and the status report alternately, Ju Yong-hae forced himself to hold onto his sinking heart.

“Sigh… this… what is this… Why did the building suddenly go to auction…”

Even when moving into the third floor, he had only heard that ‘the conditions are good.’ But he didn’t expect such a situation to arise suddenly.

What on earth the relationship between the accounting office and the building owner was, and now that both the accounting office and the building owner are unreachable. Whether the two conspired together was completely unknown at this point.

However, one thing was certain.

Now that the auction had begun, they had to preserve the deposit of the Teum office first.

He turned on the printer and printed out the documents.

Whirrr-

Ju Yong-hae holding the printed documents in his hand, headed straight to Geum Nae-yeong’s room.

Knock, knock.

“Yes.”

Ju Yong-hae stood in front of the door, holding the documents in his hand tightly.

“…La… Lawyer, um… something of a big problem has arisen.”

Geum Nae-yeong, who was watching the monitor, raised his head.

Ju Yong-hae’s somewhat pale expression caught his eye.

“A problem? What problem is it?”

“That…”

Ju Yong-hae held out the printed documents.

Geum Nae-yeong received them and began looking through.

“Ah, commencement of compulsory auction…”

A brief silence fell.

Geum Nae-yeong’s expression stiffened ever so slightly as he fell into thought for a moment. Then he flipped the document over calmly again.

“Since we are also in the position of creditors currently, we should report our rights regarding the deposit.”

“Yes… but from what I see, there is a prior lien. Tax payments also seem to be in arrears… If things go wrong, we might not even get our deposit back… What should we do…”

Ju Yong-hae’s voice shrank down to almost a mosquito’s buzz.

However, Geum Nae-yeong was calm as usual.

“Hmm… yes. That could be the case.”

“…Yes, since it is an extremely urgent situation, shall we tell the other lawyers as soon as possible?”

“No. I will tell them during Monday’s meeting.”

Geum Nae-yeong added while organizing the documents quietly.

“First, I will inquire with the court. Even if not right away, I need to check how much the building value has been appraised at.”

As Ju Yong-hae nodded, Geum Nae-yeong added.

“Yes, but… we can just look into it around the time of the bidding, right.”

“Pardon? Bidding?”

Without any change in expression, Geum Nae-yeong closed his laptop monitor with a tap.

“Yes. That would be better than moving, wouldn’t it?”

“What do you mean by that…”

As Ju Yong-hae blankly asked back, Geum Nae-yeong said calmly.

“We can just buy the building. Through the auction.”

“Pardon?….?”

Although Geum Nae-yeong was someone who frequently said out-of-the-blue things, saying he would buy this entire building was completely unbelievable.

Ju Yong-hae left the office and returned to his seat, but

he could not focus on his work at all.

‘A building isn’t just a penny or two…’

***

At that time.

A black mid-sized car stopped in front of the Teum Law Firm.

“Get out, we’ve arrived.”

“Hold on. Let me fix my makeup.”

“Forget it, girl. Do you think those nerds even know the difference in makeup?”

“Oh my, Mom. Kids these days are smarter. They care so much about a woman’s looks.

They are all just pretending to be nerds. Looking at the program he appears on, his face is pretty handsome for a guy. With that face and that job, do you think he hasn’t dated women?”

“Hey, that’s not what’s important. You know how before, we used to swipe drunk people’s things while working and sell them on Carrot Market?”

“Why do you even bring up that story?”

“Hey, do you know why we were still beggars no matter how much we sold that?”

“…I wonder why?”

“We stole expensive things at best and sold them cheap, which is why we remained beggars. But this one is different. We obtain an expensive life through the cheap emotion called love.”

“Oh~ Mom, that’s a total quote. You are my mom, but you are very smart.”

“Of course! You girl, even though I look like this, I graduated from an academic high school.

So, my daughter. Instead of fixing your makeup, do a good job of pretending to be in love.”

“Understood. How hard could that be? It’s my main specialty. Nagging a professional.”

The mother and daughter bickered, exchanging jokes and checking the mirror alternately. Then they got out of the car and looked up at the Teum building once.

“Looking at him on TV, he was quite handsome? The office is a bit shabby compared to his looks?”

“The real deal guys usually set it up small like this. It could be rented, or the building could belong to his parents.”

“Looking at the info, they say he’s from Hankook University and rumors say his family is well-off too. The company must be his in the end, right?”

“After a few dates, changing your lot in life depending on how you act is no big deal. You can do well, right? Hoho.”

The two were already imagining becoming rich by seducing Geum Nae-yeong.

The young woman asked as she applied red lipstick.

“Do I look pretty?”

“You’re pretty, girl. So just get inside quickly.”

“Whew, please refrain from swearing in front of your future son-in-law.”

“Understood, our beautiful lawyer’s wife. Heehee.”