Chapter 66 – NO. 87

“A problem?”

The woman, who had been scanning Geum Nae-yeong up and down, widened her eyes at the word ‘problem.’

“The statute of limitations for general monetary claims is 10 years. However, it has been nearly 10 years since you received this payment order decision.

You could apply for a payment order again, but since you did not claim interest at the time, it is much more efficient to interrupt the statute of limitations by filing a lawsuit on the merits this time, including interest.

If left as is, a claim is possible as long as the other party does not plead the expiration of the statute of limitations, but compulsory execution will no longer be possible with this decision alone.”

“Oh my, is that true? I didn’t know because I just did what someone I knew told me to do.”

The woman covered her mouth in surprise.

“Just a moment.”

Geum Nae-yeong picked up the intercom and called Clerk Ju Yong-hae.

“Lawyer, did you call?”

“Yes, Clerk. This is an assigned claim case, and the decision is only a few days away from 10 years.

Let’s file a new lawsuit to interrupt the statute of limitations, and please proceed with the subsequent steps, Clerk.”

“Understood.”

Ju Yong-hae nodded.

“I will explain while receiving the power of attorney.”

As Ju Yong-hae took out a file folder and continued speaking, the woman tilted her head in doubt again.

“But wait, isn’t it impossible to get it back anyway even if we do this?

I tried it before, and he hid all the money, and the bank accounts were completely empty.”

“Yes. Most people try not to pay back money in that way.”

Ju Yong-hae replied with a smile.

“If there is no money after seizing the bank accounts, it can feel like a waste of effort, but you still have to do it.”

“Eh? There’s no money in the account. What’s the use?”

“When bank account seizure is applied, you don’t just lose access to the money inside the account. It makes life inconvenient.

With a seized account, loans are difficult, and even if you open a new account, restrictions will be applied.

If you block it like that, the opponent ultimately cannot carry out economic activities, and because it is inconvenient, they often hand over the money asking to release the seizure.”

“Oh my, if I had known that, I would have done it sooner. I completely didn’t know.”

“Of course. Actually, there are quite a few cases where they repay upon hearing ‘you must pay to release the seizure.’

Of course, there are cases where they hold out by using other people’s accounts, but that’s how life is.

By chance, they might get a job, and if a salary comes from somewhere, at some point the seizure will drag them down.”

“I see. Then we can keep this extended and apply the seizure again, right?”

“Of course. The procedure is not difficult. We will proceed with it immediately.”

“That’s great, great! I hadn’t even thought about it, but you’re handling it all so smoothly.”

“Now, then, I will help you with the registration. Come this way.”

***

Law Firm Teum was bustling these days thanks to Geum Nae-yeong’s fame.

With people wanting a direct consultation with the ‘star lawyer’ who appeared on TV, and even onlookers who came just to see his face once, the office was noisy all day long.

As work reached the point of paralysis due to people who came under the pretext of consultation only to take proof shots, the office ultimately decided to charge a consultation fee.

Cha Ra-ri had already systematized the waiting line and was responding professionally amidst the chaos.

“Now, please pull a queue number from over here, and whoever has pulled one, raise your hand!”

People raised their hands in unison.

“Great, those who raised their hands, please fill in the blanks on this consultation form well! It is for a fast consultation! The consultation fee is 50,000 won.”

Using the prepared pens, people filled out the consultation forms with scratch, scratch sounds.

“Those who have finished writing are this way, and Naver reservations are this way!”

“Client number 37!”

“Yes, here.”

“Please enter the consultation room!”

The door opened, and a middle-aged woman stepped into Geum Nae-yeong’s office.

Sunglasses, dark lipstick, and an excessively large shopping bag.

“Ah, it’s hard to see the lawyer’s face. That reservation or whatever is also annoying.”

Thud.

The bag was thrown onto the chair. The woman’s gaze swept over Geum Nae-yeong.

“Mmh, he looks exactly the same. Exactly.”

Geum Nae-yeong asked with an expressionless face but a smile hanging on his mouth.

“Yes, what kind of matter brings you here.”

“Ah…”

Slide. The woman took off her sunglasses.

Geum Nae-yeong’s gaze stopped.

“…Who hit you? At that degree, it seems we should sue immediately for assault.

If someone you know did that, let’s start by applying for a restraining order.”

The pen moved quickly at his fingertips.

However, the woman opened her eyes wide.

“No. I got double eyelid surgery?”

“Double eyelid surgery?”

“This is definitely a medical accident!”

“A medical accident?”

“I had double eyelid surgery at a hospital that’s supposedly extremely good, and they made me look like this!”

Geum Nae-yeong looked at the woman’s face again.

“How long has it been since the surgery?”

“Three weeks? I got the stitches out just the day before yesterday, and this is not what I wanted!”

“Mmh. I see. However, as it was surgery, it seems there is still swelling.

To discuss aftereffects, the period is too short. Please come back after at least three months.”

“What, come back again? No, you’re telling me to wait for this again? I’m telling you, this is definitely wrong, do something about it immediately!”

The woman’s voice gradually grew louder.

“No, really. You charge 50,000 won for consultation like this?

Seeing that consultation is just scribbling with a ballpoint pen on paper and that’s it… I can’t leave like this. I have to get my money’s worth.”

The woman suddenly sprang up from her seat and approached Geum Nae-yeong’s side.

Click.

Instantly, the flash light turned on and a selfie was taken.

She quickly grabbed her phone like a thief and ran away just like that.

Geum Nae-yeong was left a note on the consultation paper as if he was accustomed to such situations.

[Tort damages 1,000,000 Won Lawsuit Case] : NO. 87 (Unauthorized camera recording)

“Next client.”

“Client number 38!”

“Yes.”

When Cha Ra-ri called the name, a man stood up from his seat.

“Oh, you observed the turn this time, and you’re so gentle? Now, let’s go!”

Cha Ra-ri smiled brightly as she accepted the consultation sheet submitted by the man and headed to Geum Nae-yeong’s room.

Knock, knock.

“Yes.”

Cha Ra-ri opened the door and stepped in.

Geum Nae-yeong did not take his eyes off the monitor.

Cha Ra-ri checked the name written on the paper.

“Lawyer, waiting number 38 is Mr. Park Ki-on.”

“Yes. Guide him to the seat.”

“Yes!”

Park Ki-on pouted his mouth.

“This is hilarious, really. Are you playing boss?”

Despite the sarcasm, Geum Nae-yeong flipped the documents with an expressionless face.

“Hello, client. You did not write down the consultation details.”

“Are you crazy? What consultation? You bastard, do you think I wouldn’t know? You planned all of this.”

“Well. I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.”

Park Ki-on snorted.

“Your head grew quite well? Fucking ridiculously?”

Swallowing the end of his words, he soon lowered his voice and continued.

“Well, I thought about finding evidence one by one and showing you what’s what…

but since it seems there’s nothing good for either of us by doing this, I came to let it slide just this once with a generous heart.”

“Letting it slide, what are you referring to?”

Geum Nae-yeong raised his head. Still expressionless.

Geum Nae-yeong and Park Ki-on’s gazes clashed head-on.

“…Let’s call it even between me beating you up in the past and me getting beaten up this time.”

Park Ki-on shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

“You know I’m not the type to get hit and just live with it, right? But since my father also made a request, let’s wrap it up here.”

Geum Nae-yeong neatly opened the consultation log with a calm face.

“I do not know what you are talking about. But if you are referring to the school violence incident I suffered in high school.”

His voice continued, low and calm.

“Multiple skull fractures, acute subdural hemorrhage, four brain surgeries, three weeks of coma, six months in a wheelchair. What are we calling even with that?”

Park Ki-on’s smile froze as it was.

“…Well… it’s a thing from when we were kids. Can’t a person make some mistakes?

You were exceptionally cocky back then, too. You’re not still bringing up that one mistake, are you?

You’ve become a lawyer now, and you’re living fine and well now, aren’t you?”

“……..”

The gaze of the silent Geum Nae-yeong was cold.

As if feeling wronged, Park Ki-on raised his voice slightly.

“Hey, are you by any chance… blaming me for your parents living a miserable life?

My parents offered plenty of money! The ones who didn’t receive it were your parents.

So why did they have to show their pride… By the way, are you putting on this much of an air just because I left a few malicious comments about your mother?”

At that moment, Geum Nae-yeong pressed the intercom.

“Miss Cha Ra-ri. The consultation is finished.”

Soon the door opened and Cha Ra-ri came in.

“Gentle client for this turn, let’s go.”

Park Ki-on sneered, pushed his chair, and stood up.

“See you again. If you’re not going to call it even, I also have plenty of ways. I’m leaving on my own feet this time, so don’t lay a hand on me!”

The moment he spat out those words irritably, Geum Nae-yeong added a word in a calm manner.

“Right. It seems there is one thing you don’t know.”

“What? What don’t I know?”

Park Ki-on’s brow furrowed.

“Although it’s something anyone could know.”

“What, are you acting knowledgeable just because you’re a lawyer now? What is it that I don’t know?”

Geum Nae-yeong stared straight at Park Ki-on.

Park Ki-on felt a chill the moment he met those eyes. They were eyes from which no emotion could be read.

“What you don’t know, you should figure it out yourself if you are an adult, right?”

“Psychopath bastard.”

Park Ki-on, who had been staring at Geum Nae-yeong, spat out a curse and kicked open the consultation room door, storming out.

A brief silence flowed.

Cha Ra-ri poked her head in and muttered.

“By the way, that person is consistently rude. Speaking informally to you, Lawyer, and he didn’t even fill out the consultation sheet?”

“Yes. He is the person who beat me in high school.”

Cha Ra-ri’s voice went up an octave.

“Really? Then that guy is indeed… that bad guy who made your personality turn out like this?

Oh my… He really was a tremendously wicked bastard, wasn’t he? I won’t even let him step foot in here from next time.”

“No.”

Geum Nae-yeong smiled faintly with a calm attitude.

“…It will take some time before he comes back.”

***

About 10 years ago.

One month before Geum Nae-yeong’s third brain surgery, at two in the morning.

Geum Nae-yeong’s mother quietly got up, holding her breath.

A narrow single room in a villa basement where the three-member family slept.

It was a structure where nobody’s presence could be hidden. However, Geum Nae-yeong pretended to be deeply asleep and did not open his eyes.

His mother felt sorry for everything.

From Geum Nae-yeong, who needed to sleep well and recover well, waking up at dawn, to not being able to provide a better recovery environment. Everything.

His mother, having carefully closed the door to the room where Geum Nae-yeong slept, quickly fried an egg to put on top of rice, placed a little kkakdugi on a dish, and set it on the table.

“Eat at least this before you go. You’ll ruin your stomach from the morning.”

His father was already wearing a thick jumper and had a tool belt fastened around his waist.

Rattle, clack.

“You couldn’t even sleep for two hours, right? Will you be okay?”

At his mother’s words, his father nodded.

“This place hasn’t even been primed, so to do it all within a day, I have to go now, apply it, and let it dry a bit.”

As his mother watched his father silently packing his tools with a pitying gaze, she reminded him as if she just remembered.

“I am going to work at a gimbap shop in the morning starting tomorrow. The pay is decent since it’s the morning.”

“Hey, what for… You should look after Nae-yeong instead.”

“No. I have to cook for him before leaving. I can just quickly go and come back.

If I also do the afternoon restaurant, it makes some money. That way, I can help out next month.”

“Alright. I only need to do one or two more jobs to make enough for the next surgery fee, so don’t worry.”

At his father’s words, his mother hesitantly brought up a topic.

“Back then… should we… have received the settlement money.”

At those words, his father raised his voice.

“Nonsense. Are parents who sell out their child for that meager money even parents?

Forget it. Those crazy bastards. I can heal my child with the money I earned. I’m leaving.”

His father flatly sent back the settlement money offered by Park Ki-on’s father in exchange for covering up the school violence.

The impact of that was huge.

Park Ki-on’s family, who had been members of the National Assembly for generations and were local elites, pressured his father’s company.

People like company department heads and directors, who were not even relevant, urged a settlement day in and day out.

Accept the settlement, and make it as if it never happened.

That was what they wanted.