Episode 65

Professor Choi Sung-cheol's expression, which I hadn't seen in a while, wasn't particularly bright.

To be precise, he had been wearing a gleeful smile, as if something good had happened, until just before he saw me. But as soon as I appeared, his face contorted into a grimace.

'Seriously, I don't want to see your face either.'

But it couldn't be helped. It was time for the Legal Clinic's activities.

Of course, the task of directly listening to cases and providing legal advice was the responsibility of us students, but as the 'Korea University Law School Legal Clinic Center,' someone had to take charge and supervise.

That was why Professor Choi Sung-cheol was standing at the front of the lecture hall with a face like he had eaten a turd.

"......Is everyone here? Let's begin."

Professor Choi Sung-cheol said, shuffling through the documents he had pulled out.

"This week, we have three cases that were submitted through the online consultation center. I'll distribute the assignments through a lottery, so check the group chat."

The case we had resolved last time had been a case that came directly through a phone consultation without prior submission, but this time, it seemed like a few cases had piled up online.

From the perspective of those responding to the consultations, this was actually much better.

In online submissions, the client was required to fill out a simple statement of facts and attach it, so it was possible to understand the details of the case beforehand and identify questions or relevant legal principles before talking to the client.

[Case 1 -------- Park Yoo-seung, Yoo Tae-woon]

[Case 2 -------- Shin Seo-joon, Jung Min-shik, Lee Ga-eun]

[Case 3 -------- Go Tae-kyung, Han Yoo-hwa, Jo Jung-rim]

'Oh, I got one.'

The Legal Clinic was divided into groups of two or three people.

The process of handling one consultation case, from researching materials to responding to the client and writing a report, was very demanding.

The meaning was that the members of the self-organized groups had to divide the work and take care of it themselves.

Although there were three cases submitted, there were far more groups, so there was a high possibility of not being assigned a case.

It was something to consider myself lucky about.

"Since we're doing this, we might as well take on a lot to get something out of it."

Yoo Tae-woon also nodded, agreeing.

"I've also uploaded the documents related to each case in the group chat, so look at them yourselves. The client consultations start at 5:00 PM, so it would be best to read them quickly."

Choi Sung-cheol pointed to the clock on the wall of the lecture hall. The clock hands were pointing at 4:50 PM. There was less than 10 minutes left.

It was a tight time, but for me now, who had been trained by the mock court competition, this was nothing.

I immediately downloaded the relevant file and opened it.

[Case Statement]

Client Name: Yoon Soo-ah

I was raising a cat. On March 7th of this year, when my family went on an overseas trip, I couldn't leave my cat alone in the empty house, so I entrusted it to a friend's house.

But on March 14th, when I returned home, that friend wouldn't answer my calls. When I went to confront them, they said that they were annoyed by the cat running around and crying every night, so they sold it off in a drunken fit.

I hurriedly contacted the person who had bought the cat, but they replied that they had brought the cat for a fair price and had already grown attached to it, so they couldn't return it. Is there any way to get my cat back? I don't think I can live without my Somi.

……(omitted)……

"Seriously, what kind of situation is this?"

Yoo Tae-woon chuckled in disbelief.

"They just sold off a friend's cat in a drunken fit after taking care of it?"

"Looks like it."

"Even if they were annoyed by the cat... if that was the case, they shouldn't have agreed to take care of it in the first place."

I agreed.

It was relatively common to entrust pets to acquaintances when leaving home for a trip.

It was difficult to take animals overseas for various reasons, and if the trip was long, it was also unsettling to leave animals alone in an empty house.

Even though it was just an animal, the word 'companion' was attached to it.

It meant that they were like family to the person raising them.

As they were a precious part of the family, they were usually entrusted to someone who was really trustworthy and close, or to an acquaintance who really liked animals and was skilled at taking care of them.

"Putting aside everything else, this client is terrible at judging people."

Yoo Tae-woon clicked his tongue with a bitter expression, but my thoughts were a little different.

Of course, from the perspective of even thinking about selling a cat just because it was a bit noisy, that person wasn't right in the head.

Not only was it not their own, but it also wasn't right to treat a living being like that.

'Right, that's not normal.'

You could think that the friend was just a strange person and that the client didn't know how to judge people.

But that might not be the whole story.

"This statement of facts... no, it's something I can confirm when we talk directly."

"What do you mean?"

A question mark appeared on Yoo Tae-woon's face, but I didn't care and continued to read the file.

'It's not a legally complex case.'

By the time I had organized what I had to say to some extent, the clock hands were pointing at 5:00 PM.

At the same time, as if they had been waiting for it, the consultation phone that was in a corner of the lecture hall started to ring.

"The second phone is... Case 1. Go and pick it up."

Choi Sung-cheol checked the documents and gave instructions.

"Should I take it?"

"That would be good. I don't really know about this case."

After getting Yoo Tae-woon's consent, I picked up the phone.

"This is the Korea University Legal Clinic Center. How can I help you?"

*

My name is Yoon Soo-ah. I submitted an application to the online center, haven't you read it?

The voice on the other end of the phone belonged to a young woman.

It had a strangely sharp and irritable tone.

If she was in a heightened state after losing her beloved cat, it wasn't something that was hard to understand.

"Yes, I've read it. So... you said you were in a difficult situation because your friend sold off the cat you entrusted to them, right?"

*

Ha.

Suddenly, Yoon Soo-ah scoffed.

*

Don't even call her a friend, that bitch.

'Here we go.'

Just like Oh Gi-tae, who had been my first client, ordinary people often didn't distinguish between legal consultations and psychological counseling.

I didn't expect them to neatly extract only the legally problematic parts and provide information in a clean format like an exam question.

On the contrary, clients often regarded lawyers as their emotional trash cans or as someone to vent to, and they would pour out everything they had, without holding anything back.

I understood that feeling.

They wanted someone to acknowledge how unfair and difficult their situation was.

They believed that they could only receive proper help if their pain was explained and understood in more detail.

In reality, lawyers and clients were partners who had to work together through various legal procedures, including trials and settlements.@@novelbin@@

It was the job of a lawyer to go beyond simply reviewing the legal aspects and to support the client so that they could endure all of that.

Hearing emotionally charged stories was helpful for that.

At least for that specific case, it became a means to fully understand the client and build a relationship of trust.

Sometimes, they would even reveal meaningful information that they themselves weren't aware of.

'But it's also tiring, that's the truth.'

Especially when talking to someone who was this angry, it was very mentally draining.

The weight of a person's heart, which wasn't written in any textbooks, but was something that anyone who would live as a lawyer had to bear.

Perhaps this was what the Legal Clinic was really about, to experience and prepare for this kind of thing.

*

It's ridiculous. After all that I did for her.

"What kind of relationship did you have with the 'acquaintance' that you entrusted the cat to...?"

*

We were classmates in high school.

Yoon Soo-ah and her friend, referred to as A for now, had become acquainted through their connection as classmates in the same class during high school.

According to her own words, Yoon Soo-ah had been part of a fairly 'popular' group in school, and she had taken care of A, who was relatively ordinary, and taken her around.

*

There were a ton of guys who approached her just to talk to me. Her first boyfriend was one of those cases, but I guess she still doesn't know that.

Yoon Soo-ah sneered coldly, in a way that was clearly perceivable even over the phone.

'This woman is right.'

The more I listened, the more certain I became.

'It's clear that I can't call this a friendship.'

The feelings that Yoon Soo-ah had towards A were, if I had to give it a name, closer to an attitude of treating someone like an 'underling.'

It was as if she was saying that since she, who was so talented, had extended the grace of maintaining a relationship with her, A should naturally be devoted to her.

In reality, Yoon Soo-ah had been making A do all sorts of trivial things since high school until now, and A seemed to have followed along without complaint.

It was a relationship that made you think of an owner and a maid, rather than friends.

Of course, Yoon Soo-ah herself had explained that those requests were 'natural and trivial,' but the stories that were conveyed through words were always subtly distorted from the speaker's perspective.

Considering Yoon Soo-ah's irritable and self-centered attitude, it wasn't too difficult to figure out the truth.

*

Even this time. Is it really that hard to take care of Somi for just a week? I didn't ask for much, I just asked her to make sure she ate and drank well. And cats can roam around and cry in unfamiliar places, it's not a big deal.

Of course, from an objective point of view, she wasn't wrong.

But from A's perspective, it might have been a little different.

The stress that had accumulated while always being treated as an underling and a maid might have exploded with this incident.

After all, A had always been used as a convenient tool to entrust the cat to.

It was possible to think that the reason she had suddenly done such a ridiculous thing was because of the long-accumulated emotions.

'Well, there aren't any likable people here.'

The client, Yoon Soo-ah, who had always looked down on A and used her.

And A, who seemed to have agreed to it because she didn't have the courage to confront her, and had taken it out on an innocent animal by selling it off through a ridiculous method.

If I had to give an honest opinion, it was a pitiful situation for the cat, Somi.

I recalled the picture of Somi that Yoon Soo-ah had attached at the end of the statement of facts file.

In the picture, Somi was a white Ragdoll, curled up in a ball on the table, not even looking at her owner, who was taking the picture.

'She was cute, though... but.'

Since her fur color was naturally white, there were parts that caught my eye even without trying to.

Even though she was a long-haired cat, her fur wasn't brushed properly, and there were some parts that were matted and clumped, and some parts that were black with grime, as if she hadn't been washed properly.

Her slender body and strangely dull, dry fur made me suspect malnutrition.

Although I could guess as much from her personality, it seemed that Yoon Soo-ah wasn't a good owner.

*

I even do YouTube with Somi. I even got a silver button.

To her, Somi was also just a means to something.

Did she mean that she wouldn't be able to live another day because she couldn't film her video content?

On the other hand, the person who had taken Somi now seemed to be a fairly decent person.

Of course, Yoon Soo-ah kept reciting what she had seen in her messages, saying that they were just pretending to take care of her by brushing her fur, washing her, and taking care of her, even though they weren't the real owner.

From an objective point of view, it just sounded like they were taking care of a cat that they had adopted.

*

So, what do you think?

Yoon Soo-ah asked.

*

Will I be able to get our Somi back?

I covered the receiver with my hand, so that the annoying client couldn't hear, and let out a small sigh.