CH 36

Yoonshin clutched his briefcase handle and stood up, bringing himself closer to Sehun’s eye level.

“What did you just do? You’re out of your mind, right?” Yoonshin said bitterly.

“Fourth-year.”

“I want to hear an apology first!”

“Listen carefully. You were just assaulted by me. Now, a question for you.”

“Ques— What?”

Yoonshin was appalled while Sehun remained tranquil. He continued steadfastly, “I grabbed your d*ck without consent. I’ll stay consistent and claim that I tripped, and to retain my balance, I reached out and happened to grab you accidentally. Proof? Look—the street is narrow and the ground is uneven with rocks. The judge will believe my statement.”

Rocks?

Seeing the fairly large, jagged rocks that Sehun pointed out, Yoonshin was dumbstruck. He thought back to when he thought Sehun staggered for no reason. “You did it by accident?”

“No, I don’t make mistakes.”

“But then…!”

“But I said that’s what I’ll claim. Then what can you do?”

Now levelheaded, Yoonshin looked around. This was a very secluded road. The surroundings were so quiet that he wondered whether this neighborhood always had such a quiet road. There were no streetlights. There were also no parked cars. It didn’t seem like he could obtain CCTV or dashcam footage as evidence. As mentioned, Sehun knew this neighborhood better because he lived here first.

“There’s no evidence. Then I’ll have to prove the assault with circumstantial evidence.”

“How?”

“You pushed me against the wall on that road over there. You also did it at the firm’s bathroom once. Sometimes you stare intently at me when you walk by, and in your office, on my lips…”

Before Yoonshin could finish, Sehun interrupted, “What did I do to your lips? Did I kiss you?”

“Sorry? No.”

“Did I grope you anywhere below your collarbone? Did I undo a shirt button?”

“No to that too.”

“Did I try making a pass at you usually? Did I send you a suggestive signal? Did I make lewd jokes to you?”

“No, none of that… You never did those. You didn’t even really look at me.”

As if that was the answer, Sehun snapped his fingers at Yoonshin. “The firm’s employees will also say that. I never even looked at you. You’re the only one who’ll say something different. Plus, since you were groped in a blind spot, there’s nothing you can do.”

Yoonshin tried to choose his words wisely, but there was no backbone to his claim. Knowing that, Sehun then asked, “Do you think this is unfair?”

Yoonshin’s answer was immediate. “Yes.”

“Your client feels the same.”

She also believed that the law would save her and sued, but she never expected that her situation would worsen. There was neither the evidence that could support her claim for what she suffered nor witnesses to testify in her favor—exactly like this current situation.

“Listen carefully, Fourth-year. s*xual assault cases may look simple, but it’s a very finicky area. You can’t simply try to support a claim as you did so far with your labor law cases with visible evidence. You don’t know what the mood of the room felt like at the time of the crime. Only the victim knows. Such things can’t be ‘proven.’ You said that I stared at you intensely. How do you define the degree of intensity? Where’s your proof? All judges like proof.”

Yoonshin regretted admitting to being conscious of Sehun’s gaze and felt embarrassed. His face was pallid.

“Your mouth is the only lively thing. So far, you only represented people who were upset and wronged. It’ll be different going forward. Even if it doesn’t meet your standards and you think, ‘Is this okay? I might get f*cked over at this rate,’ you might have to follow and respect the firm’s position and direction. Otherwise, you will get f*cked over. That’s why you need to win,” Sehun said.

There was always a trail of evidence when a person was wrongfully terminated, unpaid for their labor, or injured from construction. Sehun’s words were a warning, telling Yoonshin to take a fundamentally different approach to the cases he took on so far.

Yoonshin nodded slowly, crushed by the composed but firm atmosphere between them. Sehun continued in a low voice, “If you have time to question whether you’re going after a guiltless party, I recommend you trace back and investigate how that b*stard of a president coordinated all the witness testimonies and just why in the world the investigators couldn’t find evidence. Now, back to square one. How do you want to prove that the other party s*xually assaulted the client?”

“Should I look for another victim? s*xual assault is an offense likely repeated. I could print the list of employees and search for a person who wasn’t able to sue the president yet. Or what if I look for traces of bank transfers of an inordinate amount of money?”

“That’s what I call a waste of time. Even if you find something, it’s all over if the third party isn’t brave enough. The IT industry is small. You may be able to risk your job to live beautifully, but the majority of people can’t do that. Can you take responsibility for their livelihood? Then your chances may be increased by 25%.”

“Since it’s a battle of win or lose, the probability is actually 50%,” Yoonshin shot back.

“The lawyer is stupid, so I think I’d better adjust that to 15%,” Sehun retorted.

Yoonshin tucked in his bottom lip and sighed.

Blind spot.

He mused about the hint that Sehun gave, then said, “The client said that she was assaulted three times in total. If that’s the case, the offense occurred three times, but weirdly, there’s no evidence in this day and age. The assailant must have known in advance that the location had a blind spot, just like how you knew.”