Chapter 74

Chapter 74. Beset by All Kinds of Slander

While filming was underway, I heard the rest of the story about the case from Yoon Jin-seo.

More specifically, he told me about all the criticism the prosecution had been receiving after someone was falsely accused in a case almost identical to the story in 〈Good Pro〉.

"It's not as though every person a prosecutor indicts absolutely has to be found guilty. Out of a hundred criminal trials, five or six might actually end in acquittal. But apparently the prosecutor in this case went far too hard on the suspect from the investigation all the way through the trial."

From the beginning, the prosecutor had apparently decided the boy was the real culprit and aggressively pushed for a detention investigation.

They were now preparing to award the suspect tens of millions of won in criminal compensation based on the amount of time he'd spent detained during the investigation.

That alone gave me a rough idea of how badly he'd been treated.

The suspect hadn't done anything wrong.

Worse, he was a bereaved family member whose mind had already been shattered by the loss of his little sister.

And they had still put him through hell.

"People are saying things like, 'Is this a kingdom ruled by prosecutors and police?' and 'How are innocent people supposed to live without fear?' It's complete chaos. The prosecutors over there looked like their dark circles had fallen all the way to their knees..."

Even that part matched the drama version almost exactly.

Wasn't that why the male prosecutor briefly quit his job?

Of course, since this drama was a remake, I had no idea how things would progress from here.

When I looked into it, viewers had already started treating 〈Good Pro〉 like a documentary about the real case.

Everyone had misunderstood, believing there was no possible way so many details could overlap by coincidence.

They assumed the writer had actually based the story on the case.

If Go Won-hee's version of 〈Good Pro〉 then turned that boy back into the real culprit...

Just imagining it was horrifying.

The production might even get canceled.

"Man... you must be having a hard time. Go cool your head with 〈Dragon Hunter 5〉 or something."

"I suppose I should."

I pulled the phone away from my ear, about to end the call.

Then I noticed a notification on the top bar.

A new text message.

[Upgrade to receive larger-capacity files.]

[Upgrade Condition:]

[Clear victim 'Park Gwang-cheol' of the false accusation against him.]

[Upon success, details of the upgrade will be provided.]

Come to think of it, this was the seventh message.

Another upgrade.

I was a little happy to learn that this wasn't the final spam message.

But honestly, the upgrade message itself didn't contain much useful information.

Last time, all it had done was tell me to hear the word "upgrade."

It hadn't shown me a future image at all.

Technically, that meant I'd lost out on one future image every time this happened.

And wasn't it human nature that repeated kindness eventually started feeling like a right?

I was beginning to feel disappointed about the two future images I hadn't received.

Like it or not, I had to do what the spam demanded.

The normal messages only gave me glimpses of the future.

Upgrade messages, however, seemed to demand some kind of action from me.

At least this one wasn't completely devoid of clues.

I knew that someone named Park Gwang-cheol was a victim of something and had also been falsely accused.

Of course, I had no clue which Park Gwang-cheol it was, what year he was born, where he lived, what he'd suffered, or what exactly he'd been falsely accused of.

"Wait, wait. Yoon Jin-seo."

"Yes? What is it?"

The call hadn't ended yet, so I quickly stopped him.

It would've been nice if this mission were as simple as the last one.

Something like, Hear someone say the word 'upgrade.'

But the more I thought about it, the stranger this mission seemed.

Every spam message and upgrade mission so far had been connected to whatever situation I was currently dealing with.

Sure, I could have ignored Teacher Kim Song being late and pretended it had nothing to do with me.

But looking back, that had clearly been the perfect emergency schedule Blue Moon could have taken at the time.

And this upgrade message had arrived while I was talking to Yoon Jin-seo.

That meant Park Gwang-cheol had to have at least some connection to either me or Yoon Jin-seo.

Then the words "victim" and "false accusation" probably referred to some kind of legal victimization and wrongful accusation.

"Let's say I was harmed by someone and ended up in court. Could there be a situation where I, the actual victim, somehow became falsely accused in connection with the crime?"

"What?"

Yoon Jin-seo sounded like he hadn't understood at all.

Understandable.

I barely understood what I was saying myself.

"Do you mean something like a person who was genuinely harmed, but the authorities decide they fabricated the whole thing themselves? Like being wrongly accused of insurance fraud?"

"Not necessarily that exact situation. I'm asking whether the phrase 'a victim who was falsely accused' can make sense legally..."

Yoon Jin-seo fell silent in thought.

He was probably thinking about Jo Jin-young, the boy who had just been cleared thanks to his lawyer.

In a way, Jo Jin-young fit the description too.

He had been falsely accused of killing his little sister.

At the same time, he was a bereaved family member.

Of course, his name was Jo Jin-young, not Park Gwang-cheol.

"If you say 'a victim who was falsely accused,' then my first thought is that the false accusation itself is probably the harm being suffered."

"Say it more simply."

"The false accusation is the victimization. Being falsely accused is itself a form of legal harm."

So that was how it worked.

Then yes.

Jo Jin-young had been in the same kind of position as the Park Gwang-cheol mentioned in the spam.

Which apparently meant there was someone else currently facing a crisis like Jo Jin-young's.

"Then do you happen to know anyone who is currently suffering from a similar false accusation? His name is Park Gwang-cheol."

"Park Gwang-cheol?"

He sounded like he recognized the name.

"You're asking whether there's currently someone named Park Gwang-cheol who has been legally judged as a suspect, right? Someone currently treated as a criminal. Do you have any idea how many people named Park Gwang-cheol are sitting in prison right now?"

"Come on. Can't you use a little flexibility? Like someone who, in your professional opinion, seems as though he might actually be innocent."

"If I'd ever seen someone who looked innocent to me, I would've tried to clear their name."

Look at this righteous warrior.

"But I do know one Park Gwang-cheol who is absolutely not innocent."

"Oh, really? Not that kind. We're talking about someone who's falsely accused."

I needed a Park Gwang-cheol whose false accusation I could clear.

"Ah. You mean the murder case where Jo Jin-young had been falsely accused until recently. The real culprit who was newly identified in that case is named Park Gwang-cheol. Is that what you're asking about?"

[Clear victim Park Gwang-cheol of the false accusation against him.]

No matter how many times I tore that sentence apart and read it again, I couldn't find an interpretation that matched the current situation.

Park Gwang-cheol wasn't the victim.

He was the perpetrator.

For now, I ruled out the possibility that the spam meant some completely different Park Gwang-cheol.

The messages had always given me at least one clue connected to something already around me.

If it were asking me to help some random falsely accused Park Gwang-cheol somewhere in the world, there was no way I could possibly solve it.

And perhaps because I kept hanging around Yoon Jin-seo and getting dragged into legal cases, the spam had apparently started thinking I was a prosecutor or lawyer too...

It had seriously misunderstood something.

I was not a legal professional.

Send me a mission like this and all I could do was meet prosecutors and lawyers, pay absurd consultation fees, and listen to them explain the law.

Maybe there was some crucial information hidden inside the sentence.

So I tried several interpretations.

Eventually, I managed to create this:

[Clear the false accusation against victim (Jo Jin-young by exposing every crime committed by) Park Gwang-cheol (and completely clearing Jo Jin-young's name).]

If that was what the mission meant, I might as well stop receiving spam forever.

The meaning was completely different.

Fine.

Let's admit it.

I just wanted an easy solution.

Even if the path looked unpleasant, if it was the right one, continuing to ignore it would only waste calories.

The "victim" mentioned in the spam was unquestionably Park Gwang-cheol.

And right now, he was suffering under a massive false accusation.

I had to resolve that and successfully upgrade the spam.

Yoon Jin-seo told me I'd be able to learn more about the case if I went to the Seocho Prosecutors' Office.

I had no idea what he expected me to learn there when even he hadn't been willing to give an outsider like me much information.

Still, I went.

The moment I arrived, I understood why Jin-seo had sent me there.

In front of the entrance to the Seocho District Prosecutors' Office, the young Jo Jin-young was staging a one-man protest with a loudspeaker.

"The prosecution that kills innocent bereaved families twice over must be completely dismantled, everyone!"

The slogan was ridiculous, but his voice projection and speaking ability made him seem like a born protester.

He looked far older than seventeen.

More than anything, the fury toward the prosecution blazing in his eyes was so intense that even my chest tightened.

Losing his little sister would've been bad enough.

Then he'd been falsely accused on top of it.

His feelings had to be a complete mess.

I still didn't know what false accusation Park Gwang-cheol was supposedly suffering from.

The first thought that came to mind was that maybe Park Gwang-cheol wasn't the real culprit either.

In Go Won-hee's unrevised draft, the story eventually revealed that Jo Jin-young was actually the murderer after all.

But as of right now, there wasn't a single suspicion or piece of physical evidence strong enough to convince me that Jo Jin-young was guilty.

"Reveal the real name of victim Mr. Park! Reveal his face too! Why does the prosecution expose me and my little sister to the media while protecting the perpetrator?!"

"That's right! That's right! Reveal the faces of violent criminals!"

I stood in front of Jo Jin-young and raised my fist along with him.

I was trying to earn some goodwill.

He only glanced at me and didn't seem particularly interested.

Eventually, I reluctantly approached him directly.

"I'm Do Jun-hyeok from Universe Entertainment. I know you've been through a lot. We can use our entertainment-industry infrastructure to help spread the truth about the false accusation you suffered."

Jo Jin-young glanced at me.

"Mister, do you not watch the news? How long has it been since I was found not guilty? What false accusation are you talking about?"

"What?"

What the hell?

Then why was he standing out here protesting?

And "mister"?

Anyone looking at us would think you were old enough to be my uncle.

His rudeness annoyed me a little.

But he was a victim, so I decided to tolerate it.

"I'm talking about things like revealing the perpetrator's face or dismantling the prosecution. I can help you sway public opinion."

I didn't actually intend to help him with that.

I just wanted to get friendly enough to learn a little about Park Gwang-cheol.

"Forget it. What power do celebrity errand boys have? Stop bothering me and leave."

"I'm sure there are things I can help with..."

"Get lost! I said I'll handle it myself!"

Jo Jin-young glared at me and even swung the sign in his hand.

It was only a lightweight foam-board sign with marker writing on it.

Getting hit probably wouldn't hurt much.

Still, I clearly understood his intention for me to get lost, so I moved away.

Wasn't the entire point of doing this kind of protest to appeal to the media and let the public know what happened?

I was offering exactly that.

Why did he seem to want people to leave him alone?

It almost looked like he wanted sympathy for its own sake.

But just because he told me to get lost didn't mean I was going to leave.

I sat inside the Starex parked nearby and kept watching Jo Jin-young.

At the same time, I started reading the original romance-version script Go Won-hee had written before the revision, the one Serin had sent me.

Jo Jin-young continued protesting for another hour or two.

Then he started walking toward Gyodae Station nearby.

I parked in a nearby lot and followed him.

Jo Jin-young entered an office building with a sign reading:

[Silver Law Firm]

So that was why he'd come here.

Apparently, he had business with a lawyer.

There were plenty of law firms concentrated around this area.

I called Yoon Jin-seo.

"Yes, this is Yoon Jin-seo."

"Jo Jin-young just went into Silver Law Firm. What kind of place is this?"

"Silver Law Firm? That's the firm Jo Jin-young hired."

So that was why he came here.

I looked around the building housing Silver Law Firm.

It was extremely tall, and the office looked spacious.

Sitting right on a major intersection, it looked like the most expensive of all the small law firms nearby.

"He hired this place? It looks ridiculously expensive."

"Come on. It shouldn't be that expensive. The firm only opened recently, so I doubt they're very competitive yet. Their facilities probably aren't anything special either."

I ended the call.

The facilities weren't good?

That wasn't true at all.

It was spotless and gleaming, like one of those huge law firms you saw in dramas.

Just a little smaller.

Then it happened.

"It's really because I don't have confidence, Jin-young. Those people really will do a better job than I can."

A woman walked out of the law firm with Jo Jin-young.

From what they were saying, she seemed to be his lawyer.

She was pretty enough to become an idol herself.

People said these days you had to be attractive no matter what career you chose.

And judging from the fact that she'd opened her first practice in such prime real estate, her family seemed pretty well-off too.

"Then I can still come see you like this sometimes, right, lawyer-nim?"

"Ah..."

The lawyer took hesitant steps backward with an uncomfortable expression.

She looked exactly like someone being harassed by an obsessive ex-boyfriend.

The type of woman who struggled to say no.

Of course, there was no way they'd actually dated.

Jo Jin-young was seventeen.

That lawyer had to be at least around twelve years older.

"No. Coming to the office is a little..."

If Jo Jin-young was simply bothering this female lawyer one-sidedly, then it made sense.

Meaning...

If he was stalking her.

Why did stalking come to mind specifically?

Because in Go Won-hee's revised version, the boy was revealed to be the real culprit after he began stalking the lawyer who had defended him.

If that were really happening...

A seventeen-year-old older brother.

A twelve-year-old younger sister.

Temporarily cleared of murder charges.

Then sent back to prison after a stalking incident exposed him.

Every single thing would be unfolding exactly according to Go Won-hee's script.