Episode 76

In other words, it was time to act like a delinquent for the first time in a while.

"Ah, excuse me."

I rose from my seat with a sly smile.

"I'm Park Yoo-seung, a first-year student at Korea University Law School. What's your name?"

It was a deliberately rude move, asking for her name without even introducing myself first.

"...I'm Baek Seo-yul, a first-year student at Yonhee University Law School."

As if realizing her own impropriety, Baek Seo-yul hesitated slightly before answering.

"So, you're from Yonhee. And, if I'm not mistaken, Ms. Baek Seo-yul,"

I started the engine.

"It seems you were just claiming that we were receiving 'privileges' a moment ago."

"...So what if I was?"

"What do you mean by 'privileges'?"

Baek Seo-yul made a dumbfounded expression.

"Huh?"

"I'm just saying what I said. What kind of privileges are we receiving?"

"What kind of privileges? It's obvious just by looking around this banquet hall."

Baek Seo-yul spoke as if it was a given.

"Are you talking about how they provided us with good seats and a great setup while not doing the same for other law schools?"

"What else could it be?"

"I see, I see."

I shrugged my shoulders with an exaggerated motion, acting as if I had no idea what she was talking about.

"But, what's the problem with that?"

"...Huh?"

"Jin & Ahn is a private company. It's different from public institutions that are obligated to treat everyone equally. They have the right to give preferential treatment to talented and capable individuals they want to hire."

And we, the Korea University Law School students, were those very capable individuals.

That was the underlying premise of my statement, implying that there was nothing wrong with the situation.

"...What did you just say?"

Baek Seo-yul, noticing my implication, flared up.

"D, did you just say 'capable'?"

"Yes, I did."

"You've got a nerve."

That was the exact reaction I was hoping for.

"Capable. Okay. If we were being treated differently based on our abilities, I might have understood it. But to treat us like this from the start without even giving us a chance to show our capabilities,"

"Ah, so if the seating arrangement was based on ability, you would have accepted it even if there was some difference?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Then it's a simple problem."

I proposed.

"Let's compete based on our abilities. Right here, right now. The winners get to choose their seats first, and the losers get kicked out to the remaining seats."

"Huh?"

Baek Seo-yul asked blankly at the sudden turn of events.

"You said you'd accept it if you lost based on skill. I have no doubt that the Korea University Law School students are the most outstanding and capable individuals, so I believe we'll naturally keep our seats even if we compete based on skill."

After saying that, I pointed my finger at the other Korea University Law School students who were seated.

"Right, everyone?"

"...Huh?"

Suddenly having the spotlight turned on them, they stared at me with bewildered expressions.

• Why is it wrong to divide seats based on academic background?

• Anyone can see that the undergraduate and law school admissions are not a lottery. We've already won the entrance exam battle to get here, and they've lost.

I had clearly heard them saying things like that.

'How arrogant, how arrogant.'

It was true that they were a group that had achieved the best results in one competition called the law school entrance exam.

But that wasn't everything.

From the start, the law school entrance exam tended to evaluate the traces of a life lived up to that point, and it wasn't designed to test legal skills themselves.

If a student who went to another law school studied harder, they might be more outstanding in law than we were.

In reality, many people who were admired by others for their public positions, such as prosecutors or research judges, often came from smaller law schools or law schools located in the provinces.

We shouldn't get drunk on the halo that the name of Korea University Law School gave, or become complacent.

It was also forbidden to think that the admiration that was poured upon that name was something that was naturally given.

Only those who honed themselves every moment and proved that they were worthy of it had the right to wear the crown.

However, I hid those thoughts deep within my heart for now.

Instead, I appealed to their arrogance and inflated egos.

"Honestly, aren't you all angry? These privileges that we're getting just because we're from Korea University? It's like they believe they're much more capable than us."

Are you just going to sit here after hearing that you're a bubble?

"It's not like you guys are any worse than them, right?"

From the original story, our classmates' pure-blooded Korea University ideology and sense of superiority were sky-high.

It was an ultimate dogma that those who had been filtered out and those who had survived the filtering process were different.

Needless to say, the basis for that was that they had passed a difficult entrance exam and the name of Korea University that was given as a reward for it.

"Y, yeah."

"It's obvious that we're better than other schools. Why is that a privilege?"

"Park Yoo-seung sometimes says things that I like."

They were almost completely on board. Now, it was time to drive the nail in.

"Are we just going to sit here and listen to this? Let's show them. Even if we take away our name tags, we can easily crush you with just our skills. You're all confident enough to do that, right?"

"Y, yeah! There's no way we can't!"

There was no way that anyone would say that they wouldn't do it in this atmosphere.

One side was now on board, so now it was the other side's turn.

"So, Ms. Baek Seo-yul, you're not going to run away now, after throwing down the gauntlet and challenging us with skill, are you?"

"Y, uh..."

Baek Seo-yul's eyes wavered at the sudden turn of events.

It was true that she wanted an opportunity to be evaluated based on skill and that she was angry about the injustice of the discrimination.

But she probably hadn't expected that I would actually propose a fight right away.

"Ha. Do you think I can't do it?"

Of course, that didn't mean that Baek Seo-yul would back down.

"Fine. Let's do it. I can definitely beat someone who acts arrogant just because they have a name tag, like you."

'Oh, she's passionate.'

From the start, the fact that she was able to boldly talk back to Jin & Ahn, who would be the ones hiring her, showed that this woman had a considerable ego.

Well, it was rare to find anyone in this field who wasn't living with pride in their own intelligence and skills.

"Alright, alright! Everyone, listen up!"

Riding that momentum, I shouted loudly.

"Everyone who is dissatisfied with their seat or the treatment they received today, come this way! Of course, only those who are confident that they can beat us, the Korea University Law School students, with their skills. If you don't, then just stay there!"

At that provocation, there was a brief commotion from the Boseong University and Myungryun University Law School sides.

"...What's going on?"

"Honestly, it did feel unfair that they were the only ones getting good seats."

"Why don't we try to challenge them? Honestly, we're not worse than them in terms of skill."

'Yeah. That's how it should be.'

I didn't have the power to eliminate the academic elitism that was rampant throughout the legal world in this country.

I couldn't even convince the senior members of Jin & Ahn, let alone the entire legal world.

But no one could stop the students from changing their seats under their own free and fair 'agreement.'

Of course, there wouldn't be any great meaning in that.

At most, the chairs would change from plush to hard, or the refreshments that they could eat and drink during the briefing session would disappear.

But at least then, it wouldn't be the result of a one-sided evaluation that someone had forced upon them, but something they had gained or lost with their own skills.

If that was the case, then wouldn't they be able to accept it?

"Is that okay?"

My last question was directed at the Jin & Ahn employee.

He had been just dealing with one protesting student, but as the situation somehow spiraled out of control and turned into a fight between the students, he had become frozen in place.

"Uh, well..."

The employee was sweating profusely.

"W, well, I'm not sure if I can make a decision about that..."

His voice trailed off.

In reality, they hadn't even set up designated seats for each individual, so it wasn't like there would be any problem if the students just changed their seats.

Rather, what was making him feel awkward was the conflict itself that was taking place.

Should he report this? Should he mediate this? The moment that employee was at a loss for what to do.

"That's an interesting issue."

Thump, thump.

The sound of brisk footsteps echoed across the floor.

"Alright. I'll allow it."

"Who...?"

When I turned around, a middle-aged man with slicked-back hair, wearing a suit, was extending his hand to me.

"Ah, I'm this kind of person."

In his hand was a business card.

• Jin & Ahn Law Firm

• Senior Attorney, Sung Jin-tae.

'Oh my.'

"I'm Sung Jin-tae, the attorney in charge of today's briefing session. It's nice to meet you."

* * *

Sung Jin-tae was a unique individual in many ways.

Strictly speaking, Jin & Ahn wasn't a law firm.

Unlike other firms that were divided into partners, who were equity-holding members, and associates, who were employed lawyers, Jin & Ahn, which took the form of a "joint law office," didn't have a hierarchy between lawyers in principle.

Lawyers with less experience were called juniors, and lawyers with more experience were called seniors, and their pay structure was different. It was a fairly horizontal organization.

Of course, that didn't mean that a freshly hired junior and a senior who had been working for several years had equal speaking rights and status.

All the work revolved around the seniors, who were experts in all things law.

Among those seniors, Sung Jin-tae was an irreplaceable resource.

The Matsubashi Electronics forced labor victim lawsuit.

The Samofund Lone Planet defense.

The Sehwa humidifier victim consumer class-action lawsuit.

The high-profile cases that had given Jin & Ahn the image of being "an axis of evil that makes anyone win as long as they have money," "a firm that tramples on consumers while siding with corporations, and defends traitors," along with the moral criticism and the recognition of their overwhelming defense capabilities, always had Sung Jin-tae at their center.

Sung Jin-tae, who had built up a brilliant track record, had risen to a position within Jin & Ahn that no one could ignore.

Every minute and second of Sung Jin-tae's time was recorded on a timesheet and was directly converted into a huge salary.

Originally, he wasn't supposed to be called out to a place like this, doing something like a briefing session for fresh-faced law school students.

But he had volunteered to take on this role.

'Jin & Ahn is... rotten.'

Not in a moral sense.

Even he himself wasn't exactly a clean person by society's standards.

That was why what Sung Jin-tae was worried about was a completely different aspect.

'There are too many trash who are just collecting a paycheck.'

He was a thorough meritocrat.

The only important thing was how well they did their job.

Age, gender, class, academic background, personality, and all other factors were, at least in evaluating a human being as a lawyer, completely useless, according to Sung Jin-tae's theory.

But what was the current state of affairs?

They were afraid of client complaints, so they would first filter out applicants using academic credentials and then think about it.

In Sung Jin-tae's eyes, there was no more useless act than that.

All you needed to do your job well was a brilliant idea, a strong will to put it into practice, and the physical strength to back it up.

None of those were qualities that could be captured by academic background or grades.

That was why he had decided to directly intervene in this hiring process.

'I thought that if I could find even five, no, three, no, even one person who met my standards, I would consider it a success.'

But when he actually came, a very ridiculous thing was happening.

'That guy named Park Yoo-seung.'

He was no ordinary person when it came to dealing with people.

He had deliberately provoked a student named Baek Seo-yul and stimulated the pride of the Korea University Law School students, creating a stage where no one could back down.

He wasn't afraid either. After all, these were guys who had come to this place to listen to the explanation about Jin & Ahn's internship hiring process.

It was natural that they would want to avoid being "marked" by causing unnecessary conflict, but this guy was making a mess without any hesitation.

What was his purpose? He didn't know.

What benefit could he get from causing this kind of commotion?

As Sung Jin-tae pondered, he came to the conclusion that perhaps this battle itself was Park Yoo-seung's purpose.

It was a relatively accurate guess.

'...Interesting.'

Sung Jin-tae's eyes sparked with interest.