A Somewhat Unusual Lawyer - Chapter 1

Did they say the dead tell no tales?
The faces in the three memorial portraits placed side by side kept their mouths firmly shut.
At the funeral hall where three coffins were laid side by side, a cold wind whipped through whenever a mourner visited.
Every time that happened, the three faces in the portraits seemed to flicker simultaneously.
The snow had stopped, but the ground was still frozen.
Inside the mourning room thick with the scent of incense, people’s cries lingered only at the edge of their throats.
Because most of the mourners were high-ranking officials who had to keep up appearances, no one cried out loud.
People in black coats stepped up to bow one after another.
And then, they all said similar things.

“Da-reum. Your sister is still young. You need to stay strong and hold things together.”
“How could such an accident… Da-reum. You have to keep your wits about you.”

The word ‘accident’ was far too simple, utterly insufficient to explain the current tragedy.
The mourning room saw an endless line of mourners, from the Head of the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office to Supreme Court Justices, former ministers, and members of the National Assembly.

“Your grandfather praised you a lot. He said he would introduce us soon, but it is a pity we have to meet in such a place. All three of them must have gone to a better place.”
“You’re the eldest son, Nam Da-reum, right? I heard you recently passed the bar exam as the top scorer… It is truly regrettable that your parents couldn’t see you working as a lawyer. Please follow in their footsteps and become a fine legal professional.”

Formal greetings were passed along like a ritual.
They were words of respect aimed at his grandfather, who had lived his whole life as a judge, and his parents, who were a prosecutor couple.
Seeing the endless crowds until the day of the funeral procession, he realized anew the status and weight his grandfather and parents had held. But that did not bring him any comfort.
In the face of death, everything was in vain.
This death merely went up and down people’s lips as the ‘tragedy of a prestigious legal family.’

It was then.
Someone carefully approached from amidst the crowd of mourners.

“Mr. Nam Da-reum?”

He raised his head at the sound of his name being called.
Although he was second to none when it came to his ability to remember faces, the man in front of him was someone he had never seen before. He narrowed his eyes briefly, lost in thought.

‘Is he from my father’s side?’

For now, he naturally bowed his head.
A customary greeting returned.

“Nice to meet you. I am Lawyer Ma Sang-hyun.”

He gave a slight nod and held out a business card.
Nam Da-reum stared at the business card for a moment before looking up to meet his eyes.

‘A lawyer?’

Ma Sang-hyun was receiving Da-reum’s gaze with a calm look in his eyes.

“Thank you for coming.”
“Your grief must be great.”

It was a short word of consolation.
However, he felt a strange sense of dissonance from that single remark.
Unlike the aura commonly felt from people in the legal field, a somewhat peculiar energy lingered around him.
At that moment, Ma Sang-hyun took out a black envelope from the inner pocket of his jacket.

“Take a look at this once the funeral is over. It will be of help.”

It was a brief comment.
The moment Nam Da-reum accepted the envelope, Ma Sang-hyun quietly disappeared into the crowd.

“Excuse me, wait a moment.”

There was no time to catch him.
Because right at that moment, the funeral director grabbed Nam Da-reum’s arm.

“Chief mourner, we need to begin the procession now.”

Nam Da-reum briefly looked down at the envelope in his hand.
Faintly, cursive handwriting written on the corner of the black envelope caught his eye.

[Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Cold Case Investigation Record]

‘A cold case?’

But he had no leisure to open it.
The scent of incense pulled Nam Da-reum back to reality.
He quietly slipped the envelope into his suit’s inner pocket.

The funeral procession took place at a massive Buddhist temple in the middle of Gangnam.
As the morning sunlight touched the golden Buddha statue in the Dharma hall, the faint sound of a wooden moktak filled the space.
Soon, the head monk’s chanting spread gently like waves.

“All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows.”

The sutra, meaning everything is transient, like a dream, and like a bubble, echoed lowly.
Suddenly, his heart swelled with emotion.
He gritted his teeth and gathered his hands in front of him.
He had held back his tears throughout the entire funeral, and he couldn’t let them pour out now.
As if reading his mind, his young younger sister began to cry out loud in place of the chief mourner, Nam Da-reum.
As the small cries filled the Dharma hall, Nam Da-reum shut his eyes tightly.
Behind his swallowed cries, the scent of incense brushed the tip of his nose again.
Before his eyes, three coffins covered with white cloth lay side by side.
Following that, the head monk stepped up to the Dharma seat.
The monk’s voice resonated quietly through the Dharma hall.

“The deceased were all members of the legal circle who ended their lives chasing justice for a lifetime. Life and death are like the wind, with neither beginning nor end. The sorrow of those left behind is the weight of human connections, and when you return those ties to the void, your hearts will find peace.”

At those words, the mourners bowed their heads in unison.
From the heavyweights of the legal field to the National Assembly members.
Everyone closed their eyes for a moment in silent tribute.
It was a moment where worldly authority briefly came to a halt.
At that moment, a bell tolled slowly.

One, two, three.

It was as if counting the number of farewells.
Their lives, which had always stood upright upon the law, were now disappearing beyond death, unexplainable by either law or justice.
That sound swept through the deep corners of Nam Da-reum’s heart.
But even then, he didn’t know.
Just what kind of butterfly effect these serial deaths would bring about.

Once the funeral ended, the world returned to its place as if nothing had happened.
Nam Da-reum thought his daily life would naturally return to its original state as well, but…
His reality started flowing in a strangely different direction.

“It’s not easy.”

He muttered lowly while clicking his mouse.
Today as well, he was going in and out of the Seoul Bar Association website, checking lawyer recruitment postings.
He thought he’d be called by various places once the funeral was over.
But for some reason, he still hadn’t even found a place to settle down and build his nest as a lawyer.
He wouldn’t have even felt wronged if he had been ignored for demanding too high of a salary.

The flashy resume of passing the bar exam as the top scorer.
The title of being a descendant of a prestigious legal family.
It seemed as though they had vanished like a mirage.

Before the eyes of Nam Da-reum, who was clicking his mouse with his chin resting on his hand, an article with a despairing title popped up.

[The Era of Lawyer Oversupply… Holding out with Training until Heading to the Private Education Market.]
[Only 13% of Bar Exam Passers Enter Top 10 Law Firms, Employment Rate Only 26%.]
[Generative AI Integration Leads to Further Drops in Entry-Level Hiring… Making a Living as ‘Tutor Lawyers’.]

As if representing his own situation, these despairing sentences flashed across the monitor.

‘Unemployed Lawyer.’

He thought it was a term that didn’t apply to him.
But looking at it now, it seemed it wasn’t exclusively someone else’s problem.

Ding-

To make matters worse, an even more despairing text message arrived.

[Hello, Mr. Nam Da-reum. This is Law Firm Leon. Despite your outstanding capabilities and interview, we regret to inform you that you have not been selected for the final position.]

An unexpected rejection notice. However, this was not the first time.
That was why he felt rather numb to it.

“Rejected again. This is driving me crazy.”

There was no time to savor the despair. His younger sister, who had finished getting ready for school, burst open his bedroom door and popped out.

“Eyy. Brother, you failed again?”

Da-reum only rolled his eyes to look at Nam Da-jung. He awkwardly scratched his forehead and changed the subject.

“Just hurry up and go to school.”

He didn’t want to receive pity even from his little sister, who was eleven years younger than him.

“Brother…”

Nam Da-jung, who trailed off for a moment, abruptly shoved her phone in front of Da-reum’s face.
A video was playing on Da-jung’s phone.
Checking the title of the video, it was one she had already watched a thousand times.

[Exclusive Interview – The Astounding Grades of the Bar Exam’s Top Scorer, Nam Da-reum from Hanguk University Law School]

Da-jung vigorously patted her older brother’s shoulder to encourage him.

“Brother. Keep your self-esteem high. You’re an incredible person who passed the bar exam as the top scorer.”
“Yeahhh. Thaaanks.”

Da-jung grabbed a juice box resting on the dining table and continued.

“No, but really. I just don’t get it… It would be normal for everyone to be fighting to recruit you!! What in the world is the reason? Do they not tell you the reason when they reject you?”

That was exactly the question Nam Da-reum wanted to ask.
He wanted to know the reason more than anyone else.

A perfect 100 in Criminal Law, a 167.5 out of 175 in Civil Law. And a 92.5 in Public Law.
Compared to the top scores hovering around the 1233 mark for the past two years, Nam Da-reum had passed with a record-breaking score nearly 100 points higher.
Nam Da-reum narrowed his eyes and stared at his younger sister.

“Thank you. My self-esteem is fully recharged thanks to you. So now, get going.”

At his affectionate tone, Da-jung’s lips curled into a smile.
He thought she was leaving like that, but she spun around.

“Oh, right! I picked up your suit from the dry cleaners yesterday.”

Da-jung handed a business card and a black envelope to Nam Da-reum.

“They said it came out of the pockets. The dry cleaner owner set it aside for you. It said ‘Law Firm Sasin’? Did you get scouted? But what’s that envelope? It said ‘cold case’ on it? Wait! Don’t say anything! I didn’t open it!”

Nam Da-reum silently took the envelope and the business card.

[Lawyer Ma Sang-hyun]

His fingertips stiffened minutely.
In that moment, the faint memory gradually became clear.
He eventually ended up recalling the face of that unfamiliar man who had abruptly appeared at the funeral hall.

“Thanks for taking care of it. I’ll check this out. You just go to school for now. You’re going to be late.”

Only then did Da-jung run to the entrance and put on her shoes.
Before stepping out the door, she peeked her head back in one last time.

“Brother, don’t worry too much. Everything will work out.”

Thud.

As the front door closed, the living room fell silent.
Nam Da-reum placed the envelope on the dining table and stood there for a moment.
As he carefully peeled open the flap of the envelope, he found a single document folded in thirds inside.

[Case No. 2010-Hyeongje-Mi-4352]

Judging by the case number, it was a cold case.
Nam Da-reum quickly skimmed the case summary.

[Victim: Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Prosecutor, Ko Kang-hyun]
[Suspect: Unknown]

Nam Da-reum tilted his head in confusion as he scanned the contents.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

‘Why give this to me…?’

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Ding-dong.

He raised his head and looked toward the entrance.
Next to the dining table, the shopping bag that Nam Da-jung had left behind was sitting there.

“She left something behind again.”

He picked up the shopping bag and headed for the entrance.
He briefly gripped the doorknob at the door.
The bell was still ringing.

“Look at you ringing the bell because you don’t want to take your shoes off. Are you going to keep being this clumsy…”

Clack.

As he opened the door, a smell like heated, damp hay scratched the inside of his nose.
And right before his eyes, instead of Nam Da-jung, a black shadow surged in.

A black mask. Low breathing sounds.
The distance was too close.

‘What is this?’

But by the time he detected that something was wrong, it was already too late.

Stab.

A sharp shock dug into his abdomen.
Only the sound of breathless gasping sliced through the air.
Nam Da-reum collapsed right where he stood.
He didn’t even have the time to check his attacker’s face.
It was because his vision immediately faded to black.

In that final gap as his consciousness was fading out, the face that came to mind was…
Lawyer Ma Sang-hyun.
Bizarrely enough.