The relentless buzzing of the fluorescent lights in Haneul & Partners’ Public Interest Division drilled straight into my temple. I rubbed the grit from my eyes, my fingers coming away smeared with cheap printer ink. My grey suit, bought off the rack at a discount store two years ago, clung to my back, heavy with the stale sweat of a fourteen-hour shift.I hadn't slept in two days. The air in the cramped basement office tasted like burnt vending machine coffee and despair. This was where Haneul dumped the cases that didn't pay—and the lawyers they didn't care about."Jin Tae-Rin."A thick, frayed manila file slammed onto my desk, kicking up a tiny cloud of dust that danced in the harsh light.I jolted, spilling a drop of lukewarm, black coffee onto my knuckles. It burned, but I barely felt it. I looked up. Senior Attorney Choi Hyun-Woo stood over me. His tailored Italian suit didn't have a single wrinkle. He smelled of expensive sandalwood cologne and the roasted garlic from the premiu

The glowing blue text didn't vanish when I blinked. It didn't disappear when I splashed freezing tap water onto my face, and it certainly didn't go away when I dry-heaved over my stained porcelain sink.[Victory Probability: 0%]It hovered in the upper right corner of my vision, a persistent, silent judge. I gripped the edges of the sink, staring at my reflection in the cracked mirror. My eyes were bloodshot, surrounded by deep, bruised purple bags. My black hair stuck up in greasy clumps. I looked like a corpse that had been forced to wear a necktie. "This isn't real," I muttered, my voice raspy. "It's stress. It's a hallucination."I turned my back on the mirror and grabbed the case file from the folding table. The moment my eyes focused on the police report, the blue screen expanded, dropping a waterfall of text down the center of my vision.[Analyzing Evidence Document][Contradiction Found: None][Legal Precedent: State vs. Choi (2021) - Guilty][Case Difficulty: F][Victory Pr

The walk from the basement holding cells to Courtroom 302 felt like marching to my own execution. My cheap leather shoes scuffed against the polished marble floor of the Seoul Central District Court. The air conditioning was blasted on high, chilling the nervous sweat that clung to my back, but I couldn't stop wiping my damp palms on my trousers. In the upper right corner of my vision, the blue translucent text remained fixed, a cruel, glowing tombstone. [Victory Probability: 0%]I had the truth. Lee Ji-Won was guilty. In any normal scenario, a swift guilty plea for a nineteen-year-old first-time major offender facing extreme poverty would open the door for a suspended sentence. I could throw her on the mercy of the court, cite the threatening text message from her landlord, and get her community service. So why did the system still say zero? I pushed through the heavy, oak double doors of Courtroom 302. The scent of lemon floor wax and old, dusty paper hit the back of my throat.

Fifteen years.The words hung in the dead air of Courtroom 302, heavy and suffocating like a thick wool blanket soaked in freezing water. I couldn't feel my fingers. I gripped the edges of the defense table so hard my knuckles turned a bruised, bloodless white, but the wood beneath my hands felt like miles away. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic, agonizing rhythm that sent a sickening wave of nausea up my throat. I tasted copper. I had bitten the inside of my cheek without realizing it.Beside me, Lee Ji-Won was no longer breathing. She was frozen, a statue wrapped in an oversized green detention uniform. Her eyes were fixed on the black screen of the monitor, reflecting a horror so profound it seemed to hollow out her skull."Fifteen years," Prosecutor Han Seo-Young repeated, letting the number echo. She didn't shout. She didn't need to. Her voice was a perfectly calibrated weapon, slicing through the silence. "The prosecution formally submits the amended charges, Your Ho

The courtroom went dead silent. The only sound was the low, steady hum of the air conditioning vent above the jury box. Baek Si-Hoon blinked. He reached up with his left hand, his fingers lightly brushing the thick white foam of the cervical collar holding his neck rigid. He forced a confused, nervous smile. "I... I don't understand the question, Attorney Jin," Baek stammered, his voice trembling perfectly. "It wasn't a question," I said. My voice was calm, but underneath it, my heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I took a step closer to the witness stand. The polished wood floor creaked under my cheap shoes. "It's an observation. You testified that you grabbed the defendant's hoodie from behind while she was fleeing, and she turned and struck you in the head with a steel pipe.""Yes," Baek nodded weakly. "That's what happened.""Objection," Prosecutor Han Seo-Young drawled from her table, not even bothering to stand up. "Relevance, Your Honor? Is defense counsel