The Lawyer Who Never Loses

CHAPTER 7: Fifteen Years

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 Honor."

Judge Yoo Sung-Min leaned over his high mahogany bench. The harsh fluorescent lights caught the greasy sheen on his forehead. He looked at Ji-Won not as a nineteen-year-old girl, but as a cockroach that had just crawled across his clean floor.

"Noted, Prosecutor Han," Judge Yoo grunted, picking up his pen. The scratching sound against the paper felt deafening. "Given the severity of the new evidence—"

"Objection!" 

The word tore out of my throat before my brain could process it. My voice cracked, raw and desperate. I pushed myself up, my knees trembling so violently I had to lock them straight to keep from collapsing. 

Han Seo-Young finally looked at me. One perfectly drawn eyebrow arched upwards in mock surprise. 

"On what grounds, Attorney Jin?" Judge Yoo snapped, his gavel hovering over the sounding block. "You cannot object to a legal amendment of charges during a preliminary hearing when new evidence is presented."

"On the grounds of fundamental due process, Your Honor," I stammered, fighting to force air into my lungs. The blue system panel in the corner of my eye was bleeding red. 

[Warning: Judge Patience Level Critical]

[Time-Limited Rebuttal Window: 00:08]

"The defense was ambushed," I pushed on, speaking faster. "We were handed a fifteen-year felony upgrade based on a silent, grainy video we saw thirty seconds ago. I have not verified the time stamp. I have not verified the chain of custody of this flash drive. I haven't even spoken to my client about it! To proceed directly to trial proceedings without allowing the defense to review discovery is a violation of Article 266 of the Criminal Procedure Code."

Han Seo-Young sighed, a delicate, practiced sound of sheer exhaustion. "Your Honor, the defense counsel is stalling because his client lied to him. The video speaks for itself."

"The video is silent, Prosecutor Han!" I shot back, gripping the podium. The cheap plastic edge dug into my palms. "It doesn't speak at all! I need a recess. I need time."

Judge Yoo's face darkened. He stared down at me, his heavy jowls setting into a hard line. The ticking of the large analog clock on the back wall seemed to slow down, every second stretching into an eternity. 

"Ten minutes," Judge Yoo finally barked, slamming his gavel down. The sharp crack echoed off the wooden walls. "You have exactly ten minutes to confer with your client in the adjacent holding room, Attorney Jin. When you return, the prosecution will call their first witness to establish the foundation for the attempted manslaughter charge. We are not delaying this court's schedule for a street thug. Recess."

He stood up and swept out of the room through the side door. 

I didn't wait. I turned to the two court bailiffs. "Bring her. Now."

The temporary holding room behind Courtroom 302 was no bigger than a walk-in closet. The walls were painted a sickly, peeling yellow, and the air smelled violently of rust, bleach, and old sweat. There was no table, just a single bolted steel bench against the far wall. 

The bailiff shoved Ji-Won inside and pulled the heavy door shut. The lock engaged with a loud, metallic clack. 

We were alone. 

I threw my briefcase onto the floor. The leather hit the concrete with a heavy slap. 

"You lied to me," I breathed, my voice shaking with a rage born entirely out of terror. 

Ji-Won shrank back, pressing her spine against the cold yellow cinderblocks. She wrapped her handcuffed wrists around her stomach. She wouldn't look at me. Her unwashed blonde hair fell over her face, hiding her eyes. 

"I asked you directly," I shouted, closing the distance between us. I didn't care about being professional anymore. My career, my life, my crushing eighty million won of debt—it was all burning to the ground right in front of me. "I sat in that basement and I begged you for the truth! I told you I couldn't defend a ghost! And you let me walk out there and ask for mercy while you had an attempted murder charge hiding in your pocket!"

"I didn't try to kill him!" she screamed back, her voice tearing. She jerked her head up. Her eyes were swollen, red, and overflowing with hot tears. "I didn't!"

"You hit him in the head with a steel pipe!" I roared, pointing a trembling finger at the door leading back to the courtroom. "We just watched you do it on a fifty-inch screen!"

"Because he was going to hurt me!"

Her scream was so loud, so raw, that it made my ears ring. The small room suddenly felt completely devoid of oxygen. 

I stopped. I stared at her, my chest heaving. The blue panel in my vision flickered, analyzing the frequency of her voice, the dilation of her pupils, the frantic thumping of the pulse visible in her pale neck. 

[Observation Mode Activated]

[Emotional Reading: Extreme Trauma Detected]

[Lie Probability: 12%]

"What do you mean?" I asked, dropping my voice to a harsh whisper. "He was chasing you to get the store's money back."

"No," she sobbed, her knees giving out. She slid down the peeling yellow wall until she hit the concrete floor, pulling her knees tightly to her chest. Her handcuffs clinked sharply against the floor. "No, he wasn't. He didn't even yell about the money. When he caught me in the alley..." 

She squeezed her eyes shut. Her entire body trembled as if she were standing naked in a blizzard. 

"When he grabbed my hood, he pulled me backward," she choked out, the words stumbling over each other. "I dropped the cash. I dropped all of it on the ground. But he didn't stop to pick it up. He pushed me against the brick wall. He... his hands..." 

She gagged, turning her head away, her face twisting in pure disgust. "He grabbed my chest. He tore the collar of my shirt underneath the hoodie. He told me if I didn't scream, he'd let me go. He said nobody would care about a thief."

The room spun. A sickening cold washed over my entire body. 

I looked at the system panel.

[Analyzing Statement...]

[Cross-referencing CCTV Footage (Exhibit C)]

[Conclusion: Camera angle obscured the victim's left hand during the altercation.]

[Truth Probability: 98%]