THE MOUSETRAP IS SET
BONG SANG PIL SETS UP HIS LAW OFFICE 
Bong Sang Pil had arrived in Ki Seong. He stared at the five-storied building where his deceased mother’s law office had been located.
Tae Kwang Soo reminded him that the office on the fourth floor (Am: 5th floor) had been taken over by a colony of odd unlicensed moneylenders or loan sharks who prey on unsuspecting people in the neighbourhood.
Bong Sang Pil indicated his desire to set up office there. The building was 40 years old. Tae warned that they might live in fear of having the building collapse upon them.
But, Bong Sang Pil had already decided to kick the loan sharks out.        
Bong walked up the staircase located at a side entrance on the ground floor which led
directly to the other floors.
 
On reaching the old office, he
pushed apart the collapsible iron door and walked in as if he owned the place.
The place was noisy and chaotic.
The place stank of confusion. Several rowdy goons in flowery Hawaiian shirts were
monkeying around with their beach toys. Having real jobs was absolutely of no
consequence to them.
Geum Gang, the head goon with a
pony tail, appeared and assumed that Bong was a client.
  
Bong Sang Pil looked out of the window and thought to himself. ‘It’s still
the same.’
  
His attention was suddenly drawn to his name which had been
carved into the wooden table by his mother ages ago.
His fingers trembled as he fingered each character of his name.       
Flashback. Nostalgia hit him. The young Bong Sang Pil had video-taped that touching moment. It was a poignant reminder of the passing of time.
His mother, a lawyer, had sadly declared that she was strapped for cash and was forced to move again. But, she promised to return one day. The young boy was mature beyond his years. In an almost adult tone, he consoled her, saying that it was part of one’s life experience. Then, she was murdered. She had instructed him to flee to Seoul. That was the turning point in his life.       
But, Bong Sang Pil had returned. The young Bong Sang Pil had also
wanted to be a lawyer. His mother urged him to fight injustice not with
knives and swords but legally in the courthouse.
Bong swallowed hard at the memory. 
To Geum Gang's shock, Bong Sang Pil staked his territory there and then; he requested Geum Gang and his goons to vacate the place.
The clueless thug laughed boisterously at what he thought was a huge joke.
  
Bong Sang Pil took off his suit jacket to show that he was serious and was ready to put up a fight.
The thug's resistance drove Bong into action; he froze the other man with a forbidding look.
Geum Gang knew that it was not a joke when he found himself sprawled on the floor with his squad of goons.
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JUDGE CHA MOON SUK THE OVERTURNING OF
THE SEOUL DISTRICT COURT
RULING
Ha Gi Ho, Ha Jae Yi’s father, was a simple sort. Honest and trusting. An ordinary man who was ready to believe in the goodness of others.
He had been diligently cleaning the windows of his small neighbourhood photography studio.
His shop widow displayed a huge photograph of Judge Cha Moon Sook’s deceased father, a well-known Justice in his time.   
He was hard at work when his daughter arrived home. He was adept at living on simple food. They shared his staple meal – a bowl of black bean sauce noodles which had already turned soggy. It was a reflection on the state of his mind.
She was, on her part, unaware that her father was in debt but he was very much aware that his daughter had been fired by her law firm.
Ha Gi Ho invited his daughter to attend a court case which would be presided over by Judge Cha Moon Sook. It was the 'Killing In Self Defense' case, her former court case which had been tried in Seoul. The appellant wanted a reversal of the verdict because of an error of law.
  
Meanwhile, Bong Sang Pil had
everything under control. He had already beaten the goons to a pulp and they had
agreed to work for him.
Called the Daewoong Team, which was named after Bong's uncle, Choi Dae Woong, they would now report to Tae Kwang Soo, whom Bong had named as their team Manager. Tae Kwang Soo was an important lieutenant who would hold the fort for him when he was away. Bong Sang Pil had earlier complained of pain in the stomach. Was the complaint an ordinary one or could the pain be the result of swallowing the memory card years ago?      
THE 'KILLING IN SELF-DEFENSE' CASE
THE HIGH COURT
OF KI SEONG  The High Court of Ki Seong. Judge Cha Moon Sook ascended the stairs to the court room. She walked past the statue of Lady Justice. One wonders if she considered herself to be Lady Justice.   The defendant of the 'Killing in Self-Defense' case had contested the judgement of the lower court in Seoul and had appealed to the High Court in Ki Seong for the verdict to be reversed. The case was complicated and Judge Cha did not deny the fact that she had a difficult time arriving at a decision. 
Obsession. Bong Sang Pil couldn’t keep himself away from anything that involved Ha Jae Yi or Judge Cha.
Ha Gi Ho had been aware of his daughter’s predicament. She had been suspended and disgraced. Jobless. Such were the trials and tribulations of a young female lawyer in the male-dominated judicial world.
A miscarriage of justice. Ha Gi Ho had brought the case to the notice of Judge Cha Moon Sook. It seemed that Judge Cha knew their family relatively well. Connections did not hurt.
Ha Jae Yi's father and deceased mother were photographers. In the past, the Ha family had the privilege of being the photographers of the judge’s family.
 
Kang Yeon Hee, the Prosecutor, appeared and Ha Gi Ho asked whether Jae Yi still hated her former high school classmate.
   
That day would be one of Judge Cha’s finest hours. She declared proudly that Ki Seong was the most righteous city in the country and the citizens were interested in the law.
She delivered her judgement on the murder case. According to Judge Cha, the verdict for the case was, in her 30-year career, the most difficult decision that she had to make.
Judge Cha was at pains to explain to those present that the court did not condone murder in face of violence.
However, the case was different because the appellant’s life was in real danger.
She reasoned that men were physically stronger than women, and when attacked, women had no way of defending themselves.
She explained that the accused had endured emotional and physical abuse from her husband for 10 years. The victim had tried to flee from the 'inhumane' abuse.         
Had the defendant's life not been threatened, she would not have killed her husband in self-defence. She was driven over the edge to protect herself and her children.
Judge Cha had deliberated over the verdict of the Seoul district court and decided that it was controversial.
Therefore, the Ki Seong High Court determined that the earlier verdict should be overruled. The new verdict, which was in the defendant’s favour, was ‘Not guilty’.   
It was not surpising that the honourable Judge Cha Moon Sook had the admiration of the court audience. Their respect for her shot up a few notches. People would indeed liken her to ‘Lady Justice’.
But, Bong Sang Pil seemed sceptical about her; he was not, for a moment, deceived by her facade of fairness and justice.  Ha Jae Yi felt vindicated by the verdict. The triumphant feeling was vicarious since she was not the Criminal Defense Lawyer any more. 
When walking out of the court, Ha Gi Ho praised Judge Cha to the skies. He seemed like putty in her hands. He declared that she was the ‘Mother Teresa of Ki Seong’.
He, however, did not stay to enjoy his daughter’s triumph as he had to rush off to deal with a certain threat. Ha Jae Yi would soon learn that thugs were demolishing her father’s photo studio.
  
Kang Yeon Hee, the daughter of Nam Soon-Ja, Judge Cha’s righthand woman, waylaid Ha Jae Yi on the way out.
She was mistaken about Ha Jae Yi’s professional predicament but the latter told her that she was not disbarred but merely suspended. They talked briefly about her hot temper.   
Judge Cha overheard the conversation and rationalized that someone who was hot-blooded was still pure or genuine. She encouraged Ha Jae Yi not to give up.
    
Bong Sang Pil seemed to be monitoring Ha Jae Yi’s movements.
  |
A HUGE MOUSETRAP
IS
SET
Ha Gi Ho was heavily in debt. The goons, now Bong Sang Pil's employees were, in fact, the loan sharks from whom Ha Jae Yi’s father had borrowed heavily.
The five goons were in the midst of their demolition work – smashing photo frames and the more valuable assets of the simple neighbourhood photo studio when the feisty daughter returned. Harassment was one way to get back their money.
   
The thugs were not afraid of Ha Jae Yi in spite of the fact that she was a lawyer. They argued that she should know the law. She was handed some legal documents to sign.
 
Furious, the hot-headed lawyer headed out to Bong Sang Pil’s law office. She flew like a shot into Bong who was in the midst of reading up a thick law book.
      
Fuming, Ha Jae Yi hurled the documents into Bong Sang Pil’s face and accused him and his gang of being crooks.
   She declared that the law had changed the previous year. Tight restrictions made it illegal to charge exorbitant interest rates for loans. An interest rate of more than 20% per year was illegal.   
She told him in no uncertain terms that taking 45% interest was daylight robbery. It looked like he was a predatory loan shark.
Bong Sang Pil didn’t bat an eyelid; he stood up to his full height to intimidate her.
It was a legal battle. He agreed to adjust the interest rate.
Standing his ground, he expounded an important point that she had ignored in her arguments. He snorted that if there was a limit for interest rates, how come there seemed to be no deadline for the repayment of her father’s loan.          
In retaliation, Ha Jae Yi threatened to report his illegal money-lending business but he was undeterred.
He calmly scoffed at her for her dishonesty as she was trying to avoid repaying the loan.
He considered her threat to report him to be blackmail.
          
Bong Sang Pil coolly mocked her that she was asking for trouble. He revealed that he had heard that she had been suspended for six months for hitting a judge. And, if she was not careful and got into further trouble, she might be disbarred. It would be goodbye to the legal profession.
Would she risk it? He smiled questioningly.
      
Ha Jae Yi could rarely withstand taunting at whatever level.
She hated that broad, smug smile of his. She wanted to wipe it off.
She demanded to know if he had investigated her or monitored her movements.   
Bong Sang Pil had a goal in mind. The cheeky lawyer wanted to goad her to react. He thought it would be fun to flirt with her, taunt her and then, trap her.
 
He moved close to her. He looked lusty and hungry. In his silky-smooth voice, he cooed intimately and seductively into her ears that he didn’t do those kinds of checks unless it involved a certain type of female who had captured his fancy.
Was he implying that she might be his potential conquest?      
Some may cluck when they watch Ha Jae Yi bristle at his body
language and his words. She was not about to let his remark slide. Her rage
knew no bounds.
Taunted beyond endurance, the tigress punched him right in the face and he fell backwards.    
Was he nonplussed? It was beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had
made a thorough and detailed check on her background.
In fact, he had stalked her and was thoroughly entertained by her violent bursts of temper in the court in Seoul. He had been a witness when she punched the judge; he knew that she lacked emotional intelligence. That was her weakness.
He had not overlooked the fact that he, himself, might be on the
receiving end of her fury.
What had transpired was he had schemed and planned the confrontation like a military strategist; he had planned his verbal taunts with precision. He would not have been considered the best lawyer in Seoul had he not been prepared.  Now in Ki Seong, he had honed his verbal attack to perfection. It was a sure-fire way to elicit a violent response from her.
Punching a person was illegal. Imagine punching a lawyer – the
gangster lawyer! She was the aggressor, the attacker. There was no
justification for violence even though Bong Sang Pil had verbally goaded her.
She was guilty of assault and battery and could be sued.
Bong Sang Pil's law office had become a battle ground for the two legal minds as they locked horns. 
In the meantime, the Cat had already set a mousetrap for the Mouse. He knew she would
vent her fury on him.
It is interesting to note that these two were the best; she was the crème de la creme in her high school class and he, graduated from the school of hard knocks and was known as the top lawyer in Seoul. But, the lawless lawyer had the upper hand. A police jail cell. Mouse? She, sweating and bedraggled, looked like a rat half-drowned in misery. 
She shouted and screamed but to no avail. The temporary police holding cell door clanged shut.
Bong Sang Pil, the victim, refused to compromise or withdraw the assault charges.
    Change. Back, in his office, Bong Sang Pil confronted his new employees. He lectured them that his office was a legitimate law office and not a loan shark office. He patiently explained that they had to change and live a different life. They should not go against the law.                    |