No Moral

Yesterday was the first time he kissed a man. Instead of hating it or feeling repulsed, it was exhilarating.

Upon coming to that thought, a blush stained Yoonshin’s cheeks.

At that moment, Secretary Tak finished copying the files and was returning to Yoonshin with the originals and the copies. “Here you go, Attorney Do.”

Yoonshin took the papers and leaned in, whispering, “Thank you. Right, did Attorney Kang say anything about any work that he’ll assign me? I looked through all the team’s matters, but he told me to attend the case meeting for only the ones that he directed me to. He told me to wait, but I can’t help but feel a bit impatient.”

“Oh, actually, he had some instructions for you this morning. I think you’ll be taking on a new matter. Attorney Kang said he’s probably going to take an acquisition case.”

“Acquisition? Who’s selling what?”

“Youngjin Construction is being acquired. Taesan Construction heard the word that Youngjin was finally going to sell and wanted to buy the business. Taesan asked us to frame the circumstances as naturally as possible. Senior Attorney Kang is quite good at designing these. Since it’s an M&A of a publicly listed company, he needs a lot of specialists, so he’s choosing the members of this project from other teams as well.”

“Members? Our team isn’t taking it?”

Secretary Tak shook his head at the absurd question. “These things need a lot of specialized knowledge. It’ll be so large-scale that even if our entire team went at it, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. There’s a mountain of taxation and financial issues like acquisition tax, transfer tax, registration fees, and all sorts of other things. It’s better to pick people from different departments.”

“I guess it’s a special team of sorts then?”

“Yes. He usually does M&As like that. Sometimes, we do it with other law firms. That’s where you’re involved. Your specialty is in labor law, right? I’ll send you the documents by email soon.”

The work Yoonshin was doing so far was all from Sehun’s individual file load or smaller matters involving a few lawyers, so a large-scale collaboration was new to him. Yoonshin felt like he finally was a part of Doguk. He met Secretary Tak’s eyes with anticipation and worry. Yoonshin thought he might as well ask, “I’m just asking since I feel like you might know well, but December 31—do you know what that day is?”

“December 31? That’s the year-end. It’s not a weekend this year, so it’s not a holiday,” Secretary Tak replied.

Yoonshin pressed harder. “I saw it marked with an X in Senior Attorney Kang’s desk calendar. It didn’t seem like a birthday. Is it the anniversary of his first trial date? Or his parent’s date of passing?”

“Ohhh, Senior Attorney Kang. Not as far as I know. It’s just a vacation day.”

Yoonshin’s eyes grew round, unable to comprehend immediately. “So you’re saying that he marked a simple vacation day in advance like that?”

“Mmm, well, to be honest, I’m not very sure. He takes that day off every year no matter what. I don’t know anything more than that. Maybe he plans on resting thoroughly after a year of hard work and in preparation for the next year.”

“So there are things that you don’t know, huh?”

“Yeah, right? I can’t tell you anything more than that. Honestly, I only talk about work with him. Senior Attorney Song is closer to him on a personal level, so you could ask her.”

There was no reason for Yoonshin to loiter any longer. He thanked the secretary for his tips and shook the papers in his hands before returning to his office. Then, feeling reluctant to go back to his office, Yoonshin changed directions. He knocked on Sehun’s door and heard a subdued, “Yes?”