Crystal takes a deep breath and puts her game face on as she enters the courtroom, her mother and siblings as well as Yoongi trailing behind her. Yoongi gives her hand an encouraging squeeze and ushers her siblings to seats on the first bench; and she and her mother go through the little gate that separated their seats from the public seats.
The defendants were already in their seats but she didn't pay them any mind. She took hers and adjusted her suit jacket in an unbothered fashion as they waited for the judge and jury to file in.
This was a civil suit and they'd already had their preliminary hearing, so the judge had decided on the traditional panel of 6. Due to her status as he'd put it, they selected jurors who lived further away from Seoul and questioned them heavily to ensure there would be no bias. Crystal liked this judge a lot. In fact, she'd specifically requested him for this case. It was a lot of paperwork and headache, but it would be worth it to have a judge who would be fair.
The jury files in first, followed but the judge and everyone got to their feet, stood, bowed, and remained standing until the judge struck the sound block with his gavel.
"Good morning. My name is Judge Moon and we are gathered here today in Seoul, South Korea's Court of Civil Code to discuss a complaint of Negligence and Discrimination filed by Cheung Crystal, Attorney at Law and Cheung Nadia against the defendant Cho Ilsung, who is being defended by his attorney, Choi Sangwoo and the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA). They present their cases today in front of a jury of 6 unbiased peers. Ms. Cheung, would you like to make an opening statement?" Judge Moon asks and Crystal stands to answer.
"Actually, I would not, Judge Moon. I think the evidence that I've collected will speak for itself; and I'd like to jump right in if the defendant agrees," she states.
Not giving the judge a chance to ask, hotshot attorney Choi Sangwoo stands from his seat as well, a cocky, easy going grin on his face.
He was one of the top lawyers here in Seoul and he often defended politicians and government entities, but usually in criminal court. Even so though, she was surprised to see that the PWBA didn't send more lawyers. Maybe they thought he was enough. Psh.
"Normally I'd have a killer opening statement prepared, but my client and I weren't made aware of the details of the case—"
"Strike that from the record," Judge Moon interjects and the court reporter in the corner nods as she deletes what she'd typed.
"Mr. Choi, that statement is misleading. You and your client kept yourselves in the dark by deciding to waive the right to your appearance at the preliminary hearing. I feel I should forewarn you that I do not tolerate any theatrics in my courtroom. This is Civil court, based strictly on facts and evidence, not who can put on a bigger show," Judge Moon scolds and Crystal shakes her head with a grim look on her face as the fights the urge to laugh as the sheepish attorney deflates.
"Yes sir," he simply states before sitting down heavily.
"Fucking dunce," Yoongi chimes in her head and she twists her lips to the side as she gathers the folders full of evidence.
"If I may," she says and the judge nods, gesturing for her to do so.
She approaches the bench and passes him his copy first before going to each member of the jury, who she made eye contact with, before returning with the last two copies for the defendants. They sneer at her and she smiles before heading back to her table. Her mother gives her a knowing look and she winks at her before starting.
"The first article of evidence that I've presented to you is a denial of pension for my client, Cheung Nadia. Her husband of 7 years, Cheung Jihoon died of tragic circumstances, leaving her behind with 4 children and her case worker, former President of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) and our defendant, Cho Ilsung, denied her his pension without valid reasoning. As anyone could conclude, this highly affected my client and her children's quality of life—a grieving widow and mother of 4 left to her own devices in a country that despite her at the time, 7 year citizenship—still views her as a foreigner and denies her rights due to discrimination."
"Objection! Your honor, the client is the attorney's mother. She can't defend her," Attorney Choi interjects and Judge Moon sighs and rolls his eyes.
Crystal bites down hard to keep what she wanted to say from bubbling to the surface.
"He's an idiot love, keep your cool," Yoongi encourages.
"Yes, we established this at yesterday's preliminary hearing. Looks like you should've been there. There is no law against it. You can continue Ms Cheung," Judge Moon, disdain in his eyes and tone.
"I'd like to call Mr. Cho to the stand," she says, her eyes tracking him as he cleared his throat and straightened his back, walking over to the stand in what he thought was a confident walk, but really looked like he had a stick up his ass. Once he was sworn in, she immediately produced another copy of the denial from her folder and handed it to him, getting straight to business.
"The legal requirement of documentation for a spouse to receive their deceased spouse's pension are as follows, for the deceased spouse—proof of death, name, resident registration number, gender, date of birth and death, and place of death must be provided. For the living spouse—marriage certificate, citizenship status, birth certificate, social security number and/or resident registration number for him/herself as well as any children they had together, and bank account number. If you flip through those pages in your hands Mr. Cho, you'll see that all those requirements were met and all the documentation was provided—so I ask, why did you deny this application?" she asks, her crossed hands resting on her her stomach as she waited.
"While you think, I'd like to add that you denied this application and then accepted the application his estranged family put in afterwards. I couldn't access that for privacy reasons, but the next page states that his pension was rewarded to his mother," she says, crossing his arms.
She stared him down as he read each page, her eyes never leaving the crown of his balding head. He studied the pages for a long moment, probably praying for a mistake he could point out, but there was none. Crystal had studied this case back and front a hundred times over.
"Mr. Cho?" the judge calls after it had been about 5 minutes.
"Sorry your honor. I just wanted to be thorough and I can't find a mistake here, but sometimes there are other factors. I'm not sure why his mother got it instead. This kind of mistake doesn't usually happen. I've always prided myself in the accuracy of my work," he says and Crystal scoffs.
"Other factors like what? Skin color?" she asks, and Attorney Choi gets to his feet.
"Objection! Prejudicial! She's accusing my client of being racist," he yells.
"Your honor, as you know from the preliminary trial yesterday, I have evidence that Mr. Cho is a racist, hence the discrimination aspect of the case," Crystal explains in a flat tone.
"What? You have no such—" Mr. Cho exclaims, rising out of his seat, but plopping right back down when the judge banged the gavel 3 times.
"Order! Ms. Cheung, I suggest you present that evidence or I'm going to have to strike that off the record," he says, but she's already crossing back over to the table to grab another handful of folders.
After everyone has a folder in their hand, she's left with one, which she opens as well as she paces in front of the jury.
"The first page of this evidence that I have presented to you is a pie chart depicting the white skinned "foreigners" who have been granted their spouses' pensions over the course of the last seven years vs brown skinned "foreigners" who have been rewarded their spouses' pensions over the same amount of time. I emphasize the word foreigners because none of these people were born here, but got their citizenships through marriage, just like my client. Would you agree that the difference is a cause for your concern in your former line of work Mr. Cho?" she asks, turning her attention to him.
"Well, there's—"
"That's a yes or no question, Mr. Cho. If you cooperate, we'll be out of here by lunchtime," she smiles.
He looks like he'd smack her if he could and she loves it, watching him squirm in his seat as he desperately tried to hold onto his good guy persona.
"Objection!" Attorney Choi exclaims and Judge Moon puts up a hand.
"Overruled, answer the question, Mr. Cho," he orders.
"Yes," he finally mumbles.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you," Crystal says and he growls out a yes that made the nearest member of the jury jump.
Crystal gives him a disapproving look and her a comforting smile before continuing.
"Mr. Cho, seeing as these numbers are public records, I'm sure you've seen them over the years. Did you try to do anything to fix this?" she asks and he smiles tightly.
"I'm sure I did. I don't remember this exactly, but I made sure to handle any problems of importance that arose during my reign as President of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. I like to say PWBA. It's a real mouthful," he says, grinning over at the jury in an attempt to he charming with his last two statements.
"Reign? Who the fuck does this guy think he is?" Yoongi mutters.
Crystal silently agrees.
"It's funny that you said that. Everyone please flip to the second, third, and fourth pages in your new evidence folders. They are all articles from Mr. Cho's "reign" as President of the PWBA; and they all praise him for having the only stretch of leadership that didn't encounter any workplace investigations. The third article, fourth page was printed directly from the PWBA website itself," she says, watching as his face fell again and whispers started around the courtroom.
"Mr. Cho, you just stated that you made sure you handled any problems of importance. However, these articles are a direct contradiction to your statement. Is discrimination not considered a problem of importance to you?" she asks and you could hear a pin drop in the court as everyone awaited his answer.
"How could you—" he exclaims, but she cuts him off.
"That's a yes or no question, Mr. Cho," she says, her tone condescending.
"Objection!" Attorney Choi calls, but she holds up a hand.
"No further question your honor, but I would like to discuss the two last pages of evidence," she says and he dismisses Cho from the stand.
He looks upset, but doesn't look at her directly as he walks past her, his walk not nearly as confident before. She watches him all the way back to his seat where he began mopping his sweaty face with a handkerchief from his suit jacket pocket before she speaks again.
"If you would, turn to the last two pages in the folder. These are the numbers of men and women of color who were denied their spouses' pensions over the course of time that Mr. Cho worked at the PWBA. The very last page is a line graph depicting the amount denials while he was working there and the substantial drop in those numbers after he retired three years ago. As you can see, the line is nearly flat all the way across these past three years, indicating little to no denials for people of color since he retired," she reiterates, looking each of the jurors in their faces.
"Nothing further your honor," she says after a heavy pause.
"Any further arguments?" the judge asks and after a whispering war with his client, Attorney Choi declines.
"Oh we've go this in the bag. They're nervous as hell," Nadia whispers and she nods.
"Ms. Chung, do you have any closing statements?" he asks and she nods, getting out of her seat again.
"I would like to take this time to shed light on the PWBA itself. I realize I've been focusing heavily on Mr. Cho, but he was allowed to do what he did because of poor workplace regulations. The PWBA is a government entity. We as workers contributing to the economy put out trust in the PWBA to ensure that we get our benefits after we retire—and ensure that if we perish before we can enjoy them, that they go to our families—to make sure our families don't have to grieve our losses and our finances. Unfortunately, that didn't happen for Nadia Cheung and so many other people of color," she says gesturing to the folders of evidence still in their hands.
"I can't speak to what other families went through, but I can attest first hand what happened to us. I was 16, Cheyenne was 10, Natalia was 3, and Christian was a newborn," she says, gesturing to each of them before speaking again and calling the jury's attention back to herself.
"My mother, Nadia, is still dealing with grief to this day because she wasn't afforded the time. With 4 hungry kids, a brand new mortgage, and no help after her husband's sudden death, she had to tirelessly work two, sometimes three jobs just get by. That left me, a 16 year old who had to keep her grades up in order to land herself right here in this courtroom one day while also caring for three kids with no a clue in the world. As you see, we're doing quite well for ourselves, but can we be so sure about the rest of the families this has affected? Statistics say that we can't," she says as she paces with her arms crossed.
"I'll close by saying that neither Mr. Cho nor The Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration did what was right; and there's substantial evidence that proves it. Now it's up to you if you'll join them in their blatant wrongdoing or help start the change that will prevent this from happening to anyone else. Thank you for your time," Crystal says before waking back to her seat and once again, you could hear a pin drop in the courtroom.
"Any closing arguments Mr. Choi?" the judge asks the defending attorney, who nodded and stood, his client giving him a puzzled look.
"The PWBA is a government entity, and what do all the government entities in this country have in common? Employees that are overworked. Statistically speaking, there's always been a shortage of government workers. Therefore, each division and entity always appoints a President to oversee it. The government has no choice but to trust their workers to do the jobs they've been appointed to do. The PWBA tries their best to weed out those who are lacking, especially in moral compass, but unfortunately, some slip through the cracks. Can we really blame the entity as a whole for that? I'm sure they would love to regulate the sector more strictly, but they simply can't do that when there's a shortage of workers. Personally, I don't think any of this evidence pertains to the PBWA as an entity as it does Mr. Cho. Think about it. Nothing further your honor," he says before walking back to his table where red faced Mr. Cho looked about ready to strangle him.
"Well, he threw his ass under the bus," Yoongi muses.
"More like pushed him in front of it," Crystal chuckles, mentally high fiving him.
"Alright, jurors, you will retire to the jury room to deliberate. When you have a verdict, please let the bailiff know. Court temporarily adjourned for deliberations," Judge Moon states, banging the gavel once and then returning to his chambers once the jurors were gone.
"I am so fucking proud of you girl," Nadia whispers, pulling her into a big hug.
"We haven't won the case yet mom," she smiles.
"As far as I'm concerned, we have. All these years, my story, the stories of those other families went unheard. You gave us a voice today," she says, tears pooling in her eyes.
"Don't make me cry here," she says, looking up at the ceiling to prevent the tears from falling.
Her mother rubs her back as they go back through the gate to wait and to her surprise, the audience had become very familiar.
"Not y'all in disguises," she laughs at BTS as Sehee, wearing a big, floppy hat that hid her face and a sundress hugs her tight.
"You ate their asses right on up. They were both pissy mad when they walked out," she says and Crystal laughs.
"Good, she replies before gasping.
"Seojun! Bora! What are you doing here?" She asks as she hugs them both.
"You know I wouldn't miss this for the world. This is the moment you've worked so hard for," he says, squeezing her shoulders.
"I told you I would be front row," Bora grins.
Before they could say anything further, the judge and jury file back in, making their eyes widen. It hadn't even been 5 minutes yet.
Everyone heads back to their seats and the defendants come back in followed by the bailiff who had probably let the know the jury was finished deliberating.
"All rise," Judge Moon booms and everyone stands, but sits when he does.
"Have you reached a verdict?" he asks and the juror chosen to speak nods.
"We have, your honor," he replies.
The bailiff hands the card they'd written their vows on to the judge and he reads it silently, checking it before handing it back to the bailiff, who passes it back to the juror.
"The jury finds both Cho Ilsung guilty of negligence and discrimination. the The Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration guilty of negligence," he says and Crystal sighs heavily, feeling lighter than she had in 10 years.
She fought the urge to cry, her knee bouncing underneath the table as her mother sniffles beside her.
"It is settled. Let's see, the The Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration is ordered to pay Cheung Nadia 11,4113,3500 wons in backpay and Cho Ilsung is ordered to pay 6,7125,5000 for pain and suffering caused by discrimination. The jury is thanked and excused. Court is adjourned," Judge Moon says with a final bang of his gavel.
There were low cheers in the courtroom but the one that made her smile the most was in her head.
"You did it jagi."
A/N: A Few more chapters from here. I think y'all are going to be pleasantly surprised with the next few 💜
Happy Mothers Day to all the mommies ❤️