I Became a Law School Genius

Chapter 39

『 Translator – Divinity 』

“Do as you please.”

“…Yes?”

“Whether you secretly return the items and pretend nothing happened, or confess the truth and sincerely apologize to each person, it’s your choice.”

Seo Hui-jin blinked, as if not grasping the situation.

“Are you forgiving me?”

“Forgive you? No way.”

As I repeatedly said, I didn’t have the right to forgive Seo Hui-jin on behalf of others. Nor did I intend to.

“I don’t have the right to judge you or pardon you. I’m just a third party who happened to discover the culprit by chance. Wouldn’t it be strange for me to decide what happens to you?”

So, I leave the decision to Seo Hui-jin herself.

“Think of it as a test of your conscience.”

“Conscience, you say…”

“Reflect on your actions in light of your own sense of justice and morality. Whether it’s right to simply return the stolen items and continue living as if nothing happened. Whether that’s okay. And if it’s not okay, what you should do to take responsibility for the harm you caused.”

I shrugged.

“After all, we’re all here to become legal professionals.”

They must have had dreams.

They must have had goals.

That’s why they were so desperately struggling not to fail.

I was telling her to reflect on her actions in light of those dreams and ideals, and to walk a path she wouldn’t be ashamed of.

It would be fine if Seo Hui-jin publicly admitted her wrongdoing.

That was also the direction my personal conscience and sense of justice desired, and it would be an opportunity for the timid Seo Hui-jin to reflect on her actions and move forward.

On the other hand, if she decided to turn a blind eye and pretend she didn’t know anything, it couldn’t be helped.

Because that wasn’t a result I chose or decided.

It was ultimately Seo Hui-jin’s own decision.

Whether it aligned with justice and fairness was something Seo Hui-jin had to worry about and take responsibility for.

‘Now, what will you do?’

I couldn’t know the weight of the dreams others carried.

So, show me.

Your resolve.

After a long silence, Seo Hui-jin finally seemed to make up her mind and spoke in a low voice.

“I…”

***

“So that’s what happened.”

Han Seol pointed at her smartphone with a complex expression. The screen displayed the group chat that included all the law school classmates.

[There’s something I want to tell you all.]

Seo Hui-jin’s apology message, starting with that sentence, appeared there.

Of course, she wasn’t trying to get away with just a few lines of text.

She wrote that she would reveal exactly what she did and personally apologize to each person while returning their belongings.

‘Well, I expected this.’

Seo Hui-jin wasn’t a very strong-willed person.

In the first place, the theft was a result of her being driven by obsession and anxiety, and she wasn’t shameless enough to withstand the pangs of conscience.

Even in the original story, she was caught by Shin Seo-joon’s fake CCTV tactic and returned the items.

It was easy to guess that she wouldn’t betray her own conscience.

‘And that’s what I wanted to believe.’

I was an outsider in this world.

As a reader, “In the Law School” was the webtoon I loved most.

This Hankuk University Law School was the stage I dreamed of and yearned for, and I read each episode, envying and admiring all the students.

That’s why I wanted to give her a chance.

I wanted to believe that she could turn things around.

They were still fledglings who hadn’t properly stepped into society, so they could make mistakes and be swayed by temptation.

Even so, I was hoping somewhere in my heart that they would be able to face their mistakes and reflect on themselves.

“How are the other students reacting?”

“Some are angry and turning away from her, asking how she could do such a thing… but the general atmosphere seems to be forgiving. Apparently, she was originally a kind person who helped her classmates.”

Some even said they were sorry for not noticing how much pressure she was under and offered to help her with her studies.

It seemed that Seo Hui-jin’s usual reputation wasn’t that bad.

But if I had forcibly reported her, this would have been an impossible sight to see.

‘Well, she can’t avoid taking responsibility completely.’

There were still people who would hold her accountable.

After all, she had stolen others’ belongings and caused a disturbance, so there was still a possibility of disciplinary action according to school regulations.

‘It’ll be difficult to negotiate with the Society president now.’

Compared to the original story, I hadn’t helped Seo Hui-jin; rather, I had driven her to a more disadvantageous outcome.

My original plan to put her in my debt and soften the Property Law Society president’s sharp attitude was down the drain.

But I wasn’t too disappointed.

As I said myself, materials were good to have, but it wasn’t a big deal if I didn’t have them.

The presence or absence of materials wouldn’t fundamentally change my skills.

If I couldn’t get the model answers, I could just put in more effort and discuss them to create my own solutions.

‘Ah, come to think of it, I forgot to bring it.’

I had hidden the materials related to the Civil Law III past exam questions deep inside my locker while uploading the materials to lure Seo Hui-jin, and I had forgotten to retrieve them.

I was planning to finish analyzing the past exams tonight. I had no choice but to turn my steps towards the reading room.

“Wait. You there.”

And in front of it, I encountered an unexpected person.

“…The Property Law Society president?”

Seo Su-jin, the reclusive Property Law Society president who never left the self-study room, was blocking my way.

She scratched her messy hair and replied,

“Don’t call me that. The Property Law Society is gone.”

“Ah, yes.”

I stepped back slightly from Seo Su-jin.

Why was she approaching me at this time?

Was she here to point fingers and demand I take responsibility because her sister was facing disciplinary action because of me?

As I looked at her with wary eyes, Seo Su-jin, who had been avoiding my gaze, finally spoke hesitantly.

“Well… thank you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I heard you stopped Hui-jin. I knew she was having a hard time after entering law school… but I didn’t know she was under so much pressure that she would do such a thing.”

Perhaps seeing her own sister like this played a part. Seo Su-jin muttered bitterly.

“I’m sorry about last time. I was so unstable that I ended up being harsh. After calming down a bit, I realized I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

Seo Su-jin took out a pill bottle from her pocket and swallowed a pill.

During my bar exam preparation days, I had seen many people taking the same pills prescribed by the hospital, so I immediately recognized them as tranquilizers.

‘Was she even seeing a psychiatrist?’

“And… I heard you said that.”

“Said what?”

“That those who failed must have worked hard too. That there were just more outstanding people.”

Seo Su-jin pressed her hand against her forehead with a trembling hand.

“No one told me that. Everyone just pointed fingers at me and blamed me, saying, ‘How could someone like you fail the exam? You must have been lazy and negligent.'”

But there’s no way she was truly lazy.

In the first place, being the president of a law society wasn’t an easy task for a law school student.

She probably studied and researched more than others, not less.

Rather, in cases like Seo Su-jin’s, it was more likely that the excessive amount of studying overwhelmed her, or that she lost her direction and wandered, leading to such a result.

She might be foolish, but it was only natural for her to feel wronged by being called lazy.

“How should I put it… it was a bit of a comfort.”

Saying that, Seo Su-jin handed me some documents.

“Take it.”

“This is…?”

“You’re a first-year, right? You’ll be taking Civil Law III with Professor Jeon Gyu-wan soon, won’t you? As you can see, I don’t have much to offer in my current state… but as the former president of the Property Law Society, I can at least do this much.”

The bundle of papers Seo Su-jin handed me was the model answers for Professor Jeon Gyu-wan’s past exam questions that I had been desperately searching for.

As I stared at Seo Su-jin in a daze, she turned around, waved her hand, and left as if running away.

“What in the world?”

I had given up on the model answers, and now they had fallen into my lap out of nowhere.

I followed Seo Su-jin with my eyes and then opened the bundle of model answers.

“They’re mostly similar to what we made.”

Skimming through them, the overall structure was similar, but there were some parts that cited different precedents or introduced unfamiliar academic debates.

These were points that could earn extra credit, which I wouldn’t have known without seeing the model answers.

Despite being dumbfounded, it was a clear gain.

As I was smiling and flipping through the pages, I suddenly realized that the bundle of papers was too thick for just model answers.

“Is there something else?”

As I flipped through the pages further, the model answers ended, and documents with a completely different format appeared.

[Property Law Research: Analysis of Frequently Tested Issues in the Bar Exam]

[Jeon Gyu-wan]

Looking closely, they were practice questions and their solutions, created by Professor Jeon Gyu-wan by modifying past bar exam questions.

The bar exam questions from that time were quite different from the current ones.

The current bar exam questions are usually broken down into smaller parts, with each question asking about one issue.

It focuses on how well you know and can explain the testable issues, rather than your ability to identify them.

On the other hand, during the bar exam era, vague and comprehensive questions like “Discuss the legal relationship between A, B, C, and D” were frequently asked.

It’s asking how many legal concepts you can extract from the given text and how well you can unravel the complex relationships between them.

It’s a type of question that requires a deeper understanding and interpretation ability.

As such, it was a suitable task to test the limits of one’s skills, but it was hard to shake the feeling that it was a bit excessive for midterm preparation.

“…Still, it’s nice to see this after a long time.”

Actually, this was more familiar to me than the current bar exam and its questions.

My thinking process, habits, and even the tempo of reading texts were all geared towards this.

I even had to practice restraining myself from writing answers that delved too deep.

Therefore, I decided to solve these problems before the exam as well.

Although it would be asking too much to recommend them to the others, it wouldn’t be bad for me to solve them alone.

If I had the time, it wouldn’t be a bad way to test my skills.

Pleased with the unexpected harvest and the nostalgic scent of the problems, I hummed a tune as I returned to my studio apartment.

It was a very satisfying day.

***

“It was a very dissatisfying day.”

Choi Sung-chul muttered to himself, locked in his study.

Actually, it wasn’t just today that was dissatisfying. These days, every day was dissatisfying. The reason, of course, was fixed.

Choi Sung-chul stared intently at the student roster in his hand.

His eyes were fixed on a single name.

“Park Yoo-seung…”

Choi Sung-chul groaned.

It was now difficult to even count how many times this certified delinquent of Hankuk University had gotten the better of him.

It was a tenacious bad relationship that continued from their undergraduate days, and not only had he been defeated in terms of grades and performance in the Legal Clinic, but now he had even lost a small bet with Jang Yong-hwan.

“What in the world happened?”

He acknowledged that Park Yoo-seung had talent, but he firmly believed that he wouldn’t put in the effort.

There was no way the bad habits ingrained from a life of indolence could disappear so quickly.

But Park Yoo-seung had once again easily overcome the hurdle of Jang Yong-hwan’s exam, which couldn’t be overcome without effort.

Choi Sung-chul gritted his teeth.

He wasn’t very familiar with failure or unexpected variables.

Choi Sung-chul’s career, built over a decade in the financial industry, was filled with only success, and he had always achieved whatever he wanted.

But after becoming a law school professor, things had been a mess.

Of course, he quickly rose to the position of vice dean, but Choi Sung-chul had encountered formidable opponents.

The current dean, Kang Chang-soo. That stubborn old man.

And Jang Yong-hwan.

A strange man whose true intentions were impossible to grasp.

On top of that, now even the Dean’s incompetent nephew was disrupting Choi Sung-chul’s perfect plans.

“…No, I can’t let this stand.”

He could ignore the other two, but being outsmarted by a mere law school student was unacceptable to Choi Sung-chul’s pride.

He had to do something.

He had to set up a stage where Park Yoo-seung’s shallowness would be exposed, where his insignificant true nature would be revealed.

“A way to do that… Yes, there is one!”

Choi Sung-chul’s lost gaze fell upon a bundle of papers scattered on his desk.

It was the Commercial Law midterm exam for the second-year students that he had created but discarded.

The reason for discarding it was simple.

“It’s too difficult.”

These questions were created by refining the issues and logic from the bar exam era.

The academic depth and complexity of thinking required by the bar exam didn’t align with the current bar exam trends at all.

Although it might be effective in differentiating the top students, it wasn’t suitable for training the majority of students.

As the vice dean, who had to consider not only the top performers but also the overall bar exam passing rate, it was an undesirable choice.

“…But this is no time to be picky.”

Park Yoo-seung’s improvement in skills was recent. He could say that with certainty.

No matter how much effort he put in, he would have had no choice but to cram knowledge in a short period, focusing on past bar exam questions.

“With such a superficial method, would he be able to handle these kinds of problems?”

With questions that fully embodied the essence of the bar exam, that guy would surely struggle.

It wouldn’t be bad to intensely train this year’s first-year students, who were a golden generation.

The more he thought about it, the better the idea seemed.

Choi Sung-chul, with a smug look on his face, started searching through his bookshelf.

The materials in his study weren’t limited to the questions he created himself.

Various works created by other professors who researched bar exam questions were often sent to him for review.

Since the professors’ writing activities were also reflected in the law school’s certification evaluation, it was natural for him, as the vice dean, to grasp the trends.

“Found it.”

Soon, Choi Sung-chul pulled out a bundle of papers and held it in his hand. He placed it on his desk and opened his laptop.

Then, he started writing an email to the professors in charge of the first-year students.

—This is the Vice Dean. Regarding the setting of the midterm exam questions…

Choi Sung-chul glanced at the bundle of papers he had just put down.

[Property Law Research: Analysis of Frequently Tested Issues in the Bar Exam]

[Jeon Gyu-wan]

One of his proud secret weapons that would surely defeat Park Yoo-seung was showing off its presence.