The New Devil [The Devil Judge]

The Night Before the Inaugural

The house was tense and quiet when Gaon got home from the courthouse.

Being quiet wasn't strange for a home that he shared with no one. But for some reason, the mere idea of Yohan skulking around somewhere just made it a million times lonelier than when Gaon was actually alone. He hadn't seen Yohan since Yohan returned to Korea a few days ago, and frankly, Gaon wasn't sure he was ready for any conversation that resembled the one they'd had.

Yohan knew Sunah was alive. Great. Awesome. Terrible. Dreadful. Life was dreadful.

He didn't need to see Yohan to feel his disapproval. His words hung at the back of Gaon's mind, ringing throughout the day, causing Gaon to hesitate and second-guess every interaction. His co-judges kept sparing him worried looks, because even they were smart enough to know something was wrong.

But Gaon couldn't let that slow him down.

Yohan didn't understand what he was trying to do, so of course, Yohan would push back.

"Everything alright?" Sunah had asked, earlier that evening.

"Everything's fine," Gaon replied, washing the blood off his hands in the sink. There were cuts and bruises on his knuckles, but Gaon didn't care. He'd been itching to hit something and his office wall had borne the brunt of his anger.

"I hear Yohan is back in town."

Gaon sighed, picking a towel to wipe his hand.

"Please don't put me between you two."

She raised her hands in surrender.

"I'm just making conversation."

"I don't want to talk about him."

"You want to talk about this," she said, turning on the wall-wide screen in his office as Gaon leaned on the desk. "We have 30% control in these twelve areas, and 50% closer to Seoul."

A wide map of the country lighted, with little, blue boxes scattered around, depicting Sunah's strongholds. They weren't Gaon's. They were hers. Made by her connections.

But it was all Gaon's plan.

"After the inaugural ball tomorrow, how much are we expecting to rise?"

"After you become the official live court show judge? We're expecting a 60% increase, almost across the board, except here."

She placed the laser pointer on a part of the map that had significantly less blue boxes.

"Cha Kyunghee has strong ties in the area."

"She's dead," Gaon said, deadpanned.

"Her son inherited the property."

"He's a spoiled brat who doesn't care about any of it."

"He's not so spoiled anymore."

Sunah clicked the remote and a slide show of Lee Youngmin began, scrolling from him walking around the neighborhood, to him helping the locals, to him physically working on a building, himself.

"He's developed a soft spot for the area. Most of the tenants barely pay any rent."

"Why? Is he running for public office or something?"

"Nope," she said in English, the "p" sound resounding in the room. "He has too much money to care about rent anyway."

Gaon couldn't believe a person would change that much in a year.

But then again, who was Gaon to say that? He was living proof that anyone could change. If you hated your current situation bad enough, change was the only other option. And given that Lee Youngmin had been flogged in front of the entire country, few days before his mother committed suicide, it made sense that someone like that would want some difference in his life.