In the recent episode of Divorce Attorney Shin, Jo Jeong-sik, Sung-han’s childhood friend and tenant, is shown to have a link to Ju-hwa’s tragic past that still haunts him. Jo Jeong-sik is played by Jung Moon-sung.
Sung-han is friends with Hyeong-geun and Jeong-sik, who stay with him through thick and thin. While Hyeong-geun is a calm and naive individual, Jeong-sik is a rather eccentric man. He is a realtor who is also Sung-han’s tenant.
The man often claims that he does not have the money to pay the rent, but he always has enough money to buy fancy cars and clothes, as he loves luxury and often ends up overspending on luxurious items.
Jeong-sik as a friend
Jeong-sik, Hyeong-geun, and Sung-han are often referred to as the three losers or the three weirdos by people who know them. The three mostly spend their free time together; they either go drinking or camping.
Hyeong-geun and Sung-han work together, but they ask for Jeong-sik’s help whenever it is needed. He is asked to go undercover to find out the truth about Ae-ran’s relationship with her mother-in-law, as Sung-han needs to decide if he should take her case or not.
In a true Jeong-sik fashion, he goes to her neighborhood in a laughable disguise and investigates, but he succeeds in bringing back useful information.
However, he is not the brightest one in their group. He brings flowers for Seo-jin and ends up making her uncomfortable. Hyeong-geun tries to make him understand what he did wrong, but Jeong-sik is a lost cause and fails to see the main problem.
While Jeong-sik might seem ignorant at times, he is always there for his friends when they need him because he knows that both of them are suffering in some way or the other. His unconventional ways never fail to make Hyeong-geun and Sung-han smile at the end of a hard day.
Jeong-sik’s regrets
Initially, it seems like Hyeong-geun and Sung-han are the only ones who have regrets about their past. Jeong-sik seems to be a carefree man, but in the latest episode of the show, it was revealed that Jeong-sik blames himself for what happened to Ju-hwa.
When Sung-han was living abroad and Ju-hwa needed a lawyer, it was Jeong-sik who tried to find one for her on Sung-han’s behalf. Ju-hwa had a hard time getting a lawyer because the ones that she consulted ended up getting fired.
Jeong-sik believed that Daenam Electronics, Ju-hwa’s father-in-law’s company, was behind this and that Keumhwa Law Firm belonged to Daenam Electronics, but he was told that corporations cannot invest in law firms.
He introduced Ju-hwa to Yu-seok, thinking that Yu-seok is a competent lawyer. He had not expected Yu-seok to be corrupt; Yu-seok deliberately lost the case for his personal advantage, and Ju-hwa died.
Jeong-sik knows that Sung-han is still struggling because of what happened to Ju-hwa, and Jeong-sik holds himself responsible for it, even though Sung-han tells him that he did not do anything wrong.
When he finds out that Sung-han is going to fight Yu-seok in court, he not only agrees to use his precious car to help with the case but also decides to accompany Hyeong-geun to Haenam. When he comes across Yu-seok there, he gets furious and wants nothing more than to see him lose.
As he is Sung-han’s childhood friend and has witnessed his suffering firsthand, he gets protective towards him, as seen when Ms. Ma comes to visit Sung-han, and it becomes clear that he will stand by his side till the end.
Although Jeong-sik carries the burden of his past mistake, his character mostly provides comic relief in the show. He is the kind of man who invites his friends to go out for drinks but does not show up himself. Somehow, he always ends up making a fool of himself, which never fails to entertain the audience.
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