Using a corpus of telephone and face-to-face Korean conversational data, this paper explores cases of represented talk (RT) that routinely emerge in second position as answer to a former turn that the speaker judges tricky and in need of repair. The singular design of blending direct and indirect reported speech enables Korean speakers to debate what to show and what to tell, according to the significance and pertinency of the present interaction and recipients. The paper further debates how this RT design is willingly followed in Korean conversation and how it fits within its interactional task of rebuilding cases from the speaker’s viewpoint.