You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 5

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 5 (5/641)

I spent the time after work yesterday, late into the night, researching my ‘ability’.

First, I experimented with everything I could get my hands on.

Everyone I spoke to after work became a subject.

The convenience store clerk in my neighborhood, the security guard at the officetel [a type of mixed-use building in South Korea], etc.

Ultimately, I concluded that this ridiculous thing is actually real.

Of course, at first, it seemed absurd, but…

‘Whether it’s going back 10 years or gaining a strange ability, aren’t both equally absurd?’

Now that I’ve come this far, I’m confident that nothing could surprise me, even if something unimaginably crazy happens today.

I was calmer than ever as I organized my findings.

1. I can determine whether someone is telling the truth or not whenever I want to.

2. There is no limit to the number of uses.

3. I must be in direct contact with the person. Detecting lies in conversations over the phone or via messenger is impossible.

Lawyers are always battling between lies and truth.

This ability is unbelievably convenient.

Going back 10 years and gaining the ability to discern lies feels like a divine gift to compensate for my past failures.

“Good morning.”

[Lie]

I tested it on Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin, who looked like she was desperately trying to avoid coming to work, and it worked as expected.

That’s how all working people are.

It’s detecting lies even in such trivial greetings.

“Are you coming to this room again? Did you stop by the prosecutor’s office?”

“Oh. Why, Section Chief? This room is closer to the elevator, so I’m just showing my face.”

“Haha, really. Well, who wants coffee?”

“Me!”

Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin waves her hand enthusiastically.

Another investigator in the prosecutor’s office also subtly raised their hand.

“Prosecutor Lee, a latte. You too, a latte. And our Prosecutor Cha, iced Americano, right?”

“Yes.”

While he went out to buy coffee, I reviewed the documents Section Chief Oh handed me.

The assigned cases were all petty criminals.

Due to the nature of the department, all sorts of ridiculous petty criminals are always running rampant.

So, no matter how senior you are, you can’t completely avoid handling petty criminals.

Since I handle an average of 180 cases a month, it’s inevitable that some of them are included.

But the fact that *all* the cases assigned to me are petty criminals is a bit surprising.

I can only assume that the chief deliberately intervened.

‘It doesn’t seem like he intends to accept my resignation.’

He can’t assign a big case to someone who’s about to leave, can he?

“Prosecutor Cha, when are you leaving?”

Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin, who was slacking off in my room while waiting for coffee, asked.

“I’m not sure yet. I need to talk to the chief more.”

“That guy won’t let you go. He called me yesterday and asked if you had been badmouthing him. Well, he didn’t directly ask *if* you had been badmouthing him like that. You know the feeling, right?”

It was obvious. He probably asked if I had said anything about having a hard time lately.

“So, what did you say?”

“I said no. Did I do well?”

Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin is two classes ahead of me from the training institute and a cool, beautiful woman.

Her husband is a lawyer at Jangyoung Law Firm, a classmate from the training institute.

She, too, will eventually become a department head and move to Jangyoung, where her husband is.

She was quite worried about me taking a dangerous path, but she was also very realistic.

She drew a line, saying she couldn’t join me, but she sincerely supported me.

I fully understood her, and I thought we had built a friendship in our own way until the end.

Yes, what I wanted from the people around me wasn’t participation.

I just hoped they wouldn’t block my path.

That means anyone but a bastard like Hwang Young-chan is fine.

“No thank you? I should have lied and said you were swearing like crazy.”

“No. Thank you.”

“By the way, there are rumors swirling around that Prosecutor Cha is going to Taekwang [a large corporation]. Is it true?”

It was a common rumor when a prosecutor with good grades said they were resigning.

Maybe someone saw me entering the same hotel as the Taekwang representative the day I gave him a hard time.

“No.”

“No? I thought you and Min-jae were going to work together again.”

“Min-jae?”

When I asked in confusion, Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin let out a ridiculous laugh.

“You don’t remember Min-jae?”

“Who is that?”

“I’m so tired of this. You don’t even remember your own trainee? Two years ago, Prosecutor Kang Min-jae was your trainee. You scolded him until he was crying his eyes out, but you gave him a good score and sent him out, and I asked you if you were Kim Cheom-ji [a historical figure known for being strict], but you don’t remember?”

“Ah. Prosecutor Kang. I haven’t seen him much since his training, so I forgot. Is he at Taekwang now?”

“Yes. He worked as a prosecutor for a year and then went to Taekwang.”

“I see. That’s the first time I’ve heard about him.”

“I even bought him drinks a few times because he was suffering from meeting a senior prosecutor like you. I still contact him occasionally. Unlike you, who has no friends.”

From my current perspective, it was two years ago, but for me, it was twelve years ago.

Since then, I’ve had many trainees, and I treated all of them the same, so he didn’t particularly stand out in my memory.

“Anyway, our Prosecutor Cha is so uninterested in what’s going on around him. Like attracts like, I guess. Is that a trait of handsome guys?”

Did Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin think well of me because of my face rather than my ability?

“Prosecutor, here’s your latte.”

“Ah, as expected of our Section Chief Oh. You know my taste so well. The extra shot is perfect.”

“Hehe. Of course.”

“Then I’ll be going. Thanks for the coffee.”

Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin waved her hand and left my room.

From then on, the prosecutor’s office became quiet.

“Here’s your Americano, Prosecutor Cha.”

“Thank you.”

“Prosecutor, how about a cigarette?”

He handed me the coffee and subtly asked.

I nodded.

“I didn’t bring my lighter. Prosecutor, do you have a light…?”

“Here you go.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

We didn’t say anything until I finished the cigarette.

It was like a staring contest.

Who would bring up my resignation first.

“Prosecutor. What are you going to do after you resign?”

Section Chief Oh broke the silence.

“You know how ambiguous the 5th year is. If you’re not going to Taekwang, it seems like you’re going to Jangyoung… But you’ll be starting as an associate there, right?”

“I’m not going to Jangyoung.”

“Yes? Then where…?”

“I’m going to open my own practice.”

Section Chief Oh stared at me with a blank face.

“Prosecutor. Did something happen with the chief? Then you should transfer departments; why are you…”

Hwang Young-chan must have been stirring things up quite a bit.

If he asked Lee Ye-jin, he probably asked Oh more specifically.

“I feel like all I can do in here is handle cases as I’m told from above.”

“…Prosecutor.”

“I’d rather not make much money and help the weak; it’ll be more comfortable.”

“Is it because of Assemblyman Jang’s son? I was very angry at that time, too.”

I don’t remember clearly, but if my memory is correct, it was earlier this year.

It was a case where the son of a ruling party assemblyman assaulted a hostess at a bar.

As always with these kinds of cases, a thug willing to take the fall was well-prepared.

During the investigation, I learned that the politician’s son was a strong suspect.

That’s when I received external pressure for the first time. The deputy chief prosecutor called me in and told me to bury it and indict the thug.

The deputy chief prosecutor called me for dinner, and the politician was sitting there.

I reluctantly sat there to save the deputy chief prosecutor’s face, but I refused the envelope of money the ruling party assemblyman offered.

Because I was going to indict the politician’s son instead of the thug until the end.

And the result was obvious.

The evidence I had carefully kept in my drawer was stolen.

I eventually covered up the case because I couldn’t indict either the thug or the assemblyman’s son.

‘At this time, Hwang Young-chan also criticized the deputy chief prosecutor as a dog of power.’

Who would have known that Hwang Young-chan would be worse than the deputy chief prosecutor?

I thought I knew everything about Hwang Young-chan because he told me everything, big and small.

Except for the fact that he pocketed the bribe money.

If he hadn’t stabbed me in the back at the end, I would still think he was the same kind of person as me.

“I’ve been working here as an investigator for 10 years. I’ve seen a lot of things, good and bad. If you continue your life as a prosecutor, you’ll see even worse things.”

“I guess so.”

“If that’s hard to bear, I can’t stop you.”

Section Chief Oh smiled bitterly.

“I envy you, Prosecutor.”

“Me?”

“Yes. That ability to act according to your conscience. I envy that. I can’t do that when I think about my wife and kids.”

He sighed deeply and put out his cigarette.

“Give me a business card when it comes out. If there’s someone who needs help, I’ll tell them to go to your office, saying that you’re a very talented person. Hehe.”

I’ve worked with Section Chief Oh in both my previous life and this one.

From now on, his absence will be quite painful.

* * *

“This is the best place if you’re going to use it as a private office. It’s close to the courthouse, and although it’s not on the main street, it’s not far from the subway station.”

Finding an office was not as easy as I thought.

Every day, as soon as I got off work, I rushed around to several places I had marked, and today I finally found a decent place.

Fortunately, I’ve finished paying off my car, and I’ve been diligently saving money, so it’s not hard to afford the monthly rent and deposit.

I’ll have some severance pay, though it won’t be much.

Most of all, if things go according to plan, money won’t be a problem in the future.

“Let’s go with this one. My resignation hasn’t been accepted yet, so can we discuss the contract date later? It won’t take long. It’ll be confirmed in a few days.”

“I’ll discuss it with the building owner and send you a text.”

“Yes, please do.”

After spending a few days looking around, I got a pretty good place.

Since I’m going to be running it alone anyway, I won’t need that much furniture.

I can bring small items from home.

I got in the car with a light heart, and then a text came.

[Son, come home sometime when you have time. Let’s have a meal. – Mom]

As soon as I saw my mother’s text, I felt choked up and sighed deeply.

“Hoo.”

I stared at the text for a long time.

At first, I was going to visit my parents on the day I returned to 2008.

But I didn’t.