You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 307

“You Guys Are Defended – Episode 307

“……Lawyer Kang, did you get proper treatment?”

When Kang Min-jae, who had been taken to the hospital, appeared sooner than expected, Chief Oh scrutinized him with suspicious eyes.

“Yeah, your palm must be wrecked, how can you be back so soon?”

Choi Jong-hyun and Jo Bong-joon also stared at Kang Min-jae’s hand, which was heavily bandaged, surprised by his quick return.

After sorting out the situation, they split into two groups at Oseong Landscaping.

All the injured people headed to the ‘back alley’ hospital [an unlicensed or informal medical clinic], while Jo Bong-joon, Choi Jong-hyun, and Chief Oh took the meter reader and ‘Shoulder Buddy’ to the place Tae-shik had arranged.

Some were less injured, but Tae-shik and Kang Min-jae, the key figures, were severely injured and had lost a lot of blood, so they thought it would take a long time. They didn’t expect them to be back so quickly.

“Is Tae-shik doing okay?”

“Yes. He’s just full of talk. I heard he was stabbed deeply, but I don’t know how he can talk so much. He seems fine. And I was worried because it was a back alley hospital, but the doctor is skilled. I don’t know if I can even call him a doctor.”

Kang Min-jae pulled out a folding chair next to them and sat down with an indifferent expression.

The place Tae-shik had newly arranged was perfectly optimized for confining and interrogating someone.

A large glass window facing the hallway allowed the inside of the room to be seen from the outside, and inside the room were a desk, a chair, and a cot.

The meter reader and ‘Shoulder Buddy’ were each locked in different rooms with handcuffs on.

The three of them had placed desks and chairs in front of the windows of each room, arranging them roughly like a prosecutor’s interrogation room.

“Wow, he arranged this place well. Tae-shik is good at his job.”

“Right. This place is like,”

“A newborn baby viewing room! If there were only babies lying inside, it would be just like a newborn baby viewing room!”

“……Not like a prosecutor’s office?”

Jo Bong-joon and Choi Jong-hyun, who had never been part of the prosecution, were expecting a prosecutor’s game, but were disappointed by Kang Min-jae’s analogy.

Then Kang Min-jae stroked his chin and tilted his head.

“It’s hard to call it a prosecutor’s office because the desks are in the hallway. What investigator sits at a desk in the hallway like a corporate employee waiting for an assignment?”

Kang Min-jae walked slowly, looking inside the window as he spoke.

“Is this bulletproof glass too?”

“I don’t know. But didn’t Tae-shik have bulletproof glass installed at Oseong Landscaping? What landscaping company uses bulletproof glass for a veranda?”

“That’s true. Then this must be bulletproof glass too.”

Beyond the window, ‘Shoulder Buddy’ was lying with his back to the outside.

He was still wearing handcuffs, an eye patch, and a gag.

“Even the prosecution doesn’t restrain people this much, we really look like villains. Is he conscious?”

“Yeah. He tried to escape a little while ago, but he’s quiet now.”

“That’s a relief.”

In fact, now that they had secured ‘Shoulder Buddy’, all that was needed was to properly monitor him so that he could not escape.

Of course, it would be even better if they could get a confession from him, but he wouldn’t confess as soon as he was caught.

Coming here from the hospital, Kang Min-jae had been thinking only of the meter reader.

Since the meter reader showed signs of opening his mouth, he was seized with the hope that he might actually confess if he went and asked him directly.

“What about the meter reader?”

“He’s just been quiet. Go and see.”

Kang Min-jae looked through the window next door, into the room where the meter reader was staying.

The meter reader was also lying in the same position as ‘Shoulder Buddy’.

“But now, please tell us. Why did you brothers come back? And what’s with the frying pan?”

At Kang Min-jae’s question, Jo Bong-joon and Choi Jong-hyun exchanged glances with Chief Oh for a moment.

Then Jo Bong-joon spoke first.

“We were just parked on the back road in case you suddenly called us for help.”

They knew what was going to happen at Oseong Landscaping from now on, so they couldn’t leave easily.

Of course, they couldn’t easily go in for the same reason.

They intended to check whether Kang Min-jae and Tae-shik’s people got out safely after finishing the job, and if there was a problem, they would contact Chief Kang.

Their plan included asking Chief Kang for help if everything failed.

Of course, they didn’t tell him that they would only inform Chief Kang when they really needed to activate the plan.

Anyway, they were waiting all night when Cha Joo-han suddenly called.

“Lawyer Cha called you?!”

Kang Min-jae shouted, his face turning pale as he listened to the story.

He felt chills down his spine just hearing that he had called Chief Oh, but when he heard that he had also contacted the two of them, he suddenly feared the backlash.

He had thought that he couldn’t keep it a secret forever, but he hadn’t prepared himself because he didn’t expect to be caught so soon.

“No, listen. So we said we didn’t know.”

“Are you sure?”

“……To be exact, he asked if we were together, and we said no, and that Kang was with Tae-shik. That’s not a lie, is it?”

“That’s true.”

“Anyway, then Cha must have smelled something and called Chief Oh. After a while, Chief Oh called us.”

“……And then?”

“Chief Oh said he was coming to Oseong Landscaping, so we couldn’t just stand by. So we decided to go in.”

“Why did you do that? It was dangerous! If the situation hadn’t been resolved, you brothers would have been hurt too!”

Kang Min-jae shouted, and the two scoffed.

“Are you one to talk? If we hadn’t gone in, you would have been killed by that bastard, and the meter reader would have been killed too. What a load of hot air.”

“…….”

“That’s why we went out with weapons! Frying pans!”

The frying pans they brought were the best weapons they could secure there.

They opened the trunk, wondering if there were any golf clubs or baseball bats they could use as weapons, and there was a frying pan, a free gift they had received when they bought a washing machine.

They even thought that the frying pan might be better than a baseball bat or golf club.

Kang Min-jae had said that they might have guns, so a frying pan would be a good shield.

“Anyway, that’s how we ended up going. Lawyer Cha doesn’t know anything. He just guessed it by instinct.”

“I think General is on Lawyer Cha’s side. Seeing him giving orders in this situation without knowing anything.”

“……How was the lawyer’s voice? Did he sound angry?”

Kang Min-jae asked, swallowing hard.

Then Choi Jong-hyun shrugged.

“I don’t know. He always has a stiff tone.”

“……Haa, I don’t know. I’ll just do my job for now.”

What’s done is done, the water has been spilled [an idiom meaning the situation cannot be undone].

Cha Joo-han would pick up the spilled water, but he didn’t have that talent.

He expected to be scolded anyway, so even if he was scolded, he had to produce proper results.

“Chief, would you like to come in with me? You’re better at this kind of interrogation than I am.”

“Oh, it’s been too long since I’ve done this kind of thing. I don’t know if I’ll be of any help.”

Even as he said that, Chief Oh’s eyes were shining.

“…….”

As they entered the room, the meter reader turned his head slightly to look at them.

Kang Min-jae and Chief Oh pulled up chairs and sat down near the bed where the meter reader was lying.

“Would you like to talk at the desk if you’re uncomfortable here?”

“……I’m fine.”

The meter reader replied in a hoarse voice to Chief Oh’s considerate question.

“You must have been very surprised today, are you okay?”

He did not forget to check on the meter reader’s condition.

He must have been devastated when he realized that his trusted colleagues had come not to save him, but to kill him.

For a very brief moment, when ‘Shoulder Buddy’ pointed a gun at him over the veranda door, he clearly looked surprised.

It was the first time he had seen his usually expressionless face contorted like that.

“I was a little surprised, but I’m okay.”

While Chief Oh was checking on the meter reader’s feelings, Kang Min-jae wanted to get to the point quickly.

He desperately needed his confession now, so he knew he had to coax him so that he wouldn’t change his mind, but in the end, that bastard was also a murderer.

According to the homeless man’s testimony, that bastard and ‘Shoulder Buddy’ worked together as a team to kill Lee Jung-chan.

Not only that, but that bastard broke into Cha Joo-han’s house to frame him, and later he was caught while running away when they broke into Hallim Corporation.

He had been waiting for his colleagues to rescue him, pretending to have some great loyalty, but now that he realized there was no hope, he was about to open his mouth, which was annoying.

But Kang Min-jae endured it.

It was a hard-won result.

To catch ‘Shoulder Buddy’, and to make the meter reader realize that no matter how much he kept his mouth shut, they would kill him anyway.

If he knew that going this way meant death and going that way meant prison, wouldn’t he choose prison instead?

It was a funny thing that Cha Joo-han had diligently taken him around in the early days because of his easygoing personality that was good at pleasing others, but now he wanted to be like Cha Joo-han and confront people.

“Mr. Meter Reader.”

Kang Min-jae, who had been silent, opened his mouth.

“I know what you mean, but we can’t help but think about the possibility that you might change your mind. So I’d like to record it.”

“……Go ahead.”

Without delay, Kang Min-jae took out the recorder he had brought in.

“If you’re going to cooperate, I’d like you to leave out the story that we kidnapped you.”

“I will.”

“If Shin or someone else presents evidence like CCTV footage and asks if you were kidnapped, how will you answer?”

“I’ll just say that you came to talk to me, but I ran away, and you caught me and talked to me for a while. Then I went into hiding, and the boss misunderstood on his own. Would that work?”

He seemed to have thought about how to cooperate.

‘He’s good at cooperating, that’s one good thing.’

Kang Min-jae thought to himself and pressed the record button.

“Yes. Good. Then please tell us everything in order from the beginning.”