You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 411

#412

“Loo-loo-loo~ Loo-loo-loo~.”

Tae-shik checked the taser gun attached to his body and the walkie-talkie connected to the staff as he headed to Cha Joo-han’s house.

The time was 2:30 AM.

It was obvious that Cha Joo-han would be asleep, so he had to enter quietly.

If he were to wake Cha Joo-han up while entering, he could just imagine how much of a fuss he would make with his personality.

Tae-shik passed through the parking lot with the access card he received from Cha Joo-han and stood in front of Cha Joo-han’s house.

Cha Joo-han had told him the password, so he just needed to open it with that and go inside.

The password was 10 digits long, as if trying to act smart even with a password, so Tae-shik took out his phone, slowly entered the written password, and opened the front door.

The house was quiet.

All the lights were off.

“Hmm?”

Without any suspicion, he was about to take off his shoes and go inside when he noticed Cha Joo-han’s pair of shoes lying around in the hallway.

He thought that Cha Joo-han’s personality would be to neatly place his shoes, but surprised, Tae-shik tilted his head.

“It wasn’t like he came in a hurry earlier either.”

Tae-shik muttered.

Come to think of it, he remembered Cha Joo-han compulsively arranging his shoes neatly when they came home together earlier.

‘Did he go somewhere while I was gone?’

Tae-shik tilted his head and entered the house.

Even if he had gone somewhere, he wasn’t the type of person to throw his shoes off like that.

He instinctively headed towards Cha Joo-han’s room.

He wanted to just slightly open the door, so he went to the bedroom past the hallway.

‘Why is the door open?’

He didn’t think that guy would sleep with the door open with his personality.

Tae-shik carefully entered the room.

“What the.”

There was no one on the bed.

Only bedding that had fallen under the bed, like the shoes he saw in the hallway, was rolling around on the floor.

Did he go out in a hurry?

Tae-shik called Cha Joo-han.

[The customer is not answering the phone…]

He was the one who said that no matter where he went in the future, he would stick close to his side and protect him.

If he suddenly went somewhere while Tae-shik wasn’t there, he would have left a message for Tae-shik.

But there were no messages on his phone, and even after searching the entire house, he couldn’t find a memo left by Cha Joo-han no matter how hard he looked.

A bad feeling came over him.

Cha Joo-han, who compulsively cleaned his surroundings, wouldn’t have left his shoes and bedding like that.

What to do, what to do…

“Ah, GPS.”

There was a GPS receiver that Cha Joo-han had ordered the National Intelligence Service to make while assigning Tae-shik’s family members as bodyguards for Kang Min-jae, Choi Jong-hyun, and Jo Bong-joon.

He had Kang Min-jae’s and Cha Joo-han’s made in the shape of lawyer badges.

This was because Cha Joo-han calculated that even if they were kidnapped and had their phones or devices taken away, they wouldn’t touch the lawyer badges.

Tae-shik turned on the GPS receiver app.

“What, is something wrong with this?”

Cha Joo-han’s location was strange.

“Why is this guy out on the sea?!”

Tae-shik repeatedly turned the app off and on, and even restarted his phone.

But Cha Joo-han’s location kept showing up as the sea, and it was even slowly moving further out to sea.

Tae-shik hesitated for a moment and then called Kang Min-jae.

─Ugh… Hello…

“Kang Attorney!”

─Ugh… What time is it to be calling…

“The Attorney has disappeared!”

─Huh?!

Kang Min-jae screamed as if he had woken up from his sleep.

“I can’t reach him, and when I checked his location with GPS, it’s out on the sea!”

─Out on the sea? Why?

“And what’s strange is that, unlike the Attorney, his shoes are thrown around in the hallway, and the bedding is a mess. Damn it, could he have been kidnapped?!”

─Kidnapped?!

Given the timing, it wouldn’t be strange if he was kidnapped.

He had leaked the story of L&B, where Woo-shin’s tens of billions of slush funds were concentrated, on the broadcast, and Woo-shin, who didn’t want this fact to spread any further, might have decided to get rid of Cha Joo-han, who was like a thorn in their side.

It wasn’t like Woo-shin hadn’t attacked Cha Joo-han in the meantime.

─Okay, just a moment. I’ll turn on my GPS too.

Kang Min-jae shouted a moment later.

─It’s really the sea? No, why is he at sea at this hour… Is it really a kidnapping? Ha, this is driving me crazy. First, Tae-shik, the closest place to where the GPS is pointing seems to be Incheon Port, so go there. I’ll go too.

“If it’s really a kidnapping, we won’t be enough.”

─I’ll get support and go. Let’s meet there first.

After the call with Kang Min-jae, Tae-shik hurriedly ran out of the house, got into his car, and drove off.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kang Min-jae also woke up and started looking for Heo Min-woo’s name on his phone.

It was late, but considering the possibility that Cha Joo-han had been kidnapped, waking him up would be no big deal.

─Hello?

The voice on the phone was clear.

It seemed like he wasn’t asleep yet.

“Detective Heo, I think there’s a problem.”

─A problem? What kind of problem?

“The Attorney, I mean, Attorney Cha Joo-han, seems to have been kidnapped.”

─What?!

Heo Min-woo also showed a reaction that was no different from Kang Min-jae, who had heard this story for the first time.

He could even hear the sound of a chair falling over the phone.

“When I checked the GPS, he’s out on the sea. There’s no reason for Attorney Cha to be out on the sea at this hour. And the house is also a mess, unlike Attorney Cha. The Attorney has a bodyguard, but he disappeared while the bodyguard was away. He didn’t leave a separate memo, and Attorney Cha is not interested in fishing.”

Kang Min-jae told Heo Min-woo as much of the situation as he knew, so that he could accept the situation of the kidnapping at once.

─Out on the sea? Which sea?

“The Incheon area.”

─Incheon… If it’s out on the sea, we’ll need the help of the Coast Guard. I’ll contact the Coast Guard and get support. Is Attorney Cha’s location still changing in real time?

“Yes. He keeps going further out to sea. I don’t know how far he’ll go, but if you think about what the kidnappers might have done, wouldn’t they have disguised themselves as a fishing boat? So they’ll go as far as a fishing boat can go. I think they’re probably going that far with the intention of killing Attorney Cha in the open sea and abandoning his body.”

It was a situation he didn’t even want to think about in his dreams, but if the kidnappers took Cha Joo-han to the sea, there seemed to be no other reason.

─Okay. I’ll contact the Coast Guard first and get back to you.

“Attorney Cha’s bodyguard and I are going to head to Incheon Port.”

─Then I’ll arrive there and contact you. Please let me know if the location changes in real time. It would be helpful if you could capture the GPS screen and send it to me.

“Yes, I understand.”

Kang Min-jae, who had received the call while putting on his clothes, left the room and ran down to the first floor.

Jeong-hyeok, who was in charge of his security, also followed him down quickly.

Kang Min-jae shook his head at Jeong-hyeok’s offer to drive and got into the driver’s seat.

“Ha…”

While driving to Incheon Port in the car, an uneasy feeling kept rising.

What if he was one step late?

What if something happened to Cha Joo-han because of that?

His mind felt like it was turning white.

Besides, Cha Joo-han also had trauma.

He was a person who had seizures periodically, so what would happen if he had a seizure and provoked the kidnappers?

In his head, all sorts of bad situations that he could think of were floating around.

Fortunately, there weren’t many cars because it was dawn, so Kang Min-jae was able to arrive at Incheon Port without much delay.

At the same time, he received a call from Heo Min-woo.

“How did it go with the Coast Guard?”

─I have someone I know at the Coast Guard, so it was easy to talk to them. They said they’re leaving right away, but where are you, Attorney Kang?

“I’m at Incheon Port.”

─I just tracked Attorney Cha’s phone GPS, and the location is showing up as Seocho. Do you have another GPS receiver separately?

“Yes. We have something we made for safety reasons.”

─Then is Attorney Cha’s location still changing now?

At Heo Min-woo’s question, Kang Min-jae checked his phone.

It was the same location as he had checked 10 minutes ago.

“No. It’s the same.”

─Then please send me that location. I’ll pass it on to the Coast Guard.

Kang Min-jae sent Cha Joo-han’s location to Heo Min-woo and got out of the car.

He sat on the hood of the car and stared blankly at Incheon Port, when a car with its headlights on stopped right behind him.

“Attorney Kang!”

It was Tae-shik.

“How did it go, that support force?”

“The Coast Guard is leaving now.”

“The Coast Guard, as in the maritime police?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a relief.”

Watching Tae-shik stroke his chest, Kang Min-jae bit his lip.

What if the Coast Guard was even a second late and couldn’t save Cha Joo-han?

The anxiety once again engulfed him.

He couldn’t even imagine what would happen if he saw Cha Joo-han’s body here.

No, that wouldn’t happen.

The Coast Guard had been dispatched, so that wouldn’t happen.

He wanted to tell Heo Min-woo that he would ride on the Coast Guard’s boat with them, but he couldn’t even bring himself to say it, thinking that he might be a hindrance.

All he could do right now was just hope that the Coast Guard would find Cha Joo-han and return.

Wee-ing─

The sound of the Coast Guard being dispatched could be heard from afar.

“Attorney will be okay, right?”

Tae-shik also seemed worried, and carefully opened his mouth in the midst of the lengthening silence.

“He has to be okay.”

He said that, but Kang Min-jae’s insides were rotting.

He wanted to ask if they had found him now, if they were saving him, every minute and second, but he didn’t know the Coast Guard’s contact information, and he didn’t think Heo Min-woo would know either.

All he could do was wait.

He felt like he was going crazy.

Had an hour passed like that?

He received a call from Heo Min-woo.

“Hello? Detective Heo, how did it go?”

─Go to the emergency room at Incheon Segwang Hospital. They said they moved the Attorney there.

“The emergency room? Was the Attorney badly hurt?”

─I heard he’s unconscious. I’m also on my way to Segwang Hospital, so let’s meet there.

“Okay, I understand.”

Tae-shik and Kang Min-jae immediately headed to Segwang Hospital.

Kang Min-jae’s fingertips trembled slightly at the news that Cha Joo-han was unconscious.

He had been rescued, but it wasn’t certain whether he could live or not.

“Jeong-hyeok, can you drive for me?”

Kang Min-jae handed the keys to Jeong-hyeok and got into the passenger seat powerlessly.

And headed to Segwang Hospital.

“Where is the patient the Coast Guard rescued?”

As soon as he got out of the car, Kang Min-jae ran to the emergency room, panting, and grabbed a nurse.

“Ah, are you a guardian? It’s over there.”

At the end of the nurse’s pointing, a hospital bed with doctors gathered around it came into view.

As Kang Min-jae ran there, he saw the doctors performing CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation].

CPR meant that he had had a cardiac arrest.

Kang Min-jae roughly pushed his way through the nurses and looked at Cha Joo-han lying on the bed.

Cha Joo-han’s face, which had turned completely white, looked like he was looking at a corpse.

“I’m the patient’s guardian. What’s his condition now?”

A man in a Coast Guard uniform answered instead.

“He had a cardiac arrest when he was rescued from the sea, so we performed CPR on the boat, and even after being transferred to the hospital, there was no improvement, so we’re continuing to attempt CPR.”

Kang Min-jae’s gaze naturally turned to the blood transfusion pack.

“He also lost a lot of blood from a wound, so he’s also getting a blood transfusion.”

The doctors took turns and continued to perform CPR without rest.

Kang Min-jae clenched his fist tightly.

He had never thought that Cha Joo-han would die.

Even when Cha Joo-han had explained the possibility, he had often dismissed it, thinking, ‘Still, he’s Cha Joo-han, so no way.’

In his heart, Cha Joo-han had been portrayed as an immortal man.

Seeing him receiving CPR with a pale face after having a cardiac arrest like this, reality mercilessly struck Kang Min-jae.

At that time.

“Ugh!”

Cha Joo-han’s body seemed to twitch once, and then he spat out water.

And his pulse began to return to normal.

The doctors who had been sweating profusely and performing CPR also sighed and came down from above Cha Joo-han.

“Is he okay now?”

Kang Min-jae grabbed the doctor who had been performing CPR and asked.

“His breathing and pulse have returned to normal, so now we just need to wait for the patient to wake up while giving him a blood transfusion. He lost a lot of blood because the wound is deep.”

Kang Min-jae slumped down in the guardian’s chair.

Looking at his face, which had regained some color but was still pale, Kang Min-jae lowered his head.

“Attorney Kang, how’s the Attorney?”

Tae-shik, who had arrived late, asked Kang Min-jae.

Kang Min-jae swallowed, feeling like he was about to cry.

And explained to Tae-shik as the doctor had told him.

“But it seems like he’s passed the dangerous moment. Now we just need to wait for him to wake up…”

“I also radioed the guys guarding Choi Jong-hyun and Jo Bong-joon on the way here. I think they’ll be here soon.”

“Yes, thank you, Tae-shik.”

“No thanks. This whole thing happened because I left my post… It’s my fault. If I hadn’t gone out to buy a taser gun, I could have protected the Attorney…”

“Don’t blame yourself too much.”

Kang Min-jae offered comfort to Tae-shik, but in fact, he didn’t have the 여유 [yeoyu – mental余裕/capacity] to care for other people’s feelings.

Kang Min-jae stared blankly at Cha Joo-han, who was as white as if all the blood had been drained from his body.

“Attorney…”

He lowered his head, feeling like he was about to cry.

Tears dripped onto his knees, and his shoulders shook.

“What is this, Attorney…”

Watching Kang Min-jae talking to the unconscious Cha Joo-han in a sobbing voice, Tae-shik quietly placed his hand on his shoulder.