You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 128

I went out to the veranda to take the call.

The call wasn’t long.

He said he wanted to see me soon, and I just said I understood.

I had told him to look into me, and it seemed he had been diligently investigating me for the past few days without contacting me.

As I went back to the veranda and sat down, Manager Oh poured me a drink and cautiously said,

“I know that you saved a junior lawyer from a life-threatening situation based on a tip and that you struck a blow against Iljung Daily.”

“Yes.”

“But for some reason, it doesn’t feel like that’s the end of it. Are you planning to do something more with Reporter Choi?”

Even if I’ve known a client for a long time due to a case, I usually don’t continue the relationship.

That’s because I was there for the client during their most difficult time.

If they continue their relationship with me, they lose the chance to shake off the bad things they need to forget.

It wasn’t any different when I was a prosecutor.

The person who knows me best is none other than Manager Oh.

He seemed to sense something as he watched me continue to contact Choi Jong-hyun even after the case was over.

“Yes, probably. That’s likely.”

“…May I ask? What are you trying to do? It doesn’t seem like a small matter. It seems like it will affect your work as a lawyer.”

Manager Oh approached very cautiously.

I smiled slightly.

“It will.”

“Reporter Choi is chasing after Wooshin Group and Lee Jeong-chan of the Minwoo Party, isn’t he?”

“That’s right.”

“So, are you also trying to connect with Reporter Choi in that direction?”

I looked at Manager Oh.

The reason he became my colleague in my previous life was probably because he saw me lose my father due to the side effects of Myunghwa Pharmaceutical’s Antrozol [a fictional drug].

I was very distressed by that, and it even completely changed the direction of my life.

But what about Manager Oh now?

I need Manager Oh, but he might not want to get involved in this kind of thing.

Even his joining my office, if Manager Oh hadn’t come to me first, I would have discussed this with him thoroughly before deciding.

I swept back my disheveled hair and answered,

“That’s right.”

“You know it’s dangerous, right? You’re a lawyer who watched the Iljung Daily situation from the sidelines.”

“Yes.”

“If you’re still going to do it, well… shouldn’t you check the opinions of me and Attorney Kang, who are currently members of the office?”

There was a slight resentment in his voice.

It seemed to stem from the disappointment that I hadn’t consulted him about something that would affect him as well.

If I were the me from my previous life, I would have definitely consulted him first.

I actually did.

But the current me, from the moment I fell back to 2008, already had a firm will.

Therefore, there was no need to confide in anyone about how I should live my life.

“I was planning to do that before getting started in earnest anyway. I don’t want you two to be harmed because of this.”

I glanced at Kang Min-jae, who was sleeping soundly on the sofa.

“Actually, I’ve had a hunch since you left the prosecutor’s office.”

Manager Oh picked up a piece of cold meat with tongs, cut off the burnt part with scissors, and casually said as if it were nothing.

“At that time, I thought you were fed up with living according to the hegemony of the prosecution [the dominant power structure within the prosecutor’s office]. That’s why I said that I envied you for being able to act according to your conscience.”

Manager Oh placed the trimmed meat on my plate.

I looked at Manager Oh, who had removed all the burnt parts for me but was putting pieces of charred meat into his mouth without hesitation.

“The cases you’ve taken on since then, of course, not all of them were like that, but… I felt like you were constantly poking at the privileged class of society. As a result, that’s exactly what happened.”

Although I didn’t openly wage war against them, Manager Oh was right.

If someone knew me well and had a keen eye, it would be difficult for them to think that I was simply taking on the cases that came my way without any other intentions.

I take on various cases, but when I take on such big cases like the well-known ones, I tend to consider various factors.

“And when you finally met Choi Jong-hyun, I thought that similar people had met. It reminded me of a lot of things. The fact that you kept refusing to join Taekwang… and the things you’ve occasionally said to me so far.”

Taekwang selects people to hire even before the training institute is over.

It’s a huge advantage for lawyers to be affiliated with Taekwang.

There are many people who want to get into the good graces of the court who think it’s better to go to Taekwang as an associate, so it goes without saying.

But I had never once thought about joining Taekwang.

Taekwang is one of the giant evils that has rotted South Korea to its core.

Aside from my personal inclinations, if I simply ask the question, ‘Is that place really just?’, I can answer no without any hesitation.

That’s why I didn’t go.

That’s why I’ve always thought of them as one of my enemies.

“This person has a lot of things they want to do. And that dream is really big. That’s what I thought. Watching Attorney Cha.”

Manager Oh smiled awkwardly.

“Is that so? I don’t think I used to think that way.”

What if my father hadn’t passed away in my previous life?

Perhaps I wouldn’t have had the ambition to strike at Wooshin myself.

I probably would have just stayed in the prosecutor’s office, thinking that someday that hotbed of corruption would be exposed to the world.

“Well, I don’t know when I started thinking this way. But what’s certain is that I felt it really strongly when you wrote your resignation. So… well, I’m getting long-winded.”

Manager Oh scratched his cheek.

“I knew when I came to you. What kind of picture you’re roughly drawing. It’s the same picture I drew when I was in the student movement in college. A picture that I eventually gave up on because I was overwhelmed by reality.”

“…”

“Now that I’ve raised my kids and prepared for retirement to some extent, I thought I’d visit you to live doing what I want to do. So… um, I’m okay. I’ll work with you on what you’re doing.”

I laughed with a sigh.

In my previous life, I regarded him as a father.

He always respectfully called me Prosecutor, Prosecutor, but I wouldn’t be awkward even if he suddenly called me Joo-han.

It’s a great comfort to have someone like that say this to me.

And at the same time, I feel the pressure that I have to do even better without any gaps.

In this life, my goal was to strike at Wooshin without losing a single one of my colleagues.

“Thank you. Manager Oh.”

“…No thanks needed, haha. You’re paying me so much, Attorney.”

Manager Oh waved his hand with a hearty laugh.

Then, his gaze stopped on Kang Min-jae, who was sleeping on the sofa.

“Attorney.”

“Yes.”

“But you should ask Attorney Kang for his opinion. Attorney Kang probably doesn’t know.”

Kang Min-jae pulled out his arm, which was stuck in the back of the sofa, as if he was uncomfortable in his sleeping position, and smacked his lips.

I stared at him silently.

“When I first took Attorney Kang in, I thought he would run away on his own if he knew what I was trying to do.”

Anyway, it was a time when a lot of preparation was needed to do that work.

Since Kang Min-jae was quite useful and kept saying he wanted to learn from me, I was planning to keep him around like that and then let him go.

But now that I know him to a considerable extent, I don’t think Kang Min-jae will run away.

Rather, it seemed like he would jump in, saying he would join me.

“But now you see it’s not, right?”

“Yes. It feels like if I told him I was going to do something like that, he wouldn’t hesitate for long and would say okay.”

“Actually, people who take the bar exam often have those thoughts at first. To create a just society. To punish bad guys. But as time passes, those original intentions are all forgotten in the thought of surviving in the prosecution organization. But I don’t think that’s the case with Attorney Kang. He just wants to live doing what he wants to do… In some ways, it’s very enviable, haha.”

Manager Oh had a very good grasp of Attorney Kang.

He clearly defined even the points that I thought were hard to express in words.

I 100% agreed with Manager Oh’s analysis of Kang Min-jae.

“That’s right. So I don’t know if it’s okay to readily drag Attorney Kang into this kind of thing.”

He stayed in the prosecution organization for only a short time, and soon he joined Taekwang and worked under Kim Yoon-hee.

It was a smooth road, as they say.

In fact, there were not many traces of deep contemplation about his future in him.

Of course, I know that he has wounds too.

For example, the racially discriminatory school violence he experienced while studying in the United States.

But all of that was not Kang Min-jae’s fault.

If I start this work, all kinds of punishments will follow ‘me who dared to try to break a rock with an egg’ [a Korean proverb meaning to attempt something impossible and face the consequences].

In that situation where the path I chose destroys me, it is not easy to persevere while adhering to my initial will.

He has no motivation to decide to start this dangerous work.

“And, in fact, I have my own personal concerns. I trust Attorney Kang, but I don’t trust Attorney Kang’s stamina. People are bound to get tired and fall out someday. If I start this work and end up giving up halfway… the loss would be great for me too.”

Making colleagues is very difficult.

It is only possible if it is based on the belief that they will not betray me and will be with me until the end of this long marathon.

In that sense, it cannot be said that Attorney Kang perfectly meets the conditions I want.

Unless he has a motive, I will probably have to live with the anxiety that he might give up someday.

In that case, it would be better not to start at all.

Above all, it was even more so when I thought about Attorney Kang’s safety.

Just as Choi Jong-hyun almost lost a junior colleague who had nothing to do with Wooshin and Lee Jeong-chan, I am afraid that Attorney Kang will become like that.

“If you decide that you can’t work with Attorney Kang, it would be better to wrap it up early.”

Manager Oh said with a worried look.

“Manager Oh is right. Attorney Kang could be in danger for no reason.”

There is still more time left.

More groundwork was needed to move in earnest, and I had to crouch down until that groundwork was ready.

I’ll have to decide what to do with Attorney Kang by then.

“…”

I glanced back at Attorney Kang again.

Does Attorney Kang feel like this mindset of mine is putting up a wall?

I’m not sure.

But I just don’t want to see Attorney Kang enter this world without a big decision, get hurt, and leave.

“Attorney.”

“Yes?”

“Now that I see it, you think about Attorney Kang a lot.”

Manager Oh smiled with his chin in his hand.

“Is that so?”

“Attorney Kang hasn’t even said what he’s going to do yet, but you’re thinking about this and that on your own. Mostly worrying about Attorney Kang’s safety.”

I chuckled.

“Attorney Kang should know that you care about him so much. He’s wandering around in dreamland.”

Thump!

At that time, I heard the sound of something heavy falling from behind.

I turned around.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Kang Min-jae tossed and turned in his sleep and fell off the sofa.

In the end, Manager Oh burst out laughing, and I shook my head.