You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 135

“Prosecutor Yang Han-seok was the prosecutor in charge of the Kim Hyung-joon case back then, right?”

Kang Min-jae asked as we headed to the construction site.

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t he screw up the investigation back then?”

It was true that I had criticized the prosecution’s sloppy investigation at the time.

They hadn’t even visited the psychiatrist Yeo Hee-sook was seeing, and they didn’t even know the content of her counseling.

They didn’t even check the huge life insurance details that appear with a very high probability in parricide [the killing of a parent] cases.

At the time, Kim Yeon-joon was arrested as a flagrant offender and confessed himself, so did they think there was no need to investigate thoroughly?

Well, I wanted to speak kindly since we used to be colleagues, but it seems like he did screw up.

“He did.”

“But why did Manager Oh say it was a big deal?”

“Hwang Young-chan is behind Yang Han-seok.”

Kang Min-jae tilted his head, still not understanding my answer.

“Who is Hwang Young-chan?”

“Head of the Criminal Division 3. We don’t get along very well.”

“Why?”

Since the guy who used to act like my right-hand man suddenly turned his back on me, it must have put a huge dent in the pride of that authoritarian.

Compared to 2018, Hwang Young-chan was relatively new, and his bewildered look at my words even seemed a little pathetic.

“I was Hwang Young-chan’s right-hand man, and I left the prosecution without even telling him why.”

“Were you close to Chief Hwang Young-chan?”

“I was. Hwang Young-chan favored me.”

“What about you, Attorney?”

“Huh?”

“What did you think of Chief Hwang Young-chan?”

“I liked him too. I followed him well, as much as Manager Oh.”

I don’t want to deny the past when I trusted and followed Hwang Young-chan.

Even in my previous life, it was Hwang Young-chan who promoted me to the Third Deputy Prosecutor at a young age.

I was very grateful to Hwang Young-chan at the time, but now that I think about it, I just think I was good at my job and got promoted quickly.

Hwang Young-chan kept saying he would help me, but I doubt he had time to help others when he was so busy taking care of himself.

“But why did you leave the prosecution?”

“I felt like there was no future in the prosecution.”

“……That’s a difficult answer. Then, why didn’t you explain anything to Chief Hwang Young-chan before you left? He’s going to stay in the prosecution, and it seems like he’s going to come after you?”

If I didn’t have a previous life, I wouldn’t have left the prosecution.

Even if I did leave, I would have told Hwang Young-chan about my concerns in detail and asked for advice beforehand.

The farewell would have been very amicable.

Just as I occasionally thought of Manager Oh after I opened my office, Hwang Young-chan would have been the same.

‘Ah, that’s a bit disgusting, isn’t it?’

The thought of Hwang Young-chan missing me made me want to throw up.

I remember every word Hwang Young-chan said to me just before I returned to 2008, when he was about to be promoted to Prosecutor General, without missing a single syllable.

Although some time has passed, it still makes me shudder.

“I happened to find out that Hwang Young-chan was a very corrupt prosecutor. He pretended not to be, but he was doing that behind the scenes. I was the only one who didn’t know, like an idiot.”

In my previous life as Hwang Young-chan’s protégé, I never thought he would be clean and innocent.

But I didn’t think he would be corrupt either.

I thought that him showing his face at every meeting to survive, and his attitude of doing whatever he was told, was all part of navigating the system.

When did he decide to betray me?

Was it when the special investigation started and he started trading favors for the position of Prosecutor General, or did he have connections from the beginning?

Whether it’s the former or the latter, it pisses me off the same.

“Anyway, I’m done with that guy. And he’s probably grinding his teeth. Since I went up against the prosecution, the higher-ups must have cursed him out so much.”

“I guess so. Hmm, it’s difficult.”

“It’s already not an easy case, and the prosecution is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“With Wooshin’s influence all over it, and the fact that they already hate you, Attorney, well, we need to be prepared.”

Although not much has been identified yet, the prosecution ignored Oh Sang-hyun’s claim that he was also assaulted and made Go Yoon-sung a unilateral victim.

The order wouldn’t have been given directly to a low-level prosecutor like Yang Han-seok.

It seems like Hwang Young-chan orchestrated it.

‘It’s something that happened in my previous life, and if an order was given to Hwang Young-chan, it should have come to me.’

A thought flashed through my mind, and I frowned.

Of course, if such an order had been given to me, I would never have done it, but I would have remembered it anyway.

Come to think of it, this case was too unfamiliar to me from the beginning.

Especially if it was a case handled by Criminal Division 3, even if Sung-ryung Hwang Young-chan knew my tendencies and deliberately tossed it to another prosecutor, I should have remembered it.

‘This is something that didn’t happen in my previous life.’

Then why?

What changed to make it happen in this life?

“Attorney, we’ve arrived.”

I snapped out of my thoughts at Kang Min-jae’s voice.

The car had already arrived near the construction site.

The site was quite large.

I heard it was a reconstruction project to demolish an existing 5-story apartment complex and build a new luxury high-rise apartment.

“There are a lot of CCTVs [closed-circuit television cameras] here and there, aren’t there?”

Kang Min-jae said, looking around the site.

Certainly, there were more than six that were visible now.

At that time, among the workers who were glancing at us from afar, a person who seemed to be the representative approached us.

“How did you get here?”

“Ah, hello. We’re from Attorney Cha Joo-han’s office. Do you know Wooshin Corporation’s Deputy Oh Sang-hyun? We are Oh Sang-hyun’s attorneys.”

Kang Min-jae said, handing over his business card, and he looked a little taken aback.

“I see. But what’s the matter……? Everyone who was at the scene when the incident happened testified to the police.”

“We wanted to see the scene where the assault took place, and we also have some questions of our own. Would that be difficult?”

Kang Min-jae smiled brightly as he took another step closer to him.

He hesitated for a while, then said he would make a phone call and went into the on-site office made of containers.

And soon after, he came out with a middle-aged man wearing a different colored vest.

“Hello. I’m the site manager. You’re Deputy Oh Sang-hyun’s attorney?”

“That’s right.”

“They told me from above to let you check if there’s anything you need to check. How can I help you?”

“I’d like to check the scene of the incident first.”

“Come this way.”

I followed the site manager.

Behind one of the apartment buildings, I saw a secluded alley next to the stairs leading to the playground.

“This is where the bicycle storage will be.”

As Oh Sang-hyun said, there was a CCTV at the entrance.

“Were you at the scene at the time of the incident, Site Manager?”

“……Yes. I was there.”

The answer wasn’t very forthcoming.

“I heard from the prosecution that the CCTV showed Go Yoon-sung being carried away by his entourage in a very injured state.”

“I don’t know the details, but I heard that’s what happened.”

“I don’t know who was first, but if that CCTV was still working, wouldn’t it have captured Oh Sang-hyun’s appearance as well?”

I stepped into the alley.

There was a way out to the back, but materials were piled up high.

Oh Sang-hyun was covered in blood, so there was no way he would have gone this way, leaving the wide-open road.

“……I don’t know the details that well. The police took all the CCTV footage.”

“Then no one saw Oh Sang-hyun coming out?”

“Well, I didn’t see him.”

“Do you know that Oh Sang-hyun was diagnosed with a 7-week injury and is hospitalized?”

The site manager slowly nodded.

“Go Yoon-sung’s side is claiming that Oh Sang-hyun is putting on a show, saying that he couldn’t have been hurt that badly, but it didn’t look like that to me at all. He even had fractures.”

“Oh dear.”

The site manager clicked his tongue as if he felt sorry.

It didn’t seem like just a routine reaction.

I can’t guess everything from this, but if Oh Sang-hyun really acted strangely at the scene, I don’t think the site manager would feel sorry for him.

“Then, did you see Go Yoon-sung being carried out by his entourage?”

“I saw that.”

“What did he look like at the time?”

“The entourage was covering Go Yoon-sung with a jacket, but when I glanced at him, there was a lot of blood on his face. Go Yoon-sung seemed to have fainted.”

“Did he go to the hospital in an ambulance in that state?”

“No. I heard the entourage put him in a car and went to Wooshin Hospital.”

“Then, what about Oh Sang-hyun? Even if no one saw what happened in this alley, someone must have seen Oh Sang-hyun going out of the construction site anyway.”

“……I guess so.”

“And I saw a lot of CCTVs when I came in, so I’m sure his appearance going out was also filmed.”

“The police took all the CCTVs, so we don’t know.”

It seemed like I wouldn’t hear anything about the CCTV from the site manager.

“Site Manager, what time is it now…… It’s 12 o’clock. When does lunchtime start?”

“It starts at 12 o’clock.”

“Then, would it be okay if we ask the workers some questions, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their meal as much as possible?”

The site manager seemed to hesitate for a moment at my words, but eventually allowed it.

“Attorney Kang.”

I called Kang Min-jae, who was taking pictures of the inside of the alley.

“Yes.”

“Check if anyone saw how Oh Sang-hyun went out.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Oh Sang-hyun said he fainted after being beaten by Go Yoon-sung.

He was then taken to the hospital, but he said he didn’t remember the process because he was unconscious.

Seeing so many CCTVs around the entrance of the construction site, the prosecution would have been able to confirm that Oh Sang-hyun couldn’t properly support himself.

The fact that it didn’t go to mutual assault means that the prosecution has definitely decided to cover up this case.

Wooshin’s money must be quite something, but isn’t this too much?

‘I need to request information disclosure first.’

To go to mutual assault, it must be proven that Oh Sang-hyun was also severely assaulted by Go Yoon-sung.

Go Yoon-sung is now claiming that Oh Sang-hyun is putting on a show, and the prosecution has ignored Oh Sang-hyun’s claim because there is no substantial evidence that Go Yoon-sung hit Oh Sang-hyun, right?

“Attorney, are you going to see more?”

The site manager, who was standing next to me, asked cautiously.

The space wasn’t very large, so I was looking at the same place again, but I felt it was important to be thorough.

I thoroughly checked the inside of the alley one last time.

“Come to think of it, it’s very dark here.”

I said, looking back at the site manager.

As Oh Sang-hyun said, this place wasn’t very large, so if he was surrounded and beaten by seven people, there would have been no way to resist.

In addition, if he had gone deep inside, even if someone had passed by, they wouldn’t have been able to see the inside at all.

It was definitely dark.

That’s why there was a light on one wall.

It seems that the CCTV at the entrance only captured the appearance of people coming out.

“Hmm?”