You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 144

“Mr. Kim Eui-cheol, you were verbally abused by Go Yoon-sung for making a small mistake back then. Mr. Oh Sang-hyun pointed out Go Yoon-sung’s rudeness on the spot. What did Mr. Oh Sang-hyun say at that time? You can at least tell me that much, can’t you?”

If I were to ask Kim Eui-cheol, who has already received the money, what Go Yoon-sung said to him, he would remain silent.

Even if it’s all information I already know, hearing it from Kim Eui-cheol himself would be different.

It’s better to ask what Oh Sang-hyun said.

Kim Eui-cheol bit his lip and slowly opened his mouth.

“…Deputy Oh just said it wasn’t right to be so rude to an elder for just a mistake.”

“Yes, that’s right. But Go Yoon-sung claims that the level of criticism was too high. He says Deputy Oh scolded him too much in front of everyone, to the point where he felt ashamed.”

“……”

“But it wasn’t that bad, was it?”

This is the only thing Kim Eui-cheol, who didn’t directly witness the assault, can testify in court.

With that testimony, I can secure the justification that Oh Sang-hyun clearly had animosity towards Go Yoon-sung, which led to the assault.

There’s no way Kim Eui-cheol doesn’t know this.

Even though he knows everything, I was going to remind him once again that what he’s about to do is clearly perjury and a crime.

“Mr. Kim Eui-cheol, you must have felt it too. If Mr. Oh Sang-hyun hadn’t stopped him, would Go Yoon-sung have stopped at that point?”

“I, I don’t know that.”

“Alright. Then, who was more harsh in their words between Mr. Oh Sang-hyun and Go Yoon-sung at that time?”

“……”

“Since you don’t seem to remember, let me tell you. At that time, Mr. Kim Eui-cheol, you just made a mistake, but Go Yoon-sung told you to stay home like a dying chick and asked why you were crawling out here to cause trouble, right?”

Even to my ears, it’s shocking.

It would also be a great wound for Kim Eui-cheol to hear these words again.

But he doesn’t seem to have forgotten the humiliation of that day.

The person who insulted Kim Eui-cheol was Go Yoon-sung, and Oh Sang-hyun was the one who tried to save him.

But now, because of money, he’s trying to corner Oh Sang-hyun and help Go Yoon-sung.

“I already apologized for that!”

Kim Eui-cheol shouted.

“When did you receive the apology? You didn’t receive an apology on the spot, did you? Ah, you received the apology when you went to the hospital room.”

Kim Eui-cheol realized he had made a slip of the tongue and lowered his head.

“So, Go Yoon-sung gave you five thousand as an apology at that time. But it’s too much money to be called an apology.”

“……”

“Were you asked to give false testimony in court?”

“I, I was asked to testify. But whether it’s false or not…”

“Then why would they give you money if they were asking you to testify to the truth?”

“Did they say they’d give you an allowance in case the perjury is discovered? Since you don’t seem to know, let me tell you, perjury is a crime, and the punishment isn’t light. Five thousand isn’t worth it.”

“No, it’s not that! It’s not!”

[False]

Wow.

I almost admired it.

That idea must be a collaboration between Go Yoon-sung and Tae-kwang’s lawyer.

Is it really okay to be this evil?

“Stop it! Go now! I have nothing more to say! Go see the foreman! The foreman is the person in charge of the site! He knows better than I do!”

Kim Eui-cheol continued to shift the responsibility to the foreman.

Didn’t the foreman receive money as well?

Anyway, I was planning to meet the foreman again separately to talk, but I didn’t know he would look for the foreman this much.

Are they in cahoots?

Since they both received money from Go Yoon-sung, it wouldn’t be strange if they had already coordinated their stories.

“It’s no use asking a powerless guy like me a thousand or ten thousand times. You’ve got the wrong person. Go see the foreman!”

Kim Eui-cheol repeated the same words and began to get us up.

“Go to the foreman! Don’t bother me for no reason!”

He pushed me and Kang Min-jae back to the front door with tremendous force.

It seems like it will be difficult to have a conversation today.

After putting on my shoes, I turned to look at him as I left the door.

“Don’t ever come again! Ask the foreman!”

I suddenly made eye contact with Kim Eui-cheol, who was shouting and pushing me out.

I stopped walking for a moment as I stepped out of the front door.

I don’t know why that brief eye contact keeps lingering in my mind.

“…Are you talking about the foreman?”

“You understand me now. Yes! Foreman! I’m just a day laborer!”

He left those words and slammed the front door shut.

I stood in front of it and chuckled for a moment.

I was foolish this time.

“Lawyer, please be a little kinder. You’re good at everything, but this is the problem. No, I guess you’re not good at everything? Anyway,”

“Kang Byun [Byun is short for Byeonhosa, meaning Lawyer in Korean].”

“Yes?”

“I need to make an appointment with the site foreman.”

“The site foreman?”

“He told us to ask the foreman.”

I should have realized it sooner.

Kim Eui-cheol had been telling us to go see the foreman since earlier.

We returned to the office right away.

As soon as Kang Min-jae arrived, he told the office manager what had happened today without even taking off his clothes.

“…I think the lawyer is right.”

Office Manager Oh nodded.

“The foreman knew that there was CCTV at the site at that time.”

I rolled up my shirt sleeves and pointed to the construction site photos attached to the whiteboard.

Among them, the photo of the alley where the assault took place.

“The reason Mr. Kim Eui-cheol told us to go see the foreman may be because the foreman is related to the CCTV that was here. It’s just a guess, but the foreman may be the one who handed over the CCTV, or he may have received instructions from Wooshin to delete it. Anyway, I think he has evidence about the CCTV.”

“But didn’t we judge that the foreman also took money? What can we gain by contacting such a foreman?”

This is why we didn’t focus on the foreman first.

The CCTV containing the scene of the incident is truly decisive evidence.

It also becomes evidence that the prosecution concealed the truth.

There’s no way Go Yoon-sung’s side didn’t know that the foreman knew about the existence of the site CCTV.

If he sided with Oh Sang-hyun, he would become a ticking time bomb, so they couldn’t leave him alone.

They had to make him an accomplice by giving him money, so the foreman, who received money from Wooshin, became one of the axes of the forces trying to conceal the truth.

So I didn’t think the foreman was the target to focus on from the beginning of the investigation.

It was obvious that he wouldn’t cooperate with us.

“Yes, but that goes for Mr. Kim Eui-cheol as well.”

Kang Min-jae nodded at my words.

“That’s right. He could have just kept his mouth shut, but the reason he kept hinting to go see the foreman is because he felt guilty in his own way. Maybe the foreman will open his mouth too.”

He seemed to think for a moment, then added.

“If you listen to the lawyer’s pressing words, your mouth will open automatically. The office manager should have heard it too. I felt like I was the one being scolded.”

“He’s been famous since his days as a prosecutor.”

Well, that’s not a nutritious story.

I ignored the two people’s conversation and continued to think.

There’s one thing I’m curious about.

How did Kim Eui-cheol know that the foreman hid the existence of the CCTV?

Ordinary laborers wouldn’t even be interested in whether there was CCTV in that back alley or not.

Did the foreman tell him?

“There may have been some conversation between Mr. Kim Eui-cheol and the foreman.”

“Conversation?”

“I think the foreman told him that he knows the truth of the incident.”

“Why?”

I don’t know.

Whether it’s because the two are close.

Or, whether the foreman approached Kim Eui-cheol after learning that he had received kickbacks from Go Yoon-sung, who was the starting point of the incident.

Or perhaps, some of the workers may have already noticed that the foreman knows something.

“I don’t know, but there’s a way to find out.”

I picked up my phone.

* * *

5:30 AM.

Those who were warming themselves in front of the stove simultaneously looked at the entrance door.

Sang-gil, who entered the office while clicking the hand warmer button, was embarrassed by the gazes focused on him.

‘Am I so handsome that they’re staring at me? Ha, geez. I’ve been growing my hair a bit, and my hidden handsomeness has been revealed.’

Since he had worked as a day laborer at construction sites several times before, he naturally filled out the application form and sat on the bench in the corner.

If a van comes while I’m here, I can ride it.

The place I have to go today is the apartment construction site of Wooshin Construction, so I have to choose the car that goes there well.

‘Ah, but why do they keep staring.’

It’s okay to stare because I’m handsome for a while, but why do they keep staring at me so intently?

Is Cha Attorney living this kind of life?

That person must be tired too.

Sang-gil turned on Mini Game Heaven to avoid their gaze.

If I focus on updating my score, I’ll forget these pouring gazes.

“Hey.”

At that time, an old man who was slurping coffee approached Sang-gil.

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why me?”

Sang-gil licked his dry lips and looked up at the old man.

“Your Namdaemun [South Gate, a euphemism for ‘your fly is open’] is open.”

Sang-gil lowered his head and looked between his legs.

“Huh.”

Why did the cute Kitty cat have to be seen through the open Namdaemun?

Why did the background color of the underwear have to be hot pink, attracting the attention of others?

Sang-gil blamed God and hurriedly turned around to zip up.

Sang-gil’s face turned red as he was caught with his secret taste.

“A young man is walking around with his mind out of it.”

“……”

Still, I can’t let my pride be hurt, so Sang-gil sat on the bench with his legs crossed as if nothing happened.

But somewhere in his heart, hot tears were already flowing.

‘Ah, damn… Embarrassing.’

I got on the van before sunrise, and it was already bright after doing this and that.

“Hey! Foreman, please take one away! Just one!”

“All the 60-year-old elders here are carrying five, and a young man has no strength?”

Sang-gil decided to empty his mind.

Brother Tae-shik told me that if I worked with him, I wouldn’t have a hard time, but it was all a lie.

After working for about five hours like that.

The perceived time was 10 hours, and when I wanted to run away right away, it was time for food like a ghost.

It was such a perfect timing that I wondered if all of this was designed.

I went to the cafeteria, filled my plate with rice, and went to my seat.

I went next to the old man who had been sticking with me since earlier, and the old man quickly pulled out a chair for me to sit down.

While eating, stories about children, wives, and various other stories came and went.

There were so many words that I wondered how I had endured without saying them until now.

Sang-gil matched them all.

Then, when the timing was right for a moment, he opened his mouth slightly.

“But you know. I heard from an old man earlier that the youngest son of that Wooshin Group went crazy here?”

“Ah, that? It’s been about two months already. I heard he’s hospitalized now, saying he’s sick?”

“Hospitalized? Wow, why?”

The old man seemed excited because Sang-gil reacted well.

He started telling the story in detail, saying that he was at the scene at that time.

“Then did the deputy really beat Go Yoon-sung?”

“I don’t know, that. But he didn’t look like someone who would do that.”

“What, is there no evidence left or anything?”

Sang-gil followed him around, asking questions until the old man picked up his plate and went to throw away the leftovers.

“No, at that time, Go Yoon-sung took Deputy Oh somewhere to see him for a while? And because he didn’t come for too long, the foreman ran into the site office at that time.”

“The site office? Why there?”

“The CCTV screen shows everything there. He must have gone to see if something was wrong.”

CCTV!

The answer I had been waiting for finally came out.

Sang-gil almost screamed.

“Then, did the foreman check the CCTV?”

“The foreman went in alone, so no one knows except the foreman, but according to that person, there was no CCTV at the scene of the fight.”

“Ah, really? That’s too bad. It would have been decided if the foreman had seen it.”

The old man nodded, smoking a cigarette deeply.

“Honestly, among us, there’s a saying that Deputy Oh wouldn’t have beaten Go Yoon-sung. But because I saw Go Yoon-sung leaving covered in blood, it’s hard to know, this. Sigh, I’m going to drain some water. Go ahead first.”

As the old man disappeared towards the portable toilet, Sang-gil quickly picked up his phone.

[I think the foreman saw the CCTV. I’ll tell you the details when I get back, but can I run away in the middle, hyung [term for older brother or close male friend]? It’s really hard; The meal time is just over now, so if I’m going to run, it’s now.]