You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 166

Beeeeep.

The cell phone next to my bed started ringing.

I had been in a deep sleep, so I barely managed to pry open my eyelids and glance around.

It was still dark.

I flipped the phone over, hoping to drift back to sleep.

Beeeeep.

But the persistent ringing wouldn’t let me be.

I frowned and fumbled around the mattress for my phone.

It was an unknown number.

According to the phone’s clock, it was Saturday.

Which meant it was the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning.

I shouldn’t be getting any urgent work calls, and even if I were, wouldn’t they be coming from Kang Min-jae or Secretary Oh?

I’d stayed up late last night talking to Choi Jong-hyun and had barely managed to fall asleep.

“Haaaah.”

I sighed deeply and finally answered the call.

“Yes.”

-Are you Attorney Cha Joo-han?

“Yes, I am.”

-This is the Gangnam Police Station.

“……Yes?”

-We need you to come down here.

“What’s going on?”

-Well, Kang Min-jae got into a fight at a club and is here now. He’s completely drunk, so we can’t handle him. He keeps insisting that you’re his lawyer and asking us to contact you.

“……I see.”

-Are you coming now? How long will it take?

“I’m not coming.”

I answered sharply and hung up.

A lawyer getting into a fight at a club and ending up at the police station? That didn’t sound right.

And even if it were true, why would he hire me as his lawyer?

Ah. I wished it were just a dream.

The phone rang several more times, and behind the police officer’s voice, who was irritably telling me to come quickly, I could hear occasional shouts.

Several voices overlapped, so I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard Kang Min-jae’s voice among them.

Kang Min-jae usually enjoyed nightlife, but he wasn’t the type to pick a fight.

It must have been a difficult situation, so I reluctantly got up and got dressed.

Since it was dawn, it didn’t take long to get from Seocho to the Gangnam Police Station.

I looked around the interior, and the loud voices coming from inside caught my attention.

That must be the place.

“I received a call and came. I’m Kang Min-jae’s lawyer.”

I showed my ID to the police officer and squeezed through the crowd.

From what I could see, Kang Min-jae seemed to be alone, and the other person confronting him seemed to have backup.

Only about three people, though.

Kang Min-jae was in better shape than I’d expected.

His lip was busted, but he looked better than the other guy.

The other guy’s face was red and swollen in several places.

He’d probably have blue bruises tomorrow.

“Lawyeeeer.”

Kang Min-jae, still drunk, drawled my title when he spotted me.

Then, he dragged the chair he’d been glued to and approached me.

I stared at him, trying to assess the situation.

The other guy’s condition was worse than Kang Min-jae’s, and he had friends with him.

At first glance, it seemed like Kang Min-jae had unilaterally beaten him up, but then I wondered what the victim’s friends were doing during all that.

Wasn’t that strange?

Unless it turned out that Kang Min-jae was a fighting master who could take on three people.

Maybe the other guys were just watching.

“I really… I really didn’t do anything wrong…”

Kang Min-jae grabbed the hem of my t-shirt and tugged.

I felt the fabric stretching, so I grabbed his hand and roughly pushed it aside.

“Why didn’t you call Chief Kang and instead call me at this hour?”

“I thought if *hyung* [older brother/male friend] found out, he would tell grandpa…”

“What happened?”

“Ha, really, I mean, I was having fun at a club with a table. I wasn’t causing any trouble, I was really just having fun by myself, but suddenly that guy came and started a fight. So, because of my job and everything, I tried to be patient and told him to leave quietly.”

“Hey! When did you tell me to leave quietly! You told me to shut up and get lost!”

Then, the other guy, who had been sprawled out on the chair like he was dead, shouted.

Kang Min-jae’s eyes flashed with hostility.

“That’s because I told you to leave and you didn’t!”

“You son of a bitch, you swore at me first! If you’re old, go to a *cabaret* [Korean-style nightclub for older patrons], why are you coming to a club!”

“Cabaret? Ha, look at how nasty you talk. Hey, do you think you’ll be in your 20s forever? You’ll be thirty in no time, you little shit. I was in my 20s until recently, too?”

I was worried that another fight would break out, so I pressed down on Kang Min-jae’s shoulder.

The other guys didn’t seem to be sober either, so it seemed like the only people who could mediate the situation were me and the police.

Of course, the police officer was just standing there with a tired face, not doing anything.

“Stop. Stop fighting.”

“Ah, this old fart is so annoying.”

“What did you say? Did you just call our lawyer an old fart? I can’t believe you’re acting like this after we’ve been so nice to you!”

“You son of a bitch, I said you’re an old fart. You son of a bitch, you’re a lawyer, but you brought a lawyer because you thought you were going to get your ass kicked. Hey, you’re lying, right? You’re lying about being a lawyer, right? What kind of lawyer hits people?”

“When did I hit you, you bastard! You punched me first! And your friends all saw you fall by yourself! Hey, friend. Did you see it? Huh? You saw him slip on the spilled vodka, didn’t you!”

Kang Min-jae asked his group, but they had all passed out a long time ago.

They seemed to have come to the police station together because they were a group, but they didn’t seem to have any intention of bailing him out.

One of them was even snoring in the middle of all this noise.

“Forget it, apologize for calling our lawyer an old fart!”

“No, you son of a bitch.”

“You rude little piece of, mmmph! Mmmph!”

I ended up covering Kang Min-jae’s mouth.

He’s not very mature even in normal times, but when he’s drunk, he loses even the little bit of maturity he has.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to go talk to this friend separately.”

“Ugh, go ahead.”

The police officer seemed to be exhausted from mediating their fight.

He waved his hand and showed me the way out, telling me to hurry up and finish talking.

“First, drink this.”

After arriving at the smoking area behind the police station, I sat Kang Min-jae on a bench and handed him the plastic bag I was holding.

It was a hangover cure I had bought on the way.

“…Lawyer, I’m touched.”

He held the hangover cure tightly with both hands and looked up at me.

If I had known this would happen, I would have stopped Kang Min-jae when he said he was going to the club alone today.

He poured the hangover cure into his mouth in one gulp.

And…

“Ah, I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“Swallow it. This is a police station. Don’t throw up here.”

“Ugh, I really am…”

“Go to the bathroom, then.”

“Ugh, ah…, I held it in.”

Kang Min-jae stroked his chest.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

“Now, explain. You told him to leave quietly, what happened after that?”

“I told him to leave quietly, but that bastard suddenly came and said I was being pathetic grabbing a table by myself. I kept telling him to leave, but he wouldn’t listen, so I ended up telling him to shut up and get lost when I was being nice…”

“So?”

“…He punched me first. He said, ‘Did you just swear at me?’ and then punched me.”

“So you hit him back?”

“I was just laughing because I was so dumbfounded after getting punched. I was holding back. Anyway, they’re kids, and I’m an adult, so I thought I shouldn’t fight with them. And… I thought about grandpa, and I thought about you, lawyer… I was worried that I might cause trouble…”

Kang Min-jae’s voice started to trail off.

“You knew that and you still ended up at the police station? You ended up here because it couldn’t be resolved at the police box [smaller, local police outpost], right?”

“…No, please listen to me.”

Kang Min-jae seemed quite wronged and explained the situation with excessive gestures.

Anyway, it’s a fact that the other guy punched him first after Kang Min-jae told him to get lost when he was being nice.

The word “truth” kept floating above his head.

The other guy kept trying to hit Kang Min-jae, and Kang Min-jae had no choice but to push him away.

But when the other guy rushed at him, vodka had spilled on the floor, and Kang Min-jae happened to push him in that direction.

The other guy slipped on the vodka and fell, and while he was falling, he grabbed the table, and the table fell over too.

It was only natural that the things on the table fell on top of him.

Since an ice bucket and a bottle of alcohol even fell on his face, it was fortunate that nothing serious happened.

Kang Min-jae was surprised and helped him up, but the other guy blamed everything on Kang Min-jae and punched him again.

Kang Min-jae couldn’t stand it anymore and punched him once, and that’s when the police came.

“So, Kang got hit more?”

“That’s right. But he got hit a lot by the things that fell from the table, so that’s why it looks like he’s more hurt… Jeez.”

Kang Min-jae rubbed his face with his dry hands and spoke passionately.

I roughly understood the situation.

But Kang Min-jae and the other guy weren’t seriously injured, so it’s something that can be resolved cleanly with a settlement.

The problem is that the other guy isn’t in his right mind yet.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry.”

Then, I heard an unfamiliar voice from behind.

“Could I borrow a light?”

I turned around without thinking and saw a man who looked to be in his mid-20s standing there.

“……”

He looked familiar.

I took out a cigarette pack from my pocket and stared intently at his face.

I hadn’t seen him in this life, but I’d encountered him in my previous life.

But where?

I frowned and concentrated on retracing my memories.

I hadn’t met him in person, but I thought I’d seen him in a photo.

If I saw this man in a photo in my previous life, it would definitely be related to Woo-shin.

Who is he?

“Thank you.”

The man who received the lighter from me lit his cigarette and politely returned it with both hands.

I still couldn’t take my eyes off him.

He’s quite handsome, but he’s definitely not a celebrity.

If he’s the man I saw in a photo in my previous life, then of course he’s related to Woo-shin.

Who is it?

“Uh, um. Is there something on my face?”

The man who was receiving my gaze smiled awkwardly and asked.

“No. I thought you looked like someone I know.”

“Oh, is that so?”

The man smiled and replied casually.

Then, he took out his cell phone and started making a call.

“Hello? I’ve arrived now. What? Who am I? Sober up. It’s Kim Chan-young. Yeah. Oh, okay, hehe. I’ll be right there, wait for me.”

Kim Chan-young.

After hearing that name, it clicked.

When I first saw his photo in my previous life, he was already a socialite in his 30s.

He didn’t look like this, still young and not yet rid of his childishness, so I couldn’t recognize him right away.

“Thanks for the light.”

Kim Chan-young bowed his head towards me and then ran into the police station building.

I followed his retreating figure with my eyes.

I never thought I would meet him here.

“Lawyer?”

Kang Min-jae looked at me questioningly as I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go in since I’ve figured out the situation.”

Kim Chan-young.

He is Go Sang-jun’s illegitimate child.