You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 167

Taking Kang Min-jae, who seemed to have sobered up a bit, I headed back into the police station.

A detective, hurrying by while reading some documents, suddenly called out to me.

“Prosecutor Cha? Oh, I guess it’s Attorney now? Wow, fancy meeting you here, Attorney.”

“Ah, Detective Park. How have you been?”

“Oh, yes, I’ve been well. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Three years?”

“Indeed.”

Since Gangnam Police Station was under the jurisdiction of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, I was quite familiar with him.

“I’ve been seeing you on the news, Attorney. Very impressive.”

“You flatter me.”

“But who’s this…? Oh, this person is also an attorney, right? I think I saw you together on the news. You’re the attorney who came out of the courthouse with you after the Ko Yun-seong trial recently, right?”

Detective Park recognized Kang Min-jae, who was standing blankly beside me.

Kang Min-jae blushed and bowed his head.

“Ah, yes. Hello. I’m Attorney Kang Min-jae. I should give you my business card, but I don’t have my wallet on me right now…”

As Kang Min-jae fumbled with his leather jacket pocket, Detective Park seemed to realize he was drunk.

*What else would a drunk person and an attorney be doing at a police station at this hour?*

He smiled subtly, as if he understood the situation.

“Looks like there was a fight.”

“…Something like that.”

“There was a group of college students who got into a fight earlier. You don’t happen to be involved with them, do you…?”

He asked, but his expression seemed to say, ‘Surely not.’

Kang Min-jae hid behind me, looking very ashamed, and I sighed briefly before answering.

“It just happened that way.”

“Oh dear… But they seemed to have quieted down just now. I hope you can resolve things well. It’s been a while, so I’d love to have a cup of coffee, but I’m on my way somewhere right now.”

“Yes. You’re working hard. I hope to see you again next time.”

Detective Park bowed his head and quickly disappeared down the hallway.

Kang Min-jae pressed his lips tightly together and bowed deeply to me.

“I’m sorry. I’m embarrassing you, aren’t I…?”

He apologized in a small voice.

But for me, it was nothing new.

It wasn’t the first time he had embarrassed me.

Especially when he piled abalone and eel onto my plate in front of his grandfather.

This was nothing to be ashamed of.

“It’s okay, let’s finish this quickly and go. It’s the weekend tomorrow; we need to rest.”

“…Yes.”

As Detective Park had said, the atmosphere had changed when we returned to them.

The group that had been sprawled out was now sitting up straight, as if they had sobered up a bit.

The same went for the other party, who had been yelling at the top of his lungs.

The police officer’s complexion, which had been exhausted, had also brightened, so I guessed that the situation had been resolved to some extent.

We had only been outside for about 30 minutes, but why had the situation been resolved in that time?

It didn’t seem like the police officer had intervened.

“They’re here.”

As we appeared, they gestured towards us.

“Those are the people.”

One of the group members said, as if explaining us to someone.

I couldn’t tell who they were talking to from this angle, as they were obscured by the water purifier.

“Oh?”

The person stood up abruptly and revealed himself.

He looked quite surprised, his eyes wide as he looked at me.

I was just as surprised.

It was none other than Kim Chan-young.

“From the smoking area earlier, right?”

He approached me with a friendly smile.

“I’m a friend of these guys. We were supposed to meet at the club, but they said they were at the police station, so I came here.”

“I see.”

“So, who had the issue with my friends…?”

Kim Chan-young looked back and forth between Kang Min-jae and me.

“I’m this friend’s attorney, and this friend is the person involved.”

“Ah, you called an attorney… Are you planning to take legal action?”

Kim Chan-young asked, looking at Kang Min-jae with a troubled expression.

“No. If we can talk it out, there’s no need to go that far. I’m just here as a guardian. Aren’t you saying that everyone is at fault? If we can come to an agreement, it shouldn’t drag on. It’s not like anyone was seriously injured.”

I looked at the other group and answered.

They, who had been growling at each other whenever they made eye contact with Kang Min-jae, were now as docile as dogs on a leash.

“I heard that my friends made a mistake first. I’m sorry. We were trying to get a table, but they said it was full, so we just left. But this person… What should I call you?”

“He’s Attorney Kang Min-jae.”

“Ah, you’re an attorney? They kept saying attorney, attorney, so I wondered what they were talking about, but your profession is attorney. If you were an attorney, you wouldn’t want to fight more, so it’s my friends’ fault, no matter how I look at it.”

“No, that guy told us to shut up and get out too…”

The person involved, who was behind Kim Chan-young, mumbled in a small voice.

But Kim Chan-young smiled and turned to look at him.

“You started the fight first, so he must have been angry. You were the one who was wrong first. Just say you’re sorry. Don’t keep grumbling.”

Although the words were cold, unlike his expression.

“Anyway, we couldn’t get a table, and they said that the attorney had taken a large table by himself, so they were upset. The kids were drunk and not in their right minds. I’m really sorry.”

Kim Chan-young quickly wrapped up the situation and bowed his head towards us.

“Lee Seong-jin. You apologize quickly too.”

Kim Chan-young gestured to Lee Seong-jin, the person who had hit Kang Min-jae, who was sitting behind him.

It wasn’t exactly rude behavior among friends, but I could sense a subtle hierarchy among them.

But it wasn’t strange.

Rather, I thought it was like Kim Chan-young, as I had understood him.

In my previous life, Kim Chan-young was just someone I learned about while investigating Ko Sang-jun, and I had never been directly involved with him.

According to the investigation, he graduated from a prestigious university on his own and pursued a career path completely unrelated to his father.

Of course, he would have lived a wealthy life with the help of his father, Ko Sang-jun.

But he had no contact with the children of Ko Sang-jun’s legal wife, and he had never been involved with Wooshin.

When I first became aware of Kim Chan-young’s existence, I had no idea that he was Ko Sang-jun’s illegitimate child.

The reason why Kim Chan-young remained so memorable to me was one thing.

The source of one of the corruption documents about Ko Sang-jun and his family was none other than Kim Chan-young.

“I’m sorry.”

Lee Seong-jin bowed his head.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry too.”

Kang Min-jae also nodded his head in response.

Kim Chan-young approached the police officer with a satisfied expression.

“I think we’ve come to an agreement, can we go now?”

“You can go after writing a statement. But even if you’ve come to an agreement, something will still be sent to your home.”

“It’s okay.”

Lee Seong-jin answered readily.

But Kang Min-jae didn’t look okay at all.

Usually, these documents are sent to the address on the resident registration, and his address would be Kang Kwan-woong’s house.

He had called me instead of Chief Kang because he didn’t want his grandfather to find out, but it was a pity.

“Can’t I have it sent to my company?”

“No. It goes to the registered address.”

The police officer answered firmly.

He was more anxious than Lee Seong-jin, a 20-year-old student who was still conscious of his parents.

“…Ah, I’m screwed.”

Kang Min-jae hung his head.

“Then let’s start with Kang Min-jae. You both hit each other, so you’re both victims and perpetrators. It’ll come out as a victim-perpetrator in the statement. Kang Min-jae, your resident registration number.”

Kang Min-jae called out his resident registration number with a gloomy expression.

“What’s your current occupation?”

“I’m an attorney…”

After Kang Min-jae’s turn was over, Lee Seong-jin began writing his statement.

He was a university student attending Myungwoon University, and Kim Chan-young and the rest of the group seemed to be university classmates.

“It’s good that you came to an agreement. In the future, even if you’re drunk and in a bad mood, try to hold back. Student, you can’t hit an adult no matter how angry you are.”

As the police officer scolded him, Kim Chan-young nudged Lee Seong-jin’s shoulder.

“Attorney, I’m sorry.”

Lee Seong-jin bowed his head again towards Kang Min-jae, and Kang Min-jae awkwardly accepted the repeated apologies.

They, who had been recklessly rude, suddenly turned into gentle sheep, and Kang Min-jae seemed only awkward.

“You can go now.”

As all the procedures were completed, time had passed, and dawn was breaking.

I quietly watched Kim Chan-young, who was talking with his group.

He had a considerable antipathy towards his father, Ko Sang-jun.

The fact that Kim Chan-young made the corruption documents about his father, Ko Sang-jun, and his children naturally discovered was also due to that antipathy.

It was a natural thing for an illegitimate child, but his antipathy towards his father extended to the children of the legal wife as well.

He couldn’t use his father’s surname, so he took his mother’s surname.

The life of hiding the fact that his father was Ko Sang-jun, not being able to call him brother, must have been miserable.

But surprisingly, Ko Sang-jun had considerable affection for Kim Chan-young.

Considering the unexpected paternal love that Ko Sang-jun had for even a scoundrel like Ko Yun-seong, it was not strange that he had affection for Kim Chan-young.

He not only gifted Kim Chan-young some shares but also placed some of his maternal relatives in affiliates.

Kim Chan-young himself hated Ko Sang-jun, but Ko Sang-jun cherished Kim Chan-young.

And Kim Chan-young’s thoroughness in wanting his father’s arrest, handling it two or three times over to hide the source, and subtly leaking the corruption documents.

In many ways, he was a suitable person for my plan.

That’s why Kim Chan-young was already a person in the plan I had set up when I started this life.

Of course, considering his age as a university student, I was planning to contact him later, but if such a coincidental opportunity arose, it wouldn’t be bad to do it sooner.

“Ah, we’re going to go to a *pork back-bone stew* [Gamjatang – a spicy Korean soup] restaurant in front of here to get some hangover soup. Would you like to join us?”

At that time, Kim Chan-young came to us and asked.

“Ah, we’re okay,”

“That’s perfect. This friend needs some hangover soup too.”

I cut off Kang Min-jae’s words and replied.

I would have refused without looking back if it were any other time, but if the other party was Kim Chan-young, it was a different story.

Kang Min-jae looked at me as if wondering what was going on.

“Anyway, they’re the guys who got into a fight with Attorney Kang, so you never know. If I buy them food and send them back, there won’t be any trouble later.”

I couldn’t explain Kim Chan-young in detail, so I made up an excuse.

I thought it was a good excuse.

“Attorney, you think so much of me… I’m really touched every time, today.”

I never thought he would be touched by something like this.