You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 187

You Have Been Defended - Episode 187

Those were unexpected stories.

Yu Min-hyuk’s brother was a public health doctor here, and he died here.

I was so shocked that I couldn’t say anything for a while, and then the old man spoke first.

“So we thought that pharmacist came all the way down here. His brother was so kind and nice……”

“Do you happen to know how his brother passed away?”

Kang Min-jae moved closer to the old man and asked.

The old man silently replied, cutting the watermelon with a large knife.

“I don’t know the details. But, he had some kind of illness… Anyway, he kept taking medicine.”

He kept taking medicine.

Something smelled fishy.

“One day, that young man was giving a medical examination at the health center when he suddenly grabbed his chest and collapsed. A heart attack. They rushed him to the hospital and did that thing, you know, pressing on his chest.”

“CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation]?”

“I don’t know, they did something like that anyway. But it was no use. He just passed away… His family was heartbroken. If that happens.”

“Was the reason for the sudden heart attack revealed?”

“Well, they said it was because of the medicine that young man was taking… That’s what caused the side effects. But I don’t know the exact details.”

If what this old man heard is true, I think I know why Yu Min-hyuk quit Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals and came all the way to this remote place.

He is a person who has already suffered the pain of losing his brother due to side effects of medicine.

So, when he found out that the medicine he developed could also cause such side effects, he would have tried to stop it at all costs.

But when that wasn’t accepted, he couldn’t do anything more personally, so he decided to come down here where his brother died and live.

As if atoning, he exiled himself.

“He studied as much as he could, and his parents raised their children so well that they must have been very proud. It’s heartbreaking to think about his parents’ feelings. What should we do? Tsk tsk.”

The old man clicked his tongue and cut a piece of watermelon and threw it to Baek-gu.

Baek-gu wagged its tail and came over to eat the watermelon.

It’s a sad story.

And I could understand to some extent why Yu Min-hyuk didn’t want to get involved in this.

Anyway, he was the person in charge of research, and he felt guilty and made various efforts, but nothing worked, so he gave up and moved far away.

He probably didn’t have the courage to face it again now.

But that doesn’t mean we can give up.

Even if we put aside Yu Min-hyuk’s personal circumstances, countless people will lose their lives if Antrozol Alpha is distributed.

“Grandma, thank you for your words.”

“Oh, okay. Should I make up a bed for you?”

“I would appreciate it if you did.”

“But do you young men have clothes to change into? Should I give you some of my son’s clothes?”

“Wow, I would be even more grateful if you did!”

The old woman took out a stretched-out T-shirt and training pants from the closet in the room she gave us.

It seemed that her son was not that tall, as they were definitely small for us.

“Pfft, you look like someone who stole their nephew’s clothes, Attorney Cha.”

Kang Min-jae couldn’t stop laughing when he saw me come out after changing my clothes.

“You look the same, Attorney Kang.”

Attorney Kang was in the same situation.

Still, it’s better than sleeping in a suit, so there’s nothing we can do.

We got into bed and lay down side by side.

We need to fall asleep quickly to go back to the pharmacy early tomorrow morning.

“Attorney Cha.”

Kang Min-jae had no intention of being quiet.

“What.”

“I’m just curious.”

“About what.”

“Why did you leave the prosecution?”

This is a story that Kang Min-jae has never asked me about.

And this is also a question that is directly related to my purpose of trying to hide from Kang Min-jae.

“That’s a bit of a random question, isn’t it?”

“No, isn’t this the kind of question you ask at times like this? When you’re far away from where you used to be, before you go to sleep. Well, if you’re uncomfortable, you don’t have to tell me.”

I feel like he wanted to ask me this for a while, but the timing wasn’t right.

“…I just thought I couldn’t do what I wanted to do in the prosecution.”

“What is it that you want to do, Attorney Cha?”

I turned my head and looked at Kang Min-jae.

Kang Min-jae had completely turned his body towards me and was staring with his eyes wide open even in the dark.

His shining white eyes were almost burdensome.

“Things like, if the higher-ups tell you to drop it, you drop it, if they tell you to do it, you do it. If they tell you to do something, you do it.”

“…That’s true. Actually, I thought you were a great fit as a prosecutor.”

“I think so too.”

It’s been three years since I became a lawyer, but I lived as a prosecutor for 15 years.

Even now, there are times when it feels awkward.

There are times when I’m more comfortable being called Prosecutor Cha than Attorney Cha.

“I just want to help people who are in the face of injustice. And I want to break down the hotbeds of that injustice. That’s what I want to do.”

“…Like Wooshin, for example?”

You’re hitting the nail on the head.

I pulled up the blanket and closed my eyes.

“Wooshin could be one of those things.”

* * *

The next morning, the smell of cooking rice filled the air after I washed up.

The old man was cooking rice in a large cauldron, which is hard to find these days.

Fried fish and stew were placed on a small dog-leg table [a low, often folding table used in traditional Korean homes].

“Are you lawyers staying here again today?”

The old man asked, placing a bowl of rice in front of us.

“I think we can decide what to do after meeting the pharmacist again today.”

“Is that so?”

The old man slowly nodded and poured water into the pot.

“I’m going to boil some scorched rice too, are you going to eat it?”

“If you boil it, of course we have to eat it! Haha.”

While we were eating, the old man muttered, ‘Is there anything else I can give you?’ and busily went back and forth between the kitchen and the porch.

“Grandma, stop and come and eat!”

“No! Eat quickly! I made this and that to give to my son when he comes, but that rascal, who should be rotting away, doesn’t even show his face. Should I just wait for his mother to die? It’s a good thing you lawyers came. There’s no one to eat it. That damned rascal. I should tell him not to come to his mother’s funeral.”

The old man brought out so much food that the table almost broke, and Kang Min-jae finally put down his spoon after eating two bowls of rice and even scorched rice.

“Grandma, we’re leaving now. I’ll call you if we stay here for another day!”

“Okay, call me!”

We left the guesthouse, seeing off the old woman, and headed back to the pharmacy.

I was too full to drive, so I took the wheel today.

Kang Min-jae opened the window and kept patting his stomach.

“Before we talk to Yu Min-hyuk, shouldn’t we buy some digestive medicine first? Ugh. I think I ate too much.”

I sighed.

When we arrived in the city, we stopped by a nearby supermarket and bought a juice set, as Kang Min-jae recommended.

Yesterday, we were so flustered that we rushed in and started talking abruptly.

We also learned about the situation, so I thought it would be better to start the conversation more gently.

There was also a small bakery, so we stopped there too.

Kang Min-jae initially suggested buying a whipped cream cake, but soon changed his order to a roll cake, saying that Yu Min-hyuk might throw the cake in his face.

After going around the city once, it was almost time for the pharmacy to open.

“Welcome……”

As soon as we opened the door to the pharmacy, Yu Min-hyuk, who was reflexively greeting us, hardened his expression when he saw us.

“Wasn’t everything discussed yesterday?”

He replied coldly.

At that moment, Kang Min-jae advanced, placing the juice set and roll cake he was holding in both hands on the counter.

“Yu Min-hyuk, I’m really sorry for starting with an uncomfortable story yesterday because we were so flustered.”

“……”

“Please just listen to our story. I beg you. You know best that we’re not doing this with bad intentions, Yu Min-hyuk.”

Yu Min-hyuk sighed deeply.

Then, he hung a sign on the pharmacy door saying he would be away for a while, parted the curtain of the inner dispensary, and said,

“Then let’s talk for a moment.”

When I entered the dispensary, there was a small room at the end of the hallway.

Yu Min-hyuk led us there.

It was a studio apartment.

It seemed that Yu Min-hyuk was living here.

He must have made a lot of money as the head of research at Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals, but seeing him living here like this, I could tell how much guilt he felt.

“I think Yu Min-hyuk is also watching the Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals situation.”

I said, looking at the small article clipping on his desk.

It was a printout of the Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals case.

Why wouldn’t he be?

He would have thought that all the incidents started because of the medicine he made, and no matter how much he wanted to get away from it, he couldn’t help but pay attention to the outcome of the case.

“…That’s right. Anyway, as you said, Antrozol is a drug that I developed. And the components of Antrozol Alpha were also discovered during the Antrozol development stage.”

“Yes. And Yu Min-hyuk knew about the side effects that occur when those two components meet, so he researched Hyizolam to suppress those side effects.”

“…Yes.”

“But what is the reason why you didn’t proceed with that research yourself?”

“The higher-ups ordered that Antrozol Alpha be released quickly, so we couldn’t allocate manpower. So we outsourced it to an American institution.”

Yu Min-hyuk sighed.

“It’s the same as what I said yesterday. I knew that the American research institution was not very reliable. So I postponed the release of Antrozol Alpha and strongly argued that Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals should re-research the inhibitory action of Hyizolam. But that wasn’t accepted. I said that I would stop the Antrozol Alpha research here, and I expressed my resignation. I thought that Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals would take some other action to some extent……”

Yu Min-hyuk is a researcher who has been working at Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals since before it was listed on the stock exchange.

Moreover, he was the head of research for Antrozol, which made Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals listed on the stock exchange, so he would have had some influence within the company.

However, even though Yu Min-hyuk protested to the point of expressing his resignation, Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals did not listen.

“This is all I can tell you.”

“I understand that Yu Min-hyuk tried to prevent the release of Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals’ Antrozol Alpha in any way he could. But as a result, Yu Min-hyuk created the original plan for Antrozol Alpha, and isn’t that what’s about to come out into the world now?”

“…Attorney. Are you trying to say that it’s my responsibility?”

“For someone who lost their family because of that medicine, that’s how they can’t help but feel.”

Yu Min-hyuk’s eyes widened at my words.

“If that medicine had never existed in the first place, my family wouldn’t have died like this… Isn’t it natural to think that way? At least, that’s what I thought.”

You Have Been Defended [EN]

You Have Been Defended [EN]

너희들은 변호됐다
Status: Completed Author: , Native Language: Korean
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[English Translation] Prosecutor Cha Juhan's relentless pursuit of the corrupt Wooshin Group ended in betrayal and death at the hands of those he trusted most. But fate, it seems, has other plans. Granted a second chance, reborn as a Wooshin sniper, Cha Juhan vows to bring the entire Wooshin family to justice, no matter how many lifetimes it takes. Trading his prosecutor's badge for a lawyer's gavel, he embarks on a path of vengeance, armed with extraordinary abilities beyond human comprehension. They told him to know his place in the next life? He'll show them exactly where they belong – behind bars. Prepare for a thrilling saga of revenge, justice, and supernatural power as Cha Juhan targets Wooshin once more, turning the courtroom into his battleground.

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