You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 192

You Guys Are Defended – Episode 192

On the way back to Seoul from Jinseong County.

After a long silence, Kang Min-jae cautiously broached the subject of Yu Min-hyeok’s earlier statement.

“…Do you really suffer from such pain?”

“No, I don’t.”

“…So, it was all an act?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, seriously… Wow, wow… Attorney, you could be a con artist. Wow, I was completely fooled. Wow, really… I was feeling sorry for you, thinking you were genuinely in pain, and I couldn’t even bring it up!”

Kang Min-jae seethed with a sense of betrayal.

Feeling the car shake from his outburst, I instinctively checked the rearview mirror.

“Seriously, don’t ever get on Yu Min-hyeok’s bad side. He’ll get so angry he’ll cancel the deal to give us the data, you know?”

“……”

“You were going to say it’s unavoidable since we already got the key, right? But if Yu Min-hyeok refuses to the end, saying he can’t trust a lying lawyer, there’s nothing you can do, right?”

“Kang, Attorney.”

“No, am I wrong? I feel so betrayed!”

“Kang, Attorney, the car behind us.”

My gaze remained fixed on the rearview mirror.

Kang Min-jae, assuming I was trying to change the subject, continued his rant, prompting me to raise my voice.

“Be quiet!”

“…Yes.”

Kang Min-jae immediately fell silent.

“About the car behind us. Doesn’t it seem like it’s been following us for a while now?”

A black SUV.

The first time I noticed that car was on the way out of Jinseong County.

And the second time was near Jeollabuk-do.

At that time, I only briefly thought, ‘Oh, it’s that car again? I guess it’s going the same way as us.’

But now, almost an hour has passed since then.

No matter how similar our destinations might be, isn’t it suspicious to have a car following us this closely?

“…I think I saw that car earlier too. Hmm, but is it the same car? The model seems the same, but I didn’t memorize the license plate.”

Kang Min-jae shrugged.

It was a popular domestic car, reasonably priced, so it was definitely a common model.

It’s a common sight on the road, but it’s still suspicious.

“Change lanes once in the middle.”

“Yes.”

When Kang Min-jae changed lanes, the car behind us followed suit.

“Pull over to the side of the road.”

“I’ll pull over towards Sangcheon.”

Kang Min-jae pulled onto the road towards Sangcheon without signaling.

The car behind us, seemingly caught off guard by our sudden maneuver, changed direction abruptly and persistently chased after us.

“They’re definitely following us.”

“…Who could it be?”

“It seems to be someone from Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals.”

“Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals? Then they’ve been following us since Jinseong?”

“I don’t know if they were watching Yu Min-hyeok in Jinseong and followed us from there, or if they followed us all the way from Seoul down to Jinseong.”

“What should we do? What if Yu Min-hyeok’s location, which was so well hidden, is exposed because of us?”

I shook my head.

“That’s unlikely.”

It was Tae-shik who secured Yu Min-hyeok’s location.

Of course, I wasn’t dismissing Tae-shik’s intelligence.

But Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t have simply left Yu Min-hyeok alone, considering he was a key figure in the company and knew about the fatal flaw in Antrozol Alpha, right?

Especially now that the problem with Antrozol Alpha has surfaced.

Initially, they might not have known where Yu Min-hyeok was hiding, but after this issue arose, they would have been monitoring his movements.

Just as Tae-shik found out in a few days, it wouldn’t have been difficult for Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals to discover Yu Min-hyeok’s location.

Knowing that Kang Min-jae and I met with Yu Min-hyeok, they seem to be following us to see if he revealed anything to us.

“What should we do?”

“If it’s Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals, they’ll keep following us, even when we go back to Seoul.”

“…Then, we need to go to our private vault and get the data. What about that? Should we give Tae-shik the key as soon as we get to Seoul and ask him to retrieve it for us instead?”

That could be an option, but if they find out we contacted Tae-shik, they’ll put someone on him too.

That way, they’ll know for sure that there’s something valuable in the private vault.

Of course, they can’t access the data before us because they don’t have the key, but the problem lies elsewhere.

They might ambush us while we’re retrieving the data, or they might tamper with the private vault itself.

I crossed my arms and pondered.

“Kang, Attorney, where are we right now?”

“Here, um, if we go a little further, there’s the Myeoncheon rest area. It seems to be near Myeoncheon.”

“Where’s about halfway between Seoul and Myeoncheon? Yangsin?”

“Yes, around there.”

I immediately called Tae-shik.

-Our Hyungnim [term of endearment, meaning ‘older brother’], did you meet Yu Min-hyeok well? Hahaha. Thanks to you, I bought two new cars and interviewed some employees. There’s a guy who used to be with me, he’s tight-lipped and very useful.

“Shut up and listen to me.”

-Yes? Ah, yes.

“Send two guys to the Yangsin rest area in the direction of Seoul right now.”

-Right now? The direction of Seoul?

“It’ll probably take us about 2 hours to get there. Can you get there within that time?”

-Hey, Sang-gil. Check how long it takes to get to the Yangsin rest area in the direction of Seoul from here.

Tae-shik also became urgent.

-It takes an hour and a half.

“Okay. Send guys with similar builds and heights to me and Kang, Attorney.”

“…Disguise? Is something wrong?”

Tae-shik asked with a worried voice.

To hear worries from the infamous Jang Tae-shik, this really brings back old memories.

“Something’s wrong, but it’s not life-threatening. We’re being followed, so I’m trying to shake them off.”

-Ah. That’s our specialty.

“I’ll explain it simply. You guys will arrive earlier than us, so take pictures of the parking location, car number, and car model and send them to me in a text message. After confirming that, we’ll call you when we arrive at the rest area. Then we’ll meet in the bathroom right away.”

-Yes. What’s next?

“Change clothes in the bathroom, exchange car keys. And we’ll take the car your guys came in, and your guys will take our car and go up. We need to make sure the decoy works properly, so send nimble guys who are good at acting. Got it?”

-Yes. Where should I tell them to go after leaving the rest area?

“To our house parking lot. They won’t be able to get in unless it’s a registered vehicle, so they’ll be shaken off there. Then change clothes and go home on your own.”

-Okay, I understand. Then I’ll tell the guys to report their location from time to time. I’ll send Sang-gil, so please contact him.”

“Sang-gil is bald, isn’t he? They need to look like us, you know?”

-Ah, our Sang-gil grew his hair out. He grew it out to about Kang Attorney’s length. I told you so many times that he became handsome after growing his hair out, how can you forget that so quickly, Sang-gil will be so upset.”

He grumbled a lot, but unfortunately, there was no time to listen to everything.

I hung up the phone and said to Kang Min-jae.

“Kang, Attorney, did you hear everything?”

“Yes. Then we’ll change clothes with Tae-shik’s employees, switch cars, and where do we go?”

“We have to go to the private vault right away and get the data.”

“Okay, I understand. Whew, I’ve always wanted to do something like this. Even when I was a prosecutor, this was kind of my fantasy. Hoo, ha. But there was never an opportunity. I’m fulfilling that dream here. Hehehe.”

…It’s good that you’re not scared, but it’s a problem if you think of it as a game.

Just before arriving at the Yangsin rest area, a text message arrived from Sang-gil.

As instructed, he took a picture showing the parking location and license plate at the same time.

I immediately called Sang-gil.

“Sang-gil, it’s me.”

-Yes, Attorney. Did you get the text message?

“Yeah. We just arrived too. The parking location is right behind your car. We’re going to the bathroom now, is the line long?”

-The line is very long. We’re inside the bathroom now. As soon as you enter the bathroom, we’re in the leftmost toilet stall, the last stall and the second to last stall. Cha Attorney, you should go to the last stall, and Kang Attorney, you should go to the stall next to it. We’ve put up an out-of-order sign on the door, so you don’t have to worry.”

In a crowded rest area bathroom, it wouldn’t attract much attention.

Kang Min-jae and I got out of the car as if nothing had happened.

And, I confirmed that the car that had been following us parked not far from us.

The driver didn’t get out, as if he intended to wait until we returned to the car.

He seems to be doing that on purpose because it’s easy to lose track of us if he follows us around in such a crowded rest area.

He’ll never know that’s his own bad move.

“The line is very long. Let’s go quickly.”

Kang Min-jae said, pointing to the bathroom.

“Ah, I think I ate something wrong earlier. My stomach hurts so much.”

The man couldn’t hear, but Kang Min-jae acted with all his might.

He frowned, as if advertising that he had a stomachache, rubbing his lower abdomen.

It wasn’t necessary, but I didn’t want to interfere because Kang Min-jae was quite immersed in the acting, so I just accepted it appropriately.

And when it was our turn, we went into the promised stalls.

“…What is all this?”

“Shh. Shh. Hurry up and change, Attorney.”

As soon as I entered the stall, Tae-shik’s thug made a fuss, shushing loudly.

Tae-shik’s thug didn’t just bring clothes.

Whether he raided a prop room, he had laid out things to put on makeup on the toilet lid.

Large horn-rimmed glasses, a bucket hat, and even a detachable mustache and mask.

…It wouldn’t hurt to be sure, but he’s doing everything.

“Sang-gil will have the car key. The rest is as Tae-shik told you, but let’s talk about the details on the phone.”

I gave him my clothes and came out of the stall first.

Walking towards the sink with my head down, Kang, Attorney, who looked similar to me, was already out and washing his hands.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get caught.”

He chuckled, looking at himself and me in the mirror.

I roughly shook off the wet hands and scanned the surroundings on the way out of the bathroom.

“He’s standing in front of the car, smoking a cigarette.”

Kang Min-jae spotted him before I did.

In the distance in the parking lot, he was even taking the time to smoke a cigarette in front of the car, as if gauging when we would come.

Who does he think he’s fooling?

“Where’s the car key?”

“I got it.”

“Start as soon as you get in.”

“Yes. Ha, the smell of baby potatoes is amazing.”

Kang Min-jae almost lost his mind for a moment at the smell of butter wafting from the snack corner, but soon regained his senses and arrived at Sang-gil’s car.

After getting in the car, I turned around and checked the man’s appearance.

He was still glancing around the bathroom, as if trying to guess when we would come.

* * *

“The key.”

The man with bulging muscles and covered in tattoos sitting at the counter said gruffly.

I took out the key I received from Yu Min-hyeok from my pocket and handed it to him.

The man checked the key for a long time, then gestured for me to follow him.

“Only one person.”

Kang Min-jae, who was trying to follow me, was blocked by the man’s thick arm.

Beyond the iron wall that looked like a bomb shelter, there were vaults densely packed.

The man approached the vault that matched the number written on the key.

After opening the vault with the key and even doing a fingerprint scan, the door finally opened.

And what came out of it were small recorders and documents.

After letting Kang Min-jae, who had worked hard driving, go home, I stopped by my house to change clothes and came back to the office.

It feels like today was a very long day, but I can’t rest yet.

There’s still work to do.

As I told Kang Min-jae, I was going to make a copy and store it in the office and at home.

Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals followed us, and I don’t know what else they’ll do, so it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.

Frankly speaking, they’re the kind of guys who could break into my house while I’m sleeping.

I opened the door to the darkened office and walked to the copier.

I put the documents I brought from the warehouse into the copier and sat down at my desk to check the emails I hadn’t been able to check while I was away.

“…Ah, no battery.”

I had taken out the laptop battery because I was away, and it had discharged in the meantime.

I squatted under the desk and started looking for the cord.

It was hard to see because the office lights were off.

It was when I went under the desk to plug in the cord.

I felt something protruding on the palm of my hand that was touching the bottom of the desk.

Something not very big, about the size of a thumbnail.

I picked up the cell phone I had put on the desk and illuminated the area around it.

‘Wow, that’s amazing.’

I almost blurted out an exclamation without realizing it.

It was none other than a bugging device.