You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 206

You Have Been Defended – Episode 206

Kang Min-jae and I were both speechless at the unexpected story.

I hadn’t heard the specific details yet, but I could roughly guess what had happened.

It’s not hard to find cases where small businesses go bankrupt because of large corporations.

“……You’re saying your brother found your father’s body?”

Kang Min-jae asked cautiously.

Jo Bong-joon, who was completely drunk, nodded as he poured soju [Korean distilled rice liquor] into his beer glass.

“There was a big machine in the factory my father ran. He tied a rope to that machine, and he was hanging there with his neck tied, all limp like this.”

Jo Bong-joon physically demonstrated the scene he had witnessed.

Kang Min-jae frowned and sighed. Jo Bong-joon poured the soju he had poured into his mouth all at once.

“You know what? When a person hangs themselves, their tongue hangs out this much. And…….”

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], please stop. It’s such a sad memory. Don’t bring up things like that.”

Kang Min-jae grabbed his arm, which was imitating the action, and shook his head wildly.

I wasn’t the only one who lost my father because of Woo-shin’s misdeeds.

I was lucky enough to turn back time and save my father, but he wasn’t.

“That was when I was a student. It’s all old news.”

Jo Bong-joon waved his hand in the air and said.

“May I ask what made your father make that choice?”

“Ah, the dirty trick Woo-shin played on my father? Heh, it’s nothing special. It’s a common occurrence even now.”

He steadied his sagging body, drunk, and began pouring soju into his beer glass once more.

We bought quite a lot of alcohol on the way to Gangneung, but only a few bottles were left.

Jo Bong-joon, a heavy drinker, had drunk almost six bottles of soju and two bottles of beer alone.

I think I should stop him now.

“Stop drinking.”

“Wait a minute. I’m trying to drink because my heart hurts so much……. Father! Are you doing well, Father!”

Jo Bong-joon cried out for his father as if he were about to run out to the beach right now.

I grabbed his hand again as he tried to pour more alcohol, but he shook my hand off and shook the bottle to fill his glass.

Even that wasn’t enough to fill the glass, so he opened a new bottle on the table, poured the rest, and gulped it down.

“Our father’s factory was a subcontractor supplying parts to Wooshin Motors. When you say subcontractor, you get the feeling, right?”

I nodded.

Among the things that happen between large corporations and subcontractors, there aren’t many that drive business owners to suicide.

“The prime contractor slashed the contract price.”

“That’s right. And even delayed payments……. It was a mess. The employees of my father’s factory took turns standing guard in front of our house. They were worried that my father would run away without paying their wages. Every morning, I went to school under the gaze of those men. If I wore clothes that looked even a little nice or wore sneakers, they would curse at each other.”

I can fully understand the feelings of the workers who had to stand guard in front of Jo Bong-joon’s father’s house.

They weren’t getting paid right away, and they were filled with distrust at the idea that they had to keep working to get paid.

They probably suspected that the boss was saying they had no money while taking care of his own needs.

But it must have been very hurtful to young Jo Bong-joon.

At least, they shouldn’t have shown such an attitude and gaze in front of a child.

“At first, my mother was embarrassed, but she said, ‘How desperate must they be to do this?’ and gave them snacks if they weren’t going to leave. But every time, they would overturn everything and shout, ‘We don’t want this, give us our money!’ Ha, the neighbors were complaining about when they were going to leave, and other houses were reporting them to the police. It was a mess. When the police came, my father, from his position, would always try to smooth things over because it was all his fault that they weren’t getting paid, because they were all his employees…….”

Of course, there are cases where the boss only takes care of his own share and cries in front of the employees, saying he hasn’t received a penny, just as they feared.

But judging from the attitude of Jo Bong-joon’s parents, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

Perhaps he felt a lot of self-reproach as he watched his colleagues, who had once run the factory harmoniously, turn their backs on each other because of money, and as he realized that he was threatening their livelihoods but couldn’t do anything to help.

“My parents started borrowing money from all over the place to pay the employees’ salaries, even a little bit. ……My mother borrowed money from her aunt and uncle. My father went to see business partners and people he used to be close to, but……. No one helped him. Not even my older uncle and aunts. Of course, I didn’t know it then. My mother told me later when I grew up.”

He rubbed his increasingly moist eyes with his hands, giving himself a dry wash.

Kang Min-jae sat closer to him, and I had nothing to say either.

I wanted to know the reason why he harbored resentment towards Wooshin, so I asked him in detail, but seeing him dredge up painful memories, I wonder if I touched a wound I shouldn’t have.

“Jo Bong-joon, you can stop if it’s too hard.”

“No. It’s not hard at all. Why? Because that was already 20 years ago. It’s just, damn, it’s a bit shitty. Anyway……. So my father looked into bank loans and moved quickly here and there, but he was rejected everywhere. The factory was already piled high with debt. Eventually, we sold our house and moved to a rented room, and somehow managed to cover up the wage problem.”

He stared blankly at a point in the air with unfocused eyes, as if recalling the past.

Then he slowly opened his mouth.

“But my father couldn’t run the factory without a big client like Wooshin Motors, so he kept taking jobs from Wooshin Motors. So that one time wasn’t the end of it. At that time, Wooshin Motors was calculating the contract price at almost the cost price, and didn’t even include labor costs.”

“How is that possible? Shouldn’t you have filed a lawsuit or something?”

Kang Min-jae shouted.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. We wouldn’t have anything to eat right away if we did that.”

“…….”

“Ha, so my father eventually went to the headquarters and protested, and even threatened to jump off the roof……. It was a mess. It probably made the news in a small way.”

“Oh, my…….”

“But nothing changed. The situation only got worse. Now my father had nowhere to borrow money, and the rented room we moved to was so poor that if we sold even that, we would really be on the streets. So…….”

“……So you ended up making that choice.”

Kang Min-jae said, bowing his head.

Jo Bong-joon patted Kang Min-jae’s shoulder and said.

“That’s right. Anyway, that’s why I hate Wooshin. At this point, it’s understandable that I hate them, right?”

Perhaps Jo Bong-joon had been swallowing such resentment alone.

His anger towards Wooshin was great, but knowing that there was nothing he could do, he eventually decided to bury it deep inside.

But an opportunity arose through Choi Jong-hyun, and he seized that opportunity.

Choi Jong-hyun’s words, which simply described him as ‘a guy who hates Wooshin,’ contained a lot.

“Jong-hyun hyung said he happened to see his senior digging into Wooshin, and he became interested in it and started digging.”

“Yes, I heard. He said that he kept getting blocked from above, so he got stubborn and started poking around.”

“That hyung only has stubbornness left now. If he can’t catch Wooshin, he’ll be more upset than me, who has a story, and he won’t be able to close his eyes even when he’s buried.”

Jo Bong-joon chuckled and gestured with his chin towards Choi Jong-hyun, who was sleeping soundly with Secretary Oh inside the room, snoring happily.

“Min-jae said he came chasing after Attorney Cha’s tail.”

Kang Min-jae shouted at Jo Bong-joon, who neatly summed it up in one sentence.

“No, hyung. Why is that how you interpret my big decision?”

“Actually, I said okay right away when Jong-hyun hyung asked me to join him. Attorney Cha was also a reason.”

Jo Bong-joon ignored Kang Min-jae’s protest and opened his mouth again.

It seems like the atmosphere has suddenly turned into a story-telling session.

It’s probably possible because there’s alcohol involved.

“Are you talking about when I was being investigated by the prosecution for real estate and stocks?”

“No, not that. Because of that Go Yoon-sung case, the Wooshin Moolsan wage arrears issue came up. I heard Jong-hyun hyung say that Attorney Cha had neatly resolved even that, and I felt it there. I thought I could do something together with this person. At least, even if I quit in the middle if I don’t like it, I thought I could start. Well, that’s what I thought.”

The Go Yoon-sung case was an incident in which everyone involved suffered damage while trying to wrap up the case.

It wasn’t a difficult task, and I just gave some advice.

“I can’t even say that I did anything.”

“Oh, you’re being humble again. Anyway, I feel good!”

Jo Bong-joon picked up the half-empty bottle of soju and 벌떡 [baldeok – suddenly/abruptly] stood up.

He was now too annoyed to pour soju into his glass one by one, so he drank the soju straight from the bottle.

He emptied the bottle and reached for another new one.

This was beyond excessive drinking, it was 폭음 [pok-eum – binge drinking], so I eventually snatched the bottle from his hand and poured it into my mouth.

“Ah. What, Attorney Cha.”

“I told you to stop drinking. What are you going to do tomorrow?”

The reason I’m afraid of Jo Bong-joon 폭음 [pok-eum – binge drinking] is not just because.

He seems fine when he’s drinking, but the next day, he spends the whole day hugging the toilet and vomiting because of a hangover.

He even groans like a sick person.

I’ve seen that side of him more than once or twice, so how can I just leave him alone?

Kang Min-jae alone is enough to take care of the drunkards in my life.

“Hey, it’s okay. Give me that bottle. I think it’s the last bottle. I’m going to drink it all.”

I drank all of the last bottle that he coveted so much.

My stomach churned after drinking two bottles of soju straight from the bottle.

I felt like I was going to throw up right away.

……As expected, all that MT [Membership Training – a common term for company retreats in Korea] leaves me with is alcohol, hangovers, and vomit.