You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 234

“I’ll head straight home after stopping by the courthouse.”

“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”

Office Manager Oh was getting ready to leave with his briefcase when he suddenly glanced at the seat next to him.

Kang Min-jae was sitting at his desk, dozing off.

I sighed, and Office Manager Oh quietly approached him, placing his briefcase a bit loudly on Kang Min-jae’s desk.

“Ugh, uh! I wasn’t sleeping! I wasn’t sleeping!”

“Who said you were? Haha.”

Office Manager Oh removed the scrap paper stuck to Kang Min-jae’s face.

“Spacing out, huh.”

Kang Min-jae’s face turned red at my words, and he left to wash up. Office Manager Oh watched him go, then cautiously opened his mouth.

“Do you have any plans for the next case?”

It had been quite a while since Kang Min-jae joined our team, but Office Manager Oh was still acting carefully.

It wasn’t to exclude Kang Min-jae, but rather because he thought I might be deliberately keeping things to myself.

“I’m not sure. Is there a problem?”

The Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals and Lee Jung-chan cases were now out of my hands.

Lee Jung-chan’s indictment had been decided, but he was still under investigation to confirm whether there were any other crimes.

Also, Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals, with its CEO and executives arrested, was busy proceeding with administrative lawsuits against the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and preparing for re-examination during the grace period for delisting [a period allowing a company to avoid being removed from the stock exchange].

Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals had failed, Antrosol Alpha was not released, and Lee Jung-chan’s presidential election was also blocked.

We had achieved all our goals.

So, Office Manager Oh seemed to think it was time to move on to the next stage.

“I heard that some of the people who came for consultations last time were turned away.”

Usually, when a request comes into the office, Office Manager Oh assesses the overall size of the case.

Then, depending on the situation, the client comes to the office, and Kang Min-jae and I consult with them.

Of the five clients Office Manager Oh consulted with over the phone, four came to the office in person.

However, none of them led to a retainer agreement [an agreement where a client pays in advance for services].

It wasn’t that the clients were dissatisfied with the consultation, but because I rejected them.

“Attorney Kang seems a bit bored too.”

Indeed, Kang Min-jae was really bored.

He kept complaining about wanting to take on a big case like before, so much so that it hurt my ears.

“Anyway, we’re a law firm, and it seems like we haven’t been taking on many cases lately, so I’m worried.”

“Are you bored too, Office Manager?”

“Oh, well, I get my salary regularly, so it’s nice when there’s no work. Haha. Still…”

“We have ongoing cases, though.”

“But they’re all minor cases. Attorney Kang is handling them all.”

“I’m waiting for something.”

“Waiting for something? Is there another big case on standby?”

Office Manager Oh’s eyes were filled with curiosity.

“It’s not on standby, but there’s something that could become either big or small. I’m going to try to prevent it from becoming big first… I might need you.”

It is perfectly normal for a lawyer to take on several cases at once.

Even if the case I mentioned were to become big, I could still handle it while taking on other cases.

However, I wanted to focus solely on this one.

The second person I wanted to save after restarting this life.

Because it was Dongjin’s case.

* * *

I parked the car in front of Daebak House and got out, and the owner, who was standing in front smoking, met my eyes.

“Oh, Attorney, you’re here?”

“How have you been?”

“Good. Oh, I saw you on TV. But it’s true that the camera doesn’t capture the real thing. Honestly, how can the camera not capture such a handsome lawyer like you?”

I gave him an awkward smile as he made a silly joke.

I looked through the storefront window at the bustling restaurant.

The food here is so unusually delicious that you have to stand in line if the timing isn’t right.

The store is quite large, so the wait isn’t long, but this is the only place where I eat food while standing in line.

“There will be a seat soon. Just wait a little.”

“It’s nice to see that business is always good, no matter when I come.”

“It is good. Because I make a lot of money.”

“Do you have other worries?”

“Everything else is up to me, but I can’t control my children.”

He said with a bitter smile.

Suddenly, what I had thought of as soon as I came here after returning to this life flashed through my mind.

The tragedy of the Daebak House owner selling his store after funding his children’s businesses.

“Both the older and younger ones hated studying since they were young, but they didn’t want to do anything else either. They haven’t been able to do anything properly so far. They just keep talking about wanting to start a business.”

“A business?”

“Yes. But no matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem like they have any vision. But I’m just an old man, so I don’t know.”

I don’t know what kind of business his sons did.

But I definitely remember that the business fails.

“I don’t know what your sons’ business ideas are, but the economy isn’t good these days. Instead of a new business, it would be better to set up a franchise from a large corporation.”

“A large corporation franchise? What kind of thing, for example?”

“There are many. There are cafes, bakeries, and convenience stores. In my opinion, it’s best to set up a cafe in a good location, even if the location fee is a bit high.”

There is no guarantee that a large corporation franchise will not fail, but at least the owner of Daebak House will not have to sell his store to fund his sons’ businesses.

Whether he listens to this advice or not is up to him….

Nevertheless, I had to speak.

Because it would be a national loss for such a great restaurant to disappear because of that.

“Sigh, that would be better. Thank you for your advice. Ah! There’s a seat inside. Let’s go in quickly.”

It was about 30 minutes after we went inside and took our seats that Dongjin appeared.

Dongjin, who had come in with difficulty, parting the narrow gaps between people, was out of breath as if he had been running.

“Hey, sorry. An emergency call came up, so I was a bit late.”

“It’s okay. I know you’re busy. I didn’t order, waiting for you to come.”

“You’ll get cursed if you wait in a crowded place like this without ordering.”

“The owner told me to wait comfortably. How should we order?”

“Order the usual.”

As the side dishes were set, Dongjin diligently started eating them, as if he hadn’t had lunch.

When I pushed the side dish he liked in front of him, Dongjin smiled awkwardly and muttered as an excuse.

“I’m hungry.”

“Eat a lot.”

“Hey, I was going to ask you when I met you. Did you see the Lee Se-hyung case? Our chief was arrested.”

“I saw it.”

I didn’t bother to say that it was a case I had orchestrated.

Anyway, since the decisive hint was obtained because of Dongjin’s words, I was worried that Dongjin might feel guilty.

“How can the timing be so perfect? How long has it been since I badmouthed our chief to you, saying he was a contractor [likely meaning a ‘yes-man’ or someone easily controlled]? And to think that the business trip to buy that chocolate was to fake Lee Se-hyung’s surgery records, it’s absurd.”

He would be horrified if I told him that thanks to that chocolate, I found a spinal cord hospital in Germany.

“So, did a new chief come?”

“He came. He’s from a branch and from a local university, but I don’t know yet. But he seems to be quite skilled, seeing that someone from a local university took that position in such a talkative and troubled situation. Ah, I’m not putting down local universities. It’s just that academic elitism is so rampant in this field.”

Dongjin answered without even looking at my face, diligently grilling the meat.

A new chief.

A being that didn’t exist in the previous life has appeared.

That means that the incident that killed Dongjin in the previous life might not happen.

“Are there many surgeries these days?”

“Not many. Some of the patients I was seeing have gone to other hospitals. Our department is particularly hit hard by the Lee Se-hyung case this time. It’s driving me crazy. I’m just comforting myself by thinking that I sent them to other hospitals.”

“It’s not like your salary is decreasing, so think of it as you’ve earned some time.”

“That’s why I’m called to the ER more often? I’m having a mysterious experience where the number of patients has decreased, but the work has increased. Hey, it’s cooked. Eat it quickly.”

Would I not eat it on my own?

When he comes to a place like this, he tends to push the meat in front of me, telling me to eat more, as if he were my parents.

“You said you lost the VIP back then. To the director’s son.”

“Did I?”

“The chief has changed, is it still the same now?”

“Well, I was going to schedule the second Hanyoung Group surgery this time? But I don’t know what will happen. But he said he would continue to go to our hospital. It’s just that he was originally the chief’s patient, but that person was arrested, so it’s a bit ambiguous. But in the meantime, the new chief is also from a humble background, so he might go to another professor… Even if the new chief continues to take care of it, if that person is also the type to suck up to the director, he’ll pass it on to his son, just like before.”

“If the director’s son continues to take care of it, you won’t be able to enter that operating room?”

“I probably won’t?”

I wish that would happen.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Why are you asking so much? Are you acquainted with the second son of Hanyoung Group?”

“Not really… Then, what if.”

“What if?”

“I’m not saying this is the case in your hospital. Let’s say there are cases of ghost surgeries [surgeries performed by someone other than the named surgeon]. Is that surgery also entrusted to the director’s son?”

As I brought it up, Dongjin’s expression hardened for a moment.

I thought it was an offensive remark, but I couldn’t help but address it.

Dongjin seemed to think for a moment, then waved his hand and laughed.

“Our hospital doesn’t do ghost surgeries, you idiot.”

Dongjin, unable to overcome the chief’s coercion, performed ghost surgery, and the second son of Hanyoung Group dies on the table, putting him in a corner.

And in the end, he takes his own life.