You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 283

“Where did you say that place was?”

After merging onto the main road and driving for a while, Team A’s vehicle, carrying the meter reader, had entered a safe zone.

There were no vehicles *tracking* them, and more importantly, they had shaken off any potential ‘goldfish droppings’ [unwanted followers] that might have stuck to them by circling the neighborhood. It was time to relax.

Now, it was time to move to their destination.

“I’ll text you the address, so put it in your navigation.”

Tae-shik said, glancing at the now-quiet meter reader.

There was no need for the meter reader to know where they were going.

Cha Joo-han had said that the meter reader was quite meticulous.

Preventing even small pieces of information from leaking was the way to increase the success rate.

“Do you have the blindfold?”

“Ah, here it is.”

From the moment they decided to secure the meter reader, they had made thorough preparations.

In particular, the duct tape, rope, and blindfold that Kang Min-jae, who had *seen a lot* [experienced a lot], had prepared were a great help.

If there hadn’t been anyone to stop him, he would have even tried to get that drug that, when soaked in a handkerchief and held over the nose, would immediately make someone dizzy.

Fortunately, Cha Joo-han sighed and drew a line, saying, ‘Don’t overdo it,’ so they didn’t go that far.

Tae-shik blindfolded the meter reader, tied him up tightly so he couldn’t escape, and then texted the address to Kang Min-jae.

“You haven’t reported yet, have you?”

Oh Yang-hoon asked in a voice barely audible to Kang Min-jae.

“Ah, right. I was so out of it.”

Only then did Kang Min-jae remember Cha Joo-han, who would be most curious about the news, and he raised his phone.

And habitually pressed the speed dial to make a call.

Zzzzzzz-

And at the same time, a strange vibration sound began to ring in the quiet car.

“Who’s getting a call?”

At Kang Min-jae’s words, Oh Yang-hoon and Tae-shik each checked their phones.

But there were no records left.

The vibration sound continued, and Tae-shik turned his head sharply towards the meter reader sprawled in the back seat.

“The sound is coming from this bastard.”

“Didn’t we turn off this bastard’s phone earlier?”

“I turned it off. I even took out the battery and checked?”

Fearing that the Hanlim Corporation guys would track the meter reader’s phone and chase after them, they had already found the meter reader’s phone and turned it off.

Originally, they were going to throw away the phone to be sure, but Oh Yang-hoon opposed, saying that there might be information they could check on that phone.

He had been in the prosecutor’s office for a long time, and he assured them that they couldn’t be tracked if they turned it off, so they chose that method with peace of mind.

But why was the vibration sound coming from the meter reader?

Could it be that he had another phone?

“Ugh! Mmm!”

When Tae-shik suddenly put his hand into the meter reader’s pocket, the meter reader began to struggle.

But Tae-shik grabbed the meter reader’s ear roughly and whispered.

“Are you going to move now and never move again, or are you going to stay still now and move later?”

“……”

At the eerie threat, the meter reader slumped down, and Tae-shik began to search all the pockets more actively.

He had searched a lot when he found the phone earlier, but there was no way to know where he had hidden it.

Tae-shik began to grope his body a little more.

To be honest, there was only one place he hadn’t checked because he felt uncomfortable, but surely it wasn’t there.

Ha, it was really disgusting, but he couldn’t help it.

Tae-shik closed his eyes tightly and stuck his hand into the meter reader’s underwear.

“Ugh! Mmm! Mmm!”

Then the meter reader’s resistance became even fiercer.

He began to flop around like a freshly caught fish.

“You son of a bitch. Stay still. I feel even worse. Ugh, really, I’ve never done anything like this in my life, it’s here!”

“Ughhh! Mmm!”

“Ugh, you dirty bastard. No matter how urgent it is, how can you hide it here? Ugh, disgusting.”

And indeed, he was able to find a phone vibrating inside.

“What is it?”

There are many people in the world who carry two phones.

So there was nothing strange about finding another phone.

But even so, there was something strange.

“Kang, did you call this bastard?”

The screen of the phone found in the meter reader’s arms was fervently announcing that a call was coming from [Kang Min-jae].

“No way. How would I know that bastard’s number?”

Hearing those words, Kang Min-jae tilted his head, took the phone away from his ear, and checked the screen.

“……Ah, I accidentally called the lawyer.”

With those words, they, except for Oh Yang-hoon, who was driving, simultaneously glared at the meter reader’s phone, which was vibrating.

“So, does that mean this phone belongs to the lawyer? The person who called this phone right now is Kang?”

Tae-shik said, tearing at the phone that had stopped vibrating.

He wanted to check the inside, but unfortunately, he didn’t know the lock pattern, so he couldn’t.

Kang Min-jae checked the appearance of the phone once at Tae-shik’s question and shook his head.

“The lawyer’s phone is the same model as mine, but that’s not it.”

“……What is it, then.”

“It’s like a cloned phone.”

Oh Yang-hoon, who was listening to their story while driving, answered.

“A cloned phone?”

“It’s been a while, but there was a time when there was a fuss because of cloned phones. The agency made cloned phones of their affiliated celebrities and dug into their private lives. If you make a cloned phone, you can check all the text messages and call history. You can also eavesdrop.”

“But isn’t that a story from the 2G phone era? This is a smartphone, can that be done? Then it’s not a smartphone. It’s not smart at all.”

“Cloning a 3G phone may not be possible in the same way as a 2G phone, but it would be possible enough if you use other methods. In the first place, what can’t be done? Would Wooshin Group, which leads the Korean electronics industry, not be able to do that?”

Oh Yang-hoon, who had neatly resolved Tae-shik’s question, focused on driving again, and Tae-shik poked the meter reader, who was silently crumpled up with his eyes and mouth covered.

“Hey. What’s the pattern for this?”

“……”

“What’s the pattern.”

“……”

“You’re not going to answer, you bastard?”

“……”

“Tae-shik. Stop it. I know the pattern.”

Kang Min-jae said, receiving the phone from Tae-shik.

At that moment, Oh Yang-hoon and Jang Tae-shik looked at Kang Min-jae as if they were surprised.

They knew that Kang Min-jae was a huge ‘fanboy’ of Cha Joo-han, but they never thought he would know the phone’s lock pattern.

Cha Joo-han wouldn’t stay still if he knew that fact.

“Do you really know?”

Oh Yang-hoon asked again, as if it were an unbelievable story.

“Yes.”

But Kang Min-jae shook his head, contrary to his answer.

If it was really a cloned phone that exactly copied Cha Joo-han’s phone, then the pattern would be the same as the original device.

All he had to do was ask Cha Joo-han at home.

However, if the meter reader knew the direct fact that they were in contact with Cha Joo-han, there was no way of knowing what would happen later, so he was just lying to deceive him.

Kang Min-jae sent a text message to Soo-il, asking him to check the lock pattern shape from Cha Joo-han.

He also conveyed the good news that they had caught the meter reader.

And the answer came back in less than 5 minutes.

“What’s inside?”

“……I’ve been checking since earlier, and it’s all really in there. Even the pictures the lawyer took are all in there. I don’t know when they cloned it, but seeing that there are even pictures taken on the day the lawyer disappeared, it seems that even this data is linked in real time.”

It would have been fun if there was even a selfie that Cha Joo-han took alone in the album, but unfortunately, Cha Joo-han was a really boring person.

There wasn’t even a funny meme that’s been circulating on the internet these days.

“Hmm.”

On the day that Cha Joo-han disappeared from the public eye, Kang Min-jae took the phone to the office to explain that Cha Joo-han’s phone location was *tracked* at Kang Kwan-woong’s private residence.

He was going to leave it in the office, but he was afraid that someone would come into the empty office and take Cha Joo-han’s phone, so he turned it off and took it out again.

He drove around Seocho-dong with the phone and threw it into the Han River when he crossed the Han River bridge.

He was a little worried about the contents inside, but knowing Cha Joo-han’s personality, he would have backed it up.

And not long after, when he went to be investigated as a witness, the police demanded an explanation, saying that the last time Cha Joo-han’s phone location was *tracked* was the office, and before that, it was Kang Min-jae’s house.

Kang Min-jae explained according to the prepared scenario, and the police seemed to know that Kang Min-jae was Kang Kwan-woong’s grandson, so they didn’t seem to doubt it.

Anyway, so the Hanlim Corporation guys couldn’t have picked up the phone that day.

The time when the cloned phone was made must have been before that.

He didn’t know when it was, but frankly, they could have gone into his house while Cha Joo-han was sleeping, and there were endless ways.

Kang Min-jae thought this far, but he chose not to rashly say what he was thinking.

The meter reader must also be thinking about how they knew and came to catch him even though he had disguised himself so much.

So it was dangerous to let such a meter reader know how much they knew.

It would be a big deal if the meter reader caught anything if he rashly said his reasoning.

It would be better to properly isolate the meter reader first and then open his mouth.

“Let’s stop here and search that bastard’s body once and then move?”

“Tae-shik is really meticulous.”

“Do you think I’m doing this for the first time?”

The place Tae-shik had booked was a small warehouse located between Hanlim Corporation and Oseong Landscaping.

“Have you arrived, *hyung-nim* [term for older brother or respected male]?”

The *errand center* [private investigation/odd job agency] members who had gathered at the intermediate location came out to greet them in front of the car.

It seemed that all of the *errand center* employees had been mobilized, and there were far more people than he had seen when he usually went to the office.

“Ugh! Ugh! Mmm!”

As soon as the car door opened, the meter reader, who had been quiet, began to resist, but the Hongshinho members, who had easily suppressed him, dragged him into the inner warehouse.

Tae-shik asked the employee who was waiting to receive instructions.

“Did Sang-gil contact you?”

“Ah, yes. He said he slightly twisted his ankle jumping out of the window. So he’s getting acupuncture and coming to Oseong Landscaping right away.”

“I was going to start by pulling out one of his teeth to scare him. There’s no expert. Lucky bastard.”

Tae-shik muttered with an eerie expression.

Compared to Kang Min-jae, who was just going to punch the meter reader in the face, their wishes were quite high.

“The lawyer told us not to torture the meter reader.”

“Hey, pulling out a tooth isn’t torture. He must have at least one cavity. If we pull out a tooth with a cavity, he won’t have to go to the dentist. Later, he can just go to the dentist and get an implant.”

“Let’s just secretly punch him in the face once each with Tae-shik later.”

“Kang Attorney.”

Then, Oh Yang-hoon interjected in a firm voice.

Should I have talked about it where Oh *Samujang* [Office Manager] wasn’t there?

While Kang Min-jae was regretting for a moment, Oh Yang-hoon opened his mouth.

“……I’ll hit him once too.”