You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 286

The hand that landed on my shoulder spoke volumes about the harshness of his life, a story etched in the calluses alone.

A thick, calloused hand.

Sang-gil tightened his grip on the knife.

He had made a promise to Taesik.

No more bad deeds.

Of course, kidnapping the meter reader was, undeniably, a bad deed, but he justified it as a means to achieve social justice.

Still, the thought of initiating harm himself…

“Huh.”

Before Sang-gil could even turn, a face slowly encroached upon his personal space.

In that instant, a wave of stench crashed over him.

“Ugh, goddamn it! You scared the shit out of me! Fucking surprised me! Ah! Shit, I almost had a heart attack. Fuck! Aaaargh!”

Sang-gil, unleashing a torrent of curses, shoved the man away, creating some distance.

That grimy smell.

That imposing bulk.

It was none other than the infamous homeless man of Huagun Reservoir.

“Did I do something wrong? You’re over there acting like a psycho and cursing at me for no reason, you rude little punk…”

All Sang-gil could decipher was “Did I do something wrong?”

The man’s speech was a mumbled jumble, a dialect unique to the homeless.

The idea of being intimidated, feeling threatened by a homeless man, was mortifying.

His face flushed with shame.

“W-what do you want?”

“Gimme a cigarette.”

“…Sh-shit. What cigarette! I don’t have any!”

Under different circumstances, he might have offered one, but his current mood made it impossible.

Sang-gil jammed the cigarette pack deeper into his pocket, glaring at the homeless man with undisguised annoyance.

“Gimme a cigarette! You have a lot!”

“I only have one!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I counted them all. I counted all fifteen you have! You little bastard, you should give one nicely when an adult asks. Damn it, if I were just a few years younger, I’d beat you up, for sure.”

“Ha, seriously…”

The thought of running into this homeless man every time he visited Huagun Reservoir, a place he felt he’d be frequenting, filled him with dread.

Unlike most homeless individuals who carefully assessed their targets, this one seemed to approach anyone smoking, regardless of age or gender.

Taesik’s warning about potential exposure and danger echoed in his mind, the fear of recognition at a crucial moment gnawing at him.

His thoughts spiraled.

“Hey, mister.”

“What.”

“I’ll buy you a whole bunch of cigarettes today, so promise you won’t act like you know me in the future. Got it?”

“You’ll buy me a lot?”

“Yes.”

“Will you buy me soju [Korean distilled spirit] too?”

“Ha, yes. I’ll buy you that too.”

“Alright. But you have to buy me a lot. A lot.”

“I said I would.”

Sang-gil started towards the store, the homeless man shuffling behind him.

“Mister, what kind of cigarettes do you smoke?”

“Anything.”

“You must have a preference. What did you usually smoke before you became homeless?”

“…That one. The one you smoke. That one’s not bad.”

“Boss, give me a carton of the same ones as this. And also, you said you’d buy alcohol, right mister?”

“Cheap soju.”

“Give me cheap soju too.”

“Four bottles.”

“…Ha, give me four bottles. Put them in a plastic bag.”

“I don’t need a plastic bag. I have a bag.”

The homeless man gestured to the grimy bag plastered against his back, so flat it was almost invisible.

As the store owner placed a carton of cigarettes and four bottles of soju on the counter, Sang-gil reached into his pocket.

A 50,000 won bill [approximately $40 USD], given to him by Taesik the day before for expenses, was all he had.

After collecting the change, Sang-gil deposited the cigarettes and soju into the homeless man’s bag.

Gone was the earlier grumbling; the homeless man silently widened his bag, watching his newfound wealth accumulate, before his gaze landed on the change in Sang-gil’s hand.

“Oh, just take it all, take it all.”

It wasn’t a significant amount anyway.

He decided to chalk it up to a good deed.

“Go over there and buy yourself some gukbap [Korean rice soup] with this.”

Sang-gil said, pressing the change into his hand.

“Ramen is enough, why gukbap, what a waste of money. If you eat ramen, you get noodles, you get soup, it’s hot, it’s no different from gukbap, but the price difference is 6,000 won [approximately $5 USD].”

“Ha… Alright. Do whatever you want, then. Just don’t act like you know me when you see me in the future. Got it?”

The homeless man nodded, immediately settling down at a store table and cracking open a bottle of soju.

He’d told him to buy food, but he wouldn’t listen.

Sang-gil clicked his tongue and turned back towards his meeting with Life Betting.

“Oh, hyungnim [term for older brother or respected male figure]! This way!”

In the distance, Life Betting approached, carrying a fishing bag.

Please, please let that guy have seen the meter reader.

Please.

* * *

The fish were biting with unusual enthusiasm.

“…”

So much so that he hadn’t been able to broach the subject of the meter reader with Life Betting for two hours.

“Wow, it must be our lucky day, right?”

“Haha, I guess so. We caught too many, didn’t we? Should we pack up the fishing rods for a bit and eat some ramen?”

“Why pack up the fishing rods? We might catch more.”

“If we catch too many, the Dragon King [mythical sea deity] will get pissed. We should eat comfortably when we eat.”

He managed to convince him to put away the fishing rods, at least temporarily.

As Life Betting admired their catch, Sang-gil placed a silver pot on the portable burner.

He seemed to be in a good mood; perhaps he could bring it up casually.

“Hyungnim, about what we talked about last time…”

“What we talked about? Ah, you mean when we said we should go fishing in Jeju Island?”

Ugh, this guy only thinks about fishing.

Sang-gil forced a smile, breaking the ramen noodles in half.

“No. I mean about Lee Jung-chan.”

“Ah, that? What about it?”

“Actually, I told you I heard it from a younger acquaintance, right? The one who was a reporter.”

“Younger acquaintance? Didn’t you say it was a senior?”

“Ah, a senior. What did I say? Did I say a younger acquaintance?”

“Yeah, you just said a younger acquaintance.”

“Ah, no, a senior. Actually, I had something to do recently, so I met that senior, and I casually mentioned what I heard from hyungnim. It’s not like hyungnim told me not to say anything specifically at the time, so I just said it… Is that okay?”

“Yeah, well. It’s not like I told you not to say anything, like you said. So?”

“But that senior keeps making a fuss about wanting to meet hyungnim. So I cut him off and said no way. I told him not to make hyungnim uncomfortable for no reason. Did I do well?”

By framing it this way, he hoped to demonstrate his loyalty and protect Life Betting.

Life Betting nodded in agreement.

“I don’t want any troublesome things happening to me for no reason. If I become a witness or something, I’ll have to go back and forth to the police station, right? Even though I didn’t really see anything myself.”

“That’s true. That’s why I said no even more. But…”

“But what?”

“That senior asked if I could do him just one favor…”

“A favor?”

“Yes. He just wants me to confirm if this person was among the people wearing suits that you saw back then. You don’t have to do it if it’s too much to ask… That hyung [another term for older brother or respected male figure] is begging me so earnestly. He even swore that he wouldn’t cause hyungnim any trouble…”

Life Betting sighed, shaking the seasoning packet into the boiling water.

“Let’s see, then.”

At those words, Sang-gil pulled out his phone and immediately displayed the meter reader’s face.

Life Betting took the phone, scrutinizing the image for a long moment.

“Hmm…”

“Do you remember him at all? They say he’s really tall and has a good build.”

Life Betting tilted his head, then handed the phone back to Sang-gil.

“There wasn’t anyone that young among the people wearing suits.”

“I see…”

As Cha Ju-han had suggested, this person didn’t appear to be the culprit.

Sang-gil dejectedly took the phone and sent a short message to Taesik.

[fml he didn’t see him]

Just as he was about to press send with a heavy heart, Life Betting spoke again.

“But I think I saw him at the fishing site that day.”

“You saw him?”

“Yeah. I think I was going around trying to borrow something from other people because I left something behind, and I think I went to that person too. But the people he was with looked so mean that I was scared and just passed by.”

“Wh-what time was it?”

“I don’t know, maybe around 10? At night.”

* * *

“There are no traces of copying on the other guys’ phones. No strange apps installed either. I took the machines apart, but there’s nothing special.”

The NIS [National Intelligence Service] agent said, handing the phone to Kang Min-jae.

“That’s a relief.”

Kang Min-jae had come to pick up the phone himself at the agent’s location.

Kang Min-jae watched as the agent connected the meter reader’s phone to the PC.

“But why didn’t Taesik or his underlings come? Why you?”

“I just stopped by on my way home. Taesik has things to do.”

With the meter reader now confined, someone needed to stay and monitor him.

Taesik’s employees were capable, but given the gravity of the situation, it seemed best for Taesik himself to oversee things, so he volunteered to stay and keep watch.

Kang Min-jae and Oh Yang-hoon decided to maintain their routines, coming and going as needed, to avoid raising suspicion.

Consequently, Taesik’s private investigation agency would be temporarily closed.

Taesik nonchalantly agreed to the closure as long as Cha Ju-han paid him handsomely, threatening to defecate in front of the office if he didn’t.

In truth, that wasn’t the only reason for the temporary shutdown.

Sang-gil and Taesik had been caught on camera entering Hanlim Corporation.

If Hanlim Corporation investigated their identities and raided the private investigation agency, a physical altercation was highly probable.

Lying low until the case was resolved seemed prudent.

“For now, I’ve disabled the GPS on the meter reader’s phone to prevent tracking. I’ve changed the pattern to a simple ‘L’ shape for easy access. And here’s a USIM [Universal Subscriber Identity Module] card, but don’t insert it. Connecting the data will allow tracking via the base station location.”

“Without this, I can’t make calls, send texts, or use data, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then our phones can’t be tracked either if we just remove the USIM?”

“That’s not entirely true. GPS tracking is still possible. The easiest way for you two to avoid being tracked is to turn off your phones.”

The NIS agent handed Kang Min-jae a USB drive.

“This contains the data files from the phone, including a few photos.”

“Photos?”

If the meter reader was responsible for Lee Jung-chan’s death, wouldn’t he have taken photos for his report?

His heart pounded at the mention of photos.

“I don’t know if he deliberately deleted them or simply didn’t take many, but there were only four.”

The NIS agent opened the photo folder on the computer.

Kang Min-jae leaned closer to the screen.