You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 287

“What about the lawyer?”

“He’s on the second floor.”

I heard Kang Min-jae was coming home, so I was waiting on the second floor, looking out at the gate. But it seemed he had entered through the garage, as I could already hear his voice from downstairs.

“Come in.”

“I’m home. I thought you’d be curious, so I wanted to tell you before changing my clothes.”

I wasn’t with them today, but thanks to Tae-shik, who was boasting about their great exploits and constantly on the phone, I roughly knew how they had secured the meter reader.

Sang-gil, who was on the assault team, had sustained minor injuries, and Tae-shik was fine except for a few scratches.

Kang Min-jae also didn’t seem to have any injuries.

I wasn’t too worried since Tae-shik had said, ‘Kang just played around.’

“As you said, we had our phones checked by the National Intelligence Service [South Korean intelligence agency], and they said there were no signs of replication or hacking.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Oh, and I looked through the meter reader’s phone contents. Just a moment.”

Kang Min-jae took out a USB from his pocket and plugged it into the laptop in my room.

Then, he opened the photo album folder and showed me the pictures.

“It would have been nice if the Lee Jung-chan murder scene was captured, but it wasn’t there.”

The first photo that popped up was a funny picture circulating on the internet.

It didn’t seem to have much meaning.

“And this seems to be a picture of the lawyer’s house.”

As Kang Min-jae said, the next photo was of my house.

To be exact, it was a picture taken after putting a knife wrapped in newspaper inside my desk drawer.

The other remaining photo was also a full view of my study, which was clearly taken for reporting to the higher-ups.

“With this photo, we can have solid evidence that the meter reader put the weapon in the lawyer’s house. We also secured evidence that the meter reader visited the lawyer’s house.”

“That’s right.”

“And the next photo. This might be quite useful.”

When I moved to the next photo, a group photo of about ten people appeared.

Looking at them wearing life jackets and holding paddles against the backdrop of a valley, it seemed like they went rafting with close friends.

It doesn’t seem like a directly taken photo, but rather a photo of a printed photo.

“Tae-shik said that about half of the people in this picture were seen at Hanlim Corporation. If we submit it to the police later, we might be able to catch the remaining underlings.”

“So, all the guys here are from Hanlim Corporation?”

“Probably. Only about half of them were there when we went. Oh, and the National Intelligence Service checked the cache files and told us that there were traces of a large number of photos being saved and then deleted. It seems they emptied the data in preparation for anything after killing Lee Jung-chan. I looked at the phone’s text message history, and there were a lot of spam messages. But there are no messages before the day Lee Jung-chan died.”

“Then the ones here are the newly saved photos after killing Lee Jung-chan.”

“Yes. And I tried to check the KakaoTalk [popular South Korean messaging app] messages, but it seems they withdrew from the service. When I entered the app, the sign-up screen appeared.”

It seems that someone from Hanlim Corporation, worried about security as soon as the meter reader was kidnapped, logged in with another device and withdrew.

I checked the photo taken with the Hanlim Corporation employees again.

Looking at the printed date as yesterday, it seems they went on a workshop-like trip and printed it yesterday.

It’s just ridiculous that such a criminal organization went on a workshop to increase their sense of belonging.

I slowly and carefully checked the faces of the people in the picture.

If Hanlim Corporation is indeed an organization subcontracted by Wooshin as I expected, I thought that unless we uproot them properly this time, we would face them again someday.

“This person…….”

-Why did you act up without knowing your place?

It was then.

Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed in my head.

Tuktuk-tuktuk-

Along with the crude motor sound of the old boat, I feel vibrations all over my body.

Along with the salty taste at the tip of my tongue, the smell of the sea brushes against the tip of my nose.

I couldn’t move my hands and feet.

Barely wiggling my limbs and upper body was all I could do.

“Heok, heok.”

As if someone was holding my nape, I couldn’t even breathe.

Slowly from below my feet, something wet and sticky wrapped around my body.

Cement.

Cement was swallowing me.

The body, which was barely able to wiggle, was instantly crushed by the weight of the cement and could not be moved.

Like a person drowning in water, I lifted the end of my chin to somehow keep my face from being submerged.

-Hehehe, hehe. You seem to want to live?

-You moron.

-Why didn’t you just act moderately? Beg for your life now.

-You still have pride, you stupid bastard. Hehe. Moron. Hehehe!

The guy laughed as if he was about to pass out, watching me struggle.

As if cement was rushing into my nose, I felt something dull being sucked into my nasal cavity every time I inhaled.

The scene before my eyes was dyed in various colors.

In the pain of not being able to breathe or not breathe, I was gradually crushed by the weight pressing down on both shoulders without being able to do anything.

Then, suddenly, I had this thought.

‘This is something that happened in my previous life.’

Yes.

It’s from my previous life.

Until just now, I was at Kang Min-jae’s house, looking at pictures with Kang Min-jae.

Here, something like being buried in cement doesn’t happen suddenly.

There’s no way I can feel the salty smell of the sea or the rattling vibration.

“Heok, ook…….”

As soon as I realized that, I returned to reality in an instant as if being sucked in.

“Lawyer, Lawyer! Are you okay?”

Kang Min-jae’s urgent voice was heard, but only for a moment.

A mechanical ringing filled my head, like wandering through a burning building.

My heart was pounding like crazy.

Reflexively, I put my hand on my chest.

Thump, thump, thump.

With each beat, the speed was increasing like crazy.

I thought that my heart might burst if it continued like this, that all the blood might flow backward.

A tingling sensation spread madly from my heart to my chest and to my limbs.

I felt like I was going crazy.

I thought it would be easier to end my life at this moment.

“Lawyer! Lawyer!”

I felt pressure on my tingling shoulder as if something was holding it tightly.

“Lawyer, breathe, breathe! You have to breathe!”

“Ugh, heok, heok.”

“Inhale. Take a deep breath. Lawyer, it’s okay. I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but this is our house. It’s just me, Soo-il hyung [older brother or close male friend], and our grandfather here. Take a deep breath.”

“Keuk, heueuk.”

“Don’t close your eyes. Look at that, the one over there. Look at the shower room doorknob once. Keep looking at that. Focus.”

Shower room doorknob?

Damn it, there’s no way that would come into my eyes right now.

I know I’m in the room.

I know there’s no one here to kill me.

I know that cement didn’t exist in the first place, and that my hands and feet aren’t tied.

My eyes are flashing with strange colors as if shooting colorful lights, but damn it, there’s no way I can see the shower room doorknob…….

“That, that’s right! Like that! Inhale! Deeply, deeply.”

Kang Min-jae shouted as I barely managed to focus on the shower room doorknob.

I barely found the shower room doorknob, but how can I control the breathing apparatus that inhales intermittently regardless of my will?

I tried to breathe in somehow, but my mind went blank with a bird-like sound, hak, hak.

“You can’t do that. Lawyer. You’ll get hyperventilation. Deeply through your nose, like abdominal breathing……. Put your hands under your ribs, like this.”

I heard Kang Min-jae taking a deep breath in my ear.

Kang Min-jae put my hand, which was clutching my chest, on my ribs.

But even that, my hand was trembling so much that I couldn’t just leave it there.

Then Kang Min-jae pressed down on my constantly slipping hand and pretended to take a deep breath again.

“That’s right, like that. Stop there for a moment and breathe out slowly. Long, hoo, hoo.”

After repeating that several times, the heartbeat and trembling of my hands gradually subsided.

Even the vibrations and ringing that shook my whole body slowly dissipated as if nothing had happened.

“Are you okay now? Yes?”

“……I’m okay.”

As I leaned back on the bed as if exhausted, Kang Min-jae quickly ran to the refrigerator in the room and brought a bottle of water.

When I tried to grab the water bottle that he was trying to put to my mouth, Kang Min-jae shook his head and stubbornly put it to my mouth.

“You might drop things if you grab them now. Now, give strength to your hands and feet, then release them. For about 1 minute.”

As the water went down my throat, I felt a lot better.

The remaining dizziness disappeared, and my vision slowly became clear.

I repeated clenching and unclenching my hands as Kang Min-jae said, and exhaled deeply.

Then Kang Min-jae, who was watching me, carefully opened his mouth.

“……Lawyer, do you have a panic disorder?”

Kang Min-jae asked with worried eyes.

Panic disorder?

I know about it.

I heard that if you have a panic disorder, you suddenly have a seizure.

I roughly know the symptoms too.

Come to think of it, the unsightly behavior I had been doing until just now seems similar to those symptoms.

……Damn it, panic disorder.

It’s all happening.

I had insomnia in my previous life, but I didn’t have a panic disorder.

“……I didn’t know I had something like that.”

“Then is this the first time you’ve had a seizure like this?”

“I think so.”

I think I know the reason too.

I glanced at the meter reader’s photo that was still displayed on the laptop screen on the desk.

“It’s that person.”

“……Yes?”

“The guy who killed Lee Jung-chan.”

I said, barely pointing at the laptop screen, exhausted.

At my words, Kang Min-jae jumped up and tried to bring the laptop closer, but he put the laptop down again as if he remembered something.

He seemed to think that if I looked at the picture again, I would have another seizure.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Ha…… The bastard who’s shoulder to shoulder with the meter reader.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

I thought I was okay.

The death in my previous life was already three years ago for me.

I had a dream a while ago, but until then, I hadn’t thought much about the moment when I was dying in a drum [likely referring to being encased in cement].

Even when I recalled it, I never felt this anxiety or fear.

Even when I had that dream, I was just wondering why something I didn’t usually think about came out in my dream.

“……It’s amazing.”

Everyone has a vague fear of death.

So, I thought that such fear didn’t come to me so greatly because I had already faced a painful death once.

That’s why I thought I wouldn’t be surprised no matter what happened to me.

I’ve already experienced everything I could, so I thought there was no need to be surprised anymore.

I pretended to be all tough like that, and I had a seizure recalling the fear of that day just by seeing that bastard’s face?

“This person?”

“……Yes.”

As soon as I saw his face, I couldn’t breathe and was panting, so wouldn’t it be funny to say I didn’t know now?

I barely answered, sweeping back my sweat-soaked hair.