You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 309

You Have Been Defended

At my question, Kang Min-jae took a trembling breath.

Then, he straightened his posture and said again with emphasis.

“Yes… I’m sorry.”

“…”

“You might think it’s an excuse, but really, there was no other way. The presidential election is approaching, and if Representative Lee Se-hwa is elected… this regime would be the best time to act. But I couldn’t keep you here on false charges forever. Time was running out, and there was no other way… After trying everything else, this was the only thing that kept coming to mind. If it succeeds, everything will be over, I thought this would be enough… The other *hyungs* [older brothers or respected male figures] thought the same way. So…”

“That’s the mindset of people who gamble when they’re already in debt.”

“…”

“They think that if they steadily earn money and pay off their debts, they can hit the jackpot in gambling and pay off all their debts right away. They start looking for that jackpot and fail, taking on even bigger debts. And Attorney Kang, you’ve luckily succeeded in that gamble.”

“…”

“What if something went wrong, and someone died? Attorney Kang, you’re the former president’s grandson anyway, so you thought he wouldn’t die, right? So, if CEO Shin tried to kill other people, you’d jump in and take the hit for them, then run away, is that what you were thinking?”

I don’t think for a moment that he started this with the idea that he, at least, would be safe because he’s the former president’s grandson.

But instead, he must have thought that he could be a shield.

Even if CEO Shin is a reckless person, he could never kill Kang Min-jae.

Moreover, that day was the day Lee Se-hwa’s election was confirmed.

Kang Kwan-woong was a president produced by the Liberty Justice Party, which would now become the ruling party, and Lee Se-hwa, the president-elect about to launch the government, is a senior respected by many lawyers.

If something happened to Kang Min-jae, who has such a grandfather, Kang Kwan-woong and Lee Se-hwa, as well as Park Young-ki, would step in to bring this case to light.

If that happens, no matter how meticulous CEO Shin is, no matter how much Wooshin tries, it would be difficult to escape the law.

Perhaps Kang Min-jae’s recklessness came from that background.

“Do you think Attorney Kang can cover all that? What if someone dies? Will Attorney Kang take responsibility? Even if everyone agreed to start this, even if the dead person doesn’t resent you! You’ll still feel guilty for causing those people to die. Are you confident you won’t? It’s not just that the work is illegal. You know it too. People almost died. You pushed people in front of people wielding knives.”

Kang Min-jae didn’t say anything.

Even if I say this, he would know.

What the risks are, and what situation he would face if he failed.

But in the end, he did this for me.

What Attorney Kang is doing now doesn’t bring him any benefit even if it succeeds.

He can’t even talk about it with others and use it as a topic at drinking parties.

It’s something that only we should know and move on.

Because it’s illegal.

Because it would cause problems if it became known.

The only benefit that can be gained from this is one thing.

That I am cleared of false charges.

Also, I am the only one who was guaranteed safety while carrying out this task.

Everyone risked their lives, but only I was extremely safe.

“…I’m sorry. There’s no excuse.”

Kang Min-jae bowed his head again and said.

I rubbed my forehead.

I didn’t even know what to say to this foolish guy.

Rather, if he shouted at me, ‘I did this to save you, why are you angry?’, ‘What did you do in this case?’, I might have had nothing more to say.

“Haa…”

I sighed deeply.

“Attorney, should I… leave for now? Should I come back when you’ve calmed down? I think you don’t even want to see me right now…”

Kang Min-jae asked, watching my expression.

Looking at him, I felt ridiculous for being angry at him, even though I had received a great favor as a result.

In the end, Kang Min-jae made this choice because I couldn’t do anything.

A sense of helplessness washed over me.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault that I couldn’t be of any help, so Attorney Kang had to think of such an unreasonable plan. It’s all my fault.”

“…Attorney. No, that’s not it. I don’t think that way. None of us do. Rather, we were saying that you were amazing for calmly playing the role of control tower even in this situation. We’ve been proceeding according to your judgment until now. It’s just this time… Only this time…”

Kang Min-jae was more anxious than when he was scolded by me earlier.

“Attorney, don’t think like that. I know everything. I think it’s my fault. It was lucky as you said, and I was unreasonable. That’s why Secretary Oh also opposed it. But anyway, the result is good. We got a confession from the meter reader, and we caught CEO Shin. Now this hiding is over. And…”

Kang Min-jae took out an envelope hidden under the tray.

“There’s one more piece of evidence. I received the results today.”

He took out the contents and held them out to me as if to tell me to look quickly.

I looked at Kang Min-jae for a moment, then took out the documents from the envelope.

Inside was a handkerchief in a zipper bag and the test results.

“That day, I suddenly went to Hwagun Reservoir at night. I went to check this.”

I’ve seen the handkerchief before.

It was the handkerchief that the homeless man picked up at the scene.

“First of all, if you look at the first test report, there are no fingerprints on this handkerchief. But as expected, keratin from an unidentified person came out. It must be Lee Jung-chan. I don’t have a DNA sample of Lee Jung-chan, so it came out as unidentified. Above all, chloroform was found on it. Anesthetic. The police haven’t released the results of the second autopsy yet, but chloroform will also be detected in Lee Jung-chan’s lungs.”

“This handkerchief will be evidence that it was used to kill Lee Jung-chan. But I said that before.”

Even if that’s the case, if the homeless man and I colluded, the evidence will be broken.

However, Kang Min-jae, hearing my words, shook his head and hurriedly turned the test report to the next page.

“This is about the soil on the handkerchief. The soil here.”

He pointed to the soil on the handkerchief over the zipper bag.

“First of all, the content says that this soil is presumed to have been deposited at the time of the incident. This handkerchief is slightly stained with soil, right? So, they found out based on that. But this soil is…”

Kang Min-jae paused for a moment and took out his phone.

He opened the photo album.

The first photo he showed me was one he had taken with a flash, holding a handful of soil in the bushes.

The soil was somewhat dark in color.

“This is the soil from the scene the homeless man mentioned. And the next one…”

As he flipped to the next photo, a similar shot appeared.

This time, the soil Kang Min-jae was holding and photographing was lighter in color than the previous one.

“This is the soil around the scene that the fake witness pointed out.”

“The soil is different.”

According to the test report, the dark-colored soil from the scene the homeless man mentioned contained freshwater plankton and dust components mainly used at construction sites.

The report suggested that the soil flowing from the construction site accumulated in the reservoir, and then the moisture evaporated.

On the other hand, the soil from the scene pointed out by the fake witness was ordinary soil.

It was from a point that doesn’t get submerged even when the amount of freshwater storage increases, so freshwater plankton was not found, and there were even traces of fertilizer applied to strengthen the forest rooted in this soil.

“The soil on this handkerchief is this.”

Kang Min-jae pointed to the soil where freshwater plankton was detected.

“Then,”

“Yes. Through Lee Jung-chan’s skin cells and chloroform on this handkerchief, the conclusion is that this handkerchief was used to kill Lee Jung-chan. And the soil, presumed to have been deposited that day, is soil that cannot be found at the location pointed out by the fake witness, but can only be found at the location pointed out by the homeless man.”

I was momentarily speechless and just bit my lip.

It was evidence.

Evidence that could perfectly prove that the existing witness’s statement was false.

And, the location pointed out by the homeless man is the opposite direction I headed when Kang and I started searching the Hwagun Reservoir to find Lee Jung-chan.

It also proves that I didn’t kill Lee Jung-chan.

“And if they insist that it was the lawyer’s doing, even if they claim that the lawyer killed Lee Jung-chan at the location pointed out by the existing witness and then came to the location pointed out by the homeless man to throw away the handkerchief, it doesn’t match the timeline.”

Kang Min-jae said, displaying a map of Hwagun Reservoir on the screen.

“There’s a walking time from this point to that point. If the lawyer killed Lee Jung-chan at this point and threw the handkerchief away at that point, we couldn’t have been caught on the road CCTV heading to Seoul at 12 o’clock.”

As I stared blankly at the map, Kang Min-jae raised his voice a tone, perhaps to elicit a reaction from me.

“And as I said before, the meter reader said he would confess, and we caught President Shin too. The meter reader wasn’t kidnapped; he just said he was hiding at Oseong Landscaping. So, if President Shin tries to blame us by saying we kidnapped the meter reader, he said he would just say that he only went to have a conversation, but President Shin misunderstood on his own. And…”

Kang Min-jae started rattling on quickly.

He seemed more excited than I was, the person involved, just blankly listening to his words.

I couldn’t say anything.

The fact that I could finally clear my name—I had always imagined it, but it was hard to believe when it actually came to reality.

I don’t remember exactly how long I had been hiding here.

Maybe 3 weeks.

No, more than that.

I hadn’t been able to cross the wall of this house for almost a month, and I hadn’t been able to contact my parents and Dongjin, who must be worried.

Perhaps I would never be able to clear my name as a murderer and live as a fugitive, or I would not be able to endure that life and eventually come out myself and go to jail.

I had imagined such situations countless times, although I had never shown it.

I wondered if I could get back on my feet after going to jail, and if so, what I should live for in the future.

My lawyer’s license would be revoked, of course, and I wondered if I should live by spending the money I had saved.

Or should I continue to try to catch Wooshin with Kang Min-jae at the forefront?

But if I come out into society after serving my sentence, would I still have the will to catch Wooshin at that time?

Since I had a lot of static time alone, my thoughts went on and on.

If I were to say that I even had ridiculous imaginations that seem funny now, would Kang Min-jae believe it?

I even wondered if I could go back to 10 years ago if I died here again, and if so, whether it would be better to commit suicide.

But even so, if I were told to live the past 3 years that I had lived so fiercely again, it would be painful in its own way, so I just stopped thinking about it.

After all, like the first thought I had when I first returned to 2008, shouldn’t I have just forgotten about Wooshin and lived comfortably?

“Lawyer. Are you listening to me? Huh? It’s all over, I’m telling you! Huh? It’s all over! This life of hiding is over too!”

Kang Min-jae grabbed my shoulders and shook me wildly.

My head was ringing because of it.

But even so, I didn’t shake off his hands.

Rather, it was because I remembered something I hadn’t said.

“Thank you.”

“…Yes?”

At my words, Kang Min-jae awkwardly let go of my shoulders.

He had an embarrassed and awkward face, like a child hearing praise for the first time.

It was strange, even though it wasn’t the first time I had praised him.

“Thank you. And… I can’t say that I did well to catch President Shin that day, even if I die. If Kang or other people had been seriously injured, I think it would have been really hard for me to bear. But I never intended to underestimate the results and efforts Kang brought. As a result, no matter what anyone says, Kang’s contribution is the greatest. And the soil on the handkerchief, I couldn’t have thought of that, but you were very quick-witted. If it weren’t for Kang, I would never have been able to clear my name.”

“…Lawyer.”

“I owe you a lot. My career, and maybe even my life.”

Before I knew it, Kang Min-jae was looking at me with teary eyes.

I wanted to say, ‘I’m not crying, why are you crying,’ but I couldn’t say it.

Because Kang Min-jae burst into tears even louder.

“Lawyer, sob, I was so scared that I couldn’t help you at all, and I couldn’t clear your name, sob, I’m saying this now, sob… I’m so glad, really… sob, Lawyeeer! Waaaaah!”

…Everything’s fine, but I hope you don’t get snot on my clothes.