You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 337

[I told Mom. Not about the hospital yet. I took a day off today to stay with her, and if it seems like there’s a problem, I’ll go to the hospital. I’m sorry for getting angry this morning. I know it’s not your fault, Attorney.]

I think I just wanted to be angry at someone. I feel bad for taking it out on you, Attorney.

I don’t think Koh Sang-jun expected the article to be published either, and since Iljung Daily is Yoon Seong-hee’s family’s paper, I think it’s possible they were trying to side with her. Of course, even so, I’m still angry that he couldn’t stop it.

As you said, Attorney, I’ll wait and see the fake culprit before deciding what to do in the second trial. I’ll wait without acting rashly. Thank you for your concern in many ways.”

A message arrived from Kim Chan-young around the time I was heading to work.

Seeing that she sent the message calmly, even though she must have been surprised, I’m relieved that she’s strong.

But on the other hand, I felt frustrated by this situation that drove such a strong person to lose her reason.

Kim Chan-young was good at hiding her emotions.

She was like that when I first met her, and the same when she dealt with Koh Sang-jun afterwards.

Yet she raised her voice at me the first time she called, and again today.

If it’s because she feels comfortable with me, there’s no need to worry, but I wonder if it’s not so much that she’s comfortable with me, but rather that I’m someone who knows her true self.

“Attorney, what happened? Didn’t you tell Chan-young that the article was going to be published?”

Kang Min-jae and Manager Oh, who had arrived before me, approached me as soon as I got to work.

“Koh Sang-jun didn’t stop the article?”

Manager Oh asked worriedly.

“I saw on the internet that the criticism is severe. If Kim Hwa-young sees it, the shock will be quite big.”

“I told her to prevent her from watching the internet or television.”

As if the headline of the article wasn’t bad enough, the content was also extremely sensational.

Even though the trial result hasn’t come out yet, and there’s no conclusive evidence, it’s already being said as if it’s a foregone conclusion that Kim Hwa-young killed someone.

I explained the situation roughly and went into my office.

I opened the desk drawer, took my morning medicine, and leaned back in the chair as if sinking into it.

There haven’t been any easy cases so far, but there hasn’t been a case that felt this difficult for me.

It revives memories that I had tried to bury for a while because there was someone in the same situation as me, and it also revives old memories because Koh Sang-jun is involved.

I think there won’t be any problems as long as I take my medicine regularly, but if my heart starts beating fast or my breathing becomes labored, the fear of a seizure rushes in.

If I have another seizure, I think I’ll be diagnosed with panic disorder.

And then I worry that it will be an obstacle to catching Wooshin.

“Hoo.”

I took a long breath and raised my upper body.

Because I don’t know the exact details of this case, not all situations go as I thought they would.

Of course, the assumption that Yoon Seong-hee is the culprit is still considered the most plausible, and if she put pressure on her family, I can roughly understand why Koh Sang-jun couldn’t stop the article.

But why does this nagging feeling keep lingering?

“Kang, Attorney.”

I opened Kang Min-jae’s door.

Kang Min-jae, who I thought would be checking portal sites, was surprisingly doing office work.

“Yes?”

“What are you doing?”

“Work. Anyway, Chan-young’s case isn’t our case until Taekwang sets up a fake culprit. We have to do our work too. How much is the monthly rent here?”

I was speechless and rubbed my forehead at Kang Min-jae’s playful words.

He’s right.

We’ve incorporated, so we have to work now.

Even though I keep thinking that I should let go of Kim Chan-young’s case, I’m still stuck in that case alone.

It must be even more so because it’s a case directly related to Koh Sang-jun.

“Shall we go for a smoke?”

Kang Min-jae, who was looking at me, shook his cigarette case and said.

If you go to the end of the floor where the office is located, there is a small rest area attached to the building information, called a sky garden.

Before, there was a veranda in the office, so I could go there and smoke right away, but now that the office is bigger, I have to walk quite a bit.

Kang Min-jae headed there, tapping the cigarette case on his palm, and turned to look at me.

“Don’t tell me, are you worried about Chan-young?”

Kang Min-jae distorted his expression strangely, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“No. It’s not that, it’s just that I feel like I’m missing something.”

“Phew, that’s a relief. I was a little worried that you were evolving from a robot to a human… no, is it regressing? Anyway, I was a little worried that you were doing something like that.”

I don’t know how many times I have to tell him that I have emotions.

“Missing what?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be worrying, would I?”

As we stood side by side in front of the ashtray, about to light our cigarettes, Kang Min-jae, who had taken out a lighter before me, lit mine.

He lit his own, then exhaled a long stream of smoke and said.

“Isn’t it because you’re disappointed that Koh Sang-jun isn’t the culprit?”

“What do you mean?”

“You, or not just you, but anyway. You think Koh Sang-jun is the biggest son of a bitch in the world, right? But that son of a bitch is involved in this case, and I was wondering if you’re feeling uneasy because that son of a bitch isn’t the culprit.”

Is that so?

Of course, if Koh Sang-jun were the culprit, I wouldn’t be able to entrust the safety of Kim Chan-young and her mother to the culprit, so I thought I could take on the case and handle it well.

But that was just my wishful thinking, and at least Koh Sang-jun sincerely wants to help Kim Hwa-young…

“Wait.”

“Why?”

“It seems like it would make sense even if Koh Sang-jun were the culprit.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look. Koh Sang-jun has been telling Kim Hwa-young that he would divorce Yoon Seong-hee for a while now. Why would he suddenly say that? He hadn’t said that for nearly 30 years of having an affair, so there must have been a reason why he suddenly said that recently.”

The divorce of a chaebol [conglomerate] family is on a different scale than the divorce of ordinary people.

Their love affairs are not a big problem in their divorce lawsuits anyway.

Even if they divorce, Yoon Seong-hee’s children will have to take over the Wooshin Group, and Yoon Seong-hee knows this, so she won’t try to expose any flaws that would damage the image of the Wooshin Group.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they’ll have an amicable divorce.

Yoon Seong-hee will try to divide as much property as possible, and Koh Sang-jun will try to divide as little as possible.

Above all, the cultural foundation that Yoon Seong-hee is in charge of is not small, so it will definitely be a long and drawn-out battle.

Especially if we assume that Koh Sang-jun and Yoon Seong-hee are an old couple, it becomes even more complicated.

Would Koh Sang-jun really want such a situation?

Even if he separates from Yoon Seong-hee and joins Kim Hwa-young, he will try to maintain his marital relationship with Yoon Seong-hee legally.

Yet he talked about divorce to Kim Hwa-young.

It wouldn’t have been sincere, but the fact that he brought it up means that the situation has come where he has to appease her.

“…Did Kim Hwa-young get upset about something? Did she say she would just end the relationship and expose it?”

Didn’t the housekeeper say that Yoon Seong-hee came to the annex about ten days before the death and turned everything upside down?

If Kim Hwa-young had decided to turn her back on Koh Sang-jun, she would have been even more uncooperative with Koh Sang-jun because of the humiliation of being assaulted by his legal wife.

I’ll have to check this part directly to find out.

“I think so. In that situation, a murder case broke out. If Koh Sang-jun doesn’t help, Kim Hwa-young will become a murderer overnight. Then what will happen?”

“Kim Hwa-young will cling to him, on the contrary.”

“What if he committed the crime aiming for that? To scare Kim Hwa-young, to make her realize that Kim Hwa-young is nothing without Koh Sang-jun? Then Kim Hwa-young won’t go anywhere to expose him, and he can continue the same relationship as before without damaging his image.”

At my words, Kang Min-jae crossed his arms and pondered.

It’s just speculation.

But in this case, it becomes natural that Koh Sang-jun didn’t stop the article.

Hadn’t Koh Sang-jun heard from Kim Chan-young that Kim Hwa-young’s condition was bad these days and that she was starting to suspect him?

If so, Kim Hwa-young will look for Koh Sang-jun, who can control the media and overturn the results of the trial.

Koh Sang-jun will be able to put invisible shackles on Kim Hwa-young.

Also, after the case is over, Kim Hwa-young will believe in him even more, thinking that Koh Sang-jun saved her, right?

There’s no reason for her to leave his arms.

“So, Koh Sang-jun didn’t fail to stop the article, but deliberately didn’t stop it?”

“Yoon Seong-hee told her family to ask them to publish the article even if Koh Sang-jun stopped it, and the possibility that he granted that request. And the possibility that Koh Sang-jun deliberately didn’t stop it. Which one do you think is more likely?”

“Of course, the latter.”

From the perspective of the owner of Iljung Daily, Yoon Seong-hee is his own daughter and Koh Sang-jun is his son-in-law, so it’s easy to think that he would listen to Yoon Seong-hee more.

But the bond between Iljung Daily and Wooshin Group is not that simple.

Rather, even if his daughter wanted it, Iljung Daily would have sided with Koh Sang-jun.

Besides, would it be so surprising to them that Koh Sang-jun is having an affair?

“Then what about the fact that he said he would get a real culprit ready before the second trial?”

“He’ll do that. What Koh Sang-jun wants is not the downfall of Kim Hwa-young, but just to make Kim Hwa-young scared.”

Once the new culprit confesses, Kim Hwa-young will be free.

And Kim Hwa-young will be grateful to Koh Sang-jun and regret that she suspected him.

Didn’t she originally have a great obsession with Koh Sang-jun?

The reason she decided to leave him was ultimately because she thought that obsession was eating away at her, but if Koh Sang-jun even saves her, she might fall into the feeling that this person also wants me.

Especially in an emotionally unstable situation like Kim Hwa-young’s.

“…If this is true, Koh Sang-jun is a real son of a bitch?”

“He’s always been a son of a bitch.”

Even if it’s true, it’s not very surprising.

“It’s not that this is right, it’s just that I feel like I was missing something among the various possibilities I had to consider, so I felt uneasy.”

At that time, when I saw it through my ability, Koh Sang-jun recognized that the culprit was among the ‘family members.’

Yoon Seong-hee is also a family member, but isn’t Koh Sang-jun himself also a family member?