You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 356

You Have Been Defended – Episode 356

Kim Hwa-young lowered her head with a tearful expression at Park Hyun-sook’s words, seemingly agreeing that the accusations were plausible.

“These people are here to slander Kim Hwa-young. This isn’t the Kim Hwa-young I know,” I stated, fixing my gaze on Park Hyun-sook.

I felt Kim Hwa-young’s gaze on me for a moment, but I avoided eye contact.

It wasn’t just empty comfort I wanted to offer.

It’s the truth.

People who lie in court do so knowing that their words will intentionally hurt the person they are targeting.

For their own benefit.

There’s no need to be affected by what these people say.

Because they were the first to abandon their humanity.

“Any cross-examination?” the judge asked.

I stood up.

Park Hyun-sook looked at me, appearing nervous.

Her strategy was to highlight the strained relationship between Kim Hwa-young and the butler, painting a picture of Kim Hwa-young as a tyrannical figure at the Jo Yeon-dong villa, supported by her claims of witnessing their disputes firsthand.

Like someone who, having been oppressed by a queen, now bravely speaks out as they witness the queen’s downfall.

Since this wasn’t a jury trial, this kind of image-building wasn’t crucial, but it provided ample fodder for the reporters who had scrambled for tickets to attend.

This, too, must be a role assigned to Park Hyun-sook.

No matter how much Kim Hwa-young avoids media attention, she can’t do so indefinitely.

Kim Hwa-young’s current state is like a time bomb waiting to explode.

Go Sang-joon might be waiting for the day he sees his own reputation ruined in public, hoping to beg me to restore everything to its original state.

“Counsel, cross-examine.”

“Witness Park Hyun-sook, listening to your testimony, it sounds like the defendant lived like a queen, managing numerous employees at the Jo Yeon-dong villa. You mentioned having to arrive early to clean before the defendant’s visits, despite not being a live-in housekeeper… It sounds like you were quite busy with these sudden calls to work. Is that accurate?”

“I can’t deny it. Besides, the madam was sensitive, so she often demanded immediate corrections if anything caught her eye.”

“For example?”

“I mainly remember her being particular about the food since I was in charge of that. But I heard from others that she would run her fingers over surfaces to check for dust, and if she found any, she would throw the rag and demand they clean it properly… And if she asked for water, she would become angry if it wasn’t brought immediately. She didn’t like anything out of place. I think that’s why she immediately noticed when the manager touched her things.”

It was as if she had been trained to connect every answer back to the issue with the butler.

My question was simply about how demanding Kim Hwa-young was as an employer, but I have to give her credit for smoothly steering the conversation back to the manager’s actions.

There must be a reason why she was chosen to testify among so many employees.

“Alright. There were quite a few people employed at the villa, correct?”

“Yes. There were designated personnel [담당 인원, *damdang inwon* – assigned staff] for the first-floor kitchen, the second-floor rooms, and the second-floor kitchen… The staff were largely divided by area.”

“You said the defendant would get angry if anything was out of place. The staff wouldn’t have been any different. What about the manager?”

“That’s right. The manager had his own room, but when the madam came, he would serve her closely, or usually, because the madam told him not to be in her way, he was often in the garden flower bed you mentioned earlier.”

“Then what about you, Park Hyun-sook?”

“I mostly stayed within my assigned areas, the first-floor kitchen and the path leading out of the villa. I couldn’t go anywhere else. Because I would face her wrath [불호령, *bulhoryeong* – a stern command or reprimand]…”

Saying that, Park Hyun-sook looked at Kim Hwa-young.

They must have had a hard time finding an employee who could not only speak well but also act.

“You testified that you often saw the victim touching the defendant’s things, the defendant noticing this, and then becoming angry and confronting the victim in the garden. Now, please look at the screen.”

A floor plan of the villa was displayed.

Park Hyun-sook looked at me, wondering what the problem was with the floor plan.

“The defendant’s room is on the second floor. Naturally, the defendant’s belongings would also be kept there. The defendant notices that something has been moved on the second floor and comes down to the first floor, angry. To get to the garden from the first floor, you would have to go this way, out this door, and follow the stone path to the victim.

Given these routes, if you were truly afraid of the defendant and stayed in your place, you wouldn’t have been able to see her. There’s a large living room between the stairs from the second floor and the kitchen, and a long hallway [복도, *bokdo* – corridor]. If you weren’t staying in your place, it suggests that the defendant’s supposed restraint on you, who came to watch the fight, wasn’t that intimidating. What do you say?”

“…That, that’s because the person in charge of the second floor was furious, asking who had entered the room, and later told me that the manager had been in there, so that’s how I knew he ran to the first floor.”

“I suppose that’s possible. Then, since the first-floor kitchen is completely on the opposite side of the garden, how could you have witnessed the defendant and the victim fighting there every time?”

Park Hyun-sook was silent.

But she didn’t panic easily.

You could tell she was well-trained.

“I think I misspoke when I said ‘every time.’ It wasn’t every time, but I definitely saw it happen.”

“You saw him strangling her, too?”

“Yes. Ah! From the kitchen, going out to throw away the kitchen waste… I had reasons to go outside, too. I couldn’t just stay in the kitchen all the time.”

“Didn’t you say that the defendant insisted that everything had to be in its place, and that she would get furious if it wasn’t?”

“…That’s true, but isn’t it difficult to live while adhering to all of that? And kitchen work includes throwing out food waste, so even if I was assigned to the kitchen, I wasn’t always inside.”

“I see. So, you didn’t know that the victim fought with the defendant because you saw them fighting directly, and you don’t know what kind of conversation took place at that time at all.”

“That’s what I heard from the person in charge of the second floor.”

“Yes. You heard it, but not directly. Right? That’s where your testimony is inaccurate. I’ll assume there was a distortion in your memory. You didn’t intend to commit perjury because you harbored ill feelings toward the defendant, did you?”

“Of course not.”

“And one more thing. You said you saw it when you went out to throw away food waste. Now, please look at the screen. I understand that food waste was usually collected in the garbage dump inside the villa that leads directly from the kitchen to the outside, and then thrown out. Is that correct?”

Park Hyun-sook’s crisis began when she gave an answer that Taekwang and Wooshin hadn’t anticipated and hadn’t prepared her for.

Since the body was found in the garden, they probably initially considered selecting a landscaper as a witness.

Judging by how things are unfolding, there’s so much evidence concentrated in the garden that I almost suspect the landscaper was their initial choice for a scapegoat.

Then, they reconfigured all the evidence that had been arranged [맞춰 놓은, *matchwoh noeun* – pieced together] to frame the landscaper, to point to Kim Hwa-young again. Conversely, it would be easy for the landscaper to witness their fight if he became a witness.

But despite that, the reason why Park Hyun-sook came out as a witness is that, from a conventional point of view, the landscaper is someone who comes occasionally, not a frequent employee.

That doesn’t mean there would be a designated staff [담당, *damdang*] in the garden.

That’s the gap that was created.

Park Hyun-sook has enough abilities to become a fake witness, but she wasn’t a perfect witness.

‘Everything must be in its place’ is a representative characteristic of a meticulous [까다로운, *kkadaroun* – fastidious, picky] person.

Park Hyun-sook tried to use this to fabricate Kim Hwa-young’s bad temper, but she was caught there instead.

If Kim Hwa-young didn’t say anything even if she freely went anywhere in the house, it wouldn’t have been strange even if she fought every day in front of Park Hyun-sook.

“Since there is no answer, I will continue. I assume that you went to throw it away this way. No matter how beautiful the garden is, there is no need to bother going around. Is that correct?”

“…Yes.”

“Then you would have seen the two people fighting very small on the way. I think it would have looked about the size of a finger. Naturally, even if they shouted, you wouldn’t have heard the sound, or even if you heard the sound, you wouldn’t have known what they were saying. I don’t even think you could see him strangling her well. It might have looked like he was holding her shoulder. What do you think?”

“…”

“Witness?”

“It’s true that I don’t remember everything in detail because it’s been so long, but,”

“I don’t think you’re qualified to be a witness if you don’t remember the details.”

“That doesn’t mean that the facts I heard become untrue. There were times when they were already fighting when I went to and from work,”

“Okay, when going to and from work. Then let’s assume it’s the time to go to work first. But no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think you can hear it when you go to work. Because the defendant directly said that she had the employees clean, do laundry, and prepare food before visiting the villa. The defendant hasn’t arrived at the villa when you go to work. Is that correct?”

“…”

“Then naturally it would be when you leave work. If it’s when you leave work, two questions arise. You would have been cooking for the defendant throughout her stay at the villa, so usually, don’t you finish cleaning up and leave after the defendant leaves the villa?”

“…There are times when it’s not. There were times when she told me to go if the work finished early. Ah, and when I go to work, there were times when she was already there before the manager called us.”

“I see. Then here’s the second question. If it’s when you leave work, there are a lot of employees in the house, and the defendant is in the house, so why would the victim bother to go into the defendant’s room and touch the defendant’s things? The defendant is away from the villa more often than she is there. She can touch it freely on days when she is not there, so is there any reason to deliberately touch it as if to show off and provoke the defendant’s temper? Unless the victim was trying to tease the defendant.”

“…I don’t know the reason either.”

“I see. It’s a pity that we can’t ask because the victim is already dead. Anyway, are you still unwavering in your testimony that the victim fought greatly with the defendant every time she touched the defendant’s things?”

“That’s right.”

Withdrawing testimony before the testimony is over is not punishable by perjury.

It would have been nice if she had withdrawn it now.

“Through your words so far, it seems that you have concluded that the defendant had frequent disputes with the victim after piecing together [맞춰 본, *matchwoh bon* – cross-referencing] stories with the people in charge of the second floor, and that she strangled her for that reason. Is that correct?”

“…”

“How many times did you see her strangling her?”

“I don’t remember that well, but I definitely saw it.”

“Then let’s say it’s once. Then, since you didn’t see all the fights, the number of times she strangled her could have exceeded three or four times, I guess.”

“I don’t know, but I think you can guess that.”

“Strangling is an act of revealing intent to kill [살의, *salui* – murderous intent], as the prosecutor said earlier. The victim must have been greatly threatened with her life. If it exceeds the one time the witness witnessed.”

“That’s right.”

“Why didn’t the victim quit her job as a villa manager and continue working there, even though she was so threatened with her life? In fact, isn’t it possible that the strangling was only that one time that the witness witnessed? And there was an unavoidable reason for that, and in fact, the victim may not have had such a bad relationship with the defendant?”

“…I don’t think there’s a chance of that. The manager didn’t tell us about her work with the madam in detail, but she was clearly having a hard time.”

“She was having a hard time, but do you think it’s possible to keep working while being strangled several times? If you were the witness, how would you have felt?”

“I think I would have quit… I don’t think I can guess the victim’s feelings.”

Park Hyun-sook seemed to have decided to save her words.

Good choice.

The more she speaks, the more she will be bound by the words she has spoken herself.

“Lawyer.”

Just as I was about to continue questioning the witness, Kim Hwa-young spoke to me from behind.

She handed me a small note.

[There’s something I want to ask directly]

Although it was a prearranged [미리 짜 둔, *miri jja dun* – pre-planned] situation, I pretended not to know and checked the memo and said to the judge.

“Your Honor, the defendant says she wants to confirm something directly with the witness.”