You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 388

I was tempted to go straight into Cha Ju-han’s office and demand to know what he was doing, but I held back.

Heo Min-woo said that Kkangchi [a slang term for a petty criminal or thug] had spilled everything, and if that was the case, Park Jin-sung would be released.

But Cha Ju-han is the most terrifying person to face as an enemy.

He told Hwang Young-chan that action was needed, so something must be happening.

Would he change his mind?

“I’m going crazy…….”

When I argued with Cha Ju-han, his expression and tone seemed genuine, and given his personality, he didn’t seem like he would reverse a decision once he’d made up his mind.

I sighed.

He said he would talk to Secretary Oh directly, so that was that. But he didn’t seem to have told Jo Bong-joon and Choi Jong-hyun yet. What should I say to them?

As I despondently went to my room and was lost in thought for a long time, I heard someone making coffee outside the door.

Was it Secretary Oh?

I opened the door and went outside.

Cha Ju-han was standing in front of the coffee machine.

With a whirring sound, coffee was poured into a disposable cup, and I stared blankly at Cha Ju-han.

“What are you doing? Trying to use the coffee machine?”

At Cha Ju-han’s question, I raised my hand as if to answer, but soon dropped it.

Cha Ju-han glanced at me, then took ice from the ice maker and put it in the cup, replying,

“I’m going out.”

Come to think of it, he was wearing all his outerwear.

“Where are you going?”

As Cha Ju-han tried to leave the office with his coffee, I grabbed him and asked.

“Do I have to tell you everything I do?”

“Aren’t you going to see Hwang Young-chan?”

“…….”

“You heard the results of Kkangchi’s investigation from Detective Heo, right? So you’re going to see Hwang Young-chan now. Attorney Cha, Hwang Young-chan is the one who framed Park Jin-sung with Kkangchi. Aren’t you being disrespectful to the Chief Prosecutor if you’re doing this? Shouldn’t you at least keep quiet about the case you were working on?”

“Respect? I’d like to have it. But I don’t want to die trying to be respectful.”

Cha Ju-han left those words behind and coldly left the office.

And headed straight for the underground parking lot.

Because Hwang Young-chan had asked if he could come to his office.

The reason for choosing Hwang Young-chan’s office as the meeting place was probably to show that the rumors circulating in the legal community, ‘Is Cha Ju-han really returning to Hwang Young-chan’s fold?’ were true.

Because everyone would be focusing on Cha Ju-han from the moment he entered the Prosecutor’s Office and took the elevator to Hwang Young-chan’s office.

It didn’t matter.

Except for a few people who knew his true nature, Hwang Young-chan had a good reputation, and even if his reputation was bad, it was natural for him to be under Hwang Young-chan if he returned to the Prosecutor’s Office.

“…….”

He parked his car in front of the Prosecutor’s Office and headed to a familiar spot, thinking he would have a cigarette before going in.

Hwang Young-chan seemed to want to advertise that Cha Ju-han was coming under him, so he thought it wouldn’t be bad to participate in that.

He went to the place with the ashtray and took a seat, and as expected, he was instantly noticed.

Even though he was dressed no differently from other prosecutors, everyone looked at him.

And whispered.

He couldn’t hear them, but he knew what they were saying.

Cha Ju-han finished his cigarette without paying attention.

He thought the rumors had spread enough and was about to go inside when suddenly his arm was grabbed.

“Hey, Attorney Cha.”

It was Lee Ye-jin.

Lee Ye-jin quietly dragged Cha Ju-han to a secluded spot.

Without being able to shake her off, Cha Ju-han was led away by her.

“Attorney Cha, what’s going on?”

“It’s been a while.”

“It’s been a while, what’s going on? Why are you coming back to the Prosecutor’s Office? You seem to have made the decision without even telling Min-jae…….”

“I don’t need to discuss my career path with Attorney Kang.”

“That’s true, but what are you going to do if the representative attorney leaves a firm with only two attorneys? And why are you coming back here! To this hellish place! And why under Hwang Young-chan? Does that make sense?”

“What doesn’t make sense about it?”

Lee Ye-jin was speechless.

Cha Ju-han’s words weren’t wrong.

Who could say anything if he was going to decide his own career path?

However, unlike before, Cha Ju-han had people he had to take responsibility for, and people who had gathered because of him.

Yet, making the decision alone was something he deserved to be criticized for as irresponsible.

Lee Ye-jin swept back her bangs and sighed.

“Attorney Cha, even so…… isn’t Hwang Young-chan a bit much?”

“Chief Prosecutor wants me, and I want to return to the Prosecutor’s Office and settle down. Anyway, I’m being criticized for shooting at my own family [betraying those close to you]. If I have Chief Prosecutor’s help, I should be able to settle down without any problems.”

“No. If you solve Chief Prosecutor’s case well, Chief Prosecutor will help you when you come back to the Prosecutor’s Office. The order is wrong, the order. Coming back? I’ll concede that much. But why are you coming in the middle of Chief Prosecutor’s case? Is there anyone who doesn’t know that Wooshin is deliberately trying to screw Chief Prosecutor over? You should know that. Why did Wooshin try to screw Chief Prosecutor over? Because you took on Kim Hwa-young’s case. But you’re abandoning Chief Prosecutor and leaving like this?”

If Cha Ju-han solved Park Young-ki’s case, Go Sang-joon’s two sons would be held accountable for their remaining crimes and go to jail, and that arrow would return to Cha Ju-han.

That’s why Cha Ju-han applied for the experienced prosecutor recruitment, even committing the act of betraying everyone.

But there was no way to tell Lee Ye-jin all of that.

“It’s almost time for my appointment, so I should go in now.”

“Hey, Cha Ju-han.”

“I’ll go first.”

“I’m disappointed in you.”

Lee Ye-jin added one more word, but Cha Ju-han didn’t look back.

Watching Cha Ju-han’s receding figure, Lee Ye-jin let out a hollow laugh.

He didn’t seem like the person she knew.

“Isn’t that Cha Ju-han?”

“I heard he applied to be an experienced prosecutor?”

Meanwhile, Cha Ju-han, who had entered the Prosecutor’s Office, had to endure the whispers even while waiting for the elevator.

Once he was appointed, he would be in this situation more often.

He wasn’t the type to care about such things in the first place, and he had experienced it so much that it didn’t matter, but standing out in a bureaucratic society was annoying in many ways.

Before he knew it, Cha Ju-han arrived in front of Hwang Young-chan’s office.

“Chief Prosecutor.”

“Oh, Attorney Cha, or can I call you Prosecutor Cha now?”

Knocking and entering the room, Hwang Young-chan got up to greet Cha Ju-han.

“Call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“Sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?”

“No, thank you.”

“You must have gotten a lot of stares on the way here.”

“Isn’t that why you told me to come here?”

“I liked that you were quick-witted. That’s why I hated you when I met you as an enemy.”

Cha Ju-han didn’t say anything.

Then Hwang Young-chan immediately got to the point.

“Is it true that Kang Chi-hyun told everything?”

“I heard it from the detective in charge. Before I knew I had applied to be an experienced prosecutor.”

“Ha, that’s troublesome.”

Hwang Young-chan sighed, holding his forehead.

“According to the original scenario, Kang Chi-hyun should have said that Park Jin-sung was behind it, but what kind of deal did he make to spill everything?”

“I don’t know about that.”

When Hwang Young-chan and Kkangchi were at Wolhwajeong [a traditional Korean pavilion or garden], it was exactly as Cha Ju-han had thought.

Kkangchi’s ultimate goal from the beginning was to be caught.

Judicial deals are frequent in drug investigations.

They coax you by saying, ‘If you tell us who’s behind it, we’ll release you on probation,’ or ‘We’ll reduce your sentence,’ to catch a big fish.

The prepared big fish in this case was Park Jin-sung.

Cha Ju-han chuckled.

“Why are you laughing?”

“While helping Park Jin-sung with the investigation, when I learned about the existence of a person named Kkangchi, I thought that if I caught this person, it would be somewhat resolved. I didn’t know it was a trap set by Chief Prosecutor. I laughed because I was so pathetic.”

“Wasn’t my trick not bad this time?”

“I was completely fooled.”

“I can’t just keep getting fooled by Prosecutor Cha.”

Hwang Young-chan smiled, as if he was in a good mood, and placed his hand on top of Cha Ju-han’s hand.

And he squeezed it tightly, saying,

“Welcome back. I heard you made a lot of money, and you’ve been a lawyer, so you won’t think about opening your own practice. Now, let’s hold hands like this and go all the way to the top. Tell me right away if you have any regrets. Do you know how disappointed I was when Prosecutor Cha left three years ago?”

“I’m sorry about that. I’ll serve you well.”

“Haha, yes. You’ve come back like this, so you should at least become the Prosecutor General. Don’t you think?”

“I don’t have great ambitions.”

“You can still go. If you push me and I pull you.”

In a friendly atmosphere, Cha Ju-han suddenly opened his mouth.

“So, what are you going to do with Kang Chi-hyun?”

“Well. Since he made a deal, the police will probably release Kang Chi-hyun. Then we’ll contact him and shut him up.”

Hwang Young-chan said it casually, but this was no different from saying that he would either kill him or threaten him severely.

Severe threats meant that he would beat him to death to make him pay for breaking his promise.

If Kkangchi disappeared like that, of course, the police and some people would suspect that Wooshin was behind it because the person who had told everything had disappeared.

But it didn’t matter.

Until now, Cha Ju-han had been making Wooshin be in that situation, and Wooshin had been steadfastly maintaining his current position even amidst such suspicions.

“Have you ever met Go Chairman’s chief of staff?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“What about Wooshin Life’s CEO Jin Soon-ki?”

“I’ve only heard the name, I don’t know him well.”

There was no way Cha Ju-han wouldn’t know Jin Soon-ki, who was once considered the person who committed Lee Jung-chan’s murder.

He thought that Jin Soon-ki might be the key figure who designed this case.

Wasn’t he the one who had been in charge of Go Sang-joon’s chief of staff and served as his strategist?

It didn’t seem like Hwang Young-chan’s skill that he had tricked Cha Ju-han once with Kkangchi this time.

“Let’s wrap up this case properly and have a meeting with CEO Jin Soon-ki and the chairman’s chief of staff, hahaha.”

Hwang Young-chan laughed happily as if he had the whole world.