You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 413

People started visiting me as soon as I could sit up without feeling too much pain.

My case wasn’t reported in the news, but it seems Kang Min-jae told a few people.

It’s not a bad approach.

Since it can’t be in the news, spreading rumors little by little that I was almost killed by Wooshin will make it easier to identify Wooshin if something like this happens again.

Aside from that, dealing with people who were worried about me was quite difficult.

“Attorney Cha! What happened to you!”

Secretary Oh and Lee Ye-jin visited my hospital room together.

Lee Ye-jin’s eyes widened as soon as she saw me, and she rushed over.

“What’s with this handsome face! That bastard Go Sang-joon…”

Even though the bruises have faded a lot, Lee Ye-jin started getting angry as if it was absurd.

“Even if you were trying to kill him, how could you think of doing this to his face? When you were first rescued, you must have been swollen and bruised even worse! I’m going to get those guys!”

I wanted to tell her that the stab wound in my abdomen was more serious than the bruises on my face, but Lee Ye-jin looked like she was about to cry when she saw my face, so I didn’t say anything.

“Attorney, how is the abdominal stab wound?”

Then, Secretary Oh, the only normal person, carefully sat next to me and asked.

“It’s okay. Fortunately, none of the major organs were damaged, so I heard the surgery was over quickly.”

“What do you mean it’s okay? You went to the gates of the afterlife and were saved by CPR or something.”

When Tae-shik said that, Secretary Oh sighed.

“Does that mean you had cardiac arrest?”

Secretary Oh said in surprise.

“That’s true, but it’s all over now that I’m fine.”

“What do you mean fine! I heard from Min-jae that they started CPR from your stomach and did it all the way to the hospital. You were almost in big trouble, Attorney Cha. Sigh…”

The hospital room was filled with sighs.

I’m getting better, and I’ll be discharged as soon as the stab wound gets a little better, but I don’t know why they’re all so gloomy.

“Ah, I bought this on the way. It’s bread, so eat one whenever you’re bored.”

Lee Ye-jin held out a paper bag, and Tae-shik took it and put it on the shelf.

Lee Ye-jin’s gaze naturally shifted to Tae-shik.

“I’ve never seen you before? Who are you?”

“I’m a bodyguard.”

“Did you hire him after this incident?”

“No, Kang hired me and a few others before this incident.”

“So, this happened even though you had a bodyguard?”

Lee Ye-jin asked in surprise, and Tae-shik drooped his shoulders.

Then, he answered in a dejected voice.

“It’s because I’m not good enough… I have nothing to say…”

As Tae-shik started muttering as if he was about to shrink indefinitely, Lee Ye-jin felt sorry and patted Tae-shik’s shoulder.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“No. It’s my fault… If I hadn’t been so excited that day, Attorney wouldn’t have had this happen!”

It’s good to reflect as a bodyguard, but I wonder how long he’s going to be so dejected.

“Tae-shik, stop reflecting.”

“How can I stop reflecting after you’ve gone through such a big thing! I’ll keep doing it!”

“Then you’re fired. Replace him with another employee.”

“I’ll work hard!”

Secretary Oh also patted Tae-shik on the back, encouraging him.

“Yes, work hard, Tae-shik. Keep the attorney safe.”

“Yes!”

About 30 minutes passed.

Lee Ye-jin and Secretary Oh told me to rest well and left.

Secretary Oh also said that it was lonely with just Kang Min-jae and him guarding the office, so he told me to get well soon and come back.

I also want to leave the hospital as soon as possible.

Even though I can move around a bit, being stuck in the hospital all day in a hospital gown is the same, so I felt frustrated.

“Attorney, you have a phone call?”

When I lay down to take a nap, Tae-shik shook his cell phone and said.

When I reached out, Tae-shik handed me the phone.

The caller was Choi Jong-hyun.

─ Attorney Cha, what are you doing?

“I’m just resting.”

─ Then can we come over now?

“Who is ‘we’?”

─ Me and Bong-joon.

“If you’re coming to hang out, don’t come, and if you have other business, come.”

─ Geez, what’s wrong with hanging out? But I do have business. I’ll be there now.

I hung up the phone and closed my eyes, thinking I’d take a nap until they came, but the hospital room door opened in less than 5 minutes.

“Attorney Cha, we’re here.”

“What is it? How long has it been since I hung up the phone that you’re already here?”

“I called from the first floor.”

They sat on either side of the bed and answered.

They’re the kind of people who would have come even if I had said no.

Jo Bong-joon opened the briefcase he had brought and took out a few pieces of paper, placing them on my lap.

“What is this?”

“We’ve been looking into L&B, and we found this.”

The papers they handed me were a copy of an Iljung Daily newspaper.

The part they highlighted was the article at the bottom about children being sent abroad for study from the House of Angels.

“It seems to be part of a scholarship program. But what’s the problem with this?”

Choi Jong-hyun pointed to the very bottom instead of answering.

The companies and organizations participating in the House of Angels scholarship program were listed in small print, and L&B was among them.

“Since L&B belongs to Go Sang-joon, it’s not strange that it’s spending money on the House of Angels under Wooshin Medical, but it’s strange that it’s L&B, not Wooshin Medical Center, that’s supporting it. L&B is like a vault for keeping slush funds, right? Does it make sense to spend money on this?”

“That’s right.”

“So, we’re suspicious that there’s something involved in the children’s studies abroad. The investigation isn’t complete yet, but look at this.”

It was data related to the children who had been sent abroad for study from the House of Angels up to now.

It seemed to be a press release distributed by the House of Angels for promotional purposes.

“They definitely send a lot of students abroad compared to other orphanages.”

Generally, children sent to orphanages, no matter how talented, mostly stop at gifted education.

There were even more orphanages that couldn’t even provide gifted education.

However, the House of Angels sent quite a few students abroad.

They sent two or three students abroad every year, mostly to Japan.

It seemed they also had sisterhood ties with a school in Japan.

“And this is what we investigated. If you look at this graph, it’s a statistic about all international students, and there are far more girls. Boys are often sent at a young age, but girls are often sent in their teens, even if they’re not young.”

“Gifted education is usually done at a young age, but girls are often sent at the age of 17, just before they’re discharged [from the orphanage]. Well, there’s no law that says they can’t, but it’s true that the question arises, why only girls?”

I nodded.

I think I thought there were a few more boys when I visited the House of Angels a few times.

“Well, it could just be that girls have a higher proportion of gifted children, or that there are more girls who do well in middle and high school, but if I had to pick out a suspicious point, it would be this… Actually, I don’t know how this is being used. It’s just data that I forced to fit in because I knew L&B was involved in sending students abroad.”

I nodded.

The fact that the House of Angels sends many students abroad is already a story that has been covered a lot in the media.

They used it a lot for publicity to improve Wooshin’s image.

But I don’t know how this was used for Wooshin’s misdeeds.

As far as I knew in my previous life, Wooshin used the accounts of young children at the House of Angels as nominee accounts [accounts held in someone else’s name to conceal the true owner].

But that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with studying abroad…

“I have a feeling there’s something, but I can’t guess at all.”

“Right? We feel the same way.”

“Building schools in Africa is also used to embezzle money, so there’s no law that says studying abroad can’t be [used for illicit purposes]. I think it would be good to look into it deeply.”

“Yes. That would be good. I have a feeling that something will come out if we find out whether the studies abroad are being done properly and whether there are any problems in the process of sending students abroad.”

I’ve read articles about children from the House of Angels going abroad to study and then working for Wooshin affiliates.

If that’s true, it’s a good cycle, but if there’s a conspiracy hidden there, we need to find it out.

These conspiracies are not revealed intuitively.

They are often so intricately woven that you have to unravel the tangled threads to find out.

“I don’t know if you remember, but there’s a person named Song Hye-ryeong, who used to work at the House of Angels.”

Song Hye-ryeong?

I paused for a moment to recall the name.

“Ah, are you talking about the House of Angels staff member that Reporter Choi liked?”

“What? Liked? When did I!”

“You liked her, hyung [older brother/male friend]. Why are you doing this?”

Choi Jong-hyun blushed and jumped up and down.

“I didn’t!”