You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 43

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 43

The shantytown in Samchang-dong, Yang-gu, was exactly as depicted in dramas.

The road leading up was bumpy, and the stairs people used were incredibly steep, like climbing a precipice.

Old houses were clustered together down the slope below the fence, which had holes in places.

It was like stepping back into the 80s.

But as soon as you reached flat ground, Samchang-dong transformed into a modern space, as if it were another world.

High-rise buildings with intermittently flashing red lights lined the main street.

In the back alleys, a commercial district with brightly lit neon signs thrived.

Perhaps because it was the scenery that had been shown so often in dramas, it felt like I had been there several times before, even though it was my first time.

“That’s the high-rise building in the Inspector’s notes.”

Walking along the fence, Jung Hye-jin slowly moved towards the place where she had written this note.

[……This wooden chair, which must have been a stylish green bench a long time ago, was now shabby with peeling paint. Hard paint marks clung to the bark, feeling rough. I sat on the bench and looked down below the fence……]

Walking along the road with flickering orange streetlights, I gradually approached the bench mentioned in the note.

And someone was sitting on that bench.

“Detective Kang?”

“……Attorney?”

Kang Min-jae, who had been absorbed in thought while sitting on the bench, jumped up, looking dumbfounded.

I couldn’t help but be taken aback by the sudden encounter.

I thought it was strange that he hadn’t insisted on following me to the end.

Taeshik also looked as if he had seen a ghost.

He knew why I had Kang Min-jae stay behind and had Taeshik drive.

It was because he had grumbled about why I was making him act as a driver all the way here, so I told him the reason.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m just……. What about you, Attorney?”

“Just, well. Answer me first.”

“I was wondering if there might have been something lacking in my investigation, so I came to check one more time……. I guess you’re doing the same, Attorney.”

Kang Min-jae sighed and lowered his head.

He looked disappointed in himself.

I lit a cigarette and replied.

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

“…….”

“Just because I came here myself doesn’t mean I’ll find something. I’m only human.”

I didn’t want Kang Min-jae to feel unnecessary guilt or helplessness.

Kang Min-jae is a capable person.

Sometimes I even think he might be more suited for the ‘good lawyer’ title I’m trying to achieve.

More than anything, he’s always been a bright person, so I didn’t particularly want to see him looking dejected.

“I hope you can find it, Attorney.”

“…….”

“Evidence that my investigation was lacking, that Jung Hye-jin’s note was fabricated. Not someone else. I hope you can find it, Attorney, I do.”

Kang Min-jae said as he stood up from the bench.

“I still think I have a lot to learn, but then I’ll be even more confident in my decision to come under your wing, Attorney.”

A lot to learn, huh.

I put out my cigarette and glanced at Kang Min-jae’s back.

If he knew that I wasn’t as good a person as he thought, that my own goals were more important than anything else, and that I was only disguising myself and taking a break for the sake of those goals, how would he react?

At first, I thought I could train him well and make him a colleague, but I’m not so sure these days.

Is it okay to drag someone like him into such a dangerous situation?

“That building. It’s described with the most detail in Jung Hye-jin’s notes.”

Kang Min-jae said, changing the subject.

I turned my gaze towards where Kang Min-jae was pointing.

That was the building I had been watching all along.

“There’s a passage that says there was a cola advertisement on the electronic display at the top. And as a result of my investigation, there really was a cola advertisement on it back then.”

Jung Hye-jin’s inspiration notes had quite a few stories about the billboard on that building.

There are a total of five billboards on that building.

Only one of them is described.

I mentally recited the note that I had read so many times.

[……In the high-rise building with 15 flashing red lights, there is an electronic display with a cola advertisement, dotted with red as if the colors were matched. And below that, the red light of the traffic light on the crosswalk on the main street. The red lights of the cars……]

Jung Hye-jin’s note, which focused on the color red, seemed to be mindful of the ‘flames’ that had been foreshadowed in the drama so far.

I didn’t explain the foreshadowing very well, but I think it was a passage that I deliberately included because I had to create a reason for it to keep appearing anyway.

There were some posts on the internet that speculated about that.

“Putting aside the cola advertisement. There would naturally be red car lights, too. What about the traffic lights?”

“I checked the traffic lights too. It was in the same place last year.”

I kept watching the building and listening to Kang Min-jae’s explanation, but the flashing lights on the upper floors of the building suddenly bothered me.

High-rise buildings have flashing red lights installed as aviation obstruction lights for airplanes flying in the sky at night.

It is said that these flashing lights are more noticeable than lights that are constantly on.

“Two, four, six, eight, ten, fourteen, sixteen…….”

But the lights flashing on the building now number 16.

Unlike what Jung Hye-jin said, which was 15.

I opened the photo of the building that Kang Min-jae had sent me via text message after coming here for the investigation.

In this photo, just like in Jung Hye-jin’s inspiration notes, there are 15 red lights.

The structure is such that there is a light at each of the four corners of the square building, and there are a total of 4 sets of these.

There should be a total of 16 lights.

Kang Min-jae took the photo after receiving the inspiration notes.

This means that he came here not long after Jung Hye-jin fabricated the inspiration notes.

But there’s no way they would leave the lights installed according to aviation law unrepaired for so long, would they?

Normally, all 16 lights would have been on, as they are now.

And if, on that day in 2006 in Jung Hye-jin’s notes.

What if all 16 of those lights were flashing normally?

“Attorney, what are you doing?”

“Those flashing red lights.”

“Those are the lights installed because of aviation law, right?”

I pointed to the building.

“Look closely. Originally, 16 should be on. 4×4 is 16.”

“Oh? You’re right? One isn’t on?”

“In Jung Hye-jin’s notes, and in Detective Kang’s photo, only 15 are on. But, on that day in 2006, what if all 16 were flashing normally?”

“Ah……. That’s evidence of fabrication.”

It is impossible to argue that Jung Hye-jin missed one of the lights because she only counted the lights visible from this vantage point.

If that were the case, all four of the lights installed on the opposite corner, which are not visible from here, would have had to be invisible, and she would have had to say there were 12 lights.

“Whoa!”

At that moment, Kang Min-jae suddenly shouted.

And he started running down the alley, yelling.

“Attorney.”

Leaving him behind, Taeshik suddenly opened his mouth.

“I’ll look for it.”

“For what.”

“At the print shop, the evidence. Evidence that it was printed.”

“Forget it.”

I said sharply.

This may not be evidence that she plagiarized, but at least it can be used as evidence that the defendant fabricated the inspiration notes.

With that, we can focus on the essence again and fight.

Taeshik had already spent a lot of time at the print shop, and he hadn’t found it during that time.

If so, we have to cut our losses cleanly.

Otherwise, only regrets will remain.

“No. I’ll look for it. You two are working so hard, and I feel like I haven’t put in enough effort, so I feel uneasy. How much time do we have left?”

I recalled the date of the verdict that the judge had announced.

If he was going to look for it anyway, I wouldn’t stop him.

If he found it, it would naturally give us more strength.

“One week.”

* * *

“Attorney!”

A few days later, Kang Min-jae ran to me as soon as he arrived at the office.

I was drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette on the veranda, and I almost dropped my cup.

“So noisy from the morning.”

“I think I’ve found something amazing.”

He took out a bundle of bound papers from his briefcase.

It was the entire copy of Jung Hye-jin’s inspiration notes that he had requested from Blue Island Media.

“We already got the answer that all 16 lights were on that day.”

I replied.

With that, the role of the inspiration notes was over.

If he didn’t find the printed copy within the week I gave Taeshik, I was going to file a motion to reopen the trial immediately.

But is there something new to find in these inspiration notes?

“Jung Hye-jin had a habit. If you look through this copy of the notes, if the ink from the ballpoint pen smeared onto the back page, she wouldn’t write on the back page. She only used clean pages.”

Kang Min-jae showed me all the pages he had marked with flags, flipping through them.

Indeed, all the pages where the ink had smeared onto the back of the paper were blank.

“……Wait, but there was ink on that page, too.”

I asked, taking the copy from him.

I remembered it clearly because I had looked at it hundreds of times.

In particular, I even thought it looked used because of that mark.

“Yes. It seems she filled in that blank page. It’s not like she melted the binding glue and inserted it in the middle, it’s just a blank page. There was a blank page, so she wrote it there!”

Kang Min-jae shouted as if he was about to dance.

“Ha, I found this early this morning and I was going to call you right away, but I couldn’t because I thought you might be sleeping, Attorney. I barely managed to kill time and came straight to the office!”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

The lights were sufficient grounds for fabrication, but if we have this as well, it will be even more perfect grounds.

Not only can we discard this piece of evidence, but we can also cast doubt on their credibility altogether.