You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 435

#436 You Have Been Defended

Kim Chan-young didn’t answer for a while, as if the question had caught him off guard.

I waited in silence, and Kim Chan-young chuckled softly before replying.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“Beomwoo has a genetic disorder. Whether you like it or not, you share that family’s genes, so I thought I’d ask just in case.”

“I have to admit, your information network is impressive. But aren’t you springing this on me a bit suddenly? Though I suppose that’s typical of you.”

“Were you hiding it?”

“Well, that family tends to keep it under wraps. I don’t really need to hide it since people don’t know I’m from that family, but I don’t usually bring it up because it makes me uncomfortable.”

“Is there a reason to feel uncomfortable?”

“Um… Fortunately, I take after my mom, so it’s not obvious, but having that family’s genetic disorder means I carry Go Sang-jun’s blood. It’s a depressing thought the moment I dwell on it.”

I suppose that makes sense.

I figured you were born that way, so there’s nothing you can do about it, so I asked without giving it too much thought.

This is when I really miss having Kang Min-jae around.

“Then you probably don’t want to have an unpleasant conversation.”

“But, if you’re asking out of the blue like this, it must be something important, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm… I don’t think this is something to talk about over the phone. When are you free?”

“The sooner, the better for me.”

“I have plans today, so how about sometime next week?”

“Okay. Then let me know when you’re available. I’ll make it work.”

“Got it.”

I hung up the phone and stretched.

When I checked the time, it was already 8 PM.

I can’t believe I was so engrossed that time flew by like this.

My eyes feel dry, so I should take it easy tonight.

I came out of the study and went to the living room, where Tae-shik was sprawled on the sofa, watching TV and chuckling.

I plopped down on the one-person couch, and Tae-shik glanced at me as if he noticed me.

“I thought you were resting today, but you didn’t even leave the study. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Oh, now that you mention it, I am a little hungry.”

The moment I was about to have my first meal today, I heard about Im Hyun-il from Tae-shik, so I couldn’t eat and stayed holed up in the study.

It’s too much of a hassle to order something.

I should just make some ramen.

As I headed to the kitchen, Tae-shik shouted from the living room.

“Are you going to eat ramen?”

“Why, are you going to eat ramen again?”

He ate three packs during the day, and now he’s going to eat ramen again?

Just as I was marveling at his appetite, Tae-shik added.

“No! There’s no ramen left! What I ate was the last of it!”

“…Then buy some more and restock.”

“How can I leave the house when you’re here? Who knows what might happen in the meantime.”

“Are you serious?”

“Totally kidding!”

“What?”

“Hehehe, hahaha! Hahahahaha!”

Seeing Tae-shik laughing so hard that his stomach was about to burst, a wave of futility washed over me.

Maybe I should just look for another security company instead of relying on that guy.

* * *

Today is the day I’m meeting Kim Chan-young.

In the time leading up to today, Dong-jin had located and analyzed all the papers in which Hayashi Kenichi was the first author or co-author.

In addition, he seemed to have contacted thoracic surgeons among his classmates from pre-med to gather information about Hayashi Kenichi.

In fact, since Shingaku University Hospital is renowned for its thoracic surgery department, some classmates had gone there to study abroad, and a few of them had actually encountered Hayashi Kenichi.

When he showed them Im Hyun-il’s picture, they noted that his appearance seemed slightly different, but they believed it was him.

Dong-jin asked if he should investigate further through those contacts, but I told him to hold off for now.

When I initially inquired with Baek Chan-geun about Im Hyun-il, it was before I had discovered that Im Hyun-il was operating under the name Hayashi Kenichi.

However, if the fact that I know so much about him gets back to Im Hyun-il, it could create a tricky situation.

It would be best to gauge how much information I can extract from Kim Chan-young first and then decide on the next course of action.

“You’re here?”

The place where I met Kim Chan-young was a hotel not far from his house.

Kim Chan-young still maintains a close relationship with Go Sang-jun, so he continues to use a burner phone when contacting me and prefers a foreign-owned hotel room when meeting me.

It was also a place where Kim Chan-young had a membership, and he visited it several times a month for relaxation even when he wasn’t meeting me, so it was the perfect place to avoid arousing Go Sang-jun’s suspicion.

“Is your mother doing well?”

“Yes. Thanks to you.”

“That’s a relief.”

Kim Chan-young took a bottle of water from the refrigerator, placed it in front of me, and sat across from me.

“You’ve been quiet lately. Especially after the L&B [Likör und Bank: Liquor and Bank, a financial scandal] thing, there haven’t been any broadcasts. I thought something would happen when the L&B thing blew up, but I was surprised that you were so quiet.”

“Oh, that? I was kidnapped back then. So I couldn’t continue.”

“Oh, kidnapped… What? Kidnapped?”

Kim Chan-young’s eyes widened in surprise.

It’s understandable that he’d be shocked.

The fact that I had a brush with death was not public knowledge, and Go Sang-jun wouldn’t have shared such a thing with Kim Chan-young.

“Go Sang-jun?”

When I nodded, Kim Chan-young scoffed in disbelief.

“Crazy bastard. Ha, but seeing you here in one piece, you must not have been hurt too badly. That’s a relief.”

“I almost died. My stomach was pierced.”

“It was that serious? Why didn’t you expose it?”

“There were several reasons. Anyway, I wasn’t just slacking off.”

“Ah, right… I couldn’t bring myself to contact Kang, and then that happened too.”

“Yeah. Do you know that Go Sang-jun was behind it too?”

Kim Chan-young didn’t answer.

He swept his hair back and wore a troubled expression.

“I did consider it for a fleeting moment, but I dismissed it. I just thought I was biased because I hated Go Sang-jun so much…”

“There’s no concrete evidence yet.”

“Really… I don’t know what to say. I’m really sorry. Is Kang okay?”

“He’ll manage.”

He’s the type who starts his day with cheerful morning greetings.

Anyway, it didn’t feel right for me, not being a family member, to discuss Kang Kwan-woong, so I changed the subject.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you about your heart condition. Is that alright?”

“Ah, yes. That’s why I agreed to meet you anyway.”

Kim Chan-young took out an envelope from his briefcase and handed it to me.

“It’s my test record. I brought it in case it might be helpful. There’s nothing remarkable, though.”

It was a test record from Seoul Wooshin Hospital.

The test date was 7 years ago, and everything came back normal.

“Everything’s normal?”

“Yes. I had a heart transplant. I had it 7 years ago. I don’t have the records from before the heart transplant because I was a minor.”

“Heart transplant?”

I was going to ask if Kim Chan-young knew anything about Beomwoo’s genetic disorder, but this is a bombshell.

“Yes. I had a congenital heart defect. It wasn’t serious when I was young, so I didn’t need a transplant, and the technology wasn’t that advanced. So I just had surgery and lived with it, but it became a problem as I grew up. Then it got to the point where I needed a transplant, so I had surgery.”

“I looked it up and found out that the first heart transplant in Korea started in the early 90s. When did it start to become a problem?”

“Was it middle school or high school? It started to become a problem around then. But I didn’t get it in Korea, I got it in Japan. In 2004.”

“Japan? Why?”

“I don’t really know. My mom told me to go, so I went. And just in time, a brain-dead person with conditions that were perfect for me appeared, so I had surgery right away.”

Just in time, a brain-dead person who met Kim Chan-young’s conditions appeared?

I hope it’s not the case, but since what I’m investigating happens to be in that area, I started to get suspicious.

Kim Chan-young seemed to be aware of my reaction, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke.

“I didn’t know anything about it back then, but now that I think about it, I wonder if Go Sang-jun’s lobbying had anything to do with it.”

“Why?”

“It’s just, the timing is suspicious. The hospital I used to go to was Wooshin Hospital, but it’s not easy for a donor to appear as soon as I move to a Japanese hospital. So I thought maybe he made a big donation to the hospital. Anyway, I asked my mom about it, but she just said she didn’t know.”

What if he didn’t donate to the hospital, but one of the children in the House of Angels was the source of that heart?

The organ donation process is complicated in Korea, and even if he owns Wooshin Hospital, there are many eyes watching.

So what if he deliberately sent Kim Chan-young to Japan?

And what if that hospital was Shingaku University Hospital?

Shingaku University Hospital is cooperating in concealing Im Hyun-il’s identity.

If Shingaku University Hospital was already connected to Wooshin, it would be easy to accommodate Kim Chan-young.

“Do you remember which hospital you had surgery at back then?”

“Of course. But it wasn’t a huge hospital. It’s a big hospital, but not the size of Wooshin Hospital.”

“Wasn’t it like a university hospital?”

“Um… I don’t think so. It was a general hospital, though.”

“Do you remember the name of the hospital?”

“Ah, yes. I think it was Okashima Hospital.”

“Okashima? Where is it?”

“Um, I only remember getting off at Haneda Airport back then. I wonder if it’ll come up if I search it? Just a moment.”

Kim Chan-young searched for Okashima Hospital on his phone and showed me the screen.

“It’s here.”

“Can you send me the link to that site?”

“Yes. I just sent it to you in a message.”

“But, if you’re going all the way to Japan, isn’t it common to go to a hospital that’s famous for heart transplants in Japan?”

“Yeah. That’s why I looked up a few hospitals that were famous for heart transplants in Japan when I heard I was going to Japan. But I was a little surprised when I ended up going to a different place than the ones I looked up.”

“So, didn’t you ask about that?”

Kim Chan-young seemed to be lost in thought, trying to recall, and soon exclaimed ‘Ah!’ as if he had remembered.

“I did ask. I hated Go Sang-jun back then, so I was worried that something might happen to me. But my mom said that Go Yoon-sung also had a heart transplant there.”

“Go Yoon-sung?”

“Yes. Go Yoon-sung had a heart transplant a few years earlier than me.”

That’s something I didn’t know at all.

It’s amazing that he did so much drugs after having such a major surgery.

“What about the other children?”

“I don’t really know. But I heard that the other children are healthy, and I heard that Go Sang-jun also had a heart transplant. I don’t know where he got it, but that’s why I feel even worse. The shitty thing about Go Sang-jun is that it skipped the other children, but it came to me. Go Yoon-sung is the same, though.”

“Anyway, you and Go Yoon-sung had heart transplants at that Okashima Hospital?”

“Yes.”

“Were there many other patients trying to get heart transplants besides you?”

Kim Chan-young shrugged at my question.

“I don’t really know. I was in the VIP ward, so.”

“Hmm… Then let me ask you one more thing.”

“Yes.”

I found Im Hyun-il’s ID photo that Tae-shik had sent me and displayed it on the screen.

And I showed it to Kim Chan-young.

“Do you know this person?”

“Um…”

Kim Chan-young took my phone and zoomed in on the picture.

If it was someone he was seeing for the first time, he might have said he didn’t know right away, but Kim Chan-young looked at it for a long time.

And he handed the phone back to me and answered.

“I know him.”

“How do you know him?”

“I think he was the doctor who took care of me when I was hospitalized at that Okashima Hospital. He wasn’t the surgeon, but he was always there when he made rounds. He was the one who came to check on my condition. He looks a little older than the face I know, so I was hesitant, but I think it’s him.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“The nurses called him Hayashi-sensei [Sensei: teacher/doctor]. Hayashi must be his last name, right? I don’t know his first name.”

It’s the moment everything falls into place.