You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 448

You Have Been Defended – Episode 449

I booked a room at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in the morning and contacted Kim Mi-ja’s hotel room to confirm our appointment.

Although I didn’t think Kim Mi-ja would contact Wooshin, I told Tae-shik to book the rooms on either side of hers as well, just in case, so we could deal with any unexpected situations.

I placed three people in each room, equipped with walkie-talkies so they could react immediately to a signal.

Hoping that we wouldn’t need to use the walkie-talkies.

In addition, I was very careful to avoid being followed on the way to the hotel this time.

After the series of events, I was always aware of the possibility that Wooshin might be following us, but I didn’t pay much attention since the only places I went were the office, home, restaurants, and the hospital.

However, contacting Kim Mi-ja was different.

Even if Kim Mi-ja snitched to Wooshin, it would be problematic if it became known that we contacted her for other reasons.

“This is my first time at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and it’s quite nice.”

The Cosmopolitan Hotel is a foreign-owned enterprise.

Although the five-star rating is the highest standard for evaluating hotels, this place is too good to be compared to those five-star hotels; it’s often called a seven-star hotel.

As such, the security is thorough, so even if Wooshin tried to intervene and use violence, it would be difficult.

“What time is it?”

“Four o’clock. They said that the rooms we booked have a separate lounge for check-in.”

After checking in and receiving various instructions, it was already 4:30 PM.

Tae-shik and the other employees went into the rooms on either side, and only Kang Min-jae and I entered the room where we were to meet Kim Mi-ja.

“Do you think the conversation will go well?”

“I don’t know.”

Kim Mi-ja struggled through the mud and managed to integrate into the upper class.

She had wealth and fame in her hands that she wouldn’t have dared to dream of in the past.

Japanese women admire her, seeing her image in newspapers and magazines.

She may have the anxiety of running a brothel, a den of prostitution, but she is under the protection of Wooshin and high-ranking figures in the Japanese political world, so she probably isn’t too worried.

If she doesn’t cooperate with us, she can continue to live that life. Will she even want to cooperate?

Of course, the anxiety that we wouldn’t let that happen is what made her agree to today’s meeting.

“I think her personality will be important.”

In fact, even a child would have already grasped the situation she is in.

Will she use any means to silence us and live as she does now, or will she stand on our side and live conscientiously?

Which of the two she chooses depends on her personality, doesn’t it?

The former is the death of conscience, and the latter is social death, so she will act according to the values she prioritizes.

She also knows that if she fails to silence us, there will be greater consequences.

“I think she’s here.”

Just then, the bell rang.

Considering the possibility that someone from Wooshin might have come instead of Kim Mi-ja, Kang Min-jae grabbed the walkie-talkie.

“…Hello.”

Fortunately, Kim Mi-ja was alone outside the door.

I quickly scanned the hotel hallway, but there was no one else.

Kim Mi-ja greeted us with a very nervous face, and I greeted her back before letting her in.

“It must have been unsettling, but thank you for coming all the way here,” Kang Min-jae said as he guided her to the couch.

Kim Mi-ja sat down and let out a sigh mixed with laughter.

“It feels strange to hear that from the person who made me feel uneasy.”

I admit that our approach wasn’t gentle.

It was blatant intimidation.

But if it hadn’t been for the intimidation, she wouldn’t have come here alone.

If we had approached her as planned, pretending to be reporters and arranging an interview, she would have certainly been accompanied by someone like a secretary, and we would have ended up threatening her in the same way to talk to her alone, so the result would have been the same, wouldn’t it?

It was necessary intimidation.

“I’m here for one reason.”

“Please, speak.”

“From the start, it seems that Jungdo Corporation has quite a bit of trust in Korea. And Attorney Kang is the grandson of former President Kang Kwan-woong.”

She pressed her eyes with her trembling hand, then continued.

“I assumed you had already verified with Youngjin Women’s University. It wouldn’t have been difficult to find out that much in Korea. There’s no point in denying it, right?”

“That’s right.”

“So, what do you want?”

“Why is there no mention of the brothel where prostitution takes place?”

At my question, Kim Mi-ja crossed her arms.

A defensive posture.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

[Lie]

It wasn’t necessary to use my ability, but I intended to judge the truthfulness of every word she said.

Perhaps because it had been a while since I used my ability, the letters floating above her head felt a bit unfamiliar.

“Ah, so you’re saying you don’t know anything about the prostitution, and you came to meet us because you were worried about the controversy that would arise in Japan if we exposed the academic forgery?”

“Yes.”

“Why wouldn’t you know? There’s more than one person who claims to have seen Kim Mi-ja there.”

Academic forgery is something that anyone can find out if they set their mind to it, but the brothel is a place where prostitution is carried out in secret.

It seems she thought we were just probing, mentioning it without having proper information, since it’s not information that anyone can access.

In fact, we are not interested in Kim Mi-ja’s academic forgery.

From the beginning, the academic forgery was just a side issue that came up while confirming information that Kim Mi-ja was in charge of managing the brothel.

“Kim Mi-ja, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”

“What do you mean?”

“What we’re focusing on is the brothel where prostitution is taking place. Kim Mi-ja’s academic forgery is not that important to us. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll condone living with a forged academic record.”

“…So you’re saying you’ll expose the academic forgery after all!”

Kim Mi-ja raised her voice.

It seems she dislikes the exposure of her academic forgery more than running the brothel.

Well, if the academic forgery becomes a controversy, she’s the only one who suffers, so Oda Satoshi might simply abandon her to end the situation.

But the brothel issue is more complicated.

Japanese political figures are involved, and Wooshin is the main entity of the business, so she seems to think they will block it by any means for their own survival.

“Kim Mi-ja went to Japan at the age of 13, pulled there by Wooshin’s hand.”

“…”

“She started with unwanted sexual favors there. Then she met Oda Satoshi, maintained an affair with Oda Satoshi, who had a wife, and started working in the Japanese art field with Oda Satoshi’s help. The lie that she graduated from Youngjin Women’s University started there. And when Oda Satoshi’s wife died, Oda Satoshi wanted someone who matched the reputation of an elite family. So Oda Satoshi fully supported Kim Mi-ja to be appointed as a professor and started image-making in Japan. And that’s the situation now. Am I wrong?”

“…”

She seemed noticeably flustered.

She thought she could push through by denying it, since there wouldn’t be much to find out about her in Korea, but she must have been surprised that we had summarized her life in such detail.

It doesn’t matter if my words are somewhat wrong.

I can piece together the truth by judging the truth and lies through conversation.

Kim Mi-ja closed her eyes tightly and said.

“I won’t answer.”

I thought she would say no, but she won’t answer?

Generally, ‘I won’t answer’ is ultimately accepted as an affirmation, but for me, it’s a little easier to grasp if she denies it.

Unintentionally, it’s an effective way to reduce the efficiency of my ability.

“Does that mean affirmation?”

I don’t want to say that I accept it as ‘affirmation’ because I don’t bother to answer and ignore the ridiculous rumors about me that circulate in the world.

But I also know that there’s no word that annoys people more than that.

“I said I wouldn’t answer, but I didn’t say it was an affirmation, did I?”

“If you want to deny reality, you can just say no.”

“I’m not denying reality.”

[Lie]

It was a beneficial conversation that confirmed that the history we had inferred about Kim Mi-ja before meeting her matched the facts.

“Did you gain Wooshin’s trust thanks to Oda Satoshi? If they entrusted you with the management of the brothel, it also means you share weaknesses. Did Oda Satoshi act as a bridge? Kim Mi-ja is from there, so she knows the brothel inside and out, and Oda Satoshi himself is a big customer of Wooshin, so he recommended her, believing that she was trustworthy because she was in the same boat?”

“…Now that I see it, you should have been a movie director instead of a lawyer. If you’re going to tell such ridiculous stories, I’ll get up and leave.”

“Are you saying it doesn’t matter if the academic forgery is revealed?”

“That’s what I’m saying! That’s why I’m asking what you want! But you’re not going to hide the academic forgery either. Then what’s the point of this conversation? If you’re going to expose it anyway, there’s no need for me to be here, is there?”

“You have to silence us.”

“Ha!”

Kim Mi-ja laughed as if she was dumbfounded.

“So, how do I silence you? I don’t even know what you want!”

“Cooperate with us.”

“Cooperate? What do you want me to cooperate with?”

“Just tell us what you know about the brothel where prostitution takes place and about Wooshin. It would be even better if you could find out more than you know.”

“…There’s no such brothel.”

[Lie]

“There is plenty of evidence that the brothel exists. I’ve met countless people who were dragged to Wooshin and had to live unwanted lives there. I’ve secured all the testimonies.”

“…”

“We have enough evidence that Kim Mi-ja is the manager of that place. It’s best not to engage in meaningless attrition warfare.”

There is no evidence, only testimonies, but it doesn’t matter.

It is most important to get a confession from Kim Mi-ja right now.

Again, it would be good to stimulate her guilt.

Considering that she told Lee Ga-yeon to escape at all costs, didn’t I assume that she wouldn’t be able to shake off her guilt?

“Kim Mi-ja has seen children who are forced to do unwanted things and suffer in that place. She feels considerable pity and guilt. And she wants to help those children so that they don’t become like Kim Mi-ja, but she can’t help but stand by because it’s clear that she’ll be in danger if she does. It must be hard.”

“…I said no.”

[Lie]

“Kim Mi-ja also knows what kind of children are dragged there. They are children who have been abandoned by their parents for whatever reason and left in orphanages. Moreover, they are too young to be selected for the purpose of sexual favors. Only elementary school sixth graders, middle school students, at most high school students… Those children are being played with by dirty old men who are crazy about sex in the brothel that Kim Mi-ja runs.”

“…”

“Does Kim Mi-ja feeling guilty and pitying those children make standing by any less of standing by? Ah, I can’t even call it standing by. You’re directly involved in management. I’ll correct it to perpetrator. On the days when the guilt of becoming such a perpetrator reaches its peak, you might sometimes talk to the children. But does that make Kim Mi-ja any less of a perpetrator?”

“…I said no. There’s no such place! What kind of delusions are you having? Such a place doesn’t exist in the first place, and no prostitution has taken place! That place is just where my husband and his acquaintances come to drink.”

[Lie]

“Just pick one. Does the brothel exist, or does it not?”

“So, so… What you know as that place is not a prostitution business. It’s just a place to drink and have tea, something like that…”

[Lie]

“Then you didn’t see the children who haven’t even started menstruating being sexually harassed by disgusting humans?”

“I… I didn’t see it.”

[Lie]

“You didn’t see the children being raped and abandoned by those humans? You didn’t see the children who were beaten and collapsed because they didn’t act the way they wanted? You haven’t even received reports from the staff who clean up after those children, the staff who have no expression or words? You haven’t even made eye contact with those children?”

“Why… Why are you saying such things…”

“They are children who boarded the plane with excited hearts, thinking they would be sent to study in Japan. They were repeatedly raped in a place where the only Japanese they knew was ‘thank you.’ Why didn’t Kim Mi-ja, who runs that place, see that?”

“I, I…”

“Ah, was it because it overlapped with Kim Mi-ja’s past that you couldn’t bear to see it? Was it because it overlapped with the self-disgust of living mixed with dirty humans you don’t even know, that you couldn’t bear to face it?”

“…Stop it, please.”

“Even though it’s hard to ignore the eyes of the children who seem to be saying to save them, did you choose not to see them? Are you going crazy in the current situation where Kim Mi-ja, who was only a victim, has become a perpetrator? Still, you must remember the friends who were dragged from Korea without knowing why and were in the same situation as you. But why didn’t you see them? Ah, did you just erase them from your memory?”

“Please… Heuk, please stop…”

“Perhaps, do you think they are people who failed because they couldn’t act smart? Just throw away their pride, their human dignity, and do what those humans tell them to do, and money and honor will follow, but do you think they are stupid for not living that way, and you are smart and have survived well? Don’t you have any guilt? So you stood by the children?”

I relentlessly pushed her, and Kim Mi-ja didn’t know what to do with her trembling hands.

Tears were dripping from her eyes.

She bit her lip as if trying to hold back her tears.

“Why don’t you answer?”

“I too! I told them to run away too, I too… I told them countless times to get out of here somehow! But what can I do? There’s nothing I can do! There’s nothing I can do for them! I… I… No matter how secretly I send them out, those bastards catch them again! I’ve been beaten countless times too. I’ve been subjected to all kinds of violence for helping those kids! It was hard for me too. It’s not just me. They catch those kids again and beat them like dogs in front of me, how can I… How can I help those kids. What can I do!”

[Truth]

Kim Mi-ja was already screaming and crying loudly with tears streaming down her face.