You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 451

You Have Been Defended – Episode 452

#452

As I stood up, Kang Min-jae followed suit.

I gave a short bow and headed towards the door to leave the room.

Just then, Kim Mi-ja rushed over and grabbed my hand.

“Lawyer, Lawyer, just a moment!”

When I turned to look at her, she held my hand, looking distressed.

Her other hand went to her mouth, and she kept biting her nails.

Seeing her so anxious, Kang Min-jae approached her to comfort her.

But before he could, Kim Mi-ja collapsed to her knees on the floor.

“…Lawyer, don’t you feel sorry for me? Why are you doing this to me? I’ve had a hard enough life as it is. You know that. You’ve heard everything.”

Kang Min-jae looked flustered and tried to lift Kim Mi-ja up.

But Kim Mi-ja didn’t budge.

She crawled closer to me on her knees and said, crying.

“Just once… please consider my situation just once more. I’m finally, finally living like a human being. For the first time in my life, I’m living with some sense of satisfaction. How much did I suffer to get to this point? You’ve heard it all. Do I need to tell you in more detail? What kind of years I spent? How I endured being treated by those people?”

“You’ve said enough.”

“No… no. I don’t think you fully understand my heart yet. I don’t think you know how precious each day is to me now. That’s why you’re asking me to choose, isn’t it? That’s why you’re trying to take everything away from me… isn’t it?”

Kim Mi-ja shed tears as she hugged my legs.

She seemed very used to doing this.

She probably was.

She must have cried and begged those people to save her, to forgive her, countless times.

Even the fact that she was so used to this behavior was heartbreaking.

“Weren’t you sympathizing with me? Don’t you feel sorry for me? Then please…”

“If it’s not rude for me to sympathize with Kim Mi-ja, then I do sympathize.”

“Then why? Why are you trying to take all of this away from me!”

Kim Mi-ja seemed to have chosen to appeal to emotions rather than accept any other option.

Thinking that the life she had struggled to grasp was about to end, it was no wonder she wanted to try anything.

“You might laugh at me, Lawyer, but I really worked hard. I really… I endured by catering to this person and that person, and finally… I’m finally able to live… Can’t you look past it for my sake? I won’t ask for much. At least for me and my husband…”

“Kim Mi-ja, there’s no need to lump yourself in with Oda Satoshi.”

“If I’m not with him! I’m nothing without that man. If you tell me to step down from my professorship, I’ll do it somehow. I won’t be exposed to the media and I’ll just stay at home… I’ll just live like that…”

Saying she would step down from her professorship, not be exposed to the media, and just stay at home sounded like she could give up her honor but not her wealth.

It wasn’t incomprehensible.

If she accepted my offer and sided with us, she wouldn’t be able to live peacefully until everything was settled.

Even if she divorced Oda Satoshi, it was uncertain whether the divorce would proceed smoothly, and the university that had hired her could file a lawsuit.

More than anything, she seemed worried about how she could live as someone who was neither a graduate of Youngjin Women’s University, nor a professor, nor the wife of Oda Satoshi.

I didn’t know how Japanese law worked, so I didn’t know how much property she could receive in a divorce, but since they hadn’t been married for long, it wouldn’t be much.

Living in Japan with that little money would make her afraid of people’s gazes, and coming to Korea would make her unsure if Wooshin would really collapse.

She probably wasn’t sure what she could do to earn money.

Wooshin and its ‘clients’ had made it impossible for her to live without relying on someone since she was 13, so it was natural that she had no will to be independent.

If money was the only concern, I could support her to some extent, for a certain period of time.

Saying this might make it easier to persuade her.

But if I said that, she would leave herself in my hands again.

“I feel like I’m finally living like a human being now… Everyone else lives like this, but I’m only living like this now that I’m over forty. I deserve to live like a human being too, don’t I? I deserve to live a normal life like everyone else, don’t I? So please don’t take it away…”

“Kim Mi-ja, the way you talk makes it sound like people who feel financially insecure can’t live like human beings.”

“…Pardon?”

“Kim Mi-ja, think carefully. You said you’re finally living like a human being, but do you really think that’s the best you can have? Haven’t you ever thought that there might be a better life than being anxious about when your academic record will be exposed and feeling guilty about running that lounge?”

“…”

“I’m not taking anything away. I’m just trying to put everything back where it belongs.”

“Where it belongs? That lounge? Is my place to sell my body to those men?”

“No. Before Kim Mi-ja went through such things. That’s where Kim Mi-ja should be.”

“I don’t want to go back to that time. I like now.”

“Is it because you were poor then?”

“…”

“So, in the end, you just like the title of being the wife of Oda Satoshi, a member of the House of Representatives [Japanese parliament], and his wealth.”

Kim Mi-ja released my legs, as if all her strength had left her.

She remained sitting on the floor, staring blankly up at me.

“What Kim Mi-ja is enjoying now is made with money stolen by a robber. So I’m trying to confiscate the property from the robber and return it to the original owner. Is this taking away? The victims who had their money stolen by the robber can’t escape the trauma of being robbed, even if the money is returned. They can’t go back to the way things were.”

“…”

“Kim Mi-ja is the same. Kim Mi-ja is also a victim. Kim Mi-ja’s words and actions now are like someone suffering from Stockholm syndrome [a psychological response where hostages or abuse victims develop positive feelings toward their captors or abusers]. Why are you taking the side of the perpetrator? And why are you undervaluing yourself? You can live like a human being even if you’re not a professor or the wife of a politician.”

“How can I… What can I do? What can I do when I haven’t even finished middle school!”

“You can live a normal life. Why do you think that if you’re not educated, you’re bound to live a low-quality life? My mother only finished middle school. But I don’t think my mother is living a low-quality life.”

“…I didn’t mean to disparage your mother.”

“I know. A life where you can casually book first-class flights, stay in luxury hotels, and buy luxury goods is not the only human life. I’m not a psychiatrist, so I can’t say for sure, but it seems like Kim Mi-ja wants to fill the lost years with material things.”

“Then how can I… how can I become normal? If I don’t live as Oda Tomiko, I have nothing. All I have is a tattered body. But how can I… how can I…”

Her appearance, which made it hard to believe she was 46 years old and wouldn’t surprise anyone if she were in her 30s, must have certainly been a selling point among the ‘clients’.

All they wanted from Kim Mi-ja was her body, and they didn’t expect great knowledge or sense.

So she must have only realized later that she had a talent for drawing.

She wouldn’t have even had time to explore what she could do.

I understand her helplessness.

“I can’t promise you everything, but I can help Kim Mi-ja live a normal life. And… I’ll find Kim Mi-ja’s family too.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than Kim Mi-ja began to laugh.

Her shoulders shook silently, and eventually, she laughed out loud.

She even shed tears, but it was impossible to know whether those tears were from when she cried earlier or from laughing now.

“Haa… family? I’d rather call Oda Satoshi’s children, who look at me like a whore, family.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That family is what made me like this. That family sold me to Wooshin! If you insist on finding those people, all I’ll do is stab them in the stomach.”

Kim Mi-ja said, panting.

The word ‘truth’ floated above her head.

Her family sold Kim Mi-ja to Wooshin?

That was something I hadn’t even considered.

When Kang Su-il gave us the data that Kang Kwan-woong had investigated, there was no mention of selling children among the ways Wooshin recruited children at the time.

“If you don’t want to go back to your family, then do as you wish. But Oda Satoshi and his children don’t necessarily have to be Kim Mi-ja’s family. If you think you need a family, you can start a new one.”

“Who would marry someone like me? I’m already old, I have nothing, and if I testify about everything, as you said, won’t I become someone who openly gives her body to anyone? Would you be able to marry a woman like me, Lawyer?”

“Why not? I would if I loved Kim Mi-ja.”

“So, what I’m saying is, who could love me? Who would… who on earth…”

“Kim Mi-ja, you need to think calmly about this. You don’t have to answer right away either. You’re in an excited state right now.”

It’s not that I can’t accept her rambling thoughts.

If she wants to be comforted, I’m not good at that, so I can leave it to Kang Min-jae, who is good at that.

But she needs time to think calmly.

Anyway, we think it’s better for her to abandon Oda Satoshi, so no matter how much she tries to exclude our opinions, we can’t help but guide her in that direction.

If we can get Kim Mi-ja to present evidence by doing so, maybe that’s the right thing to do.

But that’s nothing more than using Kim Mi-ja as a tool.

I don’t want Kim Mi-ja to regret her decision later after being persuaded by us.

“Anyway, you’re saying… you’re going to expose that, no matter what.”

“That’s right.”

“Then should I wish for you to die?”

Kim Mi-ja said self-deprecatingly.

“Even if I die, others will reveal it to the end.”

“…”

“And Wooshin has been trying to kill me. But I’m here with Kim Mi-ja right now, aren’t I? It seems I won’t die easily. So don’t rely on luck. Think coldly.”

I gestured to Kang Min-jae.

Kang Min-jae picked up Kim Mi-ja, who was still sitting on the floor, and sat her on the couch.

“Kim Mi-ja, keep my business card safe. Contact me anytime. If you need someone to talk to, you can contact me. But you must make your own decision.”

Kang Min-jae seemed to be thinking the same thing as me, as he took out his business card and placed it next to mine.

“I’ll be going now.”

Kim Mi-ja didn’t hold us back any longer.

Kang Min-jae closed the door to the room and sighed as he stood in the hallway.

“Kim Mi-ja isn’t a client, but I learned that lawyers should maintain a certain distance… It’s really hard. How do you control the distance so well, Lawyer?”

“I couldn’t either.”

When I told Kim Mi-ja that it was best to perish together with Oda Satoshi or to testify, I felt like I was committing violence against her.

In fact, we are heading towards the downfall of Wooshin, and it was no different from giving Kim Mi-ja a heads-up in advance, even though.

The years Kim Mi-ja had gone through were so terrible that I felt like I shouldn’t touch her.

It was a moment that lasted less than a second, but I even doubted whether it was right to let her live as she is now.

And if there was an absolute being, I wished they would turn back her time, just like they did for me.

To when she had nothing.

To before her family abandoned her.

The memories would remain, so she wouldn’t be able to completely escape the trauma, but even so, turning back time seemed more desperate for her than for me.