You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 452

You Have Been Defended – Episode 453

To prepare for any situation that might arise with Kim Mi-ja, I had two of Tae-shik’s employees waiting in the next room.

As soon as Kim Mi-ja left the room, they were to follow her.

This was both to account for any sudden actions she might take and to ensure her safety.

Kang Min-jae and I parted ways at the hotel.

It wasn’t that we had nothing to say, but we were both quite shocked by the unimaginable depravity of Wooshin and its ‘clients’.

Just in case, we each brought recorders and recorded our conversation with Kim Mi-ja, so we should be able to sort out our thoughts even if we’re not together.

“Lawyer, Kim Mi-ja has arrived at Incheon Airport. Should I tell them to follow her all the way to Japan? But we don’t have a base in Japan, so it wouldn’t be very efficient.”

Tae-shik said, waving his cell phone as he sat on the couch after I came out of the shower.

“No, it’s okay.”

It seemed Kim Mi-ja only had a day’s permission from Oda Satoshi.

What will she do when she returns to Japan?

We can’t completely rule out the possibility that she’ll tell Oda Satoshi everything, so we can’t let our guard down, but it doesn’t seem likely.

From the beginning, we approached her by mentioning her academic record forgery and hostess bar operation, and what we said when we met wasn’t much different.

Besides, we said we would stop the threats.

As she said self-deprecatingly at the end, she might consider killing me and all my colleagues who share my views, but…….

Would Wooshin really do that?

They killed Kang Kwan-woong because they were worried that the human trafficking information he knew would be leaked to us.

The fact that they were bold enough to touch a former president, yet haven’t touched any of my other colleagues, shows how much they care about outside attention.

If Jung-do’s family, Choi Jong-hyun and Jo Bong-joon, and Kim Jung-woo, including me, all died, it would definitely raise suspicion, wouldn’t it?

Six people, well… even if they only kill about three or four, assuming they think they can win some over, the arrows will clearly be aimed at them.

How can they guarantee that all these facts won’t be revealed to the world even if they take the risk of being suspected?

They must also assume that we may have more colleagues besides the ones they’ve identified.

“I think I need to think about it a bit.”

“About what?”

“If Wooshin tries to kill us all…….”

“How far does ‘us’ go, according to you? Surely you don’t mean me and my kids?”

Tae-shik frowned and put his hand on his chest.

“Hmm……. You might be included. Um, Sang-gil might be in danger too?”

“No, why would I die! If anyone’s going to die, it’s you alone!”

“Anyway, if we suddenly die, I want to make sure everything we’ve investigated is revealed to the world.”

I thought about spreading it all to the press, but it would be a problem if Wooshin shut them up and only small media outlets scratched the surface.

“Ah, right, the National Intelligence Service [NIS].”

“Why them?”

“If it’s the NIS, they could make sure what we’ve investigated is plastered all over major portals if we all die, right? By hacking or something.”

“I don’t know much about computers, so I can’t say for sure… but they’ll do anything for money. I heard them talking about hacking North Korean sites when I was drinking with them before. I don’t know if it’s true or not…….”

“I should start preparing some materials now. Ah, should I record a video too?”

I fell into contemplation.

If we release the data, many people will skip over the written text because it’s cumbersome to read, so wouldn’t it be better to leave an interview-style video?

Even people who don’t read written text will become curious if someone’s face suddenly pops up in large print.

“Since Kang, Choi, and Jo are the most well-known faces, it would be good to leave a video.”

“It’s not like you’re leaving a will……. Why are you making me feel so strange?”

Tae-shik chuckled and nudged my shoulder.

I didn’t show it, but I thought my shoulder was dislocating.

“It’s no different from a will. It’ll be released when we die.”

I had already given Oh’s secretary a will to be released when I die, but it only stated that ‘if I died, it was murder’ and how my assets should be used.

It didn’t contain any information about Wooshin.

I don’t know when I’ll use that card, but it’s better than not preparing and suddenly disappearing.

“Aren’t you tired, lawyer?”

I was thinking about whether the camera built into the computer was sufficient, but Tae-shik sighed and followed up.

Why is he worrying about me so much these days?

“Well, I don’t know how I got roped into this, but……. Honestly, I don’t know the details, and even if you tell me, I don’t understand. I just know ‘destroy Wooshin.’ And looking at how things are going, it seems like Wooshin deserves to be destroyed, so I’m sticking around.”

Tae-shik chose his words carefully.

Could it be that he wants to quit our work?

Tae-shik was one of the people who helped me a lot in my previous life.

Come to think of it, just because he helped us then doesn’t mean he’ll feel the same way in this life.

I contacted him two years earlier than in my previous life, and the work I’ve given him, the intensity of the work, and the form of cooperation are all very different, so there are plenty of variables.

I guess I haven’t had time to think about it because he’s been so reliably by my side.

“Now that it’s come to this, I hope we succeed. I may have washed my hands [left the criminal world], but I still committed crimes, so I’m doing it with the thought of contributing to the realization of justice, father?”

“Contribution.”

“Yes. Anyway, I’m doing it with that in mind. You might think I don’t care about guys like me…….”

“I don’t think that.”

“That’s surprising. Anyway, I hope everyone, whether it’s you, Kang, the secretary, Choi, or Bong-joon……. There are too many to list. Anyway, I hope everyone ends up safe and sound.”

“I think so too.”

“So don’t be prepared to die or anything. I won’t let you die, and honestly, I think I’d cry a bit if you died?”

Tae-shik scratched his cheek and looked away.

I couldn’t help but smile.

I remembered his voice when he was hiding in Kang Kwan-woong’s house as a suspect in Lee Jung-chan’s murder, trusting me and worrying about me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Anyway, don’t say things that make my heart drop like that. It’s fucking annoying. And if you die, I’ll be in trouble because there’ll be no source of money. Ah, why do I have to say things like this?”

Tae-shik suddenly got angry and ran out to the terrace.

There are many people around me who trust me, but I think the reason they trust me is that there is always a reasonable reason for my actions.

But I don’t think there’s anyone who trusts me unconditionally like Tae-shik.

* * *

Three days had passed since the meeting with Kim Mi-ja at the hotel.

I didn’t expect it, but I still hadn’t heard from Kim Mi-ja, who had gone to Japan.

The evening of the day we contacted Kim Mi-ja, Kang Min-jae returned home and immediately shared the recording file with Secretary Oh, Choi Jong-hyun, and Jo Bong-joon, so everyone knew about Kim Mi-ja’s situation.

At first, the group chat was on fire.

Various swear words and resentment filled the chat, and dozens of nonsensical strings of characters were posted, as if they couldn’t even express themselves.

After telling them to meet and talk, I called them to the office.

“Why are you all here so early?”

I ran into Secretary Oh on the first floor and came up together, but Choi Jong-hyun and Jo Bong-joon were standing in front of the office, which hadn’t even been opened yet.

They turned to us with haggard eyes.

“We wouldn’t have come this early if we weren’t so frustrated. Open the door. Is there any coffee?”

“It’s Kang’s turn to make coffee today.”

Secretary Oh replied, deactivating the office security.

“I’ll have to make some with the coffee machine in the office first.”

Choi Jong-hyun went straight to the coffee machine as soon as the door opened.

It seems they’ve been cursing Wooshin and its ‘clients’ for the past three days, or struggling all day to find a way to bring Wooshin down faster, and haven’t been able to sleep.

“Honestly, I knew they were less than human, no, even worse than beasts. They’re guys who kill people and sell their organs, so would they treat living people any differently? I knew it all! I knew it, but why am I so angry?”

Jo Bong-joon shouted, pulling out a chair in the conference room and sitting down.

“I’m amazed that Cha and Min-jae endured without saying a word there? I think I would have cursed along with Kim Mi-ja while listening to her.”

How would I have been any different?

However, I was worried that such an attitude might come across as imprudent to Kim Mi-ja and make her think we were unsuitable partners.

Above all, it’s true that I couldn’t figure out what to say because I was sitting in front of a victim.

There was more I wanted to say.

I really had a lot of thoughts.

I shouldn’t hurt her, the victim, any further, and at the same time, I shouldn’t disrupt our plans.

Kang Min-jae, who had been silent, must have been thinking the same thing.

Normally, he would always comfort the crying person, but Kang Min-jae didn’t move easily, except for minimal actions such as pulling out a tissue or helping her up.

“What do you think Kim Mi-ja will do?”

“Well, I don’t want to have expectations while making predictions, since she’ll need time to think.”

“That’s true… but it would be really great if Kim Mi-ja cooperated. She’s a witness, and she’s the one running the hostess bar, so she could get a lot of evidence if she wanted to. She’d know roughly what kind of conversations the people who go there have.”

“I couldn’t talk about those details until Kim Mi-ja said she would cooperate with us.”

At that moment, Kang Min-jae came into the conference room.

“I’m late because of traffic.”

“No contact from Kim Mi-ja?”

“No, not yet.”

“Ha, I thought I could change Kim Mi-ja’s mind with this when Cha said he would find her family for her…….”

Jo Bong-joon muttered, folding his arms.

I thought so too.

She had lived in Japan longer than she had lived in Korea, so there was no reason for her to choose Korea.

So I thought that if she could meet and live with the family she had been separated from as a child, she would feel that she wouldn’t be alone to some extent.

But her family sold her.

“The family is really……. No, is this the Japanese colonial era? No matter how old it was, it was only the 80s. How could they sell their child?”

“So, what are you going to do about Tae-shik finding Kim Mi-ja’s family?”

“I’m going to have him keep looking for now. You never know. Kim Mi-ja might want to throw water on the faces [publicly humiliate] of the family who sold her off.”

“Well…….”

Even if Kim Mi-ja didn’t cooperate with us, I was willing to find and connect her with her family if she wanted.

And as I thought about Kim Mi-ja in my head, I ended up reaching people who were in the same situation as Kim Mi-ja…… people I didn’t even know how they were doing.

Lee Ga-yeon said that too.

If they do well, they live as mistresses.

If Kim Mi-ja is a successful case, it means that there are many people who are in worse situations, and who have been placed in them.

What should we do with them all…….

We didn’t fall into the arrogance of thinking that we, who are only a collection of individuals, could save them all.

My job is to lay the foundation for the country to carry out that role.

But it makes me feel frustrated when I think about them.

I feel like I’m incompetent because I can’t save them right now.

“We’ll keep looking for Kim Mi-ja’s parents, and we need to do the next thing.”

“First, I think we need to ask Chan-young for help to move on to the next step.”

“I’m planning to meet him today anyway.”

“Today?”