You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 462

#463

When I raised my voice without realizing it, Kang Min-jae seemed a little surprised.

I, too, wondered if I had ever raised my voice to Kang Min-jae after shouting.

“Attorney, how can you ride a boat in this condition?”

But there was no time to answer.

My heart was beating faster and faster.

Is this what a runaway train feels like?

It felt like it was beating so fast it would explode.

If I were to measure my pulse now, I don’t know for sure, but it felt like it would easily exceed 250.

I don’t know if that heart rate is actually possible, though.

Thinking that my heart might really stop if I continued like this, I barely breathed and tried to lower my heart rate.

But, damn it, my breathing wouldn’t cooperate.

“Haa, ugh…….”

What was I supposed to do in this situation?

Ah, I think I was told to lower the oxygen saturation with something like a plastic bag or a paper bag.

With trembling hands, I fumbled for the seat.

There was a plastic bag I received when I bought bottled water on the left.

I dumped out the trash and stuff in it and brought the plastic bag to my mouth.

“W-what’s wrong, Attorney! Are you okay?”

I heard Tae-shik’s voice, but I had no time to pay attention to him.

I put the plastic bag to my mouth and repeated breathing.

It felt like I had been doing this for about 10 minutes, but my breathing wouldn’t stabilize.

Did this work before?

How long did I have to do this for my breathing to return to normal?

Was this the right way?

……But what am I doing?

Why am I wrestling with a plastic bag?

The thought that I looked ridiculous, blocking my mouth with a plastic bag and rustling it, was fleeting, and at the same time as a dizzying headache, I heard a beeping sound in my ear.

The tinnitus [ringing in the ears] dominated my head.

I think I heard Kang Min-jae’s voice for a moment, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying because it was buried in the tinnitus.

I threw the plastic bag away and covered my ears with both hands.

It was too noisy to bear.

“Heo, ugh.”

I frowned and rolled my eyes to try to focus my vision, which was blurred with tears.

Then I saw Kang Min-jae trying to come over to the back from the passenger seat.

Wait, but…….

Is that really Kang Min-jae?

In the first place, was Kang Min-jae the lawyer who used the same office as me?

Kang Min-jae, who rolled over to the back seat, brought the plastic bag I had dropped back to my mouth.

Rustle, beep, rustle, beep, rustle, beep…….

The noisy sound was repeated endlessly.

Instead of helping me calm down, it seemed to be hindering me, so I shook off Kang Min-jae’s…… or rather, someone presumed to be Kang Min-jae’s hand.

But he stubbornly put the plastic bag to my mouth again.

My vision turns white.

I couldn’t breathe at all.

It was clear that I would suffocate to death if this continued.

“……ttorney, ……can’t, ……breathe!”

What are you saying?

Damn it, I’m dying right now.

Someone must be opening my skull and spinning my brain rapidly.

Or my otoliths [inner ear crystals] have fallen out and are stuck in the semicircular canals.

The thought that my brain was rotating was fleeting, and now even my vision began to spin.

Is this possible?

I was in the car, so how could the car be spinning?

Did an accident happen in the meantime and the car overturned?

Ah, wait.

This must be a dream.

If it’s a dream, everything becomes possible.

It’s possible that I’m still alive even though my heart has already exploded, it’s possible that the world is spinning, and it’s possible that I’m hearing strange noises.

Or, have I been kidnapped by Wooshin again?

That’s also plausible.

If so, when?

The smell of the sea wafts into my nose.

The smell that came in with the short breath stirs inside my nose.

The smell of the sea is too strong.

Ah, am I on a boat?

But why can’t I move?

Am I in a drum?

If so, when again?

In this life, I clearly jumped into the sea before getting into the drum.

Then is it the previous life?

I definitely went into the drum then.

No, but what is the previous life and what is this life?

In the first place, I am…… what am I?

“Attorney.”

Then Kang Min-jae grabbed both of my shoulders tightly.

I felt my body shake greatly once, and then the sensation of the world spinning subsided a little.

I looked around and moved my gaze from the hand that grabbed my shoulder to my wrist and arm.

At the end of it, Kang Min-jae was looking at me with a desperate face.

No, I don’t know if that’s really Kang Min-jae.

Rather, I was curious why I was recognizing this strange man as Kang Min-jae.

The man grabbed my hand, placed it on my chest, and asked.

“Attorney, what day is it today?”

The man asked in a calm voice.

Day of the week?

The commonly referred to days of the week consist of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But who decided that?

“…….”

“Attorney, think carefully. What day is it today?”

“……Friday, no……. Saturday, no. Is it Sunday?”

“That’s right. It’s Sunday. Then where is this? Where were we going?”

“Mupyeong.”

“That’s right. Why were we going to Mupyeong?”

Why were we going to Mupyeong?

Mupyeong is a coastal city located on the west coast.

Then we must have gone to take a boat, right?

Why did we have to take a boat?

If we were going abroad, we would have taken a plane.

Ah, that’s right.

We were going to a place that could only be reached by boat.

“……To Baekgeum Island.”

“Why?”

“Ms. Kim Mi-ja, haa……. Right. I was going because of Ms. Kim Mi-ja.”

I feel like my heart rate has slowed down a lot without me noticing.

My breathing is also gradually becoming more comfortable.

The inside of my head, which had been shattered into pieces and fluttering around, calmed down in an instant.

As time passed, it felt like the pieces that had sunk to the ground were being neatly organized and returned to their original places to be assembled.

I loosened the strength I had been giving to my whole body.

And I straightened my posture, which had been half-lying down, although I don’t know when I had been sitting like that.

Looking out the window, the car was parked on the side of a street in the city.

I moved my gaze to check the inside of the car.

Kang Min-jae, who was sighing next to me, and Tae-shik, who was looking back at me in surprise, came into view.

“Are you feeling better now?”

Kang Min-jae picked up the water bottle that had fallen on the floor and handed it to me.

I opened the lid and poured water into my mouth.

After swallowing the water, my mouth and throat, which had been parched from hyperventilation, became moist and I felt much better.

“It’s been about 20 minutes.”

“Did the medicine work quickly?”

“I think it’s been about 20 minutes. Attorney’s seizure time. It was about that long before, too.”

“……Okay. It gets better in 20 minutes.”

From now on, I should start by thinking that I only need to endure for 20 minutes if these symptoms come on.

“If the car had been even a little smaller, I wouldn’t have been able to get over to the back seat. I thought I was going to get cramps.”

Kang Min-jae swept back his hair as if exhausted and leaned back on the backrest.

“Tae-shik, take the attorney and go back to Seoul. I can go to Baekgeum Island alone.”

Kang Min-jae said, checking his wristwatch.

I also checked the time.

It’s still 1:15.

I’m not late for the boat.

“I’m okay now. Let’s go together.”

“Attorney! You have to take the boat. You’re already having symptoms just by looking at the sea, how are you going to ride the boat! It’s because of what happened back then. When those Wooshin bastards kidnapped you, they put you on a boat and took you away……. That’s why you’re like this, how are you going to ride the boat?”

“The medicine worked. And I have to go.”

“I can ask the people who live there if they know Ms. Kim Mi-ja by myself. Attorney, you’re not in good condition right now. You’re not in a condition to take a boat.”

“Then every time I see that damn sea, I can’t breathe, I can’t hear properly, and I can’t recognize people?”

“……But not now.”

“Tae-shik, go to Mupyeong Port.”

At my words, Tae-shik looked at Kang Min-jae with a troubled expression.

They both treated me like a patient.

It’s the expression of medical staff checking with the guardian to see if they can really discharge me.

“Change the gear and step on the gas right now. Or you’re fired.”

“Tae-shik, no. I’ll take a taxi to Mupyeong Port, so take the attorney to Seoul.”

“Then you’re fired too.”

At my words, Kang Min-jae looked at me in surprise.

I know it too.

That I’m being stubborn like a brat.

But I can’t avoid the situation every time symptoms appear.

I have a lot of work to do in the future, and I’m going to face more difficulties, but just because of this kind of thing…….

“Go to Mupyeong Port, and if the symptoms come up again, I’ll go back to Seoul, so let’s go for now.”

If I have another seizure there, I won’t push it either.

If that happens, even if I go to Baekgeum Island, I won’t be able to do a proper investigation and will only be a hindrance.

Tae-shik and Kang Min-jae exchanged glances, and eventually Tae-shik started off towards Mupyeong Port again.

I opened the window again and closed my eyes.

* * *

“Attorney, are you really going to be okay?”

Kang Min-jae, who arrived at Mupyeong Port and bought tickets for three people to Baekgeum Island, looked at me with a worried face.

I think it’s inevitable that symptoms sometimes come up, that I have to go to the hospital regularly, and that I have to witness my weak self.

But I can’t stand being someone I have to protect and disrupting work because of me.

Fortunately, I arrived at Mupyeong Port and saw the sea and the boat, but there was no particular reaction.

I felt like my heart dropped when I saw the fishing boat, but other than that, it wasn’t bad.

I didn’t know if the medicine I took was holding me back, or if there was another reason.

“I’m okay.”

What’s most fortunate is that I brought more medicine just in case.

I take medicine with me every time I go out.

On days when I expect not to be able to go home, I adjust the number of days and pills for overnight stays.

If I ever come out without taking my medicine, I would go back home to get it.

I didn’t take the one I packed for yesterday, so there’s one more left.

“Attorney, shouldn’t you go to the hospital?”

Tae-shik, who was getting up at the employee’s signal to announce the boarding time, suddenly asked.

I shook my head.

“It’s not like that. It’s not like there’s a problem with my body.”

“That’s what you think, Attorney. What does Attorney Kang think?”

“That’s what the attorney is saying is right.”

When Kang Min-jae replied, Tae-shik seemed to believe me then.

“I thought people went to the psychiatrist to fix their bad personalities, but I guess not.”

Tae-shik sighed, throwing words that I couldn’t tell if they were a joke or not.

Instead of answering, I stood behind the boarding line.

“I don’t know either. Is there a hospital on Baekgeum Island?”

At Tae-shik’s words, Kang Min-jae searched on his phone and nodded.

“If you do that again, Attorney, I’m going to drag you to the hospital. I’m going even if you say you’re not going.”

Tae-shik said sullenly and got on the boat.