You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 485

You Have Been Defended – Episode 485

The Angel House volunteer group, commissioned by Choi Jong-hyun, has a 45-year history and a strong reputation.

As a large educational club, it’s involved in various activities for students, so the Angel House volunteer work isn’t always their top priority.

They mentor students with support from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and run after-school reading discussion programs directly in middle and high schools.

They also hold science camps for preschoolers and elementary school students every vacation, which are very popular with parents, leading to significant growth in the camp’s size.

When they recruit applicants for the science camp, the competition ratio often exceeds 20:1.

Of course, since recruitment is done through a lottery, there isn’t really any competition in the traditional sense.

In any case, despite all their activities, the president considers the Angel House volunteer work quite special.

The reason is simple: Choi Jong-hyun’s generous support.

They had worked on various projects with private companies and local governments, but this was the first time they had received this level of sponsorship.

It was a donation meant to buy supplies for volunteering at the Angel House, but he was incredibly generous, saying they could use it for the club’s needs.

Thanks to this, they were able to purchase plenty of electronic devices and props for the club, and they could also buy meat for the executives who were always working hard.

Of course, the club’s budget is transparently managed, and they never intended to embezzle funds, but having extra resources is always beneficial.

Various seminars, regular membership training (MT) trips, and the quality of materials available for educational volunteer work have all improved.

The president and executives wanted to maintain their relationship with reporter Choi Jong-hyun for as long as possible, or at least until they graduated from the club.

“Yes, Reporter! Ah, yes. You sent a message? Ah, I must have missed it because I was sleeping in the early morning. Ah, yes. No, no, it wasn’t a disturbance at all. I would have woken up and answered if you had just called… Yes. Ah, an absence? I don’t think there was a child like that, and I didn’t receive any notification about it either. Yes. I will definitely check. Yes. I understand. Yes, go ahead.”

The president, who had been caught off guard and answered the phone with excessive politeness as soon as he saw ‘Reporter Choi Jong-hyun’ on the screen, was now in a foul mood.

Although Choi Jong-hyun’s tone didn’t sound particularly angry, the fact that he asked them to check quickly suggested they might have overlooked something.

He had only visited the Angel House during the first volunteer session and had since delegated everything to the executive in charge of the Angel House educational volunteer work.

If he had known the answer immediately, he could have made a good impression, but unfortunately, he didn’t know the exact situation.

The president quickly searched his contacts and made a call.

─ Ugh, what is it? So early…

“Yoonji, listen to me carefully.”

─ Ugh, why? I drank until dawn and just fell asleep, you son of a bitch.

─ The esteemed reporter Choi Jong-hyun has contacted us. It seems we made a mistake.

“Huh? Why is the reporter calling? What’s wrong? Are they not sponsoring us anymore?”

Yoonji’s sleepy voice sharpened quickly.

The president chuckled.

He had expected swearing when calling so early, but Yoonji immediately changed her tune at the mention of the reporter.

And why wouldn’t she?

The reporter was a valuable connection for Yoonji as well.

It was probably the last day of the first week when the Angel House volunteer work was successfully completed.

Choi Jong-hyun told them, who were just college students, that they had worked hard and asked how many friends had volunteered at the Angel House.

Without thinking, they answered, and Choi Jong-hyun made a group reservation at a high-end Korean beef restaurant in Cheongdam-dong, a wealthy area in Seoul.

He famously told them not to worry about the price and to eat until they were full.

In fact, when Choi Jong-hyun was on an internet broadcast with stock investor Jo Bong-joon, he didn’t seem that wealthy, so they hadn’t had high expectations.

But a Korean beef dinner?

Do reporters really make that much money?

Does the broadcast’s balloon tip [a form of online donation] income explode that well?

They had many questions, but they simply expressed their gratitude.

Yoonji had also benefited from that generosity, so her voice couldn’t help but be respectful.

“You remember the reporter told us to check the number of absentees, right?”

─ Of course. I’m doing it right now, wide awake.

“But he says there’s someone who’s absent right now?”

─ He said there’s someone who’s absent? That’s strange. I haven’t heard anything like that?

“Call around. Was there a day when you went to volunteer on the 8th or 9th of last month? He said to focus on this time.”

─ There might be. Wait, let me check the calendar. Ah! I went out on the 8th.

“Check quickly. If there was anyone absent, you’re dead.”

─ No, I’m telling you there won’t be. Ugh, I’ll ask and call you back. Hang up.

After the call ended, the president waited anxiously for Yoonji’s call.

Because of the rumor that volunteering at the Angel House meant a Korean beef dinner, there were plenty of applicants within the club.

Fortunately, people with matching schedules were assigned to each day of the week, so there was no need to recruit new applicants unless someone quit.

Since there weren’t that many people, it wouldn’t take long to confirm.

About an hour passed.

Yoonji called.

─ Hey. Shit, what do I do?

“What is it? Is there really someone absent?”

─ No, ugh. I’m going crazy. There was someone absent that day.

“Who is it?”

─ It’s Yoo Jong-eun, a 17-year-old girl.

“No, why didn’t you say anything about the absence? Didn’t you check properly?”

─ I did, you crazy bastard. I upload a report to the group chat every volunteer day asking if anyone is absent.

“But why didn’t you say anything then?”

─ No, I emphasized the study abroad story at first, but it’s not study abroad, and I was going to talk about it if she wasn’t there next time, but she was there, so I just kept my mouth shut. Ah, this bastard must be really stupid. I was afraid you’d put someone else in.

“Ugh, then why was she absent that day?”

─ I asked the kids where Jong-eun went, and they said they didn’t know, so I asked the staff. They said she had a bad case of the flu and was in the hospital.

“Really? Was there no problem after that?”

─ She asked Jong-eun if she was all better, and she said she didn’t know. But she didn’t seem to have any problems in her daily life, and she’s been doing well since then.

“Ugh, first of all, tell the kids to tell you right away if they don’t see someone’s face even once for any reason. And was there anyone else besides Jong-eun? Did the kids miss anything carelessly?”

─ I don’t think there’s anyone besides Jong-eun.

“Okay.”

─ But, is the reporter angry?

“I don’t think so, but I don’t know. I’ll talk to him well.”

* * *

“There was someone absent.”

Choi Jong-hyun, who entered the conference room after the call, sighed and said.

“Her name is Yoo Jong-eun, a 17-year-old girl. She was absent on the 8th, and she came back on the 10th, I guess.”

“Then, that Jong-eun child must have been lying in the operating room. Since Choi Jae-hoon refused the surgery, they just sent her back as is.”

“No, then that means these bastards were just trying to kill the child for testing purposes without any reason.”

Watching Jo Bong-joon, who was indignant, I also sighed.

Now I’m just speechless at Woo-shin’s atrocities.

Of course, I thought they were capable of it.

Aren’t they the ones who take human lives lightly?

But still, I thought they wouldn’t commit meaningless murder in order to maximize profits and reduce risks.

I thought I had seen the bottom, but there was a basement underneath.

“Well, maybe Jong-eun was really sick and they took her to the hospital and thought they’d try to see her for testing purposes. We can’t know that… Anyway, it’s a relief. That means there are no other groups that those guys consider spare organs yet.”

“I think so. Seeing that they took such a risk while knowing that they are being monitored periodically.”

“Do you remember that child So-eun that I mentioned before?”

Of course, I remember, as she was the child Choi Jong-hyun was most concerned about.

I was very surprised to hear that she was being sent to Japan even though she was a toddler who hadn’t even entered elementary school.

“Knowing that I care about So-eun, the president there gave me the contact information of a student in the early childhood education department who volunteers. The student keeps telling me that So-eun is doing well every time she goes to volunteer, but I keep feeling uneasy.”

“You said that she didn’t show any particularly outstanding talent, right?”

“Yeah. The student says she still seems like an ordinary baby. If they were going to send even such a child to study abroad, it must mean that there was definitely a young ‘customer’ at that time.”

“That’s right. Since the organ size is small, the number of patients who can be transplanted is limited…”

“But a lot of time has passed since then. They must have been trying to send So-eun because she needed a transplant at that time, but how long can they wait? But they didn’t send another child…”

“Maybe another donor came forward locally and they already had the surgery.”

If that’s the case, we can assume that the child So-eun has survived for now, but we can’t be completely relieved because it may have been postponed due to the attention focused on the Angel House.

“I care about So-eun, and since she’s such a baby, I keep worrying about her. I don’t know when those bastards will take the child. In fact, if they take her and then say that the child has gone missing, there’s no way for us to save So-eun at this stage except to storm Okashima Hospital. Detective Heo can’t do anything personally, and we can’t mobilize the Japanese police.”

That’s right.

We cannot prevent the children of Angel House from going to Japan.

We can only catch it quickly after it has already happened.

“That’s right…”

At that time, Kim Mi-ja’s face came to my mind.

Kim Mi-ja clearly said she would help us then.

Isn’t she the only one who can directly grasp their situation as much as she does?

“There may be a way.”