You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 491

You Have Been Defended – Episode 491

#491

I checked the schedule that Heo Min-woo had sent me.

It seemed like a time when he would be sleeping, but since the situation had turned out this way, I thought I should proceed with things as quickly as possible, so I called without hesitation.

─ Ah, yes. Attorney Cha.

I expected a voice that had just woken up, but Heo Min-woo’s voice was very clear without any signs of that.

“Weren’t you sleeping? According to the schedule, it seemed like you were on night duty.”

─ I was sleeping, but I got a notification from my email inbox.

“Did you set up email notifications?”

─ I thought that the emails would contain important information, so I set up a separate sound notification to check them as they come. I haven’t listened to the audio file yet, and I only read the script separately, but I was already thinking about contacting you. I was worried that you might be in quite a bit of danger.

“I’ll be careful about that, so don’t worry. Oh, since you’ve seen the email, I’d like to ask you for a favor. Can you check Choi Jae-hoon’s whereabouts from the evening of the 8th to the morning of the 9th?”

Even as I said this, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the fact that I could check not only call lists, but also GPS, black boxes, and even public CCTV [Closed-circuit television, a video surveillance system].

How much had we struggled until now to obtain information that we didn’t have the authority to access?

Now, I can solve it with just one phone call.

Only for a brief moment, I even thought that I should have recruited Heo Min-woo sooner.

─ Hmm, I’ll check the GPS first. Was there anything suspicious at that time?

“Didn’t you see my diary from the 9th after you talked to me then?”

─ Actually, I was curious as to why you were trying to specify that date, so I looked right away. It seemed like Lim Hyun-il had ordered Choi Jae-hoon to perform organ harvesting surgery that day. But I already knew that, and I thought you had seen it too, so I kept quiet.

“Yes. But I didn’t think Wooshin Hospital would have ordered such a surgery, so I’m trying to find out where Lim Hyun-il called Choi Jae-hoon out to. If that place also has facilities, they might be committing crimes domestically as well.”

─ Hmm, but isn’t the reason they’re doing it in Japan because they can’t perform organ harvesting domestically? Besides, if there were such facilities in Korea, Go Yoon-sung and Kim Chan-young wouldn’t have needed to go all the way to Okashima Hospital. Just looking at the audio file Kim Mi-ja sent, it feels like they’ll be operating in Japan.

“Well, that’s true, and for various reasons, I think the same as Inspector Heo, but you never know. They might have built one recently to meet domestic demand, and if so, it would be easier for us to gather evidence.”

─ I’ll check it out first. But if they took him to such a place, they would have been especially careful.

“That’s why I’m saying, if the GPS doesn’t work, I’d like you to check the public CCTV.”

With public CCTV, we can check where Choi Jae-hoon’s vehicle moved from and to, and even if it’s not Choi Jae-hoon’s vehicle, we can find out if there are any other suspicious circumstances.

Even if we can’t see right in front of that facility, isn’t it beneficial if we can at least know roughly what area it’s in?

─ Attorney Cha.

“Yes.”

─ Be honest with me.

“What should I be honest about?”

─ Weren’t you against me joining, honestly?

Is he still upset about that?

He seems to hold a grudge longer than I thought.

“I was.”

─ Can I ask why?

“It was for Inspector Heo’s safety.”

─ Then what about you and the others?

“We’re thinking that it’s okay if we die doing this, but Inspector Heo might be a different matter.”

─ Even so, I kept subtly appealing, but you ignored me.

“That’s…….”

The previous life and now are taking on different developments.

People who died or were in danger in the previous life are now safe, and conversely, people who were safe in the previous life have died.

I feel responsible for not protecting Kang Kwan-woong, who should have lived longer according to the previous life, and I’m concerned that Kang Min-jae seems to have been greatly hurt by it.

That’s why I hope that at least the people who died in the previous life will survive safely in this life.

I felt the same way about Heo Min-woo.

But I can’t talk about the previous life, and after realizing that my worrying about their danger and trying to exclude them from work could be perceived as unpleasant, I decided to refrain from it as much as possible.

─ Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ve accepted me now.

“What’s there for me to accept or not?”

─ That’s why I was wondering why you accepted me.

“Didn’t you threaten me with something I wanted to get my hands on?”

─ Let’s be honest. Public CCTV, GPS, background checks. You used to do these things comfortably when you were a prosecutor, but now you can’t, so you were frustrated, right?

“…….”

─ But now you can do it, so you’re happy, right?

It’s an undeniable fact.

But for some reason, I don’t want to say that’s the case.

“Then check it out and contact me.”

─ You’re happy, aren’t you?

“I’d like to receive it as quickly as possible.”

─ You need me, after all.

“……Why do we have to have such useless conversations?”

─ It’s just that I’m not the type to not be recognized wherever I go, but I feel like I’m not being recognized only by you. I need to get some recognition.

“Haa…….”

Kang Min-jae is enough to be desperate to be recognized by me.

No, it’s beyond enough and overwhelming.

─ Hurry up and admit it.

“I’ll hang up now.”

I hung up before Heo Min-woo could say anything nonsense.

He wasn’t like this in the previous life.

I’ve had countless experiences where unexpected variables have intervened and changed the previous life and this life, but I don’t know why Heo Min-woo is like this.

* * *

“……I was wondering what happened to Attorney Cha these days, but he’s been doing a lot.”

I met Park Young-gi at his home.

Anyway, Wooshin knows that I’m close to Park Young-gi, and I even took on the case when Park Young-gi’s eldest son was falsely accused by Wooshin, so I didn’t bother meeting him secretly.

Rather, if I desperately avoided contacting Park Young-gi, they might think it’s suspicious.

It was also the first time I had seen him since Kang Kwan-woong’s death, so I thought I would visit him appropriately to say hello.

To this end, I even bought a large fruit basket.

“Looking at the data Attorney Cha sent me, I’m really ashamed as someone who is in the prosecution. Such absurd things are happening, but the investigative agencies aren’t even properly aware of it, and it’s being investigated by Attorney Cha, who is a lawyer. Does that make sense?”

Park Young-gi took off his glasses and placed them on the side table, then tightly closed his eyes.

“Ah, I didn’t mean that it doesn’t make sense for Attorney Cha to investigate. I mean that we should have done it so that Attorney Cha wouldn’t have to step in in the first place.”

“I know what you mean.”

“How could this……. Yes, I remember the late teacher vaguely mentioning the comfort women case in the past. But I never thought it would have continued until now, and moreover, I didn’t even imagine they would be doing organ trafficking, really……. Go Sang-joon, who managed his image by donating private funds to the House of Angels, would have used those children in such a way.”

“Moreover, the cartel formed by Go Sang-joon is not limited to Japan. Although I haven’t identified the exact list yet, there have been reports that people who are influential in Korea also frequent it. I will try to secure that list as quickly as possible.”

“……I feel like I’ve put too heavy a burden on Attorney Cha and Attorney Kang. The seniors couldn’t eradicate it, so the juniors are suffering like this. ‘Tteokgeom’ [Prosecutors who receive bribes] or ‘Sexgeom’ [Prosecutors who receive sexual favors]. Why would such words have arisen? The current prosecution has lost its ability to self-correct. Wooshin scholarship students are holding the prosecution in their hands, so they don’t notice that these things are happening. No, maybe they noticed but instead of investigating it, they might have become part of that cartel.”

A terrible bitterness could be read in the eyes of Park Young-gi, who had spent his entire life in the organization called the prosecution.

The reason why he lived the life of a scholar far from power in the previous life may have been to escape from being tired of being angry at things that could not be changed realistically.

However, in this life, as I came into contact with Kang Kwan-woong, he received a request from Kang Kwan-woong to help me and Kang Min-jae, and he readily accepted that role.

For him, the universe of the previous life does not exist, but this time he has chosen a different option from then.

“Isn’t it funny? Think about the cases I’ve handled in Jeongdo so far. I’m not trying to lump lawyers together as a group that chases money, but doesn’t it feel like the roles have been reversed? The prosecution is desperately trying to cover up Wooshin’s flaws, and you lawyers are trying to make sure those guys are properly punished. No matter how much the roles are reversed, there should be a limit.”

Park Young-gi repeatedly sighed.

Perhaps he has seized the opportunity to resolve the desires he had suppressed himself in this life.

That’s why I was able to ask him for help with an even thicker face [without shame].

He is one of the few seniors in the legal profession that I can trust, and it seems like he has a sense of duty to lead his juniors to live the life of a righteous lawyer.

“The reason I left the prosecution and became a lawyer is no different from what Chief Prosecutor Park intended. I can’t achieve anything within the prosecution. There are prosecutors with strong convictions, but there is no foundation for them to achieve their goals.”

“You’re thinking of a special investigation?”

“That’s right.”

I was able to create a Wooshin special investigation bill in the previous life, but I couldn’t become a special prosecutor.

That’s because I was a prosecutor.

However, as a dispatched prosecutor, I was assigned to the special investigation team and took charge of the investigation, but because Jo Moon-young, who was the special prosecutor, was a so-called after-payment ‘Tteokgeom’, things went awry while the special investigation was in progress.

Eventually, I was even excluded from the special investigation team, so haven’t I said it all?

“Then there will be a lot to prepare.”

Typically, the special prosecutor system is a system introduced to fairly investigate the irregularities of high-ranking public officials who may affect the investigation.

Therefore, for a special investigation to begin, as I told Park Young-gi, I must secure who the domestic high-ranking public officials who received sexual favors from Wooshin or illegally requested organ transplants are.

In this respect, it is true that preparations are not yet complete.

But if I catch just one domestic high-ranking public official who received sexual favors from Wooshin, wouldn’t it be obvious that they would all come along?

Now that I’ve even attached a wiretapping device, it won’t be difficult to catch them.

“I’m trying.”

In order to conduct a special investigation, a special investigation bill must first be passed in the National Assembly, and then the Korean Bar Association, which has the right to recommend a special prosecutor, must nominate candidates, and the President must appoint one of them as a special prosecutor.

The National Assembly will inevitably move if public opinion is heated, and since the Liberty Justice Party won a landslide victory against the Minwoo Party in the last general election and occupied a majority of seats, I don’t think there will be a big problem until the special investigation bill is introduced.

In the first place, if public opinion is heated, the opposition party will not be able to just oppose it.

They will try to cut off the tail quickly.

Just like the Minwoo Party did when Lee Jung-chan’s irregularities were revealed in the past.

Of course, in order to make that happen, a lot of effort will be needed to carry out an effective public opinion campaign.

Anyway, apart from all that, the most important thing is after the special investigation bill is introduced and passed in the National Assembly.

The picture I had drawn since I started this life was that I would be appointed as a special prosecutor.

In order to receive the recommendation of the Korean Bar Association, the image and achievements as a lawyer were important, and I think I have sufficiently achieved those conditions.

To some extent, a few drops of muddy water splashed, but there is nothing lacking.

But to get proper push from the Korean Bar Association, I need someone to put in a word to the president of the association.

That was Park Young-gi.

“How long do you think the preparation period will take? 1 year……. 1 year and a half at the longest. Will it be done within that time?”

“Is the term of the president of the Korean Bar Association 1 year and a half left?”

“Yes. Of course, the President has a good relationship with the Minister of Justice, so he can put some pressure on the Korean Bar Association through the Minister of Justice to some extent, but still, I don’t know who will be the next president, so it’s better to push together when someone I know well is in office.”

As Park Young-gi said, now is the best timing.

It can increase the possibility that the president of the Korean Bar Association will recommend me, and since Lee Se-hwa is in office, it will not be difficult to be appointed if I am only nominated.

From Lee Se-hwa’s point of view, there is no reason to refuse to overturn Wooshin.

Of course, if that happens, some of the Liberty Justice Party members who received money from Wooshin will be swept away, but wouldn’t it be better than the Minwoo Party?

Lee Jung-chan, who was the spiritual leader of the Minwoo Party, was on brotherly terms with Go Sang-joon.

I don’t know what she will do in the future, but the Wooshin special investigation will be remembered as one of her top achievements even after she retires.

“Will the President be okay?”

“I’ll check his intentions either by meeting him directly or by some other method, so don’t worry. Let’s talk about whether the time is too tight first.”

“From legislation to special prosecutor recommendation, it won’t take longer than 2 weeks, will it? 1 year is enough. Now that the wind is blowing, we must unfurl the sails [take action]. The preparations are not perfect, but many things have been prepared.”

“Good.”

“However, the fact that I have a short legal career is a bit of a concern for me to be recommended as a special prosecutor.”

“That kind of problem will hold you back. There will also be talk that they don’t want to investigate under a special prosecutor who is a lower classman [junior]. But they need to know that missing something important because they’re counting classes is a more foolish thing to do.”

Park Young-gi fiddled with the wooden armrest and pondered for a moment.

Even when I designed this life, I didn’t think the timing would come so quickly, so I didn’t even consider this problem in being appointed as a special prosecutor.

That’s because I had already built up enough legal experience in 2018, when the Wooshin special investigation was conducted in the previous life.

“You’ll hear a lot of harsh words, and you might be treated as a traitor by guys who stick out their bellies as seniors. But if Attorney Cha can endure all of that, I’ll help as much as I can.”

From the day I first went to work at the prosecutor’s office, there was constant slander about me.

When I left the prosecution and took on Kim Yeon-joon’s case, I was told by lawyers that I had shot my own family from the first case without professional ethics.

Is that all?

Every move I made was a thorn in their side.

Being treated as a traitor by them is nothing.

Because I didn’t treat those groups as seniors, juniors, or colleagues, I don’t even feel a sense of impact.

“Thank you, Chief Prosecutor.”

I got up from my seat and bowed deeply.