You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 500

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 500

#500

Everything happened in an instant.

Tae-shik cranked the steering wheel as much as possible, abruptly turning the car. Swept away by the speed, I gripped the handle tightly as my body leaned to one side.

The situation outside, glimpsed for a moment as the car turned, was terrifying.

As if they were truly aiming for us, a dump truck was rushing straight toward us, ignoring the lane markings.

I wanted to keep an eye on the truck’s position, but my vision was shaky because my body was being tossed around violently.

That’s when it happened.

Baaang!

Koo-oong!

At the same time as the deafening horn of a huge vehicle—a dump truck—I heard the sickening sound of heavy metal colliding.

Screeeech!

The sound of tires screeching against the asphalt tore at my eardrums, and I slowly opened my eyes.

With a crash like that, the car should have been overturned, or at least forced off the road.

But I felt no impact, no pain.

“What is it…?”

Tae-shik muttered in confusion and stopped the car. I, in a similar daze, looked around.

Clearly, that sound was the sound of a collision.

Unable to immediately determine the dump truck’s location, I hurriedly got out of the car and scanned the intersection.

After a moment of bewilderment, I spotted a dump truck and an SUV, both overturned and stopped at odd angles in the middle of the intersection.

Judging by their positions and the damage to each vehicle, it looked like the SUV had slammed into the dump truck, causing the dump truck driver to swerve and lose control.

The SUV appeared to have charged head-on into the dump truck, and then careened a short distance further before finally stopping.

Even from where I stood, debris littered the road.

I couldn’t tell for sure because the dump truck was on its side, but the SUV looked like it had sustained significant damage.

It was a relief it hadn’t completely flipped, but who was driving that SUV?

Could it be that an innocent bystander had inadvertently crossed the path of the dump truck that was targeting me and gotten into an accident?

…But that car looks awfully familiar.

“Shit, isn’t that your car, Attorney?! The license plate looks like yours!”

Tae-shik shouted, already sprinting toward the center of the intersection.

My car?

Why was my car there?

I rode here in Kang Min-jae’s car today.

Ah, Kang Min-jae must have taken my car.

Then…

Then is Kang Min-jae in that car?

“Shit, Attorney! Hurry up and get over here!”

Tae-shik, who had reached the accident site, turned and yelled at me.

Only then did I realize I was frozen in place, blankly staring at the scene.

The chaotic thoughts swirling in my head suddenly coalesced into a single, terrifying conclusion, summarized in one sentence.

Kang Min-jae is in that car.

I sprinted toward the wreckage.

“Shit, shit, what the hell? What the hell is going on!”

Tae-shik plunged into the middle of the accident scene and frantically yanked at the crushed driver’s side door of the SUV.

From my vantage point, I couldn’t see who was inside, but Tae-shik’s face was contorted with worry.

Tae-shik struggled with the door for a moment, then looked around in desperation.

He grabbed a large rock from the sidewalk, smashed the rear window, reached inside to unlock the door, and climbed in.

“Kang, Kang, hang in there! Kang!”

Just then, I arrived at the car.

The passenger seat was mangled, making it impossible to open the door. I stood in front of the open rear door, gasping for breath.

“Ah, Kang! Don’t joke around, seriously. Ah! Shit, what is it! Get up!”

Tae-shik reached out from the back seat and shook Kang Min-jae, who was slumped against the deployed airbag, like a rag doll.

“…”

Blood trickled from Kang Min-jae’s head as he was jostled.

I tapped Tae-shik on the shoulder.

I was worried that his panic might be doing more harm than good, so I tried to pull him away from Kang Min-jae.

“Get out and call 119 [the emergency services number in South Korea] and the police. Check on the dump truck driver, too. If you have time, call the others and tell them to head to the Munyeok Health Center. If Son Jeong-min is there, contact him; if not, search the area. I’ll check on Kang.”

As I ran to the scene, I had decided to check on the dump truck driver, whose vehicle had landed on its side, pinning the driver inside.

Perhaps that was why I hadn’t seen him try to escape.

Even if he had fled while we were distracted, we could still catch him if we acted quickly.

Tae-shik scrambled out through the opposite rear door, and I climbed into the back seat to assess Kang Min-jae’s condition, starting with his breathing.

Thankfully, he was still breathing.

Next, I checked for other injuries.

I needed to determine if there were any other wounds besides the head wound.

I gently touched Kang Min-jae’s body. His hands were cold and trembling.

I clenched my fist tightly, then released it.

There was no obvious bleeding elsewhere, and I didn’t detect any deformities.

“Ugh, Attorney…”

While I was frantically searching for injuries, I heard Kang Min-jae’s voice.

My heart leaped into my throat, and I slowly looked up at his face.

“Ugh… Are you okay…?”

“…You’re not okay. You’re hurt, Kang. Don’t try to talk.”

“No… Ugh, are you okay, Attorney…?”

I was speechless at his weak muttering.

Was this really the time for him to be worrying about others?

Who was supposed to be looking after whom?

“I called 119. They’ll be here soon. It doesn’t look like you’re badly hurt, but you’re definitely injured. You might have internal injuries. Don’t move too much, or you could make things worse.”

“Ha, that’s a relief…”

“What’s a relief?”

“Because you, ugh, look okay, Attorney…”

Crazy bastard.

I didn’t respond to Kang Min-jae’s words.

I just kept my eyes fixed on him and rummaged through the console.

I kept an emergency car hammer in there, just in case.

It had a cutter attached to the end for slicing through seatbelts.

The seatbelt buckle didn’t appear to be broken, but I thought it would be safer to cut the belt to avoid causing further injury while trying to release him.

I was trying to figure out where to cut the belt without hurting him when Kang Min-jae, who had been silent, spoke again.

“Attorney…”

“I told you not to talk.”

“I’m, ugh, tired… I’m just going to sleep for a bit… So, don’t worry…”

And with that, Kang Min-jae closed his eyes and slumped against the airbag.

What nonsense was he spouting about being tired and wanting to sleep?

He was clearly trying to downplay the seriousness of his condition with his rambling.

“No, don’t sleep. Kang. Kang!”

I instinctively reached out to shake him, but I stopped myself, fearing that shaking him might cause brain damage.

But no matter how much I called his name, he didn’t respond.

I checked his breathing again with my cold hands.

Fortunately, he was still breathing…

“Attorney!”

I heard Tae-shik’s voice nearby.

“What happened? What about the dump truck driver?”

“The ambulance has been called and is on its way. The dump truck driver doesn’t seem to have any serious injuries and appears to be mentally sound, but he’s pretending to be unconscious. I’ve contacted the others, and they’re almost here. One of our guys is already guarding the dump truck, and the others have been sent to the health center.”

Looking toward the dump truck, I saw a car parked nearby.

Hyung-jin was standing in front of the dump truck, taking pictures of the accident scene.

“How’s Kang? Is he okay?”

“He regained consciousness for a moment, but he seems to have passed out again. Right now, the only visible injury is the bleeding from his head, but I don’t know about other injuries. He’ll need to be examined at the hospital, but he was talking and coherent for a while, so it doesn’t seem like there’s a major problem…”

“Attorney. Calm down.”

I didn’t know who had been telling whom to calm down since earlier.

Wasn’t it Tae-shik who had been shaking Kang Min-jae like a madman and shouting at him to wake up?

“Your voice is trembling.”

“You calm down. When is 119 coming?”

“Seriously, can’t you hear the siren?”

I listened for a moment, and I could hear the faint wail of an ambulance siren in the distance.

I let out a hollow laugh.

It wasn’t a loud sound, but how could I have missed it?

I wanted to pretend I was okay, but the truth was that I was far from calm.

I knew my voice was trembling because Tae-shik had pointed it out, but weren’t my hands sweating and shaking, too?

How could I not be?

Kang Min-jae could be seriously injured.

As someone with no medical training, I couldn’t help but imagine the possibility of a hidden, life-threatening injury.

And if that were the case, Kang Min-jae, who had lived a relatively peaceful life, might suddenly have a variable, a ticking time bomb, introduced into his life, ruining everything.

I had already sent Kang Kwan-woong away [presumably to prison or another location].

If something happened to Kang Min-jae, I wasn’t sure I could bear the guilt.

He’d been with me since the beginning of this new life, and if it wasn’t for me…

“Why did Kang get into an accident here? The dump truck was clearly heading straight for us.”

“From what I saw, Kang’s car was speeding like crazy from that direction. He must have been going over 100 km/h [approximately 62 mph]. I didn’t get a good look because I was focused on turning the steering wheel…”

When I hadn’t realized that the car was mine, I had assumed that someone had been crossing the intersection and had been hit by the dump truck, which was ignoring the traffic lanes.

If he was going over 100 km/h here, that was more than just speeding.

So, did Kang Min-jae see the dump truck bearing down on my car and deliberately intercept it?

To prevent it from hitting me?

“Isn’t he crazy? How could he even think about taking on a dump truck without considering the consequences?”

Tae-shik, as if reading my mind, stared at Kang Min-jae, who was slumped unconscious, with a look of disbelief.

“What if something terrible had happened? I knew he was crazy, but he’s really crazy, Kang, really…”

Tae-shik muttered, his voice thick with emotion.

“Are you the reporter?!”

A paramedic leaned into the open back door and asked.

I scrambled out of the car and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Yes. And I’m his guardian. He was in an accident with a dump truck, and he’s bleeding from his head. I haven’t been able to determine the source of the bleeding. Other than that, there are no obvious external injuries, but I think he’ll need a thorough examination.”

The paramedic climbed into the car, opened the locked driver’s side door, retrieved a stretcher from the ambulance, and positioned it in front of the SUV.

The paramedic seemed to be searching for a cutter in his pocket, so I handed him the one I was holding. He immediately cut the seatbelt and carefully transferred Kang Min-jae onto the stretcher.

While they were moving him, I grabbed the SD card from the car’s black box [dashcam] and slipped it into my pocket.

The police would ask for it anyway, but I wanted to secure the footage first.

“Guardian, get in!”

As soon as I was out of the car, the paramedic gestured from inside the ambulance.

“I’m going in the ambulance, so you and Hyung-jin follow in my car. The others are at the Munyeok Health Center, so leave it to them to check on Son Jeong-min. Come to the hospital, you stick with me, and Hyung-jin keeps an eye on that dump truck driver to make sure he doesn’t run.”

“Yes.”

Tae-shik and Hyung-jin confirmed that the dump truck driver was also being loaded into an ambulance and ran to my car, which was parked nearby.

“Let’s go.”

As soon as I got in, the ambulance doors slammed shut, and the paramedic began to assess Kang Min-jae’s injuries, who was lying motionless on the stretcher, and started applying pressure to his wounds.

Listening to the paramedic’s report to the emergency room about Kang Min-jae’s condition, I stared blankly at him.

He’ll be okay.

He has to be okay. That’s why he asked me if I was okay.

Who would worry about others if they weren’t okay themselves?

He will be okay.

…Probably, he will be.