You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 529

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 529

It’s already been 20 days since we started monitoring the truck driver who hit Kang Min-jae.

“Ugh, when are the cops going to arrest that bastard?”

Ho-young whispered to Woo-cheol, who was lying next to him.

“Don’t know.”

Woo-cheol whispered back.

Even though they were in a room, they had to whisper to each other.

It made their throats hurt and constantly dry, but they had no choice.

The soundproofing in this inn was so terrible that you could hear someone farting in the next room.

Unless they spoke with 100% air and 0% sound, the guy would know what they were talking about, just like they were eavesdropping on the truck driver.

What was it, one of my friends who was good at studying once said something like this.

If I stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at me.

Is this the kind of situation he was talking about?

Seems about right.

Or not.

“Hyung-nim [term of respect for an older male] Tae-shik said that if that bastard keeps refusing the police investigation, he’ll be arrested.”

“Yeah, but when is ‘keeps’? Ugh, I want a drink. I haven’t had alcohol for 20 days, and my hands are shaking. Something has to happen, whether that bastard gets arrested or whatever.”

Tae-shik had assigned a team of five to monitor the truck driver, and they had been staying in Munyeok ever since.

Initially, it was a team dispatched with Dae-cheol as the leader, but when Dae-cheol was assigned important work, Ho-young filled the vacancy.

I didn’t know back then.

Since we were taking turns monitoring, I thought I could have a can of beer.

“Think of this as an opportunity to get your liver back to newborn status.”

Woo-cheol, watching Ho-young exaggerate his hand tremors, offered some words of comfort.

Woo-cheol took over this team when Dae-cheol left, and he and Ho-young joined the company at the same time.

“Don’t you want a drink?”

“Are you an alcoholic? Just hold on.”

“That’s what I’m doing, you son of a bitch.”

The team’s work was divided into two parts: one was to monitor the inn’s entrance and the window near the driver’s room, and the other was to eavesdrop on the driver’s phone calls from this room.

If an emergency occurred, they had to chase after the driver in a car, so they couldn’t drink at all.

“Doesn’t that bastard get bored? How can he not leave the room?”

During the 20 days of staying here, the driver had only gone out three times.

Each time, he bought a carton of cigarettes, a considerable amount of alcohol, and some simple food from a nearby supermarket.

He seemed to eat delivery food or ramen for meals.

The sound of metal briefcases was frequently heard from beyond the door, and when the sound of metal briefcases wasn’t heard, slurping sounds were quite often heard from beyond the wall, so they could tell.

“The guys who hired that bastard must be something else, too.”

Ho-young clicked his tongue.

Meanwhile, Woo-cheol, exhausted from sitting in the car all night monitoring the inn’s entrance, had fallen asleep, but Ho-young didn’t know because he was lying with his back turned.

“I heard they were going to pay him even if the job failed. Aren’t they just thugs?”

“……”

“Changing their tune after saying they’d take care of everything, even third-rate gangsters don’t do that these days.”

The driver had been calling quite often until last week.

Sometimes he used the speakerphone, so if they were lucky, they could hear the other person’s voice too.

The other party, the one who instigated him to run over Cha Joo-han with a car, was quite brazen.

The failure fee was supposed to be for failing to kill Cha Joo-han, but the driver had instead hit the former president’s grandson, which caused an unforeseen problem.

Because of this, the case had become complicated, and they would have to see how the compensation would be handled.

“It’s obvious those bastards are going to kill the driver after dragging their feet like that… That driver is so dumb, so dumb.”

According to the information Cha Joo-han had obtained, Wooshin was going to send someone to take the driver to Japan soon.

Then the Japanese would take care of the driver.

Tae-shik said that if a warrant was issued, he would be banned from leaving the country, so he would definitely try to secure the driver’s custody before that happened, and he told them not to let their guard down.

Of course, the words probably didn’t come from Tae-shik’s head.

I think he just relayed the story he heard from Cha Joo-han.

I respect Tae-shik, but Tae-shik isn’t someone who knows those legal procedures well.

Oh, or is he?

He also had a time when he was on the run with a warrant out for his arrest, so maybe he knows it well.

“A warrant needs to be issued before those Wooshin bastards take that bastard away.”

“……”

Tae-shik said that if a warrant was issued before Wooshin took the driver, they could immediately report the driver’s location to the police, confirm his arrest, and then withdraw.

In fact, when they eavesdropped on the conversation, the driver was also worried that the police would try to arrest him.

Occasionally, when a different ringtone rang and he answered the phone, he seemed to be talking to his family, and then he would just repeat like a parrot, ‘Ignore any documents that come to the house,’ ‘Say you don’t know where I am,’ ‘There are circumstances, so just wait.’

Judging from this, the police are continuously sending summons to the driver’s registered address and asking his family about his whereabouts.

“Dae-cheol hyung-nim said that Director Kang is still talking to the police, so we’ll get news when the warrant is issued…”

Of course, I would do anything for Tae-shik hyung-nim, who has been feeding and housing me, but I can’t help but want to go back to Seoul soon.

“What are you muttering about by yourself…”

Eventually, Woo-cheol, tired of Ho-young’s monologue (unfortunately, Ho-young thought he was having a conversation), opened his eyes and looked back at him.

“What. Were you sleeping?”

“I couldn’t sleep because you were muttering so much. Do you want to die?”

“Ugh, that bastard needs to be arrested quickly so we can finish this job safely.”

“Before he gets arrested, those guys will try to take him out first. It’s obvious.”

“But why is he still holed up in that room? Shouldn’t they contact that driver and tell him where to meet, or come barging in here?”

“I heard the guys who hired that driver are yakuzas [Japanese organized crime]. But since the job failed and the situation got weird, the Wooshin guys decided to transport him to Japan. Then the yakuzas will kill him in Japan, right?”

“Right.”

“So, it’s not the guy who hired him, but the Wooshin guys who have to drag him away, so it must be taking time to coordinate that…”

Ziiiiing!

Woo-cheol hadn’t even finished speaking.

The vibration rang from the next room.

Woo-cheol quickly moved next to Ho-young and put his ear to the wall.

─Why aren’t you answering your phone?

The driver’s annoyed voice was heard.

Was this why he had only been cursing to himself for the past few days and hadn’t made any calls?

─Overseas? Then when can you come back? If you keep not showing up and then run overseas, it’s a done deal, you idiot. Then I might never be able to set foot in Korea again, what about my wife and kids! If you just give me the money, I’ll just say it was drowsy driving, pay the settlement to them, pay the fine, and if I have to, I’ll just live in jail for a while! Why are you making a simple thing so complicated? Huh?

The driver’s voice rose.

I don’t know what the other person is saying, but the driver doesn’t seem to like it.

The sound of heavy breathing could be heard from beyond the wall.

─No, I’m not going overseas! If I go overseas, the situation will get even worse, why would I go? It was 300 million if I succeeded anyway, and 200 million even if I didn’t kill him. So give me 200 million. Then I’ll get insurance to compensate them, pay the fine, and live in jail! Damn it, just make sure I don’t get charged with attempted murder. The insurance includes lawyer fees anyway, so I’ll talk to the lawyer and just get charged with negligent injury…

I can’t understand it, but the other person seems to be cutting off the driver’s words and saying something else.

─No, I’ll shut my mouth! If you don’t trust me that much, then the former president’s grandson can hire an expensive lawyer, whatever, you can hire a lawyer too. You remember that if I kill that lawyer, you’ll attach Tae-kwang to me, right? It’s a wash. If you’re worried about me opening my mouth, attach Tae-kwang to me. No, you can’t deduct the lawyer fees from the money you’re giving me, you idiot.

Apparently, they also said that if the driver succeeded in killing Cha Joo-han, they would use a Tae-kwang lawyer to reduce his sentence as much as possible.

On top of that, they would give him an additional 300 million.

Then the driver would pay off his gambling debts, live moderately, and then come out, so he must have judged that it was a profitable deal.

─You idiot. Do you even know who’s at a disadvantage right now? If I say that I ran him over because of your instigation, you’re screwed too, right? Why are you acting like you’re the boss, huh? Do you think I don’t know who’s behind you? You say there’s no one? No way, bullshit. Who else would it be. Damn it, the person you told me to kill, that’s the lawyer who was falsely accused of being Lee Jung-chan’s murderer. I saw it all at the scene, but you’re pretending you don’t know. Wasn’t it Chief Secretary Go Yoon-soo who told the criminals to kill Lee Jung-chan back then? It was all over the news, damn it, I’m just pretending I don’t know, so you think I’m a real idiot?

The driver fired back without stopping.

─Do you think people are stupid? Who thinks that the chief secretary did that alone? The chief secretary took the blame for what Go Yoon-soo told him to do. Everyone knows! So it’s obvious who’s going to pay for that lawyer bastard to be killed. It’s Wooshin, isn’t it? Wooshin is behind you, right? So you’re making this fuss because you’re afraid I’m going to tell everything…

Yes, damn it, you have so much money, why are you dragging this out over a few hundred million won! Should I take it to the police and tell them everything? Do you want to die together? I’ve recorded all my calls with you.

The driver had never spoken so aggressively to the other party before.

Let alone mentioning Wooshin, he had been busy coaxing and appeasing the other party with words like, ‘How long do I have to hide?’, ‘I understand you have a lot of concerns, so let’s settle this quickly and make each other feel comfortable.’

Not long after the accident, and the person he hit happened to be the former president’s grandson, so he must have been scared.

But after dragging it out for three weeks, the driver seems to have gotten angry and decided to go hard.

─Damn it, now you’re talking. You should have done this from the start… So I understand that you’re giving me 200 million in cash and attaching a Tae-kwang lawyer? Yes? If you change your mind later, I’m really going to turn myself in. Yes. …That’s right, I can’t receive it by bank transfer.

It seems that an agreement has been reached to attach a Tae-kwang lawyer to reduce the driver’s sentence to the maximum extent and give him 200 million.

─Munyeok, there’s a place called Bangjin Market. Samil Inn Room 109 near the entrance. What time? 1 o’clock? Dawn or daytime. Dawn? This coming dawn, or the dawn after tomorrow night? …No, I know that the date changes after 12 o’clock, but I’m asking just in case.

1 a.m. this coming dawn.

It seems that they are coming here with the money.

─Okay. Bring a money counter because I have to count the money. It’s not counterfeit money, is it? …No, I want to believe you too. But you’ve been dragging your feet and haven’t contacted me for a week, how can I not worry? Alright. Yes. Then contact me when you leave. I’ll pack my bags.

And the phone hung up.

─Ugh, you bastards, you should have done this from the start. You have to be tough to get them to understand. Who do you think you’re fooling.

The driver muttered to himself and suddenly started humming.

“Did you record it?”

Woo-cheol, who had been quiet, whispered to Ho-young.

Ho-young showed Woo-cheol the screen of his phone, which was recording.

“Send it to hyung-nim quickly. It looks like those bastards are coming at 1 a.m. sharp.”

“But if those bastards reach a good agreement, won’t that be bad? That bastard will just be released.”

“…Are you brainless?”

Woo-cheol looked at Ho-young with a contemptuous expression.

When Ho-young blinked, Woo-cheol snatched the phone from him and sent the recording to Tae-shik, saying.

“They’re trying to appease that driver and then kidnap him after they meet. Wooshin’s name came up, if they were scared just because he spoke a little strongly, they wouldn’t have dragged it out like this if they were going to do everything that bastard asked for! We need to ask hyung-nim to send the guys.”