You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 534

“This way.”

Following the Chief Secretary’s guidance, Kim Chanyoung walked down a hallway endlessly lined with carpet.

It hadn’t been long since he met with Cha Juhan, and now he was being summoned, so Kim Chanyoung couldn’t afford to relax.

Moreover, when meeting Go Sangjun, they usually used his favorite, well-secured restaurant or the villa where Chanyoung resided, but today he was being called to a hotel suite.

The change in location from the usual was also unsettling.

It was one of Wooshin’s affiliates and, of course, one of the top luxury hotels in the country, so it wasn’t strange for Go Sangjun to choose this place, but…….

Reaching the end of the hallway, the Chief Secretary lightly rang the doorbell.

Then, he let Kim Chanyoung in.

As he entered the room, he saw Go Sangjun sitting on the sofa, pouring whiskey.

“You’ve come?”

He glanced at Kim Chanyoung, who approached and bowed, then gestured once.

“I received a good whiskey as a gift recently. You like it, don’t you? I brought it to drink with you.”

“Yes, I do. You remember.”

In fact, Kim Chanyoung didn’t like whiskey.

He had never even talked about alcohol with Go Sangjun in the first place.

Go Sangjun had suffered quite a bit because of Go Yoonseong, who was obsessed with alcohol and drugs, so he thought bringing up alcohol might lead to misunderstandings about being a drinker.

However, Go Sangjun’s assertive words might be aimed at showing that he was paying attention to Kim Chanyoung in his own way.

It meant that Go Sangjun valued him that much, so there was no need to correct him here.

“You’ve never talked to me about whiskey, though.”

Go Sangjun reacted surprisingly sharply.

He had been observing the whiskey spreading over the spherical ice, but now he had turned his gaze to Kim Chanyoung.

Was he perhaps trying to see if he was only saying things that Go Sangjun wanted to hear?

“I thought you had heard about my preferences. My father may not contact me often, but he always cares about me.”

“I’m grateful that you think so. I wondered if you were just telling me what I wanted to hear because you were watching my every move.”

He was giving him the eye, and then testing to see if he was being observant—what was that supposed to mean?

“It would be a lie to say I don’t pay attention. I’ve cut ties with my mother now, and you’re the only family I have left, Father. Wouldn’t I be all alone if you hated me?”

“……Right. Now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve been very considerate of your feelings. You’re more mature than your brothers, so I sometimes forget that you’re still young. You must be quite lonely too.”

“When I was at Moolsan, the manager said that even though he was over fifty, he felt like an orphan when both of his parents passed away. That reminded me. I guess it’s the same—lonely if you don’t have family, no matter how old you get.”

“So, do you regret cutting ties with your mother?”

Go Sangjun asked in a nonchalant voice.

He had an expression that seemed like he would understand even if he said yes, but he couldn’t be fooled by that act.

“No. I think it would have happened eventually anyway.”

“Really? Even if your brothers hadn’t done what they did?”

“Well……. Even if we weren’t completely estranged like now, wouldn’t there have been some distance?”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because the emptiness my mother feels can’t be filled even if I throw myself at it. But I didn’t want to throw myself away, and eventually……. Both my mother and I would have grown tired of each other.”

Instead of clenching his fist, Kim Chanyoung pressed hard on the tips of his toes hidden inside his shoes.

It was difficult to bring up not-so-good things about Kim Hwayoung to please Go Sangjun.

Kim Hwayoung had told Kim Chanyoung to use her as much as he wanted to get what he wanted, but from his position of wanting to protect her, he would rather be the one to break.

“So, you don’t contact your mother at all? You don’t hear any news?”

What should he answer?

He needed to know the intention to decide on an answer.

Did he want to confirm that Kim Chanyoung had become completely his person?

Or did he still have some lingering feelings for Kim Hwayoung?

Or was it to figure out what kind of person Kim Chanyoung was?

If it was the third, what kind of person should Kim Chanyoung appear to him?

A person who cuts off even blood relatives without mercy if they don’t meet his standards?

“I do hear news. I don’t contact my mother, but…….”

This would be the answer Go Sangjun wanted.

Even if he was a heartless person, Go Sangjun hadn’t abandoned Go Yoonseong.

Not only Go Yoonseong.

Go Yoonho and Go Yoonseok had done the things Go Sangjun hated the most, but he still looked after them, only saying he wouldn’t pay attention to them.

Go Sangjun might think of his inability to abandon his family as his own weakness.

Considering that, it might be better to appeal to Kim Chanyoung as not having such flaws.

But a ‘child who resembles me the most’ is more appealing than a perfect child.

Especially to someone who thinks highly of themselves.

“If you don’t contact her, how can you hear news? Does your uncle tell you?”

“No. ……You might think it’s strange, but I hired an American detective. To tell me what she’s doing on a regular basis.”

Go Sangjun looked at him as if he was surprised.

“Even if you’ve decided not to contact your mother, you can still ask your uncle.”

“I can’t be sure if my uncle will give me accurate information. He could talk to my mother and make something up.”

“So. What does she do?”

“Since she lives in a place with few Koreans, I think she’s just living normally without worrying about what others think. She’s also learning English.”

“I see……. Then I’d like to hear your thoughts.”

“Please, tell me.”

“Do you think your mother is still in contact with Cha Juhan?”

Kim Chanyoung smiled inwardly at Go Sangjun’s question.

Of course, he couldn’t help but be anxious.

Especially in these quiet times, like the calm before a storm, even old events would come to mind and make him uneasy.

Cha Juhan had learned about their relationship while taking on Kim Hwayoung’s case back then.

However, it was enough to know that the case was an affair to understand it, so he must be wondering how much Kim Hwayoung had told him.

Whether she had only said it was a simple affair, or whether she had told him that the affair had started due to coercive rape.

If it was the latter, then someday this might also be used as a card by Cha Juhan to strike at Go Sangjun.

“I don’t know about that. But if Cha Juhan came to America, the detective would have told me. If they were in contact, they would call separately or use a messenger.”

He had suspected that Go Sangjun might have done the same thing to Kim Hwayoung as he had done by creating a cloned phone to monitor Cha Juhan.

But that didn’t seem to be the case.

Well, no matter how capable Wooshin was, they wouldn’t be able to monitor as much as they used to once they were out of Korea.

“Is there something bothering you?”

“How much do you think your mother told Cha Juhan? Just that she was having an affair with me? Or everything?”

Go Sangjun tapped the glass with his fingertips as he asked.

Cha Juhan knew every detail of their relationship.

That Kim Hwayoung had no intention of continuing her relationship with Go Sangjun until he was born.

That Kim Hwayoung had decided to do as Go Sangjun wanted in order to protect herself and Kim Chanyoung from Yoon Seonghee.

That after living like that for over twenty years, she had eventually become obsessed with her relationship with Go Sangjun.

“I’m suspicious that Cha Juhan hasn’t blabbed about my relationship with your mother.”

“That’s why I think my mother didn’t tell Cha Juhan everything.”

Go Sangjun shifted his gaze, which had been fixed on the whiskey glass, to Kim Chanyoung.

Then Kim Chanyoung took a sip of his drink and replied.

“My mother is most afraid of the fact that Kim Hwayoung, who was a top star, became my father’s……. It might be an uncomfortable expression, but that she became his mistress. Even in the trial back then, it would have been easier if she had revealed her relationship with my father in court. But people still think of Jo Yeon-dong’s annex as my mother’s private villa.”

“……So?”

“Besides, when it was revealed that my brothers had accidentally killed the butler, there were many rumors. That my mother was my brothers’ business partner, that a lot of money had changed hands……. Those rumors weren’t exactly pleasant to hear either. In fact, my mother could have opened up about her relationship with my father and hid as a victim. But she never did.”

Now that a lot of time had passed, and she had regained her daily life by separating herself from the factors that made her anxious, she had been in a very weakened state at the time.

Immediately after the incident, she was most worried about the fact that she had been sued for the murder of the butler being revealed to the public.

Eventually, when that worry became a reality, Kim Hwayoung had the option of dragging Go Sangjun in to divert the attention focused on her.

But Kim Hwayoung didn’t do that.

Because she thought that would make the youth star Kim Hwayoung a murderer and a mistress.

He had spoken more explicitly and negatively to Go Sangjun, but it was all true.

“Then you mean she wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Yes. The only reason my mother hired Cha Juhan is because she has a bad relationship with my father. She deliberately chose Cha Juhan, who was only famous but had little experience, to show her animosity towards my father. But my mother knew it too. If Cha Juhan knew how my mother and father’s relationship started, he would use that fact to pressure my father.”

“Lawyers have a duty to maintain confidentiality. Cha Juhan is crazy, but he’s not the kind of guy who would break that and rush in. He’s trapped himself in his own sense of ethics. It would have been easier to deal with a guy who rushed in without thinking, so it’s hard to find a flaw in him.”

Go Sangjun was judging Cha Juhan more objectively than he had thought.

Well, even if Go Sangjun was an unforgivable criminal, he was the one who had grown the Wooshin Group to this point.

He wouldn’t have gotten this far if he didn’t have an eye for people.

Besides, he wanted to put Cha Juhan on the Wooshin legal team if he could only break his spirit.

That meant he recognized his abilities that much.

“That’s true, but there’s always a way to avoid it. He would have done whatever it took to get the testimony of someone else who knew how my mother and father met and blow it up.”

“He would have.”

“Anyway, for that reason, my mother wouldn’t have said anything. My mother didn’t rely on Cha Juhan. She used the animosity that Cha Juhan had towards my father.”

“Your mother uses others?”

Go Sangjun chuckled as if he was hearing all sorts of nonsense.

It wasn’t strange for him to react that way.

Kim Hwayoung was too gentle and kind to use others, and Go Sangjun knew that fact best.

“I don’t mean she used him consciously. I just mean that she instinctively recognized the person who would most diligently prove her innocence.”

“That could be.”

“It’s an old story, but may I ask why you’re suddenly concerned about it?”

He didn’t think Go Sangjun wouldn’t know anything.

That was the same with Cha Juhan.

He already knew that they were worried that Cha Juhan would continue to feel suspicious even while driving the college students out of the House of Angels.

They were maintaining security in their own way, but Go Sangjun was no pushover either.

Just as they were trying to gauge how much Cha Juhan knew, Cha Juhan also wanted to know how much they had figured out.

If Go Sangjun knew more than Cha Juhan expected, they might have to drastically revise their plan.

“Is there some problem with Cha Juhan……. He seems quiet these days.”