You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 54

With those words, Jin-cheol’s mother grabbed her phone and rushed out.

It was during school hours, and her reaction was so extreme that something serious must have happened there.

I was worried about her going alone in such an agitated state.

It seemed best to accompany her.

“Attorney Kang, the car keys.”

“Ah, yes!”

Attorney Kang quickly found the car keys and followed me.

I hurried after her as she ran down the stairs.

I stopped her as she frantically tried to open the car door in the parking lot and shook my head.

“Mother, you seem very upset. We’ll come with you. Let’s go in our car.”

“……Would you really?”

“Come this way, Mother.”

Attorney Kang said, opening the door to his car parked nearby.

“Where should we go?”

When Kang Min-jae asked, she clutched her forehead and barely managed to say,

“The emergency room at Korea University Hospital.”

It seemed Jin-cheol was hurt.

What could have happened at school to require a trip to the emergency room?

Kang Min-jae looked at me with an uneasy expression.

But I shook my head.

I knew what he was thinking, but it was something we shouldn’t assume without knowing the facts.

“Oh, Jin-cheol…….”

Jin-cheol’s mother, sitting in the back seat, hugged her handbag and wept.

I glanced at her in the rearview mirror for a moment.

The Korea University Hospital building was visible in the distance.

It was best to get a rough idea of the situation before arriving at the emergency room.

Even if it was difficult to talk to her because she was crying.

“Mother, please calm down.”

“How can I calm down, how! Oh, my Jin-cheol…….”

“How did Jin-cheol get hurt?”

“They said he fell from the classroom window… What should I do, Attorney… My baby, oh, my baby……”

She just kept repeating the same words, tears streaming down her face, and I couldn’t get any more information from her.

If he fell from the classroom window, considering the height of a typical school building, it wouldn’t be that high.

But it wasn’t something to take lightly.

No matter the floor, a fall is extremely dangerous.

“It’ll be alright, Mother…….”

Kang Min-jae comforted her with difficulty and stopped the car in front of the emergency room.

As soon as the car stopped, Jin-cheol’s mother jumped out and ran into the emergency room.

I also followed her inside.

“Park Jin-cheol, Park Jin-cheol’s guardian!”

She went to the emergency room desk and shouted, almost wailing.

The nurse looked up the chart at those words and guided her into the emergency room.

“Jin-cheol’s mother…….”

As if hearing the commotion, a young teacher came towards us from beside a bed inside, drawing back the curtain.

Jin-cheol’s mother asked the teacher with a tear-stained face.

“Jin-cheol… Where is Jin-cheol?”

“Jin-cheol, your mother is here.”

The teacher said, addressing Jin-cheol, who was lying on the bed inside the curtain.

Jin-cheol turned his head away, looking elsewhere.

Even though his mother had come, he didn’t seem happy to see her and seemed annoyed by the situation.

“We need to do more detailed tests, but the doctor said it seems like his arm and leg bones are broken. He also has some scrapes……”

“Oh, Jin-cheol…….”

Jin-cheol’s mother approached the bed, cutting off the teacher’s explanation.

I could see Jin-cheol lying there, bandaged all over and with his eyes closed.

She hugged Jin-cheol and began to weep bitterly.

“Teacher.”

As the teacher was about to leave the bed, I stopped her.

She looked at me, startled, and asked.

“Who……?”

“I’m Jin-cheol’s uncle. May I ask what happened to Jin-cheol?”

If I revealed that I was a lawyer, the school would know that Jin-cheol’s parents were considering legal action, so it was better to hide it for now.

The teacher glanced at the bed, looking embarrassed.

Through the still-open curtain, the sound of Jin-cheol’s mother crying could be heard.

“I don’t know for sure either. The kids just told me urgently… The class president suddenly came to the faculty office to tell me what happened. I rushed over after hearing the news, and Jin-cheol was lying in the flower bed……”

“What floor did he fall from?”

“The second floor. Fortunately, it was only the second floor, so the doctor said he didn’t seem to be seriously injured……”

“How many floors does the school have?”

“Four floors and the rooftop. But the rooftop is locked so students can’t go up there.”

“Did Jin-cheol fall in front of all the students in the class?”

“……Probably.”

“I see.”

The teacher sighed and nodded.

It was then.

Suddenly, a shrill voice came from inside the bed where Jin-cheol was lying.

“Ah, damn it, stop crying!”

“Jin-cheol…….”

“Is it some big deal or something!”

It was Jin-cheol’s voice, shouting at his mother, who couldn’t stop crying.

The teacher and Jin-cheol’s mother seemed taken aback.

I had heard that Jin-cheol had cursed at his mother before, but I was still a little surprised.

“Jin-cheol, you shouldn’t talk to your mother like that.”

The teacher said, slowly approaching the bed.

But Jin-cheol sighed deeply and turned his head away again.

The teacher, unsure of what to do, hesitated for a while before bowing to the mother and saying.

“I’m really sorry, Mother. I’m so sorry. I should have prevented this from happening as his homeroom teacher, but this is the first time something like this has happened to me in my teaching career… I’m really sorry.”

The mother, who had been watching the teacher, looked at Jin-cheol for a moment and then got up.

Perhaps it was because she didn’t know how Jin-cheol would react if she had any more conversations where he could hear.

“Haa, Teacher.”

The mother wiped away her tears and looked at the teacher.

“Jin-cheol, how did this happen? How did he fall?”

“The kids said it seemed like Jin-cheol fell while trying to grab something……”

[Truth]

I frowned slightly as I saw the word floating above the teacher’s head.

But I soon understood.

After all, my ability only judges whether the speaker is lying.

It doesn’t completely reveal the truth of the incident.

I had to accept it as meaning that the teacher was at least not lying and move on.

“Grab, grab what?”

But it was unconvincing that he fell from the second floor to grab something.

Jin-cheol’s mother seemed to feel the same question, as she frowned and asked.

But the teacher just lowered her head and mumbled in a small voice.

“……I don’t really know either. I thought it was important to get Jin-cheol to the hospital first, so I did that, but I was planning to go back and check with the kids to see what happened.”

“What, what… How can you handle things like this!”

Jin-cheol’s mother shouted.

The people in the emergency room turned to look at us for a moment.

“Shouldn’t you have had another teacher find out what happened? The child fell from the second floor. Do you think it makes sense that he fell while trying to grab something?”

Fell while trying to grab something—what does that even mean?

It was hard to imagine a situation in normal daily life where you would have to throw yourself out the window to grab something.

Except for a situation where someone deliberately threw him out the window.

“That’s,”

“Ah, damn it, seriously, stop it! It was nothing. Please, stop embarrassing me! Mom, go home. Teacher, please leave! I can be alone, so everyone leave!”

Jin-cheol, who had been listening to the conversation, shouted irritably.

[Lie]

The word I expected floated above Jin-cheol’s head.

The mother was startled and looked at Jin-cheol again, but she couldn’t say anything and lowered her head.

Tears began to well up in her eyes again.

The teacher also hesitated for a moment, then tore off a few tissues and handed them to her, saying cautiously.

“I’m really sorry, Mother. Since you’re here… I’ll go back to school and ask the children about the situation in detail and contact you again. I’m really sorry.”

Jin-cheol’s mother, who had been watching the teacher bowing repeatedly, finally sighed.

“……Yes, I understand. Thank you for bringing Jin-cheol to the hospital.”

At the mother’s words, the teacher left the emergency room, leaving only another apology.

At that moment, Kang Min-jae, who had finished parking and was returning to the emergency room, glanced at the teacher who was hurrying away.

“Attorney, is Jin-cheol alright?”

He approached the bed and found Jin-cheol, who had been given emergency treatment and was bandaged all over.

Kang Min-jae sighed deeply.

Since he hadn’t lost consciousness, the worst-case scenario had been avoided.

He seemed a little relieved too.

“Mother, we’ll go out for a quick phone call.”

“……Yes.”

I took Kang Min-jae and went outside the emergency room.

I went to the nearby smoking area, took out a cigarette, and briefly explained to him what I had seen and the situation I had grasped.

When he heard that Jin-cheol had gone to the window to grab something and fell, Kang Min-jae’s expression also twisted for a moment.

It was an excuse that no one would believe.

“Could that kid, Hyuk-min, have pushed Jin-cheol?”

Kang Min-jae carefully brought up the possibility.

I didn’t answer.

“We don’t know.”

Since I didn’t see the situation directly, I couldn’t make a hasty judgment.

Even if we assume that Jin-cheol jumped with the intention of taking his own life, the second floor was too low.

If he was going to make such an attempt, he should have gone to a higher floor, since the school had four floors.

“But if it happened in front of all the students in the class, wouldn’t we get an answer if we asked the kids?”

“Probably.”

I kept my words to a minimum.

All we could do now was wait for the teacher to contact Jin-cheol’s mother and for Jin-cheol to open his mouth.

“Attorney, are you really going to take this case?”

As I put out my cigarette and was about to go back into the emergency room, Kang Min-jae asked.

“If Jin-cheol’s parents and Jin-cheol want it.”

“……It’s going to be tough.”

I stopped walking.

It was strange that Kang Min-jae, who always steps up no matter how difficult the task, kept making weak-hearted noises.

“Attorney Kang.”

“Yes, Attorney.”

“Is there a reason why you don’t want to take on a school violence case?”

At my question, Kang Min-jae’s eyes widened as if he was surprised.

“No, it’s not that… It’s just that taking things to court isn’t a common occurrence, so I’m worried it’ll be hard on you, Attorney. What, would I not want to take it on? Ah, and I’m not sure how much to charge for the retainer fee, so……”

Kang Min-jae said with a friendly smile.

With the word [Lie] hanging over his head.

There seemed to be a reason, but if he wasn’t saying it even after I asked this much, there must be a reason.

I had decided not to pry into his circumstances until he spoke about them himself, so I didn’t care.

“If you really want to avoid it, drop out of this case. I’ll handle it alone.”

“Ah, no!”

“It’s okay. Do that if it’s uncomfortable.”

I said, walking towards the emergency room’s automatic doors.

Then Kang Min-jae hurriedly followed me and said.

“Ah, why are you doing this? Please include me.”

Even a lawyer has cases they want to avoid.

I wasn’t someone who didn’t understand that, and I didn’t want to force him.