You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 548

You Have Been Defended – Episode 548

As we rode the elevator down to the parking lot, Kang Min-jae spoke up.

“Still, it’s a relief we could bring Sung-yoon in before he was in real danger. And he’s agreed to testify.”

“Yeah.”

To be honest, I had a lot of concerns about when to release the video of Sung-yoon’s self-harm.

At first, I thought about waiting a little longer, until I got a confession from Sung-yoon that the director had ordered it.

But if I did that, Kim Hyun-jong wouldn’t be completely cleared of the charges until Sung-yoon confessed, and that would be burdening him.

It was obvious that the House of Angels wouldn’t let Kim Hyun-jong contact Sung-yoon, but even if he managed to get through and confront Sung-yoon with the video, there was no way to be sure Sung-yoon wouldn’t just keep his mouth shut, trusting in the director’s promises.

Even if we tried to persuade him, there was no telling when Sung-yoon would open his mouth, and until then, Kim Hyun-jong would have to live in anxiety.

No matter how much video evidence there was, and even if I assured him that the House of Angels wouldn’t report him, it would still be a burden for someone aiming for the teacher employment exam.

It was only natural, considering how scared he was when he first contacted me, even though he had the video evidence.

Sending college students to the House of Angels was a way for both them and us to benefit.

So, I couldn’t allow a situation where the college students were harmed because of our greed.

Since the House of Angels was a ticking time bomb in itself, I figured it would be revealed during the investigation process, even without Sung-yoon’s confession that he was ordered by the director.

So, I didn’t think it would be easy to get a confession from Sung-yoon until the full-scale exposure began.

“Once we save Son Jung-min, it looks like we won’t have to worry about this case anymore.”

I said as I got into the car.

“Actually, Min-woo *hyung* [older brother or male friend] just contacted me, saying that the other *hyungs* at the company are waiting for us.”

Kang Min-jae replied, checking his messenger.

Wait, Min-woo *hyung*?

“Since when is Detective Heo, Min-woo *hyung*?”

“We just decided to be *hyung* and *dongsaeng* [younger brother or male friend] a while ago.”

“…Kang-byeon [Kang, the lawyer], do you have no boundaries?”

“Hey, I keep my boundaries. Do you think I don’t know my boundaries? In that sense, I’ll try one more time. Attorney, will you be *hyung* too?”

“That’s why I asked if Kang-byeon has no boundaries.”

* * *

“Ah, the attorneys are here.”

Returning to the company and entering the conference room, everyone was waiting for us, just as Kang Min-jae had said.

“Min-woo *hyung*, I thought you’d be busy, but you came?”

“Ah, it’s an important situation, so I had to come even if I couldn’t. But…”

Heo Min-woo glanced at me for a moment, then gave Kang Min-jae a strange look.

It seemed like he was checking if it was okay to call him ‘*hyung*’ in front of me.

Heo Min-woo still seemed to be conscious of the fact that I had tried to distance myself from him.

Of course, I hadn’t completely let my guard down either, but I had relaxed to some extent, and since no one knew that Detective Heo was cooperating with us, and Wooshin had already experienced several failures, I didn’t think they would easily play with people’s lives.

I pretended not to see their signals and took a seat.

“Did it go well?”

I saw Choi Jong-hyun for the first time in a while.

He had been living like someone in Washington for the past few days, but he seemed to have come to his senses, perhaps because it was evening.

“No video conference today?”

“Not yet. And anyway, those guys are just waking up now. I usually get calls from them after 10 our time.”

The current time is 7 PM.

So, Choi Jong-hyun woke up like an ordinary office worker.

“What about Sung-yoon?”

“I got a confession. I recorded it, but he said he’d testify later too.”

“That’s good.”

Jo Bong-joon breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now all that’s left is Jung-min… Those Wooshin bastards seem to be sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp.”

Choi Jong-hyun clicked his tongue with a fed-up expression.

“They’re trying to cover up their trashy deeds by continuing to do trashy things. Someone needs to put a stop to it, but until now, there’s been no one to stop them. So they keep committing more and more fucked up acts to shut people up and try to cover things up by getting rid of people. I don’t think they have any idea that they’re going to hit a wall and explode someday.”

“Like a runaway train with broken brakes.”

Kang Min-jae chimed in, and everyone nodded.

“That’s right.”

When you observe the *moseup* [appearance/state] of villains, you often encounter this sight.

It’s a typical *moseup* of criminals.

They commit another crime to avoid punishment for the first crime they committed, and then they commit another crime to avoid punishment for that crime.

That way, they cross the line they should never cross, even at the very end.

And the only people who can escape from this cycle are those who are willing to accept punishment themselves.

But Go Sang-joon doesn’t seem to have any intention of doing that yet.

Isn’t it obvious?

When he became the owner of Wooshin, the judicial system was already at Wooshin’s feet.

“How could no one have stopped them until the situation got this fucked up? I can understand Go Sang-joon being a crazy bastard. But there are a lot of smart guys around him. Why didn’t they stop him?”

“They must have gotten rid of the ones who tried to stop them. They chose accomplices for the crimes they were committing, and if those people weren’t cooperative, they got rid of them right away. So the ones who are left are smart, but not smart enough to realize that Wooshin is going to be fucked someday.”

Just like how Choi Jae-hoon was killed as soon as he refused to become an accomplice in the organ trafficking business.

There’s no end to *ttajigo deuljamyeon* [if you start digging into it] where things went wrong.

But I’ve thought about it on my own to some extent.

Before Go Sang-joon took over the management rights, even when Wooshin’s founder was still alive, large corporations were wary of the government.

It’s very natural to think about the price that companies had to pay for going against the regime.

That’s why Kang Kwan-woong, who was investigating the comfort women case, only ended up losing his chief of staff.

From the late 80s, when Kang Kwan-woong was in power, and even before that, Wooshin had been sending young women to Japan.

And the place where those women arrived was the *woncho* [origin/source] of the desires held by Japanese political and business figures.

I’ve never had a conversation with the Wooshin founder who started that kind of business, so I can only *chucheuk* [speculate], but perhaps Wooshin was trying to avoid the *cheoltoe* [iron hammer/punishment] wielded by the government by borrowing the power of Japan, which had a significant impact on 20th-century Korea, from that time on.

Having taken refuge in the shade created by Japanese political and business figures, Wooshin *ppuryeo don* [scattered money] and cultivated people.

They raised those who were expected to become leaders of Korean society with that dirty money, and they eventually lived up to expectations and spread to all walks of life.

As long as they were under control, it’s not strange that Korea became the Wooshin Republic.

Go Sang-joon, who only had to take the stage that had been so firmly built for Wooshin, would have had even less to fear.

There would have been plenty of people in the judicial system, the legislative system, and the government who would have worked for Wooshin’s *yeongdal* [glory/prosperity] without even having to be told.

Thinking about it in that way, I can understand how his conscience, which should have forced him to comply with the law, was *削깎여 나가다 못해 사라진* [whittled away to the point of disappearing].

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s *chamjak* [excusable/pardonable].

“Go Sang-joon must be *jonna danghwangseureopgetji* [fucking flustered/embarrassed]. Until now, he’s been dealing with guys who he could shut up with money, and if that didn’t work, he could just kill them, but then guys like us showed up.”

I think Go Sang-joon’s endless pride played a significant role in bringing him to this point.

Just like how Onodera said that he wasn’t afraid of some *byeonhosa* [lawyer] and tried to get rid of me with ridiculous methods, Go Sang-joon probably saw me that way at first.

So he tried to *damga* [bury/sink] me with tax investigations and illegal speculation.

But when he failed here, he must have thought, ‘*eora?*’ [huh?/what now?]

The next thing he chose was to make me a murderer, but even that didn’t work, so I might have been the first guy in his life who kept getting up even after being stepped on.

When he saw me not dying even after he stabbed the ship in the middle of the ocean, he might have even felt *gongpo* [fear/terror].

Of course, because of his pride, that *gongpo* was probably only at the level of seeing a *beolle* [bug/insect] that wouldn’t die no matter how much *yak* [medicine/poison] he *ppuryeo* [sprinkled/applied] and kept *dallyeodeuneun* [rushing/attacking].

“Go Sang-joon, that *saekki* [son of a bitch] is old too. You can’t ignore the *gyeongheomchi* [experience points] that he’s accumulated over the years. Based on that experience, everything was over if he *balrat don* [used money] or *jookideon saram* [killed someone].”

“That’s right.”

“Right now, that *saekki* is going through the biggest crisis of his life, but he can’t even imagine that he’s going to *bongchakhal wigi* [face a crisis] because of us, who are *mwotdo* [nothing] to him. His *jajonshim* [pride/self-esteem] will be *sanghal* [hurt/damaged] too. So he keeps *buin hyeonsil* [denying reality], thinking that the methods that have worked until now aren’t working because his *buhadeul* [subordinates] are *ttiltilhan* [foolish/stupid], and he’s *dopi hyeonsil* [escaping reality]. That’s why he keeps saying things to Chan-young like he can’t trust Go Yoon-soo, and he doesn’t know why things have turned out this way.”

Choi Jong-hyun seemed to be analyzing Go Sang-joon similarly to me.

I *jeollo gogae kkeudeogyeojyeotda* [naturally nodded in agreement].

Since he doesn’t think of us as his *jeoksu* [opponent/rival], he must think that he can stop us without losing anything.

The fact that he’s continuing to repeat crimes and *ssaha eopbo* [accumulating karma] is also due to the *oman* [arrogance/hubris] that the methods that Wooshin has used for nearly 100 years can’t possibly not work.

Maybe they don’t even realize that they’re trafficking people.

It’s not for the purpose of making money, and it’s not on a large scale.

It’s just a service for a very small number of VIP customers who already have so much *jaemul* [wealth/assets] that they can’t buy them off with money, in order to solidify their *kareutel* [cartel].

Minors *seongmaemae* [prostitution], even if the other party dies in the middle, *gahakjeogin seongpokhaeng* [sadistic sexual assault] with no *huwhan* [aftermath/consequences] is difficult to *sondaegi* [deal with/handle] unless you take a big *riseukeu* [risk], no matter how much *don* [money] you have and how high your social status is.

But if they can strengthen their relationship with them just by filling that *eumseupan yokmang* [dark/hidden desire] and making sure they don’t get *kkori balpil* [caught/exposed], it would be too much of a *namneun jangsa* [profitable business] for Wooshin.

However, they probably don’t even realize that this is *jangsa* [business].

They probably have the mindset of, ‘What’s the big deal? It’s just a *eunmilhan chwimi* [secret hobby] that we enjoy with a few people.’

Especially in the case of the organ trafficking business, which is the *jeongjeom* [peak/zenith] of *inmyeonsusim* [inhumanity/heartlessness], I don’t even know how many times it’s happened.

Maybe it’s a small number, less than ten times.

But whether it’s once or ten times, once you’ve started, you’re *maehan 가지* [the same/identical] a human trafficker.

But Go Sang-joon seems to think that he’s a *wangjok* [royalty/aristocrat] of Korea, so who knows if he firmly believes that they’re different from low-quality crime organizations.

Later, when all the facts are revealed, I hope someone will write a *nonmun* [thesis/paper] about Go Sang-joon’s *jeongsin sangtae* [mental state].

If someone shows up to do that research, I’m willing to *dael yeongu jageum* [provide research funds].

“I don’t want to stop those guys from digging their own graves, but I still have to stop *pihaeja* [victims] from being *saenggineun* [created/occurring] in the process. Now it’s Jung-min’s turn.”