You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 58

You Have Been Defended – Episode 58

Jin-chul stared blankly at his limbs, now encased in casts, in response to my question.

The accident, where he fell from the second floor of the school, had isolated Jin-chul from the world for two months.

With his arms and legs broken, he couldn’t walk on his own without assistance, or even feed himself.

The physical scars would eventually fade, but the emotional scars would likely remain.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Jin-chul was thinking during those brief moments as he fell from the second floor.

But if I understood the reason for the fall, I could help him process those thoughts a little faster.

“Hyuk-min, that bastard…”

Did he push him?

I watched him so intently that I memorized the shape of his lips as he spoke.

“He hung my indoor shoes on a long stick.”

“What does that mean?”

I asked, confused.

Jin-chul elaborated.

Apparently, Hyuk-min had hung the shoes on a long stick, like hoisting a flag on a veranda, and propped it against the window.

“And he told me to get them. … Honestly, I could have done without those shoes, but that bastard and his group kept provoking me. Saying, ‘Can’t even reach them? Give it a try. Can’t do it? You’re such a loser.'”

[Truth]

“All the kids in the class were watching me. So, no matter how much I tried to ignore them, I felt like a complete loser. Those bastards were all looking at me, laughing at me, thinking, ‘That loser can’t even do that.'”

[Truth]

“I couldn’t stand it, I really couldn’t stand it… So I climbed onto the windowsill. I thought I could grab it if I lowered myself and reached out. I was squatting on the windowsill, and as soon as I sat down… my school uniform pants ripped.”

[Truth]

“Damn it, I was so embarrassed… I wanted to disappear right then and there. But, it’s not like I was trying to fall… Because my pants were ripped and my underwear was showing, Hyuk-min, ha, he poked my underwear with a sharp pencil…
He was laughing at me.”

[Truth]

“I, sob, I told him to stop and twisted my body, but his group kept pulling at my underwear through the ripped pants, making comments about the color of my underwear, and kept poking me, sob, I kept telling them to stop, wiggling my butt like an idiot, and then… I lost my balance and fell.”

[Truth]

After finishing his story, Jin-chul lowered his head and sobbed.

“How pathetic must I have looked… Crawling on my hands and knees to pick up the shoes, that must have looked so loser-like to them, sob, I keep thinking about that and I’m so ashamed, I feel like I’m going crazy, sob…”

As soon as Jin-chul finished speaking, Kang Min-jae jumped up.

He put his hands on his hips, looked up at the ceiling, and sighed as if he couldn’t contain his anger.

“Ha, I really don’t know what to say. Attorney, how can kids be so cruel?”

I, too, was at a loss for words.

I used my ability the entire time he was explaining why he fell, and the word [False] never appeared even once.

“…I guess it’s because they’re kids.”

Sometimes kids are more cruel than adults.

I spoke with difficulty and looked at Jin-chul.

Hiding his face, which was red and swollen from crying, he sobbed for a long time.

We waited until his tears subsided.

“…But, Mister.”

After a long silence, Jin-chul, who had stopped crying, looked at me.

“Hyuk-min told me to pick up the shoes, but he didn’t push me. Will he still be punished?”

Jin-chul asked, sniffing.

I nodded once.

“There’s a legal term called ‘implied intent.’ Even if Hyuk-min didn’t hang the indoor shoes on the stick with the direct intention of making you fall, he should have realized that you might fall while trying to retrieve them. And he would have understood that if you fell, it was a possible consequence of his actions. In that case, he can receive the same punishment as if he intentionally caused you to fall.”

“What if he was thinking, ‘Would he really fall?’ if he was thinking like that?”

“In that case, it would be considered accidental injury, and the sentence would be lighter, but that’s very difficult to prove.”

Considering that Hyuk-min was known to be meticulous and clever, that scenario seemed unlikely.

“And, before any of that, you have to prove that there was implied intent. That’s what we’re here to do.”

The strongest evidence to definitively prove implied intent would be the testimony of the group who instigated the incident with Hyuk-min.

But focusing solely on that might not be the best approach.

I suspected that evidence of Hyuk-min’s bullying of Jin-chul would surface naturally as we gathered testimonies.

“First, now that you’ve told me about this incident, I’m going to ask a more fundamental question.”

“…Yes.”

“From the time you transferred to this school until now, I’d like you to explain how your relationship with Hyuk-min deteriorated to this point. Can you do that? You have to tell me everything honestly. Without hiding anything.”

Jin-chul nodded with difficulty.

With a pained expression, he began to recall the past and explain.

“It’s a bit embarrassing, but… there are popular kids at school, average kids, and loser kids.”

It was a kind of social hierarchy that had divided students for a long time.

“I think I was an average kid at my old school. There was a kid among the popular kids who went to the same after-school academy [private tutoring center], so I sometimes hung out with him after school. But, how should I put it… I felt a little intimidated around him. I was a little scared, but looking back now, it’s funny. I thought he looked cool.”

Jin-chul said that’s why he wanted to join the ‘popular kids’ group at the new school he was transferring to.

So he bought clothes that he thought would make him look the part, practiced looking tough, and even secretly stole his father’s cigarettes and practiced smoking them.

That’s how Jin-chul approached transferring schools, and whether his methods worked or not, Hyuk-min’s group approached him.

There was one thing that Jin-chul noticed was a little different when he transferred to this area: the ‘popular kids’ here were also quite good at studying.

Hyuk-min was one of them.

Jin-chul was intimidated by Hyuk-min, but he was still pleased to be in the same group as him.

The problem arose when Hyuk-min met a student from Jin-chul’s previous school at a well-known academy in this area and got to know him.

Hyuk-min naturally mentioned Jin-chul’s name and asked the student if he knew him.

And the student replied, ‘He was my punching bag?’

Coincidentally, that student was the one Jin-chul used to hang around while secretly being afraid of him.

Hyuk-min found out that Jin-chul had been hiding his past at his previous school, and from then on, he began to subtly ostracize and ridicule Jin-chul.

That gradually worsened, leading to the present situation.

“So I couldn’t say anything to anyone. Not to my mom, not to anyone. I was already a kid who pretended to be popular and got caught lying, and I became even more pathetic. In a way, I would have looked more pathetic than the loser kids…”

Later in life, when you live in society, you realize that the distinctions between ‘popular kids,’ ‘average kids,’ and ‘loser kids’ are all meaningless, but it’s a big deal for students of this age.

And I think I understand how children with such immature perspectives might look down on Jin-chul.

But even if I understand that, it doesn’t change anything.

It may have been wrong for Jin-chul to lie, but he paid too high a price for that lie.

In a way that no one should have to pay.

“I heard from your mother that Hyuk-min is the top student in the entire school and the vice president of the student council.”

“…Yes.”

“He must be highly regarded at school, by the teachers.”

“That’s right. Probably…”

“Then, have you ever asked a teacher for help?”

At my question, Jin-chul nodded slightly.

“It wasn’t very helpful. I mean… I didn’t say it in detail either, I just mentioned in a personal interview that I was having a hard time because I had a falling out with Hyuk-min and that I felt like I was being bullied… The teacher just told me to try to resolve it through conversation because Hyuk-min is a mature kid.”

Having worked as a teacher at an all-boys high school for six years, it’s hard to believe that the teacher didn’t recognize the signs, even with the student’s vague language.

There was no way he couldn’t understand the roundabout way of speaking, given the unique pride of male students.

He didn’t openly defend Hyuk-min, but he appeased Jin-chul appropriately and turned a blind eye to the situation.

The attitude he showed to Jin-chul’s parents at the emergency room was similar, suggesting he was avoiding the situation with careful tactics while subtly protecting Hyuk-min.

“Jin-chul, is there anything else you think I should know?”

At my question, Jin-chul sighed deeply.

Having honestly told everything, Jin-chul himself seemed to feel much more relieved.

It would not be difficult to obtain the client’s statement while proceeding with this case.

“He was threatening me when he said it… He told me not to even think about reporting it to the police or opening a school violence committee [committee to address bullying]. He said he only hits people where there are no CCTVs [closed-circuit television cameras].”

At those words, Kang Min-jae looked shocked.

I knew that Lee Hyuk-min was meticulous, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent.

“After hearing that, I checked if there were CCTVs where I was hit by those bastards, and there really weren’t. So I think that’s why I didn’t tell my mom. Because I thought there would be no evidence even if I told her.”

Jin-chul said with a bitter smile.

“And, he said that Hyuk-min had transferred a kid he didn’t like last year.”

“He transferred him?”

“He told me not to even think about reporting it to the school and opening a school violence committee… Hyuk-min had a kid he didn’t like, and he said that kid tried to open a school violence committee but failed and gave up on his own. He said that when the art contest and literary contest were held and all the kids were out playing, he was crying and transferred schools…”

There had already been a situation where a student who was bullied by Hyuk-min tried to open a school violence committee to have him punished but failed.

The judgment that the school violence committee was not an appropriate method was not wrong.

Hyuk-min himself knows that his parents or the school are protecting him.

Even if the school steps in to protect Hyuk-min, if many children report his misconduct, even the school cannot turn a blind eye.

If so, Hyuk-min has become even more confident that the children in the same class will not make statements that are unfavorable to him.

That school was already Hyuk-min’s kingdom.