You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 587

By the time the bleeding stopped, an ambulance had arrived in the driveway.

“Kang, go to the hospital with the Inspector. I’ll wrap things up here and join you. It won’t take long.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright alone?”

“I’m fine, just go quickly.”

In truth, this scene was entirely under the police’s jurisdiction, so there wasn’t anything for me to personally handle.

However, shouldn’t I at least express my gratitude to the police officers who hadn’t objected to the sudden call and the overreach of a mere lawyer, and instead did their best?

“Min-woo, I can’t go with you because I have to deal with the captured guys. I’m glad the lawyer is going with you.”

The detective also spoke to Heo Min-woo, who was standing in front of the ambulance.

“But can’t I just take any car? Do I really need an ambulance? I think it would be better to use it for the other injured people, since there are quite a few.”

“You’re the most seriously injured of those remaining. Just get in, you bastard.”

The detective shoved Heo Min-woo into the ambulance, and the ambulance carrying Kang Min-jae and Heo Min-woo immediately headed to the hospital.

“Lawyer, thank you for your hard work today.”

After the ambulance left, only the detective and I remained.

After a moment of silence, he awkwardly bowed his head and spoke.

“No, thank you for coming all the way here so suddenly and helping us, Detective.”

“Well, I owed Min-woo one from before.”

“You owed him?”

“Come to think of it, weren’t you the lawyer who took on the case when the eldest son of the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office was falsely accused of drug use?”

“That’s right.”

“Min-woo was the team leader of the Narcotics Unit until then. Then, something happened and he left, which was partly my fault. Fortunately, he came back, but a debt is a debt.”

Now that I think about it, Heo Min-woo, who was originally in the Narcotics Unit, was suddenly in charge of handling Choi Jae-hoon’s gas explosion accident.

That was about a year ago, and he seemed to have returned to the Narcotics Unit between this spring and summer, which was too short for a typical personnel rotation cycle.

I thought at the time that Heo Min-woo had volunteered.

But I was puzzled as to why he went back to the Narcotics Unit.

Hearing the detective’s words, the mystery is now solved.

He didn’t seem to want to go into detail, so I decided not to ask.

“But you’re really amazing, Lawyer. I knew you did a lot of good things, but I didn’t realize you were working this hard.”

As I walked towards the main gate with the detective, he asked me many questions, curious about various things.

I couldn’t answer all of them, but I owed him a debt as well, so I tried my best to answer.

“Looks like they’re leaving.”

As we walked a little further, we saw the arrested security personnel getting on a bus.

Since my face is known, it wouldn’t be good to show myself to them, so I waited for the bus to leave.

─Second search completed. No additional findings. Please confirm when the forensics team will arrive.

After the bus left, I walked along the driveway and arrived in front of the Ribbon Medical Center building, when I heard Lee Jin-woo’s radio message and his voice overlapping.

Looking around, I made eye contact with Lee Jin-woo, who was standing near the entrance.

“Lawyer.”

“Team Leader, thank you for your hard work.”

“It was nothing. We just moved according to what you prepared. You’re the one who worked hard. Comparing the blueprints you showed us with the site, they don’t seem like the publicly available ones. I’m curious how you found them.”

“I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Ah, I can roughly guess what happened. The blueprints and all the illegal… no, the unconventional methods used in the operation will go with me to the grave.”

Lee Jin-woo said with a faint smile.

Until just now, during the tense operation, he had been stern, but now he seemed a little more relaxed.

“Thank you.”

“When is the forensics team coming?”

“They’ll be here soon. They should arrive in about 10 minutes.”

Lee Jin-woo sent the message exactly as I had answered.

He was using code again, so I couldn’t understand everything, but it seemed they would leave some personnel behind and withdraw when the forensics team arrived.

“Oh, we didn’t use any code because we were communicating with you, Lawyer. Does the President cover that too?”

“I haven’t talked to him about that.”

“Ah, that’s troublesome.”

“If he doesn’t cover it, I’ll lie down in front of the Blue House [the South Korean equivalent of the White House].”

“Haha.”

Lee Jin-woo burst into laughter.

“By the way, how is Inspector Heo Min-woo? His injury didn’t seem minor.”

“I did some simple hemostasis [stopping of blood flow], and he should be at the hospital by now.”

“I see. I haven’t seen him in a while, but I didn’t even get to properly greet him. Please give him my regards if you see him.”

“I will.”

Lee Jin-woo slowly nodded.

Then, he checked the time and glanced at the direction where his team members were.

“I’ll check on the guys and get ready to withdraw. The riot police team leaders seem busy taking care of their people too.”

“Ah, yes. Please do.”

“The scale of the incident seems quite large, and as a citizen and a police officer, I will continue to pay attention and make sure those involved are properly punished.”

He said, extending his hand.

Listening to him, I wondered if Lee Jin-woo had seen the broadcast I was on.

I had appealed for continued attention at the end of the broadcast.

“Thank you.”

I shook his hand lightly.

His hand gripped mine firmly.

* * *

Ono Dera Moza and Lim Hyun-il, along with other key figures, were put into cars heading to the Gangnam Police Station.

I couldn’t show myself to them, so I watched from a distance. Ono Dera’s youngest daughter seemed angry and kept raising her voice in Japanese.

I guessed she was saying she wanted to contact her father and call a lawyer.

“Lawyer!”

As I returned to the greenhouse, Tae-shik and the employees jumped up.

They probably knew the operation had been successfully completed, but they seemed to be maintaining their tension until I confirmed it.

Everyone’s face was full of worry.

“It’s all wrapped up well. Thank you all for your hard work.”

“Wow!”

As soon as I finished speaking, the employees rushed towards me.

Before I could even think about why they were doing this, they quickly lifted me up.

And started throwing me into the air.

It was a celebratory toss.

“Cha Joo-han! Cha Joo-han! Cha Joo-han!”

Have these guys gone crazy?

Even though I’m 187cm tall, I was no different from a piece of paper to those muscle pigs.

Every time they threw me, the lights on the greenhouse ceiling got closer.

Even though I only saw it for a moment, I could see the enormous amount of dust on the lights.

The dust flying around in the light was so clear that it was even more distressing.

I held my breath.

If I kept breathing, I might get pneumoconiosis [a lung disease caused by inhaling dust].

“Hey, the National Intelligence Service too!”
Tae-shik shouted then.

Then, several people broke away from the group and dragged the National Intelligence Service agent, who was sitting in the corner, over.

“Hey, you bastards! Put me down!”

Seeing the National Intelligence Service agent flailing and screaming in the air, I realized I wasn’t even a piece of paper.

“Now put us down.”

“Yes.”

After what felt like a year of flying, they let go of me and the National Intelligence Service agent.

“Let’s all withdraw today. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we were able to get good results today. The National Intelligence Service agent was also suddenly called in and did a good job.”

“It’s my fault for being caught being competent. Who else can I blame?”

“You can add one more zero to the invoice than you thought.”

“I was thinking 100 billion, can I write 1 trillion?”

The National Intelligence Service agent asked with a smirk.

“Do you want to work without pay?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Ah, and it’s such a sudden situation today that I couldn’t withdraw cash. Here.”

I put the card on the table.

“Call the other guys and have a company dinner tonight and go home and rest well. Don’t call the guys who have something to do. I’ll take care of them separately later, so don’t worry.”

“I have a question!”

Dae-cheol raised his hand and shouted loudly.

“What is it?”

“How much can we spend?!”

“There’s no limit.”

“Wow! Cha Joo-han! Cha Joo-han!”

When they started chanting my name, I reflexively grabbed something heavy that was nearby.

I didn’t want to be tossed in the air again.

“Now I have to go to the hospital.”

While the employees were gathered, wondering where to have the company dinner, Tae-shik said, packing his bags.

Jung-hyuk also helped Tae-shik pack.

Then, Tae-shik glanced at him and said.

“You go to the company dinner too.”

“I’ll go with you too. I was already flustered when Attorney Kang left me behind and went to the hospital.”

Jung-hyuk followed us to the car.

When Tae-shik sat in the driver’s seat, he quickly jumped into the passenger seat.

Then, Tae-shik opened the passenger seat window and shouted.

“That’s enough, you! Go quickly! I can handle it alone. I was already itching to fight when I saw the police fighting with the security guys. If anyone gets caught, I’m going to destroy them, so you go and have a company dinner. They’re eating beef.”

“Yeah, come with us.”

I pushed Jung-hyuk away, got into the passenger seat, and closed the door.

When Jung-hyuk tried to get into the back seat, Tae-shik immediately stepped on the accelerator.

“I don’t know why that gentle guy is so stubborn.”

It was already past midnight.

The road was wide open.

Perhaps because I had been tense for only a few hours and was now relieved, my whole body felt achy.

“What are you going to do since you can’t go to the company dinner?”

“What if the lawyer is found dead? Sang-joon would be trembling when he hears the news. He’s not in his right mind, who knows what he’ll do.”

“That’s true.”

“He might be thinking of borrowing the power of a shaman and going to find a skilled shaman.”

“To curse me?”

“That’s right. He’ll hang up a picture of you and shoot arrows at it, and nail a straw doll.”

The hospital wasn’t far away.

So-eun was also taken here, so I should check on her condition first and then go to Heo Min-woo.

“Detective.”

I approached the bed with the curtains drawn, where several police officers were standing, and as expected, So-eun was there.

“Ah, Lawyer.”

The investigator stood up halfway when I opened the curtain.

I told him to sit down, then went inside the bed and closed the curtain again.

“How is So-eun?”

“They said she’s under anesthesia, as expected. But the anesthesia was a bit strong, so it will take some time for her to wake up.”

“It seems they anesthetized her when they took her out of the House of Angels.”

“Yes, the doctor said she’s been anesthetized for quite a while. So she’s only slightly conscious. She responds when shaken, and she even spoke like she was talking in her sleep.”

“Then there’s no problem with her waking up? What about her injuries?”

I said, looking at the gauze on So-eun’s neck.

“There’s no problem with her waking up, and the wound isn’t deep. She has some bruises, but they’re not severe either.”

“Still, I think she should have a thorough examination.”

“Yes, the hospital here said there doesn’t seem to be any major problems, so we’ll take her to Seoul for an examination as soon as she recovers. The team leader said that So-eun’s whereabouts will be decided after consulting with you, did you talk about it?”

“No, I came to see So-eun first.”

“The team leader is over there.”

I nodded and headed in the direction the investigator pointed.

Since the curtains weren’t drawn, I could quickly find Kang Min-jae and Heo Min-woo.

“It’s the lawyer.”

Kang Min-jae found Tae-shik and me and waved his hand.

“Inspector, how is the injured area?”

“I got stitches and took painkillers. I’m fine now.”

“It was cut deeper than I thought. They stitched it up a lot.”

“How could you think of shooting a gun with that arm? What if Lim Hyun-il had been hit?”

I know that shooting a fleeing person is against the regulations.

If Lim Hyun-il had been hit, Heo Min-woo would have been in big trouble.

“Then it would have been nice.”

“……”

“I’m kidding. Actually, now that I think about it, I should have asked the special forces member who was with me. But it’s a relief, right? All three shots hit the tires.”

“It’s a relief, but don’t overdo it in the future.”

“Anyway, you’re always nagging, Lawyer.”

Kang Min-jae scolded me instead of Heo Min-woo.

Then, Heo Min-woo nodded and shouted shamelessly.

“Min-jae is right. You should be praising me.”

“I praised you. And you’re not an elementary school student, why are you so obsessed with praise?”

“……I don’t know why I’m like this, but it’s a matter of feeling.”

“I should get a stamp made and carry it around. I’ll stamp it for you and Attorney Kang every time you’re like that.”

I sighed and crossed my arms.

Then, unexpectedly, Kang Min-jae’s eyes lit up and he looked up at me.

“What do you give us when we collect all the stamps?”