You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 590

“Good afternoon, Attorney.”

I had finished up what I needed to do and went into my room hoping to get some proper sleep, but when I opened my eyes, it was 3 PM.

I wanted to keep an eye on public opinion a bit longer, but I was afraid I’d miss my chance to sleep altogether and end up living like a zombie, so I quickly closed my eyes.

It would be troublesome if I messed up my daily rhythm and disrupted my schedule.

Once the broadcast starts, I’ll have to keep running until the special investigation, won’t I?

“Where are you going?”

As I opened the front door, Taeshik approached me.

“Going to the gym.”

“Of course. You can’t skip your workout.”

Taeshik looked at me as if I were admirable.

I put on my sneakers and looked around the quiet house.

“Where’s Attorney Kang?”

“I think he’s still sleeping. It’s quiet.”

He must have stayed up late looking at public opinion and ended up going to bed late.

If Taeshik hadn’t forced him into his room, he would still be sitting at the living room table with dark circles down to his chin, scrolling with his mouse wheel.

[Lobby floor.]

When I got off the elevator and entered the community space, I saw residents sitting in the lounge area, chatting.

I usually only go to the gym early in the morning, so this was the first time I’d seen people spending time here in the afternoon.

“There’s talk about Wooshin Hospital.”

What stopped me in my tracks was the word ‘Wooshin’ that they mentioned in their conversation.

“Really? Wooshin?”

“That’s what I heard. But it’s from a reliable source, and the disclosed conditions match.”

“I heard about it too, but I was hoping it wasn’t true.”

“Wooshin has had a lot of issues, but I thought it would recover quickly because it’s such a strong company, so I maintained my investment in Wooshin-related companies. But if organ trafficking is real, the aftermath could be significant. I need to see when to liquidate. I have bad memories too.”

“Ah, you invested in Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals, didn’t you? How much did you invest?”

“About 30 billion won.”

Having heard this much, it would be a shame to just pass by, wouldn’t it?

I naturally approached the nearby table and sat with my back to them.

“Aren’t you going to the gym?”

“Just a minute.”

I pretended to look at my phone as if I had suddenly remembered something urgent, and decided to eavesdrop on their conversation a little longer.

“Didn’t the CEO of Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals come to see you back then?”

“He did. But I didn’t meet him. Why would I meet the guy who scammed us out of our money and blew 30 billion won?”

“Do you think this will have a big impact too? If those doctors who performed the organ trafficking are from Wooshin Hospital, then the rescued child must be from Angel House.”

“That’s right. There’s already the Angel House issue.”

“Hasn’t that been resolved yet?”

“Well, the contractor admitted to the contract killing, so it’s practically confirmed that Wooshin did it to kill Cha Juhan, but the question was whether the police could prove it. Or the contractor would just take the blame and it would be forgotten over time.”

“I was wondering what would happen with that case, but if organ trafficking breaks out here, things will get much bigger.”

The man called ‘Hyungnim’ [Korean term for ‘older brother,’ often used respectfully] clicked his tongue.

“Until now, they could stay silent and claim there wasn’t enough evidence to escape, but this… If the Angel House case had been forgotten, maybe, but it broke out again in such a short time. And the child is six years old. Trying to traffic organs from a young child, and even mobilizing medical staff at the chief level to put it in a foreigner’s body… This is a big deal. The negative image that has been building up since the owner’s family’s children will explode!”

“…Explode?”

“It will explode.”

“Oh… If it explodes, are you thinking about a boycott or something?”

“That’s a given. But boycotts are only effective when there are many alternatives, so I don’t know what the result will be. But this feels like it will spread to the owner’s family. It’s being transplanted into the grandson of a foreign politician, so would it just be a few doctors doing this? They even built a building for it. It’s obvious it’s the owner’s family’s orders. They even have a decent building.”

“If it’s the owner’s family’s orders, will that fact be revealed? It seems like it might end with the lower-level people taking the fall.”

I have no intention of letting it end with the lower-level people taking the fall, but that’s probably the general thought.

It shows what people’s perceptions are like, so I felt a bit bitter.

“Well, we’ll have to wait and see, but even if it’s not revealed, public opinion will be terrible.”

“I’m in the middle of due diligence and talking about investing, but I’m worried I should call it off.”

“Dojung Precision? A Wooshin subcontractor?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that run by a relative of the owner’s family?”

“Yes. So I thought even if other companies fail, this one wouldn’t.”

“If it were another subcontractor, it might be okay to invest with the intention of holding it for a long time and making a profit, but if the owner’s risk explodes there, problems will arise together, so I wouldn’t recommend investing. Do you think Cha Juhan will let it go?”

Saying the last sentence, the man called ‘Hyungnim’ chuckled.

“Cha Juhan must have had some kind of feud with Wooshin in his past life. It’s amazing how he keeps coming at them even after almost dying.”

Surprisingly, he’s right.

I’m doing this because I had a feud with them in my past life.

“Well, we need someone like Cha Juhan in this society. That’s how the world keeps turning.”

“Even though you lost 30 billion won because of him?”

“Why would that be because of him? Myunghwa Pharmaceuticals dug their own grave. I think highly of him. He seems smart himself. He’s rumored to be good at investing. Everything he touches goes up.”

“Really?”

“Oh, do you know he lives here?”

“Really? Have you seen him?”

“No. Unless you use the community often, residents don’t really get to know each other’s faces. But let’s be careful. Who knows? That person might be Cha Juhan.”

Is ‘that person’ he’s talking about me?

I glanced at Taeshik.

Well, it’s not easy to think of Taeshik as me.

“CEO Lee is here. Let’s go out.”

Taeshik secretly followed them with his eyes until they left this place, then opened his mouth.

“That person is Kim Seungpyo, Vice Chairman of Mirae Financial.”

“Mirae Financial Group?”

“Yes.”

Since being kidnapped in this villa, Taeshik has been determined to find out the identities of the people living in this villa.

He couldn’t find out everything, but if Taeshik or Sanggil had ever encountered them, they were automatically subject to investigation.

“Are you sure it’s Kim Seungpyo?”

“I just checked the list and it’s him. Search it up.”

As Taeshik said, when I searched the internet, the man called ‘Hyungnim’ was indeed Kim Seungpyo of Mirae Financial Group.

Mirae Financial Group is a financial company that separated from a conglomerate ranked in the top 30 in the business world, and made its name in Korea by focusing on securities firms.

Kim Seungpyo is a young businessman in his early 50s, who has been in charge of establishing Mirae Financial Group since his early 40s and has achieved its current growth.

Of course, I have no connection with him.

Ah, I have an account with Mirae Securities, so should I say that sending gifts every year is a connection?

“Still, it’s quite encouraging that people called chaebols [Korean term for family-owned conglomerates] have a negative outlook on Wooshin.”

In the meantime, I have been a thorn in the side of those so-called privileged classes.

No, I was worse than a thorn in their side.

I was often seen as an egg hitting a rock, a moth flying into a streetlight.

That was the case even when I put all but one of Koh Sangjun’s sons in prison.

Everyone thought Wooshin would recover quickly anyway.

But the vice chairman of a major domestic investment firm said that this incident would have a big impact, which means that the work we have been doing has had a definite effect, doesn’t it?

Since I’ve stopped here anyway, I decided to check the public opinion on the organ trafficking case.

When I clicked on the article with the most views, there were indeed many comments.

[dls***: Organ trafficking in Korea? And the medical staff of a large hospital were all involved… I can’t believe it;; Did they report it wrong? It doesn’t make sense.

└ys1***: There was a police briefing, so I don’t think they reported it wrong… The police openly said it was an organized crime.

└oiy***: The fact that they created an investigation headquarters as soon as they caught them means it’s not a trivial matter. This is the first time I’ve seen the Korean police move so quickly.]

Many people seemed unable to believe that organ trafficking crimes had occurred in Korea.

I was also dumbfounded when I first learned about the existence of Ribbon Medical Center.

[rla***: It’s really scary ㄷㄷ So they were trying to put the organ of a child in an orphanage into the grandson of a foreign politician?

└lee***: I think so… Which country’s politician is it? And what organ were they trying to put in that they went this far… There’s not much information released, so I don’t know what’s going on.

wpr***: I wonder what organ they were trying to put in. It wouldn’t have been a common organ like a liver or kidney. That’s why they used a fake passport and came overseas.

└iiq***: I think so too… But then what happens to the child? Does that mean they were trying to kill him? ㄷㄷㄷ

pmn***: I’m a little curious why they chose Korea. There are other countries that are famous for this.

└unk***: That’s true, but the fact that there was an illegal medical facility with a full hospital setup means that some big shot was trying to do it in earnest.]

Up to this point, it was a typical reaction.

But what’s interesting is what came next.

[gwo***: I have a bad feeling. It feels like cownew.

└uyq***: I also thought of cownew as soon as I saw the words ‘large hospital’ and ‘same foundation orphanage’.

└71h***: Me tooㅋㅋ

└re1***: What is cownew?

└qaz***: ㅇㅅㅋㅋ [Initials for Wooshin]

└bun***: Sigh, Choi Jonghyun and Cho Bongjun have tainted people strangelyㅋㅋㅋ Whenever there’s an incident related to a large company, they immediately say it’s Wooshin’s doing.

└kim***: Yes, Koh Sangjun, welcome. We’ll take you to jail.]

Yeah, at this point, it’s time to suspect Wooshin.

Since there was the Angel House incident recently, it’s not strange that Wooshin comes to mind right away if the victim was a child from an orphanage affiliated with a large hospital.

You should have lived right.

“Attorney, aren’t you going to work out?”

I was in the middle of checking the articles when Taeshik asked.

“I suddenly don’t want to work out.”

I got up from my seat.

Taeshik started nagging, explaining why I shouldn’t skip a workout even for a day, but I didn’t have time to listen.

It seems that information has been leaked from somewhere, as Kim Seungpyo said, and calls are starting to come in from everywhere.

[Lee Yejin: Cha Byeon-ah [Term of endearment, short for ‘Attorney Cha’]

Lee Yejin: Is organ trafficking really Wooshin’s doing?]

Starting with Lee Yejin,

[Jin Hyekyung: Hello, Attorney~ Do you know anything about the organ trafficking case?]

[Yoon Seyoun: Ah!!!! I’m at Iljung Ilbo, so I missed the first special report on this~~!!!!! I’m so upset!!!ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

Some of the journalists I know,

[Aunt 3: Juhan, this is your third aunt. You’re not answering the phone. Ask Sungyeol if the organ trafficking is Wooshin’s doing. He needs to sell his stock.]

…Even to relatives.

Including messages from people not saved in my phone, there’s no end to it.

I didn’t think it was the right time to reply yet, so I left it alone, but I got on the elevator and called Cho Bongjun.

“We need to start the broadcast today.”

* * *

[Title: Broadcasting at 8 PM Today

This is Choi Jonghyun and Cho Bongjun.

We will start broadcasting at 8 PM today.

Please spread the word and see you later.

p.s. Today will be really fun.

justice lim: As expected….

81029178: I knew itㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

cownew: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ The answer is out ㅅㄱ [Short for ‘it’s over’]

Kim Sangcheol: I came in just in case, and as expectedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

MyStockIsPaper: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah, so funny

youngsoo: The situation where the conclusion is reached with just the word ‘broadcasting’ without a single line about cownew in the noticeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]