You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 64

“Oh, you’re here, Attorney.”

As I entered Jin-cheol’s hospital room, his mother greeted us.

She was peeling fruit and feeding it to Jin-cheol.

Jin-cheol had casts on both arms, so he couldn’t even pick up fruit with a fork himself.

We handed her the beverage set we had brought and sat down in the caregiver’s chair.

“Hello.”

Jin-cheol slightly bowed his head as he looked at us, then avoided eye contact.

He must have been embarrassed since he had cried and confided in strangers about things he hadn’t even told his mother.

“How have you been, Jin-cheol? How’s the pain?”

“I’m okay. I still can’t move, though.”

“That’s good. What have you been up to lately?”

“Just watching movies. The teacher hasn’t brought the handouts yet, so even if I wanted to study, there’s nothing to do.”

Jin-cheol pointed to the television set on one side of the hospital room with his chin.

“What studying? When you don’t go to school, it’s a day to play.”

Kang Min-jae said with a grin.

Then Jin-cheol smiled faintly.

“I’ll be a senior in high school soon. Can I still get into a good university if I don’t study like this?”

“Of course. Absolutely.”

“Have you ever not studied for this long, Attorney?”

“Yeah. I didn’t study much in my sophomore year of high school. I was always playing around.”

“Which school did you go to?”

“Oh, um… Seoul National University.”

Then Jin-cheol scoffed, as if he was dumbfounded.

“Oh, come on. You’re just messing with me.”

“Actually, I retook the entrance exam [referring to taking an extra year to study after high school graduation],” Kang Min-jae whispered.

Jin-cheol finally relaxed his expression, which had been on the verge of easing, and laughed like a child.

While they were laughing and chatting, it was already 6 o’clock, the time the homeroom teacher was supposed to arrive.

Around that time, Jin-cheol’s mother also looked noticeably anxious.

Even though I had told her in advance that they wouldn’t come up with any meaningful investigation results, she still seemed to be holding onto hope.

“Kang Attorney, go wait in the car now.”

“Huh? Why?”

I needed to use my ability to determine whether the homeroom teacher had someone who could help, but it would be difficult if Kang Attorney was watching the entire conversation.

He would definitely throw a fit and refuse to move until I told him how I could deduce that just from that.

“Do you want to be stuck in the office forever?”

“No. No, I’ll leave.”

Fortunately, the fact that I could control Kang Attorney with just a simple command was a relief.

Kang Min-jae left the hospital room without arguing.

As soon as that noisy guy left, the hospital room became quiet in an instant.

“…….”

I was thinking about what else to talk about, trying to come up with a topic, but Jin-cheol spoke first.

“Can I ask which school you went to, Attorney?”

“Seoul National University,” I replied, and Jin-cheol sighed and asked.

“Did you retake the entrance exam too, Attorney?”

“No, I entered straight out of high school.”

“The other attorney seems too optimistic. What do you think? I have to stay in the hospital for two months like this. Do you think I can still get into a good university?”

I prepared for the university entrance exam 17 years ago, even considering my current age, and in my memory, it was 27 years ago.

I don’t know what the university entrance exam is like these days, but what I can say depends on what his current grades are like.

However, there is something I can say regardless of that.

“You might just hear this as something adults say, but still, if I were to tell you… Your mother might not like what I’m about to say.”

As I glanced at his mother, Jin-cheol smiled.

“What is it?”

“University isn’t as important in life as you think. Living like a decent human being is what’s important.”

“That’s too much like a moral textbook.”

“But that’s really how it is. I used to be a prosecutor. So I’ve met all sorts of people, and going to a good university doesn’t guarantee you’ll live well, and not going to university doesn’t mean you can’t live well. So I hope you don’t feel anxious about university right now.”

Jin-cheol’s mother was flustered by Jin-cheol’s question and interrupted the conversation.

“Jin-cheol, don’t worry about your grades right now. Think about getting better first. Okay?”

“How can I not? I can’t even take the midterm exams right now. I can’t go to tutoring either. Mom told me I have to go to a good university. Honestly, even while being bullied, I studied pretty hard to get into a better university and make more money than those bastards to get revenge…”

His mother tried to quickly smooth things over, but Jin-cheol took his eyes off her and asked me.

“Lee Hyuk-min has never missed being the top student in the entire school. I’m going to be behind for two months. Like that attorney, will I get upset if Lee Hyuk-min goes to a good school and does well?”

“Well, Kang Attorney gave up on confronting them back then, but you’re not. If Lee Hyuk-min pays the price for what he did wrong, you won’t have to suffer from those feelings.”

Lee Hyuk-min is the ringleader of the school violence.

If he receives a normal punishment, he deserves to be expelled, and his father should also step down from his position as superintendent of education.

Jin-cheol might feel good seeing that, but that shouldn’t become Jin-cheol’s sole reason for seeking justice.

Because the law is not a means of revenge.

“Still, if you’re worried about university, you’ll be discharged before you become a senior in high school, so you can work hard from then on.”

“Won’t it be too late? The teachers at the tutoring center say that sophomore year is more important than senior year.”

“Do you think that makes sense? How can sophomore year be more important than senior year?”

“That’s true. Ah, I’m still worried.”

Well, it doesn’t seem like my long speech worked very well.

There was a knock on the hospital room door.

“It looks like the teacher is here.”

No sooner had his mother finished speaking than the homeroom teacher opened the hospital room door and entered.

He was holding a file in one hand and a fruit basket in the other.

“Hello, ma’am. Jin-cheol, have you been well?”

“Hello.”

Jin-cheol nodded his head slightly in greeting.

The homeroom teacher handed the fruit basket to his mother and then looked at me with a slightly uncomfortable expression.

“It looks like Jin-cheol’s uncle is here too.”

“Yes. I came to see if Jin-cheol is doing well, and I’m seeing you again like this.”

“Ah, yes.”

The homeroom teacher smiled very awkwardly and sat next to Jin-cheol.

Jin-cheol looked at the homeroom teacher with the bright expression he had shown just a moment ago gone.

“Jin-cheol, how’s your body?”

The homeroom teacher looked at Jin-cheol’s body in various ways and said as if he was worried.

Jin-cheol turned his head slightly towards the window and did not answer.

“…….”

When no words came back, the homeroom teacher also hesitated as if he was embarrassed and started talking to himself.

“You must have been very surprised, right? After taking you to the emergency room that day, I tried to come and see you again, but I couldn’t because I was worried it might bother you.”

At the homeroom teacher’s words, his mother scoffed, as if she was dumbfounded.

The homeroom teacher seemed a little surprised by his mother’s reaction, but he didn’t dwell on it and placed the file he was holding on Jin-cheol’s blanket.

“This is the handout that came out for each subject for a week. And it’s almost midterm exam time, so… um, I guess I have to talk about the exam?”

“…….”

Jin-cheol, who had been worried about his grades until just now, still didn’t answer.

He continued to maintain a blank expression and didn’t even look at the homeroom teacher.

“According to school regulations, in the case of being marked absent due to illness, 80% of the previous final exam score is reflected in the grade.”

Jin-cheol’s shoulders twitched a little.

No matter how much I told him that university is not important in life, Jin-cheol, a high school student in Korea, has no choice but to worry about his grades.

Moreover, it would be even more so in this area where the zeal for education is the highest.

“And the classmates want to come and visit you in the hospital, would that be okay?”

At the homeroom teacher’s question, Jin-cheol’s face turned white in an instant.

“Which classmates?”

Jin-cheol asked in a trembling voice.

He seemed to feel fear at the thought of facing his classmates.

“All the kids. Everyone is very worried about you. The teacher too.”

At those words, Jin-cheol let out a snicker.

“Who? Who is worried about me?”

“Jin-cheol.”

“Who is worried about me? No one would have been, right? Then when I fell in the classroom that day, at least one person, ha… That’s enough. I don’t need it. Teacher, just go. Just send me those handouts by email from now on, and don’t come either.”

Jin-cheol turned away and covered his head with the blanket.

The embarrassed teacher looked at his mother, but she was not in a calm state either.

“I’ll talk to the teacher. Teacher, let’s talk outside for a moment.”

It seemed like the voices would get louder if I talked with Jin-cheol’s mother in the room.

The teacher left the hospital room with me and went into the lounge.

“Teacher, when I visited the school last time, the principal said that he would ask the children to write down what happened that day anonymously.”

“Ah, yes. I was going to tell you that today, but Jin-cheol’s mother seems very angry…”

The homeroom teacher said in a small voice.

It wasn’t that I didn’t understand his mother’s attitude.

It seemed that the homeroom teacher was just trying to appease Jin-cheol’s family’s anger rather than trying to solve the incident.

“Please tell me. So, what was the result?”

“Um, first of all, we did as much as we could. We called the kids who usually got along well with Jin-cheol separately and asked them in detail, and we also used the method you just mentioned.”

“Yes.”

“…But, all the classmates say that day they were just playing around and a slipper flew off, and Jin-cheol fell while trying to catch it. Not a single child wrote a different story.”

[Truth]