You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 85

They Are Defended – Episode 85

Im Hyeong-oh frowned.

Then, he started to laugh.

“What the… fuck. You guys aren’t from Yangjin Group’s legal team. Are you Jung Young-joon’s lawyer? That son of a bitch Jung Young-joon thinks I leaked the video? Huh?”

He suddenly changed his attitude and started shouting.

I sighed, and Kang Min-jae sat a little closer to him, trying to calm him down.

“Mr. Im Hyeong-oh, that’s not it. Please, just listen to us.”

“Bullshit, what do you mean it’s not! If someone filmed and spread a video like that, it would at least be someone he has a grudge against. That’s me, isn’t it? He must know, right? How messed up his actions were? That’s why he sent you guys to me. Isn’t it?”

“So, did you film the video?”

I asked directly.

In any case, what was important to me was the timing to use my ability.

I had heard the circumstances, so now it was time to find the answer.

However, Kang Min-jae looked at me and shook his head.

It seemed he wanted to say that such words would only worsen his condition.

“Video? Fuck, yeah. I filmed it. Why?”

He stuck his face in front of me like a madman, making a ridiculous expression.

Then, he licked his lips and snickered.

“So. Are you going to put me in jail? Yeah, please put me in jail. They give you three meals a day and make you exercise there, right? I’m going there. I filmed it! Yeah! I filmed it!”

[Lie]

I smiled slightly.

Perhaps even more angered by that, Im Hyeong-oh jumped up and yelled.

“Why are you laughing, you bastard? Do you think I’m a joke? Huh? Is it funny? I said I filmed it! Go tell Jung Young-joon to sue me. I want to see his face!”

“Since you filmed it yourself, let me ask you. How many women did you hire to film that video?”

“…What?”

“I asked how many you hired. You planned the video yourself, so you should know. You didn’t have much financial leeway because of your mother’s illness and your sibling’s settlement money, so you must have scraped together every penny to hire the women. So you should remember exactly how many there were.”

“…”

At my question, Im Hyeong-oh closed his mouth like a clam.

“Don’t you remember?”

“Yeah, four? About four or five, yeah!”

“Is that so.”

“Yeah. You thought I couldn’t do it because I’m dirt poor? Fuck, I hit the jackpot at the casino once, so I thought it was a good opportunity and prepared right away. What are you going to do about it?”

“Kang, let’s go back to Seoul. We’ve barked up the wrong tree.”

I said, getting up.

Kang Min-jae, who had been holding his arm and desperately trying to stop his overreaction, carefully let go of him and stood up as well.

“Where are you going? I said I did it! I said I filmed it!”

“Mr. Im Hyeong-oh, it seems you still have some affection for Jung Young-joon.”

“…What?”

At my words, Im Hyeong-oh scoffed as if he was dumbfounded.

“It seems you haven’t even watched the famous video. If I were you, if someone I hated so much became a victim of a sex video, I would somehow find it and watch it. Or at least I would watch Jung Young-joon being criticized by the entire nation because of that video. It seems Mr. Im Hyeong-oh hasn’t even looked at the comments on the articles.”

The fact that there are nearly ten women appearing in the video is information that can be found just by looking at the comments, even if you haven’t watched the video directly.

“I saw that internet cafes in Sabuk cost 600 won per hour on the way here. Surely you have 600 won.”

I don’t know exactly, but it seems there is some misunderstanding between the two.

If Jung Young-joon really turned his back on him as Im Hyeong-oh claims, Jung Young-joon wouldn’t have defended Im Hyeong-oh to the end, saying that he wasn’t the kind of person to do that.

I said, putting on my shoes at the entrance.

“We paid the overdue rent. Don’t worry, we won’t charge you separately. I hope you pay off the remaining debt soon.”

Leaving the motel, I suddenly had this thought.

Isn’t the real reason Im Hyeong-oh falsely claimed that he filmed the video in the ‘I want to see his face’ that he said later? [Perhaps he wanted Jung Young-joon to see him.]

He tried to ask Jung Young-joon for help twice but was rejected both times and never met him.

Perhaps in the deepest part of his heart, he still believes that Jung Young-joon would never turn his back on him.

So he wanted to use this as an opportunity to meet Jung Young-joon and properly question him.

Hadn’t Im Hyeong-oh said that he thought of Jung Young-joon as a brother?

“Attorney.”

“Why.”

Kang’s car slid through the night streets of Sabuk.

He hesitated for a moment, then spoke with difficulty.

“It seems like there’s a misunderstanding between the two of them, shouldn’t we tell Mr. Jung Young-joon?”

When I didn’t answer, Kang quickly added.

“I know you don’t like getting involved in these personal matters, but it’s a bit of a shame. If something went wrong and that’s how it happened, Jung Young-joon might have helped Im Hyeong-oh. Then Im Hyeong-oh might not have broken down like this. Ah, of course, I’m not saying we should tell the confused Jung Young-joon right away… I was wondering if we could casually mention it when the case is somewhat settled…”

Kang trailed off, watching my expression.

I still didn’t answer.

And I opened my phone and sent a text message to Jung Young-joon.

[This is Cha Joo-han. I think you can rest assured. As you said, Mr. Im Hyeong-oh was not the culprit.]

After confirming that the text message was sent, I closed the flip phone.

I said, looking out the window.

“I didn’t answer.”

“Yes?”

“I said I didn’t answer. Do as you see fit.”

“Yes! I’ll take care of it! Haha. Then shall we go eat makguksu [Korean buckwheat noodles] now? With potato pancakes and makgeolli [Korean rice wine]?”

“Are you thinking of driving drunk?”

At my question, Kang Min-jae’s face instantly turned gloomy.

“Ah, that’s right. Then just makguksu and potato pancakes…”

“I’ll eat Kang’s share too.”

“Yes? Are you saying you’re going to drink makgeolli alone now?”

“Don’t talk to me until we get to the makguksu place. I’m going to catch some sleep.”

“No, Attorney. That’s not right. Yes? No ordering makgeolli. No ordering.”

“Then dongdongju [another type of Korean rice wine].”

I answered, taking out a blanket from the glove box and covering myself.

“No dongdongju either! Ah!”

“Look ahead and drive. The night road is dark. It would be a problem if a roe deer jumped out.”

* * *

“The doorbell is a bit loud, right? I tried to adjust it, but I didn’t know how, so I just left it.”

The sound of the doorbell that we had just pressed outside the front door was still echoing loudly inside the house.

When I replied that it was okay, Jung Young-joon went to the living room and sat down with an awkward expression.

As we took our seats opposite him, he didn’t seem to want to kill time with small talk either, and immediately got to the point.

“Ah, I did get the medical certificate… Is this all I need to give you?”

Jung Young-joon placed the envelope on the table and slumped onto the sofa.

Jung Young-joon, whom I had met after a long time, looked more haggard than before.

At his words that it was difficult to go outside, we came to the officetel [a building with both office and residential units] where he was staying.

The officetel was quite luxurious, but the interior was not.

“Ah, the house is a bit messy, right? I’m sorry. I tried to clean it up.”

As he said, it was.

Even though summer had not yet fully arrived, flies were buzzing around the kitchen.

There were several traces of eating cup noodles or delivered food, but it didn’t seem like he was eating well.

He had lost more weight than when I saw him before.

I didn’t bother with his personal stories.

I just picked up the medical certificate he handed me.

“I’ll take a look.”

The medical certificate was prescribed by a neuropsychiatrist and included diagnoses of social phobia, panic disorder, anxiety disorder, and depression.

“Did you get a prescription for medication?”

“I did, but… Well… You have to search until you find the right psychiatric medication for you. It seems like what I was prescribed this time is not enough. It doesn’t seem to work very well.”

Jung Young-joon swept back his disheveled hair as he answered.

His voice was full of sighs.

“Actually, it wasn’t my first time going to a psychiatrist. I had been going since about two years after I married Jin-ah. Then I wanted to have a baby, so I stopped taking the medication in case it would have an effect.”

“Is it because of the stress you received from your in-laws?”

“Yes.”

How many people would be okay after being despised that much by their in-laws?

It feels rather natural.

“You said to think about who I might have a grudge against. But, the more I think about it, the more I suspect even the people I had minor arguments with. People can’t live without conflict, can they? I’ve lived through countless conflicts too. So, I thought that maybe the other person really had anger management issues and was so angry with me over something trivial that they were trying to harm me. It’s like a kind of delusion…”

He said, hanging his head.

I had asked Tae-shik to investigate the lovers he had met before he married, but Tae-shik said that it seemed like there was no one he had properly dated.

And Jung Young-joon also replied that Go Jin-ah was the first person he had a proper relationship with.

Until then, he had only maintained bland relationships, and there were people with the title of lover, but they had never loved each other passionately.

“Jin-ah was all firsts for me. The reason I gritted my teeth and endured the humiliation I received from my in-laws was all because of Jin-ah. Only because of Jin-ah. Because Jin-ah wanted it.”

At this point, I can’t help but think of his in-laws, whom I suspected the most when I first met him.

And Jung Young-joon was also having those thoughts.

“It’s my in-laws. No matter how I think about it, it’s only my in-laws. It seems like it’s my father-in-law and mother-in-law’s doing. When I looked into it, it turned out that there would be no problem with the 24/7 convenience store acquisition even if the video was released.”

“Which channel did you confirm that through?”

“I heard it from the CFO [Chief Financial Officer] of Yangjin Retail. He used to be in F&B [Food and Beverage]. He was the one who encouraged me a lot. He said he was worried that the stock price would fall because of my case and the 24/7 convenience store acquisition would fall through, but he firmly replied that there was no problem.”

If there is no problem with the acquisition of the 24/7 convenience store’s Korean business, then Yangjin Group has no losses.

The stock price had hit its lowest point a week ago, but it was gradually rising again.

In any case, it is a large company ranked 7th in the business world.

There was no way it would suffer irreparable damage from this kind of thing.

Even if a video of the chairman himself, not his son-in-law, engaging in prostitution was circulating, it would soon be forgotten.

Rather, if they acquire the 24/7 convenience store, the stock price will rise again, saying that good news has occurred.

“Should I ask my in-laws directly? I don’t think they’ll answer honestly, but you never know…”

“That’s not a good idea. There’s no point in the other party knowing that we suspect them.”

“Then, how can we find out? Unless we wiretap my father-in-law’s cell phone, there’s no way to find out!”

“Even if we wiretap, it can’t be adopted as evidence. We’ll find a way.”

The date promised by the National Intelligence Service was approaching.

Tomorrow, I will be able to get a video with clean image quality.

If we check again then, we can get clues about who the person in the video is.

If Yangjin Group is behind it, Yangjin Group wouldn’t have entrusted the work to just anyone.

The work may have been carried out by the secretary’s office, which the chairman of Yangjin Group uses like a shadow.

If we can find those traces at the scene in the video, proving it won’t be difficult.

“How are you going to find a way… how are you going to find a way? How long will it take? That damn lawyer Jin-ah hired is still thinking about how to cleanly tear me and Jin-ah apart! And, Jin-ah will harden her heart more and more as time passes. If that happens, even if evidence comes out later that I’m innocent, Jin-ah’s heart may have already left. Then I…”

Jung Young-joon’s emotional swings became more severe.

Kang Min-jae tried to stop him, but I stopped him.

It wasn’t particularly unpleasant for me to be the target of his anger.

Many clients are like that.

Even when I was a prosecutor, the families of victims often rummaged through the prosecutor’s office, asking when we would find the culprit.

Officer Oh tried to stop them like Kang Min-jae is doing now, but I told him to just leave them alone unless I had other schedules.

They also need a place to vent their resentment and anger.

“Mr. Jung Young-joon. Is your parents’ house far from here?”

Kang Min-jae asked.

Jung Young-joon, who was suppressing his anger with a distorted expression, raised his head slightly and asked.

“…My parents’ house? Why are you asking that?”

“I don’t think it’s good for you to be alone right now. Looking at it briefly, it seems like you’re skipping meals. And as it says in the medical certificate, you’re in a psychologically unstable state, so it would be good to be with people who can encourage you.”

Kang Min-jae is right.

Living alone gives you freedom, but sometimes it brings even more extreme feelings of depression.

In a space that is completely quiet except for the sound of the television, you are alone without anyone to talk to.

Unless I deliberately make a phone call to someone or invite someone, there is no one in this space who speaks to me.

If you don’t talk, your thoughts become deeper and deeper.

As Jung Young-joon said, those deepened thoughts often reach the stage of delusion.

No one knows how far that delusion will drive Jung Young-joon.

“I know why you’re saying that. But I don’t want to show my parents that I’m this broken. They’ll worry. I’ll try to endure it well. Don’t worry, attorneys. I was too emotional, right? I’m sorry. It’s not your fault…”

Jung Young-joon smiled faintly.

I decided not to tell him that I was working on improving the video quality.

If no clues come out of it, the despair Jung Young-joon will feel will overwhelm him.