You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 88

“I… I don’t have the strength to keep living. You only say that because you feel sorry for me. I don’t even have time to think about revenge. Just thinking about getting back what I lost is overwhelming.”

“I live to take revenge. Until the moment I die, my head is filled with the thought that I have to take revenge, even as a ghost. That’s why I live to take revenge now. Jung Young-joon, dying like this now is no different from a dog’s death.”

I said, cradling Jung Young-joon’s legs.

What Jung Young-joon is trying to do now isn’t suicide.

It’s being murdered by a chaebol [a wealthy family conglomerate, often wielding significant social and economic power].

Even if Yang Jin didn’t produce and distribute his video, the reason he came to this point wasn’t a problem of Jung Young-joon as an individual.

Before the marriage, his relationships were clean.

The reason Jung Young-joon is in such a predicament is solely because he is the son-in-law of the Yangjin Group.

“Lawyer Kang! Oh, Jung Young-joon!”

At that moment, Kang Min-jae burst into the room where Jung Young-joon and I were.

Lawyer Kang seemed very shocked, but in this situation, I couldn’t allow him the time to be leisurely surprised.

I turned my head toward him and said.

“Lawyer Kang, there are scissors on the floor. Stand on the chair and cut the hose.”

On the floor were the scissors that Jung Young-joon presumably used to tie the hose to the curtain rod.

Kang Min-jae quickly picked up the scissors, set up the chair, and climbed on it.

And when he cut the hose, Jung Young-joon plunged straight to the floor.

I also felt him falling on top of me and fell to the floor with him.

“Lawyer! Jung Young-joon! Oh my, what is going on? Should I call 119 [the emergency services number in South Korea, similar to 911] ? Huh?”

I got out from under Jung Young-joon and examined his neck.

His breathing seemed to have returned while I was holding his legs, and he looked fine except for the hose marks around his neck.

I got up and looked at him, who was lying on the floor, gasping for breath.

“I think you should go to the hospital.”

“I’m okay, I haven’t been hanging for long.”

“You should still go to the hospital. I’ll take you.”

Kang Min-jae said, supporting Jung Young-joon, who was struggling to raise his upper body.

But Jung Young-joon still shook his head.

“If I go to the hospital, the news that I tried to commit suicide will spread like wildfire anyway. Actually, until you opened the front door, and even until you tried to open this room, I was still hesitating.”

Jung Young-joon touched his forehead.

Cold sweat was flowing down his temples.

“But when I thought you were outside the door, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to die unless I kicked the chair quickly. That’s when I kicked the chair. But you kicked the door open right away. So, I must have only been hanging for a few seconds……”

Watching him mumble like a drenched mouse, I gestured to Kang Min-jae.

“Get him some water.”

“Yes.”

Kang Min-jae left the room, and he, still holding his forehead and looking only at the floor, quietly opened his mouth.

“I felt like I had to die.”

“……”

“I felt like I was going crazy, so I tried to find out how celebrities who had such big incidents overcame it… But there were only stories of celebrities who chose suicide after suffering from rumors. I looked at those articles as if possessed. There were also videos showing the funerals of those celebrities. When I saw it, even celebrities who I had only met briefly on TV and only knew by face came to pay their respects.”

Jung Young-joon sighed and stroked the red area around his neck.

“Some people were even celebrities who had once had a severe conflict and eventually broke up… The reason for choosing death was different, but the ex-husband also came to pay his respects with a gloomy face.”

Tears welled up again in Jung Young-joon’s voice.

His face, which had regained its color, flushed red again.

Veins bulged in his temples, and Jung Young-joon shed tears.

“When I saw that, I also felt like I wanted to die. I don’t know, me too. I didn’t even have fans who would wail at the news of my death like those people.”

Unlike the tears that flowed, his voice was choked as if trying to stop the sobs from bursting out.

“If I die too, sniff, even if we’ve fallen out of love… wouldn’t Jin-ah come? Still, we’ve lived together for seven years, wouldn’t Jin-ah cry? Sob, if I leave a will saying that I’m not the kind of person in the video, sniff, wouldn’t people believe me……?”

But before long, he began to cry like a child.

“Revenge? Haa… I can’t even dream of revenge. Because, sob, I’m stupid and clumsy. For seven long years, I couldn’t adapt to that family, and I couldn’t even win over my father-in-law and mother-in-law. Heuh… I can’t even give you lawyers a proper clue. I just whine all the time. How dare I dream of revenge?”

Jung Young-joon wiped away his tears and looked at me with reddened eyes.

“Only capable and strong people like you can dream of revenge. I’m incompetent and weak, so I can’t do that… I can’t do that.”

“Even if you are incompetent and weak, you have something you want, don’t you? Didn’t you say you wanted to protect your family?”

“……”

“I don’t think Jung Young-joon is incompetent and weak. I just think the situation has made Jung Young-joon look that way for a while.”

In my previous life, I experienced countless failures.

Before the Wooshin Group special investigation began, I was often powerless against their power and lost everything.

Colleagues disappeared and returned as cold corpses.

For the first few times, I wanted to give up everything like Jung Young-joon.

I couldn’t get out of the terrible self-hatred.

Let’s just let it all go, what kind of wealth and glory am I trying to enjoy by going this far.

I’m already out of their sight, and wherever I go, a black car follows me, so I can’t be free anywhere.

So, let’s just go to my parents and colleagues and be comfortable.

But every time, there were people who stopped me.

Sometimes with anger, sometimes with coaxing.

If it weren’t for the colleagues who tried to lift me up, I wouldn’t have been mixed with cement and died in my previous life, but I would have hanged myself somewhere like Jung Young-joon.

“……That’s what my younger sister used to say.”

Jung Young-joon smiled faintly after listening to my words carefully.

“My younger sister also said that to me. That I’m not such a pathetic person, but the environment around me is making me look that way.”

Jung Young-joon staggered to his feet.

And he captured the midday sky visible through the window in his eyes.

“I thought that if I didn’t have Jin-ah, I would be left alone in the world.”

His world was swallowed up by his in-laws.

After the marriage, he was no longer Jung Young-joon.

He had to live as Go Jin-ah’s husband or the managing director of Yangjin F&B [Food and Beverage company].

So, he must have thought that if his wife left, his world would collapse.

“Honestly, I still don’t know. My mood fluctuates several times a day. Now that I’m talking to you, I think the choice I made was really foolish… But I don’t know when my mind will change again.”

“Jung Young-joon.”

“……Yes.”

“Go back to your parents’ house with your parents and younger sibling. It would be better for you to stay there.”

When he first came to the law firm, he was with his younger sister.

When I called his younger sister to open the door to this house today, she was very worried about Jung Young-joon.

At least his family members sincerely care about him.

Jung Young-joon now needs to be with people who give him strength.

“Haa.”

Jung Young-joon sighed as if the ground would sink.

“Then at least you won’t think that your wife is your whole world.”

The seven years he spent with his in-laws took away his self-esteem.

The years he lived relying solely on Go Jin-ah made him a person who couldn’t bear Go Jin-ah’s absence.

In fact, I haven’t trusted Go Jin-ah very much since I took on this case.

As Jung Young-joon feared, even if Go Jin-ah found out that all of this was caused by her parents’ slander, I didn’t think she would choose Jung Young-joon over her parents.

From the beginning to the present, I consistently do not think that she is a miraculously born mutant in that arrogant chaebol family.

I told Jung Young-joon that he had to live if he wanted to protect his family, but the reality was that I couldn’t think so positively.

Even if everything goes well, it doesn’t seem like he will be able to protect his family.

The biggest problem is that if he continues in this state, Jung Young-joon may try to take his own life again if he cannot reunite with Go Jin-ah.

Lawyers have no obligation to take responsibility after death, but at least I don’t want to hear such news.

I don’t want to see anyone else being directly or indirectly murdered by a chaebol.

Especially if it’s someone who has gone through me.

“Here, I brought water.”

In the silence, Kang Min-jae’s voice was heard.

He seemed to be standing outside the door, waiting for his timing to appear.

It couldn’t have taken this long to get water.

“Thank you.”

Jung Young-joon took the cup from him.

Kang Min-jae watched him drink the water and said carefully.

“I also agree with you. I think it would be good to go and stay at your parents’ house.”

“……I will.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m always causing trouble. I can’t even help with the investigation, and I’m making you watch someone commit suicide……”

“Oh, don’t say that.”

Kang Min-jae waved his hand.

I approached Kang Min-jae and picked up the briefcase he had thrown on the floor.

And from inside, I took out the holder.

“If you think you’re causing trouble, then how about this? Try your best to remember if you’ve ever seen it.”

Inside was a photo of the ring that we had printed out from the NIS [National Intelligence Service] karaoke bar today.

“What is this?”

“This is the ring worn by the cameraman who filmed Jung Young-joon’s video. It seems to be a custom design.”

“Was something like this filmed in the video?”

“It became visible after restoring the quality and adjusting the brightness.”

Kang Min-jae explained what we had guessed about the ring.

In addition, he conveyed to him all the opinions we had while watching the video.

“Have you ever seen this ring?”