You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 96

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 96

I couldn’t answer easily.

It was unlikely that Jung Young-joon had told Go Jin-ah the truth first.

Even if he had, he would have told me before receiving a call from Taekwang like this.

So, Go Jin-ah must have found out the information herself, and it was difficult to decide whether to readily agree to something the client didn’t want.

-Attorney Cha Joo-han. It’s almost May. Almost two months have passed since Jung Young-joon’s video went viral. I don’t know when Jung Young-joon hired you, but I think we need to start a conversation. We believe we have waited long enough for Jung Young-joon. My client is not only suffering from betrayal because her husband broke his trust but is also experiencing social harm. Please consider her position as well.

I sighed deeply.

Kang Min-jae looked at me with a puzzled expression, and Tae-shik, who had been angry, also seemed to have forgotten his anger and was watching me.

“Excuse me, but Jung Young-joon hasn’t informed you that he has hired a lawyer yet. How did you contact our office?”

-Jung Young-joon is avoiding the issue rather than resolving it, so we had no choice but to take action first. We ask for your understanding in this matter.

“…I understand. I’ll discuss it with my client and get back to you. Can I contact you again at this number?”

-Yes. We look forward to a prompt response. Please remember that Go Jin-ah has been waiting for a very long time.

The call ended, and Kang Min-jae quickly approached me.

“What’s going on? Is this Taekwang?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It seems like something leaked. About Jung Young-joon hiring us.”

“…Did Jung Young-joon tell her?”

From Go Jin-ah’s perspective, it might seem like Jung Young-joon was taking a long time, but we were planning to use that time to gather evidence that the video was manipulated before meeting her.

There was no need to meet and risk losing without proper evidence.

However, now that Go Jin-ah’s side knew that Jung Young-joon had hired a lawyer, there was no justification for avoiding discussion.

Even if the conversation is meaningless, we have to meet.

“Tae-shik.”

“Yes?”

“Check again if Jung Young-joon has contacted anyone today.”

I hadn’t received today’s report from Sang-gil, who was still watching Jung Young-joon.

If he had contacted someone, he would have contacted me immediately, but I needed to check just in case.

Tae-shik picked up his phone and seemed to make a call for a moment, then shook his head.

“He’s still at home.”

“…Okay, Attorney Kang. Call Jung Young-joon. It might be difficult to talk about the case at Jung Young-joon’s house since his family is there. Attorney Kang, you’ll have to bring him to the office.”

“Understood.”

Two hours later, Jung Young-joon arrived at the office with Kang Min-jae.

His face was pale.

It didn’t seem like he had directly informed Go Jin-ah that he had hired a lawyer.

“As Attorney Kang explained on the way here, Go Jin-ah’s side knows that Jung Young-joon has hired us.”

“Yes. But, how…?”

While Attorney Kang was bringing him, it wasn’t like nothing had come to mind.

I looked at Jung Young-joon.

There was no point in continuing to hide the truth from Jung Young-joon, which we were already half sure of.

We were just waiting for Jung Young-joon’s condition to improve before speaking.

“It seems like they might have confirmed it when Jung Young-joon went to the Yangjin F&B headquarters with Attorney Kang.”

“…What do you mean? We checked for reporters then, turned around, and contacted Jin-ah a while later. And we weren’t caught by the reporters then either. Jin-ah also said she couldn’t keep checking.”

“Yes, but she probably didn’t stop checking.”

At my words, Jung Young-joon tilted his head as if asking what I meant.

“What…?”

“Actually, when you told Go Jin-ah you were going to visit the headquarters before you left, do you remember Go Jin-ah saying somewhat strongly not to cause her trouble by being caught by reporters?”

“Yes, I do. At that time, when I came out of the headquarters’ underground parking lot and called her, Jin-ah said she didn’t know I had arrived, and she was relieved that I wasn’t caught by the reporters anyway…”

I didn’t know she had said that.

It was a very brazen attitude.

“It’s strange that someone who is very concerned that Jung Young-joon being exposed to reporters would cause her trouble wouldn’t have been constantly informed whether there were reporters in the underground parking lot that Jung Young-joon was supposed to enter.”

“…That’s,”

“If she didn’t keep checking, as Go Jin-ah said, that means she didn’t think Jung Young-joon being exposed to reporters would be a risk to her. If that’s the case, there would be no reason to say that to Jung Young-joon. She wouldn’t have said she would tell the security team and would have just told Jung Young-joon to take care of it himself since she wasn’t going to help him, right?”

“…”

“Besides, the reporters weren’t lying in ambush; they were out in the open like that, so there’s no way the security team wouldn’t have reported it to Go Jin-ah. So, she deliberately didn’t tell Jung Young-joon. Even if she found out late, she should have contacted Jung Young-joon and told him not to come because of the situation.”

“…”

“Go Jin-ah would have kept checking to see if Jung Young-joon’s car was entering the parking lot entrance. Then, she saw a car with an unfamiliar license plate entering the parking lot at the agreed time and confirmed it. Since Jung Young-joon and Attorney Kang were in it, she would have naturally known that you had hired us.”

After hearing my words, Jung Young-joon covered his head with a confused expression.

And after a long silence, he opened his mouth.

“So, Jin-ah deliberately tried to expose me to the reporters?”

“That’s what we think.”

“But why? Why… Could it be that she knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the stress if I was exposed to the reporters? So… she thought I would get a divorce?”

“Probably.”

“Why, why would Jin-ah go that far? Attorney, you’re going too far. I knew you didn’t have a good impression of Jin-ah, but this is too much of a stretch, isn’t it?”

Jung Young-joon started to get angry at me instead.

It was the reaction I expected.

Jung Young-joon desperately looked at Attorney Kang to find someone who would agree with him.

He looked like he was asking if Attorney Kang thought it made sense for the lawyer to say such things.

But Attorney Kang lowered his head.

“…I agree, Jung Young-joon.”

“But why? Why,”

“I’m sorry to say this… but we are cautiously thinking that Go Jin-ah might know that the video was the work of Chairman Go Sang-kyung. It’s not certain yet, but there’s a very high possibility.”

Kang Min-jae said very euphemistically.

Jung Young-joon rolled his eyes in confusion and tore at his hair.

His neck flushed red, and he swallowed hard.

“There are other reasons why you think that, right? Ah, I, I think it’s a bit early to judge based on just that one situation, no matter how I think about it…”

“The 15 billion won [approximately $11.5 million USD] in property division that Go Jin-ah offered as a condition for an amicable divorce in her call with Jung Young-joon is also an excessively high figure. It seems that she deliberately took a loss and called a high amount in order to quickly end the agreement stage, fearing that Jung Young-joon would be dissatisfied with the property division and file a lawsuit.”

Jung Young-joon gripped the armrest of the sofa with trembling hands.

Kang Min-jae looked at Jung Young-joon with a very pitiful look and put his hand on his shoulder, but he showed no signs of calming down.

“Go Jin-ah is excessively avoiding the lawsuit. A strong will to quickly finalize the divorce can be read. It seems that she considered the possibility that if a lawsuit is started and Jung Young-joon continues the trial up to the third instance [final appeal in the Korean legal system], given enough time, it might be revealed that the video was the work of Chairman Go Sang-kyung.”

“…”

“To cover up her parents’ faults,”

“Stop, stop it.”

Jung Young-joon covered his ears.

And he shook his head very violently.

“That can’t be. How could she, how could she do that to me…”

Before he knew it, Jung Young-joon began to shed tears.

He wiped away the flowing tears with trembling hands, but his face quickly became wet.

Kang Min-jae handed him a tissue, but Jung Young-joon didn’t take it.

“How could Jin-ah, how could she do this to me…? That’s not right. That’s not right…”

He repeated the same words for a long time and eventually burst into tears as if wailing.

Kang Min-jae didn’t know what to do, then carefully took out a small packet of medicine from his pocket.

It was written ‘If needed (sedative)’ on the packet.

Seeing that Kang Min-jae had the medicine, not Jung Young-joon, it seemed that one of his family members had packed it for him.

Kang Min-jae bent down and looked at me over Jung Young-joon’s back, who was crying out loud.

He had a look on his face as if asking what to do, but I didn’t seem to have any other way either.

It was something that Jung Young-joon had to know someday.

In this case, there is no ending where Jung Young-joon can protect his family as he wants.

Go Jin-ah has already chosen her vicious parents over her wronged and pitiful husband.

Even if everything is revealed and his injustice is resolved, Jung Young-joon will lose Go Jin-ah.

We had to slowly help him detach himself from Go Jin-ah now, as he couldn’t bear the sense of loss.

“Ha…”

An hour passed like that.

We were sitting in the same place as when we first started talking.

The only differences were that Jung Young-joon had stopped crying and had taken the medicine that Kang Min-jae had.

“…I understand a little now.”

It was Jung Young-joon who broke the long silence.

He said, looking at the air with empty eyes.

It was a very subdued voice.

“Actually, there were many times when I wondered why Jin-ah was doing this… and there were some actions that I didn’t understand…”

He took a long breath and bit his lip.

“If what you’re saying is true, then I understand everything.”

“Jung Young-joon…”

“Protecting my family… was just my wish. If Jin-ah is really divorcing me even though she knows I’m being wronged…”

Jung Young-joon smiled bitterly.

“I guess I have to get a divorce then…”

He chuckled.

It was a very dejected expression, having given up everything.

I felt like I knew what he was going to say.

He will probably say that he will quietly divorce her according to Go Jin-ah’s conditions.

Because he was the kind of person who tried to understand her rather than resent her for not trusting him at all just because of love.

“Jung Young-joon.”

“Yes.”

“It’s too early to make a decision yet. First, go back home and think carefully, and then contact us again.”

“…Okay.”

Jung Young-joon readily agreed.

Holding his car keys, Kang Min-jae mouthed that he would be back.

He supported the listless Jung Young-joon as he got up and went outside.