You Are Defended - Chapter 598



Only Noblemtl

Episode 598

* * *

At 2pm, 8 hours before the broadcast.

I got a call from Jeong Ji-min saying he found something and wanted to meet me.

Ji-min Jeong, who she first met while investigating Jae-hoon Choi’s death, was the only person to whom Jae-hoon Choi, who was known to never reveal his true feelings, showed his raw emotions.

The two were lovers, but the magnitude of their feelings for each other was different.

Ji-min Jeong, a host bar employee, regarded Jae-hoon Choi as a lover, and I think Jae-hoon Choi probably felt love and hate for Ji-min Jeong.

Choi Jae-hoon used extreme violence against Jeong Ji-min and was obsessed with him.

He spent a lot of money on Jeong Ji-min, and Jeong Ji-min probably stayed by Choi Jae-hoon’s side despite being subjected to violence because of that.

It wasn’t strange, since when we met before, Jeong Ji-min was an extremely calculating person.

He said that Choi Jae-hoon often gossiped about Lim Hyeon-il, but he often couldn’t understand because the terminology was difficult.

However, he said that he recorded the entire conversation with Choi Jae-hoon.

I asked him to check if there was anything to salvage among them.

Although Jeong Ji-min demanded a deposit, money was not an issue as long as we got the right content, so we signed a contract with him and started working.

Time has passed since then and it is now.

“Hello. It’s been a long time.”

Jeong Ji-min, whom I met after a long time, had not changed at all.

She was still wearing flashy designer accessories and clothes.

Well, I don’t think much has changed since it’s only been a year.

“Yes, it’s been a while. Please have a seat.”

“Attorney, you’ve become a top star in the meantime. I saw a few clips from your broadcast.”

Jeong Ji-min sat across from me, smiling cheerfully.

“Honestly, I was too lazy to listen to all the recorded phone calls, so I was going to just take the advance payment and leave… … . The doctor who traded organs was Lim Hyeon-il. From there, I started to feel something was wrong, so I started listening. When I saw it on TV, I heard that Lim Hyeon-il ordered Choi Jae-hoon to have his organs removed. Choi Jae-hoon refused.”

Jeong Ji-min made a “Ugh” sound with his mouth, then habitually ruffled his hair and started fiddling with it again.

“Oh, I just stopped by the hair salon today and I messed up my hair. Ah.”

“So.”

“Well, I think Lim Hyeon-il is a kid who deserves to be killed, and Choi Jae-hoon… … He wasn’t a good guy either, but he just got more and more thoughtful. I told you that back then. That kid asked if I would stay by his side even if he was trash… … .”

“Yes, it was.”

“Do you remember what I answered back then?”

“He said he would stay by my side as long as I didn’t kill people or anything.”

“Yes. And then Choi Jae-hoon told me that I shouldn’t leave him because he didn’t know what I had given up because of him. But, no matter how much I think about it, the timing is… … . I wonder if what he meant by giving up was that he was prepared to be hated by Im Hyun-il.”

At that time, Jeong Ji-min was not mentioned to about the incident surrounding Lim Hyeon-il and Choi Jae-hoon.

Because of this, it seems that Jeong Ji-min was only able to put the puzzle together after seeing a brief summary of the news.

“And you said that he kept asking how he could make Lim Hyeon-il do such a surgery. I think it was about organ removal surgery… … Anyway, to sum it up, it was just something… … Choi Jae-hoon was thinking about just closing his eyes and doing it, but did he refuse because I said I wouldn’t leave unless I killed someone? That’s what I’m thinking… … But am I overreacting?”

Jeong Ji-min asked with a cautious but desperate look in his eyes.

It seemed like he felt guilty because he had already decided to leave Choi Jae-hoon, but he was afraid that his plan would be exposed and said things in a roundabout way.

I guess you want me to say that it’s over, but unfortunately I agree with you.

“I don’t know what Choi Jae-hoon was thinking, but I don’t think it’s over the top.”

“Ah… … . Well, then. Looking on the internet, there are people saying that the gas explosion was also caused by Lim Hyun-il. So Choi Jae-hoon was murdered because he refused Lim Hyun-il’s offer to harvest his organs… … ? No, it seems ridiculous, but the timing of his death is also like that! People say that Lim Hyun-il offered to put Choi Jae-hoon on the organ trafficking team, and he killed him because he refused. To keep it a secret! Right? That’s a bit much.”

Jeong Ji-min raised his voice.

It seems like you’re constantly trying to get the answer to be no, but what can I do about the answer that’s right?

But in the current situation, it is only a suspicion and not a confirmed fact, so I decided to change the subject.

“Mr. Jeong Ji-min, so what did you find out? Judging from the content of today’s briefing and the people’s reactions, it seems like you checked it out to some extent and contacted me right away.”

“Ha… … . Yes. Whether it’s true or not, that’s not the point. Choi Jae-hoon would probably want to get out of his grave and beat up Im Hyeon-il right now, right? Anyway, since we’ve known each other for a long time, I have to help him. I think I’ve found something amazing.”

Jeong Ji-min looked straight into my eyes with a much more relaxed expression, as if he had gathered his thoughts.

I was planning to cover the Lim Hyeon-il story in detail on today’s broadcast, but if what Jeong Ji-min found is useful, I might be able to report on the Choi Jae-hoon case as well.

“Can I take a picture?”

“Huh? What?”

“That’s what we’re talking about now.”

“Why are you doing that?”

“Mr. Jung Ji-min, you’re going to tell me what you found now. I’ll have to see the details to find out, but if necessary, I’ll submit it to the police. In some cases, I’ll even report it to the broadcast. If you don’t want to hear that you manipulated the data, you have to leave it behind, right?”

Jeong Ji-min shook his head frantically with a face filled with fear.

“No, there must be quite a few people who recognize me! If I say I was a Hoppa player, they’ll do the same thing again, and they’ll start asking if I can be trusted… … .”

“We’ll mosaic it. We’ll change the voice and change the name to a pseudonym.”

“… … But, what if I get caught! And even if that’s true for me, if it’s known that I was in a relationship with Choi Jae-hoon, Choi Jae-hoon will be outed!”

“How many people know that Jeong Ji-min was in a relationship with Choi Jae-hoon?”

“There are people who know that I had an affair with a doctor, but they don’t know that it was Choi Jae-hoon… … And they don’t say that he died because of something, they just say that we broke up… … .”

“Then, since no one around Choi Jae-hoon knows about Jeong Ji-min’s existence, I don’t think anyone will recognize him. And Jeong Ji-min will change his clothes, cover up his tattoos, and take off all those cumbersome accessories.”

“… … So, then you really won’t get caught? But what will you do if you get caught? How will you compensate me if I get hurt?”

When I heard the specific words compensation, I thought I knew what Jeong Ji-min wanted.

“Please let me know if you have any amount you want. I was also about to stipulate a confidentiality agreement.”

“… … Who, who do you think is crazy about money! Okay. I’ll just do it. Of course, I have to keep it a secret. I value myself.”

“Mr. Jung Ji-min’s personal information, the fact that we’ve met, and the circumstances of how we met must all be kept secret. If that seems difficult, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to write a contract and receive money.”

I will not be able to keep it in the future. But let’s just say.

[truth]

This is also unexpected.

It seems that he was greatly shocked after learning about what Choi Jae-hoon had gone through.

Just like Choi Jae-hoon, could the feelings that Jeong Ji-min had for him also be love and hate?

If I think about it, no matter how good the money was, there must have been a reason I didn’t know about why I endured Choi Jae-hoon’s violence.

“By the way, what do you think of my speech? Do you think it’s me?”

“Well, it’s not something that can be identified by the way you speak. But since it might be used on a broadcast, it would be better to refine the vocabulary.”

When I nodded to Taesik, he called Jo Bongjun, who was waiting outside.

Jeong Ji-min seemed to recognize Jo Bong-jun, but he didn’t say anything else.

While Jo Bong-jun was setting up the camera, Kang Min-jae brought his suit jacket and shirt.

“These are all I have left right now. And I think it would be a good idea to take off the rings, bracelets, and ear piercings.”

“Hey, are these the lawyer’s clothes?”

Jeong Ji-min asked while taking the clothes.

“Yes. Why? Is it weird?”

When Kang Min-jae asked, Jeong Ji-min shook his head and quickly put his arms into the sleeves.

“No, it’s not weird. You have good style, lawyer.”

Oh, come to think of it… … .

It might have been easier if Kang Min-jae had brought up the subject of filming to Jeong Ji-min from the beginning.

“Attorney Kang. Is it a bit big? What do you think?”

“Since I’m going to mosaic it anyway, it’ll just look like that type of physique.”

“I’ll conduct the interview. Is that okay with you?”

After finishing installing the camera, Jo Bong-jun came and sat down next to me and said.

His gaze was directed at Kang Min-jae, but he eventually nodded.

“Let’s define your relationship with Choi Jae-hoon as a close brother and sister relationship. Then, let’s say you reported it to us after seeing the news. It’s true that you contacted us after seeing the news, right? Oh, and don’t say anything like you frequented Choi Jae-hoon’s house. The villa residents will remember Jeong Ji-min. Let’s just assume that you and Choi Jae-hoon were very close brothers and sisters. We’ll edit out any slips of the tongue, so don’t worry too much about it. It might sound awkward. How about Seong Soo-yong for an alias?”

“Why Seongsuyong?”

“Because this pen is a water-soluble pen.”

Jo Bong-jun showed the pen he was holding to Jeong Ji-min.

Kang Min-jae and I stepped out of the angle.

As filming began, Jeong Ji-min introduced himself at Jo Bong-jun’s request.

“So, Mr. Seong Su-yong contacted me saying he had something to report. What was it?”

Jeong Ji-min answered Jo Bong-jun’s question.

“I use the automatic call recording feature for work.”

[untruth]

In fact, Jeong Ji-min started recording in order to use it when he sued Choi Jae-hoon someday, but the external setting is pretty good.

“That’s why all the phone conversations I had with my brother are saved. After my brother became like that, I would sometimes listen to the recorded conversations when I wanted to have a drink and see him.”

[truth]

He was thinking that the details were alive even though he had only set the settings, and then the word truth appeared in his head.

정지민과 처음 만났을 땐 최재훈을 ‘개새끼’, ‘씨발새끼’ 등으로 지칭했기 때문에 그에게 좋은 감정은 별로 없는 줄 알았다.

That’s why I mentioned keeping it a secret to him.

I thought that if someone showed up and offered a lot of money, they could instantly make Choi Jae-hoon look like a strange person and make him change his statement.

But now I think I can let go of those worries to some extent.

“Hearing that, I remember that you once told me your KeepData ID and password.”

“When you say keep data, you mean web hard, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. My brother lost his phone once before, and all the photos and files were gone. He was worried that the person who found it might have seen all the data. Since then, I’ve connected my phone to the web hard drive and deleted everything on my phone.”

“But why did you tell Mr. Seong Su-yong your ID and password?”

“There was a picture we took together, and my brother had it. But when I asked if he could give it to me right away because he needed it for something, he said he didn’t have time to look for it and that if he needed it right now, he should just take it from there.”

“Yes, so?”

“When I listened to the recording of that call, I suddenly wanted to see that picture so badly. But no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find the picture. So I went into KeepData to retrieve the picture.”

[untruth]

Jeong Ji-min lied fluently without even blinking an eye.

Even though they said they were going to mosaic-process it, his expression looked genuine.

“So?”

“When I went into KeepData, there were a lot of documents and audio files in addition to photos. But since it was linked to my phone, I thought it was natural and didn’t pay attention to it. But there was a folder called ‘Im Hyeon-il, Oh Jun-hong.’”

Oh Jun-hong?

This is the name of the Director of Planning and Coordination at Woosin Hospital.

“Im Hyeon-il and Oh Jun-hong?”

“Yes. The file titles were Evidence 1 through Evidence 12. There were also some that had numbers as their titles, and those were relatively recently created files. I thought they might have just backed them up and not changed the titles yet.”

[truth]

Evidence 1 to 12?

I have a feeling that Choi Jae-hoon was preparing something.

Although the desire for revenge against Im Hyeon-il could be read in the diary written on the blog, there was no mention of efforts being made to seek revenge.

“Then, was the information obtained from that file that the police said there was circumstantial evidence that Lim Hyeon-il ordered Choi Jae-hoon to get an organ transplant?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why? If the police had known that Choi Jae-hoon had received such instructions from Lim Hyeon-il, they would have checked all the sites registered under Choi Jae-hoon’s name.”

“The KeepData ID is not under my brother’s name. Then why didn’t they investigate it?”

“Then who is the registered owner?”

“… … Me.”

“Are you Seong Su-yong?”

“Yes. When I bought my laptop, it came with a 500GB 1-year KeepData pass. So I registered it, but I didn’t really need it, so I didn’t use it. But it was not long after my brother lost his phone. He said he was looking for reviews on webhard and what to use. So I told him to try it out since it was just an idle account anyway. He told me to change the password as I pleased. But since it was so long ago, I completely forgot about it. Then I remembered it after listening to the recorded phone call.”

[truth]

Who knew something like this was hidden from Jeong Ji-min?

I’m not sure what the evidence Choi Jae-hoon is talking about means.

I guess it contains content where Lim Hyeon-il mentions organ trading to Choi Jae-hoon.

But isn’t it true that the title doesn’t only have Im Hyeon-il in it?

There is also Oh Jun-hong, the head of the keynote speech department.

It may contain information about Wooshin’s organ trafficking organization or circumstantial evidence that they killed Choi Jae-hoon.