The Lawyer Who Reads Tomorrow - Chapter 120

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 120

Bad premonitions always come true.

[Link]

The first message that arrived was a random link.

It must be spam.

Just as I was about to ignore it and delete it, new messages arrived one after another.

[404Lee Yeon-woo]

[Link]

“…What?”

It seemed like an urgent text message.

And after that, as if playing some ominous prank, the same messages kept making my mobile phone ring.

[404Lee Yeon-woo]

[Link]

[404Lee Yeon-woo]

[Link]

[404Lee Yeon-woo]

[Link]

“…Are you kidding me.”

404. Could it possibly be the 404 I know?

The previous 404 had never revealed their real phone number to me.

So I fell into thought for a moment while looking at these flooding messages.

‘404.’

It’s a name that appeared at just the right time, as if knowing what I was looking for.

Moreover, the ‘Lee Yeon-woo’ attached next to it, could it be.

“…Is it a name?”

A murmur escaped my lips.

404 and Lee Yeon-woo.

It’s a name that doesn’t suit him as much as I thought.

I touched the phone number of the person who sent me the message.

The phone that seemed to connect with the dial tone soon went to automatic response.

-The customer cannot answer the phone…

“What?”

Why aren’t they answering? Are they ignoring me?

When I tried calling again, it was the same.

-The customer cannot answer the phone…

When it repeated for the third time, I put down my mobile phone.

Strange.

Even though it was nothing special when you think about it, for some reason it kept bothering me.

It was also a message about 404 that I hadn’t seen for a while.

“What’s wrong?”

My face must have looked serious because Noh Hae-min asked.

“Huh? What’s this? Nursing Hospital? Lawyer Sung, are you looking into this kind of thing these days?”

He asked as if puzzled.

That was just a link from a message that arrived from an unknown number.

I was hesitant to click it thinking it might be a spam message, but when I searched online, the same nursing hospital homepage did come up.

“No. I didn’t look into it.”

“Then?”

“…It doesn’t seem like a prank text message. Senior, do you happen to know anyone here?”

“Me? Hmm… Well…”

He slowly scrolled through the homepage and looked at the address at the bottom of the page.

“It’s Gangwon Province…? I don’t know anyone there.”

“Gangwon Province…”

That’s right, Gangwon Province.

It’s quite far from here, so that makes sense.

I’m the same way.

There used to be some.

But not anymore.

As for Sung Tae-hyun, well, even in the diary he kept while he was alive, there was no one specifically connected to Gangwon Province, especially not to a nursing hospital.

“It’s too far anyway… but really, why?”

“I feel like someone I know might be there.”

“Ah, I see. The facilities here look nice. Seems decent.”

It certainly was.

The website also showed much more care put into it than the one I had outsourced to 404.

Well, since I received the link, I looked around and the photos posted as interior views looked very nice, harmonizing with the natural environment.

But this is strange.

“Why does this feel so familiar.”

“Huh? This place?”

“Yes.”

I carefully examined the photos again from the beginning.

Interior, this isn’t necessary. Dining hall… no.

Then I returned to the first page and looked at the exterior view of the nursing hospital that I had casually passed over.

Only then did memories come flooding back like a tide.

“…Ah.”

Noh Hae-min was tilting his head as if puzzled.

“Why? Is there something wrong?”

“It’s not that-”

I didn’t recognize it because the name had changed.

Well, it’s already been over 20 years.

Enough time has passed that it wouldn’t be strange if it had closed down or someone had acquired it.

“Ah why, Tae-hyun. I’m dying of frustration here.”

I opened my mouth toward the whining Noh Hae-min.

“Someone I know… used to be there.”

The protagonist of the message wasn’t 404 or Lee Yeon-woo.

It was someone who, just by thinking of them, made a corner of my chest sink heavily.

“Who?”

Mother.

That is, not Sung Tae-hyun’s mother.

The real ‘me’.

Kim Wook-han’s mother.

The hospital where she had gone through the end of her life had appeared in a new form, with both its name and appearance completely changed.

“Hah…”

For a moment, I couldn’t say anything.

I couldn’t respond to Noh Hae-min’s question or to Manager Yoon Ha-young’s distant gaze.

The current of forgotten memories was that fierce.

Mother. That’s right.

It was the mother I had tried so hard to forget.

A cracked voice leaked out.

“Someone I knew… someone close…”

As I spoke while browsing through the nursing hospital’s homepage as if entranced, Noh Hae-min nodded.

He had the expression of someone who knew nothing but acted as if he understood something.

“I see. That must have been hard for you, Lawyer Sung Tae-hyun.”

“Hard work is…”

Mother had passed away long ago.

Not just 20 years ago, but even longer than that.

It was so long ago that even recalling it now required effort.

“It’s all in the past.”

I clicked the mouse to close the homepage.

While my mouth said that, my body reacted differently.

Even though this body wasn’t originally mine to begin with.

I continued speaking while ignoring the still aching area around my heart.

“Still, they took pretty good care of me over there.”

I didn’t know it at the time. But looking back, that’s how it was.

The reason I was able to pull myself together despite having such a hard time accepting Mother’s death was thanks to the employees at that nursing hospital who took great care of me at the time.

“You know, looking at you, you’ve had quite a lot of ups and downs in life too.”

Noh Hae-min lightly patted my shoulder and muttered.

“And you’re still so young.”

“That’s not something for you to say, Senior.”

“Ah, still. Sometimes I think I understand why you have the same eyes as our Father!”

Noh Hae-min spoke brightly and slowly stepped back.

“So you’re leaving now?”

“What do you mean leaving…? Ah.”

Come to think of it, today was the day I had marked in advance as a business trip.

“You said you have an appointment this afternoon.”

“I had forgotten about it.”

Though it wasn’t someone I should have forgotten about.

From that unfamiliar number that had bombarded me with about ten messages, no more messages were arriving now.

Right, it’s a problem I can’t solve immediately anyway.

Besides, if the owner of this number really is 404, then the man I’m going to meet now should be able to answer.

* * *

“It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

Hwan.

No, the man who is now called by his prisoner number was sitting across from me with a sheet of glass between us.

The timing was incredible.

“A while? I was here just two months ago.”

When I answered calmly, Hwan burst into light laughter.

“That’s true. But please don’t think that the time spent here is the same as time outside.”

Unable to use violence like he could outside, Hwan had greatly improved his speaking skills during this time.

To put it nicely, that is. To put it badly, he’d only gotten better at running his mouth.

Well, we had met quite a few times by now.

Anyway, my well-timed visit to Hwan was because of a promise I had made with him before.

‘That’s what I’d like to ask of you.’

Right before completely exposing the Nexaroom incident.

Hwan, who had brought me all the evidence, had said that.

‘I’ll probably serve a prison sentence.’

From the moment he decided to pay for his crimes, Hwan must have known.

After saying that, he had handed me the first chat room link for 404.

‘It was white paper.’

That crude white paper, no less.

It’s a bit late to point this out now, but I hadn’t been too pleased that he just gave me the paper with the link written on it as is.

However, it was also true that I had received quite a lot of help from 404 afterward.

Entrusting him with the website administrator role was also possible because I trusted him to some extent.

‘He’s my younger brother, though it’s not on record.’

‘I deleted it before getting involved in this. Of course, I had the opportunity to do so.’

Now that I couldn’t reach 404.

What about Hwan?

Hwan, who had already turned himself in when the Nexaroom case was heavily spotlighted by the media, had finished his trial and was serving his sentence.

Of course, I hadn’t handled Hwan’s defense.

However, I had been keeping the promise he made when entrusting 404 to me.

‘At best, you’ll probably be asking about news of me rotting away in this prison cell.’

It was exactly as Hwan had said back then.

404 never came to me with any separate requests.

The only request he had consistently made was to relay news about Hwan.

Since that day, I had made sure to visit Hwan once every month or two to keep that promise.

“Ji Tae-hwan.”

“…Yes.”

When I called his real name, Hwan quietly responded.

His tone suggested it was nothing special.

The name he went by externally was ‘Hwan’, but that wasn’t his real name.

Well, his real name was information I had learned when he was being investigated by the police.

Now he would probably be more familiar with being called by his prisoner number rather than either his real name or Hwan.

“Do you know the name Lee Yeon-woo?”

At those words, his expression, which had always remained the same, wavered slightly. As I thought.

[404 Lee Yeon-woo]

[Link]

I asked him while recalling the message that had been sent from an unknown number just moments ago.

As expected.

Hwan looked at me silently for a moment before asking.

“Did that kid tell you?”

“Who.”

“404.”

So that’s how it was.

It was indeed a name he knew.

And if it was a name that Ji Tae-hwan would think of in connection with 404, it was obvious.

404 really had sent me his real name.

But then why?

Suddenly, an anxious feeling surged up.

“Is it his real name?”

At my question, Hwan nodded in response.

“If that kid told you, then I have no reason to hide it.”

There was no particular emotion in his added words.

It was just a tone of reciting facts.

I checked my watch and asked Hwan again.

“You said he was your real younger brother.”

“Yes.”

“What’s the reason for having different surnames?”

It was a question I wouldn’t have asked before.

I had never planned to either.

Nevertheless, I thought it was a question I couldn’t ask if not now.

At my question, the corners of Hwan’s eyes folded and curved.

“Are you curious about such things, Lawyer?”

“…I am curious.”

“I told you before. That I deleted that kid’s records.”

Was that really possible?

It was something I hadn’t thought deeply about at the time.

However, on the other hand, I came to accept it.

Given the abilities 404 had shown so far, or… yes.

Hwan was already someone who belonged to a world I hadn’t particularly wanted to know about before.

“I remember.”

“That kid is indeed my younger brother.”

“…”

“But that kid was processed as a dead person.”

Hwan blinked as if recalling something.

It was a cloudy gaze that strangely avoided my face and looked somewhere far beyond.

“…Now, yes. That name Lee Yeon-woo. It’s someone else’s identity.”

“Someone else’s identity?”

“…Ah.”

When I asked back, Hwan instantly changed his expression and his eyes flashed.

A smile that seemed amused hung on his lips that curved upward.

“…How you did it, do you need that method?”

It’s obviously an illegal method at first glance.

Just thinking about what comes to mind immediately.

“No.”

“Then why-”

“I was just curious. I only found out now that 404 has the name Lee Yeon-woo.”

“…!”

Hwan stared at me blankly for a moment, then asked back.

“Then that name-”

“A link leading to A Nursing Hospital’s homepage.”

“….”

“And 404 and Lee Yeon-woo.”

“….”

“Such messages arrived one after another today.”

Hwan’s face became completely distorted.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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