The Lawyer Who Reads Tomorrow - Chapter 121

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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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Chapter 121

 

“A Nursing Hospital…”

 

Hwan was cautious.

 

He paused for a moment, his gaze that had been directed toward empty air slowly turning toward me.

 

The teasing, circling smile that had been there was long gone.

 

“It’s a place unrelated to Yeon-woo.”

 

“Is that so.”

 

How could that be?

 

But Hwan didn’t seem to be lying either.

 

The fact that 404 was Lee Yeon-woo, and that Lee Yeon-woo was Hwan’s younger brother who had assumed a false identity, was something I already knew.

 

So the seemingly mismatched relationship between a nursing hospital and 404 was something only Hwan could explain.

 

“You said something like that before.”

 

I slowly opened my mouth.

 

Of course, I didn’t remember everything Hwan had said.

 

Because it wasn’t important.

 

However, I at least remembered to some extent the stories he told when he last handed over all the evidence to me.

 

It was courtesy toward a business partner, and also the only information I knew about 404, who had worked with me for quite a long time.

 

“That kid is already trapped.”

 

“…!”

 

A strange light flickered in Hwan’s eyes.

 

“Do you remember?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“That’s surprising, it wasn’t such an important story.”

 

A crooked smile appeared on Hwan’s lips again.

 

Surprising my ass, you bastard.

 

He had said those words while pretending otherwise, but with a deathly expression.

 

“And the nursing hospital.”

 

“…”

 

“Is 404, no, is Lee Yeon-woo sick or something?”

 

Right. This was a situation I didn’t particularly want to know about.

 

But now that I was entangled this deeply, I couldn’t pretend not to know forever.

 

Hwan withdrew his smile and nodded.

 

It seemed he had decided there was nothing left to hide.

 

“It hurts. A lot.”

 

“Is mobility difficult?”

 

If you interpreted ‘being trapped’ simply, that’s what it would mean.

 

This too was something I wouldn’t have thought of if I hadn’t received that nursing hospital link.

 

The information Hwan had casually let slip before had somehow gathered piece by piece to form a small puzzle.

 

He stared at me intently without answering.

 

“Well, never mind.”

 

If it was something he didn’t want to talk about, there was nothing I could do.

 

I wasn’t that curious anyway.

 

My only goal was for 404 to quickly return as the Website Administrator.

 

Whatever was wrong with him wasn’t my concern.

 

“No.”

 

However, Hwan didn’t seem to think so.

 

The man who had been looking at me as if weighing his words opened his mouth with a bitter smile.

 

“Where it hurts.”

 

“…?”

 

“You should hear it directly from That Kid.”

 

“…Why should I have to hear that?”

 

Hwan chuckled and leaned his face closer to mine.

 

Then he continued in a secretive voice, as if he were about to reveal some secret organization’s crime scene.

 

“Because you’re already worried.”

 

“…?”

 

“You look like you don’t know.”

 

“I look like I’m saying no.”

 

He laughed a little louder.

 

Well, let’s admit it.

 

Hwan seemed to like the environment of this prison better than when he was next to Kang Hwan-pil or Kim Wan-gil.

 

That bastard, he’s been smiling more.

 

I distanced myself from him and hardened my expression.

 

“It’s true that A Nursing Hospital has nothing to do with Yeon-woo.”

 

He stared at me intently and answered.

 

“Because the place where I first entrusted Tae-mi… no, Yeon-woo wasn’t A Nursing Hospital, but…”

 

“…”

 

“A Nursing Home.”

 

The names are similar. They might be the same law firm.

 

It was a different name from the place where she was entrusted when Mother was still alive.

 

No, let’s not think about it.

 

That’s already in the past.

 

“…Are you the guardian there?”

 

“I am now.”

 

“You’re not the legal guardian though.”

 

Since he said he borrowed someone else’s identity.

 

It was obvious that Hwan had used illegal methods.

 

That also meant that 404 had no other family besides Hwan in front of me.

 

‘Lee Yeon-woo is probably processed as having no relatives right now.’

 

Unless Hwan had done another round of document manipulation.

 

He nodded as if affirming.

 

“…That’s right.”

 

‘Why do you live so complicatedly.’

 

Suddenly, a question that shouldn’t be asked to others, including clients, came to mind.

 

Well, it would only be ridiculous for me, who lives more complicatedly than anyone else, to say such things.

 

I swallowed the question that had risen to my throat and spoke.

 

“Good. Hwan, let’s organize this.”

 

“….”

 

“404 is hospitalized at a nursing home under the name Lee Yeon-woo, or rather, it might be a nursing hospital now. He probably couldn’t receive any separate contact.”

 

Then was that morning message really sent by 404?

 

I had a bad feeling about this.

 

“Lawyer Sung Tae-hyun.”

 

Instead of answering, he called my name.

 

“I have a favor to ask.”

 

I knew it.

 

Hwan sighed and continued speaking.

 

“You can consider it a commission.”

 

“I believe I told you I wouldn’t take any commissions from Ji Tae-hwan. Did you forget?”

 

When I said this, Hwan smiled with his face slightly contorted.

 

“You said you wouldn’t take on my defense.”

 

Good. Hwan’s cognitive ability is normal.

 

I nodded as if telling him to continue.

 

“Please check if Yeon-woo is doing well.”

 

Look at this.

 

Another troublesome matter has come up.

 

Of course, Manager Yoon Ha-young, who wasn’t pleased with the newly hired Kim Ji-oh, had been filing complaints with me every day.

 

Noh Hae-min was the same.

 

So I had been trying to find 404, who couldn’t be contacted.

 

Because I needed to give him work.

 

“You’re asking a lawyer to do all sorts of things.”

 

When I answered grumblingly, Hwan regained his previous smile and grinned.

 

“But I know you’ll do it.”

 

“What an amazing prophet.”

 

“It’s just strange, you see. The fact that she suddenly moved from the nursing home to the convalescent hospital and then lost contact with you too.”

 

Well, Hwan had already paid a sufficient price for that.

 

Kang Hwan-pil and Kim Wan-gil, who were probably rolling around somewhere as his prison mates, were that price.

 

“I prepaid 5 years’ worth of hospitalization fees to the nursing home. There should be bank transfer records remaining.”

 

So that makes it even stranger, doesn’t it.

 

Before Hwan turned himself in, he had settled his affairs and given me 404’s contact information.

 

He had already paid all the costs to the nursing home where 404 was staying before that.

 

In that case, unless a major problem arose, 404 should have stayed there.

 

“…Maybe she’s very sick somewhere.”

 

That was also a problem.

 

As far as I knew- no, Mother had been admitted to that convalescent hospital not at the recommendation of nineteen-year-old me at the time, but at Uncle’s suggestion.

 

I looked at Hwan while suppressing the memories that were trying to surface again.

 

They were memories I wanted to keep buried forever if possible.

 

“Fine.”

 

In the end, I answered Hwan.

 

It wasn’t because of that, but because of 404.

 

It was because of Manager Yoon Ha-young’s sharp looks,

 

and also because of Noh Hae-min’s worried scolding.

 

Well, if he keeps being absent, it would create gaps in my work too.

 

“I’ll bill all the expenses to 404.”

 

Hwan’s face brightened.

 

* * *

 

The next morning.

 

-What? Gangwon Province?!

 

Noh Hae-min’s voice boomed through the mobile phone.

 

Such a sudden business trip, it’s understandable to be surprised.

 

I was surprised too.

 

-When will you be back?

 

“I’ll just check and come right back.”

 

-Wait, our Administrator went there for vacation?

 

That was right. I hadn’t told Noh Hae-min everything.

 

Even setting aside the fact that 404 was a hacker, I couldn’t reveal secrets he might want to keep hidden without his permission, like where he was sick or anything like that.

 

“Vacation… well, you could say that.”

 

The parking lot of A Nursing Hospital, which I reached without even stopping at a rest stop.

 

After driving for over three hours straight, my shoulders and back were already stiff.

 

Even so, I was spending time in the parking lot, unable to rashly go inside.

 

-Well then… hurry up and wrap things up and bring the Administrator back! Section Chief Yoon says the website design is getting weirder and weirder.

 

It seems Kim Ji-oh did something strange again.

 

[Restore to original state]

 

I composed and sent a new message to Kim Ji-oh, then answered.

 

My mobile phone vibrated as if a message had arrived immediately, but I didn’t bother to check it.

 

“I told him to restore it to the original state, so let me know if he does it again.”

 

-Okay, got it!

 

Noh Hae-min spoke cheerfully and hung up the phone.

 

I could hear Section Chief Yoon Ha-young grumbling about something from outside the mobile phone, but that’s not my concern either.

 

Not right now.

 

“…To think I’d come back here again.”

 

A sigh escaped me without realizing it.

 

The exterior, worn with the traces of time, was exactly the same as the image carved in my already faded memories.

 

The newly changed signboard and the parts where paint had been added somehow felt unfamiliar.

 

So, this was the hospital I had rushed to decades ago to see Mother.

 

I slowly walked toward the entrance.

 

From the parking lot to the entrance, in that short distance, memories I had desperately buried clung to my ankles like mud, making my steps heavy.

 

‘Wook-han.’

 

A fierce wind whipped through the hem of my coat.

 

Damn it, here we go again.

 

Mother’s voice, which I had never once recalled since awakening in Sung Tae-hyun’s body.

 

‘Wook-han, are you eating your meals properly?’

 

At the entrance of the dreary building hung a banner I hadn’t seen before.

 

[The Nation’s Premier Nursing Hospital for VVIPs!]

 

“Hah…”

 

My sigh scattered in the cold wind.

 

To think the place I’d rushed to since dawn was merely here.

 

The memory burrowed into my mind in an instant.

 

‘Wook-han.’

 

I slowly caught my breath.

 

In the cold wind, a sigh like white smoke naturally escaped.

 

* * *

 

“Realistically, even three months would be difficult.”

 

The doctor calmly delivered the facts.

 

We had undergone chemotherapy according to the decision of the doctor who had been in charge of Mother for a long time.

 

We changed medications several times.

 

But now I couldn’t remember any of it.

 

It was around that time when Uncle inserted himself into our life, where our family consisted of only Mother and me.

 

“Three months.”

 

There was about a month left until the college entrance exam.

 

I had to study hard to get into Hankook University.

 

Then, couldn’t I just study for one month and spend the remaining two months with Mother?

 

My mind, having lost all sense of reality, began spinning like a hamster wheel, starting to rationalize.

 

It’s not one month.

 

It’s three months.

 

During this time, I had tried my best until the very last moment in that damn house.

 

There wasn’t much time left.

 

So, Mother is.

 

“Wook-han.”

 

When I returned to the hospital room, Mother was lucid.

 

She wasn’t having seizures or screaming in pain.

 

Except for having lost a lot of weight, she was in such good condition that it was hard to believe she had terminal cancer.

 

Moreover, Mother was young.

 

The doctor said three months, but that was an estimate based on statistics and experience.

 

It was a conventional and general standard, and miracles were entirely possible.

 

Sometimes such miracle stories appeared on the news.

 

Miracle man who overcame terminal cancer! Such phrases swirled chaotically in my head.

 

“Wook-han, hey.”

 

“…Uncle.”

 

“Get it together, kid. Your mother isn’t dead yet.”

 

What should I tell Mother?

 

That she has three months left? That she’s going to die soon?

 

No, no. There’s still a miracle left.

 

“How are you going to handle big things if you’re shaking like this?!”

 

Uncle’s loud voice drew the attention of other guardians to me.

 

No. I’m dizzy.

 

This couldn’t be happening.

 

I was going to go to Hankook University, pass the bar exam, and then buy Mother a house.

 

Wasn’t that it? It might have been clothes.

 

I had said I would do anything for her.

 

So, I had to keep my promise.

 

“Uncle.”

 

“Yeah, kid. Don’t cry. You’re a man, you shouldn’t be bawling like that.”

 

“I wasn’t crying.”

 

“That’s right, that’s how Kim Wook-han should be.”

 

Three months.

 

That was just what the doctor said at a general level.

 

My mother was a strong woman.

 

So, she wouldn’t just endure three months and then leave.

 

“You go down and study. Uncle knows a hospital.”

 

“….”

 

“Look at your mother. Does she look like someone who’s going to die? She’s the type who’ll stubbornly watch you get into university and even go to your graduation. I guarantee it, I guarantee it.”

 

“….”

 

“If she recovers in a place with good air, huh? Your mother will be back in no time. I’ve had such a hard time with that stubborn personality of hers since I was little! Three months my ass! She’s got fifty years left!”

 

Despite Uncle’s assurances, my mind was racing.

 

Three months.

 

Even if that really was all the time Mother had left.

 

These remaining months were….

 

“I’ll visit often.”

 

“Alright.”

 

I walked outside the door without looking back.

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