Chapter 189 - Father is Still Alive
My father was still alive right now. But I hadn't forgotten that day's sorrow for even a single moment.
His death was the trigger that made me decide to take down Wooshin, and it upended my entire life. Even as I faced death threats, lost my family, and sacrificed countless other precious things, I lived solely for the goal of bringing Wooshin to justice. And that held true even now, in this new life where those events had been erased as if they'd never happened.
I locked eyes with Yu Minhyuk, who stared at me in shock.
"……Mr. Lawyer."
"I looked into it high and low, shelling out more than my monthly salary on medicine that was too damn expensive, all so my suffering family could feel even a little less pain…… Do you have any idea what it's like to find out that medicine killed them?"
He knew. He'd lost his own brother to side effects from a drug, so no one understood that pain better than him.
"Do you really think you can rationally control that rage when you're standing in front of your family member's cold corpse? This guy at least had the conscience to bail midway. He wasn't the one in charge. He had no idea it'd be used like this. He was just following orders. You think you can pick and choose who to resent, weighing every little detail like that?"
"……."
"None of that matters to someone who's lost family. Everyone who contributed to making that drug is an accomplice. Everyone who let it hit the market is a criminal. Don't expect rational judgment or impartial weighing of guilt. Even I, in a job that demands impartiality, couldn't manage it."
Who didn't know? That Yu Minhyuk had realized his drug might have side effects and opposed its release. But so what? Did opposing it absolve him of all blame?
"Mr. Yu Minhyuk, you said you knew the research on Hyizolam had low reliability and strongly protested to Myeonghwa Pharmaceuticals that it needed new studies, right?"
"……Yes."
"Was that really all you could do? Why didn't you blow the whistle publicly? Why just quit with a resignation letter and retreat to this rural town? You think protesting at the risk of your own livelihood was enough? Did you know how many lives that drug would claim? No—even if it killed just one person, does that make it 'enough'?"
Rationally, I understood. He must have been terrified. Going public would make him a whistleblower, with endless repercussions. He'd only refined Antrozol to work better; fighting Myeonghwa to keep it off the market must have felt overwhelming. Having already lost his brother to drug side effects, he knew how brutal that path was.
So he'd ended his promising career there, settling for atonement as a pharmacist in a small rural pharmacy.
"You said you didn't want to be involved anymore? So you're fine if Antrozol Alpha launches as is? If innocent patients get your injection and drop dead from heart attacks one by one? You think hiding out here in the countryside washes your hands clean?"
"……No."
"Then what is it? My client Jo Bongjun, reporter Choi Jonghyeon who's working with him to expose this, and I—we have no direct connection to Antrozol Alpha. But we know it's a killer drug, so we're scrambling to stop it, wasting our precious time. We're outsiders who know jack shit about pharmaceuticals. And yet we're digging into research, chasing leads…… You knew all this and just stayed silent, hiding away?"
"No, Mr. Lawyer, that's not it. I—"
"All we want is for no one to be sacrificed to corporate logic. For no one to think it's okay to let powerless, clueless people die if it fills their pockets. For no kids shelling out fortunes on meds hoping to save their parents to end up blaming themselves. So why are we getting the cold shoulder from you? Why treat us like rude intruders poking at your buried trauma without even asking?"
"No! That's not it, Mr. Lawyer…… Hic, sob, that's not it……."
Yu Minhyuk collapsed to the floor, sobbing. I looked down at him silently.
In this life, Antrozol Alpha hadn't launched yet, and my old grief was little more than a dream. Even so, I couldn't help resenting the man weeping before me.
I knew he'd done his best, in his own way. But it wasn't enough. He hadn't done everything he could.
What if, in my previous life, he'd been more aggressive? He quit and came to this rural village to run a small pharmacy anyway—why worry so much about his reputation? If he lacked confidence, why not tip off a medical specialist reporter like we had? Maybe then, before the upgrade hype spread, people hearing bad rumors could have avoided it. Even if not my father, maybe a few others like him wouldn't have died so pointlessly.
I knew it was pointless speculation now, but in this moment, I couldn't stop imagining it a dozen times over.
"……Mr. Yu Minhyuk, you still have a chance."
I steadied my heated tone and spoke slowly.
"Antrozol Alpha hasn't launched yet. And we've bought some time, so it'll be delayed even more."
"……."
"Mr. Yu Minhyuk. You have the data, don't you?"
His vacant eyes scanned the messy studio apartment. They lingered on a small frame on the desk: a photo of two brothers, looking close, arms around each other on the beach.
Yu Minhyuk stared at it, biting his lip.
What had he felt, realizing Antrozol Alpha's problems but failing to stop it, retreating to Jinsung? Devastated, probably. He'd felt the same rage I did when my father died—resenting the developers. Yet he'd ended up complicit, unable to stop it. Utter despair.
Maybe he'd come here, where his brother died, for that reason—or others. Low tech penetration meant rumors traveled slower than in Seoul. He might have thought bad news about Antrozol Alpha wouldn't reach him if he holed up.
But I doubted he could escape like that. This area was heavily aged; Antrozol, a smash-hit arthritis drug, would hit seniors hard. Victims might have emerged here too. No matter how you run or ignore it, guilt is a relentless monster that gnaws at you.
That's why stirring his wounds wasn't easy for me either.
"……I have it."
After a long pause, Yu Minhyuk answered in a subdued voice.
Kang Minjae let out a held breath, shoulders slumping.
"Can you give it to us?"
Yu Minhyuk hesitated at my question, wiping sweaty palms on his pants—leaving damp streaks.
"……I can."
"Do you have it here?"
"No, I left it in Seoul."
With [Truth] floating above his head, Yu Minhyuk kept his gaze down.
I'd branded him a criminal, but part of me wondered: maybe he'd been waiting for someone to track him down and confront him like this, almost like blackmail. If he'd truly wanted to bury it, why bring the data at all? Perhaps he'd sensed a day might come when he'd have to speak.
That's why I ended up blaming my past self. If I'd found him in that old life, maybe it could have helped the years-long Antrozol Alpha side-effect lawsuits.
Yu Minhyuk said he'd stored the data in a private vault in Seoul. He wanted to come with us, but his pharmacy stocked the widest variety in Jinsung County, with daily regulars, so he couldn't leave right away. Since he'd agreed to hand it over—and that meant things to wrap up—he needed time.
I was grateful once more for my truth-seeing ability. In the old days, I might not have trusted him; now, I could head back to Seoul worry-free, appointment set for a few days later.
"Mr. Lawyer."
Kang Minjae, who'd been driving silently, glanced at me and spoke up.
"That stuff you said to Yu Minhyuk earlier. About the mindset of someone who lost family to drug side effects……."
He trailed off, gauging my reaction.
"What about it?"
"……It sounded like you were speaking from experience. Do you have some pain like that?"
Kang Minjae asked cautiously. Since parting with Yu Minhyuk, his mind must have raced through a thousand scenarios—maybe even wondering if I'd lost a sibling, given I was an only child.
"Nah, nothing like that."
I replied indifferently.
Kang Minjae whipped his head toward me, mouth agape in betrayal.
"……So that was all an act?"
"Yeah."
"Whoa, seriously…… Whoa, whoa…… Mr. Lawyer, you could be a total con artist. Damn, I totally fell for it. I had no clue—I was feeling all heartbroken for you, thinking it was real, too awkward to even bring it up!"
He kept ranting, veins bulging in his neck: how could I lie without blinking? I just laughed.
My father was alive now. No need for that story to be my own experience.
This time, I'd make sure it never happened.