#134

Jung-hyun furrowed his brow as if he found the situation absurd, but Shin Ho-jae was too busy trying to hide the smile that kept leaking out. With a stiff expression, Jung-hyun spoke again.

“I’m being serious.”

“Are you worried about me?”

“…Of course I am.”

He spoke in a tone of disbelief. Ho-jae liked the fact that Jung-hyun was ‘of course worried’ about him, so he smiled faintly and sat closer to him on the bed.

“Don’t worry. A voice recorder was discovered a while ago. The one that recorded the conversation between the CEO and Kwon Ki-hyuk. It will surely be used as decisive evidence to put Kwon Ki-hyuk behind bars.”

“No. The recorder was not admitted as evidence, and the murder charges against Kwon Ki-hyuk themselves have been dropped.”

At those words, Shin Ho-jae’s face stiffened.

“Dropped…? Does that mean Kwon Ki-hyuk is innocent…?”

It had been only a short while since he had rejoiced with Yuk Du-min, Ji Min-chul, and Park Ha-na after seeing the news that the recorder had been found. But for the murder charges themselves to be dropped. Did that mean all their efforts had gone down the drain?

“Only regarding the murder charges.”

“Wait. Surely, if we file an objection….”

“Even if you file an objection, it is very rare for a case that has once been decided not to be sent for prosecution to be sent again. Unless Kim In-jung’s corpse suddenly appears before the police, covered in obvious evidence of homicide.”

“The corpse… then if we find the corpse….”

“Don’t underestimate the investigative power of this country. They would have done their best to find the body. But he wouldn’t have left it in a place where it could be found so easily.”

“…….”

Overwhelmed by a sense of futility, Ho-jae leaned back from Jung-hyun. It felt empty.

Everything Jung-hyun said was correct. They had only obtained the clue of Incheon; nothing else was known about Kim In-jung’s whereabouts, so there was no way to prove the murder.

Unless Kim In-jung returned alive to stand in the witness box, Kwon Ki-hyuk wouldn’t even stand trial.

That couldn’t happen. He remembered everything Kwon Ki-hyuk had said vividly. And the horrific things he had done to Jung-hyun.

‘It’s a simple story. I hired someone to fuck my little brother’s ass.’

‘I strangled him. Every single night. I wanted him to just fucking die.’

It was too unfair to let him slip away effortlessly just because of a lack of evidence. Shin Ho-jae’s cheeks trembled with rage, his lips pressed tight.

He couldn’t ask Jung-hyun about it directly. He didn’t want to bring up such things to Jung-hyun, nor did he want Jung-hyun to recall those events because of his questions.

“It’s too early to make that face. I said the charges weren’t recognized only in regards to the murder. But what if there are other charges?”

Jung-hyun, who had been watching Ho-jae, let a single sentence slip. As if giving him a hint.

“Only in regards to the murder….”

Muttering Jung-hyun’s words, Ho-jae picked up his phone following Jung-hyun’s gaze. He immediately searched for ‘Kwon Ki-hyuk’ and ‘Myeong-jeong’ on a portal site. The search results flooded in.

[Following murder charges, stock manipulation erupts. Kwon Ki-hyuk summoned by prosecution]

[The dark side of ‘Great Myeong-jeong’… Charges of stock manipulation, unfair mergers, and unfair trading follow]

[Prosecution declares ‘War on Myeong-jeong’… Three Myeong-jeong Group affiliates, including Korea Aviation, raided this morning over stock manipulation suspicions]

[Former VP of Korea Aviation, Kwon Ki-hyuk, refuses prosecution summons… second time]

[Stock prices of Myeong-jeong Group affiliates, including Korea Aviation, plummet; retail investors’ cries of despair grow]

[“We will definitely root out corporate evil this time” Prosecution’s justified confidence]

[Myeong-jeong Group shaken to its roots; ‘Whistleblower’ behind the scenes]

Ho-jae’s brow narrowed as he scanned the headlines.

The case was taking a new turn. A new noose had been placed around Kwon Ki-hyuk, who had slipped away from the murder charges like an eel. Scrolling down, Ho-jae clicked on the last article mentioning the ‘whistleblower.’

The article stated that a ‘whistleblower’ within the Myeong-jeong Group had provided decisive evidence for the investigation.

It mentioned that the materials provided were so vast that two entire prosecution teams were assigned just to categorize the evidence by charge, and it speculated that the whistleblower must be a high-ranking insider given the depth of the content.

Shin Ho-jae looked up at Jung-hyun. His face was calm, as if he already knew everything. Suddenly, a premonition flashed through his mind.

“The whistleblower mentioned here, could it be….”

Is it you, CEO? The last words couldn’t make it out of his mouth.

It could have been a wild imagination born of his own hopes. While Kwon Ki-hyuk was a man he could never forgive, it might be different for Jung-hyun. After all, they were blood brothers and family.

As Ho-jae remained silent, merely wetting his lips, Jung-hyun spoke with a composed face.

“He was the one who broke the promise first. So now, he must pay for his sins.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk had laid a hand on Shin Ho-jae. Since the only condition had been broken, Jung-hyun no longer had any obligation to keep his promise.

That was the meaning, but to Shin Ho-jae, who didn’t know the promise between Kwon Myung-chul and Jung-hyun, it sounded like a riddle.

Still, one thing was certain. He was the whistleblower.

* * *

“I’m telling you, this is all Kwon Jung-hyun’s doing!”

Kwon Ki-hyuk shouted, the veins in his neck bulging. His face was unusually haggard.

It was because of the prosecution, which had suddenly begun to tighten the noose less than a week after he had escaped the murder charges.

“Father, are you listening to me with your asshole? I told you. Kwon Jung-hyun was at the scene back then. He’s the only one who could have leaked this kind of data!”

“…….”

“So just find that bastard and crush him. That’s all you have to do. Whether you threaten him with my stepmother, whom he can’t live without, or whatever, just make him recant and say the evidence was fabricated, and it’ll be solved easily.”

Evidence materials brought by the legal team were scattered across the table between Kwon Ki-hyuk and Myung-chul. Even now, the lawyers from Myeong-jeong’s legal team were likely staying up all night discussing countermeasures.

They were all measures to minimize the sentence as much as possible. He hated that fucking approach. It was obvious that Kwon Jung-hyun was the one who delivered these things as evidence to those idiots, so why did they have to take the long way around for something that could be solved easily?

“……Are you absolutely sure Kwon Jung-hyun was the only one there?”

Kwon Myung-chul, who had been silent with a sunken face, finally spoke.

“Fuck, I said yes! How many times do I have to tell you!”

“Are you really sure? What about that whore you keep around? Was he not there?”

“……What?”

Ki-hyuk furrowed his brow. ‘Whore’ was the term used for the Alpha man who was Ki-hyuk’s lover.

It was strange to hear the word ‘whore’ come from his father’s mouth, but he was also surprised that his father knew about his lover’s existence, leaving him momentarily speechless. But that only lasted a moment.

“Why is he coming up here, Father? That bastard’s head is so fucking empty that he doesn’t understand a single word I say.”

“I will ask you one more time. That man, Kim In-jung—did you really not kill him?”

Ki-hyuk unconsciously shook his leg.

Why the fuck is that coming up again?

“Father. Why are you bringing up a case that was already decided not to be sent for prosecution? The legal team gave a firm assurance that it wouldn’t be sent again.”

“I received a call from the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency yesterday.”

Ki-hyuk narrowed his eyes. He was likely talking about the Commissioner General who had been receiving generous bribes.

“He said that new evidence has emerged, and your murder charges are going back into re-investigation.”

“……What?”

His pupils trembled slightly. New evidence? Did the corpse just walk in? That was impossible.

When Kim In-jung lost consciousness, he had been put in a drum alive, filled with cement, and dumped in the middle of the ocean. To ensure not a single drop of blood remained at the scene, hadn’t he loaded the entire container onto a ship and sent it away? It should be impossible to find. Ki-hyuk’s leg shook incessantly.

“What evidence.”

“It seems it’s a testimony, not physical evidence. Seeing as he was tight-lipped, mentioning witness protection and such.”

“…….”

Ki-hyuk’s masseter muscle twitched. Was that why his father had suddenly mentioned his lover? Was he worried that bastard had testified…?

His eyes shifted silently. Did he know something? That couldn’t be. The only ones who handled that job were Secretary Kim, himself, and the laborers whose backgrounds were already so filthy they didn’t even need to be silenced.

“…….”

Something suddenly crossed his mind. After finishing the job at the Incheon container terminal, he couldn’t calm his excitement and immediately sought out his lover. And as usual, he got drunk on a mix of drugs and alcohol, and they slept together.

During those times, his memory was often fragmented. Was there a possibility that he had let something slip?

Fuck. He couldn’t rule out that fucking possibility. He had been excited by his first murder, and those stories would have made for great conversation.

“I can no longer protect you.”

That was when his father’s voice reached him. His heart sank, but Ki-hyuk didn’t show it, glaring at him with piercing eyes.

“How can they prove murder when there’s no body? You know as well as I do, Father, that such precedents are rare. Huh? If you can’t even handle this, you should crush those lawyer bastards who take your money. Right?”

“Ki-hyuk.”

His voice was heavy. Ki-hyuk licked his lips as his throat kept drying up. His trembling leg tapped against the table.

“Just Kwon Jung-hyun, okay? I’m telling you, we just need to find Kwon Jung-hyun. Then I’ll take care of everything. Just help me with that, Father.”

“Find him? Do you really think Jung-hyun would help you? If he were, he wouldn’t have handed the evidence over to the prosecution in the first place.”

“Ah, fuck, why are you acting like this before we even try!”

“Perhaps if you apologized to Jung-hyun….”

“Apologize my ass, fuck. I’m barely holding back the urge to find him right now and strangle him.”

135 – PUCK DROP