By Zephyria 
His eyes met the secretary’s, who was rustling through a bag.
“This just arrived.”
He couldn’t readily smile at the welcoming words. As he let his shoulders slump and kept his mouth shut, the secretary cautiously gauged his mood.
“What’s wrong? Isn’t this it?”
“……It is. Thank you.”
Gyu-oh trudged away. Even though it was something he had waited for so much, he wasn’t happy at all. Fiddling with the large bag of candy the secretary had handed him, Gyu-oh spoke.
“Sowon-nim, it’s a bit embarrassing to ask someone younger than me, but…”
“Yes, what is it?”
“……How should I approach someone who is indifferent?”
“Oh, is this relationship counseling?”
The secretary, who was about to sit down, asked back with sparkling eyes. Relationship? Was it okay to use a word like that? Of course, he wanted to be in a deeper relationship with Hyung, but… was this a desire to be in a relationship where they talk on the phone all night, fall asleep together, and wonder what the other is doing all day?
No, wasn’t he already doing all those things? Come to think of it, hugging, holding hands, and fiddling with faces were things he did as often as eating. He had never done things like sweet pecks or staring deeply into each other’s eyes, but they had had sex. What on earth was this relationship?
“I don’t really know.”
He shrugged and pulled down the corners of his mouth. At that, the secretary gasped and made a fuss as if it were her own business.
“Looking at your expression, it definitely is.”
“……Ahem.”
What was his expression like? Gyu-oh stroked his cheek with a question mark in his mind. Then, the secretary leaned in close to narrow the distance.
“You know, there’s a saying. It’s not the wind, but the sun that strips the clothes off.”
“……Strip, clothes?”
“No! That’s not the point.”
The secretary raised her voice as if frustrated and glanced at the closed office door. Then she leaned in again and whispered.
“Be gentle and warm. Deputy General Manager is a gentle style despite his looks, so the other person might not realize it. That they’re being treated specially.”
“Despite his looks? What do I look like? I don’t think this is a compliment.”
As he tilted his head and inhaled through his teeth, the secretary urgently pulled his arm.
“It is, it’s a compliment.”
“Hmm.”
“Anyway, treat him specially. So that even an indifferent person can’t help but notice.”
She even whispered with her hand covering her mouth as if sharing a secret. Gyu-oh nodded, chewing over the secretary’s words.
“Specially……”
He had always considered Cha Min-ho special. Now that he thought about it, since they had lived like this for ten years, Hyung might have become numb to it.
“Yes, softly.”
While listening to the secretary, his gaze was directed toward the quiet office. He made a vow that he would definitely open that firmly closed door.
“……As expected. Sowon-nim really is the brain of U-won. Thank you.”
So what if he kicks me out and closes the door. There’s something Cha Min-ho is overlooking. No matter what, the place where Won Gyu-oh belongs is by Cha Min-ho’s side.
* * *
“Welcome?”
Min-ho’s step, which he had taken out of the elevator, came to a sudden halt. With one hand in his pocket and the other checking his phone, he slowly raised his head.
Gyu-oh, who had turned his body and rested his arm on the back of the sofa, was sucking on a straw. He greeted him by lifting a glass where ice clinked. It was typical of the guy who always insisted on iced drinks, saying he felt like his insides would explode if he drank something hot.
“……What.”
Min-ho turned around with a frown. The display showed the number for the second basement level. He had come to the right place, but when had Won Gyu-oh arrived? As he turned his head back, he saw the back of Gyu-oh standing up from his seat.
“You’re here to meet the reporter, right? I’ll go in.”
Though his frame was large, his movements were agile. Approaching with light steps, Gyu-oh wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He should have shaken him off, but he missed the timing because of the gentle pushing force.
“I heard Hyung suffered while I was gone.”
“…….”
He even gave a cheeky smile, winking one eye. With the gauze still attached to his forehead.
“There’s a lot of dust and no ventilation. If you go in there, you’ll just start sneezing, right?”
Moreover, his tone had changed subtly. He was soft, as if soothing a child; it was confusing whether he was teasing him or if something good had happened. After gradually nudging Min-ho back to the elevator, he tilted his head to meet his eyes.
“Now, now, Director Cha should hurry up and go up to rest, okay?”
The cold eyes curved softly. As a large hand pressed the up arrow, the elevator doors opened as if they had been waiting. Gyu-oh pushed the bewildered Min-ho inside and kindly pressed the button for the 9th floor where the office was.
“See you later, darling?”
He smiled with his eyes curving beautifully and waved his hand. His large palm was covered in calluses. It was a hand accustomed to gripping and swinging something. As he stared at the closing gap of the door, he saw Gyu-oh turn around and head toward the basement warehouse.
“…….”
Inside was the reporter that Gyu-oh had gone to great lengths to capture. If he had been locked in a warehouse with a properly set atmosphere as Gyu-oh would have done, he might have spilled everything easily, but since Min-ho would be the one unable to do anything in such a place, he had no choice but to choose the company basement.
Even though he tried his best to strip away the gangster vibe, he still performed kidnappings without much thought. Gyu-oh’s share in such things was quite large. Therefore, these tasks were usually Gyu-oh’s responsibility, but Min-ho had taken over during the hospitalization period. He figured doing something would keep distracting thoughts away.
Since Gyu-oh was stepping up to do it, there was no reason to stop him, but still, a sense of unease followed.
About two hours passed. Gyu-oh burst into the office. This time, he wasn’t alone; he had someone tucked under his arm as if in a headlock.
“Ugh, it hurts, it hurts…!”
“Uh-huh.”
The person being dragged along with a bent waist groaned, but Gyu-oh didn’t care. He strode in with his long legs and gave Min-ho a look.
“Director, the reporter says he’ll talk now.”
Min-ho, who was applying hand cream to his freshly washed hands, stood up in bewilderment. No matter how much he had tried to persuade or coax him over the past few days, the man had ignored him. How did he agree to spill everything in just two hours?
“After keeping your mouth shut for days?”
“I grilled him so hard he felt like talking.”
Answering in a slouchy tone, Gyu-oh tossed the man he had held tightly under his arm onto the sofa. As the dusty and crumpled shirt slid up, the man’s lower back was exposed. Bright red marks and bruises that were just beginning to form were visible on the skin. There were undoubtedly more marks in places that weren’t visible.
“Why are you staring so intently at another man’s body?”
“…….”
As if policing him, Gyu-oh pulled down the reporter’s slid-up clothing. Min-ho glared at Gyu-oh with an absurd expression.
‘His body isn’t good.’
The guy, whose lips moved silently without sound, even crossed his hands in an X. It seemed that treatment—assuming he was interested in any man with a good body—was starting again. Frowning, Min-ho turned his gaze away. Meanwhile, the man who had flopped onto the sofa slowly sat up.
“……You really grilled him properly.”
The man’s cheeks were bright red. There was no blood flowing anywhere, but the skin was almost the color of blood. He couldn’t even remember the original face of the reporter who had been locked in the basement for a few days.
“Because he dared to tire out our Director?”
Again, Gyu-oh put on that soft voice and smiled brightly. Why was he acting so greasy? Without bothering to hide his disgusted expression, Min-ho approached the sofa. He sat opposite the awkwardly positioned man.
“So, how much can you tell us?”
“Son, uh, ahem, hmm.”
The reporter, looking completely intimidated, cleared his throat. He covered his mouth and coughed awkwardly, his eyes darting around incessantly to gauge Gyu-oh’s reaction. It was almost possible to imagine what had happened downstairs over the last two hours, yet still elusive. It was the first time a confession had been extracted this quickly.
“What. Do you want some water?”
“Kh, cough…”
It was Min-ho who offered the water, but the reporter glanced at Gyu-oh. As Gyu-oh, perched on the armrest of the sofa, reached out his hand, the reporter flinched and shrugged his shoulders. In reality, Gyu-oh simply snapped his middle finger and thumb together with a loud click. Then, he pointed at the reporter with his index finger.
“Swallow your spit. What do you mean, water?”
“…….”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
The reporter nodded quickly. Now that Min-ho looked closer, the man’s eyes were bloodshot as if he had been crying, and his eyelids were swollen. He must have been dealt with severely. Clicking his tongue, Min-ho gestured with his chin for him to keep talking. At that, the man’s lips trembled as he began to speak.
“Son Pro… is the Executive Director’s s-son! An outside party, something like that.”
“Ah?”
With that one sentence, all the questions seemed to be resolved. However, Min-ho didn’t interrupt and listened closely to the reporter.
“He never mentioned anything about his father, so no one knows.”
The Executive Director had supported Son Pro’s tuition and living expenses under the guise of sponsoring a golf prodigy and helped him enter the professional golf scene. The reporter added that when Son Pro became a professional but failed to achieve significant results, the Director set things up so he could make a living using T Corporation’s secrets. For example, investing heavily in stocks before T Corporation released a new product, or purchasing a building before a store was established there.
And that method gradually evolved into receiving backdoor money from construction companies in exchange for connecting them with T Corporation.
“I, I found out by chance. After Son Pro’s mother passed away, he came to the agency… looking for a car. He asked for a background check on the Executive Director.”
The reporter—or rather, this guy who worked at the agency—said he had known Son Pro since they were children. Son Pro had gone into golf, while he had drifted from job to job before settling at the agency.
Then one day, Son Pro visited him to request a background check on the Executive Director, leading to their reunion. Since his mother had passed away, there was no one left to prove he was the Executive Director’s outside party. He wanted to hold a card in his hand in case he was ever discarded.
“But there wasn’t much that came up on the Executive Director. He wasn’t cheating, and he didn’t have any other children besides him… I did a DNA test just in case. That’s when I f-found out he was the son.”
“So that’s why he pampered him so much.”