By Zephyria Where is there a salaryman going to work in Yeouido like this? It looks like an actor’s profile picture.
He had thought that in his mind, but he couldn’t say anything. He was someone so great in society, someone who Choi Hong-seo thought could do anything he pleased, and he was twelve years older with a sturdy build, but his embarrassed look was somehow cute. His lips tingled. Yet, instead of smiling, he just bit his lip.
Was that the only thing he couldn’t say to him because it was embarrassing, unfamiliar, or because he lacked courage…?
His rapidly beating heart now coughed up a larger amount of blood all at once. While tearing off the skin on his lips with his fingertips, he tapped on the related news below the profile.
The title of today’s news caught his eye first.
Vice President Lee Hae-sung to Depart for Canada Tomorrow… Expectations High for North American Business Trip Results
The article included a photo of him at a brief press conference before his business trip.
Lee Hae-sung had a relatively low media presence for a CEO of one of Korea’s most well-known groups. This was in stark contrast to the Hanseo Group family, led by his cousins. While the Hanseo Group siblings didn’t necessarily enjoy media exposure, they didn’t strongly prevent their private lives from being shared. In contrast, Lee Hae-sung was known for his quiet focus on management, described by some as ‘mysterious.’
The general public was unaware that Lee Hae-sung, who would eventually lead ARA Electronics and, ultimately, ARA Group, was a film buff and had personally established an investment company to sponsor several films, completely independent of ARA’s capital. But that much wasn’t a particular secret.
The fact that he was an avid camera collector and enjoyed photography so much that he had held several exhibitions secretly under a pseudonym was entirely unknown. Apart from one personal secretary, who was like his right hand, this was a top-secret matter known only to Choi Hong-seo.
It was the only outlet where Lee Hae-sung could escape his roles and duties and exist simply as the human Lee Hae-sung.
With fingertips that wouldn’t stop trembling, Choi Hong-seo scrolled down, going back in time.
Vice President Lee Hae-sung of ARA Electronics, Secretly and Urgently Departs for Bangkok, Thailand… The Reason?
Vice President Lee Hae-sung Returns, Looking Gaunt
Lee Hae-sung Takes Vacation, Drives Himself to Villa; Some Express Concern Over ‘Health Issues’
Choi Hong-seo’s gaze lingered on several news items found among Lee Hae-sung’s activities related to ARA Electronics. The dates all pointed to the period immediately after he had jumped from the 32nd floor in Bangkok.
He came to Bangkok… Choi Hong-seo’s hand, which had been biting his lip, stopped. His eyes, reading the article word by word, trembled violently.
Immediately after Choi Hong-seo jumped, Lee Hae-sung rushed to Bangkok, and it wasn’t for any official ARA-related schedule. Therefore, judging that his sudden departure was due to Choi Hong-seo’s accident wouldn’t be an unfounded delusion.
Then… what happened after that?
What exactly happened to our relationship?
Was he disappointed by what I did? He must have been, right? Or perhaps… he found out the whole truth about the X-Boy Scandal and completely lost interest in me because of it…
So, there was no future or anything with someone like me anymore…
His profile, as he drove away from the Seocho-dong residence parking lot, wasn’t very clear. It was taken at night, through the tinted window of the car.
But still, he was happy. He was happy to see him alive and breathing in this world, even though his face, which always showed a soft and kind expression, was sharp and keen like a stranger’s.
But now, it was all over.
His gentleness, his kindness, his caution, and even his secrets were no longer his. He himself had returned them to him with his own hands. Or perhaps, he might think he wasn’t given them back, but rather brutally discarded. That he had blown away all the precious values he had given, like scraps of paper, from the 32nd floor.
Not just his fingers, but Choi Hong-seo’s entire body began to tremble violently.
He felt nauseous. He had been told to call immediately if anything was wrong, but he felt he couldn’t wait for the nurse. He ran to the bathroom in the private room. He could walk slowly, but running properly was still too much. He arrived at the bathroom, his knees buckling several times, almost crawling.
After regaining his senses, the only thing he had swallowed was a few sips of water, yet Choi Hong-seo vomited an unknown yellow liquid.
Standing unsteadily by the toilet, he leaned on the edge of the sink. As he wiped his mouth with his wet hand, he inadvertently met his own eyes in the mirror.
“……”
The water continued to pour from the faucet, and Choi Hong-seo couldn’t even scream.
The fact that the people who came to his room and spoke familiarly was nothing compared to this.
Compared to the face in the mirror, which was that of a complete stranger.
■
It was the end of high summer.
Although it was still technically within the peak summer season, the intense heat had subsided.
Lee Hae-sung sat on a single sofa by the window, gazing at the tablet screen. The cigarette dangling from his fingers emitted a particularly pale smoke that rose slowly.
He had recently moved his residence to this mansion in Hannam-dong, alternating between his homes in Bundang and Seocho-dong. Although this place was also his property, it was real estate he had always rented out and never actually lived in.
This was also the dormitory where Hong-seo had last lived with his group members.
That’s why he couldn’t rent it out to anyone else after ‘that accident,’ and why he couldn’t bring himself to set foot here for a long time afterward.
Thus, Lee Hae-sung left it untouched for a while, as if trying to freeze it in time, just as it was, with Choi Hong-seo’s traces remaining.
Confirming Choi Hong-seo’s traces was the same as confirming his absence… Living in this house still brought pain.
But now, he had decided not to try to shake it off and forget. He had tried hard enough, and he knew well that effort didn’t work for such things. Just like the effort to not like someone, the effort to forget someone was also meaningless.
It was better to miss him amidst his traces than to try to forget. Because he missed him just the same while trying to forget.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the news on the tablet screen, Lee Hae-sung tapped the ash into the ashtray.
What Lee Hae-sung was meticulously reading on the tablet now were articles about his cousin, Lee Seo-kyung. More precisely, articles about Lee Seo-kyung’s death.
All problems began with the ‘X-Boy Scandal.’ That was the fuse.
The sensational content that male actor X, a former idol group member, was actually a host bar escort and had continued to take jobs through sexual favors after his debut. It spread rapidly, starting from several entertainment channels on video-sharing sites.
Several individuals were identified as X-boy, and in the process, an actor wrongly accused as X-boy attempted a drastic act. Fortunately, he survived, but the madness of some of the public did not stop.
Meanwhile, the case took a new turn.
It was newly revealed that there was a pimp who forced and exploited X-boy for prostitution and entertainment, and that this pimp was none other than X-boy’s current agency CEO. As CEO Myeong Do-hoon of Choi Hong-seo’s agency, UB Entertainment, was booked as the pimp, the real suspect in the case, Choi Hong-seo was then identified as X-boy on the web.
It took less than a few hours from the time CEO Myeong was arrested at the airport while attempting to flee overseas, to Choi Hong-seo, who was fulfilling his schedule in Bangkok, Thailand, jumping to his death.
And the figure at the apex of the ‘X-Boy Scandal’ food chain, the pinnacle of exploitation.
That was Lee Hae-sung’s cousin, Executive Director Lee Seo-kyung of Hanseo Group.
To indict Lee Seo-kyung and bring him to court, Lee Hae-sung joined forces with Lee Han, Lee Seo-kyung’s younger brother and long-time rival. And Lee Han, who harbored deep personal resentment towards Lee Seo-kyung, proposed a personal revenge to Lee Hae-sung.
【“Don’t you ever think about wanting to cut off a limb or two? Don’t you really think about wanting to drag him up to the same height… the same height from which he had to jump, and push him down again and again?
If something like that happened to someone I loved, I… I don’t think legal punishment alone, like serving time and having his assets confiscated… would ever be enough for forgiveness.”】
At the time, Lee Hae-sung had refused Lee Han’s proposal.
However, his mind changed later.
He learned that Executive Director Lee Seo-kyung of Hanseo Group was the one who maliciously leaked the ‘X-Boy Scandal,’ and that Lee Seo-kyung was deeply involved in creating the background that made Choi Hong-seo ‘X-boy’ in the first place.
Lee Seo-kyung should not have touched Choi Hong-seo.