4. Thrill Out

With a click, the lock on the drawer released. A look of excitement appeared on Jang Jin-woo’s face. The repairman personally pulled the drawer open slightly to show him and then withdrew a thin tool from the keyhole.

“It’s done. Please check it.”

As soon as the repairman stepped back, Jin-woo hurriedly grabbed the drawer handle. The drawer opened smoothly without any resistance. He was about to check the items inside when he became conscious of the repairman, who hadn’t left yet.

“Ah, thank you for your hard work.”

He immediately took several bills from his wallet and handed them over. The repairman, receiving the money unexpectedly, looked puzzled. It was an amount far too high for a simple service call.

“Um, sir….”

“Is the amount insufficient?”

“No, it’s not that….”

“You worked hard at such a late hour. Please get home safely.”

Jang Jin-woo gave the greeting as if there was nothing more to say. The bewildered repairman awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and bowed before leaving the office. Jang Jin-woo followed him as if seeing him off and shut the office door tightly. He also made sure to lock it, fearing someone might enter.

Returning to Kim Je-guk’s desk, he yanked the drawer open. The memory cards in question were there. Not just one, but dozens of them. A curse escaped his lips involuntarily.

“Perverted bastard.”

When had Kim Je-guk noticed the relationship between himself and Ju-wan?

‘Dr. Jang, on duty again?’

At some point, Kim Je-guk had begun to playfully chide Jang Jin-woo, pretending to be worried. He had been completely oblivious to what that sinister smile meant. Thinking of Kim Je-guk, who must have enjoyed contemplating how to use the recorded videos while watching them, made his blood boil. He also worried whether there were other pieces of evidence besides those memory cards.

However, even after searching Kim Je-guk’s office thoroughly, there were no other particularly suspicious items. Jang Jin-woo tidied up the cluttered office back to its original state and quietly stepped outside.

Passing through the deserted hallway, he entered his own office. He didn’t forget to lock the door from the inside again. Then, he slid one of the many memory cards into his laptop. Inside were video files organized by date and dozens of image files that seemed to be captured from those videos. He played one of them and immediately covered his mouth. Both Ju-wan’s face and his own were clearly captured. Their actions were more explicit than most adult content. A chill ran down his spine once again.

Jang Jin-woo immediately removed the memory card and put it in the metal trash can. He dumped all the other memory cards in as well and threw in a lit piece of paper. Soon, the memory cards caught fire, and acrid smoke rose. He opened the window wide to ventilate. The black smoke, emitting a disgusting smell, was gradually washed away by the cold winter wind and flowed out the window.

Finally, he deleted the laptop’s usage history. Only then did he feel the oppressive weight lifting. Jang Jin-woo looked at the charred remains of the memory cards and smiled triumphantly.

Now, nothing remained. Neither Kim Je-guk, who held his weakness, nor his memory cards, nor even Ju-wan.

“…….”

No, was that true? Looking back, there were a few cases where people Kim Je-guk had sold were returned to the hospital. These were cases where relatively inexpensive organs were removed, and there was no major issue with sustaining life.

But most of them disappeared suddenly and never returned. Such people were processed as ‘discharged’ on paper, and Ju-wan was one of them.

Then, had he also become someone who could never return alive? Perhaps Woo Hyeong-seok, who claimed to be his brother, had found and taken Ju-wan before dealing with Kim Je-guk. Because of that, Ju-wan might be surviving somewhere, intact.

Even if it was a low-probability assumption, since he hadn’t confirmed it with his own eyes, he couldn’t afford to be complacent and assume it was all over. There was nothing wrong with being cautious.

Jang Jin-woo closed the window, took the trash can containing only the traces of something burned, and left his office. He locked the door and walked down the hallway as if nothing had happened. Under the dim fluorescent lights, his shadow slid smoothly as he left the hospital with a brisk pace.

A wealthy family, a competent father, a benevolent mother. He didn’t remember exactly where his smooth life had started to unravel. However, he could confidently assert that if he had made a different choice on that day, at that moment, he wouldn’t have come this far.

At the time, as a third-year resident, Jang Jin-woo was becoming exhausted by a life where he couldn’t properly wash, eat, or sleep. He was drained from caring for the endless stream of patients in the emergency room, where day and night were indistinguishable. It was a period when he couldn’t think of anything and had no motivation.

Even though he ran around busily without a moment to close his eyes, he never heard a single kind word. He was grabbed by patients’ guardians and kicked in the shins by seniors for missing trivial details. He truly felt as if he were enduring each day only because he couldn’t die.

That day was just another one of those days. No, if Jang Jin-woo hadn’t been so stubborn, it surely would have passed by just as ordinarily.

The patient, who had been emergency-transported by helicopter at dawn, was said to have fallen after getting lost in the mountains. Even at a glance, the condition was serious. With every breath, a rattling sound accompanied gushes of bright red blood from the nose and mouth. As if struggling to breathe, the oxygen saturation was dropping rapidly. The vitals were also poor.

The patient’s airway was swollen, making endotracheal intubation difficult. In such cases, a tracheostomy was attempted. The problem was that there was no specialist on site to perform it. Numerous calls were made, but there was no one who could rush over immediately.

If left as is, the patient was in danger. Something had to be done.

He snapped back to consciousness when someone suddenly grabbed his arm. Before he knew it, a scalpel was held in his trembling hand.

‘Are you actually going to do it?’

‘I have to. It’s dangerous to just leave them.’

‘What if something goes wrong?’

‘It’s the same even if we do nothing.’

The colleague let go of Jang Jin-woo’s hand. He even took a couple of steps back. It felt as if he were drawing a line, stating that whatever happened next would clearly be Jin-woo’s responsibility. Should he have stopped then, after all?

In the end, the patient who received Jang Jin-woo’s treatment lost consciousness due to shock and never opened their eyes again. The bereaved family filed a lawsuit, but they lost when it was recognized that the patient’s condition upon arrival at the hospital had been extremely critical. After that, no one held Jang Jin-woo accountable.

But he couldn’t bear it. The sensation of the scalpel tip digging deeper than expected as his trembling hand slipped. Even after completing his residency and obtaining his specialist certification, it was difficult to shake off the nightmare of that day. His hands trembled just by holding a scalpel. It was a fatal trauma for a surgeon.

Even during his time in medical school, he had consistently ranked first, and because the expectations surrounding him were so high, his sense of frustration grew uncontrollably. Thus, after half a year, the place he fled to and hid in was Central Psychiatric Hospital.

While Jang Jin-woo’s father, Jang Cheol-min, was the chairman of the board, the actual founder had been his grandfather. From then until now, it had been operated as a means of various collusions. The patients admitted to that hospital were incredibly diverse, ranging from political prisoners of the era to famous figures in politics and business and their families.

There, no one expected anything from Jang Jin-woo. No one took an interest in his credentials. It wasn’t even a problem that his specialty wasn’t psychiatry. It seemed that external audits had never even been conducted. It was, quite literally, no different from a lawless zone, neglected and forgotten.

It was impossible that proper treatment or counseling had ever taken place. It was enough to simply inject the patients with medication on a regular basis. Whether a patient caused a commotion, had a seizure, or behaved quietly, the medication injected daily remained unchanged. Consequently, most of them quickly lost their energy and became quiet.

However, Room 411 was the exception. The patient there caused a disturbance almost every single day. Whenever that happened, Kim Je-guk would prepare the injection with an expression that looked as if he were bored to death. Once, the struggling was so severe that the needle actually broke. Despite this, the patient did not stop his meaningless resistance. The same thing repeated over and over again.

Just what kind of person was he to be so tireless? The faint curiosity was quickly satisfied when he met the owner of that room, Ju-wan.

It happened when he went to the lounge to retrieve a book he had forgotten. Ju-wan was sitting in the spot where the book had been left. He was so absorbed in a humanities book that likely wasn’t even interesting that he didn’t even notice Jang Jin-woo’s presence. The voice reciting difficult passages was faint and trembling unstablely.

“Alright, break time is over. All patients, please return to your rooms!”

A nursing assistant shouted loudly from a distance. Only then did Ju-wan startle and close the book. As he hurriedly stood up, he froze like a stone the moment he came face-to-face with Jang Jin-woo. In his eyes, as he clutched the book to his chest, a mixture of unconcealable bewilderment and fear crossed. It was a preemptive despair regarding the contempt and ridicule that would soon be poured upon him.

Watching him wait for some kind of disposition with his head bowed low, a strange desire for conquest stirred inside. The way his heart throbbed violently was quite different from simple excitement or trembling.

He wore a smile that looked generous.

“Shall I lend you that book?”

As expected, a look of puzzlement spread across Ju-wan’s face. His unfocused eyes widened, filling with the image of Jang Jin-woo. Looking at him now, despite the shadows, he had a fairly pretty face.

That day, even as he was practically chased back to his room by the nursing assistant, Ju-wan kept turning his head to look at Jang Jin-woo. That desperate and urgent gaze sent shivers down his neck. Stopping before the door that separated the world of the normal from the abnormal, he clutched the book preciousy and bowed his head toward Jang Jin-woo. An unknown euphoria pierced through his entire body and struck his mind directly.

He wanted to poke at him more. He was curious to see how far that man, who was no different from a block of wood, would react because of him. That was how it started.

Ju-wan looked quite awkward as he returned the book to Jang Jin-woo after a full two weeks. And for good reason; the book, which had been practically new, had become tattered as if it were ten years old in that short time. Some pages had been torn out, with jagged edges protruding between the clean cuts. It was impossible to gauge just how many times he had read that book.

When he let out a smirk, Ju-wan’s shoulders flinched. As he slowly raised his head, a bewildered expression was etched on his face.

“Was it that interesting?”

“…”

“Then this one will be even more interesting. Do you want to try reading it?”

He casually recommended another book. At that, a faint smile spread across Ju-wan’s face. It was merely a slight twitch of the corners of a mouth that had been frozen for a long time, but it was clearly a clumsy smile.

He snatched the scrawny, skeletal wrist. Ju-wan did not pull away. Even when he quietly pressed his lips to the back of that hand, Ju-wan only looked on with an unfamiliar gaze. Day after day, he gifted him different books, magazines, and daily newspapers. Ju-wan gladly accepted everything Jang Jin-woo gave him at any time.

Once, Ju-wan had smiled brightly, saying he had solved all the puzzles in the newspaper. After watching him in silence, he gave him a light kiss. Though he stiffened his shoulders as if somewhat surprised, he showed no sign of dislike. Then again, and again after that.

The man who had been like a living corpse began to show expression, and a vitality that wasn’t there began to flow. Was this what it felt like to bring a dying person back to life? Watching Ju-wan during that time, Jang Jin-woo felt as if he had become a god.

During the medication time when commotions broke out daily, he visited Ju-wan instead of Kim Je-guk. Then, he whispered softly to the man who was trembling under the covers.

“You don’t have to take medicine anymore. You’re not sick, Ju-wan.”

At that moment, Ju-wan acted as if he had encountered a miracle. There was no way to resist the gaze that clung to him desperately, asking if it was truly alright.

He had never imagined himself becoming aroused by a man. Let alone a patient.

But at that time, he couldn’t think of anything. A powerful impulse suppressed his reason and dominated his body. He wanted to devour everything of a person for whom Jang Jin-woo himself was the entire world. He frantically opened the closed body and entered, savoring the inner flesh and body heat. He wanted the being he had revived with his own hands to crave him with all his body and soul.

By the time he came to his senses, he had already developed a taste for the transgression to an uncontrollable degree. While continuing a relationship that had only one obvious conclusion, he couldn’t stop his footsteps toward Ju-wan. By nature, a relationship predicated solely on ruin provided strong stimulation and a unique thrill.

However, at some point, Ju-wan began to slowly lose his expression, just as he had when they first met. No gift could elicit a reaction from him. He, who had not been talkative to begin with, eventually shut his mouth entirely. No matter how much he coaxed and soothed him, or how much he cornered and tormented him, it was the same.

“Teacher… can you really not get me out?”

Once, Ju-wan had asked him directly. Whether there was truly no way to get him out, or whether there was no will to do so.

“Complaining again, are we, Ju-wan?”

Jang Jin-woo brushed it off with a smirk. Then, more tenderly than ever, he brushed back his hair, told him to sleep well, and kissed him.

After that, Ju-wan rarely spoke with Jang Jin-woo. He hardly even tried to make eye contact. Day by day, he was rapidly returning to square one.

Even so, he couldn’t stop. No, he thought it didn’t matter what happened. Because Park Ju-wan would never be able to escape from Jang Jin-woo’s grasp anyway.

That was certainly the case until a few days ago, but it was a miscalculation.

“Teacher… can you really not get me out?”

Jang Jin-woo recalled the past as he sped down the road shrouded in darkness. Ju-wan’s voice, asking if he could really get him out, seemed to ring vividly in his ears.

He had no intention of ending his relationship with Ju-wan. However, he didn’t want to pull him outside and intentionally cause a headache of a problem. No matter where he was, he would remain unchanged within Jang Jin-woo’s domain. After all, no one but him paid any attention to the man. So, he had simply made the safer choice.

But Ju-wan, whom he had believed without a doubt would always be within reach, had suddenly vanished. The moment he realized this fact, an unknown sense of loss washed over him. He had naturally been his, but now he had evaporated faintly to a place whose location was unknown. No matter how much he reached out and searched, he could not reach him.

Was it a kind of withdrawal symptom? He felt strangely anxious and constantly unsatisfied.

That aside.

“…What is this?”

He stared intently into the rearview mirror. A black sedan was reflected there. He had first noticed the car around the time he left the hospital. Even though the two-lane road was nearly empty because it was late, the car didn’t overtake him and just followed closely behind. It was a bad omen.

To check, Jang Jin-woo locked all the doors and pulled over briefly to the side of the road. Then, the black sedan that had been following him glided past him.

Did I get nervous for nothing? It was probably just heading in the same direction. A smirk escaped him.

But that smile quickly vanished when he saw the black sedan gradually slowing down and coming to a stop. For whatever reason, it seemed clear that their target was Jang Jin-woo himself.

Jang Jin-woo moved the car again. He drove in his original lane as if he knew nothing, then at one point, he turned the steering wheel into the opposite lane and quickly passed the black sedan. In that split second, he checked the movement of the black sedan. Because of the dark tint, he couldn’t see inside, but the moment his car passed by, he felt the black silhouettes in the front and back seats all turn to look at him. A chill ran down his spine.

Who sent them? A person suddenly came to mind. Woo Hyeong-seok, who had come to the hospital claiming to be Ju-wan’s younger brother. He didn’t know the license plate number, but the car he had arrived in at the time was the same model as that black sedan.

Could it be that Woo Hyeong-seok finally found out everything? If Kim Je-guk had been captured and disappeared by him as expected, Kim Je-guk wouldn’t have died quietly alone. It was obvious he would have blabbed all the secrets regarding Ju-wan to Woo Hyeong-seok. Although Jang Jin-woo had just erased all the evidence with his own hands, for some reason, he had a vague conviction that someone like Woo Hyeong-seok wouldn’t care about such things.

If he were caught by Woo Hyeong-seok, he would disappear without a trace, just like Kim Je-guk. He couldn’t just let himself be taken so easily.

If he went straight to the police station, the black sedan might give up the chase. But that was merely a temporary measure. Getting entangled with the police would be troublesome not only for Woo Hyeong-seok, but for Jang Jin-woo himself and the hospital as well.

While he was contemplating, an intersection appeared. To go home, he had to turn left, but instead, he pressed the accelerator harder and went straight. This time too, the black sedan followed Jang Jin-woo, emitting a loud engine noise.

On the opposite lane, only a few cars passed by intermittently. Still, if he timed it right, he should be able to shake off the pursuer.

Jang Jin-woo sped along, looking for an opportunity. Then, as the center divider disappeared, he hit the brakes to momentarily reduce speed and made a sudden U-turn. The black sedan following him tried to follow quickly, but the car skidded heavily and couldn’t turn its nose around immediately.

Soon, another car coming from the opposite lane sounded a sharp horn at the black sedan that was blocking the road. The sound of tires grinding and wearing down against the road surface from the sudden stop followed. Since Jang Jin-woo continued to leave the scene, he didn’t know if the two cars eventually collided. He simply breathed a sigh of relief that there was no longer a car visible in the rearview mirror.

Before long, the intersection he had just passed appeared. As he slowly reduced speed to make a smooth right turn, Jang Jin-woo suddenly squeezed his eyes shut. Something unexpected had suddenly jumped out in the direction he was trying to turn. It wasn’t a dog or a cat. He felt the steering wheel spin wildly on its own for a moment. The sound of tires screeching tore through the air as the car slid endlessly.

The car soon stopped after colliding violently with something. As a result, his body jolted heavily, and the seatbelt tightened around his chest. His breath caught. His head, which had hit the car body, rang numbly.

“…Ugh.”

What Jang Jin-woo’s car had hit was a roadside tree planted sparsely. The upper part of the tree, broken by the impact, was covering the front of the car. Due to the shock, radial cracks had formed on the windshield.

As soon as he regained consciousness, he stared at the opposite lane to identify the identity of the thing that had suddenly jumped out and obstructed his path. The obstacle in question was still there. Soon, Jang Jin-woo’s eyes widened because that obstacle was none other than the black sedan that had been chasing him.

His body began to tremble. A chill ran down his spine instantly, and cold sweat poured.

After staying in that spot for a while, the window of the black sedan rolled down halfway. Because the distance was far and the inside of the car was dark, the faces of the occupants were not clearly visible.

However, one thing was clear: they were staring intently at Jang Jin-woo. It was a persistent gaze, as if throwing some kind of implicit warning.

Eventually, all signs of people vanished from the road. Only the traffic light at the crosswalk changed at regular intervals.

The window of the black sedan slid up. Then, the car changed direction and quickly moved away from Jang Jin-woo.

Jang Jin-woo watched its tail end endlessly. Regardless of his will, that’s how it happened. He simply couldn’t move his feet.

Only after a long time did he shake his head and come to his senses. He hurriedly got back into the car. Then, without even thinking of reporting the accident, he reversed to get away from the roadside tree that had crushed his car. Glass shards and twigs rained down into the car. Ignoring them, he sped away relentlessly in the opposite direction from where the black sedan had disappeared. Jang Jin-woo’s face was pale.

There was no time.

* * *

Flushed with intoxication, Jang Cheol-min staggered out of the room salon. He had even declined the help of his companions who offered to take him to his car.

Normally, the driver would have come inside the establishment to support him, but today, he was nowhere to be seen. Had he fallen asleep in the car again? They say if you treat a dog like a human, it thinks it’s a human; that was exactly the case. Because Jang Cheol-min rarely raised his voice and acted gentlemanly, the driver didn’t know to fear his employer. Lamenting inwardly, he stepped outside.

He saw his car waiting right there. Whether he was leisurely listening to music, the noise echoed outside the car. Jang Cheol-min shook his head and walked toward the rear door. The driver, who would normally have quickly gotten out to open the door, didn’t budge. Thinking he might have stepped away for a moment, he looked inside, but the silhouette of a person was clearly visible in the driver’s seat. After staring at the driver’s seat for a while, Jang Cheol-min clicked his tongue openly, opened the rear door himself, and got in.

Inside the car, the latest pop songs were thumping loudly. Jang Cheol-min’s brow furrowed sharply at the noise that felt like it would tear his eardrums. As soon as he sat in the back seat, he intentionally cleared his throat loudly, but the driver didn’t lower the volume. He didn’t even look back.

“Hey, you…”

He started to speak, intending to finally say something, but paused. This was because a black sedan with its headlights on was leisurely approaching from behind his car. His eyes narrowed naturally at the intense glare.

The sedan, which had been pouring out light pollution for a while, suddenly turned off its headlights. Immediately after, the sedan’s door swung open, and men who looked like gangsters at a glance stepped out. They approached Jang Cheol-min’s car quickly. An anxious Jang Cheol-min hurriedly locked the doors, but the lock made a clicking sound and opened again immediately. With a bewildered face, Jang Cheol-min looked back at the driver’s seat. Only then did he realize that the man in the driver’s seat facing him was not the driver he had hired.

Soon after, both rear doors opened, and sturdy men entered and sat down one by one. Jang Cheol-min ended up sandwiched between the two. One of the men showed a sharp knife to Jang Cheol-min and then pressed it firmly against his abdomen. His breath caught.

The man who had approached the passenger side just stood there silently with the door wide open. Not long after, the rear door of the black sedan opened, and Woo Hyeong-seok stepped out. He naturally entered and sat in the passenger seat his subordinate had opened. As soon as he sat down, the subordinate quietly closed the door. With that, Jang Cheol-min was completely surrounded.

“Wh-who are you…!”

Jang Cheol-min’s voice trembled pathetically. Woo Hyeong-seok mocked him by mimicking his tone and let out a smirk. The men holding him on either side did not follow the laugh.

Soon, Woo Hyeong-seok tilted his head slightly and stared at Jang Cheol-min.

“Are you the old man, the chairman of Central Psychiatric Hospital, Jang Cheol-min?”

“I am, but what on earth is the meaning of this?”

Jang Cheol-min hurriedly looked around his surroundings. Rather than intending to grasp his current situation, he seemed to be gauging whether he could survive this safely.

Scratching his forehead, Woo Hyeong-seok explained the general situation in an annoyed tone.

“There’s a patient at that hospital named Park Ju-wan. No, there was one. Anyway, I’m the person who happens to be that fellow’s brother. A while ago, I asked them to discharge Park Ju-wan, but a doctor there named Kim Je-guk told me it was difficult at the moment. What did he say? That he needed the director’s permission? But the whole thing smelled fishy. I’ve seen more than a few people stab others in the back like that. I let my boys do some digging, and it turns out that man is quite a piece of work. Did you know, old man? That he was selling off your hospital’s patients one by one.”

“What on earth are you talking about? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Jang Cheol-min frowned, his expression turning stern. Even in this situation, he reacted with such shock that it seemed he truly was unaware of Kim Je-guk’s atrocities. Woo Hyeong-seok shrugged as if it didn’t matter and spoke again.

“You might want to deny it, but unfortunately, it’s all true. The important thing is that the doctor happened to sell off Park Ju-wan as well. And then he vanished. Now that things have come to this, where on earth am I supposed to go to find my own flesh and blood, old man?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about… I know nothing of this, and it has nothing to do with me.”

“How does it not have anything to do with you? That hospital belongs to you.”

“What exactly is it that you want from me!”

“Right, that’s the reaction I was looking for.”

Woo Hyeong-seok gave a short laugh and gave a light signal with his eyes to the man sitting in the back seat. The man then took out a piece of paper and held it open so that Jang Cheol-min could see it clearly. As Jang Cheol-min read the words written there, a look of absurdity crossed his face. It was a promissory note dated today. A considerable sum was written on it.

“It’s a headache, isn’t it? No matter how much of a discarded hospital it may be, as long as you are the chairman, you’ll have to take responsibility. Imagine if the atrocities committed there were to hit the news. What would happen then? Besides, I heard your son is a doctor at that hospital? Then he probably wouldn’t have been unaware of how a fellow doctor was taking bribes, right?”

“…So, are you telling me to hand over money as hush money?”

“No, if you put it that way, it just ruins the mood for both of us. Regardless, I need to find my flesh and blood, and because I’ve been pouring all my focus into that lately, I haven’t been able to work at all, and my boys are on the verge of starving to death. Since you do so many good deeds here and there, old man, why not make a donation, as if you’re saving a person’s life?”

In the end, it was about money. The promissory note Woo Hyeong-seok handed over was neatly folded and tucked into the inside of Jang Cheol-min’s jacket. Even as he stepped back, Jang Cheol-min did not yield easily.

“First, it would be proper to determine the truth of your story. Once the facts are confirmed, I will do whatever you wish.”

“Well, that’s up to you, old man, but I can’t wait long. Two days.”

Woo Hyeong-seok declared the deadline and stepped out of the car without lingering. Then, he suddenly leaned down to look into Jang Cheol-min’s eyes.

“Just in case you’re wondering, I’m not an easy target. If you’re planning any tricks, you’d better be prepared to die.”

It was as if he could see right through Jang Cheol-min’s mind. Woo Hyeong-seok gave a fake smile to the frozen Jang Cheol-min and headed toward his own car. The men who had been holding Jang Cheol-min followed him. Their black sedan reversed as smoothly as it had arrived, then leisurely overtook Jang Cheol-min’s car and drove away.

“…….”

The latest pop songs were still blaring loudly inside the car. Yet, while talking to Woo Hyeong-seok, he had completely forgotten that fact.

The tension suddenly snapped. He wished he had been drunk and seeing or hearing things, but when he felt the inside pocket of his jacket to check, Woo Hyeong-seok’s promissory note rustled.

Jang Cheol-min wiped his face with his thick hand in a gesture of helplessness.

* * *

‘The patient has passed away.’

The doctor bowed his head as if ashamed. A stark white sheet covered his younger brother’s face, which had been distorted in pain. He hadn’t even been able to close his eyes peacefully.

The medical staff who had surrounded the bed left one by one, drenched in a sense of lethargy. In the place where a commotion had once occurred, only various pieces of equipment mobilized to revive a single life and a man who had frozen like stone remained.

Even after losing his only blood relative, the man did not cry. It was because he didn’t know why he should cry. His mind could not properly accept the situation unfolding before his eyes. This couldn’t be happening.

He barely managed to move his legs, which felt as if they were rooted to the ground, and headed somewhere. He felt as if he could hear his brother’s voice wailing behind him.

Every single step was difficult. Rough breaths burst out incessantly, and his breathing grew increasingly labored.

Nothing entered his vision, which was shaking frantically. He didn’t notice the people passing by looking at him strangely, nor the drivers pointing and hurling all sorts of insults as he crossed the street, nor the stinging pain of the scrapes when he eventually tripped and fell. He simply ran and ran blindly, like a hunting dog seeing only its target.

He had to hear it. He absolutely had to know why his brother had ended up like that. Until then, he didn’t want to accept anything.

After running until his legs trembled, he arrived in front of that house’s gate. The door was firmly closed. Even though he pressed the doorbell violently as if to break it, there was no response from inside. He pounded on the gate with both fists. He screamed at the top of his lungs for them to come out. He felt it wouldn’t matter even if his fists were crushed to powder.

As time passed, he couldn’t suppress the intensifying emotions. His eyes burned as if they were on fire. His vision began to blur into a bright yellow.

Only after a long time did the door open.

However, the person who appeared from inside was not the one he had expected. A group of men came out and swung wooden clubs. His legs, drained of strength from running, gave way, and he slumped to the ground. As if they had been waiting, a leather shoe kicked him in the jaw. His body flipped backward. For a moment, the night sky entered his view. It was a world of pitch-black darkness without a single star in sight.

The men grumbled that he was being a nuisance and grabbed him by the collar. Then they dragged him inside the house and unleashed ruthless violence. Tied up like a dog in a slaughterhouse, he received a barrage of clubs. Blood burst from his nose and mouth. His two ears became muffled as if submerged in water. Every time he inhaled and exhaled, his broken ribs rattled, causing pain. Blood flowing from his split head licked the side of his face thickly and dripped, drip, drip, onto the floor.

By the time he had been beaten to a pulp, the person he had been waiting for approached. His vision narrowed, and even that became cloudy, so he could barely recognize the silhouette. Yet, he realized the man was smiling. He smelled strongly of meat soup, as if he had just finished a meal, and was chewing on a toothpick.

‘Beating is the only medicine for a beast that’s lost its mind. What do you expect me to do about some mutt who ate something random and died? An ungrateful brat who doesn’t even know the grace of being taken in.’

A large piece of iron flew into his chest, feeling as if it crushed even the already broken bones into powder. The price of trust in a mere human was that harsh and pathetic.

The man hurled insults several times and slapped his swollen cheek. His body grew increasingly limp, and his consciousness flickered as if it would snap at any moment.

The man dusted off his now-dirty hands and clicked his tongue.

‘Clean this up.’

Watching the approaching figures, he lost consciousness.

“Haak…!”

His eyes snapped open. A familiar ceiling instantly filled his vision, triggering a dizzying vertigo. His chest expanded and contracted rapidly, sucking in the lacking oxygen. His violently thumping heart felt as if it would finally burst through his skin. Cold sweat flowed down his neck and spine. His brow furrowed instinctively at the terrible sensation.

Exhaling a long breath, he relaxed his stiffened body. He raised a hand to rub his damp forehead. The start of the day was still utterly unpleasant.

He started to get up, thinking of taking a shower, but hesitated. Perhaps awakened by his struggling, Jaguar raised his head and was looking at Kwon Su-hyeok. The beast soon realized that Kwon Su-hyeok had simply had a nightmare as usual and lowered its head again. It knew from experience that no amount of aegyo or comfort worked on him when he was plagued by nightmares.

Beside him, Ju-wan’s spot was empty. He reached out and placed his hand where the other had been lying. He felt a faint warmth. Did he go to the bathroom?

Kwon Su-hyeok put on a robe and went outside. After slowly looking around the house, he found Ju-wan in the kitchen. He had pulled both legs up onto a chair and was resting his chin firmly on his knees. Because of that, the white nape of his neck was clearly visible. The skin, which had not seen sunlight for a long time, was as white as flour. Sometimes it was confusing whether he was actually a living person.

Perhaps having heard the sound of the door opening, Ju-wan turned his head. Soon, their gazes intertwined.

“…….”

“…….”

Ju-wan stared at Kwon Su-hyeok without saying a word. Then he got down from the chair and abruptly opened the refrigerator. What he took out was a bottle of mineral water. He approached while opening the cap himself and suddenly held it out to Kwon Su-hyeok.

“Do you want some water?”

“…….”

“It might settle your stomach a bit.”

It seemed he had realized Kwon Su-hyeok had been plagued by nightmares just by looking at his complexion. Kwon Su-hyeok looked at the dining table over Ju-wan’s shoulder. On it sat a half-finished bottle of mineral water. Though he didn’t know for sure, it seemed Ju-wan had also lost sleep.

Kwon Su-hyeok snatched the water from Ju-wan and drank it down refreshingly. A sharp chill swept through his entire body. Just as Ju-wan said, his mind became much calmer. However, the unpleasantness weighing on his heart did not easily fade.

He set the empty water bottle on the table and headed for the bathroom. Behind Kwon Su-hyeok’s back, Ju-wan’s voice leaked out hesitantly.

“It might sound strange, but….”

He stopped for a moment and looked back at Ju-wan. Ju-wan did not avoid Kwon Su-hyeok’s gaze and met it calmly. Even between close people, staring so intently was bound to be burdensome. Let alone two strangers in a desolate relationship. Yet, he seemed to lack such embarrassment or shame.

“For the first time in a long while, I felt at ease. When I woke up from the nightmare… I saw a broad back… and I could hear the sound of breathing.”

Seeing how he didn’t hesitate to say such things directly to the person involved.

“…Are you saying that to make me feel good?”

Kwon Su-hyeok’s brow furrowed slightly. This was because he couldn’t quite understand Ju-wan’s words. If the sound of a dark-skinned man’s breathing was heard right next to you, wouldn’t it be unpleasant rather than reassuring? At least it was for Kwon Su-hyeok.

Yet, he felt at ease. Ju-wan’s face remained calm. He didn’t seem to be playing a prank on someone who had a nightmare. Nor did he seem to have any intention of flattering him. He didn’t babble excuses or give an embarrassed smile like those who frequently tell white lies do when their shallow intentions are caught.

This creature is truly unpredictable.

Kwon Su-hyeok shook his head slightly and headed to the bathroom. Ju-wan simply watched his broad back, as if admiring the deep sense of relief it had provided him during the night.

Soon the bathroom door closed, and the sound of water could be heard from inside. Only then did Ju-wan turn around and enter the kitchen again. First, he tidied up the water bottles on the table and checked the clock. It was a change that had become a habit in just a few days. The time at the hospital had been so fleeting.

Normally, this would be the time when Jeon Mi-nam would prepare breakfast for Jaguar and Ju-wan and help Kwon Su-hyeok get ready. But for some reason, he had not appeared yet. Just in case, he listened toward the front door, but no sign of him was detected. Had something busy come up?

Around that time, Jaguar came out of the bedroom. The beast headed for the living room as usual, then stopped for a moment upon discovering Ju-wan lost in thought. Soon, Ju-wan’s gaze also turned toward the beast.

Ju-wan slowly reached out to the beast staring at him. Then, as if calling a puppy, he flicked his fingertips gently.

“Su-nam.”

As if dissatisfied with something, Jaguar let out a small growl and wrinkled its nose. Then it abruptly turned its head away from Ju-wan.

The beast jumped onto the living room sofa and lay flat on its belly leisurely. Ju-wan, with his head held high, called “Su-nam” again to the beast looking at him. Then the beast let out a rough breath again, showing its dislike. No matter how one looked at it, it seemed the beast was not fond of its name, ‘Su-nam’. Since it probably didn’t know the meaning, the beast’s dissatisfaction was likely the pronunciation.

Ju-wan observed Jaguar, who occasionally thrashed the sofa with its tail, then said “Ah” and quickly went inside. Then he took out the chunk of meat he had bought with Jeon Mi-nam from the outer refrigerator. He clearly remembered being told that one piece was for one meal, but the packaged meat was so massive that he had to wrap both arms around it to carry it. As large as its body was, the amount it consumed seemed enormous.

Ju-wan struggled to move the chunk of meat to the living room. Then, Jaguar’s eyes, which had been lounging on the sofa, became fixed on him. As he set the chunk of meat on the floor, his body naturally swayed. His breath, which had become labored, burst out roughly.

Taking a deep breath, he crouched on the floor and rummaged through the chunk of meat. This was to check if there were any small bones left, as there had been before. Jaguar simply flicked its round ears while observing Ju-wan rummaging through its food for a long time. Ju-wan’s quite cautious appearance was reflected in the bright yellow pupils.

Fortunately, in this chunk of meat, there were no small bones that Jaguar might accidentally swallow, other than a thick shin bone.

“Eat.”

Even though he said it was ready, Jaguar didn’t budge from the sofa. It simply lowered its head and glared at Ju-wan with its eyes narrowed. Ju-wan looked at the beast curiously, then realized something late and stepped back.

Then Jaguar leaped off the sofa and began its meal. Tearing off a piece of raw meat with a bite, it looked back at Ju-wan, who was still standing there. Fearing he might be in the way, he quickly entered the kitchen. Only then could he hear the steady sound of meat being torn and chewed behind his back.

After washing his hands clean, he opened the inner refrigerator. From inside, he took out a meal kit he had bought a while ago. These were products where all ingredients were prepped so they could be cooked simply and eaten immediately. Among them, he chose soybean paste stew. He thought it would be best to have a warm and stomach-friendly meal for breakfast.

He poured a proper amount of water into a pot and put in all the packaged ingredients. Before long, the food in the pot began to bubble. As it took on a fairly plausible appearance, a savory smell wafted out.

After staring at the pot without doing anything, he carefully scooped some stew with a disposable spoon. Then he blew on it and tasted it. The taste of seasoning was strong, but it wasn’t too bad. He lowered the heat and set out kimchi and roasted seaweed on the table. He also heated up two bowls of instant rice.

When Kwon Su-hyeok came out of the bathroom, Jaguar had already finished its meal and was lounging leisurely. Normally, it would have approached Kwon Su-hyeok and lingered around his legs, but it seemed its attention was completely captured by something else. Kwon Su-hyeok shook the moisture from his hair and approached the beast. Then he turned his head toward where the beast’s gaze was fixed. Soon, his gaze reached Ju-wan.

Ju-wan was carefully moving the hot pot to the table. What was strange was that one bowl of instant rice and a set of utensils were placed on both sides of the facing seats.

“Ah….”

Ju-wan, who had successfully placed the soybean paste stew in the center of the table, discovered Kwon Su-hyeok. When their eyes met, he hesitantly invited him.

“Please sit.”

Once again, Kwon Su-hyeok’s brow furrowed. It was as if he wondered if he had misheard.

However, Ju-wan openly pulled out the outer chair and then went to sit opposite it. He neatly placed the only set of metal utensils in the opposite seat, while he himself tore open a disposable plastic spoon and wooden chopsticks.

“I eat well with wooden chopsticks too.”

In other words, it seemed he was asking to eat together.

* * *

Jang Jin-woo’s car entered the driveway of the family home. Only after he braked and came to a complete stop did the rattling noise cease. It had been noisy the whole way; one side of the bumper had fallen off and was dragging on the ground. He got out of the car frantically. He had even forgotten to take the car keys.

It was dawn, before the sun had even risen. A newspaper delivery person passing through the street lined with luxury villas looked closely at the dented car. Then, upon making eye contact with Jang Jin-woo, he hurriedly turned his head and moved away. The irritating sound of the scooter also faded into the distance.

As he tried to enter the house quietly, the door opened from the inside first. Jang Jin-woo’s mother, wearing a thick shawl over her pajamas, had come out upon hearing the car arrive. Perhaps because her son, who had rarely visited the family home since going down to the provincial psychiatric hospital, had visited suddenly, a deep concern was etched on her face.

“Jin-woo? What’s going on? You didn’t even call to say you were coming.”

“Weren’t you asleep?”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone, but the parking lot sensor went off and woke me up. I asked what happened.”

“Let’s go inside and talk first.”

Jang Jin-woo tightly grasped the hand of his mother, who was looking at him with eyes full of worry. His mother still looked suspicious, but she led him into the house.

Seeing him in the light, Jang Jin-woo was a complete mess. His forehead was red and swollen, as if he had hit something, and his face was devoid of color. His eyes were bleary, making him look like someone who hadn’t slept for days.

“My goodness, you! What happened to your face…?”

“I had a minor fender bender on the way here.”

“Then why didn’t you go straight to the hospital!”

As she nagged him out of concern, Jang Jin-woo’s mother suddenly paused, struck by an ominous premonition. Her complexion turned pale, as if her heart had dropped.

“…Did you perhaps hit someone?”

“No, nothing like that. I’m thirsty. Please give me some water.”

He sat on the living room sofa and gave a nonchalant smile. Still feeling uneasy, Jang Jin-woo’s mother went into the kitchen. She soon returned with a glass of water. Jang Jin-woo lightly moistened his throat and looked around the quiet house.

“Where is Father?”

“He was drinking until late last night and came home a little while ago. He went straight into his study, as if he isn’t even tired. He didn’t look well; I don’t know why he keeps overworking himself… Isn’t it time he rested?”

Jang Jin-woo’s mother clicked her tongue in disapproval. Then, she began to ask in detail if he was truly hurt anywhere and how the accident had happened.

His parents’ attitudes toward Jang Jin-woo were always polar opposites. His father, Jang Cheol-min, wanted his only blood son to grow up to be stronger, more excellent, and a more respected talent than anyone else. His mother, on the other hand, only wanted to coddle him like a precious jewel. If the traffic accident last night had involved hitting a person, his mother would have used everything in her power to hide the truth and protect her son. This parental influence was the biggest factor in the formation of Jang Jin-woo’s dual personality.

While Jang Jin-woo was in the middle of soothing his mother, the study door opened. Looking down at the living room through the gap in the door, Jang Cheol-min’s complexion was certainly dark. Jang Jin-woo stopped talking, stood up, and bowed his head.

“Father.”

“Jin-woo, come in for a moment.”

“It’s late, honey. Let him get some sleep first, and you should rest too…”

“I’m fine. Mother, you must be tired, so please go in and rest.”

Pretending to be a kind and diligent son, Jang Jin-woo escorted his mother to the bedroom. He personally closed the door for her, telling her he would see her later. Then, he turned immediately and headed toward Jang Cheol-min’s study.

As soon as he stepped into the study, the scent of old books wafted over him. Bookshelves surrounding three sides of the spacious room were packed with books and plaques. It was Jang Cheol-min’s hobby to take them out and wipe them down whenever he had time. The countless plaques and medals were his history, his resume, and his life itself.

Because he was a man who valued honor so highly, he would not sit idly by if he found out about Kim Je-guk’s atrocities. It was because of this certainty that Jang Jin-woo had rushed straight to his father.

“Who is Park Ju-wan?”

However, before Jang Jin-woo could even open his mouth, an unexpected question flew at him. He needed time to figure out how and what Jang Cheol-min knew to ask such a thing.

As if baffled by his son’s silence, Jang Cheol-min added irritably.

“Who on earth is that patient that his younger brother comes looking for me? He was a completely uncouth gangster. If you know anything, don’t hide it and tell me everything. This isn’t something that can be solved by hiding it.”

“Did that man visit you as well, Father? I actually came to consult you about that matter.”

Jang Jin-woo deliberately hardened his expression into one of seriousness. He felt relieved that Jang Cheol-min seemed unaware of the relationship between himself and Ju-wan. He opened his mouth hesitantly, as if the situation of bringing up such a topic was sinful and painful.

“Patients have been disappearing from the hospital for a few years now. Most of the missing people were patients under Seonbae Kim Je-guk’s care. When I first raised questions, Seonbae explained that the guardians had come and suddenly requested discharge, and he had simply followed hospital guidelines. I was suspicious, but since I only had intuition and no concrete evidence, I watched and waited… I think that was a mistake. I only recently found out that Seonbae had been secretly selling the patients. I warned him several times to stop, but instead, he threatened me, mentioning the responsibility of the hospital and Father. I couldn’t let Father’s and the family’s honor be tarnished because of something like that… so I was dragged along until today.”

“Then you’re saying Doctor Kim even dealt with the person who is that gangster’s brother?”

“It seems so. Patient Park Ju-wan was admitted ten years ago following a report from his biological mother, and it’s said that no one has visited him since. Seonbae likely committed the act judging that there was no possibility of that patient being discharged. However, a while ago, a gangster claiming to be Park Ju-wan’s brother came to the hospital demanding his discharge, and shortly after, Seonbae suddenly disappeared. He hasn’t shown up at the hospital for days, and from what I hear, he hasn’t gone home either. It seems the gangster laid a hand on Seonbae, but if we report it to the police rashly, the atrocities Seonbae committed will be revealed. Thinking that the hospital would also find it difficult to avoid responsibility, I couldn’t do anything.”

“Why didn’t you say anything until it got to this point!”

“I thought I could resolve it on my own. I didn’t want to cause Father any worry.”

“You brat! Do you have to make things this big to be satisfied? It’s frustrating.”

Jang Cheol-min clicked his tongue fiercely. The way he looked Jang Jin-woo up and down seemed entirely displeased.

Soon, Jang Cheol-min let out a groan and sank into deep thought. Jang Jin-woo quickly shifted his gaze, examining his father thoroughly. Considering he had met Woo Hyeong-seok in person, there didn’t seem to be any particular injuries. This meant that what Woo Hyeong-seok wanted from Jang Jin-woo might not be revenge. The fact that he had bypassed him and gone straight to his father, Jang Cheol-min, suggested a high possibility that he was demanding money in exchange for keeping Kim Je-guk’s affairs a secret.

If that reasoning was correct, what Jang Cheol-min was currently agonizing over was likely not whether to pay the price Woo Hyeong-seok proposed, but whether that alone would be enough to shut the gangster’s mouth. He was a man for whom nothing was too expensive when it came to honor.

Jang Jin-woo subtly egged his father on.

“On my way here, I was followed by people I suspect were those gangsters. They even intentionally rammed my car to cause a fender bender. They went back after giving a warning to that extent today, but it didn’t seem like they were just following me to scare me. If they already know what Seonbae did, they won’t just leave quietly.”

“Is that all?”

“Pardon? I don’t know what you mean…”

“I’m asking if the things that could be used to hold you by the throat are limited to Doctor Kim’s personal deviations.”

“What else could there be?”

He gave a faint smile, not flustered even by the quite sharp question. To a son who had been in an intentional car accident, the father asks first if there are any other dirty secrets rather than if he is hurt. He wasn’t newly disappointed in such a father. He had given up on those expectations long ago.

Jang Cheol-min waved his hand as if he was finished with the matter.

“I’ll handle that gangster myself, so go upstairs and sleep.”

“Will you be alright? Is there anything I can help with…”

“What would I entrust to you? That’s enough, get out.”

“…Then, goodnight.”

Jang Jin-woo bowed politely and left the study. He then immediately climbed the stairs to the second floor.

Having no energy even to shower, he collapsed onto the bed in his room. A long, deep sigh escaped him. He was safe for now. Along with that relief, a sudden chill washed over him. He curled his entire body and hugged his shoulders tightly with both arms.

He should have been at peace, but an indefinable, bleak fear surged over him.

It was after 10 AM when Jang Jin-woo opened his eyes. Because he hadn’t had any dreams while sleeping, he was confused as to whether he had slept properly or not. He suddenly regained consciousness because of the sound of the intercom echoing through the house. Had someone come to visit?

He got up and went down to the first floor. He intended to at least moisten his throat. At the entrance, his mother was talking to a man. From the fragments of the conversation, it sounded like he was a postal worker.

“There is a registered letter for Mr. Jang Cheol-min. Excuse me, but what is your relationship to him?”

“I am his wife.”

“Then could you please sign here?”

“Ah, do I write it here?”

Listening to the utterly mundane conversation, he held a cup to the water purifier. Watching the stream of water pour out, he massaged the back of his neck.

He felt as if he had traveled between heaven and hell in a single night. He had felt refreshed when he opened Kim Je-guk’s drawer and found and destroyed all the problematic memory cards, but after being chased by mysterious men, his chest felt tight again.

How on earth did it end up like this?

If he hadn’t touched Ju-wan, if he had gotten him out of the hospital earlier as he had wished, would the situation have been different? No, the problems were complexly entangled. Like a ball of yarn where it was hard to distinguish where the beginning was, it had become completely twisted, bit by bit. Even if Jang Jin-woo himself had acted righteously, nothing would have changed. That was how he rationalized it.

Eventually, the cup filled and the overflowing water wet his hand. Only then did he snap back to his senses. He didn’t know why he kept spacing out. He gulped down the water in one go to quench his parched insides.

Meanwhile, Jang Jin-woo’s mother entered the kitchen.

“Why aren’t you sleeping more?”

“I slept a lot.”

“Should I make you some food?”

“I’ll eat later.”

Even while exchanging mundane conversation, Jang Jin-woo’s mother looked at her son, who had suddenly burst in at dawn, with worry. Jang Jin-woo smiled as if nothing were wrong and tried to divert his mother’s attention elsewhere.

“By the way, who was that just now?”

“Ah, someone from the post office stopped by. A registered letter came for your father.”

In truth, he didn’t care what kind of mail arrived for his father. He had only asked the question because it was certain his mother would pry into the events of last night.

However, because of his mother’s subsequent explanation, he couldn’t just let it pass.

“It was sent by someone named Kim Je-guk from Central Psychiatric Hospital. Do you know him?”

In an instant, Jang Jin-woo’s face turned white.

“…Where is it?”

“Hmm? What is?”

“That registered letter, where is it?”

“Where else? I took it to your father’s study. Why are you acting like this?”

At the sight of the dazed Jang Jin-woo, his mother sent him a worried look. He felt his tongue curling from anxiety.

Jang Jin-woo barely managed to open his mouth and asked again. He couldn’t hide the way his voice trembled incoherently.

“Inside… did you see what was inside?”

“Yes. Your father opened it immediately, so I caught a glimpse…”

“What was it?”

Jang Jin-woo suddenly grabbed his mother’s arm. His mother looked quite flustered.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I asked what it was!”

Jang Jin-woo urged his mother again. An ominous premonition caused warning lights to flash incessantly in his head. Jang Jin-woo’s mother froze in surprise and then answered haltingly.

“Well… it looked like some kind of USB?”

Something dropped heavily inside him. At the same time, a surge of nausea rose. His head became noisy as if it were about to explode. He had to stop it.

Jang Jin-woo immediately ran to his father’s study. He hurriedly grabbed the doorknob, but the door, locked from the inside, didn’t budge. His heart became uncontrollably urgent.

The sender of the registered mail was said to be Kim Je-guk. Did that mean he was still alive? Of course, even if it wasn’t him, there were plenty of ways to send a registered letter. Since he was a man who was usually suspicious, he might have asked someone to send the letter on his behalf if he went missing, just in case.

No, none of that mattered. What was most important right now was that there was an unidentified USB inside the registered mail sent in Kim Je-guk’s name. What on earth was contained in it? If he had separately copied a video of Jang Jin-woo himself… as the thought reached him, his heart sank.

Jang Jin-woo ran back down to the living room. Then, he began to search through the drawers of the display cabinets placed everywhere. His mother could not hide her bewilderment at the sight of him frantically searching for the study key. From the fact that the son, who usually only appeared after being begged over the phone, had come voluntarily at dawn, to his behavior throughout, which seemed as if he were being chased by something—it was full of things she couldn’t understand.

“Jin-woo, what on earth is going on?”

“Mother, where is the study key?”

“Please tell me what’s happening. I’m worried.”

Despite his mother’s pleas, Jang Jin-woo was obsessed only with finding the key. Soon, he pulled out an entire drawer and flipped it over on the living room floor. The contents spilled out in a heap. From among them, he fished out a ring of keys.

“Son. Why are you doing this?”

Jang Jin-woo’s mother hurriedly followed Jang Jin-woo as he ran back to the study with the keys. A feeling of anxiety, as if something were about to explode, made her heart flutter uncontrollably.

Cold sweat ran down the spine of Jang Jin-woo as he stood before the door. His head was spinning, his breath was catching, and the inside of his mouth was parched. The fingertips holding the key trembled pathetically. He wanted to believe that his father hadn’t checked the USB yet. No, maybe what was inside wasn’t the video of himself. Desperately optimistic, he inserted the key into the lock.

Just then, the study door opened. Through the slowly widening gap in the door, the frozen face of Jang Cheol-min was visible. And a noise that hadn’t been audible until then leaked out faintly. Something was repeatedly and roughly clashing, and it sounded like a beast panting heavily. The sound coming from Jang Cheol-min’s laptop was undoubtedly Jang Jin-woo’s own moans.

Jang Jin-woo stood there blankly, speechless, and looked at his father who was glaring at him. Jang Cheol-min’s face was flushed red and blue. Thick veins stood out on his forehead, as if he were barely suppressing an explosive rage.

“Father…”

As soon as he opened his mouth, his head snapped to the side with a loud slap. A burning pain spread across the cheek that had been struck.

“Honey!”

Startled, Jang Jin-woo’s mother stepped between the father and son. Jang Cheol-min shouted in his full rage.

“You wretched brat… shut that filthy mouth of yours!”

“Father… please listen to me. I’ll explain everything. You’ve misunderstood. That was entirely because that patient, Mr. Park Ju-wan, seduced me first… As you well know, Father, I was under too much mental pressure at that time, so my judgment was clouded and I made a momentary mistake. That was the only time. Please believe me.”

He made incoherent excuses. But no matter what words he used to persuade him, he could not calm Jang Cheol-min’s rage.

“To think someone like you is my son! To think someone like you is the bloodline of this Jang Cheol-min!”

“Honey, why are you acting like this! Use your words!”

“Don’t you see? Seonbae Kim conspired with that patient to set me up! Why do you never believe my words!”

“You always cause trouble and then try to smooth it over with your silver tongue! There is evidence more accurate than your words right there! I saw it clearly with these two eyes, what more explanation is needed! Why do you always hold me back in everything? After everything I’ve done for you!”

Jang Cheol-min was in a state of extreme excitement. Looking around the room for something, he soon pulled out his golf club. Jang Jin-woo’s mother, pale with fear, tried to stop him.

“What are you doing? Put it down! I told you to use your words, please, use your words!”

She held onto her husband, who looked as if he would pounce on his precious son at any moment. While they were bickering, she inadvertently looked at the laptop. Then, her gaze was caught by the familiar voice continuously pouring out from it. The face and build of the person who was raping someone tied to a bed, nearly fainting with pleasure, were too familiar. It couldn’t be. The one lying underneath, holding their breath, was clearly a man no matter how she looked at it. Moreover, the half-removed clothes were definitely patient gowns.

The shameless person who roared like a beast while forcibly raping another man could not be someone familiar to her. He must not be.

Jang Jin-woo’s mother shook her head as if denying reality. Then, as if trying to confirm the fact, she looked at her son desperately. The voice that soon escaped her trembled with anxiety.

“What on earth is… what is this… Jin-woo? It’s not you, right? That person isn’t you, right? Hmm? It’s not, right, son?”

“…….”

“No, right? That’s not it, is it? There’s no way! My son would never…!”

Jang Jin-woo’s mother pressed her unresponsive son, her eyes brimming with tears. It sounded less like a question and more like a plea for him to simply say it wasn’t true. Soon, tears slid down her cheeks, dripping one by one onto the floor. Jang Jin-woo remained silent, his head hanging low.

Overwhelmed by a sense of distant despair, his mother collapsed lifelessly. Though her eyes remained open, she looked completely vacant, as if she had nearly fainted.

“Mother!”

Jang Jin-woo quickly reached out to her. In that instant, Jang Cheol-min’s golf club lashed across the back of his hand. A heavy pain, more intense than when he had been slapped across the face, exploded through him.

“…Ugh!”

“Don’t touch her with those filthy hands! Don’t touch anything! Nothing!”

“Father!”

“It’s disgusting, so don’t call me that. Get the hell out of my house! Never show your face before me again!”

There wasn’t a shred of sympathy or affection for his own flesh and blood in Jang Cheol-min’s eyes. Even if he lowered himself further and begged, the man wouldn’t even pretend to listen. He was a man known for his ruthless ability to cut ties. His son was no exception.

Judging it so, Jang Jin-woo silently straightened his posture. The face that had been desperately pleading for belief in his innocence had turned cold in an instant. As he rubbed his throbbing hand, his muttered words sounded distinctly sinister.

“…Honestly, it’s always like this.”

“What, you brat?”

Jang Cheol-min ground his teeth at the brazen change in attitude. His wide-open eyes looked as if they might pop out at any moment.

Jang Jin-woo gave a short laugh as he looked at his father.

“You’re the one who gave birth to me and raised me this way. Even if you cast me out now, the fact that I’m your only son will never change, unfortunately.”

“You, you…!”

“Calm down. You know your blood pressure can’t handle this. You need to live a long life. Otherwise, everything you’ve built will become mine in no time.”

Jang Jin-woo snatched the golf club as it swung toward him again. Jang Cheol-min’s arm trembled violently at the unexpected resistance. He poured all his strength into it, trying not to be pushed back by his son. Jang Jin-woo easily shoved the club away, sending Jang Cheol-min sprawling onto the floor.

Jang Jin-woo looked down coldly at his father, who was panting in rage, and left the house without a word of goodbye.

“That… that insolent brat!”

He threw the golf club aside irritably. He felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck.

No matter how much he had lowered his expectations, his son had consistently failed to meet them—he was nothing more than a failure. Losing such a child was nothing compared to the fear of seeing the tower he had painstakingly built crumble.

Leaving his unconscious wife behind, Jang Cheol-min immediately picked up his phone. He searched for a contact and pressed the call button. The other party answered shortly after.

“Ah, Secretary Park? There’s something I need handled urgently. No, I want to hire someone. Someone quick and clean, and preferably skilled. Tell them I’ll compensate them as they wish if they handle it cleanly, without any mistakes.”

Woo Hyeong-seok had demanded a huge sum of money just on the condition that he keep Kim Je-guk’s atrocities a secret. If he were to find out about Jang Jin-woo’s sexual assault as well, the situation would become irreparable.

A disease must be cleanly excised before it deepens. That was Jang Cheol-min’s conviction as a doctor.

* * *

Ju-wan kept fidgeting with the back of his neck. The reason it kept itching wasn’t just because Jaguar’s tail was repeatedly brushing against him. Beyond that direct contact, he felt a gaze so blatant it was impossible to ignore.

He stopped his word puzzle and looked back. His eyes immediately met Kwon Su-hyeok’s. Kwon Su-hyeok, having finished preparing to leave long ago, was sitting on the sofa, openly observing Ju-wan’s every move. He was likely curious about what Ju-wan was doing.

Ju-wan stealthily pulled over the daily newspaper that Kwon Su-hyeok had tossed aside and carefully read the articles. Whenever he encountered a difficult word, he would read it aloud in a low voice. Upon reaching a certain page, he grabbed a ballpoint pen and buried his nose in it. Occasionally, he would stare into space as if recalling something, then move his hand to fill in the blanks. Jaguar also craned its neck to watch Ju-wan’s actions.

He felt uncomfortable under their persistent gaze. He might have been fine if he hadn’t noticed, but once he did, he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Just then, he sensed a presence at the quiet entrance. He heard the sound of someone entering the passcode of the door lock and opening the door. Had Jeon Mi-nam finally arrived? A look of inner relief appeared on Ju-wan’s face.

“I think someone’s here….”

“…….”

However, Kwon Su-hyeok didn’t budge. Despite being the homeowner, he seemed to have no intention of actively welcoming the guest. Left with no choice, Ju-wan went to the entrance instead. Jaguar, who had been lounging on the sofa until then, clumsily stood up and leaped down to the floor. As the cat tried to follow Ju-wan, it sensed Kwon Su-hyeok’s gaze and stopped for a moment to look back at him. A strange look passed between the two.

Soon, Jaguar ignored Kwon Su-hyeok’s gaze and headed toward the entrance. Shortly after, Ju-wan’s voice could be heard greeting someone. The voice calling Jaguar affectionately, “Su-nam,” was familiar. It seemed Baek Do-un had arrived.

Kwon Su-hyeok picked up the newspaper Ju-wan had been looking at. He wondered what he had been doing so diligently, only to find it was a crossword puzzle. The letters pressed firmly into the blanks were small and neat, as if drawn with great care. As his eyes scanned the filled-in words, they paused at one particular box. Thinking it couldn’t be, he checked the clue at the bottom.

The clue described the word as ‘a person of bad character who lacks manners and shame, and wanders around doing delinquent things without a fixed affiliation or occupation.’ Kwon Su-hyeok looked again at the three blanks Ju-wan had filled. He had written ‘Nompangi (good-for-nothing)?’ The uncertain question mark was drawn in the margin next to the three given boxes. Not only that, but there were traces of other candidate answers written in very small, faint letters and then erased, such as ‘street thug,’ ‘bastard,’ ‘son of a bitch,’ and ‘gangster.’

The traces of his earnest deliberation were evident. For some reason, it made him chuckle. A sudden tickle rose in his chest, and he laughed without realizing it.

“What are you looking at that makes you smirk like that?”

The faint smile vanished instantly at Baek Do-un’s intervention. Ju-wan, who had reached the living room while looking back curiously at Jaguar following him, slowly looked back and forth between the newspaper in Kwon Su-hyeok’s hand and Kwon Su-hyeok’s face.

Kwon Su-hyeok handed the newspaper back to Ju-wan as if tossing it off and headed toward the entrance without a word. He didn’t even greet Baek Do-un or notify him that he was leaving. Ju-wan followed him, just as Jaguar did.

As Kwon Su-hyeok was about to put on his shoes and leave, Ju-wan’s voice rang out from behind him.

“Have a… safe trip.”

As if by magic, Kwon Su-hyeok’s steps came to a dead halt. But that was all. He didn’t look back at Ju-wan, respond to the greeting, or even give a simple nod.

He simply opened the door and left, as if the momentary pause had been an illusion. Soon, the door closed with a thud, and the door lock clicked shut. At the same time, a long sigh escaped Ju-wan. It was closer to relief than disappointment. For some reason, he felt strangely nervous when he was with Kwon Su-hyeok.

As he turned around, he locked eyes with Jaguar, who was staring up at him intently.

“Su-nam.”

When he reached out and called the name affectionately, the cat coldly turned away and ran back to the living room first. It was clear the cat was dissatisfied with its name.

“Ju-wan, have you eaten?”

Baek Do-un peeked over and looked at Ju-wan returning late. He had his phone out, perhaps intending to order something if Ju-wan hadn’t eaten.

“Yes. Mi-nam bought some things… I followed the instructions, and it quickly became soybean paste stew.”

“Ah, I see. But I didn’t think there were any proper cooking utensils here?”

“I looked around and luckily found a pot and a set of cutlery.”

“No mold on them?”

“…Huh? No.”

“I’ve never seen the smell of food in this house. Actually, I don’t remember ever seeing Kwon Su-hyeok eat anything.”

Baek Do-un shook his head in disgust. Ju-wan, listening silently, fidgeted with the back of his neck.

“I might have seen it today.”

It was a mutter, almost a monologue. It was no wonder Baek Do-un responded with a confused “Huh?” as if he hadn’t heard properly.

“Pardon?”

“You said you might have seen it today—seen what?”

“Ah, if I had come earlier than I did.”

“If you came earlier? Don’t tell me you had breakfast with Su-hyeok?”

“Yes.”

“Does he actually eat food?”

“Yes….”

“That’s surprising.”

Baek Do-un tilted his head and gave a short laugh. His eyes behind the glasses were quite deep. His overall sharp yet delicate features, flawless skin, and a small mole under his chin completed his unique aura.

He seemed deep yet flexibly light, and while he appeared to have a warm and gentle personality, there was an indefinable coldness emanating from him.

“What is it, Ju-wan?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were staring at me quite intently. Isn’t there something you want to ask me?”

Had he been staring that openly? Perhaps Baek Do-un was also skilled in mind-reading.

He certainly had one thing he was curious about. However, he wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask without the person’s permission. The person involved might be reluctant to have their story known. That was why he had been hesitating.

“What is it?”

“…Would it be okay if I asked?”

“Let’s hear it first and then I’ll decide.”

Baek Do-un casually eased the burden on Ju-wan’s mind. Only then did Ju-wan release the curiosity, or rather, the concern he had been harboring.

“It seems like he has nightmares every day… He struggles because he can’t sleep peacefully. Usually, there’s a reason for having bad dreams….”

“You want to know what kind of nightmares Su-hyeok has, and why?”

Baek Do-un easily saw through Ju-wan’s intention. Ju-wan nodded vigorously. Baek Do-un smiled faintly and stared into space for a moment as if searching his memory. He seemed to be gauging where and how to start the story.

“Hmm, I think it’s been about ten years. He was an intern or a resident back then, so he was half out of his mind, so that should be roughly correct. It was a day when he finally got a day off after being tied to the hospital for days without going home. Well, naturally, he was exhausted to the point where his reason was blurred. Otherwise, how could he have picked up a blood-soaked body dumped in a pile of trash?”

Ju-wan looked at Baek Do-un in disbelief. Baek Do-un nodded with a bitter smile.

“That’s right, that was Su-hyeok.”

It was surprising that he was even breathing in that state. At first, I thought someone had dumped a corpse there and was about to report it. But then his finger moved. Even at a glance, he didn’t look ordinary, so I took him to my house first. Even now, I’m surprised at how I managed to drag that huge guy by myself.

I treated him as best as I could and left him alone for a while, and he regained consciousness quickly. His recovery power was terrifying. Seeing the venom in his eyes, perhaps his will to survive was incredibly strong.

I could see a tremendous amount of resentment in him. I was curious about his story, but Kwon Su-hyeok kept his mouth shut and didn’t say a word, as if he had become mute. Thinking about it now, I never even got a thank you. Bad bastard.

I should clarify one thing here… Actually, the job Su-hyeok is doing now was a position I was originally supposed to inherit. It’s funny, but you could call it a family business. That’s why the company representative is listed as me. It’s partly for camouflage, though.

Some might point fingers and call it hypocrisy, saying I lived in luxury on my father’s money, but I’d rather live in poverty than do that job. Life is shorter than you think, and you only get one. Even if I couldn’t build my life to be respected and meaningful, I wanted to pay back even a little bit until the day I die. Though the sin keeps growing, so it’s like pouring water into a broken pot.

My father is probably the only parent in the world who was displeased when his son got into medical school. He nagged me so much until the day he passed… He didn’t want his only child to inherit the business even if it meant he’d die soon, but he felt it was a waste to give it to someone else. That’s when Su-hyeok caught my father’s eye. I think he thought it would be great to raise him as a blind, loyal hound. At that time, Su-hyeok only thought about getting revenge on the person who tried to kill him. To do that, he needed power that wouldn’t be pushed around by that person. Their interests aligned.

I heard from my father how Su-hyeok had lived. He was a man who couldn’t even trust his own blood, so he must have done a thorough background check.

I consider myself to have a strong immunity… but the life Su-hyeok had lived was truly horrific. It was so terrible that it was a miracle he was alive and sane.

Su-hyeok’s parents passed away when he was sixteen. It was ruled a suicide by poisoning, but there were many strange points. There was no discord between the couple, and their business was doing well, so there were no financial problems. Nor did they suffer from depression or have enemies. There was simply no reason for the couple to commit joint suicide, leaving behind their young children.

Despite that, the police investigation seemed to reach a conclusion haphazardly. At the time, Su-hyeok’s family had no particular relatives they interacted with, and his sibling was too young to raise any objections.

I heard Su-hyeok had a younger brother. I think I heard there was a ten-year age gap. After their parents’ death, the two brothers were destined to be sent to an orphanage. Su-hyeok was older, so the possibility of adoption was small, but the younger brother was different. If they went to a facility, there was no telling when or how they would be separated.

Then one day, a man came to them. He claimed to be a business partner of their deceased parents. The man took in the brothers who had nowhere to go and took over the operation of the parents’ business. From then on, the scope and domain of the business shifted toward the underworld.

I think Su-hyeok worked like a dog under him even before he became an adult. Maybe he trusted and relied on that man a lot. After all, he was the only person who reached out to the brothers when everyone else had turned their backs. Perhaps he received a promise that the younger brother would be raised well in exchange for Su-hyeok’s sacrifice.

Even so, there was no need for him to take the fall for that man’s crimes, but I heard he served four years in prison. It was on the grounds of assaulting someone and leaving them in a vegetative state. In reality, the victim had never even met Su-hyeok. The person who would have a grudge against the victim was actually that man. If they had investigated properly, they would have known Su-hyeok’s statement was full of holes, but they just let it slide. Since the culprit had surrendered, they closed the investigation early. There was probably some bribery involved with that man, who was a local celebrity.

Even during his incarceration, Su-hyeok—that idiot—must have believed that his brother would live comfortably because of his suffering. No, he probably wanted to believe that. That out of loyalty to the deceased parents, the man would take good care of the young brother.

But that brother died shortly after Su-hyeok was released. By the time he arrived at the hospital, it was already too late to do anything.

Only then did he find out. Perhaps he had suspected it all along, but he finally began to see the truth he had tried so hard to ignore. That he had been betrayed by the person he relied on. The brother the man promised to take care of had apparently been neglected and abused for a long time in a basement room not even used as a warehouse. If you think about it, the person who benefited the most from the death of Su-hyeok’s parents was that man. Having given his full loyalty to a man who might have been his enemy, imagine how heartbroken he must have been.

If he were a man capable of apologizing, he wouldn’t have done such a thing in the first place. Still, unable to contain his rage, Su-hyeok went to find that man and was dumped in a near-death state.

He was unconscious for several days after that. So he couldn’t even recover his brother’s body. The brother was probably treated as an unclaimed body and buried somewhere. He seems to be plagued by nightmares since then, perhaps because he regrets that so much. Even if his body has healed, his inside is completely crushed and just keeps festering.

* * *

“Still no word from that side?”

Half of the two-day deadline had passed. It was about time for Jang Cheol-min to make a move.

“Yes, not yet.”

“I can’t tell if the old dog is just complacent or simply stupid….”

There was no benefit to stalling. Fire, if left alone, tended to spread further rather than extinguishing itself. There was no way Jang Cheol-min, a seasoned veteran, wouldn’t know that. He wasn’t worried that the man had reported it to the police. Surely he wouldn’t burn down the whole house just to catch a bedbug.

Woo Hyeong-seok leaned back deeply into the sofa and held out his hand. His subordinate, sensing the mood, handed him a pre-rolled joint and lit it for him. He took a deep drag, his cheeks hollowing. His mind quickly grew hazy. Exhaling smoke with a distinct scent, he jerked his chin toward the table.

“What’s that?”

He had never been fond of mail, whether it was registered mail or packages. Most of them were sent from the courts, and it wasn’t uncommon for rival factions to send body parts, animal carcasses, or blood-stained tools as threats to mark their territory.

“It arrived this morning. The sender is Kim Je-guk, and the name matches the psychiatric doctor Hyung told us to bring in.”

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, Woo Hyeong-seok immediately picked up the registered mail. Tearing open the envelope, a small USB drive slid out. Based on its appearance alone, it was difficult to guess what was stored inside.

He checked the envelope again, but there wasn’t a single accompanying note. After examining the mysterious USB from both sides, he handed it to his subordinate. The subordinate promptly brought out a laptop, booted it up, and plugged in the USB. Inside were several video files.

“…What is this, a hidden cam?”

“What should we do, Hyung?”

“What do you mean ‘what’? Play it.”

The first file began to play. The screen showed a hospital room. Then, someone in patient clothes hesitantly backed away, slowly entering the frame. Soon after, a man rushed at him and grabbed his arm firmly. The man was wearing a white coat. He appeared to be a doctor.

The patient tried to push the doctor away but couldn’t hold out for long and collapsed. The doctor subdued the patient with ease and climbed on top of him. Every time the doctor moved his body, the patient’s face was glimpsed. Though it was only for a split second, Woo Hyeong-seok recognized him instantly. It was Ju-wan. Park Ju-wan, whom he had been searching for so desperately, was right there.

Woo Hyeong-seok’s eyes widened. His thought process ground to a halt and his body froze, unable to take his eyes off the screen. The marijuana in his mouth burned away uselessly.

The small metal bed creaked and shook violently. The doctor, pinning Ju-wan’s head down and twisting his arm, pressed his lower body against him like a rutting dog. Panting breaths echoed loudly. Ju-wan, pinned beneath him, remained silent. It almost gave the impression that the doctor was committing an atrocity upon a corpse.

A faint, thin arc formed on Woo Hyeong-seok’s lips. His eyes suddenly gleamed with intensity.

“That bastard… where have I seen him?”

“The doctor, sir?”

“Yeah. I’ve definitely seen him….”

“I believe it’s Jang Jin-woo. Jang Cheol-min’s only son. Didn’t you tell the boys to go say hello to him, Hyung?”

“Aha?”

The corners of Woo Hyeong-seok’s mouth twisted upward further. Leaning his upper body forward while staring intently at the video, he suddenly lowered his head and laughed out loud. The subordinate watching him clenched his fists.

“Ah, that bastard won’t do either, will he? Bring him in.”

He leaned back again as he gave the order. The smile remained on his face, but his voice was utterly foul.

“Yes, Hyung.”

Woo Hyeong-seok’s subordinate bowed hurriedly and left the house. The sound of the front door opening and closing followed.

Even then, Woo Hyeong-seok did not take his eyes off the playing screen. Ju-wan, on the screen, seemed to be holding his breath in silence, simply waiting for the moment to pass. He didn’t scream or let out a moan. All that could be heard was Jang Jin-woo’s highly excited voice and rough breathing.

It had always been like that. No matter how much he was tormented, he never showed tears, nor did he cling pathetically, begging for it to stop. It wasn’t that he was protecting himself for fear of greater pain. He always seemed detached, as if he didn’t know that such an attitude only provoked the opponent more. Toward his dead father, toward Woo Hyeong-seok himself, and now toward Jang Jin-woo on the screen.

As he continued to watch, he felt a strange sense of displeasure. It wasn’t an object he was particularly attached to, but it felt as if someone else was arbitrarily taking and using his lost property. Breaking it, or throwing it away, should have been his prerogative. Murderous intent flared in Woo Hyeong-seok’s eyes as he glared at the screen.

Around that time, the intercom rang unexpectedly. However, nothing appeared on the screen. There was no one in particular who would visit his house. If it were his subordinates, they would enter using the passcode, and he never ordered food or deliveries. Had someone come to the wrong house?

As he watched a bit longer, the intercom rang again. When there was no response from inside, the visitor began to bang loudly on the front door. It was deeply irritating.

He locked eyes with the man who had remained behind to attend to him.

“I’ll go check, Hyung.”

The man bowed to Woo Hyeong-seok and strode toward the entrance with a formidable expression. In a low voice, he asked the uninvited guest who they were. No specific answer came. The guest only continued to pound on the door as if trying to break it down.

The man, his irritation reaching its peak, seemed to fling the door open. A brief exchange of curses followed, and then the door closed again. After that, it became eerily quiet.

Sensing something suspicious, he stood up. He personally walked toward the entrance.

“What’s going on….”

But he couldn’t finish his sentence. Because unidentified assailants wearing masks were standing tall in front of the front door. The subordinate who had gone to check who it was was already collapsed, drenched in blood. Red blood dripped, drop by drop, from the knives held in the assailants’ hands.

“You, fuck…!”

The moment the realization hit him, his vision was abruptly cut off.

* * *

As he entered the hospital, stinging gazes pierced him. This was to be expected, as Jeon Mi-nam was nearly 2 meters tall. Moreover, today he was dressed in all black from his shirt to his shoes and wore sunglasses, making him look far from ordinary.

Under Kwon Su-hyeok’s instructions, he was looking into Woo Hyeong-seok. He had already confirmed the superficial information. For instance, that he was Ju-wan’s half-brother, twenty-seven years old, had been expelled from high school and started a life as a gangster, accumulating a significant criminal record for violence. Currently, he mainly operated in the entertainment districts of Incheon and took contracts from local influential figures, politicians, and construction companies.

It seemed that Woo Hyeong-seok, who had no connection to Kwon Su-hyeok, was digging into him purely because of Ju-wan. And if that reasoning held, it was certain that he had visited this place.

“Excuse me.”

As he approached the station and spoke, the nursing assistant, who had been glancing at him the whole time, flinched. She seemed overwhelmed by the massive shadow that completely covered her. For a moment, she froze completely, her mouth hanging open.

“I have a few things to ask.”

“…Ah, yes. What is it?”

“It’s regarding Mr. Park Ju-wan, who was hospitalized here until recently.”

Around then, another nursing assistant approached and whispered, asking what was happening. A few hushed words were exchanged between the two. He caught a glimpse of someone saying, “Is it that person again?” As expected, it was clear that others besides Jeon Mi-nam himself had come looking for Ju-wan.

“He was a patient here for nearly ten years, but we weren’t working here back then, so we don’t know the detailed circumstances. I believe he was discharged recently.”

The nursing assistant answered somewhat defensively. Perhaps they intended to keep the principle of confidentiality even in a hospital that secretly sold people. Of course, it was to protect themselves, not the patient.

“Didn’t a man claiming to be Park Ju-wan’s brother visit?”

“Yes, well….”

She neither clearly affirmed nor denied it. He suddenly became curious. The reason why Woo Hyeong-seok, who hadn’t given Ju-wan a second glance for the past ten years, had suddenly started searching for him. He felt certain that for some reason, it was absolutely not for a pure purpose.

“May I take a look at the room where Mr. Park Ju-wan stayed?”

At the sudden request, the two nursing assistants looked at each other. Soon, one of them asked with a suspicious expression.

“Are you a police officer?”

“No.”

“If you’re not, this will be difficult….”

The nursing assistant couldn’t bring herself to refuse firmly and trailed off. As expected, it seemed it wouldn’t work unless he was family or the police.

Just as he was debating whether to simply leave, there was suddenly a commotion at the entrance.

“Where is Jang Jin-woo? Where the fuck is Jang Jin-woo!”

Jeon Mi-nam and the two nursing assistants all turned their heads toward the noise. There, a group of thugs was dragging a security guard by the collar. They looked like gangsters at a glance. They made a scene, banging a wooden bat against the innocent walls and windows.

“Ah….”

Sighs escaped the nursing assistants. One of them even quickly fled inside. The thugs, who soon reached the station, tilted their heads upon encountering the unexpected figure of Jeon Mi-nam. No matter how you looked at him, he didn’t seem to be medical staff or a patient.

“What’s this lump. Get out of the way.”

One of the thugs pushed Jeon Mi-nam aside and stepped close to the station. The nursing assistant’s face turned pale. When the thug slammed the bat onto the counter, she even let out a low scream.

“I’m here to see Jang Jin-woo.”

“D-Dr. Jang hasn’t come in for work yet.”

“What about Kim Je-guk?”

“Dr. Kim hasn’t either….”

“Ha, what kind of hospital is this? Call them and tell them to come out now. I’m not leaving until I see them.”

The nursing assistant obediently picked up the receiver as told. Her hand dialing the number was trembling so much it was pitiful. Watching this, Jeon Mi-nam suddenly asked, “Shall I clear this away for you?” The nurse looked up at him with blank eyes.

“…What?”

“Clear? Clear what? If you don’t want to get beaten, stay curled up.”

The thug who had been urging her to call quickly threatened him with a menacing expression. Without hesitation, Jeon Mi-nam grabbed his bat. Consequently, the thug’s body was jerked halfway forward. The thug flinched and resisted belatedly. Panic was evident on his face. This was because while Jeon Mi-nam was holding the bat with one hand, the thug was unable to pull it back even while hanging on with both hands.

“Let go! Let go!”

Jeon Mi-nam suddenly applied force and threw the bat away. The thug, who had held onto it until the end, was dragged along and tumbled over.

The faces of the group froze simultaneously. One of them rushed forward and swung a punch.

“Aaaaagh!”

Without even looking, Jeon Mi-nam caught the flying punch. Then, he instantly jerked the captured hand backward. With a cracking sound, the thick wrist was twisted with absurd ease. The man screamed in agony, looking at his dangling hand.

“You, you bastard!”

The remaining thugs attacked simultaneously. Jeon Mi-nam grabbed one of them by the collar and threw him with all his might. Losing his balance, the thug staggered greatly and crashed onto the hallway floor. Unable to withstand the force of the push, he slid for a long time, his face scraping across the floor.

He easily avoided the attack of the next rushing thug by simply taking one step back. Then, he grabbed the back of the man’s head and slammed it straight into the station. The struggling body of the thug went limp.

The hospital staff were dumbfounded. Mi-nam adjusted his slightly disheveled clothes and requested again as if nothing had happened.

“Now, please show me Mr. Park Ju-wan’s room.”

“…This way.”

The nursing assistant, who had put down the receiver, quickly led the way. Following her, he soon arrived in front of Room 411. The nursing assistant personally opened the door and stepped back a considerable distance.

“Please take your time.”

“Thank you.”

He stepped into the hospital room. In the space of about ten square meters, only a single old bed sat lonely. There were no windows, and the walls and floor were stark white. As he slowly looked around the surroundings, Jeon Mi-nam paused upon discovering something. A slight frown formed between his brows. Because he saw a stain on one side of the wall that hadn’t been completely erased. Judging by his long experience, it was undoubtedly a bloodstain.

Jeon Mi-nam approached the wall and knelt. Without hesitation, he reached out and traced the stain. Park, Ju, wan. The identity of the bloodstain was undoubtedly Ju-wan’s name. Though the strokes were uneven, the handwriting was roughly similar to Ju-wan’s.

“…….”

He turned his head again to look around the narrow room. It was not a space where a human could possibly spend a long time of ten years. No, it seemed difficult for any living creature to survive normally in a place where not a single ray of light entered.

Just as he was about to stand up and leave, something glittered on the ceiling. He thought it might be a screw, but one particular spot was especially reflective. He turned off the room light, took out his phone, and shone the light toward that spot. As if confirming it wasn’t an illusion, it clearly reflected the light.

If it were a CCTV monitoring the interior of the room, one was already installed openly in front of the door. Although there was a high possibility of blind spots due to the angle, and it was doubtful if it even worked properly because it was so old. Even so, would there be a need to hide a second camera so cunningly?

He stood up and reached toward the ceiling. Just by lifting his heels and raising his arm, he reached the object in question.

“This is….”

It was very small, but it was definitely a camera.

* * *

Kwon Su-hyeok had been doing paperwork in his office all morning. He had even skipped the coffee he usually drank instead of meals. Perhaps because he had eaten breakfast for once, he didn’t crave caffeine.

Soon, a knock sounded. Keeping his eyes fixed on the documents, he said, “Come in.” Soon, a man opened the door and entered. Kwon Su-hyeok gave him a cursory glance as he bowed and continued his work. Despite it being a return after a full year, he didn’t ask after him personally.

He had instructed the man to bring in the broker who had mediated the deal with a Thai company in the past. The man had embezzled the transaction funds in the middle, stolen the goods, and then vanished. He had heard that the Thai side hadn’t been able to catch the guy yet, not knowing where he had hidden. Since there were no traces in Korea either, he had been guessing that the man might have crossed over to China.

Kwon Su-hyeok soon leaned deep into his chair and stared at the waiting man. Then, the man began his report.

“We have finally found him.”

“Where?”

“There are reports that he’s lurking in the black markets of Hong Kong. I’ve confirmed this directly with local brokers. It seems he keeps moving his residence, but most recently, he was spotted at a hotel casino in Macau.”

“I guess he couldn’t find a sales channel.”

Listening in silence, he let out a short laugh. It was a laugh with a completely different temperature from the smile he had worn this morning while looking at Ju-wan’s word puzzle. He tapped the desk with his long fingers, lost in thought for a moment.

A traitor deserved to pay a fitting price. Tolerance only invited further betrayal.

“Shall I bring him in immediately?”

“No, leave him be.”

The man wore a surprised expression. On Kwon Su-hyeok’s face, which the man looked at in bewilderment, was the same cold smile as always.

“Hong Kong… not a bad place to enjoy the end of one’s life. I will handle the disposal personally.”

“Understood. I will make the preparations.”

The man bowed again and turned to leave.

Just then, someone knocked on the office door. The man leaving politely bowed to Jeon Mi-nam, who was waiting there. Jeon Mi-nam gave a simple nod and entered the office.

Kwon Su-hyeok barely acknowledged Jeon Mi-nam’s greeting and said, “Report.” Jeon Mi-nam first handed over the documents containing Woo Hyeong-seok’s personal information.

“I’ll get straight to the point. Woo Hyeong-seok began living with Mr. Park Ju-wan 20 years ago. They were half-brothers who shared the same mother, but the relationship between the brothers doesn’t seem to have been very good. Woo Hyeong-seok’s biological father, Woo Jeong-man, had 14 prior convictions for violence and died 7 years ago, and the brothers’ mother is currently imprisoned in Cheongju Prison for the crime of murdering him. Ten years ago, it was that mother who admitted Mr. Park Ju-wan, who was a high school student at the time, to Central Psychiatric Hospital. It is presumed that Woo Hyeong-seok only recently began searching for Mr. Park Ju-wan. Even today, he sent people to the hospital to dig into Mr. Park Ju-wan’s whereabouts.”

“The reason?”

“I’m sorry. I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact details yet. However, I’ve heard that several shops he’s been managing for a few years have gone bankrupt in succession, causing disruptions in Woo Hyeong-seok’s organizational operations. There are also rumors that he wants to invest in a theme park planned for development in Incheon. It’s just not clear if that is the reason he is looking for Mr. Park Ju-wan. I suspected there might be some health issues, but there were no particular signs of that.”

“It’s not like he’d suddenly feel a kinship with his own blood after ten years…”

Kwon Su-hyeok let out a low, mocking laugh. The man was utterly unpredictable. He wondered what kind of life Park Ju-wan had led, having such a person as a brother, a woman who put her own healthy child in a hospital and murdered her husband as a mother, and a man who dealt in violence as a stepfather. All sorts of sordid thoughts filled his mind. He felt inexplicably exhausted.

Perhaps the reason Ju-wan exuded such a detached aura was that he had been worn down and eroded from an early age, leaving him with few emotional fluctuations. It made him understand anew why Ju-wan had expressed a subtle sense of kinship with Su-hyeok, who suffered from nightmares every night.

“I get it for now. I’ll be heading to Hong Kong soon, so get things ready.”

Jeon Mi-nam was somewhat bewildered by the ensuing instruction. Kwon Su-hyeok had never announced a business trip in advance and told him to prepare like this. Furthermore, tasks related to departure were the responsibility of other organization members, not him.

The fact that Su-hyeok went out of his way to give him a heads-up presumed that this trip would be different from previous ones. For instance, that a new companion would be joining him. There was only one person who would require separate preparations. That was Ju-wan.

* * *

The inside of Woo Hyeong-seok’s house was a mess, as if a typhoon had just passed through. The sofa had overturned, exposing its bottom, and all sorts of household items were scattered across the floor. A picture frame on the wall hung precariously, tilted as if it would fall at any moment. Since the sofa table had been smashed to pieces, it was unlikely that anything remained intact.

In the midst of that chaos, Woo Hyeong-seok was leisurely smoking marijuana. Perhaps his head had been cracked; blood flowing down the side of his face had soaked his shoulder. The assailants, who were likely the cause of the commotion, lay on the floor, hovering between life and death. Their masks had been removed long ago, but they were so badly beaten that their features were unrecognizable. The marble walls and floor were splattered with fresh blood.

“Hy-Hyungnim!”

The subordinates who had just arrived rushed to Woo Hyeong-seok. They knelt before him and bowed their heads, as if the attack on Woo Hyeong-seok were their own fault. Soon, their gaze fixed on a small pool of blood on the floor. The blood continuing to drip originated from Woo Hyeong-seok’s abdomen.

“Hyungnim! You’re badly hurt. We must treat you first!”

Woo Hyeong-seok frowned at the noise ringing in his ears. He clicked his tongue.

“Why do your faces look like that?”

“…There was a small friction.”

“And what’s that?”

He gestured toward someone brought in by the subordinates. The man, who looked as if he would faint at the slightest touch, was wearing a hospital uniform. However, no matter how he looked at him, he was a stranger. He wasn’t Jang Jin-woo, the one he had ordered them to bring. The name ‘Lee Sang-yeop’ was embroidered on his chest.

He stood up abruptly. As he did, blood poured more heavily from the wound in his abdomen. Ignoring it, Woo Hyeong-seok trudged toward Lee Sang-yeop and looked down at him quietly. Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, his face was so devoid of color that he didn’t look like a living person.

“P-please save me.”

Lee Sang-yeop’s voice trembled. He quickly knelt like the other subordinates and rubbed his hands together pleadingly. Woo Hyeong-seok looked down distantly at the man prostrate at his feet, shivering in a terror he had never experienced before.

“He’s a guy who works at the Central Psychiatric Hospital. Jang Jin-woo wasn’t there, and this bastard bolted the moment he saw us. We figured he had something to hide, so we brought him in. On the way here, he kept saying he only did as he was told and begged for his life.”

“What did you do as told?”

Woo Hyeong-seok smirked while observing Lee Sang-yeop, who looked as if he were about to stop breathing. His subordinate pressured Lee Sang-yeop to speak for himself. Lee Sang-yeop raised his trembling head and barely managed to make eye contact with Woo Hyeong-seok. Seeing him grinning while bleeding from both his head and stomach, he didn’t seem normal by any standard. A thin thread of reason warned him that he must not provoke this man.

Lee Sang-yeop closed his eyes tight and confessed everything.

“A-actually, Dr. Kim asked me to… I was in urgent need of money, and Dr. Kim said I just had to help with one thing… Still, I felt uneasy. I said no, I refused. It was thanks to Dr. Kim that I got to work at that hospital… H-he told me that if he happened to be absent without notice, I just had to send the envelope by registered mail… He swore that as long as I didn’t look at the contents, nothing bad would happen to me. He just told me to send it in Dr. Kim’s name… I swear I really don’t know what was inside. I didn’t open it! Please believe me.”

“What the hell is this idiot babbling about? I can’t understand a word.”

“Ah….”

A desperate groan escaped Lee Sang-yeop. In this extreme situation, his mind seemed to freeze and his tongue tie, making it difficult to speak coherently. Woo Hyeong-seok’s subordinate explained it clearly on his behalf.

“It seems Kim Je-guk left two envelopes with this guy before he disappeared. He told him to send them by registered mail if something happened to him or if he lost contact for a few days. One of them came to you, Hyungnim, and the other seems to have been sent to Jang Cheol-min.”

Woo Hyeong-seok fell into thought for a moment. The USB containing the rape video of Jang Jin-woo had been sent to both himself and Jang Cheol-min. What did that mean?

Perhaps Kim Je-guk had used the video to blackmail Jang Jin-woo. The two USBs left with Lee Sang-yeop were likely insurance in case that failed and he himself came to harm. Being a man with many enemies, he seemed to have meticulously set up his insurance. Or perhaps it was a strange stubbornness, a resolve that if he died, he wouldn’t die alone. Whether it was Jang Jin-woo, Jang Cheol-min, or Woo Hyeong-seok himself who struck him down, they would inevitably clash because of that video.

Of course, such a calculation required the premise that Woo Hyeong-seok harbored some degree of brotherly affection for Ju-wan. While that premise was completely off the mark, the result was derived similarly, so it wasn’t a total waste of effort.

“So Jang Cheol-min, that old man, saw the video too…”

Woo Hyeong-seok glared at the laptop, which was already broken in two. He had thought the man made a tactical error out of greed for a few pennies by sending hitmen, but he felt as if he had been properly stabbed in the back. Jang Cheol-min had simply decided to bury everything, fearing that along with Kim Je-guk’s organ trafficking, his own son’s sex crimes would be revealed, and that Woo Hyeong-seok would demand an even greater price because of it. A hollow laugh escaped him.

It happened in an instant; Woo Hyeong-seok suddenly struck Lee Sang-yeop. With a loud crack, Lee Sang-yeop’s head snapped to the side. His body couldn’t withstand the blow and collapsed miserably. With a dull pain ringing through his entire skull, Lee Sang-yeop convulsed, clutching the area where he had been hit.

“Ah… aaah… ah….”

“Get rid of him.”

“Yes, Hyungnim.”

Woo Hyeong-seok’s subordinates forced Lee Sang-yeop up and dragged him out. The voice pleading for his life as he was moved away faded as the front door closed.

Woo Hyeong-seok slowly rotated his stiff wrist and asked.

“What about the others?”

“They should be searching Jang Jin-woo’s residence and his family home.”

“Contact them. That bastard Jang Jin-woo. Tell them there’s no need to bring him in.”

“Pardon? Then….”

Woo Hyeong-seok put the remaining half of the marijuana back in his mouth. As he took a deep drag and exhaled, blood surged from the wound in his abdomen. He muttered, looking down at the sight without emotion.

“Maybe I’ll play with some fire for the first time in a while.”

Soon, a thin arc of a smile spread across his lips.

* * *

It was past 10 PM when Kwon Su-hyeok returned. Even so, it was much earlier than usual. Jeon Mi-nam stopped by his house with him for a moment. The pretext was to accompany Kwon Su-hyeok, but in reality, it seemed he wanted to check if Ju-wan was doing well.

The house, which would normally have been silent and devoid of presence, had the radio on. There was only one person who would listen to such current affairs broadcasts: Baek Do-un. As expected, he was lying flat on the sofa, reading a medical journal.

“Oh, you’re back?”

Baek Do-un gave a short greeting and picked up his phone. After turning off the radio and checking the time, he soon wore a peculiar smile.

“What’s the occasion? You’re back early.”

He seemed to be teasing him for the unusually early return. Kwon Su-hyeok merely looked at Baek Do-un with disapproval.

Jeon Mi-nam bowed to Baek Do-un and began to move around the house. The sink was clean and dry. Many of the convenience meals he had bought for the refrigerator just in case had disappeared. By simply glancing at the recycling box and the trash can, he could gauge if Jaguar had been fed on time and what kind of meals Ju-wan and Baek Do-un had eaten.

He quietly opened the closed bedroom door. As light suddenly leaked in, Jaguar snapped his head up and glared at Jeon Mi-nam. Perhaps annoyed that his sleep was interrupted, he let out a small growl, baring his teeth. Beside him, Ju-wan was fast asleep with his back to the door. He slept soundly, pressed tightly against Jaguar, even with the creature’s tail wrapped around him, seemingly unbothered.

He closed the door and returned to the living room. Baek Do-un looked at Jeon Mi-nam with a triumphant expression. He seemed quite proud that the place had been cleaned up perfectly without any need for intervention. Certainly, compared to Baek Do-un’s own home, the state of this place was close to a miracle.

Kwon Su-hyeok ordered while unbuttoning his shirt.

“Both of you, go home now.”

“You always call us because you’re desperate, and then you only think about kicking us out, don’t you? I wonder when a ‘thank you’ will ever come out of this guy’s mouth.”

Baek Do-un pouted openly. Kwon Su-hyeok stopped his hand and stared at him with an annoyed look. While there was no particularly dangerous atmosphere, Jeon Mi-nam’s body instinctively tensed.

“Stop glaring. Go date someone. How can a human being just get more and more desiccated as time goes by? I’m suffocating to death here.”

“Stop chirping and get lost.”

“Yes, yes. I shall quietly vanish, leaving you to your useless, dark-hearted masculinity.”

Baek Do-un bowed exaggeratedly and left without lingering. Then, Kwon Su-hyeok looked at Jeon Mi-nam, who was still standing blankly.

“Then, please get some rest.”

Jeon Mi-nam bowed and strode out after Baek Do-un. There was no need to drive him home, but that was Kwon Su-hyeok’s own way of repaying him.

“Doctor, I’ll drive you.”

“Really? Then I won’t decline. I’ve been doing things I don’t usually do all day, so I’m too tired to drive.”

Baek Do-un readily handed over the car keys. After opening the back door and letting him in, Mi-nam walked around to the driver’s side, brushing his jacket pocket. He felt the small camera he had placed there. He hadn’t informed Kwon Su-hyeok of its existence yet. Su-hyeok hadn’t specifically ordered him to investigate Ju-wan, and whatever was recorded inside was strictly a matter of privacy.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Jeon Mi-nam checked Baek Do-un through the rearview mirror. He was only looking at his phone. What should he do? While he was contemplating, Baek Do-un suddenly looked up. Their eyes met exactly through the mirror.

“Do you have something to tell me?”

Baek Do-un asked bluntly, noticing Jeon Mi-nam flinch. He seemed to have read the hesitation. Though he appeared relaxed and loose, he was a man with keen intuition.

Seeing his generous face, as if he would listen to anything, Mi-nam’s guard naturally dropped. Jeon Mi-nam immediately took out the camera in question and held it out. Baek Do-un’s expression soured.

“What is this, a hidden cam?”

“I found it in Mr. Park Ju-wan’s hospital room.”

“Did that hospital use things like this to monitor patients?”

“No. There were separate CCTVs for that purpose.”

“Then you’re saying someone intentionally installed this in Ju-wan’s room?”

“It seems so. Considering how cleverly it was hidden to avoid detection.”

“Who on earth would do that?”

“Do you have anyone in mind?”

“I don’t know. How would I…”

Baek Do-un tilted his head, then paused. Suddenly, the day he first met Ju-wan came to mind. More accurately, the moment he saw Ju-wan’s naked body in the bathroom.

Traces of sexual assault remained vividly on Ju-wan’s body. He had said it wasn’t just once or twice. It was a nightmare that had repeated for years.

If the camera Jeon Mi-nam brought had been in that room for a very long time, the person who installed it would fall into two categories: the perpetrator who committed those atrocities against Ju-wan, or an insider who knew Ju-wan was continuously suffering and turned a blind eye.

“The reason I went there today was because I was ordered to look into Mr. Park Ju-wan’s half-brother. I thought anyone looking for Mr. Park Ju-wan would have visited that hospital first. While I was there, I looked around the room where Mr. Park Ju-wan had stayed, and that’s where I found this. I brought it just in case, but…”

If Ju-wan hadn’t confessed what he had been through to Kwon Su-hyeok, Su-hyeok would be completely unaware of how he had spent his time at the hospital. Jeon Mi-nam also seemed unaware of what scenes were captured on that camera.

“So, you’re wondering whether you should show it to Su-hyeok or not?”

Jeon Mi-nam only nodded silently.

“Looking at you, Mi-nam, you really are soft-hearted.”

While the other was serious, Baek Do-un just chuckled. Then, he shrugged and replied nonchalantly.

“Do as you wish.”

“…Pardon?”

“Some truths create miracles the moment they are revealed, and some truths bring unexpected disasters. How can we predict all that? What is certain is that the truth always comes to light eventually. Even if you don’t show it to Su-hyeok, he will find out the truth inside through some route at some point. Still, if it really bothers you, I think it’s not a bad idea to keep it buried for a while. Forcing yourself to do something you’re reluctant to do always leads to trouble.”

“…….”

“Either way, there’s no need to worry too much, right? No matter what’s recorded in there, or what happens because of it, I don’t think it will harm the person you’re worried about.”

Baek Do-un’s advice didn’t provide a clear solution, but thanks to it, Mi-nam felt certain about how to behave. Jeon Mi-nam stared at the camera in his hand for a moment before putting it back in his pocket.

“Then, I’ll start the car.”

He started the engine and slowly left the parking lot. Baek Do-un let out a long yawn and looked out the window, then suddenly said, “By the way.” Jeon Mi-nam’s gaze shifted to the rearview mirror.

“That guy Su-hyeok always says he can’t let ‘fellow guys’ sleep in his bed, right? Strictly speaking, Ju-wan falls into that ‘fellow guy’ category. And get this, this morning, he even ate a meal Ju-wan made for him. Is he discriminating between people or what?”

Jeon Mi-nam just listened silently to Baek Do-un’s grumbling. He didn’t particularly agree or add anything, but even to him, it was surprising. While Su-hyeok had defined the target as ‘fellow guys,’ in reality, he never allowed anyone by his side when he was unconscious.

Moreover, Ju-wan had almost zero will to escape. There seemed to be no need to continue sleeping with him.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes. He realized he was lying in bed by the soft touch of the bedding wrapping around his body. Because the lights were off, the surroundings were pitch black. The only sound in his ears was the breathing of Jaguar, sleeping right beside him. Every time the creature took a deep breath and exhaled, the bed swayed along with it.

It seemed he had fallen into a deep sleep when he only intended to nap for a bit. What time was it? As Ju-wan tried to raise his upper body, he paused upon seeing Jaguar’s tail subtly wrapped around his waist. The creature was still sound asleep. Fearing he might wake it, he very carefully unwound the tail.

At that, Jaguar’s round ears flickered in his sleep before becoming still again. He slowly reached out and lightly stroked the creature’s forehead before getting out of bed. He wondered if Kwon Su-hyeok had returned. He quietly opened the door and stepped outside.

The living room was still bright. However, the sound of the radio Baek Do-un had been listening to had stopped. The guess that he might have fallen into a light sleep quickly vanished. This was because Kwon Su-hyeok’s characteristic scent was wafting through the air.

Kwon Su-hyeok was sprawled out on a single-person sofa. He checked for the presence of others, but it seemed he was the only one in the house. Looking at the clock, it pointed to 2:00. Since it was dark outside, it must be dawn rather than the afternoon; it appeared that Baek Do-un and Su-hyeok’s other subordinates had all returned.

After staring blankly at Kwon Su-hyeok’s back, Ju-wan approached him. No matter how quiet the footsteps were, there was no way Su-hyeok wouldn’t notice the presence, yet Su-hyeok didn’t move a muscle. Stopping just a few steps away from him, Ju-wan spoke.

“Welcome back.”

He offered the greeting in a slow tone. He might be ignored as before, but he felt it wouldn’t matter.

“…….”

As expected, there was little response from Kwon Su-hyeok. However, this time, he slightly turned his head to gaze at Ju-wan.

Meeting Kwon Su-hyeok’s eyes, Ju-wan simply gave a small nod. Then, as if responding, Kwon Su-hyeok gave a light tilt of his head. It was a movement so minute that one wouldn’t notice unless they looked closely. Nevertheless, the tension that had unconsciously gripped Ju-wan’s heart eased. The corners of his mouth twitched instinctively.

Anyway, what was he doing instead of sleeping? Ju-wan shifted his gaze to examine Kwon Su-hyeok. Since it had been a while since he showered, the moisture in his hair was almost entirely gone. The liquor on the table, which he must have drunk alone, was also nearly empty.

Ju-wan soon had a thought and entered the kitchen. He took something out of the refrigerator, poured it into two cups, and heated them in the microwave. Carefully picking up the now-warm cups, he returned to the living room. Then, he abruptly held them out to Su-hyeok, who remained motionless.

Kwon Su-hyeok looked back and forth between the cup held before his nose and Ju-wan with a puzzled look.

“…What is this?”

“It’s better to drink this.”

Ju-wan pushed the cup closer. Inside was white milk. The contents of the cup in his other hand were also white milk for himself.

Kwon Su-hyeok frowned and took the cup. He did so because it felt like Ju-wan would keep standing there stubbornly forever if he didn’t. However, that was all; he did not drink the milk he had been handed.

Ju-wan drank his milk first, staring intently down at Kwon Su-hyeok. That gaze seemed to be subtly urging him. He looked as if he would stare piercingly until Kwon Su-hyeok emptied the cup. Under that blatant gaze, Kwon Su-hyeok also raised his head and met Ju-wan’s eyes.

Even then, Ju-wan did not avert his gaze and quickly finished his portion of the milk. He cleanly licked the residue off his lips with his tongue.

“I heard that warm milk is good when you can’t sleep.”

He spoke with conviction to Kwon Su-hyeok, who was still looking at him suspiciously.

Kwon Su-hyeok looked at the cup in his hand once more. Ju-wan also fixed his eyes there. It wasn’t as if a knife was being held to his throat, yet he felt it was more difficult to refuse than that.

After glaring at the milk for no reason, he suddenly gulped it down. His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed refreshingly. Shortly after, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and set down the empty cup.

“Have you changed your method?”

“…Pardon?”

“Do you think your situation will change just by doing this? Have you already forgotten why I brought you here?”

“I know. You said you needed my blood.”

Ju-wan replied with extreme composure. Because there was no sign of him backing down, he almost seemed bold. Despite being dragged to an unfamiliar place as a blood source, he was not afraid. Had he been hospitalized for so long that he became accustomed to being oppressed? He seemed completely unconcerned about his situation or his future. It was fascinating that he could be so carefree.

“I’m grateful for it.”

At the following sentence, Su-hyeok found himself asking back stupidly.

“…Grateful?”

“Yes. Regardless of how or what the purpose was, you got me out of there.”

It was absurd. Staring blankly at Ju-wan, Kwon Su-hyeok let out a deep sigh and shook his head. Then, he stood up and entered the bedroom.

Watching Kwon Su-hyeok in silence, Ju-wan took the two empty cups to the sink and washed them clean. After finishing the brief dishwashing, he went to the bathroom and quickly brushed his teeth.

When he turned off the living room lights, the entire house became pitch black. Feeling his way along the wall with his fingertips, he entered the bedroom. In the darkness, he saw amber eyes shining brightly. Whether awakened by Kwon Su-hyeok, Jaguar raised its head and watched Ju-wan.

As he slid into bed and lay down, he gave Jaguar a long stroke down its back. Jaguar simply stared at Ju-wan without any sign of dislike. When Ju-wan gently scratched under its chin, just as Kwon Su-hyeok had done the previous night, the animal inevitably narrowed its eyes and purred.

“Goodnight, Su-nam.”

At the following greeting, the animal immediately whipped its head away. It seemed to truly hate its name. Even so, its tail faithfully wrapped around Ju-wan’s waist. Could he think they had become a bit close now? He smiled faintly while looking at the indifferent back of Jaguar’s head.

Then, he glanced toward Kwon Su-hyeok. Due to dark adaptation, his silhouette vaguely entered his vision. He wasn’t turned away as before, but was lying facing Ju-wan—or more accurately, facing Jaguar. His eyes were not yet closed. As if the pet followed the owner, he seemed to be holding his breath in silence, his senses heightened to Ju-wan’s every move, just as Jaguar had done a moment ago.

“Goodnight.”

He offered the greeting without hesitation. Today, too, there was no response from Kwon Su-hyeok. He simply closed his eyes slowly, as if responding to Ju-wan’s greeting.

A rare, peaceful night deepened.

* * *

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

Jang Cheol-min struggled desperately with his bound body. His face was entirely wrapped in blue duct tape. Because of this, even though he called for help until his throat nearly burst, the sound could not travel far. His wife had already collapsed beside him, unconscious.

Woo Hyeong-seok sat on the sofa, watching Jang Cheol-min struggle for his life with interest. Jang Cheol-min seemed tireless, constantly screaming and thrashing.

“For an old man, you’ve got plenty of energy. I guess you’ve been eating a lot of good things?”

At the sarcastic tone, Jang Cheol-min’s movements stopped abruptly. Hyeong-seok suddenly stood up and approached him. Just that alone made Jang Cheol-min visibly tense. It felt as if the sound of his brain working furiously could be heard in Hyeong-seok’s ears.

Crouching in front of him, Hyeong-seok whispered chillingly.

“That’s why I told you, if you were going to do something reckless, you should do it while putting your life on the line. When someone kindly warns you, you should take it to heart.”

“Mmmph!”

Jang Cheol-min jerked his head up in protest. Whether he was spitting out curses, saliva seeped through the gaps in the tape.

Meanwhile, Woo Hyeong-seok’s subordinates were pouring gasoline throughout the house. Even a small spark would turn the entire house into a pile of charcoal.

Jang Cheol-min did not give up and constantly tried to say something. Since he was facing certain death, he seemed to be attempting a negotiation, albeit too late.

However, Woo Hyeong-seok did not listen to Jang Cheol-min. He had already lost his appetite; no matter what feast was brought to him, he wouldn’t be tempted.

“Mmm! Mmmph! Mmm!”

Anyway, even after reaching that age and enjoying life to that extent, did he still hate dying? Woo Hyeong-seok looked down at Jang Cheol-min, who was thrashing with everything he had, as if it were a curiosity. As expected, humans all become wretched when their end approaches. It was simply laughable to see him struggle to live while having treated others’ lives as trivial.

Standing up, he signaled to the waiting subordinates with a nod. Then, the men approached and poured gasoline over Jang Cheol-min and his wife. Drenched in gasoline, Jang Cheol-min pissed himself and struggled desperately.

“Mmmph!”

“There’s no need to resent your son. Looking at it, almost everything that goes wrong with children is the parents’ fault. Besides, honestly, you brought this on yourself. You shouldn’t betray people recklessly. Right?”

At the deliberately softened tone, Jang Cheol-min nodded repeatedly. As if trying to grasp even a shred of hope. It felt as if he would nod just as much even if asked to hand over his entire fortune right now.

A strange smile spread across Woo Hyeong-seok’s lips.

“If you know you did wrong, you should accept your punishment gladly, right?”

“Mmmph! Mmmph!”

Sensing the end, Jang Cheol-min flopped like a fish just pulled out of the water. Woo Hyeong-seok watched that futile resistance before stepping outside. His subordinates poured the remaining gasoline over Jang Cheol-min. Jang Cheol-min struggled, unable to keep his senses as gasoline poured into his nose and ears, before slowly losing strength.

Outside, Woo Hyeong-seok looked over the massive mansion that would disappear into a handful of ash in a short while. A dry wind blew. It was perfect for playing with fire.

Around then, a subordinate approached and whispered that Jang Cheol-min’s secretary had also been cleaned up. Everything was prepared.

The subordinates poured gasoline in the garden as well and came outside. Then, they boarded the waiting vehicles and left the scene in an orderly fashion. Woo Hyeong-seok threw a lit cigarette out of the speeding car. The butt that fell to the ground rolled along with the wind until it reached the main gate.

In an instant, the flames spread like a wildfire, and the garden began to burn red. It didn’t take long for the fire to swallow the entire house.

The surroundings seemed brighter than during the day. Woo Hyeong-seok burst into loud laughter, drenched in deep euphoria. In the deep dawn while everyone was still asleep, his car disappeared into the darkness, taking advantage of the silence.

* * *

Despite it being early morning, the departure hall was crowded with people. There were few empty seats in the lounge. Looking around, Jang Jin-woo went and sat in the farthest corner. The possibility of meeting someone he knew there was small, but psychologically, he found himself avoiding the gaze of others.

He drank coffee on an empty stomach while watching television. It wasn’t because the content was particularly interesting; he was just watching whatever was on. Since it was so early, the morning news was being broadcast.

Jang Jin-woo, who had been watching the news indifferently, suddenly widened his eyes. It was from the moment a horrific fire scene began to appear on the screen.

It was a landscape far too familiar. Although the mansion that should have been there was gone, his heart pounded violently. His ears, which had let most news slide until now, became extremely sensitive, absorbing every single word of the reporter’s broadcast.

“Around 3:00 this morning, a fire broke out at the home of a Mr. Jang in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, resulting in the tragic death of Mr. Jang and his wife while they slept. The fire completely destroyed Mr. Jang’s house and passenger car, and three neighbors are being treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation. The fire was extinguished within two hours, and fire authorities and police stated they plan to investigate the exact circumstances, keeping the possibility of arson in mind.”

Even after the related report ended, he could not take his eyes off the changed screen. It would be more accurate to say he had frozen in place. There was no particular expression on his face.

Even though everything had burned black, he could tell that the place was his own family home. That meant the deceased Mr. Jang and his wife were his parents.

Was it arson? Whose doing was it? The only person who immediately came to mind was Woo Hyeong-seok.

His frozen face crumbled without fail. That emotion seemed far from the bewilderment or grief of losing parents overnight. Rather, it was closer to fear. His fingertips trembled uncontrollably. He clenched his fists tightly as if to hide it. If he had continued to stay at the family home, Jang Jin-woo himself would not have escaped the accident.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, he bolted from his seat. He walked hurriedly not toward the outside of the departure hall, but toward the gate. He didn’t know if he would live a different life from now on. Still, preserving his life was the priority for now.

Leaving behind his dead parents, everything he had achieved so far, and the sins he had committed, Jang Jin-woo left Korea as if fleeing.