By Zephyria 
“……!”
Yeon-rok clenched his fist. Choi Hwan, who had been grinning, paused as he checked his phone. As soon as he saw the caller’s name, Yeon-rok was a little surprised to see the stress rise on Choi Hwan’s face. The guy who had said he needed to breathe was now looking like he was suffocating. On the screen he glimpsed, it said ‘Mom’.
“I’ll go take this call.”
Choi Hwan, with a nonchalant face as if nothing had happened, jumped up and left his seat. Watching his retreating figure, Yeon-rok thought.
‘It seems like he doesn’t have a good relationship with his family.’
Yeon-rok was reminded that not a single person had appeared as a member of his Name partner’s family. Do they all have bad relationships with their families?
He spent a lot of time thinking about various things and sipping his drink alone. Yeon-rok thought the call was taking too long. He wondered if he was arguing with his mother, and waited longer, but Choi Hwan didn’t return even after what felt like an hour.
“……Surely not?”
A bad feeling suddenly came over him, but Yeon-rok tried to dismiss it. There was no clock around, so he just watched people aimlessly, when suddenly cheers erupted from all directions. It was the 10 o’clock event that Choi Hwan had mentioned. Yeon-rok was momentarily distracted by the lasers shooting from all directions and the waves of confetti and balloons scattering. And when the event was over, he realized.
“This bastard didn’t just leave me here, did he?”
Yeon-rok jumped up from his seat. And he searched through the crowd, which was more crowded than before, looking for Choi Hwan’s handsome face. He shuddered at the hands that subtly brushed against his body as he walked around for a long time, and finally grabbed an employee and asked.
“Do you know where Choi Hwan went?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know.”
After repeating this several times, Yeon-rok realized that the employees here must have received a lot of questions asking for famous people. That’s why they wouldn’t answer. After searching the club until his feet hurt, Yeon-rok was convinced that the other person wasn’t there and screamed.
“I’m going to kill Choi Hwan!”
This bastard had left him in the club without a wallet or a cell phone! First, Yeon-rok ran out of the chaotic club. He checked the parking lot and saw that Choi Hwan’s car was still there. But he didn’t have the important car keys, so Yeon-rok gritted his teeth.
“Where is this?”
Enraged, Yeon-rok wandered around the club without even noticing the cold, and finally found a subway station and figured out where he was. And he hesitated. It was ambiguously close to home. It was past midnight, and he didn’t want to bother people just to get home comfortably. He sighed and started dragging his feet. And he soon regretted it.
“……Isn’t it early spring now?”
Why is it so cold? His body was shivering from the cold wind, and he felt like he was going to catch a cold. How long had he been walking like that? On a deserted street, a drunken man staggering along started a fight with Yeon-rok.
“Hey! Hey!”
Damn it, what is this again. Yeon-rok, who was already angry, glared at the drunk. But he sighed once, held back, and moved on, which seemed to have offended the drunk who was completely drunk.
“Hey, you bastard, are you ignoring me! Don’t stand there!”
He was already exhausted, and now he was unlucky enough to be picked on by a drunk. Yeon-rok ignored him and walked on diligently. He was going to pass by quickly before getting caught up in a fight. It was quiet behind him, so Yeon-rok thought the drunk had given up on him. But he heard the sound of someone running, and then someone grabbed his shoulder roughly.
“Ugh!”
Yeon-rok, who had been on edge because of the drunk’s provocation, instinctively sensed the other person’s malice and moved without realizing it. The Self-defense art he had been diligently learning every morning came out reflexively. It was only after he threw the other person to the ground that Yeon-rok belatedly realized. And secondly, he was surprised. The person he had thrown was not the drunk who had started the fight.
The person Yeon-rok had thrown to the ground made a ‘kek’ sound, trembled, and then slumped down. Yeon-rok, who was unable to grasp the situation and was spacing out, was brought back to his senses by the applause of the drunk who had been watching blankly from afar.
“Wooah! That’s awesome!”
I’m going crazy, really……. Who is this guy? He wanted to cry. Today is another terribly unlucky day.
He wasn’t moving, so he was afraid he was dead, and when he checked, he was thankfully breathing. Yeon-rok, worried about the other person, examined his body and found an Electric Shock Device in the other person’s hand, and was speechless. No matter how he looked at it, it looked like he had tried to use it on Yeon-rok, but had used it on himself because he was thrown. ……What is this really? Is the public order in Korea this bad……?
Was I almost kidnapped just now?
“Hey! Hey!”
The drunk started picking a fight again. Yeon-rok, who had been spacing out, burst into tears, grabbed the unconscious person by the collar, and screamed.
“Shut your mouth?! Do you want me to do the same to you? Get lost!”
Only then did the drunk grumble something and go on his way. Yeon-rok leaned the unconscious person against a nearby building. He was so cold, dumbfounded, and sad that he sat there blankly for a while, and then Yeon-rok came to his senses.
“Cell phone……. Let’s find the cell phone.”
Yeon-rok rummaged through the other person’s pockets and lost his words again. It was because he found a bunch of Cable Ties that looked so malicious. He thought the other person seemed to be twitching, so he tied the other person’s wrists and ankles with them just in case, and then found his cell phone. It was a good thing he had memorized Kim Jeong-seong’s phone number. The other person answered the phone quickly, without even a few rings.
― ……Hello?
Yeon-rok, who was unfamiliar with the unusually cold voice, wondered if he had dialed the wrong number and asked cautiously.
“Is this Kim Jeong-seong’s secretary?”
― Lee Yeon-rok!
As soon as he spoke, Kim Jeong-seong screamed. He wasn’t sure, but thankfully he had dialed the right number.
― Where are you now? I’ll pick you up right away!
“Um, Secretary Hyung. Actually, I caused an accident……”
― Yes?
Only then did Yeon-rok, relieved, tell Kim Jeong-seong the situation in detail. He huddled up and said the last thing.
“I’m going to call 119 first.”
― No. Just stay where you are and don’t do anything. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Absolutely do nothing.
At Kim Jeong-seong’s words, Yeon-rok said he would. He even had to keep the call on and waited for the other person to arrive, talking to him from time to time. A few minutes later, several black sedans arrived and parked in a row on the side of the road, and people in suits got out in droves. Kim Jeong-seong also jumped out of the car and hurriedly pulled Yeon-rok away from the other person. And he checked that he was tied up with Cable Ties and praised him.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. You took appropriate measures. I’ll take you home now.”
Yeon-rok, who got up from his seat with a groan, glanced at the person who seemed to be an attempted kidnapper. Kim Jeong-seong subtly hid him as if to prevent him from even looking at him. He was worried that he had knocked him out. Yeon-rok opened his mouth.
“That person over there……”
“We’ll take care of it.”
“No, that’s. Shouldn’t he be taken to the hospital?”
Kim Jeong-seong gave him a pitiful look as if he was looking at a very kind and foolishly good person, and then nodded. One of the men who was moving the unconscious attempted kidnapper pinched his side tightly. The attempted kidnapper jumped and screamed.
“Aah!”
“As you can see, he’s awake. He’s fine. We’ll hand him over to the police. There are so many crazy people in the world.”
Yeon-rok flinched. What? He was awake? Since when? ……Or did he wake up because he was pinched? As he was getting confused, Kim Jeong-seong gently pushed Yeon-rok into the car, where warm heater air was coming out, and said kindly.
“Don’t worry. You must be tired, so just go home and get some rest. You’ve really been through a lot.”
Sitting on the seat with the heating function turned on, he felt like it didn’t matter. He just wanted to go home and get some rest. As Yeon-rok, who had been frozen solid, was melting into the seat, Kim Jeong-seong took something out of his pocket and handed it to him.
“Oh, and here’s Yeon-rok’s cell phone.”
Yeon-rok’s eyes, which had been loosening, became sullen again as he received the cell phone that Choi Hwan had stolen.
“……Did Choi Hwan come home?”
Kim Jeong-seong, hearing the voice full of anger, paused for a moment and then slowly nodded.
“Yes. He returned home drunk two hours ago.”
Two hours? Two hours ago? This bastard really went home without me? Angry, Yeon-rok closed his eyes tightly. Even though he was treated like a nobody by Choi Hwan, let alone his Name partner, wasn’t this really too much? But he was too tired and cold to get angry today.