By Zephyria 
Yeon-rok’s instincts were ringing the alarm loudly. I should stop them here after all.
Yeon-rok clenched his teeth tightly and stepped on the accelerator. The sports car roared roughly and shot out. Yeon-rok, who had overtaken the sedan in an instant, turned the steering wheel sharply. He screamed and shouted.
“Sorry, Yeon-ji!”
That’s right. It was the nickname that had been chosen after Lime, Pencil, and Salmon.
Crash! With a rough impact, the sedan rammed into the side of the red sports car. The sedan stopped, wedged between the sports car and the exterior wall of the building. Pop, the airbag exploded. Nevertheless, it was quite a big impact, so Yeon-rok groaned.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Grumbling, he pulled himself together and opened the car door, crawling out. The person in the driver’s seat was slumped over, unmoving, as if unconscious. Lee Yeon-rok staggered and opened the back door. Moon Kyeon-woo was sprawled out, bleeding from the head, seemingly dead.
“Moon Kyeon-woo! Wake up…!”
It wasn’t just from the accident, but also from the injuries he sustained from being beaten earlier, right? I hope I didn’t hit him too hard and injure him severely. Even while worrying, he couldn’t bring himself to touch his head, only diligently rubbing his hands. As his Name partner, he wanted to help in any way he could. Whether it was effective or not, Moon Kyeon-woo faintly opened his eyes a few seconds later.
“Are you awake?”
“Ugh, what happened…”
Before Lee Yeon-rok could explain, he seemed to grasp the situation immediately. He quickly scrambled out of the car. Fortunately, nothing seemed broken, but the impact must have been severe, as he soon collapsed to the ground. Lee Yeon-rok quickly grabbed Moon Kyeon-woo and gently laid him down. He didn’t want blood rushing to his head, so he had him lie down with his head on his thigh.
But instead of regaining consciousness, his face turned pale, and he closed his eyes again. Anxious, Lee Yeon-rok decided to just go for it and kissed him. Both from experience and from the Name Awakened Community, he knew that deeper contact was better for their health. This seemed more effective than holding hands.
Moon Kyeon-woo’s lips were softer and warmer than he expected… and tasted like lip balm. He diligently pressed his lips, feeling like he was giving CPR, and then slipped his tongue in slightly. Moon Kyeon-woo opened his eyes again, as if feeling something strange. His eyes widened as he saw Lee Yeon-rok kissing him. Seeing him, Lee Yeon-rok exclaimed with delight.
“You’re awake? Don’t close your eyes. Help will be here soon.”
As he expected, the bodyguards soon arrived in a car. Lee Yeon-rok sighed in relief, but Moon Kyeon-woo barely managed to grab his sleeve. His trembling gaze was directed at the crumpled sports car. Lee Yeon-rok turned his head with him, his face turning pale. The damage was worse than he had anticipated.
“Don’t tell me you crashed into it with that…?”
“Yeah. I was in too much of a hurry. Someone was being kidnapped, so who cares about something like that.”
He said it coolly and calmly, but his heart ached terribly. Even though he hadn’t bought it with his own money. Lee Yeon-rok forced a smile to hide his bitter feelings.
“This time, you owe me one. You know?”
Hearing those words, Moon Kyeon-woo’s hand, which had been gripping his sleeve, slowly lost its strength. Fearing he would lose consciousness again, Lee Yeon-rok quickly grabbed his falling hand. He was a little worried because Moon Kyeon-woo’s eyes, as he looked up at him, were different and strange from usual. It was like something was missing.
“Good heavens, Young Masters!”
The bodyguards, panting, got out of the car and immediately took action. One called an ambulance, and the other dragged the unconscious person out of the driver’s seat. Curious about his identity, Lee Yeon-rok stared intently at the kidnapper and let out a cry.
“Oh, that person is…!”
It was a familiar face. No wonder, it was Chief Kim, whom Moon Kyeon-woo had introduced to him as someone he was working with when he went to the lab last time! The stalker was him? The kidnapper, who had regained consciousness while being dragged out of the driver’s seat, began to scream.
“No! Seonbae! It’s all a misunderstanding, I can explain!”
“What misunderstanding?! I saw you hitting Moon Kyeon-woo and kidnapping him, you kidnapper!”
At Lee Yeon-rok’s words, Park Chung-seong’s hands, which were already mercilessly subduing the kidnapper, became even more ruthless.
“Argh! Let me go! Let me go! Seon, Seonbae! Please… Please listen to me…!”
The kidnapper pleaded and struggled, but he was mercilessly dragged away and put into the bodyguards’ car. Regardless, Moon Kyeon-woo continued to stare at Lee Yeon-rok. Feeling burdened by his gaze, Lee Yeon-rok slyly covered his eyes with his hand. Then, Moon Kyeon-woo suddenly let out a sigh, a groan that Lee Yeon-rok couldn’t understand. Worried, Lee Yeon-rok raised his hand again to check on him.
“Why? Does it hurt somewhere?”
“You…”
He moved his lips, which were bleeding from the accident, and then closed them again. The look in his eyes as he looked up at him was complex and intense. It seemed resentful, yet also captivated. He groaned softly, asking where it hurt.
“This is unfair…”
He sighed again and then pulled Lee Yeon-rok’s hand back to cover his face. The movement of his eyelashes against his palm was very ticklish.
Unfair, what was? Not understanding at all, Lee Yeon-rok wondered if he had injured his head. He thought he must be in a lot of pain.
Because Moon Kyeon-woo’s face, which was touching his palm, was very hot.
The hospital examination revealed that Moon Kyeon-woo was not seriously injured. It was a lucky result, considering he had been hit in the head and involved in a car crash. However, as always, Lee Yeon-rok was out of luck. He stared blankly at his right arm in a cast. He had a hairline fracture.
Now that the endorphins were wearing off, his whole body began to ache. It wasn’t just his body that hurt. His heart ached too. Lee Yeon-rok asked Secretary Kim Jeong-seong, who had rushed over as soon as he heard about the accident, with a gloomy expression.
“Um, will my car have to be scrapped?”
“Let’s have an expert examine it first. It’s too precious to scrap…”
Lee Yeon-rok asked Kim Jeong-seong, who seemed as upset as if it were his own problem, what he had been wondering.
“But what exactly happened? How could this happen when there were bodyguards? Are the bodyguards okay? I crashed into it in a hurry, but there won’t be any problems, right?”
He was worried because he was quite close to the other bodyguards besides Park Chung-seong and Jeong Bo-eun. He thought he would try to hide it vaguely again this time, but unexpectedly, Kim Jeong-seong explained it to him sincerely. It seemed that it was because it had now become clear that Yeom Cheon-ho was in an antagonistic relationship with his father, Yeom Cheon-ryul.
“There won’t be any problems due to the collision, and Moon Kyeon-woo’s bodyguards are all safe. It seems that Yeom Cheon-ryul’s side approached the stalker and cooperated.”
“Cooperated…?”
“For example, they might have made a deal that they would take care of the bodyguards, so he could do whatever he wanted with Moon Kyeon-woo.”
He heard that a cyclist had rammed into a bodyguard who was following Moon Kyeon-woo at a distance with all his might. Then, several people appeared, picked a fight, and prevented them from following Moon Kyeon-woo, and that’s when it happened.
“Lee Yeon-rok, please try to stay as close as possible to your bodyguard when you go out in the future.”
They couldn’t touch him when he was in the heavily guarded lab or the fortress-like house, so they targeted him when he was running. It seemed they had taken advantage of the fact that Moon Kyeon-woo was listening to music and couldn’t hear the surrounding noise well. However, there was still something he didn’t understand even after hearing the explanation.
“If that’s the case, they could have kidnapped him without bothering to cooperate with the stalker, so why did they do that?”
“Because they don’t want to leave any evidence by using their own hands. Interfering with the bodyguards and directly kidnapping Moon Kyeon-woo, his Name partner, are completely different in terms of risk. And more than anything, it’s because he’s the kind of person who enjoys that.”
Kim Jeong-seong was always a calm and collected secretary, like someone out of a drama. But when he said this, his face showed a long-standing resentment.
“He subtly stirs up discord and manipulates people’s minds, enjoying the suffering it causes. That’s probably why he secretly approached Lee Yeon-rok, pretending to be a good person. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have worked out well.”
Lee Yeon-rok agreed that he didn’t know why Yeom Cheon-ryul had been so wishy-washy with him. After finishing the explanation, Kim Jeong-seong bowed deeply to express his gratitude.
“We were able to handle it in the early stages thanks to you, Lee Yeon-rok. Thank you. We keep imposing on you.”
“I don’t really think of it as imposing. It’s not someone else’s business.”