1.2 Beneath the Bark of the Evergreen (2)
If you shift the subject, it’s easy to lead them along. While Geum Seoul recalled his previous meeting with Lee Hee-jung, rolling his eyes upward without a hint of suspicion, Guichang’s gaze drifted downward.
Whether it was a heat rash across his entire body, the creases of his elbows and the gap leading from his neck to his collarbone were mottled red. The marks were even more prominent against his pale skin, appearing on his thighs and knees as well. Since he was sitting without pulling the chair close, the redness of his exposed bare skin was stark; seeing as it was this bad even after receiving good medication, one could only imagine how he normally looked.
The areas covered by his T-shirt were likely worse. Looking at his arms, the tender skin on the inside appeared more swollen and red than the outer forearm. Some marks were circular, like bite marks, but since the skin looked like it would turn a deeper crimson if bitten or sucked, it didn’t seem like they were caused by hands.
“That was all. They said my parents were waiting and that I had to go, so they asked for help…”
It was the same story as last time. Guichang listened without interrupting, continuing to move his eyes. Neatly trimmed fingertips pressed firmly against a white mug.
“If I had just told him to stay here until the heat broke, he might have already gone to meet his parents. Since Im Gyun-il doesn’t know Lee Hee-jung’s face, I told him to pretend he was guiding a guest who had been sold and then just ride down.”
Im Gyun-il was a shuttle driver who transported guests in a small three-wheeled vehicle from the middle of the neighborhood’s uphill climb—where cars could no longer ascend—to the building where the auctions were held. He had mentioned that he was too busy working at a house in the neighboring town to stay home often, coming to earn money only on auction days. In a short amount of time, it was a fairly plausible escape route.
“And you. You have no intention [stolen content]of leaving? Is it your taste to stick your head under the stairs where others only scrape their soles?”
Geum Seoul blinked again. The expression of not quite understanding the meaning was answer enough. Knowing the neighborhood that well meant there were plenty of gaps to escape through, so Guichang was simply curious why he clung to that place only to be beaten by Park Gil-pyeong whenever the opportunity arose. He had no intention of meddling by telling a kid who had no desire to leave to run away. He had no intention of planting vain hopes in a fate born to live that way.
“What do you do during auctions? Carry Bacchus?”
So, he changed the subject again. A similarly stubborn yet docile answer followed.
“That’s when it’s busiest. I gather the gemstones and bring them to the CEO, and I clean because the guests are coming. In the summer, there’s a large fan in the warehouse, so I take that out. And if the broadcast keeps playing even when it’s time for guests to arrive, I adjust the antenna. And—”
The sentence was cut off there.
“You do that every time there’s an auction?”
Geum Seoul fell silent for a moment, not knowing what ‘that’ referred to. Ah. He likely meant stopping the broadcast.
“Yes. If I’m lucky and the broadcast doesn’t [visit [class="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">stolen content]our site]play on auction day, I run errands for the guests and earn money.”
Geum Seoul spoke of his next task with complete indifference, but Guichang remained stuck on the previous sentence. As the days passed, the sweltering heat grew more severe. Just this once, Geum Seoul, who had been left under the scorching midday sun for about an hour and forty-five minutes, collapsed the moment he let go. If he had been left a little longer, he might have died.
“In winter, too?”
Geum Seoul frowned as if wondering what kind of question that was.
“Because auctions… don’t have seasons?”
He did that every auction, whether in summer or winter. He treated days when the broadcast rested as lucky days, earning a bit more pocket money instead. He said the errand fees were based on market price, but the price of his life was only that much. Guichang’s eyes drifted back to Geum Seoul’s mottled wrists.
“I’ll stay on the sofa. Please go in and sleep. Ah, but I only used one side. The right side shouldn’t be very dirty.”
Whether he misinterpreted Guichang’s silence or was simply reading the room, Geum Seoul stood up and picked up the mug. Watching him rustle about and pack the kimbap first, Guichang tilted his head slightly. He looked as if he were sizing him up.
“I’d like to, but I [Read on Read BL Novels]Read on Read BL Novelswm: Read on Read BL Novels -->style="font-size:0;color:transparent;display:inline;">unauthorized copyhave work left, so I have to use the living room. Go back and sleep on the left side.”
“Ah… yes.”
As if overwhelmed by excessive kindness despite it being a sincere statement rather than a courtesy, Geum Seoul hesitated for a moment before nodding. He opened and closed his mouth a few times as if he had something to say, but in the end, he didn’t speak and walked away silently.
With a polite bow, he seemed to head toward the bathroom instead of the bedroom, only to emerge clutching his worn clothes and a lump of silicone. After moving those to the master bedroom, he went back to the bathroom to brush his teeth. It was a behavior reminiscent of a small animal meticulously collecting things in its nest. After staring for a moment at the busy movements that didn’t make a sound, Guichang also stood up. He intended to burn off the frustration that had seeped in from the previous conversation while working.
By the time the man sat on the sofa in the darkened living room, putting on thin half-rim glasses and opening a document file on his tablet, Geum Seoul emerged from the bathroom, having finished preparing for bed. He gave a very small “Goodnight” before quietly closing the bedroom door. Guichang, who had only given a single nod, finally lifted his gaze slightly from the tablet.
“…….”
Perhaps because he had recently received a Stabilization Injection, Geum Seoul’s pheromone scent was so faint it was almost undetectable. It hadn’t disappeared completely, but at this level, common Alphas still wouldn’t be able to perceive it.
Turning his head to look at the closed bedroom door, Guichang tapped the tablet a few times. A blue circular light appeared, and the words ‘Connecting…’ were engraved.
“What.”
One day tomorrow. He leaned his upper body heavily against the back of the sofa, half-closing his eyes.
“To keep it off…”
A task that didn’t need to be done. If he were to leave a trace, there was no need to call No Pil-gyu at a timing that wouldn’t arouse suspicion in the first place. Slumping halfway into the sofa, Guichang made a clicking sound with his tongue before speaking.
“The hub. We absolutely have to root out the mole who leaked Lee Hee-jung.”
That was impossible. He frowned in irritation.
“If I find it myself, none of you are getting promoted for three years.”
“Shut it and send the file.”
Yoo Jeong-ham, who was well-immunized to the cold words of his superior, visit unauthorized [Read on Read BL Novels]copyour siteimmediately transmitted the memory.
“What’s Bae Seo-woo’s task right now?”
Bae Seo-woo was an Omega. Since all of Guichang’s team members were active personnel deployed directly to the field, their pheromones were as faint as a beta’s, but fundamentally, any trait-bearer could instinctively guess the other’s secondary gender. They said that to hide it intentionally, one would need to inject expensive, potent drugs for several days, but in this day and age, there was no need for that.
“Tell him to contact me when he’s finished.”
“Haaaam. You talk way too much.”
At the sound of a forced yawn, intended to be heard, Yoo Jeong-ham shut his mouth tight. It meant the words were useless. He could have just said he’d deliver it himself or told him to shut up as usual, but he always chose the words with the highest impact that grated on the nerves the most.
Is there not a single person on this earth who can shut that ghost’s mouth? Seeing him completely speechless was his every Christmas wish, yet it never came true. Yoo Jeong-ham composed himself and brought up another work matter.
At those words, Guichang snapped his head back to stare at the closed door. Whether he was sleeping without turning on the light, not a single sliver of light escaped from the narrow gap.
“Yeah.”
He smiled instinctively.
“Throw it. The bait.”
“Did you get some good rest?”
“Ah, yes. Thanks to you. Thank you.”
The next day, Geum Seoul was dressed in his usual attire. After bowing to Yoo Jeong-ham, who was waiting for him as soon as he stepped outside, he climbed into the car parked in front of the house with slightly awkward steps.
When he woke up in the morning, the house was empty. Not only was the man who had been sitting on the living room sofa until he entered his room gone, but even the kimbap he intended to take today had vanished, so Seoul had started his walk with a slightly gloomy heart.
“Mr. Geum Seoul, later, these two friends will enter the auction house as guests. They’ll buy gemstones at a reasonable price, so if there’s any problem, you can use them.”
Unable to understand what ‘if there’s any problem’ or ‘you can use them’ meant, Geum Seoul was filled with question marks, yet he diligently stared at the man in the passenger seat and the man in the driver’s seat. He wanted to ask the meaning belatedly, [visit our site]but he couldn’t once the car started moving. The man in the driver’s seat pressed a device on his wrist instead of gripping the steering wheel. Even though he wasn’t touching the wheel, the car moved automatically. He had heard somewhere that wealthy people all rode autonomous vehicles.
Very occasionally, when he followed Park Gil-pyeong on errands, he had ridden in his car. However, that was a very old car that required manual steering, and he was usually in the truck bed or squeezed in with other kids.
Geum Seoul watched the steering wheel move on its own for a bit longer before turning his head toward the window. Even with a white lie, the scenery passing by quickly could not be called beautiful. After all, he hadn’t gone far from the neighborhood, only to the town immediately below, so it was all just sparse, skeletal tree branches, gray stone pavement, blackened withered brush, houses that looked like they would collapse, and deserted alleys.
Still, Seoul kept his mouth shut and diligently rolled his eyes. The cool breeze inside the car felt surreal, starkly different from the scenery outside the window that was visibly shimmering with heat.
“Once you find Noki, you won’t come back, right?”
Knowing it was presumptuous, Geum Seoul asked quietly. Yoo Jeong-ham, sitting right next to him, nodded without hesitation.
“Yes. I really hope we find him today.”
Once No Pil-gyu entered the country, diverting attention would become very tricky. They had scoured the neighboring town, which was practically a den of criminals, for several days, but Lee Hee-jung showed no sign of appearing. The remaining possibilities were that Lee Hee-jung, who had been hiding well, would come out on his own today, or that he had collapsed and was rotting away as a corpse somewhere in this heat. Finding a corpse was a slightly different matter than finding a living person, so Yoo Jeong-ham actually hoped he would be discovered today.
Only after thinking that far did he quickly turn his head, wondering if he had answered without tact to a question with a different aria-label="unauthorized copy">unauthorized copymeaning. However, Geum Seoul was merely staring out the window with an expressionless face. Yoo Jeong-ham called out to him.
“Mr. Seoul. How much time do you have once the auction starts?”
“It’s different every time, but usually about an hour.”
“Then, can you help us out a bit then?”
At those words, Geum Seoul’s brown eyes stared silently at Yoo Jeong-ham for a moment before he gave a deep nod.
“How?”
Clack.
The car stopped in an open lot. They had to walk up for a while longer, but since the alley was inaccessible by car, everyone had to disembark here. Only the villagers’ three-wheeled motorcycles traveled all the way up. Since they had intentionally chosen a time when few people were passing by, the four people who got out of the car diligently walked up the high alley.
The villagers, who had gone to their own respective retreats before the sun rose, were coming out to the paths one [stolen content]by one today. This was because they could earn money on auction days; each of them presented food or liquor made with saved ingredients in front of their houses, or put out ornaments made of cheap gemstones. These were items that frequent auctioneers wouldn’t even glance at, but they couldn’t just stand by on a day when new people entered the neighborhood and opened their wallets.
“Seoul! Where did you go?”
Rini, who had been standing at the entrance of the neighborhood, rushed over.
“Ah. I was doing some errands yesterday.”
“We asked for a few favors.”
“Ah… yes…”
At Yoo Jeong-ham’s words, which immediately followed Geum Seoul’s answer, Rini tilted her head slightly and glanced behind them. It seemed she was looking for someone, but after looking back and forth between the two for a moment, she soon walked beside Seoul. Comments followed, such as how she was surprised he suddenly disappeared yesterday, and how it had become quiet since the broadcast was off this morning. Normally, Rini wouldn’t come down from the second floor on auction days, but today her voice seemed somewhat excited.
However, for Geum Seoul, it was the same routine. He diligently entered the building and began preparing for the auction. It was a huge relief that the broadcast was off. In this heat, if he had stayed on the roof for a long time like yesterday, he might have collapsed and been unable to help Noki.
After finishing the first-floor cleaning and struggling to bring out the large fan, Geum Seoul changed his clothes. Instead of the clothes he was wearing when he collapsed, he took out the oldest [Read on Read BL Novels]long-sleeved shirt Read on Read BL Novelshe owned unauthorized copyand gathered all the fabrics from the clothesline that had dried quickly overnight. After folding them neatly and organizing them, he stepped down the stairs to the first floor.
“Geum Seoul, bring the gemstones.”
Park Gil-pyeong, who had just arrived and appeared for the first time in a while, walked out of the CEO’s office while buttoning his short-sleeved shirt. Seoul quickly went up to the second floor and picked up the palm-sized pouch that had been placed inside his room. He went straight into the first-floor CEO’s office and helped him place the gemstones one by one on the appraisal machine.
“Now, please come this way.”
It was Im Gyun-il’s voice. Park Gil-pyeong glanced toward the door where the guests were entering and tapped Seoul’s backside, signaling him to go. Despite the unpleasant touch, Geum Seoul, who only blinked silently, walked in that direction.
It was something he did every week. There were familiar guests and unfamiliar ones. In any case, their goal was to acquire new gemstones and sell old ones. Since regulations on private gemstone auctions had tightened, it was impossible to even attempt it online, and those who found their way to places like this fell into a few categories: those who had decent gemstones but no means to sell them, those who wanted to buy suitable gemstones at a low price, and very occasionally, those who wanted to buy an Omega instead of a gemstone. Everything was possible here.
Geum Seoul took deposits from the people who had just entered the auction house and helped them register as bidders. Sometimes, when he was busy, Bunhong-i would do it, but Bunhong-i seemed to have no intention of coming down from the second floor today.
It was a way of playing it safe against potential accidents. People had always found Jewel Omegas fascinating, but on top of that, the number of dangerous people had increased lately.
According to Bunhong, it was because the world was becoming increasingly vulgar. While pornography featuring Omegas or Alphas was quite common on the market, she said that a few years ago, videos specifically intended [visit our site]to abuse Jewel Omegas began popping up like mushrooms, establishing themselves as a new category of fetish. She mentioned that although it had existed for a long time, it had always been beneath the surface, but now it was becoming more mainstream and dangerous.
“Hmm. Long time no see?”
“…….”
Im Gyun-il, who had guided the guests into the building, spoke to Geum Seoul. This was rare. Im Gyun-il was of poor character; he mostly spoke to Bunhong or Rini, and it was common for him to pretend not to see Seoul, or at most, hurl curses if they did cross paths. Since they weren’t on greeting terms, Geum Seoul remained unresponsive. With a short snicker, Im Gyun-il simply turned around and walked out of the building.
Clatter.
“…Why?”
Seoul, who was placing a chain barrier at the entrance of the stairs leading to the second floor, looked up. Normally, Rini would be hiding so that not a single strand of hair was visible, but for some reason, she had come halfway down the stairs and was peeking her head out. He asked if she was looking for someone, but she shook her head.
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Then she disappeared back into the second floor. Geum Seoul finished securing the chain to the locking ring and turned around. This was to prevent accidents. Of course, while Park Gil-pyeong managed the guests in his own way, he knew that everyone here was a similar kind of human being. stolen contentIn fact, as long as they paid, he sold everyone off regardless of how long they had been there. The place was full of Omegas who had left in such a manner.
As the guests began to fill the first floor one by one, Park Gil-pyeong dragged the machine out of the CEO’s office and stood before one wall.
“Goodness, you’ve all come a long way in this heat. Now, everyone has their bidding numbers, right? Welcome. We have a lot of lots today.”
Hearing that much, Geum Seoul quietly stood up. The empty Credit account used for receiving deposits already had a number exceeding six digits. After placing the ledger with the bidding numbers side-by-side and covering it on the CEO’s desk, he crossed the chain barrier and headed up the stairs to the second floor.
Walking with light steps, Geum Seoul moved quickly through the corridor between the two doors, which remained tightly shut despite the heat. Sweat was already soaking into his back, but this was no time to be cautious. He climbed over window frames and walked. Occasionally, the poles wrapped in laundry lines, which he gripped instead of handles, were heated to a sear.
Tap. Tap.
Stepping carefully down the ladder, he spotted Yoo Jeong-ham standing on one side of the alley. Although he was wearing sunglasses and talking to someone else, Seoul knew he was keeping an eye on him.
‘Lee Hee-jung will run away if he sees a stranger, so we can’t step in directly. We need Mr. Geum Seoul.’
‘Yes.’
‘Could you first go to the house where we hid him before and see if he arrived there during the night?’
It had been Yoo Jeong-ham’s request. Even though it wasn’t much different from the errands the neighborhood people asked him to do, Geum Seoul ran diligently as if he possessed a special sense of mission. Since few people were in the alley while the auction was underway, he didn’t have to be wary of eyes. The soles of his feet grew hot, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
Rustle.
Weeds grew up to his waist, tickling his elbows, but Geum Seoul did not stop. Just as Yoo Jeong-ham had said, if Noki was still hiding nearby, today was the most likely time he would have come here. He had been told the time when people would be escorted down the mountain after the auction ended.
With no sign of anyone nearby, Seoul moved forward as if swimming, diligently parting the clumps of weeds with his hands. An abandoned house where the traces of people entering and exiting had long since vanished. When the small entrance came into view, his mouth popped open in a small circle.
“Noki?”
In a whisper. As he approached the iron door, his eyes widened into circles just like his mouth. The door was slightly open, and through that gap of less than three centimeters, he could see a black shadow flickering.
It was Noki.
He hadn’t seen the face properly, nor had they spent much time together, but Seoul sincerely hoped Lee Hee-jung would find his parents. To be wandering around an auction house like this despite having a mother and father was too sad. Moreover, if the police were searching for him, the happiest ending would be returning home as quickly as possible.
“Noki?”
Crunch.
A broken brick lay beneath the door like a stepping stone. As he stepped on it carefully with the tip of his foot and called out once more, the flickering shadow stopped. Geum Seoul cautiously pulled the door. The iron handle was also hot, heated by the sun.
Screech.
“…….”
The door was halfway open. However, the person inside was not Noki. That is, it wasn’t Lee Hee-jung. The man there, holding a pitch-black bottle and quenching his thirst with gulps while wiping away sweat, was…
“Oh. It really is you?”
It was Im Gyun-il. Flustered, Seoul recoiled, taking a step back. A large pebble caught under his foot and was kicked away.
Im Gyun-il was drunk. No matter how hard he tried to escape his impoverished fate, he always ended up in the same place, and he had become immune to repeated failures. On the day he blew through what little money he had and was kicked out of the house. While driving up early in the morning with alcohol loaded onto his tricycle, someone suddenly appeared from a clump of weeds and blocked his path.
‘What is this? An Omega?’
An Alpha scent, thick and clinging, was layered over the Omega Pheromone. Park Gil-pyeong, that fucking bastard. It smelled filthy. Frowning, Im Gyun-il scanned the scrawny man from head to toe.
‘Please… take me down. I have to go to my parents.’
Hearing the words spoken while trembling, Im Gyun-il immediately grasped the situation and let out a humming sound of calculation. The kid seemed to want to act pitiful, but there wasn’t a single person in this neighborhood without a tragic story. As if to see how the kid would play it, Im Gyun-il crossed his arms without even turning off the engine. Then, the man, who had only been shivering, suddenly let out a long breath and stood up straight.
‘…I’ll give you money. Let me ride in the back.’
‘Oh.’
He became more interested in the expression that suddenly shifted to “let’s just get to the deal,” as if the pitiful act had never happened. Grinning as if he was now willing to hear more, Im Gyun-il turned off the engine and stepped off the seat to move forward. In the deep blue of dawn, as Im Gyun-il approached with eyes glistening with greed, Lee Hee-jung spoke.
‘How much do you need?’
It was a quite sweet proposal.
“…Why are you here?”
After searching his memory for a moment, Im Gyun-il focused on Geum Seoul in front of him. After scanning the pathetic sight from top to bottom, he finished the bottle of alcohol.
“Looking for Lee Hee-jung?”
“…….”
“Or was it Noki?”
Seoul couldn’t fathom what was happening. In the surge of tension, Geum Seoul clenched his fists. In that gap, Im Gyun-il braced himself with his knees and stood up.
“That kid asked me to take him down, so I secretly gave him a ride that day.”
Seoul’s eyes wandered between the air and the ground a few times before landing on Im Gyun-il’s chest as he approached. The smell of alcohol. He took another step back.
“But the fucking brat said he’d pay me later.”
He needed money immediately. Since he had just come out right when his hand was starting to get hot, he felt like he only needed a little bit of seed money. But once they arrived at the destination, that fox-like brat had narrowed his eyes and said something like, ‘I need some time until I can exchange it for cash.’
“So I beat the shit out of him. What else was I supposed to do? I had to sell the gemstones or something.”
Im Gyun-il had always had a habit of stealing. He had been a problematic brat since he was young. When he lived in the village, he used to try and crawl into the building every dawn, clashing with Park Gil-pyeong, but it was a relief that for the past few years, he had been completely immersed in gambling and didn’t even look at the neighborhood.
As if providing evidence, Im Gyun-il pulled a handful of pale, murky green gemstones from his pocket. As he unauthorized copystolen contentEND: stolen content -->shook them lightly, they poured through his fingers. Clatter. The sound sent shivers down Seoul’s spine.
“Hey. But did you know?”
“…….”
“The house doesn’t handle these? Those bastards take houses and cars, but they insist on using an auction house for gemstones.”
Even so, there was no way a man with a fate of drifting from house to house and drinking alcohol would have proper connections; to sell the gemstones, he had to use Park Gil-pyeong’s help. That was when the first thing Lee Hee-jung had said came to mind.
‘How much do you need?’
‘Oh. You got some money, huh?’
‘But, I have to come back here later. Help me then, too.’
‘Later? Here?’
‘…I left something with the kid who runs errands here. To retrieve that.’
Im Gyun-il’s eyes narrowed.
“Seoul.”
“…….”
“What did that bastard give you? Money, or an object.”
In that gap, his pupils seemed to glow a sharp blue. He was desperate to escape this neighborhood, yet he said he had to come back. Hearing that he had returned that night, there was no way he had grown attached in the meantime; it was definitely a financial matter. Therefore, the gas money he couldn’t get from Lee Hee-jung had to be collected from Geum Seoul.
“I don’t have anything like that.”
Thud.
Geum Seoul took another step back. His heel stepped on a brick in front of the porch and slipped, nearly making him fall, but thanks to being grabbed firmly by the collar, he was able to find his footing again. However, that didn’t mean the situation had improved.
Im Gyun-il was emitting alpha pheromones. A rotten smell of half-dried blood and grease. A surge of nausea made his airway feel constricted.
“Im Gyun, il.”
“Yeah. Why?”
He gasped for air. He wanted to avoid smelling it at all costs, but because it seeped through his nose and skin, he couldn’t keep his senses. Geum Seoul shook his head and struggled. Despite the grip strength that made the veins stand out on the hand clutching him roughly, the collar would not loosen no matter how much he tried to push away.
“Ugh, kgh….”
“Tell me quickly where you put it before I beat you to a pulp and fuck you, you piece of shit.”
Unable to breathe due to the disgusting pheromones, Seoul dug his nails in and scratched the wrist. His throat was stuck, so he couldn’t speak; he on Read BL Novels">Read on Read BL Novelsonly mumbled things like ‘It wasn’t me. I don’t know’ while shaking his head. As the nausea grew, saliva pooled in his mouth and his abdomen heaved.
His vision spun. No. Taking one last deep breath, Geum Seoul clenched his teeth. His jaw locked tight. The suppressed feeling inside surged up. The moment his gaze sharpened.
Slam!
A powerful knee strike. A foot carrying all his weight stomped on Im Gyun-il’s instep.
“Let go!”
“Gah!”
Thump!
Instead of the grip loosening, his body was flung in front of the house. Im Gyun-il, who had tossed him away easily, huffed and stepped back a couple of paces, then, with poison in his eyes, gripped the recently emptied alcohol bottle upside down.
“You crazy bastard!”
Crack.
The glass bottle, smashed halfway by being slammed against the doorframe, glistened like a weapon, and alcohol dripped from its sharp edge.
“Really, it wasn’t—ugh—me.”
Geum Seoul’s body froze as he fumbled for the ground. He said it really wasn’t him, that he had received nothing from Lee Hee-jung. He shook his head slightly as he spoke. However, the huffing Im Gyun-il’s eyes were already half-turned. That bastard is hiding my money. That bastard stole my money. The pheromones creeping out continued to crawl up Geum Seoul’s body. He fumbled the ground with his hands.
“I’ll sell you off just like that whore brat, so just wait.”
With those words, the broken bottle was raised high. Geum Seoul raised his hands and turned his head to avoid it. He felt as if his racing heart would stop right then and there.
“Gasp!”
Im Gyun-il’s breath was suddenly snatched away.
Swish.
“I wondered what got caught, but it’s just a minnow?”
“What the fuck! Who is it!”
The voice heard this time was also smooth.
“You need at least a mullet to make sashimi.”
You fishy piece of shit. Along with the voice containing laughter, the pheromones cleared. Geum Seoul, who had been dry-heaving, opened his eyes, which he had been squeezing shut painfully.
“…….”
Despite the heat, the man looked very effortless. The movement of snatching Im Gyun-il’s hair—who was using all his strength, unauthorized copyintoxicated by alcohol and [Read on Read BL Novels]the desire for immediate money—and pulling it back so far that his jaw was completely tilted, was simple. It took only a moment for the pitch-black pupils to scan Geum Seoul, who was lying on the ground retching. He gripped Im Gyun-il’s thick wrist and, nonchalantly, truly nonchalantly, twisted the arm. Aaaagh! With a grotesque scream, the glass bottle fragment fell to the ground.
“Let go!”
Im Gyun-il also seemed flustered, his brow furrowing deeply. However, he couldn’t think for long. This was because a couple of men who had rushed in behind Guichang immediately pinned his limbs. Guichang, shaking off his hand, approached the still-terrified Geum Seoul.
“Get up. I saw you weren’t hurt.”
At the short words spoken while extending a hand, Geum Seoul couldn’t readily take it and only stared at the long fingertips. He doesn’t seem hurt. Is he crying? Just as Guichang was thinking that and slowly scanning him from face to ankle.
“…Yes. I’m not hurt.”
Instead of crying, Geum Seoul swallowed hard and stood up on his own without his help. Come to think of it, the last time he shed tears was when a lie was discovered; when he was hit or scared, he would beg for mercy, but he didn’t cry. He seemed to have more endurance than expected. Instead, as if feeling nauseous, he kept heaving his chest and covering his mouth.
The reason Guichang had been away from his post since morning was to re-examine the route Lee Hee-jung had taken, which he had been certain was already cleared. From the moment Lee Hee-jung entered this neighborhood until now, he had scanned the records of twenty surveillance cameras planted in the nearby hubs from the beginning. It was footage that team members had spent the night scanning two or three times.
Then, about thirty minutes ago, he discovered Im Gyun-il. In the recorded footage, Im Gyun-il was captured twice on the path coming from the neighboring town. 5:30 AM. And an hour later, at 6:30 AM. The reason he hadn’t been reported or filtered out until [Read on Read [unauthorized copy]BL Novels]now was that the back space of the tricycle he drove was visibly empty.
There were no traces of carrying a person, and the path from being kicked out of the house back to the house was clean. However, Guichang, who had played those two scenes simultaneously on the same screen to scan them, stood up while pointing at Im Gyun-il on the monitor.
‘Bring this bastard in.’
Guichang noted that the new alcohol bottle in the tricycle trunk remained as it was. For a guy like that to bring alcohol from outside into the neighborhood he lived in meant there was no other reason than to rest at home until he finished it all. However, the number of alcohol bottles loaded in the back remained the same. The reason a gambling addict would buy alcohol and not drink it, and return to the house he was kicked out of within an hour. Because he found a source of money. Guichang returned to the neighborhood after instructing his team members to inspect his vehicle.
‘Upon dismantling it, there is a cargo space behind the engine. It’s narrow, but a thin person could ride in it if they crouched.’
He tried to catch him immediately, but in the meantime, Im Gyun-il, who had finished moving all the guests, had disappeared from the alley. If he had received a large sum of money from Lee Hee-jung, there would be no need to come all the way here today to move guests and receive pennies. The fact that he came here meant he hadn’t received the money.
‘As for Geum Seoul.’
‘He should have just arrived at that house. The kids are stationed nearby.’
He hadn’t expected Lee Hee-jung to appear here from the start. Instead, he established another hypothesis. If Lee Hee-jung had hidden as Geum Seoul said, but couldn’t bear it for an hour and tried to leave [Read on Read BL Novels]the neighborhood alone. If he had luckily made a deal and received help to go down from this village, and mentioned Geum Seoul, who had hidden him, to the dealer. That someone would assume Geum Seoul had received compensation from Lee Hee-jung.
If so, wouldn’t he want to meet Geum Seoul? More accurately, since he had practically done everything, he would want to steal the money Geum Seoul might have received. Because the opponent was Geum Seoul, the lowest and most disposable person in this neighborhood. That was Guichang’s reasoning.
Of course, it would have been better if he had caught Im Gyun-il sooner, but as a result, Geum Seoul was not hurt. However.
“Please come with me.”
Yoo Jeong-ham took care of Geum Seoul and led him toward the alley. Guichang simply stood there with an unchanging expression, watching Seoul’s back slowly recede. A dirt-covered pebble fell from Geum Seoul’s hand.
Geum Seoul had performed his part excellently, and he had captured Im Gyun-il, who had smuggled out Lee Hee-jung. But he was trying to figure out why a faint surge of nausea was rising, and why his insides felt so scratchy, as if he had chewed on dog grass. Guichang opened his silver cigarette case.
Until now, Lee Hee-jung had been lucky. He would have to find out in the interrogation room how he met Im Gyun-il, but Lee Hee-jung left the neighborhood at 6:30, and he had entered here before 7:00, so they had missed each other by a very short gap of less than thirty minutes.
That wasn’t the reason for the irritation. He had witnessed countless exceptions, anomalies, and hypotheses more than enough while doing this job. Calculating and resolving those was Guichang’s current duty. A cigarette was placed between his lips.
“Hmm, but this is really fucking annoying, isn’t it?”
His pupils, black as if they had swallowed both hue and brightness, landed on the half-broken glass fragment rolling on the ground. And then, once more, they reached the round back of a head. The foul alpha pheromone brushing past the nose. Geum Seoul, who had been helplessly overwhelmed beneath it. Now, even in a deep breath, that sweet and refreshing green could not be found. The starting point of this unpleasantness being chewed inside him was…
“Is it him?”
Is a thing like that the cause? The man narrowed one eye and stared at Geum Seoul until the end.
Gwak Chun-young, the CEO of Iljang Trading, was a famous gemstone collector who gathered gemstones of various grades and kept them hidden and displayed in his home. Not stopping there, he also kept Jewel Omegas by his side, and the rumor that he especially cherished Lee Hee-jung was famous. And that very Lee Hee-jung had stabbed Gwak Chun-young in the back and run off with important documents. The ledger of transactions between No Pil-gyu and Gwak Chun-young.
Gwak Chun-young, who had been robbed, was also searching for Lee Hee-jung. Of course, even for someone as influential as Gwak Chun-young, his information power could not be equal to Guichang’s. Since he had first found and dealt with Lee Dae-chang, who had brought Lee Hee-jung to this neighborhood, he wouldn’t know for a while that he had come to this neighborhood, but it was only a matter of time before he found out. He, too, would soon visit the neighborhood and ransack it just as they had.
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