#223

Seon-jae’s prediction came true.

Lee Seok-doo was released after only three days in custody. Despite attempting to leave for Japan on the morning of his arrest, he returned home on bail, deemed not a flight risk. News followed that the investigation would continue without detention.

Around 3 PM on the day Lee Seok-doo was detained, Detective Park Dong-Hee, who had been resting in a corner of the detention center, was taken to the emergency room after being brutally beaten by a group; he died two days later. From that day on, suspicious individuals increased around Seon-jae. In return, Il-gwang’s hunting dogs, who had been tailing Man, disappeared completely.

Seon-jae immediately realized that Lee Seok-doo had changed his plans.

Now, Seon-jae was the target.

It was actually a good thing.

Still, just in case, he left the shadow monitoring Man’s every move in place. The detective assigned by Prosecutor Baek Gyu-ri also continued to circle around Man. As the neighborhood was small, strange rumors began to circulate, but the man silently continued his work, ignoring the men who were following him.

With a light heart, Seon-jae dedicated himself to his company work. He stayed [Read [Read on Read BL Novels]style="font-size:0;position:absolute;left:-9999px;">[stolen content]on Read BL Novels]at the office until late, not wanting to go home where the man was, and slept in a hotel near the Dongbang Construction headquarters.

“Operation?”

A text message arrived.

“Initiate.”

Seon-jae sent a reply.

The D-day agreed upon with Mr. Kim was the very day Lee Seok-doo was released.

As soon as Lee Seok-doo was released from the detention center, he summoned his lawyers and closest aides to his home for a meeting. After a long meeting lasting over four hours, the closest aides didn’t return to their own homes but instead crawled down to the floor below.

Executives with an average age of 43.7 years were suddenly forced into a group stay. It was a situation that was both laughable and unavoidable, as all the underlings they treated like limbs had been arrested. Of course, it wasn’t as if there were no thugs at all; the boys sent by the Double-Woong Faction were standing guard over the esteemed executives. Also for surveillance.

The only executive excluded from the group stay was Choi Dong-jik. With three of the four thugs guarding Lee Seok-doo arrested, the remaining thug and Choi Dong-jik had to take their place. He was the only [[stolen content]style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">visit our site]executive who maintained skills comparable to those of an active member, so he was a target of vigilance in this operation.

In any case, the structure of the luxury villa where Lee Seok-doo’s home was located was as follows.

The villa was a complex of five buildings, and Lee Seok-doo resided in Building 3. The complex was designed so that residents rarely encountered each other, with two main roads and entrances leading out.

Each building also had two elevators; the residents of the 2nd and 3rd floors shared one, and the residents of the 4th and 5th floors shared the other. So, in Lee Seok-doo’s case, he used an elevator all to himself.

At the time when Lee Seok-doo was in the midst of a meeting with his staff, a moving truck and a sedan entered the complex through one of the main roads.

The truck stopped in front of Building 4, and the sedan following behind parked in the residents’ parking lot. A female real estate agent, who was acquainted with the security guard of Building 4, got out of the sedan. The two chatted, exchanging various remarks.

“Is it okay to unload the moving stuff in the afternoon? Our President is usually a very picky person, so he wants it unloaded in front of him.”

The real estate agent said with a troubled expression.

“Of course. There’s no problem with traffic at all, so don’t worry.”

“Thank you. I live thanks to you, Mister.”

The real estate agent joked.

The security guard and the real estate agent talked for about ten more minutes before parting ways.

“Oh, by the way, our President said he’s sending rice cakes and drinks to the neighbors around 4 PM? Please don’t refuse and make sure to have some. It’s from the most delicious rice cake shop I’ve ever tasted. I’ll give you plenty, so take some home too.”

The real estate agent said earnestly as she got into the sedan. She didn’t forget to hand over a business card with the name of the rice cake shop written on it.

The security guard happily saw off the real estate agent’s sedan. Then, he radioed the security guard at the west main gate about the moving truck and also informed him of the name of the rice cake shop that would be coming in the afternoon. He told the same story to the security guard at the south main gate, just in case they might stop them.

Soon, two men who appeared to be employees got out of the moving truck. They politely greeted the security guard and then walked out of the complex.

And at exactly 4 PM, a van wrapped with the name of the rice cake shop entered the complex.

The security guard of Building 4 greeted the rice cake shop vehicle with a smile. A middle-aged woman and a young man, who appeared to be employees, went around to each building, placing luxurious paper bags containing rice cakes, sweet rice drinks, and wine bottles in front of each front door.

The security guards of each building also received three of the same bags. The security guards, who had received not only plenty of sweet rice drinks but also seemingly expensive wine as gifts, chatted over the radio and ate the rice cakes they had received. They were all quite hungry, so they ate very deliciously. The security guard of Building 3, where Lee Seok-doo lived, was one of them.

The thug standing guard in front of Lee Seok-doo’s house also received a moving gift. Choi Dong-jik was inside the house with Lee Seok-doo, and the thug was standing outside the house like a gatekeeper, so he was hungry.

In particular, the lawyers and executives who had gathered for the meeting were ordering delicious food just for themselves. The Double-Woong Faction boys seemed to have ordered food from a Chinese restaurant, but the thug, who was the one who really needed to eat something delicious, only received a cold lunch box.

Since the President would never eat food given by others anyway, the thug nonchalantly took out the rice cakes and sweet rice drink and ate them. It was one of the most delicious rice cakes the thug had ever eaten. Patting his full stomach, the thug set aside the bag containing the wine bottle to take home later.

It was 30 minutes later that all the security guards in the complex, including the ones guarding the two main gates, fell asleep. The thug who had been standing guard at Lee Seok-doo’s door was also fast asleep.

At the time they fell asleep, men wearing the same security guard uniforms took their places at the guard posts, replacing the sleeping security guards so that the residents would not be inconvenienced.

It was right after that that the cargo hold of the moving center truck was opened. Four men wearing vests with the company name visit our siteprominently displayed unloaded a large box, big enough for a grown man to fit inside, along [unauthorized copyclass="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">Read on Read BL Novels]with a wheeled cart from inside the truck. The place they headed with the cart was not Building 4, but Building 3.

At 4:40 PM, the elevator in Building 3 arrived on the 5th floor. Normally, there should have been a sound, but there were no notification sounds or announcements coming from the elevator. The two men who had boarded the elevator with the box took the cart to the wide front door. They carefully placed the thug, who had fallen asleep leaning against the door, into the box they had brought, locked it, and then moved it back to the elevator.

Only the box went down, and the two moving center employees who had come up with it remained on the 5th floor, in that spot.

The box would be moved back to the truck by the other two employees who were standing guard on the 1st floor. The elevator came back up. The door opened, and only the box was sitting on the same cart that had been sent down earlier. As if they had been waiting, the two men moved it to the wide front door and closed the elevator door.

A message briefly appeared on the elevator display panel saying “Under Maintenance” before disappearing.

Only then did one of the men take off his mask and hat. It was Lee Seon-jae. He was wearing a stab-proof vest, making his upper body thicker than usual, but he didn’t feel clumsy at all.

Seon-jae opened the box and took out a suit jacket. The small and thin man next to Seon-jae, namely Mr. Kim, silently moved behind the front door with the moving center vest and ball cap that Seon-jae had taken off.

From now on, Seon-jae had to face Choi Dong-jik and Lee Seok-doo alone.

Seon-jae’s plan was to be swift and decisive.

Ring the bell. The housekeeper was out at the market, so Choi Dong-jik would definitely come out. The moment he came out, Seon-jae would immediately rush in and stab him with the knife. Cut his throat before he could even make a sound.

Then, Seon-jae would find Lee Seok-doo, his Uncle and adoptive Father.

Mr. Kim would immediately load Choi Dong-jik’s body into the box. This time, the box was carefully wrapped in plastic to prevent blood from leaking out. The box would go down to the 1st floor in the elevator as before, and the employees waiting there would load it into the moving truck.

Lee Seok-doo was currently alone in his study. Seon-jae’s ultimate goal was to lure Lee Seok-doo out and into the elevator.

Of course, he had also considered the possibility of things going wrong.

The worst-case scenario of Lee Seon-jae being defeated by Choi Dong-jik was an exception, as Mr. Kim would take care of it. He had to prepare for the possibility of Choi Dong-jik not dying and screaming. In that case, the Double-Woong Faction guys staying with the executives on the 4th floor would rush upstairs en masse. The entrance to the 4th floor had been blocked off in preparation for this, but it wouldn’t last long.

Before they could break down the door and come upstairs, Seon-jae had to deal with Choi Dong-jik as quickly as possible and escape. If that wasn’t possible, Mr. Kim would help Seon-jae, and if even that was difficult, Seon-jae’s Kim, Lee, Park and Mr. Kim’s subordinates would intervene.

Well, from then on, it would be a dogfight.

To prevent such a thing from happening, Seon-jae had practiced to the point of nausea for over a month. He had assumed all sorts of adverse conditions, built up his stamina, and learned and mastered how to use a knife from Mr. Kim.

Mr. Kim had also made thorough preparations. He had thoroughly analyzed the villa’s communication facilities in order to neutralize the emergency bell, wired and wireless telephones, and CCTV within the complex that Lee Seok-doo had created to communicate with the 4th floor.

Now it was time to reap the rewards of their efforts.

He absolutely had to do well. No matter what, he had to do well.

Seon-jae took a deep breath and straightened his clothes. He combed the hair pressed down by the hat back with his fingers and slapped both cheeks with his hands.

Huff, after taking a deep breath, he finally pressed the doorbell.

He wondered what kind of expression Choi Dong-jik, who was looking at Seon-jae through the intercom screen, would be making.

Seon-jae smiled and waved at the camera on the doorbell.

He deliberately didn’t make a sound.

Whether to inform Lee Seok-doo of Seon-jae’s visit and open the door, or to open the door first, was entirely up to Choi Dong-jik’s decision. Whatever it was, Seon-jae was fully prepared.

He took out the knife he had placed next to his specially made pants and held it in his hand. The leather sheath was hidden inside the pants like a pocket, making it easy to insert and remove the knife. It also prevented injury.

The knife was short. It was a special knife with the blade facing inward. It was a knife used when delicate work was needed, such as peeling fruit or carving vegetables, and was called a turning knife, carving knife, or chateau knife.

Of course, it only resembled those in shape; the tip of the knife was much sharper, and the blade facing inward was also deeper than that of a normal carving knife. As it was small enough to be hidden in Seon-jae’s large hand, the handle was treated so that it would not slip even when held with bare hands.

Seon-jae hid the knife in his right hand and waited for Choi Dong-jik’s decision.

Choi Dong-jik, who had always looked down on Seon-jae, opened the front door without reporting to his Uncle.

As soon as he sensed that the door was about to open, Mr. Kim made a phone call [Read on Read BL Novelsclass="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">visit our siteRead on Read BL Novelsition:absolute;left:-9999px;">]somewhere. Of course, no conversation took place.

From now on, all communication facilities inside Building 3, including CCTV, would be blocked for 5 minutes.

Exactly 5 minutes. That was the time given to Seon-jae.

“Long time no see, Director Choi.”

Seon-jae greeted him with a smiling face.

Choi Dong-jik was holding a sashimi knife in his right hand, which Seon-jae glanced down at.

“Wow, Lee Seon-jae. What brings you here?”

Choi Dong-jik smiled bitterly and tightened his grip on his right hand.

But before he could even finish his sentence, he grabbed his neck with both hands. The center of Choi Dong-jik’s occipital region was split open by the knife [stolen content]aria-label="unauthorized copy">unauthorized copythat Seon-jae had drawn. Blood gushed out like a fountain from the gap that had opened.

“Never let your guard down.”

Seon-jae grabbed the lapel of Choi Dong-jik’s jacket, who was glaring with bulging eyes, and this time stabbed him under his ear. The round tip of the blade went under his ear, pierced through his skin, and protruded out.

Seon-jae lightly pulled out the blade as if removing a thorn.

The blood that Choi Dong-jik spurted out soaked Seon-jae’s entire body, including his face.

Was there this much blood in a person’s body?

Lee Seon-jae, with a renewed sense of purpose, wiped the blade on Choi Dong-jik’s expensive suit. Life drained from Choi Dong-jik’s wide eyes as he slowly collapsed. Only when he was completely slumped on the floor did Seon-jae release the lapel he had been holding.

The stench of blood was more repulsive than he had anticipated.

Normally, he would have been excited, but now Seon-jae was colder in both stolen contenthead and heart than ever before.

The lower floor remained quiet.

Kim Bae-dal was standing behind Seon-jae before he knew it. Seon-jae gave him a slight nod and wiped the blood from his face with his forearm.

The rustling of plastic was followed by the dull thud of a body being loaded into a box. Of course, the sound was so small and cautious that one had to strain to hear it. Seon-jae wondered how that small man could handle such a large body so effortlessly, but he didn’t turn around.

A moment later, the elevator moved. Choi Dong-jik’s body was descending.

Only then did Seon-jae stride inside.

“Director Choi? Who is it?”

Lee Seok-doo’s shout came from inside the study.

“It’s me. Seon-jae.”

Seon-jae answered instead.

Uncle, who should have rushed out as soon as he heard Seon-jae’s voice, remained silent. He was probably busy pressing the emergency bell, which likely didn’t even work. But even for that, it was taking quite a while.

Was he preparing a weapon like Choi Dong-jik?

Just as Seon-jae was about to reach for the doorknob, the study door burst open, and Lee Seok-doo finally appeared.

In Lee Seok-doo’s hand was a long sword, the kind used by samurai. He must have been late because he was grabbing that. The blade was so sharply honed that it was almost blinding.

Seon-jae stood face to face with Lee Seok-doo.

Lee Seok-doo, Uncle, his adoptive Father.

“It’s been a while, Father.”

Seon-jae greeted him, reeking of blood.

Lee Seok-doo stared in shock at the blood-soaked Seon-jae and then repeatedly glanced behind him. Realizing there was nothing on the blood-stained marble floor, his eyes widened. The flesh of his cheeks trembled slightly. It was impossible to tell whether it was fear or excitement.

“Let’s go together.”

His voice was low and soft, like a whisper.

Then Lee Seok-doo swung the sword. Fortunately, Seon-jae was quicker to step back. It was a close call.

His jacket was torn and tattered by the blade. But Seon-jae kept his eyes fixed on Lee Seok-doo. He glared with fierce eyes.

“If you come quietly, nothing will happen.”

He lied without a hint of concern.

Lee Seok-doo swung the long sword again, but he almost tripped over himself, let alone threatening Seon-jae. The mighty Lee Seok-doo seemed nervous.

“Seeing blood isn’t as great as I thought. How did you put up with this your whole life?”

He spoke casually.

“You have a strong stomach.”

He smirked, raising the corner of his mouth.

At that, Lee Seok-doo glared at Seon-jae as if to kill him.

“How dare you!”

It was the first sound his vocal cords had produced.

Seon-jae had been wondering when that ‘how dare you’ would come out. Every time he heard it, he found it incredibly unpleasant. He thought it was the worst word to look down on someone. It was nothing but arrogance.

“Lead the way.”

Seon-jae gestured towards the entrance as if escorting him.

Lee Seok-doo looked at the entrance with a bewildered expression. He had pressed the emergency bell, so his men should have been swarming in by now. But there wasn’t a single rat in sight.

“What kind of madness made you hire a fixer?”

Lee Seok-doo asked in a trembling voice.

He believed that it was a fixer hired by Seon-jae, not Seon-jae himself, who had dealt with Choi Dong-jik.

It was understandable. The Lee Seon-jae that Lee Seok-doo knew was a dandy who could barely take care of unauthorized copyvisit our sitecopy -->class="wm-strong" style="position:relative;display:inline;">[stolen content]himself but thought he was quite something. The reason Choi Dong-jik was easily defeated by Seon-jae was also due to this prejudice.

Frankly, even Seon-jae himself couldn’t have imagined that he could handle Choi Dong-jik directly, so how could they?

Seon-jae simply shrugged.

Lee Seok-doo, rolling his eyes to figure out Seon-jae’s intentions, began to walk, tightening his grip on the long sword. He was wary of his surroundings, as if he would swing the sword at any moment.

When he reached the front door, where Choi Dong-jik’s blood had pooled, Lee Seok-doo groaned.

“Don’t worry. He went in one go, without pain.”

Seon-jae said magnanimously.

“I told him to be so careful.”

Lee Seok-doo lamented. He was truly grieved.

He was a man he cherished more than his own son, Lee Hyun-joon, or his adopted son, Lee Seon-jae. Choi Dong-jik’s death did not simply mean the loss of Lee Seok-doo’s right-hand man. He was also the future of Il-gwang. He was the only person who could overthrow Lee Seok-doo and take his place.

“Let’s go.”

Seon-jae urged.

Lee Seok-doo deliberately stepped on Choi Dong-jik’s blood. Lee Seok-doo’s white socks were soon stained red with blood.

“What do you want?”

Lee Seok-doo asked.

“I wonder. Freedom?”

Lee Seok-doo scoffed at Seon-jae’s words.

“What nonsense are you talking about when you’re already free!”

“Am I free?”

He asked seriously.

Lee Seok-doo frowned and clicked his tongue.

Seon-jae gestured for Lee Seok-doo to walk on. Then Lee Seok-doo took reluctant steps, leaving bloody footprints.

An eerily quiet silence enveloped the building.

“You know the prosecutors and police are watching me, right?”

“Of course. The elevator.”

At Seon-jae’s words, Lee Seok-doo passed the wide entrance hall and pressed the elevator down button.

The doors opened silently.

At that moment, Seon-jae threw himself at Lee Seok-doo with all his might. It was truly instantaneous.

Lee Seok-doo, pushed unexpectedly, was sucked into the elevator without being able to resist. And at the same time, he plunged downwards. Lee Seok-doo fell, along with the sound of something heavy hitting the elevator cables. He didn’t remember if he screamed or not. He was just doing everything he could to avoid dying with him.

Seon-jae barely managed to hold onto the wall with both arms. His right leg was dangling in the air.

Haa, haa, haa. He gasped for breath.

Where the elevator floor should have been, there was only deep darkness.

A few seconds later, a large, heavy sound traveled up through the elevator shaft. Very unauthorized copyfaintly, visit our [Read on Read BL Novels]sitethere was a clatter as a sword fell. It was hard to tell which came first.

It was all over.

He had cut the chain of bad blood with his own hands.

As soon as he had that thought, his internal organs twisted. Nausea surged.

But there was no time to wallow in sentimentality. Kim Bae-dal, who had appeared before he knew it, kicked Seon-jae and urged him to move quickly.

Seon-jae barely managed to get up and quickly ran down the stairs. Kim Bae-dal would take care of the rest. Mr. Kim, dressed as a moving company employee, who had been blocking the door on the fourth floor, started running as soon as he saw Seon-jae. Men in the same uniform were standing guard on the third and second floors, and they all moved together.

Mr. Lee, who was sitting in the security office on the first floor, watched them with a sleepy expression.

Just as he was about to leave the entrance, he ran into the housekeeper who had been out grocery shopping. Seon-jae stopped, and the men following him stopped as well.

The housekeeper, recognizing Seon-jae, smiled.

“Is it over?”

The live-in housekeeper, who had been friends with his Aunt and wanted her to live more than anyone else, the one called Mrs. Kang-won, asked calmly.

“Yes. But the entrance is a mess.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll clean it up nicely.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. Oh, and the missing person report.”

“I know. Do you think I can’t even remember that?”

Mrs. Kang-won said in a tone that told him not to worry.

There was no more time to hesitate, so Seon-jae nodded and quickly left the entrance. Mr. Kim handed Seon-jae a vest and a ball [[stolen content]class="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">visit stolen contentour site]cap. Seon-jae took off his torn jacket, held it in his hand, put on the vest, and wore the ball cap.

Three of the four walked to the moving truck. Mr. Kim joined the man guarding the door of the cargo hold, and Seon-jae got into the passenger seat of the truck.

A moment later, two men pulling a cart loaded with a large box walked out of the entrance of Building 3. They showed no signs of hurrying.

Mr. Kim got into the cargo hold with the box, and Kim Bae-dal locked the door and sat in the driver’s seat.

“All right!”

One of Kim Bae-dal’s colleagues shouted at the truck, which was loaded with all the luggage.

The truck leisurely left Building 4 and exited through one of the main entrances. The guard who was guarding the entrance saluted the truck.

Neither Seon-jae nor Kim Bae-dal spoke. They simply pulled their hats down low and moved the car along the pre-arranged route. After enough time had passed, Seon-jae had Kim Bae-dal stop the car.

Seon-jae got out of the truck in a hurry and vomited up everything inside him.

* * *

It was a full day later that a missing person report for Lee Seok-doo was filed at the police station.

The reporter was Lee Seok-doo’s housekeeper, who reported that ‘the Chairman went out for a walk and has been out of contact ever since.’

The guards remained silent about what had happened that day. They would be fired if they were caught dozing off or sleeping during work hours, so they all acted as if nothing had happened. Frankly, they didn’t even know what had happened to them.

They had all eaten the rice cakes and sweet rice drink they had received as a moving-in gift, and they had fallen asleep for about an hour as if they had lost consciousness. When they woke up, their heads were heavier than usual, but it was difficult to notice anything particularly strange. Someone said that their arm felt a little tingly, but they thought they had been bitten by a bug.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same as usual.

They were required to record the time and purpose of any calls received from residents in a notebook, but in the case of the Building 4 guard, he noticed that the contents were written in someone else’s handwriting. It was a ghostly matter, but he didn’t tell anyone.

The Building 5 guard received a compliment from a resident who said, ‘Please [Read on Read BL Novels]on Read BL Novels -->tell them I enjoyed the sweet rice drink and rice cakes. They were really delicious.’

As if by agreement, the guards did not take the additional moving-in gifts home.

* * *

Dr. Choi, Choi In-ho, and his wife, Kim Na-yeon, were found dead at their home by the live-in housekeeper at approximately 1:59 a.m. on November 30. According to those involved, it is presumed that the husband, who had been suffering from severe depression, first took a deadly poison and committed suicide, and then his wife, who returned home late from an outing, followed her husband and hanged herself. Their death was reported in the obituary section of a famous weekly magazine.

224 – Chapter Title Without Number