By Zephyria 
“Argh, damn it! Agh… Damn it! Kwon Rae-i. I’m going to kill you today.”
“Look. He’s doing it again. He only says he’s going to kill me every time, but he can’t.”
Kwon Sang-oh, who had fallen, hurriedly got up and groped for the golf club, grabbing it with both hands. He was so angry that he ran at Kwon Rae-i with the intention of really killing him. He was lucky enough to dodge the first hit, but if they got into a proper fight, the one with the weapon would have the advantage, no matter who was watching. Moreover, with something like a golf club, it was inevitable that he would be hit with his bare hands from a distance.
The future where Kwon Rae-i would be brutally beaten was immediately drawn in his head.
Tae-hwon shot up.
Rather than him getting hurt, I would rather…!
The moment he thought that.
Kwon Rae-i reached into his suit jacket and took something out.
A gun.
It was an actual gun.
At first, he doubted his eyes, thinking it might be a model, but he was soon forced to confirm that it was real.
“Hyung. Say hello to my father for me.”
A gunshot that tore through his eardrums.
The bullet hit Kwon Sang-oh’s chest accurately.
Red blood splattered, covering the messy floor. The shocking sight of flesh being pierced and the body being destroyed was vividly unfolding before his eyes. Kwon Sang-oh, whose heart had been pierced, slowly fell forward and collapsed with his face planted on the ground. There was a thud, but it was hard to hear with his ears muffled by the gunshot.
And the world turned black and white.
As if turning the TV channel, his vision darkened, and the colorful colors disappeared, and he could only see white and black. Kwon Sang-oh, who had dropped the golf club and collapsed without even moving, Kwon Rae-i, who was indifferently dropping the gun he had shot him with, and even the bloodstains that had splattered on his face were all seen only in black and white shades.
A high-pitched ringing deafened his mind, and his feet spun around. Then, slowly, his vision brightened again. The saturation increased, and the world regained its color and returned to normal.
Even looking at it again, it was a shocking sight.
Blood was flowing out of Kwon Sang-oh’s back, creating a puddle on the floor, and Kwon Rae-i shot him in the torso once more as if to confirm his death. There was not even a reaction on the corpse even after being shot. It didn’t even twitch and remained still. Kwon Sang-oh was really dead. Just like that. In front of Tae-hwon’s eyes. By Kwon Rae-i’s hand…
“……”
Tae-hwon, who had been standing on the glass railing as if he was about to jump out at any moment, froze. Kwon Rae-i had been unilaterally assaulted until just now, and he had only been thinking about protecting him, but… Where did the gun come from?
‘Did he take it out of the safe?’
Not only the key, but even the gun… Was that what happened?
And Kwon Rae-i was trying to show this sight to Woo Tae-hwon?
Murdering, himself, to Tae-hwon… To Woo Tae-hwon, who had no memories?
“Stupid Kwon Sang-oh. He didn’t even know he was being used as bait.”
Kwon Rae-i muttered quietly and put the gun in his suit jacket pocket. Then he approached the fallen Kwon Sang-oh, squatted down, and turned the corpse over. He was dead with his eyes open and his face contorted. Tae-hwon felt nauseous at the sight of his distorted face. Few people could be sane even after seeing a human corpse for the first time.
However, Kwon Rae-i was only indifferent, unlike Tae-hwon. He rummaged through Kwon Sang-oh’s pockets. I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know what he’s thinking even more. Then Kwon Rae-i found his smartphone in his pocket and took it out.
‘A cell phone…?’
Click.
It’s a photo. Kwon Rae-i took a picture of Kwon Sang-oh’s corpse with Kwon Sang-oh’s smartphone, and then he took it as it was… Holding the phone, he looked at the address book…
‘Could it be. Is he sending the picture?’
Tae-hwon’s guess was correct. Kwon Rae-i sent Kwon Sang-oh’s picture to someone with a nonchalant look, then looked up at Tae-hwon, who was restrained on the third floor, and smiled.
“Tae-hwon, I’m sorry. You must have been surprised.”
“…Young Master.”
“Ha, what’s wrong with our Tae-hwon’s expression? Your face is so pale… I want to go up and hug you tight quickly. I’ll hug you and comfort you all day long. Just wait a little longer.”
Tae-hwon was stunned by the affectionate and worried words. He was blankly frozen, then suddenly came to his senses and poured out urgent words to him.
“What, what are you doing? What’s going on right now? Is Kwon Sang-oh Young Master dead? Who did you send the picture to? Are you, Rae, Rae-i Young Master, okay?”
He gripped the railing with all his strength. He was just standing here and watching, but his whole body felt like it was breaking and shattering. He felt like he was going to lose his mind from the shock that hadn’t subsided, the worry for the future, and the concern for Kwon Rae-i. To be honest, he wasn’t in his right mind even now.
“It’s okay.”
Kwon Rae-i watched Tae-hwon, who was out of his mind, with a pitiful and loving gaze. His white and clear face was covered in red blood, but his eyes seemed unwavering and unchanged. He was pouring out his passion for Tae-hwon and was fanatically absorbed in him.
“The picture will be seen soon, and I’ll get a call. Then… Ah, it’s already here.”
Suddenly, a loud ringtone was heard. Kwon Rae-i smiled brightly and showed Tae-hwon the screen of Kwon Sang-oh’s smartphone. Tae-hwon was just stunned.
A call?
A call?
What call?
“Yo… Young Master.”
Tae-hwon instinctively shook his head. He couldn’t let Kwon Rae-i answer that phone.
“Just a moment. Please wait. Just a second.”
Even knowing he was tied up, Tae-hwon exerted meaningless force, trying to get down to the first floor, to the living room where everything had happened, to Kwon Rae-i. The bound Ankle shackles felt like they would sever his ankles, but he barely felt the pain. If he could, Tae-hwon would have cut off his legs to get to Kwon Rae-i.
But regardless of Tae-hwon’s will, Kwon Rae-i moved as he had decided. Kwon Rae-i touched the smartphone screen to answer the call, and this action led to a more serious situation than Tae-hwon had feared.
Because the caller was none other than Kwon Tae-oh.
“Yes, Tae-oh hyung. Did you see the picture?”
Kwon Tae-oh. Chairman Kwon Jung-il’s eldest son. The firstborn.
As the eldest, he was ten years older than Kwon Rae-i, meaning he was the same age as Tae-hwon. When Tae-hwon entered Gyeongjeong, he was already an adult, a pillar of Gyeongjeong and a strong candidate for the next successor. He was known to be cold and calculating, making no major mistakes and handling matters carefully, so there was hope that he would be a suitable chairman.
-……Rae-i? Sang-oh. ……Did you kill him?
“As you can see. Isn’t this the picture you wanted?”
-…….
“Ah, were you waiting for Hyeon-oh hyung to make a move? I’ve disposed of the bait to catch a big fish, so what should I do?”
-Kwon Rae-i. What are you thinking? You were the one who first proposed to leave this world, cut ties with Gyeongjeong, and get out.
“The situation has changed.”
Kwon Rae-i stared intently at Tae-hwon. His sinister gaze was chilling. Tae-hwon was going crazy with impatience and anxiety.
His breathing became unstable, and his whole body trembled slightly. The stench of blood permeated the air.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to call off the previous agreement.”
-What?
“I should become the next chairman. I’ll take care of Kwon Sang-oh’s body, so don’t worry about it.”
-Kwon Rae-i. Kwon Rae-i!
“Then.”
Click. Kwon Rae-i ended the call after saying only what he wanted to say.
Everything felt like a dream.
Woo Tae-hwon didn’t yet properly understand what he had just done, how the situation was unfolding.
The lost decade weighed heavily on Tae-hwon. Completely crushing and suffocating him.
Woo Tae-hwon was truly ignorant. Even when Kwon Rae-i held onto Tae-hwon and said things like “cute” and “squishy” all the time, he just let it pass. He didn’t try to understand the implications behind those words.
At first, he only thought of him as his young and innocent ten-year-old master, and later, he was too busy dealing with the overwhelming affection that Kwon Rae-i poured out. He had been too focused on Kwon Rae-i’s emotions. But the real twenty-year-old Kwon Rae-i was still full of things Tae-hwon didn’t know.
The boy who was afraid of water could now swim gracefully, and the child who hated studying had become a voracious reader. Then. If Gyeongjeong was such a terrifying den, he should have considered how Kwon Rae-i, who had grown up with his roots there, would have developed.
At least he should have thought about what happened to Kwon Rae-i, who was left alone in the Separate House after Tae-hwon, his only protector, left to work directly under the chairman.
Perhaps he had deliberately avoided thinking about it. Even after seeing the dragon tattoo that covered his entire back, Tae-hwon hadn’t asked him anything.