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Chapter 5
“Ha…”
“At the very least, you should guarantee the child’s right to education. She’s only five years old.”
Hee-yeon looked straight into his eyes.
“Fine. We’ll do that. But only if she attends under my supervision.”
“Alright. Then I’ll go clean now.”
“Ms. So Hee-yeon.”
“…Yes, sir.”
“Leave your phone.”
“Excuse me?”
“I need to make a clone phone. If your brother contacts you, I should know immediately.”
“…!”
Hee-yeon’s face darkened.
If he cloned her phone, she wouldn’t be able to hide her brother even if he contacted her. Her entire private life would be exposed to him.
“You must have expected that much when you came here.”
“Yes… I’ll give it to you.”
She handed over her phone and immediately ran upstairs.
There was a landline in his room.
She had seen it earlier.
Since it was his private room and not the living room, no one would be listening.
Hee-yeon hurried upstairs and called her aunt to inform her that her cellphone had been cloned.
After hanging up, she let out a long sigh.
The strength drained from her shoulders all at once. Housework wasn’t difficult.
But being assigned as a dedicated keeper—of all things.
She glanced around Seok-woo’s room. It smelled of expensive perfume and cosmetics. The stockings that had been on the floor earlier were nowhere to be seen.
“Seriously… He’s insane. How could my brother… take this man’s lover…”
She knew her brother was reckless, but this was staking his life on love.
What was he thinking?
Did he never consider the consequences?
His impulsive personality—acting first without thinking—had twisted his life over and over again, yet he could never fix it.
She sighed repeatedly.
Suddenly, she sensed someone’s presence. When she turned around, Seok-woo was leaning against the doorframe, watching her.
Her face twisted with visible discomfort.
“I’m cleaning.”
“Go ahead. Clean.”
“You need to leave.”
“Just ignore me and clean.”
He strode in confidently and sat on the sofa. Taking out a large tablet, he began reading something. It was so distracting she felt like she was going crazy.
He was clearly monitoring her.
Cloning her phone wasn’t enough for him.
Hee-yeon turned the vacuum cleaner to maximum power.
Vrrr— Vrrr—
The loud motor noise seemed to soothe her nerves a little.
You have a weakness in my hands too. A fact that mustn’t be known to the people here—that I’m a hostage.
For now, she was Seok-woo’s hostage. But she had also secured insurance to protect herself.
Why did he have to hide the fact that she was a hostage?
And why was he so desperate to find Pil-mo and that woman? Because of betrayal? Any woman would fall before a man like him—yet someone had trampled his pride.
What kind of woman would leave a man who looks like that… for my brother…?
Hee-yeon shook her head forcefully. She couldn’t focus on her work at all, and it irritated her.
Leaving Hee-yeon to clean, Seok-woo headed to the study. Out of habit, he poured himself a drink. Chief Joo approached.
“We found the boat. Judging by the amount of blood, he couldn’t have gone far…”
“Search discreetly. Bring him to me alive. No matter what.”
“Yes, sir.”
Seok-woo swallowed his drink. He thought of the stockings left in his room.
“The woman?”
“She’s been sent back to where she belongs.”
“She cried and begged, so I let her work a different job…”
It had been Ae-ri who left the stockings in his room. She had once been a debtor who sold her body. When she clung to him desperately, he allowed her to repay her debt through other work—but her true goal had been to become Seok-woo’s lover.
He felt disgusted by women who couldn’t be satisfied with their changed circumstances and threw themselves naked onto his bed.
“There are countless women who have a crush on you, sir.”
“I’m not into cheap tastes.”
Naturally, Hee-yeon came to mind. Unlike the women who usually surrounded him, her bare, makeup-free, innocent face was refreshing.
Especially her lips.
Her reddish lips, as if brushed with lipstick, flickered in his mind. Seok-woo took another drink.
His anger burned fiercely, like the eyes of a beast.
“Do you think he’ll contact her?”
“He will.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“A hunch.”
As Seok-woo lifted his empty glass, Chief Joo refilled it. He downed it in one go.
There was a knock, and that woman entered with snacks.
Despite being a hostage, she never seemed intimidated. She held her head high and set the snacks down beneath the table.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll go to sleep.”
“Sleep well.”
He deliberately spoke gently.
Immediately, her expression hardened with anger.
It seemed that not treating her like a hostage provoked her even more.
It was refreshing—so different from those who trembled before him.
Thud—
Watching her close the door behind her, Seok-woo chuckled.
Chief Joo shuddered as if he had seen a ghost.
That night,
Seok-woo drank more than usual. Pil-mo had stabbed him in the back and run, yet he found himself strangely calm.
At midnight, Seok-woo stepped out of his room.
A full moon hung high in the sky. A pleasantly cool breeze blew, and for no particular reason, he felt like walking through the garden.
Suddenly, a pretty voice reached his ears.
Clear and bright, like a bird chirping—it was that little one.
That woman’s daughter.
Without realizing it, he found himself drawn toward their window.
“Mommy lion, Daddy lion~~~ baby lion goes la-la~~~”
She was singing a children’s song he had probably heard at least once before. His lips curled up.
The child’s voice was incredibly cute. Perhaps because he rarely heard children.
“A single mother at only twenty-six… I wonder what kind of bastard the father is.”
The thought made him smile bitterly.
Now was hardly the time to be immersed in a child’s singing.
In one month, Chairman Cha would be released from detention.
If by then he failed to find his mistress Jung Se-ah and the USB, several lives would be lost.
Of course So Pil-mo—along with his family—would not be safe.
Those who couldn’t repay their debts and were left with nothing but their bodies always met an obvious end.
Seok-woo was no exception.
He put a cigarette between his lips. As he walked, smoking, he heard the singing again.
This time, the woman’s voice blended with the child’s.
The next day,
Seok-woo visited the Seoul Detention Center.
Chairman Cha Myung-hwan was the man who had taken in Seok-woo—a boy born in a red-light district to a mother who didn’t even know his father, living like trash.
He met him at fifteen.
Seok-woo had served him like a stepfather and built the company alongside him. What started as a loan-sharking operation in the back alleys became the top firm in the secondary finance sector, thanks to Seok-woo’s brains and Cha Myung-hwan’s money.
Though they had left the gangster life behind, whenever something illegal was required, they never hesitated to mobilize underground organizations.
Chairman Cha frowned when he saw Seok-woo alone.
“Where’s Se-ah?”
“The swelling in her face hasn’t gone down yet.”
“Another cosmetic procedure? She’s pretty enough already. Anyway.”
There was a convenient excuse to hide his mistress, Se-ah. Fortunately—or unfortunately—she was addicted to cosmetic treatments.
Seok-woo handed him some documents.
“These are the approvals for this week.”
“As expected, you handle everything smoothly. I really picked the right man. Thanks to you, we’ve become a proper businessman.”
“It’s all your achievement, Chairman.”
Chairman Cha was an absolute powerhouse in that world. He had the power to make a person disappear without a trace.
If he found out that his mistress had run away with one of Seok-woo’s subordinates, even Seok-woo wouldn’t escape unscathed.
“I like that about you—you read situations well. I feel like you’d never betray me.”
“My life belongs to you, Chairman.”
“Yes, yes.”
The chairman had always shown unusual affection toward his mistress Se-ah. That was why he had entrusted Seok-woo with even his dirty secrets.
Though he reported calmly, Seok-woo’s insides were boiling.
After the visitation ended, Seok-woo quietly withdrew, making sure the chairman was in good spirits. Chief Joo offered him a cigarette.
“It’s a godsend that Jung Se-ah is addicted to cosmetic procedures.”
“Feels like heaven’s helping us.”
“We must be careful not to let the chairman catch on.”
“Yes, sir.”
Seok-woo ran a hand through his hair.
Even if they hide, they’ll end up in my hands anyway.
