By the time Lee Hyeonseok headed to the reception room to see the person who had supposedly taken the precious trouble to come all the way here to see him, it had already been 30 minutes since the visitor arrived. However, Secretary Cha couldn’t rush Lee Hyeonseok, who had been observing Seo Jiwoo for quite a while after subduing Cheon Jaekyung. While Seo Jiwoo perceived Secretary Cha as someone whose perceptiveness was burnt to ashes, in truth he was a very competent secretary and someone who knew how to value his life.
“These are missing?”
“I apologize, I’ll have them replaced right away.”
Lee Hyeonseok, who had been checking his phone while watching the CCTV footage, muttered as if finding it quite interesting. This was because the only report that came from the guards who had retreated from the room after injuring Seo Jiwoo was ‘Jiwoo-nim threw and broke his phone.’ If they had reported their mistake first, they could have at least been assigned other work while still in one piece, but the moment Lee Hyeonseok added the offense of being insufferable to their charges, that became impossible.
Lee Hyeonseok left the room where Seo Jiwoo was lying in bed sleeping. Seo Jiwoo’s recent daily routine really consisted of nothing but eating, sleeping, and shitting. He still looked fine for now, but it was visible that he found everything bothersome. Chewing over that sight, Lee Hyeonseok briefly thought that once his busy matters were wrapped up, he should let Seo Jiwoo get some fresh air. Of course, somewhere deserted. He calmly made plans as he headed to the reception room.
“If the experiment of changing betas into omegas becomes known, even you, Representative, won’t be able to just get away with it.”
Choi Ilhyeon, who had come from the Ethics Committee, was in a very foul mood. Foul enough that he abandoned his plan to be polite and offer a spoon, and as soon as he saw Lee Hyeonseok’s face, started right off with threats.
“It’s obvious human rights infringement and violation, and it also violates medical ethics. Are you aware of that?”
It was understandable though, because from Choi Ilhyeon’s perspective, he was holding Lee Hyeonseok’s Achilles’ heel. When such a person says he wants to meet, one should come running immediately and treat him with utmost hospitality, yet he had been made to wait over 30 minutes in the reception room. Not only that, Lee Hyeonseok treated him as if he were an insignificant existence, so his feelings couldn’t help but be hurt.
“Playing dumb won’t work. I already knew before coming.”
Lee Hyeonseok ignored Choi Ilhyeon, who was threatening him out of the blue, and even crossed his legs, taking on an overbearing posture. The indignant Choi Ilhyeon practically threw a yellow document envelope onto the table. Through the imperfectly closed opening, white document papers revealed themselves.
Among the revealed documents were things like ‘List of Forced Trait Change Victims’, ‘Corrupt Relationship Between HW Group and Trait Research Center’, ‘List of Trait Researchers at Trait Research Center’, and so on. All contents that would deal significant damage if revealed. More precisely, they were lethal enough that even if he was lucky enough to avoid imprisonment, it would be impossible to remain in the country for several years.
Lee Hyeonseok didn’t even think about taking the documents Choi Ilhyeon had given him to look at. Far from that, with Choi Ilhyeon and the documents that were no different from an Achilles’ heel in front of him, he just lightly yawned.
The moment Choi Ilhyeon, now dumbfounded by Lee Hyeonseok’s attitude of being unfazed and instead finding him ridiculous, was about to let out a hollow laugh, Lee Hyeonseok opened his mouth first.
“No matter how much I think about it, I can’t seem to recall who the person was that scurried off to report this.”
“Pardon?”
This was what he’d been thinking about since Secretary Cha told him someone from the Ethics Committee had come. The intention of someone affiliated with the Ethics Committee designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare coming alone without any notice was obvious. Right now he might be threatening, but having caught a solid lead, he was saying he wanted to get a piece of the action. The problem wasn’t Choi Ilhyeon himself, but rather that the person who had brought him this lead wasn’t easily coming to mind.
While the trait modification research was conducted in utmost secrecy, research being research, volunteers were necessary. So they carefully selected among those who were tight-lipped and had much to lose, or those who had no one to look for them even if an accident occurred.
The targets Lee Hyeonseok suspected weren’t those volunteers but the researchers. Among the researchers, there wasn’t anyone without a conscience. Even though he knew perfect secrecy was impossible, he had judged it would take quite a while for information to be leaked. But the rat had come begging to be killed much earlier than expected.
“Does that mean you’re admitting it?”
At Lee Hyeonseok’s words that sounded vaguely affirmative, Choi Ilhyeon spoke with slight excitement. At the same time, Choi Ilhyeon placed his hand on the cap of the ballpoint pen stuck in his dress shirt pocket. Unless one had excellent hearing, a small sound that couldn’t possibly be heard went *click* and caught Lee Hyeonseok’s ear.
Whether he was used to it or not, Choi Ilhyeon’s movements were very natural and quick, but whether it was because he had manifested as an alpha and his physical abilities had improved, the series of actions appeared clearly to Lee Hyeonseok.
Moreover, since Lee Hyeonseok had already dealt with many people like Choi Ilhyeon outside the book, it was obvious what he would do next without even looking.
“What. That you funded the research?”
“What…! What kind of preposterous nonsense is this, where are you making up such nonexistent stories!”
When Lee Hyeonseok smirked and spat out lies without even wetting his lips, Choi Ilhyeon jumped up and urgently denied it. His appearance, unable to hide his confusion, was evident. Choi Ilhyeon had imagined Lee Hyeonseok coaxing or threatening him, but never thought he would suddenly be treated as an accomplice. It was because he didn’t know that this young blood clot who was only just twenty years old this year, even if he was the heir of the privileged class, would be cunning enough to pull such tricks.
Lee Hyeonseok, who balanced academics and business, was currently famous in various ways. One of them was that the heir of an already renowned group was not only leading a completely new field at the mere age of twenty but was also riding a wave of success, which from others’ perspectives couldn’t be explained unless there was another backer. If one dug into it, most people thought that Lee Hyeonseok must merely be a figurehead president to solidify his heir position, and there must be someone else actually running the business.
“If you want to have something called a conversation with me, it would be better to turn off what’s in your pocket first.”
When he openly mentioned the recorder, Choi Ilhyeon could no longer dismiss Lee Hyeonseok as a figurehead president who knew nothing about business. Although he found Lee Hyeonseok detestable, he reminded himself that he hadn’t come to fight and obediently turned off the recorder. Still, Choi Ilhyeon’s furrowed brow, wounded to the limit in pride, showed no signs of smoothing out.
“I must seem easy to you.”
“Pardon? What… Huk!”
It was Lee Hyeonseok who smoothed out that furrowed brow. Lee Hyeonseok, who had no intention of indulging Choi Ilhyeon who couldn’t manage his expressions at all, got up from his seat and approached him. Choi Ilhyeon, who had let his guard down thinking Lee Hyeonseok couldn’t lay a hand on him since he had blackmail material, belatedly tried to step back in surprise, but his shoulder was already grabbed by Lee Hyeonseok and he couldn’t budge.
Choi Ilhyeon was seized by the humiliation of being overwhelmed by Lee Hyeonseok, who was much younger than him and had only just become an adult, but he lost his composure first to the even greater sense of intimidation and fear.
“A bastard who came to have a conversation, what? Threatening someone as soon as you see them, illegally recording, you actually came begging to be thrown in jail?”
“Th-that, that, I mean, th-that is… Ugh! Ah, ahhh!”
It was true that Lee Hyeonseok was much younger than Choi Ilhyeon, but that didn’t mean he fell behind in height or build. Lee Hyeonseok, at 187cm with an exceptional build, was threatening enough just by approaching with a scary face, and when he gripped his shoulder strongly, it was natural in a way that Choi Ilhyeon’s spirit broke and he became frightened.
Choi Ilhyeon, who only stammered and couldn’t even spit out proper words, only made sounds of pain before finally shutting his mouth after getting punched in the cheek and solar plexus along with Lee Hyeonseok’s command to shut up. Lee Hyeonseok’s pitch-black dead eyes didn’t seem to be looking at Choi Ilhyeon as a living person. It truly seemed like he could do anything. Choi Ilhyeon realized that even if Lee Hyeonseok stabbed him with a knife right now, he wouldn’t be able to find a trace of guilt in Lee Hyeonseok.
“S-sorry… Sorry.”
“No, no need to be sorry. What can you do, this is just how everyone lives.”
“Huk, heok…! R-Representative. I, I was short-sighted.”
“Living life once, you try this and try that.”
Belatedly, Choi Ilhyeon prostrated himself and pleaded in a crying voice, but Lee Hyeonseok just kept smiling as he responded. Yet his voice was chillingly cold, so Choi Ilhyeon was busy shrinking from the surging fear.
* * *
“Tsk, how typical.”
Choi Ilhyeon, unsuited to someone who came to threaten, spilled everything he knew after getting beaten three or four times. Since he was hit by someone who does boxing as a hobby, it probably wasn’t ‘merely three or four times’ as Lee Hyeonseok thought.
Unexpectedly, the person who gave information to Choi Ilhyeon was Cheon Jaekyung. Before Cheon Jaekyung came here, just in case, he had handed over the information he knew to Choi Ilhyeon, with whom he was acquainted. Lee Hyeonseok found it increasingly hard to believe that Cheon Jaekyung had chosen revenge instead of that damn love. If he had just stayed still, it would have been possible to remain by Lee Juwon’s side, but Cheon Jaekyung ended the relationship.
“Where did you throw that bastard now?”
“We’ve accommodated him in a laboratory with tight security.”
Lee Hyeonseok knew how sinister a human filled with nothing but venom could become. He immediately ordered that the day Cheon Jaekyung would be handed over to Assemblyman Park be moved up as early as possible. Once handed over to Assemblyman Park, regardless of gender, there was no one who came out in one piece. Without a single exception, they all went straight to mental hospitals or nursing homes.
“I was thinking of going out for once, but did Seo Jiwoo really even sell out the country or something.”
“I’ll increase the security detail.”
“Yeah. And educate them properly too.”
“Yes, understood.”
Recalling the guards who had completely left out their own mistakes and reported only what Seo Jiwoo had agreed to keep quiet about, Lee Hyeonseok cautioned. While it was difficult to educate each newly assigned guard individually, it was easy to punish and re-educate the guards at the house.
“He’ll be convinced if I at least deliver this.”
“Since he’s such a sharp person.”
Secretary Cha added as Lee Hyeonseok waved the letter Cheon Jaekyung had written. As the scheduled plan that the actual party Seo Jiwoo didn’t even know about fell through, the two consoled each other with regret among themselves.
However, contrary to Lee Hyeonseok’s plan, Cheon Jaekyung being handed over to Assemblyman Park never happened. This was because, with only the single-minded desire for revenge, Cheon Jaekyung desperately escaped the research facility, using heavenly luck as a rope.
However, could being treated harshly by the target of revenge be called luckier than ending with one’s desire for retaliation crushed? What would be better couldn’t be understood unless one was the person in question, but in the future, Lee Hyeonseok felt he would need to ask Seo Jiwoo someday what kind of family education he had received.
