Ganghyuk pulled Minjae’s face close and asked while making eye contact. Barely regaining consciousness, Minjae stretched his blood-soaked lips.
“The ri…ver, told them to kill… keok……”
In the pain of his throat being strangled, Minjae raised both arms and grabbed Ganghyuk’s hand. Kkeu, heo, the sounds of choking echoed in the backyard.
“Executive Director!”
Jaehyun, who’d come after receiving a report that Ganghyuk had disappeared with Minjae, shouted in surprise. He too wanted to kill Minjae, but not here. There were too many watching eyes.
Already sensing the commotion, several people were trying to approach. The subordinates who received Jaehyun’s look blocked people from approaching.
“Not here. Please hold back a little.”
Jaehyun stamped his feet beside Ganghyuk. This was the first time Ganghyuk had lost his reason to this extent, so his mind went blank.
When he approached nearby, Ganghyuk’s tremendous pheromones were felt, making it difficult to breathe. If Sucheol’s contact saying he’d found Gal Hongdo’s son hadn’t come at just the right timing, they would have held his son’s funeral at Chairman Tae’s funeral.
“They found Gal Hongdo’s son. We can rescue Ian-nim safely.”
Minjae’s phone screen had already gone dark, but Jaehyun knew that Ian was Ganghyuk’s trigger. He guessed that Minjae must have made remarks about Ian that crossed the line.
“Take him to the hospital. To where Dr. Kim is.”
“Yes, understood.”
Ganghyuk, who’d stood up, kicked the limp Minjae with the tip of his shoe. Minjae had already passed out. His groin area was stained a dark color.
Jaehyun called a subordinate standing behind and instructed him to move Minjae to a hospital in Gyeonggi Province. It was a place run by Dr. Kim, who was Ganghyuk’s person. Ganghyuk immediately called Sucheol.
-Yes, hyung-nim!
“Take photos and videos and send them to me right away. You can beat him up as much as you want. Just don’t kill him.”
-Understood perfectly!
Shortly after, several photos were transmitted to Ganghyuk’s phone. The man with his hands and feet bound and his mouth covered with blue tape had one side of his face swollen.
Next to the crying man, Sucheol was making a V sign and smiling brightly. Ganghyuk immediately sent the photos to Gal Hongdo.
“How far did you say we’ve tracked?”
“We’ve currently cleaned out all of Gal Hongdo’s hideouts, but there’s no trace of Ian-nim. There’s one boat owned by Gal Hongdo’s right-hand man, so we sent guys to Incheon too. We judged there’s a possibility they set sail. The truck’s trail was also lost on the highway heading to Incheon.”
“A boat……”
Ganghyuk, who’d muttered, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Jaehyun immediately lit it. While inhaling the acrid smoke, Ganghyuk gathered his pheromones.
His fingertips were trembling finely. When he pointed at the phone on the floor, Jaehyun picked it up.
“There’s a photo of Ian in there.”
“……I’ll check it right away.”
But the phone was locked. It required facial recognition or a six-digit password. Jaehyun asked Ganghyuk’s permission and headed to the car carrying Minjae.
In the meantime, Ganghyuk ground out the finished cigarette with his shoe. Even seeing Minjae’s blood, nothing was resolved.
Ian’s bleeding face wouldn’t leave his mind. The clothes that were worse than not wearing them. The sight of him collapsed wearing clothes torn like rags looked exactly like a dead person, so the trembling wouldn’t subside.
A sharp pain rose from his scraped knuckles. He’d half-killed Minjae. He needed to go back quickly to explain Minjae’s absence and maintain his position, but he couldn’t do anything.
It felt as if time had stopped. Ganghyuk waited for contact from Hongdo with even his breathing suppressed.
Though they were tracking down to the boat owned by Hongdo’s right-hand man, that alone wasn’t reassuring. Having already confirmed with his own eyes that something had happened to Ian, he felt terrible enough to want to strangle himself.
He hadn’t known he cherished Ian this much.
He’d thought he’d given his heart enough to fulfill even absurd and audacious requests, but when he actually thought he might lose him, he was engulfed in tremendous despair.
Had he ever felt such a powerless emotion in his life?
Even when his parents starved and beat him, it wasn’t this terrible. Even when he was stabbed and hovered between life and death, even when he was betrayed by a subordinate he’d trusted, he’d accepted it as such.
It was his nature. He left what passed as passed, and thought simply about complicated matters.
He cherished Jaehyun and Sucheol too, but even if the two were kidnapped and in a dangerous situation, he was certain he wouldn’t lose his reason this much. In fact, the two had been in danger several times.
Even when Chairman Tae, who’d cherished him like a son, collapsed, even when he saw him breathe his last, though he was sad, it was only brief.
Being sad wouldn’t bring the dead back to life, and Chairman Tae’s age wasn’t so young either. Though he’d collapsed suddenly, he thought that was Chairman Tae’s predetermined lifespan.
It was the same when he heard news about Yeon Cheolho. Musty memories surfaced and it was bitter like holding cigarette smoke, but there was no pain of his heart being crushed like now.
……Please be safe.
The current situation was too cruel to Ganghyuk, enough to make him want to seek a god he didn’t even believe in. Through this incident, he clearly realized.
Ian was Ganghyuk’s reverse scale. An existence that could shake everything Ganghyuk had. Even Ganghyuk himself.
Bzz. Bzz.
Finally, the contact he’d been waiting for came. Ganghyuk answered the phone before it could vibrate more.
-Wow, I got hit hard in the back of the head, didn’t I? How did you know I had a son? Not even one person around me knows.
Though he was being flippant, Ganghyuk read faint anxiety in Hongdo’s voice. He could feel him pretending to be composed. Just like himself.
“Let’s exchange hostages. Come out to Incheon Port at midnight tonight. Bring Ian.”
-Why should I do that?
Hongdo, who didn’t want to be dragged around by Ganghyuk like this, resisted. Ganghyuk’s lips twisted. If Hongdo were before his eyes, such ferociousness that he’d tear him apart immediately swirled in his eyes.
“Don’t test my patience anymore. The photo I sent to Tae Minjae is enough.”
But he had to pour out his anger only after getting Ian back. Currently, the one holding Ian’s leash was Hongdo. If he didn’t cherish his son as much as expected, the person who would lose everything in this fight was none other than Ganghyuk.
-Don’t touch my son anymore.
“That’s what I want to say. Don’t lay another hair on Ian.”
-See you later, Executive Director Tae.
After the call was abruptly cut off, Ganghyuk closed his eyes for a moment and steadied his breathing. The hand holding the phone was trembling. Pent-up anger seethed in his heart.
Only two hours remained until midnight.
***
“We’ve almost arrived.”
“Phew, why am I so nervous……”
No sooner had Jaehyun, who’d checked the navigation, spoken than Sucheol let out a long sigh. The rough hands gripping the steering wheel were full of cold sweat.
Though he hadn’t known Ian for long, a great sense of debt had formed. Ian had been kidnapped while he was guarding the front of the house.
He had no face to show Ganghyuk who’d left on a business trip trusting him, and he felt sorry to Ian too. Beyond being a child cherished by Ganghyuk who could give his life, the thought that he’d suffered terrible things made him uncomfortable in his seat like sitting on thorns.
In the trunk was Hongdo’s unconscious son. The car carrying four people arrived at Incheon Port. Since it was midnight, there were no people around. Cars were sparsely parked in the parking lot, but only one car had its headlights on.
Sucheol parked the car in front of it. He got out of the car first. As he examined the car with a tense expression, Hongdo, wearing sunglasses even at night, appeared.
“The night air is cool and nice, isn’t it?”
Even under the moonlight, the gold accessories adorning Hongdo’s neck, wrists, and fingers had a flashy presence. Sucheol didn’t respond to Hongdo’s greeting. Instead, he cracked his neck side to side, stiff from driving.
A cracking sound rang out as the tense muscles loosened. His sharp eyes examined the car Hongdo had gotten out of. The tinting was so dark that he couldn’t see who was inside.
As a strange tension flowed, Hongdo took a step closer to Sucheol. The car Ganghyuk was in also had windows that were nearly pitch black, making it equally impossible to see inside.
Hongdo raised his hand like a blade and placed it above his eyebrows, comically craning his neck and pretending to peer into the car.
“Where’s my son? I can’t see him.”
Pretending to be relaxed, huh.
