“We know each other, right?”
Jaeha sat down next to him without particularly bothering to ask permission. He casually stretched out his arm and draped it around Ju Seonghwan’s shoulders. Ju Seonghwan’s bluish lips twisted into a familiar shape. It seemed he wanted to spit out a word starting with “ssi” first.
“Was it already 10 years ago? When hyung’s father brought hyung to our house.”
Jaeha crossed his long legs and leisurely looked around at the people who’d been spewing sexual vulgarities toward him, regardless of what Ju Seonghwan said or didn’t say. Either way, the boss of this Room 1 was Ju Seonghwan. Anyone who treated Ju Seonghwan roughly could treat those guys roughly too.
It meant that the mounting wouldn’t be done by them, but could be done to them by Jaeha.
“I remember you crying in front of Grandfather, saying the company would go bankrupt if you couldn’t stop the promissory note by tomorrow. Honestly, hyung, you felt like shit then, right? It showed all over your face. But how impressive. You sold your knees like that to stop the 13 billion won promissory note and built this massive corporation now. I guess people need to know how to put down small things like pride for the greater good. Right?”
Jo Seyoung couldn’t even breathe properly and slowly moved her butt toward the door. The rest of the people also glanced at each other, then muttered unprompted things like “I’ll just go to the hall for a bit” and slipped out of the room.
Blue veins bulged on Ju Seonghwan’s neck. Jaeha clicked his tongue and pressed down hard on his veins with his finger.
“Why are you opening your eyes like that? Didn’t you call me knowing everything? I’m the one giving money, and hyung’s the one whose life is fucked, but when you look at people like that, everyone misunderstands.”
“Get your hands off me.”
“Why, is your neck an erogenous zone?”
“You fucking bastard!”
He probably tried to grab his collar, but regrettably, Jaeha was a step faster and grabbed the back of Ju Seonghwan’s head with one hand and slammed it head-first into the sofa. He mounted the back of Ju Seonghwan, who was having a fit as if “fuck” and “fuuuck” were the only curses he knew, and pressed down firmly on the back of his neck with his elbow.
“I don’t know what you expected. Did you think I’d come here and smile sweetly while catering to your mood? How old are you to still expect applause for taking a shit well? When did you finish potty training anyway?”
“Hey, fuck, don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“Why would I regret it? Hyung. You’re the one who crashed 5 billion won into coins. Why, your father sold his knees for 13 billion but you feel wronged selling yours for 5 billion? But fuck, you’re not on that level. Honestly, your knees aren’t even worth 5 billion.”
The panting breath gradually subsided. Cold sweat soaked profusely on the nape of his neck, dampening Jaeha’s arm unpleasantly. Since Jaeha didn’t want to rub against more slippery skin with him, he removed his arm and grabbed his hair to pull him up. Like an overripe persimmon left at room temperature too long and slightly gone bad, Ju Seonghwan’s entire face was dyed a dark red color, and he modestly lowered his damp eyes. Only then did Jaeha affectionately stroke his disheveled hair.
That’s what you get for not pretending to accept it with moderate composure from the start.
You act so much like a loser with your eyes rolled back that it seems like coaxing you with nice words won’t work at all, so I decided I should just stomp on you first before starting.
“Hyung, fuck, Seyoung noona set up this meeting thinking of you, but you started off being irritable and trampling on noona’s sincerity, so my heart hurt. Don’t cry and tell me how much you need. Hm?”
Ju Seonghwan. Unlike his quiet sister with no presence, he was a notorious troublemaker who made JB Foods’ brilliant company name appear in articles. But this was all from his vigorous 20s, and after returning from studying abroad, the recent update known about him was that he’d “pulled himself together” with ambitions to inherit the family business.
However, his diligent older sister had already been more or less confirmed as the successor, and Ju Seonghwan brought in an American cake shop he’d enjoyed eating at during his study abroad days, hoping for a comeback in his family standing, but perhaps it didn’t suit Korean tastes—the sales crashed to rock bottom and the business withdrew after just a year and a half.
He was ridiculed in the media and pressured by his family to just do what he was told instead of thinking about running a business. Meanwhile, only his ego was inflated, so his insides twisted at the thought of living comfortably as a registered director.
A wonderful opportunity came to such a Ju Seonghwan 7 months ago.
A young businessman approached him and showed him the miracle of the loaves and fishes where money was duplicated. After experiencing this amazing grace, Ju Seonghwan was filled with the dream of “Yeah, fuck, why inherit a shitty company, I should earn hundreds of billions and start my own company,” and scraped together even company money to offer it all up, and the Big Bang Coin or whatever it was that he’d bet everything on crashed to rock bottom a month ago and turned into worthless paper.
Naturally, not many people knew about this yet. Ju Seonghwan was spending blood-drying time going around loan sharks to cover up the 5 billion won he’d embezzled without his father knowing, even if he had to give up his personal assets.
Why would an idiot do coins? If you’re going to do it, buy Bitcoin. If he’d put that money into Bitcoin back then, he would’ve made 1 billion.
Jo Seyoung had been laughing while holding her stomach when she brought Ju Seonghwan to Jaeha. And she herself was using private loans from here and there to get money to sponsor this guy and that guy after her parents cut off support when she got caught doing drugs and went in and out of the police station. Jaeha had also met her while looking for loan routes, and since Ju Seonghwan had seen her somehow pulling in money from somewhere, he’d only confessed his situation to Jo Seyoung.
Jaeha had promised Jo Seyoung that if she brought him prey he’d be satisfied with, he’d forgive part of her interest.
Ju Seonghwan wasn’t a guy worthy of being Jaeha’s final goal either. He just hoped that climbing up and up through these small fries would spread rumors about Jaeha secretly.
They say even a ruined rich person lasts three generations—it seems Chairman Hyun Hongwon’s grandson is holding tremendous money. I thought he’d been kicked out penniless after that bastard Jang Hyeokjin swallowed up Wonin Construction, but the money released so far alone is in the tens of billions. That kind of rumor.
To Jang Hyeokjin, money was God. He’d committed all kinds of despicable acts to monopolize Chairman Hyun Hongwon’s fortune, even if it meant killing Jaeha, but if tens of billions of won that he didn’t even know existed suddenly appeared, he’d probably go crazy. He’d be obsessed with finding out how Chairman Hyun Hongwon hid that money, how Jaeha found it, and what the exact scale was.
And incidentally, later when needed, he could request “small cooperation” from the parents of these prey who failed at home education, meaning to belatedly fulfill their stern duties.
Come to think of it, JB Foods’ factory and land are all coincidentally in Icheon.
Jaeha pressed his forehead firmly against Ju Seonghwan’s forehead. He gently tapped the man’s flushed red cheeks with his white hand and whispered affectionately to him.
“Hyung, just trust me. I’ll solve everything for you.”
Words he might have wanted to say to someone else.
As soon as he got off the elevator, he faced a long corridor lined with several doors on both sides. The employee who came up with him led the way, guiding Taesung with a polite attitude.
Perhaps worried that the elderly main customers might trip over their own feet, a thick carpet was laid on the corridor floor, and LED lights were densely embedded in the ceiling, making the inside of the building brilliant as midday. Taesung followed the employee while looking down at his shadow splitting into several branches.
The surroundings were eerily quiet.
The thick carpet laid on the floor absorbed even footsteps, so Taesung couldn’t even hear his own presence. Perhaps that’s why he felt like he was trapped in a nightmare, floating like a ghost through a corridor surrounded by countless doors. Maybe it was because he had more memories of not being treated like a human here than being treated like one.
When a door opened, screams and shouts leaked out for a fleeting moment before disappearing. The thick door panels and walls wrapping the entire room swallowed all sorts of sordid noises happening inside. Here, Taesung sometimes wondered how they’d handle his corpse if he died like this. He didn’t even hope for cremation at a crematorium. Would they bury me at some construction site, or would they throw me to a livestock pen to be chewed up to the bones?
Since no family would look for him even if he disappeared anyway, it wouldn’t be difficult to dispose of Taesung. That’s probably why Jang Hyeokjin left other pretty and excellent omegas alone and dragged Taesung here. Anyway, “those bastards” weren’t looking for partners who’d arouse their lust, but just wanted to poke and roll around a curious “object” called an omega.
The stench from back then seemed to brush past the tip of his nose. Taesung swallowed the rising nausea and coughed. The employee flinched in surprise and watched Taesung’s mood. Then, perhaps thinking his pace was too slow, he started moving his feet faster.
The employee finally reached the door at the very back and pressed the bell, opening the door with difficulty. From beyond the opened door, no sound could be heard at all.
No laughter, no screams, no curses.
