“What the hell is going on?”
Wasn’t Jung Sanho just quietly going his own way a moment ago? What happened in that short time to make him curse? He quickly rolled his eyes to find the source of the noise.
Jung Sanho was glaring inside the brightly lit elevator. Each time the door tried to close, he forced it to stay open with strength.
“Say that again, why don’t you?”
With his twisted lips spitting out threats, he looked exactly like a gangster. Why is he acting like that? Seungyeon hurriedly grabbed his arm.
“Jung Sanho! What are you doing there! What is this…… huh?”
Only after getting closer to him did he see inside the elevator. More precisely, the person inside the elevator caught Seungyeon’s eye. The indifferent expression, the black suit that suited it well, and the leather gloves worn out of habit—he was a man Seungyeon knew very well.
“Go Won?”
Why is this person here too? Flustered, the strength drained from the hand holding Jung Sanho. Go Won stared intently at Seungyeon.
“Are you hitting on him this time?”
He pointed at Jung Sanho with his chin. At the disrespect contained in those few words, Jung Sanho glared like a mad dog. Before he could curse again, Seungyeon quickly grabbed his hand.
It’ll be a disaster if Jung Sanho causes a scene here too. He laced their fingers together and pulled him back, meaning to calm down. Jung Sanho also didn’t resist further and awkwardly approached Seungyeon.
Go Won, who had been watching silently, burst into a snicker. Though his attitude was relaxed and leisurely, his eyes were somehow cold.
“Interesting. You let just any man into your house.”
“What the fuck did you say?”
At the active gangster’s provocation, Jung Sanho’s eyes flipped. Though he didn’t know what had scratched him, Seungyeon blocked with his whole body against him trying to charge. His mind became hazy at the disaster-like continuing situation.
“Wait, wait, Sanho, stop for now!”
“Fuck, hey, what did you just say? Huh? Just any man?”
Whether possessed by an evil spirit, Jung Sanho growled and sharpened his edge. The more he did, the more Seungyeon’s insides burned. You crazy bastard, that person is a real gangster who slices and cuts people!
“Let go, hyung! That bastard is talking shit right now! Hey, fuck! Who the hell are you to pick a fight from earlier?”
Go Won’s expression remained indifferent as he listened to Jung Sanho’s curses. He looked back and forth between Seungyeon and Jung Sanho, then leisurely got off the elevator. With each step he took, the clear sound of his dress shoes echoed through the narrow hallway.
“Do you like kids, or is it because he has a lot of money?”
From his tone to his actions, Go Won thoroughly ignored Jung Sanho. Rather than deliberately insulting him, it seemed like rudeness born from indifference. So that’s what it takes to be a gangster. Seungyeon, who was barely holding back Jung Sanho spewing all kinds of curses, just wanted to cry.
One person is unilaterally mocking, the other is causing a scene from being scratched by it, so why are they doing this in front of me? Can’t they fight somewhere I can’t see if they’re going to fight? Seungyeon forcibly swallowed down the words he couldn’t spit out.
“Well, it’s not important, so I’ll let it pass. More than that, about the watch—the one you took that day.”
Go Won tilted his head obliquely. His eyes looked at Seungyeon’s wrist holding Jung Sanho for a long while.
“You told Sehee you lost it. In my memory, I definitely saw you to your door, so I couldn’t help being curious about how you lost it.”
Only then did Seungyeon realize why Go Won had come here. It’s because of the news that Baek Sehee lost the watch. Though he didn’t know how the two were entangled, it was Go Won who had handed the watch to Seungyeon that day. If he’d heard the story in any way, it made sense he’d be curious.
Probably Go Won didn’t believe Seungyeon’s excuse that he lost the watch. Rather than losing it in that instant, it was much more plausible that Seungyeon had actively sold the item off. While feeling wronged on one hand, he also understood Go Won’s feelings.
“……Watch?”
Jung Sanho flinched at the word that somehow evoked guilt. A watch. Wasn’t he also a witness to that unforgettable watch incident? No, rather than a witness, Jung Sanho was closer to a perpetrator. If we trace the responsibility for the loss incident, wouldn’t it be about 50% stray dog and 50% Jung Sanho?
The momentum that seemed about to rush at Go Won immediately deflated. He looked at Seungyeon hesitantly. Seungyeon poked Jung Sanho’s side, meaning to stay still.
“It’s as I explained to noona. But you came all the way here just to ask that?”
“Yeah. I came all the way here to ask that. Because Sehee ended up in a really shitty situation because of that.”
At the words “shitty situation,” Seungyeon’s heart dropped with a thud. When he recalled Baek Sehee’s ordeal mentioned by Go Won, the humiliation and shame he’d seen in the original work, guilt choked his breath. Behind Baek Sehee’s suffering was Seungyeon. Go Won pointed that part out precisely.
“If it weren’t for you, Sehee wouldn’t have any reason to endure that kind of treatment. Come to think of it, I told you not to meddle in that household, but you caused an even bigger accident as if to prove a point.”
Go Won had reached his own conclusion, and Seungyeon didn’t know what it was. Judging by his somehow cold gaze, it didn’t seem to be in a very positive direction.
He’s not planning to kill me, is he?
What if he says something like, ‘I’ll kill you first since you’re being annoying’? Go Won was fundamentally a gangster. He’d be more accustomed to ending things with actions rather than dialogue, so who knows? The more he chewed on it, the more plausible it seemed, so cold sweat pooled in Seungyeon’s palm.
“No, look, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but for now, let’s talk……”
“Keeping a snotty brat like that by your side. No matter how good Yujeong Group’s money is, isn’t he too young?”
The “snotty brat” Go Won was referring to meant Jung Sanho. Go Won already seemed to know which family’s son Jung Sanho was. Whether Go Won’s provocation hit home properly, an evil spirit possessed Jung Sanho’s eyes in real-time. If I leave this alone, something really big will happen. Seungyeon stepped forward to somehow resolve this situation.
“Look, Go Won. I’ll let it slide that you’re saying whatever to me, but why are you cursing at an innocent person? This side has nothing to do with it.”
Seungyeon quickly took Jung Sanho’s side. Whether not giving him a chance to get angry worked, Jung Sanho’s venomous gaze softened considerably. Riding the momentum, he patted Jung Sanho’s back and subtly pushed him toward the emergency stairwell.
“Sanho, you should go too. Even though he talks like that, he’s close with my noona, you know? Even though he looks like that, he’s a good…… person.”
He gathered strength from his core and forcibly spat out the lie. Even Go Won seemed puzzled as he quietly asked back, “A good person?” Jung Sanho’s face didn’t particularly look like he believed it either.
However, he couldn’t back down here. Life is about momentum. He had absolutely no desire to fluster around like this and witness a dogfight between two men.
Determined to get rid of at least one of them from sight, he slowly pushed Jung Sanho toward the stairs. Jung Sanho, who had been retreating without much resistance, glanced at Go Won leaning against the elevator and asked quietly.
“Why? What does that person have to do with the watch?”
Instead of answering, Seungyeon gave a bitter smile. It meant roughly what you’re thinking is the answer, so don’t ask. Right now, he didn’t have the presence of mind to kindly answer Jung Sanho’s question.
Just then, the door next door burst open. Seungyeon’s head turned toward the sound. The closed neighboring door opened and a pot-bellied ahjussi in a suit appeared. Whether he was just about to leave for work, fatigue and irritation filled his face.
“Goodness! What’s so noisy from the morning……”
Go Won blocking the elevator and Jung Sanho standing by the emergency stairwell looked at him simultaneously. The ahjussi, too shocked to say anything, started hiccupping. In the breathless silence, only the sound of “Hiccup!” echoed emptily.
At that moment, a brilliant idea flashed through Seungyeon’s mind. Isn’t this maybe an opportunity? Before the ahjussi could flee into his house, he took action first.
“I’m sorry. We were too rude making noise in a shared housing, weren’t we? Were you about to leave for work? You need to take the elevator, right? Quickly, come this way.”
He moved his steps quickly with the most harmless smile in the world. He linked arms, mercilessly ignoring the ahjussi’s words asking why he was doing this. The more he pushed him toward the elevator like an escort, the fiercer the resistance became. He was even more startled in horror when Go Won approached his side.
“No! No, no!”
“What do you mean no? You need to hurry to work.”
Seungyeon, who had naturally boarded the elevator, pressed the 1st floor and then repeatedly hit the close button. The elevator door slowly closed.
Jung Sanho, who belatedly grasped the situation, ran over with an urgent expression. However, just before Jung Sanho arrived, the door closed completely.
Next to the ahjussi who was breaking out in cold sweat without understanding what was happening, Seungyeon let out a sigh. He rubbed between his brows hard and glanced to the side.
“……So what exactly is the reason you came all the way here?”
Go Won, who had shamelessly and nimbly boarded the elevator together, shrugged his shoulders as if asking what the problem was.
