Early afternoon on a busy weekday.
Seo Jaeha, who had left the building and gotten into the driver’s seat, pulled the seatbelt. At that moment, his mobile phone rang loudly.
[Criminal Division 5 Director Lee Byungdo]
Jaeha, who confirmed the caller, slightly frowned his sharp eyes. He really didn’t want to answer. However, as long as he belonged to the organization called the prosecution, it was difficult to ignore his direct superior’s call. Just before it went to automatic guidance, Jaeha pressed the call button.
“Yes. Central District Prosecutors’ Office Criminal Division 5, Prosecutor Seo Jae…”
—Hey man! It’s been ages since I told you to come! Where are you!
Would people know that some prosecutors have neither intellectual class nor the chilling wickedness of a snake?
He didn’t even want to hold the phone to his ear because of the voice squawking loudly. After pressing the speaker mode button, he threw the mobile phone onto the passenger seat.
“I’m just leaving now.”
—What time is it! You’re late! Get over here right now!
Lee Byungdo, who had always been far from cultured behavior, was becoming an impressive old fart whose frown deepened day by day.
“I just got in the car. Where should I go?”
Jaeha asked while pressing the start button.
Lee Byungdo had left long before lunchtime. While doing so, he instructed Jaeha to finish his morning work and join him immediately. It was an instruction given without saying what kind of meeting it was.
In the prosecution, which along with organized crime and the Marines, was one of Korea’s three major organizations, top-down hierarchy was routine. Naturally, it was impossible to ask why.
—I’m at Myungbu Hotel!
The long finger that had been searching for the building they were originally supposed to meet on the navigation screen stopped abruptly.
Even though there were other chief prosecutors working at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Lee Byungdo acted as if he were the president.
‘No. Even the president wouldn’t act like this.’
He went to a hotel during work hours? He changed a business appointment to a hotel cafe, right? He really hoped that was the case.
“When did you go there?”
He erased the text he had typed so far and hastily entered Myungbu Hotel into the navigation.
—That’s not for someone like you to know. You can get here in 20 minutes, right?
“I have to cross the bridge. And right now is peak traffic time. The navigation says it’ll take 48 minutes. Should I take the subway?”
—You want me to take the subway with you? Are you crazy?
“Even the shortest route will take 35 minutes.”
—Whatever the navigation says, I don’t care! Fly over here within 30 minutes somehow!
Click.
For a moment, his thick eyebrows twitched. The large hand gripping the steering wheel tensed. Deep irritation clouded his masculine features.
“Phew.”
Seo Jaeha expelled his discomfort with a deep breath and regained his usual composure.
His car soon skillfully slipped into the crowded main street.
It was about an hour after he received the call when he entered Myungbu Hotel.
‘He’s going to throw another fit.’
With the long legs that had earned him frequent modeling offers during his student days, he strode into the lobby. He swept his slightly sweating forehead with his palm and looked around.
‘Oh my. Who’s that?’
‘That man, is he a celebrity?’
‘A former athlete?’
‘Please come to the front desk quickly. I’m waiting for you.’
He only discovered the usual talk, the usual stares, the usual expressions. Lee Byungdo was nowhere to be seen.
He made a call.
—The phone is currently turned off…
Half annoyed, half dismayed, he pressed the call end button and went to the front desk.
He chose the female employee who conveyed her admiring gaze with a fresh smile, finding the strangely intense gaze of the male employee burdensome.
“How may I help you?”
“Is there a message left for Seo Jaeha by any chance?”
“Seo Jaeha-ssi. Please wait a moment.”
The employee, who had been touching the management computer hidden behind the marble information desk for a while, answered with a kind but slightly regretful expression.
“I’m sorry, but there isn’t.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Shall I leave a message for you?”
“No, it’s fine. Is Lee Byungdo-ssi checked in?”
“I’m sorry, but we cannot provide customer personal information.”
At those words, Jaeha took out his ID from his jacket inner pocket.
The employee’s complexion stiffened slightly upon seeing the card in the plain plastic name tag without any particular features. Silently, white hands moved back and forth between the touch screen and keyboard.
“There is no Lee Byungdo-ssi among our hotel customers.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Jaeha turned around, ruthlessly creasing his forehead.
“Damn it.”
What business could there be for someone holed up in a hotel not checked in under their own name and not answering the phone in broad daylight before work hours even ended?
A secret meeting with a mistress.
This was already the third time.
‘I should just quit or something.’
His pride was hurt on a human level. The pure ambition to become a prosecutor and punish bad villains was something he had already abandoned in high school.
After that, he harbored a slightly corrupted and slightly mature hope of becoming a prosecutor, playing in the big leagues, and making a name for himself in society.
To reach the big waters, one either had to have relatives who wielded power in the legal world, or had no choice but to join a prestigious legal family through marriage.
The second method was a pretty good option for Jaeha, who had quite handsome looks, but his insides twisted at the thought of showing filial piety to people he wasn’t even related to by blood when he hadn’t even done it for his own parents. So he was still putting off being introduced with various excuses.
Therefore, as an ordinary prosecutor without proper connections right now, he had to accommodate whatever Lee Byungdo did.
‘Damn.’
The cheapness of using such a hotel with poor amenities just because it was cheap was disgusting. Just because one does reckless things doesn’t mean one needs to try to become hairless (無毛) all the way to the crown of one’s head, right?
He desperately needed a strong cup of coffee. Seo Jaeha glared at the opposite corner where the stairs and elevator were, recalling the cases he had to handle in the afternoon.
That was when it happened. The door connecting the elevator and parking lot slid open and someone entered. For a moment, Seo Jaeha doubted his own eyes.
“Jung Kyungwoo?”
A light t-shirt and jeans. Carelessly disheveled hair. Stupidly thick horn-rimmed glasses and Converse sneakers.
The figure heading straight to the back without any interest in the front desk was unmistakably a hotel part-timer.
However, the straight shoulders and prominent shoulder blades over the thin t-shirt. Long, straight legs and the white neck and hands glimpsed.
That man, who exuded an inescapable languor from his long fingers, had absolutely no reason to work at such an old hotel.
Son of Taeryoung Group Chairman Jung Taeho, Jung Kyungwoo, Executive Director of Taeryoung Holdings.
‘Why did that bastard come here at this hour?’
Jaeha rose from his seat without realizing it. He had absolutely no intention of greeting him.
His opponent was Jung Kyungwoo. Someone with whom he had a history of deep animosity that didn’t even reach Lee Byungdo’s toes, the first so-called “villain” Seo Jaeha had encountered in his life.
His brain automatically stirred up antipathy and irritation, and his body reacted nimbly to it. His teeth ground automatically.
‘That son of a bitch.’
Jung Kyungwoo, who glanced around perfunctorily, didn’t spot this side. It was because of the large decorative plant pot the hotel had installed.
Even so, it wasn’t easy to miss Seo Jaeha, who was larger than others. The other party seemed quite distracted.
‘What business makes him hurry like that?’
Puzzlement came first.
Come to think of it, his attire was also strange. It was rare for an executive director of a large corporation to appear at an old hotel in such clothes without an executive secretary on a weekday afternoon.
Moreover, he didn’t even stop by the front desk. Either someone was waiting in advance, or he had already checked in.
The brain specialized in logical reasoning from working as a prosecutor spun rapidly. The suspicious points kept increasing.
‘That Taeryoung heir? Staying at such an old hotel? For what reason?’
Clank.
Jung Kyungwoo even opened the emergency stairwell iron door and entered instead of taking the elevator. No matter how one thought about it, there was something not above board.
As suspicious as Jung Kyungwoo’s movements were, there was a very high possibility for Seo Jaeha to obtain an efficient card for pressure.
Like a hotel guest coming and going, he naturally straightened his clothes and headed toward the emergency stairwell.
Creak.
He carefully opened the iron door and looked up and down.
Tap tap.
The sound of footsteps continued upward. Seo Jaeha slowly and carefully followed behind. After a moment, the footsteps stopped.
‘Did he notice he’s being tailed?’
Seo Jaeha, who spotted a slender shadow two steps below, held his breath.
Jung Kyungwoo continued standing in front of the iron door leading to the 4th floor guest rooms. He hadn’t discovered this side yet.
“Huff. Huff.”
The rushing rough breathing conveyed thick tension.
What grand deed was he planning that the ice prince of the business world, famous for his sharp suits and cold manner, would be catching his breath alone in the emergency stairwell with shabby disguise?
Should he request support?
After briefly contemplating, Jaeha dismissed the thought. If he requested support, he would publicly pressure Jung Kyungwoo.
Public pressure invites public counterattack. Treating someone as a criminal unconditionally just because the situation was suspicious was amateurish. Securing solid evidence was important.
Clank. Creak.
The iron door opened. Jung Kyungwoo entered the 4th floor. With some leeway, Seo Jaeha continued to tail him.
