“Uh. No.”
As if anyone would actually be scared by that expression. Kang Siwon looked straight into Ray Jun’s eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I’m not in the mood for it.”
“Ha, you don’t even know what I’m trying to do, but you’re already refusing? Really?”
Ray Jun tucked Kang Siwon’s hair behind his ear. It wasn’t even long hair—why did he keep fiddling with it? Kang Siwon swatted his hand away.
“Hmm…….”
Ray Jun hummed as he looked Kang Siwon over. Was he observing what kind of change of heart this was? He also seemed simply hurt in his pride from being rejected.
The strange standoff continued only briefly before Ray Jun shrugged and backed off.
“Fine. If you don’t want to, I can’t force you.”
Kang Siwon unconsciously let out the breath he’d been holding. The heavy, stuffy atmosphere seemed to ease just a little. Even so, being in the same room as Ray Jun felt awkward and uncomfortable.
“……I’m just going to the bathroom for a minute.”
He made up an appropriate excuse and left the room. In the midst of all this, the corridor leading to the bathroom was absurdly long, making him laugh bitterly.
Even in their much smaller dormitory, living cramped together with Ray Jun hadn’t been difficult, yet in this spacious penthouse, his presence felt overwhelming—it was ridiculous. It seemed more like his own problem than Ray Jun’s. Here he was, having entered a penthouse he’d never get to see in his lifetime given his status, yet instead of enjoying it, all he wanted was to leave.
“Even if I leave, I have nowhere to go…….”
Kang Siwon’s lament dissipated like fog in the vast emptiness of the penthouse.
* * *
Ray Jun, left alone in the room after Kang Siwon departed, ran his fingers through his hair.
“……Ha.”
It seemed he needed to revise his assessment of Kang Siwon a bit.
The Kang Siwon he’d observed until now had been “a guy who seems difficult but is easy.” Like a stiff branch, he’d be tense throughout his body, but if you treated him gently, he’d show his soft interior—making him even easier to handle.
But the current Kang Siwon had changed into “a guy who seems easy but is difficult.” Of course, he understood the shock of discovering his secret. But it wasn’t the kind of thing that would harm Kang Siwon, and if you thought about it, wasn’t it closer to being beneficial? If he built connections with someone who would soon inherit a 15% stake in Sovereign Resort as CEO, it would be advantageous even for him, who was only being pushed around by the Baeksa Faction.
Whatever the reason, he was quite displeased with the situation where Kang Siwon, who had been so obedient last night, had suddenly raised his quills like a hedgehog. Ray Jun stared at the nightstand with coldly chilled eyes.
When he’d entered this room, Kang Siwon had been opening the nightstand drawer. It was just that, yet his startled reaction, as if he’d been caught doing something wrong, had been unusual.
Ray Jun roughly yanked the drawer open.
Inside was only Kang Siwon’s phone. He picked it up as naturally as if it were his own and turned on the screen, revealing a bland default background. A smile escaped him, thinking it was somehow very Kang Siwon-like.
Ray Jun searched through Kang Siwon’s phone without hesitation. However, there was nothing worth finding. Although it was unlocked, all the main apps like the photo album and messages had passwords on them. To begin with, there were only a handful of apps installed.
“Hmm…….”
For modern people, a phone is something they never let leave their body for even a moment. For that, Kang Siwon didn’t look at his phone very often, but in any case, the fact that he’d deliberately placed his phone in this secluded room’s nightstand drawer was suspicious. There was definitely something problematic inside it.
As if to support that speculation, he could feel subtle heat coming from the battery area. It wasn’t significant, but given the circumstances, it was enough to be suspicious.
Ray Jun slowly turned the phone front and back as he thought. If he were the Baeksa Faction, what would he have done to this?
……Was it wiretapping after all?
Location tracking would be useless since this was a heavily guarded place where they couldn’t enter freely, and video transmission would be inefficient in terms of both technology and battery consumption. But if it was wiretapping, it would consume relatively little power and could operate for long periods, so if they just hid it in a discreet place, they could easily extract information.
He was almost certain, but it was worth experimenting to confirm the answer. As if he’d discovered an interesting toy, he raised the corners of his mouth as he fiddled with the phone, then Ray Jun took out his own phone.
He played his phone’s ringtone, then cut it off after 5 seconds.
“Oh. Yeah. It’s me.”
After 3 seconds of silence, he spoke to himself again.
“Yeah. I’m doing well. ……Ah, don’t worry. That matter is almost finished.”
Ray Jun continued speaking as if in conversation with someone.
“The Financial Services Bureau is going to make a move soon. ……Hm? Haha, I didn’t do anything. There’s a funny situation……. Curious?”
For the Baeksa Faction who would be perking up their ears on the other end of the receiver right about now, Ray Jun enunciated clearly.
“One of the directors apparently made a secret deal with the investigation team to save his own skin. He asked to be granted immunity in exchange for handing over all the routes and people involved in tax evasion up until now. He apparently ratted out even the organization that had been acting as a new broker. ……Ah, don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine. What does it matter to me whoever was running black money through the casino? Of course, the COO will have quite a headache though.”
For a scenario made up on the spot, it was pretty good. If this were true, it would be like an atomic bomb dropping on both COO Li Hou and the board of directors. All this time, Li Hou had turned a blind eye to the tax evasion and money laundering the directors were conducting using the chip exchange system, and the board had been running wild under that tacit approval.
Even if it was fiction, it didn’t matter. The Baeksa Faction didn’t have the ability to determine whether this information was true or false anyway. The moment they used this fabricated threat, it would become a real terror that would engulf even the board of directors.
“Mm, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t know which director it is either. I’m looking everywhere, but even I don’t have connections reaching all the way to the Financial Services Bureau. It’s such a huge amount of money involved that the Financial Services Bureau is also moving extremely cautiously……. Right. It’s unfortunate, for me too.”
That voice, as if he were truly regretful, sounded quite convincing even to his own ears. This seemed like enough, so Ray Jun wrapped up the fake call.
“Yeah, okay. Let’s meet again next time. Don’t drink too much, and give my regards to your wife. Contact me anytime if anything comes up.”
As Ray Jun closed his mouth, the room became quiet again. Performing this one-man show in an empty space was both amusing and refreshing for him.
Ray Jun, who acted better than most actors, had deceived countless people with his expressions. But deceiving someone with only his voice was a first. The person who created this opportunity for him was none other than Kang Siwon.
As expected, you’re useful and admirable in many ways, Kang Siwon.
The words he muttered to himself didn’t reach anyone.
* * *
Ju Xiang tore at his hair. His hair had already been noticeably falling out lately, but if he didn’t do at least this, he felt like he’d go crazy from stress.
“Fuck…….”
A few days ago, wiretapping Kang Siwon’s phone had been the start of his misfortune. The information that ‘due to an internal whistleblower among the directors, tax evasion-related information was about to be handed over to the Financial Services Bureau’ had turned the upper levels of the Baeksa Faction upside down in an instant. It meant that the Baeksa Faction’s tax evasion conspiracy would also be exposed.
Manager Park moved hastily. He approached some of the directors they’d been secretly working with and subtly probed, asking ‘Have you had any contact with the Financial Services Bureau?’ Ju Xiang tried to stop Manager Park, persuading him that this would backfire, that now they should rather pretend not to know anything and stay still, but it was no use.
The result was the worst.
The directors turned suspicious eyes toward the Baeksa Faction instead, asking ‘Weren’t you the ones who leaked the information?’ The organization’s reputation was already scraping rock bottom since they had a record of threatening by holding some directors’ weaknesses. To make matters worse, directors who held grudges also joined in, creating an atmosphere that this time they absolutely wouldn’t let the Baeksa Faction off.
While things escalated helplessly, Ju Xiang’s insides were burning up. He had clearly advised against it, but Manager Park, who had ignored that advice, was now pushing all the responsibility onto him. He made impossible demands like ‘Go visit the directors you were managing in person and soothe their anger,’ or ‘Contact the Financial Services Bureau side and find out the exact situation.’ Then he would mercilessly reprimand Ju Xiang for failing to accomplish anything.
“Fuck, I’m just a punching bag.”
Even today, Ju Xiang had been alone in a corner of the empty office, making calls trying to salvage the situation. But as if everyone was deliberately avoiding contact, not a single call connected properly. In the end, Ju Xiang practically threw his phone down on the desk.
“This is fucking shitty, fuck…….”
That’s when his phone rang. Thinking it might be an important call, Ju Xiang hastily picked up his phone, then frowned when he checked the caller.
