Chapter 20: About Muryeong
Yeon silently met his gaze. Dohyuk probably wasn’t asking about Muryeong out of simple curiosity.
“What exactly are you curious about?”
“How you receive requests, how many shamans belong there. Well, various things.”
These were certainly things one would naturally be curious about. In Kang Dohyuk’s case, it made even more sense since he hadn’t directly made the request but met someone from Muryeong through his mother’s request.
“I don’t know how requests are received. I just move as instructed.”
“Instructed? By whom?”
“Muyeong. The leader of Muryeong.”
“Do you not even know how much you receive for your work?”
Dohyuk asked with a disbelieving expression. However, Yeon nodded.
“Ha! I see. So this Muyeong fellow is the real con artist.”
Yeon didn’t particularly seem offended by the disparaging remark about Muyeong. While Muyeong managed and commanded everyone in Muryeong, he also protected them. To those who grew up in Muryeong, he was like a parent, but without the typical affection between parent and child.
He wasn’t sure how others might see it, but Muryeong was definitely a refuge for those born with spiritual abilities who couldn’t adapt to reality. It was true that Muyeong made money using their abilities, but he also guaranteed the livelihood of those belonging to Muryeong and provided them with a place to stay.
People might have different opinions, but Yeon didn’t particularly want anything special from Muryeong or its leader, Muyeong. Since he was very young, he could see the threads connecting people. So he had always seen the thread connecting him and Muyeong as he grew up. As he came to understand the meaning of that color, he naturally stopped hoping for special affection. That’s what it meant to see one’s own fate. It taught him to accept resignation even before experiencing the pain of collision and breaking.
“Since you don’t have an ID card, you obviously don’t have any savings in your name, and needless to say, no credit card. How did you get here?”
“I came to Seoul in a car prepared by Muryeong, and in Seoul, I met someone sent by Cha Seonyoo-ssi and moved with them.”
Listening, Dohyuk raised the corner of his mouth in a smirk. It seemed he was finally getting a clue about Muryeong, which had seemed so ethereal.
“When you go back to Muryeong? Is there a way to contact them?”
From observing for several days, it seemed Yeon didn’t even have a mobile phone.
“If the client contacts Muryeong, they come to pick me up.”
This meant that unless someone contacted them first, Yeon couldn’t contact Muryeong himself to return. No cash, no credit card. On top of that, not even a mobile phone. It really did seem like he had lived completely cut off from the secular world, but these conditions were advantageous to Dohyuk.
“What’s Muryeong’s contact information? I need to know so I can contact them when your work is finished.”
“Cha Seonyoo-ssi would know. Though it’s probably not a direct contact to Muryeong.”
“That means you don’t know either?”
Yeon nodded as if it wasn’t a problem. To Dohyuk, it was truly a strange system. This meant that if a client decided to kill or imprison the shaman, Muryeong wouldn’t know right away.
Or maybe they didn’t need to know. It was a place that dealt in people. They probably already received enough money from clients. Enough big money that it didn’t matter if one shaman died or whatever happened to them.
“Have all those who went out on requests returned safely?”
If his guess was correct, there must be some who hadn’t returned. He was curious how Yeon viewed this fact.
“No.”
Yeon’s answer was calm.
“Aren’t you curious why they don’t return?”
At this probing question, Yeon’s blue eyes turned toward Dohyuk.
“I am someone who sees the connections formed between people. Whether those threads have been completely severed, or connected elsewhere and flown away… I know better than anyone.”
This time, a small sigh escaped. He knows, this guy. Among those who don’t return, who died and everything.
He paused at that thought. At some point, he had been thinking on the premise that Yeon’s ability was real. He still thought Muryeong as a group, especially the so-called leader Muyeong, was a con artist. A bold one who dealt only with precious clients. But among those belonging to it, there might be some with special abilities like Yeon.
It was ridiculous to even consider the possibility. But the guy in front of him complicated Dohyuk’s feelings in many ways, making him reluctant to deny it outright. Even when he tried to dismiss it as nonsense, facing those empty eyes that seemed indifferent made him wonder what process had brought Yeon to that state, and assuming his ability was real sometimes made sense.
“I’ll prepare a mobile phone for you, so carry it with you from tomorrow.”
Yeon doesn’t know Muryeong’s contact information anyway. In that case, it was better to give him a phone. Dohyuk didn’t have the same strange abilities as them. So by attaching a phone, even if Yeon happened to be separated from him, he could find him easily and quickly.
“I don’t need it.”
“I need it. So if you want to stay here, shut up and carry it.”
After giving a blunt answer, he was about to call Director Choi to get a phone activated when his phone rang first. After checking the caller, Dohyuk got up and headed toward the balcony. He nodded to Yeon, indicating he could go in, meaning he had no more business with him.
“Speak.”
He said briefly as soon as he pressed the call button.
[I’m downstairs at your place now. I have something to report.]
His brow furrowed at the reply that the caller had come all the way to his home.
[It’s urgent.]
“Tell Director Choi.”
[Managing Director!]
The other person urgently called him, afraid Dohyuk might just hang up.
[I must tell you in person…]
He hung up without even listening to the end of the person’s words. There was no need to repeat the same thing twice.
Turning around to look inside the living room, Yeon was still sitting on the sofa in the same position. At times like this, he really looked like a doll. His face looked particularly white today. As if he might collapse at any moment…
Dohyuk, who had been watching Yeon, frowned. It was because Yeon’s upper body swayed and then he really did collapse.
“Ha!”
A gasp escaped in disbelief. A person who had remained firm even when Dohyuk threatened him with a knife was now weakly collapsing just as Dohyuk stepped away from his sight. It was incomprehensible why he would collapse when nothing had been done to him.
Leaning obliquely against the balcony, he called Director Choi.
“Lee Seojin says he has something to report. Meet him and receive it. And…”
With his gaze fixed on Yeon, who was not moving as if dead, he opened his mouth.
“Call a doctor.”
*
Kang Chahyuk, who had been sitting in his study organizing business presentation materials until late, stretched his arms high and yawned widely. His whole body ached from doing work he wasn’t used to. Feeling hungry, he came out to the living room looking for something to eat when he heard the beep of the door lock being released from the entrance.
“You’re home?”
Lee Miseon, Kang Chahyuk’s mother, waved at her son as she took off her shoes. She was close to 50, but her appearance was still such that one might believe she was in her 30s. Looking at the heels of the shoes she had taken off, which seemed to be at least 10cm high, Chahyuk inwardly clicked his tongue, thinking she must be in good shape.
“It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
He greeted her casually while taking out a beer can from the refrigerator. Though his mother’s registered residence was this house, she actually stayed at a villa in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province. Literally living freely.
Though not as much as Cha Seonyoo, Chahyuk’s mother was also the child of a well-known mid-sized company that people would recognize by name. Even for a company that was operating stably, there were crises, and at that time, she had been matched with Kang Mansik on the condition of receiving his help.
The reason was similar to Cha Seonyoo’s, but Lee Miseon was very different from Cha Seonyoo. Her parents found accepting Kang Mansik’s conditions humiliating and felt sorry for their daughter, but Lee Miseon thought it wasn’t a bad deal since she wouldn’t be filing for marriage anyway and just needed to bear one child. Instead, she focused on the fact that Kang Mansik would provide financial support for life.
In reality, after giving birth to Kang Chahyuk, she lived doing whatever she wanted while spending Kang Mansik’s money. Kang Mansik knew all about her free, almost dissolute lifestyle, but didn’t restrict her. Since they were no different from legal strangers, he didn’t even pay attention.
The Yangpyeong villa was her harem. Chahyuk also knew about his mother’s private life but didn’t interfere. Since Chahyuk himself was enjoying casual relationships with various people, he was in no position to criticize.
“I came to Seoul on business, but the appointment fell through. I was going to go to a hotel, but this place was closer. Should I have called ahead? You don’t have someone in your room, do you?”
Lee Miseon pointed toward the bedroom and smiled mischievously. Chahyuk indicated his brightly lit study with a gesture.
“Unfortunately, I’m working. The chairman has assigned me a task for once.”
“That old man? To you? Is he getting senile?”
Lee Miseon laughed heartily. She seemed to have no trust in Kang Mansik, but equally no trust in her son.
“Why are you like this? Despite how it looks, I’m doing my part properly.”
Chahyuk offered his mother a beer as well. Click, the sound of the can opening rang cheerfully.
“Why bother trying so hard? Kang Dohyuk will take everything anyway. Just live moderately, without exerting yourself too much.”
It didn’t seem like something a mother should say, but in a way, Lee Miseon was being extremely realistic. As the saying goes, you can tell a promising tree from its sprout, Kang Dohyuk had been incomparable to Kang Sunhyuk or Kang Chahyuk since childhood. It was also thanks to Dohyuk that no one could openly curse Dragon Holdings as a gang of thugs anymore. A graduate of a top-tier university that everyone had to acknowledge, and though his work was cruel, it precariously stayed within the bounds of legality. Moreover, it was fast and certain.
“Don’t dance to the old man’s tune, live within your means.”
Lee Miseon advised her son. She had said similar words even when Kang Mansik had placed both Kang Sunhyuk and Kang Chahyuk in executive positions.
“Well, you never know what will happen, right?”
Chahyuk casually deflected his mother’s words, but she narrowed her eyes as she drank her beer, looking at her son.
“Dreaming is fine, but you won’t live long that way, son.”
At his mother’s concern, Chahyuk smiled and raised his beer can.
“I’m taking care of myself, so don’t worry.”
As if she couldn’t take her son’s words at face value, Lee Miseon’s narrowed eyes didn’t return to normal. Chahyuk, unconcerned, downed his beer.
After all, the one who laughs last is the winner.
The ambition he didn’t reveal even to his mother was swallowed down with the cool beer.
