Chapter 55: It’s Not a Bad Fate
Dohyuk, who was returning to his villa with Yeon, received a call midway and was summoned to the police station.
“Where were you from 10 o’clock until the time you reported it?” the detective asked mechanically.
“What’s the intent behind your question?” Dohyuk looked at the detective and asked in return. He had already finished giving his statement earlier about why he went there and what the situation was like when he discovered Kim Yumin’s body and reported it. Yet they had called him back in and were repeating the same questions like a broken record.
“Your claim that you arrived after 11 o’clock is just that—your claim. Is there anyone who can prove it?”
“I was with him. The driver too. We left the Dragon Holdings headquarters around 10:30, so there are many employees who can testify to that.”
Director Choi, who was standing behind Dohyuk, answered on his behalf as Dohyuk had closed his mouth in irritation.
“The estimated time of death is between 10:30 and 11:10. You have no alibi between leaving Dragon Holdings and making the report. You, you’re this person’s secretary, right? How would I know if you didn’t coordinate your stories beforehand?”
The detective was openly treating Dohyuk as a murder suspect.
“I don’t need to say anything more.”
Dohyuk laughed dryly and stood up.
“Find solid evidence and come back with a warrant. Until then, I have nothing to say.”
“Hey, Kang Dohyuk-ssi!”
The detective shouted loudly and jumped to his feet as Dohyuk turned to leave. Dohyuk’s cold gaze landed on the detective.
“Isn’t the presumption of innocence the basic principle until evidence emerges?”
The detective flinched at his voice, which had dropped an octave lower. Despite having dealt with all kinds of criminals in the violent crimes unit, there was something distinctly chilling about this man that made his lips go dry.
“Still, you need to properly complete the statement before leaving…”
“KANG DOHYUK!”
At the thunderous shout, everyone in the police station turned toward the source of the noise.
“You son of a bitch!”
Kang Sunhyuk, who had just entered, rushed straight at Dohyuk and swung his fist. Thwack. Just before it could connect with his face, Dohyuk caught his fist.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing…!”
Before Dohyuk could push him away with a grimace, Sunhyuk tried to knee him in the stomach. Dohyuk quickly released his fist and blocked the knee with both hands, but another fist came flying from the opposite side.
This bastard has completely lost it.
Dohyuk gritted his teeth. With Sunhyuk attacking so desperately, just blocking wasn’t going to work. Dodging the punch, he turned sideways, grabbed Sunhyuk’s arm, and drove into his body. Using Sunhyuk’s own momentum, he threw him, causing him to crash into a chair in front of a desk with a loud clatter.
“Stop it, both of you! What do you think this place is? These people, seriously!”
The detectives stepped in to restrain Sunhyuk as he tried to charge again.
“Let go! I said let go! I’m going to kill that bastard today!”
Sunhyuk struggled wildly with his arms held by the detectives. Dohyuk dusted off his disheveled clothes and glared at Sunhyuk. Murderous intent filled Sunhyuk’s eyes. It felt like he truly intended to kill Kang Dohyuk. Though he’d often sneered and sometimes been violent, he had never before charged with genuine killing intent.
Dohyuk wasn’t unaware of why Sunhyuk was acting this way. Given that the detectives were treating him, the reporter, as a suspect, Sunhyuk would be even more convinced. Plus, he did have reasons to believe so.
Dohyuk’s gaze shifted to Yeon, who was standing next to Director Choi. He gestured with his eyes for Choi to take Yeon out, and though Director Choi immediately understood and told Yeon to leave, Yeon didn’t budge. Dohyuk’s brow furrowed at the thought that he wished Yeon wouldn’t be so stubbornly defiant at times like this.
“Executive Director!”
Lee Seojin, who had arrived late at the police station, was shocked at the chaotic scene and rushed over. He hadn’t expected Dohyuk and Yeon to be at the police station too, and his expression briefly hardened when he spotted them. However, he deliberately turned away from Dohyuk and approached Sunhyuk, who was still being restrained by the detectives.
“Please calm down.”
When Lee Seojin, whom Sunhyuk at least considered his own person, tried to soothe him, Sunhyuk stopped thrashing around, though he was still breathing heavily.
“This is a police station. If you want to have a family quarrel, do it somewhere else!”
One of the detectives stepped forward to reprimand both Dohyuk and Sunhyuk. Seeing the detectives cleaning up the mess on the floor and calming Sunhyuk down, Dohyuk turned to leave.
“Kang Dohyuk-ssi!”
The flustered detective called out, but Dohyuk didn’t even look back. They couldn’t detain him here without evidence anyway.
“We’ll appoint a lawyer and have them contact you.”
Director Choi handed his business card to the detective on Dohyuk’s behalf.
“Come.”
Dohyuk grabbed Yeon’s arm, who was standing there blankly, and pulled him out.
“It wasn’t him.”
Only after they had left the police station did Yeon speak, furrowing his eyebrows.
“What wasn’t?”
“Kang Sunhyuk-ssi. He’s not your bad fate.”
“Well, that’s fortunate.”
Though his response was casual, Dohyuk was also surprised. With his numerous entangled fates, if one threatened his life, he’d never doubted Sunhyuk would be among them. That’s why he had rushed to retrieve Yeon as soon as possible when he heard Sunhyuk had taken him from Muryeong.
If not Sunhyuk, then who?
“Kang Sunhyuk-ssi has a fate as strong as the one entangled with you.”
“It wouldn’t be strange if that guy has a surplus of bad fates too.”
Given how roughly he’d lived, albeit in a different way from Dohyuk, there would be plenty of people holding grudges against Sunhyuk, just as there were against Dohyuk.
“No. Sunhyuk-ssi has only that one bad fate.”
Yeon sank into deep thought, not even noticing that Dohyuk was staring intently at him.
“Despite his rough appearance, Sunhyuk-ssi has a sensitive side inside. So, people who really know him rarely harbor genuine malice toward him. Yet, for there to be a fate with such malice…”
Yeon was about to say that perhaps the bad fates connected to Dohyuk and Sunhyuk might not be coincidental, but he trailed off when he belatedly felt Dohyuk’s gaze.
“Are you saying Sunhyuk is better than me right now?”
Yeon stared blankly, wondering what he meant. For some reason, Dohyuk seemed in a worse mood than usual. Perhaps it was natural to be upset after being treated like a murderer at the police station.
Dohyuk exhaled sharply, his face filling with irritation.
“Why…?”
“Shut up.”
Yeon’s expression hardened at the contradictory demand, especially since Dohyuk had previously complained when he didn’t speak.
“It’s more unpleasant than I expected to hear you comparing me to another man. So shut up and stay quiet. I don’t know what I might do.”
Yeon looked up at Dohyuk with tight lips. It didn’t seem like he was upset about being mistaken for a murderer. So is it because of me? Though the situation wasn’t entirely convincing, he decided it was better not to continue clashing with him and was about to turn his head away when Dohyuk reached out and grabbed his chin.
“Don’t look away first.”
Strength entered Yeon’s eyes as he wondered what kind of unreasonableness this was.
“Don’t be the first to avoid me before I give you permission.”
“Look only at me. Only I should be enough to fill your eyes.”
Dohyuk’s voice overlapped with a voice from deep within his memories. A bitter smile threatened to escape at words that were similar yet different, different yet ultimately carrying the same meaning.
***
After Dohyuk’s group had left, Sunhyuk remained with Lee Seojin, listening to the detective’s explanation.
“There’s CCTV installed at the house. We should be able to identify the culprit by checking that.”
Lee Seojin stepped forward to explain. He couldn’t believe that Kang Dohyuk had killed Kim Yumin. Dohyuk would have visited Sunhyuk’s house to find Yeon. So he would have discovered Kim Yumin’s body. But he didn’t think Dohyuk had killed her.
Dohyuk had no reason to kill Kim Yumin. Seojin knew that Dohyuk didn’t always use righteous and clean methods, but there was always a reason for his actions. If it didn’t benefit him or Dragon Holdings, he would never create unnecessary noise.
Even if he went to find Yeon, there was no reason to kill Kim Yumin. Unless Yeon had been there and Kim Yumin had refused to hand him over, resulting in a physical altercation. But Yeon wasn’t even there to begin with. So Dohyuk must have arrived at Sunhyuk’s house after someone had already murdered Kim Yumin.
“Are you talking about this?”
The detective showed that he had already checked the CCTV camera mounted above the front gate and had removed the memory. However, there was no recording from around 10:30, when the incident was expected to have occurred. The detectives said the CCTV wasn’t working when they removed the memory either. Upon looking around, they found that the CCTV connection wire had been cleanly cut with a sharp knife.
“That’s why we can’t verify Kang Dohyuk-ssi’s claim that he arrived after 11 o’clock.”
“Managing Director Kang Dohyuk’s car should have a black box. Have you checked that?”
“Ah.”
The detective nodded. Initially, they had only considered him a simple reporter and had let him go after a brief questioning. It was only after what Sunhyuk had said outside the morgue that they elevated him to a suspect, so they hadn’t checked that far yet.
Lee Seojin took a deep breath. Just by checking the black box, they could track Dohyuk’s movements, which would provide his alibi. The problem was…
He turned to look at Sunhyuk, who was sitting in a chair in one corner of the police station, saying the detective’s explanations weren’t registering at all. Unlike earlier when he was causing a disturbance, he now had a hollow expression as if he’d lost everything in the world. Seeing his reddened eyes, Seojin’s heart ached.
It all felt like his fault. It seemed as if Sunhyuk’s mother had been murdered because he had left Yeon’s phone at Sunhyuk’s house. Rationally thinking, it had nothing to do with the phone. If Kim Yumin had been killed because of the phone, the culprit should have been Dohyuk. Since Dohyuk couldn’t be the culprit, this horrific incident hadn’t happened because the phone was there.
Still, he felt uneasy. It felt as if an innocent person had been sacrificed due to his wrong choice, and it was like a heavy stone was placed on his heart.
“Executive Director…”
As he approached and called out, Sunhyuk slowly raised his head.
“I’m sorry.”
As he said those words, something hot welled up from his throat. In an instant, his eyelids stung, and his eyes reddened.
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
Sunhyuk waved his hand dismissively. Still, Lee Seojin couldn’t raise his head. It all seemed like his fault—having been Dohyuk’s spy and monitoring Sunhyuk for a long time, trying to use Sunhyuk to reveal Yeon’s identity out of his own greed, and ultimately, the murder of Sunhyuk’s mother.
