Chapter 64: Possessiveness
Dohyuk focused on his work, looking at the road monitor, but Yeon remained standing in front of him, staring.
“Do you have something else to discuss?”
“It’s strange.”
At Yeon’s answer, his gaze shifted from the monitor back to Yeon’s face. He stared, waiting for further explanation.
“Today’s events must have been quite shocking for Kang Sunhyuk-ssi. Enough to shake his heart. But I don’t understand why his feelings toward you haven’t changed.”
Sometimes human emotions remained constant, but other times they changed as easily as flipping a palm. Especially when experiencing something shocking, the color of emotions often changed drastically. Yet the thread connecting to Kang Sunhyuk showed no change at all.
“He probably already knew I had planted a spy, so it wasn’t that surprising. Both he and I have seen worse growing up. We’re not at a level to be shocked by something like this.”
“But he hasn’t changed despite thinking you killed his mother.”
Dohyuk let out a small sigh at Yeon’s response.
“Kang Sunhyuk is indeed an idiot.”
Yeon’s expression hardened at the merciless assessment.
“But he’s not a complete fool. He would have heard the police investigation results, and he knows I wouldn’t have killed Kim Yumin just because you weren’t there.”
“Then why…”
“He probably needs someone to vent his anger on.”
Dohyuk answered without a moment’s hesitation. Yeon stared at him blankly. He couldn’t understand what Dohyuk meant by “someone to vent anger on.” Dohyuk didn’t elaborate for the confused Yeon.
With only a one-year age difference between him and Kang Sunhyuk, they were often summoned together by Chairman Kang Mansik. When summoned, they would witness things that normal teenagers could never know and should never know.
The first brutal scene was shocking for both Dohyuk and Kang Sunhyuk. As it repeated, Dohyuk began to watch with detached eyes, but fear of Chairman Kang Mansik became deeply rooted in Sunhyuk. At the same time, Sunhyuk was constantly compared to Dohyuk because of their similar age. Kang Mansik showed no mercy, even to children. Whenever Dohyuk proved his excellence, Mansik would blatantly disrespect Sunhyuk in front of Dohyuk.
Fear of Chairman Kang Mansik and inferiority toward his comparison subject—these things created the current Kang Sunhyuk. Sunhyuk’s desperate hostility toward Dohyuk was the result of seeds planted by Chairman Kang Mansik. Unlike Dohyuk, who entered a top university, Sunhyuk worked as Mansik’s arms and legs after high school graduation. All the cruel deeds Mansik had committed were passed on to Sunhyuk. Whether he wanted it or not, his will didn’t matter.
Although Dohyuk had no sympathy for Sunhyuk, he understood why Sunhyuk disliked him. Dohyuk himself didn’t like Sunhyuk either, so he had simply considered it irrelevant.
After entering Dragon Holdings, Sunhyuk occasionally sent small fry to attack Dohyuk, but he knew very well that such people couldn’t harm Dohyuk. If he really wanted to kill Dohyuk, he should have hired a contract killer like Kang Chahyuk did, or attacked Dohyuk directly himself.
Sunhyuk was half-hearted in everything. He shouted about killing, but he couldn’t harbor enough poison to actually kill Dohyuk. He wasn’t cruel, as most people knew. He only did what Kang Mansik ordered; Sunhyuk never took initiative on his own.
So in the end, Dohyuk considered it merely the “venting” of a weak person. He consistently dismissed Sunhyuk whenever they clashed because he knew him well.
Still, when Yeon talked about evil connections, Dohyuk first thought of Sunhyuk. He was the person with the most definite reason to hate him. But ultimately, when it was revealed he wasn’t the evil connection, Dohyuk once again confirmed that Sunhyuk was a soft person.
“Don’t you need to attend the funeral?”
As the silence lengthened, Yeon changed the subject. Wondering if he was talking about Kim Yumin’s funeral, Dohyuk frowned.
“Director Choi already went, so it’s fine.”
“…”
He expected some cliché nagging like “she’s still your half-brother’s mother,” but Yeon closed his mouth and quietly stared at Dohyuk. He realized for the first time that such a quiet gaze could be more burdensome than nagging.
“She was a kind person.”
Instead of saying “how can you pretend not to know when she’s not a stranger,” Yeon said something unexpected.
“Even to me, whom Kang Sunhyuk brought out of nowhere, she was gentle, treating me like a long-time acquaintance.”
That seemed plausible given her personality. Unlike Dohyuk’s mother who didn’t treat Kim Yumin or Kang Sunhyuk as human beings, Kim Yumin—though she hated Cha Seonyoo—always greeted Dohyuk, Seonyoo’s son, with a smiling face. Each time, Dohyuk thought she was hypocritical.
“And she was a lonely person.”
There was a bitterness in Yeon’s tone.
“How would you know something like that?”
Just as he was about to dismiss it as nonsense, Yeon raised his hand and grabbed something in the air. By now, Dohyuk knew it was one of the threads connected to him.
“Unlike you, Kang Dohyuk-ssi, who has numerous threads connected to you, she had very few connections.”
Yeon recalled Kim Yumin, with whom he had briefly spent time. Her surroundings were truly clean. The threads connected to her could be counted on both hands. That’s how he immediately understood why she was kind to him.
“What about you?”
Dohyuk asked. Yeon reflexively looked around himself at the question. The threads of fate connected to Yeon weren’t that many either. Having always lived within Muryeong and having only temporary relationships with clients, connections often formed but were easily cut off. Because there were so few threads, the red thread wrapped around this hand had always been more vividly visible since childhood.
“That’s an obvious question.”
Dohyuk didn’t ask again, seeming not to need an answer. It was already well known between them that Yeon’s human relationships were limited.
“Do you know what I’m thinking right now?”
When Dohyuk asked again, Yeon shook his head.
“I can’t read minds. No shaman has that ability.”
“That’s a relief. I think you would have been horrified if you knew.”
Though his tone was calm, the disturbing words made Yeon stare at his face intently.
“Your expression says you want to tell me.”
At Yeon’s response, he lifted one corner of his mouth.
“I’ll admit you have good intuition, even if you can’t read minds.”
After saying that, the smile disappeared from Dohyuk’s face. A bright light settled in his eyes as he stared at Yeon.
“I want to cut off all the threads connected to you. Except for me, all of them.”
Yeon met Dohyuk’s gaze without blinking.
“Isn’t it ridiculous? Just having such a thought.”
Dohyuk mocked his own thoughts and rose from his seat. As he narrowed the distance to Yeon, Yeon remained still, meeting his gaze.
“Even though you’re already in front of me, I feel a thirst to possess you. But this emotion doesn’t seem new. It feels like I’ve experienced it before, like I already know it well.”
Coming right up to Yeon, he slightly bent his upper body with his hands in his pockets. This brought their faces even closer.
“I feel a bit crazy thinking like this…”
The distance decreased until Dohyuk’s breath brushed against Yeon’s cheek.
“Do you know? Why I think this way?”
His lips, slightly off-center, moved toward Yeon’s ear. Yeon’s lips felt dry, so he bit them inward.
“Why do I feel like you know everything?”
The quiet voice sent chills down his spine.
“Is it simply because we’re connected by a red thread? No, you know something more.”
Dohyuk straightened his body, moving away from Yeon. Now he could see his face properly again. Dohyuk raised one hand to cup Yeon’s cheek.
“Tell me. What is it?”
“…”
“Yeon.”
At that quiet call, Yeon’s heart felt like it dropped. For a moment, the corner of Dohyuk’s mouth lifted faintly.
***
Though it was well past quitting time, Kang Chahyuk remained seated in his office. After sending all his secretaries home, the rhythmic sound of a pen tapping on the desk echoed in the quiet office. It was quite different from his usual playful expression and easy laughter that he showed in front of Kang Dohyuk or Kang Sunhyuk.
Ding! Breaking the silence, an alarm rang from the computer. Frowning, Chahyuk turned toward the monitor. A messenger notification blinked in the corner of the screen, indicating a new message had arrived. When he moved the mouse to click the notification, a small window popped up.
After reading the message, Chahyuk’s face contorted.
“Fuck… what do you want me to do? That bastard Kang Dohyuk seems to have figured everything out already.”
As he was venting frustrations he couldn’t write in the messenger, another message came in. This time it was an internet link. When he clicked the blue link, an internet window opened with a news article.
“What is this? Hovan Gallery tax investigation? So what…”
The article contained information about Hovan Gallery being subject to a tax investigation due to suspicious fund management, along with a photo of Lee Seoyoung, the representative of Hovan Gallery. It didn’t seem to be a major news item. Although it was dated yesterday, he hadn’t even seen it in the news rankings. He wondered why someone would specifically send him this article.
Ding! The messenger alarm rang once more.
“Kang Dohyuk?”
In the messenger window that had sent the previous link, only the three characters of Kang Dohyuk’s name were written. Chahyuk’s eyes narrowed as he alternated between looking at the internet window with the article and Dohyuk’s name in the messenger.
“She looks familiar…”
Come to think of it, the face of Lee Seoyoung, Hovan Gallery’s representative, was quite familiar. As he searched his memory, Chahyuk made an “ah” sound after a while, as if something had occurred to him. He immediately took out his phone and made a call, and his mother Lee Miseon’s voice, sounding drunk, came through.
“Remember that charity organization or whatever we went to last time? Do you remember the person you introduced me to then?”
[Hmm… who was it… Ah, Lee Seoyoung-ssi!]
Found it! With the name matching exactly with the article, the corners of Chahyuk’s mouth turned up.
