Chapter 73: One of Two
Kang Sunhyuk didn’t even have time to shout “What the hell are you bastards doing?” The armed men rushed at him.
“Duck!”
Sunhyuk pressed down on Seojin’s head as they both crouched. Seojin was startled by the whooshing sound of a steel pipe passing over their heads. Sunhyuk pushed Seojin behind him. Seeing how they attacked after confirming his name, it seemed like they were only targeting him. As expected, they ignored Seojin completely and focused all their attacks on Sunhyuk.
Clang! The steel pipe that he barely dodged hit the wall behind him with a loud noise. If it had landed properly, it would have broken bones.
“Ha, shit.”
They all had their faces covered, making it impossible to identify them. There wasn’t even time to think about why they were attacking him. As soon as he dodged one, another would charge at him, making him feel that one wrong move could get him killed here.
Thwack! A blunt weapon struck his back, making him dizzy. As he staggered, losing his balance, a steel pipe flew at him, striking his shoulder.
“Executive Director!”
When Seojin tried to step in, Sunhyuk shook his head at him. Even he, who was familiar with fighting, was barely able to dodge—there was no way Seojin, who only ever sat behind a desk, could handle them.
“Call the police instead!”
At his shout, Seojin seemed to understand and quickly pulled out his phone. However, one of the men attacking Sunhyuk immediately noticed and rushed at Seojin. Just as he was about to swing a wooden club, there was a thud, and the attacker flew sideways.
“Managing Director…?”
It was Dohyuk who had kicked away the man trying to attack Seojin. Director Choi could be seen rushing in behind him.
Dohyuk looked around at the men attacking Sunhyuk. The attackers, momentarily frozen by Dohyuk’s sudden appearance, nodded to each other, and two of them rushed at Dohyuk.
“Ah…”
Director Choi came to support the terrified Seojin.
“I need to report…”
Seojin’s phone-holding hand trembled. Director Choi patted the back of Seojin’s hand and nodded toward Kang Dohyuk and Kang Sunhyuk.
Kang Dohyuk was smashing a man’s helmet with his bare hands. Crack! The front of the helmet shattered, and the man fell backward. Without waiting, Dohyuk kicked him in the abdomen. Then another attacker lunged, trying to stab Dohyuk with a knife. Though he quickly turned his body to dodge, avoiding injury, his suit jacket was slightly torn.
Dohyuk’s expression grew even colder as he looked down at his torn clothes. Click—a metallic sound came from his hand, and a black knife appeared. His movement toward the knife-wielding attacker wasn’t even visible. When they blinked, Dohyuk had already thrown the man to the floor and was holding the knife above his heart.
“Stop it!”
The blade that was being pushed down, about to pierce the man’s jacket, stopped at the cry from behind. Yeon, who had arrived late, looked at Dohyuk while catching his breath.
“Huff, I called the police… don’t kill him. Please…”
He tried to stop Dohyuk before he could even catch his breath. Whoo. After exhaling a long breath, Dohyuk withdrew the knife from the man and stood up.
“I wasn’t planning to kill him anyway.”
At least not here. With the parking garage CCTV running and Kang Sunhyuk watching, he wouldn’t kill someone in front of them.
He swallowed the unnecessary explanation and kicked the man, who was cautiously backing away, hard in the abdomen. Ugh! The man made a dull sound and went limp, seeming to have lost consciousness.
Looking around at the fallen men, Dohyuk knelt in front of one who appeared to be conscious and removed his mask. He grabbed the contorted face and forced eye contact.
“Go tell your client that they’ll be seeing me in person soon.”
The man, frozen by the chilling warning, let out a groan when Dohyuk pulled out his knife, then forced himself up. Director Choi immediately made a call somewhere when Dohyuk signaled to him as they watched the man limping out of the parking garage.
“Catch the guy leaving the parking garage now.”
“Why…?”
Yeon was puzzled by Director Choi’s instruction. He didn’t understand why they would let one of the men go only to capture him again, especially when the police would arrive soon.
“Why are you asking? Obviously he wants to torture him personally. If the police check the CCTV, they’ll ask where one of them went, so they’re letting him go from here. They’ll tell the police he escaped.”
Sunhyuk, who had knocked down the men attacking him, answered instead. His clothes and fists were splattered with blood.
“Torture…?”
Yeon turned to Dohyuk in shock.
“Not torture, just trying to find out information directly.”
Director Choi stepped in to make excuses, causing Sunhyuk to snort.
“By the way, who are these bastards? Weren’t they sent by you?”
Sunhyuk asked Dohyuk, who was brushing dust off his suit.
“Why would I do that?”
At the indifferent response, Sunhyuk made a long hmm sound.
“If not you, then who?”
“If your head isn’t just for decoration, think for yourself.”
“I’d like to, but your side made the police report, and you’re even taking one of them away, saying—”
Sunhyuk pointed at Yeon as he answered.
“Are you keeping him by your side all day because you’re worried something might happen? Quite something.”
His tone didn’t seem particularly mocking.
“It’s truly something to see after living so long. Kang Dohyuk creating such an existence.”
He was merely stating facts. At those words, Seojin bowed his head deeply. Director Choi, standing beside them, swallowed a rising sigh.
“Anyway.”
Sunhyuk turned to Dohyuk.
“Thanks. I might have been in trouble without you.”
At this brief acknowledgment, Dohyuk said nothing, just glanced at Sunhyuk’s face before looking away.
Shortly after, the police arrived and took away the rest of the men.
“Are these all of them?”
When the detective asked, Director Choi stepped forward and answered that there was one more who had escaped. The detective looked around and noticed the CCTV on the ceiling.
“I’d like to check that CCTV footage.”
Director Choi directed the detective to the security room at his request. Yeon, knowing that they had deliberately let one man go only to capture him elsewhere, looked at Dohyuk with an anxious expression, wondering if this was alright, but Dohyuk pretended not to notice.
“Is it Kang Chahyuk?”
After things had settled and the police had left, Sunhyuk asked Dohyuk. Dohyuk just met Sunhyuk’s gaze with an expressionless face, neither confirming nor denying.
“I guess you’re not certain yet.”
Even if they were only half-brothers, having grown up together, Sunhyuk could read the answer from Dohyuk’s expression alone.
“I guess you wouldn’t even pretend to listen if I asked for the man you caught?”
Again, Dohyuk remained silent, as if there was no need to answer.
“He might be the same person who killed my mother. So I can’t just wait quietly.”
Sunhyuk’s eyes sharpened. If Dohyuk continued to ignore Sunhyuk and proceed with his own investigation, Sunhyuk was determined to move forward on his own.
“Don’t you think I did it?”
Dohyuk asked in an emotionless tone. Sunhyuk, staring at Dohyuk, snorted.
“You said you didn’t, didn’t you? Besides, making such a flashy mess? That might be my style, but it’s not yours.”
Sunhyuk turned his head away from Dohyuk. Dohyuk followed his gaze and realized he was looking at Seojin.
“Surprising. I thought you’d be raging about killing him immediately.”
When Dohyuk mentioned Seojin, Sunhyuk smiled bitterly.
“How would I know if that bastard did it willingly or was threatened by you? He might be a useless card to you now, but not to me yet.”
Though he attached a needless excuse, he seemed to want to believe that Seojin had been forced by Dohyuk’s threats. As expected, Sunhyuk was soft at crucial moments. Perhaps he couldn’t bear to believe that after losing his mother, even Seojin had betrayed him. Dohyuk turned away, letting him believe what he wanted.
“But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you.”
Sunhyuk added one more remark to Dohyuk’s back.
“I don’t need your forgiveness.”
He answered curtly and walked away. In any case, the relationship between Sunhyuk and himself wouldn’t get better or worse.
“I told you to stay in the car.”
As he got closer to Yeon, Yeon’s gaze moved up to meet his face.
“Being shocked by this kind of thing once a day is enough.”
It was a criticism—there had already been an incident when he was going to the meeting room, and now this had to happen as they were leaving work.
“But how did you know? That Kang Sunhyuk might be attacked.”
Yeon asked.
‘They’re on the move. In the parking garage.’
Director Choi had come in to report while Dohyuk was preparing to leave work.
‘I’ll instruct the security guards to protect them.’
‘No, I’ll go myself. Tell them to just watch unless it’s an extreme emergency. It could look like a brawl if we’re not careful. We can’t afford rumors that would damage the company image.’
Cutting him off by saying they couldn’t risk that right before the Yeouido project, Dohyuk had stood up with a cold expression. He went straight down to the executive-only parking garage, told Yeon not to move from the car, and headed to where Sunhyuk was being attacked.
The executive parking area was narrower than other parking floors, and thanks to that, sounds from outside were clearly audible even inside the car. Anxious about the sounds of fighting, Yeon couldn’t just wait quietly in the car. Worried that something might have happened to Dohyuk, he eventually came out and headed toward the source of the noise.
When he saw men in black clothes with covered faces attacking Kang Dohyuk, it felt like all the blood drained from his body. At first, he only saw Kang Dohyuk. Then, as his senses returned, he noticed Director Choi and Seojin taking cover behind, and Kang Sunhyuk also being attacked by men in black clothes just like Dohyuk.
The moment the phone Dohyuk had forced him to take was in his hand, his body moved before his mind. The time it took to call 112 and report that Kang Dohyuk and Kang Sunhyuk were being attacked in the Dragon Holdings underground parking garage was only about ten seconds.
“Because they failed to kill me.”
Even with Dohyuk’s answer, Yeon didn’t understand and just blinked.
“It was one of two options: either kill me and frame Kang Sunhyuk as the murderer, or kill Kang Sunhyuk and frame me as the murderer.”
“Ah…”
He let out a low groan. Though Dohyuk was saying this terrible thing—that they intended to kill either Sunhyuk or Dohyuk and frame the other as the murderer—his expression remained calm. Could he really be alright when someone harbored such murderous intent toward him? Did this person really think it was okay to live such a life?
“I’m glad.”
That neither of them got hurt, that neither had to become a murderer…
“No. This is just the beginning.”
Yeon’s heart sank the moment he looked at Dohyuk after hearing his cold voice. A frigid blue chill emanated from him as he instructed Director Choi to bring in the captured man.
