His tone was solid as a rock without wavering. In a low voice, but speaking clearly, the words that came from Wookyung’s mouth were conditions Lim Moojin had never expected at all.
“Please protect one of President Park’s omegas.”
*
The rain fell ceaselessly. The rain that had started three days ago showed no sign of thinning as time passed. The streets were completely flooded by the increasingly heavy raindrops.
On the television turned on at low volume in the hospital room, images of flooded streets and stranded people, and cows and pigs floating on violently pouring muddy water continued to flow. Kim Minho, who had been watching the screen languidly, soon turned off the television. The moisture spraying from the humidifier scattered futilely.
Wookyung lay on the white bed. Looking at him sleeping with his eyes closed as if nothing had happened despite boldly carrying out such a big deed, Minho felt somewhat resentful.
His face had become gaunt, making his jawline stand out more. His face with thick, handsome features was hideously scarred. The mark clearly slashed with a knife on his mouth was from that day three days ago.
Choi Wookyung hadn’t said anything to the security team members that day. Not even to him, who got along most closely with him in that organization. Minho, who had been a security team member, followed Wookyung, who was one year older, like a hyung. Even when Minho was guarding President Park that evening and switched shifts with Wookyung that night, he hadn’t noticed any particular signs.
However, that very night, President Park died at Wookyung’s hands.
Under the pillow of the dead President Park were a knife and even a gun loaded with live ammunition. Being inherently suspicious, he probably hadn’t completely trusted even Wookyung, whom he used as his right-hand man. Moreover, by the bedside was even an emergency bell that could summon the entire security team at any time.
Nevertheless, the variable that drove President Park to death that night was Lim Moojin’s betrayal, which President Park hadn’t anticipated. For him who had originally cherished Lim Moojin, it was being caught off guard. Lim Moojin had been plotting to kill him behind the scenes while receiving President Park’s favor. And finally, with Wookyung’s involvement, that plot was completed with Lim Moojin’s victory.
Seeing Wookyung rush at him with a knife in the darkness, President Park immediately reached out and rang the emergency bell. However, since Lim Moojin had tampered with the security team’s radio devices beforehand, no alarm sounded in the security office at that time. At that hour, the security team members were peacefully eating ramen in the duty room.
However, President Park wasn’t someone who would trust only Choi Wookyung and his security team without any precautions.
Having secretly recruited other organization members, President Park had given orders for them to patrol near his room in secret starting from that night when he returned after slashing Wookyung’s face. Following his orders, the organization members who happened to be on patrol heard the screams coming from inside President Park’s room and instantly burst in.
The time of slaughter began inside President Park’s spacious room. The opponents numbered about ten; Wookyung was alone. President Park, who had already been stabbed once by Wookyung’s knife, glared at them while gasping as if his breath would give out.
“What are you doing, you bastards! Kill that Choi Wookyung quickly!”
At President Park’s momentum spewing blood from his throat and making a fuss, the organization members hesitated but charged at Wookyung. Though no one recklessly attacked knowing Wookyung’s usual combat abilities, there were so many that he had to move carefully. Wookyung exhaled roughly and flashed his eyes in the darkness.
Exhilaration danced like a seesaw on his sharply honed nerves. He slammed the organization members who had been his people until yesterday onto the floor one after another as they charged. The men with pipes fell one by one. Breathing heavily with shaking vision, Wookyung counted the number of remaining men. Two, three… just when he thought he could do a bit more.
“Khuk, puhak! Kuk….”
He heard the sound of President Park coughing up blood from behind. Even at a glance, his life force was fading. Wookyung, who gave him a glance, rolled on the floor while dodging a pipe flying at him and picked up a bloody bat rolling on the ground. The bat that rose vigorously cutting through the air struck the head of the man attacking him.
“Kyaaaak!”
The feeling of the skull shattering transmitted through the bat stuck to his hand disgustingly. With a thud and without even being able to scream, the man collapsed. It was the moment he turned around holding the bloody bat.
The door burst open as Lim Moojin and organization members rushed in. As soon as Lim Moojin entered the room, he screamed and pointed at Wookyung’s back with his finger.
“Team Leader Choi! Behind you!”
That was the moment. Receiving the impact of the descending bat fully on the back of his head, Wookyung lost consciousness.
“…If hyung doesn’t wake up like this.”
Minho covered his face with his rough palm along with a harsh sigh.
It was a supposition he didn’t even want to think about, but even if he woke up, the aftermath would be the problem. The boldly committed deed had ultimately succeeded, and anyway, President Park was dead. Executive Director Lim Moojin, who seemed to have been sharpening his knife behind the scenes all along, was proceeding with the process of taking over that position at breakneck speed. If this were a normal company, it would be absurd, but this was an illegal organization rampant with murder and illegality anyway.
Whoever the top boss was didn’t really matter to Kim Minho, who was just a security team member. Under normal circumstances, the remaining forces who had closely guarded President Park would have difficulty surviving safely, but for some reason, Wookyung, who had been the security team leader, had become the ringleader of the incident. Thus, somehow the security team members survived the bloody storm.
For Minho, there was a more troublesome problem than Daneum’s chairman changing.
Wookyung had almost dealt with President Park and the organization members when Lim Moojin burst in, and the situation flowed and concluded exactly as Lim Moojin had intended. After that, following Lim Moojin’s orders, as soon as he returned after hospitalizing Wookyung who had collapsed after being hit in the head with a bat, Minho searched for the omegas’ dormitory first, though his mind was in complete chaos from the turmoil.
“This is… fuck, this makes no sense.”
However, seeing the omegas’ dormitory completely empty as if by arrangement, Minho turned pale. Minho’s footsteps heading to the executive director’s office where Lim Moojin was were already running before he knew it. Gasping until his breath caught in his throat, he spat out.
“Huk, huk, Executive Director Lim… the omegas have all… disappeared!”
“…What?”
For a moment, Executive Director Lim’s eyes sharpened.
“Fuck, does that make sense? Those omegas, I told you to guard them well!”
Lim Moojin’s gaze, grinding while suppressing his anger, turned murderously toward the organization members. His subordinates bowed their heads in unison.
“…We apologize. Actually… the omegas’ dormitory has been empty since an hour ago, so we were patrolling among ourselves looking for them. But seeing that they all disappeared without a trace… it seems… someone from the inside… smuggled them out.”
“Who, to where.”
“…We’re still investigating.”
“Find that rat bastard immediately, and find the omegas too. No, the other guys aren’t necessary, so just find that Yoon Ido guy at least!”
Lim Moojin’s angry command fell on the organization members’ heads like frost.
Thus, in the pouring rain, several organization members began to search thoroughly starting from around Daneum looking for the disappeared omegas. Unluckily, the streetlights were even out due to the torrential rain. With CCTV completely useless, the omegas disappeared leaving as their last trace the sight of being loaded all at once into a van.
During the week that Wookyung didn’t wake up, the search continued, but the omegas’ whereabouts were unclear. Then only this morning could they receive a report from the organization members who had gone out searching for the omegas.
“Executive Director. We couldn’t find those omegas… but we picked up this near the omegas’ dormitory.”
What the organization members held out was a ring that had been lying around in front of Yoon Ido’s dormitory. Wookyung and Minho had entered Daneum at almost the same time, and because he had formed a close relationship with him as soon as they entered, Kim Minho could immediately recognize what that object was. It was the ring Wookyung’s mother had bequeathed as a keepsake.
The moment he saw that ring, Minho could easily guess that Wookyung had given that ring to that omega, and that the omega had dropped the ring on the ground while struggling before being dragged somewhere.
“This is Team Leader Choi Wookyung’s ring. It seems… he had given it to that omega.”
“Fuck… things are getting tangled.”
Lim Moojin roughly swept his hair back.
“I don’t know which bastard did this shit, but….”
“…Executive Director.”
At that moment, his attendant who had come from outside the hospital room holding a phone whispered something in a small voice into Lim Moojin’s ear.
“…Give it here.”
Snatching the phone quickly, Lim Moojin left the room rapidly. Left alone in the executive director’s office, Minho stood idly in the middle of the office.
A small voice could be heard through the slightly open door gap. Killing his footsteps, Minho approached near the open door.
“…So you’re saying our omegas are at Yeodan… on President Kim’s orders….”
Lim Moojin’s low voice could be heard. If it was President Kim, he was the head of the organization ‘Yeodan’ that Wookyung had hit together with President Park a few weeks ago. With sharpened nerves, Minho listened more closely while frowning.
“…Why did you take our omegas without saying anything? No matter how much resentment you had toward President Park, if you had told me first, as I promised….”
While alive, President Park had crushed and ignored President Kim of Yeodan because he had been his subordinate before, but the power of the emerging organization Yeodan actually couldn’t be taken lightly. As soon as the organization was founded, Yeodan had grown significantly using prostitution, and based on that capital, rumors had secretly spread that recently they were even reaching into drug exports.
