Chapter 31
Taylor.
I repeated his name over and over in my head. Taylor Scofield. A black hat hacker living in seclusion in California. A thirty-year-old Caucasian man of German descent. That suspicious man who’d tried to hack my laptop but got hacked instead, who’d shown such excessive curiosity, asking to be kept informed of even the most trivial matters.
Maybe it was someone with the same name. No, impossible. I tried to deny it. How could Taylor possibly know Theo?
Wait—maybe he could. Taylor was a skilled hacker who secretly took on jobs from various prominent figures to make a living. Theo might have been one of his many clients. He was supposedly an executive in the Cenaline Family. A high-ranking one, no less. Who knew how many crimes he’d committed to reach that position? Hacking requests would barely qualify as crimes compared to everything else.
Hyungoh quickly searched for the address on the business card. Where did Taylor say he lived again? Huntington Beach, Orange County, California. WestComfort Hotel. Yes, that was definitely it.
“…It’s not here.”
Hyungoh muttered dejectedly. His fingers were already slippery with sweat.
It really was a suspicious business card. How could it have only a name written on it? No fax number, no email, not even a phone number. Why even bother with a business card at all? Just a name and nothing else.
Just then, Theo emerged from the bathroom, shaking his hair dry. Only a long towel was wrapped around his waist. His hair was so short it dried quickly after just a couple of shakes. Theo had been tilting his head slightly to drain water from his ear when he froze, catching sight of Hyungoh.
“What are you doing?”
Dozens of business cards that Theo had been carrying were scattered chaotically across the bed—cards from his business contacts that he’d been carefully keeping in his wallet.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, but this is one hell of a welcome.”
Theo growled, genuinely angry. Of course he’d be upset—Hyungoh had been rummaging through his wallet without permission. Hyungoh looked back and forth between the cards and Theo, then carefully spoke up.
“Do you… know this person?”
Hyungoh held up a business card in front of Theo’s eyes. Theo grabbed Hyungoh’s wrist as if to ask what this was about, then noticed the name on the card. His face hardened.
“You know this guy?”
“I asked you first.”
“Answer my question first. Do you know him?”
“Theo, this is urgent.”
“I’m the one who’s urgent here, so answer me now!”
Theo’s breathing grew rough with agitation. His reaction was suspicious. The wrist Theo gripped ached. It felt like it would snap with just a little more pressure. What kind of relationship did he have with Taylor? There was a mountain of questions to ask, but calming Theo down seemed to be the priority. Hyungoh answered calmly.
“He’s just a hacker I happened to meet.”
“A hacker?”
“Yes.”
“This guy is a hacker?”
“…You didn’t know?”
Theo’s dilated pupils gradually contracted. His hand, which had been gripping Hyungoh’s wrist tightly, went slack.
After a moment of silence, Theo finally spoke.
“That’s all?”
Is that it? That’s what he was asking. Theo rubbed his head with a frown. I feel just as frustrated as you do. Hyungoh frowned right along with him.
“What else do you want to hear from me?”
Theo couldn’t answer easily. He just turned his head and stared out the window with a serious expression.
“Now you have to tell me too.”
“Tell you what?”
“About Taylor.”
From the looks of it, he didn’t seem to know Taylor was a hacker. That meant Theo wasn’t one of Taylor’s clients. If that wasn’t the case, then how did he know Taylor? Why did he have his business card?
Seeing Hyungoh staring at him intently, Theo spoke as if he had no choice.
“The day before Hunter disappeared, I saw that guy coming out of Hunter’s house.”
“…Who?”
“Taylor Scofield. That guy.”
Theo recalled that time six years ago. It was the day when Hunter, who’d been away from home for several days, finally returned after a long absence. As soon as Theo spotted the familiar sedan through the garage window, he rang the doorbell. Since Hunter usually took his time answering the door, Theo was waiting without much thought when he suddenly noticed another car parked in front of the house.
Hunter rarely brought others to his home. That’s why Theo had been curious when he first met Hyungoh. Who had he brought this time? Could Hyungoh have come back? No, that was impossible. Curious, he knocked on the front door loudly. It soon opened.
A man Theo had never seen before appeared. Dressed in a neat suit with his hair slicked back, he looked completely out of place in Caysenderson City, where all kinds of crimes ran rampant. In short, he looked like an outsider.
Hunter stood beside him, apparently about to see the man off. The man smiled at Theo’s sidelong glance, turned around, and gave Hunter a light hug as he said goodbye. Then he walked across the yard with leisurely steps.
Annoyed at being treated like a ghost by this man, Theo followed him with determined strides. As Theo blocked his path, sarcastically asking how such a noble young master had ended up in such a humble place, the man smiled again. He took out his business card and handed it to Theo, saying he didn’t have time now, but if Theo had any questions, he should call that number. Then he got in his car and disappeared.
Theo stared at the back of the car and glanced down at the business card. Taylor Scofield. White letters on a black background. That was it. The phone number he’d mentioned wasn’t on it.
It was ridiculous. This bastard had a talent for messing with people, just like Herick. No—he might be even more annoying than Herick.
And that prediction turned out to be somewhat accurate. Hunter disappeared the very next day. Theo instinctively felt it must be connected to that man. Taylor. Taylor Scofield.
The only clue I have.
“That guy definitely knows where Hunter is.”
He’d searched persistently for a very long time. But all he found were imposters with the same name, not the man he’d seen that day. Finding him alone seemed impossible.
There were times when he’d thought about asking Herick for help. But he gave up on that. Herick had gotten into a huge fight with Theo as soon as he found out Theo had helped Hyungoh escape. Since that day, neither had ever contacted the other first. Moreover, after officially joining the Cenaline Family, they’d barely kept in touch.
He was still having his subordinates look for him, but the hope of finding him was gradually fading. It would have been good if Hyungoh knew more about the guy. But from what he could tell, even Hyungoh didn’t seem to know much. Perhaps he’d only heard the name a few times as a fellow hacker.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
Hyungoh was sitting in an almost crouched position, gripping his own hair tightly. Theo had thought he was just deep in thought, but seeing the small, painful groans escaping him, he seemed to be in pain.
“Ugh…”
“Are you okay, Hyungoh?”
The two hands pulling at clumps of hair were trembling. My head hurts. Feels like it’s going to split open. Hyungoh bowed his head even deeper.
The headache came suddenly. The shock of hearing from Theo that Taylor was connected to Hunter was momentary, replaced by a tingling sensation like being electrocuted that tormented his mind. Then the floor began spinning around him.
Scratch, scratch—
An unpleasant noise lingered in his ears. He could also hear what sounded like a terrified child’s scream. An auditory hallucination? His vision blurred. I can’t see anything. Hyungoh squeezed his eyes shut. The blackened surroundings gradually took on color. Now visual hallucinations too… Hyungoh shook his head, trying to regain his senses. But contrary to his intention, the cool-toned hallucination only became clearer.
Scratch, scratch, scrape, scrape. A man with a dry expression was carving something onto the back of a child who was writhing in pain.
‘angel’
“Huk…!”
Hyungoh’s body twitched as if waking from a nightmare. Theo grabbed Hyungoh’s shoulders with startled eyes. Why are you suddenly like this? Theo asked. Hyungoh shook his head, exhaling heavily. Cold sweat trickled down his back.
Although the inexplicable auditory and visual hallucinations had subsided, his head continued to throb. Something had been off since earlier. Maybe my brain is broken.
Hyungoh struggled to stand up. He couldn’t waste precious time. Especially not now that he knew Taylor was connected to the missing Hunter.
“What’s wrong with you? Headache?”
“I’m fine, just a little dizzy.”
“It seems like more than just a little.”
“That’s not what’s important right now, Theo.”
The throbbing gradually subsided. Right—this wasn’t what was important now. There was a mountain of problems to solve.
“So what you’re saying is that Taylor might know where my uncle is?”
“Yes. It’s just my intuition, though.”
Theo answered honestly. Intuition, huh. Hyungoh smiled weakly. Better than knowing nothing.
There was no reason to delay. He could no longer communicate with Taylor through his laptop, nor did he have any other means of contact.
If—just if—Theo’s intuition was correct, he could solve more than half of all the questions he had right now.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
Theo asked, quickly supporting the wobbling Hyungoh. Taylor’s excessive interest, questions from the past that had been left to rot, Federico and Jake.
And Michael.
The only person who could explain all these connections was his uncle. Hyungoh, who’d reached the front door with determined steps, flung it open and answered.
“To WestComfort Hotel in Huntington Beach.”
