Looking carefully, there was even a small kitchen, and he could see a door that seemed to lead to a bathroom. But there was no one besides Ian. In the hospital room where only the sound of his own breathing echoed, Ian swallowed dry saliva.
His memories had been spotty since he took the pill. He remembered being held by the man who had come to his grandfather’s funeral home and getting in a car, but after that it was close to a blackout.
He vaguely remembered his body heating up, but that was all. No matter how much he wracked his brain about why he’d ended up at the hospital, nothing came to mind.
Confirming that he was wearing a patient gown instead of the slip that was too embarrassing to call clothing, he felt a faint sense of relief. Though he still couldn’t grasp the situation, he realized he had escaped from the club.
Ian hesitantly sat up from his position. Not only was his head stuffy as if filled with fog, but his whole body had no strength.
He raised his hand and touched the part where his heart was. Thump thump. One more memory came to mind at his normally beating heart.
He had definitely been lying on a bed with subtle lighting shining down. When he was intoxicated by sensations too embarrassing to describe, his chest suddenly hurt.
Then did that man bring him to the hospital?
The chest pain was like a guest that visited whenever he forgot about it, but the pain he felt this time was quite severe. Just like that day.
As memories naturally arose of the day his grandfather passed away, Ian clutched the blanket.
His eyes were about to redden again, so he inhaled deeply enough to make a sniffling sound. This wasn’t the time for this. From the circumstances, it seemed Ganghyuk had bought him from the club, but the problem was that Ian didn’t know him.
Since he’d visited the funeral home, he seemed like someone his grandfather knew. But the age difference between the two was like that between grandfather and grandson. He couldn’t get a sense of how they’d known each other at all.
Both the amount he’d given as condolence money and helping him this time. The atmosphere the man gave off was unusual, which added to his anxiety about trusting him blindly.
Moreover, when he came to the funeral home, hadn’t he brought along a large group of big men? Though he didn’t know well, the man also seemed to work in the underworld.
It wasn’t the low-quality thug atmosphere that flowed from Hongdo or the club manager, but rather he gave off a more dangerous feeling than them. Besides, Ganghyuk had only bought Ian for one day. That meant in a little while, he’d return to the club and be sold to another alpha.
Though he didn’t remember exactly, Hongdo had said he’d lent him to the club for a certain period.
In a way, thinking that now was an opportunity to escape, he gathered courage. Ian let out a big breath, got up from the bed, and picked up the IV pack. He brought over a mobile IV stand that was nearby, hung the IV pack, and walked around the hospital room barefoot.
First, he approached the window and examined the scenery outside. Because the hospital room was on quite a high floor, the cars parked below looked as small as toys.
‘Jumping down is impossible.’
The window size was large enough to pass through if he squeezed his body, but the height was the problem. He put off escaping through the window and this time approached the door.
Before opening the door, he held his breath. Thinking someone might be in front of the door, he listened carefully. But as soon as he grabbed the doorknob, footstep sounds came. Startled by the sound getting closer, he removed his hand from the knob.
Frightened, Ian looked around. He saw a door presumed to be the bathroom. He thought it would be better to make an excuse that he got up because he wanted to use the toilet.
Unlike his urgent heart, he had no strength in his body and was walking slowly like a turtle when the door opened behind him.
“Hello.”
The voice that seemed to sweep the floor wasn’t unfamiliar. Cold sweat formed on Ian’s palm gripping the IV stand pole.
Ian looked yearningly at the door he couldn’t reach even if he stretched out his arm. The silence following the greeting pressed down on his shoulders.
The footsteps that had paused for a moment approached with thudding sounds. At the touch grasping his shoulder, Ian flinched and trembled.
“Eek!”
“Why are you so startled? Were you trying to run away? With this body?”
At the voice tinged with amusement, Ian quickly shook his head. Just being in the same space as the man intimidated him.
Even though he wasn’t particularly threatening him, the sense of intimidation was severe. The voice also came from far above. The hand grasping his shoulder was large enough to crush Ian’s face at once and had strong grip strength.
“You seem to have regained some energy.”
Ganghyuk released the shoulder of Ian, who was trembling. He was used to the reactions of people who feared him.
The connection he thought would end with the funeral home had continued again. What should he do? In fact, Ganghyuk didn’t have time to act leisurely like this.
Chairman Tae of Taehyun Construction, whom he served, had suddenly collapsed. Currently in a state where he hadn’t even regained consciousness, he was barely breathing while relying on an oxygen respirator.
Because Chairman Tae had collapsed without properly designating a successor to lead the company after him, Taehyun Group was currently like a bowstring about to snap.
Chairman Tae had a total of three children. Two sons and one daughter—the man who had called Ganghyuk out to the club was Tae Minjae, Chairman Tae’s second son. He currently held the position of vice president at Taehyun Construction, liked entertainment, and enjoyed drugs that couldn’t be distributed on the market.
Since Ganghyuk had played the role of Chairman Tae’s right-hand man, all three of Chairman Tae’s children were currently keeping him in check. While wanting to pull him to their side, because Ganghyuk was someone who was so loyal to Chairman Tae, they couldn’t openly touch him and only watched.
To become allies risked being devoured instead, and to make an enemy he was too dangerous a person. That was Ganghyuk’s current position.
After Chairman Tae collapsed, the three people were focused on creating factions within the group rather than company work, wary of each other. Thanks to that, Ganghyuk was working while even reducing his sleep time.
Last night, he hadn’t slept a wink while looking after Ian. Suddenly, this time felt inefficient. His stiff eyelids induced a headache.
“Do you want to go home when your condition improves?”
In fact, Ganghyuk hadn’t decided what to do with Ian. Keeping him by his side seemed dangerous, but sending him home, the circumstances of how he ended up at the club auction bothered him. Above all, he hadn’t even completely taken him out yet and had only paid for one day’s time.
Jaehyun was looking into Ian, but he hadn’t received the documents yet. The report would probably come up around this evening.
There was no way Yeon Cheolho would have gambled or used loan sharks. Or not. Since he was such a meddlesome person, he might have borrowed to help someone.
If not that…
Ganghyuk’s gaze headed to Ian’s chest. Though hidden by the patient gown, there was clearly a trace of major surgery on Ian’s chest. Director Kim had also said he must have received heart surgery. This time too, he’d collapsed because of his heart.
The money earned from running a small soup restaurant was obvious. Yeon Cheolho had even freely given out free rice to hungry people. Hadn’t he himself grown up receiving that grace when he was young?
Since he was a person without greed for money, there was sufficient possibility he’d used loan sharks when Ian suddenly needed surgery. Because he was someone who took care of his only grandson with utmost devotion.
Whatever the reason Ian was sold to the club, if he wanted to go home, he intended to save him.
“…Is that possible? Can I really escape?”
“If you want.”
A blunt answer returned to the trembling voice as if he couldn’t believe it.
‘…Can I trust him?’
Ian clasped both hands beaded with cold sweat. He’d already been sold to Hongdo. While receiving terrible training from him, he’d realized he could never escape from him alone.
Locked in a basement with nothing, starving, being beaten, being sexually abused by Hongdo—his will to escape was rapidly worn away.
He’d mustered the courage to escape briefly just now, but thinking carefully, even if he ran away, he might quickly be caught by Hongdo and suffer worse.
