But if there was someone to stop him, the story changed.
At the words that he could escape if he wanted, Ian bit his inner lip. He was curious about what kind of relationship he had with his grandfather that he was helping him.
A suspicious feeling arose that maybe he was just saying this and would send him somewhere else.
“…How do you know my grandfather?”
He asked with courage. If he learned the relationship with his grandfather, he felt he could judge whether to trust Ganghyuk or continue to doubt him.
“Just acquaintances.”
At the insincere answer, Ian’s pupils shook greatly. The indifferent face as if telling him not to ask further crushed the courage he’d barely mustered.
As he just moved his lips wordlessly, Ganghyuk asked what he’d been curious about all along. He’d find out anyway, but he judged it necessary to hear from Ian’s mouth too.
“How did you end up at the club?”
Ian’s face turned deathly pale. My father sold me. Would it have been less miserable if I weren’t his biological child? Sorrowful emotions surged up and his eyes reddened. Thinking he’d hate it if he cried, he clenched both fists tightly and opened his trembling lips.
“…I was sold.”
He barely spat out one sentence, thinking he’d get angry if he didn’t answer. Fortunately, Ganghyuk didn’t ask more. He just grasped Ian’s shoulder with his hand and pushed him toward the bed.
“Rest more. I heard you collapsed because your heart was strained. You’re a bit anemic too. The medicine still has a long way to go before it all goes in.”
Following Ganghyuk’s gaze, Ian looked at the IV pack. As he said, the IV pack was still more than half full.
There were a total of three IV packs connected to his arm. The two small ones had little quantity, but accordingly the speed at which the medicine went in was slow.
‘This place looks incredibly expensive…’
Burying the back of his head in the soft pillow, Ian watched Ganghyuk’s mood. He’d been hospitalized quite a lot, but a private room was a first. But it wasn’t just any private room, it was a good hospital room even among private rooms. It was a place he’d only seen in dramas.
It was burdensome. Because he still didn’t know what kind of person Ganghyuk was or why he was helping him.
He’d learned through his grandfather that there was kindness without price in the world, but after being betrayed by his father and experiencing terrible things from Hongdo, distrust toward adults had formed.
Then a large hand covered Ian’s crown. Swoosh, swish. It was a rough and clumsy touch as if doing it for the first time.
At the unexpected warmth, Ian froze with his shoulders hunched. Because no one except his grandfather had stroked his head like this, it felt strange.
The pheromones, both unfamiliar and not unfamiliar, also made his heart stir. Smelling this scent, one forgotten scene also came to mind. This hand had grasped and shaken his genitals yesterday.
He remembered whimpering at the sensation different from when he touched himself. Ian hung his head low and hid his flushed face. Even so, he couldn’t hide his reddened earlobes and cheeks.
“Discharge will be when your body is all better, so know that. Don’t worry about anything else and just focus on recovering.”
Ganghyuk reassured Ian once more. At those words, strength left Ian’s stiffened shoulders. Feeling that if he stayed next to this person, Hongdo or the club manager really wouldn’t be able to approach, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Ganghyuk, who chuckled, stroked Ian’s head once more then left the hospital room. Alone again in the hospital room, Ian hugged both knees.
The sound of his thumping heart also rang in his ears. There was no pain, and instead heat seeped to his fingertips and toes. Without even a chance to stop it, it was the moment the three-syllable name Tae Ganghyuk became firmly embedded in his chest.
ლ
“Yeon Sangmin. The person who is Yeon Ian’s father. It seems he’s been habitually gambling since his twenties. I think he rode deep-sea fishing vessels a few times to gamble, but his gambling skills are quite good. So it looks like he got thoroughly caught by the sharks. In the end, he incurred quite a debt to Gal Hongdo. It seems that’s why he came to Yeon Cheolho’s building. He would have known that when Yeon Cheolho died, the building with the soup restaurant would naturally be inherited by him.”
Standing beside Ganghyuk, who was slowly turning the pages one by one, Jaehyun added a few words. It was all content in the report, but it was to aid understanding.
When Jaehyun finished his report and fell silent, only the rustling sound echoed in the office. After reading through to the last page, Ganghyuk picked up the cigarette pack on his desk.
As he put a cigarette in his mouth, Jaehyun took out a lighter and lit the end of the white stick. Ganghyuk, who had inhaled the smoke until his cheeks hollowed, looked down at Yeon Sangmin’s photo attached to the report with sunken eyes.
He resembled Ian. Enough to recognize at a glance that they were father and son. Sangmin’s facial lines were a bit thicker, and wrinkles had set in with age, but it was quite a pretty face. The information that he had charmed all the women in the neighborhood when he was young was convincing.
Ganghyuk tapped ash onto Sangmin’s face. The thin paper burned bright red and Yeon Sangmin’s face became distorted.
There were so many trash-like parents in the world. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen a human who would sell their young child to a gambler without a care, but he felt quite disgusted.
“How much was the down payment?”
“100 million won.”
Even before handing Ian over to Gal Hongdo, Sangmin had quickly put the building where the soup restaurant was on the real estate market. Thanks to listing it at a lower price than the surrounding market rate, someone who wanted to buy it appeared immediately.
“Where is he now?”
“It’s not exact, but he seems to be at a house in the Gapyeong area. It’s one of the places Gal Hongdo operates.”
He couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh at the story that as soon as he’d cleared his debt and got money, he crawled back into a gambling den. Those crazed by gambling were originally worse than beasts. Just like his own parents had been.
“Should I send someone?”
Jaehyun subtly asked Ganghyuk’s intention. While investigating Ian’s background, he had only briefly looked into Sangmin’s whereabouts. It wasn’t even certain that he was currently in Gapyeong. If Ganghyuk gave the order, he was planning to immediately send a few subordinates.
“We need to work on this in the middle. Buy it from our side. Much cheaper than the price Yeon Sangmin listed.”
“The soup restaurant building?”
“Yeah.”
“What should we do about the name registration?”
“In my name.”
“Understood.”
“And Yeon Sangmin is……”
Ganghyuk pressed the now-shortened cigarette against what remained of Yeon Sangmin’s face and extinguished it. The eyes that had particularly resembled Ian burned rapidly. Only after the face had completely disappeared did Ganghyuk flick the cigarette butt with his fingertips.
“Pull him into a place connected to us instead of Gal Hongdo. If necessary, keep financing him money too.”
“You’re saying to keep him tied to the gambling den so he can’t move to another place, right?”
“Right.”
Having learned the circumstances of how Ian had appeared at the club auction, Ganghyuk bit down on a newly taken out cigarette without lighting it, chewing it roughly between his teeth.
The kid who had just turned twenty was currently in a very dangerous situation.
Gal Hongdo. Though he’d never encountered him directly, he was a figure who had reached Ganghyuk’s ears several times. They said he swept up cash by running casinos and illegal gambling dens all over the country. He didn’t know he was even doing omega business though.
If Ganghyuk didn’t intervene, Ian would be handed back to Gal Hongdo and passed around to alphas. Then when his commodity value dropped, he’d be sold to lumber dealers.
If he was at least lucky, he might find one wealthy sponsor and clear the debt owed to Gal Hongdo.
“What are you planning to do about Yeon Ian? The club will send people soon. If friction arises with the club, Gal Hongdo’s side will step up.”
Jaehyun, who had been watching Ganghyuk’s face as if lost in thought, subtly opened his lips. It seemed like Ganghyuk was acting out of character because he was interested in Ian.
If that was really the case, he also had to move according to Ganghyuk’s intentions. Gal Hongdo was a dangerous bastard. With the cash he’d raked in like claws, he was filthily entangled with high-ranking figures in politics and business.
