“Do you know what my father is doing now, by any chance?”
His father had put up the building with the soup restaurant, and Ganghyuk had bought that building. Though he might have had a subordinate do it, the two might have met when signing the contract.
And Ian had a feeling Ganghyuk knew about his father’s whereabouts.
“Curious?”
As Ian suspected, Ganghyuk was receiving regular reports about Yeon Sangmin. As Ganghyuk had instructed Jaehyun, he was currently parasitizing gambling halls within Ganghyuk’s sphere of influence like a rat running on a wheel.
With the money from selling his son and the soup restaurant building, he practically lived at gambling halls and rode high for a while.
The money he made in one week was a whopping 3 billion won.
Had he left the gambling hall with just that money, his life might have changed, but addicts didn’t know when to stop.
When the excited bastard was spending the money he’d made extravagantly, Jaehyun manipulated a game for Sangmin and subtly drew him in. Not knowing he’d been caught in a trap, he joined a big game where hundreds of millions of won went back and forth at once.
At first he seemed to win a little, but once he started losing, he became penniless within a few days. When the large sum he’d been holding vanished like foam, Yeon Sangmin nearly went crazy.
He still didn’t know Ian had escaped from Hongdo’s grasp. Because Ganghyuk had thoroughly blocked information from flowing to him.
To the bastard sniffing around here and there looking for gambling funds, someone under Jaehyun’s orders lent him money. The collateral was Sangmin’s own body.
Though he hesitated when told to put up his own body as collateral after selling even his son, he soon signed the paper that would send him to ruin and stamped his seal.
And the money borrowed until now was 1 billion won. It was a loan with an annual interest rate exceeding 200%. Though it was a contract with no legal validity, the world Ganghyuk lived in always had fists closer than law.
There were endless ways to extract that money from debtors while evading the law. If he couldn’t repay 50% or more of the principal and interest within a year, Sangmin’s body would become an empty shell.
“…He’s gambling, right? Still.”
Ganghyuk nodded at the voice filled with deep resignation. He didn’t plan to tell him the details. There was no need to needlessly disturb the young kid’s mind.
“He’s someone who sold you for a few pennies. You don’t miss him, surely.”
“It’s not that. Just…”
Ian moistened his dry lips with his tongue before continuing. It was so like Ganghyuk to describe 1 billion won as a few pennies.
But 1 billion won was enough money to kidnap a perfectly fine person, lock them up in a strange place, and treat them like goods. It was also enough money for a father to sell his son.
“I’m still a little scared. On days when you don’t come home, Executive Director, I sometimes think about it. Whether that person or my father might come to the house again. And I’m afraid of what I should do if they drag me to that scary place like that day again. Because if my father keeps gambling, he’ll come looking for me again someday.”
This vicious cycle would probably continue unless one of the two died. When his grandfather was alive, he had been a shield, but now Ian was just a young omega with no guardian except Ganghyuk.
And a dominant male omega at that, perfect for selling somewhere. How many times had he heard he had high commodity value when captured by Hongdo?
Suddenly feeling a nauseating sensation inside his throat, Ian broke out in cold sweat. When he unconsciously scratched down his neck with his fingertips, Ganghyuk grabbed his hand.
“Baby.”
Ganghyuk’s eyes hardened firmly. He realized the trauma remaining in Ian was stronger than he thought. Well, it would be strange for a kid who’d been living normally to recover quickly after experiencing such things.
It hadn’t been long since Yeon Cheolho died either. The sorrow of losing his grandfather, the shock of being kidnapped, even going up on the club stage drugged.
Having experienced one after another things that would each be overwhelming alone, it was admirable that he was living as brightly as he was now.
“What should I do? Whether it’s Gal Hongdo or Yeon Sangmin, I’ll do as you say.”
It wasn’t empty words. Ganghyuk truly intended to do as Ian said. If he asked him to kill them, he would kill them, and if he asked to make them suffer so much they’d wish for death, he intended to do so.
“…I hope they never come looking for me for the rest of my life. Both of them. I just want to think of them as people who don’t exist. So I can forget them all someday.”
“Okay.”
At Ian’s words spoken with courage, Ganghyuk raised his large hand and stroked his head. At the touch reminiscent of his grandfather, Ian soothed his anxiously pounding heart.
Meanwhile, the car arrived at its destination. Jaehyun glanced at them and announced their arrival.
“Executive Director, we’ve arrived at the restaurant.”
Having unintentionally overheard the two’s romantic circumstances, the corners of his mouth speaking trembled unnaturally.
He had seen Ganghyuk meet people before, but acting like this was unfamiliar. He had always been someone who prioritized work.
Sometimes he seemed unable to feel emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, to the point one might think he was a machine.
Especially with omegas, he deliberately didn’t create contact points because of pheromones, so even Ganghyuk’s pheromones now filling the car were unfamiliar.
Ganghyuk was instinctively guarding against Jaehyun. Whenever Ian released even a little pheromone, he covered it seamlessly with his own pheromones.
So Jaehyun wouldn’t sense Ian’s pheromones. As a result, the car currently vibrated with Ganghyuk’s pheromones.
Having always met beta women his own age, it was a bit bewildering to date a young omega with an age gap. If Sucheol had been in this position, it probably would have been incredibly noisy.
Ian’s voice boldly asking if they were really dating still lingered in his ears. He quietly listened to the chattering, and was even ready to grant any request Ian made.
It was very different from the Ganghyuk Jaehyun had known. It was as if he’d become a different person, but when their eyes met, Jaehyun inhaled softly.
…Yet he also seemed the same.
There weren’t many people who could make his nape feel chilly with just a glance. Jaehyun decided to throw away complicated thoughts.
Thinking about it carefully, Ganghyuk had acted unusually toward Ian from when he discovered him at the club. Entering a hotel room with a kid who couldn’t get his head straight from drugs was suspicious from the start.
Buying the soup restaurant building, living with Ian, trying to go home even when heavily drunk, and even returning to the house where Ian was when his condition wasn’t normal because of Tae Minjae.
After that day, the two’s relationship had noticeably changed. Indeed, physical intimacy couldn’t be ignored.
“Wait here.”
“Yes.”
Jaehyun answered concisely to Ganghyuk’s order. Whatever was going on in his head, outwardly Jaehyun’s face was calm.
“Get out.”
Ganghyuk gestured to Ian. Ian bowed his head to Jaehyun and got out of the car. The cool night air cooled his slightly flushed cheeks. Looking around, one building caught his eye.
The building with smooth black ceramic panels and warm wood tones gave the feeling of a modern reinterpretation of traditional Japanese aesthetics.
The lighting flowing from the large glass windows dyed the spot where the car was parked a soft golden color.
“Is this the raw fish restaurant?”
Since he’d brought him here after saying he wanted to eat raw fish, it must be a place that sold raw fish, but the building’s exterior was so splendid it was a bit intimidating.
“It’s where we ate earlier. Come here.”
Ganghyuk extended his hand to Ian. When Ian approached, he wrapped an arm around his waist and led him inside.
“Welcome. What name is the reservation under?”
Past the automatic door, an employee in a uniform mixing white and black greeted them. When Ganghyuk gave his name, she checked the list and showed a friendly smile.
“Your reservation is confirmed. I’ll show you inside.”
Ian put strength into his lips that kept trying to part. This was his first time at such a nice restaurant.
Though he ran a restaurant himself, this place was on a completely different level from a humble soup restaurant. A small garden was laid out along the long corridor.
Even though it was indoors, flower beds were created and planted with various flowers and plants, enough to smell the verdant scent of grass. Small lights were installed at appropriate intervals on the ceiling, creating a somewhat dim atmosphere, but it didn’t feel stuffy.
