Eyes brimming with tears looked up at Ganghyuk desperately. They still hadn’t caught the person who killed his grandfather. The police only repeated that it was difficult because there was no CCTV.
They felt sorry, but that was all. They didn’t actively try to catch the culprit. So Ian hated himself instead of resenting the culprit.
Because everything seemed to be his fault.
Finding the culprit with his own power was impossible. Ian was just an ordinary twenty-year-old guy.
But Ganghyuk was different. He casually spent money that ordinary people would have difficulty earning in a lifetime, and had enough power to rescue Ian from Hongdo.
“Then… can you find the culprit who killed my grandfather too?”
At Ian’s question, Ganghyuk’s eyes sank deeply. He roughly knew how Yeon Cheolho died, but he’d never tried to find the culprit.
He’d considered it an unfortunate accident. Catching the culprit wouldn’t bring the dead Yeon Cheolho back to life, and he thought he’d fully repaid the debt he owed him by rescuing Ian.
“Well. I’ll have to try to know.”
Ganghyuk fiddled with Ian’s hair soaked with cold sweat. Finding a culprit the police couldn’t catch wasn’t easy even for Ganghyuk.
Quite some time had already passed since the accident occurred. Even so, it wasn’t impossible.
“What do you want to do if we find the culprit?”
Yeon Cheolho’s death was a big wound to Ian, enough to make him suffer and shed tears until now. Ganghyuk intended to do as Ian said. What he’d said in the car was sincere.
Yeon Sangmin, Gal Hongdo, and the person who killed Yeon Cheolho too.
He hadn’t particularly lived morally, but even so, he didn’t carelessly stain his hands with people’s blood. Because he thought everything went around and came around.
Still, if Ian wanted, he could bury all three, whether deep underground or in the sea. Ganghyuk had enough power to do so. Enough power to make a few people disappear from this world without much trace.
“…I want to ask why. Why they left my grandfather, who had collapsed injured, as he was. He could have lived enough, but in the end they made him pass away.”
Watching the child who seemed to have difficulty speaking and held his breath in the middle, Ganghyuk just kept stroking his round head without saying much.
“And I want them to be punished. Thinking they’re probably living well somewhere even now makes me so frustrated. I couldn’t even say a proper, guh, goodbye to my grandfather…”
Ian bowed his head, clenching both fists. Large teardrops fell plop plop onto his clenched fists.
The image of the doctor doing CPR on his grandfather while sweating profusely still vividly came to mind. As well as the graph that fluctuated drastically then finally stopped in a straight line with a beep sound.
Even while going about daily life, whenever thoughts of his grandfather came to mind, Ian had to swallow the rising sadness. He’d often forced himself to smile, thinking his grandfather wouldn’t like it if he was sad.
He couldn’t just stay still like this. He should have done something, whether asking Ganghyuk for help or continuing to visit the police station.
“I’ll make them pay for their sins. So stop crying.”
Ganghyuk soothed Ian with rough touches. When his white skin turned red and raw, he pulled him into his arms and patted his back.
“Thank you…”
Burying his head in the broad shoulder, Ian whispered softly. Just thinking about what would have happened without Ganghyuk made his spine chill.
Like Superman.
At the thought that came to him unconsciously, Ian rubbed his tear-stained cheeks and swallowed his snot. But it kept flowing, so when he slightly raised his eyes, Ganghyuk, who had chuckled, brought a tissue and held it to Ian’s nose.
“Blow with a ‘keung’ sound. I don’t know if I’m dating or raising a child.”
“…Executive Director, khheung, will have snot running too if you cry.”
When the embarrassed Ian muttered while blowing his nose, Ganghyuk grabbed and shook his nose without hurting him. He threw the soaked tissue into the trash.
Looking at Ian rubbing his reddened nose, the task of redeveloping Hyoseong-dong suddenly felt bothersome. There was a mountain of things to do while wrestling with Mijung and Geumin Construction.
Having stirred up Geumin Construction over the matter of messing with Ian, troublesome incidents were sporadically erupting.
Currently, the Hyoseong-dong redevelopment was stuck at the project implementation approval processing stage. The amount of bribes fed to officials to process things quickly had been considerable.
The reason approval still hadn’t come through was all because of Mijung and Geumin. They kept approaching officials and putting ideas in their heads.
The power struggle between the Tae siblings also played a part. Since a successor hadn’t been properly decided, Mijung and Geumin kept eyeing them. Judging it was worth competing.
But even that changed when Ganghyuk knocked out Tae Minjae. Tae Minsu was rapidly taking control of Taehyun Group with Ganghyuk’s help. Though the forces led by Tae Minjae and Tae Nayeon were still struggling, it was a problem that would be resolved with time.
Of course, until it was finished, Ganghyuk had to spend busy days without a moment to breathe. Moreover, he’d pushed himself today to spend time with Ian.
Thinking he wouldn’t see this face for a while, for the first time he thought about throwing it all away. He had more than enough money anyway. Even if he didn’t work for the rest of his life, it was enough to feed Ian.
His followers were a bit of a concern, but it would be resolved by giving them money so they could all make a fresh start.
Still, he should finish up to the Hyoseong-dong redevelopment. With this job finished, Ganghyuk planned to settle all the debts he owed Chairman Tae.
“Starting tomorrow, I won’t be able to come home for a while.”
“…Why?”
Ian, who had been wiping his nose with an additional tissue, opened his eyes wide. His finely trembling pupils were as tender as new shoots.
“Because work is busy. I’ll leave Sucheol behind, so get along well.”
“Am I a child?”
“You are a child, obviously. Crying and snotting like this.”
Having nothing to say, Ian slightly pursed his lips. He rolled up the tissue into a ball, fidgeted with it, then gathered courage to ask.
“How long is ‘a while’? Two days? Three days? …Or a week?”
Just not seeing him for one day made him miss him, so thinking about not seeing him for a whole week choked his breath. He was just starting to know the joy of dating. A boyfriend who’s too busy—this is the downside.
If he had much more money than Ganghyuk, he wanted to tell him not to work and rest comfortably by his side, but it was impossible.
“Well. Probably can’t come in for at least three days.”
He had regional business trips scheduled back to back. Since they were to Busan and Ulsan, it would take too much time to go back and forth to Seoul. It was better to handle the work all at once and come back up.
“……Then can we video call? I’ll want to see your face.”
Ian asked, gripping Ganghyuk’s clothes tightly. Exchanging texts and making phone calls wouldn’t be enough.
“Show me how to do it.”
Ganghyuk brought over a nearby phone and held it out to Ian. Ian found his own phone. When he video called Ganghyuk, vibration sounds rang from both phones.
“When I video call Executive Director-nim, this kind of display appears on the screen. You just press this.”
Ian handed the phone to Ganghyuk. Ian’s name and a video icon appeared on the screen. Ian briefly frowned at the saved name that appeared as ‘Yeon Ian’, then pressed the call button.
On the screen appeared Ganghyuk’s expressionless face and Ian’s sullen expression.
“What’s with that face?”
Ganghyuk, making eye contact with Ian on the phone screen, asked. Seeing the face full of dissatisfaction just made him laugh.
Was it really because he was young? His emotions changed swiftly like early autumn weather. Just a moment ago he had been crying saying he was reminded of his grandfather, but now he had the expression of firmly catching a cheating lover.
“I’ll have to change the saved name. I still have you saved as ‘Executive Director-nim’, but we’re dating now. It looks too impersonal.”
Ian, who abruptly ended the call, wiggled his fingers and went into contacts. He quickly changed what was written as ‘Yeon Ian’ to ‘Lover’.
Pleased with the feeling the two characters gave, his sullen expression quickly brightened. On his own phone too, he modified ‘Executive Director-nim’ to ‘Lover’ the same way and saved it.
“Are you satisfied now?”
When Ganghyuk, leaning his elbow on the sofa backrest, asked with narrowed eyes, Ian nodded his head greatly. Though it was really regrettable not to see Ganghyuk for several days, he made an effort to put on a brave expression, thinking that he had changed the saved name to something he liked and could also video call.
