Kill Your X Chapter 81

An unprecedented incident, nicknamed the Song Jeonggun Gate, shook the Republic of Korea.

The X-files data spread rapidly through a dark web based on overseas servers. The higher-ups in the government tried to intervene, but it was in vain. When they blocked one thing, two or three new corruption cases would pop up as if to mock them, and in the meantime, the information was shared unfiltered on various websites and open messenger rooms. The charges were diverse, from simple bribery to murder. The public was greatly shocked because the perpetrator was none other than the incumbent Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner.

[This is a news bulletin. It has been newly revealed through investigation that two of the victims found as skeletal remains on Ujeongsan Mountain were individuals connected to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Song Jeonggun’s personnel-related corruption. It is expected to cause a significant stir as another victim, known to be a foreigner, was from a prostitution establishment and was found to have been a minor at the time of her murder.]

Once their father was identified as the culprit, the seven victims, who had seemed to have no connection to each other, finally approached the truth. There were people like Detective Kang and Detective Choi who suffered consequences for actively stepping forward, but there were also cases where people were silenced simply for knowing about the father’s crimes. The cold case of the missing persons was thus closed after more than a decade.

My father denied all charges. He raised his voice, claiming he had no such memory and that all the evidence was fabricated, but there was no way anyone would listen. To make matters worse, the fact that he had bribed someone to forge my psychiatric evaluation results was additionally revealed, causing the credibility of his claims to hit rock bottom. The public’s mockery that the psychopath was him, not his son, was an added bonus.

One more thing, at first, I thought the news had intentionally edited the video due to its graphic nature, but after looking it up separately, I found that the scene of me being stabbed with a knife was completely edited out of that day’s video. What the video contained was the scene of my father assaulting me and throwing me into a pit. My wounds weren’t clearly visible because it was dark.

If the person who leaked the video was a third party like a hacker, there would have been no reason to do so, but if only that specific scene was cut out, I could easily guess the reason. It was to perfectly support the testimony I gave at the police station. As far as I know, there is only one person who would go through such a troublesome act in a situation where every second counts.

“Seo Seunghan!”

He was finally cleared of all false charges. As soon as I saw him coming out of the detention center, I ran to him in one breath and hugged him. As soon as I smelled his familiar scent, tears poured down.

“Heuk, heoeong….”

After holding each other on the street for a long while, Seo Seunghan half-carried me to the car. There were so many things I wanted to say when I saw him again, but I couldn’t because tears welled up every time I tried to open my mouth. Staining his clothes, I cried sorrowfully like a child. At that moment, I really had no thought of keeping up appearances.

“Sunbae. Were you very scared?”

“Hic. You bastard. How could you do this to me.”

“That’s why I told you not to worry. That I wouldn’t let you get hurt.”

At those words, I cried even harder. It wasn’t because I was afraid of my body getting hurt, of something as trivial as that.

“In case I… hic, I might never see you again, that, that was what I was so….”

I couldn’t finish the sentence, but it seemed my true feelings were conveyed. Seo Seunghan gently kissed the top of my head. The hardships of the past melted away with each breath he took in and out.

He said affectionately.

“Sunbae’s scent.”

“Hic, I’m going to wash up when I get home.”

“I said it because I like it.”

My tears showed no sign of stopping, so he took the wheel instead of me. Even though I was sitting right next to him, I held onto his hand like a lifeline the entire car ride. My heart swelled with the warmth transmitted through his skin. The pulse I felt from his wrist was so precious.

We drove for a long time, leaving the metropolitan area behind. Our destination was Seo Seunghan’s villa, the most secluded of all the bases he owned. To put it nicely, it was tranquil; to put it badly, all surrounding amenities were nonexistent. Still, it seemed suitable for avoiding people’s eyes.

We were both in desperate need of rest, but there was still work to be done. Before I could grill Seo Seunghan about the X-files leak, a man came to see him. It was not long after we arrived at the villa.

“Mr. Gyujin. It’s been a while.”

My eyes widened to their limit at the unexpected visitor. Seeing me unable to say anything, he smiled awkwardly.

“I know enough about the situation to not offer the usual greeting of ‘Have you been well?’…. But please know that I did try to help you, Mr. Gyujin, in my own way.”

The hidden helper in this case, the person who had come to see Seo Seunghan on the day I ran into CEO Kang, was none other than the manager of Club Jerome.

It wasn’t strange that they knew each other, since Seo Seunghan had acquired the entire club at one point, but now it seemed they were entangled in matters beyond business.

“Oh my god. Since when have you two been in contact? Don’t tell me it was from the time Seunghan came to see me after ten years….”

“In terms of timing, it was much earlier than that,” the manager replied. I looked up at Seo Seunghan to hear a more specific explanation. I don’t know how he interpreted my gaze, but he said something that was rather off-topic.

“I think I’ve said this before. Sunbae, you told me not to visit or contact you directly for ten years. If you didn’t want me to have someone else watch you, you should have added that condition too.”

“Hey. Are you serious right now?”

My voice grew louder in disbelief. Not even a few hours had passed since our tearful reunion, but Seo Seunghan was the same as ever.

“Mr. Gyujin. I know you’re upset about being deceived, but please don’t be too hard on the boss. He only told me to report when something important happened, he didn’t ask me to monitor your every move. In fact, even when you were meeting various people at Jerome, Mr. Gyujin, the boss didn’t really try to stop you.”

He said that at first, he had assigned the manager simply to keep an eye on me. But then, as things started to take an unusual turn, Seo Seunghan called him one day and made a separate request.

“So I collected video evidence focusing on the people around you, Mr. Gyujin, rather than you yourself. Just in case something happened. I was under orders to make sure no one could say any nonsense about you, anywhere, anytime.”

“Then did you film Ma Yubin’s video too, manager?”

“Yes. That’s my work.”

The video exposing Ma Yubin’s true nature currently has an impact comparable to my father’s case. It was also the decisive clue that allowed Seo Seunghan to be cleared of false charges.

The X-files contained numerous videos that revealed Ma Yubin was the actual mastermind behind the mutant gambling incident. Among them, the footage shot at Jerome became irrefutable proof.

‘Let those worthless bastards run wild. As long as my honey has my back, Song Jeonggun is bound to win anyway, you know? Still, I’m gonna lay low and not throw parties for a while. Hah, fuck. I’m so bored already. I want to hole up somewhere nice and do some drugs, who has the new stuff that just came in?’

His vulgar speech and behavior were compared to his demeanor in the documentary that aired the day before his confirmation hearing, making Ma Yubin look even more ridiculous.

The fact that he was a close aide to a director of the Kumto Gang and had sold his body in the past. That he frequently did drugs and held orgies, and had exploited rookie actors using his connections in the entertainment industry as leverage. And most importantly, that on the night in question, he had neglected a rookie actor who was having a seizure from a drug overdose, leading to his death.

Just as he had artificially risen to top-stardom, his fall was equally dramatic.

“Ma Yubin deserves what he got. You have no idea how much trouble he caused me while I worked there.”

The manager shook his head as if he was fed up. It was a refreshing sight, as I had only seen him treat customers politely as a regular. His workplace may have been a club, but he was just an ordinary working man, it seemed.

Seo Seunghan handed the manager several items, including a bankbook and a pile of documents. Pleasantries like “good work” or “thank you” were naturally omitted. Nevertheless, the manager looked extremely pleased after seeing the amount in the bankbook.

Pulling his hat down further, he said.

“From now on, it’ll be hard to see each other unless it’s by chance.”

“Manager, are you quitting for good?”

“That’s the plan. I don’t know when Jerome will reopen, and my own life is too precious to get my feet any deeper in this. I’ve seen too many ugly things I shouldn’t have while working in this field.”

The manager flashed me one last business smile.

“Well then, Boss, Mr. Gyujin, take care.”

After he left, we had a late meal. Seo Seunghan ate the boxed lunch we had bought on the way here with relish. I, on the other hand, only had a few spoonfuls before I started interrogating him. I couldn’t eat because I was too curious.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner that the Jerome manager was helping us? You could have easily tipped me off when I visited you with the lawyer.”

Seo Seunghan replied while picking up a donggeurangttaeng.

“Because I couldn’t be sure the plan would succeed. He’s not originally involved in this world; the manager is basically just a civilian. Pitting him against the mafia was a big risk for me too.”

From his additional explanation, I learned one more surprising fact. CEO Kang had said Seo Seunghan’s trail was picked up because of the phone he kept exclusively for contacting me, but he had figured out he was being tracked long ago. He had actually used that to his advantage.

“So when you were on the phone with me, all that talk about what you were going to do tomorrow, who you were going to meet, that was all lies?”

“It was a bit of truth mixed with lies. For example, saying I would negotiate with the Russian mafia tomorrow afternoon when it had actually ended the day before yesterday.”

“That’s what you call a lie.”

CEO Kang’s words, that it was strange how a seasoned gangster like Seo Seunghan, who had been through thick and thin, couldn’t prevent a simple wiretap, finally made sense.

“It all worked out in the end, didn’t it? Are you still upset?”

He then hesitated with his chopsticks. With a strangely empty expression, I looked down and saw that he had finished all his side dishes while there was still some rice left. I pushed my lunch box toward him, telling him to eat more, but Seo Seunghan steadfastly refused and stubbornly ate his plain rice. Does he eat a lot of side dishes with each spoonful? I almost laughed because it was cute, but I barely held myself together.

I moved my share of the side dishes to his lunch box with my own hands and continued speaking.

“There’s something I don’t understand. According to you, the negotiations with the mafia went well without any hitches, right? Then why did you let yourself get caught by the police so meekly?”

“I heard Sunbae was with the boss, so I went to check because I was worried.”

For about three seconds, I contemplated taking back the donggeurangttaeng I had given him because of his ridiculous reason.

“What I just said was a joke, but anyway, getting caught was within my expectations. I needed to finally confirm how the Kumto Gang and Sunbae’s father would react. The Kumto Gang’s passive response was one thing, but Sunbae’s actions and Song Jeonggun’s handling of the situation afterward were variables.”

Seeing the question mark appear over my face, Seo Seunghan continued his explanation.

“I’ve said it a few times, but I didn’t want to hurt you, Sunbae. Even if a situation like that arose, I wanted to minimize the damage, and that includes your family, Sunbae.”

His words, that his goal was to cleanly get rid of only the Kumto Gang, came to mind just in time.