The Smell of Something Fishy – Chapter 11.2

Author: nicotine

Yeonseo must have remembered.

That person, his lover, was always a being who protected his end. I wonder if he himself knew that.

He had to find that.

He absolutely had to find that pretty and destructive storm and hold it in his arms. A past he might have been able to remember if he tried. The kid who stared at him with a flushed face. He couldn’t receive the greeting he had given that kid back in this way.

He was also angry at Yeonseo.

‘How can you always be like that?’

How dare you bid me farewell?

“You really love me terribly….”

The emphasis was on ‘terribly.’ Tae Shinju laughed coldly.

Ah. So you do love me. To the point of giving yourself up for my sake, how dare you.

—I like you.

You, who had been shy.

—Are you thinking about another man in front of me?

Himself, who had been foolish.

If things had gone as planned, at this very hour today, Tae Shinju was scheduled to take over ‘Geumwoong’ from that high place. Although he was originally the heir, he had intended to climb one step higher and look down on everything below.

He had worked hard for this day. The preparations had proceeded without a hitch. He had taken care of Yeonseo, and while cutting back on sleep, he had pushed his body to the limit as ‘Executive Director Tae Shinju.’

President Tae Shinju of Geumwoong Group.

To seize the things he had built up while hiding his claws.

It had been a long time. That was why it felt all the more coincidental.

Why today? The day he confessed the existence of the child to Yeonseo. The day he had intended to take over Geumwoong.

The lips that had smiled with quite a lack of attachment lingered in his mind. Because it was pitiful, because it was pathetic, because he was anxious about the reality he could not immediately reach, he believed it stuck in his eyes all the more, but he was only half right.

It was probably because he didn’t want to acknowledge his stubbornness, which he had pretended not to know and pushed aside. Because in the end, he came to realize it in the way he least wanted to know.

“Young….”

Too young. The childish emotion peculiar to pure things. That stubbornness of simply crying, laughing, and acting as emotions surge is truly infuriating, and lovely.

A good adult would probably rescue that child and then let him go. But he was not a good person, and even less so a kind ‘Hyung.’

How could I let him go?

That pretty thing.

“How audacious.”

Acting like he was meeting me for the first time without a single word about it, even though he remembered everything?

Shameless. It was absurd and outrageous.

Even in the midst of that, his heart crumbled, and he obsessively replayed and traced the corners of the mouth engraved on his retina.

—…Goodbye.

The more he did so, only a smile spreading white remained….

Screech!

Tae Shinju, who had been driving for a while, suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. He couldn’t possibly stay still, so he had driven like a madman, and it was a miracle he hadn’t gotten into an accident. Was this exactly what it felt like to be lost?

“Hoo.”

Perhaps the little kid on that young day was like this too. Not knowing where to go, he must have wandered the streets, searching for the powerless loser.

Calling someone like that a ‘good Hyung.’

It was a harsh winter. For Yeonseo, and for him.

His head, which had been burning up, gradually cooled down. Regardless of the horns honking from behind, Tae Shinju stared blankly at the ceiling of the car.

He recalled his conversation with Tae Hyunwoong. Something he was waiting for had definitely appeared.

Behind the sound of a yapping dog,

[The Uljeong Tollgate is 500 meters ahead. The fee is….]

“…Found it.”

Uljeong City.

It was his grand-uncle’s base of operations.

🕷️

“Uljeong City…. Interesting.”

Now that he knew the destination, all that was left was to depart. Turning the steering wheel, Tae Shinju made a call. To his secretary, who was probably in a state of panic by now.

[Executive Director! Where are you? The police contact, what on earth….]

As expected, he sounded completely out of his wits.

“Secretary Song, I apologize. There is no time to explain the situation. I have to leave my post for an important matter, so please handle things for me. If the police ask, tell them Tae Hyunwoong headed to Uljeong City. He will have an accomplice.”

[Yes? E-Executive Director!]

“Please tell the Chairman he will have a grandchild soon. You can let him listen to the recording of this call. I’m hanging up.”

He got straight to the point and changed the recipient after leaving only the necessary information. The head of the mansion’s security team. As expected, he was silent. It seemed he had been taken down by Tae Hyunwoong. That must be why he lost Park Yeonseo.

“Ha….”

A headache flared up for a different reason. Does this too have to be the same as the past?

“That son of a bitch… I was too nice to him.”

I should have killed him long ago.

He hoped Park Yeonseo would never know the feeling of losing someone and being kidnapped while being protected in a safe place. Moreover, he was a pregnant man carrying a child.

‘If I knew this would happen, should I not have told him?’

He had said there was a high risk of miscarriage since it was early. Yeonseo was highly likely to lose the child because of this incident. The stress was one thing, and various shocks would have hit that body.

‘Is this… a bit bleak?’

He became depressed, which was unlike him. Should he think of it as a normal reaction, since he was mostly not himself whenever Park Yeonseo was involved?

“Baby… you can’t get revenge like this just because I recognized you late.”

A self-deprecating joke slipped out. His mouth felt dry for no reason. There was no way not to condemn himself for being such an idiot.

Idiot bastard. A moron who couldn’t recognize him even when he was right in front of his eyes.

He tapped the steering wheel with his index finger. What he really wanted to tap was Tae Hyunwoong’s head. The urge to grind ‘that thing’ into nothingness with a hammer, a tool, or the front wheel of the car swelled up.

Tae Shinju hated the gangsters who had ruined his life. Nevertheless, seeing the impulse to crush Tae Hyunwoong in their way surge up, he too was undeniably of gangster blood.

Whether he drew blood from Park Yeonseo or saw blood from the baby in his belly, Tae Hyunwoong would die. If possible, he was planning to bury the accomplices as well. Whoever they were, whatever they did.

Whether they were related by blood or not.

‘Could grand-uncle be the accomplice?’

Uljeong New City was where his grand-uncle, who had broken away long ago, had newly established his organization. A good deal of Geumwoong’s black money, extorted from his father for the new city construction lobby, must have gone into it.

The inferiority complex towards his younger brother was there in the background of kidnapping his young nephew and acting cunningly, but the intention to extort lobby funds was the core of it.

In fact, as the city developed and the organization established itself, the frequency of picking fights decreased. In the last few years, there had been no news to speak of. The fact that they did not interact, then and now, remained the same.

For that reason, it was ambiguous to be certain that his grand-uncle was Tae Hyunwoong’s accomplice. What would he gain by helping him? From his position, he would have a lot to lose instead.

When people get older, they are divided into those who become greedy and those who try to protect what they have. His grand-uncle was the latter.

‘No.’

It probably wasn’t his grand-uncle.

Tae Shinju trusted his intuition.

Vrrr—.

Just then, the phone vibrated. It was Baek Heonjae. Tae Shinju connected the call with an uneasy face.

“The conclusion first.”

[I have identified Tae Hyunwoong’s accomplice.]

It was welcome news. No, cancel the welcome part. The fact that he scratched the itch at just the right time was unpleasant.

Baek Heonjae added in a low voice.

[Taesan, Taehyuk.]

“Hahat.”

Tae Shinju ended up laughing out loud. How could blood ties be so tiresome and sickening?

“Taesan, Taehyuk… I see. So they were my cousins.”

He admitted it. They hadn’t even been on his radar. The guys who, like Tae Hyunwoong, had been rotten from the start, must have grown into fine gangsters under the example of their father.

If the cousins had learned their father’s ways, it was highly possible they had helped Tae Hyunwoong after weighing the benefits.

“Hmm… I’ve been hit hard this time.”

How sad.

Baek Heonjae waited silently until Tae Shinju gave his next order.

“Their location.”

[An abandoned factory on the west side of Uljeong City. I’ve sent my guys to pursue them.]

“They weren’t spotted?”

[No. However, their numbers have increased, so we are outnumbered. We will try to hold out until you arrive, Young Master.]

Outnumbered…. If Baek Heonjae mentioned it, the difference must be significant. And holding out should rightly be interpreted as being prepared to take someone’s life or give up one’s own.

“Baek Heonjae.”

[Yes, Young Master.]

Tae Shinju hesitated for a moment. Once he uttered these words, there would be no way to take them back.

“The price for breaking my hand, the price for cutting my finger. Let’s call it even if you bring back Park Yeonseo.”

The hesitation was brief.

[Young Master? Surely….]

Baek Heonjae trailed off, which was rare for him. Tae Shinju smiled bitterly. With this, far from getting rid of the gangsters, he had become someone who had dipped his feet in the world he so despised.

Contrary to his empty heart, his voice was firm.

“Thanks to the shock therapy working perfectly.”

[…Congratulations.]

“What are you congratulating me for. For recovering my memory? Do I look happy to have found the memory of being stupidly taken advantage of?”

[…….]

“For this one thing, should I thank Tae Hyunwoong? Or should I be angry that you, whom I sent to watch that bastard, didn’t do your job properly?”

[It is my fault. I will accept any punishment.]

Of course, you should. If it were the days when he couldn’t remember Park Yeonseo, he would have answered that way.

For the Tae Shinju who existed as Park Yeonseo’s lover, there was neither the time nor the luxury for that.

He took a deep breath again. Strangely, it was hard to breathe.

“…Park Yeonseo.”

[Yes, Young Master.]

“That person, bring him back. Just bring him back. Then I won’t do anything….”

The more he spoke, the more his breath hitched. He felt like an incompetent person swept away by a storm and pushed into the sea.

[…Young Master?]

He couldn’t hear the surrounding sounds. Soon, everything became muffled, and he was enveloped in a sense of floating.

—You have to breathe through your nose.

Had he said that to Yeonseo?

Crazy bastard. Let him choke and die.

🕷️

How long had he been running?

Yeonseo opened his eyes in an unfamiliar place. He had fainted on the way and unintentionally lost track of the route. And when he woke up, it was some abandoned factory. Should I say it’s typical of Tae Hyunwoong…. The sun had set, giving it the atmosphere of a deserted house.

‘He said it was Uljeong City….’

He had only heard the name of the place, but this was his first time visiting. Peeking out the window, the number of people, which had increased in the meantime, were receiving instructions from a bald-headed man. Since the window was closed, he couldn’t hear what was being said.

What was clear was that all of them, standing with their hands behind their backs, were gangsters.

‘Gangsters….’

It was strange where Tae Hyunwoong had ditched all the gangsters who were at least familiar to the eye. Wasn’t he the type to carry them around like a folding screen? It seemed he had put in quite some effort to plot this without that person knowing.

“Get up, you fucker.”

A sharp pain struck his face. As the beating was inflicted again on the spot already swollen from previous slaps, it stung as if the skin had torn.

Son of a bitch….

After cursing inwardly, Yeonseo realized he had thought of a curse for the first time in a long while. At some point, he had stopped cursing at Tae Shinju. I love you, I like you. He was too busy confessing to have time to curse.

‘Did the event go off without a hitch?’

He had said it was an event where he would become the president. Yeonseo didn’t know because Tae Shinju hadn’t mentioned the event in detail, but chewing on Tae Hyunwoong’s bluff, he was once again flabbergasted.

He was going to reveal my existence at a place like that?

The Tae Hyunwoong that Yeonseo judged was not someone who would dare to do such a thing. He insulted and spoke recklessly about Tae Shinju, but compared to him, the fact that he remained at the level of a thug was proof. It still feels like a lie that half of his blood was mixed.

It seemed that an incident between the two that he didn’t know about had set fire to the ass of a horned pony, but whatever the cause of the incident, Yeonseo had not the slightest intention of tarnishing Tae Shinju.

‘…He had a surprised look on his face.’

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t disappointed.

It was just this morning. The moment he realized the existence of the baby. The moment he had tasted a feeling of bliss beyond compare….

Meeting the baby in the morning, and being kidnapped in the evening. They say you can’t know what’s an inch ahead in life, but he felt his own path was rather peculiar.

But he wasn’t disappointed. Life always took one thing when it gave another. It had given him a taste of happiness that was beyond his station, so now the time had come to take it back. That was the law of the world as Yeonseo knew it.

‘I didn’t know we would part like this… but it might be better than watching Mr. Tae Shinju marry someone else.’

Yes. This is a much better ending than that. He hoped to get out of this safely, give birth to the child bravely, and raise this child properly even if he was alone. Just the thought of having to protect the still fragile child made Yeonseo’s heart firm.

The words that he no longer thought of himself as poor.

It wasn’t simply an intention to express a deeper love. Did he guess that he was able to bid farewell because he had such a heart? He didn’t know how he took it, but that wasn’t a sacrifice.

If he were to get hurt and die here in someone’s place, that would be a sacrifice. Yeonseo had hung up the phone to survive somehow while protecting him, because he didn’t know what Tae Hyunwoong, provoked by Tae Shinju, would do.

When an ignorant person acts recklessly, one can receive an irreversible wound from a blind fist. If he were alone, he would have tried to run away, but since he judged that it was impossible, he was prepared to give up flesh that could be hit, like his face or arms, keeping Tae Hyunwoong within a predictable range.

Like his face or arms.

Not from the abdomen down. He wanted to preserve his abdomen and legs if possible.

“Heh… fuck. I can’t believe I’m finally getting to have this.”

Thump.

Yeonseo, dragged into the abandoned factory by his hair, was thrown onto a dirty mattress. A groan was about to escape from the pain that felt like his scalp was being torn, but he bit his lip and held it in.

Tae Hyunwoong’s gaze was strange. It glistened, drenched in excessive excitement as if he was on drugs. It was probably because he was excited about his unexpected success.

The mattress, placed alone in the dusty space, showed signs of being prepared in advance. That was because only it was clean. Around it, several cheap orange lights were placed like candles.

“Do you know? You were mine. You were mine from the beginning.”

When Yeonseo inadvertently backed away, Tae Hyunwoong grabbed Yeonseo’s cheeks with one hand and made him meet his gaze.

“Why. Are you scared? It’s not the first time your pussy has been fucked, so what’s there to be afraid of?”

He lightly snatched Yeonseo’s wrist. Although he was far inferior to Tae Shinju, he was at a level where he could grab both of Yeonseo’s wrists with one hand.

Tae Hyunwoong frowned.

“What kind of man’s wrist is….”

“Let… go, please….”

Yeonseo pleaded. Of course, it had the opposite effect.

“Ha, you fucking bastard.”

He tightened his grip on Yeonseo’s wrist and ground his teeth.

“This… he was fucking this kind of thing all by himself. Huh? Doesn’t that mean he stole what was mine, knowing it?”

“…….”

“Haa… my dear Hyung-nim. Anyway, he grew up spoiled, so he’s just greedy and doesn’t act his age. Isn’t that right?”

Yeonseo held his breath quietly. It was a mystery what he was so upset about. Besides, not only Tae Hyunwoong but also the two people who had been loitering nearby since a while ago were grating on his nerves.

The two bald-headed hulks looked very similar. At a glance, they could be seen as blood-related Hyungje.

While Tae Hyunwoong was giving his speech full of self-pity, they set up what looked like a tripod and a camera near the mattress. Judging by their unhesitating movements, it was clearly a planned incident from the start.

This wasn’t intended to end with just rape.

Tae Hyunwoong came to Yeonseo’s head and brought his face close.

“Someone’s talking and this fucking bitch… Ah— you were looking at that?”

Tae Hyunwoong, who had been spewing curses nervously, grinned.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Our Yeonseo is quick-witted, huh? Today is your debut day. The actors are you and me.”

He cackled.

“Fuck, it might become your posthumous work, but the place and timing are a bit off, huh? But well, what can you do. It’s the first time oppa is using his new dick. It’s clean. It’s a bit of a waste to give it to a slut like you, but what can I do. Even if I’m at a loss, I have to let our Yeonseo, whom I’ve known for a while, have her first time.”

He cackled for a long time as if he found his own words funny, then straightened his squatting knees. He turned around and talked with the two hulks.

In the meantime, Yeonseo assessed his surroundings.

It was night, with the sun having set. The sky, which had been close to navy blue before he fainted, had become completely dark, narrowing his field of vision. Being an abandoned factory, it was an old steel-frame building everywhere, with only a mattress and a few makeshift lights brought in. Aside from its high ceiling, it was a complete eyesore.

“Ah, fuck it, I don’t know! Just shoot it!”

The three men seemed to be in a discussion about the lighting. The gist was that the light was darker than they thought, so the picture they had envisioned wasn’t coming out.

“This impotent bastard. If he’s going to get fucked, he should just get fucked alone. We need to have some insurance, you fucking bastard.”

“Tae Shinju is pitiful too, so pitiful, for being taken down by this idiot.”

“Like they’re so great, those bastards.”

Yeonseo, huddled and holding his breath, blinked. He might not have been good at studying, but he could tell that the three men were ignorant fools. It seemed he could just think of it as there being three Tae Hyunwoongs.

‘Can I get out of here?’

Since the sun has set, the event must be over by now, right?

‘I hope nothing happened….’

Still, he felt a little relieved that he had said a proper goodbye this time.

“Ugh, fuck. I told you to get things ready in advance.”

Just then, Tae Hyunwoong returned, panting, and kicked Yeonseo lightly. Then, he suddenly grinned.

“Right. We don’t necessarily have to film it. If it’s proof, can’t we just show it to them?”

“What did you just say.”

The answer came from another direction. It was one of the bald-headed hulks. Tae Hyunwoong opened his mouth wide and spouted his thoughts.

“We can just make a video call, right? While recording.”

“You think that’ll work? You impotent bastard. What about the selling part?”

“Hey, you keep saying impotent, it makes the impotent guy who’s listening sad, you fucker. Do I give a shit? If we had just gone to my office, it would have been close, there would be equipment, and it would have been comfortable. Why did you have to come all the way here, bother me, and then not even prepare properly? I never thought I’d sympathize with Tae Shinju, for fuck’s sake. You dumbass bastards.”

“Hey, but this bastard.”

Whoosh. When the gangster menacingly raised his brawny arm, Tae Hyunwoong glared at the Hyungje with his long, slanted eyes. They had gathered for the same purpose, but there was no sign of them being on good terms.

It was a relief that his hands weren’t tied, at least. If he just had to escape with his body, it was worth a try.

‘The problem is the gangsters outside….’

They didn’t come inside the abandoned factory but loitered around it. It seemed they were stationed there as a precaution, not knowing what Tae Shinju might do. If they were planning to film a porno, they would need to secure the surroundings.

In short, he needed something to deal with these guys without attracting the attention of the gangsters outside.

Several light bulbs, a mattress… and scattered remains of steel frames. Those were all the tools he could see for now. In the first place, since it was the middle of an abandoned factory, it might be foolish to expect any proper tools.

“Ah, just, I’ll give you another bitch later, so just shine a flashlight or something.”

“You think that’ll work, you crazy bastard? Hey. This won’t do. I’ll hold the camera and film, you film with your phone. Focus on the face and the fucking. You impotent bastard, I’ll see you after this is over.”

“Just try not to piss yourself from this impotent bastard’s fucking. So, is everything settled now?”

Tae Hyunwoong smirked and placed his knee on the mattress. Yeonseo tried hard to push down his agitated heart.

“Hah, fuck. It ended up like this after all. I’m not really into fucking in front of a lot of people… but since you’re the cameraman, I guess I can just pretend you’re not here. Pretty boy, you understand, right?”

For someone conscious of shame, his hand was unhesitating as he undid the front of his pants. A dark reproductive organ was revealed, dangling.

“Ugh…”

The surge of nausea was irresistible. The limp reproductive organ remained in his mind, and Yeonseo hurriedly replayed the image of Tae Shinju’s cock.

A huge cock with bulging veins. A size that couldn’t be grasped with one hand, with thick balls, and a shape that stretched straight without leaning in any direction. The color was darker closer to the root, and the head, on the contrary, was red without any dullness, emitting a very sensual light.

When they were intimate, he often described it as hideous, but in truth, even his cock was handsome, resembling him. Instead of consciously thinking he had become a pervert, Yeonseo internally criticized Tae Hyunwoong. Seeing his pride, which he had lived his whole life thinking he didn’t have, get completely hurt, Tae Hyunwoong was indeed amazing in a certain sense.

“Hehe, why, you bitch. Do you covet oppa’s cock?”

“Dis, disgust… ugh….”

“Fuck, is this bitch crazy.”

The man with a bad habit of hitting people struck Yeonseo. A nosebleed dripped down, as if a mucous membrane had burst.

“Hmph, well. You don’t know anything since you haven’t taken a cock yet. Just try not to piss yourself after you get it, okay?”

A rough hand grabbed Yeonseo’s waist. Having been kidnapped while sleeping, Yeonseo was in his pajamas. Neither his bottoms nor his top were suitable clothes to protect his body.

“Heuh… look at that tender skin.”

The hand that had been kneading Yeonseo’s waist under the hem of his clothes soon crumpled the high-quality silk pajamas and pulled hard to both sides.

“Ugh…!”

The buttons tore off with a ripping sound, revealing white skin. Strictly speaking, it was not in a clean state. Marks that had been made not long ago were abundant all over his body. The marks concentrated on his chest and stomach were clearly from a man’s lips and hands.

The guy who was scanning the reddish love bites and then the waist, bruised in the shape of a hand, had a somewhat dazed expression.

“Wow, this is crazy….”

“How much has that bastard been fucking him. His pussy isn’t going to be loose, is it.”

That would be a problem. One of the Hyungje muttered. The one holding the phone muttered a low curse and then started masturbating, only unzipping his pants.

It was a chaotic scene.

And for Yeonseo, it was an opportunity.

Thwack!

“……!”

Yeonseo folded his legs up to his chest and then used the rebound to kick Tae Hyunwoong’s core.

“Gag…!”

A dry heave came up like a cough. His stomach felt sick. The mushy sensation on the sole of his foot. Moreover, since he was barefoot, it felt like the sole of his foot was rotting.

But he couldn’t stay here holding his foot just because it was disgusting.

Thud.

Tae Hyunwoong collapsed to the floor, unable to even let out a groan. Since he had been kicked with both feet, the impact must have been tremendous.

Even the gangsters flinched at the unexpected situation.

Yeonseo then knocked over all the lights. The cheap stands, which didn’t even have proper protective covers, swayed and fell, shattering completely. Because the lights were right next to the mattress, he was able to act with agility.

As if it had been waiting, darkness fell.

That was the signal. Yeonseo shot up and darted forward.

‘Not outside.’

He judged in an instant. If he went out, the probability of being caught by the gangsters soon was higher than escaping safely. Rather than that, it was better to buy even a little time and strike the leader….

“Get him!”

A cornered human sometimes exhibits surprising strength. A powerful survival instinct became a shield that enveloped Yeonseo. The days spent scraping by at the bottom of his life, constantly worrying about when his body would be taken, had paradoxically sharpened Yeonseo’s survival instinct.

Yeonseo went up the stairs that ran along the wall. The abandoned factory seemed to have been quite prosperous in the past, as it was quite large in scale. The distance between the walls on both sides was far, and the ceiling was barely visible. There were catwalks connecting both sides on each floor, but it was dark, so it was difficult to gauge exactly which floor it was.

When he went up to the next floor, materials that hadn’t been cleared away were tossed about like obstacles.

‘Where do I go?’

Yeonseo’s eyes roamed his surroundings in confusion. He was out of breath. He couldn’t see properly in front of him, obstacles were everywhere, and there were no stairs leading directly up. There was only a catwalk leading in the opposite direction.

Clatter.

“He’s on the upper floor!”

Because of the material of the floor that echoed hollowly when he ran, Yeonseo was discovered while crossing the catwalk. It was a bad situation.

“Gasp, gasp….”

His heart began to tighten. It was a bad sign. Whenever he was under extreme pressure or ran, his chest would tighten severely and he would have trouble breathing, a condition he’d had since he was a child.

“Ah, no….”

He ran while patting his heart. He was scared. The pain from having his hair grabbed by Tae Hyunwoong came to him like a phantom.

Thump thump thump thump!

But he couldn’t stop. The sound of footsteps hitting the floor pushed Yeonseo on. Yeonseo deliberately took deep breaths and ran.

The end of the catwalk. Finally, stairs leading to the upper floor appeared. This time, it was a structure where he had to turn a corner and go up once more to reach it. As the ceiling was that much higher, it felt like he was on the third or fourth floor.

Around the catwalk, steel frame structures crisscrossing the empty space were intricately entangled. It seemed that pulley ropes or hooks for securing heavy objects were occasionally installed between the steel frames. And below the part where they were installed was a wide-open void.

Thump thump thump!

They were coming. The pursuer was rapidly getting closer.

Yeonseo went up the stairs for now. After turning the curve and climbing the rest of the stairs, he stopped with only a couple of steps left.

Just then, a hand that shot out from behind grabbed the collar of his clothes on his back.

“Got—,”

It was precisely that timing. Yeonseo threw his entire arm and shoulder back as far as he could. The loose-fitting silk pajama shirt slipped off smoothly. The man, who had used excessive force to snatch Yeonseo along with the clothes, tumbled down the stairs.

“You, son of a…!”

The problem was what came next.

The rusty iron stairs of the abandoned factory were not a safe structure. He didn’t know what it was like in the past, but now, the balustrade connecting the handrail and the edge of the stairs was wide open. Thin iron bars were sparsely embedded, but even those were far apart, and some were bent or broken, making them as good as non-existent.

The force he had used to try and catch up to Yeonseo’s speed and snatch him at once acted as a rebound.

“Fuck!”

Screeech….

The man, who was instantly pushed over the open railing, managed to grab the edge of the stairs at the last moment. He was suddenly left dangling precariously by just his fingers. With no structure for his feet to touch, it was no different from hanging off a cliff. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t die even if he fell, but it was obvious that something would break.

He struggled to climb onto the railing, spewing thick curses.

“You bastards! Can’t you see a man is fucked?! Shiiiit!”

A scream filled with malice.

Yeonseo snapped back to his senses at the sound and leaped over the few remaining stairs.

“Hoo, hoo!”

Screech screech. The unsettling noise grew more frequent, as if someone was struggling desperately in the air.

Yeonseo was suddenly terrified. He felt like the tenacious gangster would succeed in climbing up and come to get him. After all, anyone, not just a gangster, can do unbelievable things when their life is threatened.

To alleviate such worries, it would be better to firmly stomp on his fingers and make him fall to the floor. But if he did that, he felt that the hand would instead grab his ankle and say ‘let’s die together,’ so Yeonseo chose to run away instead.

“Gasp, gasp….”

It was then that the lower floor became chaotic.

“The hostage ran upstairs, go find him.”

“Yes, Hyung-nim!”

The group of gangsters who had been staying outside. They entered the building.

Swaying, Yeonseo, who had been running all that time, collapsed on the spot. His legs gave out as if he were a game character whose booster item time had run out, returning him to his original state.

‘No way….’

He had wanted to create an escape route before the gangsters rushed in.

It was a wise move for the one remaining member to call his subordinates. If you can’t use fire to find something in a dark place, having more people searching would be a way to save time.

‘What do I do. What do I do….’

He was trembling inside. He thought he could finally catch his breath after dealing with two of them, but the situation only worsened.

Yeonseo barely managed to pull himself up using the railing wall as a handhold. His legs were trembling. It was impossible to run like before.

To make matters worse, the forgotten cold rushed in. Yeonseo was currently barefoot and topless. His half-naked body was stiffening with each passing moment.

He thought.

‘In a situation like this, what would Mr. Tae Shinju do?’

He had a history of being kidnapped and returning countless times. Moreover, he had been on the verge of death with his finger cut off. Although the conclusion was always that he was rescued by others and survived safely, the strength to endure in the meantime must have been entirely his own ability.

‘If it were Hyung….’

If it were Hyung, he would have endured by coming up with all sorts of plans. With words, with the tools around him, even if it meant using his body to ram into them.

‘…Body?’

If the opponent’s numbers are large, couldn’t I just make those numbers useless…?

Yeonseo’s eyes scanned his surroundings. The moment a distant railing at the far end came into his line of sight, a roar that erupted from the lower floor pierced his eardrums.

“Park, Yeonseoooo…!”

It was the resurrected Tae Hyunwoong.

🕷️

Screech!

Near the abandoned factory. Tae Shinju, who had finally reached the designated location, practically threw his car aside and jumped out of the driver’s seat.

The factory, submerged in darkness, was desolate, and its doors were wide open. It was a day when even the moon was hidden by clouds, so the dark interior was hard to see from the outside.

“Park Yeonseo!”

His lover, who had finally been reborn through true love.

Tae Shinju shouted loudly enough for his voice to reach the entire factory. As he took a few steps into the factory, something caught his foot near the entrance.

“What is this….”

Dark human figures. They were gangsters, friend and foe alike, tangled together and passed out. He had said the opponent’s numbers had increased, and indeed, there were quite a few sprawled bodies.

“Yo, ung Mas….”

Among them, further inside. Near the pile of humans, something staggered to its feet.

Tae Shinju frowned. The smell of blood…. It seemed he had been stabbed somewhere, as every place he could glimpse was covered in blood. Unlike his usual ramrod-straight posture, he couldn’t straighten his upper body properly.

Baek Heonjae, in a somewhat stooped posture, reported the current situation.

“Tae, Hyunwoong…, we lost, him. I am sorry.”

An answer he had not expected. Tae Shinju, who had secretly believed that Baek Heonjae would be protecting Park Yeonseo, let out a low groan at the worst-case scenario. He clenched his unknowingly trembling hands.

“…What about the rest, besides Tae Hyunwoong? What happened to Park Yeonseo?”

“The only one who got away is Tae Hyunwoong. The hostage was not in sight when we raided the scene. It seems he is hiding on the upper floor.”

He had said they were outnumbered. If Baek Heonjae mentioned it, the difference in numbers must have been noticeable. To have subdued all those gang members in that situation meant he had dealt with it by pulling in luck beyond his abilities.

He deserved to be praised.

“…….”

His head knew it, but his mouth was stuck and wouldn’t open. He was going crazy with anxiety, worried that something might have happened to Yeonseo.

Park Yeonseo.

In a sense, he was a hopeless case. The kid didn’t know to be scared of people and just approached them, he didn’t know to be scared of the night streets and wandered around, getting caught by thugs time and again,

and he would save people….

Now that all his memories were clear, Tae Shinju smelled the metallic scent of iron from old times in a factory he had never set foot in.

The abandoned factory in the moon village that reeked of iron. The day Yoon Cheolgon had caught him on his way home and taken him hostage, Tae Shinju had been as good as dead.

—Caterpillars should live on pine needles. The one who taught us that was the Chairman, wasn’t it. We’re also at a point of no return.

The man who had smashed his phone after talking to Chairman Tae. The day he had looked at him with particularly strange eyes.

—Just as we are not the Chairman’s brat, you, Young Master, are no longer our brat. This is what that means. If we cut it off cleanly and send it right away, the Chairman can come right away and you can have surgery. You won’t become a cripple, so just close your eyes tight.

And so his little finger was cut off. The severed finger was personally delivered in a freezer box by a gang member. The recipient was Chairman Tae of Geumwoong Group. His father.

And that day, his father ultimately never appeared at the abandoned factory….

It was different from the past days when he had been rescued time and again by sending gang members or bodyguards. Tae Shinju was locked in the abandoned warehouse with a man who was dying from a knife wound to his stomach, without even being able to stop the bleeding from his finger. Disguised as if they had fought each other and died from excessive bleeding.

If he hadn’t met Yeonseo there….

“…….”

His stomach churned.

The complete betrayal of the people he had trusted. After finding out that even his father had abandoned him, his memory must have flown away with that shock as the final blow. And he must have put up a defense mechanism to not trust anyone and not give his heart to anyone.

He suddenly felt lonely. The reality that Yeonseo was not by his side.

It’s strange…. At this time, he should be joking around with him.

And yet, it wasn’t even clear where he was.

This couldn’t be.

This wasn’t how he wanted to realize his feelings.

“…Fuck.”

Tae Shinju chewed on the curse. It was disgusting. This tiresome existence and this repeating cycle.

Himself, who had created the cycle.

Even if there was no such intention, his surroundings always reeked of betrayal and blood.

He only realizes it after losing Yeonseo. That he had been covering up the terrible stench of iron engraved in his life all this time.

While he was intoxicated by the fragrant scent of grass, he must have been smelling all sorts of filth from him.

Is that love.