Heart Thief Chapter 0 - Prologue

The black cloth covering his face was abruptly yanked off.

Lee Junseo squinted his eyes and scanned his surroundings.

It seemed to be the interior of a large abandoned factory. Dust had settled thickly on massive machines of unknown purpose. Lee Junseo, forced to kneel on the floor, glared at the man in a pristine suit standing before him.

“What the hell is this, Executive Director Choi Jaehan? Is it acceptable for someone of your stature, an executive of a major corporation, to just kidnap people like this?”

As Lee Junseo protested in a heated voice, a burly man standing nearby grabbed his hair roughly, as if warning him to watch his words.

“Careful now. Careful. It’d be troublesome if the merchandise got damaged.”

The man in front of him, Executive Director Choi Jaehan, waved his hand dismissively. The burly man immediately let go of Lee Junseo’s hair.

Lee Junseo scanned the few large men surrounding him. None of them held any weapons. It seemed they were serious about not damaging the “merchandise,” or at the very least, they had no intention of lynching him.

When Choi Jaehan tilted his head to the side, one of the burly men dragged over a rusty iron chair from the corner. Choi Jaehan sat down, crossing his legs.

“So, your name is… Lee Junseo, right?”

Choi Jaehan asked, staring intently at Lee Junseo’s face. Lee Junseo pressed his lips shut and glared back at him. Receiving that fierce gaze, Choi Jaehan let out a mocking chuckle.

“I heard our Jaebeom has been keeping you close for over two years. For a male prostitute, you sure have a pretty face.”

“…….”

“It’s not exactly surprising that a mongrel bastard like Jaebeom would keep a male prostitute around. But that bastard has been causing me quite a bit of trouble lately.”

Choi Jaehan took a deep drag from the cigarette in his mouth, slowly exhaling smoke as if muttering to himself.

Lee Junseo could roughly understand what Choi Jaehan was talking about. The man before him was the son of the Seongkwang Group chairman, or simply put, the legitimate heir born to the chairman’s wife. In contrast, Choi Jaebeom, who kept Lee Junseo by his side, was the illegitimate son born to the chairman’s mistress.

The problem was that the chairman of Seongkwang Group didn’t care about his children’s legitimacy or discriminate based on it. The chairman was an old man who judged his children solely on their business acumen, and the man before Lee Junseo had been almost entirely pushed out of the front lines after a long power struggle. Furthermore, the chairman’s health had recently deteriorated rapidly, and he was now barely clinging to life on a ventilator. As a result, all eyes of the Seongkwang Group’s blood relatives were focused on the will the chairman had left behind.

Of course, Lee Junseo had no intention of getting caught up in the succession battle between the two half-brothers. Though he had lived with Choi Jaebeom for over two years, as an orphan and former host from a hostess bar, Lee Junseo was well aware that he was more of a secret lover than an official partner to Choi Jaebeom.

“That doesn’t sound like something you’d discuss with someone like me.”

As Lee Junseo tried to distance himself, Choi Jaehan let out a scoff.

“Well, it’s not like I enjoy sitting face-to-face with a bottom-feeder like you. But no matter how much we dug into that bastard’s life, we found nothing useful—except for you, the only speck of dirt that turned up.”

“So what? You’re going to spread some article about how Executive Director Choi Jaebeom has a gay lover who’s a former host?”

“No way. What kind of damage would that do to him? The moment such an article goes up, it’d be buried under another scandal in no time.”

“Then what exactly do you want from me?”

Lee Junseo asked, maintaining a calm expression. At his question, Choi Jaehan silently raised his arm to check his wristwatch.

“Right after we kidnapped you—about two hours ago, to be exact—I contacted Choi Jaebeom. I told him that if he wants his precious little male prostitute returned safely, he’d better meet my demands.”

“Demands?”

Lee Junseo frowned as he asked, and Choi Jaehan let out a low chuckle.

“You wouldn’t understand the details of our deal even if I explained it… The problem is, there’s less than an hour left until the agreed-upon time.”

“I don’t know what you demanded, but as you said, you must know that I’m not worth enough for him to take a loss over a mere male prostitute. What happens to me if the deal falls through?”

Lee Junseo asked, trying to sound calm. Of course, he was only pretending to be composed—his heart was pounding wildly, and his back was drenched in cold sweat.

Having spent time with Choi Jaebeom, Lee Junseo had heard plenty about the man in front of him. If Choi Jaebeom was subtly unhinged, Choi Jaehan was openly deranged. From his days studying abroad to escape scrutiny to the present, countless lives had been silenced to cover up Choi Jaehan’s involvement in drugs and other unsavory activities.

“Well…”

Choi Jaehan muttered slowly, flicking the flint of his Zippo lighter, producing a sharp clicking sound. Lee Junseo knew the look of someone backed into a corner with nothing to lose. The way Choi Jaehan was staring at him now was exactly that kind of look.

One wrong move, and he’d die.

That certainty hit him. Choi Jaehan had kidnapped him with the intent to kill him if Choi Jaebeom didn’t comply with the deal.

“I’ve been thinking,” Choi Jaehan continued, “about how to completely turn that bastard’s world upside down. Should I hand him your corpse, torn to shreds until your guts spill out from your backside? Or maybe I’ll break every bone in your body while you beg for death and toss him your mangled remains.”

Every word Choi Jaehan spoke, slow and deliberate, dripped with sincerity.

Lee Junseo could no longer maintain his calm facade. Overwhelmed by sheer terror, his hands, bound with cable ties, trembled uncontrollably. There had been plenty of times he’d thought he’d rather die than live like this, but now, faced with the possibility of death, he desperately wanted to live.

“Lee Junseo.”

Choi Jaehan called his name in a low voice. Lee Junseo, unable to respond immediately, licked his dry lips.

“When someone calls you, you should answer.”

“…Go ahead.”

“Do you know, Lee Junseo, how much a healthy, young human body is worth?”

“…….”

“I mean, besides the kidneys that people commonly sell, there’s so much in a human body that can be harvested and sold. Eyes, liver, kidneys, heart, spleen, gallbladder, stomach… every organ you can think of has a price. And that’s not all—scalp, skin, bones, even blood in the arteries. It’s all money.”

Lee Junseo couldn’t bring himself to say anything. All that escaped his lips was a faint, desolate groan.

“I’m planning to carve up your entire body and sell it piece by piece. It’ll serve as a bit of personal revenge while also doing a good deed for patients desperately awaiting transplants. And then, I’ll gift that bastard the empty shell of what’s left of you.”

“…You crazy bastard.”

Lee Junseo spat out the curse in a trembling voice. Choi Jaehan raised his arm to check his wristwatch again.

“Time’s almost up, isn’t it?”

Choi Jaehan said with a crooked smile. Those brief words felt like a death sentence.

A plea to be spared rose to the tip of his tongue, but the last shred of damned pride that had sustained him through his miserable 28 years of life sealed his lips shut.

Cold sweat dripped from his trembling chin.

Damn it. Choi Jaebeom.

Lee Junseo squeezed his eyes shut, thinking of Choi Jaebeom. Even though he knew full well that the man wouldn’t come, the reality that he had no choice but to wait for him was utterly devastating.