Winter Season Chapter 28

What does it mean to have to steal information? Can I do what Gu Seunghyeok ordered? No, even if it is something I cannot do, I must succeed.

Even though I knew that worrying belatedly at this point was useless, my head was cluttered with various thoughts. Yihyeon exhaled a long trail of cigarette smoke that felt like a sigh and entered the address he received into his phone.

The destination marked with a red dot was quite a distance from his current location. Rather than leaving just in time and barely arriving, he felt it would be better to go early, even if it meant having time to kill.

Yihyeon threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his foot, and took heavy steps toward the bus stop.

༘⋆🤍˚ .❄️₊˚ෆ

When he got off the bus, a street filled with adult entertainment establishments and bars appeared. Following the map a block back, he found a dark alley with an atmosphere different from the noisy main road.

At the end of a road filled with illegally parked cars, he saw a five-story commercial building with no sign hanging on it. It was the destination for the address Gu Seunghyeok had given him.

Whether it was because there were almost no people passing by or because of the surrounding buildings that looked abandoned, a bleak atmosphere lingered around. Yihyeon looked up once at the upper floors where the lights were on and then slowly climbed the stairs.

Did he say the office was on the 4th floor?

It was an old building with no elevator. The 2nd and 3rd floors looked as if they had been vacant for a long time. On the floor where the cement was exposed due to a lack of finishing materials, crumpled papers with lease inquiries written on them rolled around messily.

When he arrived at the 4th floor, his chest heaved deeply. Yihyeon caught his breath and knocked on the firmly closed iron door. He had knocked lightly, but a loud bang bang echoed through the stairwell. His brow furrowed at the sharp noise.

“Is anyone there?”

As he was debating whether to knock again since there was no sound from inside, the door swung open roughly. Beyond the door, which was painted gray and plastered with various advertisement stickers, sat several men looking this way with wary faces.

“What is it?”

The one who opened the door frowned deeply after confirming Yihyeon’s presence. Then, he began to scan past the stairs with his eyes as if to check if anyone else was there.

After confirming there was no one else, the man’s gaze returned to Yihyeon. This time, an expression of wonder was on his face instead of wariness. He scratched his forehead and twitched an eyebrow.

“Hey, haven’t you come to the wrong address?”

A glimpse of the office interior was visible past the man’s side. Several people were sitting on a large leather sofa in the middle, and hwan-tu cards were scattered carelessly on the central table. People holding cards in one hand, perhaps in the middle of a game, looked this way with curious faces.

They were all men with intimidating impressions, but he was sick and tired of facing such people while working at the club. Just as it had been at the Taeseong main office last time, it was clear that Seunghyeok had not told these people that he was coming. It seemed faster to find Seunghyeok directly rather than bothering to explain the situation to them.

Yihyeon took a step inside, passing the man. At that, the large men sitting on the sofa put down their cards and frowned.

“Kid, I asked what you came here for? This isn’t a place where you can just come and go as you please.”

The way they blocked his path was quite threatening. Just as he was about to exhale a sigh and say he came to find Gu Seunghyeok, a voice intervened from the side.

“He’s my guest. Mind your own business and get back to what you were doing.”

Turning his head, he saw Gu Seunghyeok leaning against a partitioned office door. The large men looked back and forth between the two of them, then joked, asking if he was hyung-nim’s guest.

“Don’t just stand there like an idiot; come inside.”

At Seunghyeok’s words, Yihyeon clenched and then released his teeth slightly before moving his feet. He felt gazes sticking to his back. When he passed them and reached Gu Seunghyeok, the man opened the door a bit wider. He swallowed and stepped inside the partitioned office.

Behind the space decorated like a large meeting room, there was a small area attached like a study. Behind Yihyeon, who had stopped because he didn’t know where to go, there was a click, the sound of the door closing.

“Follow me.”

Standing side by side in the narrow space, the man’s physical build felt even more real. Is he taller now? he thought subconsciously before biting his lip. Yihyeon shook his head to clear his mind and headed further in, staying a step behind Seunghyeok.

“Sit.”

Seunghyeok, gesturing toward the sofa with his chin, took a seat opposite him. Leaning back with his legs crossed, he stared obsessively at Yihyeon with his dark eyes.

“I thought you wouldn’t come because you’d be scared, but you showed up. Knowing what I might make you do.”

“I didn’t think you’d let me run away anyway.”

At the indifferent answer, Seunghyeok let out a short, mocking laugh.

“Haha, true. It’s not like we’re running a business by digging up dirt.”

Unlike Seunghyeok, who sat leaning back comfortably, Yihyeon sat with his legs together and his back straight. Seunghyeok’s brow narrowed at the sight of Yihyeon looking down near the table without meeting his eyes. He twisted his mouth crookedly and sneered.

“How far are you prepared to go?”

“…”

“You said you won’t sell your hole. Do you sell other things?”

“…”

“You must know how to use your mouth or hands.”

Yihyeon’s face lifted at the voice mixed with ridicule. Even though he knew the words were spat out intentionally to get under his skin, he felt strength enter his fists.

“If I say I know how to use them.”

“…”

“Are you going to make me try it here?”

At Yihyeon’s words, spat out as he slowly looked up, Seunghyeok twitched an eyebrow. He stared back without avoiding the gaze, then turned his head first, letting out a hollow laugh.

“Exactly. This is how Kwon Yihyeon should be.”

Seunghyeok stood up abruptly and headed toward the desk. Then, he brought over a yellow file folder and dropped it with a thud in front of Yihyeon.

“…”

There was no writing on the cover. Since staring at it silently seemed to be a sign to open it, he opened the cover, and a photo of a familiar man attached to the top of the very first page caught his eye.

“His name is Gu Jinhyeok, thirty-two. He’s a director at Taeseong Group.”

“…”

“Whether you know it or not, he is my, hyung.”

At the word ‘hyung’, Seunghyeok left a brief silence at the end of his sentence. Yihyeon’s hand flinched.

Hyung? Did Gu Seunghyeok have an older brother?

His expressionless face frowned as if old memories were suddenly swirling around in confusion. Yihyeon shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind and returned his gaze to the documents.

The man whose cold eyes shone behind silver-rimmed glasses was a face he had already seen a few times. The person who had come to find Gu Seunghyeok in the manager’s office and who had helped him at the main office last time.

He had thought it was just a handsome face because of the sharp features, but after hearing he was Gu Seunghyeok’s hyung, he felt a strangely chilly sensation in those eyes.

After sweeping his lips with his tongue once, Yihyeon slowly turned the pages. On several sheets of A4 paper, details were written minutely, starting from his likes and dislikes to the restaurants he frequented and his lifestyle patterns. It was a document that seemed to have been written over a long period by someone who had observed Gu Jinhyeok closely.

“There’s an item I’m looking for. There’s a completion party for VIPs in two weeks, and I need the password that will be in Gu Jinhyeok’s hands then.”

“…”

“Staying by Gu Jinhyeok’s side as his partner on the day of the party and finding out the six-digit key. That is your job.”

Yihyeon, who had been examining the back pages, slowly lifted his head and gazed at Seunghyeok. It was an expressionless face from which he couldn’t even guess what the man was thinking. Seunghyeok clenched and unclenched his fists as he looked down at Yihyeon.

It was a proposal he had thrown out impulsively, out of anger and disbelief that Yihyeon had calmly asked to borrow money.

Looking at him sitting there with a clear face, not knowing what kind of business he would get entangled in, made Seunghyeok’s insides feel twisted. Seunghyeok twisted the corner of his mouth crookedly and cracked his knuckles.