Hazardous Concentration Chapter 21

If a more professional and seasoned person had been in charge of the handling that day, by now Yeo Gijoon would be at the morgue, not the hospital.

Yeo Taejun did not inform Yeo Gijoon that the accident was intentional. Originally, he should have informed him to increase his vigilance, but he did not want to shock his brother, who had only just regained his senses.

The accident with his father was one thing, but after learning about what happened to his mother long ago, Yeo Gijoon had been unable to pull himself together from the shock for quite some time.

And that was to be expected, as his mother had been murdered. What’s more, she was brutally slashed to death out of a grudge. The only reason she, who had lived her whole life serving others, died was because she was a member of the TS family. That day, she was on her way home after finishing volunteer work at an orphanage. Originally, guards would accompany her, but because the schedule changed suddenly, only one driver accompanied her. And that driver was the culprit. However, Yeo Gijoon, who was a baby at the time, was with his mother. Yeo Gijoon witnessed the entire scene of his mother being murdered. The only fortunate thing was that Yeo Gijoon was too young to understand what was going on.

His grandfather and father hid the fact that he was by her side when his mother died for the sake of Yeo Gijoon. However, it must have leaked from somewhere; around the time Yeo Gijoon was entering his second year of high school, he found out the truth about his mother’s death. The culprit was Lee Suwon’s younger brother. Perhaps it was intentional, but as their children’s genders and age gaps were similar, the two sets of brothers often clashed. Unlike Yeo Taejun, who had shown a vicious side from a young age, Yeo Gijoon, who was on the milder side, often became the target of the Lee brothers. Even so, they hadn’t crossed the line, but that day, perhaps their emotions grew heated while fighting, they hurled the matter of his mother at Yeo Gijoon. Executive Lee Jaewook had knelt in the yard and apologized, saying he was sorry, but it was no use. The shock to Yeo Gijoon, who learned that he had been in the vehicle with his mother, was immense. From that day on, he caused trouble for his father and Yeo Taejun by skipping school and running away from home.

“How could you do that! Both Father and hyung deceived people perfectly! Do you feel good about making me a cripple?”

The kid who, even if prickly, would follow him around calling “hyung, hyung” whenever he saw him, was now nothing but sarcastic. Then, after the summer of his senior year, he slowly began to pull himself together.

—I know too. I won’t do anything stupid ever again. Even that day, I didn’t go to the party to attend, I went because I had business and got accidentally involved.

Yeo Gijoon, who was grumbling, groaned as if in pain. Even if he was a little better, his injuries were still serious. He could hear Chief Seo’s worried voice through the phone.

“Yeo Gijoon, stop talking and hang up.”

Ending the call with a firm tone, Yeo Taejun flicked the long cigarette ash into an ashtray. With his eyes open languidly, he looked at the car window where raindrops were falling.

He fumbled along the door trim and opened the window just slightly so the rainwater wouldn’t come in. The acrid smell of smoke escaped through the gap.

Then, he discovered red blood splattered and stained on his watch.

“Should I have just killed him?”

“Pardon?”

Kim Hyunseong, who was driving, asked back thinking the remark was directed at him, but Yeo Taejun did not answer and only puffed on his cigarette.

He had beaten him to a pulp to the point where he couldn’t even resist anymore, but it was much cleaner to kill a source of trouble than to keep it alive.

Yeo Taejun clicked his tongue lowly and retraced the past again.

Anyway, they had more money than they could ever spend, and there was no hindrance to Yeo Gijoon making a living even if he didn’t study at all. But him not being able to settle his mind was a different problem. Still, contrary to concerns, in less than a year, Yeo Gijoon came to his senses and sought out Yeo Taejun to say something.

That he would go back to school.

Instead of feeling relieved at those words, Yeo Taejun first showed suspicion.

‘Why did his mind change all of a sudden?’

The kid who had been acting crazy, shouting that he would drop out, told him he would return to school starting tomorrow before even one season had passed. Where would anyone be who would just nod to that straight away?

‘If you’re trying to build up to stab me in the back, you’d better not do it.’

Although Yeo Taejun did find his younger brother, who was a fair bit younger than him, quite cute, that didn’t mean he looked kindly upon his indulgence. He was strict when he needed to be.

‘Th-that’s not it!’

‘Then?’

At Yeo Taejun’s question, Yeo Gijoon could not answer clearly and shuffled his feet.

‘I’m just going to attend school.’

‘Yeo Gijoon.’

‘No, why is it such a fuss even when I say I’m going to school! There really is no other reason! I’m going because I want to go!’

Saying that, he glanced at the prints and notebooks piled up in front of the desk. There was a lot of writing on the paper, and unlike Yeo Gijoon, who wrote in a scrawl, the letters were neat and easy to read.

‘It won’t be long until graduation anyway. I’ll attend school faithfully. I really promise. I won’t do anything stupid. Just trust me once.’

Yeo Gijoon looked at Yeo Taejun with serious eyes as if he were being sincere.

‘I’m going to assign someone to follow you.’

‘Ah, really!’

Yeo Gijoon expressed his annoyance, asking if he really had to do that, but he had no choice but to accept Yeo Taejun’s firm response. After that, just as promised, he began attending school faithfully again. His grades soon improved. Although he raised his blood pressure once more by saying he would join the military immediately after graduating high school. He even found out about that fact on graduation day and raised his voice.

“Ah?”

Yeo Taejun let out a gasp mixed with a sound of realization.

“Director?”

At the memory that suddenly flashed through his mind, Yeo Taejun narrowed his eyes.

“Joo Eunhoo, which middle and high school did he say he went to?”

“Cheongwon Middle School and High School… Now that I think about it, he is an alumnus of the second young master.”

These were details he had pushed aside because they weren’t particularly important. After hearing Kim Hyunseong’s words, Yeo Taejun was convinced.

That Joo Eunhoo was that child.

So, it was when Yeo Gijoon hadn’t been going to school for over a week. Someone had come to the house, claiming to be Gijoon’s friend. Yeo Taejun, who happened to be home early due to business, was able to watch that child without missing a thing.

His first impression was that he was small and delicate. The version he had seen recently was about the average height for a South Korean man, but because his frame was slender, the feeling that he was fragile was strong. But, because he was wearing a white school uniform at the time, that was all the more so.

He had seen countless men in jet-black suits wandering around his house, but it was a fresh feeling because it was his first time seeing something like that.

So, he was just about to light a cigarette and was watching the scene, when the child’s gaze happened to turn toward Yeo Taejun. The eyes, which were already large, opened even wider the moment he saw him.

‘Who?’

Yeo Taejun asked in an uncharacteristically very gentle tone.

‘Ah….’

Unable to even answer the question, the child soon began to bustle about. If it had been his underlings who acted like that, he would have burned them with his cigarette or hit them somewhere for hesitating, but for some reason, he didn’t want to do that right now. When he waited with a relaxed heart, the child’s caution seemed to fade, and he slowly opened his lips.

‘Ah. I, I am….’

‘You’re not a mute.’

‘Pardon?’

Watching the child who introduced himself as a classmate of Gijoon, Yeo Taejun asked affectionately as if he were a kind person.

‘Gijoon’s friend?’

Even Yeo Gijoon, who belongs to the most naive side in this house, has a venomous glint in his eyes, but that child was just purely naive.

How is he going to live in this harsh world like that?

He was worrying about the life of a child he was seeing for the first time, but even while trembling, the child clearly explained the reason he came to the house.

‘Gijoon hasn’t been coming to school lately, so I came to deliver the prints.’

It was quite cute to see the young child stretch out both hands to show the prints he had brought, as if getting a receipt confirmed by an adult. Looking closely, I could even see downy hair….

‘He’s a baby.’

Watching him, his teeth felt itchy, so Yeo Taejun chewed on the cigarette filter.

“So, his name is….”

The child, with a face redder than the roses in the garden, was at a loss, but managed to say his name.

He intently recalled the movement of those pink lips. Then, the face that had been blurred as if by a filter became clear. That face matched exactly with that of Joo Eunhoo.

“Right, no wonder I felt like I had seen him somewhere before.”

The young thing who would blush every time he looked at him. In anyone’s eyes, the look in his eyes was one of being in love with him.