Hazardous Concentration Chapter 25

In the alley where no light could permeate, the sound of leather shoes striking the ground echoed. Usually, one would naturally be flustered and scramble away, but the person approaching was the exact opposite. The footsteps were neither slow nor fast. Eunhoo held his breath. The first thing that came into view was long legs.

Eunhoo watched, utterly mesmerized, as the man walked out with relaxed gestures that matched his languid voice.

What is this? Why is that person here….

“How about this? I feel bad. I originally didn’t intend to cut in until your conversation was over, but I ended up interfering against my will.”

Eunhoo stared at him stupidly, his soul completely detached, as he muttered nonchalantly.

“Yeo, Yeotae….”

He came to his senses belatedly and tried to call him, but hesitated. The moment his gaze locked with the black eyes that were scrutinizing him from a close distance, he couldn’t move. It was the same gaze he had seen that night. Full of greed and lust. But as if he had never been like that, Yeo Taejun bent his eyes beautifully and smiled.

“I told you back then, didn’t I? Let’s meet again.”

Eunhoo, who had been frowning because he didn’t know what he meant, soon opened his eyes wide. There was something the man had said while leaving the restaurant a few days ago.

“See you again.”

At the time, his mind had gone blank at the man’s sudden appearance, so he hadn’t even had the mental capacity to dwell on it. More than anything, since nothing particular happened despite his nervousness, he thought it had just ended as a happening. He never imagined he would encounter him like this in such a situation.

“What on earth….”

Overwhelmed by bewilderment and confusion, Eunhoo repeatedly opened and closed his lips. Yeo Taejun asked, while holding the cigarette he had been mouthing between his fingers.

“It’s me who cut into the conversation, so I should wait. But I’d like you to finish it a bit quickly. I have business around here, too.”

Yeo Taejun said, looking down at the watch on his wrist with leisure.

“Unlike you, I’m a bit busy.”

Eunhoo bit his lip. His head throbbed, so he placed a hand on his forehead. He couldn’t tell if this fever was from his body aches or from the absurdity of the situation.

Is that man crazy? Why does he keep stimulating things? The man distorted his face menacingly in an instant.

“You fucking bastard, how long have you been blabbering? If you don’t want to die, get lost immediately!”

From the scar on his angular face to his hair and attire, the man’s appearance showed at a glance that he was working in the underworld. And Yeo Taejun was the complete opposite. Starting with a suit made of expensive fabric without a single wrinkle, down to the watch on his wrist that looked like it cost a fortune and the glimpses of his cufflinks, standing in this dirty back alley didn’t suit him at all. Things that would look a bit too flashy for the man to wear suited him perfectly. And I don’t know if he was doing it on purpose, but the way he put the cigarette held between his fingers into his mouth looked beyond relaxed—it looked weary.

“Do we know each other?”

“What kind of bullshit is that out of the blue, you fucking prick. Where would a dandy like you ever see someone like me!”

Yeo Taejun tilted his head quietly.

“Cursing out of the blue on a first meeting.”

The cigarette held between his fingers burned down with a bright red ember.

“You have no manners.”

Despite the man’s actions, which wouldn’t have been strange no matter when he lunged, Yeo Taejun still had no particular agitation on his face. That felt like mockery to the man.

“You bastard, you’re dead today.”

Eunhoo, who had been half-out of his mind, belatedly stepped in front of the man who was rushing in as if to turn Yeo Taejun’s face into mush.

It felt like something really bad would happen if this continued.

“What are you doing right now… Don’t! Why are you like this too!”

Eunhoo’s nerves were entirely focused on Yeo Taejun. Not only did he appear out of nowhere, but why cut in!

“Damn, get out of the way!”

The man, who was full of rage, pushed Eunhoo roughly. Because his physical condition had been poor since the morning due to body aches, he was pushed aside easily.

“Ugh!”

Seeing that, the smile disappeared from Yeo Taejun’s face for the first time.

“It seems your hand manners are as terrible as your speech habits.”

Yeo Taejun dropped the cigarette to the floor and crushed it with his shoe.

“Since there’s no time and the place is narrow, shall we settle this with a few teeth and one wrist?”

“What kind of bullshit!”

Yeo Taejun, who had been watching the man rush in urgently as if observing, twisted his body slightly to dodge him. The man’s face, which had been flailing in empty space, turned red—perhaps from blood rushing to his head, or perhaps from shame.

“You bastard, you’re really dead!”

The man yelled and swung his fist threateningly.

“Aaaaagh!”

A scream rang out in the alley. Eunhoo looked at the scene with a stiff face.

“Let go, let gooooo!”

Judging by the situation, the scream should have come from Yeo Taejun, but the scene unfolding before his eyes was the opposite. Somehow, the man, whose hair was caught by Yeo Taejun, who had reached out before the fist even made contact, was shrieking.

“I raise a dog, you see? But that kid is quite ferocious.”

Calling him ferocious was putting it mildly; to be honest, he was vicious. A few years ago, one of the executives thought a breed known for having the worst temper in the world, the Bull Terrier, looked cool and adopted it without thinking, only to get a big slap in the face. With that fierce temperament, it wasn’t easy to train, and as it grew, its physique became too much to handle. So he was looking for someone else to raise it. Yeo Taejun, who was looking for a new dog because the one he had been raising had died, showed interest. He liked the dog’s ferocity, which was too much for a human to handle. Sure enough, the dog snapped viciously at the people who went to take it away as soon as it saw them.

However, the dog’s resistance ended in half a day. It was because it immediately tucked its tail and showed its belly as soon as it saw Yeo Taejun. But the target it had become docile toward was limited to Yeo Taejun, and it remained fierce to other people. On walks, a muzzle was a must, and even a seasoned dog walker couldn’t handle it at times.

“Even a dog that can’t speak realizes immediately whether the target is something it can mess with or not.”

“Let goooo!”

“Is it right for a human being to be worse than a dog?”

For a whisper in a terribly elegant tone, the content was rough. The man flailed his arms and legs to cause harm in any way he could, but it was useless.

“Aaaaaah!”

The man let out a painful scream at the grip that was becoming increasingly stronger.

The strength of the person he had thought was just a tall, pale, and pretty dandy was unexpectedly extraordinary. Only then did the man realize that he had crossed the wrong person. An inexplicable eeriness brushed past the back of his neck.

Yeo Taejun pushed him against the wall while holding the man’s hair. Then, he mercilessly slammed his head into it, bang, bang.

“Aaargh!”

Every time the thud sounded, blood splattered. Only after the yellow, dirty wall was covered in bright red blood did all the situations finally come to an end.

When Yeo Taejun released the man, the flesh on his forehead had become mushy. He slapped the cheek of the man who had already lost consciousness and ended it by telling him to consider himself lucky.

Originally, he intended to break his teeth and wrists as warned, but after seeing the trembling Eunhoo, he changed his mind.

Eunhoo was certain after seeing the man sprawled on the floor, unable to even let out a groan. There was no way he could be alive after losing that much blood. He had thought about wanting him dead, or wanting someone to kill him, several times, but seeing him collapse into mush right in front of his eyes was a huge shock.

“H-he’s dea….”

“He’s not dead.”

Yeo Taejun replied lightly to Eunhoo’s words, took out his phone, pressed a speed-dial number, and held it to his ear. While holding the phone between his shoulder and ear, he leisurely wiped the bloodstains off his hands with a handkerchief.

“Hyunseong, you’ll need to come here and clean up. The location is the [Songnim] back alley.”

After hanging up, he threw the blood-stained handkerchief on the ground as if it were nothing. Eunhoo’s face was dead white.

“Was it too intense for the baby to watch?”

Yeo Taejun straightened his slightly twisted necktie and smiled, looking down at the trembling Eunhoo. It was a wonderful smile that didn’t fit this situation at all. That was why it was even more grotesque.

“Joo Eunhoo.”

Eunhoo flinched at the sound of his name, heard suddenly.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

And in his state of having lost his wits, he blinked his eyes slowly.