Hazardous Concentration Chapter 36

Yeo Taejun grabbed Eunhoo’s delicate chin, forcing him to face him as he lay limp, gasping for air. He stared at his unfocused eyes and parted lips for a moment, then lowered his head and pushed his tongue inside. He licked thoroughly, not missing a single spot from the roof of his mouth to his teeth. Eunhoo frowned, perhaps because he was suffocating.

“Umm. Nn!”

When Yeo Taejun finally let him go after sucking for a long while, Eunhoo closed his eyes as if he were fainting.

Yeo Taejun watched him for a moment before rising. He put on the robe lying on the stool next to the bed and walked away.

Perhaps because it was naturally large, his phallus, though subsided, still held a presence and swayed heavily with every move he made.

Yeo Taejun threw open another door inside the room, not the one leading outside. It was a study. This mansion, built half a century ago, had undergone several renovations, yet the vestiges of the past remained.

It sounds absurd now, but until a few decades ago, married couples used separate rooms to maintain distance. However, this mansion was structured with a door connecting the two rooms so they could easily pass back and forth. When Yeo Taejun inherited the second floor, the respective rooms were furnished as a bedroom and a study.

The study was littered with clothes on the floor, as if to show what had happened here throughout the night. A lingering, fishy scent that hadn’t yet dissipated filled the air.

Yeo Taejun walked toward the desk as if nothing were amiss. The state of the wooden desk was even more serious; white bodily fluids were caked and dried in various places.

Just then, a knock sounded at the study door.

“Come in.”

No sooner had he spoken than Kim Hyunseong entered, pausing for a split second. However, he quickly composed his expression, stood before Yeo Taejun, and bowed respectfully.

“This.”

Yeo Taejun, leaning against the desk, looked at Kim Hyunseong and held out a sheet of paper. It was the contract Eunhoo had signed last night.

“Send this to Lawyer Yoo and get it notarized.”

“Yes.”

Kim Hyunseong didn’t show any trace of doubt, taking the contract with both hands and clipping it onto his clipboard.

Just then, Yeo Taejun picked up the cigarette pack on the desk and pulled out a cigarette. Kim Hyunseong took out a lighter he kept on hand, respectfully lit it for him, and stepped back.

Soon, Yeo Taejun inhaled until his cheeks hollowed and exhaled the smoke. Every time he breathed out, the ribcage visible through his slightly open robe expanded and contracted tightly. Yeo Taejun smoked in silence for a few moments before lifting his downcast eyelids.

“Speak.”

“As you ordered, Managing Director Lee—or rather, Lee Jaewook—has been placed in a nursing hospital in Gyeonggi-do for treatment.”

Although his broken leg had been botched to the point where he would never walk like before or speak again, his life had at least been spared.

Yeo Taejun didn’t answer, merely puffing on his cigarette. Kim Hyunseong, as if accustomed to this, continued with the report on the remaining instructions.

“And I have placed a marker on the Vice Chairman of Sewon Group. I will report immediately if there is any movement.”

His eyes, dry and parched, wandered through the air as if lost in thought. Then, Yeo Taejun looked straight at Kim Hyunseong and said,

“Sewon’s second son is in exile right now, isn’t he?”

Every group had its share of succession battles, whether large or small. Sewon’s case was the latter. Chairman Yoo’s wife had given birth to three children in total.

After Chairman Yoo met his fate, the three adult children tore at each other. It began as a three-way battle, but in the process, the third child retreated, leaving the first and second to fight to the end. The one who gained the upper hand was the first child, Vice Chairman Yoo Chang-hyun.

“Yes. I believe he is currently in charge of the India branch.”

It was common knowledge among those who knew that the second son of Sewon had been traveling to various places for years, unable to return to Korea.

Yeo Taejun seemed to be thinking deeply, then said,

“Then put bait on that side and shake it up.”

Kim Hyunseong understood his superior’s intent immediately.

“Understood.”

“Right.”

Yeo Taejun waved the hand holding the cigarette. Just as he had when he entered, Kim Hyunseong bowed politely and withdrew.

Left alone after Kim Hyunseong departed, Yeo Taejun crushed out the cigarette he had been holding in the ashtray nearby. He crossed back into the bedroom through the internal door as he had done earlier. Unlike the study’s somewhat cool interior with its deep gray, black, and white tones, the bedroom felt warmer, with yellow added to the three colors.

The bedroom was dim, with the light blocked by blinds adjusted via remote control. Yeo Taejun walked to the bed as if it were routine.

Someone else was lying on the bed where no one but himself had ever lain. His eyes, which didn’t quite suit his flashy yet intellectually imposing face, wandered over the pale face for a moment.

“Joo Eunhoo.”

Intersex.

He hadn’t even considered that. The researched materials only listed debt relations and past activities, and there were no hospital records. It was only natural. He hadn’t ordered it because he hadn’t felt the need.

Yeo Taejun bent down and tapped his soft cheek with his index finger. Twenty-five years old. Or rather, twenty-four, as his birthday hadn’t passed yet.

Yeo Taejun’s fingers roamed over his fair cheeks like he was playing the keys of a piano, but Eunhoo, exhausted and asleep, showed no signs of waking. He merely flinched and burrowed deeper into the duvet.

“You’re fearless.”

Losing consciousness in a place like this.

Normally, he would have slapped his cheek to wake him and called someone to drag him out. Possessing a clean-freak complex in general, not just in human relationships, he never let outsiders into his personal space. No, in the first place, he never even brought a partner he had spent the night with into his home.

Glancing down, he saw Eunhoo’s body covered in suck marks and bite marks. Yeo Taejun, who had been examining Eunhoo’s body with a look that seemed pleased, frowned when his gaze reached his neck. It was because the marks from where he had choked him were visible.

He had only frightened him a little, but perhaps because his skin was sensitive, the marks were distinct.

“Tsk.”

Even though he was the one who had done it, he felt uncomfortable seeing it. He was looking down with a dissatisfied expression when Eunhoo shivered, as if he had felt a chill.

“Uu.”

Yeo Taejun tossed the duvet over Eunhoo with a rough motion, then turned away. He headed straight for the first floor. The first person to encounter him was Butler Yoon.

“Director.”

Yeo Taejun nodded lightly and scanned the first floor coolly. There were never many servants relative to the size of the mansion, but today it was exceptionally quiet.

“I forbade approach since you had a guest. We shouldn’t be noisy, should we?”

She added that she had sent the dog to another place, too.

“Is there anything you need me to do?”

The middle-aged woman with a bobbed haircut whispered softly. Butler Yoon asked cautiously to Yeo Taejun, who was frowning with his arms crossed.

“Don’t go up there and wake him for no reason, and clean the study and bedroom later.”

Though she flinched at the unexpected order, Butler Yoon soon composed her expression and replied.

“Yes, I will.”

Having finished what he had to say, Yeo Taejun turned around and began to climb the stairs he had just descended, thinking to himself.

Greed or vanity are terrifying, but the most terrifying thing in the world is obsession. And he had been unusually obsessive since he was young. If he desired or craved something, he achieved it no matter what. He grew tired easily and would discard things quickly, but he was curious about the end of this particular situation himself.

∞ ∞ ∞

It had been two months since Eunhoo began frequenting Yeo Gijoon’s house. Coming once every week, it had been quite a while. When he first went to that house, the summer, which had been at its peak, was already coming to an end. However, the weather was still hot.

Eunhoo gasped for breath. Sweat from his face gathered on his chin and dripped down. He had walked for over ten minutes from the bus stop, and he couldn’t believe he still had to walk further. He had always taken a taxi until now, so he hadn’t imagined the distance would be this great.

If he had known this, he would have taken a taxi today, too. He had taken the bus on purpose, thinking he was lacking exercise, but it was the wrong choice.