Hazardous Concentration Chapter 38

He had only managed one step, but every time his legs rubbed together, it felt as if he were being scrubbed with sandpaper. Gritting his teeth, he barely supported his collapsing body and moved extremely slowly. His body swayed with the sharp pain that surged from his toes all the way to his head. His limbs felt disconnected, as if his tattered body had been forcibly stitched back together with a needle.

As he stepped out of the bedroom, the interior of the parlor was brightened not by artificial light, but by the sun. He had expected as much—it was already broad daylight.

Whether or not that mattered, Eunhoo took a slow step forward. However, he hit a hurdle before he could go far. He had to go down the stairs to reach the first floor. Eunhoo, whose face was already deathly pale, wanted nothing more than to collapse right there, but he barely steeled his resolve and moved his legs again. He clutched the railing and began to slowly descend the stairs. Every time he shifted his weight downward, it felt as if his lower body were being torn away.

By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, Eunhoo’s body was soaked in sweat. But he couldn’t stop. He had a long way to go.

∞ ∞ ∞

It was clear even from the outside that the building had been abandoned for a long time. Even in the middle of summer, a chill ran down one’s spine inside the abandoned building. Things that looked like junk rolled around the floor, and large pieces of what appeared to be industrial vinyl hung here and there, as if construction had been halted mid-way. On the tiled floor, dark red, dried bloodstains that hadn’t been wiped away were visible in places.

Just as he was putting a cigarette to his lips, his phone rang. Looking at the screen, it was Butler Yoon. Before he could even lift the phone to his ear, a panicked voice poured through the receiver.

—Director, we have a big problem. The guest who was on the second floor is gone.

Yeo Taejun raised an eyebrow.

Butler Yoon continued, saying that even though he had been told not to wake the guest, he thought he should at least eat, so he had knocked on the door. But because there was no response, he had hesitated before opening the door and entering, only to find no one there.

—I checked the bathroom, the study, and the balcony just in case, but he wasn’t there.

“When did he leave?”

—I checked the CCTV and saw him leaving through the back door 30 minutes ago.

It had happened exactly when Butler Yoon had stepped away for about ten minutes.

—I am sorry, Director.

Though she asked what she should do and whether she should go out and look for him now, Yeo Taejun ended the situation by telling her to just leave it be. As he brought the cigarette to his lips, Kim Hyunseong lit it for him as a matter of course.

Soon, Yeo Taejun’s eyes narrowed. He took a deep drag until his cheeks hollowed out and exhaled a plume of smoke. The smoke hazily decorated the air. After smoking in silence for a few moments, he uttered a single remark.

“Stubborn or just plain ignorant.”

He dragged himself out in that state, did he? The situation was roughly painted in his mind. Yeo Taejun chuckled as if it were absurd, but the laughter didn’t last long.

“Argh! Nn!”

Right in front of him, Lee Suwon was screaming, covered in blood. As Yeo Taejun cast a sidelong glance, the henchmen beside him gagged Lee Suwon. Yeo Taejun pressed firmly against his brow with a look of fatigue.

His pitch-black eyes turned toward him leisurely, and the look in them seemed to be asking, ‘Oh, were you here?’

“Lee Suwon, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

A cold, imposing pressure could be felt in his flat, slowly flowing voice.

“You hid so thoroughly that I almost forgot your face.”

It had been about an hour since Kim Hyunseong left with the contract. A report had come in that Lee Suwon’s whereabouts had been identified.

Unlike his father, Lee Jaewook, Lee Suwon was not as far away as he had thought.

“I guess this is what they mean by ‘the darkest place is under the candlestick.’”

Who would have thought that Lee Suwon, famous for being a coward, would be hiding in Seoul, and not far from Seowon-dong, no less? It was an unexpectedly bold life for a fugitive.

“I didn’t even know you were so close, so I went through hell scouring all the wrong places.”

He had even kept potential stowaway routes in mind and searched thoroughly, just in case.

Thump. Thump.

Yeo Taejun walked forward with his hands in his pockets. Despite the dust-filled floor, his shoes were shining, completely free of any specks of dust.

“St-stay away! Don’t come any closer!”

Terrified, Lee Suwon shrieked. Lee Suwon had pale skin like a scholar. Yeo Taejun also had fair skin, but it was of a different quality than Lee Suwon’s, who had been raised in the lap of luxury without ever knowing a day of hardship. Furthermore, Lee Suwon was soft, lacking any muscle. And, resembling his father Lee Jaewook, he was short.

“I-I don’t know! I know nothing about it! It, it was my father’s doing!”

Lee Suwon bellowed that it was all his father, Lee Jaewook, who had planned and executed the scheme to harm Yeo Gijoon.

“Pl-please spare me. Spare me. Taejun-ah, please, w-we’re friends, right? Yeah?”

Lee Suwon begged. His face, already a mess of red and purple bruises, became even messier with tears and snot.

“Was that the work of our men?”

When Yeo Taejun pointed at Lee Suwon’s face with his chin, the henchman who had participated in the capture replied.

“He resisted fiercely, so we had no choice.”

“Is that so?”

Likely, it wasn’t just to subdue him, but quite a few of those hits were driven by pure rage.

“Well, nothing to be done about it then.”

Although he hadn’t seen the scene himself, he could roughly guess, and Yeo Taejun burst into laughter.

“Our Suwon, your already shitty face has become even more pathetic. That’s what you get for resisting and getting your ass kicked.”

It had been like that since they were kids. He would always add one word too many and take two hits instead of one.

Perhaps it was “like father, like son”—just as Lee Jaewook felt an inferiority complex toward Chairman Yeo Jiseung, his son Lee Suwon felt the same. However, neither father nor son had the courage to dare usurp their positions, so they couldn’t actually execute anything.

“Without the courage to even show your true colors.”

Yeo Taejun, who had approached Lee Suwon, squatted in front of him.

“This time, you did something quite bold.”

Then, he repeatedly pushed against Lee Suwon’s forehead with his index finger. Every time the distinct coldness of his leather glove touched his skin, Lee Suwon shuddered.

“Ugh-huck!”

Lee Suwon felt like he was going to faint. Because of their family circumstances, he had been watching Yeo Taejun since he was an infant, and they had run into each other more often because they were the same age.

At first, he was jealous that Yeo Taejun was treated as the chairman’s grandson and son, even though he wasn’t better than him. That was before Yeo Taejun had revealed his true nature. He hated that he dared to be the son of a wealthier family than himself, and he was annoyed by his appearance, which was eye-catchingly handsome. It would have been better if he had inherited his mother’s looks, but unfortunately, he was the spitting image of his father, who was below average. Thus, his dissatisfaction and inferiority complex toward Yeo Taejun, who was better than him in every way, grew day by day. Then, the incident occurred where Yeo Taejun’s mother was murdered. From that moment on, Yeo Taejun began to be raised in earnest by his grandfather’s hands.

Lee Suwon was overjoyed to finally find a point where Yeo Taejun was lacking compared to him. Afterward, he prided himself on his superiority and relentlessly needled Yeo Taejun. But he shouldn’t have done that.

For the first few times, Yeo Taejun just listened in silence. Thinking that he was crestfallen, Lee Suwon provoked Yeo Taejun’s temper even more explicitly by calling him a boy without a mother.

Then, Yeo Taejun would look at Lee Suwon with a calm gaze. No emotion was revealed in those black eyes. Although he flinched at the strange, chilling sensation, Lee Suwon, just like now, was dense. He was even more so back then because he was young.

And that day, Lee Suwon learned for the first time how terrifying Yeo Taejun was. When he came to, his forehead was cracked open. It was because Yeo Taejun had slammed a rock into Lee Suwon’s head. He had needed more than ten stitches, and the scar remained intact. Although he later had scar reconstruction surgery, it was still faintly visible. Ever since then, whenever he saw Yeo Taejun, the area on his forehead where he had been hit would ache.

Just like right now.

“Do you know where this place is?”

At that moment, Yeo Taejun looked at Lee Suwon with a peculiar expression, resting his elbows on his thighs and leaning his upper body forward. Then, he suddenly lowered his voice and whispered.

“The place where your father became a cripple.”