Hazardous Concentration Chapter 42

They were diverse, ranging from those who had signed away their bodies because they could not pay back their massive debts to those who were traded like objects.

As soon as Eunhoo got into the elevator, he habitually pressed the button for the 3rd floor. In truth, he had hesitated a lot about whether or not to come here before arriving. Even after he arrived, he lingered in the vicinity for a long time.

His mind was incredibly complicated.

Yeo Taejun had said he would pay off all the debts, but was it really all taken care of? Without seeing it with his own eyes, it was hard for Eunhoo to believe.

Ever since he found out that his father had incurred a huge debt, Eunhoo’s soul had died. Only his body was left alive and moving.

When he faced his own incompetence, it was truly much more painful than he had imagined. He was already twenty years old, yet there was nothing he could do, and nothing he knew. He knew even less about loans. Although he looked into whether he could delay the repayment date later on, it was impossible to even apply for an extension because the given deadline could not be changed, so if he didn’t pay the money on time, he had no choice but to be sold to a house of ill repute, just as the collector had said. What was even more bleak was that being sold to a house of ill repute was considered lucky. If he was really unlucky, he could be sent to an island, and if he was even unluckier, he could become a target for organ trafficking. Every day was horrific.

“…”

But when told that he could now lay down all that fear, he couldn’t believe it. It felt like he would be dragged away one day out of the blue, accused of not paying his debt. Unless he held proof that the debt had been paid, this anxiety would not fade.

Ding!

The elevator stopped. The doors that slid open felt like the mouth of a monster. Eunhoo swallowed a dry gulp, stepped out of the elevator, and looked at the familiar door.

Unlike the flashy 1st and 2nd floors, the 3rd floor was so desolate that it made him wonder if it was a different building. He even thought they might have made it like this on purpose. The walls were peeling, revealing the underlying structure, and the floor was covered in terrazzo tiles—the kind he had only seen in school hallways when he was young—and the surface was quite worn from the traces of time.

Eunhoo passed the hallway and knocked on the door of the office at the very end. Then, after taking a moment, he opened the door.

The inside of the office was empty. There were always one or two people around, but today, not even a single ant was to be seen.

Eunhoo was slightly taken aback as he had never imagined such a situation.

“What should I do?”

His hesitation lasted only a moment. Eunhoo turned his body immediately. He had only come because he had no choice; he didn’t want to stay here for even a second. Every time he came here, it reminded him of the day he was first kidnapped and dragged in.

The tools scattered here and there, the piled-up cigarette butts, and the old air conditioner that hummed as it ran were vividly etched in his mind. As he steadied his churning stomach and turned to leave in a hurry, an old four-person sofa caught his eye.

Eunhoo’s expression crumpled. There had been a time when he was almost subjected to unspeakable acts there. He had barely escaped by screaming and pushing the other person away with all his might. As he recalled the faces of the men who had laughed, calling him sensitive, his legs trembled just from standing there.

Eunhoo was wiping away the cold sweat with the back of his hand and was about to push the door open, when someone else pushed it open first and walked in.

Eunhoo recognized the man’s face immediately. It was that man. The one who had given Eunhoo annoying advice not long ago.

The man also recognized Eunhoo right away and twisted his face.

“Damn it! Good thing I ran into you.”

He was flustered. He knew the man didn’t like him, but he had never been this aggressive.

“You rat-like bastard!”

There was no time to ask why. As he retreated instinctively to avoid the man who was shouting and lunging at him, he felt the heavy scent of incense, the kind one might smell at a temple or a funeral, brush against the tip of his nose. Now that he thought about it, the man had always worn black suits, as expected of someone working in the background, but today, his wearing an entirely black tie was particularly unusual.

And even the armband on one of his arms.

He had a bad feeling about it. As he hesitated for a moment, the man rushed at him and struck Eunhoo’s cheek violently.

“Fuck!”

At first, he didn’t even realize he had been hit.

“You goddamn bastard!”

Then—smack!—it was only after the second strike followed that Eunhoo realized he had been slapped.

It happened so suddenly that he couldn’t even fight back. The man, who had lunged at him the moment he saw Eunhoo, was shouting at the top of his lungs with a face full of resentment.

But Eunhoo couldn’t hear him.

His ears grew muffled, and soon a ringing sound, screeech, felt like it was drilling into his brain. His body reeled. Eunhoo raised his hand to cover his struck cheek. He felt a metallic taste in his mouth. The man grabbed him by the collar with a rough movement. Eunhoo, who had been dazed and stunned, then let out a sharp shriek.

“Gasp!”

“Damn it! Because of this fucking male whore!”

“Mister, ack! Argh! Ack!”

Smack. Smack.

His face kept snapping to the side without rest. His vision spun and he reeled, and then—thud!—he was kicked in the stomach.

“Gasp!”

My breath….

He had been kicked in the stomach, but his chest felt blocked in the middle, as if his airway had been cut off. As Eunhoo collapsed, the man began an indiscriminate assault with his shoe.

Thud, thud, thud!

“You dirty bastard! A bastard like you who only knows how to dig in the back should just die!”

Eunhoo instinctively curled his body and covered his head. Thud. Thud. How many times had he been hit? Now, even screams wouldn’t come out. The relentless assault stopped. Eunhoo barely opened his eyes, his vision narrowing.

The man twisted his face like a demon, and then began to strangle him with the hand that had been holding his collar.

“Die. Just die.”

Eunhoo’s flailing became even more desperate than before. If the earlier struggle had been a release of simple resentment, he could feel a murderous intent now.

“Because of you, because I got involved with someone unlucky like you! Hyung-nim is dead!”

Eunhoo, who had been struggling to remove the hand strangling his neck, paused. If the person the man called Hyung-nim was….

‘Well, since you’re going to be sold anyway, just sell yourself to me. It’s better for you to be sold to one person than to many, right?’

The face that had smiled hideously while saying such disgusting things had not lasted long.

Yeo Taejun appeared and….

‘Aaaaaagh!’

Crack, the sound of bones breaking followed, and a little later, not even a scream could be heard. The last thing he saw was a face completely soaked in blood. At the time, Eunhoo asked Yeo Taejun if he had died. What had he replied?

‘He didn’t die.’

That was it.

When Eunhoo stared blankly, he had even asked with a smile, ‘Why, do you want me to kill him?’ He remembered clearly how the man had worn a look of regret when Eunhoo shook his head quickly.

But who was dead?

The man, who had knocked down the stunned and frozen Eunhoo, climbed on top of him and began to strangle him in earnest.

“Ack!”

Squeeze!

With his eyes reddened, the man exerted force into his grip with the intention of killing Eunhoo. Feeling his airway slowly constricting, Eunhoo couldn’t even make a sound, but scratched the floor with his heels and writhed.

I’m dying!

The emotion Eunhoo felt at that moment was fear. He had always thought he wanted to die, but as death was right in front of his nose, he wanted to live.

It was the moment his intraocular pressure soared, his eyes felt like they were popping out, and his complexion turned deathly pale. Just as the strength drained from his flailing body, the man on top of him was suddenly pulled away. However, Eunhoo didn’t even realize that, and he gasped for air, coughing and choking.

Screeech. Screeech—.

The ringing sound grew longer and echoed. Eunhoo curled his body into a ball and let out his breath. Perhaps it was because a large amount of oxygen had suddenly rushed in; his lungs felt like they were going to tear.

“Cough. Cough.”

Perhaps due to the shock of being strangled twice in less than a full day, with only the assailant having changed, he couldn’t easily regain his senses.

Eunhoo shed tears. As he gasped for air and tried to clear his blocked breathing, he heard a roar.

“Damn it! Who are you!”

The person who had kicked the door open and rushed in easily overpowered the man who was flailing wildly. He very simply pushed the man down as if pinning him to the floor, and pressed his foot firmly onto the man’s back to hold him down. Then, he hurriedly shouted at Eunhoo.

“Mr. Joo Eunhoo, are you alright?”