Hazardous Concentration Chapter 9

“It is Executive Director Lee Jaewook.”

To be precise, it was former executive director. He had been removed from the company after an embezzlement scandal broke out.

Yeo Taejun, who had remained silent for a moment at the man’s words, swung the golf club with all his might again at the head of the person who was lying there without a twitch, unsure if he was dead or unconscious. A thick, dark red pool of blood splattered across the carpet, then began to flow.

“Whew.”

With his breath hitched, Yeo Taejun rested the blood-soaked golf club head on the floor and turned his gaze away. His face, exposed under the light of the dangling chandelier, was beautiful, but the sheer aura of death radiating from him was hair-raising. As he took out a cigarette, Kim Hyun-seong, who had been standing to one side with his hands clasped, approached and lit it for him.

Yeo Taejun sat on the sofa with the cigarette between his fingers. Blood had splattered not just on his vest, but on his shirt as well. After roughly wiping the blood off his hands with a handkerchief, he leaned back against the headrest.

The alarm had been raised at TS three days ago. Chief Seo, who was in the United States, had delivered the news of Yeo Gijoon’s accident. It was a traffic accident.

He said that a truck had suddenly come speeding and collided with Gijoon’s car while he was on his way back from attending a party. The car he was in was totaled. Fortunately, Yeo Gijoon’s life was not in danger, but he had sustained significant injuries.

Yeo Taejun grabbed the water glass on the table and threw it. The glass shattered with a clink.

His face, now devoid of laughter, was chilling. Those who faced that death-ridden countenance caught their breath involuntarily.

“It’s been a while since my temper flared up this much.”

As Kim Hyun-seong watched quietly, Yeo Taejun furrowed his brow.

“So you’re telling me that some washed-up has-been made my brother look like that?”

After his grandfather’s death, TS’s power was divided between those who supported the Yeo family and those who did not. Executive Director Lee Jaewook was pro-family. However, he wasn’t particularly useful. He had barely managed to secure his executive position through his grandfather’s favor, and he only caused various incidents due to his incompetence. His son, Lee Suwon, was the same. Thinking that since the father-son pair was constantly causing trouble everywhere, he would have to cut them off sooner or later, he took the embezzlement scandal as the perfect opportunity to clean house.

However, the one thing that was still not clear was…

“That timid guy couldn’t have acted alone.”

The father and son, who were greedy but cowardly and easily frightened, had planned and designed this massive operation? It didn’t make sense. There was definitely someone who had instigated and helped them.

“You said Lee Jaewook had frequent meetings with the Vice Chairman of Sewon Group starting a few months ago, right?”

“Yes.”

Yeo Taejun’s eyes narrowed. There were countless companies that owed debt to TS, but Sewon Group held an especially large amount. Even without this, Sewon was a company Yeo Taejun had been keeping a close eye on for a long time. This was because it was Sewon, none other, that had taken the new city development project—which was originally supposed to be TS’s—after Chairman Yeo Seung collapsed.

It wasn’t just Chairman Yeo; the old Chairman of Sewon had also been lying in a coma for a long time. While Chairman Yeo had only been in that state for three years, the other man had been like that for over ten. Currently, his eldest son was leading Sewon. Even though it was natural for a son to inherit, a feeling of unpleasantness surged up in him. Like a predator with its prey in front of it, a strange light flickered in Yeo Taejun’s pupils.

“Find out why they met…”

“Yes.”

“Bring both Lee Jaewook and Lee Suwon here.”

The man bowed his head and left the room.

Soon after, the subordinates dragged out the bodies that had been beaten to a pulp. A long line of blood was drawn across the floor. However, no one cared about that. Shortly thereafter, there was a commotion outside, and two grown men dragged someone in, trembling with fear.

“P-please, spare me! Please spare me!”

The man, who had been shouting with his head held high just moments ago, asking if they knew who he was, was now begging pitiably as if he had never done such a thing.

Yeo Taejun stared blankly into the air. Kim Hyun-seong placed a teacup on the table. The color of the tea was red, as if blood had been mixed into it. Yeo Taejun quietly lifted the cup and held the tea in his mouth.

“I…”

It seemed like he wasn’t interested in this, but that wasn’t the case. His gaze lifted slowly.

“Do you know what I consider the one somewhat useful thing among the fucked-up teachings of my grandfather?”

The man, who had no way of knowing, just shook his head frantically. Yeo Taejun’s pupils, gleaming like snake scales, curved thinly.

“It’s the way to handle dark-haired beasts. Yes, things like you.”

Until his grandfather passed away, Yeo Taejun had to pass countless tests designed by him. Unlike Yeo Gijoon, Yeo Taejun had moved to the main house and was raised by his grandfather starting shortly after his mother’s death.

It was partly because he was the eldest grandson, but his grandfather was always very worried that he might resemble his father. Chairman Yeo Seung, his father, had grown TS even larger, but he could never receive his grandfather’s acknowledgment in the end. It was because he was deemed “too soft.”

His grandfather and father clashed many times due to their differing values, and they never saw eye to eye until the day they died. Considering his father, who believed in bestowing virtue, to be hopeless, his grandfather staked everything on his grandson, Yeo Taejun.

They say emptiness grows larger; his father, who seemed fine for the moment after his mother died, was actually falling apart day by day. His temper grew sharper, and he became suspicious. His grandfather actually found that version of his father more satisfying.

‘This world is one where you get eaten if you look away for a second. You have to trample before you are trampled, and if you are struck, you must wipe them out so they can never rise again; only then will they not treat you like a joke.’

As if following that teaching, Yeo Taejun never once disappointed his grandfather. For every task he was given, he produced satisfying results. By the time his father sought Yeo Taejun out again, he was already thoroughly tainted. But he himself was not ruined because of his grandfather. From a young age, he basically possessed a cruel nature. What was mine was mine, and if I wanted someone else’s, I took it. Naturally, he had no sense of guilt. The only difference was that he hadn’t needed to reveal it until then, and now, he didn’t need to hide it. His grandfather had recognized Yeo Taejun’s cruelty at a glance.

Realizing that his grandson resembled him more than his parents, his grandfather was very satisfied and dragged Yeo Taejun everywhere, nurturing the malice ingrained within him.

“Touching Gijoon, of all people, was crossing the line.”

That was why everyone was puzzled when he acted quite fond of his younger brother, despite the age gap. They assumed it was just for show. But Yeo Taejun was serious. In place of his mother, who had passed away early, and his father, who was busy with company work, he took quite meticulous care of his younger brother. People would wrinkle their noses, saying that even monsters must find their own kin precious.

“I-I don’t know. I didn’t do it. I just acted as a middleman. I really don’t! I didn’t even know who the target was!”

“Really?”

Yeo Taejun quietly set down the teacup he was holding in his hand and muttered languidly.

“But you know now.”

Soon, the blood-soaked golf club was back in his grip.

Dried squid, even a dried-out rag—water comes out if you squeeze it. Anyone suffering under loan sharks has probably heard that at least once.

When you don’t know the situation, you tilt your head and wonder, How can they be like that? But once you experience them directly, you know. Creditors, especially those belonging to the fourth tier of finance, used all sorts of means and methods to squeeze money out of debtors.

“Whew.”

Eunhoo, who had stopped in front of a building located on a busy street, took a few deep breaths as if resolving himself to something.

“Alright, let’s go.”

He braced himself several times and stepped into the building. Unlike how it looked from the outside, the interior was old and shabby. It had an eerie, dismal feeling, so Eunhoo walked quickly. Soon, an old iron door came into view. And through the gap in the door, which was slightly ajar, he could faintly hear the sound of boisterous chatter.

Eunhoo hesitated once more there. He clenched his fists tight, spent a long time dilly-dallying as if deciding whether or not to knock, then gave the door a sharp knock. No sound came from inside, but he pushed the door open. The first thing he felt was the smell of cheap perfume along with the acrid scent of cigarettes. The scene that greeted him next was five grown men sitting around a sofa playing Hwatu.

“Cough.”