Chapter 1: 1

A humid wind blew as if it would rain soon. In the dusky afternoon light, Woo-hyun looked at the grassless mound. Although he was giving a silent prayer for the dead person, his eyes were dry. Woo-hyun moved his eyes and looked at the tombstone.

Sin Eun-soo

The person called Sin Eun-soo wasn’t there anymore, and only the name remained.

Woo-hyun tried to think of Eun-soo. It’s been so long since he hasn’t seen her that he can’t remember her face properly. However, there were a few things that came to mind when he thought of Eun-soo.

A kind and warm personality. Although she was smaller and more pitiful than him, she was sympathetic and couldn’t just ignore weak things.

Eun-soo was like that since childhood. When an old lady that she didn’t even know fell on the street, she ran to get her up as if it was her job, and when a friend dropped candy, she hesitated for a while and eventually handed it over. Like an idiot, she smirked and laughed while giving everything she had.

“I’m fine.”

That was what Eun-soo always said. She didn’t care even if he looked at her like he was frustrated, she just smiled brightly.

There are people who like and appreciate that kind of personality, but there are also guys who rush to take advantage of it. There was no way he could leave Eun-soo alone, especially as she became prettier as she grew older, like his stepmother. Because men tend to look at a woman with a pretty and soft personality.

Fortunately, her mother was thorough in that aspect, and Eun-soo obeyed her instructions. So, he figured it wouldn’t be a problem. Even if he let go of her hand, she would be fine. So he didn’t care. No, it was more like he wasn’t able to care.

His stepmother was not happy with him, who became a gangster for whatever reason, and was worried that her daughter might be harmed by his work.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand his mother’s choice, he also wasn’t confident that he could live with them like a family after his father passed away. By sending her an amount of money enough to have a decent living, he thought he was paying off all the care he had received as a child.

– By chance… Did Eun-soo contact you?

Then, one day. He had just woken up and sat on the bed, frowning at the uncomfortable voice coming through his cell phone.

“Who is this?”

It was a number he was seeing for the first time.

– It’s me… Your stepmother.

The hesitant voice over the phone trembled slightly. It was a voice that seemed uncomfortable to be calling itself ‘mother’. Woo-Hyun’s eyes, which had been half closed, immediately opened at the voice.

After his father passed away, his mother had never contacted him first. Whenever there was something to be said or a phone call was needed, Eun-soo always called him and conveyed it to him.

However, the stepmother made a phone call to the stepson, whom she wanted to avoid because she felt uncomfortable. And on top of that, she asked about the whereabouts of Eun-soo, which was something that if she didn’t know, he knew even less.

Woo-hyun corrected his grip on the phone. He stroked the back of his neck with his other hand. He felt strange.

“What do you mean? What happened to Eun-soo?”

Even at Woo-hyun’s request to tell him what happened to Eun-soo without beating around the bush, his mother hesitated for a long time. Just as Woo-hyun frowned, tired of waiting, the stepmother opened her mouth.

– … Eun-soo disappeared. I mean, she left the house.

“Eun-soo did?”

Woo-hyun asked without realizing it. When he heard that none other than Eun-soo had run away from their mother, Woo-hyun almost burst out laughing, inappropriately. It still felt like he was dreaming. However, Woo-hyun’s face gradually hardened at his mother’s crying words.

– She’s dating some crazy guy. I told her to break up with him, but she cried and said no. We had a bit of an argument over that… I didn’t know that Eun-soo would leave the house. And she went after that crazy guy… I can’t believe this is happening.

Even though she said it herself, the stepmother’s voice trembled as if she couldn’t believe it.

Woo-hyun thought for a moment. Sin Eun-soo and running away.

Even though his stepmother’s words were so absurd that he couldn’t believe them, Woo-hyun immediately understood the purpose of the phone call. Asking if he had been in touch with her was an excuse. Since Eun-soo was running away, there was no way to call her. She was telling him to find Eun-soo, if possible. At all costs.

“Alright. I’ll get back to you.”

Woo-hyun tried to end the call with unfriendly words.

– … I’m sorry. For calling you like this. But I had no one to call except you. You must be very busy…

The stepmother apologized in the middle of a hectic situation, perhaps because she felt shameless for calling him for the first time to ask him to find her daughter.

Woo-hyun breathed in, but did not let it out. He held it in, knowing how his sigh would sound to his stepmother.

Because of this aspect, he couldn’t hate his mother.

“Then, I’m hanging up.”

But he didn’t like her either, so Woo-hyun hung up the call bluntly. Woo-hyun immediately sent a person to find Eun-soo, while at the same time investigating what had happened to her. He forced a laugh at what he found.

He didn’t know that her personality of not being able to ignore things that are smaller, more delicate, and more pitiful than her, had finally spread to people.

Eun-soo met the wrong man. The stepmother was right to oppose it.

The man Eun-soo met was Kim Yi-woon. Eun-soo seemed to know him as a job seeker, but Yi-woon was a host. So, Eun-soo was being worked up by a cunning host.

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For Eun-soo, it was a love escape, but for the man, it was an opportunity to remove the obstacles and work her up as he pleased. It was surprising for being a choice made by Eun-soo, but Woo-hyun was well aware of the mistakes that people who are crazy in love make. Aren’t there people who give everything and even pay off the other person’s debts because of love? It is thanks to those people that he is here.

Woo-hyun, who was self-reliable, thought that he had to find Eun-soo no matter what. He didn’t need to think long to know what would happen if a host with a gift for deceiving people and the runaway Eun-soo were put together. And he was well aware of how weakened a woman would get after being worked up.

He sent as many people as he could and searched with all his might. However, her final whereabouts ended at a bank in Seoul. There, Eun-soo withdrew all her money and stayed away from cell phones, bankbooks, and everything else.

Since Kim Yi-woon had worked at a detective agency before, it seemed that he could not ignore his work experience. He was astonished at his great skills. However, he was not alone, and bringing a woman along while hiding was beyond his capabilities. Above all, it was difficult to completely erase their traces, no matter how carefully he was working to exploit the woman. Moreover, it was even more difficult to escape Woo-hyun, who had a close connection with detective agencies all over the country.

Woo-hyun found out Yi-woon’s location in five days. It was a motel in Incheon. He went there directly.

“It’s room 304. Sin Eun-soo seems to be there too.”

“Aaaah!”

Upon arriving at the motel and listening to Jun-kyung’s report, Woo-hyun, who was on the third floor, stopped in his tracks when he heard someone screaming. The nape of his neck was tingling. He had a strange feeling.

As he hurried his steps, a cleaning lady, who seemed to be out of her mind, was collapsed in front of room 304, trembling.

Woo-hyun left everyone behind and went there. He saw a familiar woman through the wide-open door. The body of the woman who hung her neck was swaying from side to side, like a reed in the wind. He hurriedly put her down and checked her vitals, but there was already no turning back.

A bluish complexion under the lifeless eyes.

It was the first he saw Eun-soo in a while, and it was also the last time.

Although he didn’t keep in touch with his half-brothers often, Eun-soo was the only one he could call family. Eun-soo was the only one who stayed by his side while waiting for their parents who had gone to work, and called him ‘my brother’ no matter what he did.

He was never friendly to her, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t cherish her. He had no idea until Eun-soo made the choice to die alone.

Did he contribute to Eun-soo’s death? Perhaps his indifference contributed to pushing Eun-soo to make an extreme choice. Perhaps all of those things pushed Eun-soo to her death.

Did he ever… have a chance to save her?

Amidst the many regrets that came rushing in like waves, Woo-hyun got up and looked at the grassless mound.

Pit-pat, pit-pat.

The sound of heavy rain hitting the fabric was heard. He didn’t even notice someone approaching, but Jun-kyung came over and gave him an umbrella.

“It’s raining.”

Jun-kyung said, shortening the ‘that’s why I’m here, violating your order that no one should come’. At his heartbroken gaze, his cold eyes went to the umbrella, and back to Jun-kyung.

“… What about that bastard?”

Woo-hyun asked in a very calm voice. Without realizing it, Jun-kyung was nervous at the voice that felt heavier than the humid air.

Eun-soo was the only one they saw at the motel in Incheon. It had been a long time since Kim Yi-woon had noticed it and disappeared.

From then on, Woo-hyun had only been asking about Kim Yi-woon, for several days already. He was obsessed with it. Jun-kyung knew well from experience how Woo-hyun changed when he was obsessed with something. It was something he had to risk his life to do. But unfortunately, he couldn’t find him.

Kim Yi-woon was a guy with a knack for hiding. His patterns were hard to read because he worked at a detective agency before working as a host. It took a lot of time and people to find someone like that.

“I haven’t found him yet, but I did find out about his sister. This is the last person Kim Yi-woon contacted. As she is his stepsister, it seems that they have been in touch from time to time. I heard that rumors were circulating all the time that Kim Yi-woon was terribly good to his sister.”

While making the worst report of not being able to find him, Jun-kyung quickly added, as if he had been waiting.

“So?”

“He has been hiding since then, but if he appears again, there’s a good chance he’ll be found around her, so I’ve placed someone there.”

Woo-hyun stared at Jun-kyung without saying a word. Pit-pat, pit-pat. The raindrops flowing down from the tip of the umbrella fell on Woo-hyun’s shoulder. Jun-kyung quickly stretched out the umbrella and covered Woo-hyun.

“Alright.”

Hearing Woo-hyun’s strangely concise answer, Jun-kyung looked at the man without realizing it.

Woo-hyun was elegant and classy in an organized world full of dirty, disgusting, impulsive guys. Although some people made sarcastic remarks that he deliberately set the mood, most people here respected and admired him. He could hear from time to time that he was a person who was not fit for the job of a gangster.

But that was something they could say because they had never worked with Woo-hyun. Woo-hyun was a person who suited the syndicate world better than anyone.

He didn’t speak rudely, didn’t reveal his inner thoughts, and had dozens of masks to the point that one wondered what his true face was. He wore the right mask on the right occasion, and had an excellent talent for controlling people’s emotions.

Whether he was likable, or scary.

He rarely revealed his feelings, and when he did, it was when things that are difficult to turn back happened.

“That woman, where is she?”

Woo-hyun asked in a voice lower than usual.

Jun-kyung thought that this was one of those moments.

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