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The secretary swallowed dryly and replied to Cheon Beom-jun’s enraged voice.
“We searched the 새벽 (Saebyeok) side, but found no evidence linking it to young master Cheon Geon-young. The young master is currently hospitalized for a detailed examination.”
“You don’t seriously think that bastard isn’t just stuffing himself with drugs in his hospital room, do you?”
“Security personnel have surrounded the hospital room, so we couldn’t ascertain the young master’s real-time movements. I apologize.”
Listening to the report, Cheon Beom-jun sat on the sofa, rubbing his deeply sunken eyes with his fingertips. He spoke with an exasperated tone.
“You need to make sure no strange rumors get out. This situation is ripe for absurd talk. It’s already hard enough dealing with Cheon Dong-woo; I can’t be bothered with him too. Everything needs to be settled before Father wakes up...”
Cheon Beom-jun’s murmuring was cut short by his phone. The secretary, knowing it was unlikely, still fumbled with the outside of his pants pocket to check his own phone. Fortunately, confirming it wasn’t his, the secretary sighed in relief, his chest heaving.
Cheon Beom-jun’s face grew increasingly contorted as he answered the call. With the hand not holding the phone, he scratched the leather of the sofa.
Finally, when the call ended, Cheon Beom-jun rose from the sofa, his face pale.
“Father woke up.”
At that, the secretary immediately had the car prepared. Throughout the drive, Cheon Beom-jun was anxious.
________________________________________
Arriving at Chairman Cheon Seong-beom’s house, he found four bodyguards descending the stairs leading to the bedroom. As he naturally tried to walk past them, Cheon Beom-jun suddenly realized that the bodyguards’ faces were unfamiliar.
“Hey! Who gave you permission to be here?”
The bodyguards, who had been walking towards the front door, all turned around at his voice. The man who appeared to be their leader politely bowed to Cheon Beom-jun and said,
“The chairman hired us.”
“What?”
“The chairman personally hired us ten minutes ago.”
To replace the bodyguards as soon as he regained consciousness. The bodyguards looked at Cheon Beom-jun as if asking if he had anything more to say. Cheon Beom-jun felt displeased and turned his back on them, opening the bedroom door.
And the moment he opened the door, a woman’s piercing scream scraped his ears. At the same time, Bae Hee-joo, staggering from inside the opened door, abruptly grabbed Cheon Beom-jun’s wrist.
She was pleading for help with her entire body, and Cheon Beom-jun, unfamiliar with such behavior, stiffened.
Behind Bae Hee-joo was a female bodyguard. She showed no surprise at seeing Vice President Cheon Beom-jun and covered Bae Hee-joo’s mouth with the handkerchief she held. Bae Hee-joo’s eyes widened in terror.
“What are you doing?”
He rubbed his wrist, which had been momentarily grabbed, and scrutinized the struggling Bae Hee-joo and the bodyguard from head to toe.
“Let her go, right now.”
Just then, a familiar old man’s voice called Cheon Beom-jun’s name.
“Beom-jun. Leave her be.”
The awakened father and the hastily arrived son’s gazes met in mid-air. Taking advantage of the moment, the bodyguard, who had lifted Bae Hee-joo from behind, left the bedroom.
The stifled screams faded, and the door quietly closed. In the room, there was only the somewhat dazed-looking attending physician, the patient with clear eyes, and Cheon Beom-jun.
Cheon Beom-jun slowly rolled his eyes. The antique items that had lined both sides of the bed seemed to have already been removed by someone.
“Why don’t you at least pretend to be glad to see me?”
The old man wiggled his finger. Feeling unpleasant at the gesture, Cheon Beom-jun stood by his father’s bed and soon noticed the button used to call the doctor was held in the patient’s right hand. Hadn’t his father primarily used his left hand after injuring his right hand when he was young?
“Are you able to use your right hand comfortably now?”
At the thoughtlessly asked question, the old man’s complexion changed. The old man vaguely replied that his body was recovering.
After that, Cheon Beom-jun diligently answered his father’s questions about what had happened while he was unconscious. However, he couldn’t completely shake off the sense of unease given by the old man’s somehow changed eyes and the doctor acting like a wooden doll. The same went for the cleaned room and Bae Hee-joo, who was dragged out looking as pale as if she had seen a ghost.
He couldn’t pinpoint it, but everything felt strange.
________________________________________
On the night Chertan and Yoon Tae-ha reunited, four people sat around Jeon Ye-rim’s dining table. It was a peculiar dinner with two strangers, one recluse, and one fugitive.
Contrary to Yoon Tae-ha’s expectation, Chertan and Jeon Ye-rim didn’t seem as familiar as people who had known each other for a long time. Sensing her curiosity, Jeon Ye-rim told her that this was only the third time she had spoken face-to-face with Chertan.
A moment later, Jeon Ye-rim, who finished her meal the fastest, smiled, noting that Yoon Tae-ha’s eating increased slightly compared to yesterday.
Soon, Jeon Ye-rim began to ask questions to Nox, who was cutting meat with impeccable dining etiquette. The first question was how he came to join Orca. Nox lightly wiped his mouth and lowered his gaze, saying,
“There was someone who first found me and gave me water. He was a deliveryman who transported goods by truck in the green sea. I learned how to adapt here with his help. Then, he suggested we work together, saying he found a good way to earn money. He said it was a job that provided food and a place to sleep, and if I did well, I would get a monthly salary. It was the Green Hive construction site.”
“You went far following a friend.”
Jeon Ye-rim muttered in a feigned regretful tone. Chertan, having heard the story before, wasn’t greatly surprised. Yoon Tae-ha vaguely thought that Chertan must have heard details about Nox’s past when they decided to work together.
“So, where is that friend now? He wouldn’t happen to be the spy whose identity hasn’t been revealed yet, would he?”
“Only Kali knows the identities of all the executives under the Director-General. And the person who gave me water died a long time ago. Ark killed him.”
Yoon Tae-ha put down her utensils with a startled expression and drank some water. Jeon Ye-rim, who had asked the question, showed a slight hint of awkwardness.
“Oh dear.”
Nox continued speaking with the same expression as before.
“Geum Gang-seop leaked information about those within Orca who tried to break free from his control to Ark. After that, he didn’t even need to lift a finger. Agents tracked them down and killed them. Among them were quite a few moderate outsiders with tendencies similar to yours.”
Chertan, who had been indicated by Nox’s gaze, scoffed.
“We’re not moderate.”
“Most of the outsiders left in Orca are extremists. They believe they must teach and rule you, who are lacking and flawed.”
The man who had scoffed quickly changed his demeanor.
“Black Lion is practically a law-abiding citizen. He regularly paid donations to the City Alliance.”
As the people gathered around the table mostly finished their meal, the servants brought desserts and fragrant coffee. Yoon Tae-ha instinctively looked at Chertan when she saw the particularly dark-looking coffee placed in front of her.
He raised an eyebrow. This was something Chertan often did when he saw something puzzling. She knew it had no special meaning. But perhaps it was because she had acknowledged him as her father. She felt an unparalleled intimacy in Chertan’s actions compared to before. Did he think of her mother when he looked at her?
After finishing her coffee, Yoon Tae-ha brought up the storage device her mother had left behind. Jeon Ye-rim then ordered her subordinate to bring equipment that could safely read the device into the living room. A human-sized screen was temporarily set up in one corner of the living room.
Jeon Ye-rim, picking up a laptop as if accustomed to it, unlocked a complex password and then displayed the data Yoon Seo-hyun had hidden on the screen. Jeon Ye-rim skimmed the loaded document list and murmured in low admiration.
“Typical Yoon Seo-hyun. There’s everything imaginable.”
That night, Yoon Tae-ha read and reread the documents her mother had left behind without sleeping. Most of them were top-secret documents not publicly disclosed.
Surprisingly, Nox did not leave but remained at the mansion. He helped filter out data that was not very important at the current time.
“They say the chimera brought by the Director-General has an identification chip embedded in its body.”
Chertan continuously communicated with someone using the communication device provided by Jeon Ye-rim, updating the information.
That’s how they spent three full days analyzing Yoon Seo-hyun’s belongings. And one deep dawn, Yoon Tae-ha, curled up asleep under the sofa, suddenly woke up with a shudder.
Her spine tingled from a nightmare she couldn’t properly remember. She looked around. Jeon Ye-rim had gone to bed a few hours ago, and Chertan was nowhere to be seen. Only the bluish light from the screen illuminated one dark corner.
The only one left working in the living room was Nox. He was drawing a path on the blueprint of some facility. Yoon Tae-ha squinted at the light and asked,
“Where is that?”
Nox answered without turning his head towards the person who asked the question.
“It’s the blueprint of one of the hydroponic farms connected to the artificial island where Ark will relocate its headquarters.”
At his words, Yoon Tae-ha pulled out a memory.
“Oh, there. Jet offered me a position as a judge for the guild competition held there. That was before I became a fugitive, though. I did think he was up to something... Is that also one of the potential rift sites?”
“That’s right.”
Just then, the door leading from the living room to the garden opened, and Chertan appeared. He gestured for her to come. When Yoon Tae-ha went outside, he slowly closed the glass door.
Feeling the fresh, cold pre-dawn air, Yoon Tae-ha shook off her drowsiness. Chertan had a displeased expression.
“You need to get proper sleep.”
“I’ve been napping in between, so I’m not tired.”
“Don’t even think about lying to me. I heard everything you went through from Nox. Your survival was purely...”
“...Because the blood of an outsider flows in my veins, right?”
“...”
“Nox told me too. He said it was thanks to your blood that I could endure the curse that left a scar on my ankle without losing consciousness.”
Yoon Tae-ha spoke calmly.
“So I wanted to say thank you.”
“That is one of the things you should never say to me. Say it to someone who deserves to hear it.”
Although busy classifying necessary information, Yoon Tae-ha continuously read and reread her mother’s letter whenever she had a moment. She especially liked the paragraph that spoke of finding fragments of the person she loved in the child’s eyes. It was a paragraph that made her profoundly feel that she was someone’s happiness, not their misfortune.
Furthermore, Yoon Seo-hyun expressed no resentment towards Chertan in the letter. If anything, she worried that her daughter might misunderstand her father. How could she hate someone her mother didn’t resent?
“You ended up coming to find me anyway.”
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