My Bloody Valentine - 39

Chapter 39

“Ah, I’m really dying. What kind of day is today?”

It was an unusually busy day with more customers than usual. Moreover, corporate employees who came for entertainment in groups had booked two large rooms, and the underground first floor was already fully occupied with guests dressed in extraordinary black suits.

The waiter, who introduced himself as Min Gyu but wrote the name of the protagonist in an animated movie, had a fox-like face that matched his nickname. He hurriedly took Han to the changing room and handed him a uniform, telling him to change.

“Since I don’t have time to teach you anything today, just follow me and learn by watching. Help me out a bit.”

“Yes.”

“This is insane. Why are there so many slackers today… Ugh, I didn’t intend to make the work so intense from the first day. But I guess I have no choice but to ask for help.”

In a white shirt with a black vest and slacks, clothes he never thought he would wear in his lifetime, Han received some advice before changing.

“You’ll have to enter the rooms at least two or three times per hour. And, oh. By the way, I haven’t asked your full name yet. What’s your name? How old are you?”

“I’m Lee Han. My name is in English, and I’m twenty-eight years old.”

“Oh…”

Min Gyu seemed to be younger than him.

“Ahem… Anyway, just follow me when I go to serve snacks or pour drinks. Replace the wet wipes and coasters with new ones when we go in… got it?”

“Yes.”

Han took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself. It used to be a habit for him to get nervous before starting something new. However, after experiencing many things since coming here, Han felt that he had become a little braver.

After that, Han moved busily. He went back and forth between the kitchen, the hall, and the private rooms, placing ice buckets on tables, refilling wet wipes and coasters, and even clearing broken glasses. Eventually, he followed Min Gyu to deliver new snacks to Room 1, the largest room in Taesinda.

While Min Gyu went to the kitchen to fetch the snacks, Han discreetly took wet wipes and coasters from the supply room. Then, carrying a heavy tray in each hand, he followed Min Gyu without shaking.

In the center of the room, where about twenty people could comfortably sit, a middle-aged man he had seen at the entrance was sitting. And right next to him was Yujung.

Yujung, who usually dressed in sleeveless dresses fit for a photoshoot, froze stiffly in her waiter’s uniform when she noticed Han entering.

Her body, which had been languidly slouched towards the man, stiffened like a board, and her lipstick-stained lips were slightly bitten. She had never felt so ashamed of herself before.

Han also noticed Yujung, but pretended not to and focused only on collecting coasters from the tables.

The room was filled with smoke as if someone had smoked countless cigarettes. As Han was replacing the coasters and stacking wet wipes in the middle of the table, someone grabbed his wrist firmly. Han’s face turned pensive as he followed the gaze along the person’s hand.

The middle-aged man who had made him shiver multiple times was staring at him intently with his murky eyes.

“Do they choose waiters by their faces here? Is that why business is booming?”

Just as Han didn’t know what to do and froze, Yujung’s voice rang out. With a tone of speech that Han had never heard before, Yujung murmured to the man next to her.

“Sir, I’ve been waiting to serve you a drink.”

“Oh, really? Where’s mine?”

Despite Yujung’s efforts, the man pulled Han’s wrist and made him sit empty-handed on his left side before finally receiving the glass of liquor that Yujung followed.

“I, I…”

As Han tried to pull his hand away and stand up again, he met Yujung’s eyes, who was sitting next to the man. Yujung already knew who the man was and what kind of person he was, and she subtly shook her head as if to tell him not to say anything.

Finding a warning in her expression, Han obediently sat back down. Min Gyu, who had been sitting next to him, looked momentarily embarrassed but left as soon as he finished setting up.

Inside the room, there was little conversation, and the man seated at the head of the table quietly tilted the glass of liquor brought by Yujung. With a strange feeling, his eyes scanned the room, and he noticed that the faces of some of the men seated around the table were quite exotic.

At that moment, the door of the room creaked open, and Taesin entered. For Han, it was the worst possible situation.

Taesin’s gaze, which came straight to Han’s face, was not something he wanted at this moment, especially after receiving a sudden report that Oh Seong-jin had visited.

The man’s eyes, which had been fixed on Han for a few seconds, moved rapidly around like an artificial intelligence robot scanning its surroundings. They landed on Han’s face and the uniform he was wearing, as well as on the five subordinates sitting with him and Oh Seong-jin, who was seated at the head of the table.

“Oh, Mr. Jang’s here?”

“… What brings Mr. Jang here?”

“Well, Mr. Jang’s shop is so famous, I came to have some fun.”

The intense gazes of the two clashed in the air. It was like a clash of swords or, if one couldn’t see through each other’s intentions at all, like a clash of shields.

Taesin, who had been standing there for a moment, approached the table. After gesturing for the exotic-looking man sitting next to Han to come over, he sat in the seat perpendicular to Oh Seong-jin, with Han in the middle.

“I’ll pour you a drink.”

“Oh, what an honor.”

Taesin reached out his arm to pour liquor into Oh Seong-jin’s glass. As his body leaned forward, a familiar scent enveloped Han. It was the unique scent of Jang Taesin, a mixture of his cologne, the perfume he wore, and the smell of cigarettes he smoked.

“There are so many unfamiliar faces here.”

After refilling Oh Seong-jin’s glass, Taesin looked around. Except for one aide who always stuck by Oh Seong-jin’s side, everyone else had been replaced by unfamiliar faces.

Taesin, as if acknowledging Oh Seong-jin’s recognition with gratitude, pointed to a quiet man who was seated a few places away, saying:

“Oh, that’s Yang. He’s Chinese.”

“Chinese, huh? And what about him?”

Yang, who seemed unaware that he was being introduced, quietly tilted his glass. This time, when Taesin pointed to a dark-skinned man sitting opposite them and asked, Seong-jin replied as if he had been waiting:

“That’s Huy.”

“Huy?”

The man of medium height, who seemed to know his name was being called, looked at Taesin. His slim figure resembled that of a hungry stray cat.

“He’s Vietnamese. They say if you call someone ‘Huy’ in crowded places in Vietnam, several people will respond. It’s a common name.”

“I see.”

From the Chinese to the Vietnamese, starting with the people around them, Oh Seong-jin could see that something was changing.

“Are you planning to establish a multinational corporation or something?”

“Well, in this global era, what does nationality matter?”

“Is that so?”

“They’re quite useful. Cheap, obedient, and if you pay them properly, they work hard without much fuss.”

“…”

“All these Korean kids, they’re all spoiled… They talk about building organizations, making money, but they don’t want to do anything difficult. They just want to eat money. Worthless brats.”

“…”

“But these guys are different. They don’t communicate much, you can’t tell what they’re thinking by their expressions, but if you pay them, they’ll do anything. Aren’t they quite similar to someone we know?”

Jang Taesin was exactly that kind of person.

“Well…”

“Ah, yesterday I asked someone to be quiet, and that Yang guy came with a pen and grabbed someone’s tongue to pull it out. I didn’t mean it that way, but really… We still have some communication issues.”

While Jung, who had experienced various ups and downs at Tascenda, showed no signs of wavering, Han’s face became even paler. It seemed that there were still things that surprised him.

“You wouldn’t just show up for no reason. You’re a busy man, aren’t you?”

At Taesin’s urging to get to the point, Oh Seong-jin chuckled and emptied another glass of liquor.

“Do you think I dislike Mr. Jang?”

“…”

“It’s true that I keep an eye on you, but I don’t dislike you. People with hungry spirits like Mr. Jang are rare these days. I might even admire you in a way.”

Oh Seong-jin’s unique intuition played a significant role in his survival in this field. He knew who to mess with and who not to.

Jang Taesin was a man who knew neither fear nor terror. Moreover, he sought nothing but money. He had no family, no parents, no lover. He only possessed things that could be discarded at will, including his own life.

A person with nothing to lose is unbeatable. It was evident that if one were to properly engage in a struggle with such a ruthless person, many things would be lost on their side as well, whether they won or lost.

“I thought I’d try working with Mr. Jang.”

“Work?”

“Didn’t Lee Cheol-seung send me away?”

“Yes.”

“It’s at Chairman Bae’s direction?”

“Yes.”

It hadn’t been long since Lee Cheol-seung, who ran an adult arcade business, had been sent away, but rumors about him were already circulating.

“Chairman Bae must have made up his mind, right? After growing the business with the help of loyal followers like Mr. Jang, he’s now trying to climb to higher ground and cut off his own shadow.”

“…”

He probably expected that he would be the next one to be ousted.

“Mr. Jang, didn’t you know about that? Chairman Bae is quietly looking for a CEO among investment companies. Someone with an MBA or from an Ivy League school.”

Chairman Bae had mentioned it once before. However, Taesin listened quietly to Oh Seong-jin’s words as if he were hearing them for the first time.

“He’s either with Mr. Jang or out. Damn it, he must have gotten a little ambitious after being bedridden once. No matter how much he tries to erase it, our foundation is the organization. Just because a broom is washed doesn’t mean it becomes a towel.”

“…”

Oh Seong-jin valued the foundation of the organization. Chairman Bae’s attempt to build Cheongsong Construction into a legitimate business did not sit well with him.

With a disgruntled expression, Oh Seong-jin emptied the whiskey glass in front of him and grabbed Jung’s waist with one arm, pulling him close. Jung’s usually firm expression stiffened awkwardly.

“Why are you so stiff when you’re on top of the tower? You’re done.”

As Oh Seong-jin chuckled as if he had done something great, he snatched the glass in front of Jung with an annoyed expression. Then, turning to the opposite side, he handed the glass to Han. It was known that Oh Seong-jin had a sexual preference that didn’t discriminate between men and women.

“Here. You drink instead of him.”

Han, who had been trembling with fear since the story about pulling someone’s tongue, visibly shook as he reached out his hand to take the glass. When he took it and brought it to his mouth to alleviate the bitter taste without even knowing what he was holding, Taesin’s hand flicked out short in the air, striking Han’s hand holding the fork.

“Ah!”

As he regained his senses and opened his eyes, tears welled up in his eyes, and he saw peach slices scattered on the floor.

Han’s pupils shook.