My Bloody Valentine - 82

As consciousness returned, Han’s mind gradually became clearer.

He felt a sense of déjà vu from a smell he had encountered before, and he held his breath, fainting from a lack of oxygen, but he hadn’t inhaled a large quantity of drugs this time.

Perhaps this was his body’s way of adapting, having experienced abduction for the third time.

Feeling a headache that pounded at his temples, Han continued to pretend to be unconscious, trying to assess the situation without opening his eyes.

The cold floor pressed against his cheek, and the musty smell of the damp mat filled his nostrils.

Along with that, there was a sour odor that mixed alcohol and stomach acid, and even the fishy smell of semen.

He was clearly in a different place.

There was no blindfold over his eyes, nor were his hands and feet tied.

They must have judged that he would be unconscious for a longer time.

Like a possum that specializes in playing dead, Han listened intently to the sounds around him.

“Why did you come here instead of the factory? It’s messy and unorganized.”

“The factory is a no-go. Damn it… I can’t control that bastard Yang at all.”

“Is he causing you a lot of trouble?”

Oh Seong-jin realized too late that his judgment had been naive in opening the door to the underworld, lured by the immediate benefits before him.

He couldn’t control those armed men.

He had already lost two port managers who were killed for the trivial reason that they had crossed paths with those he had smuggled in.

Thanks to that, not only the police but also Interpol, pursuing international organizations, were tightening their nets around him.

Yet, Yang remained calm, and it was Oh Seong-jin, who had brought them into Korea, who felt anxious.

“By the way, what on earth did you spend so much money on?”

“Jang Taeshin’s Achilles’ heel.”

“…Then we definitely shouldn’t touch it, right?”

A reversed scale.

It is said that if someone touches this Achilles’ heel, the dragon will chase that person to the ends of the earth and surely kill them.

Could they touch Jang Taeshin’s Achilles’ heel and come out unscathed?

With the disappearance of Executive Director Choi Ki-jun, Oh Seong-jin couldn’t help but harbor worried feelings.

It was a thing of the past that gangsters would risk death for loyalty and pride.

These days, not many were willing to lay down their lives.

That’s why most organizations were disbanding.

Even Oh Seong-jin, who stood before them, had lost his power and was being absorbed under Chairman Bae.

“Security will be lax at Chairman Bae’s funeral. If we don’t act now, we’ll never get another chance. A no-mark chance like this won’t come again.”

Although he had initiated this, Oh Seong-jin appeared just as anxious.

Noh Il-young quietly approached and asked,

“But is it true? Chairman Bae…?”

“…”

“Did Director Jang really…?”

At the words of his subordinate, the anxiety on Oh Seong-jin’s face slowly faded, replaced by rising anger.

When Chairman Bae first collapsed and his health issues surfaced, Oh Seong-jin immediately attached a lawyer to the case.

He had also been able to read the contents of the will in advance.

Most of it was useless content.

He mentioned donating all the paintings from the art museum that his wife had liked during her lifetime or donating the pine tree from his mansion to a park.

There was no mention of inheritance whatsoever.

Thinking that Jang Taeshin would also feel a bit wronged if he was kicked out like this, a sense of empathy arose.

But there was an unexpected twist.

“Damn it, Bae Jeong-gil… that bastard old man…”

“Adoption? What nonsense is that?”

Chairman Bae had adopted Jang Taeshin as his son.

In the case of adult adoption, unlike the adoption of minors, no government agency intervened.

If one simply submitted a piece of paper to the district office, that was enough, so he nearly missed it.

If that were the case, the matter would change entirely.

Jang Taeshin would have the legal right to inherit all of Chairman Bae Jeong-gil’s assets as his son.

From the business rights that Oh Seong-jin had desperately coveted to stocks, everything.

Oh Seong-jin held only about 9% of the shares, which he had painstakingly amassed over the years, while Taeshin had merely received around 3% when he was first appointed as a registered director.

If the shares of the deceased were treated as invalid, Oh Seong-jin would undoubtedly become the largest shareholder of Cheongsong Construction.

However, if Chairman Bae’s shares were to pass to Jang Taeshin, he would gain over 25%, which would give him control over the company.

He had made a monumental mistake in his planning.

It had been a blunder to hastily rush into things due to unnecessary anxiety while watching the sudden change in the executive team.

Deciding to launch a new business backed by the underworld with a large upfront payment was the biggest judgment error of his life.

What they wanted was not merely to open the port for drug distribution.

Once a door was opened, they audaciously asked for the key to another door.

To escape that underworld, he needed to repay the debt owed to them.

If he handed over the coffee factory and the hotel run by Jang Taeshin, perhaps they would withdraw without resistance.

Just as he was calculating that, he learned that Jang Taeshin had something to protect at that moment.

Even a non-human with a mineral-like personality had weaknesses.

This was a boon for Oh Seong-jin.

“I will obtain the rights transfer document.”

Oh Seong-jin planned to take not only the stocks and business rights inherited from Chairman Bae but also everything Jang Taeshin possessed.

To achieve that, he needed that man.

Jang Taeshin’s woman, a man named Lee Han.

Oh Seong-jin had heard in detail from Director Jo Kyung-cheol how Jang Taeshin treated that little man in an unusually special way.

While erasing traces of several people, including the organization members who had tried to touch his lover, Jang Taeshin had personally proven that fact.

“I can’t back down like this. How many years have I spent rolling under Bae Jeong-gil? Chairman Bae can’t treat me like this.”

O Seong-jin, who had been running a small organization, started working as Chairman Bae Jeong-gil’s driver and made it this far. To think of handing the company over to a kid whose head isn’t even fully formed makes me want to grab Bae’s collar, who died peacefully, and stab him in the chest once more.

“That’s a very valid point.”

“That beggar who used to be a pickpocket… I’ve wanted to kill him ever since he started acting all high and mighty, riding on the back of that old geezer.”

“That’s right. Let’s take this chance to really crush him!”

Noh Il-young agreed, his face a mix of flattery and pretentiousness. Although he wasn’t as capable as Choi Gi-jun, he was skilled at sweet-talking.

O Seong-jin’s eyes lit up as he muttered.

“…Chairman Bae, you bastard. Just wait. The one you treasured so much will soon be sent to join you.”

The footsteps of those standing by the door gradually faded away.

Han quietly lifted his eyelids after a while of silence. His blurry vision began to focus, and the outlines of objects slowly became visible.

The place he was in was a room about the same size as room 301, where he used to stay. Like that room, it also had no windows, indicating it was underground.

However, unlike that place, which had new and tidy furnishings, the floor was uneven, and the walls were covered in black mold, making it very shabby.

The room contained only an old jade-colored vanity and a bed with wooden-patterned sheets that had come loose in places, giving off a damp feeling due to the humidity. Just being in this place made him feel unclean.

He thought he was alone, but there was another person in the space. In the corner of the diagonal wall, a woman was huddled, burying her face in her knees. Was she also someone who had been kidnapped?

Han turned around to check the closed door and whispered in a small voice to her.

“Excuse me? Hello?”

But she didn’t move at all, no matter how many times he called her. She seemed to be asleep.

Han carefully got up from his spot and looked around. With every step, the sticky and dirty vinyl flooring clung to the soles of his feet. He approached the door and gently pressed his ear against it, but there was no sound coming from outside.

While he was listening at the door for a while, he turned around and was startled, his heart sinking. The woman who had been curled up on the opposite side had come within just a few steps of him.

“Ugh!”

Her eyes, which were unusually wide open, looked dazed and unfocused. He couldn’t tell whether she was looking at him or staring into the void.

“O-oppa…”

It seemed like even standing was a struggle for her as she leaned her body against the wall. Then, she approached him, sliding closer like a ghost from a horror movie.

“Please… don’t come any closer…”

Feeling extreme fear, Han stumbled backward.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Director, here… is the video from the hallway and elevator.”

The man who rushed in handed over the CCTV footage he brought from the control room, while Junho, peering into the wide-open closet, clicked his tongue softly.

“Looks pretty calculated. It seems they took everything worth money. They even stole the watch.”

“…What?”

Taeshin, who had been standing facing the window, turned around. Junho pointed to the closet and replied.

“Some of the watches in the storage compartment for the director’s watches are missing.”

Taeshin walked over and stood in front of the closet.

He could see several empty spots in the storage unit where the watches were kept. Coincidentally, the missing items were all valuable. Even the watch he had tried to give to Han, only to be rejected, was gone.

Seeing this, a strange light flickered in Taeshin’s eyes. A momentary feeling similar to joy flashed across his otherwise expressionless face.

“…He didn’t run away.”

“What?”

For a normal person, that wouldn’t be possible for Han. Han had no idea how much the watch he had wanted to put on his wrist was worth, nor did he care.

While everyone else was terrified, Han, who had stubbornly maintained his pride to an unusual degree, would not have taken the watch he had been given and run away.

Taeshin’s face, which had momentarily smiled at the fact that Han had not run away from him, quickly darkened. If that were the case, there would only be one remaining answer.

Taeshin immediately left the guest room.

“Director? Director!”

Junho’s voice calling him faded away, and the footsteps walking down the hallway gradually picked up speed.

Taeshin’s gaze fixed on the gray van parked across the street as he exited the hotel entrance. Without hesitation, he crossed the street and pushed the back door of the van open.

Beyond the door that slammed open were four plainclothes detectives who had been ambushed by their target.

Woo-sin, who was sitting right in front of the door, stared at Taeshin with wide eyes, his half-eaten hamburger forgotten in his hand.