I'm a Bodyguard
"Sihyun, quit right now! Please!"
Seonye pleaded with him once more, her voice raw with desperation. No—it was closer to outright begging.
Even in his poor and grueling circumstances, Sihyun had been living each day with stubborn diligence, standing on his own two feet. She felt as if she herself were the one who had shoved him into danger.
It's all... all my fault!
If she hadn't introduced him to that club part-time job just to manufacture an excuse to get closer to him…
He never would have crossed paths with Yuri in the first place.
In the case of the Hanbit Group, succession followed the principle of the eldest son inheriting. Even if there was competition for the heir's seat, it never turned into the blood-soaked family warfare that plagued the Cheonryong Group.
That was why she had disliked Sihyun getting involved with Yuri, yet she had never actively tried to stop it. Perhaps that complacency was the real problem.
Because of it, Sihyun had unknowingly set foot in a dangerous world no ordinary person should ever have to face.
Yuri was no different.
…They've already realized he's connected to me.
Whoever it was—man or woman—at least one of the family bastards had already taken notice of Sihyun's existence.
Meanwhile, Sihyun, who had only just begun to grasp the gravity of the situation, stood frozen, his expression hardening into silence. His eyes couldn't help but waver with a storm of conflicting thoughts.
Only days ago he had been struggling just to scrape by each day, fretting over when he would ever save enough for Seojin's surgery. Meeting Yuri had made that problem vanish almost overnight.
Mornings at the café, the rest of the day spent being dragged around by Yuri under the title of bodyguard… he had never once imagined he would suddenly be thrown into a situation this abnormal.
A tangle of thoughts and emotions churned through his mind, but at last he seemed to reach a decision. He slowly opened his mouth.
"…I'm not quitting."
"!!!"
"Wh-what!?"
Caught completely off guard, Yuri and Seonye both stared at him in stunned disbelief.
Yuri was locked in a fierce internal struggle of her own.
As much as I hate to admit it… Min Seonye is right.
Keeping him at her side would only drag Sihyun into even greater danger. At first it had been nothing more than curiosity and possessiveness, but somewhere along the way Sihyun had become something far more than that to her.
I can't put him in danger just because of my own greed.
It was hard—so unbearably hard. It felt as if her chest were being torn open. Yet she might have to let him go…
The thought weighed on her with crushing seriousness.
"Sihyun! Are you out of your mind right now?"
Seonye shouted, unable to understand him. She had a vague idea why he was being so stubborn.
It's that damn money, isn't it!
Over the past few days, while Yuri had been away, she had talked with Sihyun about many things. One of them was that he had finally solved his mother's surgery costs—money he had almost certainly received from Yuri.
That bitch! Does she think the rest of us don't help because we don't have money?
Seonye couldn't help cursing Yuri inwardly. To a chaebol that sum was pocket change they could hand over without a second thought. But to someone like Sihyun, who scraped and saved every single day, the meaning was entirely different.
Solving the immediate crisis was a relief, yet it also left a relative emptiness that was hard to ignore. She knew that despite his pretty face, Sihyun had his own stubborn pride. If his mother's condition hadn't been truly critical, she never would have forced help on him. That was why she had offered only indirect support—like introducing him to the club job—rather than direct charity.
"It's because of the money you took from Han Yuri, isn't it!? I'll pay back every last bit of it for you! No—I'll just give it to you!"
Seonye cried out as if pleading.
"So please, just walk away from this dangerous mess!"
Tears began to well in her red eyes.
Yuri forced her own mouth open as well. Her voice trembled faintly, so unlike her usual self.
"…Do what Min Seonye says. There's no reason for you to get dragged into this filthy business too."
She added, pretending to be calm,
"The contract fee… you don't have to return it. Just think of it as severance pay and keep it."
Sihyun's heart wavered for a moment at the genuine worry written across both their faces, but he shook his head firmly.
"No. I'm a bodyguard. I haven't even worked a full month yet—what do you mean, severance pay, Employer?"
He deliberately added a teasing note.
"I may not look it, but I actually know the Labor Standards Act pretty well, you know?"
At that,
"Sihyun!!!"
Seonye exploded.
"Even if you're confident in your skills, this is a completely different level of problem!"
Tears were already streaming endlessly down her cheeks.
"It's really dangerous! Especially that bitch! Han Yuri's family is even more insane!"
Even so, Sihyun's resolve remained unshaken. He shook his head once more.
"Then that makes it even more impossible to quit. You're saying my employer is in real danger, right? Looks like I'll have to protect her even harder."
"Ha…!"
Seonye let out a hollow laugh, then finally broke down and sobbed.
"Waaah… Kim Sihyun… you bastard!"
Ordinarily she would have tried to coax him with soft words or a little flirtatious sulking. Right now she had neither the presence of mind nor the emotional room for it. Frustration, helplessness, and worry crashed over her so hard that she could no more hold back her feelings than she could stop the tears sliding down her cheeks.
"…I'm sorry, Seonye-noona."
Sihyun felt truly apologetic, yet he absolutely refused to give her the answer she wanted—that he would quit.
Realizing at last that she would never break his stubbornness, Seonye turned her tear-filled eyes on Yuri and demanded,
"Hey, Han Yuri. Do you have any idea who the bastard is?"
Yuri, who had been oddly moved by the usually grumbling Sihyun's unyielding stance, wore a complicated expression. She wanted to snap back at Seonye the way she always did, but the other woman's tear-streaked face and sincere worry for Sihyun made it impossible. Even if they were rivals, she decided to hold the sarcasm in check for this one moment.
"Honestly… I have no idea which bastard is after me. There are just too many of them…"
Yuri answered frankly.
The Han family of the Cheonryong Group consisted of five sons and three daughters. Of them, the third, fourth, and fifth brothers, along with the second sister, had declared they would stay out of management. That left the eldest son, the second son, and the eldest daughter—those three were currently locked in a vicious battle for the succession.
And yet those bastards still keep trying to keep me in check…
Because the Cheonryong Group chairman doted on Yuri especially. Not only was she the youngest daughter; from childhood she had displayed exceptional talent. That paternal attention had always felt like a burden, so the moment she became an adult she had followed her older siblings' example and announced she had no interest in management.
Those sons of bitches… I already said I'm not doing it, so why do they keep losing their minds…
The wretched family clearly had no intention of leaving her alone.
Yuri's complicated answer only made Sihyun's and Seonye's expressions harden further. They were in a situation where they couldn't even guess who the mastermind targeting her might be.
Yuri let out a sigh and added,
"Still, the chairman will never openly tolerate family members shedding each other's blood just to seize the group."
Openly, at least. On the surface.
"Anyone who clumsily stirs up trouble will just get purged, so for the time being no one's going to pull any major stunts."
Yuri had conducted a thorough investigation when she crushed Jinmyeong Construction in an effort to find the mastermind. She had uncovered not even the faintest clue.
Still, the sudden change in those thugs' attitudes bothers me. Maybe I should dig into them separately…
While she was thinking that, Seonye crossed her arms and asked,
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Keep investigating as much as possible… but ultimately we just have to wait."
Yuri's blue eyes glinted coldly.
"Christmas is coming up soon, right?"
Seonye understood immediately and asked back,
"Ah, you mean the Holy Night banquet that Cheonryong hosts?"
"Yeah. We might be able to learn something then."
Yuri nodded as she answered.
Every year the Cheonryong Group hosted the Holy Night banquet. Not only the Han family of Cheonryong attended; every major chaebol family and every powerful figure in politics and business gathered there. Surely they would be able to find the bastard pulling strings from the shadows.
Seonye hesitated for a moment, then slowly spoke.
"…Han Yuri. For now, I'll help you. But not for your sake—for Sihyun's. Got it?"
Yuri stared at her for a beat, then let out a short snort of laughter.
"Hmph. I don't need your help."
"This bitch for real? Someone offers to help you for once and—"
"You got a problem with that?"
"Hey!!!"
Before long the two of them were snarling at each other again.
"Haa…"
Sihyun let out an outward sigh, yet inwardly he felt a small measure of relief. At last things felt a little more like normal again.
Quietly, he clenched his fist.
I can't stay like this either…
He made a silent vow. Just as he had in the fight against Dongcheol, he would never let his guard down even for a second, never leave any opening. For himself and his mother—and for the people around him like Yuri and Seonye—he would become even stronger.