Chapter 184
Chapter 184
I Really Didn’t Know
“You still haven’t found him?”
“Well…”
“Secretary Hwang, speak clearly.”
At the man’s words, the one called Secretary Hwang bowed his head.
“It seems he’s gone into hiding while being chased by debt collectors.”
“Does it make any sense that there’s been no word until now? What about the gardener?”
“We’ve identified his location, but he’s suddenly stopped showing up for work.”
“Ha! Where did the information leak from?”
The man’s tightly clenched fist trembled. Seeing the dangerous glint in his eyes, Secretary Hwang swallowed hard.
“Surely you don’t suspect me?”
“Hoo… What about Min Seong-cheol?”
“…We haven’t found him yet.”
“You’d better find him quickly. Otherwise… you know, right?”
It was a clear warning: Secretary Hwang wouldn’t get away unscathed either. His expression darkened at the man’s threat. If he didn’t handle this properly, he would end up just like Choi Nam-yun.
“…I’ll do my best.”
“Leave.”
The man waved his hand dismissively. Secretary Hwang bowed deeply and backed away.
“Useless bastard… After I took in my incompetent junior and fed him…”
The man clicked his tongue and muttered. He said it loud enough for Hwang to hear. Secretary Hwang’s hand, turning the doorknob, flinched.
“What are you doing? Not leaving?”
Secretary Hwang hastily exited the office. Still fuming, the man strode to the window. Before him was a forest of cold-looking buildings, and he was the one standing at the very top of the tallest one. He would never let go of this position.
‘Did someone catch the scent?’
The sudden disappearance of Park Gyeong-won and Yang Hong-sik, and the still-unlocated Min Seong-cheol, suddenly filled the man with anxiety.
‘No, that’s impossible. My plan was perfect.’
Ordering Secretary Hwang to kill Choi Nam-yun had been a calculated move. He had grown tired of the leeches who kept bringing up that day to demand money.
‘I should have killed them sooner…’
He had to lay low because Yu Geon-min, convinced his wife’s death wasn’t a suicide, had been snooping around everywhere. He barely managed to persuade Yu Geon-min to back off, but then he missed the timing to eliminate them while expanding his business.
[Sir, it’s been a while.]
[May 12, 1999.]
[Don’t hang up. We used to be on good terms.]
The man recalled his phone conversation with Min Seong-cheol.
[Surely you don’t think ‘that’ is the original, do you?]
“Min Seong-cheol, that son of a bitch…”
Could there be evidence that he had ordered Lee Hui-seo’s death? No, impossible. Min Seong-cheol was mentally unstable.
He was the kind of person who called himself Lee Hui-seo’s one true love and burned with hatred for Yu Geon-min, who had stolen her away. But a separate investigation had revealed that Lee Hui-seo had suffered from Min Seong-cheol’s stalking to the point of going to the police.
‘That’s why he was so easy to control…’
Driven mad by his obsession with Lee Hui-seo, Min Seong-cheol had decided to take revenge on her for abandoning him, and the man had simply used that to his advantage. There was no way such a deranged person could have meticulously collected evidence…
‘Min Seong-cheol could be the one hiding the leeches.’
Was this a coordinated effort to corner him? The man was furious, but confident.
They were nothing but leeches with no money or connections, and he was no longer the pathetic man he once was, desperately trying to win the Chairman’s favor. Now, he was the respectable head of a Juseong Group affiliate, wielding power others could only dream of.
He opened the safe and took out an old file folder. The business proposal Lee Hui-seo had written was in his hands.
‘You torment me even in death.’
He had tried so desperately, yet it was so difficult to get a single approval from the Chairman. But Lee Hui-seo, the beloved daughter-in-law, was coddled and got whatever she wanted.
The man had always resented that. He hated that she had reached the pinnacle of the entertainment industry with little effort, just because she was born with a pretty face, and that people praised her as the beauty of the century. He also hated that she never gave him a second glance.
He was consumed by his desire for the Chairman’s approval and an inferiority complex toward Lee Hui-seo, who so easily obtained everything he struggled for.
‘I have to eliminate them. Quickly.’
He had a bad feeling. As the man tightened his grip, the file crumpled slightly.
“Sit down. We have a lot to talk about.”
As Yu Yeon-seo took a seat first, Yang Hong-sik hesitated, looking back and forth between him and Baek Seo-jun. Baek Seo-jun grabbed the frozen man’s shoulder and forced him into the chair.
“Do you remember me? You used to give me piggyback rides all the time…”
For all his worry, Yu Yeon-seo’s tone was remarkably gentle, but his eyes were ice-cold. Baek Seo-jun noticed that he was holding back, right at his limit.
“I, I remember…”
“Watch your tone. I’m not your friend, am I?”
“…I remember, sir.”
Yang Hong-sik wet his dry lips with his tongue. He had tried to appeal to old sentiment, but it seemed this young master before him already knew the whole situation.
“Why did you kill her?”
“I-I didn’t do it!”
“What do you mean you didn’t? Park Gyeong-won told us everything.”
At Baek Seo-jun’s reply, Yang Hong-sik shuddered again. Park Gyeong-won. On the night Lee Hui-seo died, they had been drinking partners, soothing their flimsy guilt with alcohol. They had promised to take it to their graves…
“I-I was just following orders!”
“What did you get in return? Money?”
His silence was taken as a yes.
“Mister, you should confess honestly and get a reduced sentence. You didn’t kill her yourself, did you?”
“The person I want isn’t you, it’s the person above you. If you give me the answer, I’ll let you walk away safely.”
As Baek Seo-jun and Yu Yeon-seo spoke one after the other, Yang Hong-sik’s breathing grew ragged. He couldn’t think straight after being confined. With no windows, he couldn’t even tell how many days had passed. Was this what it felt like to be pushed to the edge of a cliff?
“Tell me everything, from beginning to end. What you did on May 12, 1999. And who gave the order.”
“Yeon-seo.”
Baek Seo-jun raised a hand to stop him. It wouldn’t do him any good to hear the details of that day. But the fire in Yu Yeon-seo’s eyes didn’t die. With a sigh, Baek Seo-jun patted his back.
“If it gets too hard, leave immediately. Got it?”
Yu Yeon-seo reluctantly nodded. It wasn’t much of a reassurance, but if his own brother couldn’t break his stubbornness, a mere acquaintance certainly couldn’t.
“Now, Mr. Yang Hong-sik. Please answer Yeon-seo’s question.”
“I-If I tell you the truth, can I be set free?”
“That depends on how much you’re willing to tell us.”
Baek Seo-jun then gently coaxed him, mentioning that Choi Nam-yun was dead and that the ‘mastermind’ was the killer. The subtle pressure that his own life was in danger, combined with his already weakened resolve from seeing Yu Yeon-seo’s face, made him take a deep breath and finally begin to speak, his voice faltering.
“Hoo… It was raining that day.”
His tone was one of resignation.
At the time, he explained, he had been in debt from co-signing a loan that went bad. Working at the Chairman’s residence meant a higher salary than most, but the debt was too massive to cover even with that income.
He was desperately trying to find money. That was when someone appeared through Park Gyeong-won, offering to help. They made an offer he couldn’t refuse: they would pay off his entire debt if he just did what he was told.
“Did you know who it was? As a gardener, you must have seen the faces of people coming and going from the residence.”
“No, I’d never seen him before.”
“Continue.”
At Baek Seo-jun’s gesture, Yang Hong-sik searched his memory.
That person had recruited others in similar situations. There was Choi Nam-yun, who needed money for his daughter’s surgery, and Park Gyeong-won, who had recently gotten into gambling.
“Back then, I didn’t know exactly what the job was. But if I didn’t pay off the debt, I would lose my family…”
“I’m not interested in your sob story. Just get to the point.”
Yang Hong-sik sniffled, glancing furtively at Yu Yeon-seo. I’m the one who wants to cry, so why is this man already crying? Yu Yeon-seo found him detestable.
On May 12, 1999, Park Gyeong-won and Yang Hong-sik gathered near the residence as instructed and met a stranger, not Choi Nam-yun.
[Who are you?]
[Didn’t he tell you? I’m Choi Nam-yun’s replacement.]
The two of them were regular workers there, but the man smiled with an unnerving calm for someone about to infiltrate a heavily guarded mansion.
Avoiding detection, they entered the residence grounds and hid in the bushes near the wall, a spot Yang Hong-sik had scouted beforehand.
[Wait, just a moment.]
They were waiting for the right moment to sneak into the annex, hidden from the Chairman’s family, when the man suddenly darted out… and greeted a young Yu Yeon-seo.
[What-what are you doing?!]
[That crazy…!]
It happened before they could stop him. The man looked at the young Yu Yeon-seo with a very gentle expression before rejoining them.
[Are you kidding me?]
[Ah, sorry. He looks just like my son.]
[What did you say?]
[Let’s hurry.]
As they got closer to the annex, the man began to chuckle, filled with a sense of glee. Sensing that he was dealing with an absolute lunatic, Yang Hong-sik and Park Gyeong-won clamped their mouths shut and silently crept into the annex.
[So, what is it we have to do?]
[Right. We weren’t told the details.]
In response to their questions, the man gave a shocking answer.
“He told us to sneak into the annex… and murder the Chairman’s daughter-in-law, staging it as a suicide…”
Yang Hong-sik shot to his feet, and Baek Seo-jun stood up with him, worried he might try to harm Yu Yeon-seo. But Yang Hong-sik dropped to his knees and crawled on the floor.
“Young Master, I… I really didn’t know.”
“Keep talking.”
“Yeon-seo.”
Yu Yeon-seo stared down at Yang Hong-sik, who was clutching his feet and begging. A single tear fell from his bloodshot eyes.
Faced with his unyielding demeanor, Yang Hong-sik roughly wiped his eyes with his sleeve and continued his stammering account.
“Th-that person persuaded us.”
[So, you’re not going to do it?]
The man had looked at the two hesitant men with pity, he said. There was even a sneer, as if wondering why they couldn’t handle something so simple.
[We didn’t know it was this kind of job!]
[My god… Do you think we can live after doing this?]
[Why not? Of course you can.]
The man took a rope from his bag and waved it in front of them. Yang Hong-sik hissed.
[She’s the Chairman’s daughter-in-law! If we get caught, we’re all dead!]
[Then don’t get caught, you idiots!]
The man grabbed Yang Hong-sik’s shoulder and whispered.
[So, are you going to go out there and spill everything? Even if it ends as an attempt, you’ll be thrown into hell just for being involved in this.]
[…He’s right.]
[Looks like Mr. Park Gyeong-won has some sense. A man should live up to his name.]
It was two against one. With a trembling hand, Yang Hong-sik accepted the handkerchief the man offered. That’s right, if he went out and confessed now, the Chairman would kill him anyway. It was better to see the job through and have his remaining debt cleared.
[I-I… need the money.]
[Yes, that’s right.]
[It’s not my fault… I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have the debt…]
[Exactly! The bastard who asked you to co-sign is the bad guy.]
Like a devil’s whisper, the man brainwashed Yang Hong-sik and Park Gyeong-won, slowly leading them to the room where Lee Hui-seo would be.
“So, so we went to where she was.”
Baek Seo-jun cut Yang Hong-sik off. He decided Yu Yeon-seo shouldn’t hear any more.
“Who was he? That man.”
“Well, his name was…”
“Min Seong-cheol?”
The name came from Yu Yeon-seo’s lips. Baek Seo-jun lowered his head, devastated.
“H-how did you…”
“Ha…”
Finally letting out a breath, Yu Yeon-seo looked up at the ceiling, trying to hold back the flood of tears. Just then, the door suddenly opened. It was Yu Eun-ho, who had been watching from the CCTV room.
“…Come out.”