* * *
After arriving at the airport—
Yeo Daeyun took the car keys from his attendant without delay and drove Taeryu out onto the road.
Glancing at the man’s profile through the rearview mirror, he cautiously asked,
“…And if you find him, what do you plan to do?”
“What?”
“Yoo Junhee.”
Taeryu didn’t hesitate, as if he had already finished considering this long ago.
“Sokcho would be best.”
“…Excuse me?”
“The villa—it’s fully renovated. I should make a few more adjustments and use that place.”
“…Are you saying you’re going to lock him up there?”
“No. I’ll need to see him often, so maybe somewhere closer to Seoul would be better. A hotel won’t do… An officetel, perhaps? Or somewhere in the suburbs.”
He was completely out of his mind.
Daeyun pressed his lips together and focused on driving.
The destination where their informant waited was growing closer, yet an unshakable sense of unease gnawed at his mind.
Something was off.
Things had been eerily quiet lately.
Even after Chairman Ki covered up Taeryu’s engagement scandal, calling it his last chance, neither Hong Yeonggyeong nor Ki Buseong had made any moves.
By now, one side or the other should’ve erupted into chaos.
“Director, should I go ahead and check the area first while you wait nearby—”
“Yeo.”
“…Yes, Director?”
“Do you want to get out?”
“….”
The sharp glare in Taeryu’s eyes said it all.
Ask one more time, and you’ll be the one in trouble.
Daeyun tightened his grip on the steering wheel and drove in silence.
A secluded harbor overlooking the sea.
Once used as a wholesale fish market, the abandoned warehouse was now bustling with people, resembling a chaotic fish auction.
“This guy? This is Yoo Junhee?”
“Come on, doesn’t he look just like him? Pale as a squid, scrawny, and kinda pretty too.”
Kneeling before them, bound and trembling, was a thin young man.
Taeryu stared down at him in silence.
His lips were split and swollen, his face bruised and puffed up like a steamed bun.
The man chewing gum stomped on his frail back and sneered,
“Hey, kid. What’s your name again?”
“U-Uh… U-Uh, Woo Junhee… Sir…”
His voice trembled, nearly on the verge of tears.
“See? Same name, same face.”
Without a shred of emotion, Taeryu scoffed.
“The one I’m looking for is Yoo Junhee.”
“What? This ain’t him? But they’re damn near identical.”
The thug spat out his gum and yanked the captive’s hair back.
“A-Aagh!”
The frail man let out a shrill scream as his head jerked backward.
Taeryu’s cold, black eyes swept indifferently over his battered face.
The man’s gaze pleaded for mercy.
“Even if my Junhee rolled down a cliff a hundred times, he still wouldn’t end up looking like this.”
“Damn… We searched every inch of Busan like a pack of bloodhounds, and we came up empty? What a shame.”
The thug yanked the man’s head back and forth a couple of times before tossing him aside.
He collapsed with a pained grunt.
“Director, I think this was a waste of time. Let’s head back.”
Yeo Daeyun muttered lowly as he approached Taeryu.
He had a bad feeling about this from the start.
Nothing good ever came from dealing with the Busan gangs.
Just as the two turned to leave, their steps halted.
A group of men had appeared at the warehouse entrance, blocking their way.
“Now, now, boss. We went through all this trouble searching for your guy, and you’re just gonna walk away? That’s a little cold, don’t you think?”
Taeryu’s exhausted gaze swept over the gum-chewing thug, sizing him up.
A thick gold chain around his layered fat roll
A dragon tattoo coiling around his burly arm.
At best, he was nothing more than a third-rate thug.
“You want money?”
“Well, well, our boss is a straight talker. The boys worked hard in this heat, so maybe you could spare some cash for a cold treat?”
Without a word, Taeryu pulled out his wallet, took out a few checks and bills, and scattered them onto the ground.
“This should be enough for some ice cream.”
The thug chuckled and gave a slight nod.
One of his lackeys quickly scooped up the money, then stepped aside to clear a path.
Just as Taeryu and Daeyun were about to leave—
A scream tore through the air.
“Agh! P-Please! Please, help me—!”
“Shut up, you little shit. Boss, what should we do with this one?”
The thug, counting the cash with his spit-slicked thumb, replied casually,
“What else? He’s a defective omega anyway—kill him, mess around with him, sell him off. I don’t care.”
“S-Spare me! Please, I’m begging you! Please… please….”
“Shit, this bastard’s annoying as hell. Want me to start with his mouth?”
“Nah, that’ll lower his price. We should just—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a shadow loomed over him.
“Huh? Boss, you’re still here? Something else you need?”
“Let him go.”
Hands still in his pockets, Taeryu ordered in a low voice.
“…What?”
The thug tilted his head and dug a finger into his ear as if he had misheard.
“You want me to let this guy go? Damn, boss, didn’t take you for a charity worker. But then again, this little omega runt ain’t exactly—”
Crack!
His head snapped to the side.
“B-Boss!”
“W-What the fuck?!”
The gangster spat to the side, holding back his underlings with just one hand.
A thin clot of blood splattered onto the ground.
“Shit. Boss, you’ve got a hell of a punch.”
“You can’t, Director!”
Yeo Daeyun rushed in, desperately trying to stop Ki Taeryu.
No matter how he looked at it, the situation was turning strange.
It was true that the request had been made even to gangsters, but something about the atmosphere here was off.
Even if they were gangsters, the ones they reached out to were at least running proper businesses with legitimate fronts.
These guys, on the other hand, were nothing more than thugs.
And to make matters worse, they kept provoking them, throwing around the term “Recessive Gene” as if they had some kind of agenda.
‘If we fall for this cheap trick…’
One wrong move, and things could spiral out of control.
Ki Taeryu was already a loose cannon, barely holding onto his sanity ever since Yoo Junhee disappeared.
A situation like this was far too dangerous.
“Director, please. You have to calm down. If you lose control—”
Before Yeo Daeyun could even finish his sentence, the gangster suddenly hardened his expression and swung his fist.
“Ugh!”
The one who collapsed was the man they had called a Recessive Omega.
Clenching his teeth, he punctuated each syllable with a brutal strike.
“You, fucking, inferior, gene, bastard.”
Thud. Crack. Smack!
The relentless kicks left the man crumpled on the ground, unable to even groan properly.
The sound of it was like flint striking, ready to spark a fire.
And the fire did spark—in Taeryu’s eyes as he looked down at the curled-up figure.
“Director, no! Stop—!”
Ignoring Yeo Daeyun’s attempts to hold him back, Ki Taeryu grabbed the gangster by the scruff of his neck.
“I told you to stop.”
“And what if I don’t, Boss?”
The thug sneered, his lips splitting into a grotesque grin.
Taeryu’s hand came down without hesitation.
Bang!
The gangster’s forehead slammed against the concrete floor, blood streaming down his face.
“B-Boss!”
“Shit, kill that bastard!”
In an instant, the entire place erupted into chaos.
Boom!
Dirt crumbled and scattered beneath Junhee as he landed hard on the ground.
“…Ha.”
Looking down at the debris tumbling into the endless cliff below, his heart pounded like crazy.
Then, he snapped his head up, glaring at the man who had just tried to kill him.
“Are you insane?! I almost died because of you—!”
His voice abruptly cut off.
The shadowed face he was looking up at was unfamiliar yet eerily familiar at the same time.
“H-How… How are you…?”
“Jeez. You trying to make me a murderer or something?”
“…Ki Taeseong, you…!”
“Hey now, is that how you talk to an elder? Shouldn’t you be calling me hyung?”
Ki Taeseong pulled Junhee back and casually dusted the dirt off his clothes, acting as if this were just another ordinary day.
Then, with an infuriating amount of ease, he even threw in a friendly greeting.
“Junhee, been doing well? Ah, guess you’re not a student anymore.”
“Why are you here? Do you even know your brother’s been looking for you? No—wait, that’s not even the point. Because of you, I—”
“Take a breath before you pass out. You’re making me exhausted just watching you.”
That smirk of his—it was exactly the same as it had been five years ago.
Junhee’s strength drained out of him, and he collapsed back onto the ground, clutching his head.
“Ha.”
He pressed his thumb against his throbbing temple. His mind was spinning.
Meanwhile, Taeseong plopped down beside him without a care in the world.
“Got any booze?”
“What kind of question is that the moment you show up? Are you out of your mind?”
“Come on, the place you’re staying at has enough alcohol to drown a man. You didn’t bring even one bottle? Or did you already drink it all?”
“…What? How the hell do you know that?”
Junhee’s swirling thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
The thing he’d dismissed as impossible… might not have been impossible at all.
“…Fuck. You’re not about to tell me you’re Vincent, are you?”
Taeseong clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Watch your mouth. Your swearing’s gotten even sharper since I last saw you.”
“You think I’m joking right now? What the hell are you? Do you even realize what I’ve been through because of you—?!”
“Taeryu rubbing off on you? Your eyes have gotten sharp. Almost scary enough to be the fiercest among herbivores.”
Taeseong kept cutting him off, and it was pissing Junhee off to no end.
* * *
