“Han Jiwon!”
Joowon screamed his name, but the call had already been disconnected. Joowon tried to call back, but his number had already been blocked.
[The number you are trying to reach….]
The cold mechanical voice seemed to mock his desperation.
Joowon gripped his phone with trembling hands until it felt like it would shatter. His mind went blank.
The creepy sound of Jiwon’s laughter and his cruel voice whispering, ‘He is not yours anymore. Forever,’ echoed in his ears.
Something must have happened to Dojin.
And behind it all was Han Jiwon.
Realizing that all of this was due to Jiwon’s twisted desire for revenge against Seo Yoonwoo, Joowon was engulfed in uncontrollable rage and deep guilt toward Yoonwoo.
He had no choice but to place his last hope on the contact he found in his list: Han Jehoon.
‘Please, if anyone can solve this, it might be him. Perhaps he knew about all of this from the very beginning.’
[Hello?]
After a few rings, Jehoon’s languid voice came through.
“Han Jehoon, it’s me. Cha Joowon.”
[What’s the matter at this hour, CEO Cha? Did you have another problem with my brother?]
Jehoon’s voice remained nonchalant and relaxed. Joowon asked urgently.
“I can’t reach Jiwon. Do you happen to know where he is right now?”
[Well… I thought he was staying quietly at home, but I guess that’s not the case?]
“Do you know someone named Kim Dojin? He’s a designer at Studio Yeon.”
[Ah, you mean that Alpha who stuck to Designer Seo Yoonwoo like a shadow during this plagiarism dispute. How could I not know him.]
Jehoon laughed as if it were amusing.
Joowon felt a surge of anger at his attitude of knowing everything, but he tried hard to suppress it.
“Seo Yoonwoo just talked to Lee Minjae from Studio Yeon, and it seems Jiwon plotted something related to Kim Dojin. Neither of them can be reached right now.”
[Ho, things are getting interesting.]
Jehoon’s voice became even more intrigued.
[So, what do you need me to do, CEO Cha? Surely you’re not asking me to find someone for you? Unfortunately, I’m not a police officer.]
Joowon let out a deep sigh.
He had no other options.
At this moment, he felt like grabbing even a straw.
“…Is that proposal you mentioned earlier still valid?”
On the other side of the phone, the playful voice stopped abruptly, and there was a brief silence.
Then, a soft chuckle followed by an affirmative answer.
[Of course. Anytime.]
“Good. I will help you with everything you’re planning. Instead… please do me one favor. Find Kim Dojin, and… find where Jiwon is.”
He managed to finish the sentence as if squeezing out his last bit of strength.
Jehoon replied with a short confirmation, saying, “An hour will be enough,” and hung up.
Joowon clutched the disconnected phone and nervously checked the time.
Then, he immediately called Yoonwoo back.
[Did you find him?!]
Yoonwoo’s urgent voice leaked out of the phone.
“No. But I think I’ll be able to know the location soon, Yoonwoo. I will find Dojin no matter what… so please, just wait a little while. Please, don’t go anywhere…!”
Joowon’s desperate voice continued longer over the phone, but to Yoonwoo, who was struck by shock and terror, it barely registered.
After the call with Joowon ended, Yoonwoo couldn’t do anything for a moment.
He felt as if all his strength had drained out and he would collapse to the floor.
His mind was blank, and his heart was pounding madly with fear and despair.
‘If I had known this would happen… I should have asked him to date me back then at the amusement park. I shouldn’t have hesitated.’
Regret washed over him like a wave.
Dojin’s bright face, always smiling toward him, his warm comfort and unwavering support—the thought that all of that might become a scene from the past that he could never see again made it hard to breathe.
The mere imagination of losing him was unbearable.
‘No. I can’t just stay here like this.’
Yoonwoo stood up as if whipping himself.
He had to do something too.
With trembling hands, he began to dial the contacts of the Studio Yeon employees one by one.
“Hello? Ah, yes. I’m sorry for the late hour. This is Seo Yoonwoo. I’m calling because… by any chance, have you contacted or seen Lee Minjae recently?”
[No, Chief. I haven’t seen him at all since that day? Is something wrong?]
“No, it’s nothing. If you happen to reach him, please let me know immediately.”
Yoonwoo called other team members frantically to ask for Minjae’s whereabouts, but they all said they didn’t know.
Finally, he called Seoyeon.
[Yoonwoo? Why are you calling at this hour? Did something happen?]
Seoyeon’s concerned voice came through.
“CEO… by any chance, do you know anything about Lee Minjae’s recent whereabouts?”
[Lee Minjae? Why that traitorous bastard? I haven’t seen him separately since he left the company…. Don’t tell me he did something else?]
“No, that’s not it… I’ll explain everything later. I’m just too distracted right now.”
Yoonwoo hung up, engulfed in deep despair. He couldn’t find a single clue.
Pinning his last hope on it, he threw on a coat, ran outside, and frantically hailed a taxi.
“Take me to the nearest police station!”
Upon arriving at the police station, Yoonwoo almost sobbed while trying to report Dojin’s disappearance.
However, despite his urgent state, the officer on duty had an indifferent expression.
“An adult man has gone missing and it hasn’t even been two hours, and you say he’s a strong Dominant Alpha? Hey, that’s not a disappearance, that’s just a disappearing act. Young people these days often just turn off their phones and ghost people. Why don’t you wait a little longer?”
Yoonwoo felt frustrated by the officer’s careless answer.
His heart felt like it would burst, but he couldn’t waste time here.
‘I have to find him myself.’
As if making a resolution, he left the police station. Just then, Joowon called him.
[Yoonwoo! I found where Kim Dojin is! Where are you right now! I’ll come pick you up!]
Yoonwoo almost collapsed at Joowon’s words, but he managed to say his location.
Before long, Joowon’s familiar car stopped in front of him.
Yoonwoo ran over and yanked the passenger door open.
However, sitting in the back seat was an incredibly beautiful Omega man he had never seen before.
A man who exuded a sharp yet captivating aura, someone who looked strangely familiar.
Suddenly, his face popped into his memory.
‘Right. He was definitely the person I saw at Cha Joowon’s engagement ceremony.’
“…Just get in, Yoonwoo. I’ll explain on the way.”
Joowon said briefly, and Jehoon merely offered a light nod.
Joowon added briefly, “This is Han Jehoon, Jiwon’s older brother. He helped find Dojin this time.”
Yoonwoo wondered why he was with Joowon, but this was not the time to ask questions.
He hurriedly got into the car.
Joowon’s car sped through the night city.
After driving for quite a while, they arrived at an old motel located in a secluded area on the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do, where there wasn’t even a proper streetlamp.
Yoonwoo looked at Joowon with anxious eyes.
“In a place like this… is Dojin here?”
His voice trembled with anxiety. From behind, Jehoon answered in a low, cold voice.
“Room 508. You’d better hurry.”
With trembling legs, Yoonwoo entered the motel with Joowon.
Left alone, Jehoon watched their retreating figures as they entered hurriedly, wearing an unreadable smile like a spectator waiting for an interesting play.
“I wonder how it will turn out this time?”
He muttered to himself.
The interior of the motel was old and gloomy, as expected.
There was no one at the counter, as if they had left their post, and the hallway was filled with a nauseating mix of musty mold and cigarette smoke.
Yoonwoo followed behind Joowon, climbing the creaky stairs to the 5th floor.
The dark, long hallway, identical doors lined up on both sides, and unidentified geometric patterns carved into the wallpaper.
As he climbed, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over his whole body.
Clearly, this was a shabby old motel he had never visited before, but somewhere along the line, it overlapped with the worst moment he had ever experienced.
A year ago, the luxury hotel where Joowon had spent his rut. It was so similar to that place.
Although the facilities and atmosphere were polar opposites, perhaps because of his current psychological state, the pressure given by the dark and unpleasant space felt the same as it did back then.
His body trembled uncontrollably, and a sinister premonition gripped him along with the terrible memories.
When they finally stood in front of Room 508, Yoonwoo couldn’t endure it any longer and slumped down, leaning against the hallway wall.
“Hah… hah….”
In front of his eyes, he saw an image of himself standing helplessly in front of a hotel room door in the past.
“Yoonwoo!”
Joowon bit his lip with a pained expression at Yoonwoo’s reaction.
He knelt on one knee in front of Yoonwoo and reached out a hand to lift him up.
“Yoonwoo, get up. I’ll….”
But Yoonwoo didn’t even look at his extended hand; he braced himself against the cold wall and stood up with his own strength, staggering.
“…Step aside.”
Yoonwoo pressed the room’s doorbell.
However, there was no reaction from inside.
Then, like someone possessed, he bumped his body against the door, trying to open the locked door.
“Yoonwoo, don’t do that! You’ll get hurt! I’ll do it, so you move aside for a moment.”
Joowon was shocked, pulled him back, and then slammed his own body against the door.
BANG!
The old wooden door shook slightly but did not open. Joowon didn’t give up, and once again, and then once more, he pushed his shoulder strongly against the door.
BANG! BANG!
After several rough attempts, the old wooden door finally flew open with a loud noise.
And in front of them, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
