“Of course it’s with me, Yutae-ya. But I can’t hand it over to you.”
“…….”
I could feel my nerves, which had been dulled a bit, sharpening again.
I shut my mouth and quietly looked up at Choi Jeokhyeon.
“What does that mean?”
I had to make up for my failure to catch Lim Seunghoon in some way.
I had wasted time, and wasted my one and only chance to catch Lim Seunghoon while he was defenseless.
I learned part of the truth that Lim Seunghoon most wanted to avoid, something I hadn’t known before, but that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t be content with ending this case just with that.
After desperately racking my brain, I remembered Lim Seunghoon’s belongings. The stuff that Lim Seunghoon, who panicked at my pressure and was too drunk to pack properly, had left behind.
Maybe, just maybe, that alone might mean this would not end as a
failure
.
There could be information in there that I needed.
But what on earth did he mean by “
I can’t hand it over to you
“?
“It means exactly what it says. I’ll take care of it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“It might have information about Prism and RH Entertainment in it. Who else should worry about it but me? You’ve been super busy until just now, so don’t add to your workload. Just give it to me.”
I cut off Choi Jeokhyeon’s words sharply and held out my left hand.
But Choi Jeokhyeon didn’t seem like he was planning to hand over the item at all. He just quietly looked down at my hand.
“Hand.”
He suddenly blurted out a short word.
I furrowed my brows and looked at him, wondering what kind of random nonsense he was saying. Then Choi Jeokhyeon sighed and added a short remark.
“You’re trembling.”
Following his gaze, I lowered my head and noticed my outstretched hand trembling slightly. The blue bruises on my skin, caused by my hasty movements with the IV still attached, made it look even more unsightly.
It wasn’t like this until I entered the house. Perhaps my nerves were briefly tense while discussing Lim Seunghoon’s belongings with Choi Jeokhyeon, and my body reacted on its own.
With a steady gaze, Choi Jeokhyeon asked me as if he had anticipated my reaction, even as I tried to hide the hands that were trembling against my will.
“You didn’t realize it, did you?”
His piercing gaze burned into my face.
As I couldn’t withstand his gaze and was about to blurt out an excuse like “
I don’t usually have this kind of problem
“, Choi Jeokhyeon spoke again.
“
I don’t usually have this kind of problem
. You’re trying to say that, right? Of course, you wouldn’t act like that in front of the members of Pantheion or Prism. You’re always on edge around them.”
“…….”
‘I’m on edge?’
I couldn’t understand what Choi Jeokhyeon was saying at all.
As I chewed on my lip, unable to find the words to reply, he started speaking in his usual soft tone.
“You still don’t have a good grasp of yourself. Your understanding of Seo Yutae lags far behind that of others who care about you. That’s why you always make these mistakes. The moment you’re in the presence of an enemy, your mind races so fast, but when it comes to yourself, you know nothing … It’s really laughable.”
“…….”
“If you don’t have the ability to notice it yourself, you should at least listen to what others have to say, but you don’t have the personality for that either … What am I supposed to do with you?”
He brushed back the bangs that had fallen over his forehead with his hand, then continued as he loosened his watch.
“It’s okay to get sick, Yutae-ya. But if you have the habit of abusing yourself, you need to fix it. Besides,
that
isn’t as strong as your body. Your body was blessed, but
that
is the body of an ordinary person.”
I couldn’t say anything to argue back.
I just thought of him as a spoiled young master who didn’t act his age, so I never thought he’d be able to corner me like this with such a spot-on criticism.
‘No, this goes beyond mere criticism. It’s almost…..’
While I stiffened my back, unable to deny the unfamiliar situation, he casually took off his jacket. He loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt to make himself more comfortable, then grabbed a random bottle of liquor and sat down on one of the many single-seater sofas with armrests.
As I stared at him fixedly, he whispered, “
Just a little
”, and poured himself a glass.
Then he brought up the issue of Lim Seunghoon’s phone again.
“You need the information that Lim Seunghoon holds more than anyone. I understand that. But look at your current condition. You’re in such bad shape that even resting wouldn’t be enough. You shouldn’t strain your body further just to figure this out. Take it step by step.”
I gritted my teeth at the words “
step by step
” that Choi Jeokhyeon spat out, then reluctantly gave a vague account of what had happened with Lim Seunghoon.
“I didn’t make much progress. I should’ve prepared better to stay more rational, but I stupidly pushed him too emotionally, and Lim Seunghoon got scared and ran away.”
“Is that so?”
“He might talk to Kang Hyukwoo and take some measures. Considering what I saw in the waiting room last time, it doesn’t look like they’re on the best of terms … No, never mind. Anyway, since they’re on the same side, there’s bound to be some information sharing. That’s something we have to take into account. So, before their side come up with a countermeasure…..”
As the unorganized words spilled out of my mouth, Choi Jeokhyeon’s eyes, which had been focused on the empty glass, shifted toward my face. After a brief moment of silence, he spoke to me in a calm tone.
“Yutae-ya, not giving the other person time to prepare means you’re not giving yourself time to take care of yourself either. If you only focus on your opponent like that, your body will start to break down first. Nothing in this world comes without a price, wasn’t that what you told me? The moves that are deadly to your opponent are likely to be deadly to you as well.”
Then, as if to drive the point home, he added,
“…No matter how hard you pester me, Lim Seunghoon’s stuff is no longer with me.”
It sounded as if he had forgotten about Lim Seunghoon’s belongings.
I pressed my hand to my temple as my head began to ache, and Choi Jeokhyeon continued speaking.
“I already handed it over to my assistant. By now, a professional is probably trying to extract the information, don’t you think?”
“What?”
“I told you, I’ll take care of it. You need to listen until the end.
Step by step
doesn’t mean
slowly
. So, don’t worry too much. I’ll try everything possible before Lim Seunghoon realizes he lost his phone and takes proper measures. I’m sorry for not asking for your permission first. But I was worried it’d be too late if I waited until you woke up. You understand, right?”
He smiled out of the corner of his eye and tilted his head to the side. Facing Choi Jeokhyeon’s innocent smile, I couldn’t shake off this thought.
‘Please tell me that from the beginning.’
Why is Choi Jeokhyeon’s way of speaking always like this? Does speaking like that have any merit?
These questions kept pouring in, and I started to feel drained.
When I just stared blankly with my mouth open without answering, Choi Jeokhyeon tilted his head to the other side as if to nudge me into responding, making a rather cute sound.
“Eung?”
A slightly ambiguous expression almost escaped me. But I couldn’t show that kind of attitude while I was receiving help, so I held back my feelings and replied.
“…I’m sorry. Please forward the data to me when you have it.”
“Okay. I’ll call you.”
After hearing my answer, Choi Jeokhyeon finally nodded with satisfaction.
His relaxed expression suggested Choi Jeokhyeon had returned to his usual self, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling that I couldn’t quite understand.
And that ominous feeling kept lingering and led to the parts I had been feeling uneasy about all along.
‘…Why doesn’t he ask me what I talked to Lim Seunghoon about?’
Choi Jeokhyeon still hasn’t asked me what happened.
I wasn’t the type of person who had a lot of social relationships either, but if someone was startled enough to rush over like that, wouldn’t most people at least ask what had happened?
If it was Lee Hwayoung, he would have already pestered me with questions, but Choi Jeokhyeon didn’t say anything.
He just kept expressing his concern and offering warnings.
‘He rarely asks me directly in the first place, and often figures things out on his own, but there’s no way to find out about this.’
My mind was already tangled with the issues related to Lim Seunghoon, and now it felt like another worry was added on top of that.
I closed my eyes for a long moment, then opened them, and decided to just ask outright.
“Why don’t you ask me more? About what happened.”
At my question, Choi Jeokhyeon widened his eyes slightly and muttered, “You’re unusually docile today. You must be really tired”. While I was still processing the meaning of his words, his answer came through.
“You fainted because something really bad happened, didn’t you? I don’t want to purposely remind you of it.”
“…You’re so calm.”
“I want to ask you the opposite. Why are you always so impatient, as if you’re being chased?”
“…….”
“No matter how hard you struggle, you can’t solve everything perfectly and quickly without any failure. That’s what it means to be human. You’re far more capable than the average person, but you tend to take that for granted. I always tell you, don’t I? If you overexert yourself like that, it accumulates in your body and is bound to show up in your body first, like it did this time. You know that, right?”
“…Not everything in the world happens with the consideration that humans can overcome it. If I rest whenever I’m faced with my limits, it’ll only make things worse. There are not just one or two people in my life that I need to take responsibility for … I don’t have time to hesitate.”
“You always had that tendency, but it seems to have gotten worse now. What exactly are you so afraid of?”
“I don’t have much time. The deadline given to me is before Han Seungbeom comes back.”
“…Han Seungbeom is coming back?”
“If Han Seungbeom has a special ability, he might be able put things back to where they were at any time. If that happens, everything could end without being of any help to the Prism’s members. I can’t have that.”
The ice in Choi Jeokhyeon’s glass clinked as it melted and cracked in half. Without a moment’s distraction from it, Choi Jeokhyeon’s words continued.
“…Is that the reason why you don’t even spend any of the money you earn? You want to create an environment where Han Seungbeom can live happily if he comes back later?”
“I don’t have any information about what kind of job Han Seungbeom wanted to do or what he’s good at. I just thought that if he had some money, it would help him get his life back on track…….”
I had been answering absentmindedly with my dull mind, but as soon as I turned my head, I saw the red eyes staring back at me, having devoured the shadows and turned completely black. I immediately realized my mistake.
While talking about how I might not have much time, I accidentally said something I shouldn’t have.
‘Damn it, I should have just found a random place and slept.’
I knew it was impossible in this situation, given that I had never been able to sleep properly in a hotel. But in this state where my head wasn’t working, of all places, I came to Choi Jeokhyeon’s house and had a conversation with him.
When my condition deteriorated, my brain, which always worked so fast that it overloaded, was the first to go haywire. And yet, I made a huge mistake in front of the most difficult person to deal with.
“…….”
I had to quickly add that it was only a fraction of the possibilities.
But seeing Choi Jeokhyeon’s expression change into something I had never seen before, I could only stare at him in a daze.
“Seo Yutae.”
For the first time ever, Choi Jeokhyeon was angry with me.
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Translator’s Corner:
CLOCK THEM ANON-SAN (me cheering at the comment in my notification) (I can’t reply for obvious reason but I really want to say it)
When I say it’s going to be a long conversation … I mean … when these two having an argument, it didn’t just end with one or two chapter … you’ll see CJH for a while
But God, whatever happened in this chapter … I want it …
Anyway … received a notification that there’s going to be 6 hours power outage … sighs me going to survive … amen …