Chapter 260

As I felt dizzy from the visual shock of the traces of violence in the photo, Choi Jeokhyeon walked out of the bathroom, drying his face and hair with a towel. He approached me, leaned down to look at the photo on his phone with me before speaking with a slightly sullen expression.

“I had to throw away the shoes I was wearing because of that person. They got blood on them.”

I looked up at his extremely nonchalant face. I was at a loss for what to point out first, so I just pressed my lips together in silence.

Rational thought wanted me to say, ‘A person? This is no longer a person. It’s just a lump of meat, you crazy bastard’. Meanwhile, instinctive thought whispered, ‘It’s annoying as hell how you’re sulking over a pair of shoes you never even wore and just left lying around’. The tangled mess of these two thoughts kept me from speaking right away.

“…Just buy a new pair.”

The fact that this was all I could manage to say after all that hesitation and turmoil was truly the worst. Maybe Do Yuda and Nagi Zen had taken something from me that I should never have lost. For example, my intelligence.

“I’m sick of them.”

Or maybe it was because of this weird guy in front of me.

‘I have no idea why he’s sulking like that, I don’t even have a clue.’

“Ha … were they something you treasured?”

“No, I was just annoyed that something dirty got on my stuff. I don’t care about the shoes. I can just buy a new pair.”

“…….”

The distortion of the problem felt too extreme.

I was wrong for trying to empathize with this guy.

The more I had these pointless thoughts, the more I felt strangely uncomfortable. Slowly, I lowered my head and pressed my throbbing temples with both hands.

Come to think of it, something felt a bit strange.

Normally, I would have already been yelling at Choi Jeokhyeon if something like this had happened, but the thought didn’t even cross my mind.

“…You stepped on it while talking to me on the phone. Judging by the state, it looks like he’s been like that for a while. If you touch a body in that condition, of course blood is going to come out. Stop acting like such a spoiled young master.”

“Is that so? I didn’t know, this is the first time I went to deal with it in person.”

On my hand was a photo of a bloodied person, and when I turned my head, the very person responsible for that was sitting there with an indifferent expression. But realizing that, despite it all, only peaceful conversations and thoughts were being exchanged, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of unease 1 that I could no longer ignore.

What on earth could be the cause? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find the answer.

So, I decided to set that thought aside for now and continue my conversation with Choi Jeokhyeon.

“How did you even find out that there was an accident in the first place? And how did you know Dalli was involved? You didn’t put some kind of surveillance on me, did you?”

“Surveillance? Me? On you?”

Choi Jeokhyeon, looking puzzled, repeated the word I said and let out a small laugh.

“Of course not, Yutae-ya. Do you really think I’d do something that sloppy? Someone as sensitive as you would notice surveillance right away. No matter how careful I am, you’d catch on right away, and I don’t want to upset you … but the others are a different story.”

“…What?”

“If I keep surveillance on everyone around you, Prism, Pantheion, Han Seungbeom’s family, and even your company’s employees, I can naturally keep track of your movements. As long as I accept the downside of it being labor-intensive and difficult to respond to in real time due to the massive amount of information, it’s an option that can make both you and me happy. Dalli was just one of those targets.”

I always wondered how he managed to know my daily routine so effortlessly, but I never imagined he was pulling something like this. I was already appalled when I found out he had put surveillance on the nanny staying at a nursing home abroad, but now that it was happening to me, it was downright creepy.

Left speechless, I stared blankly at Choi Jeokhyeon, but he kept rambling on, completely unaware that everything was wrong with what he had just said.

“The problem was, I didn’t expect that stalker to be stupid enough to cause such an incident so openly. Also, because you’re so sensitive, I had specifically ordered them, ‘ Unless I gave you a special permission, don’t get too close to Han Seungbeom ‘, and I’m often busy with work, so I had to check reports in batches whenever I had the time. That’s pretty much why I failed to respond to this incident properly, so I’ll definitely need to improve things. From now on, I’ll just monitor you directly, so just pretend you don’t notice. Keeping track of you alone is something I can manage even while working.”

‘What am I even hearing right now?’

Lee Chise’s studio was in a quiet neighborhood with very narrow street, so if there had been a tailing vehicle in addition to Dalli, I definitely would have noticed. After all, I was sensitive enough to sense something was off even when I briefly spotted Dalli standing at a distance.

But something about the conclusion seemed odd.

“…….”

“After finishing my work, I belatedly checked the report and found out that the stalker had headed to Lee Chise’s studio, so I caught him right away. That’s the full story. How is it? Do you more or less understand the situation now?”

‘Should I consider it fortunate, then? That Choi Jeokhyeon’s people … didn’t get a clear look at the scene of the incident?’

He was saying absurd things with such a matter-of-fact attitude that my will to argue seemed to be gradually eroding. So, as a last resort, I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard anything. But just as I was doing so, I suddenly realized that an important detail had passed by so casually, and jumped to my feet.

Then, I grabbed Choi Jeokhyeon by the shoulders and shouted urgently.

“…Your face.”

“What about my face?”

“Did he see your face? Did he hear your voice? … What about the location he was taken to!”

If his face was seen, there was a chance that Choi Jeokhyeon would come under suspicion if Dalli later reported it to the police and provided a description. The journalist incident might have been cleanly resolved without repercussions by driving him to hang himself, but in this case, direct violence had been used, making it clear that others were involved. If Dalli decided to report it, the situation could take a turn for the worse.

‘This is exactly why I told him not to meddle in my work!’

Just as I was anxiously racking my brain with those thoughts, Choi Jeokhyeon, who had been staring at me, let out a quiet laugh. I instinctively held my breath and turned my head toward him, and he hurriedly covered his lower face with his hand, trying to hide his expression.

But I caught sight of his facial muscles twitching convulsively, which he couldn’t quite hide with his hand, so I grabbed his wrist and forcibly pulled it away from his face.

“…….”

His face was revealed without much resistance, and Choi Jeokhyeon was smiling, his cheeks flushed with the same hue as his mother’s. His expression blooming with joy, as if he was truly happy.

“…What are you smiling about? Your future is hanging by a thread right now!”

“Just, I’m happy.”

And this time, he openly put on a bright smile and began to explain to me one by one, as if to reassure me.

“I covered his eyes, and at some point, he lost consciousness, so he probably doesn’t have any clear memories of it. I think he was so terrified of what he had done that he hid himself somewhere out of sight, making it easy to drag him away without leaving a trace. No CCTV, no witnesses.”

“…….”

“So, I’m fine. You don’t have to worry.”

I was so anxious just a moment ago, but when Choi Jeokhyeon’s quiet “ I’m fine ” spilled into my ears, I felt an indescribable sense of relief. As I stood there in a daze, my tense facial muscles loosening, Choi Jeokhyeon lowered his eyelids and whispered in a gentle tone.

“To be honest, I was a little worried you might get angry like last time. But it seems like you actually like it quite a bit, so I’m really relieved.”

“…….”

“You’ve changed. That makes me so happy.”

The moment I heard those words, it felt like I’d been struck on the back of the head.

And at that moment, I finally realized the true nature of the discomfort that had been nagging at me all this time.

The only thing I cared about right now was whether this incident could put Choi Jeokhyeon in any danger. Other than that, I felt no curiosity, no emotion whatsoever. Even though a person had been beaten to a bloody mess.

To be completely honest, I even thought that it wouldn’t matter to me whether Dalli lived or died.

And I didn’t feel the need to deny it, either.

Because…….

“…He’s someone involved with the bastards who killed Seo Yuseong. From the moment I found that out, he stopped being human to me.”

I thought Lim Seunghoon had sided with Kang Hyukwoo because he was the kind of person who wasn’t afraid to betray others if it served his own interests. Because of that, I expected him to betray Kang Hyukwoo—who had been hiding the fact that his face was captured in the original footage—and instead follow me, the one holding his most fatal weakness.

“How can we be so sure they won’t do the same thing to the rest of Prism someday? Once they’ve gotten a taste of such shortcuts, every other method will start to feel inefficient to them. Do you really think they’ll just sit back and watch as Prism members start breaking free from their cages? Look, they already did the same thing to Han Seungbeom. The only reason he survived this time was pure chance. Because they, and even I, thought Han Seungbeom was going to die. This is murder.”

But that wasn’t the case.

Lim Seunghoon chose to stay by Kang Hyukwoo’s side until the very end.

Because getting rid of me from this world was far too easy, while betraying Kang Hyukwoo must have felt like a much greater risk to bear.

‘Having witnessed Kang Hyukwoo kill Seo Yuseong and control the Prism members, it’s no surprise that he was more afraid of him than me. Even if he knew Kang Hyukwoo’s weakness, it would have only been used as a last resort.’

I had been tormented by the compulsion to get rid of every last bit of affection I had for Lim Seunghoon, but I never dreamed that it wasn’t the real problem.

What I had to admit first was that my kindness and respect only lowered my own value and allowed the other person to become self-indulgent, and that violence and fear were, in fact, the most efficient means to control them.

“I will never forgive them. I’ll kill them, no matter what it takes.”

“…….”

“…I have to. That’s the only way, I think, for me to be able to live.”

Now that I realized all of that, I had no intention of taking the same approach as before.

As I spilled out all my inner thoughts without stopping my mouth, which was moving faster than I’d intended, Choi Jeokhyeon gently accepted my words.

“How do you want me to handle this? Even if he disappears, there probably won’t be an immediate reaction. That stalker has been suffering from mental illness, so it’s not unusual for him to disappear without a word like this. And after the last incident, it seems his relationship with his family has deteriorated to the point of no return. I’ve even received reports that recently, they have been going around saying the troublemaker has finally disappeared.”

“…….”

“Lim Seunghoon is different from Kang Hyukwoo. He’s very timid, so he must be really shaken just by Dalli disappearing. It wouldn’t be bad to make him feel a sense of crisis at this point, but the choice is yours … I’ll do whatever you want.”

I didn’t respond to Choi Jeokhyeon’s remarks right away, just stood there in silence.

Then I slowly opened my mouth.

“…Once his injuries have healed to some extent, just let him go.”

“…Do you really think that will be enough?”

He looked at me with a doubtful expression, as if questioning whether I was suddenly showing some kind of ridiculous sympathy.

To that, I slowly shook my head and replied calmly.

“Of course not. I’m not satisfied, obviously. I’m just picking up the knife they discarded and planning to use it.”

“…….”

“There’s a tool lying right in front of me that I can use without any guilt. I can’t just let it go to waste.”

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Translator’s Corner:

I honestly would never understand why Yutae feel so concerned about Jeokhyeon getting caught by the police … that man is not only a chaebol, but the heir …. they can effect influence the government, let alone just police department …..

Anyway guys I think I cracked my wifi problem /cry/. So I was wondering why I can use it this morning when I woke up for like 30 minutes before it came back to turning off for every 1-5 minutes … then I turned it off until late afternoon, and it repeated the pattern. SO, I thought what was the common thing between those two times, and … it’s …. /drumroll/ hahaha … I think it’s because of overheat ?

You see, my laptop is the type that gets hot quickly (because it’s old). And I used it with a table fan … so why the sudden error … the thing is, yesterday? two days ago? the table I ordered arrived. I mentioned using my laptop on the bed before right, and it’s definitely not healthy for my laptop so I finally bought a table. The table is wooden table type, made of pure wood without any additional finishing so it gets dusty very easily. Since that evil Snow White’s stepmother got rid of all the things this house used to have before she left, I couldn’t find any of my mother’s tablecloths, so I bought a new one online. My mistake was, I didn’t make sure of the material. I just thought it was cheap so let’s buy it. Apparently, the tablecloths are not exacly cloths … it’s not fabrics. The material more like plastic? The texture is similiar to the plastic raincoat that usually sold at supermarket. It’s water-resistant.

I don’t know if water-resistant means heat-resistant too or what, but I guess the heat is trapped. I touched the bottom side of the table and it didn’t feel hot at all. So, I put a thick book under my laptop and now the internet connection working again ….. what is this …… I FEEL LIKE MY TWO DAYS STRUGGLE BECAME SO SILLY NOW? ALL THAT RESTART AND NUMEROUS SETTING? AND I ALREADY ORDERED THE USB ADAPTER??????????? IT’S ALREADY ON DELIVERY???????? should’ve bought a cooling pad instead, sigh …. but I guess if it happens again, I can use it …….

That’s basically it. Thanks for everyone who’s expressing concern for my laptop ….

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