DOTH Volume 3 Chapter 10.5

“Is this from Sunha Group? Director, this was the Chairman’s doing, wasn’t it?”

Kim Chulwoo was sure of it. The only reason Director Yeon was pretending to be weak was because of the wide-eyed Omega sitting nearby.

“When we met with Executive Director Kang Seoui before, he mentioned it. His older brother originally planned that scam… So it’s my fault everything blew up, isn’t it?”

“Heeyeon. You don’t need to worry. I have no intention of handing you over.”

“Pardon? That’s not what I’m worried about.”

Jung Heeyeon frowned seriously. He wasn’t concerned about Director Yeon offering him to some alpha whose face he didn’t even know.

“I’m worried about you, Director…”

Chances were, the moment the article went live, every arrow would be aimed at Director Yeon. Though he had lived nearly fifteen years in confinement and was clumsy with social norms that even children would know, he wasn’t some clueless fool.

What Jung Heeyeon had been denied wasn’t education as a whole, but specifically the kind that involved human interaction. Even with the plan of selling him to an alpha, Chairman Jung hadn’t neglected to teach him about stocks and real estate. The old man said he needed to know how to manage money for the sake of his alpha.

And to understand the flow of money, one inevitably needed to grasp the flow of society. Thus, even Jung Heeyeon, despite everything, was aware of most major and minor current events. Though he had never seen the ocean or even stepped out into the world, he could read the numerical systems that governed it.

The name ‘Yeon Woobeom’ appearing in the embargoed article made its intent crystal clear, to pin the blame for the incident squarely on him. The sensational headline would breed even more provocative coverage, and the person named outright would have no way of escaping the backlash. Worrying was only natural—after all, this was someone he loved. What weighed on Jung Heeyeon wasn’t concern for himself, but for Director Yeon’s safety.

“Hmmm, you’re worried about me?”

“Yes. I’m not worried for myself—I’m worried about you, Director.”

The man smiled, his eyes softening at the exact response he wanted to hear from his lover. The chill in his features gave way to something warmer.

“Don’t worry. Well,  I’ll probably have to spend a few days in detention, but that’s all.”

“Pardon? Detention?”

Director Yeon effortlessly lifted Jung Heeyeon and sat him on his thigh. Resting his chin on the boy’s pale neck, he pointed a finger at a section of the article, right at the words ‘M88A’.

“Do you remember the gun you touched in the container?”

“Yes.”

“That was an M88A.”

As the alpha’s breath gently brushed past his ear, Jung Heeyeon flinched slightly. The man holding him chuckled quietly.

“And it was smuggled in illegally.”

“Yes…”

“It wasn’t something I originally brought in for this plan, but since Sunha tampered with the container, I decided to change the plan.”

“The plan?”

“I’ll explain everything in detail tonight.”

Jung Heeyeon nodded, remembering that they were supposed to meet Lee Haejin and Nam Soohyun later that evening.

“You’re so pretty.”

Director Yeon pressed a soft kiss to the curve of Jung Heeyeon’s ear and continued speaking in a slow, deliberate tone, as if guiding the listener carefully through each word.

“The defective product in the article wasn’t ours. It’s the same model, but Sunha checked what was in the container and planned to pin it on me.”

“Then, that accident in the article. Was it staged by them?”

“Pregnant woman, child… and cameras in the living room. It’s quite hard to get something that provocative recorded on video.”

Jung Heeyeon stared silently at the still frame from the article’s footage. For a home CCTV, the image quality was unusually sharp. Just like the surveillance camera that had once been installed in his room.

“It seems like they’re trying to lump together a gun defect and an illegal arms deal all at once…”

Director Yeon spoke in a relaxed tone, as though it was all too predictable.

“President Kang Seohyo probably orchestrated the whole thing. With the succession of the group at stake, they need you. That means they have to get me out of the way. Sunha will cooperate easily if it means getting the distribution rights.”

Jung Heeyeon slowly mulled over Director Yeon’s words. President Kang Seohyo was the Alpha who had originally been set to buy him. That meant Chairman Jung was behind all of this.

“Then isn’t this situation bad? Because the deal was indeed illegal.”

Director Yeon released the body in his arms slightly and pressed a firm finger against the boy’s pale cheek. Perhaps because of the serious expression, his cheek, still soft with baby fat, puffed out more than usual.

It was a ‘bad’ situation, as Jung Heeyeon said. If an accident happened with a smuggled weapon instead of one obtained through legal channels, it would be hard to cover up. And with the ongoing push for stricter gun control, this case had the potential to become a serious political issue. No matter how powerful Director Yeon was, getting involved in politics would only make things troublesome.

“There’s a code on the items we brought in. As long as we compare it, it’ll be easy to prove the gun in the article isn’t ours. And that’ll be the end of it.”

Of course, it wasn’t really the end—it was just the beginning.

Once it was revealed that Sunha had staged the incident to frame Director Yeon, public opinion would quickly turn. Trust in Sunha Group would plummet, and when the stock price dropped, Kang Seoui and his followers could scoop up shares. If Kang Seohyo was held accountable and stepped down as president, Kang Seoui would take his place, and then Sunha would no longer bother Jiwoo.

“Then did you launder all the goods you brought in this time through legal channels?”

Jung Heeyeon hesitated briefly before asking. If they were going to reveal the product code, they’d have to expose every item that came through the container, which meant the entire process had been laundered into a legal route. It was a fairly accurate deduction, and Director Yeon merely smiled in response.

“Ah… well, thinking about what the Chairman used to do, I think it would be possible.”

“Heeyeon. There’s nothing money can’t do in this world.”

Director Yeon said it like a joke, light and careless. Though he’d run the business at a loss to K&H and taken a considerable hit trying to win over a few people, it didn’t matter, that amount would return several times over. It was something he would’ve done even knowing it meant taking a loss.

He reached out and slowly caressed the omega’s small wrist. The watch he’d gifted a few days ago was snug around Jung Heeyeon’s wrist. A strange sense of satisfaction surged through him, threatening to overwhelm him.

“Shall I prepare a gift for Reporter Kim Jaeho?”

Kim Chulwoo used the moment to interject with an important question. Since Director Yeon constantly kept Jung Heeyeon at his side, Kim Chulwoo had grown immune to the sight and learned to insert himself when the timing was right. The gentleness that crept into Director Yeon’s otherwise cold expression was still unfamiliar. Not necessarily in a bad way, but strange all the same.

Truthfully, Kim Chulwoo had long wondered whether Director Yeon’s final chapter might end in suicide. It was an absurd and far-fetched idea that a man who had everything might take his own life, but that intuition had haunted him more than once.

He had known Yeon Woobeom for a long time; he was a man utterly indifferent to everything.

What had consumed the man in the hutch was fire, a blaze called hatred. That all-consuming fire, which once threatened to burn everything to the ground, vanished the moment the man finally had it all in his grasp. It left nothing behind but ashes of futility. An empty end, hollow and anticlimactic.

Maybe it was because he had fought so hard to climb out of the filth, aiming only for the top. And now, with nowhere else to ascend, he seemed like a man who couldn’t find any meaning in life.

That might also be why he hadn’t taken care of Chairman Jung, the source of his hatred, even though the old man still lived brazenly. Once Chairman Jung was gone, it would all be over, and the unbearable boredom would return. To Director Yeon, the only faint amusement he had left was watching Chairman Jeong twist and flail helplessly in the palm of his hand.

Kim Chulwoo, like Lee Haejin and Nam Soohyun, harbored bitter resentment toward Chairman Jung. He wanted the old bastard to suffer as soon as possible, but he also worried about what Director Yeon would become once the chairman was no longer around.

He was one of the alphas who had survived by grabbing the lifeline Yeon Woobeom offered. His concern for the man who saved him was only natural. His loyalty to Yeon Woobeom was unquestionable, self-evident truth. Even if they hadn’t once rolled through the dirt together as gangsters, Kim Chulwoo knew better than anyone that he would have still chosen to be loyal to this man.

That rootless indifference radiating from the man made Kim Chulwoo wish that Yeon Woobeom would become obsessed with something, anything. If it had to be something, better a living being than an object. And if it had to be a living being, then a human with a similar lifespan. Ideally, an omega. After all, even Yeon Woobeom wouldn’t be able to go against the possessiveness and obsession alphas felt toward omegas. Though, considering how deeply he loathed pheromones, it had always seemed hopeless.

Regardless, Kim Chulwoo had made up his mind to serve Yeon Woobeom to the end. Even if the moment came when the man put a bullet through his own head.

“If you tell me to prepare one, I’ll follow your orders exactly, sir.”

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