Unscented Trajectory - Chapter 12

12

– I called because I wanted to meet you.

“I’m sorry, but I…”

– You have to be with hyung for 24 hours, so it’s not easy to get out, right?

It seemed that the investigation into Lee Joohyuk’s secretary and bodyguard, ‘Kwon Yihyeon’, was over. Well, that was why he called him like that.

“You know it well.”

-Anyway, Joohyuk must come to see his father tomorrow. Then we can talk

He decided to give a little kick to Haejun, who explicitly wanted to meet him.

“I have nothing to share.”

– You’re hard.

Haejoon laughed bitterly.

– I won’t eat you up. It’s something that Kwon Yihyeon will like very much, so please feel free to come.

“… Someone other than me may talk to you.”

-Is that so?

He heard Haejun growl like a child.

-I can bet all my fortune that Kwon Yihyeon and I will meet up alone.

Hearing the confident words, he got a rough idea of ​​how much research he had done. Perhaps he had investigated every detail from the moment he appeared with Joohyuk half a year ago until now.

– See you tomorrow then.

Before even answering, the phone hung up. Yihyeon looked down at the screen of the cell phone that had been disconnected and remembered Haejun’s face. He was a man with an innocent smile that resembled a child for his age. The eyes weren’t like that at all.

He made a call to one of the contacts on his cell phone. Shortly after hearing the ringback tone, the other party answered the call.

“It’s me. You should hurry up a bit.”

He raised his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror. The dark corners of his eyes were starting to take on their original color.

“Lee Haejun moved.”

* * *

Joohyuk was not feeling well. It was because of a phone call on the way home from work.

– It’s important, so stop by the house.

What the hell was that important story, and how long has it been since that thing happened? He was sure it was not something absurd, like meeting the second son of Jaewon Resort properly or setting up a seat with another Omega.

Joohyuk contorted his eyes more and more, imagining what his father would say.

Yihyeon, who was looking at Joohyuk through the rear view mirror, saw the mansion of the Shinwoo group in the distance. As soon as he entered the mansion, Joohyuk looked out the window and said,

“Wait in the car.”

“Yes, I understand.”

As before, Joohyuk tried to enter the mansion alone, and Yihyeon accepted his words. Besides, to make contact with Lee Haejun, he had to be separated.

When he parked the car in a familiar parking lot, Joohyuk moved first before he could even open the car door. Joohyuk, who came out of the door, already had an ugly look on his face and went inside the mansion without looking back.

Yihyeon, who unbuckled his seat belt and leaned deeply in the driver’s seat, exhaled a stuffy breath. Joohyuk was in such a bad mood that he would probably be beaten up as soon as he returned. Just imagining that made his stomach tingle.

Stomach pain became more frequent. He couldn’t go to the hospital right now, so he didn’t know why, but there was nothing he could do other than be patient. If it got worse, He thought he’d ask his sister Sehyeon, even if he couldn’t go to the hospital himself. But he immediately shook his head.

‘If my sister finds out, she’ll try to take me right away.’

She was grateful for her concern, but the time was not right yet. So much work remained to be done.

Just as the pain in his stomach was gone, he suddenly heard a knock on the window. When he turned his head, Haejun appeared out of the window and smiled with his eyes closed.

He opened the driver’s seat door, bowed his back toward him.

“Am I right? I said you would come alone.”

Yihyeon, who had been quietly listening to his confident words, looked straight into his eyes and asked.

“Why did you ask to see me?”

Haejun came closer and looked at him. He could feel his dark eyes scanning him meticulously as if analyzing something.

Haejun, who was looking at Yihyeon’s eyes, which he couldn’t understand, narrowed his eyes.

He still couldn’t believe it. A bodyguard who was so competent as someone who should be protected rather than protecting someone.

According to the investigation, a person named Kwon Yihyeon who was in front of him was also working as Joohyuk’s secretary and guarding him 24 hours a day. Unstoppable interest in Kwon Yihyeon, who threw his whole body to protect Joohyuk and even had a dedicated space in his penthouse, arose.

Haejun smiled and pointed to a place in the mansion.

“It’s a little difficult here, shall we go to my room?”

He couldn’t answer right away to the word ‘my room’.

‘Wait in the car.’

Joohyuk’s orders came into his mind as if they had been engraved. However, there were too many eyes to reject Haejun’s offer and say it here. Several guards guarding the exterior of the mansion were already looking over here.

He had no choice but to accept his proposal.

“All right. Instead, please keep it short.”

“As expected, Kwon Yihyeon is hard. All right, I’ll just keep it simple. Is that okay?”

Haejun walked ahead with his half-moon shaped eyes curved nicely. So Yihyeon stepped into the entrance of the mansion where Joohyuk had entered.

* * *

Joohyuk, who was listening to his father, Lee Jeongho, in his living room snorted.

“Why are you here now?”

Jeongho, with a serious face, drank tea leisurely without paying attention to Joohyuk, who was sitting opposite him.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”

Jeongho took a sip of the hot tea and swallowed it, looking down at the light brown tea. His old face was reflected on the surface.

“I am very old now. It’s not strange if I suddenly run out of breath at any time.”

He had just passed his sixtieth birthday, but his health was not good because he had concentrated on establishing a company. Recently, he was even advised to be hospitalized. So even if he didn’t like it, he had pay attention here and there.

“I’ve always thought that the Shinwoo group belonged to you.”

Joohyuk felt Jungho’s words were so unfamiliar. He was not the one to speak so directly about the ownership of the group.

He continued, rubbing the surface of the teacup he was holding with his thumb.

“But even if I pass the CNU group to you, it will be taken away immediately after I lie down on the sickbed.”

He raised his eyes and looked at Joohyuk calmly. It was not the eyes that were always harsh and cold, but the eyes that were genuinely concerned about his children.

“I’m sure he’ll be scheming behind the scenes rather than going into an all-out war with you.”

Joohyuk, who thought he was referring to his half-brother Lee Sihoon, who was one year younger than him, gathered his eyebrows together.

His father, Lee Jeongho, had always been a consistent person.

Fame, power, and wealth.

Those three things together made up Shinwoo Group’s Chairman Lee Jeongho. Other than that, nothing caught his attention.

It was the same when his son was kidnapped by the assailants. Jeongho snorted at those who were asking for money.

‘I don’t have a single penny to give you.’

With that said, he even unplugged the phone line. The assailants said that Jeongho was pretending to be strong, and assured him that he would call again. But after a few minutes or hours, the call didn’t come. Even though it was an amount of money that could be considered ‘change’ for Chairman Lee Jeongho.

The gangsters, who were running rampant, couldn’t contain their anger and tried to kill the son. He was the only son at the time, so they thought that if they cut off his limbs one by one, he would be shocked and prepared for the money. The assailants were arguing in front of the son, who was listening to such talks.

Some of the fragmented memories of that day were still engraved in Joohyuk’s mind. That was why he couldn’t easily believe what his father said.

Besides, if he listened to Lee Jeongho, he already knew enough about Lee Sihoon. Then there was no way he could not have known that Sihoon periodically threatened and tried to harm Joohyuk. Still, no action was taken. He knew that Joohyuk might die at the hands of Lee Sihoon by disguising the murder as an accident.

How can he trust his father in that situation?

Jeongho, who received a look of disbelief, put down his teacup and continued.

“I know what you are thinking. But make sure you know this.”

Jeongho’s eyes were infinitely determined.

“You are the only one who will succeed after me.”

After saying that, Jeongho added calmly.

“I have no intention of giving the seat of president to anyone who has not inherited my blood.”

“… I thought you would know.”

Jeongho and Joohyuk thought that they both knew each other.

Lee Jeongho also knew long ago that Ahn Seohee’s two children did not inherit his blood. But he deliberately pretended not to know to use them.

Joohyuk looked at Jeongho with sharp eyes.

“Then Lee Sihoon and Lee Haejun, what is their standing with father?”

Unlike Joohyuk, Lee Sihoon and Lee Haejun, the fake sons who did not inherit blood, were not allowed to separate. They said they didn’t even want to go out on their own. On the surface, it seemed like they were supported by their father and were forming a close relationship with him. Of course, their mother was also with them.

Jeongho raised the corner of his lips slightly towards Joohyuk.

“It takes a hammer to sharpen a knife. It is my job as a blacksmith to manage that hammer.”

He laughed out loud. Although he noticed his fake sons and Ahn Seohee’s true nature, he pretended not to know and kept them by his side.

“Don’t you know how many times Lee Sihoon threatened my life? But how can you describe it as hammering?”

Lee Sihoon was full of hostility towards him. He was a guy who constantly rolled his head, wondering how to get rid of Joohyuk, as if he were a stone blocking his way.

When Joohyuk opened his eyes, Jeongho folded his arms and caught his gaze without difficulty.

“That scoundrel has no guts. All he can do is threaten you, he can’t do anything like actually taking your life. If such a thing happens, I have no choice but to step out and handle it behind the scenes because of our image, and if that happens, only he will be in trouble. If it wasn’t for the threat, he wouldn’t even be in this house now.”

Hearing Jeongho’s words, Joohyuk quickly shook his complicated head.

In fact, the various threats that Sihoon thought he was using were literally just ‘threats’. He didn’t openly aim for his life, and he didn’t intend to use violence in the first place. Those who came always threatened him with appearances and words first. When he was surrounded by bodyguards or when Yihyeon was by his side, even such threats did not work, but if he was alone, they would come at him.

In the past, there was a time when, in order to trigger Joohyuk’s trauma, he secretly put an Omega as his sex partner. There were even times when he planted a spy to ruin Joohyuk’s project, and there were times when he interrupted his business trip. But none of them put his life in danger. It was just threats and checks, underlying work for the future, and eavesdropping.

Instead, because of that, Joohyuk became more cautious about everything, and he would never proceed if he was not sure about the work. And it was an opportunity to train himself physically and mentally to the point where he could not lose to anyone. At the end, because he thought that he could never be pushed aside by someone like Lee Sihoon, he became a little interested in ‘power’.

It seemed that Lee Jeongho was hoping for just that.

Jeongho spoke quietly.

“He’s got you trimmed, so your seat is saved, but that’s all. Now is the time for you to come to the front.”

Joohyuk, who had been listening to his words with his face stiffened, licked his lips.

“Then what is it?”

“What do you mean?”

Joohyuk raised his eyebrows.

“Why did you engrave Ahn Seohee?”

Jeongho would have yelled out to call her ‘mother’ if it had been under normal circumstances, but he made a face as if to prove that it was just for show.

“I have to use them.”

He couldn’t understand more. It was even distasteful for a moment that the reason he imprinted on Ahn Seohee was to take advantage of her and her children. He wasn’t particularly romantic, but for Joohyuk, ‘partner’ and ‘engraving’ were very important. He didn’t think it would ever be easy to lead a relationship deeper than blood with just one person.

To Joohyuk, he couldn’t understand the father who engraved on an Omega for the purpose of simple use.

“You will understand. So, go ahead and bring in a powerful Omega. Make sure he can’t threaten you recklessly.”

Jeongho crossed his legs and patted his chin.

“I heard that there was one Omega among the children of the former chairman of the Muyeol group, but that one…”

“Stop it.”

Joohyuk jumped up from his seat.

“I’m not weak enough to need the power of an omega, and I’m good enough on my own.”

Leaving those words, he strode towards the drawing room door.

“Isn’t he dead anyway?”

Joohyuk’s footsteps stopped. Jeongho spat out dagger-like words towards his back.

“Stop remembering the dead.”

His teeth trembled at the words spoken so easily. If it wasn’t for his ‘mate’ when he was abandoned by his father, he wouldn’t be alive right now.

‘If it wasn’t for me, he would still be alive.’

He was a father who spoke as if he had arranged everything for him, but he realized again that they were not compatible with each other.

“… We’ll have time again soon, so let’s talk about the succession of the company then. Excuse me.”

It was a cheeky statement, but Jeongho didn’t say anything. He just sighed.

As Joohyuk left the drawing room, he felt the heat rising inside him. Even as he walked in the wide hallway with a wide stride, the feeling of suffocation did not go away.

Then, with a sudden thought, he stopped. Raising his head as if thinking of something, he turned around and looked at the drawing room door in the distance. The door was firmly shut, and no one came out.

‘Strange.’

There was something unclear.

“That scoundrel has no guts. All he can do is threaten you, he can’t do anything like actually taking your life. If such a thing happens, I have no choice but to step out and handle it behind the scenes because of our image, and if that happens, only he will be in trouble. If it wasn’t for the threat, he wouldn’t even be in this house now.”

According to Jeongho, his life had not been explicitly threatened. In fact, most of them were not. Except for one time.

In Joohyuk’s mind, half a year ago, he remembered the day when Yihyeon threw himself in front of a killer who was riding a motorcycle and wielding a knife at him. At that time, the contractor’s knife was clearly aimed at his head.

The man who was aiming for his life, and Kwon Yihyeon appeared as if he had been waiting.

Even though the investigation had already been completed, he was concerned again.

* * *

“Drink.”

A cup of steaming hot coffee was placed in front of him. It was so dark that it looked like medicine.

“Why? Do you think it might have been poisoned?”

Haejun, who was sitting opposite him with the same coffee, grinned.

“I do not eat or drink food provided by others while on duty.”

It wasn’t wrong. In fact, his meals were made up of things only sold at convenience stores, except when he happened to eat with Joohyuk. The iron rule was to never eat food that someone else made and delivered in front of you.

Haejun tilted his head.

“It’s a 24-hour job.”

“Yeah, so I don’t think I’ll drink this.”

Haejun smiled as if it was ridiculous. Then he rolled his eyes and smiled.

“He’s a really tough guy. Aren’t you tired of living like that?”

“I think it’s a natural thing to do.”

Now he looked like he was bored Still, his eyes were still shining.

Haejun, who took a sip of coffee with an elegant gesture like a master of a chaebol family, asked a question with a smile on his face.

“How long has it been since you became his bodyguard?”

He already knew, but he still asked.

“It’s been a little over half a year.”

“You haven’t worked for a long time. What were you doing before that?”

“Do I have to answer?”

“Can’t you answer me?”

Haejun smiled and asked, but there was no answer.

“Do I need to answer? You should know everything anyway.”

“Was it obvious?”

Haejun, who put down his teacup, pulled out a smile, clenched his chin with one hand, and looked at Yihyeon’s unshakable eyes.

“Yes. The investigation into Kwon Yihyeon has already been completed. But do you understand why I did the research and why I asked to meet like this?”

Yihyeon answered immediately without hesitation.

“It’s to get me involved.”

“Exactly.”

Haejun’s expression was like a teacher saying, ‘You did a great job.’

“I heard that you have a contract with hyung. The amount of the penalty is a bit large, but I will pay you twice the annual salary you were supposed to receive and pay for the penalty aswell. Come under me.”

“I will decline.”