# Chapter 26
The rapidly sent messages with just seconds between them caught his eye. Even at the restaurant earlier, he had acted urgently like someone who desperately wanted to say something.
Since Woojae had never contacted him so pressingly before, despite sometimes being dramatic, Seowoo’s eyes naturally narrowed.
‘What we talked about last time?’
The last time he spoke with Woojae, they had definitely brought up topics related to Dohyun. He had subtly tried to dig into Seo Dohyun’s activities, but didn’t gain much. There had been some meaningful talk about a prosecutor or something, but as an individual, Seowoo had no way to learn more about it.
At the end of the conversation, he had also added that if Woojae heard anything, he should let him know, but he didn’t have high expectations. No matter how much of a reporter Woojae was, he wouldn’t enthusiastically investigate based on a casually dropped request that wasn’t even a proper favor.
“…What is it?”
Questions that couldn’t be answered alone naturally led to more questions. Seowoo immediately tapped on the screen to type a reply.
Call me first
The moment he finished typing and pressed the send button.
“Han Seowoo.”
“Ahh!”
The call of his name and his scream occurred simultaneously. Like some reflex action, Seowoo’s fist cut through the air in an instant. The sound of wind scratched his ears with the rough movement.
Seowoo gritted his teeth, then slowly opened his lips to exhale a hot breath from deep inside his tongue. His fist was stuck to a palm, not someone’s face or ribs.
“…Did I startle you?”
Though his clothes were slightly disheveled from blocking the punch, his expression still showed not even a hint of agitation.
“Ha…”
As Seowoo hastily withdrew his fist, Manager Gu also retracted his arm and readjusted his tie.
He had reflexively thrown a punch because Manager Gu spoke to him right when he was replying to Woojae. Manager Gu was indeed a professional, skillfully defending himself in such an unguarded situation.
“I didn’t expect you to be so startled. It was my oversight.”
“Where did you come from, anyway? …Don’t tell me CEO Seo sent you? To come here?”
“I was on my way out after moving the last of the belongings.”
“…Already?”
“Yes.”
Although he had said himself that organizing the belongings wouldn’t take long, Seowoo hadn’t expected it to take less than half a day. It was impossible to know how many people had been mobilized.
Seowoo nodded while alternately looking at the apartment entrance and Manager Gu’s face.
“You could start a moving business.”
“Thank you.”
Manager Gu bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment. It didn’t seem necessary to point out that it wasn’t meant as a genuine compliment.
Seowoo roughly shoved his mobile phone into his back pocket and dusted off his clothes. He tried to act as naturally as possible, but there was no way to know how it looked to Manager Gu.
“Is there no one in the house now?”
“Correct.”
“Then I’ll head in.”
“Yes, please do.”
Though he had been somewhat tense, it was only momentary, and Seowoo’s expression brightened considerably at the straightforward positive response. Just as he was about to bow slightly and turn around, Manager Gu’s voice caught his ankle again.
“Han Seowoo.”
“…”
“By any chance…”
By any chance, what? Seowoo stopped in his tracks and reflexively turned sharply toward Manager Gu.
In that very brief gap, countless thoughts flashed through his mind. What did Seo Dohyun say? Or did he see the message content in that brief moment? Or perhaps something else.
Seowoo waited with the most calm expression he could manage for Manager Gu’s lips to open further. However, before the words could fall, a loud ringtone broke the tension.
“…”
Both Manager Gu’s and Seowoo’s gazes simultaneously shifted to the source of the sound. Seowoo hurriedly found and grabbed his mobile phone.
Sure enough, it was Woojae calling. He shouldn’t have pressed the send button on the message. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
“Aren’t you going to answer it?”
“It’s spam.”
Judging by Woojae’s attitude, it definitely didn’t seem like a conversation he should have in front of Manager Gu. Seowoo naturally pressed the decline button and stuffed the phone back into his pocket.
Manager Gu’s unwavering gaze stared at the phone screen as if trying to pierce through it before quickly looking away.
“What were you going to say?”
Manager Gu unusually didn’t immediately respond to Seowoo’s question. After maintaining silence for a moment, before Seowoo could detect the awkwardness in the stillness, Manager Gu slowly opened his mouth.
“I was wondering if there’s any furniture that needs to be moved separately.”
“…”
“If you tell me now, we can move it here. Otherwise, we’ll dispose of everything.”
It was so trivial that it was almost ridiculous given how tense Seowoo had been while listening. Seowoo’s brow automatically wrinkled.
“Was that what you wanted to ask from the beginning?”
“Yes.”
Feeling deflated, he nearly reflexively blurted out “Are you joking right now?” but managed to hold back.
Well, looking at it another way, it was actually better that he was just saying such trivial things. Seowoo nodded halfheartedly.
“I don’t need anything. You can dispose of it all.”
“Understood.”
Whether that was truly all he wanted to say, Manager Gu withdrew obediently after saying goodbye. The feeling of tension heating his entire body and then instantly disappearing was subtly unpleasant.
Seowoo blankly stared at Manager Gu’s retreating back before fumbling in his pocket to pull out his mobile phone again.
1 Missed Call — Jung Woojae
The boldly illuminating text caught his eye. Seowoo naturally pressed the call button. There was no one left to interrupt him.
The dial tone continued for perhaps 3 seconds before the sound was cut off and a somewhat excited voice burrowed into his ear.
— Hyung, are you okay?
“Huh?”
What did he mean by okay? Me? Unable to grasp the point of the question, Seowoo just blinked stupidly without giving any answer. Clear concern was felt in Woojae’s voice.
— You told me to call but then suddenly rejected it, so I thought something had happened.
“Ah, well…”
What would be the most appropriate explanation? From completely honest words to perfect empty talk, all crossed his mind, but what came out of his mouth was utterly ordinary.
“I ran into my manager for a moment.”
This was a decent excuse. Manager Gu being a manager was the absolute truth without even a hint of a lie. Of course, whether he could smoothly package him as a real “manager” was questionable.
— Manager as in the new one assigned by T&C?
“Yeah, that’s right.”
— Well… CEO Seo aside, how’s your relationship with the manager? Is he a decent person?
“…Just, you know, ordinary.”
By T&C standards, Manager Gu was an ordinary person. He hadn’t directly caused any harm either. Due to his lack of certainty, the end of Seowoo’s sentence became a bit blurry.
“But what you wanted to talk about, was it about CEO Seo Dohyun?”
— Yeah. You said to let you know if I heard anything, remember?
Right, that casually added remark. Had some rumor about Dohyun been circulating in the meantime? He seemed like a person who greatly valued how his conduct appeared to others. He also didn’t seem to like information leaking.
What kind of rumor could be circulating that made Woojae immediately pick up on it?
“Did something happen? Like a rumor?”
— Come on, if it was just a tabloid rumor, why would I call like this? I’d just send an email and be done with it.
A voice full of confidence and composure. When Woojae spoke like this, it was definitely when he had succeeded in an investigation or caught onto something significant. He wasn’t without his share of boasting, but his confidence usually had foundation.
“If it’s not a rumor you heard, did you actually investigate somewhere?”
But Seowoo hadn’t formally asked him to, he had just casually thrown out the question of whether he knew anything, so there was no way he would have looked into it so specifically.
Woojae burst into laughter at Seowoo’s puzzled voice.
— I put in some legwork. I’ve been really busy for the past few days.
“Hey, you’re already busy enough. It’s not that important, I didn’t deliberately ask you to do this.”
Saying it wasn’t important was actually a lie. It was a crucial matter that his entire life depended on. However, Woojae seemed already accustomed to such superficial remarks from Seowoo and brushed it off nonchalantly.
— I could smell it just from the way you talked. I’m a reporter after all. When a story comes up, it’s a complete thank you.
“Was there something worth writing an article about?”
— Come on, you’re asking if I cooked the food right after catching it? I need ingredients, and I have to think about what kind of dish to make and how. Articles don’t come out that quickly. It takes time.
Since he didn’t deny it outright, it seemed he had caught something worth writing about. Indeed, just considering Seo Dohyun’s activities that Seowoo had witnessed recently, if they were properly revealed, they would generate dozens of articles and more.
— So there’s information that our clueless Hyung absolutely needs to know, which is why I’ve been urgently trying to reach you.
“What, what information?”
Woojae lightly cleared his throat and then whispered in a low voice.
— I got in touch with that prosecutor.
“What?”
Like someone who had been hiding the most delicious food to show off, Woojae continued speaking one word at a time in a voice suppressing excitement.
— That weird prosecutor who was chasing Seo Dohyun CEO!
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
