# Chapter 38
The answer was truly clean and simple. Though his heart was burning with desire, he absolutely couldn’t do it. Would he pursue something with no possibility? Hyungil narrowed his brows and tilted his head.
“But you also said there’s no suitable method? Do you think you could get recordings from someone you’re not close to if I asked you to right now?”
“No, I couldn’t… but becoming friendly is easier said than done. To become close with someone, there needs to be mutual fondness, but I’ve never been friendly with Seo Dohyun. I only say things like ‘gangster, thug, maniac, crazy bastard, get lost, shut up.'”
He had even used worse insults before. Hyungil laughed out loud. It was the first genuine smile Seowoo had seen since entering this house.
“Seeing that he kept you alive after hearing such things to his face, I guess Seo Dohyun thought it would be a waste to kill you?”
“…I heard it’s difficult to kill someone whose name is well-known.”
On the day he first stamped the contract, Dohyun had spoken with such a nuance. It was truly the first time he felt fortunate to be an actor for reasons other than acting.
“Well, that just means he doesn’t want to make things unnecessarily troublesome when it’s not necessary. Literally at the level of ‘a bit difficult,’ but if he decides to do it, he will.”
“If that’s not the reason, I have no idea why he spared me.”
“Who can understand what that bastard thinks? Since he’s someone who absolutely can’t do anything that would cause him a loss, keeping you alive must be advantageous for him.”
That makes it even more confusing. Without saying it aloud, Seowoo just slowly nodded his head. Hyungil placed the paper he was holding on the desk to show it. Curious about what it was, Seowoo saw it was another printed photograph.
“Now, before setting a mousetrap, let’s learn thoroughly about the mouse.”
Is Seo Dohyun a mouse? He’s too big and disgusting to be a mouse. With a skeptical expression, Seowoo examined the photo and noticed two men standing in front of a familiar building. One was Seo Dohyun, and the other was unfamiliar.
Though slightly shorter than Dohyun, his fiercely slanted eyes and crumpled expression fully revealed a dangerous atmosphere. Despite never having seen him in person and only having this single photo, Seowoo was convinced the man’s temperament was far from ordinary.
“Who is this?”
“This is candidate number one, whom we suspect killed Joo Junggu, that you were curious about earlier.”
This time, Seowoo wasn’t surprised. Even at first glance, his instinct told him this wasn’t an ordinary person. But the puzzling point was, if Joo Junggu was Dohyun’s boss, why were Dohyun and this man standing side by side? Hadn’t he said that Joo Junggu was like an elder brother figure to Dohyun?
“Then Seo Dohyun must dislike this man. Why are they standing together?”
“It’s harder not to see someone’s face when you work at the same company.”
“…?”
So, he has to work as a colleague with the person who killed someone like an elder brother to him? Unable to process this information, Seowoo stuttered and stopped speaking. Hyungil chuckled as if he had anticipated this reaction.
“Currently, Seo Dohyun is doing well under President Park. Rather, he’s busy being pampered there. He’s quite successful.”
“…Then what happens to Joo Junggu?”
“I think I’ve been saying it all along. Don’t waste emotions on unnecessary things. I told you it’s a loss to care too much.”
Even so, he was an elder brother figure, and he died? No matter who Seo Dohyun is. Several more points of rebuttal came to mind, but Seowoo kept his mouth shut. Well, how much does he really know about Seo Dohyun? The more he learns, the less he seems to understand the man.
“This man’s name is Heo Jinwook. The relationship between him and Seo Dohyun is extremely bad. Well, after he presented Joo Junggu’s throat on a platter, the bastard under him crept in and snatched his position, so it’s understandable that he’d feel awful.”
“So they really don’t get along.”
“They never did, but I hear it’s been particularly tense lately. Fighting over business, positions, subordinates. Of course, it’s better when those two fight. We can cut off T&C’s left and right arms at once.”
“Yes… but why are you telling me this?”
Who Dohyun gets along with or not—isn’t that really in the realm of his personal life? Hyungil laughed with a hissing sound at the puzzlement evident in Seowoo’s voice.
“To reap the benefits while the whales are fighting.”
“Pardon?”
“Take a look at this. Do you know where this is?”
In a tone suggesting a complete shift of topic, Hyungil pulled out a new photo. Though it was obvious he was deliberately changing the subject, Seowoo didn’t bother to press for details. The place in the photo that the pen tip was tapping was quite familiar to Seowoo’s eyes.
“Aren’t you asking something too obvious? This is T&C, isn’t it? …The CEO’s office?”
“That’s right. Usually, CCTVs don’t operate inside the CEO’s office. I don’t know what you do in there, but they don’t keep them on, probably in case the footage might leak outside.”
“There are no CCTVs at all? Isn’t that too risky for security?”
“Would they do that in a risky situation? After work hours, when no one is at the company, they do turn them on. The surveillance on the way to the CEO’s office is quite thorough. I heard they poured all their money into that.”
The photo Hyungil was tapping wasn’t of the ‘inside’ of the CEO’s office that Seowoo had frequented several times, but the corridor area. It was impressive that they had managed to take even this photo. Judging from the blurry quality, it might have been taken from a distance, but even with magnification from afar, it seemed impossible to peek inside the CEO’s office.
Hyungil drew a large circle around the tiny door of the CEO’s office visible in the photo.
“So any important documents will all be inside the CEO’s office. You know the structure, right?”
Certainly, it seems the contract was stored in the CEO’s office after he stamped it that time. But when asked about the structure, he hadn’t examined the room diligently enough for a clear image to come to mind, so he had nothing to say.
“…I didn’t look that carefully. I didn’t have time to observe in detail.”
“Don’t you remember anything?”
“Just, the desk and the sofa. A computer. And there were quite a few bookshelves. There was also something like a glass cabinet.”
“Is that so? Ah, in cases like this, the probability is highest that it would be deeply tucked away inside a bookshelf. If it’s not completely hidden…”
Hyungil chewed on the back of his pen and nodded slightly. Seowoo tried to recall the structure of the CEO’s office again by tracing his memory, but it wasn’t easy. Every time he visited the CEO’s office, Dohyun kept talking nonsense, so far from paying attention to the structure, his mind was completely distracted by Dohyun.
If he had known this would happen, he would have observed more carefully. Hyungil, who had been scribbling on the photo according to Seowoo’s descriptions, put down his pen.
“At the very least, you need to have the kind of relationship where Seo Dohyun would feel safe leaving you alone in the CEO’s office. Only then would you have time to check the bookshelves.”
“That guy is the type who wouldn’t do that even if we were married… Wait, why would I check the bookshelves?”
Seowoo, who had been responding indifferently while rubbing his chin, dropped his hand and asked back. Was he suggesting Seowoo should rummage through the bookshelves in the CEO’s office and risk getting his neck cut off? As a shadow of anxiety appeared on his expression, Hyungil raised his eyebrows. His eyes seemed to ask why Seowoo was pretending not to know now, but Seowoo genuinely didn’t know, so he was innocent.
“Then should I go in?”
“It’s better than asking someone who has never done infiltration…”
“Are we 007? Given the structure there, infiltration is impossible. It’s not about sneaking in secretly, but entering naturally. I have some documents I want to check.”
Is it okay to speak so confidently when he doesn’t even know when this will happen? What if it takes 10 years? Whether Hyungil understood what Seowoo’s skeptical expression meant, he smiled brightly.
“It’s not like we need those documents right away, so it’s fine.”
“What are they?”
“I should tell you that when you go in. Knowing beforehand would only make you more nervous when you see Seo Dohyun’s face.”
True, whatever it is, he would only think about the documents every time he sees Dohyun’s face from now on, and it might show on his face, ruining the plan. Without specifically refuting Hyungil’s words, Seowoo tightly closed his mouth.
“So my role is just to sit here and wait until I become friends with Seo Dohyun?”
“No. We need to dig into Seo Dohyun too.”
“That’s not an easy thing to do either.”
“What did Seo Dohyun do to dig up information about you? Isn’t he sticking as close as possible to you?”
Seowoo had noticed this much. With the strange cohabitation contract, taking financial losses and enduring inconvenience, Dohyun was in the process of investigating and monitoring Seowoo.
“When you think about it, we’ve been given the same opportunity. As much as he’s monitoring Han Seowoo-ssi, Han Seowoo-ssi can also monitor Seo Dohyun.”
“…”
The words, spoken secretly yet quite seriously, had no flaws. It’s just that this surveillance couldn’t be as systematic as what Seo Dohyun was doing, but observing and being cautious of Dohyun’s every move—what is that if not surveillance? Hyungil leaned his upper body closer and looked straight at Seowoo.
“I’ve heard vague rumors that Seo Dohyun is having a separate meeting with the chairman of DY Motors.”
“Really?”
But what does that have to do with anything? At his innocently puzzled gaze, Hyungil tapped the desk with his pen, tapping out each syllable as he kindly continued.
“The date, location, number of people… who could find this out?”
“What… Who could possibly extract that kind of information from Seo Dohyun?”
“Obviously, it’s Han Seowoo-ssi.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
