At the same time, at Chairman Seo’s residence.
As usual, Chairman Seo was in the lounge surrounded by flowering plants, quietly taking in his surroundings with a somber gaze.
The plants, once lush and vibrant throughout the year thanks to meticulous care, had started to lose their vitality little by little.
Though the servants were responsible for watering them regularly, the one who had always tended to them with care was Chairman Seo himself. It had been quite some time since his devoted hands had last reached out to the plants. So it was no surprise that their once verdant energy was slowly withering.
Even though he was well aware of this, Chairman Seo made no move to tend to them again. He simply watched on, powerless, like a weary old man, as they gradually faded before his eyes.
“If it bothers you that much, why not hire a dedicated gardener?”
Without a sound, Yoon Jeong-ho appeared behind Chairman Seo, speaking in a dispassionate tone. His gaze followed Seo’s, landing on the drooping plants.
“Are you really going to sit back and watch them dry up and die?”
“I’ve grown tired… Tired of nurturing something with care, only to watch it go astray again and again.”
Chairman Seo’s aged voice carried the weight of disappointment—as if rebuking someone who wasn’t even there.
He sighed and cast a sidelong glance over his shoulder at Yoon Jeong-ho.
“So that’s why you never came, no matter how many times I called for you. Fine, then. How did it feel, helping Won stick it to his old grandfather?”
“Oh, come on. Don’t say it like that.”
Yoon Jeong-ho chuckled softly, placing both hands gently on Chairman Seo’s frail shoulders.
“You know I didn’t do it with that kind of intent.”
“I know. You’ve always been desperate for my approval, whether in the past or now. That’s exactly why you can’t understand.”
The chill in Chairman Seo’s aged eyes was no less biting than the look Seo Won had once given him.
“Tell me. Why did you help Won?”
Yoon Jeong-ho had stayed at Chairman Seo’s mansion for a long time. During that period, he had quietly gathered various pieces of information using his own abilities, some of which included classified reports from the Esper Association that only Chairman Seo possessed.
The contents of those reports were distinctly divided into two parts: before and after Seo Won’s heart transplant surgery.
The reports prior to the transplant focused primarily on the Fourth Ability Analysis Research Facility and the progress of the refinement process for the heart Seo Won would receive.
After the transplant, the reports shifted focus to the ESP Core Integration Program led by Kim Cheol-min and the medium device Seo Won was currently developing.
Yoon Jeong-ho had selectively extracted only the reports created after Seo Won’s heart transplant.
Whether it was Yoon Jeong-ho’s doing or a gesture of consideration from Seo Won, all the recipients listed on those reports had been changed to Seo Won himself.
Kim Cheol-min had already been aware of the manipulation. Even so, he had chosen to remain silent. After all, if it came to light that Chairman Seo was the original recipient of the reports, matters regarding the research facility would inevitably be dragged into the open. No matter how furious he might be, he wasn’t about to incriminate himself further.
Perhaps he was even planning to use that fact later to pressure Chairman Seo and negotiate a way to save himself.
Before it could come to that, though, Cha Min-hyung would most likely rewire his brain first.
In the end, no one was able to hold Chairman Seo accountable for masterminding the secret agreement between Seo Won and Kim Cheol-min. Even the heart at the center of the entire scheme had been officially recorded as having been donated by an Esper affiliated with the Association.
Because of that, Chairman Seo was now seen as someone entirely unconnected to the incident.
“You always told me, over and over, help Seo Won as much as I could.”
Yoon Jeong-ho looked into Chairman Seo’s icy eyes with a refreshingly bright smile.
“I did just that, and now I get treated like this? Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”
He acted like he was being wronged, but the expression on his face and the tone of his voice said otherwise. He was clearly in a good mood.
Leaning in, Yoon Jeong-ho whispered discreetly into Chairman Seo’s ear.
“Don’t worry. The backdoor deal has been taken care of. So even if Seo Won dies now, the Association won’t have anything left to hold over us.”
“You do realize, don’t you? If Won dies…”
“If he dies, I get kicked out of this family. But that only applies if his death is caused by someone else, whether by chance or by force, right?”
Chairman Seo’s eyes twitched.
“You think Won would commit suicide? Do you really believe that boy would ever do such a thing?”
“Haha, if it were the old me, I’d probably have said the same as you.”
With a cheerful laugh, Yoon Jeong-ho narrowed his eyes and stepped forward to stand in front of Chairman Seo.
“Grandfather.”
Kneeling lightly before him, Jeong-ho placed both hands over the old man’s blanket-covered legs.
“I don’t care if your body’s nothing more than a corpse. As long as you live with me like this, for a long, long time, that’s enough for me.”
“…You really are insane.”
“So what if I am? Even if we don’t share blood, there’s only ever been one person I’ve truly considered family.”
With a voice dripping in obsession, Yoon Jeong-ho lowered his head to rest on Chairman Seo’s legs. His posture was careful, as if afraid that too much pressure might hurt the frail, fleshless limbs.
Chairman Seo looked down at Jeong-ho with a brief, flickering sense of pity.
“So you really mean to keep me chained here, do you? I’m already well past a hundred years old.”
“Well, you still have to live at least as long as the original lifespans of those relatives who died prematurely because of the contract, right? And with a body this old, you’ll only find it harder and harder to move each day. Don’t you think someone like me—a loyal family member—ought to be by your side?”
“I have no desire to live that long.”
At the firmness in Chairman Seo’s voice, Jeong-ho lifted his head to meet his gaze.
“That’s why you’re putting all your effort into the last remaining bloodline—Seo Won. I know.”
If Seo Won managed to survive for two full years from the day the cursed pact had begun, then the so-called ‘curse’ would be completely nullified.
And once that happened, Chairman Seo would finally be able to embrace the death he had so longed for.
Ten years ago, he had slit his own throat, but unlike that day, he hadn’t died.
Yoon Jeong-ho smiled as he stared at the faint scar still visible on Chairman Seo’s neck.
“I know. But what can you do? That bastard already made up his mind to kill himself—just to get revenge on you, Grandfather.”
Chairman Seo’s entire body flinched violently. The coldness that had lingered in his eyes shattered, his gaze trembling without resistance.
“Once Seo Won dies, you won’t have a choice, you’ll have to live for hundreds more years. And the only one you’ll have left is me.”
As if playing the part of an affectionate grandson, Yoon Jeong-ho nuzzled his face against Chairman Seo’s legs.
“As the heir to the Kangsan Group, I promise to serve you with all my heart, until the day I die, Grandfather.”
Chairman Seo bit down painfully on his wrinkled lip as he looked down at Jeong-ho’s sweetly smiling face.
***
About an hour had passed since Min-hyung had left the estate.
Seo Won returned home at a leisurely pace on purpose.
He had been somewhat surprised to hear that Min-hyung had shown up unannounced, but in the end, he figured it was for the best. Han-gyeom had started to develop a sense of kinship with Min-hyung, and Seo Won hoped this would be a chance for them to grow even closer.
Once he was gone, Han-gyeom would need someone he could rely on. And Cha Min-hyung—with his wealth and power that no one could dare challenge—would be more than capable of protecting him.
After all, he, too, had once been a Guide from the research facility.
They shared similar traumas, and Seo Won trusted that Min-hyung would be able to care for Han-gyeom on many levels—perhaps even better than he ever could.
‘That’s why I took my time handling other things and came back slow on purpose…’
‘Only for him to drink a single cup of tea and leave? ‘There was no payoff for the time he had intentionally dragged out.
Yet at the same time, he realized there was a part of him that felt relieved. Even though Han-gyeom was under protection, the thought of him alone in the same house with another man—unseen—still rubbed him the wrong way.
‘I’m going to have to leave him soon, so what the hell am I doing, feeling like this already?’
Seo Won stepped out of the car with a bitter expression. Standing at the mansion’s entrance, he was holding a solid, square-shaped black case. A glance downward at the case brought an involuntary smile to his lips.
The moment he stepped inside, the guards lined up at the entrance bowed politely.
“Where’s Cha Han-gyeom?”
“He’s in the bedroom, sir.”
As Seo Won continued walking, taking in the report, his phone suddenly rang, stopping him mid-step. The screen displayed: Caller ID Restricted.
Wondering who it could be, Seo Won answered.
—What the hell are you thinking?
The moment he picked up, a voice he was all too familiar with came through the line.
Seo Won resumed walking as he replied.
“What?”
—The thing you sent me. What the hell is it?
“Can’t you tell just by looking? Do you want me to include an instruction manual?”
On the other end of the line, the voice sounded slightly agitated.
—I know what it is. What I’m asking is, why the hell did you send this many cores to me?
Hearing Kang Woo-chan’s voice, Seo Won let out a dry chuckle.
“Should I have sent them to Cha Min-hyung instead?”
—Don’t give me that bullshit. You know exactly what those cores would be used for if you handed them over to that bastard from the Association.
“Then it was even more right of me to send them to you.”
As he listened to the way Woo-chan’s voice flared up the moment Cha Min-hyung’s name was mentioned, Seo Won muttered to himself, He really fucking hates the guy.
Whether Woo-chan heard that or not, he followed up in a flustered voice.
—So what the hell am I supposed to do with all this? Didn’t you say you were going to dispose of them?
“I did.”
Seo Won’s voice turned bitter as he ascended the stairs.
“But I figured… you’d at least give them a proper burial.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end. When Woo-chan finally spoke again, the anger in his voice had faded.
—…Didn’t think you had it in you to be this human.
“Yeah. Same here.”
As he stepped into the hallway leading to the bedroom, Seo Won’s eyes fell on the door in the distance.
“Maybe I just wanted to be a decent human being, at least at the very end.”
The emotionless words, tossed out as if they were nothing, rendered Woo-chan silent once again.
