Chapter 138
“Hey, hey! You bastard! You were supposed to watch…”
The blonde had left the warehouse before Jeff. While he was out on an errand to buy food, Jeff had talked to Mitchell on the phone and rushed out without even locking the door.
It was his own fault for acting carelessly in his excitement. The blonde was not to blame.
Realizing this, Jeff cut off his words midway. Having unconsciously blurted out a suspicious word, he found himself glancing at Mitchell, who was staring at Jeff without blinking. His hair stood on end.
“I understand for now.”
Jeff took a deep breath as soon as he hung up the phone. The tension made it difficult to breathe properly. With the man he thought was Geon-woo having escaped from the warehouse, he felt like he was driven to the edge of a cliff.
Jeff quickly sent a message to the blonde.
[Go back to the hotel.]
[Pour engine oil or whatever in the room where that bastard was and destroy the evidence. Don’t set it on fire. It’ll attract people. Just quickly get rid of anything that could be evidence and get out!]
Even though he told him to pour oil to destroy evidence in case his fingerprints were left, he still wasn’t at ease. Now that he wouldn’t be going back there, he could only hope the blonde would handle it well on his own.
It would be best if that guy didn’t report it and just let it go quietly… After all, he hadn’t even seen Jeff and the blonde’s faces properly. If they played their cards right, they might be able to handle this without major issues.
The problem, however, was that Jeff himself didn’t know the identity of the man.
“Watching? Who were you watching?”
Mitchell, who had been waiting silently, asked with a smile. Jeff bit his lip, plagued by anxiety. He wanted to think it was just a casual smile, but he kept feeling uneasy.
“There’s… an employee in New York… at the hotel… who doesn’t listen.”
“You’re watching someone just because they don’t listen?”
Mitchell’s smile deepened.
“If someone heard that, they might think you’re holding someone captive.”
“You’re good at joking too. It’s nothing. It’s a long story if I were to explain.”
Jeff shoved his phone into his pocket and cleared his throat. He kept fake coughing to calm his trembling voice.
“By the way, does anyone else live here besides you two?”
He probed Mitchell while naturally changing the subject. He needed to know the identity of that man to properly handle the situation. At that time, the man was sleeping comfortably as if in his own home. Mitchell would surely know who he was.
“Someone else? No. It’s just Geon-woo and me using it.”
“…Really?”
“Why?”
“No, just… Actually, there are a lot of people coming and going in your house. You open the door carelessly even when the owner isn’t home. Who would think this is Mitchell Cronenwirth’s house? You wouldn’t even know if a burglar or stalker came in.”
“That’s true. I’ve even given the password to some people because it’s annoying to open the door every time.”
Mitchell pointed to the iron gate at the bottom of the hill.
“The password? Are you crazy? That’s why outsiders come in without your permission.”
“Like you?”
“No, I’m…”
Stung, Jeff swallowed his words. Fortunately, Mitchell didn’t press further and moved on.
“This is just a passing house. I don’t intend to live here permanently.”
“Looks like you’re moving then.”
Mitchell shrugged without confirming or denying. Instead, he added an explanation about his situation.
“As you said, there have been people entering my house carelessly lately. In the past, I didn’t care who came into my house.”
This was possible because Mitchell had craved only ‘people’ in any form. The wire fence sensor that might not even work properly, no CCTV, and a broken front door.
The lax security was like Mitchell’s wide-open heart.
“But lately I don’t like it. Because I have someone to protect.”
Jeff immediately realized who the person to protect was. It was that damn Geon-woo who had taken over Mitchell’s house.
He said it wasn’t enough to love, but he had to protect. The person who used to want to live buried among people now said he only needed one person and locked the open door. Mitchell Cronenwirth had changed.
The more he talked with Mitchell, the more clearly he recognized the tightly intertwined relationship between him and Geon-woo. He had a hunch that no matter what he did, he wouldn’t be able to separate them. Feeling like something he possessed was being taken away, his insides twisted and his teeth gritted.
“So I installed cameras in hidden places.”
At Mitchell’s words, Jeff’s boiling mind suddenly cooled. He stared at Mitchell with eyes wide open, as if they might pop out.
“So I can know who’s been coming and going without my permission while I was away.”
“…Ah.”
“Whether it’s a thief or an annoying stalker, I was planning to catch them all at once.”
Mitchell ran his hand through his still damp hair. The soft blonde hair scattered like dandelion seeds and then settled. Under the beautiful golden hair reflecting the sunlight, green eyes gleamed coldly with a sneer.
“So, what did you take from my house?”
***
Mitchell’s camera was Walker.
Mitchell made Jeff think that only Geon-woo was at home and then left the house. Given Jeff’s personality, he thought Jeff would go looking for Geon-woo who was alone at home. Since he actually came to the house, that guess was correct.
Originally, Mitchell intended to pin one crime on Jeff who was being a nuisance. For now, just a light trespassing charge.
Walker’s camera would capture Jeff’s actions in detail, so after reporting to the police, he planned to have Mark splash it across the media spectacularly.
Although he’s restrained now, Mark’s pen is actually dirty and sensational. It would be easy for him to turn a mere trespassing into a serious scandal.
Since Jeff is particularly afraid of his father, Mitchell expected that he wouldn’t hang around Mitchell anymore, if only to avoid suspicion of following a male celebrity.
However, the situation twisted a bit.
There was one more person who visited the house that day.
Junman had come to the house without notice. Jeff, who had no way of knowing this, left the house in his car long after entering.
And the next morning, Walker entered the house at Mitchell’s request and discovered the situation.
Junman, who had never left after entering, had disappeared leaving only traces, and a memo was conspicuously placed on the bed. Looking at the photo of the memo sent by Walker, Mitchell roughly understood what Jeff had done the night before.
Mitchell first asked Walker to tidy up the dressing room and keep the memo separately. The messy second house wouldn’t be touched by the helpers anyway, so he could drop by separately.
He had expected Jeff to act extremely. Jeff had always been someone who would use any means necessary for his own benefit.
The reason he hadn’t pushed Jeff away until now was because he was somewhat helpful for his own deficiencies. But this action had crossed the line.
Mitchell found the situation quite ironic.
He had become an object of greed for Jeff, and an object of obsession for Geon-woo.
The two were completely different.
Geon-woo.
Mitchell silently called out the name of Geon-woo, who would be waiting patiently for him at home. Then, looking at Jeff, he clearly stated the reality.
“You tried to take Geon-woo but failed, right?”
If it hadn’t been for Junman, Geon-woo would have been the one to suffer. He wouldn’t have let such a thing happen in the first place, but even the thought of it made his blood boil.
“…”
Jeff’s eyelids moved slowly. Jeff was certain that Mitchell had figured everything out. He must have already reviewed the cameras he said he had installed somewhere, hence these words. It was a bit vexing that he didn’t tell him who the person he had mistaken for Geon-woo was, but what did it matter now.
Strangely, unlike his initial excitement, Jeff felt calm. He had been anxious and trembling, wondering if Mitchell knew the truth, but now that everything was exposed, he felt rather relieved.
“Are you going to treat me like a criminal now? Why would I take Geon-woo?”
Of course, he had no intention of confessing honestly. Whether Mitchell knew the whole situation or not, Jeff planned to deny everything until direct evidence was presented to him.
“If you have cameras, you’d know who came and went to your house. So who else came here besides me?”
Jeff, wearing a face of steel, brazenly demanded answers to his questions. He stood with one leg crossed and searched for cigarettes in his inner pocket.
He rarely smoked in front of Mitchell, who disliked the smell of cigarettes, but occasionally, like now, when he wanted to make Mitchell uncomfortable, he would smoke openly.
After lighting the cigarette and letting the end start to burn, he blew smoke into Mitchell’s face. Despite the smoke scattering, Mitchell’s expression remained unshaken.
“Why don’t you ask him directly? Oh, you can’t now? Because he ran away?”
Mitchell waved his arm once, and the whitish smoke dispersed. Through it, Mitchell appeared clearly. It was like light breaking through dark clouds.
Lies were now meaningless to Mitchell, who seemed to have grasped almost the entire situation. Jeff let out a bitter laugh at the situation where he had tried to catch Mitchell but ended up being caught by Mitchell instead.
He stopped smoking mid-way and dropped his arm. As the cigarette fell to the ground from his weakened fingers, Mitchell approached and crushed the still-burning cigarette with his shoe. The completely crushed cigarette looked no different from Jeff’s state.
“Mitchell, just as you know me well, I know you too. I know you’ll stop here.”
Now that his head had cooled, he could see the situation properly. The bastard inside the house might say anything without regard for face, but not Mitchell. At least, the Mitchell he knew shouldn’t.
“Me?”
Mitchell retorted, slightly tilting his head. Jeff felt an uncomfortable resistance from Mitchell’s eyes that stared back without backing down.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
