148.
#Side 1. Small Changes in Daily Life (4)
Could it be that he doesn’t want to return to an empty house? Hayun thought that might be the case with Dawoon. In Korea, the mansion was never empty, with either Haram or the staff, including the butler, always present. Though Dawoon appeared calm on the surface, he was actually quite prone to loneliness. So he might be timing his return home to match Hayun’s arrival from work because he didn’t want to be alone.
This is why Dawoon still looks so young in Hayun’s eyes. The thought of such a Dawoon being cute made him smile.
“Work hard. But don’t overdo it.”
[Okay.]
“Let’s have dinner together.”
Hayun deliberately didn’t mention that he would finish work early. He didn’t want to disturb Dawoon while he was studying. After ending the call, he looked up and met Director Park’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Do you have something to say?”
Hayun asked, noticing Director Park’s expression suggesting he wanted to speak.
“Just… I thought it was fortunate.”
Director Park answered as he turned his gaze forward and started the engine.
“I thought you two were quite precarious at one point, but recently it seems you’re getting along well.”
“Ah.”
Hayun nodded, understanding what Director Park meant to say.
“We are getting along well. Better than expected.”
Hayun agreed with his words. After coming to London, Dawoon’s guard had noticeably lowered. He seemed more comfortable dealing with Hayun than before. Above all, he was less conscious of others’ eyes. When they went out for walks or meals on weekends, Dawoon no longer tensed up and looked around nervously when Hayun held his hand or kissed his cheek like before.
The fact that no one knew them here made Dawoon feel at ease. And to that extent, he accepted Hayun’s expressions of affection as they were. As this was a change Hayun had desperately hoped for, he was quite satisfied with their recent life.
“Where shall I take you?”
Director Park asked again, sensing that Hayun probably wouldn’t return to headquarters.
“Shall I take you to your residence?”
“No. Let’s go to Dawoon’s university. He said he’s at the library, so I’ll pick him up and we’ll have dinner nearby before going home. You can leave after dropping me off there.”
It wouldn’t take long to get from the current shopping mall to the university. This meant Director Park’s quitting time would be earlier too. Perhaps because of this, Director Park’s voice sounded more cheerful than usual as he acknowledged.
***
After parking in front of the main library on campus, Hayun called Dawoon. The phone rang for a while, but Dawoon didn’t answer immediately. After ending the call, Hayun was about to press the call button again but stopped. If Dawoon was in the library, he might have set his phone to vibrate or silent mode. Dawoon used to put his phone on silent during class times before.
With plenty of time, Hayun decided to look for Dawoon himself and leisurely walked towards the library. Imagining Dawoon’s surprised face upon seeing him made Hayun feel good, and he quietly hummed a tune.
However, contrary to Hayun’s expectation, he couldn’t find Dawoon anywhere in the library after looking around thoroughly. Thinking they might have missed each other if Dawoon had gone to the restroom, Hayun looked around once more but couldn’t find anything that looked like Dawoon’s bag either.
The smile gradually disappeared from Hayun’s face. Could it be the wrong library? Frowning, he took out his phone, opened the map app, and searched for libraries. When the search results appeared, Hayun let out a hot sigh. There were quite a few libraries near the university, more than he had thought. It would be too much to search them all blindly.
Stepping out of the library, Hayun called Dawoon again. He had planned to surprise Dawoon, but it seemed impossible now. Rather than missing dinner time and crossing paths with Dawoon while searching, it was better to let him know he had arrived and meet up, even if it was disappointing.
But Dawoon didn’t answer this time either. This had never happened except when he was in lectures, so Hayun’s brow furrowed involuntarily.
Could something have happened? Did Chairman Jeong do something rash again?
At the sudden worst-case scenario surfacing, Hayun felt his fingertips grow cold. He swallowed hard and shook his head once. That couldn’t be. Chairman Jeong’s side was still under surveillance, and he was actually tense, wondering if Hayun might do something to Haram.
If not Chairman Jeong, then who else could it be? Jeong Seo-in? Although she constantly coveted Hayun’s position, she lacked the courage to carry out any schemes. Even if she mustered up the courage to try something, the probability of her influence reaching London was low. Above all, if it were her, she would attack Hayun directly, not Dawoon.
Could it be someone from the London branch? No, that was an absurd suspicion. There was no one in the London branch who was in conflict with Hayun, and above all, they didn’t even know of Dawoon’s existence.
Was there a possibility he got caught up in some unrelated crime?
As all sorts of bad thoughts came to mind, Hayun’s anxiety peaked. He considered filing a missing person report but then sighed heavily. It would be excessive to file such a report just because he couldn’t contact someone over twenty for a short while.
Hayun closed his eyes, took a moment to regulate his breathing, and then contacted Director Park.
“It’s me.”
At those words, Director Park tensed slightly and responded with a “Yes.” He seemed to have immediately noticed that Hayun’s voice was not normal. Before speaking, Hayun took another long, audible breath.
“Contact the security company and mobilize as many personnel as possible. We’re going to search every library in this area.”
[…]
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Director Park didn’t ask why or for the reason. He seemed to have guessed the situation from the mention of searching libraries. He didn’t suggest waiting a bit longer or say that it was unnecessary to mobilize a security company for such a matter.
[Understood. I’ll make sure it can proceed within 5 minutes.]
After ending the call, Hayun looked up at the sky. It was ashen, as if it might rain.
“Jeong Dawoon.”
Hayun’s voice calling the three syllables of the name sank as bleakly as the weather.
If he had known this would happen, he should have left the location tracking program no matter what Dawoon said. Or he should have planted it somewhere other than the phone. He had never regretted his decision as much as he did now.
***
For the first week after starting the part-time job, it was so quiet that Dawoon wondered if it was okay to receive money for working like this. However, today was so busy he could barely breathe. A few days ago, one of the customers asked if they could post about the cafe on social media, and it turned out that person was a famous influencer. There were several individual customers who said they came after seeing the social media post, and on top of that, there were group customers, making it chaotic.
When there was finally a brief lull, it was past 6 o’clock. Dawoon took out his phone at the counter. He thought there wouldn’t have been another call since he had talked to Hayun around 5 o’clock, but…
“Oh no…”
He almost dropped his phone when he saw the numerous missed calls.
This is bad.
That was the only thought in his mind. Why did Hayun call so many times? Even though he called frequently, it was usually every 2-3 hours… Something felt off.
What should I do? Should I call back right away…? Ah, how should I explain this?
Being flustered made it harder to think clearly.
“Dawoon.”
The owner, who came out of the kitchen with two plates of beautifully plated desserts, called Dawoon.
“This one goes to the table by the window. The left one is for the table with two women sitting over there.”
Before Dawoon could respond to Hayun, more work poured in. Customers at one table weren’t satisfied with their initial order and wanted to try other desserts they liked, so orders kept coming. Moreover, every time he brought desserts, many people asked how they were made and what ingredients were used, causing further delays.
Would he be able to get off work at 7 o’clock? Although the part-timer for the next shift would come, Dawoon started to feel anxious.
He had to deal with the immediate tasks at hand, so he put his phone back in his pocket. But he wasn’t at ease. He had no idea how to resolve this situation.
***
6:30 PM. An hour had passed since Hayun arrived at the main library on campus. In that time, he had mobilized security company personnel to search all nearby libraries, but they couldn’t find Dawoon.
“What should we do now?”
Director Park asked, watching Hayun’s expression. The security personnel who had been searching each library were waiting for the next instruction.
“Have them look around the area. Tell them to check thoroughly in places like back alleys too, in case he got caught up in some crime.”
At the mention of crime, Director Park’s expression hardened, probably reminded of the incident in the Seoul headquarters parking lot. It was the worst-case scenario. If by any chance Dawoon had gotten involved in something bad, Director Park didn’t even want to imagine how Hayun would react.
“Should we implant a chip in his body?”
“Pardon?”
Director Park’s voice jumped at the unexpected words. However, Hayun was more serious than ever.
“Because phones or watches can be easily removed from the body.”
“Ah…”
As Hayun spoke in a quiet voice with narrowed eyes, Director Park couldn’t continue speaking.
You mean you want to implant a location tracking chip in Jeong Dawoon’s body. That’s a crime, you know.
Expressing his thoughts seemed meaningless. For Jeong Hayun, whether it was a crime or not wasn’t important; what mattered was whether he could find Jeong Dawoon when contact was lost like this.
Quietly swallowing, Director Park sincerely hoped they would find Dawoon before Hayun seriously committed to implanting a chip in Dawoon’s body.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
