LLU 11

Rage swirled in my chest. To what lengths could this man go just for his own amusement? Was grabbing someone by the hair and slapping them, or placing the woman his father was trying to remarry and her son on the palm of his hand and toying with them, nothing to him?

“Seriously, are you… a psycho?”

“Don’t be insolent.”

Choi Junghan’s lips curled up. It was that characteristic, infuriatingly arrogant expression.

“I could grab you by the hair right now and drag you downstairs to where your mother is. Should I do that for you?”

It was probably just pathetic bravado anyway. No matter how crazy he was, there was no way he could go that far in front of his own father.

I stared straight at the man, hoping that my revulsion for him would be fully conveyed. It was time to test whether he was truly crazy, or just a guy who only knew how to run his mouth.

“Do it. If you can.”

At that moment, a tremendous force seized my hair. Following that, a thud! sound erupted. Unbelievably, he had slammed me onto the desk with a force so strong it felt like my scalp would be torn off.

Overwhelming pain made me, helplessly pinned, groan. In an instant, my breathing became ragged and fast. My completely subdued body couldn’t move an inch, pinned under the weight of Choi Junghan who was on top of me.

I struggled, trying to get away from his body, but it was futile. My tightly grasped hair twisted and tangled in his hand, drawing out a scream against my will.

“Ugh!”

“You have to scream louder. Is your mother going to hear you like that?”

The voice flowing by my ear was damp and thick.

“Hm? Oon-ah. You have to shriek and scream for your mother to hear what this crazy b**t**d is doing, don’t you think?”

“You crazy b**t**d, let go of me!”

“Yes, that’s the face. A face like a cornered rat.”

Choi Junghan’s body shook as he laughed. His chest, pressed against my back, trembled minutely with glee. The vibration that traveled through me violently tore through my entire body. Nausea rose at the sound of his laughter, chuckling continuously, pouring into my ear.

“Now, shall we go show this lovely face to your mother?”

He flashed his crazed eyes right in front of me. The weight covering my body was lifted all at once, but despite that, I couldn’t move a muscle. The grip on my hair was too strong. Choi Junghan seized my hair with one hand and dragged my body, moving his feet without hesitation.

“Don’t! Don’t do it, you crazy b**t**d!”

No matter how much I yelled, it was useless. The shock was greater than the pain that felt like my entire scalp was being torn off.

It was a terrifyingly unfamiliar fear because I had never experienced it before. I had never felt such horror towards a specific person. The fact that he showed not a shred of guilt or hesitation while dragging a person worse than a dog was what did it.

Before I knew it, he had dragged me to the top of the stairs. One more step and I would be dragged down the stairs, held by him.

Fear rose like water. In the face of the black emotion that had risen to the tip of my chin, I pinched and hit his wrist with all my might. Even so, I couldn’t raise my voice and whispered to him through clenched teeth.

“How, how can you still be human after doing this? She was bleeding just a little while ago. She could have had a miscarriage. To show this side of yourself in front of someone like that…!”

Finally, Choi Junghan stopped walking. As he forcefully lifted the hand holding my hair, my vision was forcibly raised.

“Don’t be stupid, Oon-ah.”

Choi Junghan bared his teeth and met my eyes as if he were enjoying himself.

“You should be begging. What kind of hyung wouldn’t listen to his cute little brother’s plea. Hm?”

I thought I finally understood. What his eyes, which had been looking down at me all evening—not with anger or bewilderment, but as if in deep thought—meant.

What was contained in his eyes as he looked at me was not a desire for revenge for my impertinence, but a measurement. An assessment. The reason he left me alone when I spouted those words to Chairman Choi at the dinner table wasn’t because he was afraid of his father.

‘What should I do with you.’

He had been happily contemplating a more interesting hunting method since dinner time. How he would slice me up, how he would roll me around more with his sharp claws and tear me to shreds.

He was thoroughly enjoying this situation. Choi Junghan was the kind of man who would repeatedly and beautifully strike me on the back of my head whenever I questioned whether he would really go that far. If I continued to defy him here, in one minute I would be standing in front of my mother just like this.

The doctor’s words that she needed absolute psychological stability brushed past my ears. In the face of that advice, all the resolutions and strategies I had made over the past few days crumbled. Something more important than dealing with Choi Junghan was right downstairs. There was no time to weigh the pros and cons, no room to save my pride.

“…Don’t, …please don’t.”

Finally, a miserably trembling voice leaked out from between my clenched teeth.

“I’m telling you, don’t do it.”

“I can’t hear you well.”

His body shook with laughter. A murderous impulse surged at his leisurely voice telling me to beg more desperately. Forcibly suppressing the intense emotion of wanting to kill him someday, I finally forced out the words he wanted.

“…Please, don’t do it.”

Choi Junghan let out a satisfied laugh. Only then was my hair, which had been held in a painfully tight grip, released.

I couldn’t stand straight and staggered a couple of steps. Then, Choi Junghan immediately reached out and grabbed my arm to support me. As if it had been a lie that he had been dragging me around like a beast until now.

“What on earth… do you want? What do you want, huff, to do this kind of thing to me… I’m asking.”

I shook off his arm with a smack and glared at him. My panting breaths trembled pathetically. The thought that even this unstable breathing would bring pleasure to that b**t**d made me feel even more disgusted.

“Hm… a fun time with Oon?”

He smiled, his eyes flashing coldly.

“Our next meeting, I’ll look forward to it with a fluttering heart again.”

So rest well today.

With those words, Choi Junghan placed a hand on my shoulder. Just like when he had tied my tie in the bathroom on the first day, he pressed down with a firm weight. Then, with neat footsteps, he went down the stairs.

My strength left me all at once, but I braced my body and held on. Staggering pathetically, instead of going down the stairs and running out of this house, I headed for the guest room I had been shown to a little while ago.

With a click, only after I closed the door did my legs lose their function and I collapsed to the floor. I belatedly realized the unpleasant vibration that was wracking my entire body. I was, shamefully, trembling.

“Fucking, b**t**d…”

The empty curse, having lost its target, sounded pathetic even to my own ears.

“…Hah, ha…”

I clenched my fists tightly. My nails dug into my palms until it hurt. My messily torn hair ached. Physiological tears were even welling up in my eyes.

I was arrogant. It was time to admit that the conclusion I had drawn was wrong. From the beginning, he was not someone I should fight, but someone I should avoid.

His loosely focused gaze swept over the neckties arranged in a row.

A hand that stopped at one spot picked up its target like a fishhook. The hand, having worn it thousands of times, created a perfect knot without a single flaw, even without looking in the mirror.

As he did so, he naturally thought of that kid. The one who had come with it tied around his neck, shamelessly, even though it looked terrible.

It had bothered him from the first moment he laid eyes on the kid. He wanted to straighten out that angularly crooked thing.

He had heard that the kid had lived like that his whole life since he was young. Shabby and pathetic, like the tattered suit he had borrowed and worn for their first meeting.

All the kid had was a single woman who acted out without shame. Her features were flashy and her body voluptuous, but that made her look even more vulgar, the woman his father Choi Moohyun was dying to have. He could sort of see why. He had always had cheap taste.

Still, getting her pregnant was a bit of a surprise. Both Choi Moohyun and he himself knew well his dissolute nature, so until now, he had avoided leaving any direct traces. Seeing him be careful about that one thing, it seemed he was indeed a businessman who pursued profit.

But why now? Did he get old and want to hold another blood clot?

Junghan let out a dry smile as he inserted the cufflink into his sleeve. It didn’t bother him much, but it wasn’t exactly welcome news either.

However, the boy the woman brought with her stimulated his interest for the first time in a while.

From his experience, those who had nothing quickly adapted to their circumstances. Their natures were, without exception, passive and obedient.

They couldn’t do anything for themselves except accept, and they didn’t feel any sense of injustice even while bowing their heads to those superior to them. This was even more so in situations where they were receiving direct charity, as if their sense of shame had been castrated.

In fact, that was their way of survival, if you could call it that. That’s just how life was. The power game is the exclusive property of the haves. If you have nothing, you should have prostrated yourself from the start. Not dare to try and match strength.

And yet, that kid acted as if he didn’t know the rules that the poor should naturally know. He was as emotional as his name suggested. It was amusing how he would tremble at the slightest touch. His unrefined, rough nature didn’t match his worn-out environment at all.

He also climbed up the ranks recklessly, not knowing his place. What grated on his nerves the most was his gaze. The eyes, wide with force even though he held no weapon, knocked on and awakened a certain sense that had been deeply asleep. It was a dark and sticky feeling he hadn’t felt recently, buried under work and boredom.

Sadism and the desire for conquest. It was the signal flare announcing the start of the game.

A sensation that touched the skin as clearly as a needle p**ck. Junghan’s instincts, which were close to instinct, had rarely been wrong. On the first day, while tying the kid’s tie in the bathroom, Junghan had felt one thing clearly.

This kid would be beautifully trimmed and corrected, and would come to be in the palm of his hand.

Junghan enjoyed the process of breaking and seizing something that was just beginning to bloom, scattering vitality and twisting its whole body. No matter how pretty, he had no need for an artificial flower that was quietly dead.

However, finding such a plaything was surprisingly not easy. There were many who rushed at him and wrapped themselves around him, but without exception, once he broke and seized them, they would lose their breath in a boring way. They would either cling to him, craving things like affection, or lose all will to fight and wither away. Both were rather uninteresting routes.

Where did the life force from when it bloomed with a splendid bud go? Something that can’t even s**k up water and can’t produce any fragrance no longer holds Junghan’s interest.

So, he couldn’t help but be truly delighted. To have discovered a prey that whetted his appetite for the first time in a long while.

His interest in the kid was not limited to just his personality. Oon’s appearance perfectly matched what would be if Junghan’s preferences were drawn on paper, and then sculpted with great care over a long time according to that design.

Flawless white skin like porcelain, hair as black as if ink had been poured over it, slightly thick and very red lips. Sharp and coy eyes like a cat’s and thin yet strong eyebrows. Above all, his body, which looked delicate and beautifully lined like a dancer’s, yet also resilient, was just so.

It would be quite fun to play with a body like that.

No matter how much pleasure a body gave, he didn’t want a one-time thing. It would be inefficient if he couldn’t touch it more than a few times after going to the trouble of taming it to his taste. And Junghan had no intention of wasting his time and effort.

He preferred the type that struggled vividly until the very last breath, rather than the type that couldn’t hold out and fainted quickly when he choked their slender neck. It would be nice if the skin that wrapped around his relentlessly abusive hands remained resilient throughout the act, rather than losing its vitality and limply sagging.

For that, not only physical strength but also mental strength had to be strong. From his gaze to his fingertips, there shouldn’t be a single place that wasn’t vividly alive.

Considering his preferences, the kid was a perfect fit.

If he had to pick one thing he was dissatisfied with, it was that his rampaging was more than necessary. He didn’t know his place and was fearless. It was true that he was drawn to that aspect, but even rampages are cute only when done with some sense. There were more than one or two places that needed a firm hand.

But Junghan knew very well the easiest way to break such a fierce spirit.

The kid would probably curse and scream until his throat was hoarse. He would struggle and try to resist with all his might. In the end, with his face a messy pulp, he might sob and beg desperately.

How would that pretty body react? Would it bend flexibly here and there, or would it stiffen rigidly and tremble violently, unable to overcome the pain? Either way seemed like it would be fun.

To think there was a being that gave him so much pleasure just by imagining it.

As expected, overflowing is better than lacking. There’s no solution for what’s lacking from the start, but what has overgrown can just be broken and thrown away. If he trimmed the scratched parts well, it would soon wrap itself around his hand more beautifully than anything. Junghan was more than willing to endure such trouble.