NTH 81

“Before I got out of the car, I sent an emergency rescue request to my personal security team. If you don’t leave here quickly, you’ll be sharing a cell with the Sangbong-i Faction.”

“Oh my, you think you can take on the four of us by yourself until then? Looks like someone will be coming from Seoul to clean up a corpse. Everyone, let’s give him a thorough soaking!”

A brawl broke out.

Jeha, using the crowbar as a weapon, struck the men’s arms and legs and kicked them squarely in the solar plexus with his dress shoes, knocking them down. The gangsters, who had heard that their target was a university professor and thought he would be a piece of cake, were struggling despite fighting four against one.

He thought that Chief Jeong would surely mobilize the fastest available support service in this area, so he just had to hold out for a while. As long as he could keep Jin safe, he didn’t mind getting a little hurt himself.

Just a little, a little longer…….

“Aaaah!”

At Jin’s scream, Jeha hastily turned around. Someone was gripping Jin’s nape and holding a sharp, silver knife to him.

“You parasite bastard, get away from Jin right now!”

As Jeha spoke with a murderous voice, the man with the knife smiled coldly.

“You’re more careless than I thought. Unless a ghost was driving, it’s obvious that someone would be in the car that was following, isn’t it?”

“I told you to get away!”

“I won’t be going far. Farewell.”

Something blunt struck the back of his head, and Jeha’s body collapsed in an instant.

The last thing he saw was the image of Jin, his face a mess of tears, being dragged away by Cheon Sagang while still screaming Jeha’s name.

“Young Master! Can you see me? Are you alright?”

Even before his vision fully focused, Chief Jeong’s urgent voice pierced Jeha’s ears. At the same time, an excruciating pain, as if all the bones in his body had been shattered, washed over him all at once.

“Ugh, euk……”

“Oh no, are you in a lot of pain?”

As Jeha’s face contorted in pain, Chief Jeong quickly pressed a button. A nurse came in immediately, adjusted the lever on the IV drip to administer more painkillers, and left.

As the pain gradually subsided, Jeha finally let out a long sigh. Chief Jeong asked with a worried expression.

“Young Master, do you recognize me? If it’s still difficult to speak, you can just blink your eyes. Once for yes, twice for no, three times if you don’t know……”

“That’s enough, please give me some water.”

“Yes, yes!”

Chief Jeong gently lifted Jeha’s head and slowly tilted the cup to give him water. As the effect of the painkiller spread through his body and his parched throat was moistened, the pain eased considerably, and Jeha spoke in a raspy voice.

“My head is fine. What happened?”

“It is a great relief that you have no problems with your memory, but.”

Chief Jeong’s story, which he explained calmly with a dark expression, was as follows.

Upon receiving the emergency rescue call, Chief Jeong requested cooperation from an external security company that could dispatch the fastest to Jeha’s location and immediately headed to Y City with Security Team S.

When the support security team arrived at the scene, the gangsters abandoned Jeha and fled. Jeha had sustained serious injuries from the group beating he had endured until then.

Chief Jeong immediately transported Jeha to the K University affiliated hospital. Unfortunately, Jeha had to stay in the intensive care unit for two days after surgery due to intra-abdominal bleeding.

The silver lining in this misfortune was that Jeha’s recovery speed was more than twice as fast as an ordinary person’s. He had always had a healthy and strong body, and he showed a recovery ability that was hard to find a precedent for, surprising even the medical staff.

In the meantime, Chief Jeong tracked Jin’s location using the app linked to the chip embedded in his necklace. The location that appeared was the address of Cheon Sagang’s Angel Cash Loan office.

While Chief Jeong was taking care of Jeha, Chief Choi of Team S reported Jeha’s assault and Jin’s kidnapping to the police and raided the building where Angel Cash Loan was located with his team members. However, he had already moved his office, and the inside of the building was completely empty, without a single piece of furniture.

In a small, secluded room in the back of the space that had been used as the CEO’s office, Chief Choi found the chain of Jin’s necklace, broken in the middle. He could not find the N-shaped pendant, and the location tracking function was no longer working.

“So, you still haven’t found Jin.”

At Jeha’s question, Chief Jeong placed the necklace chain on Jeha’s palm with a devastated expression.

“Regrettably, that is the case.”

Jeha clenched the necklace chain tightly in his fist and closed his eyes. A searing pain, different from the pain of the assault, rose from the depths of his chest, and he felt suffocated and constricted, as if someone were strangling him.

There had been no suspicious movements around them recently. That’s why he never thought they would be followed when they went to Gu Minho’s. He had also been overconfident, thinking that the Sangbong-i Faction had been dismantled by Chief Choi’s actions and that the rumor had spread so quickly that no organization would join hands with Cheon Sagang.

Is Jin okay? Is he being subjected to terrible things by Cheon Sagang? He won’t be able to take the medicine he needs to take every day, will his body be able to hold up? At this rate, isn’t this no different from the time when he had lost Tsubame to the Japanese police and couldn’t take any action?

Jeha felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead from anxiety. Just then, the last conversation he had with Gu Minho suddenly came to his mind, and Jeha’s eyes shot open as he asked Chief Jeong.

“How many days have passed since that day?”

“Today is the fourth day.”

“Then is today December 30th?”

“That is correct.”

To meet the spirit called ‘Geogugoe’ that Gu Minho had mentioned, he had to go to Y City tomorrow. If he missed this opportunity, he might never be able to obtain information about his and Jin’s past lives.

“Chief Jeong. There is a place I must go to tomorrow night.”

At Jeha’s words, Chief Jeong looked horrified.

“Tomorrow night? Are you in your right mind? Young Master, you are in a state where you can barely lift a finger, where do you think you’re going?”

“It’s because there is something truly important.”

“Forget me, the medical staff will never allow it. It’s already so difficult to keep the main house from noticing, and now you’re trying to cause more trouble here. It’s absurd.”

“If tomorrow passes, I might truly lose Jin forever. Yoonsoo hyung, I’m begging you. Please help me.”

At Jeha’s desperate words, Chief Jeong rubbed the back of his neck and let out a long sigh. He spoke, as if complaining, with a rare frown on his forehead.

“Frankly, ever since Mr. Jin appeared, you’ve become a bit strange, Young Master. It felt like you had a screw loose. But it wasn’t a cold and lonely feeling like before, and you seemed quite happy, so I thought that was okay.”

“……”

“As time goes on, Mr. Jin seems more and more precarious and unstable, while you act as if Mr. Jin is the only reason for your life, and now you’ve even been assaulted by dirty people like gangsters, so I’m not feeling very good about this. I’m not looking at Mr. Jin favorably.”

“I fully understand your concern for me. But Jin is just a victim and has done nothing wrong.”

“I don’t know what it’s about, but if you must go, please send me in your place.”

“I can’t. It’s something I must go to, and it must be tomorrow. If I miss that time, I might regret it for the rest of my life. You are the only person I can ask, hyung. Not my parents, not my biological brothers, but you, Yoonsoo hyung, are the only person I can rely on and open my heart to right now.”

Jeong Yoonsoo looked at Jeha, who was speaking as if making an earnest confession from his hospital bed, with a complex heart.

Kwon Jeha was the youngest of five siblings born into a wealthy family, a position where he could have thrown all sorts of tantrums, but he was a peculiar child, armed with a heavy rationality and cold-heartedness as if he had been an adult from birth.

That was why, on the very rare occasions when he felt Jeha relying on him, it was so endearing. Having received such a heartfelt request from the master he had served with affection for 15 years, as if raising him, he would have wanted to grant it even if the content had been a contract for murder.

“This is really the last time. And I have conditions.”

At Chief Jeong’s characteristic way of setting conditions, Jeha smiled faintly and replied.

“Please speak.”

“First, wherever you go, you must go with me. And the security team as well, of course.”

“And?”

“Second, if I judge that the place you are going to is a danger to your personal safety, we will turn back immediately.”

“Understood. Is there anything else?”

“There is not. By the way, I doubt you’ll recover enough to be mobile by tomorrow night. I’ll make some arrangements, but leaving in a wheelchair will inevitably attract attention.”

At Chief Jeong’s words, Jeha showed a profound smile like an actor playing a patient.

“I guarantee I will recover enough to walk perfectly fine within 24 hours from now. We can even make a bet on it.”

The next evening, after Jeha had eaten his dinner and even brushed his teeth by himself, two security team agents entered the VIP hospital room where Jeha was staying. One of them was almost as tall and well-built as Jeha.

Jeha and the well-built bodyguard exchanged clothes. Chief Jeong wrapped a bandage around the forehead of the bodyguard who had changed into a patient’s gown, and fixed an empty IV tube with the needle removed to the back of his hand with opaque medical tape.

“From now on, this friend will lie in bed and be your double, Young Master. I have requested the staff outside not to enter the room as much as possible at night, saying that you wish to rest comfortably without being disturbed. I told them we would call from our side if a problem arises.”

“Thank you.”

“We can’t fool them for too long, so you must be back by tomorrow morning.”

At Chief Jeong’s words, Jeha recalled what Gu Minho had said about no one knowing what speed time would flow at inside Geogugoe’s mouth, and replied.

“I’ll try my best.”

Jeha, wearing the bodyguard’s suit and sunglasses, left the hospital room with Chief Jeong. Chief Jeong marveled inwardly as he saw Jeha walking perfectly fine, just as he had promised.

They took the direct elevator for the VIP ward down to the underground parking garage. As Chief Jeong started the car with Jeha in the back seat, a black car belonging to Team S quietly followed behind.

“Is the destination Mt. Angae in Y City?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask why you are going there?”

The mountain that Gu Minho had made his residence for nearly a thousand years was called Mt. Angae since ancient times because it was particularly foggy regardless of the outside weather, and that became its official name even after entering the modern era. That fog was something Gu Minho intentionally created and used to conceal his residence from ordinary people.

Even so, he couldn’t take Chief Jeong and the bodyguards all the way into Gu Minho’s residence, so Jeha mixed in half-truths and spoke plausibly.

“The place we are going to now is the home of an acquaintance I have known for a long time.”

“A long time? You’ve only been in Korea for a year, Young Master.”

“We’ve known each other since I was in England.”

“Is that so? I knew you visited Y City once every few months, but I didn’t know it was that kind of connection. But did this acquaintance ask to meet on the mountain?”

“Yes. Actually, my friend, well, he does something similar to a shaman, so he lives on a mountain.”

“A shaman, you say.”

“Yes.”

“There are people who do occult work in England as well, but it’s hard to match that with you, Young Master. I am quite curious about what your point of contact with that acquaintance could have been.”

“We became close by chance. But you also know that besides being sick, Jin has some unusual aspects, Chief Jeong. Like his faint presence, or how people can’t remember his face.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I am going to find out if that can be resolved.”

“But why does it have to be today? And what did you mean when you said you might lose Mr. Jin forever if you don’t go today? Can that person find out where Mr. Jin was taken with his spiritual powers or something?”