Vol 7 Ch 7

Jade Miller, Taeha’s classmate from boarding school and childhood friend, was furious. For some reason, CEO Kwon had handed over Mega Float to Aeil Kwon. Without even a single word of consultation.

When he first heard that Hawon had fled, Jade felt a wave of relief, but Taeha immediately sent men after him, issuing alerts across Macau, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Of course, Jade only pretended to search diligently. He knew well the importance of WikiLeaks. Yet if Hawon vanished along with it, that too would be a good outcome.

“Mr. Joo Hawon’s movements have been detected in Korea.”

“You found him quickly.”

His cold reply suggested he already knew of Jade’s stalling. From the moment he had exchanged Mega Float with Aeil Kwon, Taeha’s fierce aura had unsettled everyone around him.

“What should we do once he’s found?”

Jade hinted at the penalty fee. Or perhaps he was waiting for an order to eliminate him.

“Leave him.”

“Sir?”

When Jade Miller overreacted, Taeha frowned.

“Even if you find him, don’t report for a while.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean I might kill him.”

That cannot be, can it? Taeha gazed down at Macau’s night view.

“Miller.”

“Yes.”

“Of all people, he ran to Aeil. Isn’t that clever?”

Hawon had not disappeared without a trace. With guards keeping watch over him, he had used Aeil to slip out of Macau. Reflected in the office window, the arrogant master of the castle wore a colder face than ever.

“Since he broke the contract, we’ll deal with him the moment we find him.”

“How?”

“We need to recover the penalty fee.”

Miller answered as if asking if Taeha really did not know.

“Do you think it’s an amount Hawon can handle?”

“No, but still…”

Turning his back, Taeha held his phone loosely.

“Yet if Aeil hasn’t gone to full-scale war, it must mean Hawon hasn’t handed over WikiLeaks.”

“Instead, he sent this trash.”

The phone shattered in his hand. It was not the first time.

“Even if our dealer himself comes to beg, I doubt I’ll forgive.”

Jade Miller was shaken. CEO Kwon, of all people, was being swayed by a mere man named Joo Hawon. Even blaming it on the kidnapper Joo Sangkyung did not make sense. If anything, after that incident, Taeha had returned even colder, transformed into the finest poker player at the table.

He might resent Hawon for betraying him and running, but this felt like José killing the runaway Carmen. Of course, the difference was that Taeha’s fury was not fiery but icy. Jade Miller did not know what message Aeil had sent. He only guessed that it had something to do with exchanging Mega Float.

“I’ll find him as quickly as possible.”

Even though Taeha had said not to report for a while, Miller was sure he could not have meant it. Only by dragging Hawon back and forcing him to kneel would this daily tension of walking on thin ice ease.

Jade Miller did not want to find Hawon. But he had no choice.

When he learned Hawon was privately leaking WikiLeaks, hacktivists approached him. Their base was Tangbang’s Jianghu Inn. Tangbang, involved in drug distribution routes, commanded a team of professional hackers, and on the surface offered Hawon help. Taeha left Tangbang untouched for one reason. If he interfered clumsily, Hawon’s wariness would only sharpen and he would disappear deeper into hiding.

If the hacktivists discovered Hawon’s location, Taeha’s hacker team could track it too. But since Hawon kept moving from place to place, sending emails within two to three minutes before vanishing, finding him was difficult.

Each time he sent mail, the region changed, sometimes even using proxy servers. Even with proxy servers, his connection could be detected quickly, but his movement across Korea was random. Sometimes he scheduled emails in advance, and the addresses he created under homeless men’s names changed constantly.

It meant he had resolved to keep running. And that was what stabbed Taeha the sharpest.

The biggest reason Joo Hawon had run away was, absurdly enough, because of a video of himself from more than ten years ago. That made him an unbelievably selfish bastard. On top of betraying him with WikiLeaks, he even went and screwed Aeil.

“Listen well, Vice CEO. To me, you and Kwon Taeha are all the same. Bastards who can’t wait to shove it into another man’s hole. Greedy bastards who, not satisfied with having everything, try to suck the marrow out of people like me.”

The Joo Hawon in the video had spewed it out with ease.

The extension phone in the CEO’s office began to ring. Jade Miller approached to answer in his stead, but he raised his hand to stop him. With a heavy gaze, Kwon Taeha checked the number and pressed the extension button.

“What is it.”

[Where’s Mr. Hawon?]

“Not yet.”

Kwon Taeha ended the speakerphone call and picked up the receiver himself.

[I haven’t heard from him either, but do you really think he’d come to me?]

Kwon Jaehee, who was in Korea, replied awkwardly.

“If he’s cornered, he might.”

[Wasn’t your relationship tied by contract anyway? Then why would Hawon run?]

“He must not have wanted to hand it over.”

[I don’t know. Everyone around you reacts too sharply because they’re like that, but Mr. Hawon isn’t really that type, is he? He must have had a reason.]

“Whatever the case, the contract was for him to hand over WikiLeaks to me.”

[And if WikiLeaks really doesn’t exist?]

“There’s no such thing as ‘if’.”

He had never believed Hawon’s words about there being no WikiLeaks from the beginning, but that did not mean he intended to let him go. If it truly didn’t exist, then he had to be compensated for what he had paid.

[Let me ask it differently. Did you two sleep together?]

“…….”

[Kwon Taeha… Taeha.]

A sigh filled the line.

[I told you it was strange. I said your relationship seemed odd. Even though he’s Joo Sangkyung’s son, you didn’t keep Wagner, your closest aide, beside him. And when Hawon fainted… you were the first to react. If it were only about sex, you wouldn’t have done that.]

“What are you trying to say.”

[You two can’t. You can never trust each other. You can only move by contract.]

“So when I told him to pay with his body instead, he ran away spectacularly.”

[……Do you think Mr. Hawon is someone who sells his body? He’s a victim too.]

“I know. The perpetrator is Joo Sangkyung… and the others.”

[Then why are you acting like this.]

“He had sex with Aeil.”

[What?]

“There’s even a video.”

[Ha… ha ha.]

Kwon Jaehee let out a hollow laugh with not a shred of sincerity. Taeha only thought that laugh was aimed as mockery at Hawon and Aeil.

[Is that really it? Just that? Like you said, what does it matter if the one you paid for slept with someone else?]

But in another sense, Kwon Jaehee’s words were the correct answer.

[So you’re not furious because he ran off with WikiLeaks, but because Mr. Hawon slept with another man. What a scale for a lovers’ quarrel, little brother.]

“I’m not in the mood for jokes. If WikiLeaks went to Aeil, you’d be in danger too.”

[Do you think I don’t know Aeil? If he had it, he would’ve used it right away. Seeing that WikiLeaks only exploded in Korea means Mr. Hawon somehow managed to escape well. It’s chaos here, absolute chaos. And besides, you’re more than capable of handling it.]

“Enough.”

[Haa… fine, I get it. I doubt he’ll come to me, but if by chance he does, I’ll contact you. And before you hang up.]

Knowing that Taeha was about to cut the line, Kwon Jaehee stopped him in advance.

[If you find Mr. Hawon, in your current state, you mustn’t just meet him. You know that, right?]

“…….”

[Max. You remember too, don’t you?]

Out of nowhere, Kwon Jaehee brought up their grandfather’s pet.

[Think about it. Grandfather killed Aeil’s Max. He had passed the dog on to Aeil because he pitied him for always being so timid. And yet, he killed it. Grandfather loved Max more than anyone. He regretted it for days and nights, crying. But I think I know why he did it.]

“It was dementia.”

Taeha didn’t even need to think twice.

[No. I remember. Not long after he passed Max on, the dog grew more attached to Aeil than to Grandfather. I’ll never forget the look in Grandfather’s eyes then. And… I’m certain you’ll be the same now.]

Taeha slammed the receiver down roughly. No matter if it was Kwon Jaehee, he couldn’t tolerate such nonsense. He immediately left the CEO’s office and ordered for someone he could toy with without trouble to be prepared.

Jade Miller arranged for several actresses to wait in the VIP suite and hoped that CEO Kwon would keep things to one-night encounters like before. Until meeting Joo Hawon, he had never let sex interfere with business. Perhaps if he melted into full breasts and a soft body, Taeha would return to how he once was. No matter how handsome or well-built Hawon was, he was still a man.

But no matter how long he waited, CEO Kwon never came. Jade Miller only received reports that he was gambling at another resort casino. For once, the word was that he was even squandering his chips. That night, Kwon Taeha did not return to Füssen.

The day Hawon was found was when such a daily routine had grown tedious.

***

“I found him.”

A neat voice, precise in its enunciation, was heard.

Wearing STA Füssen’s dealer uniform, Joo Hawon placed the fallen $5,000 chip back on the casino table. The timing was impeccable. Kwon Taeha set aside the uninvited memories that had risen unintentionally.

Perhaps from bending down to pick up the chip under the table, Hawon’s face was slightly flushed. The game had ended with the river card revealed. Taeha stared indifferently at Hawon. Hawon did not avoid his gaze and met it head-on.

“Dealer Joo.”

“Yes, CEO.”

“Do you know why I come here every week?”

To Hawon, who answered politely, Taeha threw a light jab.

“You must be quite idle.”

“You’re popular, aren’t you? I hear reservations are full every weekend.”

“They must be idle too.”

“Are you bragging because you passed CAP?”

“My German is still at a three-year-old’s level, though.”

He had passed the qualification exam, and likewise, he had passed the CAP test he had prepared for. Of course, the tutor had never changed. But his connection with Baek Jinsang ended there.

“Your waist.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Loosen your vest at the waist.”

“……It’s fixed like this from the start.”

The dealer uniform at STA, designed by the head designer of a luxury brand with great care, boasted a slim line for both men and women. The downside was that one had to maintain the figure they had when it was first tailored. If one gained or lost weight suddenly, it had to be altered again.

“CEO.”

Hawon leaned toward Taeha.

“You really look like a rascal right now.”

Haa— Kwon Taeha let out an incredulous laugh.

“Do I look like some bum trying to hit on a dealer?”

“A little.”

“That’s harsh. Is that what you say to a CEO who just finished a storm of schedules?”

“Then perhaps you should wait in the room instead.”

“Hm.”

With a low voice, Taeha hesitated briefly, then pushed the chips toward Joo Hawon.

“One hour. Wrap up and come to Heilbronn.”

“Understood.”

There were still three hours left until work was finished, but an employee could only obey the orders of a CEO pretending to be idle.

As he left the VIP room, bodyguards went ahead of him. The black chip worth 5,000 USD he had been rolling in his hand was dropped into the transparent STA charity box. Around one hundred million won’s worth of donations were collected daily from the VIP room alone. Some donated when they were in good spirits, and others believed that contributing would bring them luck, tossing in chips or money from the very beginning. Taeha throwing in the black chip was also a way to stir up that crowd mentality.

Money tended to pile up more easily in a charity box that wasn’t empty. If there was already a stack of black chips inside, superstitious Hong Kongers or Chinese would cheerfully toss theirs in as well.

Taeha had pushed all of his chips to Hawon, which meant he wanted them dropped into the donation box. From the entertainment industry of a casino, more than two billion won was donated every month to charities. That, in its own way, was ironic.

Once or twice a week, Hawon was assigned to a table as a dealer at STA Füssen. At present, he was studying German while working as a dealer, but Taeha still disapproved. He probably had no idea of the real reason Hawon insisted on doing this job.

He had even gone so far as to make bets with Taeha, saying he wanted to add some tension to his relatively comfortable life, but the truth was slightly different.

As CEO of STA Füssen, Taeha visited Macau about once a week. Hawon had thought it was better to match himself to Taeha’s schedule in Macau rather than expect Taeha to carve out time to visit Korea.

Hawon’s dealer shifts were every weekend, and Taeha’s Macau trips were also set for weekends. Thanks to that, the two were able to spend a kind of honeymoon together. Hawon had even toyed with the idea of closing down his house in Korea and moving into Germany. But Taeha wanted him to live in his homeland for as long as he wished.

“Time to start wrapping up.”

At that, Hawon thought of both tidying up his Korean home and finishing up his table duties. Once he moved to Germany, he would no longer be able to travel to Macau as freely. The dealer job in Füssen would also come to an end.

He did not actually believe Taeha would give him a secretary’s position. That meant he would have to take on menial tasks at STA headquarters in Germany. But he wasn’t afraid of immigration. He was no longer the child who cried because he didn’t want to leave Korea. Life was the same wherever people lived.

His move to Germany, put another way, meant that he was choosing to live with Taeha. He no longer thought that someday Taeha would grow tired of him and leave. If that time ever came, he wouldn’t simply sit still either.

Hawon slipped the detached name tag into his vest pocket. Taking the chips Taeha had given him, he poured them into the charity box on his way out.

The clattering sound of the falling chips was lively.