In a desolate clearing filled with skeletal trees, a black sedan was parked. The driver inside was Se-heon. Dressed in a subdued three-piece suit, he loosened the tie constricting his neck slightly. The high-quality tie with a bluish sheen had slipped slightly out of place inside his vest.
He had explained to Yoon-shin that commute time was the only personal time he could utilize, which was why he didn't use a driver, but that was merely the surface reason. In reality, he met with his private investigators during these spare moments. His refusal to drive anything other than a black sedan—certainly never flashy-colored supercars—was an extension of the same principle. He had to avoid standing out.
Tap, tap.
Long fingers drummed against the hard steering wheel as if keeping rhythm. A few seconds later, a similar black sedan appeared from behind. The approaching vehicle slowly drew up and paused beside Se-heon's. Buzz—Se-heon lowered his window and glanced to his left. The passenger window of the other car also rolled down, and someone greeted him. Then, the person extended a flat envelope.
"Good morning, Lawyer."
Se-heon accepted it without returning the greeting and asked pointedly, "How far does it go?"
"First, it includes the recent movements of Soohan Holdings Representative Yoo Jeong-won and Soohan Gallery Director Do Yi-kyung. Inside are brief profiles of the people they met during those movements. I've excluded records that might cause trouble if touched—financial trends, for instance. If you need more detailed data... to be honest, the financial side isn't easy to breach."
Se-heon cut off the other man's evasive answer and snapped, "Is it time for me to change investigators?"
The other man immediately waved his hand. "I didn't say I can't, I said it's not easy. We could investigate further, but as you know, a major corporation like Soohan Group costs a lot to crack. We'd need to recruit a skilled hacker too. Shall we dig deeper?"
"I'll look through this first and contact you if I need more. Anyway, good work."
Se-heon gestured for him to go, and the man bowed politely. They both rolled up their windows at the same time. The car carrying the investigator disappeared first, and the remaining Se-heon took out the memory card from the document envelope. He then connected it to a burner phone stored in the glove box and skimmed through the files.
Mi-hee's words had been weighing on his mind too much to stay still. She had mentioned the rumors of discord between the Soohan Group's second son and his wife as if it were nothing significant, something entirely possible, then moved on—but Se-heon could not. It was hard to dismiss as a minor matter when Yoon-shin's recent behavior had been so suspicious.
Based on the obtained information, the atmosphere surrounding Yoon-shin's older sister was clearly far from ordinary.
In particular, the actions of the chief secretary, whom Professor Do had recommended and whom she'd taken with her when she married, were highly suspicious. The woman had been meeting secretly and very covertly with reputable lawyers who had private ties to the late Professor Do. Since chaebol families practically kept in-house counsel as permanent fixtures, consulting lawyers wasn't unusual in itself, but seen alongside other circumstances, the picture changed.
"Soohan has a separate medical center at the main estate, yet she visited a hospital in secret. Multiple times, at that."
With a perfectly functional medical center inside the family compound and a large hospital operated by the group, Director Do Yi-kyung's decision to seek out a private clinic where she knew the doctor from before was strange no matter who looked at it.
The suspicion didn't end there. Recently, she had refrained from entering the gallery where she worked and increased time with her children; moreover, half a year ago, she had brought her younger brother into Doguk. Since Se-heon had heard directly from Yoon-shin, the person in question, that this was what she had wanted, there had to be some reason behind it.
'An unwanted pregnancy? Or a medical certificate for assault?'
Or perhaps something else entirely.
When he finally opened the illegally obtained medical records, his eyes narrowed. As he flipped through the pages with grave focus, his expression shifted from doubt to certainty. There was definitely a problem between the couple. And it was likely a far more serious situation than Mi-hee suspected.
'This side is definitely cheating.'
Staring intently at a photo capturing Yoon-shin's brother-in-law, Representative Yoo, emerging from a luxury villa with another woman, Se-heon tilted his head.
'He must have first proposed a consensual divorce before it escalated to assault.'
If one assumed the husband had suggested divorce, the subsequent flow of events connected naturally. Instead of consulting with Soohan's lawyers, the wife sought separate representation. She even visited hospitals multiple times to obtain diagnosis certificates proving her state of health. Unlike the husband who had neglected the household, she increased time with her children to solidify her will and capability to raise them, and began putting her affairs in order.
This was a declaration that she intended to shake the board to its limit, not hesitating to go to court.
Soohan Group had recently entered its actual succession process. The eldest and second sons were locked in a power struggle. Even a quiet divorce would send massive shockwaves inside and outside the enterprise; if she flipped the table like this, Representative Yoo's position would likely deteriorate going forward.
They wouldn't sit idly by. They would inevitably retaliate against Director Do. In that process, they would look for a scapegoat to sacrifice, and someone would get hurt. And nine times out of ten, it would be the side that picked the fight. No wonder Yoon-shin's expression had been dark these days.
Piecing together the various circumstances, the rough answer emerged. Yoon-shin's older sister had sent her younger brother to Doguk as a refuge before fighting her husband in earnest. It seemed he himself had been chosen as the shield.
"One wrong move and Doguk becomes the laughingstock too."
Muttering under his breath, he tapped the screen with his fingertip and opened his eyes narrowly.
When he pictured the situation of a firm entangled in a chaebol couple's marital problems, no very positive conclusion came to mind.
Soohan Group's legal mandates were one of Doguk's main sources of revenue. While he himself took on cases quite aggressively across the board, many other partner lawyers, including Lawyer Song, had deep ties with the corporation. In other words, it was an opponent they absolutely could not afford to make an enemy of. Hadn't Mi-hee accepted Yoon-shin precisely for that reason from the start?
Therefore, if in the worst-case scenario he took a stance to protect Director Do rather than Soohan, all those connections could be severed. Moreover, in this industry where trust was more important than life itself, it could not be ignored that he might be seen as backstabbing a long-standing client. If that happened, other corporations would gradually reduce their business too. It was a two-hundred-percent losing proposition any way you totaled it.
Recalling the conversation he had once had with Yoon-shin, his expression gradually grew cold.
_I thought I was the one who found you, but was it you who chose me?_
It was because he had thought Do Yoon-shin might be different from all the human beings he had ever encountered. Those straight, transparent gazes, moment to moment, had made him uncomfortable—a man who had lived without guilt—and so he couldn't look away. Yet perhaps Yoon-shin, too, was just fundamentally honest and upright, only slightly different, and ultimately the same as other people.
In the end, what the other person had truly wanted might not have been him, but the umbrella he could provide. It wasn't that he had approached because he liked him first; rather, he had grown to like him because he had been chosen as a useful piece. That interpretation held water. Because Do Yoon-shin was a primate, sincere to the bone.
It was as if a part that had long nagged at his intuitions had been abruptly confirmed, and he was greatly displeased.
Thwack!
He struck the steering wheel violently and caught his breath unevenly. Se-heon's pupils sank very deep as he watched the skeletal trees filling both sides around him.
'So in the end, you want to use me like everyone else too.'
The sharp corners of his eyes glinted with nervous intensity, as though he would pounce at the slightest brush of a hair tip.
* * *
After finishing a free legal consultation and returning to the main building, Yoon-shin's pocket vibrated loudly. He got on the elevator and checked the message. It was from the client of the pro bono case he had taken at Mi-hee's request, asking to finalize the date to visit the child in the hospital. While he sent his reply, the machine dutifully climbed in altitude and let him off at the office floor.
Ding.
The moment the double doors opened, he checked the current time. He remembered an order Se-heon had given him once. Because Se-heon had asked him not to be away from his seat for long due to pro bono work, lest he come looking for him personally, Yoon-shin had been splitting and managing his time as efficiently as possible since then. Today, too, he was fortunately in the safe zone.
"Is the project meeting still going on?"
He walked down the office floor corridor and glanced toward the main conference room. Judging by the reflections in the window, the meeting itself seemed to be nearly at its closing stage.
However, Se-heon, seated at the head of the table and staring seriously at his tablet PC screen, looked deeply displeased about something. He wore his usual expressionless mask, but to Yoon-shin, who observed him every day, the difference was visible. If it had been work-related, Se-heon's personality was such that he would have already torn the meeting apart or, at the very least, stormed out of his seat. The fact that he was letting it continue meant it was some other external issue.
'He doesn't look good. What's wrong?'
Stopping in his tracks, Yoon-shin looked around. He wanted to watch him a little longer in secret, but he knew heading toward his own room would forcibly block his line of sight, so his steps grew sluggish. As he awkwardly looked around, the break room at the back caught his eye. That would do.
Yoon-shin entered and quickly brewed a cup of capsule coffee. He was about to drink it black as usual when his eyes fell on the sugar cubes and he picked one up. He couldn't deny it was because of someone who had said he liked the taste of sweetness in his mouth.
He tore open the wrapper, dropped it into the warm liquid, and stirred it round and round while observing Se-heon from afar. No, he had been about to leisurely analyze his expression when, as if by a trick of fate, the meeting ended and Se-heon came out. Se-heon stood in the hallway for a moment with the other partner lawyers, conversing with a grave expression. Beside him, senior associates were busy reporting on something.
With a height that towered over others, Se-heon stood squarely in his field of vision. The high-quality suit he always wore so impeccably suited him perfectly. It matched his neat features and cold, incisive gaze. If he drew close, Yoon-shin was sure a pleasant scent would waft from him.
As if he had never shown any sign of discomfort, he was leading the atmosphere with a seasoned demeanor.
'Was I mistaken? I thought he was in a bad mood... but he looks fine again.'
He didn't know if he had been imagining things or if Kang Se-heon's overflowing professionalism was the cause. If it was the former, it meant nothing unpleasant had happened to him today—a relief, in that case.
Honestly, when he had first probed at him, he had harbored a rather shallow intention of seeing if he could get help with his sister's problem. He had seen no path in any direction. But thinking it over, Se-heon's reaction if he had made such a request was easier to picture than expected.
He knew Se-heon felt favorable toward him, but that was likely because he didn't yet properly understand his circumstances. From what Yoon-shin had observed, Se-heon was absolutely not someone who let personal feelings override his career. He might let go of Yoon-shin's hand without hesitation. But now, Yoon-shin didn't want that. He wanted to know more concretely what kind of man he was.
To do that, it had been right to hide the misfortune his sister was in. He was glad he had kept her advice and not confided in Se-heon.
'If I were Kang Se-heon, how would I solve my sister's situation? The press, of course.'
However, the press was a double-edged sword. If wielded well, it would certainly be of great help. But one had to consider the identities of the majority of powerful media outlets, closely colluding with the business world. He could deliver only the facts, but they probably wouldn't report it that way.
To strike back, even minimally, he needed a major law firm with the standing to wield the press as a tool, or a lawyer to take the case—yet he did not have such standing himself.
'Doguk definitely won't step in. Just look at how much work Soohan gives them.'
There was nothing like Kang Se-heon, who always kept his center, to calm a troubled heart. Yoon-shin kept his gaze fixed outside. Then, despite the considerable distance, perhaps feeling his eyes, Se-heon turned this way. He seemed to say something to the other partners, then soon came thudding toward the break room.
Flustered, Yoon-shin looked for a place to hide. But there was no such thing here.
"What the. Why is he suddenly coming here?"
At a loss, he was holding his cup and looking around in confusion when the door burst open. Soon, Se-heon stood in the doorway and flicked his hand lightly as if telling him to come out. Panicked that he had been caught peeking, a bewildered Yoon-shin pointed at himself and asked blankly,
"M-me?"
"Is there anyone else here?"
"I just came in to get coffee."
"Given the particular nature of this space, of course you did. Who's saying otherwise?"
Se-heon furrowed his brow and looked at him as if asking why he was speaking so out of nowhere, so Yoon-shin swallowed dryly. Then, when Yoon-shin folded his eyes and smiled awkwardly, Se-heon gestured again and turned away. It was clear he was heading to his private office, so Yoon-shin hurriedly straightened his clothes and chased after him, mug in hand.
The man walking heavily ahead arrived in front of the office. A staff member from the secretarial team opened the door. Se-heon entered first, and Yoon-shin, giving the secretary a nod, carefully followed.
The very moment the door closed from outside, Se-heon locked it and yanked down the window blinds with a sharp tug. Yoon-shin, standing awkwardly near the door, could only waver in confusion.
"Why are you... locking the door?"
"Why were you staring? Answer first and I'll tell you."
"I told you, I went to get coffee."
"Then drink your coffee and leave. Why were you lurking and watching me like a creep?"
From the start, he had known he was dancing on the palm of Se-heon's hand. Rather than hiding it and making things uncomfortable later, Yoon-shin chose to lay his heart bare.
"You looked like you were in a bad mood. I was worried. Did something happen?"
At the question, Se-heon's expression shifted strangely, like the taste of cinnamon candy. Just by looking at his face, it was hard to tell whether Yoon-shin was right or not.
He had been silent, and for a moment seemed to fix Yoon-shin with an unintelligible gaze, but then he approached without hesitation. He pushed Yoon-shin's slender body toward the table and stretched both arms forward as if caging him completely in his embrace. Thud—he braced his hands on the table and pressed his upper body against Yoon-shin's, forcing Yoon-shin's body to incline diagonally, and his throat bobbed.
The atmosphere had grown ambiguous, and there was a general area he could imagine, but the possibility that it was simply a misunderstanding—like the one he had in Se-heon's car that day—made him cautious.
"If you need anything, Secretary Tak..."
"What I need is already right here."
"This is the office."
"You don't like it?"
"My answer depends on what you're going to do."
"Even if you say no, I'll do what I want."
It was an answer quite difficult to interpret literally. However, thanks to the precariously heated atmosphere, the meaning between the lines was read quite clearly. The hesitant Yoon-shin took a calm deep breath and finally answered honestly.
"...I like it."
Yoon-shin pressed his lips into a straight line to suppress his shame and looked up quietly at Se-heon, who stood before him as if occupying the space. There was something quite threatening about his overwhelming gaze and his slim yet solid build. When he exposed his fluttering eyelashes without hiding them, letting them show plainly, Se-heon tilted his face closer.
Peck, peck.
Having placed fair kisses on both eyes, he focused on Yoon-shin's face as if observing his features. Naturally, a flush rose on Yoon-shin's pale cheeks.
"Um, but I'm holding something hot right now. Please let me put this down first."
"Hold it steadily."
Despite the polite request, Se-heon showed no signs of obliging. Instead, he controlled the overall movement of his upper body to prevent Yoon-shin from moving his arms, and pushed their bodies even closer.
When their lower halves suddenly pressed together in a situation where only their upper bodies had been touching, Yoon-shin's face grew even redder. Their genitals made contact beneath their suit trousers. The size and weight, seemingly difficult to handle, were felt in full.
Huk—Yoon-shin swallowed his breath and his arm trembled. He nearly dropped the cup and barely gripped it with force. Because of that, strength entered other parts of his body too, and the places where he touched Se-heon grew stiff.
"Hah, w-wait a moment."
Whether Se-heon had decided to drive the situation in exactly the opposite direction of what the other wanted, he let Yoon-shin's barely uttered words go in one ear and out the other. Then he raised the hand that had been braced on the table and reached out boldly over Yoon-shin's shirt. The gaze with which he hooked his fingers into the knot of the tie and skillfully loosened it, just like that time, was more serious than ever. A face-burning heat lingered in it too.
Rustle.
Removing the striped tie, he began unbuttoning Yoon-shin's shirt from the top down, one by one. Their lower bodies remained tightly pressed together.
Though he wasn't touching skin directly, the situatio