L*st and Death

$20,000,000?

Are you insane???

What the hell is this money?

Uncle, have you lost it? Did something bad happen?

Call me immediately!

Please contact me. I’m seriously desperate!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to pay tuition—can I just use enough to cover that?

I’ll use it now and pay you back ㅠㅠ

Uncle, please answer, I’m really in a bind ㅠㅠ

4:20 a.m. The world beyond the window was still, peacefully asleep. The cold pre-dawn air seeped into the room, carrying a brisk freshness. In that early-morning silence, Siron lay curled on the cozy bed, browsing the world through Baekgyeong’s phone.

Dozens of emails from Jiyeon had arrived since his last login. Siron read them one by one, meticulously, then closed his eyes with a long sigh. Baekgyeong had transferred nearly 25 billion won—about twenty million dollars—to Jiyeon’s bank account under Siron’s name, simply to express his affection.

Just depositing 250 million won would’ve been shocking enough—but 25 billion? Siron was tangled in a web of disbelief and overwhelming shock. And he didn’t know whether it was right to let Jiyeon quietly keep such a massive sum while pretending she didn’t notice.

The penalties Siron and his agency’s CEO were saddled with due to the Yoon Siron scandal totaled nearly 20 billion won. After negotiating the damages, each had taken on a 10 billion won debt. The agency, which had operated solely off its lead actor Yoon Siron, couldn’t possibly have had that kind of money.

“The Vile Group’s market cap was 67 billion dollars. Almost 90 trillion won.”

The staggering wealth was impossible to even conceptualize. And gradually, Siron’s thoughts leaned toward the idea that maybe Jiyeon could use the money.

Jiyeon! I bet you freaked out when you saw that huge deposit in your account, right?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

That money came from Baekgyeong-uncleㅎㅎ

Looks like he’s a totally changed man now after getting treated in the psych hospital ⚆_⚆;;

He deposited it so you can live your life and study without worrying about money......

After long deliberation, Siron began carefully writing the email—but his thoughts spun out again. The 90 trillion won wasn’t even Baekgyeong’s personal money, and even if it were, 25 billion still wasn’t a trivial sum. Staring at the screen, eyes wavering, Siron eventually deleted the entire draft.

“Haah... I’ll just ask Kyung about it first.”

But it was only just past five in the morning. Siron didn’t want to wake everyone in the house wandering around at this hour. He shut his eyes, hoping to fall back asleep—but the maze of possibilities surrounding Baekgyeong and the consequences of that money made peace impossible. Eventually, he threw off the covers and grabbed the phone again.

412127.

April 12th, 1:27 a.m.—his birthdate and exact birth time. He entered it into the phone’s passcode screen. The default home screen appeared. Without hesitation, Siron opened the contacts list. There were only two saved numbers on Baekgyeong’s phone: “Yoon Siron” and, oddly, “ddd.”

Baekgyeong had primarily been communicating with someone labeled ddd. Since there were no traces of conversations in any messaging app, it seemed they’d only spoken by phone. Siron checked each of the apps installed on the device.

They were all purely functional—browser, productivity tools, and required system apps. Nothing for entertainment or personal taste.

But two weather icons on the bottom of the home screen caught Siron’s eye. Each had a different design. Curious, Siron tapped one. It turned out to be a normal weather app. The other... was not.

At first, it displayed standard weather data—but once the screen was swiped, a completely different interface appeared: a dark, minimalist email client.

“Huh. He really went all out.”

As with phone calls, Baekgyeong’s email correspondence was only with one person. The sender’s email was siron412@13kls**.com**, and every message began with the same line:

“Diggie hyung, it’s Dan-yelㅋ”

“Daniel?”

The name wasn’t unfamiliar. There had been a fan with the same name who ran his fan site. Daniel had translated Siron’s films and dramas into English and provided subtitles for international fans, regularly uploading global reactions to his works and keeping the community alive.

Even when Siron had been engulfed in scandal, Daniel had kept the fan site running. But after Siron fled to the U.S. and disappeared, the site had gradually been abandoned and eventually went offline when the server expired.

“...No way. It can’t be.”

Still, Siron found himself increasingly convinced that this Daniel—the one running his fan site—and Baekgyeong’s mysterious assistant might be one and the same. The emails were filled with technical and intricate subjects: server test logs, security concerns, financial operations. It was already staggering that the two were in contact—but now it seemed they had been skillfully working behind the scenes to evade detection while orchestrating something big.

“What the hell are they up to?”

While browsing the older emails, Siron accidentally opened one he hadn’t checked yet—it had arrived just the night before.

Diggie hyung, it’s Danielㅋ

Hyung, your mom replied, so I’m forwarding it. I can’t make sense of it tbhㅎ

Also, please send me a picture of Siron hyung ㅜㅜ

If you don’t, I’m going on strike.

– From Park Daniel, who’s almost pissed off

Siron stared blankly at the screen. It was from Daniel—his long-time fan, now unmistakably Park Daniel.

“You were younger than me...”

Siron slowly scrolled down to read the rest. The message from Baekgyeong’s mother followed. After staring at it for a long time, Siron squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head toward the ceiling, as if he’d just been struck with a cast-iron frying pan.

“Jesus Christ... that’s brutal.”

He didn’t want to pity Baekgyeong. But the wave of sympathy that rose inside him was impossible to suppress.

“They’re applying for an IND to the FDA for human clinical trials? Are they... trying to officially declare the existence of alpha traits?”

Siron looked up the acronyms in the message, piecing together the meaning. Baekgyeong’s mother seemed to be preparing the legal pathway to launch a clinical trial via the FDA, which would formally designate alpha-trait humans as subjects of public research. And Baekgyeong would be at the very center of that plan.

But what shocked Siron the most was the cold, calculating tone in the way she spoke of her own son.

You’ll be a target for quite some time. But as always, I believe you won’t care about the cheers or curses of others. You were raised under the cold eyes of your parents and built a strong heart. I’ve always respected your unbreakable mind.

It read like a cruel confession: that she had never once loved her son. Siron felt the sudden urge to delete the email—but even if he did, Daniel still had the original. More importantly, Baekgyeong had to see it. If he was still asleep, Siron would wake him.

Just then, someone knocked at the door. The impatient jiggling of the locked doorknob made it obvious—it was Baekgyeong.

“What, were you waiting for me?”

As the door opened, Baekgyeong raised a sardonic eyebrow. His shameless tone made it clear he’d already forgotten his cold dismissal the night before. Siron hesitated, then silently handed over the phone.

“I borrowed it while you were stuck in the panic room. I needed to contact someone urgently.”

“So that’s why I couldn’t find it no matter how hard I looked.”

His eyebrow stayed raised, mocking as ever—but his eyes grew serious, as if he sensed something.

“...It’s password protected, though?”

Siron replied sheepishly.

“I didn’t think you were still childish enough to use my birthday.”

Baekgyeong gave him an amused smile, teasingly immature.

“Were you touched?”

“Yeah, touched my ass.”

Baekgyeong snorted and unlocked the phone to check for missed calls. There were none. A few notifications, but nothing important. Tilting his body slightly, he turned the screen away from Siron’s line of sight.

Siron hesitated, unsure whether to admit he had read the email—but decided it was better to be honest first.

“You got an email. You should check it. Right now.”

“...Why do you sound nervous? Did you read it?”

Baekgyeong’s gaze turned intense, like an interrogation.

“Yes! It’s serious. Just read it already.”

Prodded by Siron’s urgency, Baekgyeong reluctantly looked at the message.

He quietly, thoroughly read through his mother’s words. Siron watched his every expression, worried he might be hurt. He stared, trying to capture each emotion that flickered across his face. But there was no visible sadness. Only a mixture of frustration and weary annoyance, like someone forced to deal with an unwanted guest.

“Fuck. I guess I’ve gotta fly over there and drag her away.”

He shoved the phone into his pocket with a sigh. After blankly staring at the ceiling, Baekgyeong shifted his gaze to Siron.

“Come to New York with me.”

“So I can get dragged into the spotlight too?”

“That won’t happen. I’ll fake a suicide attempt to blow it all up.”

“Are you insane? What the hell are you talking about?!”

“It’s just talk. Mom wouldn’t bat an eye no matter what I did.”

Things couldn’t get worse than this. The moment the existence of alphas was made public—and he, Baekgyeong, became the first known case—his life would enter an entirely new phase. He would become a walking bomb. And if Siron was by his side, he too would be sucked into a whirlpool of attention, scrutiny, and danger.

But Baekgyeong couldn’t leave Siron behind. He wasn’t about to deliver Yoon Siron to some bastard waiting with his mouth open under the persimmon tree. Above all, Hell Sota was far too dangerous. It had even more alphas than New York. There might not be statistical data on alpha density per square mile—but their presence was felt everywhere.

“Come with me. I’ll give you fifty million dollars. And the Vista Royal penthouse in Cheongdam-dong.”

It sounded like a last bet in a desperate gamble.

“Just three years with me. In New York.”

Siron’s lips parted, stunned into silence for a moment. It was too sweet—too destructive—to dismiss. But the moment didn’t last.

The door burst open. Lewis appeared, his face marked with the tension of a brewing storm.

“You should come out. Right now.”

Baekgyeong scowled at the intrusion.

“I don’t have time to deal with your shit. I’m leaving this place right now.”

“You’re going back to New York?”

“Yeah.”

Lewis looked at him with a storm of mixed emotions. But there was no hostility or suspicion in his gaze. In fact, there was something unexpected—pity.

He spoke hesitantly, with almost painful caution.

“...I’m sorry. About what happened.”

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