Some time later, I headed to the hospital where Lim Seunghoon was admitted.
And there, in a corner of the rooftop garden, I spotted Lim Seunghoon.
“…….”
His face was deathly pale. The deep dark circles under his eyes and his lifeless, empty gaze made it clear that he hadn’t been sleeping well. His body, completely drained of strength, slumped against the wheelchair as he stared blankly downward. Watching him like that, I couldn’t help but be reminded of myself standing on that rooftop that day.
After committing such horrific acts against the Prism members, how could he wear the face of a perfect victim so effortlessly? I almost felt like asking him for his secret.
I spent some time in silence, watching Lim Seunghoon from behind. Strangely enough, I didn’t even feel nauseous anymore.
After slowly blinking my dry eyes a couple of times, I quietly walked up to him. Then, I took the handles of his wheelchair in my hands and greeted him.
“How are you faring?”
I had deliberately chosen my words carefully, thinking that a casual greeting like “Have you been well?” or “How are you?” wouldn’t suit his current situation. However, Lim Seunghoon didn’t even acknowledge my greeting; the moment he saw my face, he flinched as if he had seen a ghost, and his upper body in the wheelchair gave a violent shudder.
Upon further thought, I came to the conclusion that it was bound to happen like this.
There was nothing more terrifying than having to face the person he had ordered to be killed, now that he was in the most vulnerable state, unable to move at all.
It would have been the same even if Jo Inchan or Cha Woon had been the one standing here.
If it had been someone else, would Lim Seunghoon have been able to feel happy seeing visitors come to check on him, like ordinary patients do?
I had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case either.
Because all he had around him were his enemies.
‘He has no family, no friends … he must have no one to rely on.’
All the people around Lim Seunghoon had been used and betrayed by him, causing them to either resent him or abandon him out of disappointment. The sins Lim Seunghoon had repeatedly committed were that heavy and frightening.
It was only after he became the weak that he realized he had been abandoned … he was indeed a fool.
I tapped the wheelchair handles with my fingertips, tap, tap, following a steady beat, then whispered softly, “Do you know? Right below this hospital, the ground is covered in thick grass.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that even if you fall from here, if you’re unlucky, you might not die. You’d be better off aiming for a spot with asphalt. For those whose days are unbearably miserable to the point that they can no longer go on, isn’t this something worth knowing?”
“I’ve never had such thoughts!”
I fell silent for a moment at Lim Seunghoon’s denial, then soon responded briefly with, “Oh, really?”. After that, I calmly pushed his wheelchair toward a less crowded area, a blind spot outside the view of CCTV cameras. At that, Lim Seunghoon started to look around nervously with anxious eyes.
He was checking in advance to see if there was anyone who might come to his rescue. However, realizing soon enough that there was no one suitable, he lowered his head and began cautiously watching my reactions.
“Don’t be so scared. With that look on your face, someone might think I’m about to push you over the railing.”
I let out a small laugh as I looked down at my trembling hands, which I was holding together forcefully, then spoke in a voice that was almost too light. However, Lim Seunghoon seemed even more frightened by the fact that I had actually said the word “push“, and kept his gaze down.
“What on earth, what do you want from me …? What on earth did you come here to do?”
“Nothing. I just heard that someone I have a brief connection with had a serious accident, so I just came to do my duty.”
“…Are you saying you just came to visit me?”1
At my friendly tone and expression, Lim Seunghoon froze as if something inside him had malfunctioned. Still, it was obvious he was desperately trying to figure things out in his head, and I found it quite amusing,
I offered him a hint, seeing that he was still struggling to understand.
“Why are you shaking like that? You look like someone who has done something wrong to me.”
“…….”
After hearing those words, Lim Seunghoon’s expression gradually began to relax.
The reason Lim Seunghoon was scared when he first saw me was because he expected that I held a strong grudge against him. It was probably because the memory of ordering Dalli to kill me was still fresh in his mind.
However, if we just look at the outcome, Dalli failed to kill me. Neither the Prism members nor I showed any particular reaction to the incident, so from Lim Seunghoon’s perspective, he had no idea whether I had ever been threatened by Dalli or if I knew he was involved. This uncertainty likely made him afraid, as he couldn’t tell if I was plotting revenge on him.
“Lim Seunghoon-ssi, you were quite a decent collaborator. It’s a real shame that things have ended up this way.”
If I don’t show any animosity towards him right now and present the fact that ‘you didn’t do anything wrong to me‘, he would inevitably come to the conclusion, ‘Ah, Han Seungbeom doesn’t know what I instructed Dalli to do!‘
“I know everything about what Director Kang did to you, Lim Seunghoon-ssi.”
“…Really?”
“Yes, he interfered with the investigation at every turn and tried to destroy the evidence. He wanted to bring this issue to a close as quietly and quickly as possible.”
When I mentioned the things Kang Hyukwoo had done, Lim Seunghoon’s face immediately twisted in anger, and he clenched his fists, his fury plain to see. I casually glanced at him out of the corner of my eye to check his reaction, then continued speaking as if nothing was wrong.
“I wish for Kang Hyukwoo’s downfall, and you want to get revenge on him as well, don’t you? Now that we have a common enemy, I have no reason to interfere with your actions. But there might be some minor problems.”
“What is it, the problem?”
“Kang Hyukwoo will soon make sure that the information you have disappears. Right now, he has too much on his plate and has lost key personnel, making it hard for him to act right away. For now, you’re safe, thanks to his overconfidence. He likely assumes that, given your limited mobility, you won’t even be able to get close to anyone important.”
“…….”
“If you don’t act quickly, you’ll lose all your weapons. For example, Kang Hyukwoo might change the lock on his safe or relocate to a new hideout.”
Lim Seunghoon had been wretchedly abandoned by Kang Hyukwoo and was now filled with hatred. Yet, despite having the man he should have beaten to death right in front of him, he hadn’t even thrown a single punch.
The reason was obvious.
‘The mind is willing, but the body won’t cooperate … so there’s nothing he can do about it.’
As that thought ran through my mind, I glanced at Lim Seunghoon’s legs, which he was clutching so hard that his arms were visibly trembling.
What could he possibly do with a body that hadn’t even properly recovered shortly after the car accident? If he had built up goodwill in the past, maybe there would have been people to help him, but Lim Seunghoon had none of that.
“…He said that if I didn’t stay quiet, he’d put the blame for everything we did together entirely on me. He already has all the evidence that links me to it … and he can destroy me socially at any time.”
“…….”
In that situation, what would happen if the person who had always held the upper hand in your conflicts, the one you could never defeat no matter how hard you tried, showed a favorable attitude now that you shared a common enemy in Kang Hyukwoo?
“Seungbeom-ssi, can you help me just this once?”
At the small voice that broke out from his lowered head, I smirked.
‘Once I’ve gotten all the information out of him and he’s no longer of any use, my relationship with Lim Seunghoon will come to an end.’
Then, in order to guide the conversation towards the information I was after, I intentionally brought up the subject first in an indifferent tone.
“If you provide me with some information, I could sneak away a few of the key materials within it.”
That safe would likely contain a USB drive with Jo Inchan’s edited video on it. My first priority was to steal it and get rid of it.
‘Lim Seunghoon wouldn’t expect me to care about the edited video, given that I have the original.’
“…You’re an outsider. It would be difficult for you to even get into the company, let alone sneak into that person’s office.”
“There are many ways. I’ll take care of it myself, so don’t trouble yourself with unnecessary worry.”
Since a response like ‘I don’t know the password‘ didn’t come out right away, it seemed that Lim Seunghoon knew how to open the safe. However, he remained silent, not revealing it in the end.
The realization that this was Jo Inchan’s life on the line, and nothing less, seemed to make me feel a bit impatient. I could feel cold sweat forming on my palm, and I couldn’t deny it. I tightly gripped it and hid it, waiting persistently for Lim Seunghoon’s words.
However, what came out of his mouth was the exact opposite of what I had hoped for.
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
“I can tell you the password whenever you want. But that safe is double-locked with a key, so you won’t be able to open it without the key.”
“…You’ve been working as Kang Hyukwoo’s right-hand man, and you’ve had to use that safe all this time, haven’t you? You must have a spare key.”
“I did. But that’s already no longer in my hands.”
“It can’t be lost … Did Kang Hyukwoo take it from you?”
“No. Someone else took it, saying the exact same thing you did, Seungbeom-ssi. He should have arrived at the office by now.”
Is he saying that someone like me, who knows the entire truth of this incident and the fact that Lim Seunghoon was betrayed by Kang Hyukwoo, and who also harbors hostile feelings towards Kang Hyukwoo, has already made contact with him?
Caught off guard by the answer I hadn’t anticipated at all, I asked, “Who is it?”. Lim Seunghoon grinned with a deathly pale face and replied.
“Yoo Jay.”
My mind went blank, like I’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.
‘Who took what?’
A sound, almost like a scream, escaped from my stiffened neck, which had become numb.
“…Say that again.”
“So, Yoo Jay took the key. So it’s fine. Seungbeom-ssi, you can help with something else.”
“Why the hell…….”
“I’ve been their manager for a long time, so I know them well. Prism has stronger bonds than the public thinks. Apparently, Seo Yutae raised them that way … Well, I don’t really understand it, but if they genuinely see each other as family, wouldn’t they naturally be furious? Let’s be honest, everyone has that urge to stab and kill the school bully who tormented their child, or the criminal who committed sexual assault against their family, right?”
I told myself over and over again, ‘I shouldn’t show my agitation’, but I couldn’t even stop the tips of my fingers from trembling beneath the long sleeves.
“That’s why I thought, if it’s Yoo Jay, maybe after watching that video, he might even think about killing Kang Hyukwoo. It might not be the case with the original video, but anyway, my face or voice didn’t appear in the edited version. Kang Hyukwoo could mention it, but … would he even have the chance?”
The only saving grace was that, due to Han Seungbeom’s naturally pale complexion and my usual blunt demeanor, my emotions weren’t too obvious on my face. In addition, Lim Seunghoon, unlike Kang Hyukwoo, wasn’t skilled at reading others’ expressions.
“The doctor told me that there’s a high chance my leg won’t ever heal. Basically, they’re saying I should just give up. But it’s too unfair to just accept that. I was just following Kang Hyukwoo’s orders.”
Lim Seunghoon was still excitedly chattering away to himself, unaware of what was going on in my mind.
“That’s why I really wanted that bastard to become just as miserable as me … that’s the reason I told him. Even if I can’t kill him, I at least want him to end up as crippled as I am.”
“…….”
“Seriously, I’m so glad Yoo Jay came to see me. He’s been out of his mind lately, ever since Seo Yutae died, he became mentally ill.”
As soon as I heard those words, I picked up my phone and called Yoo Jay.
[“The person you are calling is currently unable to answer the phone…….”]
‘…It can’t be.’
As soon as I heard that automated message, it felt as if the sky were falling around me.
I had made it clear that Yoo Jay was the last person who should learn the truth.
…Why in the world?
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Translator’s Corner:
Happy Eid Mubarak for those who celebrated : D
I finally made up my mind (final_fix_version) that the one I sincerely want to marry the most is Lee Chise.
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