Chapter 40

Lee Jaeha drifted into a lucid dream.

There could be no other explanation for why someone lost to him so long ago now stood before him, smiling with perfect serenity.

“Jaeha-ya, come here,” his mother called out, her fingers waving gently like lily stems.

The diamond ring on one of them had tilted slightly, as if proudly displaying its impressive size. However, the ring hadn’t moved because the stone was too large. His mother had lost weight once more.

Jaeha never understood why Lee Ik-hyeong insisted she wear it every time she left the house, even after her fingers became so delicate that the diamond seemed heavy enough to break them. His parents argued at the slightest excuse. Their fights followed a predictable and exhausting pattern, with Lee Ik-hyeong’s shrill, high-pitched screams and his mother’s hollow, weary sighs.

Lee Ik-hyeong thrived on controlling his wife.

He took away every bit of her peace and acted as if seeing her relaxed offended him. He threw household items across rooms, pushed sofas aside, and shattered light fixtures into countless sparkling pieces. Yet, the chaos he caused never even touched the hem of his mother’s skirt. Lee Ik-hyeong delivered his violence with careful precision, ensuring it never directly harmed her.

Jaeha would watch through the narrow crack in his bedroom door. His mother had ordered him to stay inside, and because he was an obedient child, he did as he was told. Even so, he remained poised to spring into the room the instant Lee Ik-hyeong dared lay a hand on her.

Mother and son frequently exchanged glances through that slender gap.

Whenever Lee Ik-hyeong became absorbed in his destruction and looked away, she would pull funny faces at Jaeha. Most of them seemed to say, I am bored to death.Sometimes she looked ready to seize her own throat, stick out her tongue, and make some ridiculous choking noise merely to entertain him.

Jaeha rarely found the performance particularly funny, but his heart would soften at her desperate attempts to reassure him, and a faint smile would tug at his lips.

As though the tyrant ruling their home could not tolerate even that fleeting moment of peace, Lee Ik-hyeong would whip his head toward her. She would immediately lower her gaze and adopt that quiet, vacant expression once more, resembling a lily slowly withering inside a glass case.

Mother and son had learned to endure those episodes together.

Lee Ik-hyeong might have given the impression that he wanted to destroy everything she owned, but he never actually hit her. This did not imply he had any moral compass. He was simply so utterly despicable that he couldn’t tolerate the suffering his actions might cause him. His mother’s pain would inevitably lead to Lee Ik-hyeong’s own despair. In other words, he avoided physically harming her not out of genuine concern, but due to a distorted sense of self-pity, fearing the emotional turmoil he might face afterward. Instead, he targeted the things she valued: the standing lamp, the side table, the sofa. One by one, he methodically dismantled the few belongings she took pride in.

The usual casualties were stained-glass lamps and antique furniture the family had collected from an Eastern European flea market. They had bought them during a year-end holiday when Jaeha was still very young, barely old enough to mumble his first words.

Once Lee Ik-hyeong fled the devastation he had created, Jaeha and his mother would make a haphazard attempt to restore their ruined home. Afterward, they would step outside as though nothing had happened. To soothe their frayed nerves, they might treat themselves to ice cream sold only in Apgujeong or disappear into the halls of Galleria for an extravagant shopping spree.

That was why, when his mother called him over that day, Jaeha assumed it was merely another one of those occasions.

When he approached and stopped beside her frail, gaunt figure, he noticed another woman standing nearby, every bit as thin as his mother.

“You must be Jaeha. I’ve heard so much about you from Heeyeong unni.”

“Hello. I’m Lee Jaeha.”

The woman was as beautiful as his mother and appeared just as withered. Jaeha greeted her politely, though a question lingered at the back of his mind.

None of his mother’s closest friends had ever addressed her with such easy intimacy.

He felt certain he should have seen the woman at least once before, yet this was the first time Lee Jaeha had ever laid eyes on her.

His mother and the woman remained in the garden for a long time, absorbed in conversation. If his tall, slender mother carried the melancholic beauty of a wilted lily, the other woman resembled a cluster of forget-me-nots drenched and bowed beneath the rain.

For reasons he could not explain, Jaeha disliked seeing them together.

It was not quite dislike. Rather, the sight filled him with a profound and sinking sorrow. They looked like flowers gathered in one place solely to wait for the day their petals would fall.

A skinny boy suddenly emerged from a corner of the garden. Dressed in clothes completely unsuited to the season, he stared directly at Jaeha and locked eyes with him.

“My, it’s been a long time since I last saw you. You were so little then.”

His mother’s face brightened the moment she noticed the child.

The realization that his mother had known the boy when he was younger felt strangely alien to Jaeha. He was certain he had never seen this staring child before.

Where could his mother possibly have met them?

The boy had appeared from a corner of someone else’s garden, yet he watched Jaeha’s side with unnerving intensity. His sharp, luminous eyes were far too piercing for a child, and they continued to scrutinize Jaeha without wavering.

An unfamiliar sensation settled over him. The boy was presumably the son of the woman who had addressed his mother as ‘Heeyeong unni’. The woman made no attempt to introduce him to either Jaeha or his mother. She merely observed in silence, offering a faint, spectral smile when the boy eventually came to stand beside her. Together, they looked like a sodden, lifeless pair of forget-me-nots.

As Jaeha studied her, his gaze collided with the boy’s once again.

The child was still staring at him.

A peculiar unease passed through Jaeha. With his dark skin and gaunt, scrawny features, the boy resembled a young raven and stood nearly two heads shorter than him. Jaeha wanted to ask his age. After holding the child’s gaze for another moment, he turned to his mother. “May I show him my room?”

“Of course. Mom will be having tea with your aunt, so the two of you can go play. Come back when you get bored.”

His mother gently patted the top of his head. Jaeha offered a small, courteous nod to the aunt he had met only that day, then extended his hand toward the boy. The child stared blankly at the offered hand before turning away and walking off in silence, apparently expecting Jaeha to follow. He neither gave his name nor acknowledged the invitation.

Jaeha simply lowered his hand. He understood the sentiment. Plenty of children hated being treated like children.

As he followed, the voice of the woman who had somehow become his aunt that very day drifted after him.

“Unni, Jaeha is so mature. Our… is…”

“Don’t cry… You and I, truly…”

Jaeha failed to catch the rest of his mother’s reply. His attention remained fixed on the boy’s irritable back as he trailed behind him.

He wanted only for his mother to be happy.

He wanted the same for the woman sitting across from her.

The instant that thought entered his mind, his eyes flew open.

.

.

.

“Ugh…”

The first sensation he registered was a heavy, dull pressure grinding into the back of his neck. Then came the faint metallic taste of blood, followed by the deep and pervasive stench of mold clinging to cement walls.

Lee Jaeha realized he had regained consciousness.

He was tied to a chair in the middle of an abandoned warehouse. His wrists had been pulled tightly behind his back and secured to a sturdy steel chair. A wave of dizziness swept over him, and he winced as a throbbing headache radiated from the base of his neck. For a few disorienting seconds, the dream and reality overlapped. Then his awareness sharpened, and he understood his surroundings.

This was an abandoned warehouse, a place wholly unrelated to the childhood memories he had just relived.

Jaeha swallowed the groan threatening to escape. He could not allow his kidnappers to realize he was awake. Since childhood, a bodyguard who had once worked as a mercenary had trained him thoroughly in how to behave after an abduction. Jaeha had never expected to put those lessons into practice.

He remained limp and pretended to be unconscious, intending to listen for anything the kidnappers might reveal.

He would memorize every sound around him, every scent in the air, and every distinguishing quality in the culprits’ voices. Because he had been knocked unconscious before arriving, he possessed no information about his current location. He needed to gather as much intelligence as possible.

Whether through luck or some more sinister design, Jaeha appeared to be alone in the room. Hearing no movement behind him, he cautiously opened his eyes again and surveyed the area.

The smell had not misled him. He was indeed inside an abandoned warehouse. It was not particularly large, perhaps ten pyeong, and its solid cement walls indicated that it was not a prefabricated structure.

He glanced toward the small window and guessed the building might have once been a rural grain silo. Grains and husks were scattered across the floor, forming dusty drifts. Apart from the back of his neck, where someone had struck him, he felt no other pain. More surprisingly, his wrists were not bound with rope, cable ties, or braided straw. Instead, he was wearing handcuffs. High-performance handcuffs made for private use were expensive, and their presence indicated that the kidnappers had significant financial resources. Considering the number of men who had forced their way inside during the attack, perhaps this should not have been surprising. The more pressing question was whether he was the only person brought to this location.

He saw no sign of Lee Jaeho or Mo Jeong-gil.

The warehouse seemed to be a single room with just one exit. The double iron doors suggested that this exit did not lead to another indoor area but opened directly to the outside. There was no logical reason for the abductors to keep their captives in separate places. Unless they were severely short on manpower, managing multiple prisoners across different locations would be a logistical nightmare. Additionally, Lee Jaeha had already significantly reduced their numbers before the blow from the bat plunged him into darkness.

If Lee Jaeha had been their sole target from the beginning, they would not have gone through the trouble of dragging Lee Jaeho and the unconscious Mo Jeong-gil away as well. Transporting Jaeha’s own limp, heavy body alongside those of his companions would already have been a tedious logistical burden.

That realization offered him a faint measure of relief.

One of the most important rules of surviving an abduction was never to attempt an escape unless success was absolutely certain.

The mercenary’s cold instructions surfaced clearly in his memory.

—‘Even if you’re strong, you enter enemy territory the moment they reach the abduction site. If you failed to escape before they brought you there, don’t try anything reckless. The fight is already stacked against you, so starting an unnecessary struggle inside their domain is never a wise decision.’

Remembering that warning, Lee Jaeha remained perfectly still and controlled his breathing until it became nearly imperceptible.

Had he been alone, he might have gambled on an escape. Yet there was no possibility of abandoning the other two. At the same time, if the kidnappers truly wanted only him, he had no intention of dying in this place.

A sound drifted in from beyond the doors.

Jaeha immediately closed his eyes and resumed feigning unconsciousness.

“Whoa, this oppa still hasn’t woken up?”

The voice was coarse and saturated with swaggering arrogance. One set of footsteps advanced without hesitation, followed by a second pair that moved more quietly, trailing behind with palpable caution.

No other footsteps followed.

Presumably, one of them was the guard.

Because a substantial number of men had participated in the abduction, Jaeha had initially suspected that they might have divided into two groups, perhaps taking the injured captives elsewhere.

The next remark destroyed that theory.

“How the hell is he still this handsome with his eyes closed? I’m getting hungry just looking at him.”

“…You disgusting bastard. We’re on the job.”

“Who said I was going to strip him right this second? I’m just curious. What kind of balls does Myeongwon have to fuck with Yooshin?”

Hearing them mention Yooshin by name confirmed Jaeha’s suspicion. Their sole target was Lee Jaeha.

Lee Jaeho’s standing in society was negligible. His stepmother had spent years as a mistress before ascending to the position of legal wife, and both she and her son were frequently treated as inferior by the outside world. If the kidnappers intended to strike at Yooshin, then Lee Jaeha must have been their target from the beginning.

A silent sigh of relief escaped him.

He had no confidence that he could rescue Lee Jaeho while simultaneously engineering his own escape.

The older of the two voices spoke again. “Just make sure you do what you were hired to do when the time comes.”

“What, film a rape video? Where are they even planning to send it?”

“How the hell should I know, you fucking whore? They’re probably going to use it to blackmail that man for the rest of his life.”

“Aww, I’d much rather be the one getting fucked than the one doing the fucking. If this oppa wakes up before then, can’t I let him screw me instead?”

“Cut the bullshit. You heard the client’s instructions.”

Jaeha drew a short, silent breath. It appeared they intended to record his rape so that Yooshin would be unable to retaliate later, effectively gagging him with blackmail.

Still, the plan felt excessive. Strange, even.

They had apparently hired specialists solely to produce the footage. The younger man’s mention of a client made that much clear.

If Jaeha were their only target, there would have been no reason to resort to such a cumbersome scheme. They could have confronted him directly with their demands or contacted Lee Ik-hyeong and secured an agreement guaranteeing there would be no retaliation.

The fact that they specifically intended to manufacture blackmail material suggested they were not merely making demands of Yooshin. Perhaps another party was involved altogether.

Jaeha kept his head bowed and waited, hoping the kidnappers would continue talking. The man with the crass voice hummed thoughtfully before asking with genuine confusion, “But seriously, what kind of balls does Myeongwon have to pull something this bold? This guy is an Alpha married to Director Jang Taegeon.”

At last, they had reached the subject he had been waiting for.

Jaeha burned to know what had provoked this sudden, absurd kidnapping. The other man, still occupied with preparing something nearby, clicked his tongue.

“Myeongwon knows exactly why that bastard tore them apart. Word is, it was all because of Jang Taegeon.”

“Oh, so this oppa is such a devoted husband that he ended up here, ready to be ravished by me?”

The conversation had taken an unexpectedly humiliating turn.

A devoted husband?

Jaeha had never heard anything so absurd in his life. Somehow, that remark was even harder to endure than the prospect of being raped.

“They’re probably blackmailing Jang Taegeon separately. Everyone in this line of work knows he tricked Lee Jaeha into marrying him through foul play.”

That was unexpected.

Tricked me into marriage?

Jaeha bit the inside of his tongue to suppress a flinch.

The crass man burst into laughter. “Why? Did he drug him? Jang Taegeon’s drugs are supposed to be fucking incredible, aren’t they?”

Drugs?

Jang Taegeon had never given him anything. There had never been an occasion when Jaeha lost control under the influence of drugs and did something that ultimately led to their marriage.

No.

There had been one night, not long after they met, when they drank heavily together in a private suite.

But that had only been alcohol. He had experienced none of the lingering symptoms one might expect after being drugged. His memories of the encounter were incomplete, but what he did remember had felt mutual.

At the very least, he had not forced himself on Jang Taegeon.

“Who knows? I’m not sure about that part, but Jang Taegeon’s mother was originally raised as an Omega destined to marry into Yooshin.”

Jaeha froze.

A high-pitched ringing pierced his ears, an insistent whine that swallowed the rest of the world. Convinced that he remained unconscious, the two men continued their conversation with callous indifference.

“Jang Taegeon’s mother came from a chaebol Omega family. She was raised with the utmost care and groomed from childhood to be displayed on the marriage market.” The speaker continued, “The date of her marriage into the Yooshin family had already been set. But their family custom required her to visit a mountain hermitage every dawn and pray for Yooshin as part of her bridal preparation.”

The man who had previously seemed taciturn now spoke with growing excitement, plainly relishing the filth of the gossip.

“Someone had been watching that Omega climb the mountain for dawn prayers every day. Some bastard dragged her away and started groping her. The story goes that just before he could force himself on her, she bit his cock with her front teeth and escaped. It was only an attempted assault, but Yooshin still considered her damaged goods.”

“Oh, I know where this is going. Sounds like a fucking soap opera.”

“She had been raised delicately for the sole purpose of marrying into Yooshin, but once the engagement was broken, her father flew into a rage and practically sold her to Janghan Construction for a payout. To a man like Jang Changsik, who had spent his life rolling through the gutter, even an Omega who had been sexually assaulted was still a refined lady from a noble household, suitable enough to secure as a bride for his son.”

The older man paused briefly, then continued with gruesome satisfaction.

“But apparently his son didn’t see her that way. They say she lived like a slave from the moment she entered that marriage. Anyway, Jang Taegeon was the child born from that whole disaster.”

“Holy shit. What happened to the Omega?”

“She lost her battle with depression and killed herself. Jang Taegeon was probably the first person to find her. He was still a kid.”

The ringing in Jaeha’s ears swelled until it became almost unbearable.

His body had begun to tremble. Violent, uncontrollable shudders ran through him, though the two men were so engrossed in their conversation that they were unlikely to notice.

They continued droning on, explaining that Jang Taegeon, consumed by a deep-seated grudge after his mother’s death, had deliberately approached Lee Jaeha and manipulated him in order to destroy both Yooshin and Janghan Construction.

Then came the tale of that idiot Lee Jaeha, blind to the game being played around him, wiping out Myeongwon on behalf of his spouse, only to be kidnapped by Myeongwon’s vengeful remnants.

Jaeha fought to still his trembling body. He could not afford to remain paralyzed.

Steeling himself, he released one sharp, measured breath. He seized his left thumb with his opposite hand and, in one sudden, brutal motion, forced the outer joint downward until it dislocated.

Agony flared through his hand.

He clamped his remaining fingers around the damaged joint and slowly worked his hand free of the cuff. His hands were large, but with the thumb bone displaced, he managed to slide his hand through the metal loop.

“Myeongwon is targeting Lee Jaeha because they know about Jang Taegeon’s scheme. It’s basically, ‘I’m fucked, so you might as well get fucked too.’ Right? If they send Yooshin a video of Lee Jaeha being raped, do you think they’ll leave Jang Taegeon alone?”

“He’ll be thrown outside Yooshin’s gates with nothing but a spoon in his hand before he can finish swallowing the company whole. Jang Taegeon will be left staring at the roof like a dog that missed the chicken. And since this kid looks like a dominant Alpha himself, the big shots at Myeongwon will probably consider it proper revenge if he gets fucked from behind.”

The man snickered.

“Lee Jaeha only married a gangster. He isn’t one himself. Just imagine living your entire life as a perfectly ordinary Alpha, only to be raped. They want him to understand exactly what it feels like when something drives you out of your fucking mind.”

The corner of Jaeha’s mouth curled into a faint smirk.

A threat that trivial had never been enough to break him.

Starting an unnecessary fight on enemy territory while already at a disadvantage is never wise.

He remembered the mercenary hammering that principle into him again and again. Yet the man had never explained what to do when Lee Jaeha could no longer afford to be wise.

In that instant, the thousands of dollars spent on his training became worthless scraps of trash.

Jaeha surged upright.

The two men were preoccupied with adjusting the camera and spreading mats across the floor, their backs completely turned toward him.

He struck the younger one first.

Jaeha wound an arm around the man’s neck from behind and locked him into a crushing chokehold. With his left hand, he seized the handcuffs still attached to his right wrist and drove the metal directly into the man’s larynx.

“Gack!”

“What the fuck? You bastard!”

The older man, still holding the camera, sprang to his feet in shock.

Jaeha showed no mercy. He tightened his grip and bore down with even greater force.

The shrill-voiced man kicked and convulsed, his fingernails clawing desperately into the back of Jaeha’s hand. Jaeha ignored the pain and squeezed harder.

Amid the violence, the final pieces slid into place.

He understood everything now.

Jang Taegeon had approached him with a hidden purpose. He intended to destroy both Yooshin and Janghan Construction. Every detail that had seemed suspicious until now aligned with chilling precision.

Renewed strength surged through Jaeha. He pressed the steel cuff deeper into the man’s throat. The remaining shackle bit into his own wrist, cutting through the skin until blood welled beneath the metal.

He did not loosen his grip.

The older man now held a sashimi knife leveled at him. The speed with which he suppressed his shock and settled into a disciplined defensive stance confirmed that Jaeha had chosen correctly by attacking the younger man first.

The older one was clearly the professional.

“You son of a bitch! Let him go!”

“Why?”

Jaeha’s voice emerged cold and stripped of emotion as he crushed the man’s windpipe once more.

“You never considered him a comrade in the first place, did you?”

The hand clawing at Jaeha’s arm went limp. The man’s eyes rolled backward as consciousness slipped away.

Jaeha released him without hesitation.

The tall man struck the floor with a dull thud.

Jaeha did not care about the threat of rape. He had fully intended to play along with whatever the kidnappers demanded. Dealing with the footage afterward, whether by hiring an elite hacker or crushing Myeongwon through sheer force, would have been troublesome, but far from impossible.

Until that moment, he had clung to the belief that survival and escape were his only imperatives.

Then he heard what they said, and that conviction shattered.

Jang Taegeon had been hollowed out by depression, reduced to the ghost of a man who still carried the memory of a mother destroyed beneath the crushing weight of systemic abuse. Jaeha could not bear the thought of forcing Taegeon to witness that history repeat itself through him.

That realization outweighed the revelation that Taegeon had approached him with ulterior motives and intended to use him as a tool.

Jaeha had never entrusted Jang Taegeon with his whole heart anyway. He had merely loved the man and yearned to be loved in return. Never once had he deceived himself into believing Taegeon would reciprocate.

Love was a fiction Lee Jaeha had never subscribed to.

Still, now that he had fallen for Jang Taegeon, he refused to deny the weight of his own feelings.

Strangely, a profound calm settled over him.

At last, he understood exactly why he had been targeted.

***