Chapter 8

He was the son of Song Jeonghun, the former CEO of K-Cell? And the younger brother of Song Seoyun, who had been rattling around in one corner of Ijun’s mind the whole time?

Was that why he had seemed familiar? Now that he looked again, the fair skin and even the shape of those unusually red lips were exactly like Song Seoyun’s.

Come to think of it, he felt he had vaguely heard once that Representative Song Jeonghun had a son. And yet when he went to the funeral hall to pay his respects, for some reason he had not seen him. Since he had not stayed there long, perhaps it was simply when the boy had stepped away for a moment.

In an instant, his thoughts became tangled, and the anger he had been forcing down surged up again.

Song Seoyun, who had been sleeping beside him, claiming the dubious excuse that she had happened to see him.

And Song Jiho, who had ransacked his company’s server.

What kind of idiot would think this was really a coincidence?

“All right. So your father was former K-Cell CEO Song Jeonghun?”

“…….”

“And your older sister is Song Seoyun.”

Ijun’s voice dropped even lower.

Jiho, who had been sitting still without the slightest movement, suddenly jerked his head up the moment Seoyun’s name was spoken.

“Don’t tell my sister!”

“What?”

At that sudden outburst, Ijun flinched for a moment. Faced with the desperation filling Jiho’s eyes, he had nearly been fooled without realizing it.

“That means Song Seoyun knows nothing?”

“Yes. My sister…. My sister doesn’t know anything. Please, don’t tell my sister. I’ll do whatever you say.”

So he could act, after all. In this situation, what fool would trust those words so easily? Ijun scoffed.

“That will depend on how cooperative you are.”

“…….”

“What did you do with the data you stole?”

“Nothing, not yet…….”

Jiho trailed off.

There was no way to tell whether he was avoiding Ijun’s gaze out of guilt or because he was lying.

“Not yet? Then what were you planning to do?”

“What do you think I’d do with that file. I was going to sell it…. but I haven’t done anything with it yet.”

“For a thief, you sound awfully bold. So then, to whom did you leak the contents of the file, and how much?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. Even to the reporters I contacted, I only said I had some worthwhile material. I never said what it was, where it came from, or any details at all.”

Jiho still answered in a muttering, defiant manner, but he did answer Ijun’s questions diligently. Whether that was truly because he hated the thought of Seoyun finding out, or because he was cleverly mixing truth and lies to get himself out of the situation, it was still too early to judge.

“There’s only one original. I didn’t make any copies or back it up separately.”

“Not even to the cloud?”

“Ha, who would trust a public cloud with something like that…….”

“You’d know better than I would. If the original data gets lost, that’s the end of it, and you’re saying you didn’t back it up?”

“If it gets lost, then there’s nothing to be done…….”

What he was saying did not add up. He claimed he had intended to sell it, and yet if it got lost, there was nothing to be done?

Holding back the urge to grab Jiho by the collar on the spot, Ijun pressed his fingers to the space between his brows. The important thing was to determine how far it had already spread outside and whether copies existed or not.

Because there was something more important than some petty scandal.

“If you know my father, then you know what happened to the company too. We’re buried in debt, and we need money. Money…. My sister, no, anyway, we needed money, so that’s why I did it, but I haven’t actually done anything yet. That’s all.”

Jiho closed both eyes as if resigned and recited the words.

“I didn’t back it up. It’s only some celebrity scandal material anyway. Nothing’s happened yet, and I’ll return the data I have. And whether you send me to the police or whatever else, I’ll do as I’m told, so please don’t drag my sister into this.”

Well, look at that. Now he was even brazen.

Seeing how desperately Jiho was trying to keep Seoyun out of it only deepened Ijun’s suspicions. Perhaps Seoyun had something after all. A photo taken that night, for example.

And “only some celebrity scandal material”? At that point, Ijun could no longer keep his emotions under control.

Did this boy really think he was wasting this much time and effort over “only some celebrity scandal material”?

Ijun threw down the report he had been holding as if flinging it away and rose from his seat. At the force of it, Jiho flinched and shrank back.

“It wasn’t just some celebrity scandal material.”

“Th-then what was it?”

“You’re not about to tell me you don’t know, are you?”

“I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t even open all of that data….”

“This little bastard, you think just because I’m being nice, I’m some kind of pushover. Do you want me to make sure not even a bone fragment of yours can be found, without a trace?”

“I-it’s true. I really…. I don’t know what, what you’re talking about…. I don’t know.”

At the savage voice that leaked through clenched teeth, Jiho stammered.

To think he had pushed him to the point of spitting out even this kind of low language. Letting out a breath of disbelief, Ijun yanked irritably at the neckline of his shirt. His chest felt stiflingly tight, as if it were packed with heat.

“I’ll ask one last time. You really don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“…….”

Now, perhaps lacking even the nerve to keep lying, Jiho pressed his lips tightly shut. Silence was an affirmation.

Ijun could be certain. Song Jiho had seen the ‘Ruhe report.’ It felt as though the blood that had been boiling hot just moments ago turned cold in an instant.

“Come in.”

Ijun pressed a button on his phone and gave the short order. A moment later, Chief Hyeon and Chief Choi entered.

“Confiscate this boy’s phone. Make arrangements for him to stay here for the time being, and keep this under strict control as a confidential matter.”

“Yes, Executive Director.”

“Chief Hyeon, go with him tomorrow to retrieve the item, and Chief Choi, report in detail from the cleanup plan for this incident to each individual stage of execution.”

Hunched in on himself, Jiho looked on uneasily as Ijun gave his orders.

“What are you doing? Why aren’t you taking him away?”

“Ah, yes. Come on, let’s go.”

As Chief Choi placed a hand on Jiho’s shoulder, Ijun turned his back on them and stood before the floor-to-ceiling window. Whether Jiho had stopped resisting or not, the disorderly footsteps faded away without much commotion.

The darkness lay thick over the yard spread outside the window. With a hand in the pocket of his slacks, Ijun let out a deep breath.

A situation whose outcome he could not be sure of, the twisted tangle of chaotic and complicated emotions, and tomorrow, which would be noisy and troublesome.

Ijun found all of this confusion unbearably irritating and unpleasant. No, in truth, there was something else that had been pricking at one corner of Ijun’s mind.

Song Seoyun. Had the thing that kept bothering him all along been an instinctive intuition?

He had almost been completely fooled.

By those dark, clear eyes.

“Executive Director. For now, I had him use the guest room. Security team personnel will stand watch in shifts through the night. Also, before we confiscated his phone, he spoke with his older sister, Song Seoyun. I monitored the conversation from beside him, and there was nothing particularly noteworthy. He made up an excuse that he had a project with a professor at school and would not be able to come home for a while.”

Chief Hyeon, stepping in from the hallway, gave a brief report. Ijun took Song Jiho’s phone from Chief Hyeon’s hand.

“And the data?”

“He said the external hard drive where the data is stored is in a locker at school, so tomorrow Chief Choi will take him there to retrieve it. A security agent will accompany them as well.”

Still keeping his gaze outside the window, Ijun gave a silent nod. With a grave expression, Chief Hyeon waited for Ijun’s next order.

Only after quite a long silence did Ijun finally speak again.

“Let’s look into Song Jiho and Song Seoyun. And also what kind of problem K-Cell had. Ah, and let’s secure the TJ Hotel CCTV footage too.”

“Understood.”

“Handle it quickly.”

“Yes, Executive Director.”

After bowing his head, Chief Hyeon left through the entrance.

In the downward cast of his gaze, Ijun’s eyes were as dark as the night covering the world outside the window.

***

In front of the rooftop room, on the tiny rooftop.

It was a day forecast to be clear from morning until night. Seoyun, shaking out towels with sharp snaps before hanging them on the drying rack spread out beside the platform, let out a sigh without realizing it.

The phone call from Jiho late the previous night had been strange no matter how she thought about it.

—Sis, I suddenly got assigned to participate in a professor’s project, so I don’t think I’ll be able to come home for a while. The schedule is really packed.

‘What? Wh-what project? What kind of project keeps you from coming home? Then where are you sleeping?’

She had already been unable to sleep because of Jiho leaving with those men who had suddenly come looking for him. Jiho had called them professors, but no matter how she thought about it, something was strange.