VDN Ch 22
by STARDeok-chil, seeing Nam-woon’s wretched state lying in the bed, glared at Kwon Seo-oh, tears welling in his eyes.
“Kwon Seo-oh! You, you… no matter how much you hate the young master, how could you treat someone so weak like this?!”
“He collapsed on his own.”
“Is that what you’re saying with that mouth of yours…!”
“Deok-chil, that’s enough.”
Yong-deuk turned his gaze to Kwon Seo-oh and asked,
“Kwon Seo-oh. What happened?”
“That’s what I should be asking. What’s wrong with his forehead?”
Yong-deuk was inwardly surprised. Although they had encountered each other quite often, this was the first time Kwon Seo-oh had asked him a question, especially about the young master whom he hated so much. Then, Deok-chil cursed out loud.
“Damn it, why does our young master have to get hit because of a guy like this?!”
“What?”
Kwon Seo-oh frowned and asked back. Yong-deuk warned him, saying, “Deok-chil-ah,” but Deok-chil did not give up raising his voice.
“It’s true! How scared the young master is of Chairman Seok…”
Yong-deuk gestured for Seo-oh to leave.
“This is our matter, just go.”
It was a polite tone, but clearly a command to leave. However, Kwon Seo-oh didn’t move from his spot and said,
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s office business. You don’t need to know.”
“Tell me.”
Yong-deuk sighed. Kwon Seo-oh seemed determined not to move an inch from the hospital room until he got a clear answer. Reluctantly, Yong-deuk briefly explained what had happened today.
“The young master… met with Chairman Seok a while ago. He went to discuss something important, and he brought up your name there too.”
Yong-deuk clucked his tongue in displeasure, then spat out,
“He asked for you to live as an ordinary student.”
“What?”
Seo-oh looked down at the sleeping Nam-woon.
After leaving the hospital, Seo-oh left the hospital and headed for the dark emergency stairs instead of the elevator. Thump, thump. He stumbled down a few steps, then stopped and slumped onto the stair railing.
Live as an ordinary student?
He knew well how much Nam-woon feared Chairman Seok. Nam-woon had been afraid of his father since Seo-oh first set foot in the Seok household.
But he said something like that?
Seo-oh knew that Nam-woon had been acting a bit differently lately, but acting like that towards Chairman Seok was a completely different matter. Seo-oh’s eyes shook with confusion. He suddenly looked down at the wet wipe he was holding.
“The blood, I couldn’t wipe it off after all…”
There were so many things he couldn’t understand.
***
Ugh. My head hurts.
Nam-woon groaned, tossing and turning.
“Ugh…”
Familiar voices flew around him.
“Young master! Are you conscious?”
“Are you okay?”
As soon as he opened his eyes, the irritating sound of the system greeted Nam-woon.
[Mr. Seok Nam-woon! You’ve gone through a lot! ㅜㅜ]
This is all your doing. Nam-woon couldn’t even speak, just kept his eyes wide open and groaned. Beside him, Deok-chil was shouting, asking if the young master had perhaps suffered brain damage.
[Here’s a small consolation as a reward.]
[You’ve received 1 lottery ticket!]
[Violence Experience +25
Abuse of Power Experience +25
Short-term Illness Experience +25
Justice Experience +25]
[You’ve filled 100% of the experience and leveled up!]
What are these experiences? Violence Experience must be from the incident at the perfume shop, and Abuse of Power Experience? Me, abusing power? It must be because of what I did to the perfume shop manager.
But what about Short-term Illness and Justice? Is Short-term Illness about being hospitalized?
Justice was the most nonsensical. Regardless of the process, it seemed unpleasant experience points had been given to me, the villain, for ending up like this.
[LEVEL UP!]
[Current level 2.]
[Your freedom has improved compared to level 1!]
At the moment he saw ‘freedom improved,’ Nam-woon felt as if his pain had disappeared and his dulled senses had returned.
Then, an unpleasant smell drifted into Nam-woon’s nose.
Sniff, sniff.
This bitter smell was definitely from the hospital. And looking at his hand, there was an IV. He could hear the sound of money draining away.
Oh no…
Nam-woon opened his pale lips.
“…Have to…”
“Yes?”
“Have to get out of here quickly…”
His subordinates, seeing the young master’s sickly, pitiful, and rare appearance, were anxious. Deok-chil, feeling sorry, grabbed the young master’s hand and asked,
“What on earth is wrong, young master?!”
“Hospital fees are the most regrettable after bank transfer fees…
Nam-woon expressed his weak but clear will. Beside him, Yong-deuk asked worriedly,
“What did he say?”
“What are you saying?”
“He says he has no money.”
“……”
Deok-chil whispered quietly to Yong-deuk,
“Then should we go to the young master’s house? But Hyung, do you know the house of the young master’s lover that he’s staying at? I don’t. And it seems the young master hasn’t been going home lately…”
“I don’t know either. I heard he broke up with his ex-lover quickly.”
Nam-woon, overhearing their conversation, murmured,
“The office… Ah, no.”
“Yes?”
“To the perfume shop…”
Yong-deuk and Deok-chil exchanged glances. What’s wrong with our young master? They couldn’t understand their superior.
***
The next day, Seo-oh, having cleaned his blood-stained clothes, headed to the pheromone perfume shop.
“I apologize for yesterday.”
“Uh, yeah.”
Mr. Park was truly conflicted. The opening event had been disastrously ruined due to the commotion caused by Kwon Seo-oh, Executive Moon, and Mr. Seok. Although he was furious to the point of boiling, he couldn’t say anything to Kwon Seo-oh in front of him.
Even if Kwon Seo-oh was supposedly Chairman Seok Jin-cheol’s person, Chairman Seok Jin-cheol didn’t actually care about every single small business. This meant there would be no problem if Mr. Park held Kwon Seo-oh accountable for yesterday’s incident. However, Mr, Park couldn’t express his anger as he normally would. It was difficult to say anything because he had heard Mr. Seok openly defend Kwon Seo-oh yesterday.
Mr. Park took the clothes and slyly probed,
“Mr. Seo-oh.”
“Yes?”
“But… what’s your relationship with Mr. Seok?”
Seo-oh stared intently at Mr. Park, as if asking what kind of question that was. Mr. Park smiled awkwardly and continued,
“Oh, no. No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. Mr. Seok isn’t usually like that, but just seeing him leave with Seo-oh yesterday, is there something between you two?”
“No.”
Seo-oh cut him off sharply. Mr. Park, tilting his head as if puzzled, sneakily asked what he really wanted to know.
“Come on, Seo-oh. If there was nothing, why would Mr. Seok bother to come all the way back here just to say something?”
“What?”
Seo-oh asked as if he had heard wrong. Mr. Park sighed and spilled the beans.
“Didn’t Mr. Seok tell you? He came here last night. He must have had a big fight somewhere, his forehead was all bandaged up and his face was pale.”
“……”
“He complained, asking if it’s okay to employ a manager who slaps his employees. Even the Chairman was quiet, so why is he making a fuss about it?”
Mr. Park continued speaking, crossing his arms
“And didn’t he hit someone himself? It’s like the pot calling the kettle black, he is the worst and suddenly he changes his attitude. isn’t that ridiculous?”
The first thing Mr. Park did after hearing about yesterday’s incident was to check the inventory of perfumes on display. He was worried that his precious ‘babies’ had been damaged in the fight. Mr. Park, recalling yesterday’s chaos, shivered and added,
“If Mr. Seok gets upset, he’ll break everything. I was so worried yesterday that he might break and throw perfume bottles.”
“No, that’s not true.”
Kwon Seo-oh, who had been quietly listening to Mr. Park’s complaints, blurted out.
“Huh?”
“I don’t think he would have broken the perfume bottles or anything.”
Mr. Park was surprised by Seo-oh’s indifferent but firm words. Mr. Seok had been a bit cool yesterday but… was Kwon Seo-oh really defending him to this extent? it seems that something really did happen yesterday.
Seo-oh, who had spoken without thinking, then stopped as if he was a little surprised and quickly added,
“That guy hates spending his own money more than anything in the world.”
“Ah, haha. That’s right, isn’t it? I shouldn’t really say this, but…”
Mr. Park suddenly lowered his voice and said,
“He did seem a bit more decent yesterday?”
As soon as he said that, Seo-oh’s expression changed. He seemed uncomfortably disturbed. Mr. Park, knowing well that Seo-oh and Nam-woon didn’t get along, shared his honest feelings.
“If it weren’t for yesterday’s incident, I would have considered contacting him separately. Hahaha!”
“……”
“Oh, by the way, are you meeting Mr. Seok today?”
“No, but… why?”
“Did he leave something in the store yesterday?”
Mr. Park pulled out a shopping bag he had been keeping. Seo-oh took the bag, and his eyes fixed on its contents. Inside the shopping bag were two puzzles of different sizes, neatly arranged.