MIM 75

The smell of blood stung his nose with every movement. Though he should have been used to it by now, the metallic taste on his tongue felt particularly nauseating today. Perhaps it was because of how unsatisfactorily today’s job had ended.

It was a job to sell a man to a fishing boat—someone who had borrowed a large sum from Ma Jin-seong, failed in business, and fled. The task involved catching the man who had escaped overseas and completing a deal with the organization. Despite spending nearly two weeks on it, the man ended up dying, and they didn’t receive a single penny as a result. The captured man had taken his own life after learning he was to be sold to a fishing vessel.

It made sense—people sold to fishing boats lived lives no different from slaves, and when they became too sick to work, their organs would be harvested before they were thrown into the sea. In the end, the man committed suicide using Shin-woo’s gun, and Shin-woo had let him.

Returning empty-handed meant the mission was a failure. On the way back, he received a summons from Ma Jin-seong. It was an order to come to the study immediately upon return. The money from selling one person would have been less than Shin-woo’s expenses, so it wasn’t about the money. Ma Jin-seong probably wanted those who betrayed him to suffer until their last breath.

“Perverted bastard,” Shin-woo muttered to himself as he crossed the garden, then turned toward a presence he sensed. A figure lingering near the trees gradually emerged from the shadows. The tension left his body upon recognizing the familiar face.

Hye-jung. She was a girl who had been frequently hovering around lately. They occasionally had brief conversations when they ran into each other, so he knew her name. Seemingly startled by Shin-woo’s blood-covered appearance, she hesitated to approach and lingered about.

When he flashed a quick smile to indicate he wasn’t injured, Hye-jung carefully stood facing him. Just now he had been wondering how Ma Jae-seung was doing while he was away.

“How is the young master?”

“He was poisoned at lunch yesterday, but he only vomited that day. Today he went for a walk first thing in the morning.”

As Ma Jae-seung started developing tolerance and suffering less, they began administering poison randomly rather than on set days. Even when Woo-hee from the kitchen secretly tipped him off, Ma Jae-seung didn’t bother to avoid the poisoned meals.

He used to think it was self-harm, but lately, it didn’t seem that way. Rather, it seemed like he was becoming desensitized through the cycle of consuming poison and recovering. Ma Jae-seung would often sneak into Shin-woo’s room to sleep, and sometimes even went out secretly to play. Of course, his stomach couldn’t have been fine, but he didn’t show any notable emotional instability either. It seemed like he had found some sort of stability over the past few years. Though whether accepting reality could be called stability was questionable.

Would Ma Jin-seong really let Ma Jae-seung go when he became an adult? Did this research even have an end? Ma Jin-seong was more obsessed with Ma Jae-seung than his firstborn son, seeming to take more pride in the test subject showing the only visible results in his research than in an ordinary Alpha. Ma Jae-seung must have sensed this. Was that why he endured like that? The more he thought about it, the more uncontrollably angry he became.

Shin-woo rolled his tongue inside his torn mouth and looked up at the mansion. He wanted to quickly check on Ma Jae-seung after stopping by the study.

“That’s good to hear. Thank you.”

“Um, here.”

Shin-woo, who was about to turn away with a smile, paused to look down at Hye-jung’s hand. She held out a neatly folded handkerchief, her face slightly flushed.

Such a fearless lady, he thought to himself as he showed her his blood-covered palm.

“As you can see, I’m in quite a state, so it’s awkward to accept.”

“You don’t have to return it.”

Hye-jung, whom he had thought was docile, responded boldly with raised eyes. It was difficult to ignore her as she offered the carefully folded clean handkerchief, acting as if she didn’t mind if it was thrown away. Finally, Shin-woo reluctantly accepted the handkerchief. As expected, the snow-white handkerchief immediately became dirty when it touched his hands.

“I’ll make good use of it.”

After a brief nod, Shin-woo turned and entered the mansion. Ma Jin-seong was waiting for him inside.

He would probably be punished for not completing the job properly. True to his narcissistic nature, Ma Jin-seong preferred to personally punish those who disappointed him. It wasn’t in simple ways like hitting or cutting wages. He put his best effort into devising methods to wound people’s souls and enjoyed every moment of the process.

When he knocked and entered the study, Ma Jin-seong, who was sitting on the sofa, looked up. He put down his documents on the table and took a sip of whiskey. His eyes, which carefully scrutinized Shin-woo from head to toe, were already full of mischief.

“I’d like to offer you a seat if possible, but that won’t do. Are you hurt?”

“It’s not my blood.”

Ma Jin-seong smirked at Shin-woo’s answer. It was the blood of dozens of small-time thugs who had attacked him as soon as he arrived at the mansion. Though it was obvious who had ordered it, Ma Jin-seong just sat there playing innocent and smiling. He didn’t even criticize how poorly the job was done. That wasn’t his style.

Ma Jin-seong leisurely pulled over another glass from the table and poured whiskey. Then he handed it to Shin-woo while putting on an act of saying “good work.”

“Since it’s family month and Parents’ Day is coming up, I’m thinking of giving vacation time to my people who have worked hard. It would be nice for them to spend quality time with their families. I consider family bonds very important.”

Bringing up family—was he trying to get under his skin this way? Shin-woo took the glass indifferently. Being an abandoned orphan wasn’t anything new, and he didn’t care what was said about it. Ma Jin-seong observed the expressionless Shin-woo and narrowed his eyes with an outright sneer on his face.

“But then I realized quite a few don’t have families. Should I let them choose between a bonus and vacation? What do you think?”

“I’ll take the bonus.”

“Hahaha, the bonus is a given, but you deserve special treatment! Among my people, you work the hardest after all.”

Ma Jin-seong stood up with his glass and approached until he was right in front of Shin-woo, sipping his whiskey. The whiskey scent was strong enough to mask the smell of blood. Shin-woo could feel his gaze trailing down to the barcode on his neck.

“I thought hard about what gift to give you. I hope you’ll like it.”

“No one is born an orphan, after all,” Ma Jin-seong added as he handed over the envelope he was holding in his other hand. Inside were dozens of photographs. A man sitting at an outdoor cafe terrace. A peaceful mother and son walking down a path. A couple and their son on high school entrance ceremony day, heads together affectionately against the backdrop of a spacious campus. A woman traveling freely in an exotic landscape.

The familiar faces filled his vision. These were people he had forgotten about or thought he had buried so deep he’d pushed to the back of his mind completely, yet here they were in the photos, vividly alive and breathing. The still images began to move frantically in Shin-woo’s mind. They were laughing, talking, happy—in places where he didn’t exist.

“I wanted to find your family for you, so I searched everywhere. Since Parents’ Day is coming up, I thought I’d send gifts to your parents too. But…it’s become complicated, hasn’t it?”

“…”

“Which ones are your family?”

The dozens of photos showed five people. A middle-aged man and woman who were once a couple in his memory but now photographed separately, and another couple with a son about Shin-woo’s age who bore no resemblance to him whatsoever.

His birth parents who abandoned him at the orphanage, and his adoptive parents who abandoned him in the Mangwol District before a year had passed since his adoption.

Ma Jin-seong looked at the photos together with him, smiling contentedly. His eyes sparkled with pure joy as he gazed affectionately at the people in the photographs.

“They’re all young and healthy, living well without wanting for anything. Isn’t it nice to hear news of them after so long?”

“…”

“Since it’s personal, I won’t ask about the details. Now, choose. I’ll send a gift to your real family.”

Waiting for an answer, Ma Jin-seong lightly clinked his glass against Shin-woo’s. As he downed the remaining alcohol leftover in the glass, his face, already flushed with excitement, grew even redder. While the fading sound of laughter passed through one ear, Shin-woo stared at the photos for a long time. Ideal families. Peaceful daily lives. Even in photos taken from afar capturing wide spaces and vast skies, there was no empty space to be found.

As if there had never been a place for him from the start.

“Of course, it’s fine if you don’t choose anyone.”

Ma Jin-seong whispered softly and leisurely returned to sit on the sofa. Shin-woo’s gaze remained fixed on the photos. His dirty hands left messy bloodstains on the faces smiling without a speck of imperfection on them.