MIM 117

A man of similar height to Shin-woo stood beside the chair. He tilted his head to one side, looking back and forth between the screen and Shin-woo, then grabbed Shin-woo’s hair and yanked it up.

“There, satisfied?”

The revealed face was truly horrific. There were traces of blood streaked across his face, possibly from a head injury, and his cheeks and lips were swollen and discolored. Given that he could barely hold his head up, it seemed he had been severely beaten and left unattended.

Shin-woo slowly lifted his eyelids. Under one swollen eyelid, warm brown eyes searched for Ma Jae-seung through the screen. Despite the poor video quality, Ma Jae-seung could sense Shin-woo’s eyes gradually regaining focus as they found him. Even in his battered state, as always, he showed no sign of his pain.

A quiet rage that threatened to blind him and an aching in his chest slowly consumed Ma Jae-seung. He forcibly swallowed the name that rose to his throat and cooled his head. To rescue him safely, he needed to think logically.

While he wished he could storm in right now, it was difficult with both sides monitoring each other in real-time. Even if they agreed to exchange the hyung for Shin-woo, his mother would surely plan to deal with both him and Shin-woo simultaneously at the meeting place. She had probably already sent people here and might be deliberately stalling for time.

They needed to prepare on their end too. Having quickly made his assessment, Ma Jae-seung pretended to lose control of his anger, throwing a chair and kicking furniture around.

“Damn it, you think you’ll get away with this? I’ll kill you all!”

The chair crashed into the wall with a splintering crack. While continuing to shout loudly, Ma Jae-seung subtly moved out of frame. As he stomped his foot and threw a broken chair leg, his hyung panicked and crawled under the table to hide. Seizing this moment, Ma Jae-seung took out his phone and sent a brief message to Butler Hwang:

[mothersvillabasementneedsupport]

After sending the message without even spaces in one breath, he quickly returned to the screen before arousing suspicion. It wasn’t difficult to fool everyone with his act of a young master unable to control his anger. On screen, Joo-yeon rolled her eyes dismissively.

“Are you done with your tantrum?”

“What is this? He’s dying! I should put hyung in the same state to make it fair!”

“Hah, getting crazy over trash like that…”

As Joo-yeon rubbed her forehead, the shorter man chuckled. Despite being responsible for causing this situation by giving Ma Jae-seung the address, he remained brazenly calm. Ma Jae-seung carefully observed Shin-woo again. He was tied to the chair with his torso and arms bound behind him. His feet were free, and the ropes binding his arms and body looked quite sturdy.

A sharp object would be needed to cut the ropes. Ma Jae-seung whirled toward Joo-yeon and shouted.

“At least give him some water! He’s going to die!”

“People don’t die that easily.”

“If Shin-woo dies of dehydration, I’ll drain every fluid from hyung’s body too, remember that.”

His hyung, who had been crouching silently under the table, jumped out in horror at those words. He was so tense that not just his face, but even below his neck was glistening with sweat.

“Just give him the damn water! You’ll have to exchange him for me anyway, so why fight over giving him some water? Don’t you get it? Now that things have come to this, you’ve already lost!”

“Calm down. Jae-seung can’t kill you.”

Despite the hyung’s outburst, Joo-yeon remained unfazed. She stared at Ma Jae-seung while lifting the corners of her mouth.

“Since he was young, even though he never said it, he always followed you and wanted to be like you. He went astray because you were too harsh, but actually, Jae-seung wanted your and Dad’s approval more than anyone.”

Joo-yeon’s voice was full of conviction. Though she was reproaching him for not knowing his brother, her understanding of Ma Jae-seung was still stuck in his much younger years. It was natural, since she had never properly looked at or shown interest in him during the years he was isolated and neglected.

Ma Jae-seung didn’t bother to argue. He silently watched as Joo-yeon spoke arrogantly as if she had him all figured out. It was his hyung, not him, who snorted and cut off her words.

“Stop the nonsense. This brother, who supposedly wanted approval so badly, just broke my leg, so I can barely walk.”

“I’ll give him water. Let’s talk slowly about what to do next.”

At Joo-yeon’s gesture, the large man soon appeared with water. It was in a tall glass. When he held it to Shin-woo’s lips, Shin-woo gulped it down greedily without spilling a drop.

As hydration returned to his body, his dried-up thoughts began flowing again. He looked at the screen with clearer eyes. Ma Jae-seung’s eyes were fixed directly on him.

Now more alert, Shin-woo took a careful breath and studied his surroundings. Before long, he realized the source of his déjà vu. This was the basement of Joo-yeon’s villa.

“Set a time and place to meet.”

“It’s too late. Let’s meet and exchange early at dawn when the sun rises.”

“You want me to just wait for hours? How can I just sit here not knowing when someone might break in? If that’s how it’s going to be, I’m moving to another location.”

“You’re planning to pretend to move and then go find Shin-woo. That won’t work.”

While Ma Jae-seung and Joo-yeon continuously negotiated terms, Shin-woo carefully tested his hands. The professionals had tied the knots tightly, making them impossible to untie without cutting them. Pretending to go limp, he closed his eyes and listened for outside sounds.

It was quiet outside. There didn’t seem to be others. They probably thought these two were enough since they had starved, beaten, and tied him up. While his head was still throbbing and his strength was diminished, Shin-woo knew from surviving several near-death experiences how to push his body to its limits through sheer willpower.

“Did he pass out again? Get him another glass of water!”

Ma Jae-seung suddenly shouted, slamming the table. Though conscious, Shin-woo remained limp and listened intently. Something felt off about Ma Jae-seung’s voice as he demanded more water. His angry tone was slightly different from usual. Rather than pure anger, it subtly seemed to be hiding something else…

Shin-woo soon remembered the glass full of water.

“Good grief, how well they worked him over. This is the last one.”

With Joo-yeon’s sigh, the large man left the basement. He soon returned with the same glass in hand.

“Your boyfriend is so attentive?”

They exchanged jokes and snickered together. As his head was tilted back and cold water touched his lips, Shin-woo felt the glass press firmly against them. Immediately, he slammed his head into the glass. Then, to keep attention off the glass, he stood up with the chair and drove his knee hard into the man’s groin.

“Argh!”

The man’s scream mixed with the sound of the glass shattering on the floor. Shin-woo swung the chair over the head of the man who had collapsed from the groin hit. Crack. A splitting sound like breaking stone echoed through the cramped room as one chair leg flew off. Simultaneously, a fierce punch flew in from the side, striking Shin-woo’s cheek. In that dizzying moment, the other man sharply kicked his side.

His vision flipped. Having lost his balance, Shin-woo face-planted on the floor. Merciless kicks rained down on his fallen body.

“Stop! Damn it, stop!”

Ma Jae-seung screamed. After ignoring him for a while, Joo-yeon finally ordered them to stop as if doing him a favor. The man hit in the groin, still not satisfied, delivered one final powerful punch to Shin-woo’s stomach. Shin-woo gasped and retched several times. Each time, bloody bile flowed out, wetting the cold basement floor.

“Stupid bastard.”

The man spat on the collapsed Shin-woo. Under their glaring eyes, while holding his breath, Shin-woo carefully tensed his hand. The glass shard he had secretly picked up was sharp enough to cut into his palm.

“Why don’t you switch to my side? I’ll pay you more.”

Ma Jae-seung suddenly threw out a new proposal, drawing their attention. At the same time, their gaze fixed on Shin-woo lifted away.

“If you join my side, it’ll be good for you going forward. If you bring Shin-woo to me, I’ll give you ten times what Mother promised.”

Ma Jae-seung began persuading them by emphasizing how he had far more assets than his mother. He even made some amusing claims about being loyal to his people. At that point, Joo-yeon jumped in, not to be outdone, bringing up the importance of client trust.

Dumb and Dumber.

The two men watched with interest as everyone raised their voices in excitement. Thinking they might profit from this situation, they frequently put their heads together and whispered.

While Ma Jae-seung distracted them like this, Shin-woo quietly began sawing at the rope behind his back with the sharp edge of the glass shard.