PEN Vol 1 Ch. 20

After he took a shower, got dressed, and readied himself, Cheon Sejoo led Sejin to the parking lot.

As soon as they arrived at the department store, they headed to the shopping section instead of the food section. Kwon Sejin followed him around with a look that clearly conveyed he thought this was all a waste of time. However, when the clothes Cheon Sejoo had picked out were packed into shopping bags and handed to him, Sejin suddenly realized something was off and stopped in his tracks.

Standing in front of a sports brand store, holding two large paper bags in both hands, Sejin looked up at Cheon Sejoo with an expression that seemed to scream at him if he had lost his mind.

“Why should I take this?”

There were plenty of ways Sejoo could have responded to that question. He could have said, “How much longer do you plan to keep wearing that same hoodie?” or, “Seeing you reminds me of my younger brother, so I wanted to buy you some clothes.” Or he could have simply told him, “It bothers me to see you wearing the same clothes over and over.” But none of these explanations would have gotten him a positive reaction from Kwon Sejin.

Once again, Cheon Sejoo lied to him, this time because he knew Sejin wouldn’t accept the clothes if he told him the truth.

“Well, do you think I’m just going to let someone freeloading in my house walk around looking like a beggar?”

“…….”

“I’m going to charge everything to your mother anyway. If you don’t wear the clothes, I’ll just throw them away, but I’ll still make sure to get the money. So, if you don’t like it, feel free to toss them in the trash.”

It felt like he heard a voice muttering, “Son of a bitch.” Kwon Sejin, dumbfounded by the mention of charging his mother, looked down at the clothes in his hand, then shifted his gaze back to Cheon Sejoo and glared at him.

He could have bought cheaper and simpler clothes for that reason, but instead, Cheon Sejoo bought expensive brand-name clothes worth hundreds of thousands of won without even asking him. This made Sejin’s face fill with resentment, beyond irritation. He pressed his lips together, holding back the urge to curse him as a swindler.

Cheon Sejoo, who had completely mastered the art on how to handle him, smiled in satisfaction. Whether Sejin cursed him inwardly or not didn’t matter, he still dragged him along to finish their grocery shopping.

When Cheon Sejoo pointed out that as the homeowner, he would be paying for the groceries anyway since Sejin was technically the housekeeper, Sejin filled the cart to the brim as if trying to get back on him. Watching Sejin select the largest and most expensive items, even when it came to simple things like soy sauce, Cheon Sejoo couldn’t hold back his amused chuckles.

No matter how mature and grown-up he tries to act, he’s still just a kid.

The two spent the day like that. After returning from the department store, Kwon Sejin, as if he had been waiting for this moment, quickly got to work making side dishes and filled the fridge. Cheon Sejoo was genuinely surprised by his cooking skills, which exceeded his expectations. Sejin’s cooking suited his taste better than any food Moon Sunhyuk had ever made for him in the years he’d been doing so. He was now glad he’d brought Sejin in as a “housekeeper.”

And then, the next day.

Instead of nagging, Cheon Sejoo decided to take a more hands-on approach to getting Sejin to behave, which also doubled as surveillance. His workshop, Shinsa Capital, and Sejin’s school were all nearby anyway. Since he could kill time at the workshop even if he had nothing to do, Cheon Sejoo woke up early in the morning, finished his workout, and then woke Sejin, who seemed to have no intention of going to school.

“Get up. I’ll give you a ride.”

Sejin went into the bathroom with his usual sullen expression, but he didn’t seem intent on resisting, which was a relief.

After showering, Cheon Sejoo put on a suit and came out to the living room. In the meantime, Sejin had eaten breakfast and was sitting on the sofa, waiting for him, wearing his new hoodie over his school uniform. Naturally, he didn’t have a bag or anything of the sort. Seeing him standing there lightly as if he was just going out for a stroll, Cheon Sejoo clicked his tongue in disapproval and turned around. Sejin meekly followed along behind him.

Since it was rush hour, the 10-kilometer drive took 40 minutes. It was almost 9 a.m. by the time they arrived at the school gates. Sejin got out of the car, and just as he was about to close the door, Cheon Sejoo called out to him, saying what he had been wanting to say.

“Go and study.”

“……”

Perhaps because it was the peak time for students to arrive, the area in front of the school was crowded. As Sejin stepped out of the sleek white sports car, he drew the attention of many students, as if he were a celebrity. Embarrassed, Sejin pulled his hoodie down over his face, pretending not to hear Cheon Sejoo’s words, and quickly walked away.

Once Sejin had disappeared among the other students, Cheon Sejoo was about to head straight to his workshop but suddenly changed his mind and drove his car around to the back of the school. He parked the car, got out, and walked to a nearby alley where he could see the school’s main gate.

He stood there and casually smoked a cigarette as he watched the entrance of East Seoul Boys High School. Several minutes passed, and then Cheon Sejoo suddenly let out a scoff, shaking his head in disbelief as he started walking toward the school. It was just past 9 a.m., and sure enough, he spotted Kwon Sejin in the distance walking out of the school, heading upstream through the flow of students like a salmon swimming against the current.

His instincts had been right. He knew all along that Sejin wouldn’t listen to him. Cheon Sejoo quickly closed the distance between himself and the small figure moving ahead of him. Then, he stood beside Sejin, who was waiting at the crosswalk after sneaking out of school. Startled by Sejoo’s sudden presence, Sejin flinched and looked up at him in surprise. Cheon Sejoo casually swung an arm over Sejin’s shoulder and smiled, a cold, calculated expression that didn’t reach his eyes appeared on his handsome face.

With a gentle voice, he asked,

“Heading to school?”

Sejin’s pretty face hardened instantly. Like someone caught red-handed, he bit his lips and blinked nervously. Cheon Sejoo, still smiling softly, spoke to him.

“You’re going to be late. You’d better hurry back in, Sejin.”

His gentle tone carried a clear message, he was willing to let this slide, just this once. Unable to resist the pressure from Cheon Sejoo that seemed to be weighing him down, Sejin glanced up at him with a displeased expression before finally turning around. Practically pushed along by Cheon Sejoo, he grudgingly headed back toward the school gate.

The time was nearing 9:10 AM. Sejin came to an abrupt stop in front of the half-closed school gate. Letting out a sigh, he opened his mouth, clearly annoyed.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

You’re not even some kind of jobless bum.

Though Sejin didn’t say it aloud, Cheon Sejoo easily understood what he really meant and responded with his usual actor-like smile. Casually brushing back a lock of his own hair that had fallen forward, he lightly tapped the cheek of the sulky teenage boy full of complaints about the world and spoke.

“Study hard. You’ve got to make sure your mom lives comfortably.”

Bringing up his mother always worked like a charm. However, the words strangely sounded almost like a threat, and Sejin frowned, slapping Sejoo’s hand away before walking off. Only after watching Sejin enter the school building did Sejoo finally leave.

With a loud roar of the engine, Cheon Sejoo sped out of the alley in his car and headed straight to his workshop. While he had been lazing around the house for the past two days, his team had been thoroughly investigating the deliveryman’s past finances. They’d scoured all of his accounts, cash receipts, and even his year-old credit card transactions, but they found nothing.

In this line of work, it wasn’t uncommon for people to use accounts under someone else’s name for transactions. Thus, Yoon Chuljoo, the hacker of their team, suspected the delivery man’s beloved niece and even checked her savings accounts, including one opened when she was just a year old and another for her New Year’s money. But those, too, revealed nothing. None of the people close to the delivery man, including his niece, had received any suspicious deposits or payments, and no money had been passed on to him either.

It was only then that Cheon Sejoo realized his mistake. On the day he’d gone to retrieve the items, he had heard the unexpected news that Kwon Sejin was homeless. In his haste, he had handed the deliveryman over to Dalma without conducting a thorough investigation. He should have confirmed the facts more carefully.

However, it was too late to fix it now. By the time Sunhyuk had called him that morning, it was already too late. He had even gone to check the body himself, leaving no more information to be gathered. All he could do now was piece together the scattered pieces of information he had to find the answer…

Cheon Sejoo slowly rolled his tongue inside his mouth as he mentally reviewed the details he had. The deliveryman had insisted in his innocence until the very end. Even as his skin melted and he wept tears of blood, he had never confessed to anything, not even under the unbearable pain.

“He kept saying he was just following orders from above… didn’t he?”

Cheon Sejoo murmured quietly. His unfocused gaze landed on Yoon Chuljoo, who was still poring over the deliveryman’s impoverished yet spotless bank accounts as per Cheon Sejoo’s instructions.

“Yes.”

It wasn’t Chuljoo who responded, but Moon Sunhyuk. Sunhyuk was also present when the deliveryman was coughing up blood. At Sunhyuk’s brief reply, Cheon Sejoo let out a short hum in response, tapping his foot lightly. His long legs stretched out across the table, and swung back and forth slowly as he drifted back into thought once again.

Since he’d taken charge of the disposal team, Cheon Sejoo had encountered similar incidents three times. But none of those involved someone stealing the drugs without a reason. The first guy had done it because he had been drowning in gambling debt, the second one needed money for the medical treatment of his daughter, who had a rare disease.

And the third guy was an addict. When he ran out of money and couldn’t afford to get his next fix, he resorted to stole what he was supposed to deliver. Each had their own reasons. Those reasons might not have seemed like much to others, but to them, it was compelling enough to take the risk.

But this time, it was different.

The deliveryman had no debts, no family to support, and he wasn’t an addict. His messages were mostly ordinary, complaining and cursing about his boss, chatting about games with his friends, and talking about women. There was no reason for him to steal the drugs.

Cheon Sejoo couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.

If the deliveryman had stolen the drugs, the one who would be in the most trouble was the deliveryman himself.

So, who would have been the next person most affected?

The person who was supposed to receive the drugs was one of Shin Jihan’s close associates. However, a slight delay in the delivery of the drugs wouldn’t have caused any significant problems for either that associate or Shin Jihan. Rather, the real issue would have fallen on the person responsible for the deliveryman’s mistake.

In other words, the distributor.

“Dalma….”