TSG 88

Ha Jin-woong looked at the two men covered in black cloth. He especially showed his displeasure towards the man whose clothes were disheveled from being beaten up.

“How troublesome.”

His original target was Yoo Jin-ha. Lately, Ha Jin-seong and Ha Min-hyuk had been getting along, and he himself had been assigned to an overseas branch.

That’s why Ha Jin-woong had planned to use Yoo Jin-ha to blackmail Ha Min-hyuk. He had devised a scenario to permanently keep Ha Min-hyuk out of the company and allow himself to stay here instead of going abroad. But an unexpected person had latched on.

And it was the secretary that Shin Tae-oh cherished so much…

‘What’s the reason for going this far?’

He recalled getting into a fistfight with Shin Tae-oh who suddenly appeared when he tried to lay hands on Ahn Se-hyun. Ha Jin-woong, who had been thoroughly beaten by Shin Tae-oh without even having a chance to grab the departing Se-hyun, thought irritably.

He knew Ahn Se-hyun was more than just a simple secretary to Shin Tae-oh, but he hadn’t expected things to escalate this much. After all, they knew who he was, and if they wanted to avoid making things uncomfortable, they should tread carefully.

‘Don’t you know who I am? Do you want to make an enemy of our group? What’s so special about a mere secretary…’

‘Shut up.’

Shin Tae-oh’s face was as fierce as a demon’s.

‘You started this, so you have to take responsibility.’

‘What responsibility are you talking about?’

‘The price for threatening my life.’

‘Life?’

Ha Jin-woong asked while suppressing the pain by pressing the back of his hand against his sore jaw. All he had messed with was just a secretary, or at most someone Shin Tae-oh was close to.

‘If I lose Se-hyun, I’ll die.’

As if he had no intention of talking further, Shin Tae-oh charged at him again. There was no way Ha Jin-woong could defend against someone who came at him without looking back, so he ended up getting hit more.

Usually, Shin Tae-oh was a relaxed guy who cracked jokes, but when angry, he became a madman, and when he lost it completely, he turned into a total psycho.

A guy who was originally eccentric becoming completely unhinged became the scariest person in the world. As Ha Jin-woong looked on with frightened eyes, Shin Tae-oh dusted off his clothes.

Though they had rolled around on desks and floors, making a complete mess, he seemed proud to have maintained his composure.

Recalling the time he had fought with Shin Tae-oh, Ha Jin-woong clicked his tongue in frustration.

“That psycho won’t sit still.”

As the simple task of bringing in Yoo Jin-ha became complicated, Ha Jin-woong’s face contorted.

“Sir, the Director is calling,” said the man next to him, politely holding Ha Jin-woong’s phone with both hands.

“Why now of all times?”

Ha Jin-woong let out a sigh. He had acted on his own without telling Ha Jin-seong, so he needed to keep it a secret, but the call came at just the wrong time.

“What should we do?”

“Just shut up and wait.”

His head throbbed as a headache started to set in, and Jin-woong pressed his temples. Shin Tae-oh was a psycho and Ha Jin-seong was a bastard.

“Damn it.”

A groan escaped as he realized that both Ha Jin-seong and Shin Tae-oh were formidable individuals.

“The call ended.”

At the man’s words, Ha Jin-woong turned around as if it was for the best.

“Turn off the phone.”

“Then how will you call Ha Min-hyuk?”

“Tch, use yours.”

At Ha Jin-woong’s look of exasperation, the man took out his own phone and held it out. Ha Jin-woong snatched the man’s phone and was about to call Ha Min-hyuk when he suddenly frowned.

“The number.”

“I’m sorry.”

As the man hurriedly tried to find someone who knew Ha Min-hyuk’s number, Ha Jin-woong clicked his tongue.

“What? Are you going to openly say we kidnapped Ha Min-hyuk’s Omega?”
Things weren’t going smoothly as he tried to use this muscle-head who didn’t know how to use his brain.

“Bring me my phone.”

Thinking it would be faster to handle it himself, Ha Jin-woong turned on his own phone, transferred Ha Min-hyuk’s number, and then turned it off again.

“Should we keep this guy here?”

As the man pointed at Se-hyun and asked, Ha Jin-woong answered irritably.

“What else can we do? If we let him go, he’ll tell where Yoo Jin-ha is, and dealing with him… forget it. Let’s not talk about it.”

The mere thought of killing him and how Shin Tae-oh might react made him shudder.

“He’s like a bomb that we can’t keep but also can’t get rid of. Just guard him well.”

After Ha Jin-woong left, only two guards remained. They briefly glanced at the two kidnapped individuals before turning away to chat.

“Got any cigarettes left?”

“F*ck off.”

“Really? You won’t give me any?”

“Shut up.”

Amidst their snickering conversation full of curses and sarcasm, Se-hyun quietly raised his upper body.

Though his vision was obscured by the black cloth over his face, he could feel something that seemed like Yoo Jin-ha where his feet touched.

Se-hyun, leaning his body against what felt like a wooden board behind him, let out a long, thin breath. In the car, he had seen the men use a handkerchief to cover Yoo Jin-ha’s nose and mouth, making him lose consciousness. Knowing he was next, he had struggled fiercely until one of the men struck the back of his neck, causing him to collapse helplessly.

Or more accurately, he pretended to collapse.

‘Passing out isn’t as easy as I thought.’

In movies, people would lose consciousness immediately when hit on the back of the neck, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

It was good that he could still be aware of what was happening while pretending to be unconscious.

Wondering if they had noticed him waking up, he listened carefully, but they were still chatting among themselves. While it was fortunate they hadn’t noticed, it still left him with a bitter feeling.

‘The timing of this is really something…’

He had been drinking with Yoo Jin-ha, talking about the original story and fate. And just as he seemed to waver, as if on cue, Ha Jin-seong and Ha Jin-woong’s actions from the original story played out exactly the same.

‘Is this the first time?’

The first time he had moved according to his own will instead of following the flow of the original story.

This situation of being kidnapped along with Yoo Jin-ha, with his hands tied… strangely felt liberating.

The uneasiness he had felt about Shin Tae-oh joining the consortium and falling for him instead of Yoo Jin-ha all settled down.

‘I guess this is my fate.’

As Yoo Jin-ha had said, it was a new fate created by his own choices. It felt like he had created his own path instead of following the original story exactly.

So, Shin Tae-oh too…

‘No. Shin Tae-oh comes later.’

Right now, the priority was escaping this place with Yoo Jin-ha, not Shin Tae-oh.

He had to act before Ha Min-hyuk showed up to protect Yoo Jin-ha, risking his own safety.

‘I need to watch for an opportunity.’

As Se-hyun was planning to move when he could avoid the guards’ attention, the chance came sooner than expected.

“Ah, I’m dying for a smoke. Let’s go out and buy some.”

“What? What if they wake up?”

“They’re all tied up anyway, so what if they wake up? Let’s go.”

“It’s annoying to walk all the way there.”

From the voice full of reluctance, it seemed like they would go despite the complaints.

‘There must be a convenience store or at least a small shop within walking distance.’

The sound of the two men’s footsteps faded as they apparently decided to go buy cigarettes. As soon as he realized the guards were gone, Se-hyun clenched his fists tightly. The cable tie binding his wrists dug into his flesh, causing a stinging pain.

He relaxed his hands, as he had no intention of breaking the tie with force anyway. Instead, Se-hyun counted internally.

‘One, two… three.’

Se-hyun pushed the wooden board he was leaning against with all his might.

“Ugh.”

With the cracking sound of the board breaking, a groan escaped Se-hyun’s lips.

⍣⍣⍣

‘The phone you are trying to reach is currently switched off. Please leave a message after the beep…’

Ha Jin-seong looked down at his phone. Earlier it wasn’t answered, and now it was turned off.

“This is suspicious.”

Just as he was wondering if he should look for where Ha Jin-woong was and what he was doing, there was a loud knocking on the door. Ha Jin-seong frowned and looked up from his phone.

“What is it?”

Open the door! At the shouted demand accompanying the knocking, Ha Jin-seong muttered with a puzzled expression.

“Shin Tae-oh?”

The voice was clearly Shin Tae-oh’s. How did he know which hotel he was staying at in the middle of the night? Ha Jin-seong opened the door with an annoyed look.

“What is this about? Why are you coming here—ugh.”

Ha Jin-seong, who was about to ask why he had come, let out a stifled groan as he was immediately grabbed by the collar.

“Call Ha Jin-woong.”

“What?”

“I said to call that bastard brother of yours.”

“Why are you coming to me to find him?”

As Ha Jin-seong tried to roughly push away the hand gripping his collar, but all it did was tear his clothes— and Shin Tae-oh didn’t budge.

They were both men and Alphas. Although Shin Tae-oh was slightly larger in build, it was unbelievable that the difference in strength was so great that Ha Jin-seong couldn’t remove his hand.

“You…”

“It would be better for you to bring him right now.”

As Ha Jin-seong silently glared at Shin Tae-oh’s low-voiced threat, another person rushed in.

“And who the hell are you? Why are you looking at me like that…”

Ha Jin-seong sighed as he saw Ha Min-hyuk.

“Ha Jin-woong kidnapped Jin-ha.”

Ha Min-hyuk muttered, holding onto his patience that seemed about to snap at any moment.

“We need to find out where they are quickly. So that Jin-ha…”

“Ha Min-hyuk.”

Shin Tae-oh called Ha Min-hyuk’s name while still glaring at Ha Jin-seong.

“The conversation’s getting derailed, so wait.”

“Is this really the time to worry about that?”

“If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have told you.”

After all, it was Shin Tae-oh who had informed him that Yoo Jin-ha had been kidnapped too. Without even glancing at Ha Min-hyuk, Shin Tae-oh scrutinized Ha Jin-seong.

Shin Tae-oh’s gaze, which seemed to be searching for any resemblance to Ha Jin-woong as he thoroughly examined Ha Jin-seong’s face, grew increasingly cold.

“Ahn Se-hyun comes first.”

So bring Ha Jin-woong while I’m still asking nicely.