SLC 74

Throughout the entire meal, Kim Jinkyung kept watching Mok Seongha. After the funeral ended, he looked no different from usual. His eyes had reddened a few times, but Mok Seongha finished all the procedures more calmly than expected.

“What’s wrong?”

Mok Seongha asked when their eyes met.

“It’s nothing.”

Kim Jinkyung answered.

Is he really okay?

They stayed together at the funeral hall, but Mok Seongha looked so busy that they hardly had a proper conversation for several days. This meal was also the first food he ate after coming home and sleeping all day.

“Teacher. We’re doing it later in your room, right?”

“Huh?”

“The math lesson. Today’s the day.”

“Oh, right. That’s true.”

Mok Seongha watched Kim Jinkyung respond a beat late, then laughed.

“Were you spacing out? Thinking dirty thoughts?”

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t.”

“You know your face is really red right now?”

Mok Seongha reached out and playfully tugged at Kim Jinkyung’s collar. The latter quickly straightened his collar and turned his head away.

Is he really okay?

When their eyes met again, Mok Seongha asked if he wanted water and handed him a cup.

“Thank you.”

After the meal, Mok Seongha brought a book and came to Kim Jinkyung’s room.

“You’re really going to do it?”

“Why wouldn’t I? You don’t want to?”

“No. That’s not it. You can rest a bit.”

Mok Seongha had not slept for more than three days. He was the only chief mourner, so he had to receive countless visitors by himself. Even if Secretary Kang and the hired staff handled the minor tasks, he still had to pay attention to everything one by one. Even with his exceptional stamina, it was natural that he would be exhausted.

“I’m fine. I’m not that tired. I slept all day yesterday.”

After returning from the funeral, Mok Seongha climbed into bed without even taking off his mourning clothes, pulled Kim Jinkyung into his arms, and fell asleep. Kim Jinkyung fell asleep with him. After sleeping for a long time, he woke up to see Mok Seongha already awake, leaning against the window and staring blankly down at the garden.

He wasn’t crying, and his face didn’t look sad. He just stared outside without focus. That expression looked like a lost child, and it stayed on Kim Jinkyung’s mind.

Because of that, Kim Jinkyung kept watching Mok Seongha all day.

“You want to mess around with me?”

Kim Jinkyung shook his head at Mok Seongha’s question.

“Rest today.”

“I have nothing to do. You know that.”

The words “nothing to do” sounded strangely sad. Kim Jinkyung closed the book.

“Do you want to watch a movie?”

“I can’t go out. I’m not allo…”

Mok Seongha stopped mid sentence. Now, there was no one left who would scold him for going outside.

“Should we go out?”

Mok Seongha stood up.

“No, let’s watch it here.”

Kim Jinkyung grabbed Mok Seongha’s sleeve.

“Here?”

“Yes. Going out is a hassle.”

He brought over his laptop and logged into a movie streaming site.

“Is there anything you want to watch?”

“Well…”

Mok Seongha started choosing a movie with a serious face. Kim Jinkyung expected him to pick a smash everything action movie, but instead, Mok Seongha chose a quiet romance film.

“You’re really going to watch this?”

“Why? You don’t like this kind of thing?”

“No. It’s just… this is a romance movie.”

“A man and a woman acting like that. Of course it’s a romance.”

Mok Seongha answered as if it was obvious, then frowned slightly as something seemed to occur to him.

“You’ve seen this before?”

“…Yes.”

Kim Jinkyung honestly answered without thinking.

“With who? Where? Why did you watch it!”

If he asked why he watched the movie, Kim Jinkyung had no good answer.

“I watched it alone. It was on OTT (technology that delivers streamed content via internet-connected devices), so I watched it at home.”

“Then put something else on.”

“No. I saw it a while ago, so I don’t remember it. I want to watch it again.”

Kim Jinkyung quickly clicked the play button. He wanted to watch the movie Mok Seongha chose together.

While they watched the movie lying on the bed, Mok Seongha was focused on the screen and remained quiet, which was surprising.

The story followed a male lead who had the ability to time travel. He met a woman by chance, fell in love, and came to understand the value of the present.

Kim Jinkyung looked at the side profile of the man as he stared intently at the small laptop screen.

The area under his eyes looked a bit red. Is it because he’s tired? Or did he cry when he was alone?

“You should watch the movie. Why are you looking at my face?”

Mok Seongha said. Kim Jinkyung quickly turned his head back to the screen.

“Is it boring?”

“No. It’s fun… what about you, Seongha-ssi?”

“It’s boring.”

He answered without hesitation.

“I picked it because I was curious how other people date, but it’s damn boring.”

Who would ever have a more spectacular romance than us? Can this even be sorted into a genre? It isn’t romance, it isn’t fantasy… should it be called a transformation story?

Kim Jinkyung asked if he should turn it off. He suggested watching the movie to help relieve stress, and there was no reason to force himself through something boring.

“Teacher.”

Mok Seongha suddenly called him.

“Yes?”

“If you could turn back time, when would you go back to? Within the last month.”

The question came out of nowhere. Kim Jinkyung hesitated and said he wasn’t sure. There was too many embarrassing moments he wanted to erase.

“For starters, I wouldn’t go to the airport.”

Kim Jinkyung’s answer made Mok Seongha laugh. There were far too many moments that came to mind.

“What about you, Seongha-ssi?”

“The day I came back to the mansion.”

Kim Jinkyung thought Mok Seongha would mention the airport too, so the different answer surprised him a little.

“Why? Because you got scolded that day?”

“I did get scolded. But… that day, I told my grandfather a wish.”

“What wish?”

“He said before that he would grant me one wish, so I told him not to die. He said he wouldn’t die either.”

“……”

When Kim Jinkyung imagined how Mok Seongha must have felt when he made an unfulfillable promise into a wish, his heart hurt.

“But when I got back home, my grandfather suddenly told me to make one more wish. He said he would grant it.”

Each time the screen changed, a bright light spread across Mok Seongha’s face.

“So I told him I didn’t want to get married. I said I wanted to live with you, teacher.”

Mok Seongha continued speaking without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Then my grandfather handed me the contract, like he had been waiting for it. Honestly, I didn’t think much about it then. I was just happy. I didn’t have to get married, and I could live with you. I was just happy.”

“Why would that…”

“I was supposed to make one wish.”

Mok Seongha’s brows creased.

“So I think that’s why he died. Because of me.”

“No. That’s absolutely not true.”

Kim Jinkyung quickly grabbed Mok Seongha’s shoulders.

“Seongha-ssi. Don’t think like that.”

“Then why did he die?”

Mok Seongha asked while looking at Kim Jinkyung.

“It’s because I made one more wish. No matter how I think about it, there’s no other reason.”

Kim Jinkyung tightened his grip on Mok Seongha. Sometimes his thoughts went in a direction that was hard to understand. Kim Jinkyung’s heart ached when he thought about him holding onto those thoughts while getting through the funeral alone.

“The reason Chairman Choi passed away isn’t you, Seongha-ssi. The reason he was able to hold on until now was you.”

Kim Jinkyung remembered what Chairman Choi had said to him that day.

“Do you remember a few days ago, when Chairman Choi called only me?”

“Yeah.”

Kim Jinkyung wasn’t the only one who felt tense after getting that call. Mok Seongha insisted on going along until the end, but Secretary Kang stopped him. In the end, Mok Seongha grabbed Kim Jinkyung’s hand at the door and warned him.

‘Hey. No matter how much money the chairman offers you, don’t say you’ll break up with me. I’ll pay you double that amount.’

‘……’

‘Triple it. No, I’ll give you five times as much. Got it?’

Kim Jinkyung told him not to worry and went inside, part of him thought he might hear something like that. But he heard a completely different request.

“That day, the chairman showed me photos of you when you were young, Seongha-ssi.”

“What kind of photos?”

“From when you first came here, when you were a little older than that… photos from when you were much younger than you are now.”

While looking at the worn photographs, Kim Jinkyung thought about how Chairman Choi must have looked at those pictures over a long time.

“And those photos were hidden in the deepest part of the safe. Deeper than gold bars or diamonds.”

Mok Seongha couldn’t fail to understand what that meant. Even if Kim Jinkyung didn’t know everything that had happened between them, their affection for each other had been real.

“It isn’t because of you, Seongha-ssi.”

Kim Jinkyung looked at him as he spoke. He had to cut off that irrational thought before it took root in Mok Seongha’s mind.

“If the chairman knew you were thinking like that, he would definitely be angry.”

“…I hope so.”

Mok Seongha murmured and buried his head against Kim Jinkyung’s shoulder.

“I want him to get angry at me and yell at me.”

Kim Jinkyung hugged Mok Seongha without saying a word.

On the laptop screen, the characters smiled brightly against the backdrop of a ruined wedding on a stormy day. That unrealistic happiness felt distant.

Rain kept falling outside the window. Kim Jinkyung held Mok Seongha for a long time and listened to the sound of the rain.

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Crash!

Kim Jinkyung was startled out of his sleep by the sound of something breaking. He had turned off the movie earlier and lay on the bed with Mok Seongha, talking about random things before falling asleep around 1 a.m.

What was that noise?

Before he could fully process what he heard, another sound followed. He quickly sat up in bed. Mok Seongha wasn’t there.

“Seongha-ssi.”

Kim Jinkyung called his name, but he didn’t answer. He felt a chill run up his spine. Another crashing noise echoed. Outside the room, light flowed from the study.

Kim Jinkyung ran toward it.

The moment he stepped into the study, Kim Jinkyung’s breath hitched. Mok Seongha was there. The floor was littered with a shattered safe and scattered papers, and his hand was bleeding.

“Seongha…”

Mok Seongha slowly turned around. His pupils were constricted. Kim Jinkyung felt a déjà vu. He remembered they made eye contact like this in a similar scene before.

“Why… what happened?”

Kim Jinkyung rushed to him. Blood flowed nonstop from torn flesh, and he couldn’t even tell where Mok Seongha had cut his hand. Even with fast healing, this much bleeding was obviously dangerous.

“Let’s go to the hospital. We should go to the hospital first and get you treated…”

“You knew too?”

“Huh?”

“About my parents.”

Kim Jinkyung had no idea what he meant. He blinked, then asked what he was talking about.

“That I was at the accident scene too.”

“Ah… yes. Chairman Choi mentioned it before, so I knew.”

Mok Seongha took a deep breath.

Kim Jinkyung noticed the notebook and photos in his hand. The pages were filled with dense writing, and the name Suhyeon appeared here and there. Only then did Kim Jinkyung realize that the old man had kept this as a diary.

‘Hey. What kind of photos were they?’

‘Huh?’

Mok Seongha had suddenly asked before they fell asleep.

‘The photos he showed you.’

‘Ah… just photos from when you were young. You were really small.’

‘Of course I was small. I was younger.’

He sounded a bit sulky prompting Kim Jinkyung to add more.

‘You were really cute. I should’ve asked for one photo. I regret it.’

‘You want one?’

‘Yes. I want one.’

After saying that, Kim Jinkyung really wanted a photo. He wanted one moment from a time of Mok Seongha he never knew.

‘…It would be nice to have one.’

‘Okay.’

The conversation ended there. Sleep washed over him, and Kim Jinkyung closed his eyes again. If he had known that Mok Seongha would rummage through the study to find photos and that this would happen, he would never have said those words.

“Then you knew that my father killed my mother too?”

“Huh?”

“You knew that my father was shot dead while tearing into my mother’s corpse?”

Mok Seongha’s golden eyes flickered with rage. His breathing was ragged. Kim Jinkyung realized that he was about to lose control.

“I didn’t… I didn’t know.”

“Young master!”

Secretary Kang rushed in too late. His expression hardened when he saw the study.

“You knew too?”

Mok Seongha asked while looking at Secretary Kang.

“What are you referring to?”

“My father, that fucking animal bastard, tearing into my mother while she was pregnant with my younger sibling!”

“Young master, that isn’t a confirmed fact. The situation back then…”

Mok Seongha threw the diary. It flew past Secretary Kang and hit the wall before dropping to the floor.

“So there was circumstantial evidence.”

His voice was cold enough to make their skin crawl. Mok Seongha assessed situations quickly and accurately. That trait was exactly like Chairman Choi.

“And at the very least, you knew about it.”

“…Young master.”

“Of course you did.”

Mok Seongha clenched his fist. Blood trickled down until his pant leg was soaked.

Kim Jinkyung was frozen, pale, staring only at Mok Seongha’s hand.

“…Of course he hated me.”

Mok Seongha spoke through clenched teeth. His vertical pupils laid his fury bare.

“I carry the blood of that kind of animal…”

He retched mid sentence.

“Seongha-ssi!”

Kim Jinkyung ran toward him in shock.

“Don’t touch me!”

Mok Seongha slapped Kim Jinkyung’s hand away. His sharpened claws lashed out without thought and scratched the back of Kim Jinkyung’s hand. He flinched, and Mok Seongha tried to grab him before pulling his hand back.

Blood ran down Kim Jinkyung’s pale skin and soaked into his collar. The moment the sweet scent of Kim Jinkyung’s blood reached his nose, Mok Seongha started retching again.

“Seongha-ssi, are you okay? I…”

“Get away.”

Mok Seongha glared at Kim Jinkyung as he spoke.

“Don’t… touch.”

Kim Jinkyung understood who the warning was really for. Mok Seongha’s gaze was fixed on the wound on his hand.

“It’s okay. It’s nothing.”

Kim Jinkyung quickly hid his hand behind his back.

“For now, maybe.”

Mok Seongha spoke with his head lowered.

“For now.”

He repeated the words.

“Seongha…”

“Don’t follow me… please.”

Mok Seongha left the study.

Kim Jinkyung quietly gathered the scattered papers and books in the study. Secretary Kang helped beside him.

“…Is it true?”

At Kim Jinkyung’s question, Secretary Kang brushed glass shards off a book and asked what he meant.

“What Seongha-ssi said earlier.”

“I don’t know.”

“But earlier, you clearly…”

“We received photos and reports that suggested that possibility. No one knows the truth.”

“Then it isn’t a fact.”

Secretary Kang shook the glass shards off his hands, looked at Kim Jinkyung, and called out to him.

“Teacher Kim.”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember that day it was raining, when the young master had a seizure in the car?”

“…Yes.”

“There was a similar incident before. One of the bodyguards who was in the car with him that time almost had his arm severed from here.”

Secretary Kang continued while pointing his own elbow.

“The other one had his wrist bones completely broken and needed surgery that lasted more than a full day. All the tendons were severed too. I was injured a bit back then as well.”

Secretary Kang tapped the scar on his own face.

‘Did I… do that?’

After regaining consciousness in the motel room, Mok Seongha had asked with eyes full of fear.

“No one knows what exactly happened in the car that day. There were no witnesses at the accident scene.”

Officially, that was the case.

…There were people at the accident scene, but no one remembered it.

Judging by the violence Mok Seongha displayed when he lost control and had a seizure, it was possible that his father had also gone into shock at the scene and became violent.

Mok Seongha couldn’t have been unaware of that possibility.

“Was his mother… pregnant with Seongha-ssi’s younger sibling?”

“Yes. That was something we only learned later through the autopsy.”

“……”

The tragedy was so devastating that he didn’t know what to say. No one could dare imagine Chairman Choi’s feelings, he lost his daughter and a grandchild he never even saw in one day. The same went for the child who witnessed everything with his own eyes and yet remembered nothing because of the shock.

Kim Jinkyung picked up the diary Mok Seongha had thrown earlier. The pages filled with writing were stained with Mok Seongha’s blood. He quickly wiped the blood off on his own clothes. Secretary Kang watched silently.

“This is the chairman’s diary…”

Kim Jinkyung looked down at the page without thinking and froze.

It was filled with rage. Burning rage toward the man who took his daughter, who killed his daughter.

The pages were covered with curses that bordered on malediction.

Kim Jinkyung closed the diary with trembling hands. He wished Mok Seongha had not read it, but he knew it was impossible. The page was soaked with Mok Seongha’s blood.

“…At first, the chairman couldn’t even look properly at the younger young master.”

Secretary Kang continued while gathering the glass shards.

“He only made sure the young master ate, then left the room. He did bring him back home after finding him, but once he actually faced him, it seemed to cause him great pain. The young master stayed in the form of a panther for a while.”

His voice, which sounded almost like he was making excuses for Chairman Choi, blended with the rattling sound of glass pieces he was collecting.

“He was a man who never touched alcohol in his life, but after that accident, he couldn’t sleep without drinking. His health declined because of it. The young master doesn’t know this, but the chairman said he was going on an overseas business trip and underwent heart surgery there as well.”

“Then at that time…”

“Yes. The time when the young master suddenly transformed and was captured.”

So after waking up from surgery, he immediately brought in a panther from another country for the sake of his grandson?

“…I keep talking from the chairman’s side.”

Secretary Kang seemed to realize that he was explaining Chairman Choi’s position, and he fell silent.

It wasn’t something that could be blamed on anyone. It was simply misfortune. There were no bad people. A chain of tragedies had driven everyone into a corner. And Mok Seongha was standing at the end of it.

“He’s in the garden right now?”

Kim Jinkyung murmured while looking out the window. Secretary Kang answered yes. CCTV cameras were installed throughout the house, he knew Mok Seongha’s location at all times.

When Kim Jinkyung tried to follow Mok Seongha, Secretary Kang stopped him.

“Treat your wound first.”

He knew exactly what would provoke Mok Seongha right now. Kim Jinkyung had no choice but to disinfect the back of his hand and cover it with gauze.

He was about to leave, but when he saw the mess in the room, he bent down and started organizing the books. It was a habit ingrained in his body.

What should I say to him?

Kim Jinkyung tried to collect his thoughts while lining the books up, but nothing came to mind. He couldn’t imagine how Mok Seongha felt. He couldn’t carelessly say phrases like “it’s okay” or “the chairman didn’t really mean it” in a situation like this.

I shouldn’t have brought up the photos…

Regret didn’t help. Suddenly, a soft pattering sound hit the window. Kim Jinkyung lifted his head. The rain, which had stopped earlier in the day, had started falling again.

…This really isn’t easy, Chairman Choi.

Kim Jinkyung sighed as he stood before the greatest dilemma he had chosen to face in his life.