TIN 76

“It’s upsetting from a father’s perspective.”

The way he clicked his tongue seemed cunning. As my complicated mind cooled down, things I had overlooked before started to bother me little by little.

Come to think of it, there were many strange parts. Wouldn’t it have been simpler to kill the real person rather than fabricate a corpse? Why didn’t Chairman Joo do that? If 4HAE Group had taken action, finding one child would have been no big deal, so why didn’t they search further and decide to leave me alone like that?

I thought perhaps they had mistakenly killed someone else thinking it was me, but unfortunately, that possibility was low. As soon as I thought about it, Joo Do-hwa’s words came to mind.

‘Because he was wearing the same clothes as you, father must have thought it was you.’

At that time, I was wearing expensive clothes that Logan had provided for me. A child wearing such high-end clothes would have been too well-off to be mistaken for someone like me. The chances of a child of similar age accidentally wearing the same clothes and drowning in the sea were also slim, so the fact that ‘they fabricated another child’s corpse to look like me’ wouldn’t change matters.

“It’s not like the dead will come back to life anyway.”

Yet Chairman Joo, who should have been the culprit, said I was dead. He smiled with satisfaction as if everything was going according to plan, saying he retrieved the body with his own hands. Far from recognizing me standing right in front of him, he didn’t even suspect that I might be the real ‘hyung’.’

“…”

This person in front of me didn’t know either.

No, he believed he killed me.

As soon as I reached this conclusion, a question arose. It was strange that the child drowned in the sea, similar to the doubt Joo Do-hwa had expressed to me afterward.

‘Who killed him?’

Who was the deceiver?

Who was it that fabricated my death, my corpse, and blinded Chairman Joo’s eyes?

“Still, our child…”

I lowered my head and looked around with only my eyes moving around. In what seemed to be a reception room, there were only Chairman Joo, Henry, and me. The person I was looking for wasn’t among them, so I secretly held my breath and stared at my feet.

Someone of Chairman Joo’s stature wouldn’t have acted directly, and there must have been someone who was ordered to kill the child. Just like when he said to just kill me if I didn’t take the drug.

I couldn’t confirm it right now, but I thought with high probability that it would be Chairman Joo’s secretary.

Then all that remains was the reason…

“The sea.”

“…”

I jerked my head up. I had been mulling things over, letting Chairman Joo’s words go in one ear and out the other. I worried that a reprimand might come, but fortunately, he asked with a rather benevolent face.

“Does our Do-hwa hit you?”

It was the second time I had heard this question. Both from Lee Yuna and Chairman Joo.

“No…he doesn’t hit me.”

It seemed the wounds on my face caused a misunderstanding. The cheek hit by Wang Wei hadn’t healed completely, and the scab on my lip made such injuries look more serious. Neither was caused by Joo Do-hwa, but answering like this always gave me a subtle feeling.

“Well, no matter how ignorant he is about the value of things, he wouldn’t lay a hand on that pretty face.”

Chairman Joo nodded his head slowly as if to say, ‘That’s right.’ As he did so, he stared at me intently, and when our eyes met, a small wave of discomfort rushed in. Because in those pitch-black eyes, a greedy look was rising.

“If you said she hit you, I was going to take care of it…”

Chairman Joo, trailing off, narrowed his eyes. As if quite regretful, or perhaps covetous. The way he leaned his head askew while placing his hands on the desk momentarily overlapped with Joo Do-hwa’s image.

“If you need my help later, let me know.”

“…”

I didn’t answer. Not because I thought Joo Do-hwa wouldn’t hit me, but because even if he did, I didn’t want Chairman Joo’s help. I couldn’t gauge at all how he would ‘take care of it.’

“And…I wanted to ask you a favor.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

He sat down in his chair with a generous smile. Perhaps because he was such a large man, even just lowering his gaze brought me some relief.

Chairman Joo opened a drawer and took something out, placing it on the desk with a thud.

“Our Do-hwa needs to take medicine because he’s sick, but he’s so suspicious that he won’t listen to me.”

It was a transparent glass bottle. The one I had seen before, containing small pills inside.

“When she was young, that child used to feed her, but after he died, there’s no way to make him take it.”

“…”

I stared blankly at the white, round pills. They looked similar to what I remembered, and I still didn’t know what they were. I just vaguely realized that they weren’t simply medicine for when one was sick.

“As you know, these days, doing a little drugs isn’t even considered a vice…”

It was a society where you’d be considered foolish if you didn’t do drugs, let alone it being a vice. Everyone would casually smoke marijuana if they could afford it.

“Even though you’re a stand-in, doesn’t Do-hwa love you like that child?”

“…”

“Then our Do-hwa would listen to you, wouldn’t he?”

His insinuating words seemed intentionally designed to provoke my pride. As if saying, if that child could do it, couldn’t you? You should show that you were the real deal.

“So, I want you to make Do-hwa take this.”

“…”

I wanted to ask. Would he give me a week this time too? If I couldn’t make him take it within that time, would he order his secretary to kill me again?

“Don’t tell her I gave it to you. You understand me, right?”

He gently pushed the glass bottle toward me. I continued to stare blankly at the pills inside.

While outwardly it seemed like he was asking me to persuade Joo Do-hwa, in reality, it was no different from ordering me to secretly make him take the drug. Saying that child used to feed it to him when he was young, so now it was your turn. He was testing my capabilities.

Furthermore, didn’t Henry say it? That everything I saw and heard from now on was a secret. If his words were to be believed, perhaps even meeting Chairman Joo itself should be kept a secret. Not just the meeting, but also the drug I received.

But that couldn’t be possible.

All of this was ultimately nonsensical. There were CCTVs in the vast mansion, so Joo Do-hwa would surely find out that I had gone out with Henry. Everyone there were his eyes, so he might also heard about it through the mansion’s employees.

Then why did Henry do such a reckless thing? Was Chairman Joo such an enormous presence that even Henry, who was Joo Do-hwa’s man, couldn’t go against him?

…No, was it even right to say he betrayed Joo Do-hwa in the first place?

The security guards protecting the mansion didn’t express any doubts about Henry taking me out. I realized this wasn’t due to indifference but familiarity when I saw Henry submitting a report. This could only mean that it wasn’t the first time someone was brought here.

“You’re taking a long time to think.”

While I was lost in thought, Chairman Joo gently urged me. Although I knew I should accept it obediently for now, I couldn’t readily open my mouth. At the end of a string of random thoughts, I remembered what Joo Do-hwa had said.

‘You just need to perfectly deceive those people, hyung.’

‘For example, our father.’

Chairman Joo didn’t attend places where children play, and I wasn’t allowed to leave the mansion except for parties. It was contradictory to tell me to deceive him when there was no chance of meeting him. Unless he knew that I would meet Chairman Joo someday.

‘If they find out you’re fake, you’ll die.’

What if this was all a test?

“…”

I glanced over at Henry. His greenish eyes were staring at me intently. As if observing what reaction I would show.

As I unconsciously examined the buttons on Henry’s suit, Chairman Joo urged me once more.

“You need to answer.”

“Ah…”

My insides were churning. Should I reveal that I was the real one here or pretend to be the fake child and take the medicine back. Which option had a higher chance of survival? How would Chairman Joo, who said he even retrieved the corpse himself, react if I said I was the real one?

‘I won’t let them kill you this time.’

I closed my eyes tightly and slowly raised my head. The endlessly moving scale finally tipped in one direction. Of the two things I couldn’t be certain about, this was the lesser evil I chose.

“…You’re lying.”

At my quietly delivered words, Chairman Joo narrowed his eyes. His chillingly cold gaze flashed like that of a predator. I moved my lips slowly, trying not to let my breath tremble.

“Even when he was young…Do-hwa didn’t take this medicine.”

I had no memory of administering the drug. Before the week Chairman Joo spoke of came, I had run away from the mansion. Because I couldn’t bring myself to harm the child, I had decided to abandon everything and flee.

“You asked me to do the same thing back then too.”