Unhealthy - Chapter 53

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 53. Missing

 

It took about another week for Taejun to regain consciousness and be discharged from the hospital.

 

As his wounds healed, the feverish guilt that had been weighing him down seemed to gradually subside as well.

 

Every morning, Taejun stared at the bare tree branches visible outside the window, ruminating over the wreckage he had destroyed with his own hands.

 

News of Gi Chairman’s arrest and investigation decorated the social pages daily, and Jiwon Group was swaying like a massive shipwreck that had lost its captain.

 

During that week, Hae-yeong stayed by his hospital room every day.

 

She didn’t exchange many words with Taejun. The quiet after the storm passed was closer to silence rather than peace.

 

As soon as Taejun could sit up, he hurried to be discharged.

 

The helplessness that the hospital space gave him was rather poison to him.

 

When he finished the discharge procedures and came out to the hospital lobby, Secretary Lee was waiting.

 

“Director, where shall I take you?”

 

Taejun looked back at Hae-yeong. He had things to organize at home.

 

However, that house was no longer a place Hae-yeong wanted to return to.

 

It would be too much to take her back to that space where traces of the enemy who killed her father lingered everywhere, and cold malice pervaded.

 

Taejun stared briefly at the luggage bag in Hae-yeong’s hands, then shifted his gaze to Secretary Lee.

 

“I’ll go on my own, so take Hae-yeong to a hotel.”

 

Hae-yeong’s eyes widened as she stood holding her luggage bag.

 

“A hotel?”

 

“I’m going home.”

 

When Taejun replied indifferently, Hae-yeong’s complexion instantly darkened as if falling into a deep abyss.

 

She stared blankly down at the smooth floor of the hospital lobby, then struggled to part her lips.

 

“I don’t want to go there…”

 

“I’ll find you a house to live in right away. For now, stay at the hotel even if it’s uncomfortable.”

 

Taejun patted Hae-yeong’s shoulder with a firm touch as if he understood all of her precariousness, then turned and walked ahead.

 

Was it because he realized the fact that he could no longer be with Hae-yeong, who always followed beside him and walked alongside him?

 

With each step he took, one side of his chest ached more sharply than the wound at his waist.

 

As Taejun was walking while taking a deep breath, his clothes were pulled taut as if caught on something. No, more precisely, it wasn’t caught but held by someone’s desperate grip.

 

“Can’t you just pack what you need and come to the hotel together?”

 

“…”

 

The hem of clothes that Hae-yeong grabbed stretched long. The force in her grip was transmitted through the fabric directly to Taejun’s back.

 

“You said a woman shouldn’t stay alone at a hotel…”

 

It seemed she remembered and hadn’t forgotten what he had said long ago.

 

Taejun looked at Secretary Lee’s troubled gaze standing behind them, then slowly turned his head toward Hae-yeong.

 

Taejun, who had been looking down at her for a long time with eyes rippling with complex emotions, murmured lowly.

 

“I’m not confident.”

 

“…Confident about what?”

 

“Confident I won’t touch you.”

 

Hae-yeong’s brow furrowed fiercely.

 

At his blatant confession that instantly shattered the solemn atmosphere, Hae-yeong’s face heated up in an instant.

 

“Don’t you realize you’re the one who’s injured? Or do you have no awareness of what the current situation is…”

 

Watching Hae-yeong with wide, flushed eyes continuing her nagging, Taejun felt an unbearable thirst.

 

He eventually pulled the nagging Hae-yeong into his arms. The wound at his waist throbbed from the reaction, but Taejun didn’t mind it much.

 

He pushed Hae-yeong’s scent deep into his lungs as if swallowing it, then pulled her waist tightly toward him.

 

“If I cling to you again like this, I feel like I won’t be able to let go.”

 

Hae-yeong, held in his arms, hesitated with her hands floating awkwardly in the air as if flustered, then carefully wrapped them around Taejun’s waist.

 

When his body temperature touched her, Hae-yeong exhaled a sigh mixed with relief and buried her face in his chest.

 

“You said you’d do everything I tell you to do until I push you away.”

 

“I did.”

 

Taejun also closed his eyes and quietly replied while feeling Hae-yeong’s warmth.

 

Among the noise filling all directions, only her presence became a clear reality supporting Taejun.

 

“Promise you won’t let go until I let go, hurry.”

 

At Hae-yeong’s urging, Taejun slowly nodded and gently cupped the back of her head.

 

“Promise you’ll only love me. Promise you won’t look at anyone else.”

 

“I can’t promise that.”

 

“Why? Are you going to meet someone else? Are you going to marry another woman?”

 

Hae-yeong lifted her head from his arms and glared at him with eyes mixed with disappointment.

 

Taejun quietly looked into Hae-yeong’s clear eyes, then added in a playful voice.

 

“No, that’s not it.”

 

“…Then?”

 

“If a child who looks like you is born, I might look away for a moment.”

 

When Taejun uttered words that could be either a joke or a wish for the distant future, Hae-yeong glared up at him fiercely.

 

But only after seeing Taejun’s face smiling faintly did the anxiety that had been forming in her eyes disappear as if washed away.

 

***

 

While stopping by the house to organize his luggage, Secretary Lee, who had followed saying he had something to report, hesitated to speak.

 

Taejun stopped at the doorway and immediately noticed Secretary Lee’s expression as he observed his complexion.

 

Intuiting that what hung at the end of that heavy silence was by no means light news, Taejun’s eyes sharpened.

 

“Um, Director.”

 

“Speak.”

 

Taejun’s hands, which had been moving busily, paused.

 

“About your younger brother.”

 

“…Gi Jae-jun?”

 

Taejun’s voice dropped a level. It was a name that should have naturally surfaced along with Gi Chairman’s downfall.

 

But during the past week, even in that chaos where the whole world was boiling with Jiwon Group’s scandal, Gi Jae-jun hadn’t shown even a trace of himself.

 

As if he had never existed in this world from the beginning, the silence without even a single common excuse felt rather dangerous.

 

“Yes, he still hasn’t returned to Korea.”

 

“Still?”

 

One of Taejun’s eyebrows rose fiercely. It was unexpected that Gi Jae-jun was hiding even in the face of the unprecedented situation of Gi Chairman’s arrest.

 

The usual Gi Jae-jun would have been the first to come running and bow his head at Taejun’s feet with his servile face, even if just to secure a little more of his own interests.

 

He knew that it was Gi Jae-jun’s nature as a human being to drool while watching for opportunities, whether his father went to prison or not.

 

“When we looked into it, the rental car is overdue for return but still hasn’t been brought in. At the local accommodation too, he hasn’t been seen for several days, leaving only his luggage behind.”

 

“Why?”

 

An ominous premonition that Gi Jae-jun hadn’t simply delayed his schedule, but had been forcibly erased by someone, flowed coolly down his spine.

 

Weren’t both of them desperately trying to bring Hae-yeong’s aunt, An Ji-min, to Korea?

 

The thought crossed his mind that Gi Chairman would have more than enough reason to pressure Gi Jae-jun to bring An Ji-min.

 

Could it be that the poisonous rat, driven to the extreme, tried to pounce on a cornered cat but was instead pierced by its claws?

 

“The gap is too long to see it as simple deviation. According to confirmation through the local embassy, there are no records of departure to other countries either.”

 

Taejun gazed at the vast garden of the estate visible outside the study window.

 

Had Gi Jae-jun pressured An Ji-min too forcefully and caused an unexpected accident?

 

It was a hypothesis he didn’t want to contemplate.

 

Taejun listened to Secretary Lee’s report, who still knew nothing, while gauging the other ripple effects this strange disappearance might bring.

 

Gi Jae-jun’s absence was an opportunity that could instantly make the succession structure of Jiwon Group’s management rights Taejun’s solo stage, but at the same time, it felt like a harbinger of another tragedy hidden in the darkness.

 

Taejun gazed into space with cold eyes and murmured.

 

“Mobilize the local contact network to track his movements. Search thoroughly starting from where the rental car was last found.”

 

Taejun pressed his lips firmly together, intuitively sensing that this incident would be an unexpected final piece in his revenge drama.

 

“And find just one house for Hae-yeong to live in. Near Hae-yeong’s university.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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