Come Back

Where can you find a salaryman like this who goes to work in Yeouido? He looks like an actor’s profile picture.

I thought so in my heart, but in reality I couldn’t say anything. He was a socially great person, Choi Hong-seo thought he could do anything in the world as he pleased, and he was twelve years older than him and had a strong physique, but somehow he looked cute when he was shy. For no reason, the corners of my mouth tingled. But instead of smiling, I just bit my lips.

Is that the only reason I couldn’t say anything to him, because I was shy, unfamiliar, or lacked courage?

My heart, which had been beating fast, spit out more blood at once, this time in a thumping manner. I touched the related news below my profile while tearing the skin off my lips with my fingertips.

The title of today’s news caught my eye first.

Vice President Lee Hae-seong leaves for Canada tomorrow… Expecting results from North American business trip

The article I clicked on included a photo of him holding a brief press conference at the airport before a business trip.

Lee Hae-sung is one of the most well-known businessmen in South Korea, but he has kept a relatively low profile. This is in contrast to the Hanseo Group family, which is led by his cousins, who are also third-generation businessmen. The Hanseo Group siblings do not enjoy media exposure themselves, but they do not strongly prevent their private activities from being shared. In contrast, Lee Hae-sung is a quiet and focused person who is known by some as a “mysterious” person.

The general public did not know that ARA Electronics and eventually ARA Group’s leader, Lee Hae-seong, was a movie buff, and that he had personally established an investment company completely unrelated to ARA’s capital and sponsored the production of several movies. However, it was not particularly a secret up to that point.

It was completely unknown that he was a great camera collector and enjoyed taking pictures so much that he had held several exhibitions under an assumed name. It was a top secret known only to Choi Hong-seo, with the exception of one of his close personal assistants.

It was the only breathing space where understanding could exist as mere human understanding, free from roles or duties.

Choi Hong-seo scrolled down with his trembling fingertips and went back in time.

ARA Vice President Lee Hae-seong secretly and urgently leaves for Bangkok, Thailand… Why?

Vice President Lee Hae-seong returns home looking haggard

Lee Hae-seong, who got a vacation, drove to a villa himself, and some people are concerned about his health

Choi Hong-seo’s eyes lingered for a long time on several news stories he found among the ARA Electronics-related activities. The dates all pointed to the time right after he jumped from the 32nd floor in Bangkok.

You came to Bangkok… Choi Hong-seo’s hand that was biting his lips stopped. His eyes, which were reading each word of his autobiography, shook violently.

Immediately after Choi Hong-seo jumped, Lee Hae-seong left for Bangkok in a hurry, and it was not because of any official schedule related to ARA. So it would not be an absurd delusion to conclude that the sudden departure was due to Choi Hong-seo’s accident.

So… what happened after that?

What on earth happened to our relationship?

Are you disappointed that I did such a thing? You are, aren’t you? No, maybe… you found out the whole story of the X-kun scandal and completely lost interest in me from there…

So, there is no future or anything for me like this…

The side profile of him driving the car and leaving the parking lot of his Seocho-dong home was not very clear. It was taken at night and through a tinted window.

But it was still good. His face, which had always shown a soft and affectionate expression, was sharp and sensitive like that of a stranger, but it was good to see him alive and breathing in this world.

But now it’s all over.

The gentleness, affection, caution, and secrets he had were no longer mine. I had given them back to him with my own hands. No, perhaps he might think that he had not received them back, but had been cruelly thrown away. I had stood on the 32nd floor and thrown away all the precious values ​​he had given me like scraps of paper.

Not only his fingers, but Choi Hong-seo’s entire body began to tremble violently.

The stomach was full. I was told to call immediately if there was anything wrong, but I didn’t think I could wait for the nurse to come. I ran to the bathroom in the single-person room. I could walk slowly, but I couldn’t run normally. I had to crawl several times with my knees bent before I could get to the bathroom.

After coming to, all he could swallow was three or four sips of water, but Choi Hong-seo vomited out an unidentifiable yellow liquid.

After barely getting up from the toilet, I held on to the edge of the sink and braced myself. I wiped my mouth with the back of my wet hand and inadvertently made eye contact with myself in the mirror.

“… … ”

Shhhhhhhhh. Water kept pouring down in the capital, and Choi Hongseo couldn’t even scream.

The people who came to my hospital room and spoke to me in a friendly manner were strange to me. It was nothing special.

Compared to the face in the mirror, it’s a completely unfamiliar one.

@

It was the end of midsummer.

Even though it is still barely in the peak summer season, it feels like it has cooled down a bit compared to the sweltering heat of the time.

Lee Hae-seong sat on a single sofa by the window, staring at his tablet screen. Smoke that looked unusually pale slowly rose from the cigarette in his fingers.

He had been living in two houses, one in Bundang and one in Seocho-dong, and he recently moved to this Hannam-dong mansion. This was also his property, but he had always rented it out and never actually lived there.

This was also the last place Hongseo stayed with his group members.

So after ‘that accident’ I couldn’t rent it to anyone else, and so for a long time after that I couldn’t even think of setting foot here.

In that way, Hae-Seong left this place alone for a while, without letting anyone touch it. It was as if he was trying to solidify Choi Hong-Seo’s traces in this form in time.

Confirming Choi Hong-seo’s traces was like confirming his absence… so staying in this house was still painful.

But now I have decided not to try so hard to shake it off and forget it. I have tried enough, and I have learned enough that it is useless in this kind of thing. Just as it is useless to try not to like someone, it is also useless to try to forget someone.

Rather than trying to forget, it was better to miss it in its traces. Because even while trying to forget, I still missed it.

With his eyes fixed on the news on the tablet screen, Hae-seong shook the ashes into the ashtray.

The material that Lee Hae-seong was currently reading carefully on his tablet was articles about his cousin, Lee Seo-gyeong. To be exact, it was an article about Lee Seo-gyeong’s death.

All the problems started with the ‘X-Group Scandal’. That was the fuse.

A scandal with provocative content that actor X, formerly from an idol group, was actually a hostess at a host bar and had been getting work through body lobbying even after his debut. It started on several entertainment channels on video sharing sites and quickly spread.

Several people were identified as X-Group, and in the process, one actor who was accused of being X-Group even attempted an extreme act. Fortunately, he survived, but the madness of some of the public did not stop.

In the meantime, the incident reached a new turning point.

It has been newly revealed that there is a pimp who has been forcing and exploiting X into prostitution and entertainment, and that this pimp is the CEO of X’s current agency.

As Myung Do-hoon, the president of UB Entertainment, Choi Hong-seo’s agency, was indicted as the pimp and the real suspect in the case, Choi Hong-seo was now identified as Mr. X on the web.

It was less than a few hours before the famous CEO, who was trying to flee overseas, was arrested at the airport and Choi Hong-seo, who was working on a schedule in Bangkok, Thailand, committed suicide.

And the person at the top of the pyramid of exploitation in the ‘X-Group Scandal’ food chain.

That was Lee Seo-kyung, the cousin of Hae-seong Lee and the executive director of Hanseo Group.

In order to indict and bring Seo-kyung Lee to trial, Hae-seong Lee joined hands with Han Lee, Seo-kyung Lee’s younger brother and long-time rival. And Han Lee, who had a deep personal grudge against Seo-kyung Lee, had proposed a private revenge to Hae-seong Lee.

【“Don’t you ever think about cutting off one of his limbs? Don’t you really think about dragging him up to the same height that he had to jump from, and pushing him over and over again?

“If something like that happened to someone I love, I don’t think I could forgive them… just by serving time in prison and having their property confiscated… I mean, just by legal punishment.”

At that time, Hae-seong Lee had rejected Han’s proposal.

But later I changed my mind.

It was also Executive Director Lee Seo-kyung who maliciously broke the ‘X-Group Scandal’, and it was also discovered that Lee Seo-kyung was deeply involved in the background that created Choi Hong-seo as ‘X-Group’ in the first place.

Lee Seo-kyung must not touch Choi Hong-seo.