The Country Life Diary of a Gangster’s Secretary

As Hyeseong’s gaze lingered on Ihyeok for a long time, Doo-sung, who was getting impatient, fidgeted his feet. After all, Kwon Ihyeok had taken a hostage, so his movement was restricted. It would be easy to just attack that fearless bastard and take the item, but the problem was that the hostage was his own hyung.

And that’s when the bald man who had been lying unconscious made his final desperate move. 

“Hey, Doo-sung you son of a bitch! Don’t worry about me and just hurry up and get the item!”  

Oh no, I thought he had completely lost consciousness but I guess not. Taking advantage of Ihyeok’s distraction, he shouted out. Those words were a kind of signal flare. Just as Doo-sung was about to pounce on Hyeseong with a determined face:

“Hey, kid…”

Ihyeok also thought it was too late. But Hyeseong swung his arm wide and threw the USB he was holding out the opposite window. 

“What the hell!”

Doo-sung, who was staring in dismay at the item falling outside, shouted abruptly.

“You should go out and look quickly. I just called the police too. It’ll take some time to find the item and shake off the police.”

Hyeseong waved his cell phone in front of him.  

“This little punk…”  

Then Doo-sung glanced at his hyung once and soon shouted to the kids behind him.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and go find it!”

At that, the men quickly left the office. Doo-sung alternately looked at Ihyeok and Hyeseong, swearing a few times, then soon left hastily.

“Ah, we’re screwed.”

After the men left, the only ones remaining in the office were Ihyeok and Hyeseong.

“Kid. Do you know what you just did?”  

“At least it seems I did something you couldn’t do.”

“That’s right. Thanks to you, our organization is about to get beaten to a pulp.”

“So are you going to kill me?”

Ihyeok left the man who had already completely lost consciousness and slowly approached Hyeseong. Would he hit him? No, he would definitely get hit. Thinking that, Hyeseong closed his eyes tightly. But strangely, there was no pain. As he was about to open his eyes, an unexpectedly gentle touch patted Hyeseong’s head.

“I don’t have a hobby of killing people. Hurry up and go back.”

With those words, Ihyeok spun his body around. He had no intention of hurting him from the beginning.  

“Mister.”

Hyeseong, who was blankly staring at his back, soon called out to stop him.  

“How much money can you give me?”

“What?”

Then Hyeseong quickly took something out of the opposite pocket and held it out.

“…You.”

Ihyeok’s brow furrowed slightly at the item in his hand. In his hand was a USB of a different shape than earlier, with a small note attached to it.

Seohyun

“I chose you, mister. So I hope you’ll keep your promise.”

“What did you just throw?”  

“It’s a USB I use personally. I had it in both pockets just in case.”

“…Why did you choose me?”

“Hmm, I don’t really know. It just felt like everything those guys said was a lie. You said those people were trying to backstab you from the beginning. How can I believe people like that.”

Then Ihyeok burst out laughing again. It was a more hearty laugh than before. 

“Hey. What’s your name?”

“Cheon Hyeseong.”  

Ihyeok nodded and soon grinned.

“Okay. Our Hyeseong. How much money do you need?”

That day, Ihyeok felt like he had discovered a gemstone. A gemstone that could fill the missing part of his organization.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”  

Ihyeok suddenly stopped scooping the bean sprout soup and stared intently at him.

“No, just…remembering the old days.”

“The old days?”

How could he eat with him staring like that? Eating in this state would definitely give him indigestion. Hyeseong had no choice but to put down his spoon.

“When I first met you.”

“Ah, that time.”

Everyone has a memory in their life that they can never forget. For Hyeseong, the memory of that day was like that. 

The pitch-black night. The old building on the quiet street, the damp smell resonating in the office that had rendered a person unconscious. Eyes as black as if ink had been poured into them. All of it was still vivid in his mind. How could he forget? The day that changed his life.

“I thought you were crazy back then.”  

“It doesn’t seem like something the representative who beat a person should say.”

Then Ihyeok raised the corner of his mouth with a smirk.

“You’re right about that.”

After handing over the USB that day, Hyeseong received a substantial amount of money from Ihyeok as compensation. With that, he had safely resolved the rent and tuition fees at the time and thought that was the end of it. But Ihyeok, who had taken his number in case of possible problems afterward, kept contacting him.  

As the Baekdae group had done at the time, Ihyeok paid Hyeseong money in return for small errands, but the amount was too large to simply call it a part-time wage. At first, he had pure thoughts like that mister must have a lot of money to spare, or he must not have many people to help him. But later he realized that wasn’t the case.

Ihyeok knew that Hyeseong’s situation was not very well, so he deliberately made requests. Only choosing ones that weren’t dangerous at that.

“Why did you help me back then?”

Hyeseong naturally became part of the Taesung group and the result was him sitting in front of Kwon Ihyeok now.

“To entice you.”

“…”

“To get you to join Taesung. I knew from our first meeting.”

“Knew what?”

“That you needed to be by my side. Then I saw a future where I could succeed.”  

It’s truly frightening to lack self-awareness. It was also scary that he could say such words in front of the other person without hesitation.  

“So Hyeseong. I can’t let you go.”

He knew. Those words Kwon Ihyeok said to him were all because he needed secretary Cheon Hyeseong who would match everything to Representative Kwon Ihyeok and become his hands and feet. That’s why he hated that person. He tied him down saying he couldn’t let go without knowing his feelings or situation.  

Of course, Ihyeok wouldn’t know what his feelings were or what situation he was in, but he wasn’t enough of a saint to understand that much.  

“Please go.”

“What?”  

“If you’re not going to eat that, just leave please.”

Hyeseong got up from his seat and cleared the table. Ihyeok sat there with a furrowed brow at the unexpected action.

“I want to rest too, so please leave now.”  

Hyeseong even cleared away Ihyeok’s soup that he had only scooped a few spoonfuls from, almost kicking him out.

At first, he seemed to be trying to keep his seat at being told to leave, but as if giving up, he gathered his things and headed to the front door.  

“…Cheon Hyeseong, I’m serious.”

Leaving those words behind, Ihyeok disappeared from Hyeseong’s house. 

As his house became quiet again after he left, Hyeseong let out the breath he was holding.  

“Haa…”

Still, the suffocating feeling didn’t go away. It felt like the emotions he had been holding back were surging up. Why did he make food and serve it until morning to Kwon Ihyeok, who came back with the pheromones of other omegas last night, and only saw him as a capable secretary? He felt pathetic.

It was the first time he had shown his emotions like this to Kwon Ihyeok. He could have just endured such words as always, take a short deep breath, and responded unperturbed like usual. But strangely, he couldn’t do that today.  

“I’m glad I told him I’m quitting.”  

As he was sitting dumbly on the sofa, his cell phone vibrated. After checking who it was, Hyeseong answered the call with wide eyes.

“Hello?”

“Hyeseong! It’s me!”

“I know even if you don’t shout like that.”  

Hyeseong stared blankly at the name on the screen again.

[Park Dohyun.]

He was a friend he made in college who became close while doing the same club activities. Dohyun had relentlessly shown crazy friendliness to Hyeseong, who had zero sociability at the time and eventually succeeded in becoming Hyeseong’s friend. He was also the only friend Hyeseong, whose human relationships were limited to people at work and family, contacted and hung out with.  

Hyeseong turned on the speakerphone and sat on the sofa with a glass of water.

“But you came to Korea?”

Dohyun was currently working at a foreign financial company. As soon as he graduated from college, he quickly looked into getting a job overseas and suddenly left Korea. On the rare occasions when calls like this came, Hyeseong assumed he had gotten vacation and came to Korea.

“Yeah. I’ve come to Korea for good.”  

Come for good? Hyeseong tilted his head quizzically.

“Hyeseong. I quit my job.”

Puhup. Hyeseong ended up spitting out the water he was drinking. What did he just hear? But on the other end of the line, his friend’s voice was just overflowing with glee as if nothing could be better.