Please Let Me Meet the Chairman

Sana, standing in front of the tall building, took a deep breath.

In front of the building, the English logo ‘Dragon Holdings’ was prominently displayed.

Although he had seen it in pictures, it felt even larger in person.

He had to crane his neck back so far to see the top of the building that his body tilted.

‘The people who commission Muryeong are all big shots, whose names everyone would recognize. So the commission fees are enormous.’

He only now truly understood what one of Muryeong’s shamans had once said.

To be the owner of such a large building… Having lived only within Muryeong, Sana had no occasion to spend money and thus no sense of its value, but he could guess that the person was wealthier than he could imagine.

But how was he supposed to find that person inside this building?

Finding the address by searching on Doha’s phone yesterday and coming here was good, but the path ahead was daunting.

The building lobby had access gates, and he could only enter by swiping a card, like an employee ID, on the machine.

Seeing the access gates, he realized how naive he had been to think he could just walk in and ask for that person by name.

Still, he couldn’t just turn back.

For now, this was the only clue he had to find Yeon.

He first entered the building.

As he lingered in front of the access gates, someone who appeared to be security approached him.

“What can I help you with?”

“I’ve come looking for someone.”

He had been at a loss for what to do, but he was rather glad the security guard spoke to him.

“Which department, and who are you looking for? Please speak with someone over there.”

The security guard pointed to the information desk on one side of the lobby.

A female and a male employee, both in suits, stood there.

“Excuse me…”

When Sana spoke, both of them turned simultaneously and gave him a polite smile.

“How can we help you?”

“I’ve come looking for someone.”

“Who…?”

The female employee asked gently.

“Mr. Kang Dohyeok.”

“Which depa—”

The female employee was about to ask which department, but the male employee next to her nudged her arm.

Then, he looked at Sana with highly suspicious eyes.

“I want to meet Mr. Kang Dohyeok.”

When he emphasized Kang Dohyeok’s name again, the female employee finally looked at the male employee with an ‘oh, right’ expression.

As the male employee nodded, an expression of perplexity appeared on the female employee’s face.

“You’re not referring to our Chairman, are you?”

Ah, that was right. Kang Dohyeok was the Chairman of Dragon Holdings.

Would someone of a Chairman’s stature meet just anyone?

“Yes…”

He answered with an uncertain voice, lacking confidence, and the male employee gestured to the security guard behind him.

“I really came to meet Mr. Kang Dohyeok. It’s true!”

Dragged out of the building by the security guard, Sana repeated the same words over and over.

“Someone as young as you cannot meet that person.”

The security guard said, almost throwing Sana aside.

He didn’t know if being young was the problem, or if ‘someone like you’ was the problem, but neither the security guard nor the lobby staff took Sana’s words about wanting to meet the Chairman seriously.

“Then at least pass on a message. Tell him Yeon came looking for him, and just tell me where Yeon is. You can do that much, can’t you?”

Sana pleaded so desperately that the older security guard frowned, looking troubled.

He had thought Sana came looking for the Chairman, but now that he said it wasn’t that, it seemed Sana had his own circumstances.

“Wait here for now. I’ll try to pass on the message.”

The security guard left Sana outside the building and went inside.

Sana wasn’t causing a disturbance, insisting on breaking in, so the guard decided to grant that much of a request.

Through the floor-to-ceiling glass surrounding the lobby, the security guard, who had gone inside, was seen conveying something to the information desk employees from before.

The employees exchanged words, then picked up the phone and made a call somewhere.

After a few minutes, the security guard spoke with them again, then came out of the building.

“What happened? Does he know where Yeon is?”

Sana approached the security guard first and asked.

The security guard frowned and shook his head.

“I did contact the Chairman’s office, but they said they don’t know who Yeon is. We just got scolded for doing unnecessary work.”

The security guard waved his hand dismissively and told him to just leave.

“That can’t be… It was definitely Dragon Holdings…”

Sana couldn’t move his feet and stood rooted to the spot, looking up at the building.

‘Are they trying to hide that they commissioned Muryeong?’

That was highly likely.

Just looking at Doha’s recent reactions, he could guess how shamans were treated in this day and age.

He hadn’t explicitly denied it, but Doha also had an expression that said, ‘What kind of nonsense are you spouting?’ when he asked if he was a shaman.

‘Is Yeon not with him?’

The last time Sana saw Yeon was at the hospital.

It was the last time he saw Yeon, unconscious in the intensive care unit after being rescued from the accident.

Afterwards, Mooyoung had said that Yeon had safely woken up and that he had asked someone he knew to look after him, so there was nothing to worry about.

And Mooyoung had also left Sana alone.

He had naturally thought Yeon would be with Kang Dohyeok once he woke up… Had he misjudged?

‘Is Yeon also trying to live independently, hiding his identity as a Muryeong shaman, just like me?’

‘If I could cut it, I would. This… is not a bond I can control.’

Yeon’s image, holding the red thread tangled around him and speaking bitterly, came to mind.

If Yeon was alive, if he had safely woken up from the accident that day as Mooyoung said and was living somewhere, Yeon wouldn’t have been able to abandon that red thread of fate.

Kang Dohyeok was bound to Yeon by a red thread of fate.

Both Yeon and Mooyoung had said that it was merely a destructive bond because there was no blue thread alongside it, and that such a bond was better off not existing, but even so, it was a bond that could not be severed.

So, Yeon would definitely be near Kang Dohyeok.

He didn’t know why Kang Dohyeok claimed not to know Yeon, but he couldn’t believe those words.

If they wouldn’t meet him or tell him the truth, he had no choice but to force his way through.

Sana, biting his lip firmly, watched the security guard go inside the building, then quickly dashed past him.

As he tried to force his way past the access gate, something suddenly popped out from the side, blocking his path, and a loud beep-beep-beep alarm blared.

Because of that, all the other employees and security guards inside the building turned towards the sound.

“Stop that person!”

When the employee at the information desk shouted, it wasn’t the security guard who had first spoken to him, but several burly men in suits who approached Sana.

Sana, blocked at the access gate, was equally flustered.

As he fumbled, unsure what to do, the men in suits, who had come right up to him, put their arms under Sana’s armpits from both sides and lifted him up.

“I have to meet Mr. Kang Dohyeok. I just need to ask about Yeon!”

He struggled and shouted, but they didn’t seem to hear him.

They dragged him out beside the driveway outside the building and threw Sana to the ground.

“Don’t cause unnecessary trouble, just leave quietly. Hm?”

Their menacing faces, threatening him, looked no different from the people who worked at Club Muse.

“Wait a minute.”

Sana grabbed the clothes of those who were about to turn away.

“Hah, this bastard, really!”

One of the men who shook off Sana’s hand raised his own.

Seeing that hand flying towards his face, Sana instinctively squeezed his eyes shut.

Thwack, a dull sound was heard, but he felt no pain.

He cautiously opened his eyes and saw the back of the person who was blocking his path.

“What are you doing?”

The moment he heard the familiar voice, he recognized who was standing in front of him.

“Brother Doha?”

Why was Doha here? He couldn’t understand, so he just blinked his wide eyes.

Doha glanced back, checked Sana’s face, and let out a small sigh.

But that was all; without another word, he looked straight ahead again.

“Aren’t you letting go of this hand?”

The other person shook the arm Doha was holding.

“I asked what you were doing.”

Perhaps because the other person was speaking informally, Doha’s tone also changed.

“Ask ‘what are you doing’ to the guy behind you. He’s the one who barged into someone else’s company and caused a ruckus.”

“Ruckus?”

Doha looked back at Sana again.

Sana shook his head vigorously, meaning no.

“He just came here out of nowhere, throwing a fit to meet the Chairman. Isn’t that a ruckus? If he really has business, he should make an appointment. If that’s even possible, that is.”

The security guard in the black suit glared at Sana, who stood behind Doha, and clicked his tongue.

No matter how one looked at it, Sana, in his jeans and plain shirt, didn’t look like someone who could make an appointment with the Chairman of Dragon Holdings.

“Chairman?”

Doha’s gaze went to the towering building in front of him.

“Dragon Holdings…”

Reading the logo in front of the building, he let go of the other person’s arm he was holding.

“It seems you know each other, so manage him well so he doesn’t do anything absurd.”

The security guard brushed off his suit and returned inside the building, as if his business was done.

Doha watched their retreating figures, then his eyes went back to the logo in front of the building.

Dragon Holdings. He couldn’t understand what connection this place had with Sana.

“Do you know the Chairman here?”

When he turned to Sana and asked, Sana hesitated, then shook his head.

‘Just a bit… It’s not that I know him, but a friend…’

Come to think of it, he had a similar reaction when the TV news reported on Dragon Holdings.

“Is your friend acquainted with the Chairman of Dragon Holdings?”

This time, Sana hesitated a little, then nodded.

He had heard that the representative of Hoban Gallery played a role in introducing Muryeong’s shamans to political and business circles.

The representative of Hoban Gallery had a special relationship with Kang Dohyeok’s mother, who was now the Chairman of Dragon Holdings.

‘Did Kang Dohyeok of Dragon Holdings commission Muryeong?’

Kang Dohyeok, as seen in the news, was a man with a cooler demeanor and a sharper aura than others, one that felt like it could cut you.

Such a man and a shaman, he thought. Indeed, worldly affairs were full of incomprehensible things.