Unintended Pity

Slowly, the remaining strands of hair slid away, fully revealing the woman’s face. In that instant, a spark of interest flickered in his dark eyes.

‘Pl, please save me.’

It was an event from six years ago, but he remembered that day vividly because it was the day he personally cleared out Sogol, a place that had been a thorn in the side of the Cheongun Group.

And on that day, there was a girl who had thrown herself in front of his car, begging for her life.

‘Pl, please… just save me.’

Her face, which had been a mess of blood and bruises after being beaten severely by the man chasing her, hadn’t changed much despite the passage of six years.

Except for the fact that now, she was in no condition to even speak those words.

Do Guk let out a hollow laugh and brushed his hand over his lips. At the sound of that laugh, Chi Oh, who was supporting the woman, looked up.

With a troubled expression, Chi Oh spoke cautiously.

“Br, Brother. This woman is……”

“Take care of her.”

Do Guk cut off Chi Oh’s concern instantly and withdrew his gaze from the woman.

‘Hey! I heard your mom is a wh*re?’

‘Filthy b*stard.’

The words he had heard countless times during his childhood remained lodged in a corner of his heart, often making him feel stifled and unpleasant. That discomfort was Do Guk’s weakness.

It was an unfitting trait for a man accustomed to swinging fists and gripping knives, yet it was the very reason he occasionally showed rare acts of kindness.

‘Your mother cared for you until the very end.’

‘It was an unavoidable choice.’

Perhaps the words he had heard once upon a time were the problem. Whenever he saw a woman ruined by the will of others rather than her own, those words would resurface.

He pressed his eyes shut and opened them again, then used a damp towel to wipe the dried blood from her small palm.

“Ugh……”

As if feeling the pain, a faint moan escaped her lips, which were smeared with lipstick.

A subtle ripple disturbed his dark eyebrows. Holding her flinching hand, Do Guk fixed his gaze on the wound slicing across her palm.

She had swung a bottle with this small, delicate hand. Even if her flesh was torn and aching, she wouldn’t have let go. It must have been her only way to survive. Just as she had clung to his pant leg a long time ago.

Slowly scanning the woman’s face, Do Guk wrinkled his nose slightly.

He had felt it when she first appeared before him in a tattered school uniform, but the woman had a face that did not suit a gutter-like life.

Pale skin contrasting with black hair, long and lush eyelashes, a straight bridge of the nose, lips darkened by blood, and a slender, white neck.

As he observed various parts of the woman and added his silent impressions, Do Guk’s lips curled up faintly.

Is this what people call having a ‘type’?

Since he had never considered it a necessity, it was something he had never thought about before. But looking at the woman, he definitely felt strange.

“Crazy.”

He wasn’t in his right mind, thinking such things while looking at a woman who hadn’t just fallen asleep, but had collapsed from drugs. Shaking his head, Do Guk reached for the first-aid kit Chi Oh had left behind.

After the rattling sound of searching, he pulled out some bandages. Though the wound wasn’t deep, treatment was necessary to prevent infection. He unrolled the bandage and wrapped it around her palm.

Once the red wound cutting across the pale skin was hidden, Do Guk released the hand he had been holding.

‘Run as far as you can.’

Those were the words he had spoken six years ago to the girl who had collapsed, soaked by the rain.

As her head tilted, her long hair fell forward and covered her face. Clearing the thin, soft strands away with his long fingers, Do Guk ran his tongue along the inside of his mouth.

If he had acted purely on impulse, he would have taken her already. But now, as then, he had no desire to touch a woman who had nearly been ruined by b*stards who were less than animals.

He was also someone with whom involvement brought no good.

So, regrettably, he could only tuck the hair he had been stroking behind her ear and stand up.

“Let us not cross paths again.”

Do Guk offered a final farewell to the woman who couldn’t answer and left the bedside.

“Ugh……”

Her straight eyebrows distorted, and she bit her lip as she exhaled.

‘Let go! I said let go!’

Whenever the corroded memories she never wanted to recall repeated in a nightmare, her limbs would go rigid as if she were suffering from sleep paralysis.

‘This b*tch is playing hard to get. Hey, hey! You are going to end up passed around just like your mother anyway. Who do you think saved you when you were about to die on the street earlier!’

‘F, f*ck! Stop it!’

The moment she struggled while clutching onto clothes—even as her lips burst and her pale skin turned from red to bruised blue from the slaps—was so vivid that a scream burst from her lips.

“Ah!”

Her body bolted upright like a spring.

Hae Su, sitting up with a terrified expression, panted heavily. Goosebumps broke out over her sweat-drenched body.

“Ha……”

Hae Su dropped her confused, trembling gaze downward. The hands gripping the blanket were shaking violently.

“……”

Only then did she notice the bandage wrapped tightly around her hand. She gritted her teeth at the memories that suddenly resurfaced.

‘I will give you something better. Let us do this too. Okay?’

‘Wow… look at that willpower. You must be f*cking dizzy, but you are actually standing up?’

It seemed her suffering from a nightmare she hadn’t had in a long while was due to what happened at the club last night. She had nearly been subjected to a terrible deed while drugged.

Hae Su rubbed her dry, scabbed lips with her hand and immediately pulled back the blanket to check her condition.

Aside from bloodstains here and there, she was fine. Her whole body ached as if she had the flu, but it didn’t feel like she had been assaulted.

Brushing back her long, loose hair, Hae Su let out a sigh of relief. She touched her cold, sweaty forehead and looked up.

Finally, she began to examine her surroundings. The unfamiliar space was none other than a hotel.

There was no way she had left the club and reached a hotel on her own. If so, it meant someone had brought her here and even personally treated the wound on her hand.

Who on earth?

“……”

But she had no memory of it at all.

The last thing she saw before losing consciousness from the drugs was the man trying to feed her the black pill and his group, and there was no way they would have brought her here safely.

“Ah.”

Hae Su reached for the palm-sized clutch bag sitting alone on the nightstand beside the bed as a thought flashed through her mind. Rummaging through the small bag, she pulled out the pill—the size of a pinky nail—that she had protected even while drugged.

“……Ha, thank God.”

Hae Su took a breath so deep her chest heaved, then put the drug back into the bag.

She admitted it was a reckless move.

However, even though she had nearly been ruined, she was safe, and since there was a gain, it wasn’t a wasted effort.

That was enough.

“……”

Rationalizing her actions, Hae Su stretched her bruised legs out from the bed. She then pulled her phone out of the bag.

After quickly scrolling down her contact list, her finger stopped and pressed firmly on Jae Woong’s name.

Since the case would be reassigned to the Narcotics Unit today, the top priority was handing over the secured evidence.

As the monotonous ringing tone grew longer, Hae Su paced in anxiety. She strode over and shoved her feet into her discarded shoes.

Soon, Jae Woong answered the phone.

“Senior, it is me.”

—Oh, Hae Su. Why are you calling when you are on annual leave? Is there something you need to do?

Hae Su, who had wobbled in her uncomfortable shoes, straightened her posture and wedged the phone between her cheek and shoulder. She then reached out and opened the firmly closed door.

“……I have something to give you.”

Hae Su stepped past the open door.

“If it is okay, can you come to the front of my house?”

—Now?

As Jae Woong asked, the heavy door closed. Hae Su, glancing over her shoulder, fixed her gaze on the closed door.

[VIP]

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the plaque.

She had felt the room wasn’t ordinary, but she hadn’t expected it to be a suite reserved only for hotel VIPs.

But whoever it was didn’t matter. There was no benefit in getting involved just to say thank you.

Lost in thought for a moment, Hae Su snapped her head back and answered Jae Woong’s question.

“……Yes, as soon as possible.”

The important thing right now was something else.

Mounjae, which meant ‘the place where clouds gather,’ was large and magnificent. As Lee Ja Cheong’s residence, it was a space that showcased the value of Cheongun.

Once inside the high walls that resembled a fortress, a vast garden greeted the visitor. Do Guk’s pace was fast as he stepped over the stones embedded across the green lawn.

Fastening his unbuttoned jacket as he entered the house, a servant offered a polite greeting. Knowing his purpose for being there without needing to ask, the servant led Do Guk with brisk steps.

As he entered the dining room, he saw Chairman Lee eating breakfast. Do Guk offered a respectful greeting and sat in the chair the servant pulled out for him.

“Bring out a setting.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

The servant retreated and disappeared, and soon a neat breakfast was laid out at Do Guk’s seat.

The moment he picked up his spoon.

“Why did you not clean it up properly?”

A low voice pierced his ears.