Predatory Pity

“Ha……”

As she stepped out of the gloomy grey building, a stronger downpour greeted her. She took a breath, and the fishy, musty scent of rain soaked deep into her lungs.

With the onslaught of bad luck hitting her one after another, she hadn’t been able to sleep properly for days. Hae Su pressed her stiff eyes shut.

Perhaps it was because her vision was darkened, but her hearing became hypersensitive. The sound of the pouring rain, the whistling wind, and then……

Screech.

She heard the sound of a car coming to a stop nearby.

Opening her eyes slowly, she saw a black sedan parked in front of the memorial hall. Hae Su narrowed her eyes against the thick, relentless rain.

A sudden wave of dizziness hit her, making her stagger involuntarily. Steadying herself, she pressed a hand to her forehead.

Heat she hadn’t even noticed until now seeped into her palm. It was a searing fever, likely far above normal body temperature.

Well, it would be abnormal if she weren’t sick after all this.

Hae Su let out a hollow laugh and bit her lower lip.

‘Go to a hospital and get treated first. If you show up to work like this tomorrow, everyone will lose it, got it?’

Jae Woong’s words from a few days ago came to mind.

The split lip had healed, but the wound on her palm remained. So did the fever that didn’t seem like it would break easily.

Hae Su exhaled a long, hot breath and gripped the skirt of her mourning dress. Seeing no sign of the rain letting up, she finally stepped forward.

The moment she descended the stairs, her entire body was soaked by the torrential rain. Wiping her wet face with her hands was a futile gesture. She gritted her teeth and quickened her pace.

Click.

The man who got out of the driver’s seat of the parked black sedan pulled the rear door handle while simultaneously opening an umbrella over it.

Splash.

“……”

Black leather shoes met the asphalt floor.

The man who stepped out of the back seat stood tall. As the umbrella, which had been blocking half his view, rose to match his height, the tip of a thin, white cigarette was lit.

And a sharp glint flashed in eyes that resembled the entirely grey world.

He watched her retreating back silently, inhaling the cigarette. Soon, a long trail of smoke exhaled from his lips.

Was this what they called déjà vu?

It was a scene he had witnessed once before.

The man curled the corner of his lip slightly and tilted his head.

‘Jo Mi Yeon. It is confirmed she moved to Seoul six years ago when Sogol was demolished. She continued prostitution after that, but since the year before last, she fell into gambling, accruing debts totaling 1 billion won. It appears she was blackmailing Park Dong Jun to pay off those debts.’

The woman Yu Seong Tae had killed under Director Go’s orders was a prostitute from Sogol, the place he had cleared out six years ago.

‘Kim Seong Geun, the former pimp of Sogol, agreed to take a cut of the blackmail money in exchange for setting up a meeting with Representative Park, but it seems he sided with Representative Park instead, leading to her death.’

Up to this point, it was a story that held little interest for him.

‘However, Kim Seong Geun did not tell Representative Park everything. It appears he has not yet revealed the fact that there is a daughter born between Representative Park and Jo Mi Yeon.’

With those words, the photo he received from Chi Oh sparked a certain emotion.

‘Jo Hae Su. The illegitimate child of Park Dong Jun, born to Jo Mi Yeon. She fled Sogol six years ago and has been estranged from Jo Mi Yeon since.’

She was the young girl he had set free with his own hands six years ago.

‘……She is the same woman you took to the hotel recently, Brother.’

And Chi Oh provided the confirmation.

Unlike the detailed records on Jo Mi Yeon, the file on Jo Hae Su was brief. The only entry was that she had taken the GED after dropping out of high school.

Ah.

Apart from the documents, there was one thing he knew about her. She had nearly been assaulted while drugged at a club recently. It was a situation that suggested she had fled one gutter only to live a life not much different.

Whatever life she led was none of his concern. Yet, strangely, every time she appeared in his sight, she tugged at his nerves in a peculiar way.

‘Representative Park will kill her too if he finds out.’

He realized this while staring at the photo. It was the thought that she was a woman too regrettable to let die.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he was sexually attracted to a girl significantly younger than himself. No, the term “turned on” was more accurate.

Despite telling the drugged, sleeping woman they should never meet again, his heart was moved nonetheless.

It also bothered him that after he went to the trouble of letting her escape, she was still entangled in this kind of sh*t.

‘Feed Kim Seong Geun a little. Make sure he cannot open that mouth of his carelessly.’

And so, he exercised a pointless sense of pity.

‘Why are you doing this, Brother? There is no need to go that far……’

When Chi Oh, who obeyed any order, asked out of confusion, Do Guk answered clearly.

‘Because I am the one who saved that life. It would be a waste if she died for something so pathetic.’

Park Dong Jun’s reason for killing Jo Mi Yeon was to remove an obstacle. Therefore, if he discovered he had a daughter, he would naturally repeat the same act.

So, he had to shut the mouth of Kim Seong Geun, who knew the secret, to give the woman another chance to run.

With a bored expression, he moved the cigarette from his mouth to his fingers. As the cigarette cut through the air, the bitter scent and smoke spread once more.

“And Kim Seong Geun?”

Chi Oh answered Do Guk’s question immediately.

“I handled it as ordered. I have secured the operating rights for the gambling den and the non-disclosure agreement.”

To keep him from clinging to Park Dong Jun, Kim Seong Geun needed a proper incentive. The gambling den was an enticing offer for a man who loved to wager, and for Do Guk, it was the perfect means to keep him under surveillance.

“Tell him the moment he makes a wrong move, be ready to sink him.”

“Yes, understood, Brother.”

The half-burned cigarette fell to the ground. The moment the glowing tip was extinguished by the wetness, his sharp, focused gaze shone even more clearly.

‘Ugh.’

The image of the woman sprawled on the bed, unable to control her own body, flickered in his mind.

Transparent skin and reddened eyes. Dried blood in a shade even darker than that. Smudged makeup. He imagined that she would probably look exactly like that when crying beneath him.

As the impulse to make her cry rose within him, Do Guk burst into a laugh at the absurdity of it. A laugh that was brightly out of place against the somber weather.

“You are in early. Are you feeling better?”

“……”

“Hey? Jo Hae Su!”

Hae Su, who had been dazed for a moment, reacted late to the voice calling her. As she set down her bag, she met the eyes of her colleague Min Gyu, who was staring at her blankly.

Since she didn’t know what he had said, she just stared back, prompting him to ask with concern.

“Are you really okay? Your complexion…… I think you should rest more.”

“Ah…… No. I am fine.”

Since she, a person who never rested even when sick, had taken sick leave and been absent, it was natural for the team members to worry.

At first, it was a lie to cover for the funeral, but after lying in bed for a full day with a burning fever, she truly looked like a wreck. Fortunately, that helped her avoid suspicion.

“Kim Min Gyu.”

“Yeah.”

“Was there any more information investigated while I was out? I didn’t receive any updates during my leave.”

“Nothing special, other than the personal schedules of assemblymen obtained by the Korean Party informant.”

“Personal schedules?”

“Yeah, they sorted them based on the closest associates of Floor Leader Park Dong Jun and sent them over. Ah…… you probably didn’t get to see that either. Want the schedule?”

“Yeah, please.”

But at that moment.

—Representative Park is a human being with more to lose than others, right? If people find out he fcked a dirty whre like me—at seventeen, no less—it would be a disaster. Plus, what would happen if they heard that wh*re gave birth to an illegitimate child?

The name Park Dong Jun, referred to as Representative Park by Jo Mi Yeon, flashed through her mind.

It wasn’t a particularly unique name, but he was a man called ‘Representative’ who held the power to kill someone without a sound.

It was Park Dong Jun, the Floor Leader of the Korean Party.

She hadn’t suspected it at all because she hadn’t been in her right mind these past few days.

The thought that the Park Dong Jun she heard in the recording on Jo Mi Yeon’s phone might be the politician Park Dong Jun.

It was famous to the point that everyone knew he was on extremely close terms with Chairman Lee Ja Cheong of the Cheongun Group.

It had to be. Park Dong Jun was the politician who had a huge influence in helping the Cheongun Group secure the casino business through Blue Cloud.

If the Cheongun Gang had killed Jo Mi Yeon at Park Dong Jun’s request……

It wasn’t entirely impossible.

Killing one person would be nothing to them. In fact, they might have participated in it to strengthen their mutual trust.

Of course, it was all speculation, but the situation was certainly too suspicious to label Jo Mi Yeon’s death as a simple drug overdose. Above all, if it were true that the Cheongun Gang was involved in her death, it was deeply connected to this current operation.

“Here you go!”

At the voice calling her, Hae Su finally snapped back to reality.