The night of the incident.

As usual, Jeong Taeui spent the entire afternoon laboriously organizing Christoph’s books in the library, and it was only late in the evening that he managed to drag his exhausted body out of the room.

He had asked Christoph hundreds of times when he would return the books, but the only response he ever got was – “If you want them back, just do as I say.”

In reality, even though Jeong Taeui was tasked with doing such things, it wasn’t a big deal. Except for the first day, which was quite tiring, the subsequent days were relatively easy. Sometimes, he would have to fumble around a bit to change the structure of the library, which meant rearranging the order of the bookshelves, and doing that alone was rather exhausting.

Other than that, it was mostly minor chores or simple bookkeeping.

However, like most things, waiting in uncertainty and not knowing when the promise would be fulfilled was very tiring.

“Oh……I don’t know. Someday, I will give them to you.”

Jeong Taeui sighed and dusted off his clothes.

He didn’t know where this damn dust came from, but every day it piled up even though he cleaned it every day.

After just a little time in the library, his hands were already dark.

Jeong Taeui intended to close the library window before stepping out. As he approached the door, he saw Christoph in the yard below.

As was his usual routine when he had little to do in the afternoon, Christoph had just returned from riding.

He was heading towards a large stable behind Seik and the main building but stopped when he made eye contact with Jeong Taeui.

Even though Christoph’s limbs didn’t appear to be exerting any effort or force on the horse, Jeong Taeui couldn’t help but marvel when he saw the horse calmly stop.

“Can he even communicate with horses?”

Jeong Taeui murmured as he rested his chin on his arm on the windowsill. Christoph shrugged.

Jeong Taeui closed the window, went to the bathroom to wash his hands, and left the office.

After dusting off his clothes, he decided it wasn’t necessary to change, so he went to the restaurant as he was. The atmosphere there was not particularly harmonious, so he wondered if he might have to change again after bathing and putting on clean clothes.

As he descended the stairs, Christoph also came in. He was removing his riding gloves and raised an eyebrow when he saw Jeong Taeui standing on the stairs.

“Did you rearrange the layout?”

“Uh, kind of. I just organized the order of the bookshelves a bit.”

“Alright, continue after eating.”

“Devil,” Jeong Taeui grumbled under his breath and glared at Christoph. Christoph walked towards him with an indifferent expression.

“They’re torn. Throw them away.”

Jeong Taeui caught the gloves Christoph tossed to him. They were dark brown leather gloves, slightly torn, possibly scratched by rose thorns or something similar.

“Hm…….what a pity.”

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and muttered. Christoph glanced at him.

“Then fix them and use them.”

“No, I don’t usually wear gloves. Besides, I’m more used to throwing gloves away.”

Jeong Taeui folded the gloves and put them in his pocket, adding that he would throw them away when he saw a trash bin.

In recent years, nothing had happened, but back when Jeong Taeui worked at UNHRDO, he frequently had to dispose of Ilay’s gloves. Not just the torn ones, but also perfectly intact ones, the only common factor being they were soaked in blood to the point of being stiff.

At first, Jeong Taeui had considered washing and reusing the gloves but eventually decided against it. No matter how regretful he felt, the number of gloves discarded daily was more than one pair. Who knew if some vengeful spirit haunted those gloves? It seemed better to just throw them away.

“……. Now that I think about it, he is wearing gloves again.”

Jeong Taeui remembered this fact only now. Ilay’s unfamiliar elegance kept surprising him, so it was only now that he recalled that the first time he met Ilay in this house, he was wearing gloves.

“He doesn’t wear them at home?”

Christoph said after hearing Jeong Taeui’s mumbling. Jeong Taeui shrugged.

“Uh, it’s been a while since I saw him wearing gloves.”

So he almost forgot about it, but it seemed he still wore them when he went to work.

Jeong Taeui once thought Ilay’s personality had changed a bit, but apparently not.

“With that personality of his, no matter if they share the same blood, he can’t live decently, but it seems he’s living quite peacefully lately.”

Christoph suddenly muttered. Jeong Taeui glanced at him. Christoph noticed the look and glared back as if to ask why he was looking at him like that.

“I heard you’re friends with Ilay. Childhood friends.”

“Who said that?”

Christoph immediately frowned. Although his expression wasn’t clearly shown, compared to his usual emotionless face, it seemed he was quite annoyed hearing that.

“Isn’t it true? I heard you used to play together when you were kids.”

“It wasn’t playing. Sometimes, when adults met for work, they brought their children along, and we met—Oh, right. If playing with an ax against a kid you find annoying counts as playing, then you could say that.”

“…….”

Jeong Taeui had heard Kyle calmly say that Ilay had a slightly peculiar personality since he was a child, but……. .

Jeong Taeui scratched his head, losing his appetite.

“Well, not all people of the same age can be friends. If playing together as kids made you friends, you and Richard would be friends too.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Christoph frowned even more. His eyes bulged as if he had heard something he really didn’t want to hear.

“I said we’re not friends!!!”

“……Listen to me carefully. I mean, you and Richard aren’t friends either.”

Jeong Taeui involuntarily took a step back and said. Christoph frowned at him, clicked his tongue, and started walking.

He reacted more violently to Ilay. Richard was someone Christoph didn’t even want to consider as a friend more than Ilay, so it seemed Richard held a significant, though negative, meaning for Christoph.

Indeed, where there are friends, there are enemies. If you accumulate good feelings together over a long time, that person is your friend. If you only have bad memories, that person is your enemy.

“You’ve known each other since Oliver’s age, right?”

Jeong Taeui asked while counting on his fingers. If so, it was a relationship spanning about twenty years. If there were only unpleasant memories, it was no wonder they became hostile to each other.

Christoph, who was walking half a step ahead of Jeong Taeui, bluntly responded without hiding his displeasure.

“Since we were kids.” 

“Oh… So you’ve known each other for quite a long time…….. Oliver looks exactly like Richard when he was little.”

Christoph glanced at Jeong Taeui. The face that had been scowling and hostile just a moment ago, making one feel injured just by looking, softened a bit. Christoph hesitated, seemingly reluctant to say anything nice about the son of someone he hated, but finally clicked his tongue and spoke.

“The faces are quite similar, but their personalities are entirely different. Their natures are different too. That kid is okay. … He looks more like his uncle.”

He lowered his voice at the end, making the latter part difficult to understand.

Jeong Taeui seemed to hear him say the boy resembled Richard’s sibling, and he widened his eyes in surprise.

“Richard has a sibling?”

It wasn’t surprising that someone had siblings. Jeong Taeui had an older brother, and even Ilay had both a brother and a sister.

Looking like his uncle? It seemed Richard’s family genes were strong. If he had a sibling who looked like him, they would likely be very handsome or beautiful.

Jeong Taeui, while walking, imagined a sibling who looked just like Richard, and then noticed Christoph suddenly stopped. He halted so abruptly that Jeong Taeui lost his balance for a moment, but fortunately, he managed to stop safely and avoid bumping into him.

If he had accidentally touched him, Christoph might have shot a bullet-like glare at him and punched him immediately.

Jeong Taeui stopped a few centimeters away and slowly stepped back. He tilted his head and peered over Christoph’s shoulder, wondering why he had suddenly stopped, but saw nothing ahead.

“Christoph?”

Jeong Taeui called doubtfully. But there was no response.

Christoph stood frozen at the main staircase. He stared blankly at the empty staircase as if he were seeing memories from the past come to life.

His lips suddenly turned pale and trembled uncontrollably. He probably wasn’t aware of it, as his face remained almost unchanged, except for the constant trembling of his lips.

“Chris!!!”

Jeong Taeui called his name softly and cautiously again.

Hearing Jeong Taeui call his name, Christoph slowly turned his head and looked at him. His lips stopped trembling.

“…….Too noisy.”

“I’m hungry.” 

Jeong Taeui said while looking directly at him. He hadn’t intended to say it, but perhaps due to fatigue, his voice was a bit hoarse.

Christoph frowned at Jeong Taeui. He looked surprised to hear those words from him, and for a moment, he looked at Jeong Taeui as if he had taken the wrong medicine.

If it were someone else, it wouldn’t matter, but since this expression appeared on Christoph’s face, Jeong Taeui found it amusing and couldn’t help but laugh. Christoph responded irritably.

“If you’re hungry, then go eat.”

Christoph clicked his tongue and continued up the stairs. “Oh,” Jeong Taeui grabbed the banister and called out.

“What about you?”

“After I shower.”

“It’s not that dirty, it’s fine.”

Christoph stopped at the top of the stairs and frowned down. Jeong Taeui looked up and saw the riding clothes Christoph was wearing.

“……..Okay. Come after you shower. I’ll go eat first.”

Jeong Taeui wondered if it would matter if he ate in his riding clothes, but Christoph would never do that. He was the type to spend an hour each morning – though slightly exaggerated – just rummaging through his wardrobe.

Only after Christoph disappeared upstairs did Jeong Taeui head to the dining room.

Not only was he hungry, but he was also really, really hungry. After organizing bookshelves all afternoon, his stomach growling was only natural.

“If I keep working like this, maybe I can take these muscles to a moving company later… if I have time…”

Jeong Taeui massaged his arms, no longer sore after a long period of hard work. His muscles seemed to have become firmer, making him feel a bit happy.

“Yes, train to have a great body and be loved by everyone…”

Jeong Taeui entered the restaurant, massaging his firm arms and unconsciously patting his inner thighs. But the atmosphere today seemed different from usual. He looked up and murmured: “Why is it so quiet today?”

He had thought there weren’t many people, but that wasn’t the case. The number of people was the same as usual, the tables were full. The faces at the tables looked slightly different, but the seating arrangement was the same as yesterday.

Christoph’s and Richard’s seats were always empty unless they were there…

Jeong Taeui looked around the restaurant. The atmosphere was unusually formal and quiet today, and finally, his eyes rested on the usually empty seat at the front. At the same time, his hand, which had been massaging his arm, suddenly dropped.

Richard was there.

Sitting across from Christoph’s empty seat, Richard was in his usual spot, eating and occasionally chatting with the man next to him.

However, for Jeong Taeui, Richard was always good. The only problem was the person next to him. And in Jeong Taeui’s eyes, there was only the person conversing with him at the moment.

Indeed, no matter how many times he looked, he almost didn’t recognize him in that elegant suit he wasn’t used to seeing, and the gloves he wore caught his eye.

Ilay. He was sitting there.

Jeong Taeui couldn’t believe his eyes. He blinked skeptically and stared at Ilay as he walked back to his seat, almost tripping over the chair or bumping into the flowerpot a few times.

After knocking over a flower pot, Jeong Taeui finally came to his senses. He sat down, feeling like Ilay had glanced at him, but he didn’t dare look in that direction and instead stared at the plate in front of him.

“I heard that you completely rearranged Christoph’s study room today. There are so many books there, it must have been tiring for you.”

Johan, who had arrived earlier, sat next to him. He seemed to have finished half his meal and, instead of saying hello, gave Jeong Taeui a sympathetic look.

“No, it actually helped me get some exercise, so I feel much better…….”

Taeui whispered in response but then suddenly shut his mouth. Once again, he stared at his plate, speaking while poking at peas with his fork.

“But the person sitting next to Richard………”

“Huh? Oh, that’s the lunatic Rick.”

Johan frowned, shrugged, and after thinking for a moment, reluctantly uttered that name.

“I heard he’ll be having dinner here starting today.”

Jeong Taeui stabbed at a split pea with his fork and glared at Johan innocently.

“Important guests should be dining at Donik. Why suddenly come here and disturb our peaceful dining atmosphere?”

In a sober state, he would never have said something like ‘peaceful dining atmosphere.’ It was obviously an absurd lie, but Jeong Taeui’s brain didn’t have time to think about it.

After climbing over this mountain, there was an even higher one ahead. The path in front was filled with thorns.

He would have preferred if Rick had stormed into his room and yelled at him, “I told you to stay at home, and yet you dare to come out like this?!” If that had happened, he would have reluctantly accepted it.

But what was this man thinking? He just smiled at Jeong Taeui with bright eyes, showing no intention of speaking to him. No, he was just pretending not to know him. That made it even scarier.

Was he planning to drain Jeong Taeui’s spirit before making his move…? Jeong Taeui didn’t know if Rick had that intention.

Jeong Taeui thought about it while seriously crushing the pea.

“See you later.”

Was that what Rick meant when he smiled and said those words?

“It would be better to confront him directly tonight………”

If he wanted to kill him, he would rather face it head-on and die, which might feel more comfortable than constantly worrying and feeling guilty like this. Jeong Taeui thought it would be much more comfortable to face it with dignity and pay for his sins.

“But what sin have I committed that deserves death?”

Jeong Taeui’s heart sank, and he accidentally dropped his fork. Johan, who had been watching Jeong Taeui attentively, calmly spoke while cutting his meat.

“What sin did that pea commit to deserve death?”

“It was already dead (cooked) to begin with!”

Jeong Taeui shouted while stabbing the thoroughly cooked and chopped pea. Johan clicked his tongue and resumed enjoying his meat.

“Even if someone committed a serious crime, keeping their body intact is the last respect for the executed, right?”

“Spit out that piece of meat before saying such things.”

Jeong Taeui retorted, looking at the large bone in front of Johan’s mouth.

The man sitting right in front of him, Ilay Riegrow, had once told him that if he tried to escape again, he would kill and eat him. When Jeong Taeui recalled those words, the bone Johan was continuously chewing on seemed even more unusual.

Until one or two weeks ago, Jeong Taeui still felt pity for him – a wild beast leisurely roaming around.

“But it seems you know Rick too? As expected, that lunatic is quite famous.”

“Not famous, infamous.”

When Jeong Taeui bluntly corrected him, Johan started laughing hysterically. What was so funny? He laughed as if he would break a bone. This guy sometimes laughed hysterically at meaningless things like this.

“Hey, I don’t know how you see it, but that guy has become much more human now. Because of the relationship between our families, I often attended parties or visited. If it was when I was young, I would never say these words…. But now, just by looking, he seems normal.”

Johan chuckled, leaning towards Jeong Taeui. While speaking, he pointed at Ilay with a bone and suddenly recalled his dark past, shaking his head with a terrified sigh.

“When he was young, it was as if his forehead was engraved with ‘I am dangerous’……. But anyway, that’s good. It’s better to recognize a lunatic just by looking at them. Because we know how to avoid them.”

“If I could recognize just by looking at him, I would never have answered that man’s call when I was in my uncle’s room. No, if I had already answered and recognized the unusual nature of those beautiful, fair hands, I would have hung up immediately and never gone to my uncle’s room again.” – Jeong Taeui mumbled darkly to himself.

But now it was too late to talk about it.

(However, when Jeong Taeui recounted his belated regrets to his uncle, his uncle only sneered and rebutted all his regrets.

‘The moment you pointed a gun at Rick’s head in the cafeteria on the first day of joint training, you already knew he was a lunatic, so why did everything happen after that?’

Jeong Taeui still remembered the heartbreak of having nothing to rebut at that time.)

“No, as far as I remember, when he was young and couldn’t control himself, he always wore bloodstained clothes. So, just by looking, you could recognize him as dangerous. Later, as he grew older, improved his skills, and became more ruthless, he could handle everything well without getting blood on his clothes.”

“………”

Jeong Taeui suddenly lost his appetite. His hand holding the fork with the ‘mashed peas’ he made paused in midair.

The solution seemed to be a pair of gloves. Throwing away gloves would certainly be more economical than discarding clothes daily.

“Anyway, just by looking, he seems like a normal person. I just feel sorry for those who don’t know anything and approach him.”

“Hmm………”

Jeong Taeui had nothing more to say, so he silently ate his soup. Beside him, Johan picked up a new piece of meat and mumbled.

“They say the more poisonous something is, the more beautiful, radiant, and outstanding it is. I think that’s quite true. He dresses so elegantly; women must be flocking to him.”

In these times, meeting bad people is so common that it’s clear you should never decide to date someone based solely on their appearance. How would you know if such people would kidnap and imprison you?! Half-listening to Johan’s envious voice, Jeong Taeui straightforwardly dismissed it.

“Really? I don’t know. If it were me, I would be a bit uncomfortable seeing a man meticulously groomed from head to toe like that.”

“No, I conducted a local survey with three of my girlfriends, and 100% of the women like men who pay attention to their appearance. Isn’t that an incredibly impressive rate?!”

“Yes, it’s truly amazing to have a 100% rate from a survey with three people…….”

Jeong Taeui sighed, but Johan didn’t mind at all.