SAGW 15

Chapter : 15

The pen tip touched the paper.

Black ink spread across the white sheet, staining it. Just like my ruined life.

My fingertips trembled, and the letters blurred together like writhing worms.

[Lee… Da…]

Three characters of my name. The moment I finished writing them, my hard-earned 300 million won would be reduced to a mere five million won.

But there was no other way. If I held out here, even that money would disappear into thin air. I was surrounded by walls on all sides. A sneering con artist, a threatening lawyer, and a detective who simply couldn’t be bothered.

No one was on my side.

‘Fine. Let’s give up.’

A tear dropped onto the paper. The black ink spread, swallowing the character ‘Lee.’ Just as if my 300 million won had vanished in an instant.

I bit my lips until they bled. My fingertips trembled as I was about to draw the final stroke.

Then, the interrogation room door with its glass window slammed against the wall and violently bounced back. It wasn’t simply that the door had opened. With a loud bang, it sounded as though the very air in the room had been ripped apart.

“Wh-Who are you?!”

The startled detective sprang to his feet. I raised my head blankly, still clutching the pen.

Inside the police station, where the smells of sweat and metal filled the air, a completely alien scent cut through the filthy atmosphere.

Expensive sandalwood.

He was standing there.

A man dressed from head to toe in clothes worth tens of millions of won.

Kang Seo-jun.

Behind him stood three men in black suits carrying briefcases, like an army of grim reapers.

Step. Step.

The sharp click of dress shoes struck the police station floor with unusual force.

Every time he moved, the flow of the air seemed to change. The suffocating despair that had been pressing down on me was replaced by the cold, overwhelming presence of money and power.

He walked straight up to me and stopped.

“…Executive Director?”

Seo-jun didn’t look down at me. Instead, he snatched the cheap Monami ballpoint pen from my hand with his long fingers.

Tap.

He threw the pen onto the floor. The sound of cracking plastic split the silence.

“Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

He growled in a low voice. It wasn’t his usual cold, expressionless tone. Deep lines had formed between his brows, and his eyes seemed to burn with an icy blue flame.

“Ah… well…”

“You certainly have a talent for driving people insane, Assistant Manager Lee Da-eun.”

There was a sharp edge to his voice. Was he angry?

I instinctively shrank my shoulders.

But his gaze immediately moved to my hands.

Ink-stained fingers.

The back of my trembling hand.

His eyes twisted for an instant.

“You.”

He turned his head.

At the end of his gaze were the greasy-haired con artist and the lawyer who had been sitting there arrogantly.

“Who did this to my person?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Who are you with?”

The con-artist lawyer, Park Deok-bae, stood up with a frown. The detective also hurriedly intervened.

“Excuse me, sir. No one except authorized personnel is allowed in here. Please leave immediately!”

“Authorized personnel?”

Seo-jun gave a derisive snort.

The laugh was so cold and arrogant that even the detective fell silent for a moment.

“Authorized personnel…”

At Seo-jun’s gesture, one of the lawyers standing behind him politely handed him a document envelope.

Seo-jun took out a business card and slipped it into the detective’s breast pocket.

“I’m not authorized personnel, but I happen to have a rather close relationship with the chief of this station.”

“…Pardon?”

The detective awkwardly checked the business card.

The moment he read it, his eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.

[Daeyoung Group Strategic Planning Headquarters Executive Director Kang Seo-jun]

“D-Daeyoung Group?”

The detective’s mouth fell open.

In South Korea, you’d have to be a spy not to know the name of this company. It wasn’t merely a chaebol corporation. It was a gigantic predator wielding enormous influence over both the political and business worlds.

“Your investigative methods are quite interesting.”

Seo-jun tapped the desk lightly with his index finger.

“There’s a victim crying because she’s being threatened, the perpetrator sitting there with his arms crossed and laughing, and the detective in charge simply standing by.”

“N-No, that’s not what—”

“Gangnam Station’s Intelligence Team. I’ll remember that. It should come in handy when I speak with the Inspection and Audit Office.”

The Inspection and Audit Office.

To police officers, those words were practically synonymous with the grim reaper.

The detective’s face instantly turned pale.

“M-Misunderstanding! I was only trying to mediate a settlement according to procedure…”

“A settlement?”

Seo-jun’s gaze fell upon the settlement agreement lying on the table.

[Settlement Amount: 5 Million Won]

[Statement of No Desire for Punishment]

He picked up the paper.

In the brief moment his eyes scanned the contents, blue veins bulged across the back of his hand gripping the document.

Riiip—

Without hesitation, he tore the settlement agreement in half.

“What the hell are you doing!”

Attorney Park Deok-bae shouted.

Seo-jun scattered the torn pieces of paper into the lawyer’s face.

“Five million won.”

He looked at the lawyer and smiled coldly.

“Are you kidding me? It’s not even enough to buy the kids’ chewing gum.”

“Hey! Who the hell are you? Do you want to get sued for obstruction of business?”

Park Deok-bae angrily shoved his business card forward.

“I’m Park Deok-bae of Taesan Law Firm! Are you a lawyer? Did you even pass the bar exam?”

“Oh, a lawyer.”

Seo-jun turned around.

The three men who had been standing behind him like a folding screen simultaneously stepped forward.

The middle-aged man who appeared to be their leader politely handed over his business card.

“Good afternoon. I’m Choi Jin-hyeok, partner attorney at the law firm ‘Seoin.’ And these gentlemen are attorneys who previously served in the Special Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.”

Park Deok-bae’s glasses slid down the tip of his nose.

A senior executive from a major corporation and partner attorneys from one of the country’s top law firms?

This was far beyond the level of some neighborhood thug lawyer.

From the very beginning, they were in completely different weight classes. The outcome of this fight had already been decided.

“Our client isn’t very familiar with procedures like these, so we’ve come on his behalf.”

Attorney Choi added with a pleasant smile.

“Attorney Park. We’ll take a very thorough look into charges of coercion and intimidation against the victim, as well as fraud.”

“F-Fraud?”

Park Deok-bae’s legs began to tremble.

Even the previously arrogant con artist, Kim Gwang-su, looked ready to crawl under the desk.

The situation had been settled.

Three minutes.

It had taken exactly three minutes after Kang Seo-jun appeared for the enormous walls that had been closing in around me to collapse like sandcastles.

It didn’t feel real.

Through my dazed vision, I could see Seo-jun’s perfectly tailored suit.

He turned toward me.

Then he bent down until our eyes were level.

“Lee Da-eun.”

His voice was low and gentle.

The terrifying coldness with which he had just crushed those con artists was nowhere to be found.

“Are you okay?”

He took a handkerchief from inside his jacket and carefully wiped the corners of my eyes.

The moment his hand touched me, the emotions I’d been suppressing came rushing out like a broken dam.

Was it because the tension had finally left my body?

Or because all the resentment and sorrow had finally burst?

“Uhh…”

The tears wouldn’t stop.

It was embarrassing, but I couldn’t stop them.

“Why… why did you only come now…?”

The words came out sounding almost like a childish complaint.

Even I thought it was ridiculous.

He had no obligation to come.

He was my employer, not my guardian.

And yet, I was so relieved to see him, so grateful, that the tears kept falling.

Instead of answering, Seo-jun wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

His embrace was firm and broad.

The faint scent of sandalwood overwhelmed the foul smell of the police station.

“I’m sorry I was late.”

He gently patted my back.

“Stop crying now. I’ll take care of everything.”

Instead of answering, I nodded and tightly gripped the hem of his clothes.

The only sanctuary I’d found at the edge of the cliff.

For this moment, his warm comfort was enough to make me forget the hellish reality around me.

But the peace didn’t last long.

The con artist, Kim Gwang-su, who had been crumpled up in the corner, shouted indignantly.

“Wait, but who the hell are you, really? What are you to this woman that you’re interfering with someone else’s settlement?”

Attorney Park Deok-bae joined in.

“Exactly! You’re not even her legal representative, yet you’re doing this. It’s an abuse of authority! What right do you have to interfere?”

What right?

That word again.

My back stiffened.

That’s right.

We were nothing to each other.

An employer and an employee.

A creditor and a debtor.

There was no other way to describe our relationship.

As I began to shrink back, Seo-jun tightened his arm around me.

Then he slowly turned his head toward them.

His eyes grew cold again.

“Right?”

He rose from his seat and completely shielded me behind his back, standing before them like a massive wall.

Then he declared in a clear voice:

“I am Kang Seo-jun, the creditor in this case.”

Silence descended.

He tightened the hand resting on my shoulder and drove the point home in a low voice.

“So if you have anything to say to this person…”

His cold eyes swept over the con artists.

“Go through my lawyers. We’ll bring ourselves down to your level.”

“…What?”

“T-The creditor?”

The detective and the con artist’s eyes widened simultaneously.

Even the attorneys from the legal team standing behind him looked momentarily startled.

‘Creditor.’

The word tore through the air of the police station and lodged itself in my ears.

A term from a contract.

A title written on a document.

It was the most perfect and calculated justification for protecting me without letting the world discover the true nature of our relationship.

Right now, at this very moment, that dry business term had become the strongest shield in the world, protecting me.

Leaving them standing there dumbfounded, Seo-jun gently took my wrist.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh…?”

He began walking without even looking back.

As if hypnotized, I followed, guided by his hand.

Behind us, the interrogation room’s steel door began to close.

Through the narrowing gap, Attorney Choi’s fierce voice played like background music.

“All right. Turn on the recorder. We’ll go over the statement again.”

Bang.

The door closed completely.

The cold air of the police station corridor rushed over me.

Only then did reality begin to return.

The terrible nightmare that had been suffocating me without giving me a moment to breathe had vanished as if it had never existed.

Seo-jun led me all the way to the end of the corridor.

The warmth transmitted through the wrist he held felt almost scorching.

He didn’t stop, as though he intended to completely isolate me from this hellish place.

The only sound filling the corridor was the click of his dress shoes.

I couldn’t say a word.

I simply hid behind his broad back and moved my feet wherever he led me.

Today, more than any other day, this man’s back was the safest emergency exit in the world.