AER 5

Chapter 5

A long line of highly individual people stretched in front of the club. Ji-wan’s group strolled leisurely past those waiting their turn to enter. Then they stepped through the open leather doors. At that moment, a large, burly staff member blocked their path.

“Cutting in line is not allowed.”

At the big man’s words, Dong-wook, the heir to Hotel B, laughed as if it were ridiculous.

“You’re telling *us* to wait in line?”

At the crooked tone, Jae-jin, team leader at Y Foods, stopped Dong-wook.

“Don’t. He looks like a newbie.”

“As if it wasn’t already driving me crazy that our chairman keeps blocking his youngest son’s path. Now even the doorman?”

Dong-wook said coldly as he unfastened his watch.

“Starting again?”

Hee-won, vice president of P Energy, who had been watching, intervened.

They were all heirs of major conglomerates.

Ji-wan, who had been standing indifferently, turned his gaze behind him. Countless eyes mixed with contempt and concern were directed their way. Someone took out a phone. It looked like they intended to film.

Ji-wan cursed briefly inwardly.

Whatever the reason, a disturbance was forbidden. Suppressing his annoyance, Ji-wan stepped into the group. It was the moment when Dong-wook, unusually sensitive today, grabbed the big man by the collar.

*Tak.* Ji-wan caught that hand.

“Let’s keep it moderate.”

The ultra-low voice that scraped out dug into Dong-wook’s ear. Dong-wook flinched, but, conscious of the surrounding gazes, immediately put on a twisted smile.

“Who are you stopping right now?”

Just then, the club manager came running out in a fluster and bowed deeply at the waist. Then he grabbed the back of the big man’s head and made him bow several times.

“He’s a new guy. His face is rough but he’s completely useless. This is clearly our side’s mistake. I’m sorry. Please don’t be angry and come inside.”

Even at the solicitous manager’s apology, Dong-wook still seemed unappeased and kicked the big man in the shin. When the big man groaned and contorted his face, only then did Dong-wook smile as if his mood had improved a little.

“If you’re going to do this kind of job, you need to have some sense, you bastard. Don’t just freeload. Got it?”

Dong-wook patted the big man’s shoulder twice and strode confidently into the club.

Ji-wan, who followed last, took a check from his pocket and quietly pressed it into the manager’s hand.

“Sorry about that. That guy’s mood is particularly bad today.”

Such words and actions from Ji-wan were different from ordinary third-generation chaebols. Even when hanging out the same way, the one who always finished things so they wouldn’t escalate was only him.

Some said it was because he was not the legitimate heir. That his vulgar mother, a former Miss Korea, had passed on genes suited for survival.

Ji-wan knew well how people talked about him behind his back, but he didn’t particularly deny it.

The direct legitimate heirs might laugh at him, but Ji-wan himself also looked down on the fools who got drunk on the power right in front of them and failed to see the bigger picture.

“Oh my—. This is a place people come to relieve stress, of course. Yes, yes. Thank you, Division Head.”

The title added at the end touched Ji-wan’s heart with a *tak*. Ji-wan bent his large back to match the manager’s eye level.

“Drop the title.”

At the tone that was polite at first glance but chilly, the manager nodded several times with startled eyes.

Ji-wan showed a more generous smile and followed his group into the club.

Fast-tempo music that made the building thump and colorful lights dominated the wide space.

People with paper wristbands were shaking their bodies in high excitement.

Ji-wan headed toward the bar located in the exact center of the club. The bar glowed with flash-like blue lighting.

Beyond it, a staff member leaned toward Ji-wan. It was a gesture to take an order.

“Egon Schiele.”

When he gave the name of the famous painter, the bartender lowered his eyebrows and came out. Then he guided Ji-wan down a secret corridor.

When the button next to the painting *Two Girls Lying Entangled* that completely filled one wall was pressed, numbers flashed on a machine. The staff entered the password.

The art piece transformed into a sliding door and slid smoothly to the side.

“Hey, what’s over there?”

A passing drunk asked with wide eyes.

After confirming that Ji-wan had entered the elevator, the employee sealed the door and turned to the drunk.

“It’s the VVIP banquet hall.”

“…What’s different about it?”

The man asked again with a face that had sobered up considerably.

“Yes, it’s very different. It’s a special space sought by customers who value privacy highly. That said, the entry conditions aren’t particularly strict. As long as you have a daily rental fee of 100 million won, you can rest comfortably.”

The employee who had kindly explained smiled brightly and left. The man stared blankly at the framed door again.

***

The spacious hall with a ceiling height of three stories was reminiscent of the Middle Ages. The magnificent marble table placed in the exact center belonged to Ji-wan’s group. Ji-wan approached the noisy crowd.

“You crazy bastard. Tone down the bullshit.”

Jae-jin was in the middle of scolding Dong-wook.

“You guys already each have a position, so you don’t know. Fuck, it’s disgusting. I said I wanted to take charge of one affiliate, and our chairman tells me to start as a bellboy. Maybe because he rolled around following the previous chairman. Anyway, he loves starting from the bottom.”

“I started as a team leader too. It’s the same for everyone. There are eyes watching.”

“What, you fucker? Is a team leader the same as a bellboy?”

“Come on, stop it. Ji-wan gathered us for a drink after a long time. No need for us to be sharp with each other.”

Hee-won mediated.

“Vice president, shut up a bit.”

“Lower the level of your comments?”

Jae-jin glanced at Ji-wan’s expression as he spoke.

“Leave him. It’s fun.”

Ji-wan lazily lifted the corner of his mouth and sank onto the sofa opposite.

“You too, you bastard. Stopping me there? If you do that, what does that make my face?”

“Face?”

Ji-wan stretched his mouth long in a laugh as if he had just heard something truly amusing.

“A guy who cares about face acts like that kind of asshole?”

“What, asshole?”

Dong-wook retorted, flaring up.

“Do I have to count on my fingers how many eyes are watching?”

It wasn’t as if they had only seen one or two cases where a chaebol’s abuse of power ended badly. Whenever such an issue broke out, they would chuckle among themselves and mock the party involved in the scandal.

Yet strangely, they couldn’t apply the same standard to themselves. Was lack of judgment a special trait of third-generation chaebols? He had even started thinking that way.

“What’s the point of talking. It only hurts my mouth.”

This time he openly clicked his tongue.

“Do Ji-wan.”

“I’m sick of it.”

Saying that, Ji-wan lifted his glass. He downed it in one go with gulping sounds, when Dong-wook shouted “Hey!”

*Kwang!*

The glass shattered, embedding small fragments into Ji-wan’s palm. He didn’t even blink, as if such a thing didn’t bother him at all.

“I came to relieve some stress after a long time. Even the alcohol tastes like shit.”

Wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, he stood up with a face free of lingering attachment.

“I’m leaving first.”

Unlike when he handled work, Ji-wan’s private self was actually more cheerful than anyone’s. Quick-witted and witty—the type one could call good at socializing. A nuclear insider among insiders.

People naturally followed those kinds of people. When he took one step forward, crowds gathered around him like bees to a flower.

But on days when sparks flew like today, no one could handle Ji-wan.

The unrefined rawness of a young master raised in nobility that no one could carelessly oppose—that was the dirty temper hidden behind his smiling face.

“Since I gathered everyone, I’ll pay the bill and leave.”

He said so in a calm voice. Judging by how rational it was, he hadn’t even raised the ‘claws’ today. But the friends suppressed by his aura kept silent on their own.

“Hey, your hand.”

Among them, the close Hee-won handed him a tissue with a furrowed face. He also didn’t forget the look that said he would take care of the rest, so just go.

“Thanks.”

Ji-wan wrapped his palm with the tissue and turned his back on the group. Thinking that even this gathering with the guys he hung out with relatively often should end now.

With his uninjured left hand he snatched a bottle of liquor that had been on the bar. Drinking straight from the bottle, he went back down to the underground club.

What suddenly came to mind amid the music that pounded like his heartbeat was Ha Hye-ryeon. It felt as if that girl who had reappeared was grabbing and shaking his heart. A curse was chewed out from inside him.

Ji-wan once again gulped down the liquor.

Just then, a slender woman with a thin cigarette in her mouth entered the narrow corridor used by staff.

Her gaze locked onto Ji-wan’s sculpted appearance, his unbuttoned shirt, and finally the ridiculously expensive watch on his wrist. She seemed to flinch for a moment at the injured hand, but quickly smoothed away the startled expression.

Soon she put the cigarette into a silver case and approached Ji-wan.

“You look bored?”

Clubbers freely used informal speech without considering the other person. Ji-wan neither liked nor disliked it, so he responded as it came. Maybe it was comfortable because it was equal.

“Yeah, a bit bored.”

Ji-wan replied.

“Want me to play with you?”

The woman asked while gently stroking the collar of Ji-wan’s shirt. Pressed so close that her deep cleavage was blatantly visible.

For an instant it felt as if tens of thousands of insects were crawling over his body.

There had been a time when Ji-wan also made efforts to meet new women.

Even when he had wet dreams, the partner was only Ha Hye-ryeon, so he had to be seized by an unpleasant feeling as wet as the damp blanket.

So he tried contacting women as they came, and not infrequently took them all the way to hotel rooms.

The result was that nothing was accomplished. Not even once.

Not only was there no emotional agitation whatsoever, but even his body didn’t move at all, which was extremely awkward.

At first he thought it was because of a mild cleanliness obsession. So he tried that crazy thing for a full year. In the end he raised the white flag.

*Fuck. I’ve become impotent.*

He thought that, but whenever he thought of Hye-ryeon, whom he had held only once, his whole body boiled as if it would explode. The reason his body was reacting now was also because Ha Hye-ryeon, who had ruined him, had come to mind.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? The lower part is answering.”

He tightly gripped the neck of the woman who was whispering densely. It was only a few seconds, but fear flickered in the woman’s eyes. Ji-wan quickly removed his hand and folded the corners of his eyes as if apologetic.

“Sorry. When I drink I can’t hold back.”

Ji-wan tried to wrap up the situation by framing it as a defect in himself, not a problem with the woman.

“Well, then there’s nothing to be done.”

The woman was distrustful but nodded. She had read the momentary cruelty that had crossed the man’s eyes. A young, handsome, rich man was always welcome, but if that man was a psycho it was a different matter.

After the woman withdrew, Ji-wan’s vision blurred as if filled with fog. Of course. Because he had emptied an entire bottle of liquor like water, the intoxication rose all at once.

As he walked slowly toward the entrance, he saw a certain figure entering from the opposite side.

Brown hair fluttering with each step, porcelain-white clean skin.

Ji-wan narrowed his dim eyes. But the woman’s face wasn’t clearly visible.

The woman glanced at him with someone beside her, then whispered something small and brushed past.

Ji-wan whipped his head around.

For an instant the world lost its sound.

Only the *tak-tak* of high heels walking away slowly but clearly echoed through the corridor.

*You……. Are you leaving like that again? Are you abandoning me once more?*

Something indescribable rose hotly inside Ji-wan. With a surge, it felt as if his heart was vomiting blood. It hurt. It hurt like hell.

Ji-wan muttered unclear words and followed the woman. Then he grabbed her wrist and spun her around.

“Ha Hye-ryeon.”