"That's what worked for everyone's good." Seeing his good mood, Tae took a deep breath and relaxed a little.
Tae said,"That boy... he stays lost within himself. It's very difficult to get to know him or befriend him. Maybe he's sick..."
Joon-hyunk asked,"Sick...?"
Tae replied,"Yes, he doesn't let anyone come close to him. Nor does he allow himself to be touched. And if someone accidentally does touch him, he panics badly. Sometimes his panic gets so intense that he struggles to breathe. His breaths get stuck, and he sinks into panic.
There are moments when he completely loses control. Because of his anxiety, he has suffered many dangerous migraine attacks—foam comes out of his mouth, and his breathing stops.
This doesn't just burden his mind, it completely debilitates him. Sometimes he behaves like a madman. He's very fearful."
Tae thought back to an old memory and said,"I remember when I was trying to befriend him. We had just made some new friends, and once by mistake I touched him. My hand barely grazed him, and he panicked so badly that I didn't know what to do. He held his head in his hands, screaming as if the pain in his head was unbearable, like it would explode from the headache. He was panicking as if someone was burning him. I had no idea what to do.
After that day, I never accidentally touched him again. And only after a long time did he start talking to me a little, and our friendship began."
(Tae thought that by telling Beast the truth about Yeo-jun like this, Beast's interest would fade, and this whole story would end there — a boy who can't even bear to be touched, what use could he be to someone as powerful as Beast?)
"If he thought that by telling all this, he could end Beast's interest in Yeo-jun, he was badly mistaken. Beast listened very carefully to everything Tae said. Min-jae was also very surprised to hear about him."
But Tae was lost in his own thoughts. Without thinking much, he just kept talking.
"Many times, some students in college treated him very badly. Sometimes they would burn him by spilling something on him, sometimes they would push him down."
Once, a group of students spilled hot coffee on him and badly burned his arm. All this happened simply because of the scars on his face — people bullied him for those marks. Often, they used to say that he took drugs, and that's why his face looked like that. But from what I've known of Yeo-jun, he is a very innocent boy. Taking drugs, such a serious crime, he could never commit.
No one in the entire college came from a family background as influential as his. His father is a big and famous politician, so he was often bullied because of that too. Yet, he never told anyone anything.
Despite being the only son of such a famous politician, instead of complaining about all this, he was afraid of them.
Sometimes he seems a little foolish to me — when a person has so many privileges, instead of using them, he endures all that torture from others. Whereas, if he wanted, he could have solved all his problems at once by simply talking to his father.
Tae said,"Yes, but because of Yun many of those people changed. He always helped him"
Beast asked,"What kind of relationship does Yun have with Yeo-jun?"
Beast's expression was the same as before. Min-jae was sitting on the chair opposite Tae, listening to their conversation, but even Min-jae couldn't understand what Beast was thinking at that moment.
We needed information about Mr. Hwan, so why was he asking about Yeo-jun? We only wanted to find out from Yeo-jun if there was any connection between his father's illegal activities and Mr. Hwan. But what did Yeo-jun have to do with all this?
Even after being with him for such a long time, I never really understood what Beast was thinking or what he planned to do next. So, shaking off his thoughts, he started listening to Tae's story again.
Tae explained that in all this time, Yeo-jun had only befriended Yun — maybe because of Yun's helpful nature. Yun often stood up for Yeo-jun and protected him from those students.
Once, when that group attacked Yeo-jun, Yun fought for him, and a fight broke out between them. In college, Yun was Yeo-jun's only friend, but neither knew much about each other's personal lives.
They were friends, but maybe only classmates, because I never saw them talking much — like two normal friends going out together or sharing their problems. They were good friends at college, but I never saw them together beyond that.
Beast asked again,"Are you sure they don't know anything?"
Tae replied,"Yes, I am completely sure."
As soon as Beast heard all that, he said,Joon-hyunk: "Alright, you may go."
The moment Tae stepped out of the office, he let out a sigh of relief.It felt like, after so long, he could finally breathe deeply again.Yesterday, Beast had suddenly called him, and Tae thought it must be something very serious that was troubling him.But when nothing happened as he had feared, Tae felt a bit relieved. Taking a calming breath, he walked away.
After Tae left, Min-jae spoke up,"So your suspicion was wrong. He doesn't know anything.""You wasted a lot of effort collecting information for nothing. We didn't learn anything new, just as we thought."
Min-jae noticed Beast wasn't responding, so he called out, "Are you listening? I'm talking to you."But Beast ignored him, lost in his own thoughts.
Beast sensed something different in Tae's eyes today. Tae's feelings for Yeo-jun went beyond friendship.And that fact became crystal clear to Beast.
After a moment of thought, a faint smile flickered on Beast's face and then vanished.He asked Min-jae, "Is the task I assigned you completed?"
Min-jae: "Yes, absolutely."
With that, Beast grabbed his car keys and stepped out of the office.Afternoon had turned into night, and slowly the sky was sinking into darkness.Beast started the car with a faint smile on his lips, as if he had some plan in mind.
Soon, Beast found himself driving down a deserted road.Silence stretched everywhere.
He was now far away in a residential area, where wealthy and famous people lived.At night, everyone in this neighborhood kept to themselves, as if these four walls would protect them from their bad luck. Or maybe the walls hid all the dark deeds they had committed.
Not far from this neighborhood stood a grand bungalow — proud and isolated in this quiet place, just a few kilometers away.Beast stopped his car near the bungalow and was about to get out when his phone rang.
He answered, and a familiar voice came through — the voice of a young man.
" You promised to have dinner with me tonight, and it's already past one in the morning."
There was clear irritation in the voice.
Joon-hyunk: "I was busy today.