‘Hello, Sunbae.’
‘Yeah. Hello.’
Seo Kangwoo was a junior in Heewoon’s department and he would make Heewoon happy even with his unremarkable greetings.
Seo Kangwoo was quite a suspicious character. Although he seemed to get along well with everyone, there was a strange sense of being distant, and even when he was smiling, he gave off a chilly aura.
To Heewoon, who was always indecisive and timid, Kangwoo looked very cool.
There were many rumors about Seo Kangwoo. A third-generation chaebol, a gangster, an aspiring celebrity. None of them were confirmed, but Heewoon also found his secrecy fascinating.
Heewoon’s feelings for him were somewhere between love and longing. Just watching Kangwoo made him happy. He wanted to see him more, and longer. He wanted to know more about him.
It took only a moment for his feelings to twist in the wrong direction.
He met Seo Kangwoo by accident and wanted to know him more after his short greeting, so he moved absentmindedly following his broad back. He thought that he was being weird for a moment, but then rationalized that he was just heading towards the canteen too.
It was that easy to start stalking him.
I was going that way, too. I wasn’t following him. But there’s actually nothing wrong with walking and following someone. I followed him until his home and thought this was not okay. Let’s not do this again. Wow, Kangwoo, you live in a really nice house. I would be the only one who knows he lives in a house like this.
The secret tasted so sweet even when he realized it was a crime.
After that, he started rationalizing again. He was not setting up a hidden camera inside his house, he wasn’t taking pictures of him, and he wasn’t sending him strange messages. He was not doing anything that would hurt Kangwoo, he was just watching him.
He was disgusted at himself and felt guilty for the unknowing Kangwoo, but he couldn’t stop. The time he spent watching Seo Kangwoo was so sweet and happy.
Usually, Heewoon would sneak around Kangwoo outside of lecture hours and head straight to Kangwoo’s house after lecture. He would lament that they didn’t have many lectures together.
When Kangwoo arrived at his home, Heewoon would hide behind a tree and waited patiently. If all went well, he hoped to catch a glimpse of Kangwoo walking his dog around 8 PM. But he didn’t always get to see him. If someone other than him came out at 8 PM, that meant Kangwoo was not home.
Heewoon had promised himself that he would only watch Kangwoo at school and at home, so if he didn’t show up at 8 PM, he’d hang around for a bit more and then go to his part-time job. In other words, the time between the end of lectures and 8 PM was time for him to be stalking.
For the past month, Heewoon’s dinner had always been just one cream bun.
In fact, as of three days ago, his breakfast had also changed to a cream bun. He was breaking his own promise, but he got himself an exciting result. In the past 3 days, Seo Kangwoo had been jogging at 6 AM. He would be able to confirm that Kangwoo jogged every morning if he continued to watch him for a week.
Like that, Heewoon was slowly crossing the promised line.
And then, today.
Two of his scheduled tutoring jobs suddenly got canceled, and Heewoon lurked in front of Kangwoo’s house for a little longer than usual, staring at the house jutting out from the high walls and wondering if the window with the light turned on might be Seo Kangwoo’s room.
He hadn’t realized it was past 11 PM. Lurking outside someone’s house until almost midnight was a bit too much of stalking. Of course, his idea of stalking is always subjective to his own perspective.
Anyway, Heewoon was surprised at the time and hailed a taxi. This was a wealthy neighborhood, so there were no buses, so taxis were the only way to go. So he would take a taxi to the bus stop, which was about a five-minute drive from here.
As he watched the taxi get closer and closer on the app, the door gates opened. Then, Kangwoo stepped out of the house.
At that moment, Heewoon carefully hid in the darkness and observed him. With his hair slicked back and dressed in a form-fitting suit, Seo Kangwoo looked a little different than how he was on campus. He was just…… perfect.
The rumors that he was an aspiring celebrity were not absurd at all. He looked more like an actor in a famous movie than an idol singer or model. His nonchalant gaze would be remembered for years to come.
At that time, Heewoon heard a soft car sound. Heewoon’s expression clouded as he wondered if the taxi had already arrived, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a black foreign car pull up to the gate.
Seo Kangwoo took the backseat and the black car departed.
Where would he go looking so cool in this night? Heewoon thought for a moment, and his brow furrowed as he thought of a place. Nightclub. No matter how much he thought about it, that seemed to be the only place.
He hadn’t heard that he went to nightclubs. If he went to nightclubs, everyone would stare at him, right? He’s so tall and had broad shoulders, he’d stand out even from miles away. Heewoon wondered how he would dance. He would like to see him dancing.
A sudden impulse came over him. Before he could control his impulse, the taxi just arrived. Heewoon got into the cab and said,
‘Please follow that car.’
The taxi driver looked at Heewoon puzzled, but his eyes lit up when he heard that Heewoon said that his girlfriend might be cheating on him, and he dutifully followed the car.
Heewoon thought Seo Kangwoo was headed to the city center, but instead, he was slowly moving towards the outskirts. The taxi driver glanced nervously at Heewoon as the roads became increasingly empty, but after taking a good look at how skinny Heewoon was, he seemed relieved. Perhaps it was because his appearance looked innocent.
When the car ahead of them stopped, Heewoon got out of the taxi. The taxi fare was over 50,000 won. He regretted it, but now that he spent that much, he decided to enjoy this moment. His heart fluttered with the anticipation of getting to know Seo Kangwoo like no one else.
It seemed like he hadn’t been found out, considering that Kangwoo and the two men just walked away without looking back.
The car stopped in front of a small factory, and they entered the factory in order. Heewoon, who had been hiding behind a dusty truck, poked his head out to see what was going on and followed them from behind. It was easy as the door was left open.
It wasn’t until he entered the factory that he sensed something was amiss. Of course, it would have been much better if he had sensed it at the moment when the car headed towards a secluded area or when he heard the faint sounds of conversation.
Between a group of men standing with their backs turned, he saw Kangwoo there, having an indifferent look on his face. And there was a man kneeling in front of him.
“Please, save me.”
The man was begging for his life.
Woo Heewoon’s mind had been a little out of sorts lately. Maybe it happened ever since he started stalking. When it came to anything related to Seo Kangwoo, his mind became especially odd. When he sensed he was in danger, he should have walked out of the factory instead of hiding behind a wooden crate. Even if he did hide behind a crate, he should have contacted the police first.
He shouldn’t have eavesdropped on the conversation.
“Yes. I’ll tell you everything, everything. Please s-save…”
“If you say one more useless word, I’ll cut off your other hand too. If that happens, do you think you’ll be able to eat?”
The blunt sound from a moment ago must have been the sound of a hand getting broken.
Heewoon blocked his mouth, but rough breaths hissed through Heewoon’s nose. He had goosebumps. Seo Kangwoo. Was this Seo Kangwoo’s secret? His mind went hazy.
What should I do? What should I do? Let’s at least sneak out now. No, I should call the police first. What was the number to call the police station again? I have to search on the internet……
My hands that had gone white trembled as I held the phone.
No one would ever guess that Seo Kangwoo was like this.
A bliss that sprouted a little in the midst of his panic and fear, he couldn’t notice it then.
In his panic, Heewoon couldn’t focus on their conversation. Just as he was about to text the police station number that he barely remembered, he peeked through the box to see what was going on and heard their words.
“Finish him at once.”
“Please, wait a minute! Young sir!”
The man kneeling on the floor grabbed Kangwoo’s leg as he was turning around. Kangwoo’s gaze fell on the hand grabbing his pants.
“P-please….”
The hand that could only be described as crushed weakly slid down his clean pants. It left a dark bloodstain on his pants.
“…….”
Seo Kangwoo slowly lowered his head and looked down at his pants. His perfectly shaped eyebrows gradually furrowed and his forehead formed a few lines. Squinting through the small gap, Heewoon’s eyes forgot to blink. The sight of dust floating in dim light and that man’s face in shadow. Time was passing slowly.
“Fuck, it got dirty.”
Heewoon blinked at the quiet voice. His sense of reality returned. He should, call the police. Against his better judgment, Heewoon’s eyes followed Kangwoo’s movements as his hand reached into his pocket.
Kangwoo pulled out something that glinted in the flickering light.
It was really in a blink of an eye.
He took out the jackknife and stabbed the kneeling man in the neck. He did that skillfully without any hesitation.
Blood gushed from the man’s neck like a fountain. Heewoon didn’t know what had happened, even as he watched the liquid’s trajectory plunge into the floor through the floating dust.
“…S-save….”
The man grabbing his own throat let out a stifled groan and fell forward.
That….
Seo Kangwoo…… stabbed a person.
Welcome! This series is one of the most popular K-BL novels, with almost 20K reviews on one platform! It’s getting a webtoon adaptation on 8/25, so look forward to that too!!
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