Warm Boy

“There is a kid here too.”

“Ah…the house I was about to talk about concerns that kid, because he lives there. During the previous broadcast, the fact that he was scammed of his relocation expenses was reported. Since the public wanted to help them out, from the production team, they suggested doing a followup report and contacted them.” 

“Follow-up report? You are saying they will come here and film here again?”

“…Yes.”

“So did they say they will do it?”

“No. They have been rejecting the requests since they said they can’t go on air.” 

“That’s a relief. Wait. Let me see.”

Kwon Taejung scrutinized the picture of the baby-faced boy on the monitor and sweeped his eyes to the side, confirming his name to be “Yeon Yigyeom”. As the irrelevant thought of how the boy’s face matched well with his name, he caught the boy’s resident registration number. The boy was twelve years younger than him.

“That’s a pity. He’s too young.”

“…Yes?”

“He looks easy on the eyes.”

Kwon Taejung, disappointed, rested his head against the window and saw a long column of notes written on the boy’s profile, reflecting off the screen.

BetaGrandfather- Yeon Gyuhak (89)Without parents; has been living together with his grandfather for the last 7 years.Frequently ran into trouble with the service managers.The youngest in the neighborhoodHas been contacted by the press the most compared to other residentsRepaying back the debt to Royal Capital

“Royal Capital? The…one that Goo Daejin, my cousin, is in?”

“Yes. Yeon Yigyeom is the grandson of Yeon Gyuhak, listed on the previous page. To receive relocation expenses, he got wrapped up in an investment fraud so that’s when he took out a loan from Royal Capital.” 

“Fraud…”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Kwon Taejung returned to the previous page and attentively scanned the information of Yigyeom’s grandfather. As Secretary Baek mentioned, Yigyeom’s grandfather not only was scammed by an investment fraud but also sought out to take a loan.

“Lf mjerfv atlr wemt agbeyif lc tlr bivfg sfjgr. Lf fnfc lcnfrafv atf ibjc yjmx lcab atf lcnfrawfca ogjev. Glvc’a tf mbiijqrf ogbw atf rtbmx yfmjerf bo atfrf fnfcar?”

“Tfr. Ktja’r kts atf ugjcvrbc lr qjslcu boo atf vfya bc tlr yftjio.” 

Lf aegcfv ab atf cfza qjuf jcv rmjccfv Tfbc Tlusfbw’r qlmaegf jujlc. Lf mbeivc’a wbnf tlr fsfr ogbw atf qgfaas ojmf mjqaegfv lc atf qlmaegf. Pa kjr jr lo atf qlmaegf kjr fvlafv jcv bc abq bo atja tf mjwf bea ecfzqfmafvis kfii obg jc PG qlmaegf. Pa kjr jc jrabclrtlcuis qgfaas ojmf.

Yeon Yigyeom must have lived his whole life, tirelessly listening to others calling him pretty. Even though it was the first time Kwon Taejung saw him, he was still thinking the same thing.

“He’s pretty.”

“Huh?” 

“He has a pretty face. He’s pretty, you know?”

If Yigyeom was one year, no scratch that, even five years younger than Kwon Taejung, he would have been interested but it was a pity that the boy in the picture was too young.

Kwon Taejung stifled that interest and looked over the rough life of Yigyeom described in the notes, impassively.

“He has to pay off his debt, look over his sick grandfather. How shitty can his life be? Nevertheless, it’s a relief that he is a beta. If he was an omega, he would have been conned by the Royal Company, by now.” 

No, actually it would have been easier to pay off his debt if he was omega. Again, Kwon Taejung’s eyes drew back to the picture of Yigyeom.

“Ran into trouble with the service managers? What’s that about?”

“Ah, among the service managers, some of them misunderstood Yigyeom as an omega when they saw him for the first time and tried to harass him.”

“Are there only assholes here? The people who were assigned to the red containers were bastards who acted like thugs and harassed a resident. What kind of act is this? I know why they have been bullshitting all these years, and the reason was this. Can I write down that the service managers created trouble for him? If anyone read this, they would think they fought together.” 

“…Sorry. I’ll fix it.”

After hearing Secretary Baek’s reply, and as if he heard and saw it all, he tossed the tablet to the side. As expected, he hated such troublesome tasks that would only cause headaches for him.

“I think it will be enough if you assign the service chief to take care of that house for 3 months. For now, I think that house can easily cause the most problems because the production crew might try to contact and persuade him so it might turn into a difficult situation.”

“Ah, so this kid said that he won’t come out on the broadcast?” 

“Yes. Also, it will be better if they are talked into moving out of this place safely and carefully before the demolition starts. The situation is very complicated because of the relocation expense scam and people from Royal Capital are visiting them frequently because of the debt.”

“Yigyeom is lucky. The production crew and money all come to visit him. There is no reason for him to be bored.”

“There will be no problem going through with the demolition if we are careful for the next three months.”

“We should be. Only that way, I return back to my usual life. Dad said that he would give me back my Executive Director position, if I either complete the demolition successfully or bring someone to marry. Which do you think will be faster? Demolition? Marriage?” 

“Since you are not dating anyone right now…won’t demolition be faster?”

“I think so too. This is really a vacation. For the span of three months, I only have to keep an eye on that kid and play with him. That will be fun.”

Kwon Taejung who chuckled, as if it would really be fun, looked at the familiar house standing out in the scenery and then closed his house. He couldn’t have a good night’s rest because of all the mess and now all he wanted to do was go home and rest.

*** 

Kwon Taejung reclined his back against the bathtub and drank the last sip of wine. He looked at the empty glass with eyes full of regret. He should have bought the whole bottle, he thought and turned to his side, irked by the unwelcomed vibrations of his phone. With his wet hands he grabbed the phone, which had been constantly ringing since earlier. The name “Goo Daejin” flashed on the screen. Every person he knew was calling him throughout the day because a report came out about Kwon Taejung yesterday.

There were people who were calling him out of concern and there were some who wanted to ridicule him and laugh at him about the situation. The one who was calling him was Goo Daejin and it was clear that he was hoping to hear his lifeless voice. But what to do, Kwon Taejung didn’t have anything of that sort. With a glare, he put the phone back at the side of the bathtub but picked it up again, on a second thought.

Goo Daejun was relevant to the matter Secretary baek previously discussed. Even though he wasn’t personally in charge of the management, Goo Daejun was closely and suitably involved in it. He could learn more about the kid’s debt affair, who was placed under scrutiny.

“Yeah, Daejun.” 

Kwon Taejung only received the call because he wanted something out of it. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about other matters. But what to do, he had to put up with it because he wanted to use him.

Why aren’t you receiving the call? I thought you were knocked out of embarrassment.

“You are alive and well so why would I die?”

-I see your mouth is still running as usual, it must not have been that damaging. I heard you were kicked off your position. 

“It’s good that I don’t have to work. Just because I don’t have any work to do, it doesn’t mean that I am not the son of a rich corp. So nothing has changed.”

-You are shameless. I am the asshole who called because I was worried.

“But our Daejin is good at expressing himself.”

At the fact that Daejin was worried for him, Kwon Taejun guffawed so loud that it was enough to make the bathroom walls quiver. He tapped his fingertips along the glass in front of him. 

“Alright, don’t bum around and send me your hyung’s number.”

-Hyung?

“Private loan.”

-Ah, Daebom hyung? What about him? You want to borrow some money?” 

“Hm. I’ll borrow some money for my business.”

-Hey, is your situation that serious?

Even though he was putting on an act, from the beginning Goo Taejung could not compare to Kwon Taejung. Even though Kwon Taejung said words he didn’t mean, Goo Taejung believed him blindly and for that reason he lost his competitive spirit.

“Uh, so it’s a life and death situation so send me that number.” 

-Okay. Once the situation settles, come out for a drink.

“Sorry, since I’m in the middle of being grounded, I can’t. I’m hanging up, I have to be careful.”

Shortly after hanging up, a message came from Goo Daejin. It was Daebom hyung’s phone number. After saving the phone number, as if he was done with the affair, he put his phone behind the bathtub and soaked himself deeper into the tub. It was warm, comfortable and yet again it felt like shit.

*** 

In his state of fogginess, a buzzing sound pestered him. Lying down, he buried his face halfway through his pillow and reached out his hand to turn off the alarm set to 5.30 am.

If it was like any other day, he would have woken up, worked out right after and got ready for work. But for those 3 months, there was no need to do all those rituals. There was no need to report to work early or to take responsibility for a huge task assigned to him.

He thought about sleeping for another hour, and then waking himself up to exercise. He would then meet up with Secretary Baek and devour his breakfast slowly before heading for the wrecked up district.

There, he would check if the horrifying container had been changed and then take a lap around the neighborhood before visiting the roughed up house of the kid. If the state of the house was adequate, he would enter the kid’s house. 

Ah, it was nice that the work was relaxing. He tossed his body around, and looked at the ceiling. He let out a deep exhale and relaxed his body. Since he was the son of chaebol, as if showing off his unique skills, he dedicated his whole life trying to satisfy the expectation his dad, big brother and sister had of him. Of course, he did cause some small and big incidents, similar to the one now, but it did not become that big of a deal because he was able to solve it easily.

That incident of “Taesung Group’s third son’s rebellious driving” was not different from the incidents he caused before. It could have been settled easily, if he wanted it to. As a result of the accident, the phrase “rebellious driving” stuck to him. Kwon Taejung stared at the ceiling, wide awake.

“…Fuck.”

Thinking about it made Kwon Taejung angry. He recalled the day when he was labeled by that awful phrase. The start of that day was ordinary just as the day was not special at all.