The Cruel Beast’s Desire - Chapter 4

“Who? Did you borrow money again? Did you take out a private loan?”

[Why is she yelling! I told you I got an investment from the Taewang Group!]

It was an unbelievable statement.

[It’s fine if no one came looking. You’ll keep your promise, right?]

“What promise?”

[You’re eating well, and you’re still donating blood regularly, right?]

Something was fishy.

Her parents had never been interested in the fact that Hayeon had a special blood type or that she donated blood regularly.

Were they suddenly trying to be parents after 27 years?

The thought that they wouldn’t do this without a reason made her uneasy, but on the other hand, it wasn’t bad to receive her parents’ attention.

“I’m managing it well.”

[That’s good. I’m busy, so I’ll hang up.]

The call ended before she could even answer. An inexplicable sense of unease made goosebumps rise on her neck. Hayeon rubbed her neck with her hand.

“Taewang……”

In three months, Hayeon had heard the name Taewang twice. In her life, she had never had even a speck of contact with Taewang or any other conglomerate. But suddenly, both her parents’ business and the sports center where she worked were related to the Taewang Group, which was strange.

Was it really a coincidence? If it wasn’t a coincidence… then why?

She didn’t know anyone there.

Hayeon just thought she was being overly sensitive.

“It must be a coincidence… What business do I have with a huge conglomerate…? I’m just being self-conscious.”

Hayeon shook her head lightly and prepared to leave work. But it was when she was passing through the lobby.

“Hayeon!”

Seon-woo was running up to her urgently. There was still an hour before the afternoon class started.

“Oh, Seon-woo. You’re coming to work early today?”

“Hey… Hayeon. That’s…”

Seon-woo’s face, which always had a bright smile, was completely stiff.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

His eyes, searching Hayeon as if trying to figure her out, were shaking anxiously.

“You haven’t met him yet?”

Her conversation with her mother a little while ago flashed through her mind.

“Did someone come looking for me? What was the atmosphere like? Were they like loan sharks or anything?”

Was this finally the reality of the anxiety that had been engulfing her?

“It’s not that… Hayeon, let’s go out first. I’ll tell you outside.”

Seon-woo grabbed Hayeon’s hand urgently. Being surprised by his actions, which he would never normally do, was just the beginning.

-Thud

Not only Seon-woo but also Hayeon had to stop in their tracks.

“No way……”

The man walking towards them dominated the surroundings just by appearing. The sound of his shiny shoes grew closer and closer, but Hayeon couldn’t move, forgetting even to breathe.

The man approached, staring only at Hayeon. He glanced at the hand held by Seon-woo, and his brow furrowed slightly.

Ignoring Seon-woo, who was standing next to her, the man stopped in front of Hayeon.

It wasn’t an illusion.

The man, wearing perfectly polished shoes without a speck of dust and a perfectly pressed designer suit, was Seo Yoonjae, no matter how you looked at him.

Hayeon bit the inside of her cheek.

“Seo Yoonjae… How did you get here?”

He chuckled.

“Seo Yoonjae, huh… Ha. It’s been a while since I heard that name.”

She hadn’t expected him to sneer so much at just a name. No, his appearance itself was something she hadn’t imagined would happen in the rest of her life.

Hayeon’s face turned pale with shock.

“Oh, Executive Director Tae, I didn’t expect you to arrive so early. I was just about to go out to meet you.”

The center director pushed Hayeon aside and bowed in front of Yoonjae.

“Executive Director Tae?”

Hayeon hoped she had misheard. But seeing the center director, who never bowed to anyone, smiling and maintaining a low posture in front of Yoonjae, she knew she hadn’t misheard.

“This is the swimming instructor for the morning and afternoon classes. Both of you, say hello. He’s Executive Director Tae Yoonjae of the Taewang Group, who will be leading our center from now on.”

Seo Yoonjae was Tae Yoonjae…

Hayeon felt like she was suffocating.

“What are you doing! Hurry up and say hello.”

“Hello, Executive Director Tae Yoonjae.”

Seon-woo greeted him first.

“Hello.”

Hayeon said the words as they came out and then bit her lower lip.

“Executive Director, I’ll take you to the center director’s office.”

“Rather…”

Yoonjae’s gaze was still on Hayeon.

“Yes, yes. Please, don’t hesitate to say anything.”

“Are you two dating?”

“Pardon?”

“You’re still holding hands tightly, so I was wondering.”

Only then did Hayeon realize that her hand was still being held by Seon-woo. She quickly pulled her sweaty hand away and hid it behind her back.

“Oh, no, nothing like that. Our center prohibits in-house relationships. Teacher Kang and Teacher Kim have been friends since they were swimmers. You two are, right?”

“…Yes.”

Hayeon answered in a small voice. For some reason, Seon-woo was trembling, his mouth tightly shut.

“Teacher Kim, you should answer quickly too.”

“Yes… we’re friends.”

Seon-woo also answered at the center director’s urging.

“I see. Please, show me the way.”

At Yoonjae’s one word, the center director became a well-behaved dog and quickly moved forward.

Hoping that Yoonjae would pass by like this, Hayeon closed her eyes tightly.

“I wondered…”

At the mocking voice, Hayeon opened her closed eyes again.

“No matter how tolerant you are, you wouldn’t sleep with a woman who’s messing around with your friend… Kim Seon-woo isn’t that much of a bastard.”

With a bitter smile, Yoonjae said in a low voice as he passed by.

“That bastard…”

“Please……”

Seon-woo clenched his fist, glaring at the receding footsteps. Hayeon grabbed his sleeve and trembled.

“Seon-woo… please, please stay still.”

Hayeon was so shocked by every moment that Yoonjae had appeared that she didn’t want anything else to happen.

Why Seo Yoonjae had become Tae Yoonjae.

How he had become an executive director of the Taewang Group.

Why he had acquired the sports center where she worked of all places.

Nothing was clearly sorted out.

She was confused.

Above all, even though the time she had faced Yoonjae again was less than five minutes, she felt exhausted as if five hours, no, five years had passed.

Moreover, the citrus scent that remained from the moment he appeared until he disappeared was the most painful.

Every time she inhaled and exhaled, she felt like his lingering scent was seeping deep into her lungs. Every single cell in her body that remembered him writhed in pain.

Unable to stand there any longer, Hayeon ran outside.

“Hiss, haa.”

She went to the park behind the center and took several deep breaths. She wanted to expel everything that remained, so she exhaled until her lungs shriveled and inhaled until her stomach bulged.

“Hiss, haa. Hiss, haa.”

No matter how many times she took a deep breath, Seo Yoonjae wouldn’t disappear.

“Drink.”

Seon-woo, who had chased after her, suddenly handed her a bottle of water.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… I’m okay.”

Even though she wasn’t okay, she couldn’t say anything other than that she was okay.

“Seon-woo, did you… know? Is that why you asked if I had met him a little while ago by any chance.”

“Yeah, it was Yoonjae.”

Hayeon slumped down on the bench.

“Hayeon, are you really okay?”

“……”

This time, she couldn’t even lie.

“What happened? Why… did Seo Yoonjae become Tae Yoonjae? You know, right? You knew, didn’t you?”

“I found out a few days ago too. I just found out a little while ago that the Taewang Group bought our center.”

“Ah……”

She couldn’t say anything.

“Why didn’t you tell me? If I had known in advance…”

“What would have changed if you had known in advance?”

Seon-woo was right. Knowing in advance wouldn’t have changed much from now.

She would have just run away even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“A kid who used to be on the national team with us called and said that Yoonjae turned out to be from the Taewang Group bloodline.”

“That can’t be. Yoonjae was…”

He was the son of a single mother.

It was what Yoonjae’s birth mother, whom Hayeon had met, had said, so it couldn’t be a lie.

Even in this situation, as if trying to protect Yoonjae’s secret, Hayeon couldn’t continue her next words.

“I know he was the son of a single mother.”

She didn’t know that Seon-woo would also know the secret that only she knew. Seon-woo’s eyes looked so sad when he said that, that she couldn’t bring herself to ask how he knew.

“The chairman of the Taewang Group’s first son was Yoonjae’s biological father.”

“!”

“Tae Woo-min, the unfortunate swimming prodigy who died in a car accident.”

She didn’t remember how she got home at all. She just stared blankly at the ground and walked, and before she knew it, she was home. She didn’t even have the strength to open the door, so she collapsed on the platform on the rooftop.

“You’re late.”

At the sudden voice, Hayeon jumped up as if a spring had popped.

“Seo Yoonjae……”

The person sitting in the chair placed in the corner with his long legs crossed, looking at Hayeon with a languid face, was Yoonjae. She wondered how he could be at her house first when she seemed to have left the center first.

Moreover, she was curious how he knew where Hayeon’s house was and had come, but she couldn’t ask.

After the unexpected reunion, her questions about him only increased, but nothing was clearly resolved. The words she wanted to ask were tangled up, and she couldn’t utter a single one.

“I guess you left before me, did you go on a date or something?”

More than Seo Yoonjae changing to Tae Yoonjae, it was ten thousand times harder to adjust to his sarcastic tone like now.

“How did you know about this place?”

He chuckled. The way he unfolded his crossed legs and slowly got up was so unrealistic.

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