ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 25

A FEW DAYS AGO

~ Dean's Office, Hanguk University, Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul

"So what did the old bag say?" the Dean was a bundle of nerves and Wookyung inwardly laughed at the pot calling the kettle black. By the looks of it, ageing, to the bald fellow, seemed to be a woman's burden.

"She doesn't want to press charges. Thankfully for you, she happened to be out on the golf course with her gigolo instead of going to the salon for a fresh dye job like she told her husband" Wookyung checked his shoe for cuffs on top of the Dean's table.

"She's as eager to get the police involved in the entire shebang as you are" Wookyung strained the chair until it squealed. "What a ghastly creature..." the Dean exclaimed with disdain. Wookyung felt sickened by the man's hypocrisy.

"They fired the waiter who saw you molesting her outside the ladies' washroom... he might have something to say" he warned. "Pay him off... or reinstate him, tell him to keep quiet if he wants his job back" the Dean rushed through various motions.

"I don't want any loose ends" he insisted. "I can do something about that" Wookyung found a chip of dirt along with his shoe, scraping at a scruff on the side, causing dirt to fall on the glass-topped surface. "What do I get in return?" he asked casually.

The Dean flicked his eyes around nervously, thinking about his reputation, his job, his friends, his wife, his children. "I need personal records, teaching records, research papers, class notes, checked papers, any random laundromat receipt lying around for Professor Byun Minho. Everything the University has on him since 2008 to the present day"

"What do you say Mr. Park?" he cocked his head at him and the Dean frowned and then slowly relaxed his face "That can be done, for sure. If it's just Byun Minho". "What do you mean by that?" Wookyung played with the same paperweight he had caught on his first visit to the Dean's visit.

He contemplated smashing it into the ceiling. "It won't hurt the University, I meant to say, to let go of secure information on that man. I'll pull up whatever I can find" he rearranged papers on his desk "I won't ever understand why you're so keen on him"

"He is, more or less, an inconvenience to everyone here" he continued, stashing the papers in his desk "Doesn't join any teachers' groups, boards nor clubs, doesn't like to partner up for research or projects, is rude to staff, especially women, when sharing spaces-"

"-gets regular complaints from parents for being unsociable, haughty. He joined the Creative Writing Department to further his own work but never wrote anything and on top of that keeps yapping about a promotion. He is a sore thumb... what with the feeling I get from him"

"What kind of feeling?" Wookyung asked warmly, pretending like he was on his side of the argument. "Like discomfort. I remember his constantly pending fees back in college. He'd tell the office that it's because of issues back at home. They were tired of him... how can a new reason crop up each time?" he leaned forward as if relaying a kept secret.

"It can be assumed that he's from the shack. Typical no-family planning family, mother's an illiterate birthing cow; father, a flailing minimum wager, very lowly as it is, it's possible that they're estranged too" he folded his hands on top of each other, looking pleased with his detective work.

"It's suspicious how he's made it so far. Lives alone, gets no financial aid, has no other friends or family. As for the money, I won't be surprised if he scraped it together by sketchy means. That's my take, don't fraternize with him so much" he advised him "you come from a good family"

He doesn't know, Wookyung laughed to himself about this remark

"So why is he still around, Mr. Park? If you were looking to take him out of the system? The so-called speck in your drink" Wookyung steadied his voice as to conceal his anger. "I tried, I tried" he reassured him "But he did enter Uni with the top grades and a flawless record in football... come to think of it, he stopped playing after a while too. In an attempt to focus on academics more"