BL REBIRTH: You Were Mine (MPREG)

Chapter 33

UNEDITED...

Chapter 33.

PAST

Baek Ji-Hu awoke with a start, a wave of nausea and a throbbing headache reminding him he had been drugged. His memory of the night before was a chaotic blur. Looking down at his naked body, still partially covered by the white duvet, he felt a surge of disgust. The persistent ringing of his phone on the bedside table jolted him further into consciousness.

Groaning, he reached for the phone without checking the caller ID. Before he could say anything, Man Sung-ho's loud voice boomed through the speaker.

"Where the hell are you now?"

"Tsk, can you be quiet for once? Your voice is very annoying," Ji-Hu snapped, wincing at the pain in his head. He glanced around the room, noting that the other person's belongings were conspicuously absent. Whoever had been with him had clearly fled before he woke up.

He wasn't overly concerned about the setup. If anyone attempted to leverage this against him, they would face his ruthless retaliation.

"What do you want?" Ji-Hu asked, leaning back against the headboard, his free hand massaging his aching temples.

"You're still calm when the water's boiling? Tsk, why do I even bother," Sung-ho rambled, veering off-topic to lament how he wished he could be as unflappable as Ji-Hu, who seemed capable of remaining composed even in the direst situations.

"Shut up and tell me what's going on?" Ji-Hu sighed, exasperated.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There was a sex video of you and a ger with a cinnabar mark—though it's not clearly visible—on his back. The PR team at Baek Holdings managed to delete it and sue the account that posted it, but the shareholders are restless."

"A ger? Who is he?" Ji-Hu growled, his lips curling into a snarl that didn't mar his handsome features. Running his fingers through his hair, he rose from the bed and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. He trusted that his grandmother, the matriarch of the family, would handle the panicked shareholders.

"I have no idea," Sung-ho replied. "The video wasn't clear enough to identify him."

Ji-Hu clenched his jaw. Baek Ji-Hu placed his phone on the bathroom countertop and set it to speaker mode.

"No, we didn't see his face clearly. I requested the club's surveillance footage, but they said your room was in their blind spot," Man Sung-ho reported. Though Sung-ho wasn't Ji-Hu's secretary, their close family ties meant they often had to collaborate, and as friends, they cooperated seamlessly.

"Send them to me and keep me updated. I'll meet with my grandmother," Ji-Hu said curtly, hanging up before Sung-ho could respond.

Ji-Hu stood in front of his elegantly seated grandmother in the ancestral home's grand parlor. She hadn't said a word since his arrival. Beside her sat his father, Baek Dong-soo, who had already briefed her on the situation, suggesting it was a setup by the second branch family.

"Have a seat," his grandmother said, her voice cold and calm, her expression inscrutable. Ji-Hu sat down, his back straight and eyes forward, maintaining an air of composed confidence despite the turmoil inside.

"What were you doing at that club?" Dong-soo asked, his tone impatient and laced with frustration. He couldn't fathom how his usually cunning and wise son could fall for such a blatant trap. If it had been him, his mother might have expected it, but Ji-Hu was her sensible grandson; she would find it hard to believe even with proof.

"I was drugged during the gathering my course head lecturer organized at the club. I couldn't escape because Sung-ho had already agreed on our behalf to attend," Ji-Hu explained coolly. His grandmother rolled her eyes slightly, recognizing his attempt to shift the blame without concrete proof.