"What do you want, Atty. Choi Seungcheol?"
I remember the way he shook Joshua's hand back in Yeonjun's trial. He doesn't like him, in fact, he detest him. So I expected a come back from him but didn't know it's going to be this soon.
"Can I talk to you for a while?" He said.
"Sure, come inside the clinic."
"I need to talk to you privately."
"Huh."
I should probably say no. As I said, we're a team. This lawyer most likely going to bribe me or something.
"What if I don't want to?"
"There's a convenience store nearby, is it okay to have a conversation there?"
"Did you hear what I say?"
"What else do you know about the Hong family?"
"All right. To the nearby store."
He got my interest. Joshua haven't told us anything about his past expect for the part where we all met in Daegu. I badly want to know him more, I want to understand him.
Although I know I can't put my guard down when I'm with this lawyer. But if I observe him right, I might learn what is he going to do with Joshua.
We bought canned iced coffee and sat outside the store. It's early in the morning so no one's here.
"Go, hit me." I said.
"Do you think you can trust Hong Jisoo?"
"Why'd you ask?"
"Yoon Jeonghan, 25 years old, born in the slums of Gangnam. Your father beaten you and your mother in 5 years. He was only put to jail in the case of domestic abuse when you were 17. Your mom died when you were 20, cause of death was a digestive tract bleeding. The underlying conditions were unclear due to failure to immediately have it checked by a professional doctor."
"How did yo-"
"Kwon Soonyoung, 24 years old, born in the same slums. You went to the same school since grade school, both of you finished a vocational degree. Mother is a street food vendor while father is a delivery truck driv-"
"Don't you dare lay a finger on my friends."
"But Hong Jisoo."
"I told you not-"
"His records from all the schools he attended are gone, or kept secret. But it was a well-known fact that he is the only son of the late CEO and founder of Hong Engineering Firms, Hong Seung-Su. Jisoo's name is in the list of the alumni, but I can't secure a single record of his certificate of birth, transcript, even contact address."
"What do you expect? Universities have confidentiality rule and stuff."
"I got yours and Kwon's from your schools."
"Oh how?"
"Who told you I did it in a legal way? So there, his records are either deleted or in a safe vault who knows."
"Was it that unusual? All of them are overprotective over their prince."
"Everyone in that family has no record. Their maids and butlers don't have university nor birth nor employment records. Even Seung-Su doesn't have one except for his wikipedia pages. It's like, they just existed." He said while fixing his eye glasses.
I thought Taehyung was suspicious. When I had a first glance at him, I knew he holds many secrets. But even the other maids and butlers?
"So, can you trust that person?" He asked.
"What do you want? You want me to find out his secrets?"
"No, we could do that with more time."
"Oh. Good luck then."
"We want you to stop cooperating with him."
"Why are you all obsessed with me leaving Joshua alone."
"For a person who has unlimited money, isn't it suspicious? How can you put your trust on someone like him?" He continued.
I mean he has a point. Underground clinic won't earn enough that could pay someone's debt. Maybe he inherited his father's wealth. Make sense, right?
Wait, how did I even trust Joshua? From the start I can't sense his emotions unlike the other people I meet.
Was he lying to me all this time?
Stop it Jeonghan.
I gulped the whole can of coffee to bring my senses back. Now, focus on this person whom I can read.
"What are you going to do? Here's a tip, don't lie." I asked.
"I'm not the one who's planning here. I'm just helping."
"You can't be working for Nico."
"Who's Nico?"
"Oh, don't tell me you're with Woozi?"
"Who's Woozi?"
Liar.
"That brat." I said.
"Stop making assumptions."
"It's actually kind of you guys to negotiate with me. I thought y'all violence and force."
"I actually hope Jisoo doesn't survive this so we can end things quickly. If he survives, then he'll have to suffer something more painful." Seungcheol smiled at me.
"What's that?"
"Hmm you know, I want to imprison Hong Jisoo. I want him to spend his eternity inside the cell with a broken heart. That's great, you have all day drowning in your own painful thoughts."
"You're delusional."
"I proposed a petty plan to make you guys unhappy for a while. I listed many things that can break his spirit. Like for the first bullet on my list: betrayal. Make Jisoo's friend give him away."
"You really thought you can bribe me, huh? Joshua trusts me for his eternity."
"Not after this. I told you I had a petty plan, though most likely you're gonna reconcile soon, but I really hope you don't. But this is just to give him a taste of what betrayal is like."
He crossed his legs and stretched his arms. "Anyway, thank you for this discussion. This surely bought me enough time."
Time?
I stood up. I suddenly had a bad feeling, I need to hurry.
"Bastard!" I ran back to the clinic.
"I hope you guys suffer!" Seungcheol's shout faded as I run fast away from him.
When I arrived, I saw police cars surrounding the clinic.
"Excuse me!" I made my way through the cops on stand by and I spotted Chan and Hoshi standing outside the clinic.
"Ah. Jeonghan.." Chan called suspiciously.
"What's going on?"
Police went out the clinic guiding the man in handcuffs to the police car. I met his eyes, the eyes that I always wanted to read. Joshua said
"Jeonghan? Why?"
