Chapter 11: The Taming of the Beast

“Manager Hong says this year’s farming was a massive failure, too. At this point, I’m starting to think your fate simply isn’t written for the soil.”

Manager Park’s large hand rustled inside his jacket before pulling out an envelope with crumpled corners. He waved it back and forth in front of Yunhwan, almost teasingly.

“Mr. Kwon Yunhwan. Take this chance to make a tidy sum, pay off your debts, and start fresh.”

When two copies of a contract with identical terms were pulled from the envelope, Yunhwan let out a shallow breath, his voice laced with disbelief.

“Surely… you’re not asking me to take charge of Seonghye again? That’s… that’s not it, right?”

Yunhwan, turning even paler than the white paper, shook his head frantically. He fully understood the gravity of Seonghye’s situation, but he was exhausted; he had no intention of ever sharing a roof with someone else again.

Manager Park stole a glance at him. They say a frightened hedgehog raises its quills and goes on high alert, and to Park, that was exactly what Yunhwan looked like.

Watching Yunhwan—who avoided eye contact, kept an excessive distance, and even stammered—Park couldn’t help but wonder if this was truly the same man who had rescued Seonghye in the past.

But what choice was there? This time, it truly had to be Yunhwan.

Manager Park wiped his sweaty crown with the handkerchief.

“This is why you shouldn’t put your name on anything, whether it’s business or farming. If it fails, you’re the only one going crazy. Look at Manager Hong—his claw machine business flopped, and now he’s working his tail off under me.”

“…Look here.”

“But your case is different, Mr. Kwon. Why? Because you have a golden rope descending from the heavens. I won’t mince words: if you actively cooperate with Seonghye’s treatment, we will take care of your bank debts.”

“Manager Park.”

Ignoring Yunhwan’s attempt to speak, Park pulled out a red ink pad. After all, he wouldn’t have spent his precious time coming all the way down here if he weren’t determined to settle this swiftly.

He placed the open ink pad right next to Yunhwan’s hand.

“Let’s start the treatment tomorrow. The sooner, the better. For both you and Seonghye.”

The moment Yunhwan saw the blood-red ink, his pupils wavered.

Seonghye was injured, but it seemed something had happened to Yunhwan as well. Whenever he saw something deep red, he inexplicably kept thinking of Seonghye.

He remembered the sight of him trembling behind the curtains after he had regained consciousness following that terrifying ordeal in the mountains.

The topic of ‘imprinting’ had overshadowed everything, but he also remembered that Seonghye’s memory wasn’t intact…

A strange silence hung in the air while Yunhwan stared down at the ink.

Was the blood Seonghye shed that day because of me this red? He remembered the face that was white enough to look translucent, but the color of the blood that had soaked his hair and stained Yunhwan’s own clothes was a blurred memory.

Blinking slowly, Yunhwan asked in a murmur:

“Is this ‘imprinting’ thing… really that serious?”

“Serious?”

The man responsible for Seonghye let out a hollow, incredulous laugh.

“It’s beyond ‘serious.’ At this rate, I was expecting to be clearing out a corpse.”

Because the scenes Seonghye had displayed over the past few days were so intense, a bead of sweat rolled down Manager Park’s scalp.

It reminded him of the feeling he had years ago, on the day he first went to greet the Chairman. When he discovered Seonghye beneath those suffocatingly high and sturdy walls, the sentiment was much the same.

“If you didn’t see it, don’t even talk. I don’t need to watch gore movies ever again.”

With a grim face, he stared at the vehicle parked in the yard—the SUV Junseong had been watching earlier.

They had succeeded in bringing him here for treatment, but the problem was what came next. All of Seonghye’s nerves were currently hyper-focused on the target of his imprint.

If they told him they were trying to undo the imprinting for everyone’s sake, would he stay still?

It was as Manager Park narrowed his eyes, trying to predict the future.

The sound of paper fluttering reached his ears, followed by a heavy exhale, as if someone were releasing a deep-seated knot.

“I… I’ll do it.”

Five fingers gripped the edge of the open ink pad. “What do I need to do?” Yunhwan asked in a low voice. In his eyes, which he usually kept hidden in the shadows, something heavy and solid was rapidly rising.

The man, who looked like he had never raised his voice in his life, stared at Park with a terrifyingly serious expression. Manager Park frowned, taken aback by the sudden shift in atmosphere.

“First…”

Park glanced at Junseong, signaling him to take the lead. It was better to leave the medical explanations to him. Junseong, standing behind Yunhwan, nodded quietly in agreement.

“We’re looking at a treatment period of two months. We’ve prepared all the necessary equipment and medication…”

At Junseong’s voice, Yunhwan’s shoulders, which had been hiked up with tension, gradually lowered. This man, with his calm and grave manner of speaking, brought a strange sense of stability to Yunhwan.

As if to prove it, Yunhwan’s gaze became even more intent as Junseong pointed to the treatment process at the bottom of the contract.

Watching the two of them focus on the situation, Manager Park took the handkerchief off his head. The heat after the rainy season was so brutal it made his tongue hang out; he was starting to get annoyed that Manager Hong hadn’t returned with more drinks.

Just then, one of the parked vehicles rocked from side to side. It was a slight movement, barely visible to the naked eye, but Manager Park’s gaze sharpened instantly.

“……!”

The shaking didn’t stop there. This time, the car jolted violently.

The birds that had been sitting quietly on the nearby persimmon tree flapped their wings and took to the sky. Despite the peak afternoon sun, they fled as if for their lives.

Sensing the commotion before anyone else, Manager Park stood up.

Junseong and Yunhwan’s gazes followed his lead.

And then it happened.

The SUV everyone was staring at lurched sideways again. As if struck by a heavy crane, a bone-chilling roar and savage screams erupted from within the heaving chassis. Manager Hong, who was just walking out with the drinks, jumped in fright, and Manager Park hissed a curse.

“Oh, for f***’s sake.”

The sharp curse was immediately drowned out by a succession of screams. It didn’t sound like just one person; it was a chorus of scattered, desperate cries.

—THUD! THUD! THUD! —ARGH!!

The sounds were so agonizing that Manager Hong, who had sidled up to Yunhwan, swallowed hard.

The entire vehicle shook so violently it looked like the doors might fly off. A man with a face turned blue with terror scrambled out of the driver’s seat. He let out a pained cry as he twisted his ankle on the way down, but he didn’t care; he pressed his back tightly against the opposite wall.

The sudden, erratic behavior of the man didn’t stop there.

“Ma-Manager! I can’t do this anymore! We’re all going to die!”

The man pinned to the wall wailed toward Manager Park.

“God, I’m going to lose it.”

Watching this, Manager Park’s face surged with pure irritation. And then.

CRASH!

The rear door of the vehicle swung open as if it were being smashed, and two large men scrambled out in a panic.

At that sight, thick veins finally bulged on Manager Park’s neck.

“You bastards! Get back in there! Get back in right now!”

Despite the roar that could have boxed their ears, they stumbled away from the vehicle. To make matters worse, they all shook their heads and waved their hands with faces full of sheer horror. It was painfully clear: they would rather die than go back inside.

Yunhwan, facing this entire situation head-on, looked back and forth between the fuming Manager Park and the fleeing employees. In an instant, his gaze didn’t waver as he finished assessing the situation.

While everyone else was flustered and unsure what to do.

Yunhwan stood up. He reached into the top of the stacked boxes next to the porch and pulled out a long roll of twine.

“Kwon Yunhwan, you… what are you taking that out for?”

Manager Hong asked, looking somewhat bewildered by the appearance of the packaging twine, but Yunhwan remained expressionless as he began to wrap the cord around his hand.

Only when his prominent knuckles were half-covered by the white string did Yunhwan speak.

“Stay here, Hyung. It’s dangerous.”

“…Don’t say that, why don’t you stay here too?”

Swallowing hard, Manager Hong looked at the car, which was now vibrating intermittently. It looked more like a cage than a vehicle now, as if some starving wild beast from the mountains had been locked inside.

He reached out and tugged at Yunhwan’s wrist as he tried to step forward.

“Hey… why are you so eager to get involved?”

He meant it as concern, but it didn’t seem to reach the recipient at all. Manager Hong screamed internally as he watched Yunhwan walk past Manager Park and toward the car before he could stop him.

Yunhwan paused for a moment as he reached the interior of the vehicle.

“…….”

As he leaned his head into the open door, he was greeted by the metallic scent of blood. His sense of smell was the first of his five senses to be triggered.

Next was his hearing, which detected a bizarre silence, and finally, his vision—once blurred like fog—cleared as it landed on a man who had ceased his movements.

The man who appeared to be the source of this pandemonium was sitting in the very back seat of the SUV.