Chapter 12: Hidden in the Forest

“Whose…?”

“Well…”

“Ah, I should have asked this first.”

“You did drugs too, right, Hyung?”

“…”

Asking how he endured the cravings before asking if he had done drugs was completely backwards.

It seemed Lee Doyoung wasn’t entirely in his right mind either.

Lingering in bewilderment, Heesu gave a nod a beat late.

“Haha, I thought so.”

“Actually, the people in our small group are the only junkies in this facility.”

“Did you know that?”

Lee Doyoung chuckled sheepishly, then lowered his voice to a whisper.

Yoon Heesu recalled their faces for a moment.

Exactly four people, including himself and Lee Doyoung.

The other two were a burly man and a woman.

Lee Doyoung continued.

“Honestly, this place is registered as an alcohol rehabilitation center, right?”

“Word is that’s just a cover, and it was actually built to treat drug addiction for a select few.”

“The people here are those who avoided prison time… dodging it through one method or another.”

He had heard something like that before, but was surprised that even Lee Doyoung knew.

Was this truly all right?

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Besides, how do they get therapeutic drugs?”

“They probably have their ways.”

“I don’t really know either.”

“Well… since this place is connected to SH, maybe someone in their family is on drugs?”

“Like preparing it well in advance for that person.”

“Actually, I checked in not too long ago myself.”

Yoon Heesu tilted his head.

“It would be easier to send them abroad.”

“Hmm… That’s true.”

If there was an addict in the SH Group, all they needed to do was ship that single person overseas.

After all, overseas facilities for drug addiction were said to be well-equipped.

There wouldn’t be any need to go through such trouble here.

‘I don’t get it.’

A facility built for someone.

They said only four people including himself were receiving drug treatment, so he couldn’t fathom why SH would spend money doing something like this.

“Now that I think about it, it really is strange…”

“Maybe there’s someone with circumstances that prevent them from going abroad?”

“Like, for example, Vice President Han Suyeon.”

“I hear he comes here quite often.”

“That’s not it.”

Yoon Heesu cut him off flatly before he could help it.

Han Suyeon?

That was utter nonsense.

Him and drugs—it made as much sense as a dog carrying a cow on its back.

Lee Doyoung’s eyes widened round.

“How can you be so certain?”

“Do you know each other by any chance?”

“…No, in any case… that’s not it.”

“And I doubt anyone in that family is an addict.”

He tried to brush it off vaguely, but Lee Doyoung’s eyes only sparkled brighter.

“You sound more and more like you’re connected to SH.”

“Should I just stick close to you, Hyung?”

Pushing away Lee Doyoung who was clinging tight, Yoon Heesu thought of Han Suyeon and his family.

Them… a family as picture-perfect as a painting.

One might expect flaws beneath such an exterior, but over the ten-plus years he had known them, their family was exactly as they appeared.

A harmony entirely different from the stories people usually conjured when thinking of chaebols.

He knew because he had seen it with his own eyes.

Even their relations with relatives weren’t bad.

If there was any place with relatively fewer bloodthirsty squabbles over immense wealth, it was SH.

“It’s not to the point of saying I know them…”

“Just a little.”

“Anyway, they aren’t that kind of people.”

Lee Doyoung shrugged with an “I see,” and spoke.

“I see.”

“I thought they set this up recently just to hide someone.”

“Since everyone started settling in here only recently.”

“You know, trying to hide just one person takes far more effort, doesn’t it?”

Hide?

Yoon Heesu cocked his head.

And then he slowly pondered.

To hide someone…

Did he show kindness and place him here along the way?

To stop his thoughts from tangling, Yoon Heesu shook his head and asked.

“Isn’t hiding multiple people harder?”

“Not at all.”

“You get comrades that way.”

“Hide a tree in the forest, right?”

“As long as you screen the people well, what sturdier forest could there be?”

Lee Doyoung then suddenly puffed up boastfully.

“In that sense, I’m a junkie who passed a strict screening to get in.”

“Same for you, right, Hyung?”

“…”

That wasn’t really the case.

He merely had something resembling an acquaintance with Han Suyeon by sheer luck.

Either way, he had nothing to say.

It might be wise to cut back on walks with Lee Doyoung from now on.

This guy talked too much and was far too cheerful.

If an underworld creature like Yoon Heesu stayed around someone like this, his energy would be drained until he ended up near death.

Unaware of Yoon Heesu’s condition, the bright twenty-year-old linked arms again and asked.

“What kind of drugs did you do, Hyung?”

“…I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know?”

“Designer drugs…”

“I just took whatever I was given.”

He truly had just taken whatever was handed to him.

Whatever Kwon Seungjae gave him.

He had never questioned whether it was cocaine, heroin, weed, or something else entirely.

“Designer drugs, huh,” Lee Doyoung murmured, tilting his head.

“Something like Cotton Candy or Mellow?”

“The kind with neutralizing agents.”

“I heard those are expensive and hard to find.”

Ah, now that he mentioned it, he seemed to remember them being called names like that.

When he once asked why they gave such cute names to narcotics, Kwon Seungjae had smiled and answered.

“Lowering the barrier with the name makes people drop their guard.”

“Cotton candy—how cute is that?”

“Doesn’t it make you think trying it just once wouldn’t hurt?”

He remembered feeling goosebumps rise when he heard that.

Of course, he knew it was expensive.

Because while feeding it to him, Kwon Seungjae had asked multiple times if he had any idea how much it cost.

Skirting past the question about it being hard to find, Yoon Heesu asked this time.

“What about you?”

Fortunately, Lee Doyoung didn’t press further and answered right away.

“I did fentanyl.”

“You know it, right? The zombie drug.”

“I started out of curiosity at first, haha.”

“Falling into the abyss took only an instant.”

“Whatever you do, Hyung, never touch fentanyl.”

“Though that goes without saying.”

Fentanyl was a potent narcotic analgesic used for cancer or CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) patients, but for a time it was so easy to acquire that it spread like wildfire among addicts.

With a lethal dose of merely 1 to 2 milligrams, it was absurdly dangerous even compared to typical illicit drugs.

Furthermore, he had heard its addictiveness was extreme.

Once its dangers became a public controversy, hospital prescriptions grew difficult to obtain, and he knew Kwon Seungjae began dealing in it after that.

Even that Kwon Seungjae had warned Yoon Heesu never to do fentanyl.

Warning that escape from its addiction was near impossible, and that it was too dangerous.

“Yet you’re recovering well.”

He found himself looking at Lee Doyoung with a trace of admiration.

He must have endured withdrawal symptoms on an entirely different level from what Heesu was currently withstanding.

At Yoon Heesu’s words, Lee Doyoung scratched his head with a grin.

“Well, being here, unless I break out, I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to.”

“That’s true…”

The moment he casually looked up at the building while saying that, Yoon Heesu froze.

Of all places, his hospital room was right where he had looked up.

Along with the silhouette of a man standing still by the window.

“…”

Across the span of several meters, his eyes locked with Han Suyeon looking down.

Gazing up at him for a while, Yoon Heesu tapped Lee Doyoung on the shoulder.

“I think I should head back in now…”

“Shall we?”

“Are you tired, Hyung?”

“A bit tired, and I have a guest.”

“A guest?”

Lee Doyoung quickly realized that what Yoon Heesu had been looking at was his room and cast his gaze upward as well.

But Han Suyeon had already vanished deeper into the room.

After parting ways with Lee Doyoung, Yoon Heesu stepped inside the building with hurried footsteps.

The elevator felt unusually slow today.

Watching the sluggishly changing floor numbers with an anxious heart, he dashed out the instant the doors parted, slowing his pace only as he neared the room.

He stole a glance at himself in the corridor mirror so as not to appear rushed.

Pale skin, unkempt hair, and a gloomy complexion.

A complete mess.

But what could he do?

After exhaling a long breath, he approached the room and opened the door.

Standing beside the bed, Han Suyeon turned his head.

“Looks like you made a friend.”

“…”

He asked that the very second he saw Yoon Heesu.

Without an answer, Yoon Heesu slipped off his outerwear, tossed it casually onto the sofa, and went into the bathroom to wash his wind-bitten hands under hot water.

When he stepped out drying his hands on a towel, Suyeon was still standing in the exact same spot, in the exact same posture.

Yoon Heesu gazed at him silently.

As if he had only just arrived, the crisp winter scent of the outdoors drifted from him, mingling with his perfume and natural scent, the chill of the wind clinging to every fold of his luxurious coat.

Heesu himself was likely just as cold.

Fiddling with his hair that carried a cool scent of winter dust, Yoon Heesu lingered near the sofa in hesitation.

A strange tension hung in the air.

In the quiet room where only the hum of the humidifier could be heard, Han Suyeon was the first to move.

He walked toward Yoon Heesu, the steady click of his dress shoes resounding on the floor.

Three paces away, two paces, one pace…

Intimidated by the distance vanishing in an instant, Yoon Heesu raised his head in sudden tension.

Han Suyeon looked down at Yoon Heesu with an unreadable, chilly expression, then slowly reached out a hand.

The large hand came to rest against Heesu’s rough cheek.

That hand was warmer than his own cheek, and the scent that made him inadvertently feel at ease drew even closer.

Yoon Heesu drew in a breath and held it.

An Alpha whose imposing frame was large enough to block his entire vision slowly leaned down before his eyes.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Night of Arcbalis

BLContract RelationshipDark Fantasy

Read Now →
Not interested