She picked a dandelion that had turned into a white fluff and walked out of the convenience store. With a huff, she blew a breath, and the fluff was carried far away by the winter wind.

As Ji An moved away, Min Chan, who belatedly remembered Ha Joon, muttered,

“Oh, right! Brother Ha Joon, he’s been smoking again lately.”

Entering the green cemetery, Dan Woo’s heart was as heavy as his steps. He held a bouquet of chrysanthemums, finished with black wrapping paper and a white ribbon.

He had come straight to see J after coming up from Jeju.

Tae Yoon’s steps slowed and then stopped. His voice echoed in the quiet cemetery.

“Here.”
Dan Woo’s gaze rested on a small tombstone under a blue pine tree.

[Jung Jae Hyuk]

It was J’s Korean name. Dan Woo gently laid down the bouquet of chrysanthemums in front of the tombstone.

J, who was adopted with his twin sister before their 100th day, had asked about Korea. He had vaguely mentioned his curiosity about what kind of country it was, and added that it was probably because it was the country where he was born.

Dan Woo held a chrysanthemum in his hand, breaking off the stem and crumbling the petals. Petals like crescent moons fell to the floor. It was his pledge to certainly punish Woo Jeong Hyun.

He asked Tae Yoon in a low voice.

“J’s sister is Ji Young, right? You said she can’t speak.”
“I heard she doesn’t speak. She probably had a terrible experience in her adoptive home. The grandmother said they’re not bloodrelated.”
Dan Woo slowly nodded.

There was a deep sunset hanging over the lush forest in the distance. Tae Yoon, who had been fixing his gaze alongside Dan Woo, opened his mouth.

“Let’s go. You said you wanted to greet the chairman.”
“I should pay a visit… It’s been a while.”
The place they arrived at, driven by Tae Yoon with a reluctant expression, was a residential area in Cheongdamdong.

Chairman Woo Su Ho, Dan Woo’s father, was currently unconscious, and it was known that he was being cared for directly at Hae Song Villa, not in a hospital.

Although his superior insisted on seeing his father, leading him to find a way, it wasn’t the right method.

Dan Woo was now trying to meet his own father like a stealthy cat. He was the one who assisted him, but it was not something he willingly did.

It wasn’t as if you could meet him just by going to his house through the proper channels. The fact that he even refused a visit from his old friend, the chairman of a Japanese car company, was proof enough.

The car stopped after running along the long fence for a while.

Dan Woo put on a black jumper and pulled his cap down.

Tae Yoon asked Dan Woo, who was ready.

“This is the entrance used by the staff. The security will be paused for one hour. …Should I go in?”
“I’ll do the risky things myself.”
Dan Woo added with a smile to Tae Yoon.

“The report was detailed.”
The room where Chairman Woo Su Ho was, was a firstfloor bedroom in the annex. There was a residing nurse and caregiver, and other employees except the butler didn’t come and go.

The bedrooms of the nurse and caregiver were on the same floor.

Recalling the report, Dan Woo looked at him with reassured eyes.

“I’ll be back. If something happens, don’t hold on and leave.”
Tae Yoon just nodded silently.

Getting out of the car, Dan Woo walked close to the wall. He opened the staff entrance, quickly entered and hid himself among the garden trees.

Walking quickly along the fence, a twostory white building came into view. Dan Woo checked his surroundings and approached the building.

Infiltrating the firstfloor bedroom was not difficult. It was thanks to Tae Yoon’s handywork.

The room was dark. The light coming from the monitor connected to the respirator was all there was.

The one lying in the bed was Woo Su Ho, the former chairman of Hae Song Group.

Dan Woo approached the bed and looked down at Chairman Woo’s wrinkled hand. A low voice flowed out between his lips.

“Father.”
He remembered the information he had researched about Chairman Woo.

[A large sedan carrying Chairman Woo Su Ho was running on the outskirts of Seoul, when it hit the guardrail and overturned. In this accident, Chairman Woo Su Ho, the founder of Hae Song Group and a prominent figure in the Korean economy, is currently in a state of unconsciousness. A peculiar detail is that he had walked away from the scene of the accident but lost consciousness in the hospital where he was admitted due to concerns about aftereffects.]

The information about Chairman Woo’s accident, which occurred 10 years ago, was all summarized in those few lines. All the articles that had been published vigorously at the time were deleted and nonexistent.

The people involved also disappeared mysteriously, and the statements stored at the police station were unclear.

On the same night. There was a fire at home, his mother lost consciousness, and Dan Woo met Woo Sun Ho, who introduced himself as his older brother.

He pushed away his uneasy thoughts and held the blood collection syringe he took out from his inner pocket.