DM Chapter 60
“Blue, don’t do that. H, he’s a good person.”
Gayeon chuckled softly at Sarin’s stuttering words. Then, she nudged Kirill’s side with her elbow, conveying that he was a good person.
She repeated it several times, stroking his neck, and soon the three Dobermans, who had assumed a menacing stance, raised their chins and assumed their characteristic sleek and commanding demeanor.
Whatever the story, it was clear that the dogs had picked up Kirill’s scent and followed him directly here.
“Were you going for a walk? Shall we walk a bit?”
Gayeon took Sarin’s arm and led her.
“Is it okay like this?
When Sarin asked in a lowered voice, knowing they were on the run, the other person smiled broadly.
“Everyone probably knows that we are here the moment we enter the city anyway.”
She responded as if it were no big deal. With a mix of relief and lingering worry in her heart, Sarin walked with Gayeon and the dogs, leaving her concerns behind.
At some point, Kirill was no longer in sight. There was no sign of him following. As Sarin kept looking back while leaving the hotel, Gayeon whispered.
“He’ll follow along just fine.”
Gayeon smiled brightly, showing complete trust in the other man. The dogs guided them quietly on the usual walking path, and after returning, Sarin took a deep breath for the first time.
“I heard you met Nikolai.”
“How did you know?”
“I have ears. There are many gamblers who run to listen when money is offered.”
Having a meeting in a public place like that wouldn’t go unnoticed.
Sarin’s gaze wavered for a moment. Gayeon’s hand warmly covered Sarin’s hand, which was tightly gripping the leash.
“Ah….”
“Relax, what did he say?”
There was a limit to what paid gamblers would tell you. She knew they’d met, but the details of their conversation remained unclear.
“He told me to leave… If I want the child’s safety…”
Yuri told her not to tell Owen. She wasn’t sure if she shouldn’t tell Gayeon either. However, seeing Gayeon waiting for her to finish speaking, filled with worry only about herself, Sarin opened her lips.
She wouldn’t tell Owen, but Sarin desperately needed someone’s advice on the situation.
“Well, it seems like a decision needs to be made.”
With a sigh, Gayeon spoke. Sarin, who had been hesitant about her words, felt a heaviness in her heart at Gayeon’s conviction. They both remained silent for a while, simply following the dogs’ lead as they walked.
When the dogs paused to sniff at a bench, Gayeon’s steps also came to a stop.
“Nikolai keeps his word. Without trust, it’s difficult to survive here. You must always keep your word. Betrayal is unacceptable. He’s a contradictory old man who abhors the idea of one’s bloodline being harmed, even though he himself killed all his siblings and was willing to sacrifice his grandchild for his own son.”
Gayeon shoved her hands in her pockets and shrugged. The only good thing was that his children were dead, and now the expectations had shifted to his grandchildren. In a very, very twisted and dirty way.
It was heard that Sarin went through quite a trial during her meeting with Nikolai. Perhaps that’s why her face looked a bit pale, yet surprisingly, her eyes seemed deep and unreadable. When she slowly opened her mouth as if to offer more advice, Sarin responded slowly.
“So, you’re saying it’s better to leave?”
“Yes. You don’t need to be here.”
The child would receive better care away from her.
Returning to Korea with the child would only leave them in debt. She couldn’t leave the sick child with a debt that would cost her more in interest than she’d ever earn in her life.
Sarin decided to think it through. There was no reason to hesitate here. Though Owen’s face flashed through her mind, she pushed aside any feelings, attributing it to mere familiarity from their encounters.
…Is this the right decision?
She always made the worst choices, and she also regretted coming here. What more does she have to regret?
What would her sister choose?
Sarin blinked. And then she realized there was no one to answer her. Slowly, fear crept over her. If she leaves, she will be free. She would never see Hayan again, but she would be free to go somewhere.
The child and she would never hear from each other again.
When she made the decision to leave for Eden City, the tilted support in her mind collapsed.
“…The child needs a transplant.”
Sarin’s voice pierced through the air.
“The child is the price of Owen’s life that Ms. Sarin saved. Nikolai decided to pay that price to Sarin, and he will do whatever it takes.”
The ashen gaze that had been staring straight ahead turned to Gayeon.
Whispered words escaped from lips that were trembling. That was the price of Owen’s life. She repeated it over and over.
Nikolai was a bright man, by the book. He already knew what Sarin wanted most and calculated it as the price of saving his beloved grandson. The will to never let her grow up under such men had melted away. Money made it so.
Sarin had always crumbled before money, from birth to now.
First, the child must live. She will worry about her life afterward.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I can leave as long as the child is okay.”
It wasn’t even her own child. When she was in Korea, she didn’t even see that little face many times as she worked all day. It was even worse after her sister died.
There were times when she resented her sister for complicating her life with the child while her sister was alive, and after her sister’s death, she felt guilty that the child lost a mother because of her.
“Ms. Sarin.”
“I just want the child to be okay.”
An imperfect relationship. A relationship that had been torn apart from the start.
No, she couldn’t even call it a relationship.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. It’s better to avoid it while you can.”
Gayeon offered warm words to Sarin in a slightly uncertain voice. Sarin’s lips lifted slightly, but it didn’t seem like a smile.
Owen is a dangerous man. He had taken over the Eden City that Nikolai had worked so hard to build in just five years.
A devil who buys and sells all the world’s pleasures.
From the highest point of this ruined city, he laughs with glee as he watches the people struggle.
Kirill and Owen were fundamentally different. Kirill was excessively honest with all his emotions, while Owen was the one who trampled over the ruins repeatedly and ruled over them. Gayeon had heard that Owen was power-hungry even before meeting him, someone who would surely follow in Nikolai’s footsteps.
Kirill summed up Owen in one sentence.
“You don’t mess with that.”
She considered whether she would be able to abandon Kirill if she had the chance to take a different path for herself, but she couldn’t come to a conclusion.
However, since their feelings for each other weren’t firm, that was an opportunity. She wanted to send this pitiful woman back safely. She just felt sorry for her.
Nikolai was waiting for Sarin’s response.
If it wasn’t the answer he wanted, he would pay the price, and that price did not include Sarin’s safety or life.
He didn’t dare tell Sarin what they would do if she didn’t give him the answer he wanted.
×××××××××××××××××××××
The familiar smell of disinfectant pricked her nose.
Sitting on the sofa, Owen, waiting for the owner of the hospital room, gazed out the window as if something was about to spill from the sky.
Crunch, crunch.
The sound of chewing on a long stick of candy sounded like teeth grinding.
The broken red candy coiled around Owen’s tongue. His face was free as he chewed on the chunks of sugar in his mouth. He leans his head back against the backrest of the couch and turns his gaze from the window to the ceiling.
“Mmm, ah, ahhhh, ahhhh.”
A faint moan seeped out from the slightly open bathroom in the room. The silhouette moving inside was clearly visible.
Crunch.
The sound of the candy snapping back together and breaking into pieces rang out. Would it be better to grab him by the back and pull him out like this? However, reluctant to touch anything dirty, Owen endured it.
Soon, Pavel, having discarded the patient’s gown and casually thrown the IV stand somewhere, emerged from the bathroom with bandages wrapped around his hands and a refreshed face.
“Ha.”
Then he noticed Owen, who was sitting on the sofa, looking up at the ceiling, and let out a sigh.
“Call me, huh?”
The woman, who had just been in the bathroom, smoothed her robe and planted a kiss on Pavel’s cheek. Then, she glanced briefly at Owen, seeming momentarily surprised, before winking and smiling at him as well. Despite the no-smoking sign, Pavel nervously searched for his cigarettes on the coffee table.
“What’s going on? I thought I’m done paying.”
As he reached for the cigarettes on the table, Owen’s long, twisted foot moved. He pushed the table with tremendous force, causing Pavel to hit his shin and slump down naked in his place.
The crooked gaze that had been staring at the ceiling slowly turned toward Pavel.
Even the glow of the eyes looking up at him from the floor was the same. Owen chewed on the end of the candy stick with his teeth.
“The deal is done. This can’t be.”
Pavel raised his bandaged finger. The sound of Owen chewing on the candy stick and the sound of his molars clashing became eerily similar.
“If you touch me here, she’s dead.”
Owen smirks at the idea that Nikolai won’t let him.
“How old are you that the old man still needs to clean up your shit?”
“That’s just the same for you too…”
Regarding the subject of being a parasite for Nikolai to run Eden City,
Pavel couldn’t bring himself to say those words. Owen, who had risen to his feet, had come closer to him in a single stride, preventing Pavel from speaking. Once again, he felt an inexplicable sense of intimidation coming from a body similar to his own.
Owen lifted one foot and brought the nose of his shoe to Pavel’s chin.
“Go on.”
“Speak,” he urged.
If he opened his mouth, this time his jaw would fly off. Pavel shut his mouth, and as if that were the right answer, Owen withdrew his foot.
