Contract Marriage with Memory Loss on Top - Chapter 17
“Yes, and what did you want to say?”
The air in the office was so stuffy that his throat stung with every inhale. What if the smell stuck to his clothes? Yeon-woo worriedly clasped his hands together. Kwon Ki-won was sensitive to smells. If the stench of stale cigarettes wafted from someone who had gone to a bookstore, it would certainly look suspicious. He would probably have to take a shower as soon as he got home.
“I’ve been thinking long and hard.”
The loan shark took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and put one between his lips. As the lit lighter burned the tip of the cigarette, the tobacco leaves glowed red. The man deeply inhaled the smoke until his cheeks caved in.
“About what…”
“About how you could repay the debt so quickly.”
Hazy smoke trailed long whenever the man opened his mouth. The pungent smell was enough to make his nose sting.
“No matter how much we hounded you, you used to cry that you didn’t have a penny, but you paid back hundreds of millions in one go… At first, I thought you might have won the lottery or something.”
The loan shark licked his dry lips like someone in front of profitable prey.
“But I caught on to one thing?”
The vile face twisted grotesquely. The chief pretended to probe Yeon-woo’s inner thoughts.
“Why can’t we dig up any information on you?”
The cigarette held between his index and middle finger wiggled. Every time it did, the thin trail of rising smoke obstructed Yeon-woo’s view.
“Don’t tell me you investigated me?”
Yeon-woo’s complexion turned pale. If things went wrong, they might find out he was married to Kwon Ki-won. He couldn’t cause trouble for Ki-won. Yeon-woo, terrified, protested, asking if they were crazy.
“I paid back the principal too! It’s not like I didn’t pay back the money and disappeared…!”
“At first, I just intended to find out your home address. Does it make sense for a creditor to not know the debtor’s address?”
The loan shark spat phlegm into a paper cup and smiled, revealing his yellowish teeth.
“But you know what? People whose background checks don’t work are usually divided into two types. Either they’re famous figures or deeply involved with big shots.”
Yeon-woo’s heart sank. It seemed the background check didn’t work because his spouse was Kwon Ki-won, the heir of Yeonsung Group. Yeon-woo tried not to reveal his emotions.
‘In the end, those people don’t know anything. No matter what they speculate, if I deny it persistently, that’s it.’
“Honestly, I was doubtful until I faced you directly. But seeing you in person, it seems more certain.”
Even though Yeon-woo kept his mouth shut, the man kept blabbering on as if it didn’t matter.
“Do you even know how much the clothes you’re wearing cost? Did you come dressed like that knowing?”
“What’s with my clothes…”
Yeon-woo cut off his own words. What he was currently wearing was one of the clothes Kwon Ki-won had bought him. He had clearly said he bought it from a common brand and told him not to feel burdened, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Yeon-woo only knew a few products widely known as luxury brands, not all brands. He should have noticed when all the tags were torn off… Yeon-woo, crestfallen, clutched his throbbing forehead.
“Just looking at your outfit, it’s easily a few million won, dude.”
“…It’s a knockoff.”
“Bullshit. Did you forget that our work involves dealing with people? You think we can’t tell fakes apart?”
It was an excuse he squeezed out to somehow deny it, but it didn’t seem to work.
“…So what do you want me to do? What does it matter to you who I’m involved with? You just need to get the interest, don’t you!”
“No.”
The loan shark revealed his twisted greed.
“What applied to you was the ordinary citizen’s interest rate. But if the tables have turned, it’s a bit different? Don’t you know that the rich pay more taxes?”
“What the…”
He couldn’t even let out a hollow laugh at the nonsensical words. In the first place, the one who borrowed the money wasn’t Yeon-woo, but his biological father. It was already unfair that Yeon-woo had been reluctantly repaying the money his father borrowed, but they were spouting crazy logic.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. I’ll deposit the interest as promised within this month, so keep that in mind.”
Yeon-woo, his lips set firmly, abruptly stood up. He shouldn’t have dealt with them in the first place… He had been too lax.
“But this bastard… His personality has turned fucking terrible?”
Whether Yeon-woo stood up or not, the chief, who finished smoking, arrogantly raised his chin. Then, the waiting subordinates grabbed Yeon-woo’s arms as if hooking them.
“Let go! Are you crazy? Knowing that someone might be behind me like you said, you’re acting this way?”
“You think I’ve only seen one or two pretty boys like you catching some rich folks and turning their lives around? But most of them are all in the same position.”
As the chief spewed unpleasant words, Yeon-woo’s face gradually turned pale.
“Like a pretty toy or… a dedicated whore? It means you can’t become the legal spouse, kid.”
He was at a loss for words. Just how was his brain structured to only think in that way? Yeon-woo, wrinkling his brow, struggled to shake off the men holding him.
Smack, although unintentional, it seemed someone got hit by the arm he flailed while struggling. One subordinate, chewing out a curse, pushed Yeon-woo with a fierce force.
“Ugh…!”
Unable to withstand the strong force, Yeon-woo fell on his bottom and looked up at the approaching men. He had thought he could really escape from them now… Why did he still have to be treated like this? His slender shoulders trembled enough to look pitiful.
“Take it easy, okay? Don’t touch anywhere visible and just teach him a lesson so he can’t act up.”
The chief didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping his subordinates. No, rather, he was inciting their actions in a light tone.
Yeon-woo moved his lips at the situation that seemed to be repeating his past. The small storage room attached to the office. In the past, they had thrown Yeon-woo, who was dragged there without knowing anything, into the storage room. There, Yeon-woo was beaten to the point he couldn’t even scream. Even when he shouted at them to stop and cried, the blows didn’t stop on those days. Yeon-woo’s breathing noticeably roughened as he briefly recalled the past.
“Get away… I said get away!”
Yeon-woo, falling into a state of panic, screamed and dashed toward the entrance, but it was in vain. In the end, he was caught by the men and dragged into the storage room. Fear seeped out from every spot Yeon-woo passed.
***
Kwon Ki-won, sitting in the driver’s seat, was calmer than ever. It was because the shock of Seo Yeon-woo waiting for the contract end date had hit him. Why? The unanswered question sharply pierced Kwon Ki-won’s brain. He almost couldn’t overcome the urge to lash out and corner Yeon-woo. His Adam’s apple tingled from having to forcibly swallow back the words that were about to pour out.
“There was no reason for him to give up on extending the contract.”
The veins on the hand gripping the steering wheel protruded. The suppressed anger enveloped Kwon Ki-won. Thinking it would be difficult to focus on driving at this rate, he was about to call the chauffeur when a notification popped up on his phone. It was an email from a private investigator. The attached file contained countless details such as the identity of the phone number Yeon-woo had tried to hide and his credit information. Kwon Ki-won took out a tablet PC from the glove box, synced the email, and opened the report.
“Ha… Of course.”
His narrowed eyes, receiving the light from the screen, flickered in his three hundred eyes. As he read the black letters from left to right, Kwon Ki-won’s complexion darkened.
The credit ratings of Yeon-woo and Seo Taeman written on the first page were normal to the point of being doubtful, and there were no loan records either. And that doubt was resolved on the second page. What Yeon-woo had tried to hide was the phone number of a chief at an illegal private loan company.
‘Is this why it didn’t affect his credit rating?’
His credit rating wasn’t high, but it wasn’t excessively low either, just an average. It was to the extent that bank loans were possible, but high-amount loans weren’t. It seemed Seo Taeman had used illegal private loans that didn’t leave loan records and affect the credit rating in order to borrow a large sum of money.
The person who borrowed the money was Yeon-woo’s biological father, Seo Taeman. After Seo Taeman died, it appeared his blood-related Yeon-woo had to shoulder the debt. Since it was illegal, it would have been difficult to legally reject inheriting the debt. The bastards who illegally lent money wouldn’t be afraid of the law.
‘Trashy lowlifes were attached to him.’
Yeon-woo’s reason for keeping it a secret was starting to be understood to some extent. Certainly, from a general perspective, having billions in debt to your spouse was a big flaw. So he must have hidden the shady private loan that could be a blemish and tried to fulfill the contract marriage. Since it was a private loan with a high interest rate, the amount wouldn’t have been small either.
‘If he had told me, I would have paid it off for him.’
It was at most a few billion. If he had confessed the truth to him and asked for help, it was an amount he could have easily given. Thinking of Yeon-woo, who had tried to resolve it on his own somehow, made him feel sorry.
Ki-won, sighing, turned to the next page, which listed the total amount of debt Seo Taeman had to repay. The principal was 80 million, and the accrued interest was 200 million. It meant the debt Yeon-woo had to bear totaled 280 million won.
‘…It’s a level that can be sufficiently paid off with the contract fee?’
It was a structure where 20 million won would remain even after paying off the debt. Ki-won, slightly furrowing his brow, slowly blinked his eyes. Yeon-woo was continuously being squeezed by the loan sharks. A lukewarm energy lingered in the car.
The next page reported in detail the deposit and withdrawal records of Yeon-woo’s account. On the day Ki-won deposited 300 million won into Yeon-woo’s account, the account balance changed to 0 won in less than an hour.
According to the records, it was speculated that the 300 million won had fallen into the hands of the loan sharks.
It was the calm before the storm. Murderous energy was added to the silence permeating the car interior.
‘It wasn’t just a trashy level…’
Kwon Ki-won, loosening the necktie that was suffocatingly tight around his neck, called the private investigator.