“This isn’t child’s play. You call this tying someone up?”

Jeho coldly smiled and waved the cable tie that had bound him in front of Minwoo’s face.

“Ah shit, what the hell?”

Flustered, Minwoo desperately swung the knife in his hand. But it was no match for Jeho, who now had free use of his hands and feet. In the blink of an eye, Jeho snatched the knife from Minwoo’s hand and threw it far away.

What happened next was over in an instant, before Minwoo could even realize what was going on. Jeho easily subdued Minwoo, laid him on the floor, and tied his wrists with a cable tie he took out of his pocket.

“Now it’s your turn. See if you can untie yourself.”

“Aah! You bastard, I’ll kill you!”

Minwoo screamed and writhed in anger. But with his wrists tied behind his back, he couldn’t easily escape from Jeho’s grasp.

“As much as I’d like to hit you, I’m holding back because you’re my brother.”

“What, holding back because I’m your brother? Is someone who steals his brother’s woman still a brother, you son of a bitch?”

Though he hurled insults to provoke him, Jeho’s expression remained unchanged.

“I’m sorry, Minwoo.”

“Yeah, you bastard! Is there nothing else to steal so you take your brother’s woman? How can you call yourself human…ugh.”

Suddenly Jeho’s hand gripped the back of Minwoo’s head, causing him to frown and stop speaking.

“That’s not what I’m apologizing for.”

Jeho brought his face close to Minwoo and spoke in a low voice, almost whispering.

“I’m apologizing for leaving you alone. When your parents neglected you, I should have done something. You weren’t right since you were young.”

“What? If I’m not right, who is? Cut the bullshit!”

Minwoo glared at Jeho with eyes blazing with anger.

Just moments ago, he had been the one doing the hitting, and Jeho had been the one tied to a chair getting beaten. As if to prove this, blood was still flowing from Jeho’s split lip.

But Jeho remained calm and didn’t lose his composure. He only stared at Minwoo coldly with contemptuous eyes. This made Minwoo even angrier. He felt it would be less humiliating to be beaten instead.

Damn it! How did the situation get reversed?

Why?

Minwoo couldn’t accept the current situation with a clear mind.

“Aaaaargh!”

Minwoo’s eyes turned blood-red as he glared at Jeho.

[This is the timeline separator]

Turning back time…..

Inside the general situation room of a large hospital.

“Can you enlarge that scene?”

Jeho quickly pointed at the screen while examining the last recorded video of Yuri.

“Yes.”

The staff member who responded swiftly moved the mouse to enlarge the screen and played the video again.

On the screen, Yuri looked around and brushed back her fallen hair with her hand.

“Wait, stop there please.”

The video was paused at the point where Yuri raised her hand above her head. Jeho moved closer to the screen and carefully examined the frozen image.

“Is that?”

After a moment, Jeho muttered to himself.

“Did you find any clues?”

Kim, the aide who was watching from the side, asked with a puzzled expression. Jeho nodded and pointed to the watch on Yuri’s wrist.

“That wristwatch.”

“Pardon? The wristwatch?”

“That wristwatch. I gave it to her as a gift. It’s not a smartwatch, but it has a location tracking function.”

Most traditional luxury watches don’t have location tracking functions, but the watch Jeho gifted to Yuri was a collaboration between a Swiss luxury manufacturer and an American tech company, equipped with GPS location tracking.

“A location tracking function?”

Kim’s face brightened at those words.

“Then we can check the watch’s location information from the manufacturer’s server, right?”

“For that, we’d need to get a warrant first due to privacy laws. We’d have to file a missing person report first. Is that possible?”

At Jeho’s words, Kim frowned as if troubled. As Jeho pointed out, they hadn’t even definitively determined it was a missing person case yet.

“Then should we ultimately ask for the congressman’s help?”

It was then.

“There’s no need for that!”

A booming voice came from behind. Turning around, they saw Hyunkyung running towards them, having rushed over after hearing the news from Kim. Behind Hyunkyung, they could also see Kim, the head of the security team.

“Huff, huff, I…”

Hyunkyung, who seemed to have run non-stop from the parking lot, continued speaking with labored breaths.

“Huff, huff… I installed an app on Yuri’s phone… and connected it to the wristwatch. We don’t need to go through the manufacturer’s server.”

Of course, she hadn’t done this expecting Minwoo to kidnap Yuri. Worried that Yuri might lose the watch, which cost more than the average office worker’s annual salary, Hyunkyung had downloaded an app on her phone and connected it to the watch’s GPS.

“Didn’t you say Yuri left her phone at home?”

“But how can we unlock the phone without her?”

Kim frowned again, looking perplexed. Hyunkyung quickly explained.

“Don’t worry about that. Who do you think I am? I’m Yuri’s best friend. Of course I know her phone and house passwords.”

“Understood. I’ll give instructions to bring the phone right away.”

Kim called an employee waiting at Congressman Chae’s house. The employee found Yuri’s phone lying on the living room floor and brought it to the hospital immediately.

“The location information is showing here.”

Hyunkyung, who had launched the location tracking app linked to the watch, held out the phone to Jeho and Kim. The location shown on the app was in the outskirts of Seoul.

“Where is this?”

Jeho’s expression hardened as he confirmed the exact address of the location.

“What’s wrong? Where is this place?”

Hyunkyung and Kim asked simultaneously with worried faces.

“It’s an area that KG Group has been purchasing since last year for a large discount store business. But the project was temporarily suspended when Minwoo was transferred to the Paris branch. Most of the run-down commercial buildings are currently empty.”

“How does someone who was in the hospital suddenly go to a place like that? This is definitely something wrong.”

Hyunkyung shouted in an excited voice at Jeho’s explanation.

“It must be Minwoo’s doing. What is this? Did he kidnap her?”

Jeho and Kim’s expressions hardened at Hyunkyung’s speculation. In the past, Minwoo had kidnapped and confined women he was dating when they tried to leave him. Each time, Madam Na had silenced the victims with large sums of money.

“Whether it’s a disappearance or kidnapping, let’s report it to the police first.”

Hyunkyung and Kim nodded in agreement with Jeho’s suggestion, exchanging glances. Kim decided to go to the police station with Hyunkyung in a car driven by Kim, the security team leader. Everyone headed towards the elevator to go down to the underground parking lot.

Jeho got on the next elevator as he answered a call from Woo Gyeol that came just then.

[Jeho, I just got a call from Dr. Jin.]

As soon as he pressed the call button, Woo Gyeol’s urgent voice was heard.

[The local police obtained testimony from an eyewitness. They’ll probably send an official request to the Korean side for cooperation in arresting the murder suspect within a few hours.]

“I see, that’s good news.”

If so, they could mobilize police force not only for Yuri’s kidnapping case but also for the purpose of arresting a murder suspect. Whichever came first, it was important to get Yuri out of Minwoo’s hands as quickly as possible, as she might be in a dangerous situation.

Jeho’s steps quickened as he got out of the elevator and headed for his car.

[And according to information Dr. Jin extracted through his contacts…..]

Woo Gyeol continued speaking.

[The reason Park Sajang is helping Minwoo now seems a bit suspicious. That Minwoo guy, he seems to have gone completely mad. He said he’s going to transfer all the stocks he owns to Park Sajang. He said he doesn’t need them since he’s going to die anyway.]

“He’s going to die anyway?”

[Yes. He talked as if he was going to commit suicide the day after tomorrow.]

Jeho frowned in disbelief.

“Mr. Kwon Jeho?”

Suddenly, burly men appeared and blocked Jeho’s path. Even at a glance, they looked quite menacing and clearly not ordinary people. One of them stepped forward and said,

“You’ll have to come with us.”

Jeho instinctively realized they were sent by Minwoo. He had anticipated that if Yuri was kidnapped, he might be next.

Of course, if he fought, he could easily escape from their grasp. But Jeho willingly surrendered himself to them.

He figured it wouldn’t be too bad if being kidnapped could lead him to Yuri. The men quickly searched Jeho’s body, found his phone and wallet, dropped them on the ground, and stomped on them.

“That’s it. This is all.”

As one of the group said something, someone struck Jeho’s head. Along with intense pain, sparks flew before his eyes and Jeho soon lost consciousness.

When he briefly opened his eyes again, Yuri was in front of him. Thankfully, she seemed to be unharmed.

Ah, what a relief.

Jeho unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

He didn’t know how much time had passed since he lost consciousness, but the police must have already started investigating based on the report from Hyunkyung and Kim.

Jeho turned his gaze to Yuri’s wrist. The watch was still on her wrist.

It seems Minwoo hadn’t noticed at all that the wristwatch had a tracking device. Looking at Minwoo’s crazed eyes, he appeared to be in a state where proper judgment was already difficult.

“I’m sorry, cheer up. I invited you to our wedding because you’re family after all.”

“Huh, a wedding invitation.”

Jeho looked straight at Minwoo with a sneer on his lips.

The police must be heading here now, collecting real-time location information through the connected app. Maybe they’ve already arrived.

“Yes. Yuri and I are going to have a soul wedding here.”

Minwoo hugged Yuri in front of Jeho with a face intoxicated with a sense of victory.

“You’re the only guest at our wedding. How about that? Isn’t it very touching?”

“Ha.”

Jeho let out a snort with an expression of disbelief.

As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t break the cable ties right away and tear Minwoo away from Yuri. Watching Minwoo forcibly kiss Yuri, he had to suppress the urge to knock him down.

Because now wasn’t the time. If Yuri was enduring it with difficulty, he couldn’t let his excitement worsen the situation. If anything went wrong, Yuri would be in danger. He had to buy time until the police arrived.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Minwoo’s anger turned towards Jeho. Minwoo’s fists struck Jeho’s chest and face, but it didn’t hurt at all. It was far less painful than watching Yuri endure Minwoo’s gestures.

He hoped Minwoo would continue to direct his violence only at him until the police arrived.

Finally, with a clamorous sound, the tightly closed iron door opened.

“Police!”

“What? How did the police know to come here?”

Taking advantage of Minwoo’s distraction, Jeho raised his hands tied with cable ties behind his back and brought them down forcefully in one motion. Fortunately, the cable ties were not military-grade but civilian, so they broke in one go.

He released the cable ties on his legs by pressing the back hole part of the connected loop. Jeho put the released ties in his pocket and approached Yuri who had fallen to the floor.

But she shook her head and pointed with her hand towards where Minwoo had gone. It was a gesture telling him to go catch Minwoo first, that she was fine.

“Alright. Just hang on a little longer.”

Jeho went outside and quickly subdued Minwoo, tying his wrists with the cable ties that had bound his own legs. And shortly after, the police who had entered the building approached.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

After handing Minwoo over to the police, Jeho quickly returned to Yuri. She was sitting with her back against the wall, her eyes closed, powerless.

“Yuri.”

At the soft voice brushing her ear, Yuri slowly opened her eyes. Their gazes met quietly in the air.

For a moment, a quiet silence settled between the two.

No words were necessary. They could feel each other’s hearts and emotions just through their eyes.

Thank goodness.

Thank you.

Without anyone going first, the two looked at each other and smiled gently.

“…Ah.”

As the tension eased, Yuri lost consciousness. But even as the black curtain fell, a sigh of relief flowed naturally at the warm body temperature enveloping her entire body.