Collateral
Ye-seo flinched hard and blinked rapidly. The casual drop into informal speech and the curse that had slipped so easily into his otherwise polite register stood out with jarring force. A chill raced down her spine.
“…….”
“A mangy dog that bites the hand that fed it.”
Ye-seo lowered her trembling eyes, fighting the heat rising behind them. The fact that such vicious language was aimed at her father cut her deeply. What cut even deeper was the knowledge that the man her father had become probably deserved every word of it.
On the way here, Deputy General Manager Yoon had told her a story that still felt impossible. Her father—so kind, so diligent—had stolen money…
“It wasn’t company funds. He took from my personal assets. Not the corporation’s money—mine.”
She had assumed it was embezzlement of company funds. The clarification left her even more stunned; she stared at Executive Director Do’s face.
“…What?”
His money? After all the times her father had muttered about how terrifying this man was, he had still gone and done it—knowing exactly whose money it was.
Part of her wondered, with a fresh wave of despair, whether her father intended to stay buried so deep he would never surface again, precisely because he feared this man so much.
In contrast, the Executive Director who had dragged her here remained eerily calm, his anger almost quiet.
“I placed a great deal of trust in Chief of Staff Jin Jae-hwan. To think he would pull something this dogshit… it’s truly regrettable.”
That trust must have been why her father had been entrusted with managing even Do Kang-hyun’s private fortune.
The betrayal and grief flooding through Ye-seo toward the father who was not even present defied words. Who had she been trusting all this time?
That he could commit a crime this serious… the man she thought she knew no longer seemed real.
His life had already changed irrevocably. He was a criminal now. To escape punishment, he would have to run for the rest of his days.
“The amount… how much is it?”
When Ye-seo asked with a face full of dread, Executive Director Do Kang-hyun simply glanced at Deputy General Manager Yoon Tae-seok, as if Yoon might know the precise figure better than he did.
Yoon answered in his place.
“What we’ve confirmed so far is over ten billion won.”
“…….”
The strength left Ye-seo’s jaw; her mouth fell open of its own accord. Her heart began to hammer like a mad thing.
He had definitely just said ten billion…
“…What?”
She did not even notice the tears welling in her dazed, wide eyes.
Her hands started shaking uncontrollably. She felt as if she might lose her mind. The legs that had barely been holding her upright gave out completely.
The price her father had paid for his freedom was ten billion won?
The sum was so staggering it refused to sink in. An amount she could never repay even if she worked herself to the bone for the rest of her life in his place.
So that was why… she had no right to protest being dragged here like this.
The man’s dry voice fell over the head of the crumpled Ye-seo.
“I haven’t filed a report yet.”
Sprawled on the floor, Ye-seo lifted her head with a startled expression. That, at least, was unexpected.
But the fact that he had not reported it only made her more uneasy. Everything about this was strange. What on earth was going on?
Was he afraid her father might simply hide the money and serve his time in prison instead? Did he intend to recover every last won no matter what?
Above all, Ye-seo still could not understand exactly why Executive Director Do Kang-hyun had wanted to meet her.
Still kneeling, she looked up at him with despairing eyes, then clumsily rose and bowed her head first.
“I’m truly sorry, as his family, for the trouble this has caused you. I’m so, so sorry, but… I haven’t been able to reach my father either, so I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Of course you can’t reach him.”
Do Kang-hyun sounded almost bored, as if that much were obvious.
“I didn’t call you here for that kind of help.”
Unable even to guess what he meant, Ye-seo raised her innocent face. Under extreme tension she hung on his every word.
Then, for a fleeting instant, something cruel flashed through his eyes.
“Your old man took what’s mine, so until I get it back, I’ll be holding on to what’s his. And the only thing of any real value he has left is one daughter.”
“…….”
It was as if her mind had simply stopped. She could not understand. Or perhaps she simply did not want to.
“…What?”
“I mean I’m going to keep Jin Ye-seo with me.”
Her heart plummeted. At the same time a full-body shudder of dread raced across her skin.
What had she just heard? She understood at least that her own name was being treated like an object.
“What do you mean by—”
The man who had just uttered something so unbelievable opened his lips again with the same unnerving calm.
“I mean I’m going to keep Jin Ye-seo tied under me.”
“…….”
“You’ll do as I say and stay where I tell you to stay.”
A chill like the onset of fever swept through her; Ye-seo rubbed her own arms without thinking. Then her trembling lips moved.
“…So what you’re saying is… I’m to be held in place of the stolen money and do whatever I’m told.”
Was that truly what this perfectly presentable man was demanding of her right now? It was so far beyond common sense that it refused to feel real.
“You understand perfectly.”
Only then did Ye-seo truly grasp what her father had meant. How deep the warning he’s a terrifying man had gone.
No different from thugs. Or perhaps worse…
Executive Director Do Kang-hyun was a man who operated far outside ordinary morality.
“Then… am I something like a hostage?”
The word itself made her throat tighten with grief; tears pricked her eyes.
“Calling it ‘hostage’ makes me sound like a real villain.”
You are a villain, though. The unspoken retort circled inside her mouth.
Treating a person this way was not something any sane human being would do. Immoral. Cruel.
But Do Kang-hyun tilted his head at a slant and supplied his own definition.
“Let’s call it collateral instead of hostage.”
Ye-seo lowered her damp lashes. It did not feel like a meaningfully better position—only slightly softer in wording than “hostage.”
“Do I… even have enough value to serve as collateral?”
She desperately hoped he would decide she did not. Instead, Do Kang-hyun fell suddenly silent.
For a moment his quiet eyes simply rested on her. An unreadable gaze traveled slowly from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
That dense, clinging stare made her blood run cold. Something purposeful seemed to live in it; Ye-seo instinctively shrank into herself.
Even if her father had never committed any crime, this was a man she would have found difficult simply to look in the eye.
Whether or not he noticed her discomfort, Do Kang-hyun finally answered.
“I expect so.”
The more she heard, the stranger it felt. What exactly did “value” mean when this man said it?
Her body kept trembling against her will; she could barely keep her thoughts together.
“What… what exactly am I supposed to do?”
“I’ll keep you close at all times. At my workplace during the day. In a space near me at night.”
“…….”
Impossible. Because the collateral was a living, breathing person, he meant to place every single movement under surveillance. Just hearing it made her chest seize.
Was there already no way out of this?
“How is something like that even possible…?”
For the first time since Ye-seo had entered the room, Do Kang-hyun smiled—a thin, strange smile. It was so unsettling she almost preferred the glares and curses.
“I’m not making a proposal. I’m informing you.”
“So it’s a threat, then.”
“Let’s call it a negotiation.”
The man deflected every word of hers with shameless ease. The only one left speechless, lips trembling, was Ye-seo.
“…….”
“We’re making a peace agreement. So that no one gets hurt.”
The word hurt made her heart flinch hard. What he had just said felt like the true essence of today’s meeting.
She had believed she had lived a reasonably decent life. Why had Jin Ye-seo’s existence suddenly been dragged into something like this?
“The term… lasts until you recover the money?”
“That would be it.”
But could it even be found? Really…?
Only moments ago she had still trusted her father. Even that moment already felt like a distant dream.
“And if you don’t find it?”
She asked as if she had already fallen into hell, yet for some reason Do Kang-hyun seemed almost amused by the question.
“Right now Jin Ye-seo is collateral. But when that time comes… you’ll become completely mine.”
“…….”
Surely not. Ye-seo felt her mind go blank.
Mine. What happened once she became “his”?
As if reading the question in her eyes, the merciless voice continued.
“When that time comes, you’ll truly be mine—to do with exactly as I please.”
“…And if… when that time comes… I refuse?”