Knowing Brother-Chapter 50
Seolwoo, lost in thought for a while, made a decision.
Assault charges.
To report this, he would need evidence that they were planning the car accident.
And that evidence was on their phones. If he could just steal their phones...!
Even if he were later accused of theft, the punishment would be minor. It didn’t matter. He was willing to take on some level of sacrifice. The most important thing was that Won Daeyoung didn’t get hurt.
He would target their phones.
Once he had made up his mind, Seolwoo’s next move was swift and silent. He lied to Mrs. Choi, saying he would discuss it with the teacher, and left the snack shop.
Seolwoo decided to follow them. Specifically, he targeted the phone of the guy from Hyeongil High School. They were heading towards the club district in Sinchon, where the guy with the motorcycle was supposed to cause an accident. He confirmed they took a taxi, then followed them in his own cab.
When he met up with his friends, who were waiting in a nearby café, he explained briefly.
“Let’s not make a big deal of it for now, or it could backfire. Let’s disperse for today. I’ll organize the files and send them tomorrow. Help me spread it in the group chat. And keep it secret from Won Daeyoung, okay? Tomorrow’s the qualifier.”
His friends warned him anxiously to be careful, their voices filled with concern.
Seolwoo, trying to act calm in front ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) of his friends, was feeling his heartbeat racing in fear of being caught. His hands were cold with worry, but he was determined—he couldn’t let anything malfunction now.
As he rubbed his cold palms against his clothes, he got a call from Ha Youngseo. Her voice was filled with worry.
“Seolwoo, are you really meeting those people? Oh... no, you can’t! I’m so worried.”
“No, I won’t meet them in person. I have a plan. I’ll explain tomorrow.”
“I thought about it, and maybe it’d be better to tell our parents and report it. After the competition, we can ask Daeyoung for his opinion, too.”
“Once you delete it from Telegram, it’s almost impossible to recover. Those bastards will delete everything immediately.”
“Still... What if you get into trouble doing this? Ah, those bastards! How could they do that to a senior...!”
Ha Youngseo seemed to prefer handling things openly rather than secretly. It might have been Seolwoo’s interpretation, but her sigh conveyed more than just worry for Daeyoung—it hinted at another kind of unease. Perhaps she was worried about getting tangled up in something troublesome...
“Don’t worry. If anything goes wrong, it’s my own doing. I didn’t tell Daeyoung anything, right?”
“Of course not. You didn’t tell him, he needs to manage his condition.” freewёbnoνel.com
“...Did you talk to him?”
“We talked for a bit, but he sounded really down. We don’t talk that often since we started dating. We’re both so busy...”
Seolwoo ended the call and thought of Won Daeyoung, currently in training. He found himself missing him, even though it had only been a couple of days.
Just then, several messages from Daeyoung arrived. It was the first message after their fight.
...Won Daeyoung....;;: [You’re good at talking shit, but you’re also good at being cheeky, huh, Seolwoo.]
...Won Daeyoung....;;: [Two days feels so damn long.]
...Won Daeyoung....;;: [Are you still pissed off?]
...Won Daeyoung....;;: [I need to talk to you. Let’s have a call.] 8:03 PM
The messages gave Seolwoo a strange sense of energy. The tension in his forehead eased, and the fear of being caught also lessened. If this was about needing a routine before the qualifiers, Seolwoo couldn’t argue, but still, it was nice to get a message first.
Ah. I really like Daeyoung, don’t I?
This kind of thing was to be expected. It’s scary. It’s scary, but it has to be done. So, what’s the point of being scared about it?
Seolwoo got out of the taxi and kept a close eye on their destination. The night street, filled with the smell of cigarettes, was lined with underground clubs, hookah bars, host bars, karaoke rooms, and accommodations.
After confirming they entered one of the clubs, he entered a nearby convenience store, bought some water, and took his evening medicine. He blended in with the crowd of drunken people, strolling around the area.
Seolwoo was waiting for the moment when Kang Jonghyuk would appear. He stayed near the club, waiting for the group to come out. It was time to use the stealth skills he had honed back in his homeschooling days.
They couldn’t win against him. Seolwoo, who had learned tailing from Sherlock Holmes, evading the pick-up crew, and constantly keeping an eye out for danger while walking around.
“Be careful, Watson. The guys from Hyeongil High know my face.”
Seolwoo, who could go to any lengths to avoid being caught, to the point that his landlord kicked him out for being too loud, was the one who knew how to push boundaries.
He was relentless, more so than any of them.
They could never win against him.
About an hour later, the group came out of the club, with Kang Jonghyuk among them. They joined a man in his mid-20s who appeared to have tattoos covering his thighs. The man arrived on a motorcycle.
Seolwoo snapped a few pictures of Kang Jonghyuk’s group with the man, using Daeyoung’s phone to capture several shots.
Their entertainment ended around 11 PM. Seolwoo’s target was the phone of Kang Jonghyuk’s friend from the third year of Hyeongil High. Kang Jonghyuk took a taxi home, while the friend, heavily drunk, entered the subway station.
Blending in with the crowd, Seolwoo followed him. He was nervous about being recognized by someone who knew his face. The tension was so high that he felt like he might collapse at any moment.
But he didn’t collapse. Because Daeyoung couldn’t get hurt.
With that thought, he kept following. He didn’t rush or make any mistakes. He let the guy have his fun with his phone, glued to SNS, as that was all Seolwoo needed—the phone’s lock pattern.
He waited for the guy to take his phone out again after getting off at the station. Keeping an eye on the reflection in the subway door, Seolwoo hesitated slightly before stepping off. He quietly sped up as he walked up the stairs. Finally, the guy took his phone out right after passing the turnstile.
At that moment, Seolwoo observed the lock pattern closely and slipped out through the side exit. His heart was pounding, and his legs were shaking. His mind was desperate not to trigger any malfunction.
— It’s okay, it’s okay.
The voice of Daeyoung, patting his back, echoed in Seolwoo’s mind. As he climbed into the taxi, several minutes later, miraculously, nothing went wrong.
The next day, Seolwoo deliberately asked for permission during class and submitted a leave request.
It had been planned since the night before. Seolwoo headed straight to the teachers' office phone storage. He approached the box labeled with names according to grade and class. Since it was class time, there were only a couple of teachers in the office. When he explained he was there to pick up his phone after leaving early, they quickly lost interest in him.
Seolwoo moved quickly towards the third-year section, checking over his shoulder. The teachers were still focused on their computer monitors. He moved deftly.
He took Kang Jonghyuk’s friend's phone from the storage and tucked it in his pocket before heading toward the first-year section. After the plastic container opened and closed again, one of the teachers glanced up from afar.
Seolwoo’s stomach churned. He made a casual excuse.
“I thought it wasn’t here, so I checked another section.”
“You rarely mix up the sections, though? Did it go missing?”
“No. It was there, just under something.”
The teacher returned to the monitor with an indifferent expression. Seolwoo took a deep breath and left the teachers' office at 11:25 AM after retrieving his own phone.
Once outside, he quickly unlocked the phone and input the pattern he had memorized the night before.
Messages exchanged between Kang Jonghyuk and his group.
Their group chat.
The scheming for a car accident.
Even lewd, insulting sexual harassment about Ha Youngseo and Won Daeyoung.
Everything was there.
After capturing the necessary chat screenshots, Seolwoo sent them along with the photos he had taken at the club last night to his friends, asking them to post it on social media. He also wrote a brief and clear explanation of the incident.
He casually discarded the phone at a place where it wouldn’t be found immediately. If Kang Jonghyuk decided to investigate, Seolwoo could be accused of theft, but he had prepared for that from the beginning. He’d answer proudly that it was all done to prevent a crime and accept any punishment or damage to his record.
With the evidence secured, the minor consequences didn’t matter. A theft charge was no big deal.
During the lunch break, when phone use was allowed, the posts about Kang Jonghyuk’s crime planning slowly began appearing on his friends’ Facebook accounts. By 5 PM, the number of shares reached ten thousand.
The police arrived at Hyeongil High and took Kang Jonghyuk and his friends to the guidance office for questioning. Most of them admitted to the truth.
The shocking attempt to injure a sports player with a staged car accident spread like wildfire. The incident shook not only the youth sports world but also the nearby schools. The truth about a past bullying victim’s allegations came to light as well. The speed at which this spread on social media was frightening. Even the power of Kang Jonghyuk’s parents, a former district mayor turned congressman, couldn’t cover up their son’s crimes.
