The Country Life Diary of a Gangster's Secretary-Chapter 122
If life were to be expressed as a curve, it would never be a continuous upward trajectory.
Life rises, only to fall, and sometimes, it plummets unexpectedly. Hyesung learned this lesson when he lost his parents, and since then, he had adopted it as his personal philosophy.
One benefit of such a mindset was that it naturally made a person humble.
He never allowed himself to become arrogant. Even when he was accepted into a prestigious university that others envied, and when he graduated at the top of his class after struggling so hard, Hyesung remained indifferent. People around him would congratulate him, saying his life had finally taken off, but it never really resonated with him.
After all, no matter how much he celebrated his achievements or how much he praised his own happiness, if something bad happened, the pain would only be magnified.
And yet, he had momentarily forgotten this. The time spent with Lee Hyuk had been so blissful that it made him forget even the mindset he had carried throughout his life.
“Ah, Mister. Please take me to Yeseon University Hospital. As fast as you can.”
Perhaps it was fortunate that he had been at Lee Hyuk’s house in Seoul. Yeseon University Hospital, a place Hyesung was familiar with, wasn’t far from Lee Hyuk’s house. Sensing that something was seriously wrong with Hyesung, the taxi driver pressed down on the accelerator.
His heart was racing. His mouth was dry, and he couldn’t seem to catch his breath.
Hyesung, listen carefully and try not to panic. Lee Hyuk is seriously injured and is in surgery right now.
The urgent words Sungjin conveyed were shocking, to say the least. It was probably the most startling moment Hyesung had experienced in the past ten years. It felt as if his heart had plummeted and shattered into pieces.
Even Sungjin seemed flustered as he stammered through the phone call, saying that he thought Hyesung needed to know.
Upon arriving at the hospital, Hyesung practically burst out of the taxi and ran inside. He felt like his breath was stuck in his throat, and it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had stopped breathing altogether.
“Ha… ha…”
After asking several nurses for directions, Hyesung finally found his way to the surgery room where Lee Hyuk was. There, he spotted Sungjin, who was holding his head in his hands.
“Director…?”
“Hyesung…”
Sungjin slowly stood up as Hyesung approached, but then his legs gave out.
“Hyesung!”
Sungjin hurried over to support him.
“What happened? You said he was hurt… How badly? And why… why is he hurt?”
Disjointed questions tumbled out of Hyesung’s mouth. He had so many questions that he didn’t know where to start.
“Calm down first and sit here.”
Sungjin guided the trembling Hyesung to a chair and crouched in front of him, holding his shaking hands.
“Lee Hyuk called me a few hours ago. He sent me his location and asked me to come.”
Sungjin’s voice was steady as he spoke, and Hyesung swallowed hard.
“Lee Hyuk had a meeting at a bar near the company today. So I went, and…”
Sungjin paused for a moment before continuing.
“Lee Hyuk was on the ground. It looked like he had been stabbed.”
“What…?”
Hyesung’s eyes went wide, the color draining from them. Sungjin’s words sounded so unreal. If this had happened in the past, he might have understood. After all, Lee Hyuk was once a gangster.
But that wasn’t the case now. How could someone who was now running a legitimate company get stabbed? It made no sense.
“Who… who stabbed him?”
“Hyesung, do you remember the Yushinpa?”
At Sungjin’s question, Hyesung quickly racked his brain. The name sounded vaguely familiar, something he must have overheard in the past.
“Yes, I remember.”
And then it came to him. It was the name he had heard on the day he was injured in front of Lee Hyuk for the first time. That day, Lee Hyuk, driven to rage, had mercilessly beaten one of his subordinates in front of him. Hyesung also knew from Lee Hyuk that it was the Yushinpa who had caused that incident. They weren’t just any gang—they were known for their extreme brutality.
At the time, the Yushinpa had aimed to take control of Taesung and dominate the area. But after Hyesung was injured, Lee Hyuk went on a rampage, searching for their hideout to exact his revenge.
The result was simple.
Blinded by rage after Hyesung was hurt, Lee Hyuk led all of Taesung’s men to attack their hideout, and the Yushinpa was dissolved as a result. It was a shocking event that spread throughout the underworld, with stories of how the Taesung gang had wiped them out in one fell swoop.
“But why… why would they…”
“The men from the Yushinpa were at the scene where Lee Hyuk was stabbed.”
Sungjin added that there were countless men, presumed to be members of the Yushinpa, scattered around the area where Lee Hyuk had been found.
“But… weren’t they defeated by the Taesung gang years ago? Are you sure it was them?”
“I’m sure. I didn’t recognize any of their faces, but they had the Yushinpa’s mark.”
Sungjin clearly remembered seeing it. As he was giving Lee Hyuk first aid and calling for an ambulance, he noticed that all of the attackers had their thumbs dyed black.
Even though time had passed, he had never forgotten that mark. If anyone ever asked him when he felt his life was most in danger during his gangster days, he wouldn’t hesitate to say it was when he fought the Yushinpa.
That’s how strongly the memory of the Yushinpa had been etched into Sungjin’s mind.
“And… if I recall correctly, the Yushinpa leader didn’t die back then. Lee Hyuk cut up his face and hands with a knife, but… if he was lucky, he might have survived.”
So, was it possible that the Yushinpa members had orchestrated this whole thing to avenge their past humiliation? It was well-known that in the world of gangsters, there was a strong sense of retribution for past wrongs. But a lot of time had passed since then. Why now?
Hyesung anxiously bit his nails. None of it made any sense.
“Director, what about Executive Director Choi?”
“Huh?”
“Lee Hyuk said he was meeting Executive Director Choi today… Have you contacted him?”
Sungjin looked momentarily puzzled as to how Hyesung knew about this, but then he shook his head.
“I haven’t been able to reach him. I don’t know if he’s been hurt like Lee Hyuk, or what happened to him.”
Hyesung sighed deeply, bowing his head. His mind wasn’t working. He had no idea what had happened. More than anything, the fact that Lee Hyuk was injured left him unable to think.
At that moment, the light indicating that surgery was in progress turned off, and the surgeon walked out.
Both men immediately approached the doctor.
“Are you Mr. Kwon Lee Hyuk’s guardian?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
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Sungjin, still supporting the unsteady Hyesung, nodded.
“The surgery went well. However, due to multiple stab wounds and significant blood loss, it may be difficult for him to regain consciousness immediately.”
Hyesung clenched his fists.
“Fortunately, the other injuries aren’t life-threatening, so there’s no need to worry too much about them. The surgery itself was successful. Now, we’ll just have to monitor his condition closely.”
Lee Hyuk was soon transferred to the ICU. Seeing him in a hospital gown with an oxygen mask on was a sight so foreign to Hyesung that he couldn’t have imagined it in his wildest dreams. After all, Lee Hyuk had been so strong that even during his gangster days, he had never once passed out.
According to the doctor, it seemed like he had been stabbed multiple times. The thought of it weighed heavily on Hyesung’s heart.
“Hyesung, why don’t you go home now? I’ll stay here.”
“I’m fine. I’ll stay.”
Hyesung’s eyes were wide open, trying to hold back tears that threatened to spill like a waterfall. Just a few hours ago, his heart had been racing with excitement, but now, it felt like it was being torn apart, causing him immense pain.
Sungjin, urging him not to overexert himself, left the room briefly. Hyesung gripped Lee Hyuk’s hand tightly. The hand that had always comforted and embraced him now felt so fragile.
“Mister…”
Lee Hyuk had always worried excessively whenever Hyesung was hurt. Even back when he practically lived in bloodied battlefields, he had always been more concerned about Hyesung getting a small scratch or a paper cut than about his own injuries.
It was the same now. Every time, Lee Hyuk would ask if it hurt and personally tend to his wounds.
Only now did Hyesung truly understand how Lee Hyuk must have felt. He was filled with sorrow, standing by Lee Hyuk’s side, unable to do anything. Finally, the tears he had been holding back began to fall.
“Huff…”
Hyesung sobbed quietly for a while, then closed his eyes tightly and wiped away his tears. He had to wait for Lee Hyuk to wake up. He needed to hear what had happened and figure out a plan. Only Lee Hyuk knew the full details of what had transpired.
But was that too naive of him?
As if to mock his hopes, the following morning, Hyesung received yet another shocking piece of news.
