Secretary Gwanggong's Survival Diary-Chapter 24

“Mmff...!”

The moment I came to, I tried to scream, but something was stuffed in my mouth. All that came out was a muffled, suffocating groan.

My head spun, and pain exploded like it was going to split open.

It took a while before I realized I was sitting up.

Even though my vision had returned, a thick darkness blanketed everything—I couldn’t see a damn thing.

Only a faint sliver of light slipping through a window told me I was inside some building.

“Looks like you’re awake.”

Then, from within that darkness, a low voice rang out clearly.

I turned my head toward the sound and waited for my eyes to adjust.

But until then, the owner of the voice stayed completely silent, like I’d imagined it.

“Mm—mmph!”

I could barely make out a shape.

Even so, that voice—at once unfamiliar and so familiar—made my body start to thrash violently.

The man who’d asked me for directions earlier...

Han Yejun’s long-time lover—Lee Jiseok.

“It’s probably better to have this conversation face to face, right?”

Like a shadow shifting through the dark, the man approached me, and I stopped moving.

He walked up calmly, as if this pitch-black room was nothing to him, gave my shoulder a light pat, and walked past me toward the back.

A sharp click!—then a few flickers—and fluorescent lights blasted into my pupils.

“Not surprised? You’ve been here before, huh?”

I blinked a few times and looked around the room.

Of course. I knew this place all too well.

“Figured as much.”

They say a house falls apart if no one lives in it.

And this one had.

It was a shithole to begin with, but now it had collapsed into something even worse.

More like an abandoned wreck—this was Han Yejun’s old home.

I would know. I’d personally helped him move out of it.

“This house—yeah, it was a gift. From me to Yejun.”

He leaned against the wall and started talking—words I couldn’t understand.

This... was the first I’d heard of it.

Even with the background check I did on Han Yejun, this had never come up.

It wasn’t something the drama had mentioned either, nothing significant enough to be a plot point.

“I was going to prison. What was Yejun supposed to do, live alone? That kid...”

From what I’d found, Han Yejun and Lee Jiseok were the same age.

They’d been together since high school—longtime lovers.

“Mm—mph...!”

But I had no idea why he was saying all this to me.

Let alone why he’d kidnapped me just to do it.

“What, you wanna talk? Fine. But if you scream, I’ll cut out your tongue first, so don’t even think about it.”

Still leaning against the wall, Lee Jiseok walked over and untied the cloth strapped around my mouth and behind my head.

Now that I looked, it was my own damn necktie.

“Haah... There’s gotta be some kind of misunderstanding here. Why are you doing this to me—urk!”

“I said we’re having a conversation. So why the fuck are you spewing bullshit?”

The guy who had seemed relatively normal just a second ago... wasn’t.

He grabbed my throat and squeezed hard.

His eyes, right up close to mine, didn’t look sane in the slightest.

“That bastard Yejun didn’t tell you about me? I’ve got more rage than you’d expect.”

Oh, I knew.

Lee Jiseok had a temper, and when he drank, he turned into a monster.

He’d been rough from the start—picking fights since he was a kid.

He’d laid hands on Yejun more than once.

But every time, after he came to his senses, he’d grovel and apologize, and Yejun—unable to throw him away—always forgave him.

He kept telling himself it was all because Lee Jiseok loved him.

“Stop—guh...!”

Blood wasn’t reaching my head.

My face burned.

My bound fists clenched so tightly they trembled.

I thought he was going to choke the life out of me, but finally, he let go.

“Be a good listener. Makes me wanna kill you on the spot.”

He slapped my cheek a few times—not hard enough to bruise, but enough to sting—and I nodded reflexively from the impact.

“Where was I?”

“...Haa... You said... the house, you gave it to Han Yejun....”

“Oh! Right.

I took the fall for a crime I didn’t even commit and went to prison.

Gave him a house before I left.

And after all these years, I come back and it’s empty.

Can you imagine how fucking great that felt?”

He sat right in front of me, on the floor, as if he were planning to talk for a while.

That murderous rage he’d shown earlier had evaporated completely.

There was no way this guy was mentally sound.

“But Yejun... that bastard’s always been within reach.

All I had to do was look up a few online accounts—boom, new address.

Looks like he landed some rich fucker. Living it up.”

He pulled something wrapped in newspaper out from his chest.

Unwrapping it layer by layer, he kept talking.

“And you know what? I get it.

That shitty house I gave him—who wouldn’t want something nicer?

And I was gone for a few years... Maybe he got a little tempted.

Fuck, who even stays loyal anymore these days?”

Then he casually tossed the item into the air and caught it again and again, like a toy.

A knife—jet-black handle, razor-sharp blade about the length of two handspans.

The way it caught the fluorescent light as it spun didn’t look fake in the slightest.

Even sitting down, I felt a cold sweat run down my back.

“I think you’ve misunderstood—”

“Shut your mouth. I’m talking. What, you think you’re better than me?”

“...No... sir, please... go on...”

I nearly pissed myself.

The moment I opened my mouth, he smoothly jammed the knife between my feet—fast and deadly.

If his hand had slipped even a little, or if I’d twitched, the blade would’ve gone straight into my foot.

Lee Jiseok was rough.

Way more dangerous than I’d expected.

This wasn’t like with Kim Daehyun—I couldn’t afford to take any dumb risks.

“I was gonna let the past go.

I mean, I fooled around with other people inside, too.

That’s just... scratching an itch, right?”

“...Yes...”

I nodded along, giving him whatever reaction he seemed to want.

He finally smiled. A smile that looked almost normal.

But to me, it just looked like the twisted grin of a lunatic.

Still, maybe somewhere in all this monologue was a hint—some reason he brought me here.

And maybe even a way out.

At the very least, it couldn’t hurt to listen.

Dragging things out was its own kind of tactic.

“But then... that fuck told me not to come looking for him.

Said he was in love with someone else.”

“No way... that can’t be...”

“Yeah. You don’t get it either, do you?

I go to prison for his sake, get him a place to live, and this is how I get repaid?

Fucking ungrateful little shit!”

...This is insane.

Han Yejun is supposed to choose Lee Jiseok in the end.

That’s how it’s supposed to go.

So why... why did he come to me this time?

Why was he so sincere—sincere enough to push Jiseok away, and why did he have no interest in Yoon Taeo at all?

None of it makes any sense.

But the most absurd part is that I’m the one who got kidnapped just for doing my damn job.

This isn’t just a deviation from the original story—it’s a total derailment.

I have no plan for this.

“So why the fuck is it you, of all people?”

“No! No, it’s not like that...! There’s nothing between us!”

I shook my head wildly, denying it with everything I had.

This is bullshit.

All I did was eat with him a few times, exchange a few messages.

There were no feelings between us.

Sure, he’d said some weird things—but for me, it was just business. Strictly professional.

“Maybe I should carve up that pretty face of yours.

Bet Yejun wouldn’t like you as much after that.”

He stood up and ran the blade gently across my cheek.

There was no pressure—it was just enough to tickle.

But that alone was more than enough to terrify me.

I couldn’t even squirm. My arms and legs were bound tight to the chair. I was completely helpless.

“You could just ask him. Ask Yejun—he’d tell you the truth...”

Even the voice I forced out trembled miserably.

“Yeah, I was gonna do that anyway. Might as well kill you right in front of Yejun so he never gets any funny ideas again.”

The more I dragged this out, the better it was for me.

If I disappeared in the middle of work, the company had to have noticed by now.

Maybe not everyone, but Yoon Taeo...

He’d realize I was gone, wouldn’t he...?

No, no—he can’t even recognize people’s faces properly, there’s no way he’d notice my absence.

And even if he did, it’s not like he’d come looking for me.

“Oh, sounds like he’s here. Hang on—I’ll send you off soon.”

The moment the front door clicked open, Lee Jiseok walked out like he was just heading out to accept a package.

Outside, voices rose in a sharp, chaotic argument.

Jiseok hadn’t been wrong—his guest was definitely Han Yejun.

Even Yejun, who was usually so soft-spoken, was shouting—his emotions clearly out of control.

“Hyung!”

Yejun burst into the room, his face already a mess of tears.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine... I’m okay....”

He rushed to untie me, fumbling helplessly with the knots.

Maybe they were tangled—or maybe he just didn’t know what the hell he was doing.

“Still saying there’s nothing going on? Looks like we’ve got a romance for the ages here.”

Lee Jiseok stood by the door, sneering at the sight of us.

“Run. Call the company. Not the police—call the company.”

I whispered fast into Yejun’s ear, but he was already halfway to a panic attack.

He didn’t seem to hear me—he was too focused on the ropes.

“Fuck! What’re you whispering over there, huh?! You trying to piss me off?!”

“Ah—agh...!”

Lee Jiseok grabbed Yejun by the back of the neck and yanked him away from me.

“You trying to make me snap? Is that it? Should I just kill this fucker first, Yejun?”

“Get a grip! It’s over. We’re done!”

“No, we’re not. I went to prison for you, Yejun. You can’t throw me away.

How about I tell them you did the killing and go to prison? You can’t do that, right?

So you can’t leave me.”

...What the hell was that supposed to mean?

I knew Lee Jiseok went to prison for murder and got out on parole.

But... that murder wasn’t his doing? It was Han Yejun’s...?

“Yejun, you love me. Right?

That’s why I went in for you—because I love you.”

“Please... stop...”

Yejun’s eyes flooded with tears as he trembled in Jiseok’s grip.

Honestly, I wasn’t much better.

Their conversation was too shocking—it was hard to even process.

“It’s all his fault. That fucker kept hanging around, seducing you.

So once he’s gone, we can both go back to how things were. Just like before.”

Lee Jiseok kissed Yejun’s cheek, like sealing a promise, and then—

Whatever he’d made up his mind about, he turned and started walking toward me.

There was no doubt in my mind—he wasn’t coming over to spare me.

I thrashed like mad.

Thankfully, Yejun had loosened the ropes a bit.

The one tying my wrists behind the chair had started to slacken.

“You’re the fucking problem, you piece of shit.”

The knife’s target was my chest.

Lee Jiseok came at me, blade raised to pierce straight through my heart.

I tipped my body sideways.

The moment I hit the floor, the rope on my arms slipped free.

I kicked out with all my strength, chair and all, slamming my bound legs into his shin.

“Agh...!”

CRACK—

The chair shattered against his leg.

While his focus broke, I managed to untie [N O V E L I G H T] the last rope on my legs, too.

“Ghhhk...!”

But then his boot caught me square in the chest.

I crashed to the floor, gasping for air.

Lee Jiseok had the build of an Alpha, even though he was technically a Beta.

And me? I was an Omega—naturally weaker than even an average Beta.

This was never going to be a fair fight.

It felt like my ribs had shattered—I couldn’t breathe.

“Stop! I’ll do it, okay? I’ll do whatever you want—just please stop!”

“No. It’s too late. You should’ve said that yesterday, Yejun.”

Lee Jiseok straddled my chest.

He raised the gleaming blade again, high above his head.

His eyes were completely consumed by madness.

I debated whether I should try to block it with my free hand.

Better to lose a hand than have a knife go through my chest.

But I didn’t need to.

Maybe it’s true—his sense of smell always worked faster than anything else.

That sharp scent of cigarettes hit my nose first, just a second before the voice followed.

“Secretary Kim, looks like I won the bet, huh?”

It was Yoon Taeo.