My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 12

========== CHAPTER 12 ==========

“…Double contracts and a sex scandal, you say?!”

Kkii-ik-!

Lee Seong-ha’s foot reflexively slammed on the brake. The car behind him honked in surprise, but he couldn’t hear a thing. What unfolded before his eyes was a bizarre overlap of the face of an actor who had once basked in the spotlight and the word ‘ugly scandal’ that had been hidden behind it.

Coming to his senses, Lee Seong-ha whipped his head around to glare at Go Gyeol. His voice was laced with shock and blatant disgust.

“Hey, Go Gyeol! Are you out of your mind? Double contracts and a sex scandal? You want to bring that human trash into our team? I’m absolutely against it!”

But Go Gyeol remained unperturbed. He didn’t take his eyes off the window, murmuring in a low voice.

“It’s a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding? What do you mean by that!”

“You’re blocking traffic because of this. If you’re not going to drive, get out.”

At that cold remark, Lee Seong-ha bit his lip. He huffed, but reluctantly started the car again. However, his gaze kept drifting toward Go Gyeol in the passenger seat, urging for an explanation. Go Gyeol let out a small sigh at his impatience. Even after becoming a priest, that hasty personality of his hadn’t improved one bit.

“Kwon Do-geun is.”

As soon as Go Gyeol finally opened his mouth, Lee Seong-ha immediately asked back.

“Kwon Do-geun is?”

“Dyslexic.”

“What?!”

Kkii-iii-ik-!

Once again, the car came to a halt on the road with a violent screech. Even though he had asked, Lee Seong-ha’s face was frozen in an expression of utter disbelief. Who was Kwon Do-geun? A genius actor recognized not just in the Republic of Korea, but by the whole world. And to think that such a person had dyslexia, a difficulty in reading?

A blue vein popped out on Go Gyeol’s temple. He gritted his teeth and said.

“Lee Seong-ha. If you slam the brakes like that one more time, don’t ever think about sitting in the driver’s seat of my car again.”

The threat was effective. Since becoming a member of the clergy, the thing he missed and regretted most was driving in the secular world, and as it happened, Go Gyeol’s car was Lee Seong-ha’s dream car. Lee Seong-ha grabbed the steering wheel again with a serious face, without a word of complaint.

Driving the car smoothly, he carefully gauged Go Gyeol’s mood.

“…Is it, is it really true that Kwon Do-geun is dyslexic?”

“Yeah. The reason he was able to succeed as an actor was all thanks to his older brother.”

“His brother?”

“His manager. Kwon Do-geun’s manager is his own older brother.”

Go Gyeol’s explanation continued.

Kwon Do-geun’s dream as a child was to be an actor. But because of the fatal weakness of having difficulty reading, he tried to give up on his dream himself. The one who stepped up for such a younger brother was his older brother, who was an unknown actor at the time. The brother willingly gave up his own dreams for his younger brother’s.

“Whenever a script came in, his brother would act out and record the tone for every single character. If reference materials were needed, he did that too. Kwon Do-geun memorized all of it and acted it out. That’s how he succeeded as an actor, thanks to his brother’s devoted help and a face that everyone agreed was blessed. At twenty-two, he even awakened, establishing himself as an A-rank Water attribute hunter, the highest grade in the natural element category.”

After hearing the whole story, Lee Seong-ha tilted his head. The anger that had been boiling up had subsided, and a new question arose.

“Wait. But what does dyslexia have to do with double contracts and sex scandals? What exactly is the misunderstanding?”

“Think about it.”

Go Gyeol finally opened his mouth. His voice was cold and filled with sharp logic.

“Could a dyslexic patient properly read and sign a seven-page contract full of clauses disadvantageous to him?”

“…Maybe he just signed it carelessly because he could read well enough?”

Lee Seong-ha countered, but his voice was already losing its conviction. Go Gyeol shook his head at him.

“No. Kwon Do-geun pathologically hid the fact that he couldn’t read. His brother, who was his manager and sole agent, handled all contracts after he became an actor. He was a guy who never even gave a single autograph to fans because he was afraid his handwriting would reveal his dyslexia. A guy like that signed a contract himself? That makes no sense.”

“Then that contract is….”

“It’s a forgery, obviously.”

Go Gyeol crossed his arms and continued. His gaze didn’t waver in the slightest.

“The sex scandal is the same. Kwon Do-geun’s scandal was sexual bribery for an investor. And what was released as evidence was a text message he supposedly sent himself. Now, think again. Can a person with dyslexia send a long, eloquent text message?”

“Ha….”

A gasp of air escaped Lee Seong-ha’s lips. Now that he knew the fact that he was dyslexic, all the criticism and evidence the world had thrown at him instantly crumbled into impossible lies. It felt like the puzzle pieces were chillingly falling into place.

That was when it happened.

“Stop the car up there.”

At Go Gyeol’s instruction, Lee Seong-ha pulled the car to the side of the road as if possessed. After parking, he turned off the engine and only then exhaled a breath he had been holding, asking.

“If it’s all a misunderstanding and a frame-up like you say… why didn’t Kwon Do-geun explain himself?”

“Do you think he would have?”

Go Gyeol pointed his chin forward. When Lee Seong-ha turned his head, a multi-family house as shabby as Go Gyeol’s office came into view. A wretched sight that made it impossible to believe that a top star and A-rank hunter who once shook the world lived there. That appearance seemed to be the answer to Kwon Do-geun’s silence.

“If I hadn’t explained it to you like this, would you, Father, have been able to believe that Kwon Do-geun was dyslexic?”

“…….”

Go Gyeol patted Lee Seong-ha’s shoulder, who had no answer, and got out of the car. Unlike the inside of the car, which had been filled with a refreshing citrus scent, a foul and damp smell wafted from the old residential alleyway.

“I have a question. Then, did Kwon Do-geun’s brother betray him?”

Lee Seong-ha, who had followed Go Gyeol out of the car, said to his back. The final puzzle piece was clicking into place in his mind.

Only his family would know the fact that Kwon Do-geun was dyslexic. If so, the only people who could use that weakness to set a trap and drag him into the abyss were his family. The most likely suspect was the agent who knew everything about him and had made him who he was—his brother.

Go Gyeol walked toward the entrance of the old multi-family house and answered without even looking back.

“No. His brother is dead.”

His voice was so terribly emotionless that it was goosebump-inducing.

“The one who trapped him was Kwon Do-geun’s own mother.”

“Why would his mother….”

Lee Seong-ha’s voice scattered emptily.

His thinking stopped in front of a truth that couldn’t be understood by common sense. Go Gyeol didn’t continue speaking. With his mouth firmly shut, blocking all questions, he just walked down the damp and dark stairs.

The place they stopped was in front of the door of a semi-basement unit that looked like it hadn’t been touched by human hands for a long time. The paint was peeling off like scales, and the area around the doorknob was rusted a deep red. What was even more terrible was the mountain of delivery containers piled up next to the door. From that place, which had been neglected for who knows how long, black mold and nameless insects were feasting on rotting food, emitting a sickening stench.

“Ugh….”

Unlike Lee Seong-ha, who covered his nose without realizing it, Go Gyeol knocked on the door with an expressionless face despite the horrific sight.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

He knocked on the iron door, which showed no movement, at regular intervals like a machine. How much time had passed? Finally, a dragging sound was heard from inside the door, and the door opened just a crack with a friction sound that was like a painful scream.

At that moment, Go Gyeol pushed his arm into the gap of the door that was about to close again without hesitation. And he looked down at the figure huddled like a shadow, visible through the gap.

Hair matted like rice cakes, a t-shirt with a neck stretched out as far as it could go. A neck and waist hunched over like a turtle. And even the sour smell that pierced the nose. No one would be able to associate the current appearance with the actor Kwon Do-geun who once shone in the world. He was perfectly, uncannily similar to a homeless person on the street.

Go Gyeol bent down and whispered into his ear with a voice as cold as a razor blade.

“Do you intend to die like this?”

At that one word, Kwon Do-geun’s head, which hadn’t moved at all, snapped up. Shock and faint fear appeared simultaneously in his hollow eyes. Go Gyeol met his eyes directly and said.

“Let’s talk for a moment.”

Go Gyeol, not waiting for an answer, lightly pushed Kwon Do-geun’s shoulder, who was resisting, and stepped into the house.

A darkness so thick it made the fact that it was midday seem meaningless greeted them. As Go Gyeol habitually felt the wall and flipped the switch, the scene inside the room was exposed in its raw state with a ‘click’ sound.

The scene outside was merely a trailer. Clothes, trash, and alcohol bottles were scattered everywhere, with no room to step, creating a chaotic mess. Only then did Lee Seong-ha realize. Kwon Do-geun’s brother wasn’t just his manager. He was his hands and feet, his eyes and mouth, and a being like a mother who supported his entire life.

“First, let’s clean up.”

It was a declaration, not a suggestion.