TL | Chapter 46 | Don’t Act Recklessly

“I’m not gambling with my own life here.”

The smile faded from his face, and his voice turned seriously intense.

“If anything, I feel like I’m betting with you, and I hate that.”

He lowered his head, burying his face in the nape of Seowon’s neck as he spoke. His tone grew noticeably gruff, very different from how he sounded when he was with Min and Leo—as if he genuinely despised the situation.

“The target isn’t Ha Seowon; it’s Iden de Luciano.”

Seowon corrected him, and Iden let out a short, bitter laugh.

“Then why is it you who keeps getting hurt every time? Maybe I should just tie you up somewhere safe.”

As if talking to himself, he muttered in frustration. Seowon pushed his shoulder to put some space between them and looked at his face. When their eyes met, he gave a faint smile, though it was tinged with bitterness.

“I can’t live my whole life with this constant anxiety. This time, I’m definitely going to catch them.”

Iden reached out, gently brushing the back of Seowon’s head. His gesture was calm and soothing, but Seowon could sense the underlying unease he was feeling.

But will this really be the last time? As long as you’re in the mafia, won’t these dangers always follow you? If you really wanted to fix the root of the problem, wouldn’t you need to walk away from the mafia altogether?

He kept those thoughts to himself. He would have voiced them to “Iden hyung,” though—that other Iden could still choose to draw a line between himself and Luciano. But not this man in front of him. He’d been Luciano’s successor for over ten years now, with no other options left.

No matter how anxious he felt, no matter how much his life was at risk, he had to endure it. Even if Seowon protested, it wouldn’t change anything.

So Seowon, too, had only limited choices. He could either cut ties with him now and walk away or protect him with his life. If the first option had been possible, he wouldn’t have come this far.

In the end, Seowon had just one answer. He took a deep breath, raised his arms, and wrapped them around Iden’s back.

“Promise me. Don’t act recklessly. And you… don’t die. Ever.”

Getting hurt might be unavoidable, but as long as he stayed alive, they’d find a way to manage.

Iden chuckled softly at Seowon’s request—not “don’t get hurt,” but “don’t die.”

“It’s because I trust you that I can gamble like this.”

He whispered as he held Seowon close. Seowon felt the same way. This Iden was different from the Iden hyung he used to know. Iden de Luciano had the skills and cold pragmatism to protect himself.

“…Isn’t this different from what we originally discussed? It’s a bit late to change things now…”

Iden’s expression turned serious as he spoke on the phone. From what Seowon could overhear, it sounded like he was talking to someone from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Something seemed to be going wrong with the casino deal.

As the call dragged on, Iden’s voice grew lower, revealing his growing irritation. Seowon quietly left the office. In the secretary’s office, Min was checking something with the other secretaries. When he noticed Seowon, he walked over.

“Still on the call?”

Min asked, nodding toward Iden’s office.

“Seems like there’s a problem.”

Seowon nodded in response, and Min let out a deep sigh.

“They were about to get final approval, but someone else has stepped in. Seems they offered better terms than we did. The whole thing could collapse at the last minute. We’ve put years of work into this. It’s frustrating.”

Min explained that Luciano had started laying the groundwork for an international hotel and casino business that hadn’t even been on the government’s radar. They spent years building connections and persuading officials to bring the project forward. But now that the casino project was about to go public, opportunistic hyenas had swooped in, hiding behind the guise of fair competition.

The casino project wouldn’t even have started if it weren’t for Iden’s proposal. Losing the project was unthinkable for Iden—no, for Luciano.

“Is there a chance it’ll go to the other side?”

“Who knows. The Ministry says it’s just a formality, that they need to at least pretend to be fair. But you never know when they might double-cross us. Better to be thorough than end up empty-handed.”

Seowon let out a chuckle as he listened to Min. Min looked puzzled.

“Didn’t you grow up in the United States? Where’d you learn a phrase like ‘empty-handed’?”

“Did I use it wrong? Isn’t this the right context?”

“You used it right. I’m just surprised.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal. My parents are Korean, so I grew up with both Korean and English. And since my mom watched tons of Korean dramas, I picked up a lot of expressions that older people use. I just don’t use them much because I’m not always sure they fit.”

Min’s Korean was, indeed, fluent. When Seowon first met him after arriving in the United States with Iden, he hadn’t guessed Min was raised there. Knowing now that Min’s parents were Korean but he grew up in America, Seowon sometimes found his fluent Korean fascinating.

“Sometimes, I think you speak better Korean than the Director, who actually went to high school in South Korea.”

Min made an odd expression at Seowon’s remark.

“The Director wasn’t able to use Korean when he was in the States.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“When he first arrived in the U.S., his English wasn’t very fluent. He could handle basic conversations, but understanding everything was another story, especially expressing his own thoughts. Seeing that, the boss banned him from speaking Korean—even when he was with me. After ten years, his Korean naturally declined.”

It was something Seowon hadn’t known.

“Even when he first came back to South Korea, he only spoke English. It wasn’t until he found you that he started speaking Korean again.”

Min paused, contemplating something, then continued.

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t really seen him smile much until he met you. During his early years in the U.S., he was expressionless and rarely spoke. It helped him gain respect in Luciano, but it also made people keep their distance.”

The more Seowon learned, the harder it was to imagine what Iden’s life had been like as a teenager in America. It seemed so different from the Iden he knew that it almost felt like they were talking about a stranger.

“Seems like he’s softened, thanks to you.”

Min shrugged.

“He may be softer with you, but he’s become colder in his work. So don’t worry; he’ll handle the casino issue.”

Min redirected the conversation back to the original topic. Seowon just nodded. There wasn’t much he could do about that issue anyway.

“I’ll go check in with the security team.”

After informing Min, Seowon left the secretary’s office. Even if Iden finished his call and came looking for him, Min would explain.

If there was another group targeting the casino project, they were likely mafia or yakuza, like Luciano. Some of them might even be after Iden. Seowon intended to meet with Leo to review security measures.

Upon arriving at the security team’s underground office, Seowon found the guards leaving in a group.

“Where are you headed?”

They turned at his question, with Leo grinning in acknowledgment and the others, including Asher, nodding respectfully.

“We’re going on an external patrol of the building. We’ve heard about some movements due to the casino deal. Just in case, we’re rechecking possible sniper points and making sure the surveillance cameras we set up are still working. We’ve got a skeleton crew keeping an eye on things inside, so you don’t need to worry.”

“I’ll join you.”

Seowon was already familiar with the potential sniper points around Luciano’s building and the locations of the security cameras set up by the team.

“Aren’t you supposed to stay with the Director?”

Leo asked, concerned. Seowon responded with a faint smile, explaining that Iden was still on a call and wouldn’t be leaving his office anytime soon. Leo nodded and invited him along.

Outside with the security team, Seowon checked for any missed spots as they inspected known sniper points. Though the area was filled with high-rise buildings, there were fewer open spots than expected with a clear line of sight to the Luciano building’s lobby or Iden’s office. Still, he double-checked every corner with a map, meticulously verifying each spot when he felt someone bump into his shoulder.

It was odd—this area wasn’t exactly bustling with people during the day. Even though Seowon was standing in the middle of the path looking at his map, there shouldn’t have been anyone to bump into him. He looked up and saw a woman wearing sunglasses standing in front of him.

From her skin tone, her naturally blonde hair, and her general appearance, she was clearly not Korean.

“Hello.”

The woman lowered her sunglasses slightly, greeting him in perfect Korean. Seowon immediately recognized her.

Natasha from Galayev Company—the woman he’d seen in the dossier Min had given him.