Secretary Gwanggong's Survival Diary-Chapter 6

Luckily, the two Beta women still had enough brain cells to recognize a weapon when they saw one. The moment they spotted the jagged glass in my hand, they grabbed their tiny, barely-there outfits and bolted out of the room without even bothering to put them on.

“Hey! We’re not even done yet! Walk out like that and don’t expect a single won, you hear me?!”

Kim Daehyun shouted after them, pissed, but the girls didn’t stop. The guy was completely oblivious to what kind of situation he was in.

“Daehyun, what the hell is this mess...”

“Who the hell are you? How do you know my name?”

I’d heard secondhand that Kim Daehyun was supposed to be quiet and delicate. And yeah, body-wise, he was on the slimmer side for a Beta. Even his... yeah, that too. But aside from the body, his whole vibe — his face, his tone — had nothing soft or delicate about it. He looked exactly like the kind of sleazy bastard who lives in bars like this.

“Louis XIII... Macallan... You’ve completely lost it, haven’t you? You got money for this shit?”

The floor was littered with bottles, and none of them were cheap. These were the kind of labels that made you audibly gasp when you saw the price tag. And judging by the pile of credit card statements back at his place, it wasn’t hard to guess what was going on. Either he was planning to use Taeo’s card — or he already had.

“What the fuck are you, huh?!”

By now, Daehyun had come to enough to fumble around for his shirt and pants. I briefly considered cracking his skull while he was mid-button, but I didn’t know how Taeo felt about him yet — so I couldn’t risk leaving a mark.

“I’m from MK Capital. You know — the company owned by Yoon Taeo. The guy whose card you ran off with?”

“And? After everything I did for him, this is the least I deserve, don’t you think? Fuck, do you even know how hard it was pretending to like that crazy bastard?”

That cold pit in my stomach twisted even tighter. The memories started lining up, and now that I was seeing the real guy up close, it was obvious — he was never Taeo’s type. Not in a million years.

“So you were faking it all along... Trying to pull off one big scam, huh? But it didn’t go the way you wanted?”

The world’s full of lunatics. Seriously — what kind of idiot looks Yoon Taeo in the eyes and thinks, yeah, I can scam this guy? Most people would piss themselves just making accidental eye contact. But that’s what money does — it makes people go completely brain-dead.

“Not really into getting chased by guys, you know.”

“And you don’t exactly look like much of a catch, either.”

His face twisted with rage. He grabbed a crystal glass from the table and hurled it — but either he was still high or just had bad aim, because it missed me by a wide margin and shattered against the wall.

“Let’s go quietly, Daehyun. I’m too tired to deal with your bullshit today.”

“What did you just say, you psycho son of a—!”

THUNK!

The sound cut him off mid-sentence. I’d just hurled the broken champagne bottle — not at him, but at the wall beside his head. Glass sprayed everywhere.

“I missed on purpose. You don’t get a second chance.”

Then I picked up a crystal ashtray from the table. In case he needed a visual of what the next shot would be.

But maybe I’d just poked a beehive.

“Hah... I don’t know where the hell you crawled out from, but don’t come crying later.”

His expression changed. More confidence — or maybe just madness. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out something black. A metallic click echoed through the room as a sharp silver blade snapped out with a shing.

So that’s where the confidence came from.

“I’m actually pretty good at this kind of thing.”

“...Yeah, I can see that, Daehyun.”

Cheap street thug. The kind of garbage that crawls out of alleyways.

He gripped the knife in a reverse grip and started closing the distance between us, eyes locked onto mine. Just the way he held it made it obvious he’d done this before. The heavy ashtray in my hand suddenly felt stupidly inadequate.

“Look — I’ll ignore the charges. Call it compensation, yeah? Severance pay.”

“Don’t need it. Wasn’t planning on paying it back anyway.”

Yeah, well... we weren’t counting on that either.

I’d just been trying to stall, but it didn’t work. Daehyun kept walking, slowly but surely, knife still aimed straight at me.

I had to decide — get stabbed like a moron or injure him and risk Taeo losing his shit.

He was moving fast now. As he stepped closer, his pupils finally came into the light — and yeah, this guy was not all there. I could swear I felt actual killing intent. Maybe I was imagining it, but... maybe not.

Five steps... three... one.

“Die, motherfucker!”

Honestly, it wasn’t a hard decision.

Either I get stabbed — or I miss the chance and still end up dead.

Even hurting him might get me killed. But that’s just a possibility. Not a guarantee. If Taeo still had feelings for this guy, then yeah — it’d be a death sentence.

THWACK!

He swung the knife in a wide arc — and I hurled the ashtray. It hit him square in the forehead with a sickening crack. His body flew backward and crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.

Blood immediately started pooling under his head, bright red and spreading fast.

“D-Daehyun...!”

...Shit. I think I killed him.

I ran over and crouched beside him. Pressed a hand to his chest. No — thank god — still breathing. But his head had split open way worse than I expected. Blood was pouring out in thick waves, soaking the floor in red.

“...Urgh... fuck...”

His forehead was split wide open, swollen and raw. Blood gushed out nonstop, spilling across his face, the floor — it was beyond disgusting. I caused this. Still, I had to fight the nausea rising in my throat and grab a wet towel from the floor to press against the wound.

I didn’t care if he lived or died, not really. But the image of Yoon Taeo losing his shit over this kept crawling back into my head. The guy’s skull was practically cracked in two — Taeo would lose it.

“Fuck me... What the hell was he made of, concrete?”

There was no undoing this mess. I held the towel tight with one hand, blood soaking through instantly, and reached for my phone with the other — fishing around in my jacket pocket—

“...Huh?”

That’s when I felt it. A sharp pain just above my elbow.

I’d taken my eyes off him.

And now my hand was going limp.

“Die... you fucking bastard!”

I thought he was unconscious, but Kim Daehyun’s eyes were wide open — and locked on me.

Whether it was blood seeping into his eyeballs or sheer spite forcing them open, the whites of his eyes were stained red, glowing like something demonic. He looked less like a man and more like something clawing its way out of hell.

In a flash, my vision tilted. He was on top of me.

“Aaagh! Fuck— my goddamn head!”

Screaming in rage, Kim Daehyun didn’t even look like the same guy anymore. It was like the pain had snapped his mind back into place — clearer, more focused than he was before I cracked his skull open.

“G-Guh... D-Daehyun... my—my neck!”

He straddled my chest, hands clamped hard around my throat. My phone had slipped from my hand long ago. I flailed, scratching and clawing at his arms, but it only made him squeeze harder.

“Oh? It’s fine if I get my head split open, but your neck’s off-limits? Don’t move. Unless you want it cut right the fuck off.”

My hands froze.

Partly because he loosened his ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) grip, but mostly because I realized something wet and warm was dripping onto my face. Blood — running down from his own forehead, rolling across his cheek, and falling in thick drops onto mine.

“Daehyun, look... let’s just talk like human beings—”

“Shut your mouth.”

And then, the most important reason of all — the knife.

The blade of that little folding knife was pressed right against the side of my neck. It didn’t even need to pierce me — just the touch of its edge against my skin was enough to make it sting. That wasn’t a warning. That was a countdown.

“You said your boss owns MK Capital, right? He’s loaded. You’re telling me you like him, but can’t even spare some cash? Actually, if you work for him, your money’s his money, right? I’ll just take some for myself. Cool?”

If there’s such a thing as a demon of greed, then this fucker is probably its walking avatar.

Looking at his blood-soaked, grinning face made the nausea in my stomach rise again. While I struggled not to gag, he calmly reached into my pockets, still grinning like he was at a party.

With every movement, the blade scraped my neck.

“What the hell... This is it?”

A dozen or so 50,000-won bills. Around half a million won. The money Taeo had given me that morning — supposedly for a hospital visit.

And here was this bastard, deep in debt, acting like that kind of cash was pocket change. Unbelievable. I’d correct that arrogance later. If I lived.

“...Fine! Take it, just take the money and go, Daehyun—!”

“Of course I’m taking it, dumbass.”

He shoved the blood-splattered bills into his pocket and grinned like a maniac.

“Well then. See ya, errand boy.”

His teeth were stained red now too — must’ve gotten blood in his mouth. The smile made him look unhinged, animalistic. It scared the shit out of me.

“Daehyun, we can still talk—!”

The moment he let go of my throat, he raised the knife high — all the way above his shoulder.

And from the angle, there was no mistaking where it was aimed.

Pinned under his knees, my arms were useless. I thrashed, but there was no way I could shake him off.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t watch the blade drive into my neck. This was it. The end.

But...

Nothing.

No pain. No stab. No blood.

They say that in the moment before you die, time slows down — your whole life flashing before your eyes. Maybe this was it. Maybe it felt long because I was about to die.

But the stillness went on for too long. Too silent. Too real.

I cracked one eye open.

“Secretary Baek. What exactly do you think you’re doing.”

And immediately wished I hadn’t.

“...Sir...?” freewebnøvel.com

Kim Daehyun was still on top of me.

But behind him — looming, emotionless, spine-chilling — was Yoon Taeo.

He had one hand gripping Daehyun’s wrist, keeping the knife suspended in midair. His other hand rested gently on the back of Daehyun’s head.

His face was unreadable. Totally blank.

But I knew better.

I’d seen that look before.

Yoon Taeo was about to explode.