“Still, Xie Wei, it’s nice talking with you. I haven’t been able to talk about this stuff with anyone until now.”
As if to shift the heavy atmosphere, Ray Jun smiled with his eyes crinkling. With those words, the weighty air pressing down on the living room seemed to lighten a bit.
“You’ll keep it secret, right?”
“Of course.”
That was something he wanted to ask for on his end, actually. Kang Siwon nodded deeply.
Still, his heart felt a little—just a little—calmer. He’d been worried about how much suspicion he’d drawn after running into Ray Jun at the party hall, but now that they’d talked, he felt both relieved and secretly pleased.
Like finding comfort in the fact that in a world where everyone looks left, there’s someone who looks right alongside you.
* * *
For working people, the end of a vacation is returning to work. It wasn’t as if he’d gotten proper rest during his time off either, yet here he was again, bound to the yoke of labor. After finishing the handover, Kang Siwon stood in front of his counter.
“Oh, Xie Wei. Was today your first day back?”
“Yes.”
“Hah… Thank god.”
At the sigh from the senior at the next counter, Kang Siwon asked curiously.
“Did something happen while I was gone?”
“Well… it’s an incident if you call it one, and not if you don’t.”
The senior glanced around cautiously. The work rules in the High Limit Zone were strict, so getting caught having long personal conversations during work meant getting a warning. Kang Siwon knew this much, but something seemed suspicious, so he couldn’t help but press.
“What happened?”
“While you were away, there was a customer who came looking for you…”
Even hearing just that much, he had a feeling he knew who it was. Just as he was feeling the urge to clock out the moment he clocked in, an unwelcome greeting reached his ears.
“Good morning, Xiao Wei!”
Kang Siwon mentally carved the character for patience (忍) three times before turning his head. Sure enough, there stood that troublemaker youth. His name was Feng Tao, wasn’t it?
“…Good morning. How may I help you?”
“Let’s have lunch together. Even if you’re staff, you must have break time, right?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s difficult for me to dine privately with customers.”
“Ha, what an excuse. Where is there such a rule? Do you like Italian food?”
Not listening to a word he said, Feng Tao went on and on about how this restaurant had good fish dishes and that restaurant had a nice atmosphere. His colleague seemed worn out by the persistent chatter and slowly backed away.
Kang Siwon suppressed the urge to just run away himself and said,
“Do you perhaps need to exchange chips?”
“Ah, right. For now, just exchange 10,000 patacas for me. In 5,000 units.”
The youth held out bills as he spoke. Finally, there seemed to be an end in sight to this persistent troublemaking. Kang Siwon quickly processed the exchange and handed over the chips.
“As requested, 10,000 patacas exchanged for 5,000-unit chips. Please confirm.”
“Good. See you later.”
The youth finally left the counter with his chips. Kang Siwon breathed a sigh of relief, but it was too soon to relax.
* * *
Three days later.
“That crazy bastard…”
Kang Siwon ground his teeth as he roughly yanked open his cabinet door. His fingers unbuttoning his uniform were filled with anger. The irritation was boiling up so much he couldn’t control it.
The pervert in question came looking for Kang Siwon every single day like he was stamping an attendance card. If he just looked at his face and left it would be one thing, but he pulled nasty little tricks. A guy who always exchanged several hundred thousand patacas at once was deliberately exchanging small amounts bit by bit. As a result, Kang Siwon had to run into him several times a day.
Each time, he pulled such annoying stunts that Kang Siwon had to desperately suppress the urge to curse at him to fuck off. The youth was clearly displaying his ill intentions toward him. If Kang Siwon, who was dense about such things, could feel it, there was no way his other colleagues hadn’t noticed. Because of this, Kang Siwon now felt too embarrassed to even face the others.
At this point, the manager should have stepped in to mediate, but all he said was, “He’s the internal director’s son, so try not to upset him if you can and just handle it nicely.” Handle it nicely my ass—he wondered if the manager could say the same thing if it were happening to him.
“Hah…”
He let out a long sigh and closed the cabinet door. Just as he was about to leave the locker room, he bumped right into someone coming in.
“Oh.”
“Ah, sorry.”
He was about to apologize and step aside when the other person blocked Kang Siwon’s path. It was a clearly intentional movement.
“Well, look who it is. Long time no see. How’s it going in the High Limit Zone?”
He was a senior who had worked with Kang Siwon when he was on the main floor.
“Fine.”
“Seems like it. I heard you’re pretty popular with the customers. You’re not even a host, so I don’t know what good it does for cage staff to be popular with customers.”
Openly sarcastic, he shoved past Kang Siwon with his shoulder. When they worked together on the main floor, their relationship had been just okay, but maybe he held a grudge about Kang Siwon getting promoted first. Well, he could understand being angry if he thought he’d been passed over by a junior who’d joined much later. Still, provoking him by mentioning “host” was going too far.
“…”
Kang Siwon clenched his teeth and left the locker room. Suddenly, this casino without even a single window felt unbearably stifling. He walked quickly toward the staff exit. He was growing impatient, wanting to breathe outside air.
Just as he stepped out of Sovereign Resort, his phone vibrated. It was a notification from the security app.
Kang Siwon stopped walking for a moment and checked the message.
[Manager Park] Maintain relationship with Feng Tao. Avoid drawing excessive lines.
“…What kind of bullshit is this now?”
It was clearly Korean, yet he couldn’t readily understand it. Kang Siwon read Manager Park’s message again and again.
Around the fifth time reading it, Kang Siwon couldn’t contain the rising humiliation and irritation and spat out a curse. Ju Xiang had definitely reported this. The Baeksa Faction must have seen it as another source of money. Being told what felt like selling his body, his anger overwhelmed his fear. Just from the reaction of the senior he’d seen today, he could tell what kind of dirty rumors were circulating in the casino.
He called Ju Xiang. Though he usually avoided meeting with Ju Xiang, this time he felt he needed to talk face-to-face.
—What?
“I just got a message from Manager Park.”
As soon as the call connected, Kang Siwon immediately got to the point.
“There’s a part I don’t understand, so I’d like to meet in person and ask. If you have time right now…”
—No. I’m on night shift today. You wake someone up and then what? Meet in person? Ha, really…
Perhaps sensitive from being woken up, Ju Xiang reacted even more irritably than usual. But right now, there was a more important problem for him.
“What am I supposed to do when I don’t understand it at all, then? You must know since you would have received a report from Manager Park too. This isn’t something to ask about over the phone.”
—You don’t understand those two lines? Get along with that guy who’s clinging to you. Stop playing hard to get.
“Why the hell should I get along with that pervert bastard?”
—Hey, that guy isn’t just any pervert, he’s a pervert born with a golden spoon. Do you think opportunities to get close to an internal director’s son are common? When a golden pig like that rolls in on his own, you need to hold on tight. Can’t you even take what’s given to you?
“…”
—If you understand, then do what you’re told, got it?
But Kang Siwon couldn’t accept it. If it were hoping for pure friendship it would be one thing, but this was Feng Tao, who was blatantly making advances at him. Being told to avoid drawing lines with someone like that was nothing but forcing him to tolerate harassment.
Kang Siwon gripped his phone tightly and spoke, chewing out each word.
“Is this why you brought me here? To play along with a pervert?”
—Where the hell are you right now to be saying such things so carelessly? Shut up, will you?
“There’s no one around, so don’t worry. That’s why I suggested we talk face-to-face, didn’t I?”
—Wow… This bastard, really.
Perhaps because this was the first time he’d rebelled like this, Ju Xiang seemed dumbfounded. Soon he became thoroughly sarcastic.
—Think about it, think. If not for stuff like this, why would we have picked a good-looking guy? There are so many people better than you out there, you know?
“…”
—You think you were picked because you’re so great? You’re nothing, kid. You were picked because of that shiny face of yours.
It was the first time being told he was good-looking felt disgusting. Kang Siwon felt not just displeasure but even humiliation.
—Besides, you keep forgetting your position, don’t you? You should be grateful when you’re given work. If you didn’t have at least this use, I would’ve sold you off alongside that uncle of yours.
“Why bring up my uncle…”
—Shut up and just do what you’re told. If I hear one more time that you’re acting too expensive, I’ll send you straight to some old pervert instead!
After pouring out his irritation, Ju Xiang unilaterally hung up. Kang Siwon stood rooted to the spot, glaring at his phone.
“…Fuck.”
He couldn’t suppress the rage boiling up inside him. At this rate, it wouldn’t be strange if he collapsed from stress again.
It felt like he’d go crazy if he didn’t do something right now. Kang Siwon clenched his teeth and started walking again.
