“You’re leaving already?”
“I need to get back to the dorm. If I want to eat the dinner my roommate makes.”
Sua replied, raising her eyebrows slightly.
“What? You can just eat anything for dinner. Or want to eat together?”
“I’m good. My tongue has gotten so used to that friend’s cooking that I can’t eat just anything anymore.”
“Your roommate cooks that well? Are they a chef by any chance?”
“No, just a casino employee. Anyway, I’m going.”
“Okay.”
Sua just waved her hand lightly without getting up from her seat.
“Next time we meet, tell me something more interesting.”
“You too.”
After the bland farewell, Ray Jun left the room. It was time to return to Macau.
* * *
Late at night, the taxi arrived in front of the dormitory building.
Getting out of the taxi, Ray Jun rolled his shoulders lightly. Although Hong Kong and Macau were close, transferring between ferries and taxis multiple times was bothersome. He wanted to hurry back to the dorm and poke at Xie Wei.
“I’m back, Xie Wei.”
As he entered the dorm, a silent living room greeted him. Ray Jun raised one eyebrow. His shift should have ended long ago, so had he not returned yet?
“Xie Wei?”
Ray Jun headed to the kitchen. However, in the kitchen where the cooking utensils were neatly organized, there was no sign of Xie Wei or even traces of cooking. Usually around this time, the kitchen should have had the lights brightly on with the smell of food wafting around.
Where did he go this time? Ray Jun frowned in annoyance.
Except for commuting and grocery shopping, Xie Wei almost never went out. Of course, he didn’t know what happened on days when their work schedules didn’t overlap, but as far as he knew, the only place Xie Wei had gone out to without telling him his destination was Feng Tao’s party. At that time, Xie Wei had almost drunk wine laced with sleeping pills. Instead, he ended up drinking wine laced with Viagra, so he hadn’t completely avoided danger either.
Recalling that time, Ray Jun frowned and checked the living room and bathroom before heading to the bedroom. Seeing that the lights were off, it seemed that idiot wasn’t here either.
However, Ray Jun’s expectation was wrong. When he pushed open the bedroom door, he saw a blanket bulging up on Xie Wei’s bed.
“Xie Wei, you were here?”
“……”
“Are you sleeping? You’re not sick, are you?”
Instead of an answer, only wheezing breaths could be heard. It was clearly a different sound from when he usually slept.
“What’s going on?”
As the silence continued, Ray Jun’s patience, which had been stretched taut, snapped.
“I’m pulling off the blanket.”
Ray Jun didn’t even wait for an answer and pulled off the blanket. Then Xie Wei curled up his body and shouted.
“Go. Let me rest.”
“Why is your voice like that?”
His voice had become rough in just one day. He belatedly cleared his throat as if trying to hide it, but that didn’t bring his voice back.
“I said go, please……”
“How can I go when you’re like this?”
In fact, it was something he could have ignored. Originally, Ray Jun wasn’t the type to push his way in when someone put up a wall.
But every time Xie Wei blatantly avoided him like this, it somehow felt like something was scratching at his insides. At first, he just thought that prickly side of him was fun to poke at, but lately he wanted to tame him into obedience.
“Let me see your face. I’ll turn on the light.”
“Wait!”
Xie Wei urgently grabbed Ray Jun’s wrist and snapped.
“Don’t turn on the light. If you turn on the light, I really won’t let it slide.”
“……”
The grip holding his wrist was strong, but his voice was trembling slightly. Ray Jun looked down at him silently, then sat on the edge of the bed.
“What happened to make you like this?”
“……”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
He could roughly guess. Either Feng Tao had clung to him again, or things hadn’t gone well with the organization he belonged to—that is, the Baeksa Faction—or some other shitty thing had happened. If he was hiding his nationality and even spying, Xie Wei must have lived quite a tumultuous life, and how could such a life not be rough? In a way, it was an all-too-obvious situation.
Even so, Ray Jun was newly frustrated and annoyed by Xie Wei’s complete silence. What on earth had happened to make him curl up so pathetically under the blanket without even eating? He wanted to force him to open his mouth, but Ray Jun held back for now. After all, what opens a traveler’s coat is sunlight, and what opens the bolt locking a prickly roommate’s heart is tenderness.
“Xie Wei, when you’re like this, I feel upset too. Even if I want to help you, there’s nothing I can do.”
“……”
“Is it because you don’t trust me? Because you think I’ll be more of a hindrance than a help?”
“……It’s not like that.”
A dry voice flowed out. Ray Jun, growing more anxious, pressed him as if urging.
“Then tell me what’s going on. Whatever you say, I won’t curse at you or spread it to others.”
By now it was time for him to open up, but Xie Wei remained stubbornly silent. Ray Jun glared at him, pushing down his boiling insides.
But then, something he hadn’t been able to see earlier became visible to his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Xie Wei’s lips were swollen.
“What happened to your lips?”
Xie Wei turned his head to the side. However, Ray Jun grabbed his chin and made him face him directly.
“Isn’t that a scab? ……Don’t tell me someone hit you?”
“……”
Silence was affirmation.
His insides, which had been boiling hot all along, seemed to cool down in an instant. Ha, exhaling a cold breath, Ray Jun asked.
“Who was it?”
“……I’m fine.”
“I know you’re not.”
Ray Jun wasn’t someone who would be fooled when he said such things in a voice that clearly wasn’t fine. He glared fiercely at his foolish roommate. He was angry at Xie Wei, who didn’t even know what a great opportunity this was when he was offering to help for once, and only tried to kick it away. That’s why he wanted to have him in his hands. Because he hated seeing him getting pushed around by people other than himself.
“Wait. I’ll get some ointment.”
It seemed he needed to cool his own head first. Ray Jun got up from his seat and left the bedroom.
* * *
Left alone on the bed, Kang Siwon buried his face deeply in the blanket. This was the downside of communal living. Not being able to digest emotions alone and having to be mindful of other people.
He was embarrassed that Ray Jun had caught him in such a state. He must have noticed that his condition was a mess. At the thought that his weakness had been exposed, his already wounded pride stung.
Kang Siwon had been hit this evening.
On his way home from work, he received a call from Ju Xiang and got into his car. He was puffing away on cigarettes inside the car. Sensing something ominous in the atmosphere, Kang Siwon just silently inhaled the cigarette smoke.
“Fuck…… Those Sovereign bastards……”
Along with the cigarette smoke, Ju Xiang spat out curses. He muttered to himself while looking into space.
“These bastards’ security has gotten insanely tight.”
“……Is it because of us?”
Kang Siwon asked cautiously. Hadn’t he noticed that Sovereign’s behavior had been different from before? If the reason was because they’d caught on that the spy rumors were true, he needed to be prepared too.
“Fuck…… At first I thought it was that, but it doesn’t seem to be just that. The entire behavior pattern has completely changed. It’s completely unpredictable. This is definitely because some bastard got involved in the middle and stirred things up.”
“I see.”
“The situation is quite serious. The higher-ups are throwing a fit telling those of us in the field to bring something back, but there’s not a single result. At this rate, we’re going to lose all the big fish we finally caught!”
Just as he said, Kang Siwon couldn’t understand what he was talking about. Ju Xiang only vaguely conveyed limited information, and Kang Siwon had also only grasped the extent of his own situation. Because of that, what he had found out so far was merely at the level of a blind person groping an elephant’s toenail while trying to understand the situation.
In any case, as long as Ju Xiang and his own identities hadn’t been exposed, it was fine. Just as Kang Siwon was breathing a sigh of relief, words like a bolt from the blue fell.
“You, get ready to go to Feng Tao.”
“……What do you mean by that?”
“Build a bridge. I’ll try approaching that side. Don’t worry. Making deals is my specialty. Judging by the size, that side doesn’t seem like they’ll back out either.”
“How are you going to make a deal? Are you planning to use me as bait?”
“So what if I am, you bastard?”
Ju Xiang, having inhaled the last puff of his cigarette, pressed out the remaining ember with his thumb and index finger. Then he casually threw it out the car window and blabbered.
“I told you. I picked you looking at your face to make you do this kind of work. I even gave you a hint, so what were you doing not preparing yourself mentally?”
Kang Siwon quietly swallowed his breath.
Since getting entangled with the Baeksa Faction, he had seen and experienced all kinds of filthy things, but what he heard today was by far the most disgusting. Even though he had expected this day to come, now that he was faced with it, he felt nauseated.
A face suddenly came to mind.
Unlike the sinister Baeksa Faction figures, this was a person so refreshing that when they were together, it felt like a gentle breeze was blowing from somewhere.
When he recalled the touch that had caressed him as if handling something precious, revulsion spread to his bones. Kang Siwon spat out firmly.
“I refuse.”
Not only was prostitution itself absurd, but he also didn’t want to repeat that act he’d shared with Ray Jun with someone else. Moreover, he would rather die than mix bodies with someone as disgusting as Feng Tao.
However, there was no way Ju Xiang would accept Kang Siwon’s opinion. He let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded, then immediately grabbed Kang Siwon by the collar.
