Thud, his heart became a stone and sank down. The man prowled around slowly like a beast targeting its prey.
“I know what those eyes mean.”
It was a distance where he could pounce at any moment. He deliberately made no sound with his footsteps. As if savoring the speed at which fear spread through Woonghee. It was the movement of a predator targeting prey.
“Those are eyes that doubt me. You’re doubting me, who says I love you.”
“…Yes, honestly it is suspicious.”
Fuck, wouldn’t you do the same? He barely swallowed the sharp words back into his throat. The edges of the sentence were rough as if cut with a saw blade. It tasted exactly like terrible blood.
“How can you be sure that’s love?”
Woonghee rolled his eyes to track him circling around. Thump-thump, instead of his footsteps, it was Woonghee’s heart that beat. Fast and heavy, as if revealing the fear he tried hard to suppress.
“You’re a psychopath who doesn’t understand human emotions, aren’t you? How can you be so sure just by believing what an art therapist said?”
At that moment, thud, the man’s feet stopped.
“Woonghee-ssi.”
He slowly rubbed his eyebrows with an expression as if swallowing some wordless emotion.
“How could this not be love?”
Soon the man’s face became excited. Even though he wasn’t in rut, why was he showing such intense emotion? Woonghee faced him with confused eyes.
“……”
He knew the man’s attitude had changed at some point. The way he looked at him, his gestures, movements, even his pheromones were different from the beginning.
But even so, his current appearance was completely incomprehensible. What on earth does Managing Director Gi want from me? Is he trying to play at love? Is that why he caused this ruckus and put the necklace he barely obtained around my neck?
Woonghee took a slight step back. The necklace hanging around his neck jingled as if tempting the man.
“Do you know what that is?”
Woonghee unconsciously grabbed the necklace.
“It was something my mother had.”
“……”
“My father was someone who believed in fateful love.”
He was quite the romanticist. Haa, fuck, he sighed lowly. It seemed like he was tracing the past, or sculpting a lie that didn’t exist.
“One day he saw this jewel on television.”
He said it was similar to Mother’s lip color and wanted to put it in Mother’s hands no matter what. But wasn’t it in some noble’s hands? He was someone who had to have what he wanted, but it didn’t seem easy.
“Did Father give up? No, he didn’t. He called all the fences from across the country and said he’d pay several times the price to whoever obtained this necklace. If that didn’t work, to steal it and bring it.”
Woonghee’s lips split into two with a gasp. He’d always wondered where this man started breaking, and was it his father? Growing up watching such insane love.
The man’s hand slowly and wetly traced from the tip of Woonghee’s ear down his neck. The sensation of sticky spider webs wrapping around his skin… Goosebumps rose.
“Back then I couldn’t understand Father… but now I get it. The moment I recovered that necklace, I thought I wanted to put it around your neck.”
The man’s damp breath choked Woonghee’s throat.
“How can you say this isn’t love? I’m more certain now than at any other moment in my life.”
As if running a fever, the corners of the man’s eyes reddened.
“Yes, that’s right, I’ve fallen in love…”
What kind of love takes that form? And how can he be so certain that emotion is love? The man’s strange appearance felt like an ice shard was being driven into his head. A cold breath seemed to flow down his spine.
“…Excuse me, Junhyuk-ssi.”
For a moment, the man’s name burst out without realizing it. His two eyes flashed. Then his lips curled up and a smile drew across his face.
“No, Managing Director Gi.”
“So I want you to look at me.”
The words uttered simultaneously were headed in completely different directions. At that moment, a lightning-like certainty struck Woonghee. He got it wrong. He got it completely wrong.
“I crave Woonghee-ssi’s gaze. I want Woonghee-ssi not to betray me. I wonder if this is fate.”
Saying “you’re wrong, you’re mistaken” was no longer any use. It had already established itself as truth inside the man. What to do? Should he divert attention, saying that’s not what’s important right now?
“…Managing Director Gi isn’t someone who gets swayed by such emotions, are you? When we’re trapped on this fucking island, what does that kind of love matter…”
Fuck, let it go. Please just let it go, you crazy bastard.
“I’m starting to think that maybe Woonghee-ssi was reborn for me.”
But the man had already built a solid wall.
“My Baekjo died exactly 25 years ago.”
Intoxicated with ecstasy, he let out a gentle voice. He lifted his chin up high and babbled as if praying to the sky.
“The age matches perfectly.”
The man who had so terribly pursued reason and efficiency was now ranting about fate with eyes filled with madness. Woonghee’s internal organs were twisting. That guy was currently too immersed in his own emotions. Right now, whatever I bark at him will surely sound like bullshit.
“You really love me…?”
Love? Go fuck yourself.
“Then prove it. Let Tula go for my sake.”
Managing Director Gi. If that love you insist is real is true, then prove it.
Since he’s someone who can’t be reasoned with anyway, provoking him like this would be much more efficient. He was hoping that those lips, which only spout crazy talk but look good, would open softly, that the aristocratic chin would nod, when the man strode toward him.
“You still don’t know me well.”
There was even a sneer like mockery hanging on his lips.
“You kept going on about love. So it was a lie after all?”
I thought so. Of course that’s how it is. Woonghee jeered at him freely. Is that all you’ve got, is that all the love talk you can manage, he sneered freely. As if he were someone who had been betrayed.
“Do you know how one-dimensional the emotion called possessiveness is?”
The man shook his head with his brow slightly furrowed as if dumbfounded.
“That’s why it’s all the more instinctive.”
His face came very close. Shadows pooled darkly in his features, making him look even more sinister.
“I hate your feelings of wanting that bastard.”
Woonghee’s lips opened in an “ah” as he couldn’t continue speaking. I never once wanted Tula, what is he talking about? He didn’t know why, but the man was firmly mistaken.
But why did he bring up this pie-in-the-sky talk? Don’t tell me he’s going to kill Tula?
“…So what.”
Woonghee panted. As hot breath fell, the man smiled as if looking at an innocent child. Woonghee lunged at him and grabbed his collar. Or was he clinging to him?
“Are you going to lock up Tula?”
As he spat out the words, his voice was trembling thinly.
“Haha, what are you saying, Woonghee-ssi.”
The next moment, he slowly pushed up his eyelids.
“What I want isn’t that kind of brat.”
His chin turned half a circle. In an instant, he came close to Woonghee’s lips.
“It’s you.”
The whisper shook Woonghee’s entire body.
“Think about it. Then who would be locked up?”
“……”
“It would be you.”
***
Ha, ugh, haa…
Was the love the man spoke of ultimately confinement? He wasn’t a man who just talked shit. He really threw Woonghee’s body into the bungalow and made the big guy guard the front.
‘If you keep causing a ruckus, I’ll have no choice but to report to Managing Director Gi.’
The door that the big guy stood firmly blocking didn’t budge even when Woonghee threw his whole body at it. Pounding with his fists and flying kicks were useless. He was completely like a rat in a trap.
“Fuck, I can’t just stay still like this…”
The last sight of Tula was him being dragged away by his nape in Managing Director Gi’s grip. He had no idea what happened after that. Managing Director Gi had thrown him in here and had been absent for hours already. As if planning to be away for quite a while, he’d brought plenty of food in advance. Of course, Woonghee hadn’t touched it at all.
He was anxious and nervous not knowing how things were unfolding. He had to somehow check what was happening outside, but there was no one who would help him. After all, is escape the only answer? Then he had to escape before Managing Director Gi returned.
Woonghee circled the bungalow round and round like a dog that needed to shit. It was to find a gap. This isn’t really a prison or concrete building, is it? There would be a gap. Somewhere there’s definitely a gap…
“Ah…!”
The bungalow was made by stacking logs on the ground. Looking closely, he could see sunlight seeping into the space floating above the soil. He urgently shoved the machete through the gap. And using the blade as a lever, he lifted the bungalow with all his might.
“Ugh… ha!”
At first there was no response, but when he used all his strength, the bungalow lifted just a little. It was a gap big enough for one hand to enter. Woonghee dug frantically under it with his hands. After getting on all fours like a dog, he scooped out the soil with both hands and scooped again.
“Ha, this is fucking hard…”
Hungry, he hurriedly filled his stomach in between. The space gradually widened. Now his forearm could slide in. Woonghee’s eyes gleamed while covered in dirt. He put strength into his tired arms and accelerated the work.
‘I just need to get out of here.’
As soon as he gets out of here, he’ll grab Tula and the tube and escape this crazy island. Without looking back.
