The man practically carried Wooyeon’s body and dragged him out of the tent. Inside the club, numerous people were still dancing in the dazzling lights and ear-splitting music.
No one paid any attention to Wooyeon and the man. Not only could he not scream, even if he did scream, there was no telling if it would reach people.
Wooyeon was powerlessly dragged by the man. Before he knew it, they were at the elevator that was the club’s exit. The man roughly hit the elevator button repeatedly with his rough hands, and not long after, the elevator opened in front of Wooyeon and the man. The man dragged Wooyeon into the empty elevator.
“Haa, fucking making me work for it.”
The man muttered to himself. Wooyeon’s face was wet as he watched the elevator doors close again. Then, with a thunk, someone put their hand through the door from outside the elevator and applied force, and the elevator doors opened again.
“What the fuck!”
And then he grabbed the man’s collar and roughly yanked him out of the elevator, and Wooyeon also came back into the club as if being pulled along with it.
He threw a precise punch at the man’s face and the man fell to the floor with a thud. Wooyeon, who had been staggering, slid down while leaning against the wall. His vision was blurry so he couldn’t confirm exactly, but there was a familiar scent.
The man’s groans and the sounds of blows continued to ring out.
“Stop it, Kwon Jeonghan! Stop it already…”
Wooyeon raised one hand to cover his face and screamed. His palm became soaked with tears. Even in the midst of this, Wooyeon worried that Jeonghan might kill the person at this rate.
Guards came running from inside the club at the commotion, and only then, perhaps his anger somewhat relieved, did Jeonghan stop kicking. Jeonghan took out his wallet and threw several checks onto the body of the man who had collapsed covered in blood.
It was the first time… seeing Jeonghan lose his composure like this. And even at this moment, foolishly, it somehow made me feel proud.
“If it’s not enough, talk to my lawyer.”
A business card fluttered down onto the checks.
* * *
The street where drunk people still walked was shining with neon signs. Having escaped from the building, Wooyeon was walking as if being led by Jeonghan’s touch. While clutching the front of his shirt where all the buttons had been torn off and it gaped open, lest any skin show.
When Jeonghan tried to put Wooyeon in the car parked at the edge of the road, Wooyeon pushed Jeonghan away.
“No, I said I’m not getting in your car…”
This was also a car he’d never seen before. A white sports car. Jeonghan’s car changed every time like changing accessories. It was pointless stubbornness born from drunkenness. When Wooyeon shook his head and staggered, Jeonghan sighed and caught Wooyeon’s body.
“I won’t get in your car!”
“Okay, okay.”
Jeonghan hugged Wooyeon who was crying and hitting his shoulder. The thin body in his arms was still trembling.
“We’ll take a taxi then, is that okay?”
Wooyeon nodded repeatedly while being held by Jeonghan. The hand stroking his back, the sigh touching his ear, the pheromones enveloping his whole body—everything reassured Wooyeon. The tears that kept flowing from relief wouldn’t stop.
Wooyeon continued to shed tears streaming down and hugged back the back of Jeonghan who was holding him. It was hard to believe that he, who had always only brought confusion and self-loathing, could give such reassurance like this.
Before long, a taxi must have stopped, as Jeonghan released his embrace. To Wooyeon who clung to him regretfully, Jeonghan gestured for him to get in, opening the taxi’s back seat. When Wooyeon got into the taxi, Jeonghan naturally recited Wooyeon’s home address to the taxi driver and handed him money.
“What about you…?”
Wooyeon asked while sitting in the taxi, looking at Jeonghan.
“Aren’t you coming with me?”
When drunk, Wooyeon seemed to develop a clinginess he didn’t normally have.
“Do you want me to take you home?”
Wooyeon nodded while wiping the tears flowing down his cheeks. Jeonghan looked away for a moment and sighed, then gazed at Wooyeon again. The smile that was always on his face was nowhere to be found, and even that face made Wooyeon somehow scared and anxious.
“You said you didn’t want to.”
“I don’t hate it…”
With a face that showed he had no choice, Jeonghan eventually got in the taxi. As soon as Jeonghan closed the taxi door, the taxi departed as if it had been waiting. Jeonghan said nothing, and beside him, Wooyeon just shed tears while drawing his shirt front closed. It seemed like even more tears came after Jeonghan appeared.
“Hold my hand…”
At Wooyeon’s trembling voice, Jeonghan silently enveloped Wooyeon’s hand placed beside him. Heat had risen to the soft skin. At Wooyeon’s pheromones filling the taxi, Jeonghan rolled down the taxi window. The cold dawn wind rushed into the taxi.
“Kiss me.”
“…”
“I said kiss me…”
Wooyeon was saying things he would never normally say. If he hadn’t been drunk—no, even if he had been drunk, if that man hadn’t drugged him, these were words Wooyeon would never say even if he died. Jeonghan’s cold eyes turned toward the taxi’s rearview mirror, and his eyes met the taxi driver’s.
“I’ll wake you up, so sleep a bit.”
Instead of a kiss, Jeonghan reached out and covered Wooyeon’s eyes with his hand. His palm became wetly soaked. When Jeonghan removed his hand again, the long eyelashes lifted to reveal the wet eyes again. The cheek that had been hit by the man earlier was swollen and red.
“You’re really too much.”
Whatever was so upsetting, Wooyeon continued to cry while looking at Jeonghan.
“You won’t even… kiss me…”
Jeonghan sighed in disbelief and looked out the window. At that, Wooyeon became even more upset. You kissed me so much and now you won’t. Even as he thought it himself, he knew it didn’t make sense, but he couldn’t understand why such improper feelings kept rising in his head.
“That’s why you should listen to what I say.”
Anger was buried in Jeonghan’s voice. The thought suddenly occurred that if Jeonghan knew he’d been kissed by that man, he might get even angrier. Wooyeon turned away from his tear-soaked cheeks and raised his hand to roughly wipe his lips for no reason.
“Stop it, you’re hurting yourself.”
“You, you…”
“Stop crying too, now.”
Jeonghan grabbed and lowered Wooyeon’s hand that was rubbing his lips. As their eyes met again, Wooyeon could see Jeonghan’s anger subside a little. Wooyeon’s wet eyelashes were trembling pitifully.
“So why can’t you push people away like that? Try doing half of what you do to me to other guys.”
Tears dripped down again from Wooyeon’s big eyes. Jeonghan let out a deep sigh.
“Stop crying.”
“…”
“Sunbae.”
Eventually Jeonghan cupped Wooyeon’s cheek and faced him. The pitiful and pathetic crying face made it unbearable.
“It’s because of you.”
Jeonghan didn’t answer and looked at Wooyeon. At Jeonghan’s cold eyes, even more grief washed over Wooyeon.
“You… treated me like I was cheap.”
“I never did that.”
“You did!”
Wooyeon said while crying. Even while crying so hard, far from being ugly, his face was unspeakably lewd. His eyes and lips reddened and his face becoming wet aroused desire.
“You said… if I just slept with you, you’d want to write me a blank check…”
Jeonghan let out another deep sigh.
“I made a mistake.”
“So I was going to get a blank check… and try to make something of my life.”
That’s why he went to the club, he was saying. Jeonghan pressed his hand against his distorted brow and suppressed his anger. Even though he had no such intention, Wooyeon was spouting any words.
“If you were thinking of pissing me off, you completely succeeded. Right now I’m incredibly… fucking pissed.”
“So what about you?”
“What?”
“How do you feel?”
Again, their gazes tangled hotly.
“Do you want to write me a blank check too?”
Then, what did Jeonghan say.
From the moment Jeonghan kissed Wooyeon as if swallowing his lips, he couldn’t remember well after that.
—
10.
With a thud, Wooyeon’s back, clinging to Jeonghan, hit the wall. The sensor light in the entryway turned on, and beneath it, Jeonghan and Wooyeon’s passionate kiss was illuminated.
The place where Jeonghan had turned the taxi around near Wooyeon’s house was the luxury villa where he lived. Beyond the full-length windows, an indoor garden with a spacious living room and hallway was densely filled with growing bamboo.
At the entrance of the luxurious and spacious villa, Jeonghan’s figure bending down to kiss resembled the hunt of a carnivorous animal. Wooyeon, who would normally dodge this way and that, was clinging close with his arms around Jeonghan’s neck.
“Ah, huu…”
When their lips parted for a moment, a desperate breath spread from Wooyeon’s lips. Jeonghan bent down and licked and bit Wooyeon’s long, white neck. He really seemed intent on hunting.
“Haa, fuck.”
Jeonghan, who had been biting Wooyeon’s neck, cursed while unbuttoning what little remained of his shirt that was partially torn. It was because he was irritated by the buttons that wouldn’t cooperate and kept slipping. The fingertips of Wooyeon’s hands that had been on Jeonghan’s shoulders curled and tensed. Eventually, Jeonghan grabbed the shirt on both sides and tore it off, completely removing it from Wooyeon.
“Turn around.”
Even before Wooyeon could turn around, Jeonghan had already turned Wooyeon’s body backward. At that movement, the sensor light that had gone out lit up again in the blink of an eye. For Wooyeon too, there was no time to go to the bedroom. The hands gripping the entrance hall cabinet trembled. Though Jeonghan’s words were brief, that didn’t seem to matter.
