As soon as he passed Kang Ikwon, the man kicked the blonde’s shin vigorously. This time, harsh French burst from the blonde’s mouth. The man tilted his head diagonally.
“Why are you acting unfamiliar? You speak Korean well.”
Unlike his calm tone, this time the man raised his leg high and aimed somewhere. The thigh that had captivated Kang Ikwon’s gaze hit the testicles with an amazing swing. The blonde collapsed groaning without being able to resist. The man chuckled. Though he didn’t look very amused.
“Even though you say you love me as the third one, your wife is just a partner, that tongue that was spinning so well, why the fuck does your native language burst out when it’s disadvantageous.”
“Jin!”
“Is your dick so free that you’re Joffrey? Is your conscience also fucking free?”
This time the man kicked his stomach. Though it looked like there’d be no power, free Joffrey let out a groan like he was going to vomit. Kang Ikwon, who had unexpectedly lost his job, just stuck his hands in his pockets and stood watching it. The man fought really well. Precisely, he beat well.
At first, the blonde also attempted a fair counterattack, but now it was clearly one-sided thrashing to anyone watching. The man wasn’t particularly excited and played with the foreigner bigger than himself like a mouse before a well-fed cat. Though he didn’t look particularly strong, his technique was amazing. If this word could be attached, it was clean.
Joffrey, who at first had shouted “Let’s talk this out!” and “I know you’re angry but listen to me!” quickly recognized the disadvantage of the war situation and the possibility of resuming dialogue converging infinitely to zero, and rapidly lowered his posture. The man who had been alternately landing jabs, hooks, and counters on his shoulder as if to provoke lost his balance and staggered. Kang Ikwon extended his arm to block the escape route of the appearance of trying to flee in a hurry. The blonde, whose mind had become urgent, waved his arm widely.
Please just move aside!
The anxious hand narrowly grazed Kang Ikwon’s jaw. The man who had run over to grab and twist Joffrey’s shoulder staggered, tangled together in that momentum. To catch the man’s body bending toward the pool, Kang Ikwon reflexively extended his hand. Thunk, the shoulder touched his fingertips and moved away. The man opened his mouth soundlessly.
Uh.
Distracted by that appearance, Kang Ikwon realized it was his own body, not the man’s, that was slowly tilting. The man’s surprised face tilted together. At the same time, as if gaining acceleration, the unbalanced body fell vertically. The sound of hitting the water surface immediately shattered in his ear that became muffled as if his eardrum had burst. All sounds disappeared and a strong impact was felt on his back. The heavy winter sportswear pulled his body down like a weight. Before coming to his senses, the water surface brightened as if a mirror was breaking, then foam poured down like its fragments. A strong force pulled his arm. He squinted at the water pressure applied by the rebound force of leaping against the flow. Between the distorting light and splitting current, he could see the hand grabbing his sleeve.
Cough.
The coughing sound heard as soon as he rose above the water surface wasn’t his own. The blurred vision brightened as if washed and shoulders heaving slightly were visible.
“Ha… fuck.”
The man squinted while sweeping up his wet hair. He looked back at Kang Ikwon who was blankly gasping for rough breaths.
“Are you okay?”
“……”
“There’s no way you’re okay… Ah damn! This isn’t even a heated pool.”
The man roughly rubbed his face. His palely drained cheeks flushed and the area around his eyes reddened. Following the arm stirring as if venting anger, waves rose above the water surface.
“It’s crazily cold.”
In contrast to the deeply hollowed spine line, the plump buttocks bounced elastically. Kang Ikwon followed one beat late. The man who picked up the robe looked back at the soaking wet Kang Ikwon.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Kang Ikwon shook his wrist and silently stared at the man. A terrible chill clung to his wet body and clothes, but he didn’t feel the cold. Rather, his fingertips were hot as if burning wrapped in blue flames.
The man chuckled and draped the robe over Kang Ikwon. When Kang Ikwon extended his arm to knock it off at the unexpected action, the man’s cheek twitched.
“If you stay like that, you’ll catch a cold, you know?”
What about you.
Kang Ikwon raised his eyebrows while scanning the man who in his eyes was practically naked. The man who noticed shook his head even with his pale complexion.
“Wearing wet clothes would be colder.”
“……”
“And well… in a way, it’s my fault.”
The man pressed the robe to Kang Ikwon’s chest. Unlike the voice tinged with bitterness and apology, his expression was calm. Joffrey had fled as expected, but the man himself didn’t seem to care much. Without particularly attempting to chase, he stared intently at the ground and slowly rubbed his feet as if picking stones from his sneakers. The few remaining spectators who had stayed till the end also lost interest when the situation fizzled and scattered to the warm indoors.
The bare back and shoulders submerged in the suddenly silent darkness looked cold. Though people were making noise about an unprecedentedly mild New Year, it was still a February night when the tip of the nose felt cold. Kang Ikwon draped the robe back over the man’s shoulders. Instead of refusing again, the man squinted. The hand that had been rubbing around his eyes gradually became rougher, then suddenly plop, dropped a tear. Kang Ikwon, expressionlessly flustered, stepped back.
“I’m not crying. Lens, my lens fell out.”
The man shook his head.
“Right now, just… wait a moment.”
When he blinked his bloodshot eyes, the pooled moisture again flowed down his white, frozen cheeks. It’s because you keep rubbing your eyes. Clicking his tongue, Kang Ikwon extended his hand. When he grabbed and lowered the man’s hand, eyes still teary were revealed. The contrast between the blue frozen lips and reddened eyes was pitiful. Kang Ikwon slowly stroked below the eyes. Whether from the cold, the man’s body was trembling finely. The wet eyelashes and dried skin dully wrapped around Kang Ikwon’s fingertips that had also cooled coldly. Suddenly the tactile sensation from just before that clung like grasping just by touching came to mind, and Kang Ikwon unknowingly licked his lips.
“Lens.”
The man who had been quietly entrusting his face opened his mouth.
“It fell out when I jumped in the water earlier.”
Breath cold as skin touched his wrist. The man removed the lens from the other intact eye and threw it away. With a slightly relieved expression, he blinked to shake off the remaining tears and smiled sheepishly at Kang Ikwon.
“It’s not much as compensation, but… could you help me? I’m a mess right now.”
Kang Ikwon looked at him expressionlessly. It was just the meaning he didn’t understand, but the man seemed to misunderstand and pointed downward himself. Following the fingertip, he could see a red tint spreading at the man’s feet. It was blood. The man smiled bitterly.
“This also earlier… somehow it happened.”
Kang Ikwon stared intently at the bright red blood mixed with water. I should have made that French bastard’s dick no longer free. Belated anger slowly rose, wrapped in ice-cold chill. Not knowing Kang Ikwon’s inner thoughts, the man diligently rattled off painful-to-hear English like “I’m sick,” “I don’t see,” “You can help,” while pretending to limp. The man who had extended his arm as if for a shoulder embrace staggered. Kang Ikwon urgently caught the man who slipped on the wet poolside. Caught up in catching the falling body, Kang Ikwon, who had even ended up kneeling, ground his teeth.
“—Stop doing stupid things!”
The seeping moisture felt newly cold even on his already wet knee. If Kang Ikwon had been just a bit late, the man would have been dunked head-first into this cold water this time. Whether he was angry or not, the man just blinked his eyes,
“What. You speak Korean well…?”
He said so nonchalantly.
For a moment, Kang Ikwon swallowed the urge to push him back into the water with a sigh. With that kind of nerve, of course he’d meet trash like that. That unwavering heart that said he didn’t look at other people—was that single-minded choice just this? Recalling the appearance of holding his breath in the darkness to avoid the blonde, anger surged. Also the appearance of receiving cornrows’ bullet. Something resembling humiliation cooled his body more coldly than the winter wind. Kang Ikwon, who had set the man down, naturally ignored the extending arm and stepped back. The man asked bewilderedly.
“You won’t help me?”
“If you have enough energy to chatter that much, you can go alone.”
Kang Ikwon spoke coldly while pulling down the hood that had been pushed back.
“That’s too much. It’s petty to say this, but this happened because I tried to save you.”
“Didn’t you say it was your fault earlier?”
Brushing off the man’s protest, Kang Ikwon turned around. He was thinking of finding a towel to throw to him. Or medicine. He could bring someone to help. Bandages and blankets would be needed too. Or an ambulance…. The stride that had been advancing angrily with long steps gradually narrowed before long and soon stopped. Nothing flew and hit his back. That silence rather bothered him, so Kang Ikwon eventually ignored reason’s restraint and turned his body. The man was just sitting blankly on the ground as he was. Unlike expected, he wasn’t angry or sulking. Like before, blankly staring somewhere intently, when their eyes met he smiled sheepishly. It was an embarrassed, slightly lonely smile.
Damn it.
Kang Ikwon tilted his head back to look at the sky and swallowed a sigh. Damn it.
This time too, his body moved opposite to reason. The man silently looked up at Kang Ikwon who had returned. Without meeting his gaze, Kang Ikwon gruffly knelt on one knee. When he firmly pulled the leg and placed it on his thigh, the man staggered as if about to fall and grabbed Kang Ikwon’s shoulder to balance.
“Ah.”
Kang Ikwon ignored the man’s groan and folded the leg to examine it thoroughly. Whether he stepped on something wrong, a wound opened like a long crack was visible on the sole of his foot. Fortunately it didn’t look deep, but the cut area was quite wide. When he straightened the leg, a scratched wound was also visible above the ankle. Kang Ikwon’s eyes naturally scanned up from the calf along the thigh.
“Pool water got in and it stings so much… I can’t walk.”
The man muttered. When the apologetic tone felt like he was reading his mood, his feelings sank heavily. With a stiff voice contradicting the appearance of practically embracing him, Kang Ikwon said.
“So you’re saying you’ll work me with just that kind of debt of gratitude.”
“I’m just asking for some help.”
“Then persuade me.”
Don’t beg. It won’t work.
Though he’d returned unable to shake it off, his words came out bluntly. Even after thoroughly checking even the inner thigh that couldn’t have been cut, Kang Ikwon didn’t let go of the body in his arms. The man who had been silent for a moment sighed.
“Your expression is already fierce enough… and you speak so meanly.”
“…What?”
Kang Ikwon’s expression became blank. He’d never particularly taken pride in or been conscious of his appearance, but he was a man who had lived fully aware of the various favor and benefits attached to his excellent appearance. At the harsh criticism he was hearing for the first time in his life, he was at a loss for words.
“…Are you blind?”
