Yeom Hajae, puzzled, picked up the shoe.
It really is his.
There was no mistaking it—it was the shoe Seo Sinwoo had been wearing earlier that day.
But why is hyung’s shoe here…?
Maybe he was somewhere nearby. Losing a shoe at this hour and heading off somewhere—that didn’t seem like a good situation. Yeom Hajae hurriedly looked around.
And then he found it.
“?!”
In a corner where even the streetlight barely reached. From the bushes in the flowerbed, someone’s foot was sticking out.
A chill ran down his spine. Yeom Hajae rushed over to the flowerbed.
“…….”
Only once he reached the flowerbed did Yeom Hajae’s breathing settle.
In the bushes was Seo Sinwoo, his clothes disheveled. From his flushed face, he seemed quite drunk.
“Ngh…”
Seo Sinwoo, completely drunk, groaned and shifted slightly. Going by how long he must have been lying on the dirt, leaves were stuck all over his body.
Yeom Hajae crouched down and gently patted Seo Sinwoo’s shoulder.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
“Mm…?”
Seo Sinwoo slowly lifted his eyelids. With his eyes barely open, he seemed to stare blankly at the sky for a moment, then rolled his eyes toward Yeom Hajae. Recognizing Yeom Hajae, Seo Sinwoo smiled, his face slack.
“It’s the Hunter…”
“…….”
Lying there, he weakly reached out a hand. It was nowhere near close enough to reach Yeom Hajae. Yeom Hajae stepped closer, took his hand, and helped him up.
“You said you had work to do… Did you drink a lot?”
“Yep.”
“What room number? I’ll take you there.”
At that, Seo Sinwoo pulled his hand free and waved it off.
“No, no. I’m fine.”
Then he pushed away the hand trying to support him and stood up perfectly steadily.
He left the fretting Yeom Hajae behind and walked forward. His pace was quite fast, fast enough that for a moment it was hard to tell whether he was actually drunk at all.
But then—
“!”
Both his feet had only socks on them. Realizing this belatedly, Yeom Hajae checked the flowerbed, but he couldn’t find the shoes in the bushes either.
By the time he looked up, Seo Sinwoo had already walked far ahead. Yeom Hajae scrambled to follow after him.
“Hyung, you need to wear shoes.”
“Ha-ha… I’m fine.”
The man walking confidently on his own never once looked back. He walked completely straight ahead, like a racehorse. Even when Yeom Hajae tried to subtly support him, Seo Sinwoo kept pushing him away, as if he felt it was being treated with disrespect.
In the end, Yeom Hajae could only hover anxiously around him. With his hands in his pockets, the way he walked looked precarious, and Yeom Hajae couldn’t take his eyes off him.
“!”
Sure enough, Seo Sinwoo’s body tipped forward. He must have caught his foot on a curb without watching where he was going. Yeom Hajae grabbed his arm just in time to support him and let out a sigh of relief.
“Lean on me.”
“Mm…”
He draped Seo Sinwoo’s arm over his own shoulder to support him. Seo Sinwoo went along with it obediently. He seemed to be aware himself that he’d nearly fallen just now.
Phew…
Yeom Hajae’s shoulders heaved with a deep breath. He could relax a little now. With his free arm, he held Seo Sinwoo’s body firmly so he wouldn’t wander off alone again.
Up close like this, he could feel that Seo Sinwoo’s body temperature was higher than normal. When the wind blew, Seo Sinwoo seemed to feel cold and pressed in even closer. Yeom Hajae found himself smiling without realizing it.
“Let’s get inside quickly before you catch a cold.”
Yeom Hajae led him along, walking carefully.
After much trouble, they finally entered the hotel lobby together, and an employee approached.
“Oh, sunbae?”
It was the person who’d been with Seo Sinwoo that evening. The employee seemed to recognize Yeom Hajae too and pointed at him.
“The guy from earlier!”
“…….”
Yeom Hajae pretended not to hear and crossed the lobby. Faced with such blatant disregard, the employee backed off without saying anything more. Though he did shoot a dark look as he did…
Annoying.
The two of them got into the elevator like that. In the cramped space, the smell of alcohol felt even stronger. Yeom Hajae checked on Seo Sinwoo’s condition.
Seo Sinwoo’s eyes were half-closed. At some point the smile had vanished from his face too, leaving him looking dazed.
It feels strange when he’s not smiling…
Thinking that as he watched, Yeom Hajae noticed something on the corner of his mouth. Had it been too dark to see before? He wiped it with his finger and smelled it—it seemed like vomit.
“Mm…”
Lick.
“Ah, sour.”
He rubbed the saliva-coated finger on his pants.
In the meantime, Seo Sinwoo, who’d been nodding off, slumped against Yeom Hajae’s shoulder.
“H-hyung?”
As if he hadn’t heard the flustered voice, Seo Sinwoo rubbed his face against the shoulder. As he tilted his head, his shirt—buttons already undone—opened up further.
Yeom Hajae’s cheeks flushed for only a moment before his expression quickly hardened. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he thought he caught the smell of blood from somewhere.
“…?”
Catching a glimpse inside the shirt, Yeom Hajae’s heart dropped.
I must be seeing it wrong.
His hands moved hastily, gently pulling back Seo Sinwoo’s shirt collar.
Through the loosely opened shirt, a red mark was visible.
Clear teeth marks, along with red bruising from suction. A trace that hadn’t been visible in the dark.
“…Hyung.”
Yeom Hajae gripped the shirt collar in his hand tightly. His hand was trembling. The vibration roused Seo Sinwoo from his drowsiness.
But without picking up on the strange atmosphere, he closed his eyes again.
“Seo Sinwoo.”
The voice calling his name was icy. Even drunk, Seo Sinwoo finally sensed something was off and slowly lifted his head.
“Ah…?”
Unfocused eyes met eyes tinged with red.
“What is this?”
The moment their gazes met, Seo Sinwoo lowered his head again and gave no answer. Yeom Hajae slowly grabbed the hand that was heading toward his own pocket and pulled it down.
“Let’s go to the room first.”
His pace quickened. Even with Seo Sinwoo’s rough steps as he was practically dragged along, the soft hallway carpet made no sound.
Soon, Yeom Hajae threw open the door and pulled him inside, but Seo Sinwoo grabbed the wall beside the door and tried to plant himself there.
“Not Choi Haegang…”
“It’s just me, so don’t worry.”
The meaningless resistance ended quickly. After getting Seo Sinwoo into the room, Yeom Hajae locked the door.
With impatient hands, he removed the jacket of Seo Sinwoo, who leaned against the wall muttering something. Only after carefully laying him down on the bed, pulling him away from where he stood so precariously, did relief set in.
“If you drink some water, you’ll feel better.”
The lights weren’t on, but the lamp dimly lit the room. Yeom Hajae sat on the edge of the bed holding a glass of water.
“…Hyung?”
There was no answer. The other had already closed his eyes. A steady breathing sound escaped from his slightly parted lips.
“…….”
Confirming the other had fallen asleep, Yeom Hajae leaned toward Seo Sinwoo. He pulled down the tie that looked uncomfortable and checked the mark he’d seen earlier once more.
It was definitely a human bite mark. On top of that, red bruising as if it had been sucked with the mouth. From the color, it was clearly fresh.
His expressionless face quietly looked down at someone else’s mark. The light gradually faded from his once-clear, bright eyes.
Yeom Hajae took off his shoes and climbed on top of Seo Sinwoo. His pale fingertips slowly traced over the mottled red skin.
“Who…”
He pressed down and scratched, and the skin reddened along the path his nails traveled. The employee who’d been bothering him kept coming to mind.
“Did that woman do this?”
“Mmm…”
“No, wait, she was in the lobby, so…”
She hadn’t seemed to have been with Seo Sinwoo just before.
The sensation of the rough rubbing seemed to bother him, and Seo Sinwoo turned his head, frowning. Only then did Yeom Hajae come to his senses and pull his hand away.
Looking at the mark, now with a red line added but not erased at all, he lowered his head. The only person who came to mind now was the woman he’d met at the bakery earlier that day.
He’d seen her get into a taxi and leave after the fight with Seo Sinwoo—had she come back since then? Or was it someone he’d met for work?
No matter how much he thought about it, there was no way to know what had already happened.
“This sucks.”
His mind felt filled with fog. Yeom Hajae let his body go slack and collapsed onto Seo Sinwoo. Then something sharp poked his thigh from Seo Sinwoo’s pants pocket.
Yeom Hajae reached down and rummaged through Seo Sinwoo’s pocket.
“A watch?”
He pulled a little more, and a necklace came up tangled with the watch chain. After that, a string of expensive-looking items followed.
There was a lot of it. It didn’t seem like the amount one person would carry.
“…….”
Yeom Hajae put the valuables back in Seo Sinwoo’s pocket and looked up.
The red nape of his neck was right in front of him. Yeom Hajae blinked blankly for a moment, then brought his mouth to the bruise that had been bothering him all along.
“Mm.”
No matter how much he worked at it, the skin had no taste at all. Still, when he pulled his mouth away, the old mark was covered by the new one and no longer visible.
His mind somewhat settled, Yeom Hajae’s mouth puffed out in a pout.
“Liar. You said you were going for work, but it was all a lie. Dressed up so nicely, who exactly did you do something dirty with?”
He muttered quietly to himself.
This man, Seo Sinwoo, was such a good liar he might as well be a con artist. He’d said he was going to work, after all.
“Work…”
Suddenly Yeom Hajae stopped talking. The large amount of valuables he’d just seen was bothering him for some reason.
Now that he thought about it, he still didn’t know exactly what kind of work Seo Sinwoo did.
Choi Haegang’s reactions, the information the kid Mojueun had given him, and decisively, the terrorist attack that had happened at the Association party where he’d met Seo Sinwoo. Putting that information together, he’d simply assumed Seo Sinwoo belonged to some newly formed terrorist group called Smile Clean.
If he belonged to an illegal organization to begin with, it wouldn’t be strange for him to do any kind of work.
Like stealing, for instance.
But do people usually dress up like this to steal?
Maybe stealing was just a hobby.
He didn’t really know, but in any case, it seemed like Seo Sinwoo had been out meeting wealthy people.
So, meeting people with a lot of money…
…to talk?
Could the “work” be…?!
Yeom Hajae shot upright.
“Ah, no.”
Just imagining it made his heart pound like crazy. He felt dizzy.
“It’s not true, it’s not true…”
His trembling hands reached for Seo Sinwoo’s shirt. He undid the buttons one by one.
It’s not that I have other intentions. I just need to know what kind of danger this person is in…!
When the last button came undone, the shirt slid open and fell away from his body. In the dim light, a moderately toned body was revealed.
“!”
Yo hajae’s a FREAK
Did he lick the “vomit”??? Bro wtfff