I snapped back to attention. My loosely relaxed body went rigid.
“You’re saying you followed us?”
Why…?
Up until I ran into Yeom Hajae this afternoon, nothing had happened, that much was certain. We’d just had a normal conversation, him approaching me like he wanted to get closer.
Don’t tell me.
Did he approach me to find evidence?
While I was caught up in thought, I realized the conversation had stopped. Jang Ijung had his mouth shut tight, staring intently at me. More precisely, at the area below my neck.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“…Anyway, what about it?”
Shoving me down and then suddenly bringing up Yeom Hajae out of nowhere.
“Hmm…”
Jang Ijung, who had been murmuring, suddenly raised his voice.
“I think I’m in love with you.”
His volume was loud enough to be heard outside the room.
“Love?”
“Yeah. Love.”
It was completely out of nowhere.
“Haha…”
I laughed, thinking it was a joke. But Jang Ijung’s face showed no trace of humor.
“Ha… is that the end of the joke? I’ll go wash up.”
“Does it look like a joke to you?”
When I tried to get up, Jang Ijung pinned me down onto the bed with one hand.
“I have no intention of playing along with this. I’m a little tired today.”
Jang Ijung was looking toward the door even as he spoke to me. When I irritably nudged his arm, only then did he turn his head. Jang Ijung lowered his head. His red eyes came close.
“Want to test it?”
Test what?
Before I could even answer, Jang Ijung’s hand slipped inside my shirt.
“…!”
A cold hand groped at my stomach.
“This isn’t fun, so get off.”
“Don’t want to.”
This bastard.
“Just keep doing that.”
Being pinned beneath a man wasn’t a pleasant experience. I pushed at Jang Ijung’s chest, but he didn’t budge.
He didn’t seem to intend to end this little game easily.
The hand stroking my skin held no intent at all. It felt like some kind of hand-shaped machine wriggling around on its own, placed on top of my stomach.
I gave up pushing him away and let my body go limp.
The moment I stopped resisting, the hand that had only been sliding over my skin pinched my flesh.
“Ugh.”
Jang Ijung’s expression remained blank. Whether I groaned because of him or not, the pinching hand didn’t stop.
“Quit it…”
As if it was something I was supposed to make pained sounds about.
That was when it happened. The sound of knocking on the door.
“Hyung?! Are you okay?!”
It was Yeom Hajae’s voice. Jang Ijung glanced at the door rattling with the pounding.
“You’re less patient than I expected.”
Ah.
“He’s right outside the door even now.”
It was true. And then there were the words Jang Ijung had said just before:
“I think I’m in love with you.”
That had probably been said deliberately, for Yeom Hajae to hear.
This was some kind of staged act. Meant to provoke the person on the other side of the door.
The displeasure at being toyed with by Jang Ijung lasted only a moment.
A pig from the Association daring to mess with someone like this.
A desire for revenge began to burn inside me.
“…Ijung, do you have some kind of complaint against me?”
“…..”
“Let’s settle this with a conversation.”
I deliberately let my voice shake, as if genuinely flustered. It seemed to reach Yeom Hajae too, because the knocking grew louder.
“Stop it! I’m calling the police!!”
There was a brief pause, but Jang Ijung spoke first.
“Call them if you want. Though if the police come, this man here will be the first one arrested.”
“!”
“And the door… keep pounding on it that loud, and if people who’ve woken up come crowding over, who knows what I might end up doing.”
“Y-you!”
His voice was full of anger, but the knocking on the door cut off abruptly.
It went quiet outside the door. To keep up the momentum and continue the act, I gave Jang Ijung’s shoulder a light shove.
“Don’t be like this. If you tell me what’s wrong, I’ll fix it.”
“A complaint, huh… First, answer my question.”
A question?
I had no idea what he might ask, but I nodded anyway.
“Who’d you go meet? You told me you were going to work.”
Jang Ijung rubbed near my neck.
?
Something felt off, but I answered honestly.
“It was a meeting with someone.”
“Hmm.”
Jang Ijung made a meaningful sound.
Even up close like this, he was a completely different person from how he’d been during the day. I couldn’t read his thoughts at all.
“Were you curious about what I was doing? If so…”
“Actually, I heard it.”
“Heard what?”
“The sound of you doing ‘that’ with the boss.”
That?
How would he know just from “that”?
Seeing my expression, Jang Ijung added one more line.
“Sounded like… you threw up while doing it.”
“Ugh.”
Hearing that much, I could guess what he was talking about. I’d thought this office didn’t have good soundproofing. When would we ever change hideouts.
“So that sound carried all the way over there.”
I forced the corners of my mouth up. Realizing he’d heard the sound of me throwing up was embarrassing.
“Disgusting, right?”
“Yeah, it was disgusting. Did you want to do it?”
“…..”
There were probably people out there somewhere who wanted to throw up, but…
“I learned in training that you’re not supposed to use your authority to commit violence.”
“Wow, you really learned well.”
Does the Association give training on shoe-licking your superiors at work too?
How petty, bringing up someone’s dirty laundry in a situation like this. And quit pinching me already.
A little flustered, but it was fine. I still had a chance to take back control. I thought back to what had happened with Choi Haegang.
Just as few people wanted to throw up, I recalled, few people wanted to have their shoes licked either.
“I understand what you want very well.”
I let out a deliberately exaggerated sigh. As expected, Jang Ijung’s hand stopped.
“Should I do it for you?”
“No.”
Jang Ijung quickly pulled his hand back and tried to sit up.
Where do you think you’re going, ending this on your own terms.
I quickly caught his retreating hand and pulled it back against my body.
Jang Ijung, dragged back into place, blinked. I could feel his confusion.
“What…”
“It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
The spy shook his head side to side.
“I’ll do it, then.”
I had no intention of actually doing it. There wasn’t a single reason for me to lick this guy’s feet here.
Except—
I’ll make him throw up from disgust.
It was an offer I could make precisely because I knew Jang Ijung would refuse to the end.
When I pulled at his hand again, I heard a small whisper.
“You seem pretty drunk.”
“No, if Ijung wants it, I’m really fine with it.”
“I said I don’t want it.”
I smiled brightly, as if to show off.
“My body’s basically a rag anyway, so do whatever you want with it. Today’s ‘work’ was that kind of thing too, after all.”
My back had turned into a rag from being whipped.
“Though I might throw up while doing it.”
I gripped Jang Ijung’s hand tightly so he couldn’t escape. When I even laced our fingers together and tangled them firmly, Jang Ijung made a strained sound, as if troubled.
“…No.”
“Ah, is it disgusting?”
I flicked my tongue out to provoke him.
I’d planned to twist whatever answer he gave to tease him further, but Jang Ijung just shut his mouth.
“…..”
“Hm?”
Come to think of it, at some point Yeom Hajae’s voice had stopped.
Did he give up and leave?
The silence dragged on, and the mood deflated. I just let my body lie flat on the bed.
Honestly speaking, the guy trying to put on this whole act had no emotion in him at all, so I felt zero tension. On top of that, I was sleepy. I wanted to just fall asleep like this.
Pak!
“!”
As my mind started to drift off, out of nowhere, a button popped off.
Jang Ijung had grabbed both sides of my shirt and torn it open. When he let go, the half-torn shirt fell open to either side.
What is he…?
His red eyes started sweeping over my exposed upper body.
“…..”
Then his gaze stopped near my chest.
Jang Ijung slowly lifted his head. And then he stared straight at me.
“How far did you go with the boss?”
I was about to ask what he meant when—
Bang!
A roar shook my ears and my body jolted.
The door opened. No, it broke. I felt the alcohol buzz drain out of me instantly.
Outside the door stood Yeom Hajae, eyes wide, holding a fire extinguisher.
“Hunter?”
He looked around the room. Lying on the bed, I locked eyes with Yeom Hajae. After checking my state, Yeom Hajae glared at Jang Ijung.
“It’s not what it looks like!”
I’d opened my mouth to keep things from looking strange, just as the door, barely hanging on, finally fell to the floor.
Thud.
That sound was the starting signal.
The fire extinguisher came flying toward the bed at high speed. Still pinned beneath Jang Ijung, unable to dodge, I was startled out of my mind.
Luckily, the extinguisher hit its mark precisely—Jang Ijung. He caught the flying object and stepped back off of me.
“Hyung!”
Yeom Hajae rushed over to me in one bound. Then, seeing the shirt with its buttons torn off, his hands trembled.
“Y-your clothes…”
Yeom Hajae sat me up where I’d been awkwardly half-risen, then laid me back down and wrapped me up tightly in the blanket. He wrapped it so tightly that I could barely even wriggle inside it.
So I had no choice but to watch the situation unfold.
While Yeom Hajae stayed glued to me, the cause of all this calmly walked toward the window. He opened the window and climbed up onto the sill—I thought he was just going to drop down as is—but Jang Ijung stopped and turned back.
“You’d be better off putting on a chest band or something.”
Standing on the window frame, he tapped his own chest with a finger.
“?”
“Get out!”
Yeom Hajae grabbed a chair and hurled it. But just before it could hit him, Jang Ijung jumped down.
Bang!
The chair, having struck the window frame, didn’t make it out the window and tumbled to the floor instead.
“Huff, huff…”
After checking outside the window, Yeom Hajae staggered back toward the bed.
Looking at him now, he was crying like a little kid. Had it really been that shocking? When Yeom Hajae slumped down beside me, I managed to pull a hand free from the blanket and placed it on top of his head.
“I’m sorry…”
After his shoulders shook a few times in silence, Yeom Hajae suddenly pulled me into an embrace.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I should have stopped him to the end, but I just let him go.”
…I couldn’t say now that it had all been an act.
“Nothing happened. I wasn’t hurt either.”
I’d gone along with it under the influence of alcohol, but thinking back on it now, it had been an unpleasant little play. Voluntarily participating in something like being pinned beneath a man on a hotel bed.
Because the window was wide open, the curtains fluttered as a cold autumn wind blew in.
Love…
I shook my head to shake off the unpleasant thought. Right now was the time to focus on cleaning up the aftermath.
