Chu Dowon was apparently in high spirits — he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and thrust several fifty-thousand-won bills against Munyeong’s chest. The way he shoved them in with a smack and forced them on him looked all too practiced.
“But are homos really that weird by nature?”
Chu Dowon even mocked his own cousin as he snickered.
“A homo and a bastard to boot — fuck. And that’s the guy who’s been walking around acting like he owns the place?”
Munyeong’s lips trembled as he crushed the money that had been forced into his hand. He could stand being looked down on. Endlessly. That had been the easiest thing in the world for him — being disrespected, enduring it. He had been better at that than anything else. But now he’d found the one thing he couldn’t do.
Munyeong groped along the table, found a glass with liquor in it, and gripped it. And for the first time — the first time in his life — he threw a drink in someone’s face. Chu Dowon, doused in an instant, erupted with wide, startled eyes.
“What the fuck?! What do you think you’re doing―?!”
His clothes were soaking through too, and as though he couldn’t believe it was happening, Chu Dowon flew into a rage like he’d been personally insulted.
“You crazy son of a bitch―!”
“Don’t — don’t you dare―.”
Munyeong, who had always been hunched and shrinking like a timid prey animal, put force behind every single word — and Chu Dowon, who had been lunging forward, pulled up short. It was only because Munyeong had been going around hunched all this time — in terms of height, the two of them were about the same.
“…Don’t talk about Haejeong… like that.”
He could put up with anything else… but not this. To him, Haejeong was someone impossibly above him. Someone he hadn’t even dared to reach for. That was who Haejeong was to him — so how could anyone speak of him so carelessly. He wasn’t someone who deserved to be insulted like this by his own cousin. Munyeong trembled all over as he looked at the man in front of him, his face stricken. He felt wounded. Wounded that Haejeong should have to hear words like this from his cousin, wounded that Haejeong had done something so reckless. All of it hurt.
“Ha… what the hell’s wrong with you…. Birds of a feather, I guess…….”
Chu Dowon seemed too stunned to finish his sentence, his face twisting grotesquely. Munyeong shoved the crumpled money back at him.
“Haejeong… doesn’t deserve… to hear things like that.”
Munyeong forced the words out haltingly, glaring at Chu Dowon — who had gone speechless with indignation — with an expression full of resentment.
“…And neither do I.”
Munyeong added the rest quietly. Then, as if something had clicked into place inside him, he bit down on his lip and clenched his fists. He felt like he might burst. Something ignited inside him, and something beyond words began to boil up. Munyeong left Chu Dowon behind — still hurling ugly curses at his back — and got out of there fast. He bolted straight out of the establishment. His breathing came ragged as he started to run. It was the first time. That he’d walked out of a workplace without permission. Everything felt like a first. Because of Haejeong, he had for the first time thrown a drink in someone’s face. For the first time walked out mid-shift. For the first time acted however he wanted. All these reckless things he had done — because of Haejeong, thanks to Haejeong.
His throat burned and his breath came in cresting waves, as though it might overwhelm him. He ran, and ran again. He ran until he was out of breath and felt like his lungs might rupture — he’d stop, gather himself for a few moments, and then run again. The tightness inside him, the urgency pressing at his heart, left him no other choice. He had to run, he wanted to run. He wanted to see Haejeong right now. Right now he wanted to go to him and demand to know why he’d done it, and wanted to talk some sense into him, and at the same time wanted to hold him. Just when those presumptuous thoughts were crowding his head — just when his breath was coming so fast his throat felt like it was scorching — the destination finally came into view. His company. The building, lit up in countless windows even at this late hour, grew steadily closer. Cold wind raked across his cheeks, and his legs had gone numb from the long run — but Munyeong didn’t stop. In the midst of the chaos in his head, the cold air cutting across his face and body, a strange sense of liberation stirred in him.
All throughout being abandoned by his parents and living in the facility, there had been one thing he had told himself over and over. I have to endure. Someone with nothing like me — the only way to survive is to endure everything. The bullying, the contempt, the humiliation, the degradation, the shame — I have to endure all of it to survive. He had lived with that resolution. But how much that resolution had tormented him — he only understood now, through the liberation welling up from somewhere deep in his gut. This moment, running to go find Haejeong right now — how much… how much it made his chest feel full. He understood now how impoverished a person he had been, to only be learning this feeling now.
Munyeong gradually slowed to a stop, carrying the weight of a life’s worth of regret along with him. He looked up at the high-rise building whose top he couldn’t even see. There was no guarantee Haejeong would actually be in the building, even if he walked in. And yet for some reason his feet had carried him here. If he’s not here, should I go to his apartment? Munyeong hesitated in front of the main entrance. And then it happened. A black sedan rising from the underground parking garage came to a stop right in front of him. As the foreign-made car — exuding refinement even at a glance — came to a stop, Munyeong instinctively stepped back.
Then the rear window slowly slid down. Through the gap, a face appeared — neither familiar nor entirely strange.
“…Excuse me, are you by any chance…….”
The person inside let their voice trail off, squinting slightly. The manner of it was that of someone gauging who they were looking at. Unlike the other, Munyeong recognized the man before him immediately.
“…Hello.”
It was Yeon Juhyeok — Haejeong’s older brother.
“Ha. What timing.”
Yeon Juhyeok, apparently recognizing Munyeong as well, let out a hollow laugh. And immediately gave an instruction.
“Get in.”
“……Pardon?”
The out-of-nowhere suggestion had Munyeong looking up in surprise.
“As it happens, I was actually on my way to see you.”
“…….”
“I have something to say.”
“…….”
“And there’s somewhere to go, so I’d appreciate it if you got in.”
Yeon Juhyeok put it in relatively gentlemanly terms. He wasn’t ordering him outright — but there was a quiet pressure underneath. When Munyeong hesitantly glanced toward the company’s main entrance, Yeon Juhyeok added one more word.
“Haejeong isn’t in the building anyway.”
“…….”
“You came to see Haejeong, didn’t you?”
“……Yes.”
“Then all the more reason to get in.”
Yeon Juhyeok smiled at ease. His smile bore a striking resemblance to Haejeong’s. Blood was a powerful thing. Haejeong resembled that terrifying Rep. Chu, and he also resembled Yeon Juhyeok, who conducted himself in comparatively gentlemanly fashion. Perhaps because of that, Munyeong hesitated — and ultimately got in the car.
It might be reckless. If what Chu Dowon had said was true, there was no way anyone in that family would be pleased to see him. There was no reason for them to be bringing him directly to Haejeong like this — and yet, somehow, he had the feeling he was supposed to get in.
He climbed into the back seat on the far side, and a soft, fragrant air freshener scent washed over him. The realization that he was sitting side by side with Haejeong’s older brother — the man who held the title of Vice Chairman — sent a wave of tension through him instinctively.
“Are you cold?”
Perhaps thinking that Munyeong’s stiff posture and hunched shoulders were from the cold, Yeon Juhyeok turned on the rear seat heater and asked.
“Oh — no. I’m fine.”
“You look like you’ve been out in the cold.”
Yeon Juhyeok gave Munyeong’s appearance a quiet once-over from head to toe. He had bolted out in such a rush that he hadn’t even changed out of his work clothes. He looked unmistakably like a waiter, and Munyeong covered himself self-consciously with his arms.
“…I came straight from… work…….”
“Ah―.”
Yeon Juhyeok let out a light laugh and then crossed his legs, looking through his documents with a composed expression. In truth his face said he had no interest in that kind of small talk whatsoever. That feigned indifference — pretending not to care — also resembled Haejeong.
“Um… but…….”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
Yeon Juhyeok answered without even glancing up.
“…Where are we going right now…?”
Munyeong asked quietly, even keeping the sound of his breathing small. Only then did Yeon Juhyeok take his eyes off the documents and turn his head.
“My home.”
“……Pardon?”
For a moment it was as if his ears had stopped working.
“…Our Chairman would like to meet with you, Im Munyeong.”
“……Pardon?!”
Munyeong let out a cry the moment he heard it. He cried out and then, startled at himself, clapped a hand over his mouth. The Chairman — that was the father of the Yeon brothers, and the head at the very top of Baekil Group.
