The other’s injured arm touched below Jaeha’s neck.
“Seo Jaeha! What the!”
His right hand, which had been gripping the handle overhead, suddenly moved toward the car door handle. But since it was locked from the driver’s seat, it wouldn’t open no matter how hard he pulled.
“Son of a bitch. You’re trying to…!”
“What?”
“You pervert!”
What kind of imagination did he have? What was perverted? Stopping the car on a deserted road at night and closing the physical distance? Between men?
“You’re the pervert.”
Jaeha ignored him. Then he forcefully pushed the head of the trembling guy toward the front windshield. Due to that, Kyungwoo, who was thrown forward, hit his forehead against Jaeha’s shoulder.
“Crazy…”
He pulled out the gray strap. At the same time, Jaeha sat back properly in his seat. When the distance between the two returned to normal, Kyungwoo looked at Jaeha as if bewildered.
“Seatbelt. There’s a camera right down there.”
“Ah.”
“Did you think I was threatening you? Do you think I’m you?”
“That’s not…”
Kyungwoo tried to say something but quickly shut his mouth. Then he sharply turned his gaze outside.
‘Bastard.’
Jaeha tried to insert the seatbelt into the lock. Even though he was sitting right next to him, the seatbelt lock was stuck very much in the corner, so he couldn’t insert it on the first try and failed several times. In the process, the back of Jaeha’s hand touched Kyungwoo’s thigh.
He could feel the muscles, tense from nervousness, flinching repeatedly.
‘So jumpy.’
Jaeha sneered inwardly. By the third failure, Kyungwoo also seemed to realize he’d fallen into excessive imagination and returned with a sour expression.
“Let go.”
He snatched the seatbelt from Jaeha’s hand and inserted it himself. Then he properly pressed his upper body, which had been pulled excessively to the side, back against the seat back.
He acted as if he hadn’t been startled, but his slightly reddened earlobes made Jaeha chuckle. He wanted to tease him even more.
“I don’t know what kind of kimchi soup you’ve been drinking, but it’s not cute, so please restrain yourself in the future.”
“Shut up and start the car.”
Kyungwoo, staring straight ahead, spat out his words as if chewing something.
After the car started moving again, Kyungwoo didn’t grab the handle. Instead, he obediently rested his right arm on the car door handle. His hand with well-manicured nails firmly gripped the car door handle.
Jaeha’s home was far from the suburbs where the restaurant was located. They passed through the huge city center and climbed onto a bridge.
In the distance, colorful lights were beautifully scattered along the riverside. Inside the car crossing the bridge over the Han River at night, there was an unprecedented tension.
‘The atmosphere can’t be good, but this is strange in its own way.’
For Kyungwoo, it was natural to be nervous since he was going to what was practically enemy territory without even Choi Dohyun. But he didn’t know why he himself was unnecessarily tense.
Without realizing it, he was mentally retracing his departure from home that morning and checking the state of his house.
He had a naturally clean personality, so there was no smell of a dirty bachelor or anything like that. However, since he almost always ate outside before coming home, the refrigerator was completely empty.
‘There’s canned beer and bottled water. There’s also the artisan ham and sausage I bought before. Are there eggs? There’s dressing but no salad vegetables. Should I stop by the mart?’
Just as Jaeha was thinking that far, he suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.
‘What am I thinking right now? Stupidly.’
Curses poured out inwardly. He rarely brought people to his house. The people who came to Jaeha’s apartment were either family, close friends, or lovers.
As a result, whenever someone came to his house, he had the habit of preparing simple drinks along with clumsy snacks.
His family lived far away, so except for holidays, he lived by the principle that no news was good news, and his friends—his peers—were all busy, so they’d just have a drink outside and that was it.
Since moving to his current apartment, the only person for whom Jaeha had directly prepared snacks and drinks was a woman he’d been flirting with. Since that fling ended early last year, the only people who had visited Jaeha’s house were delivery drivers, gas inspectors, and no one else. He’d been living busy, but thinking about it made him feel bitter.
‘Why am I bothering with such things for that fucking bastard?’
Jaeha shook off what he’d been weighing in his mind. But he was relieved that his house was clean.
If Jung Kyungwoo, who had not a trace of manners, said something about the smell of poverty or whatever, he might throw a punch at that pale face.
Even so, he was surprised at himself for being quite conscious of Kyungwoo. Maybe he’d gone crazy from boredom after just working all the time.
‘There was also what Section Chief and Administrative Officer said.’
Now that he’d moved to a good department, it was a good time to take it easy and pursue good relationships.
Before getting addicted to the bizarre leisure activity of finding enjoyment in being jerked around by this crazy bastard, he needed to meet a constructive and mature member of the opposite sex.
Actually, he preferred meeting new people each time. But within the prosecution organization, thoroughly steeped in office worker sensibility, he was told this was an unusual preference.
“You have peculiar tastes.”
Kyungwoo suddenly spoke up. Though it would never happen, it was as if he knew about Jaeha’s internal conflict. Inwardly, he was quite startled.
“What?”
While asking back, he cautiously observed the other with a sidelong glance.
Kyungwoo pointed with his chin at the decorative doll on the dashboard.
“At that age, you’re not even a kid—what’s with the bear character? Or do you have a hidden child somewhere?”
At such an absurd criticism, Jaeha unconsciously let out a “Ha!” and an empty breath.
“It’s not a bear, it’s a lion.”
“That? Then a lioness?”
Kyungwoo frowned at Jaeha as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have. It was the kind of look one would give a hopeless loser who’d fallen for perverted cartoons from the neighboring island nation and bought naked female dolls. Was this really that kind of thing?
“It’s Balding Detective. A very famous character—you don’t know it? What island did you grow up on?”
“There’s all kinds of things. It doesn’t suit a man’s car.”
“Buy me one first before you talk. Cute things are all the rage these days. Whether men or women, they decorate with at least one character doll—what’s strange about it? The one who thinks it’s strange is the real weirdo.”
Seemingly displeased at being treated like a weirdo, Kyungwoo added defensively.
“At least that’s how they think in the neighborhood where I grew up.”
“That’s America, and this is Korea. You’re in your early thirties—why are you acting like a narrow-minded old man?”
“……”
After firing off continuous shots, Kyungwoo firmly shut his mouth. After a while, when they could see Jaeha’s apartment complex in the distance, he muttered quietly as if unable to accept it.
“Balding lion. How sadistic.”
Sadistic? His sense of absurdity was so thorough it even took care of its cousin, bewilderment, and vanished completely. It was so absurd that he laughed without realizing it.
That character was something Jaeha had specially chosen to not stand out. The most common and clichéd decoration.
He bought three of the same dolls. One for Jaeha’s car, one for Section Chief Joo’s child’s room, and the remaining one on top of Administrative Officer Lee’s TV. He’d bought them all himself as gifts to commemorate the department transfer.
Though attached with adhesive, the bald lion’s head was originally detachable. Inside it was a USB containing identical content.
Kyungwoo didn’t need to know that.
Just before coming out to today’s meeting place, he’d opened the newly received medicine bottle. Joan’s prescription only had the ingredients and total preparation amount. Since the patient usually knew well what the appropriate dosage was, individual packaging was rarely done. But this time Kyungwoo had taken double his usual amount.
If he hadn’t, he might have lost consciousness halfway up the mountain. The stabilizer had done its job thoroughly.
Earlier when the car stopped, he’d almost had a seizure. Getting into Seo Jaeha’s car alone had been a big mistake. Along with being greatly disappointed in himself for doing such a thing, he’d been on the verge of screaming, crushed by the rapidly growing fear.
“Seatbelt.”
The other’s indifferent attitude of pulling and locking the strap made him look foolish instead. Even in the hair-trigger situation of having a seizure, his sense of shame worked properly.
‘He did it on purpose. That bastard.’
Kyungwoo cursed the man sitting next to him inwardly. That bastard deliberately repeated lowly threats using his physical advantage. The person who actually acted that way probably wasn’t even aware of it.
Most of the guys born and raised in this godforsaken land, carrying their little pride between their legs, were like that.
When his thoughts reached that point, his gaze naturally slipped downward. The first thing that caught his eye was the well-developed thigh muscles proportionate to his large build.
For a domestic sedan, it was quite a large car, and even though the driver’s seat was pulled far back, his knees stuck out upward as if there wasn’t enough space. So it was hard to properly gauge how impressive the source of his pride was. But thinking about it, his feet seemed to have been quite large.
‘Why am I paying attention to that? It’s not like I’m gay.’
He scolded himself, but the blood flowing through his veins also carried this land’s DNA. Kyungwoo couldn’t help but sneer inwardly at confirming he was of the same ethnicity in such a pathetic aspect.
Jung Kyungwoo focused on the stupid character doll dangling around. While doing so, he tried to shake off unnecessary thoughts.
The car crossed the bridge and entered the city again. His body gradually stiffened with tension that had a different meaning.
He’d readily gotten in this car to look for an opportunity.
Any fool could predict that he wouldn’t obediently hand over his phone. Also, he needed to search the house for the phone and any possible other copies. To do that, he had to get inside the house.
Usually this kind of area was Director Oh’s responsibility. If it were company-related materials, it would be over with one phone call to him.
However, this matter was difficult to entrust to him. Everything Director Oh did reached the ears of his father, Jung Taeho.
He’d excluded other figures like Choi Dohyun from the start. He didn’t know through what strange route the photos might spread.
The car entered the familiar apartment underground parking lot.
The sharp screeching sound of the parking lot floor and tires touching repeatedly.
Not long after, the familiar pillar appeared. The one he’d hidden behind while waiting for Seo Jaeha. Seeing it, the other threw him a glance as if conscious of Kyungwoo.
“This time the CCTV is working properly. When I asked the management office manager what he thought about a security company employee coming in when there was no malfunction report, cutting all the wires, and leaving after an ‘inspection’ like this, he turned pale.”
“Flaunting your title at every turn is embarrassing behavior.”
“But secretly swinging a pipe from behind isn’t embarrassing?”
“You retaliated plenty too. Don’t get worked up over every little thing when you’re a pervert who takes hidden camera photos.”
“Hey.”
As soon as the car stopped, Kyungwoo pulled the door lock. Unlike before, it opened easily in one go this time.
Whether Seo Jaeha was saying something behind him or not, Kyungwoo got out of the car.
Whew.
Perhaps because he was more nervous than expected, his legs trembled slightly. But after walking a few steps, the numbness quickly went away. Whether blood was rushing to it or draining from it, he felt a slight floating sensation throughout his body.
“Wait.”
Ignoring Seo Jaeha’s words, Jung Kyungwoo stood in front of the elevator.
