A stiff upper body with faint nasality, a furrowed forehead with eyes not even half-closed. His lips were just hanging open, and his tongue only reluctantly moved slightly when Jaeha eagerly rubbed against it. Even that was like dodging to the side as if it tickled.
The fact that he slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets with a cold expression, keeping them there the whole time, also played a big part in destroying Jaeha’s confidence. He thought he’d wrap them around his neck, but the stiff touch only lightly went up to his shoulders. Even that was far from gripping his clothes or shoulders. He definitely felt a slight pushing sensation.
It was just like someone getting a cavity treated at the dentist who wants to protest because it hurts, but can’t quite make a scene because of the weapon in their mouth, so they just subtly raise their hand.
Since he grew up in America, his brilliant experiences must be so abundant that Jaeha’s clumsy skills weren’t satisfactory.
“What an utterly unlucky bastard in every way.”
Come to think of it, it was strange that he’d said let’s do it right away. In fact, Jaeha was also acting half—no, about 70 percent—on impulse. Throughout his entire life, he’d never known he’d be the first to say with his own mouth that he wanted to sleep with a man once, and he’d never even imagined it.
Today, as if possessed by some ghost, he’d done just that. After a long time, his night outing happened to be at this hotel, at this bar, and there he just had to run into the most troublesome person. Moreover, Jung Kyungwoo poured gasoline—in barrel units—all over him when he was already confused.
The reason Jaeha himself had spouted such nonsense was largely due to an unavoidable coincidence. But Jung Kyungwoo, who accepted his proposal, definitely had a choice.
Let’s sleep together. Try turning me on. That bastard who came at him provocatively responded with an ostentatiously derisive non-reaction.
If you’re a man, you’d know all too well how hurtful such a cold reaction is. Since he was a bastard who grew up in America where party culture is so developed, it would be even more so.
“You’ve declared war so filthily, so I can’t go easy either.”
He decided never to attempt kissing again. Anyone listening would point fingers saying he’s childish. Anyway, there was no way there’d be anyone to understand his feelings, and this childish sulking was the most effective way to gather up his shattered pride.
Cards that don’t work must be boldly discarded. But he couldn’t just let it slide after being played like this. He had no intention of letting him act like a log next time either.
Jaeha bit down hard on his molars and pressed the start button.
After coming home, he was entirely absorbed in the damn ‘research.’ With the single-minded determination to make Jung Kyungwoo fall, he was in a search trance, even drinking caffeinated beverages.
Late dawn.
“This side isn’t helpful at all.”
Jaeha, sitting at the desk in his game room-cum-study, let out a groan. Honestly speaking, he was in a state of mental shock.
The relationship between men that he’d surveyed through various videos was too explicit and crudely speaking… messy. Moreover, unlike with women, there were stages that had to be gone through before relations.
‘Are they really turned on doing this?’
Just watching made nausea slowly rise. He skipped over all the videos full of burly hyung-types and watched a few more with actors who looked somewhat pretty. But it still wasn’t good.
His head started hurting, so later he just turned off the computer entirely. He lay sprawled on the bed and closed his eyes. Still, shocking scenes kept flickering.
“Do that kind of thing with Jung Kyungwoo?”
A strange phenomenon occurred. He’d clearly thought the act itself was disgusting. But when he substituted one side with Kyungwoo, the disgust went nowhere and instead a subtle heat sensation gathered centered on his lower body.
A man’s tightly toned upper body on a different trajectory from women, arms and legs stretched out refreshingly, a supple and firm waist moving flexibly, and elastic hips.
A straight forehead with a nose bridge extending down, eyebrows trimmed sleek like an actor’s and rich eyelashes creating delicate shadows, smooth yet pale skin, and somehow precarious eyes.
While imagining Kyungwoo beneath him making a grimacing expression as if excessive pleasure was overwhelming, Jaeha clearly felt sexual arousal.
If the partner was Kyungwoo, any messy act was possible. No, he wanted to do it right now.
Unable to hold back any longer, Jaeha sprang up from his spot. And he confirmed his body’s reaction with his eyes.
“I’m really going crazy.”
A subtle shock enveloped his entire body.
After spending a weekend of successive shocks, he went to work Monday with dark circles. No sooner had he put his bag on the desk than Administrative Officer Lee conveyed that Director Baek was looking for him. Even his luck wasn’t on his side.
“You were looking for me?”
Whether he’d come to work at dawn or had come to work on Sunday and still hadn’t left yet, Director Baek just nodded with a face covered in grime and fatigue. Looking where he pointed, he saw a lump of pink wrapping cloth stamped with the prosecutor’s mark.
“Contact came from Taeryoung from the crack of dawn.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’? Taeryoung is your responsibility. I have a headache with my own work, so you handle it and deal with them yourself.”
Was this the reason for investigating the sponsor patsy? Without going around in circles to make work difficult, Director Baek’s brazen audacity in laying it all out and assigning it himself made his head bow automatically. He came back to the office with the wrapping cloth. Was it something Kyungwoo lobbied for?
“Without even contacting me.”
It could be that he couldn’t talk in the chaos of Saturday, or it could be something that suddenly came up on Sunday. But on Sunday, officially the prosecutor’s office also rests. Of course, unofficial lines move endlessly. If it was something Taeryoung contacted Director Baek directly about, it meant something was off.
He unwrapped the cloth and examined the documents.
It was a case where some professors and students at the university directly filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office for sexual harassment and sexual abuse by a regional university president named Jung Hobyung. Just looking at a few pages of the detailed petition, he could see every aspect of how filthily President Jung had behaved.
At the same time, there were also hundreds of pages of petitions from professors and some students who seemed to be President Jung’s people, scraped together from who knows where.
“Why would Taeryoung care about this?”
Since it was a complaint case filed directly with the prosecutor’s office, there was sufficient probability it would be assigned to the Special Division. But he didn’t know why Taeryoung would care about such a person.
Jaeha’s question was quickly resolved. Along with the complaint, there was President Jung’s biographical information. Within it, he found the item “Standing Advisor of Taeryoung Foundation Corporation.”
He stretched his body leisurely so the chair back tilted slightly backward. If Taeryoung bothered to contact them, he needed to confirm how they wanted it handled.
But why didn’t they contact him directly and instead conveyed it through Director Baek? Because it’s awkward to talk directly? Or is he such an expensive person that it’s hard to talk with a mere prosecutor? Rationally thinking, since case assignments come down through Director Baek, there might not be a need to inform Jaeha specifically. It might mean to figure it out himself.
Jaeha, who’d been looking for the phone number, soon locked his cell phone and tossed it on the desk.
“If it means to crawl on my own, I really should do it my way.”
Jaeha began flipping through the thickly stacked documents.
*
“It’s really nice that family is gathering. Let’s meet and have meals like this often.”
Kyungrok smiled toward their father Jung Taeho sitting in the seat of honor. Then next to Kyungrok, at a somewhat lower seat, sat her husband Kim Chungkyu.
The brother-in-law wearing gold glasses with an unfashionable hairstyle mixed with gray hairs here and there was a professor type no matter how you looked at it. He was actually a university literature department professor too. Originally he was a lecturer, but became a professor upon marrying Jung Kyungrok. Whether he was originally like that was unknown, but he had such a consistently stiff expression that Kyungwoo had never seen him smile since encountering him.
“It’s been a while seeing Professor Kim.”
“I should have visited more often. I apologize, father-in-law.”
“Even if you’re busy, still. You should come to greet us often. If it’s not a holiday, it’s hard to even see your face.”
When Jung Taeho gave a displeased reprimand, Kim Chungkyu shrunk further and bowed his head. His spoon had barely moved from earlier.
“Who’s busier, this person or Dad? Even when we try to visit, Dad doesn’t answer the phone well. Right, Mom?”
Kyungrok, defending her husband, turned her words toward her stepmother Park Jungok sitting across from her.
“Seeing your father, there’s nothing good to hear, so why bother? If there’s no news, just assume all is well.”
It would be impossible for the eldest daughter and stepmother, who weren’t much different in age, to get along, but that impossible thing often occurred at the Taeryoung family table. Jungok and Kyungrok, who had only about the age difference of an older sister and youngest sibling, strangely got along well. It was because Kyungrok had a bold personality and was the only person who could stand up to Jung Taeho.
Kyungrok was the person who stood at the forefront protecting her when their father caught his second wife like catching a mouse. Just like protecting her husband Kim Chungkyu.
“This woman is ruining my appetite from the morning.”
Jung Taeho threw a fit toward Jungok.
“Because you look down on your husband and go wandering around outside, you raised the kid to look like that.”
“The kid is listening. Stop it.”
The kid Jung Taeho was pointing at with his spoon was Kyungwoo sitting at the lowest seat of the long table. But the kid Jungok was referring to meant the grandchild sitting between Jungok and Kyungwoo. The nephew who’d just entered elementary school looked anxiously at his maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother’s faces.
Taeho, who adored his grandchild who was the spitting image of Kyungrok, only then cleared his throat with a cough and turned his gaze to his rice.
“The soup got cold.”
Kyungrok skillfully caught his blaming the soup for no reason.
“Our family really can’t endure for even a moment. Everyone eat. Ajumma, the soup here got cold. Please bring more. Kyungwoo-ya, you should eat some meat. Why does the kid’s complexion look so pale?”
“I am eating.”
“Is there anything wrong at the company?”
Kyungrok led the table’s atmosphere like the lady of the house. It was rather better that she stepped up.
“Well, same as usual.”
“What good is same? There needs to be progress, progress.”
“Dad, really. There’s tons of praise that the company atmosphere improved after Kyungwoo took charge. He reduced a lot of the inefficiencies too, and now it’ll progress.”
Kyungrok blocked Taeho’s criticism while smiling at Kyungwoo. Then, Professor Kim, who’d been silently eating rice following her, for once raised his head.
His always angry father or cold mother aside, brother-in-law Professor Kim was a person who quietly ate rice and disappeared. But surprisingly, he opened his mouth.
“Father-in-law, among my colleagues, isn’t there President Jung?”
“Is there such a guy?”
“Yes. But it seems he’s gotten into some trouble this time.”
“What?”
“It seems he joked around a bit at work, and rumors spread among young students about sexual harassment and such. Then professors who are on bad terms with President Jung apparently caught it as evidence and filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office.”
“So?”
It clearly meant to pull strings, but Jung Taeho asked back in a cold tone, what did he want him to do about it? Then Professor Kim quickly bowed his head.
“This person. What are you going to do by telling Dad that?”
“I’ve been indebted to President Jung in various ways since childhood.”
Kyungrok hurriedly poked Professor Kim’s ribs. It was a signal to shut up, but Professor Kim obliviously continued with verse 2.
“That guy called President Jung, is it Jung Hobyung by any chance?”
“You know him.”
“That guy is attached to your foundation, isn’t he?”
And with that, Taeho looked at Kyungrok. Kyungrok, who’d been smiling all along, suddenly hardened her expression completely.
