He passed through the corridor so wide and quiet that footsteps echoed, and went up the stairs. The floor was cold marble that reflected light, and the ceiling was as high as a cathedral dome. Paintings hung on every wall. They were abstract paintings that looked expensive but uniformly gave off a somewhat dark and desolate impression.
It was clearly a beautiful and sophisticated space, but somehow it didn’t feel like a place where people lived. A feeling without warmth. It was like a museum or art gallery.
Picture of painting.jpg
10:55
What’s the title of this painting?
Who painted it?
It’s funny that even the painting is black
10:56
After looking around carefully, he discovered a firmly closed study door on the second floor. Unlike the other rooms, that door was made of dark mahogany solid wood.
Yeohwi grasped the doorknob and tried to turn it, but recalling last night’s cold voice saying “That’s enough,” he let go of his hand.
Instead, he took a selfie with the door as background and sent it.
Picture of study door.jpg
11:21
This is Dowon-ssi’s room, right? I won’t go in since I don’t have permission
…But can I go in?
11:22
As expected, there was no reply.
After touring the entire second floor, Yeohwi came down to the first floor and looked around the large reception room. Here too, paintings hung everywhere.
Finally, he went down the stairs to the basement, where he saw a wine cellar and warehouse-like spaces. And next to that was a separate door leading to a private parking garage.
Yeohwi stared intently at the bookshelf placed against the warehouse wall. Displayed there were plaques for outstanding business entrepreneurs and such, and thick foreign books that were hard to recognize, law books, and professional papers were lined up in rows.
Yeohwi, who had been blankly examining the bookshelf, struggled to pull out one book with a title that caught his eye.
Michel Foucault’s *Discipline and Punish*.
So he reads things like this. Click. Send.
Picture of book.jpg
11:32
1 PM. Yeohwi, who had been absorbed in reading while sitting on the plush sofa, suddenly raised his head at the sound of someone calling him. The sentences were suffocating from the first page, but enduring it and reading on, he’d already read quite a lot.
Mrs. Park called Yeohwi and prepared lunch for him. Yeohwi scraped his bowl clean and took another picture.
Picture of lunch.jpg
Ajumma’s cooking skills are really good
13:29
What did you have for lunch, Dowon-ssi?
You’re not starving, are you???
13:30
3 PM. He’d gotten stiff from just reading, so he came out to the garden. Holding an iced Americano that Mrs. Park had made for him, he strolled on the lawn near the neatly trimmed acacia trees.
Picture of garden and coffee.jpg
The weather is really nice
Even if you’re busy, stretch once! Look at the sky too!
15:08
Fighting!
15:09
5 PM. The sun began to set gradually.
When will you come home in the evening?
You said you’d be late today, but around what time will you get off work?
17:44
7 PM. He started eating dinner alone.
You’re really late..
Did you eat dinner? What did you have?
19:20
I’m having soft tofu soybean paste stew~
19:21
10 PM. After washing up and rolling around on the bed, he sent the last text.
Does that company only make people work?
22:00
***
Meanwhile, at the KD Group Director’s office.
Outside the massive glass window, the city’s spectacular view spread out like a movie. However, the air inside the conference room was sharp like a battlefield. The face of Dowon, presiding over the thin-ice executive meeting, was cold.
While sitting at the head seat listening to the endlessly continuing reports.
Bzzzz.
Dowon’s personal cell phone on the table vibrated.
The eyes of all the executives in the conference room momentarily turned that way, but Dowon didn’t move at all. He just gestured with his chin to continue the report.
But after a while, bzzzz again.
Dowon eventually put down the first-half performance report and checked his phone screen.
6 new messages
The sender was an unknown number.
When Dowon unlocked the screen, he saw a picture of a dressing room. Unfamiliar jeans hanging next to his suits.
‘That bastard.’
The moment he frowned and turned off the notifications, the next messages arrived in a row.
⚠️ This user is not registered as a contact. Please be cautious to avoid damages from financial requests, etc.
Seong Yeohwi
Picture of toothbrush.jpg
Organizing finished
10:31
Hehe
10:32
‘Ha, is he sane?’
Dowon’s fingers hesitated. His expression as he glared at the screen became murderous.
Should I block him? After deliberating for a moment, he shoved his phone into his suit pocket.
His pitch-black eyes, dry and without light, swept over the executives in the conference room who had quieted down and were just watching for cues.
“What are you doing? Continue.”
The executives swallowed their dry saliva at the atmosphere that had somehow become even chillier than usual.
***
That night, Dowon, who returned home past midnight, stopped at the entrance.
At the central staircase of the mansion entrance, a large mass was crouched on the cold marble floor.
It was Seong Yeohwi.
He had buried his head between his knees and seemed to have fallen asleep while dozing off, probably after waiting for Dowon. Just like a large dog that had fallen asleep at the entrance, exhausted from waiting for its owner to come home from work.
His comfortable pajamas and fluffy brown hair shone softly under the subtle yellow lighting.
Dowon looked down at the sight while loosening his tie as if tired.
He didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh at this continuing absurdity.
Finally deciding to ignore him, he stepped up one step to the side of the stairs, avoiding Seong Yeohwi. But then, perhaps sensing a presence, or maybe having developed some kind of animal sixth sense, Seong Yeohwi suddenly raised his head.
“Dowon-ssi! You’re here?”
He shouted huskily in a voice still thick with sleep, then sprang up like a released spring.
A delighted expression appeared on Seong Yeohwi’s face. But it soon changed to a sulking expression.
“Why did you ignore all my texts?”
“……I was working.”
Dowon answered briefly as he passed him and climbed the stairs. He was tired.
“Can’t you look at your phone when you’re working?”
Yeohwi followed after him persistently. The sound of his slippered feet dragging across the marble echoed especially loudly.
“What about meals? Did you eat? If you haven’t had dinner yet, should I heat up some seaweed soup for you?”
Dowon stopped in the middle of the corridor.
When he slowly turned around, a shadow as large as Dowon covered Yeohwi’s face.
“You, how did you get my number?”
It was a low voice tinged with irritation.
Yeohwi was slightly intimidated by the pressure, but didn’t back down.
“It’s a secret. I can’t tell you.”
“It’s my number though?”
“I figured it out on my own.”
“It was Mrs. Park then.”
Yeohwi looked straight up into Dowon’s eyes and said,
“It’s not Mrs. Park’s fault. I forced her to help me. It’s all my fault.”
“Ha, at least you know you did wrong?”
Dowon tilted his head crookedly as if dumbfounded. With his arms crossed, he scanned Seong Yeohwi carefully from head to toe again.
“Right, it’s your fault. It’s your fault, so……”
“……”
“So what are you going to do? Will the one who did wrong at least be punished?”
Dowon took another step closer. Yeohwi unconsciously faltered under the pressure. He felt the hard corridor wall touch his back.
As if there was nowhere to escape, thud. Dowon pressed one hand against the wall, trapping Yeohwi.
The corridor lighting cast shadows on his sharp nose bridge and shaded eyes.
“Do you know what you’re trying to do right now? Are you approaching me knowing that?”
Dowon’s gaze swept over Yeohwi’s reddened face, then lingered on the lips that had clashed with teeth last night.
“Sending trashy texts all day long, crouching and waiting for someone at the entrance late at night. Are you satisfied now that you’ve drawn a reaction from me by doing that? Is this the kind of attention you so desperately wanted?”
His long fingers lightly grasped Yeohwi’s chin and lifted it up so he couldn’t resist.
The cedarwood perfume mixed with his body scent made Yeohwi’s breath catch.
“What do you gain by doing that?”
“……”
“That thing you couldn’t do last night, is that it?”
