“Whatever you’re like, I’m actually quite glad to see you.”
“……”
“I’ve been waiting a long time.”
That light tone sounded almost like a sigh.
* * *
It was a 20-minute distance. The man’s residence was only 20 minutes away. It was a building Yunoh also knew. Move-ins had started at the end of last year, and it was famous for its penthouse floors with only one unit per building. It was said that the units weren’t even put on the market and were sold privately from the start, but the man went up there. Even the elevator was completely separate, and Yunoh felt overwhelmed before even starting.
“Kim Yunoh.”
The man called out to Yunoh while removing his watch. He felt somewhat humiliated by the attitude of freely calling someone else’s name while looking at his wrist.
“Don’t get any funny ideas. Now that you’ve come this far, what more could you possibly do?”
Yunoh bit his lip. Who are you, why are you doing this to me, how do you know my name. All those questions had already been ignored in the car. What more could he say that would work?
And then the elevator doors opened. Yunoh was surprised in a way that didn’t fit the situation. What appeared when it opened wasn’t a hallway but a foyer. It could be called a hallway, but even the floor material was different from what was outside the entrance.
“Go down and wait.”
“Don’t be so scary, Representative-nim.”
The person who had been standing behind Yunoh until now said something. It was the one who had driven them here.
“That’s not for you to interfere with.”
The person who seemed to be an attendant didn’t get off the elevator according to Sinjo’s words. Yunoh glanced at him. He had asked if there was more bachelor kimchi in a friendly manner, but even that seemed to have been for surveillance purposes.
Moreover, the atmosphere was quite different from what he’d seen then. It still wasn’t an approachable, likable appearance, but his tone was much lighter. They hadn’t even known each other from before, so it wasn’t like he could say the man had deliberately deceived him, yet his resentment at being tricked boiled up. Before he could get back on, the door closed, and Yunoh bit his lip firmly.
“……”
The man acted as if Yunoh, whom he’d brought here, was invisible. Watching him stride into the hallway, Yunoh took advantage of his figure becoming smaller and pressed the button. But the elevator button didn’t respond at all.
“Kim Yunoh. You can’t get out without a card, so come inside.”
He had enough pride that he didn’t want to obediently follow those words. But Yunoh was still young. Moreover, his brief experience rolling around at the bottom only made Yunoh more intimidated.
Many bad people came to the night club. He’d seen plenty of those who acted superior in pathetic ways, but even all of them combined wouldn’t compare to this one man. There was no comparison.
Just because the man hadn’t punched him or hurled abuse until now didn’t mean he could feel safe. Rather, the calmer he was, the scarier it was. If things went wrong, he could hit him at any time. Having already experienced that grip strength, Yunoh realized that if the man treated him harshly, he would have no choice but to end up in the hospital.
The hallway was long. When he hesitantly entered, a space so large it made the long hallway instantly look like a narrow path appeared. It was Yunoh’s first time seeing stairs inside a home, even though it was an apartment. The ceiling was so high it seemed like sounds would echo if he made any noise.
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows that filled the entire wall, he could see the night view. The area was under development, so it wasn’t dazzling enough to hurt the eyes, but that actually made it more atmospheric.
“Sit down comfortably.”
The man’s figure wasn’t visible, but only his voice could be heard. Even looking at the spotless sofa, Yunoh just stood there. He didn’t want to sit anywhere, and he didn’t want to eat or drink anything.
When the man didn’t come out even after about five minutes, Yunoh slowly began to look around. His search for any way out besides the elevator was quite cautious. But everywhere he opened a door, all that came out were just rooms. Even excluding two or three, they were bleakly empty. Even the places with furniture felt like model houses with no human warmth.
The only place left was the direction from which the man’s voice had come. Yunoh was turning around with a truly reluctant expression when he froze in place. At the far end, at the door that probably led to the master bedroom area, the man was leaning. And naked at that.
“Done looking around? I guess I don’t need to give you a separate tour.”
Yunoh could barely breathe because of the man’s body, which was solid like a stone and sculpted with curves, and the mass of flesh between his legs that unavoidably entered his field of vision. Without a hint of dullness, his waist and stomach were flat, yet even so, from his obliques to his abdominals, muscles were packed in without wasting any space. It was more like the body of a beast than a person’s body. As if everything had been poured into hunting and survival…
“Sit. If you don’t want me to make you sit.”
The man tilted his head. Under that pressure, Yunoh had no choice but to obey, settling onto the sofa he had so much not wanted to sit on.
The man, whose hair was slightly wet at the ends as if he’d just showered, approached the coat thrown on the bar stool. What he pulled out from rummaging through the jacket under the coat were the cigarettes he’d bought at the convenience store. He put a cigarette in his mouth, struck a match from the bar, and lit it.
Water dripped from his not-quite-dry hair, tracing lines on his broad shoulders, his back that clearly marked territories like a mountain range, and his firm buttocks. About to unconsciously follow down to his thighs, Yunoh lowered his gaze as if burned by what was visible between his legs.
“Kim Yunoh.”
Even smoking naked, the man didn’t seem laughable and appeared to have no openings. Yunoh swallowed dry saliva and raised his head.
“I haven’t heard an answer. Did you enjoy running away?”
“……”
“You seemed to want to have some life experience, so I just let you be. Why were you living so pathetically?”
“I wasn’t living pathetically.”
“Really. What was so great about living in a container without even a bathroom? Was there at least romance?”
He was openly mocking him. Yunoh quietly clenched his pants. The man slowly lowered his lazily opened gaze and stared at Yunoh’s fists. When he exhaled the smoke he’d been holding, even though they were far enough apart not to touch, it felt like it was slowly binding him, and Yunoh pressed his lips tightly shut.
“Kim Yunoh…”
“……”
“If you’d lived well on your own, I might have waited a bit longer. I might have given up this time.”
The man’s words were difficult to understand, as if they lacked a subject and object. To make sense of this conversation, he needed to know who the man was.
“Since you’re a complete stranger I don’t even know, I don’t understand what you’re saying either.”
In truth, Yunoh was bluffing even though he’d already noticed.
His grandmother’s words came to mind. That he would know as soon as he saw him. Even if he didn’t realize it like a lightning strike, Yunoh understood as the cold seeped into his bones. It was closer to a premonition.
“Why are you pretending not to know?”
The man also knew that Yunoh had already noticed. He closed his lips for a moment. He turned his head to the side and brushed his lips with his thumb. The man’s profile was unexpectedly refined. Not rough.
Like that, for a moment, the man who had been lost in thoughts unknown to Yunoh muttered abruptly. His thumb was still attached to his lips, and the cigarette quietly burned away between his curled fingers.
“The person who decided to have you the moment you were born.”
Saying that, the man stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray. Yunoh froze coldly, and the man left him there and went into the room.
When he came out a short while later, he was wearing pants and a shirt. Still in a casual, loose outfit, but Yunoh knew. That there would be no openings whatsoever. Even wearing a thoroughly languid expression, the moment Yunoh turned his back, the man would immediately pounce and pin him down.
“From your reaction, it’s like I’m doing something bad. I haven’t done anything yet.”
“…You kidnapped me. Suddenly.”
“You ran away. I have to catch anything that tries to run away to feel satisfied. Don’t carelessly show me your back.”
Saying that, the man raised his hand that had been extended back and lightly pressed the back of Yunoh’s head. Even though it didn’t seem like he used much force, his neck was pushed forward with a tap. He thought that if the man had put his mind to using force, he might have passed out from suffocation.
“Why? Want me to do something bad to you?”
When he looked at the man with an unpleasant gaze, the man asked. Who would ask someone to do bad things to them? Yunoh thought the other person’s way of thinking was strange. He seemed a bit eccentric…
“Will you do… bad things?”
The man smiled with interest and crossed his legs.
“What kind are you curious about?”
Not “what kind of things do you think I’ll do,” but “what kind are you curious about.” It was like asking about a coffee mix brand. It felt like if he mentioned drugs, he’d show him all kinds of drugs, and if he mentioned violence, he’d show him all kinds of violence.
Yunoh recalled the Geumín from the main house that Boss Park had briefly mentioned. Are all Geumín like this? Their moral standards seemed broken. At the naturally arising frightening thought, he bit his lip. The man narrowed his eyes and stared at Yunoh’s lips.
“If that’s a habit, fix it.”
“What…?”
“Biting your lips. It makes me want to suck on them.”
“……”
