He glared, making a show of raising his fist as if to intimidate. Once, Yeonwoo would have flattened himself on the floor at the sight of that fist — but now he felt no fear at all. There was no way he would hit him right now.
“Why would I die for someone else’s benefit?”
“Has this little bastard lost his mind?”
Yeonwoo shoved his face right up toward Cha Jeongsik, daring him to hit. And he watched as the raised hand came back down. He spat a crude string of curses loud enough to make sure Yeonwoo heard — but none of it reached him.
He really can’t do it?
He’d expected as much, but it had still been something of a gamble. He couldn’t mark the merchandise being sold, so he couldn’t hit. Watching that hand actually go back down made something in Yeonwoo flare with irritation. All that time raising his hand at him, hitting him, trampling over him — and it turned out he was capable of holding back all along. That was the surprising part.
“Go study.”
“Has this guy seriously lost it?”
“You had connections get you in, and getting put on academic probation and kicked out would be embarrassing, wouldn’t it? Don’t you think?”
“Cha Yeonwoo!”
Cha Jeongsik called his name, then seemed to have nothing to follow it with — he stood there flushed red, nostrils flaring. But soon his lips twisted upward.
“Aren’t you curious? About who bought you? Want me to tell you? He’s a terrifying son of a bitch. You act toward him the way you just acted toward me, and you’ll be dead in no time.”
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. But he had no desire to beg for answers from Cha Jeongsik. He’d be meeting the man in a few hours anyway. Knowing in advance wouldn’t change anything. If anything, he thought it was better to face him with no prior knowledge, no prejudice, and form his own judgment. Hearing about him beforehand might just saddle him with unnecessary assumptions.
“I’m not that curious.”
He brushed past Cha Jeongsik. He’d expected to be called back at any second — but he wasn’t. Yeonwoo walked for a while, then turned around. He looked at the man standing beside Cha Jeongsik, grinning and fawning, and jerked his chin.
“Aren’t we going?”
“Yes, yes. Coming, young master.”
The car filled with the sound of the hired hand’s rambling. He kept snickering to himself, shooting glances at Yeonwoo through the rearview mirror. Every so often he’d click his tongue.
“Oh, young master. Once you leave, that’s it, isn’t it? What a shame not being able to see that pretty face anymore. Can I reach out sometime?”
More nonsense. Yeonwoo dismissed it without a second thought. Naturally, this man didn’t treat Assemblyman Cha’s biological children this way. Around them, he fawned and scraped and bowed as if he’d hand over his liver and gallbladder if asked. But with Yeonwoo — cheap jabs, harassment, and exactly this sort of leering. The one mercy, perhaps, was that he’d never actually laid a hand on him directly, likely out of fear of Assemblyman Cha.
“……”
It could have felt infuriating — but to Yeonwoo, it was just familiar.
The people who worked in Assemblyman Cha’s household fell into two categories. People like this man, who treated him not as a person but as a doll to be sold off at any moment — or people who shut their eyes and ears and pretended not to see the violence and abuse directed at him.
“Not even going to answer me now? That hurts.”
Yeonwoo pressed the button to raise the partition between the driver’s seat and the back. He heard the man let out a short, disbelieving laugh — but that wasn’t his problem. The moment that sniping voice and those slimy eyes disappeared, he felt a weight lift off him.
If I’d known it would come to this, I should’ve said something really satisfying earlier.
“The bastard here isn’t me — it’s you” — something like that.
Or: “I’m so much smarter than you — if I’m a bastard, what does that make you, a minnow?”
But he had no regrets. Hadn’t he told Cha Jeongsik to go study? Some people couldn’t go to school even when they wanted to… The bleak thought was already beginning to surface again when Yeonwoo shook it away quickly. Now was not the time to lose focus.
He looked out the window at the house passing by — the place where he had spent all thirteen years.
I always thought it was enormous.
Seen from outside, it wasn’t that large at all. To think he’d been confined in a place that small for over thirteen years. He was leaving now and would never come back — but he felt no trace of regret. Not once over all those long years had he ever thought of this place as home. To Yeonwoo, it had been a prison. A shackle.
Who would feel wistful about slipping off a shackle and walking out of a prison?
The road to the hotel was quiet. Yeonwoo found himself wondering whether the twisted, sick pervert who had bought him was looking at the same scenery right now.
The hotel he arrived at was dazzling. So dazzling it was almost embarrassing to be coming here to sell himself. The moment he stepped into the grand lobby, the thought rose that the staff might see right through him and throw him out. But contrary to his worry, the staff member asked him nothing and handed over a room key without a second glance. Businesslike to a degree that made his worry feel pointless.
Room 1809.
As the card key settled into his palm, Yeonwoo began to feel the reality of his situation sink in, slowly.
He had to do his best to charm the man, to make him want him. And then he had to beg — please, take me with you. Clutching the key tightly in his hand, he felt the weight of where he was and what he was here to do.
“Shall I walk you to the room, young master?”
Lost in thought, Yeonwoo heard the voice behind him — the tone of someone who clearly had something else in mind. The hired hand who had driven him here was rubbing his palms together roughly.
“Don’t worry, young master. Unless he’s been castrated, a face like yours will bring any pervert to his knees.”
It might have been meant as a jab — but to Yeonwoo, whose heart was tight with anxiety, it landed closer to a compliment. If what the man said was true, it meant the odds of tonight going well were high. He felt the frantic drumming of his heart settle, just a little.
Yeonwoo walked past him without a word. Even if things went wrong tonight, he’d sooner cling to the twisted, sick pervert’s trouser leg and beg to be kept on for menial chores than ever contact this man again.
And crucially — he had no phone, and he didn’t know the man’s number.
“Well then, take care of yourself. Not sure how well that’ll go, but.”
He caught the man’s voice trailing off in the distance, but pretended not to hear it. Not worth responding to, and he had no desire to anyway.
Yeonwoo made his way up to the hotel room alone and stopped in front of the wide bed and large TV.
“Wow, this is really big.”
It was enormous — easily ten times the size of his room back there. On top of that, an entire wall was made of glass windows, and just glancing down from them made his legs go weak.
He stepped into the bathroom and paused.
Huh? Something was off.
His first thought was that the room had been designed incorrectly. There was a bathtub — but whether it was actually meant to be used, or placed there as purely decorative, he couldn’t tell.
Why is there a transparent wall in front of the bathtub…?
Standing there, he had a clear, unobstructed view of the wide bed in the other room. As if someone bathing here would be… It was so blatant he couldn’t even find words for it. And there wasn’t a single curtain to cover the glass. Yeonwoo stood blinking in bewilderment. Oh — oh… Even with no one watching, his face went bright red.
“C-calm down. Cha Yeonwoo.”
He was not going to use this bathroom. He stepped back, nodding firmly to himself. Even alone in this room, he couldn’t bring himself to wash with that transparent wall right there — the wall that gave a clear view straight to the bed. But he did still need to wash… Yeonwoo swallowed hard against a dry throat.
“…I should wash up.”
He made his peace with reality. If he didn’t wash now, he might have to do it in front of the twisted, sick pervert once he arrived. That would be far more mortifying. Washing now was the better option. If the man told him to wash, he’d say he already had. But what if the man told him to sit on the bed and watch while he washed? Oh — oh… If that happened, Yeonwoo decided he’d just have to keep his expression carefully, blankly vague.
“But — what kind of person is he?”
Assemblyman Cha had told him almost nothing. Only that there was a debt on the family, and that the man he was meeting today had the means to pay it off. That he had to go with him. Those were the only words that had been repeated, over and over. And that he had better be obedient — Yeonwoo had heard that until his ears were practically worn through.
There had been no mention of the man’s age or appearance. So Yeonwoo had vaguely imagined the twisted, sick pervert who had bought him to be someone very old. Or someone with something wrong with them — some deeply strange and particular appetite. Because why else would someone buy a person like him?
It’s fine. I practiced.
He had filled three thick notebooks cover to cover with mental preparation, going over it again and again. So there was nothing to be afraid of. There shouldn’t be.
