“…What on earth does that mean?”
Woonghee sat up. Swoosh, the soft sheets slid down along his white body line. The blue light of dawn shattered against his slender body. Under here? What the hell is under here besides the ocean right now?
It’s not like he’s joking with me either.
C-could it be that he submerged them in the ocean? Just as that chilling suspicion arose.
“Just as I said, below Woonghee-ssi.”
Woonghee hurriedly sat up. He bolted up from the bed and stared blankly at the ground beneath his feet.
“Don’t tell me you really submerged them…”
Then haha, the man burst into laughter. Bending his upper body backward and rubbing the back of his head against the sheets, he was spewing out even the remnants of laughter in a low voice.
“Then I would have kept it a secret from Woonghee-ssi.”
Well, that would be the case… Then what on earth does he mean? At his incomprehensible words, only his eyes were rolling around brightly.
“Then where exactly…”
It was the next moment. Chirp chirp, a small sound stole Woonghee’s attention. It was the window. A white bird was fluttering about. The problem was that between the pure white feathers, a color that shouldn’t be there was visible.
A horrifyingly bright red…
“Hey, you…!”
Woonghee thought the man would try to grab him, but he obediently let him go. There was no time to feel puzzled. Hurriedly, he ran to the window. The bird’s wing was injured. Feeling sorry for it, he extended his hand, and it hopped up onto it, chirp chirp. It was extremely worn and exhausted.
“I want to treat only this bird, just this bird.”
The man smiled slowly. He looked very displeased with the peculiar wrinkles forming on the bridge of his nose, but
the creature rubbing its body against his palm was extremely pitiful and heart-wrenching. It seemed not fully grown yet, so had it been attacked? In the wild, such pitiful circumstances wouldn’t be taken into consideration.
With a soft cloth, he gently wiped those white feathers. Did it sting? The bird squeaked and cried. Since it twitched and flapped its small wings, he gently rubbed its small head to soothe it.
“Stay still, it’ll get infected…”
Fortunately, the bird began to catch its breath little by little. This spark of life that swelled and deflated small in his grasp…
He felt anxious. Hurriedly, he approached the bedside. When he opened the nightstand, he felt a gaze from beside him. The man’s eyes flew and pierced through his entire body.
He grabbed a handful of ointment and band-aids from inside the drawer. Since they’re for humans, they might irritate animals… There was no choice. He moved his hands as gently as possible. He was carefully tracing back memories of treating puppies in the countryside.
“Am I this pitiful too?”
The man leaned his body against Woonghee as if slouching. Rubbing his high nose against Woonghee’s nape as if acting cute.
How could he be pitiful? Even this act of being coquettish is completely different from the small bird nestled snugly in his palm. Isn’t this heavy body closer to a large bear pouncing from behind?
It’s just like that bear not knowing its own size and rushing at its keeper like it did in its baby days… While placing a broken cotton swab against the small shoulder and gently wrapping it with a bandage.
“No, Gi Junhyuk-ssi is…”
Woonghee chuckled briefly, then slowly hardened his lips. Wasn’t he a man who wore such an imposing atmosphere around his large frame? His gaze that couldn’t be weak at all… in this moment alone looked extremely pitiful.
As Woonghee trailed off, he asked back.
“Yeah, Gi Junhyuk-ssi is?”
“…handsome.”
The man probably laughed lowly. Just as the corners of Woonghee’s mouth were about to curl up round following him, a passing voice suddenly came to mind.
‘Right beneath your feet.’
His voice, chillingly low. Woonghee’s feet hesitated. The ship’s floorboards were creaking and crying out.
***
Woonghee followed the man. He wondered where on earth they were going, but his footsteps stopped in front of the dining room.
“What’s so special about here…?”
Woonghee whipped his head back. He looked at the path he had walked, at the completely empty corridor behind him. He raised his eyes to him.
I’ve come and gone here so many times. Since I had to learn how to bake a cake from that server, I went in and out whenever I had time. But where exactly here are they supposed to be?
…Don’t tell me he’s teasing me right now? Woonghee sharply raised his glaring eyes. His long middle finger pointed down as if he’d been waiting.
“Down here.”
Woonghee lowered both eyes.
“What on earth is down here… huh?”
Looking closely, there really was a handle there. Woonghee grabbed it and lifted it up with all his strength. Clunk, along with the sound, white dust rose up.
“Go down carefully, Woonghee-ssi.”
Carefully, carefully, he descended the narrow and steep stairs. Step, step, step, lights came on one by one on the dark stairs. When he finished going down, sounds of held breath could be heard from below.
Could someone really be there? And from far away, a single white beam of light was leaking out.
Woonghee followed that beam of light as if entranced, and soon discovered a large dining table.
“Ah…”
As if the legs would break at any moment, the table was full of delicacies.
Roasted lamb with a reddish glow was placed in the center. Next to it was glossy steamed abalone on a silver platter. On the seafood platter, large lobster legs sat majestically.
Next to that, various seasonal fruits were stacked layer upon layer like works of art. Woonghee knew these foods. Those plates that were being rapidly emptied…
This was definitely what the server had prepared for the man’s birthday. Unlike what he had made, there was even a splendid multi-tiered cake occupying the center.
“Ah…”
And around it, he saw people surrounding it in a circle. They were all wearing pitch-black clothes without exception, and they were people he hadn’t seen in a very long time. However, they couldn’t raise their heads as if they had committed a crime.
Only Paeng Hana could be distinguished because of her long hair, and the rest couldn’t even be identified as to who was who.
Because they were shoving food into their mouths recklessly with their heads buried in their plates. Rather than being hungry, it was closer to being anxious that others might eat even one more bite than them.
“……”
Why are they still here, unable to escape this ocean? C-could it be that this man has locked them up here? It was an excessive delusion. For what purpose would he have done that?
Moreover, how could he monitor all those adults in their thirties one by one? This isn’t even a deserted island.
“P-Paeng Hana-ssi…”
Woonghee carefully approached the woman. While stepping on the red carpet. However, the woman’s eyes swiftly touched this direction and then swiftly turned away again. The gaze that touched for just a brief moment was utterly emotionless. It was a look as if she was looking at food waste.
“Ah, that’s mine, you son of a bitch!”
It was Paeng Hana who had cared terribly for her manager, yet she was yelling at her manager without reserve. The manager in front of her was greedily snatching food with all sorts of seasonings smeared around her mouth.
“Is only your trap a mouth? You ill-mannered bitch…”
Chomp, chomp, chomp, she was eating with her head almost buried in the plate. She was doing so as if possessed, yet her eyes were nothing but dried up.
Woonghee quickly turned his eyes. Someone grabbed Woonghee’s shoulder from behind and turned him around. And what entered his eyes was none other than Tula.
“Tula…!”
Woonghee quickly grabbed his shoulders.
Strength entered his fingertips, afraid Tula might run away, might disappear like a phantom. He stood still, looking at Woonghee with eyes that couldn’t believe it.
Inside those pupils, countless tangled emotions were revealed. At first it was surprise, and beneath that, old longing was calmly laid out.
…Suspicion, hesitation, and… a terribly vivid loneliness.
“Why is everyone here?”
[……]
He shook his shoulders faintly.
“Huh? Why are you here, I’m asking.”
It wasn’t just Tula. Those who were busy pushing food into their mouths uniformly couldn’t continue speaking. At that, Woonghee could only whisper quietly.
“Could it be Gi Junhyuk…?”
He asked if Gi Junhyuk had imprisoned you. He tried to tell them to get out of here right now, that freedom was just jumping off the ship, that the cruise was currently docked at the island.
However, from behind Tula’s back, a low voice flowed out.
“Ah, by force?”
Step, he approached forward. It was Gi Junhyuk. Ah, right. The people in front of that table weren’t reading his mood. They were gauging the atmosphere of Gi Junhyuk who was following right behind him.
“They’re voluntarily imprisoned, to the end.”
As if that could be true, Woonghee tried to refute, but the man blocked Woonghee’s mouth first.
“Like Woonghee-ssi.”
M-me? Woonghee frowned. Right, that man made a promise to him, a promise to make him a beta.
“Ah…”
Then did he sweet-talk those people like that too?
Is that why they’re not leaving here and enduring like that?
