It was that server. The one who had helped make the cake, who had told Woonghee to smile gently with his eyes. The one who said that if you’re a lovely lover, you should know how to act cute.
“What brings you here?”
Hasn’t this never happened before? He was someone whose sense was quick as a dog. So he knew amazingly well how to please Gi Junhyuk. He had never invaded the room like this when he wasn’t there.
What wind blew to bring him here?
“Ha, haha, sir, good morning.”
Eyebrows smoothly maintained strand by strand drew a gentle arc.
“I heard there’s a problem with the toilet overall? I think I need to check it.”
Yet Woonghee didn’t step aside. He was raising all his antennae, directing them toward that employee.
His smiling face seemed strangely distorted, but was that too much speculation? …No, it’s not just my imagination. Look, aren’t the corners of his eyes trembling? No matter how I look at it, it’s fucking strange…
Thump thump, his heart trembled a little. Woonghee was ready to press the walkie-talkie in his robe pocket at any time. If anything happened, he would have to press the receive button right away. Then the subordinates outside would swarm in like bees in an instant.
…But it was too early to draw conclusions yet. Woonghee’s tense eyes slid smoothly down the server’s dress pants.
“Take off your shoes.”
“What? Wh-why are you suddenly telling me to take off my feet?”
“You know Gi Junhyuk-ssi is fastidious, he doesn’t like other people coming in wearing shoes.”
Trembling, the server took off his shoes. Woonghee quickly scanned those shoes. Indeed, they were shoes with quite pointed heels. The footsteps would have sounded sharply like that. Certainly there was only one set of footsteps…
But couldn’t he have walked barefoot like that? If he wanted to follow secretly, he could have done so easily.
“Did you come alone?”
Flinch, bloodshot eyes with cracks all over trembled. Flutter, even his eyelashes were shaking. His lips twitched. He couldn’t say no. If the bastard stuck with him understood Korean, he would have pounced immediately.
“Who’s there?”
At that, Woonghee almost whispered.
“If I’m right, just blink, nothing else, just your eyes…”
Gulp, the server swallowed. And his eyelids slowly closed and then lifted.
“Does that bastard have a gun?”
Again his eyes blinked. It was a resigned complexion as if he would collapse in despair. As if bullets would be shoved into his body at any moment.
“I-if I don’t o-open this door, he said he’d kill me.”
And from that side first, the server firmly grabbed the doorframe. As if this were his last straw.
…Fuck, what do I do? Woonghee ground out a curse. If he closed and locked this door as is, he would be safe but the server might die with a bullet in his skull. No, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t let an unrelated person get entangled because of him.
“Come in.”
Click clack, he undid the latch. While aiming the pistol he had hidden behind his back, he stepped back slowly, slowly, slowly.
Creak, the door opened and was gradually revealed. A pitch-black shadow pointing a gun at the server’s temple.
The guy approached closer and closer, and Woonghee stepped back more and more. In the sunlight brightening through the window, the identity of that pitch-black shadow was gradually revealed.
“Tul…”
The one with eyes wide open, seized by madness, was none other than that bastard Tula.
“Tula, you son of a bitch…”
The wish that please it not be you, that please anyone but you, was mercilessly shattered. Even though we rolled and rolled in those dirty back alleys together, even though we rolled around like stray dogs seeing all kinds of filthy sights, I hoped it wouldn’t be you.
[Put that gun down.]
Tula buried the gun barrel deeper into the server’s temple. The blood gradually drained from the terrified server’s face.
“Ahhh! Please save me, save… please save me.”
As soon as he screamed, he immediately shoved the gun barrel into that mouth hole.
[Drop the gun and kick it over here!]
He tried to hold out somehow, but soon a click sound was heard. That crazy bastard had cocked it. At that, Woonghee slowly lowered the gun to the floor without taking his eyes off him. With one foot, he kicked the gun toward him. Woonghee raised both hands up and showed his palms.
“What do you want? Money? Is money what you want? So you came barging in pointing a gun at someone’s head?”
Woonghee pulled up his nape and showed the necklace between it. When the necklace appeared over the soft cotton of the robe, madness swirled in Tula’s eyes. He showed off the necklace, shaking it unnecessarily to bewitch him.
And with his bent elbow, he was cleverly pressing the walkie-talkie hard. If you pressed the button in the middle of the walkie-talkie, it would receive, but the problem was that the button was too small. It was hard to aim with an elbow.
Please, please…
He was pressing harder and harder. At the sound that burst from the walkie-talkie, all movement in the room stopped abruptly.
– All clear.
For a moment, his heart felt like it plummeted with a thud. He squeezed his eyes shut thinking he’d been caught. Fuck, fuck…!
[Throw that out the window.]
What Tula pointed to precisely was Woonghee’s robe pocket where the sound had burst out. At the signal to throw the walkie-talkie out the window, Woonghee bit his lower lip hard. Unable to help it, Woonghee had no choice but to open the window and throw out the walkie-talkie.
Now he had lost all the cards he had. Woonghee was glaring at Tula with both palms showing.
[What do I want?]
He slowly approached, and now only three steps remained between him and Woonghee.
[I need Gi Junhyuk, that son of a bitch, I’m going to demand it from him directly.]
The broken English was easy enough for Woonghee to understand, and each word he spat out seemed to knead Woonghee’s brain. The server clutched in his grasp was now almost desperately welling up with tears.
“…Then trade with me.”
He finally proposed to him. Let’s trade the server and me. Don’t involve innocent people.
“Take me.”
Rather, take me as a hostage.
[Woong, come here. Let’s go back now, us.]
Tula laughed like a villain and split his mouth wide open.
***
It was extremely boring. This word game fight had never once been the man’s taste. Junhyuk looked at the opponent who was yapping with a face as if he would pass out at any moment.
[If you don’t get a compensation plan right away, I’ll bury your entire business in the ground.]
The skull of the Russian whose head was supposedly cracked was really sunken as if one corner had caved in, but it held no great meaning to him. He just kept yawning.
[Y-you dare yawn…!]
Barely enduring this seat, that was the maximum kindness he could offer. 2 hours, just about that much. That was his patience he could give to this bastard.
His mind was completely packed full with thoughts only of Lee Woonghee.
Lee Woonghee whom he had left behind. Lee Woonghee who had been lying on my bed. Lee Woonghee who had seen me off to the door. The face waving his hand fluttering came to mind.
Thump, thump, thump. His heart beat. On top of that, Woonghee’s complexion that he had briefly encountered before exiting through the door kept flickering before his eyes. As did Woonghee’s hand shadow that had been cast on the floor.
…What did you want to say by grabbing onto me then?
Because he wanted to pull that body into his arms right away, the man’s body burned. He just wanted to let him know even once.
The yearning that doesn’t reach the other person.
He wanted him to understand even a little bit of the man’s feelings.
If he held him by his side just a little longer, if he parasitized on his compassion just a little more and held onto those slender ankles and endured, then soon couldn’t he conquer Lee Woonghee too?
How about presenting jewelry to his arms? If he knelt down and proposed marriage saying he’d give him everything he had, would you crumble down even once?
The feeling that he couldn’t endure anymore surged up. That’s why he kicked and broke out of that meeting seat as if to smash it.
[Th-this son of a bitch! You dare stand me up again!]
Frenzied Russian was heard from behind, but the man couldn’t stand it. He moved his steps quickly, fluttering his smooth suit jacket.
However.
However, what the man who returned to the cruise had to face was only the coldly cooled temperature. Whoosh, a fierce sea breeze rushed in from the wide-open window and struck the man’s cheek.
Step step, the man approached one side. There, there was luggage that Woonghee had been packing but hadn’t finished. The man split open the zipper and inserted his hand as if to dig out guts.
Even the gifts that Woonghee had personally bought to give to his younger sibling were left intact. Even the white bird whose feathers he had cherished and prettily cared for was carelessly abandoned.
Were you that rushed? Couldn’t you stand even the remaining two days with me?
Rumble, the sound of rushing footsteps was heard and subordinate bastards were rushing in. They were the scouts who had been surrounding and patrolling around the cruise.
The guy playing the role of captain bowed his head before the man.
“I-I’m sorry, Managing Director, I was definitely on four-sided guard around this cruise.”
That bastard escaped again…!
The thick man’s hand flew out and struck the approaching subordinate’s cheek. The giant body bounced and crashed into the bed before sprawling out. Because of the anger boiling up inside, the man felt like he would lose his mind.
He glared at the window with cold eyes.
…The fact that we couldn’t find traces of him going out perhaps.
Doesn’t it mean he hasn’t escaped yet?
“Search every inch of the cruise.”
