“Woonghee-ssi. What are you doing over there?”
He whipped around to find Managing Director Gi standing there.
“Kim Daesik is in there.”
“Yes. I know, but….”
“Come here. Your leg must be hurting.”
The man grabbed Woonghee’s wrist. It was a gentle yet delicate force. He was someone who possessed tremendous strength in his hands, but was deliberately controlling the intensity of his power.
Wasn’t it like protecting a butterfly inside a cupped hand, yet also trapping it alive?
It was a strange feeling.
“He won’t come out anyway.”
His tone was as if making a declaration. Woonghee was dragged back to their spot. In the meantime, the Assistant Director had hidden himself inside the door again. The tightly closed door looked as if it had been completely cut off from this space.
He handed Woonghee nicely grilled meat from the bonfire burning on one side. As Woonghee received it, his eyes surveyed the surroundings.
“Are the other people really okay? Ah, I don’t see anyone at all.”
“Of course. Everyone’s fine.”
What on earth had happened while he was unconscious? Woonghee bit into the meat. Chew, chew, as he worked his cheeks, he suddenly felt a fierce gaze. Woonghee looked at the shadow. It was the angle of Managing Director Gi’s line of sight directed this way. He was watching again to see whether he was eating or not.
Aah, it was an incredibly burdensome behavior.
Why on earth was he acting like that?
“Woonghee-ssi.”
He slowly grabbed Woonghee’s hand. With tension rising to its peak, Woonghee’s body jumped with a start. He was so startled that he even dropped the meat he’d been holding. Plop, the meat fell to the ground. The greasy meat slid along making a vulgar sound.
He took out a jackknife from his pocket and with a clink, raised the blade. What on earth was he trying to do with that all of a sudden—but he trimmed away the calluses as if slicing sashimi precariously thin. Reddish skin was revealed as if carved out.
Woonghee stared at the red flesh exposed like fruit pulp.
“By any chance….”
Swish, swish. With practiced hand movements, he trimmed the nails into an elegant shape. On fingers that were slender but with bones protruding here and there giving the feeling of well-crafted chopsticks, elongated nail shapes took their place.
Managing Director Gi had been observing and caring for him all day today, just like grooming a pet cat.
“By any chance, Managing Director Gi, did I do something wrong?”
By any chance, have you noticed something?
The moment he opened his mouth, Woonghee felt his vision grow distantly dark. It was as if he were endlessly falling into a pitch-black abyss. Where this end was, what exactly was at that bottom—Woonghee couldn’t know anything.
Because everything was caught in his grasp.
“Hmm?”
The man rumbled in his throat. He raised his thick eyebrows and smiled languidly.
“Did something wrong, to me?”
Why on earth do you go so far as to peer into me so thoroughly? At this rate, wasn’t he on track to count even his pores?
“So you’re scared of getting caught by me?”
The man wore a smile on his lips like a masterpiece as usual. However, that smile, though gorgeous on the surface, looked no different from a poisonous mushroom with aphrodisiac planted in its roots.
***
He tossed and turned again tonight. His eyeballs were maddeningly dry and gritty. As if they’d been thinly sliced with a blade.
It was none other than because this shitty sleeping arrangement with the man continued.
His breath had been rough throughout the dawn as well. The leaking pheromones were heavy and pressed down on his lungs as if piercing his nose.
Could Managing Director Gi not fall asleep either? If so, then why on earth was he cramming that large body of his into this cramped bungalow?
Time piled upon time of agonizing.
“…….”
Creeeak, the wood grain groaned. The man was rising from beside him. Woonghee reflexively locked his eyelids that were about to open. Trembling, his thin skin quivered.
The wood grain around his face sank as if collapsing. Hot breath slid over his forehead. Had he gotten closer? Could he be checking if he was asleep? Woonghee involuntarily held his breath.
But soon after, with a soft sound of lips parting, what the man muttered was—
“I know you’re not sleeping.”
—something like that.
…Fuck, he was caught.
With a puff, he heard the sound of air escaping as if bursting from his lungs.
“Don’t leave here until I come back today.”
Still, he couldn’t open his eyes now. Surely their eyes would meet, wouldn’t they? He had to keep his eyes shut while clenching his molars like this.
He had to wait until this man left.
No matter what happens today, I have to go collect sap. I’ve already delayed too much. Moreover, the wood grain caught by his fingers was soft, so he thought it might rain.
So he had to collect the sap before that.
Woonghee waited, suppressing and killing his breath. In the meantime, the breath pouring onto his skin faded, and the pheromones gradually bowed their head.
“……”
“……”
How far had the man gone by now? Had he opened the door yet? Or had he already opened the door and left earlier? His head filled densely with Managing Director Gi like smoke.
…He must have left by now, right? As he stealthily lifted his eyelid, thud, his heart sank. White eyes that glittered filled his entire field of vision. His own face was embedded right in the center of those pitch-black pupils. A face with emotions chillingly stripped away.
“You have to answer that you understand. That’s what makes you a good boy, right?”
Thud, thud, thud, he rumbled in his throat. This crazy man had been killing even his breathing sounds and suppressing his pheromones to make him feel at ease. Woonghee felt unpleasant as if set on fire.
Woonghee pushed away his stiff shoulder firmly and got up. Yesterday’s peace felt exactly like a dream. Now it had become wings and flown away.
“Wherever I go, isn’t that my freedom?”
With a snort, the man let out a sneer. His large hand moved. The direction was heading terrifyingly downward.
‘No.’
Woonghee flinched involuntarily.
Warning sounds blared noisily in his mind, shooting blood-red lasers, but it was already too late.
“Ugh…!”
The man’s hand immediately grabbed his ankle. Yesterday he’d acted as if handling a precious work of art, saying it reminded him of the swan he used to raise.
Now like this, squeeze—he was pressing down mercilessly on the ankle swollen thick like an elephant’s leg. Ugh, Woonghee endured the pain while grinding his molars.
“With this leg?”
As if demanding an answer, the man exerted his strength roughly. The pressing force grew even stronger. Woonghee trembled like a dragonfly with torn wings. He was like a strict controller. As if telling him to chew through all the pain under his hand to the very end.
The man’s thick fingers roughly scraped the wood grain in a straight line. From the tips of his nails came a crunching, grinding sound.
“I told you not to leave here.”
“You crazy…!”
Woonghee flailed like a frog with broken hind legs. His bone ached so much it seemed it would shatter. At this rate, his ankle might break off, and it wouldn’t be strange at all….
He scraped the floor in agony. He tried to grab the man’s calf but failed. His fingernails could only scratch the smooth suit pants. Rather, it was Managing Director Gi who seized the upper hand. Tremendous strength grabbed Woonghee’s nape.
“Button up.”
The thick thumb, the incomparably rough skin rubbed Woonghee’s nape. Woonghee’s low-set skin trembled. It was maddeningly dog-like. The fact that even in this situation, a ticklish sensation welled up….
“Why on earth are you doing this? Why are you so sensitive again today…!”
He forcibly swallowed down the words “fucking” into his throat.
“I fully understand that it hurts. But Woonghee-ssi, your words are quite harsh.”
Do you want to receive some art therapy too?
Was he trying to give punishment while saying that? Managing Director Gi suddenly opened his jaw wide. He roughly sank his molars into Woonghee’s nape. It felt like his artery was being bitten.
His heart writhed violently. Each time he opened his mouth, fear poured out in waves. Ugh, Woonghee’s limbs squirmed as if twisting. The man released the nape he’d bitten down on hard with a ptooey from his mouth.
Soon he buried his nose in the mark he’d bitten and inhaled deeply.
“That’s why you should have listened to me, Woonghee-ssi.”
Hot heat rushed to his nape. Undoubtedly, pieces would be positioned in a mottled red and purple pattern as if bitten by insects.
Bastard, this way he had no choice but to button up his shirt, didn’t he? Woonghee grabbed his own collar himself.
“This bastard….”
“You don’t listen and give me a headache.”
Only then satisfied, the man went out to hunt like a predator. Only then was he left alone. Trapped in the bungalow, Woonghee rubbed his nape where his traces remained and gasped for breath.
“I have to… escape.”
From this man. From the man’s pheromones clinging to his body, to the hair behind his ears, to the back of his knees—he had to escape.
Soon, creeeak, the bungalow door opened. Bright sunlight poured onto his entire face.
