“What?”
Woonghee rubbed the milk from his lips vigorously with the back of his hand. The white liquid smeared against the soft fuzz embedded on his cheeks.
“Is something weird written on it?”
The white milk that hadn’t been wiped off yet gleamed brightly in the light. It was a charming face, like a rabbit with water all over its whiskers.
“……”
Tula stared blankly as if he’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer. It felt like his skull had cracked open and brain matter was dripping out. In the Philippines, they ate rabbits too. They’d strip off the white fur and sell them skewered on sticks. Woonghee had been shocked when he saw that at the market.
But seeing how his mouth watered just looking at this face, he really was a Filipino man after all. Such beauty. Laughter leaked out, seeping through. Like a bastard who’d huffed drugs from a happy balloon. Like some punk who’d sniffed cheap glue.
“Hey, why are you just gaping with your mouth shut?”
His ears were captivated by the exotic language bursting from those lips. While feeling enchanted by Woonghee’s two eyes sparkling pristinely like ripples, his gaze was stolen by the necklace hanging on that slender, white nape.
……That fucking, shitty necklace!
He wanted to snatch it from Woonghee right away. Even chewing it up with his teeth wouldn’t be enough, yet strangely, the reddish jewel emitted a bewitching red light on Woonghee’s white skin.
There’s a saying like that. That jewels choose their owner. The face of the owner who had held that jewel in his hand, Managing Director Gi, naturally came to mind. The bright red blood that had splattered fiercely over his smiling lips too. And the gaze that had gone mad with insanity as he coveted Woonghee.
In that moment, goosebumps rose on Tula’s nape.
A chilling cold wrapped around his whole body. Looking at him inevitably brought to mind a Filipino ghost. An aswang. A monster that, despite wearing a human face, sucks out human entrails and blood.
As he was scratching both arms vigorously with his hands, the refrigerator door slammed shut roughly. Woonghee had closed it.
“You usually run your mouth just fine. Are you sleeping? Sleeping standing up?”
Woonghee, who had been ignored several times, raised his voice. His personality was inherently impatient and fiery, so he yelled out loud, but Tula, happy about something, smiled so wide his mouth reached his ears as he spoke.
[The, the owner of this place is coming in 2, 2 weeks.]
Com, coming…….
Surely someone would come, and nothing would happen. I’ll take you away, Woong. I have to protect you, I must.
* * *
Director Hwang ate like a fucking pig, then hugged the spam can like a honey pot and fell asleep snoring loudly. And Woonghee went into the bathroom.
Actually, well, it was embarrassing to even call it a bathroom. All the blue tiles were broken, and there wasn’t even a cobra showerhead. He just had to take the stream of water pouring down from the ceiling like a lightning strike.
But even so, what of it? To Woonghee, this was a 5-star hotel, a suite room, an omakase restaurant.
“Wow……”
Whoooosh, a cool stream of water poured down. How long had it been since he’d seen a bathroom? Ha, fuck. The benefits of civilization are really fucking amazing.
Both the shampoo and body wash had something or other scribbled on them in English, so he just grabbed a bar of soap and scrubbed his head with it. Scrub scrub, roughly rubbing himself down like a man in his 50s using a back scrubber, he let out a groan of “Kugh.” He was as satisfied as a laborer twisting off the red cap of soju after hard labor.
“Ugh, feels fucking refreshing……”
He was so refreshed that goosebumps rose all along his spine. As he was enjoying his shower gleefully like that, the back of Woonghee’s neck turned cold. Because he felt someone else’s breath, not his own. He whipped his head around. Sure enough, a black silhouette flickered under the shower curtain.
“You’re dead, you fucking bastard. I’ve got a brick.”
In case he didn’t understand, he smashed the window with the brick. Crash, the glass scattered. At the powerful threat, someone made a “hiik” sound and ran away hurriedly.
“Crazy bastard, hasn’t come to his senses yet.”
It was Tula, as expected. Woonghee sneered and rinsed off the soap bubbles. Water pooled between his white toes. Sloshing, and before he knew it, it had quickly filled up to his ankles.
Why the hell isn’t the water draining……
Only then did he check the drain, and Woonghee almost vomited his heart out of his mouth.
“Ack!”
Even Woonghee, who didn’t usually make a fuss, was startled enough to jump. Fuck, he thought a ghost was sticking out its legs, but wasn’t there a clump of pitch-black hair?
“Ah, fuck, you scared me.”
It was a scene that would have made a normal person shriek and run away already. But Woonghee just smacked his lips a few times. Smack, while rubbing his body as if it was nothing.
A moment later, Woonghee came out of the bathroom, tap tap, rubbing the moisture off his body with a towel. Light reflected off his white body, making it gleam smoothly. He draped the towel over his shoulder with a swoosh. His hair hung down damply, and his red lips sparkled seductively. He rummaged through the wardrobe and roughly pulled on some pants.
Sleek, shiny boxing shorts hung loosely on his pelvis.
He took out a can of beer from the refrigerator and pop, opened it. Cooling his throat refreshingly was really fucking amazing. While rubbing away the white foam flowing down his smooth chest, he looked around.
……Just what kind of bastard lived here?
He didn’t even know what purpose this place was used for. It was dirty like a garbage dump, and there were all kinds of knives. The blades were uniformly long and sharp. There was bright red blood soaked in various places, and he didn’t know how shocked he was at first.
It didn’t seem to be human blood, and he thought maybe they’d sliced fish for sashimi. Or maybe they’d skinned crocodiles.
Plus, there were a fucking lot of drums. Something was written on the outer surface, but he couldn’t tell what it said at all. When he asked Tula, he just tilted his head. It seemed like Tagalog, but he didn’t know the meaning. Useless bastard.
There were military boots, pornographic magazines piled up in heaps, tons of cigarette butts, and flip-flops of all different sizes. It seemed like quite a few people had used this space.
“Is this a place retired soldiers used as a vacation home?”
Well, what did it matter either way? Someone said they’d come in two weeks, so he could request rescue then.
At this point, there was nothing to fear or be scared of. People become miserable when they have no power or no money. But the people here now had quite a bit of power, and hadn’t they suddenly become nouveau riche?
……Of course, it wasn’t by choice.
Without realizing it, Woonghee fiddled with his nape. He felt a cold sensation at his fingertips. Then he flinched and pulled his hand away.
“……”
Again. He’d inadvertently thought of that man again. A man he’d abandoned, a man who had desperately cried out for him to come back, whom he hadn’t even looked back at. He didn’t know why he kept bursting into his head like lightning.
Why was he thinking of that man even after coming here? He must be crazy. Let’s only think good thoughts, only good thoughts.
Woonghee took off even his worker boots neatly to one side and jumped onto the bed. He never carelessly stepped onto the bed with shoes on. Those kinds of bastards needed to be beaten with fists. It was the kind of shit only yellow-haired bastards who didn’t know Confucianism would do.
Creak, the cheap mattress made a crushing sound, unable to bear Woonghee’s body. Woonghee lay down comfortably face-first and relaxed his body completely, living the good life.
How long had it been since he felt this kind of comfort…….
His stomach was full, he was refreshed from washing, and his back was warm, so he was in the best mood. In the middle of his white, smooth back where muscles were firmly defined, the erector spinae muscles were erotically sunken in.
He’d run away from that demon-like bastard Managing Director Gi, so what more was there to worry about? It was all unfounded worry, just unfounded worry. Everything’s good, everything’s really good……. This is really why I escaped.
As the tension released, his body stretched out drowsily. His eyelids began to close smoothly. Crossing the sea hadn’t been easy at all. A moment later, his fist dropped down with a thud. His breathing gradually lengthened with each gentle breath. The brick placed by his pillow was guarding Woonghee like his bodyguard.
“……Whew.”
In the dark room, moonlight streamed through the small window in the old wall. It illuminated the cheek of sleeping Woonghee.
Soon, not long after, a small light sparkled from far away. The lighthouse was flashing.
-.. — .-.. .- –.– — .-
Woonghee’s white face sparkled and then was dyed in darkness again.
“……Ngh.”
Whether the light was dazzling, Woonghee pulled the blanket over himself. He covered up to below his nose and turned over. Then he completely fell into sleep. Without seeing even a bit of the light’s dance.
“……”
Dawn gradually broke like that. In the redly burning sky, the lighthouse’s light had grown faint before long, and Woonghee yaaaawned and got up, folding his blanket.
He scratched the back of his head with his hand. He’d already shaken off all the painful thoughts. Now Woonghee’s head was filled only with sweet and savory concerns.
What should I take out of the refrigerator to eat? Behind Woonghee lazily raising his upper body from the bed, a faint light sparkled.
The lighthouse was still shining.
Like the moon floating wherever he went, chasing after Woonghee obsessively, pathologically.
