When I nodded, the vet said nothing more and confirmed they would proceed.
When I came out of the examination room, the staff at the desk handed me several consent forms and documents. The consent form stated that even if the animal died during treatment, the hospital would bear no legal responsibility and the guardian would raise no claims. The moment I read those words, my hands began to shake.
I was trembling when the man, who had come out of the examination room after me and drawn up beside me, said:
“It’s going to live.”
“…….”
A man who wasn’t even a professional, saying it as though it were obvious.
But at those words, the trembling stopped — like magic — and I finished signing.
I filled in my basic personal information, and then…
The next field I saw was for the dog’s name. My hand hesitated again.
I thought for a moment, then pressed the pen down firmly and wrote. It felt like something irreversible had just happened — but there was no hesitation in it. Only a crossing of desperate longing and helplessness toward something.
“Muki?”
The man looked at the name I’d written for the dog with a puzzled expression. He seemed curious about the meaning.
Stays quiet without even barking — so Muki. What else would I call it.
I handed over the completed form, and just like that, I paid five million won upfront in a single payment — covering today’s treatment fee plus the upcoming hospitalization, testing, and all other treatment costs.
The moment I stepped out of the veterinary clinic, cold air rushed in.
“Haah.”
The second I was outside, I bowed my head and let out everything that had been coiled inside — the tension, the anxiety — expelled through my mouth. I’d been breathing the whole time, but this was the first time it felt like I was really exhaling.
“Oh.”
The thought of the man hit me belatedly and I snapped my head up.
A beautiful man in an elegant suit.
I never could have imagined running into a VIP client on the street outside of West Hollywood. My mouth went dry in an instant.
“I’m sorry for bringing you all the way here.”
“…….”
The man didn’t answer. He just watched me, boring through me with those uncommonly beautiful eyes. Looking at his expression alone, he seemed indifferent to me — but his eyes always followed me wherever I went. The kind of gaze that made me feel like he had something to say, or that I was doing something wrong.
Wait.
I’d only been working there two days, wearing a mask and assigned exclusively to VIP duty. Why had he helped me without a second thought? Could a man who seemed so far from kind have recognized me as a West Hollywood player and helped me because of that? But regardless of whether he’d recognized me or not — I should have pretended not to know him.
West Hollywood wasn’t an adult entertainment venue for nothing. It managed everything with strict secrecy, severing all external connections and prioritizing client privacy above all else — I couldn’t let myself acknowledge him and put the man in an uncomfortable position.
“I’ve been indebted to you on our very first meeting. I’d like to at least offer something in return…”
“You don’t remember?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m saying you’ve forgotten again.”
“…….”
Is he upset that I pretended not to know him, even though he’s a VIP client?
It seemed like he had recognized me after all. He’d probably figured it out from my build or voice. Perceptive doesn’t begin to cover it.
There was no point in playing dumb any further.
“No, I remember.”
“Then why did you pretend not to know me.”
“It wasn’t that I was pretending — I’m sorry. I thought acknowledging you outside of work hours might put you in an awkward position. I had no intention of offending you.”
“…….”
The man closed his mouth again and turned his head to the side.
The straight, sharp line of his nose and jaw formed a relatively soft curve — pale and refined. Someone beautiful from the front is something else entirely from the side too.
Though my eyes must be going mad for thinking that expression looks like he’s sulking.
Then it struck me that I’d forgotten the most important thing I needed to say, and I reached out and lightly caught the man’s sleeve. His eyes turned toward me.
“I… thank you.”
“…….”
“Because of you, it’s going to live.”
There were still many hurdles ahead — but without him, the dog… Muki would never have made it through today.
“…You’re grateful?”
“Yes.”
The man asked as if he were turning my words over carefully. Then, as though repeating an unfamiliar word, he murmured “grateful…” to himself several times.
I gave a firm nod.
At that, the man opened his mouth.
“Then stay still.”
“Pardon?”
I couldn’t make sense of what he’d said out of nowhere and asked back — when the man, without a word of reply, suddenly swept me up into his arms.
“W-wait a moment! What are you—!”
I startled and was about to struggle when the man’s voice came again.
“Still.”
I stopped moving entirely in that instant. And just like that, the man carried me in his arms toward the vehicle we’d arrived in. The person who had been sitting in the passenger seat rushed out and opened the rear door — but the man, unbothered, opened the front passenger door and set me inside.
“……??”
I had no idea what the man was doing as I was placed in the passenger seat and even had the seatbelt fastened around me. I glanced back — the person who had driven us here was gone without a trace, and in his place, the man had climbed into the driver’s seat.
Clunk.
The door closed, and the car moved as the man drove. In the side mirror, the two grown men standing stranded in the middle of the road grew smaller and smaller.
I sat there dumbfounded, then snapped back to my senses.
Why is he taking me—?
The direction was opposite to where I’d been before getting in the car. I stole a glance at the man behind the wheel. He was looking straight ahead, turning the steering wheel smoothly with hands clad in black leather gloves.
He seemed calm right now — but knowing full well that his nature ran like fire, I asked as carefully as I could.
“Um… where are we going, may I ask?”
At that, the man only shifted his eyes over to me briefly, then turned back to the road.
I was starting to wonder if he had no intention of answering when the man opened his mouth.
“What does Muki mean?”
“Pardon?”
“Muki.”
He’s asking about the dog’s name now, of all things?
It was baffling — and yet I answered anyway.
“Because it stays quiet without barking.”
Whether it chose not to bark or simply couldn’t, I still don’t know.
“Just like you.”
The man said it. I wasn’t sure what he meant at first — and then a day I’d finally managed to forget came rushing back. The day that man had beaten me half to death and tried to violate me, and had looked down at me as I stood frozen and remarked that I didn’t even bark.
That day — which the man could apparently bring up this casually, as though it meant nothing.
The gratitude I’d felt for even a brief moment withered away, leaving behind only the stench of something rotten in its place. I felt a coldness settle somewhere around my chest, and I turned my gaze out the window.
“I suppose so. Couldn’t even bark.”
“…….”
I could feel the man’s sharp gaze on me from the side — but I said nothing more and kept staring out the window.
In the meantime, the car arrived somewhere unfamiliar.
A wrought iron gate in a grid pattern opened automatically, and as we passed through, a clean, orderly parking lot came into view. Surrounding it were cars that were expensive at a glance — and the man’s vehicle pulled without hesitation into the finest available spot, as though it had always been reserved for him.
The sheer weight of the place pressed down on my shoulders from the parking lot alone and I found myself shrinking slightly — when the man got out of the driver’s seat. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me.
Is he telling me to get out?
The moment I hurried to undo my seatbelt, something caught beneath me and at my waist, and my body lifted off the ground. Having been held like this a handful of times, I was almost getting used to the warmth of his arms — and those arms that wrapped tightly around me were even steadying. The man had picked me up again.
The difference in our builds was simply that extreme — I was 178 centimeters tall. And yet the man carried this grown adult without any strained movement, stepping forward as if it were nothing.
Thank god it was a parking lot with no one around. Otherwise I’d have shown someone a sight I had no intention of showing. Still, the personal embarrassment was very much there, so I gently touched the man’s arm and said:
“I… I can walk.”
“You can’t.”
“My arm is like this, but my legs are fine.”
“Still.”
Is he training a dog.
Every sentence, a command.
So I stayed still.
The man carried me out of the elevator, pushed open a door that looked expensive even from the outside, and went in.
Inside, a pleasant fragrance greeted me first — and then the view opened up before my eyes. Even the West Hollywood VIP rooms were nowhere near this. I was afraid to even breathe in here. It felt as though the good scent of this place might be soiled by the air coming out of my lungs.
The man moved to set me down onto a sofa that looked like a field of clean white snow.
“W-wait.”
I quickly threw my arms around the man’s neck. It was a refusal — don’t put me down.
He paused mid-motion and then wrapped his arms back around my waist like vines and lifted me again. Completely unprepared, I held onto his neck for a long moment and didn’t let go.
Before the man could set me down again, I rushed to speak.
“I — I can’t!”
The words had come out almost unconsciously. The sofa was so pristine that the moment I touched it, I felt like I would ruin it. In the process, the single shoe I still had left dropped to the floor with a soft thud.
At the sound, I reflexively turned my head and looked down.
A worn, dirty sneaker with the sole completely worn through.
Covered in dust and every kind of filth — it was agonizingly out of place here. And I, too, was no different from that shoe.
That feeling became something close to fear, and I felt it tighten around my throat.
