“Can we place an order too? I get a bit impatient when I’m thirsty.”
“……”
“It’s fucking hot outside right now.”
The suffocating silence that followed for a few seconds made his head spin.
Yeon Cheonguk stumbled briefly and braced himself against the table. Hwang Jegu’s pupils glanced over Yeon Cheonguk before returning to their original position.
At this point, it seemed like Hwang Jegu had deliberately chosen a seat close by to pick a fight with the third-rate gang members. After all, the first-class seats at Canmoa were the swing seats, business class was the window tables, and the least popular seats were the sofas crammed together in the hall. Yet there seemed to be a reason why he’d deliberately positioned himself here.
Sparks flew from Kkakdugi’s eyes for a moment. As he kicked back his chair and stood up, slamming the table with a bang, his colleagues around him tried to restrain him.
“Hyung-nim, calm down, calm down. Let’s not make a scene for no reason. If hyung-nim steps in, this won’t end as kids’ play.”
“When this hyung-nim throws a punch, knocking out an eye is nothing.”
“Hey kid. While hyung-nim is being generous, shut your mouth properly and lick his shoes.”
As they made a loud show of restraining him while threatening, Kkakdugi sat down spewing curses. Hwang Jegu remained completely silent throughout. He merely gazed at them lightly. His expression seemed to say even mockery would be a waste on them.
When Hwang Jegu didn’t talk back, they arbitrarily took it as a sign of submission. They made a fuss saying his words got stuck because he was scared. However, on Kkakdugi’s face as he turned back around, there remained a somehow dissatisfied aftertaste.
Had he felt it too? That wordless threat flowing from between Hwang Jegu’s thick eyebrows down along his long nose bridge. Yeon Cheonguk didn’t want to believe in that thing like a faint murderous intent.
“Um, just a moment. I’ll take your order and make the call right away.”
For now, Yeon Cheonguk added an explanation to prevent Kkakdugi from exploding. Kkakdugi still glared at Yeon Cheonguk with frightening eyes.
Hwang Jegu said nothing. While Yeon Cheonguk took the table’s order, all he said was one word: “Coffee.” Then he merely scanned Yeon Cheonguk from head to toe with a gaze whose intentions were hard to read.
Coming to the counter, Yeon Cheonguk relayed the order to the kitchen, then pulled Kkakdugi’s cell phone from his pocket.
“…Boss, can I just make a quick call…”
“Yeah! I’ll watch the counter, go ahead!”
After getting permission from the boss, he opened the flip phone again. It was time to press some number, any number.
From the counter, he could see the back of Hwang Jegu sitting with one leg cockily crossed over his knee. He had his head slightly turned, but it was ambiguous whether he was glancing toward the counter or looking at the door waiting for someone to arrive.
Suddenly, Hwang Jegu turned his head forward. He stretched his right leg out long beyond the sofa and exhaled a breath—haa.
“When you’re lonely, call for me, what’s troubling your heart… you know that I want you…”
He started humming a DJ DOC song while fiddling with the edge of his water glass with his index finger. He looked like he’d finished assessing some situation. The habit of pressing and scraping the cup seemed strange.
At the same time, he became curious about what made that action leave such a sticky yet dangerous impression.
Second, he wondered how he could act so fearlessly,
Third, he was puzzled whether that behavior was genuine or just an act,
And he wanted to know where exactly that spark was rising from within him.
He couldn’t bear his curiosity about the cause of the flame-like excitement rising from the center of Yeon Cheonguk’s being to his head. Was it because of Hwang Jegu’s behavior sitting over there, or because of extreme fear?
Why had Hwang Jegu come here?
He had a bored expression, as if the air he’d frozen in this place was none of his concern. The gesture of his fingers stickily rubbing the mug slowed down even more.
Hwang Jegu, resting his chin in his hand, opened his flip phone with one hand—snap. One hand rubbed the glass while the other busily pressed the keypad. Beep beep beep beep, while sending someone a rather long text message, he wore an annoyed expression.
After finishing sending the text and putting down his phone, Hwang Jegu yawned and straightened his back. He looked around the shop while smoothing back his upright sports-style hair again.
Meanwhile, the Kkakdugi gang sitting at the diagonal table laughed raucously throughout. Crude language, including jokes about how soccer players who made mistakes should be drowned, was polluting the atmosphere of the colorful juice shop.
He was anxious as if walking on thin ice because he couldn’t predict what was about to happen. As time passed, the confusion only grew. Why had Hwang Jegu come here? He couldn’t have come because he answered the shop’s phone. It would have been an unknown number. Even if it was coincidence, the strange thing was that in over a year of working part-time here, he’d never seen him. Suddenly they decided to gather at the fruit juice shop where Yeon Cheonguk worked?
His usual dating spots wouldn’t be this place that was a girls’ sanctuary, but rather dark alleys, or perhaps warehouses full of glue smell where slave roleplay and sex machine games took place. If so, the most certain possibility would be toying with an errand boy. Even if it was to come find the manga errand boy who was absent on the closing ceremony day to mess with him… why this timing of all times?
He asked once more. Why had Hwang Jegu come here?
In extreme tension, Yeon Cheonguk, who had unconsciously been rubbing the corner of the register with his index finger following Hwang Jegu, awoke from his escapism. It was because his girlfriend had jumped into view.
‘What! Are you two close?’
Kim Yuyoung had come running toward the counter with her friend’s arm linked in hers. She was passing by in front pretending to go to the bathroom. Though he wished she would just sit in her seat in this situation where he was practically at a crossroads between life and death, she deliberately came over and spoke with her mouth and expression. He responded instead by shrugging his shoulders like a cunning snake and blowing a hand kiss.
Now was the point where he could delay no longer. The Kkakdugi gang’s patience must have reached its limit. He had to call someone.
After agonizing, Yeon Cheonguk remembered the phone number of the labor office. While pressing the buttons one by one, he thought of countermeasures to follow. Even if the dial tone was cut off in the middle, he would act like they weren’t answering. And while pretending to call again, when those guys let their guard down, he would run away… and if he could just escape and get into a nearby police station… then…
It was the moment when his heart was pounding like it would burst before Kkakdugi’s gaze flying from afar.
“Ah…! Fucking hell…!”
Bang! Hwang Jegu suddenly slammed the table. All the customers’ eyes gathered at the loud noise.
“Why, why? Your Majesty. What’s wrong? You scared me!”
“Have mercy!”
Gakseori, wrapped in flashy fashion today as well, was fooling around. Hwang Jegu frowned. Gakseori, who closed his mouth, began carefully reading the atmosphere. He seemed to have sensed the atmosphere right before something was about to happen.
“Fuck… Taking up seats where pretty girls should sit and muddying the waters. Go to a nightclub and dance to techno. Guys who’d have to pay under the table to even get into a neighborhood club.”
At the unbelievable muttering, a second silence swept through the shop. The third-rate gang members momentarily lost their words and turned their heads toward Hwang Jegu in unison.
Inside the shop was quiet as if even breathing sounds had been removed. In the soundless vacuum-like state, Hwang Jegu leaned his upper body over the table.
“Ahjussi, is your parfait tasty?”
“……”
In that instant, Yeon Cheonguk was seized by an intense sensation. It was similar to the time when he’d been captivated and drawn into <Berserk>. An excitement resembling the feeling of being entranced by the rough art style and the blood splattered everywhere swept through his whole body.
A silence where one second felt like one minute continued. Now that everyone’s movements had stopped, the only thing that moved was Hwang Jegu’s raised corner of his mouth.
From there flowed a low, cool tone.
“Have you eaten so much sweet stuff that you can’t understand what I’m saying?”
“……”
Customers who judged they needed to get away immediately ran out in terror. Even in the moment the shop door opened and closed, the two men’s gazes remained fixed on each other without blinking.
“Ahjussi. Is the cherry parfait really that delicious?”
While holding his breath and swallowing dry saliva, Yeon Cheonguk saw it. Kkakdugi’s two pupils with reason completely gone.
“Fuck, you little shit…”
Kkakdugi stood up while pushing the sofa back. As the glasses on the table crashed to the floor with a clatter due to his tantrum, screams erupted from here and there at the tables. There were even some in the group who got up and hurriedly fled.
Kim Yuyoung, who had been about to come back in, was also swept along down the stairs by friends who were just escaping. While going down, she exchanged a look with Yeon Cheonguk. In her eyes were great anxiety and doubt, and also distrust toward a boyfriend who kept getting caught up in incidents like this.
