The owner’s complexion turned pale in an instant. He wasn’t frightened. Yeon Cheonguk, who witnessed a kind of cold anger in the owner looking at Hwang Jegu that he’d never seen before in his life, was momentarily left speechless.
This was the first time the two had encountered each other at such close range. The silent current coldly clashing between the two people was enough to give him goosebumps.
Hwang Jegu raised the corners of his mouth tepidly without any change in expression.
“Why, does this kid need someone’s permission to talk with his benefactor from the past?”
“……”
“A goody-two-shoes who’s never even been near Kangwon Land should back off.”
Hwang Jegu, who blocked the owner’s next words and actions with one sentence, took the lead. A sharp light flashed in the gaze he left behind for Yeon Cheonguk as he turned around.
It was already late, and being together in a dim place was dangerous. Yeon Cheonguk took out his subway ticket and belongings, blatantly showing signs of wanting to end the conversation quickly. When he faced him squarely with an MP3 player with earphones connected in his hand, Hwang Jegu sneered with an extremely arrogant expression.
“Does that ahjussi treat you well?”
“Treat me well how?”
“I let you go to debut, and now you’re sitting there doing compensated dating.”
Since those words telling him to get out of his world, they’d lived as strangers for nearly a year. This was so sudden it was just absurd. He’d mentioned his father, so Yeon Cheonguk had wondered if there was some problem with what happened in Jeongseon last year. Maybe it was just something he said to swagger in front of the owner.
Hwang Jegu’s eyes were still like a growling lion.
“Are you weak to age, or weak to money? You’re reading people’s moods, fuck.”
“……You should learn to read adults’ moods too, you gangster of all gangsters.”
After throwing out aggressive words, he got scared and glanced forward. He couldn’t see what expression Hwang Jegu, who stood in the darkness outside the streetlight, was making.
If rumors spread that someone had just said those lines to that existence standing before his eyes, everyone would consider it a fabricated rumor! He’d spat out curses instead of calling him Your Majesty!
Hwang Jegu was still doing things his way, as if he hadn’t heard Yeon Cheonguk’s impudent words.
“Why are you clutching onto an MP3 that should go in the trash?”
“…?”
Yeon Cheonguk lowered his head. Strange lines and symbols were blinking on the MP3 player’s LCD screen.
One funny fact was that in Yeon Cheonguk’s world right now, this bastard was the only one who noticed the MP3 was broken. Was it because his recent sadness had been touched head-on? Yeon Cheonguk couldn’t get angrier or leave the spot.
As he silently gripped the MP3 tightly, Hwang Jegu opened his mouth again.
“Is Yeon Taeho-ssi doing well?”
“What kind of shitty greeting is that all of a sudden? If you came to bully me, then just bully me.”
Yeon Cheonguk still didn’t know exactly what happened in Gangwon Province. It was true that he flinched every time Hwang Jegu mentioned his father.
He took a step back and avoided Hwang Jegu. At Yeon Cheonguk’s attitude of even being reluctant to stand close, Hwang Jegu’s face faintly hardened. A dry wind seemed to blow from his deep, dark eyes.
“How much do you earn by being coquettish under that ahjussi?”
“2,500 won per hour.”
“Then earn 100,000 won under me.”
What he threw out next while clicking his lighter in his pocket was shocking.
“Let’s do compensated dating with me.”
Hwang Jegu, who had held his head up straight, suddenly pretended to undo his jeans buckle. Yeon Cheonguk twisted his expression. What came back was a grinning face….
Crazy bastard…….
***
That bastard, for some reason, suddenly let Yeon Cheonguk back into his world out of nowhere.
And what he abruptly held out was a silver electronic dictionary. At first he wondered when he saw the box, but when he opened it, he was surprised to find something unexpected inside.
“What is this?”
“I couldn’t stand the English pronunciation of your song lyrics. It’s like dried-up cow shit. Study pronunciation for three songs a day and get tested. I’m going to watch you roll your tongue properly.”
So he’s buying an electronic dictionary? Even a passing dog would laugh. He must want something else. Yeon Cheonguk looked at Hwang Jegu with a blank face.
“The sound quality will be much better than that trash from yesterday.”
Of course it would be. The MP3 was already over 4 years old and this was the latest electronic dictionary.
He scoffed with a face that showed no emotion.
“It’s shiny and tempting, but too bad. I won’t be at school soon.”
Yeon Cheonguk was even thinking of dropping out. Yeon Cheonguk knew himself well. He wasn’t someone who could bet everything on the college entrance exam and live a late-blooming exam life just by getting pinpoint tutoring now. Even if he gave up his debut and focused on studying, the wave Yeon Cheonguk wanted to ride wasn’t in books.
Yeon Cheonguk had to sail on the flowing waves made by song and go out into the world. That’s how he was a living person. Song was Yeon Cheonguk’s only rest and life, having no comfortable place to rest.
If he said he’d go to applied music or musical major, it was obvious the house would turn upside down. Then college wasn’t necessary.
Still, dropping out—what would he do after dropping out? He was thinking of earning money. To double the 1 million won his father and mother had saved with difficulty and return it.
It was a statement Yeon Cheonguk made with resolve in his own way, but Hwang Jegu just frowned deeply.
“Are you going to seriously start sexual tribute?”
“Stop with the crazy talk….”
“No way, I need to graduate.”
He glared thinking what kind of bullshit this was, but the guy was firm.
“No, because I’m bored. Go to school.”
“Ha…… You….”
“What are you going to do as a middle school graduate? Even I, a worn-out gangster bastard, am suffering like a dog to become a high school graduate.”
To think such a conversation was happening—really, that kiss on the stormy day last year seemed to have become a non-event. The threats he suddenly spat out were absurd, but that point was even more absurd.
“Listen. Why, should, I?”
“When you earn 2,500 won per hour being coquettish at Canmoa, I earn roughly 3 million per month outside.”
“So?”
“Now, we’re going to secretly do compensated dating at night on these days.”
Hwang Jegu got straight to the point and handed over an adult comic book. A bubble gum wrapper was tucked between the pages. Seeing him tap the gum paper with “Fuck” scribbled on it, he seemed to be talking about days when this note was in the comic book.
“If you bring the electronic dictionary and get tested on pronunciation practice for three songs, I’ll give you payment in return. The payment will vary depending on your state and voice condition that day. Since I’m buying your time in exchange for your debut, dropping out won’t do.”
Yeon Cheonguk spread both palms and shook his head. Not understanding, he raised his voice and asked.
“…Why on earth? Are you going to exploit me like a pimp and embezzle company money if I succeed?”
“What, are you smart because you’ve been rolling around so much? Company acquisition isn’t that difficult either.”
……Ah, I understand.
In other words, he means to fatten up Yeon Cheonguk nicely and then devour the company too.
His mind started spinning rapidly. Two sweet candies called debut and payment had entered his mouth.
Did Yeon Cheonguk have anything to lose? He wasn’t interested in running the company anyway, so it didn’t matter as long as it wasn’t a slave contract. If Hwang Jegu later tried to exploit Yeon Cheonguk at events with his fists? He could expose him using his fan base. Since he was a bastard who even collected money under the pretext of being a mediator maintaining peace between the butcher shop, redevelopment committee, and schools, it seemed okay to think of him as a walking money source. Yeon Cheonguk’s eyes became drowsy as he worked his brain.
“How much?”
Hwang Jegu spread his index and middle fingers. A minimum of 200,000 won. It was a condition more than tempting enough.
“…What if I can’t debut? Don’t I have to spit it all back out?”
“Did I say I was extorting you? Who invests like that? What you have to do is sing your heart out until I turn exactly twenty on my resident registration age and acquire your shabby agency. That song you love so much you’re jumping around.”
Plant Yeon Cheonguk in a poor agency with almost no value and invest,
Yeon Cheonguk gets a large sum now,
And Hwang Jegu acquires a company next year—that’s the contract.
They’re dealing voice and business opportunity.
Every word Hwang Jegu said was stimulating all the deficiency and desire that Yeon Cheonguk was struggling with.
Three songs for 200,000 won payment. Thinking of his father who couldn’t get a decent job and even went to construction sites, it wasn’t something he couldn’t do.
How much would it take, how much would be enough? You have a lot of money, don’t you?
Yeon Cheonguk, who had been working his brain while recalling a scene from a melodrama, raised his head and proposed.
“250,000 won or more per time.”
Until he said this, Hwang Jegu watched the entire process of Yeon Cheonguk making a wicked expression for a moment, calculating coldly, and his eyes becoming hazy for a moment from stimulation, and a smile also appeared on Hwang Jegu’s lips.
“Deal.”
And detailed conditions were attached.
“You have to quit all those shitty night flyers, Canmoa, and part-time jobs selling your face—you know that without me saying it, right?”
It was regrettable to quit the weekend juice shop part-time job he’d worked at for a long time. But since money was money, and since he was a senior and had no time, it made sense. But the next condition was sudden.
“Cell phones are also prohibited.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why?”
“Because even if I give you a phone, you’ll just roll around with girls and that ahjussi.”
