“Enjoy your meal, Manager-nim.”
“Yes. I’ll eat well.”
He slipped in and sat beside him, but there was no look questioning why he sat so close. It was natural. The sofa was a two-seater. If not beside him, he’d have to sit on the floor across from him. Sitting beside him was more natural than the floor.
Since they’d never sat this close except when having sex, Surim was extremely satisfied with the current situation.
“Surim-ssi.”
“Y-yes?”
“Staring at me like that, don’t tell me.”
Song Hanyeong leaned his upper body forward and whispered.
“You want to do it?”
“…N-no?! No! No!”
A languid gaze turned toward Surim. Surim was startled and pulled his upper body back. Then Song Hanyeong, who snorted with laughter, picked up an individually wrapped cookie.
He was someone who liked to tease with a face that looked like he wasn’t doing anything of the sort. His lips pouted unnecessarily, but in truth, Surim liked that side of Song Hanyeong too.
He didn’t even dislike the Song Hanyeong he’d seen during the day today. More precisely, the fact that he had such a tough side was unexpected, and the fact that there were still many things he didn’t know about Song Hanyeong was delightful. Because it meant he could learn even more going forward.
How many more facets did this person have? It would be wonderful if he could know them all.
“But what’s the occasion for inviting me all the way inside your house today? I’m sure you seemed uncomfortable with it before.”
“Back then, it wasn’t cleaned…”
“And now you’ve cleaned.”
Song Hanyeong’s gaze turned to the magazines piled haphazardly on the floor and a single sock that had no business being there.
Surim quickly picked up the sock and hid it behind his back.
“I-it’s cleaned in my own way!”
“In your own way.”
“Don’t nitpick my words.”
Surim grumbled back and returned after putting the sock in the laundry basket.
“I just, had some things I was curious about.”
“About my kind?”
“That too.”
“Since you went through a rough time because of me today, I’ll answer anything. What are you curious about?”
In truth, he wasn’t curious about Song Hanyeong’s kind at all. He was too busy being curious about Song Hanyeong himself—what did his kind matter? Surim, who had been making excuses, quickly turned his brain.
Something curious. Something curious…
Something that came to mind just then.
“Manager-nim, why can you only drink the blood of people who eat vegetarian?”
The fact that the contract made during childhood circumstances was for Song Hanyeong’s sake had been fortunate. But it was also true that he’d always been curious about why it turned out this way.
Song Hanyeong raised one eyebrow as if he hadn’t expected that question, then opened his mouth after a moment.
“When I was young, I was seriously injured in an accident. It was right after my parents died, so there was no one to help me, but at that time, there was someone who gave me their blood.”
“Was that person a vegetarian?”
“It was certain only that it had been a long time since they’d eaten meat. Their body scent was very faint, and also, they were thin. With that thin body, they showed me kindness.”
A faint smile settled on Song Hanyeong’s lips. It was different from any smile he’d shown until now. His eyes, hazy as if recalling the past, gazed into empty space.
Surim clenched his fists tight. Ridiculously, he felt jealous toward that person whose identity he didn’t know.
“After that, I could only consume ‘that blood.'”
“Why didn’t you make a contract with that person?”
Wouldn’t it be more rational to replicate the blood of the real thing rather than his own blood?
“For a while, even I didn’t know I had such symptoms. Since I couldn’t eat, Nasol procured blood for me. I drank it thinking it was just ordinary blood.”
Song Hanyeong, whose entire body had been covered in wounds, spent days and nights drifting between sleep and waking, suffering from illness. When he opened his eyes, nearly two weeks had passed. What Song Hanyeong, who had barely regained consciousness, needed more than anything was blood, and Nasol quickly supplied prey to save his master’s bloodline. However, Song Hanyeong couldn’t bite the neck of the human who was offering their own neck. Strangely, that smell of flesh, that smell of blood felt disgusting. Why did the blood he’d eaten and lived on his entire life feel so unpleasant? Was it because of the memory of running away leaving his father dying soaked in blood? Or was it because his body was broken from the injury?
In any case, Song Hanyeong was dying.
As Song Hanyeong was gradually weakening like that, Nasol brought a blood pack. Honestly, Song Hanyeong thought that blood in a blood pack wouldn’t be any different, but he couldn’t not even pretend in front of Nasol’s brightly shining eyes, so he reluctantly put his mouth to the blood pack. Surprisingly, he could consume it.
After that, Song Hanyeong could only drink the blood in the packs Nasol handed him. So at first, he thought he’d developed mysophobia like Nasol.
“Why didn’t he tell you?”
“Well. I’m not sure about that.”
Watching Song Hanyeong shake his head, Surim recalled what had happened to him. Nasol, who appeared before Surim when he was in a panic from the traffic accident involving his parents and hyung, proposed a blood-selling contract to him. An offer to attach a good doctor, received when his hyung was dying. Surim signed the contract without looking ahead or behind.
Back then, he’d thought being vegetarian would be easy. That’s because Surim’s parents didn’t give him meat or eggs. At home, he always ate plain rice with soy sauce, or if he was lucky, black bean side dish, so he thought living his whole life like that wouldn’t matter at all.
But once he made the contract, there were many difficulties when eating school meals and when going to eat with friends while playing.
However, even if he’d known in advance that such difficulties existed, Surim would have definitely signed the contract to save his hyung.
“Then when did you find out that what you were drinking was my blood?”
“Not long after Jin Surim-ssi entered university.”
“So that’s why you came to see me that day. Because you were curious.”
“Correct.”
“You came because you were curious, and then you saved me.”
When he slyly asked about something Song Hanyeong had denied before, Song Hanyeong awkwardly averted his gaze. But he didn’t avoid answering.
“…Yes.”
Surim’s eyes sparkled with an excited face.
“I knew it, right? Ah, I wondered why you pretended it wasn’t true. Of course, now I know the reason. Still, hearing you say it directly feels strange. Manager-nim, it’s the same as if you saved my life twice. Thanks to the contract, my hyung and I lived, and back then, you directly saved my life.”
Recalling the days when they were close but not quite touching, somehow resentment welled up. If you came because you were curious, you could have met me at least once!
“Wait, hold on, then were those times I saw you at the university also all because you came to see me?”
“I did go a few more times.”
A few more times, what—you came dozens of times. Surim decided not to point out the number specifically. If he did that and Song Hanyeong clamped his mouth shut, that would be a loss.
“Don’t tell me my getting hired was also all because of Manager Song’s black hand manipulating our professor?”
“That’s something I don’t know about.”
It clearly meant it was something Nasol had done, not Song Hanyeong. Surim received a small shock at the fact that his easier job hunting compared to his peers was all a result of corruption.
Not that he was thinking of resigning though.
“More than that, Jin Surim-ssi. Now that we’re talking, there’s something I want to confirm—can you show me your old contract for a moment?”
“Ah, the contract? Suddenly?”
“I want to confirm whether Nasol played any tricks in the contract.”
“Uh… I don’t think there were any particular problems.”
Even as he tilted his head, Surim lifted his bottom from the sofa. The contract was well-kept inside the drawer in the bedroom.
“I’ll bring it right away.”
Song Hanyeong elegantly nodded while stabbing bread with his fork. Surim’s heart pounded anew at the fact that that man was sitting comfortably in his living room eating bread.
That’s why his wariness completely dissipated. It seemed like nothing would happen to shatter this pleasant situation. Surim, who was crouching in front of the drawer searching the bottom compartment, pulled out the blood-selling contract from the very back.
“Found… huh?”
Surim, who raised his head, only then realized a shadow was cast over his body. A person-shaped shadow.
“…M-Manager-nim…?”
“Yes, Jin Surim-ssi.”
“Why, why are you all the way here— Aah! Don’t look!”
Surim threw down the contract documents and blocked the front of Song Hanyeong’s altar. However, Song Hanyeong, who was much taller than Surim, could see clearly beyond Surim just by tilting his head slightly.
Frightened, Surim looked up while breaking out in cold sweat. A chilling smile was positioned at Song Hanyeong’s lips.
“……”
He couldn’t bring himself to raise his gaze any higher. Surim squeezed his eyes shut.
“It’s not what you think! I just, it seemed wasteful to use once and throw away, so I was going to recycle them!”
“You mean the candy wrappers?”
At the slow question, Surim spun his head frantically.
“They’re pretty when I stick them in my diary…!”
It was a poor excuse. Surim seemed to know that fact well too, as his face turned red and he wore a dumbfounded expression.
