Jaeha looked down at Taesung, who was clenching his teeth to swallow the pain, with an emotionless face again. The pupils that he’d only vaguely thought resembled the color of the Han River water rippled inorganically as if they’d truly become endlessly wide and deep river water. Goosebumps rose again and his stomach churned.
“I should meet our hyung’s expectations, but I’m not in the mood for that today.”
It wasn’t something a bastard who grabbed the next room’s wall and panted while even thrusting into the air should say.
“Don’t worry, hyung. Our first experience should be enjoyed in perfect condition. Heat, rut, none of that shit is necessary. In the most wholesome period when you’re least affected by those fucking pheromones, I’ll pound you until you’re crying and cumming. So hyung, don’t go rolling your body around anywhere, take your medicine properly and wait obediently. Got it?”
“Crazy…”
“But hyung.”
Jaeha, who had slightly loosened his grip on the neck he was holding, lightly patted the coughing Taesung’s cheek and whispered in a voice tinged with laughter.
“You suck well even in your sleep, don’t you?”
“What the…!”
Jaeha stuck out his tongue and hurriedly threw on his clothes that he’d left on the table. Of course, he couldn’t put them all on. He’d only just managed to pull on his pants when Taesung overcame his dizziness and jumped up.
With his T-shirt roughly draped over his arm, Jaeha picked up the bag that had fallen on the floor in the midst of it all.
“Did you buy this to feed me?”
“Don’t run and stay there, fucker! I’m going to pull out all the intestines from that fucking bastard’s belly.”
“You know I don’t like vegetable porridge. You should’ve bought beef porridge while you were at it. Ah, beef porridge wasn’t buy-one-get-one?”
“Hey, you gonna put that down? Huh?”
Before he knew it, Taesung was holding a kitchen knife with a deadly sharp blade. Only then did Jaeha carelessly toss one bottle of water, one hangover remedy, and one can of porridge like feeding pigeons and fled out the front door.
As soon as he followed him out, the next door opened slightly. Two men stealthily stuck their heads out, but as soon as they saw Taesung holding a kitchen knife, they immediately closed the door. Taesung had to go back inside, barely swallowing his desire to stab that damn front door with the kitchen knife.
Jaeha’s sneakers were rolling around just as Taesung had thrown them.
It seemed he’d run out wearing Taesung’s slippers. There was only one pair of slippers—what the hell was he supposed to wear when going out to smoke, damn bastard.
Taesung rubbed the steamed-up bathroom mirror with his palm and looked at his face. On his neck, as expected, there were bright red bruises in the shape of Jaeha’s hands. Both eyes were also reddish-purple with burst blood vessels, and more than anything, his mouth.
When he rubbed his lips, the corners of his mouth stung. He opened his mouth and showed the edges in the mirror. Before he knew it, his mouth had torn and blood was seeping out.
His stiff jaw too, and it throbbed deep inside his throat—too much to be simply from being choked. Looking at that, Jaeha’s last words didn’t seem to be nonsense.
Crazy bastard. He face-fucked someone he choked unconscious?
Taesung swallowed dry saliva, shut his mouth tight, and just stroked the wound on his neck with his hand for no reason.
He brushed his teeth thoroughly and left the bathroom.
Looking at the things he’d gone to the trouble of buying from the convenience store rolling around on the floor, Taesung thought:
Bastard.
Why did he take two bottles of water?
The entire sky was dyed red. It looked as if red flames covered the sky, so the entire time he climbed the hill road, Taesung thought the scenery of hell might be like this.
Though it was chilly weather, his whole body was soaked with cold sweat. His back throbbed as if it would break—what the fuck had those bastards done to a person’s body? With each step he took, it felt like his entire foot was melting and sticking limply to the concrete.
It’ll be fine after sleeping. If I down a bottle of soju to vomit out my insides and scrub every corner of my skin with a bath mitt, it’ll get better. Still, since ‘that day’ has passed, for a while I can live like a person without being anxious about when I’ll be dragged away like a dog. After all, heat induced by drugs couldn’t be repeated indefinitely. Fortunately.
“Hyung, why are you only coming now?”
The reason the house was at the top of the Bongcheon-dong hill was because it was the cheapest place among properties that weren’t semi-basements. The real estate ad said ‘Only 10 minutes to the subway,’ but even at Taesung’s pace, he had to climb the hill for a full 20 minutes to reach home.
Jaeha was there at such a place. Crouched at the entrance of a shabby tenement house, with a math workbook on his knees.
Curly hair sticking out from under the ash-colored hoodie he was wearing fluttered above his long eyelashes. Jaeha, who had been staring at Taesung with bright eyes, curved his eyes round and smiled when their eyes met. Thinking that others like his smiling face so Taesung must like it too, Jaeha smiled brightly. Though Taesung’s mood was rock bottom.
“You bastard, why did you come here!”
“Today was the day hyung was supposed to pick me up. If I just go home alone, you’ll get scolded by grandfather.”
Ah, right. He said he was going to an amusement park with friends today because of some field trip or whatever, so Chairman Hyun Hongwon, trembling that wolves might snatch away his precious grandson if he left him alone, had ordered Taesung to go all the way to Yongin to pick him up.
He’d definitely told Jang Hyeokjin he had to go pick up Jaeha tomorrow right before getting the ‘injection.’ But from the moment he came to his senses until now, he’d completely forgotten. That fucking injection—every time I get it, it feels like part of my brain melts. If I get dementia at this rate, I’ll smear shit on that bastard Jang Hyeokjin’s face.
“Ah, fuck…”
Taesung smacked his own head hard enough to make a sound. Jaeha giggled.
“It’s okay. There are days like this and days like that.”
Though he didn’t like the way he spoke at all, right now there was no room for excuses, so Taesung just ground his molars and moved on.
“How did you get up here?”
“Took a taxi.”
“You took a taxi all the way from Yongin to here?”
“Yeah. Dropping off friends one by one. Everyone said they were so happy you didn’t come, hyung.”
“Your money must be rotting away. Lucky you.”
It was a jackpot day only for the taxi driver. Taesung grabbed Jaeha’s wrist and pulled him up. He was already exhausted to death, and Jaeha put weight on his arm, practically hanging on as he slowly got up from his seat.
“Call a taxi.”
The car for picking up Jaeha was in front of Chairman Hyun Hongwon’s house. Did he realize the car didn’t go out today? No, if so, there would’ve been contact already.
“You can’t catch one here.”
True, unless it was a customer with a jackpot like coming from Yongin, taxis wouldn’t even come up to this house. Most of them would stop at the intersection where the convenience store was and throw a fit saying they couldn’t go up there.
Really nothing’s going right today.
Taesung went back down the slope holding Jaeha’s wrist. The manhole cover he stepped on carelessly rattled unstably. He frowned and looked down at his feet. On the manhole whose silver coating had peeled off from being kicked by people, the words ‘sewage drain’ were engraved.
His steps slowed and before he knew it, his walking stopped. A water drop fell on the top of his foot. At first he didn’t even know it had fallen from his own eyes. Even if my mind is coming and going from the drug effects, there’s a limit. Does it make sense to cry looking at a manhole cover? In front of Jaeha at that. This damn brat would definitely tease me saying ‘Wow, hyung, are you crying right now?’
“Hyung.”
Jaeha lightly shook off his wrist and escaped from Taesung’s grip. Then he firmly grasped Taesung’s limp hand first.
“Did grandfather go to Yeosu?”
Taesung sniffled, turning away from him.
“Why Yeosu?”
His voice kept breaking. The child holding Taesung put more strength into his hand.
“Someone’s building a resort.”
Right. He’s not the personality to leisurely travel. Even the golf he liked, he only went to play when it was tied to money.
“So I said I’d sleep over at a friend’s house since I’d be bored alone too.”
“Which friend?”
Well, Jaeha wasn’t really a little kid, and if he just went down to near the station and got in a taxi, he’d get there on his own, but still, he should know the destination so he’d have something to say when Hyun Hongwon called later. But Jaeha said nothing. Taesung roughly rubbed and wiped his eyes and looked down at Jaeha. This cheeky little brat, don’t tell me…
“A girlfriend?”
“Why do you think that?”
Look at how he’s answering. This is undeniable. Taesung shook his head.
“Fuck, fine. You’re making good use of that face.”
“If I look like this, should I go sleep at my girlfriend’s place at times like this?”
“Or tell me which friend. Of course, even if you give me a name, I don’t know them, fucker.”
Jaeha pulled Taesung’s hand and stood on tiptoe. What’s he up to now? Even while thinking that, Taesung leaned toward him as Jaeha wanted.
Jaeha whispered as if telling a great secret.
“Han Taesung.”
“What, man?”
“Whyyy.”
“Why, fuck—I’m already tired to death. My house is small as a dog dick, there’s no room for you to sleep, fucker.”
“Grandfather will call at eight. To ask if you took me home well.”
“Hey, are you blackmailing me right now?”
“Yep.”
“What?”
“You’re the one who broke the promise first, hyung.”
So you’re going to punish me? He didn’t know who the cramming into a room the size of a palm was a penalty for.
