“Dohui.”
His shoulder jumped in surprise. He hated being called like that. Dohui slowly turned his head.
Gong Haejin gave a small flick of his hand.
“……”
The man didn’t tolerate his refusals. Whenever Dohui said no, told him to go away, he just laughed in that playful way of his. Dohui slowly lowered his gaze.
“……I was going to sleep.”
“And what have you been doing until now.”
It was a jab at the fact that all he’d done all day was sleep, wake up, and wash. Dohui bit his lip.
The man strode over. His heart pounded double-time and the muscles in his face gave way quickly. This was Dohui’s life here. When the man wanted something, no matter how hard or how much it hurt, he had to do it — and Dohui received money in return.
And so the man treated him with even more carelessness for it. Like an object picked up on a whim and used at convenience.
He no longer spoke of teaching him or selling him elsewhere, but Dohui remembered clearly every word he’d said. Though every face had been forgotten, those words were branded into his mind like carved letters and refused to disappear.
When he closed his eyes, they came through vivid — as though being whispered right beside his ear.
‘You’ll be worth a fair price.’
Hmm…… don’t cry. Im Dohui. The tears you shed for someone like him are a waste. Don’t cry — just keep thinking. Keep thinking…… about how to get out. About how to keep going.
Gong Haejin grabbed Dohui’s shoulder and pressed him down. Sitting abruptly on the bed, Dohui’s eyes landed on the man’s crotch. Even unaroused, it was quite thick.
Dohui extended a trembling hand. As he reached to undo the belt, Gong Haejin let out a scoff.
“Even if you wanted to, not now. I called you because I have something to give you.”
Dohui’s eyes widened. What does he mean? When Dohui looked up, Gong Haejin held out a photograph.
“……What is this?”
Dohui stared at the thick paper in his hand. The background was familiar. A run-down multi-unit housing building. The place where Dohui used to live. He quickly snatched the photo from the man’s hand and brought it right up to his face.
“What is this!”
Dohui’s voice rose sharply. His slender neck — straining with visible veins — was covered in bruising and marks Gong Haejin had left the day before.
Gong Haejin flicked the photo with his fingertip. At the light, thin sound of it, Dohui dropped his gaze. Checking whether it had been torn.
“Can’t you tell who it is?”
“……”
Once again, the man made tears flow from Dohui’s eyes. It was always so easy. Easily enough to make Dohui’s desperation seem almost laughable.
Tears spread across the back of his hand where the blue veins showed through. Dohui couldn’t tear his eyes from the photo in his hand.
“I’m asking if you can recognize who’s in this photo.”
Gong Haejin tapped the woman entering the housing building in the photo, waiting for Dohui’s lips to part and his tongue to move. Those slightly parted red lips only let out a wretched, broken ah, ah……
“……Is that…… my mom?”
Dohui looked at Gong Haejin with desperate eyes.
The man’s eyebrows wavered for just an instant, and nothing more. He placed one large hand on his hip and gave a small shake of his head. As he sat down beside Dohui, the bed sank deep.
His scent drifted around and wrapped around Dohui, but that didn’t register as anything. Where he would normally have slipped away as though trying to escape, Dohui stayed put where he sat.
In a backdrop that matched where Dohui used to live, his mother was hurrying inside. Or — actually, he didn’t know. Was it really her.
Gong Haejin swept away the tear that fell from the corner of Dohui’s eye with his thumb.
“Is it your mom?”
“I don’t, I don’t know…… I’m not sure if she had clothes like that……. But why are you suddenly showing me this photo? Sur, surely…… you don’t mean——”
“Mean what?”
Dohui gathered his breath for a moment. Even in a situation of abduction and captivity, he couldn’t mistake the low intent behind showing him a photo of his family.
When his voice came out again it was slightly steadier. Dohui’s eyes sharpened too. Only the tears still flowing down were beyond his control.
“Threatening me with my family…… Is that it. Isn’t that, isn’t that too much? How can a person be this cruel? I……”
Dohui clutched the photo to his chest and burst into sobs. Words buried in grief broke apart and fell in pieces into the air.
You’ve already ruined me like this and that’s still not enough, so now you’re going to use my mother to threaten me? I can just pay off that stupid debt. You monster wearing a human face.
At the last part, Gong Haejin let out a baffled laugh.
“I don’t have family. So I don’t know what that’s like. But in this line of work — whenever things go to hell, every single one of them says the same righteous things. Going on about family…… It was the fastest route, Dohui. I’ve never had anything precious myself so I wouldn’t know, but what’s wrong with targeting the biggest, easiest weakness.”
Gong Haejin watched Dohui open his lips like he was about to spit in his face. Cheeks that had lost weight puffed up in full fury. Shoulders that always drooped lifelessly were broader than he’d ever seen them. That’s how a man should be.
Unaware that his lips had curved into a faint smile, Dohui kept pushing back. It had been a while since someone had thrown this much temper at him. It had been like that since he was young. There was no one worth getting riled at who still couldn’t beat him.
Im Dohui, genuinely adorable.
The elegantly curved corner of his mouth seemed to provoke Dohui’s anger even further.
Gong Haejin watched Dohui’s shoulders heave, unable to contain his fury. The fist Dohui had clenched tight trembled finely. His wrist grew thinner by the day, a sorry, scrawny thing. At least being male meant some bone structure — but how long would that hold.
He’d said he couldn’t recognize faces in photos, and sure enough, he really couldn’t. The woman in the photo was someone else entirely. He’d simply wanted to confirm it. He didn’t want to take Dohui to a hospital. Partly because it was plain to see what kind of trouble the troublesome little cat might stir up.
Gong Haejin clicked his tongue — there was a bitter taste at the tip of it. Just then, his pocket buzzed. Probably Pyo Mingyu. Gong Haejin ignored the phone calling to him and spoke.
“I wanted to test whether you could recognize her. Turns out you really can’t.”
“……Do you enjoy this? Doing this to me……”
“Keep the photo.”
He’d had no intention of taking it back even if asked. He’d even made up his mind that if the man tried to snatch it, he’d bite him. That would mean getting hit again — but he didn’t care.
Gong Haejin got up without hesitation and walked out of the room. Dohui’s bottled-up grief seeped out like a fine thread and filled every corner of the wide space.
The shaped form of his hatred, and the longing for his family, made him desolate.
***
From that morning, Gong Haejin was absent. When Dohui opened his eyes, he was gone. He’d been on the phone continuously since the evening before — something must have come up.
The vast empty bed and room left alone felt strange. Instinct was urging Dohui: now is the time. The fine hairs on his body stood on end.
His feet touched the living room floor. The temperature, cooler than the bedroom, sent goosebumps creeping up from his toes. The living room and kitchen were empty too — no sign of when he’d left. No hint of another person’s presence anywhere. Did he leave thinking I’d be asleep. Why is security this lax. Could it be a trap. It felt far too strange.
And yet he had to move. He set off toward the front door without a plan, caught his foot on a low step, and stumbled. The impact on already-bruised skin made him stop for a moment. He pressed his hand over his mouth to stop any sound from escaping.
He reached the front door in one go. A motion sensor light flared on, and the same room he’d seen before — shoes lined up neatly on display — came into view.
Dohui chewed his lip. Wearing shoes that didn’t fit would only slow his running. He pushed his feet into a pair of indoor slippers.
He grabbed the front door handle. His pounding heart reverberated all the way up to his throat. He swallowed hard and pushed it down with force.
Click.
The door opened. Far too easily.
Dohui’s dry lips parted slowly.
Ah…… I can get out.
And so he stepped outside. There was no one. Truly no one. Not until Dohui had cleared the building, passed through a garden with its modest landscaping, and reached what looked like a front gate did he encounter a single person. Dohui ran in a frantic rush. Breath reached the top of his throat.
I’m free. I’m really free now.
Tears welled up — Dohui scrubbed at them with his arm and kept running. His knees buckled several times but he didn’t stop. He had to get farther away.
Slap, slap, slap, slap. The sound of the slipper soles smacking against his heels rang out far too loudly. Dohui kicked them off entirely and threw them aside. Nothing could stop his legs.
He broke through a wall that seemed to reach the sky. He looked frantically around in every direction. Anyone — please let someone find me.
But the surroundings were like a mirror of Gong Haejin himself. Nothing stood out. The sparse trees and the cleanly paved road felt barren instead. As though the path would stretch on forever without end. It felt exactly like stepping into a maze.
Dohui ran blindly. In the dead of winter, he ran with a t-shirt far too large for his body flapping around him. The wind cooled him before sweat even had the chance to form. It was midwinter — below freezing. A single t-shirt was no match for the biting cold. And yet he didn’t stop.
Huff, huff — the sound of his own breath rang in his ears. So loud he worried it might be echoing out around him. The sound wasn’t good. His throat had been strangled just yesterday too. Every time he inhaled, the brutal wind came in and aggravated his already aching throat further. His legs, his throat, his body — not a single part of him was in a normal state.
How far had he come. Finally, there were people. Three or four of them — they spotted Dohui and their eyes went wide in surprise. One of them rubbed their eyes as if checking whether what they were seeing was real.
“P, please…… please…… help me.”
