If he hadn’t taken this job, he might have accepted the possibility that Seung-kwon was gay without any issue. As long as the object of affection wasn’t himself, he had partly felt it would be fine.
Jae-young ran his hand through his hair once and shook his head. Since he didn’t know what to do right away, there was only one option.
Let’s just deal with it when it comes. Rather than having his heart swayed by something that might not be true, it was better to shake it off and put it off for later. Having settled the unanswerable worry by himself, Jae-young hurried to wash up. He found and put on clothes that could cover his neck, then turned on his laptop.
He transmitted the file containing the unusual details to the site where he shared files with his group. As he left the house wearing a mask, he saw Seung-kwon standing next to the door.
Jae-young walked straight ahead, staring forward as if he couldn’t see Seung-kwon. He felt Seung-kwon following him. As if it weren’t an illusion, he stood beside Jae-young.
“I’ll take you there.”
There was no special inflection. No feeling of sorrow or despair could be sensed. He looked completely unbothered, as if he hadn’t heard any harsh words. Did I think wrong? Jae-young began to doubt himself.
“It’s fine. I’ll take a taxi.”
“Listen to me.”
“…”
“Jae-young.”
At that low voice, Jae-young stopped walking.
“It’s not what you think. So listen to me.”
Jae-young stared blankly at Seung-kwon, who passed by him and got into the car. It seemed he had indeed been overly sensitive.
Seeing Seung-kwon like that made him feel even more awkward. Due to hearing unnecessary comments from people around, he felt like he had seriously misunderstood Seung-kwon. After all, he knew Seung-kwon better than anyone else right now. Having organized all his thoughts, Jae-young followed Seung-kwon and sat in the passenger seat.
“…Sorry.”
“For what?”
Seung-kwon started the car with his characteristic expressionless face. The car crossed the road with a smooth movement.
“For misunderstanding. I think I wasn’t in my right mind after being worn down by Sa Gong-hyun.”
Jae-young didn’t deny his mistake. Though there was no response from Seung-kwon, his heart immediately felt lighter.
“Hyung.”
“What, kid.”
“Get me one special camera. One that can be attached to an overcoat. A badge shape would be fine, or a button shape too. If needed, I’ll send you a design.”
“What for?”
“So I can leave it hanging on a sofa.”
“Don’t push yourself unnecessarily. Take your time…”
“I want to end this as soon as possible.”
He just wanted to finish this job as quickly as possible. After this was over, he wanted to rest lazily for about three years. Even if Seung-kwon brought in a job midway like this time, he was fully inclined to opt out alone. Today especially, the work felt too arduous and unpleasant.
# Throwing a stone into the Han River
Despite the fact that Sa Gong-hyun must have checked the number left with his subordinate, there was no contact from him.
According to Seung-kwon, the company was busier than usual. Not only with business, but Sa Gong-hyun’s personal disappearances had also become more frequent. Seung-kwon speculated it was related to drugs. As Sa Gong-hyun became busier, so did Seung-kwon, and so did Ju-yeon.
And apart from their busyness, Jae-young spent very monotonous days. Since he was a lead role, not a supporting actor or extra, he had to be cautious in his actions, so there wasn’t much he could do to help them. He needed to meet Sa Gong-hyun first to do anything substantial.
Had he ever been this idle during an operation? He had such pointless thoughts. To be absolutely clear, this had never happened even once.
He was also tired of always waiting for contact. Lying on his bed, he fiddled with the laptop’s mousepad. Jae-young opened the share site and opened a file that had been uploaded a few hours ago.
What could be known for certain now was that Sa Gong-hyun’s drug ledger did not exist at the company. This meant the probability of it being in his house was overwhelmingly high, and the job of sneaking out the ledger fell to Jae-young. That meant, in other words, he had no way of backing out.
Now that it was known not to be at the company, Seung-kwon would wait for the right time and quit the company. Ju-yeon had secretly installed a program on Sa Gong-hyun’s phone.
It was just the other day when she was tearing her hair out, saying he never touched a text message even with fake spam and business-related messages, but it seemed she had finally succeeded this time. Thanks to Ju-yeon’s struggle, both Seung-kwon and Jae-young could track Sa Gong-hyun’s location.
After checking all the files, Jae-young got up. He opened a package that had arrived by quick delivery and attached a button-shaped camera to his coat. Before taking a taxi, he also did some grocery shopping.
The place where the taxi stopped was Sa Gong-hyun’s house. As Jae-young approached Sa Gong-hyun’s house, he heard Ver barking from inside. Woof! That’s psychic. Recalling Ver who had tried to tear into him that day, Jae-young shuddered.
Even though Ver was barking, he rang the doorbell first. He knew Sa Gong-hyun wasn’t home, but it was a precaution against any unforeseen circumstances.
There was a security camera in front of Sa Gong-hyun’s gate. He didn’t know when this suspicious man might check that footage.
Only after confirming that Sa Gong-hyun wasn’t home did he squat down in front of the gate. Ver, realizing that Jae-young hadn’t left, seemed to be pacing near the gate.
While waiting for Sa Gong-hyun, he fiddled with his phone, constantly checked his location, and even scraped the ground with the sole of his sneakers. He even had conversation-like exchanges with Ver.
“…Ver, when is your owner coming?”
When he spoke just as he was about to forget, this time even Ver ignored him. The sun had set quite a while ago, and numerous cars passed by in front of Jae-young. His legs were numb, and his back ached.
Just when waiting for Sa Gong-hyun became too tiring, an elegant leather shoe stopped in front of Jae-young.
“You’re here?”
Jae-young hurriedly dusted himself off and stood up. Though his legs, which had been without blood flow for a while, gave way causing him to stagger, he quickly regained his balance.
Sa Gong-hyun looked very tired. He was in a formal suit, perhaps just coming back from work. The bruise on his jawline, which Jae-young had clumsily left previously, had faded. Unconsciously, he touched his neck once, reminded of the hickeys left on his own body.
Sa Gong-hyun didn’t ask why Jae-young was huddled sitting in front of his house. He couldn’t ask. After all, it was Sa Gong-hyun who hadn’t contacted despite Jae-young leaving his number.
Instead, Jae-young realized it was actually good that he hadn’t been contacted. If he had received a message saying they couldn’t meet for a while, he wouldn’t have been able to come here on his own like this.
“Have you eaten? I went grocery shopping to cook for you instead of buying a meal… But given how late it is, I guess today won’t work?”
“…”
“I bought a snack for Ver too.”
So he didn’t complain about Sa Gong-hyun not contacting him. Jae-young smiled brightly and picked up the shopping basket he had put down on the ground.
Ver, whom he faced after about 4 hours, had a face that looked as if it was smiling. But it was busy wagging its tail towards Sa Gong-hyun rather than showing interest in Jae-young.
Although separated by the gate, it was Jae-young who had been with it for over 4 hours. Seeing the dog’s head fixed only on Sa Gong-hyun, Jae-young secretly wrinkled the bridge of his nose.
He rummaged through the shopping basket and pulled out a large dog chew. Even though it was a moment when the focus could have shifted, Ver only sent a glance. The dog remained unmoved even as he slyly offered the chew.
“Seems like Ver doesn’t really like snacks.”
When he spoke with an embarrassed voice, Sa Gong-hyun laughed briefly. He took the dog chew from Jae-young and tossed it to Ver’s feet.
Then Ver, who had been ignoring the existence of the dog chew all along, started to bite into it as if waiting for permission. Only then did Jae-young realize that the dog couldn’t be persuaded even with snacks.
Thinking they might become a little friendlier if they shared body heat, he crouched down with his knees bent. After quietly watching Ver frantically chewing on the dog chew, he abruptly reached out his hand.
However, Sa Gong-hyun suddenly caught his hand as it was reaching for Ver’s head. Jae-young looked at Sa Gong-hyun.
“If getting bitten is your preference, this side would be a bit safer.”
Sa Gong-hyun said in a blunt tone. Jae-young, who had been blankly blinking, twitched his fingertips.
Ah, he said it bites. Ver had such a gentle face in front of its owner that he had completely forgotten.
“I wanted to become friends.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
