Sa Gong-hyun parked his car in front of Jae-young’s house. Jae-young got out of the car alone. Only after reconfirming their promise for early morning through the open window did Sa Gong-hyun leave for work.
Jae-young stood in place, waving until the car disappeared, then erased the smile on his face. He had been smiling so much that his facial muscles were strained. He grabbed both cheeks with one hand and massaged them.
He had met him every single day for a week. For the past three days, they hadn’t been apart for even an hour.
Since Sa Gong-hyun hardly slept properly, there was no opportunity to move independently. Even when his eyes were closed, he would sense Jae-young’s presence like a ghost and open them. This meant that even when Jae-young was at his house, he couldn’t go near the room at the end of the second floor.
Jae-young roughly ran his hand through his hair and slowly took steps. Upon entering his home, he first checked his personal phone.
There was one message from the private detective agency owner from two days ago, one message from Seung-kwon, and two missed calls from Ju-seong.
Other numbers were understandable, but why Ju-seong? Jae-young slightly narrowed his eyebrows. It wasn’t just once or twice, and it felt uneasy to simply ignore it.
“…Why do you keep calling, it’s so annoying.”
A long, irritated sigh escaped him. He was about to swipe them away this time too, but decided to leave them and check the messages first.
[Please contact us when convenient. -S Detective Agency]
[Call me as soon as you see this message. -Seung-kwon hyung]
He had to contact three places. Not having even a moment to rest was irritating.
“I’ll contact you. So just wait a little.”
He muttered towards the empty space, though there was no one to hear. First, he wanted to shower. The detective agency had asked him to contact them when convenient, and Seung-kwon… if it had been urgent, he would have contacted the burner phone.
He stripped down to just his underwear. Jae-young entered the bathroom and turned on the tap, dousing his head with water. As the warm water touched and fell from his body, he quickly became drowsy.
Perhaps because he kept increasing the temperature as his naked body adjusted to the water temperature, by the time he came out of the bathroom, steam was rising from his body. Usually, his habit was to put on a robe immediately after showering, but now he had also grown accustomed to wearing lighter clothes instead.
He tossed the towel he had been drying his hair with into the laundry basket. Although he despised household chores, he thought he should start tidying up since Sa Gong-hyun occasionally visited.
Thump thump-
Just then, someone knocked on the front door forcefully.
“Who is it?”
Jae-young carelessly ruffled his wet hair and opened the front door. Upon seeing the visitor’s face, he wrinkled one cheek. He noticed that the wounds on the face had increased compared to last time.
“Why didn’t you call?”
The visitor didn’t need Jae-young’s permission. Seung-kwon, who had invaded at will, closed the front door himself. He was holding a medium-sized shopping bag in his hand.
At first, Jae-young was displeased, but soon he became indifferent. Even though arguments weren’t frequent, it was always like this. At least he hadn’t picked the lock and entered.
“Why did you come all the way here? I was just about to call.”
Feeling thirsty belatedly, he walked towards the refrigerator. He opened the refrigerator door, took out a bottle of water, and moistened his throat.
Seeing that Seung-kwon was staring at the way he drank water, Jae-young slightly raised the bottle. Seung-kwon shook his head and placed the shopping bag on the table.
Jae-young closed the water bottle cap and checked inside the shopping bag. It was sushi. He wondered how Seung-kwon knew he hadn’t eaten and had brought this.
“Don’t you have something to say since you came? But hyung, why do you keep coming here injured these days? Is work that intense?”
Jae-young searched through the drawer with a displeased face. He took out an ointment from the first-aid kit and walked to Seung-kwon.
He squeezed a small amount of ointment onto his index finger. Even when he brought his hand to Seung-kwon’s face, Seung-kwon stood without complaint.
“It hurts, you brat. Apply it gently without emotion.”
“Such a baby.”
He carefully applied the medication to the various wounds. After that, Seung-kwon kept his mouth tightly shut. Silence was the answer to questions that should have been responded to. Annoyed, when Jae-young applied emotion to his fingertips, Seung-kwon let out a single “Ah.”
“He doesn’t give me any chance to look around, so I haven’t found out anything yet. Once the timing is right, I’ll move immediately, so please wait a little longer.”
He roughly applied the remaining ointment on the back of his hand, rubbed it in, and returned to the table. When he continued to talk about work, Seung-kwon blinked once.
Jae-young took out a disposable container from the shopping bag. He opened the paper box and unwrapped the wooden chopsticks. He put a piece of sushi in his mouth and chewed. It was delicious.
Only when he was about to swallow the sushi that filled his mouth did he look at Seung-kwon.
“Hyung.”
Jae-young looked up at Seung-kwon with eyes wide open. His mouth felt dry, but he didn’t drink water.
“Have you ever come in here when I wasn’t around?”
“…Yeah.”
On the day Sa Gong-hyun first visited this place, the person who had secretly visited Jae-young’s house was Seung-kwon. He had hoped it was a petty thief. When Jae-young let Sa Gong-hyun into the house, Seung-kwon had hurriedly slipped out.
“Don’t do that anymore. That person seems like he’ll come often from now on.”
“…”
“Our plan, it hasn’t changed, right?”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t a long silence, but the answer was delayed. His appetite was gone. Just a moment ago, he thought it was delicious, but now there was a fishy smell in his mouth.
It could be due to his mood. Being picky about taste, if he had detected a fishy smell from the beginning, he wouldn’t have swallowed the food.
“…That bastard every time. Your neck, fuck, he’s done all sorts of shit.”
He waited for the words to follow, but Seung-kwon merely grabbed Jae-young’s chin and lifted it up. The look examining his neck was quite irritable.
“Why did you call?”
“There will be a deal in Busan soon. It’s a large scale, so Sa Gong-hyun will move directly. Let’s set that day as D-Day.”
“…”
He maintained silence for a moment.
“Is that all?”
“What more should there be?”
Jae-young, scanning Seung-kwon’s face with a dry gaze, lightly pushed his hand away.
It seemed inappropriate to continue eating. Jae-young closed the disposable container and put the sushi in the refrigerator.
“Why aren’t you eating more?”
“If you have nothing more to say, please leave, hyung. Let me rest a bit.”
Jae-young got up from his seat.
“Jae-young.”
As he was entering the bedroom with his phone, which he had casually placed on the shelf, he heard Seung-kwon calling from behind.
Click-
Jae-young closed the door without hesitation, as if rejecting his presence outside.
Taking a deep breath, Jae-young leaned his head against the door. It seemed Seung-kwon had left the house, as the sound of the front door was heard. A hollow laugh escaped him.
After standing as if rooted to the spot for a while, he called the detective agency owner. The connection tone repeated three or four times before it was cut off.
—Yes.
“This is Do Jae-young. Have you found out about what I mentioned that day?”
—Name: Kim Jung-min, thirty years old. His business went bankrupt two years ago…
“…Just the main point, please.”
—He’s dead. The bereaved family recovered the body, but they didn’t request a separate autopsy.
Ha… A sigh escaped him involuntarily.
“They didn’t do an autopsy?”
—Yes, the family’s determination was so firm that even the police had no choice but to let it go. In the end, they didn’t even hold a funeral and went straight to cremation. The murderer is currently awaiting trial.
“…What? What is the murderer doing?”
—The trial. He used private loans for his business, but when the borrower didn’t pay back the money and just kept going from club to club, he got angry and committed murder in a fit of rage. Evidence was found at the scene, and most importantly, the killer turned himself in that day.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
