After confirming that, he went around the back of the building.
Behind the building was a narrow staircase that extended all the way down the hill. It was the shortest route to the bus stop, but because it was narrow and steep, adults rarely used it. And in front of those stairs, a shadow flickered.
Someone was standing looking down the stairs, seemingly on a phone call, occasionally mixing in words like “shit” or “fucking.”
‘Hey hey, in a backwater like this, everyone keeps quiet even if something happens. You don’t know because you haven’t seen it. My dick got hard the moment I saw him. You should see that face, whoa, where are you going? After I get a taste first, then I’ll let you know…’
Judging by his continued blathering, this seemed to be his usual personality.
As Yeonwoo closed the distance, he lifted his foot and kicked the man’s backside. The man, who had been standing loosely balanced on one leg at the top of the stairs, let out a choked sound and disappeared. Listening to the choking sounds and something rapidly rolling down, Yeonwoo immediately turned around.
Returning home the way he came, Yeonwoo sat in the chair by the window.
‘…’
After his brief outing, Yeonwoo’s cheeks were somewhat flushed.
It’s okay. It wasn’t a big deal. This was an unavoidable choice to protect his father and himself. Yeonwoo rubbed his palms against his thighs as he listened to his small heart pounding. Shortly after, there was a commotion outside, and a few minutes later, his father returned home.
Seeing Yeonwoo coming out of the room with no lights on, his father briefly asked:
‘You’re not asleep yet?’
‘…Welcome back.’
The firmness he had shown when removing something that might disturb their peaceful daily life was nowhere to be seen. Yeonwoo, who had become more timid and cautious than others his age, looked at his father with his hands clasped together. Younghwa, who had returned after working late as always, nodded after looking at Yeonwoo, who had grown to be similar to him.
Normally, he might have ended such a brief conversation and gone to wash up. But after turning on the living room light, Younghwa mentioned what he had seen earlier.
‘Coming up, I noticed some commotion behind the house. Seems like someone rolled down the stairs. It’s dark and narrow there, so it’s dangerous to go at night.’
‘…Is that so?’
In response to Yeonwoo’s reaction as if hearing something unfamiliar, Younghwa said as he went to the bathroom:
‘Are you hungry? Should we make some ramen?’
At the unusual suggestion to do something together, Yeonwoo quickly nodded. With his cheeks flushed, Yeonwoo followed him to the bathroom and asked, “How much water should I boil?” Seeing Yeonwoo following him excitedly like a child, a faint smile appeared on Younghwa’s face as he suggested adding dumplings too. Nodding in agreement, Yeonwoo first took out the pot.
Since coming of age, Yeonwoo had become more accustomed to being alone than spending time with his father, so these small events were all joyful and simply wonderful. Whenever Younghwa proposed doing something together first, it made him incredibly happy.
A child who hadn’t received enough affection since childhood became emotionally submissive to those he came to love first. His original personality disappeared entirely, adjusting everything to the other person and being constantly mindful of their feelings. Perhaps he had mistakenly learned that this was the only way to receive affection and attention.
But that occasional sweetness was so addictive that he couldn’t help it. And that man, Ho Munbeom—everything about him was sweet.
What had started as merely meeting a potential blind date had grown unilaterally into feelings of affection.
Once you start liking someone, you can’t hide it anymore. Munbeom might have detected the feelings that Yeonwoo had consistently revealed. When it might have been better to just meet occasionally and mix bodies, seeing that Yeonwoo liked him too much, he might have decided to gradually distance himself. Or maybe he just thought it was time to end things.
Did that mean he would never see that person up close again? Would he never be able to see him up close, touch him, feel his body heat and pheromones? With that thought, Yeonwoo felt a pain in his stomach and opened his eyes. His head seemed to be getting hot. At first, he thought he might simply be feeling unwell, but that wasn’t it. Sensing his own pheromones floating in the air, Yeonwoo immediately pressed his hand to the floor and got up.
Staggering as if entranced, Yeonwoo went to his room, found his pheromone medication, took out a pill, and put it in his mouth. Without water, it didn’t go down well and felt prickly as if it was stuck in the middle of his chest. As he was tapping his chest and getting up, he heard an electronic beep.
“…”
After hearing the electronic sound several times, an error beep finally sounded, and Yeonwoo sighed. Someone, unable to contain their anger, was banging on the door as if they might break it down.
After Seongho had ransacked the house, Yeonwoo had changed the keypad password. He should have done that from the beginning. If he had, neither Seongho nor anyone else could have entered his living space so carelessly.
Yeonwoo walked to the entrance as the door noise grew louder and someone shouted “Hey!” As soon as he opened the door, it was yanked backward, revealing Lee Jonghoon with an ugly, distorted face.
Seeing that he had come personally at this late hour, he must have been quite angry. Yeonwoo wasn’t sure what Seongho might have said, but it didn’t matter. Lee Jonghoon seemed to feel the same way, as he immediately raised his hand high.
“You…!”
“I heard you took out a private loan.”
To them, Yeonwoo was a punching bag. He was supposed to be hit a few times and given a one-sided warning for not behaving submissively according to their wishes, but he was blocked from the beginning.
Lee Jonghoon, who was furious to the tip of his hair, froze. His pupils shook briefly, and then he raised his arm even higher.
“What nonsense are you suddenly talking about! Private loan? Are you trying to wriggle out of this…!”
“You took out a private loan in my name. That’s where you got the money for my father’s hospital bills and my living expenses.”
“…”
“I saw it was tens of billions you borrowed. What did you use the rest of the money for?”
The entrance light turned off, and darkness surrounded them. In the darkness, Lee Jonghoon’s rough breathing mixed. Yeonwoo could feel him contemplating how Yeonwoo had found out about the private loan and how to respond.
Why would he contemplate that? The first thing he should say would be an apology. Of course, it wouldn’t make sense to just apologize for arbitrarily taking out a private loan, but still.
Yeonwoo recalled the papers that Chairman Ho Jaejung had shown him. The amount written there was in units that Yeonwoo couldn’t even glimpse if he worked his entire life. He wasn’t sure what such an enormous amount meant. But one thing was clear: the man standing in front of him was a tremendous swindler.
“Without spending any of your own money, yet acting as if you gave me everything…”
Looking at how far he went without suffering any loss, he was truly an amazing person.
When Lee Jonghoon first contacted him, Yeonwoo thought, just as the supermarket grandmother had said, there’s no law saying you have to die. Although various conditions were attached, he was able to receive financial help because of it. At that time, he was truly grateful for that.
So even when Seongho or Seo Miyoung suddenly appeared and hit or insulted him, he just endured it. Although he couldn’t help but speak out when dragged to that strange arranged date, he still thought he might have done something wrong and decided not to do it again. After all, he knew that he would eventually be sold off in such a way.
That’s why he wanted to meet Munbeom before then. He thought that the memories accumulated during their time together would be enough to endure everything that would happen to him in the future.
He thought that since he had received help, he should also give something in return.
But as it turned out, he was just being exploited. Without receiving anything, he was just continually being taken from. Why? He didn’t have anything to begin with. His father should at least let him breathe a little, but even that was blocked off completely.
By now, Lee Jonghoon had lowered his raised hand.
When he discovered Seongho sprawled in the ransacked room, and when Seongho foamed at the mouth repeating only Yeonwoo’s name, his head seemed to spin. Nothing was going right inside or outside, and as Yeonwoo said, he had even borrowed from private lenders to keep juggling his finances, but even that was becoming increasingly difficult. At this rate, there was no way but ruin, so he was psychologically cornered. With stress piling up, at some point he thought that this was an opportunity to properly discipline Yeonwoo, who was acting on his own. Asking how dare he go around being impudent. He was planning to tell him not to go anywhere and stay cooped up at home, only coming out when called…
“C-calm down…”
As Lee Jonghoon raised both hands, the ceiling light in the entrance came back on. Seeing Yeonwoo’s strangely calm face looking at him, Lee Jonghoon felt his throat dry. Feeling that if he didn’t get his mind straight now, everything would go wrong, he muttered “calm down” again and opened his mouth.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
