Sa Gong-hyun raised one eyebrow at the quite intimate address. Although he must have known the guard for quite a long time, he had only just learned that his name was Chang-woo.
“You’ve become quite close already.”
“Because we’re together all day. At first, it was just uncomfortable, but as time went by, it turned out to be quite nice. It’s less lonely than being alone, and it’s also convenient because I can make him do things.”
He said with a harmless face and a smile. That appearance seemed to be almost feeding Sa Gong-hyun.
Jae-young kept drinking without rest. Generally, the role of chattering away belonged to Jae-young, while Sa Gong-hyun quietly listened.
“But.”
“…”
“Why really go this far?”
Jae-young placed one arm on the table. With his cheek against his arm, he lay prone and rubbed the table with his index finger.
He had no particular intention to answer. The reason wasn’t important. Whatever the reason, what mattered was that he was in front of him as if it were natural.
“How did you know that?”
“What?”
“That Cha Seung-kwon deliberately accepted that proposal.”
Sa Gong-hyun moistened his mouth with the rose-tinted wine. How did he know? It wasn’t a complicated matter. The reason Sa Gong-hyun knew was simple.
“Because I was the one who told him to do it.”
“…”
Because he was the one who instructed it to be done. Jae-young’s relaxed eyes became somewhat clearer. Shin Kwang-do had instinctively felt that Cha Seung-kwon wouldn’t take on the job from the beginning.
“Greed blinded him.”
It was Sa Gong-hyun who gave him the bait to use. To touch on the emotions that held Do Jae-young. That he would be curious above all else. Whether he would truly be repulsed by a man, or if he would show even a sliver of possibility—how about putting it to the test?
That if they just watched without doing anything, they would lose him forever. That since emotions with the target of the con wouldn’t deepen anyway, let’s see how he deals with it.
In fact, when Cha Seung-kwon first heard that, he got angry at Shin Kwang-do. Asking what nonsense that was. If he thought that made any sense.
“When something becomes desperate, judgment tends to blur.”
“…”
“When judgment blurs, mistakes happen. Blind spots created by misjudgment prevent one from recognizing that the blade is pointing toward oneself. Sometimes, it even makes one unaware that the blade is digging into one’s own flesh.”
He took the bait after two months had passed. The fruit borne after long patience was sweet as expected.
“What Cha Seung-kwon missed was that. Due to his emotions taking precedence, he accepted a job he wouldn’t have even considered under normal circumstances.”
Jae-young, who had been blinking with a dumbfounded expression, let out a deflating laugh. He propped his arm vertically and rested his head on it. His downcast eyelids carried a certain weight.
“What did you do?”
The voice that followed the question as he raised his head was moist. Though the subject was missing, the intention was clear.
“…Did you kill them?”
“…”
“Or did you just let them go?”
Jae-young, who had slightly raised his head as if pressing for an answer, leaned on his arm again. After getting drunk, his true feelings seemed to come out uncontrollably.
“Yeah. Well… I didn’t expect you to tell me willingly anyway.”
Perhaps because he had been drinking wine like water whenever he felt thirsty, he looked unmistakably intoxicated. His eyelids blinked slowly, almost closing. Thud, he rolled his forehead onto the table as if hitting it.
Sa Gong-hyun stared at that appearance. Given that he already had a high alcohol tolerance, it was hard to gauge how much he had drunk to reach this state.
“I plan to kill them. If I find them.”
Sa Gong-hyun answered belatedly as he drank his wine.
“One I never caught in the first place, and the other was taken away secretly by that one, so to avoid losing the remaining one, I’ll have to kill them.”
Sa Gong-hyun’s gaze remained fixed on the relaxed face.
He should have cut off Im Ju-yeon’s breath when he caught her. Hesitation often becomes an opportunity for the enemy. Such words could only be said because the one who made him hesitate wasn’t in his right mind.
“I’ve even considered letting them be if they live like dead mice.”
Sa Gong-hyun emptied the remaining alcohol in his glass into his mouth. Cha Seung-kwon disturbing his peace of mind was no longer an issue.
Literally, it was something he could just let go. There were many things to do without being on edge trying to catch Cha Seung-kwon.
When Sa Gong-hyun closed his mouth, a quiet silence bloomed everywhere. His gaze persistently circled around Jae-young.
For some time afterward, there were no words exchanged between the one asleep from alcohol and the man watching his lover. Sa Gong-hyun just quietly kept Jae-young in his sight.
“…You know, Hyun-ssi.”
At that moment, a small voice flowed from Jae-young, who was thought to be asleep. It was an affectionate address he was hearing after a truly long time.
“…”
“…”
Jae-young tilted his head with his forehead against the table. He could be seen narrowly opening his eyes. His focus was tracing somewhere on the table.
For what could perhaps be described as a long time, Sa Gong-hyun didn’t rush him. His lips, full of moisture, parted slightly.
“…It was partly sincere.”
“…”
Sa Gong-hyun’s hand on the table unconsciously clenched into a fist.
“After handing over the ledger… I even considered not running away and pretending not to know, just returning to Hyun-ssi. Really.”
“…”
“…I wanted to do that.”
Until Jae-young, who had been mumbling while drunk, continued sleeping facedown, Sa Gong-hyun just quietly looked at him.
Somehow, it felt as if this time the blade was pointing toward his own neck.
***
Do Jae-young was often unpredictable, even now after his mask had been removed.
It was the same when he was first brought here. Perhaps because the anesthetic used for easy transport was strong, he just lay there blankly for a while even after opening his eyes.
“I don’t have any thoughts of sending you back. I don’t plan to kill you right away either.”
That was the first sound Jae-young let out. He was already certain of this. He seemed to have assessed the situation while just lying there blinking.
Isn’t it amusing? The words he uttered immediately after being kidnapped to the house where they had intermittently stayed together. Instead of raising his voice asking what this was all about, he readily acquiesced to the situation that had unfolded.
Jae-young’s attitude defied expectations, but that didn’t mean Sa Gong-hyun trusted his mindset. If he let his guard down, Jae-young would bare his teeth at any moment.
Instead of being swept along by that petty cunning, Sa Gong-hyun approached him. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he cupped Jae-young’s left cheek.
His thumb moved subtly, gently swimming across Jae-young’s cheek. The look and touch were such that if someone were to see them in passing, they might mistake them for affectionate lovers.
But contrary to this performance, the voice dispersing from Sa Gong-hyun’s mouth was utterly chilling.
“If you’re thinking of causing trouble with petty tricks, it would be better to abandon that idea.”
Sa Gong-hyun warned against that ridiculous trick once, on that day, at that time. Jae-young just stared at Sa Gong-hyun silently, as if asking what he was talking about.
“You need to behave for Cha Seung-kwon to at least preserve his meager life.”
At that moment, Jae-young’s eyelids flickered slightly.
Taking a deep breath, Jae-young stopped breathing for a moment. The breath that eventually escaped was calmer than expected.
“Sa Gong-hyun.”
Sa Gong-hyun blinked once and opened his eyes as if in response.
“That doesn’t even count as a threat to me.”
Ah, the sneer that burst forth between his lips straightforwardly represented his feelings.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
