“Hyung, are you seeing that woman?”
Carrying the sandwich, I walked over to the sofa. The moment I set it down on the table, Jun tore open the wrapper and took a bite without even asking if he could eat it. It was almost lunchtime anyway, and I wasn’t particularly hungry, so I let him have it.
“Yeah. We made plans.”
“Why Samseong Station?”
“She said she has something to show me.”
“So what is she showing you?”
“……I don’t know, maybe a movie or a musical or something.”
I opened the drink she’d given me and placed it in front of Jun. Whether he swallowed his thanks along with the sandwich or not, he naturally picked up the drink and gulped it down.
“Hyung, call me when you’re done. I’ll pick you up.”
“Why would you pick me up?”
“It’s far from there to your place. I’ll drive you.”
“No, it’s fine. Why would you go that far—”
I was about to wave him off when his chewing suddenly slowed.
He simply stared at me, the hint of a smile gone from his face, but it looked like countless unspoken words were embedded in that gaze. The way he chewed and swallowed made him seem like a predator tearing flesh from raw meat.
“…You know I have to be there, right? Sometimes I think you forget things pretty easily.”
“Huh?”
“Our relationship.”
“Ah…….”
He’d only taken a few bites, yet the sandwich disappeared in an instant. After draining even the last drop of the drink, he grabbed a nearby wet wipe and cleaned his hands. When I stepped closer to throw away the wrapper, Jun caught my wrist and stopped me.
“I’ll do it.”
“Okay.”
Jun briskly picked up the wrapper again. As he tossed it into the trash can, he noticed it was full and looked at me.
“It’s full. Should we empty it?”
At his mutter, I pulled out a new pay-as-you-throw trash bag from the drawer and walked over. Jun stood in front of the bin, just staring at it. I blew air into the new bag to open it wide and bent down, but he snatched it from my hands.
“I’ll do it.”
“No. Juni, I can do it—”
“Just. Let me.”
“Hey… why are you making this so uncomfortable? Am I just supposed to sit there and watch?”
Jun tied up the trash bag neatly and replaced it. Holding the tied bag in one hand, he answered firmly, “Yeah.”
“At least when I’m next to you, do it like that. If you don’t like it, then quit.”
“Hey… wait.”
I grabbed Jun as he headed out with the trash bag.
“You’re not saying I can’t even date and have to role-play with you instead, right?”
“You said you’re meeting the woman next door on Saturday.”
“Yeah.”
“Did I tell you not to go? Did you forget who the master is?”
“Ah, right. I’m the master.”
Jun was faithfully carrying out his role. Except for the expensive watch on the hand holding the trash bag.
What kind of slave goes around wearing something like that?
Jun, his face expressionless, shook off the arm I was holding. My hand slipped down from the collar of his clothes.
“Today I’ll only stay with you until lunchtime. That’s okay, right?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
He pushed the office door open with his shoulder and walked toward his building across the street.
Our building required us to leave trash bags out on the street, so we were supposed to throw them away only in the evening. But Jun’s building had a designated disposal area near the parking entrance, so it seemed he could throw trash away anytime. After tossing the bag, Jun looked down at his hands before heading inside.
“It’s weirdly uncomfortable. If he’s a slave, he should look like one. He looks like a tyrant, so it feels awkward making him do anything.”
I pressed myself against the office’s glass wall and watched him.
♩♬♪—.
Right then, the office phone rang, and I hurried back to my desk. The number on the landline display looked familiar.
“Hello, this is Dajeong Real Estate.”
[Hey, what are you doing? Why aren’t you answering your phone?]
“Oh, Han-woo? I didn’t get any calls.”
When I checked my phone, it had turned off—probably because it hadn’t been charging. After plugging in the charger, I picked up the call again.
“Guess I forgot to charge it. I usually plug it in as soon as I get to work, but I was busy this morning.”
[Did you sell Relax?]
“Haah…….”
My sigh was so deep it felt like the ground might cave in, drowning out whatever Han-woo said next. When I didn’t respond for a while, he asked first if I’d been scammed. I think I answered with a slight tremble in my voice.
[Hey, are you crying?]
“Why would I cry?”
[Honestly, I would. Do you even know how much that was worth? There has to be a guy you traded with.]
“The one I traded with was a guy, but the one who took it was a woman.”
Han-woo asked how on earth I’d gotten scammed, so I briefly explained what had happened that day.
Then he said I should just get it back from that woman and asked what her name was. I told him it was Goddess. He asked again if it was the famous Guide Goddess from Stargram, and when I said yes, he let out a hollow laugh, saying I really did have a talent for getting entangled with people like that.
“Should I report it to the police?”
[Even if you give them the culprit’s account number and contact info, it takes ages for them to process it. And you handed over the item after seeing a single message? Yeah, they’ll totally catch him for you.]
Han-woo wasn’t wrong. Back when he’d been scammed on Used World, he’d reported it, and the account number used for the scam had remained active for over a month. The guy was eventually caught, but there were so many victims that he didn’t even get his full amount back.
[You don’t even have proof you handed over the item, right? You’ll have to get it back personally.]
“Haah… alright. I’ll hang up for now.”
I couldn’t keep talking about the game with Jun possibly coming back in at any moment. I told him we’d grab a drink later and hung up quickly.
I turned my gaze back to the monitor and skimmed through the free bulletin board posts again. I glanced outside, but Jun, who had gone into the building across the street, still showed no sign of coming out.
In the meantime, my phone had charged enough to turn on properly. It seemed like the charging cable was faulty; even a slight touch would disrupt the connection.
Once it fully powered on, I saw two missed calls. One was from Han-woo just now, and the other was from an unknown number.
For now, charging the phone was the priority, so I placed it somewhere out of reach and organized the lease agreements Jun had given me. Aside from today’s contract, there were about five more vacant units in that building. The room I’d seen before had been clean and nice. It definitely wasn’t the kind of place that should’ve been vacant—maybe it had just been left that way because of Jun’s personality.
Looking at the real estate agencies that had closed contracts in that building, Golden Real Estate had handled one or two. But the one that stood out the most was Evergreen Real Estate. It was run by a female owner and located across the street. About seventy percent of the transactions had gone through Evergreen Real Estate, and the logo on the file folder Jun had handed me clearly bore the Evergreen Real Estate name.
“If there’s a managing real estate office, why give it to me?”
I decided I’d bring it up at the next meeting. We talked about all sorts of things casually, but I’d never had a deep conversation with anyone in particular.
As I was putting the reviewed documents back, I noticed the delivery box I’d left on the floor earlier. I’d been in such a bad mood that I’d considered throwing it away unopened. And since I’d assumed it was just underwear again, I’d felt awkward opening it in front of Jun.
Seeing that Jun still hadn’t come out of his building, I lifted the box onto my desk to open it—only to see that a cut had already been made across the tape. Which meant Jun had opened it earlier. It had been perfectly sealed when the hardware store owner handed it to me.
“Why did he open this…?”
Grumbling, I slowly opened the box.
It wasn’t underwear.
It was a familiar sneaker. The one that had disappeared a long time ago. And, as expected, it was splattered with semen. I stared down at the box for a moment before closing it again.
Even if Jun had seen it, it wasn’t a big deal since he’d already seen the underwear before. When I caught this stalker, I wanted to ask him when exactly he planned to run out of my belongings.
Or…
Maybe he needs something new. Could it be someone who comes to the office often?
Thinking carefully about how Panty Guy had figured out the location of my real estate office, it was entirely possible. I remembered my mom mentioning that mail had arrived at home because of the real estate opening.
Ding—.
Just then, a message came through on my gradually charging phone. It was from ShutUp. So the grand thing he’d done after going to the building across the street was send a game message. I checked what Jun had sent.
[Log in after work.]
I hesitated, wondering if I should log into the game and ask ShutUp to help me with the scam. I wasn’t completely sure if Yot Seller was Kang Chung-man, but if by some chance he was, then since ShutUp was going to deal with him anyway, I might as well add my spoon to the table.
