“…What the hell… are you?”
“You know who it is, right? Lee Hyunsoo. Your real ‘Hyung.’ He’s living with one of my clients right now. Seems like he hasn’t forgotten you—he looked pretty surprised when I said I’d opened a studio in this building.”
“What’s the point of showing me this?”
“I could pull him out and bring him right back to your side. What do you think?”
“Don’t need it.”
I crushed the black-and-white photo in one hand.
Why would Lee Hyunsoo take pictures like that? Even though I answered indifferently, saying I didn’t need it, my expression kept hardening. Noticing the shift in my mood, Bin’s face grew more relaxed.
He offered, “Want a cigarette?” and, when I didn’t respond, lit one himself.
“Curious what that is, aren’t you?”
Exhaling smoke, Bin kindly explained the identity of the black-and-white photo.
“It’s a product photo.”
“…A product?”
His absurd explanation continued.
It might look like a simple profile picture, but everything inside that photo was merchandise. Anyone who thought slavery had disappeared was mistaken—and Lee Hyunsoo was no exception. Maybe because it was in black and white, he really did look like an old slave captured in a photograph.
“If it’s about money, bill me.”
“Lee Hyunsoo already has an owner, so… it’s not that simple. Think about it. If you go to someone walking a pet dog and offer money to buy their dog, do you think they’d just hand it over?”
Bin blew a long stream of smoke upward. It looked like it would fill the ceiling, but it slipped smoothly out through the ventilation system.
“So? Feeling like making a trade with me now? Hand Yoo Du-seon over to me nicely.”
He talked as if Hyung were an object. As if neither Yoo Du-seon nor Lee Hyunsoo’s own will mattered.
“If I hand him over to you? What, you gonna play house with him?”
“Play house, huh. That’s funny.”
“What if I never break up with him till the end?”
Only then did Bin regain his smile. Then he burst out laughing like my question was utterly ridiculous.
Grinding the cigarette out, he steadied his voice. His expression relaxed, but the hostility in his eyes didn’t fade. If anything, his smiling made me feel even dirtier.
“You… isn’t Du-seon just Lee Hyunsoo’s substitute? The real one’s here now—no need for a replacement, right?”
“You’re seriously pissing me off. Don’t talk about people like they’re objects.”
“What you want is Lee Hyunsoo, not Yoo Du-seon. Right? Want me to pack you more of Lee Hyunsoo’s nude photos before you go?”
Crash!
My kick shattered the glass sofa table into pieces. Thankfully it was safety glass, so no shards scattered across the floor. The photos of Du-seon and Hyunsoo lay mixed together among the broken panels.
Instead of reacting to the broken table, Bin walked over and picked up the fallen photos, scolding me for taking it out on innocent pictures. I strode up to him, grabbed his collar, and warned him again.
“Don’t do anything. Just leave him alone!”
“Hey, don’t grab so tight. I have to meet a client in this.”
I almost hit him, then let go. Bin went to the mirror and fixed his clothes. Seeing that a button had come off his shirt, he sighed.
“Let’s treat each other well. You know how it goes in comics—equivalent exchange. Let’s make it win-win.”
He pulled a new dress shirt from a drawer while watching me. I warned him to cut the bullshit and left the office. Even as the door slammed shut, Bin kept smiling.
The studio had an open layout, so finding the exit was easy. The place where filming had been earlier now held only equipment—no people. Voices echoed from farther away, probably filming against a different backdrop.
That’s when I noticed a laptop sitting on a small table. It looked like a staff laptop, the profile of the male model from earlier still open on the screen. I opened a browser and typed in a site address. Since it started with a Gogle redirect link, even if the owner checked later, nothing would seem suspicious.
Using Gogle’s redirection feature, the screen briefly accessed the intended site before returning to the Gogle page. In that short moment, malware installed itself, allowing remote control. Luckily, no one was around—and even if someone had seen me, they wouldn’t have realized what I’d done.
I headed back toward the exit. Then I thought of Lee Hyunsoo from that black-and-white photo. Had he taken pictures somewhere like this too? How had he ended up in that situation? During the time we lived together, he’d never talked about how he’d been living.
“You… isn’t Du-seon just Lee Hyunsoo’s substitute? The real one’s here now—no need for a replacement, right?”
As I left the studio and rode the elevator down, I kept thinking about Bin’s question. Sure, I’d entered that kind of relationship with Du-seon to escape being an impotent—but I’d never thought of him as Lee Hyunsoo’s substitute.
Because the reason I reacted to Du-seon’s commanding tone came from my own tastes, shaped by my life experiences. Even if Lee Hyunsoo had been the starting point, there were no feelings left for him now.
Seeing his figure in the game had made me lose my temper for a moment, but after venting it out, I actually felt relieved. The urge to save Lee Hyunsoo in Bin’s so-called deal was nothing more than compensation for the past—not because I wanted to see him again.
As I exited the building, I looked toward the real estate office across the street.
Maybe a customer had come—Du-seon moved between the desk and sofa, explaining something. Then he politely bowed to the departing client and went to close the door, only to spot me standing there. It took only a few steps to cross over; I followed him inside the office.
“Weren’t you just going to wash your hands? Why are you so la—”
Wanting to feel Hyung, I slipped my arms under his armpits and hugged him like a doll. His body was lean but warm—so warm that if I held him long enough, I felt myself grow drowsy.
“What’s wrong all of a sudden?”
“You should give me a reward. I went and took out the trash.”
“Ah… that’s what this is?”
Only then did Hyung’s uncertain hands finally rest on my back.
Pat, pat.
I could feel his gentle pats right behind where my heart sat. It felt like his hand had a heartbeat of its own, moving in sync with mine. Maybe because of that, my pulse sped up even though I hadn’t been running.
Without a doubt, the only person I could call Hyung now… was him.
***
Jun suddenly hugged me out of nowhere and held on so long it felt like he might fall asleep like this. And why was his face pressed so close again? I tried turning my head away but gave up.
He buried his face in the back of my neck and stayed still for a long time. Glancing at the wall clock behind him, it was already nearing one o’clock.
After patting him for a while, my wrist began to ache.
“Want to go eat something?”
The arms that had locked around me like a clasp finally loosened. Just moments ago he’d been clinging like a child, but now he dropped onto the sofa with a cold air about him, staring at his phone as he replied.
“Anything.”
It felt like raising a teenage son.
“If anything’s fine, want to get noodles? There’s a place nearby that makes really good chicken broth noodles.”
“Yeah, wait a sec.”
Just as I picked up my phone from the desk to get ready to go out, a message alert sounded. What was it? It was from ShutUp. Jun sat right in front of me, leisurely messaging Gentle.
Clearing my throat, I sat down and checked the message where he couldn’t see.
[What time will you be home?]
[I’ll be around 8. Gotta wash up and eat, so I’ll log in around 9.]
[Be on by 8:30.]
“You fucking—.”
I muttered a low curse, and Jun glanced up with just his eyes.
“Wasn’t talking about you.”
No, actually… it was about you.
Shameless bastard. Complaining that he was basically telling me to log in without even eating dinner, I suddenly remembered the last time we’d linked.
When was it? Almost a week, I think. He’d logged out Tuesday while still poisoned, so I wondered what had happened after that. Carefully, I sent a message asking if he’d recovered from the poison. As expected, the reply came immediately.
[Worried it might transfer? Don’t be.]
[I passed out, so my PG dropped all the way.]
[What, disappointed we didn’t link?]
I glanced at Jun sitting there and started typing a reply when—
“Hyung!”
His voice made me jump.
“Aren’t we going?”
“Yeah, we’re going now.”
If I didn’t reply right away, it might look like I really was disappointed, so I typed “ㅗ” and hit send. But somehow, I accidentally sent the one next to it too.
[ㅗ]
[ㅓ]
“…Huh? That’s not right.”
I was about to correct it when Jun walked over, asking what I was doing so seriously. I hurriedly shoved my phone into my back pocket.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go, let’s go out.”
I stepped out first to lock the office, but Jun suddenly stopped, staring down at his own phone. I saw him tapping the screen.
My phone vibrated in my back pocket—he must’ve replied—but I couldn’t check it. I locked the office and we headed to the noodle shop together.
Maybe because it was a franchise, the taste was the same everywhere, which I liked. Summer was over, but I could never give up chicken broth noodles. That light broth with white kimchi—how did they make it taste like this? After ordering, I grinned as I poured water, and Jun commented.
“Hyung, you really like noodles that much?”
“Yeah. They’re delicious.”
“More than beef?”
“I can’t choose.”
“Then what do you like more—me or noodles?”
“Noodles.”
Jun snorted while drinking water, saying I didn’t even hesitate for a second.
We weren’t really the kind of people who joked like that, so I felt embarrassed after answering. I’d forced myself to stay calm and play along like a joke; if I’d shown my flustered reaction in front of him, I could already imagine how much he’d tease me.
We both ordered chicken broth noodles. As Jun tried to eat them plain, I handed him vinegar and mustard. Unlike him, who added only mustard, I poured in vinegar generously.
“Don’t add too much vinegar. You’ll ruin your stomach.”
“Juni, you don’t get it. It tastes better with lots of vinegar.”
Ignoring his horrified look, I eagerly lifted noodles into my mouth. They served young radish kimchi as a side dish, and it paired perfectly. As I kept eating, I noticed only a few pieces left and wondered if I should go get more from the self-serve bar—but Jun got up first and brought some back.
Seeing the pile of kimchi, I thanked him and kept eating diligently. Then, as I reached for another side dish, I looked at Jun’s bowl. The noodles were already gone.
Not wanting to make him wait, I hurriedly slurped mine down, splashing broth around my mouth. I reached for a napkin to wipe it, but Jun’s hand was faster. He gently dabbed at the exact spot where the broth had splashed.
“Eat slowly. I’m used to waiting—I always eat fast.”
“Huh? Oh… yeah.”
I’d expected him to scold me for being slow, but instead he was considerate. Maybe he really was a decent person after all. Jun said he’d go to the restroom for a moment and stood up. While he was gone, I pulled out my phone to check the message he’d sent earlier.
But the moment I saw it, I regretted checking so soon.
[I want to do it soon.]
