The Smell of Something Fishy Chapter 4.2

A polite, gentle smile spread across his face.

“A person who says he will even bear a child should be fine with a mere bead like this, right?”

“……!”

It felt like tears were about to burst out. Just then, the rotor began to vibrate. Yeonseo swallowed a moan and twisted his waist. Heueup…! He could feel the hole opening up, but because it was overly stretched as if a fist was jammed inside, it was hard to put any strength into it. The frequent ejaculations until now also played a part.

“…Heueut, ah…! Ugh, haak!”

“Push. I can’t even see the tip of the bead yet.”

A voice tinged with laughter commanded him. The hands gripping his waist kneaded him, and a thumb pressed down firmly on his stomach, but there was no sign whatsoever that he would help by putting a hand in directly.

Yeonseo painfully swallowed his tears. His eyes trembled uncontrollably. His own predicament, clinging to the man’s arm and shoulder, begging, was imprinted on him in vivid detail. In just a full day, his body had turned into an utterly lewd state, and his hole was no longer the excretory organ he once knew. Even excretion itself was no longer a simple act of excretion.

The moment the man’s hand touched him, all of it became sex.

—I enjoyed it, so if Park Yeonseo says he enjoyed it too, it becomes sex.

His words were accurate.

He hated it, but it felt good. It felt good, but he wanted to cry his eyes out. Everything related to the man was a contradiction.

By sensing the contradiction, he also came to realize that his own emotions were rising and falling with sharp sensitivity.

I wish you would be kind. I wish you would fuck me relentlessly so I can’t think at all. I wish you wouldn’t be mean. I wish you would treat me savagely.

“—Haaahng!”

Slurp, jjuup, jjo-ok, jjjeot, jjeok.

Tae Shinju, who had almost thrown Yeonseo down, suddenly spread Yeonseo’s buttocks and buried his tongue there. Not the front, which he habitually sucked on, but the back hole. The way he used his lips to apply pressure, just as he had when he pulled out the hidden pearl, felt almost obsessive.

“How, is this not a pussy.”

“Heuk! Ha, euung, aht! St, stop—.”

“Tell me, Park Yeonseo. You lick men at any and every moment and draw them in with your lower hole, so how is this not a pussy.”

His slender waist arched flexibly. His lower body began to, in turn, lick the beautiful face with nibbling bites, no, with pussy-like thrusts.

It was as if they were fighting with their genitals. Yeonseo, with his thrashing lower body, tried to smear his pussy juices on the man’s face, while Tae Shinju, by any means necessary, tried to drop a living anchor into the back-pussy and conquer the writhing flesh inside.

Only the rotor, caught in the middle of their power struggle, whined, making its presence known.

“Aah!”

Yeonseo suddenly screamed and tensed his muscles. It was another orgasm that had come upon him. Tae Shinju did not miss that timing and grabbed Yeonseo’s cock.

“Haang! Nng, heuu, aaaah!”

“Just bear with it for a moment. I’ll let you come once I take out the rotor.”

“Heuuueut!”

His body, writhing with a scrunched nose and furrowed brow, tried to push Tae Shinju’s hand away. The sight of him leaking pre-cum from both holes while his cock was held was so erotic it left one speechless.

“When I suck it out, you, right here, push and force it out. Do you understand me?”

Emphasizing ‘here’, Tae Shinju poked the back hole. Yeonseo barely managed to nod.

It was a dramatic compromise. As soon as the words were out, the man began to suck on the hole. Yeonseo, in turn, put strength into his abdomen and shook his hips. The rotor, caught near his prostate, squirmed and was pushed out an infuriatingly small amount.

His body, which had been clean and fresh after a wash, was now soaked in sweat. Yeonseo soon tuned out everything around him from his consciousness and focused solely on getting the rotor out. He raised his knees to lift his lower body, lowered it, bent it, and writhed this way and that, doing his best so that the rotor could slide out smoothly.

Hoo-eup, heuu. With every breath he took in and out, a hot tongue licked his hole. It was a signal when it slipped the tip in slightly, traced the entrance, and pulled out. A signal that he would now start sucking. Then, Yeonseo would take another deep breath and spread his hole towards the man’s mouth.

“Heup!”

The smooth, spherical Hyung rotor did not have a separate string for removal. That was also why Yeonseo had been more frightened. What if it went deep into his intestines and never came out?

It seemed such worries were unfounded.

As he strained so hard that he felt his energy drain with every push, he felt his hole stretching to its limit.

“Aaaaat!”

As Tae Shinju licked the hole that had begun preparations to birth something, he scratched the plumply protruding pussy-clit with his fingerprint. A sharp pleasure must have shot through him, as Yeonseo twisted his whole body and convulsed.

Jureureuk.

The bead that had finally come all the way out settled in the cave of Tae Shinju’s mouth. At the same time, the cock, now free, feebly spurted a stream of fluid.

Haak, haah…. In front of Yeonseo, who was sprawled out with his limbs limp, Tae Shinju spat out the bead.

“Look at this. It’s what Mr. Yeonseo gave birth to.”

Jiiing, jiiiing—.

The rotor, held between the man’s fingers, didn’t seem to be vibrating that intensely when looked at like this. However, for Yeonseo, who had experienced what kind of effect the mindless tool had when it came in contact with a pleasure point, that whirring vibration was terrifying. Even though he had confirmed it was out of his body, he felt as if his insides were still trembling.

The translucent sphere was slick and shiny, wet with fluid. The identity of that fluid was….

Yeonseo couldn’t bear to look any longer and lowered his eyelids. A familiar sense of exhaustion washed over him. It was always like this when he was with Tae Shinju. He would always be completely emptied out to the very bottom, inevitably facing a state where his stomach felt hollow.

“Tsk…. What a waste.”

The man, having turned off the vibration, carelessly shoved the rotor into his coat pocket. Then, with a somewhat urgent touch, he lifted Yeonseo’s thighs.

“Euum….”

Yeonseo frowned at the act that followed. Not even a proper moan would come out.

Pushing the thighs up to place the front hole and the back-pussy directly in front of him, he stuck out his long tongue and licked the damp genitals in a straight line. He buried his lips deep in each hole, sucking them chup chup, and repeatedly swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He seemed to genuinely lament the leaked bodily fluids.

Whether it was a misfortune or a blessing, Yeonseo was more overcome with exhaustion than arousal and did not get hard again. To be precise, he had been wrung out so much that he couldn’t get hard.

“There, now that I’ve wiped you clean, I will put your underwear on for you.”

The man, after roughly wiping his own face with a handkerchief, hummed lowly and moved away toward the clothing rack. Yeonseo was inwardly horrified.

That thing he said about panties… he was serious?

His heart, which had just barely calmed down after the wave of exhaustion, began to pound anxiously again. The odds were fifty-fifty. The possibility that since they were outside, and in a department store, the type of clothing would at least be normal, and the possibility that since it was ‘underwear’ and not visible on the outside, it would be the kind to make Yeonseo horrified.

‘Tae Shinju’s taste… I don’t know it.’

Wasn’t he a person who slept naked?

Besides, during the previous night he had stayed over by chance, Yeonseo had been permitted to wear something, but what actually touched his body was a large pajama top and the man’s cock. Neither of those were ‘underwear,’ so they were no help as a reference.

Yeonseo curled up out of habit. The part of the fabric touching his body was damp. It seemed that while he was writhing his lower abdomen, his pussy juice had flowed out in torrents, eventually soaking the man’s coat.

‘How embarrassing.’

No matter how pushy the man had been….

With his lower holes plugged by a chastity belt without a single piece of underwear on, wrapped up in a man’s coat, Yeonseo blamed himself. Just as everyone always blamed Yeonseo whenever something happened, this time too, it seemed his body was the problem. Maybe it was because he had a hole that shouldn’t exist that this endlessly lewd fluid kept coming out and making him lick men.

‘Again! I did it again.’

He had wantonly rubbed the distinguished man’s face with his lower hole. That was shocking enough, but he had definitely felt pleasure from that act. That was the problem. He even had the illusion, perhaps because it was just his imagination, that his own actions were gradually becoming bolder.

That can’t be… unless I’ve gone mad, there’s no way I would dare commit such an act.

“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I brought several. For now, just pick what you’ll wear to leave.”

Just then, the perverted prince who would rescue the confused Yeonseo returned. The timing was impeccable. Yeonseo, who had managed to sit up by his waist, was lost for words and plunged into an even greater vortex.

Th, that’s….

Is that underwear?

The things the man brought, calling them underwear, were very different from the shapes Yeonseo knew. One was just a string, another looked like extremely tight hot pants, but it had a zipper exactly over the genitals. A cover made only of delicate lace, like something for women, and a pouch-like thing that only covered the front without even a string—he had no idea how to even wear them.

There were several pieces, all of them like that.

“They may not look it, but these are all men’s underwear.”

“In a dep, department store, they s-s-sell things like that…?”

“Well… it’s a special route, I admit. But there’s nothing I can’t get in my department store.”

‘Me, having a department store like this, aren’t I amazing?’ 

Tae Shinju shrugged his shoulders as if to boast.

Yeonseo, in a daze, scanned the room horizontally. The space was about half the size of Tae Shinju’s living room at home. For a private room inside a department store, it was quite spacious. The only furniture was a long, backless sofa, several single-person sofas, a table with refreshments, and a very large, long full-length mirror, but because there were clothing racks installed along every wall displaying clothes by type, it felt cozy rather than empty.

The rack from which Tae Shinju had picked the clothes was the one against the left wall, furthest from the sofa. He had taken out more than five or six hangers, but it was a small amount from the long rack.

‘Isn’t there at least one piece of underwear with a familiar shape over there?’

“Is there nothing you like?”

Tae Shinju asked, alternately holding up the hangers to his naked crotch. Yeonseo, his face flushed red, ducked his head low, then turned his head elsewhere in surprise.

“Then shall we put this back on first?”

“Th, that… wasn’t it over?”

“Who said that? That it was over.”

Instead of the embarrassing underwear, what occupied the man’s hands was the chastity belt. Tae Shinju, wearing his usual good-natured smile, sucked on each of the rods attached to the belt.

Yeonseo unknowingly shuffled back on his butt.

“Aht!”

“Don’t avoid me. That hurts my feelings. It’s going to be Mr. Yeonseo’s practical underwear, so you should get friendly with it.”

Two thick rods were inserted one by one, one into the front hole, one into the back hole. Since the inside was not yet dry, they slid in with ease. The thin strap, which looked like it would snap if pulled hard, ran over Yeonseo’s lower abdomen and down the crack of his ass to meet at his lower back.

Click.

By the time he came to his senses, his holes were blocked. Yeonseo, utterly flustered, grabbed the hem of Tae Shinju’s clothes.

“Underwear… what do you mean by that….”

“Mr. Yeonseo’s body, you sold it to me, didn’t you.”

“…….”

Tae Shinju, with a look as if he were proud of him, enveloped Yeonseo’s hand and kissed its back.

“Then, as the owner, I should take good care of my holes, right? Even if Mr. Yeonseo is careful, who knows who might covet those holes… and also, personally, I’d prefer it if Mr. Yeonseo didn’t go rubbing his pussy alone.”

Tae Shinju hid his inner thought that he had intentionally not taught him how to masturbate for that reason. The soft, moist inner flesh was so addictive the more he touched it that a nagging worry arose that Yeonseo might soon become addicted to masturbation more than sex.

“Touching is fine. Here, you can stroke the clit and the cock as much as you want. You can also pee whenever you want… let’s just hold back on anything more than that. Of course, when I’m with you, I’ll take it off, so you’ll only have to endure it during the daytime on weekdays.”

“…….”

“It’s only for a short while anyway. It will be written in the revised contract, but I plan to buy a night with Mr. Yeonseo for 100 million won. The remaining amount is about 4 billion won, so in a little over a month and a half, you’ll be completely free. From the debt, and from me.”

“A month and a half….”

“If I were to eat Mr. Yeonseo every day, it’s a short period of less than a month and a half. And it will probably turn out that way. Mr. Yeonseo knows best how infatuated I am with that body.”

A month and a half. No, he would pay off all his debt and be free in even less time than that. He would get a chance to live the life of a dishcloth, not a whore.

—From the debt, and from me.

For some reason, those words echoed loudly inside Yeonseo. The echo grew larger and larger, even granting him the courage to look Tae Shinju straight in the eye.

Tae Shinju gently pressed below Yeonseo’s navel with his thumb.

“So… unless you want to leave just like this, it would be better to choose at least one piece of cloth. Well, you can go naked too. I don’t mind either way.”

“Ah….”

“I live for the fun of undressing Park Yeonseo.”

These are all your clothes. Tae Shinju whispered in a playful tone. Yeonseo’s eyes widened, and he looked around again. The clothing racks installed on the walls were all longer and taller than Yeonseo with his arms stretched out.

All of that is my clothing?

It was no exaggeration; if he were to assume he took all of that home, his tiny room would burst. It was that much.

“We went to the trouble of putting in a jewel, so should we wear this to show it off?”

With Yeonseo unable to decide, Tae Shinju ended up choosing the underwear. It was a pair of lace string panties that barely covered the shaft of his genitals with a triangular piece of cloth.

Yeonseo’s ears and cheeks turned bright red at the placement and use, which seemed like it should have originally covered a woman’s clitoris. The string crossed his pussy and was tied in knots at both ends of his pelvis. Yeonseo broke out in a cold sweat just imagining what it would have felt like if the string had directly touched his holes without the rods.

“The underwear is done. As for the top….”

“I, I will! I… will choose.”

Please let me choose. When he begged with a desperate gaze, Tae Shinju readily gave his permission.

“I’ll take you there.”

Yeonseo arrived at the second rack on the left, held in his arms.

“…….”

“There’s underwear for the top too, you know,” the man replied brazenly to Yeonseo’s stare.

That’s a bra, you pervert….

It didn’t take long for the man, under the pretext of helping him put on underwear, to knead his chest and even suck his nipples. Not satisfied with that, he touched his ass when putting on the pants, and when putting on the ‘real’ top, he said he had to see if there was enough space for his head to go in the clothes and bit, grazed, and fiddled with his nipples through the bra, leaving Yeonseo quickly exhausted.

His whole body was mottled with the marks he left. He seemed like a person mad with lust. No matter how infatuated he was with Yeonseo’s body, he went too far. Yeonseo had a premonition that the month and a half, short as it may be, would be anything but easy.

In the end, they couldn’t make it to Tae Shinju’s company. It was because Yeonseo, exhausted from the intense shopping, fainted. The man had done so much in the personal shopper room, and yet he petted him relentlessly in the car on the move as well. The deciding blow was when he, saying it was something he had really wanted to try, inserted his massive member under the underwear and rubbed their cocks together.

After being milked to the very last drop, Yeonseo cleanly lost consciousness. It was a relief, in a way. He vaguely sensed the feeling of arriving somewhere and entering water, but it might have been a delusion.

“Sleep well, Mr. Yeonseo.”

The warm heat and the cozy voice too.

What was closer was a flesh-biting sensation. A cutting wind clawing at his skin and a dark view.

Hwiiiiing—.

When Yeonseo opened his eyes, he was once again lying under the cold night. A crumbling shantytown, a narrow alleyway.

He was in a maze where he lost the person he had lost once again.

🕷️

In truth, the exact gist of the dream was roughly this. A six-year-old child walks up a dark road to a mineral spring on the opposite side. Then, not seeing ‘that person,’ he wanders around looking for him.

It is a rather simple story. The factor that enriches such a dream is memory. Yeonseo remembered the wind, the light, the smells, the warmth, the voice, and the textures of that time. Although many parts were blurry, some scenes were surprisingly vivid, as clear as if they had happened yesterday. Things like the comfort of the embrace he felt on the day he first greeted that person, for instance.

Though it was a dream he had often, it was rare for him to have it on consecutive days like this. Yeonseo walked through the same repeating alleyway in his dream. The neighborhood, where people left day by day, was desolate. Though it was the same narrow and dark alleyway, the atmosphere changed more and more depending on whether there were many people or few.

Anyway, on that day too, Yeonseo diligently climbed to his destination. The scary men and ‘Hyung-ah’ continued to gather at the mineral spring even after that day, having conversations he couldn’t understand. Since it was almost every day, Yeonseo had no choice but to stealthily change his destination to the spot where he had hidden before.

Thinking back now, it was a reckless act, but at the time, no one told Yeonseo not to go up to the mineral spring or that he didn’t have to go to his destination. Yeonseo, too, not being a flexible person, simply repeated his set routine faithfully.

Then one time, he was caught by a gangster.

—Ya, what’s this kid.

—I brought him over because he was spying on us.

—Ah…!

The large man pushed Yeonseo’s back. Yeonseo fell forward as if he had been struck. The short man from his memory scolded the large man with a bewildered look.

—Still, is it right to throw a kid around like that.

—…I’m sorry.

The large man looked back and forth between his hand and Yeonseo, then bowed his head. The short man instead helped Yeonseo up and dusted off his palms and knees.

—Aigoo. Look at this, here. It’s all scraped up. Still, for a little girl, you’re not crying and you’re sharp. What’s your name?

Yeonseo was practically in the man’s arms. The man’s handiwork, as he knelt to meet the child’s eye level and dust off the dirt, was quite skilled. Yeonseo, glancing at the large man, raised the side of his hand to President Yoon’s ear and whispered.

—It’s Park…Yeonseo, but, uhm, uh… little girl? I’m not.

To Yeonseo, a Seoul native, his accent was a bit difficult. The fact that he could understand it at all was thanks to the many people who spoke with dialects staying in the shantytown.

The neighborhood, where people gathered with only a place to lay their bodies in mind regardless of age, had a high percentage of residents from other regions. Overhearing their conversations, Yeonseo naturally became somewhat accustomed to the different speech patterns. However, President Yoon’s accent had a particularly strong intonation among them, so he could only guess based on a few words.

President Yoon laughed loudly in great surprise.

—What? You’re a boy? You look like a little girl from the TV, so I didn’t know. My bad. So, why were you over there.

What he had been expecting had come. Yeonseo, glancing around again, whispered quietly.

—Here… it’s a place I always used to come to… because I have to take a walk every day. I promised my mom.

—Is that so. Then the ahjussi was in the wrong. Sitting here all day at a place you always come to, blocking you so you can’t even come up, huh.

—…….

—Yeonseo, do you know your mom’s name? The ahjussi should go and say he was wrong.

Yeonseo hesitated, then shook his head.

—I don’t have… a mom. She hasn’t come home for ten nights.

—Why? Where did she go?

—I don’t know. Dad said Mom is gone now. He said if Yeonseo wants to see Mom, Yeonseo has to find her….

—Heoigu… to leave this little kid, that mother is something else.

President Yoon shouted towards the large man.

—That’s what he says! Heonjae ya.

—Yes, Hyung-nim.

—Someone take this kid home. Let’s at least see his father’s face. Kid, where do you live?

The moment Yeonseo was about to open his mouth, a person who had just entered the mineral spring spat out sharply.

—What is this. Are you beating up kids now?

—…Hyung-ah?

That man. The person who had first said ‘Hello’ to him.

He was dressed entirely in black again today, including a mask. President Yoon greeted the man with a peculiar look in his eyes.

—What… I guess you two know each other.

—It’s a bit much to say we know each other. I took him home once. He was hiding down there, trembling because of you gangster bastards.

—Aha….

—If he needs to be taken home, I’ll go.

A scent of cold wind came from the man who strode over. Seeing as he had companions with him, it seemed he had finished some business elsewhere and joined them.

He was still a pitch-black and tall man. Then and now, his face was covered, so all Yeonseo could make out were his eyes. Eyes blacker than the night.

Why did you come again. Through their meeting gazes, Yeonseo got the feeling that he was rebuking him with his eyes.

That’s not it…. I didn’t even go all the way up to the mineral spring. The men were the ones who found me. Not being able to clearly explain made him feel unfairly treated for no reason.

President Yoon readily agreed.

—Sure. If you just go, it’s easier for us.

—Yes, then we’ll be going first. Keep up the good work.

As soon as his words ended, he snatched Yeonseo up in his arms. Unlike the last time, it was a rather rough handling, so Yeonseo had to cling tightly to the man to keep from falling.

The embrace that had been scary because of its height now felt stable, having been held once before. The arm supporting his bottom was incredibly firm.

What stopped the man, who had turned and was heading back the way he came, was the chi-iik, the sound of a lighter igniting, and a single phrase from President Yoon.

—But, young master.

—…What is it?

Because his gaze was naturally turned backward from hanging onto Hyung-ah’s neck, Yeonseo was able to watch the whole process of the short man receiving a cigarette from the large man and putting it in his mouth.

Under the dusky early evening sky, the red tip of the cigarette glowed with particular brightness. The sun had mostly set, and it was a point where one could just barely make out faces.

The man holding Yeonseo waited for an answer before turning his body halfway. Yeonseo again naturally looked behind the man’s back. The hulking, dark figures had split to either side and were clustered together.

—It’s nothing much. From now on, please speak a little more gently. Taking care of a kid and then getting cussed out, how can a gangster who hears that live with the sorrow.

Suddenly, strength went into the hand holding the child.

His gripped thigh hurt, but Yeonseo held his breath quietly. To just hear it, it sounded ordinary, but it seemed to be a bad thing to say to Hyung-ah. Even though the man was even smiling.

The acrid smell of tobacco reached where Yeonseo was.

—We’re also your family, in a way. The Chairman’s son.

—…….

—That Haengsik, Heonjae, Dongwoo, all of them— they’re your uncles and older brothers, young master, aren’t they. We may have come from different wombs, but we mixed our blood and drank it, and rolled around in a dog-shit field to protect our youngest little young master. Even you acknowledge that, don’t you, young master?

—…President Yoon.

President Yoon blew out a long stream of smoke and continued.

—As for me, if things get dirty, I can just quit and go to some country backwater and still be called Hyung-nim and eat and live well. I can certainly feed myself.

—…….

—But what about these guys? These guys are different from me. They raised their youngest brother until they were blue in the face and foolishly handed over all the household affairs. And now that the youngest has grown a bit of a backbone, if he says ‘I hate you brothers, I don’t like you uneducated brutes who only know how to fight, get lost,’ then these guys’ lives will end with just changing shitty diapers.

—So what… you want me to live my life gratefully serving my gangster Hyung-nims?

—Where? It’ll be these guys serving. I don’t care if it’s these bastards’ fate to be servants. What I’m saying is, now that the youngest has received all the household affairs and become the head, it’s only right that you look after your older brothers as if they were children and say ‘good job,’ ‘well done.’ That’s what I’m saying.

In the midst of his long speech, the middle-aged man would suck on his cigarette. His cheeks would become hollow and then return to normal with the thick smoke.

Yeonseo, while hugging Hyung-ah’s neck, turned his body to peek at the short man. Even though his own line of sight was much higher because he was being held, he somehow felt intimidated by him.

President Yoon scratched his forehead with his little finger and clicked his tongue.

—These bastards, just as the young master says, they don’t know how to do anything but fight and are uneducated, but only the ones who know loyalty have remained. Only the ones who don’t covet the youngest’s position and stay right in their place, know their station, and do their work have remained. For the young master, this is a godsend, a godsend.

—Ha….

—Where was it, Heonjae ya. That place that was either Jagalchi or Ssangkal.

—It’s the Doma-pa, Hyung-nim.

—Ah. Doma-pa. Anyway, those bastards who thought they were so great, always coming in packs to beat up our boys, slash them with knives, and cause all sorts of trouble, the moment the head of that house changed, didn’t they just turn a blind eye, break off on their own, and cause a huge commotion.

—…Hyung-nim.

Heonjae, who had only been responding stoically until now, called out to President Yoon as if to stop him. The man who heard the call patted the large man’s shoulder with the hand that held the filter between his index and middle fingers.

—Anyway, these kids are foolish, so foolish. You see, young master. They won’t let anyone say anything to their precious youngest. Our young master has grown up so splendidly that the Chairman even sent him to the site of his only son, whom he cherished like his own finger, but in these guys’ eyes, the young master is still the kid who used to walk around in diapers.

The hand that had patted the large man’s shoulder now touched the young man’s shoulder. The look in his eyes as he rested his hand quietly and looked at the young man was too difficult for Yeonseo to grasp its meaning.

—So don’t be too hurt. When those mountain bandit-like guys hear a bad word from the young master, they can’t even live up to their size and just sniffle by themselves, and it makes my insides burn. The young master has the Chairman and many to rely on, but for them, there’s only me, so I’m speaking on their behalf. Don’t take what I said too hard.

—Ha… haha.

The area around his elegant eyes turned crimson. The surroundings had darkened before he knew it, but Yeonseo clearly watched the beautiful eyes transform into a fierce gaze.

The man repeatedly let out a dry laugh. He was laughing, but to Yeonseo, he looked like a person who was furiously angry. It was a strange thing.

—Then is it okay for me to be hurt by this?

—What? What have these guys done to bother the young master.

Squeeze. The hand that had gripped Yeonseo’s thigh once with force applied pressure to the same spot. Yeonseo helplessly whimpered and hugged the man’s neck.

—The one who begged you to leave him alone, saying he wouldn’t inherit the household, who were the gangster bastards who finally broke his limbs and dragged him here?

—Eum….

—The guy who said he would build houses, whose limbs did you break to make him go around destroying other people’s houses? What else do you call those sons of bitches?

The man’s gaze shifted between the short man and the large man before finally glaring only at President Yoon.

President Yoon put a hand to his forehead.

—Aigoo… the young master is really mad. That was the Chairman’s doing, for the young master’s own good, wasn’t it. Yes, to break your son’s arms and legs because he won’t do as you wish, that’s right. The Chairman was wrong.

—So… it was all the Chairman’s orders?

—Well, things got a bit twisted, but in the end, didn’t this place become a practice ground for the young master to build houses? From now on, build many good houses and let it all out. And while you’re at it, it would be even better if you took care of these guys a little.

The man snorted loudly.

—Go ahead, try breaking all my hands and feet again. Let’s see if I build a house or not. I wouldn’t build a house for gangster bastards even if you beat me to death. What’s the point of building one? The whole world is a house for gangster bastards.

He spat out his words and, as if he had nothing more to say, turned on his heel. And this time, without a single glance back, he left the mineral spring.

A lament poured out behind the young man’s back.

—Aigooo— he’s gone and gotten sulky again. I give up, hands and feet.

Then, a sudden roar of anger followed.

—Eeuig, you stupid bastards, what’s the use of being big! Seeing you struggle, unable to win against that one little kid, you’re fated to change that guy’s shitty diapers until you die of old age. And even after wiping his ass, you can’t secure your own meal ticket, I’m so frustrated I could die.

—That’s enough, Hyung-nim.

—What do you mean, enough, you bastard. Huh? What, do you mean, enough? This is why they say you have to leave raising a child to someone who’s actually raised one. How much did you spoil him for the kid to not know how precious his older brothers are and not once say ‘Yes, I understand’! What, are these guys crazy in the head, saying ‘Use me until I die’? Huh? Who’s to blame for this. Who’s to blame? Eeuigoo, you bunch of fools, you’re not even scarecrows. This is your karma!

The booming voice reached Yeonseo and the man without obstruction, even though they had passed the midpoint of the mineral spring stairs.

Yeonseo hugged the man tightly. It was a warm embrace, feverish even in the dead of winter. The face he observed from that embrace, though only the eyes were visible, looked extremely angry. Yeonseo thought he was sad. When he laughed, he felt angry, yet when he actually got angry, he looked so sad that his own heart swayed along.

Yeonseo knew that feeling too. He felt wronged and sad when his father blamed him for no reason.

—Park Yeonseo, Dad is having a hard time. If only Yeonseo had been a little better when he was young, Mom would still be by Yeonseo’s side….

Then, while replying that he was sorry, Yeonseo would feel a question arise.

How does a baby have to be ‘a little better’?

Hyung-ah was someone who would take even a child he’d never seen before home and say his parents would be worried. In reality, Hyung’s father was also a person who made his son sad, just like his own father….

If it weren’t for the conversation he had unintentionally overheard, he would have remembered Hyung as just a kind person.

Of course, he would have been memorable anyway. He was very cool, tall, had a warm embrace, and was the first person to say ‘Hello’ to him. He might have become the object of an innocent wish, dreaming at least once of wanting to be like that person when he grew up.

Setting aside such beautiful imaginings, it seemed he was just sad back then.

Because of Hyung-ah, who was sad but didn’t cry, Yeonseo let tears fall drop by drop. He wished Hyung wasn’t sad. He wished Hyung’s father had been a little kinder to Hyung. He wished the short man hadn’t said anything to Hyung.

The man, who had been storming down for a while, belatedly noticed the child’s sobs and made a bewildered face.

—What is this. Why are you crying?

—Hic….

When he noticed, strangely, the tears began to pour out even more.

—Heeoong—.

—Hey…?

Until then, he had only shed silent teardrops, but why, of all times, did he burst into tears like a real child right then.

He should have been embarrassed, but at the time, he was more concerned that Hyung had called him ‘Hey.’

—I’m not hey— hic, heueoong, Park…. heuk, I’m Park Yeonseo.

—Oh, oh, right. Park Yeonseo. Don’t cry. Good boy, okay?

I don’t know how to soothe a kid, you know. A voice that seemed to be grumbling and also troubled caressed Yeonseo. Without even guessing the real reason he was crying, he was busy wiping away the tears.

He would never know. That the act of pretending to soothe him was one of the most tender acts in Park Yeonseo’s life.

A height taller than his father, a warm embrace, a gentle voice. Yeonseo wanted to know him a little more. That was why, while crying uncontrollably, he finally threw out a question.

—Hyung…. heuk, what’s your name, Hyung-ah…?

—My name?

The shape of his eyes, visible above the mask, widened slightly.

The corners of his eyes, which turned up beautifully, were so pretty that he wanted to keep looking at them whether they were wide or narrow.

—Ung… heukkeuk!

Did I suddenly cry too much? Of all the times for hiccups to burst out.

—Haha….

It seemed Hyung-ah found that funny. The sharply honed atmosphere vanished without a trace, and a light laugh took its place.

—You’re really something else.

He eventually stopped walking and even began to shake his shoulders.

His pace was so fast that they were already on the stairs before the last alleyway near his house. The man set Yeonseo down a few steps up and wiped his soaked face with a handkerchief.

—You’re ugly when you cry.

—Ug, ugly…?

It might have been a joke to the smirking Hyung, but to Yeonseo, it was a tremendous shock that struck his entire six years of life.

This wasn’t to brag, but he could truly swear that he had only ever heard that he was pretty and cute. Didn’t the short man just now say he mistook him for a girl because he was pretty like a child from television?

Yeonseo also knew how to distinguish between beauty and ugliness clearly. And if people had praised him in unison, it wasn’t hard to guess that he wasn’t on the ugly side.

—Ug… I, u-ugly…?

But this Hyung-ah was telling him he was ugly. Because Hyung-ah, despite covering more than half his face with a mask, definitely seemed handsome, Yeonseo felt helplessly intimidated.

Hyung is handsome, so maybe I look ugly to him….

—You look glum? Are you sulking?

—Nng… bu, but the adults said I’m pretty… it’s true.

—You’re pretty when you don’t cry. Didn’t they tell you that? Did the adults say you were pretty even after seeing you cry?

That… they didn’t. Because he had never cried in front of the neighborhood adults.

The child’s gaze wandered here and there. Am I actually ugly? Do Mom and Dad hate me because I’m ugly when I cry? The story my father often told, ‘If only Yeonseo had been a little better to Mom,’ was that actually his way of telling me not to cry?

His entire mind was captivated by the huge shock, and Yeonseo ended up forgetting even the fact that he had asked a question.

—Those sons of… those bad men. Your knee is scraped. Didn’t it hurt?

—Nng….

—Really? You’re braver than you look.

His head was in a daze, so he had actually just answered randomly. Hyung kept smiling and dusted off both his knees and palms. During that time, Yeonseo slowly accepted reality.

He said I’m ugly when I cry, so let’s not cry.

—Let’s see… the wound is pretty big. If you have medicine at home… no. Let’s go buy medicine. Do you know where the nearest pharmacy is?

The wound, wiped clean of dirt, was quite large in area. The place where he had slammed his knee was a rough dirt ground, and a big reason was that he had been thrown to the ground without warning and couldn’t even get into a proper defensive posture.

Yeonseo nodded his head at the man’s question. Even in the small neighborhood, there was a small clinic and a pharmacy. He had been there a few times with his mother when he had a cold, so he remembered the way.

—If you go past Seoho Apartments and straight down, there’s our pharmacy.

—You wouldn’t know the phone number, of course?

Why would I need to memorize the pharmacy’s phone number? Yeonseo unconsciously tilted his head.

The man checked his watch.

—Ah, the time is a bit tricky. It should be open. Hey, hold on tight. We’ll have to run.

He said my name wasn’t ‘Hey’….

Yeonseo, who had been mumbling hesitantly, held on tight to his shoulder instead of objecting.

Right, what if I’m ‘Hey’ and what if I’m ‘Park Yeonseo’.

The only ones who actually called him by that name were people who didn’t worry about Yeonseo in the slightest. To be precise, there were only people who had so, so many things more important than Yeonseo that they couldn’t pay him any attention. Compared to those people, Hyung-ah was a bit rough with his words, but he was gentle and warm.

He worries about a small wound, and he goes to buy medicine for me.

—Excuse me!

He ran like the wind and found the pharmacy in one go. And he caught the pharmacist who was just about to leave for the day and bought a whole load of things. What Yeonseo could recognize were ointment, cotton swabs, a container of water, bandages, and jelly.

—Here. It might sting, so eat this.

He personally tore open the jelly wrapper and held out the piece. It was a red, square nutritional jelly. Yeonseo, watching him carefully, cautiously accepted and ate the jelly. The jelly, which he was eating for the first time, was sweet and delicious.

—Come to think of it, weren’t you cold? Your pants are so short I can see your whole knee.

—Nn. It’s okay.

—Really? Is it because you’re young? I’m cold even with two pairs of long pants on.

—You’re wearing long underwear. I stole the shorts from that little man earlier. To let the air in through the hole in his underwear.

—Huh?

He didn’t quite understand the part about stealing someone else’s clothes, but it was strangely funny. Yeonseo giggled along with the man, finished the treatment, and returned home.

The moment of parting came again. The man handed over the entire pharmacy bag.

—The jelly in the red container and the candy in the yellow container, eat only one a day. When you finish one of the two, eat the orange jelly. After eating this, make sure to brush your teeth. Or you’ll become a gangster.

—Nng.

The bag he handed him could barely be held even by wrapping both arms around it. He had to use both arms because it was bulky, but it wasn’t as heavy as it looked.

…Should I go now?

It was when Yeonseo, feeling a sense of regret for no reason, couldn’t leave the spot and was just looking at the tip of his feet.

Hyung took a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out.

—Here. You take this. If you cry again next time, wipe your face with this.

It was a dark green handkerchief with smudges of dirt and bloodstains here and there. Something was embroidered in gold thread below the handkerchief. Unfortunately, he couldn’t read it. He only knew that it wasn’t Hangul.

—If you think you’re going to move later, give it back. Don’t lose it. It’s something Hyung cherishes, but I’m lending it to you specially. Got it?

—Yes….

—Go on in. Don’t come to the mineral spring from now on. Scary men like today will catch you, okay?

—Then… what about Hyung-ah?

What will happen to you?

What did he reply to that question?

He tried hard to squeeze out the memory, but the dream was faster to unravel.

—Hyung— Hyung-ah, where are you?

The little boy wandering the neighborhood, this time too, still couldn’t find him.