Yang’s Master Chapter 11.1 - Uninvited Guest

The house where Cheon Yeomyung resided was a five-story residential building with a French-style exterior. It had a terraced structure, and across the way lived an old French woman with white hair. According to Cheon Yeomyung, the old woman, who had a similar impression to Linda, had been a bit out of her mind lately. Setting aside the rotten personality of a man who would say such a thing about an elderly lady, the old woman really was a bit out of her mind.

“Good morning.”

Greeting him in the late evening, the woman mistook Yang Euijoo for a girl, seeing that his hair was on the long side for a man, and then treated Cheon Yeomyung and him as newlyweds. Yang Euijoo wanted to say that wasn’t the case, but between him and the old woman existed the great, high barrier of the French language.

Yang Euijoo just stood there foolishly, holding the front door, listening to the old woman beaming at him and saying something or other in French.

“Madame.”

A man, reeking of hot steam, approached and pressed himself tightly against Yang Euijoo’s back, snatching the doorknob. He uttered a few words in French to the old woman, a jumble of smooth, rounded, and tongue-curling pronunciation. The old woman smiled shyly like a girl and said something to Cheon Yeomyung. Apart from learning the useless fact that Cheon Yeomyung was also fluent in French, Yang Euijoo’s face hardened at the ominous sensation he felt from behind.

This crazy man was naked. He could feel the heavy sensation near his waist, telling him the man had come out without even a single towel on. If Yang Euijoo were to turn around or step aside now, the old woman would have to see Cheon Yeomyung’s naked body in the early evening. Yang Euijoo couldn’t bring himself to do that. The old woman, completely unaware of his sacrifice, pointed at Cheon Yeomyung and Yang Euijoo, said a few more words, and then went into her house. Cheon Yeomyung saw her off with a matching smile and closed the door.

He had clearly exchanged a gentle evening greeting and that was that, but the sound of the door closing was quite rough. Yang Euijoo silently held onto the doorknob, squeezing his eyes shut for the misfortune that was soon to come.

“If you fail once, you should know to value your life and hold back. Fuck, you want me to throw a fit in front of the pharmacy?”

As if his resolve had not been in vain, Cheon Yeomyung’s utterly murderous voice soon poured down from above his head. After Yang Euijoo was subjected to Cheon Yeomyung’s specialty, kidnapping, he had been staying at this house ever since. He was going crazy over the wasted month’s rent, but Cheon Yeomyung would not let Yang Euijoo return to that house. He had managed to dash back home once, taking advantage of a moment when the man was out, but the moment he saw Cheon Yeomyung appear in front of the pharmacy the next day as if he had been waiting, he came to the conclusion that this was not a proper escape.

Cheon Yeomyung flashed a pretentious smile with his handsome face at Wei Ran and said just one thing: that he had come to pick up Yang Euijoo. Wei Ran, without any hesitation, handed Yang Euijoo, who was getting ready to leave work, right into the man’s hands. Words like ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘get lost’ were not things he could say in front of Wei Ran and Zhang Jun. Before the man could spout any vicious nonsense, Yang Euijoo hurriedly dragged Cheon Yeomyung out of the pharmacy.

Even after that, whenever Yang Euijoo showed even a hint of trying to escape, Cheon Yeomyung would frequently growl at him with threats that were not quite threats. His pleas to at least not have to see the man’s face because he was sick and tired of it, naturally, did not work.

A little while ago, too, he had tried to flee while Cheon Yeomyung went in to wash up, but he had lost time by running into the old woman who had opened her door at just the right moment. For a moment, Yang Euijoo was overcome with a surge of emotion.

“Did you even wash properly? Why did you wash so quickly?”

“If you’re so curious, come in with me next time. I’ll let you confirm it.”

Joining the man in the bathroom was something he would refuse even if it killed him. The only memories Yang Euijoo had of being in the bathroom with Cheon Yeomyung were of thrashing about with his head shoved into the bathtub, retching and vomiting up water. Were there any others besides that? The only small mercy was that, whether it was a feature of this apartment building or for some other reason, the entire house had no bathtub, only a shower stall. Enduring Cheon Yeomyung’s livid irritation, Yang Euijoo unconsciously mumbled.

“You must be disappointed that there’s no bathtub here…….”

At that one courageous remark, Cheon Yeomyung pressed his lips firmly together. Silent for a moment as if at a loss for words, he finally spoke in a low voice.

“You’re naive, teacher.”

“……”

“There’s a sink and a kitchen sink. What couldn’t I do?”

Cheon Yeomyung, having explained that he could do it even without a bathtub, belatedly let go of the doorknob. The back of his hand, with veins bulging thickly, still hadn’t shaken off all the remnants of excitement or anger as he pulled Yang Euijoo from the shoe closet.

From the bathroom to the entrance, there was a long trail left by Cheon Yeomyung, who had come out without even properly drying himself. Cheon Yeomyung walked back into the bathroom, his bare feet slapping against the wet floor. The man seemed to feel no shame in being naked. Brushing back his hair, which was colored a dark black, Cheon Yeomyung grumbled that he had gotten water in his ear. As he slicked his drenched hair to the side, Cheon Yeomyung tilted his head. With every step the man took, his muscles rippled. Yang Euijoo found his gaze drifting down below the man’s waist before he, startled, desperately fixed his eyes on the ceiling.

“Wow, at this rate you’ll be the one pouncing on me first, begging to fuck.”

Cheon Yeomyung, who was sensitive to the gazes of others, did not miss the opportunity to spew a potent taunt before slamming the bathroom door shut and going back inside. Hearing the sound of water, it seemed he had rushed out in the middle of washing. If you went in to shower, just shower. Why come out in the middle? He’s not some kind of animal. Yang Euijoo, having lost even the will to escape, threw his head onto the expensive leather sofa, lay down, and sighed.

Sometimes all this wrangling felt meaningless. Coming all the way to Shanghai was like that too. Yang Euijoo pressed his cheek against the cold leather and sighed.

The man, his face shiny and shameless as if it were plated in gold, had recently become something of a superstar on the commercial street. The Shanghai citizens did not look kindly upon a high-end store that was obviously for the bourgeoisie, but the man didn’t bat an eye. A few times, the public security was dispatched for an emergency search on charges of selling illicit goods, but everything was fine. He must have bribed the government a hefty sum, because after two employees from the Russian consulate showed up, a strange conclusion was reached that Joseph O’Neill, that is, Cheon Yeomyung, was an honorary citizen of the People’s Republic of China.

Of course, Cheon Yeomyung, after smiling through such a verdict from the public security, came home and, in front of Yang Euijoo, ferociously swore while tearing apart a chicken. There was no way the concept of communism would be looked upon favorably by a man who ran a business. Yang Euijoo forced himself to eat something like steamed chicken that had been not just torn into pieces but shredded into slivers.

On that day, at least, Yang Euijoo gave up on the idea of escaping. When you see a man wielding a wide Chinese cleaver and chopping as if he were trying to slice through the cutting board itself, you can’t run away even if you want to. Yang Euijoo wanted to die gracefully while preserving his human dignity, not to be minced.

For him, the time spent in the basement had been enough torture. The pain that clung to his body was not a welcome thing.

Yang Euijoo simply concluded that there was definitely something wrong with Cheon Yeomyung’s mind, as he had spent the better part of a week repeating a cycle of being murderous and then feigning affection.

This handsome lunatic opened the bathroom door at the sound of the doorbell ringing inside the house. Like a graceful human being, he had a bathrobe wrapped around his body, like one from a hotel. Cheon Yeomyung rubbed his wet hair with a towel, then threw it straight onto the floor and walked to the front door himself.

Yang Euijoo, lying stretched out on the sofa, wondered who the gutsy person visiting Cheon Yeomyung’s house at this hour could be. It might again be Shanghai’s public security, who indiscriminately hated capitalists, the pigs of capitalism.

“You’ve been doing very well, haven’t you?”

However, a very familiar voice rang in his ears. Yang Euijoo shot up from the sofa. Rose Rock, who pushed past Cheon Yeomyung and returned inside the house, sighed as soon as she saw Yang Euijoo. She was irritated from having to trudge up all five floors because there was no elevator.

“Hello, noona.”

Cheon Yeomyung greeted her leisurely. A considerable silence followed.

“I’m doing this because I’m fed up with it all…”

“He’s really lost his mind…”

Rose Rock and Yang Euijoo both uttered similar words. Cheon Yeomyung shamelessly listened to the twin curses and wiped away the water droplets falling in front of his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Why are you here already? Wasn’t your scheduled visit for mid-February?”

“The plan has changed. I will be heading back to Russia tomorrow.”

Rose Rock spoke in a cold voice, as if it did not matter if Yang Euijoo heard, and threw down the heavy luggage she was carrying as she took off her overcoat.

“Quan has moved. It seems he’s planning to go to Germany for surgery. Before that, do you have any intention of going to collect his life?

“His life must be taken by God.”

Cheon Yeomyung replied as if she were asking something obvious. Rose Rock, as if she knew what Cheon Yeomyung would say, did not scold him like she used to.

“I knew you would say that. But unlike a personal grudge, the organization cannot do that. We have to devour the shattered Honglong.”

“It will be as everyone desires.”

“Tomorrow, Linlin will come in my place. Oh…, don’t make that kind of face. Ever since the boss arbitrarily moved to Shanghai, she has cried her cute little eyes out until they’re swollen, so try to soothe her well. I’m going to wash up and go to sleep. Let’s talk again tomorrow morning.”

Rose Rock rattled off only what she had to say, then slipped into the still-damp bathroom and slammed the door shut. Cheon Yeomyung looked at Yang Euijoo, gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, and said.

“Madame Therese will get the wrong idea if she sees this. A man bringing another woman into the newlywed home.”

Instead of replying to Cheon Yeomyung’s words, Yang Euijoo got up from the sofa and went into the bedroom. It was right not to engage with a crazy bastard.

The next day, Rose Rock elegantly enjoyed her breakfast, her face looking much better than when she had suddenly stormed into Cheon Yeomyung’s house. She held a fork and knife, slicing bacon, biting into toast, and scooping up a soft-boiled egg with a spoon. Cheon Yeomyung tended to Rose Rock attentively, as if she were his eldest sister.

What this meant was that Rose Rock’s breakfast had also been made by Cheon Yeomyung. Rose Rock, as if she were used to seeing Cheon Yeomyung cooking in the kitchen, casually ordered this and that from him.

“Is there no marmalade?”

“None.”

“What about black tea jam?”

“I have store-bought strawberry jam.”

“Oh…”

Rose Rock criticized Cheon Yeomyung’s kitchen refrigerator with an icy face.

“What an eyesore.”

“Should I give you some butter instead?”

“No thanks. They’ll serve it on the plane.”

Rose Rock, after her cold reply, glanced at Yang Euijoo, who was eating ramen for breakfast.

“I’m glad to see you are doing well too, teacher. To be honest, when the boss decided to go to Shanghai, everyone was already looking up body bags.”

Was that something to say at the breakfast table? Yang Euijoo, in the middle of eating his Lanzhou ramen, made an uncomfortable expression.

“I actually did bring one.”

Cheon Yeomyung answered nonchalantly as he placed a well-toasted piece of bread on his plate. He was smiling, but it was chilling. Yang Euijoo racked his brain, trying to remember when he had seen a body bag in the man’s house. But since he had no idea what the much-rumored body bag looked like, he decided to pretend he didn’t know in the future either.

“Ah, please just empty one of those suitcases for me. A wheel broke on the way here.”

Rose Rock grumbled as she scraped up the last of her eggs and put them in her mouth. It seemed Rose Rock disliked mainland China as much as Cheon Yeomyung did, as her face remained unpleasant the entire time. She complained constantly that she hadn’t been able to sleep properly.

“Take the one in the closet as is. Anything else?”

“If you have any dollars, please give me some. No, not dollars, rubles.”

“I don’t have rubles. Exchange some before you leave.”

Cheon Yeomyung immediately took out some bills, wrote an amount, and signed. Even at a glance, the sum was considerable. However, Rose Rock casually snatched the boss’s generous signature and shoved it into her own pocket.

“I’ll have to leave a little early to exchange it then.”

Rose Rock glanced once at her leather wristwatch and stood up from her seat. Even though she had woken up early in the morning, her bobbed hair was styled softly and elegantly. Seeming to be the type to act immediately once her mind was made up, Rose Rock went into the bathroom without hesitation, brushed her teeth, came out, sprayed perfume on herself, and checked her attire. Her form-fitting pantsuit was very stylish. The fabric was mixed with shiny thread. Cheon Yeomyung, as if he were Rose Rock’s secretary, held out the coat he was holding.

Rose Rock stuffed some of the luggage she had brought yesterday into Cheon Yeomyung’s large black suitcase and zipped it up.

“When Linlin comes, don’t ignore her. Open the door for her.”

“Rose Rock, surely you’re not telling me to let her sleep here?”

Cheon Yeomyung frowned, holding Rose Rock’s suitcase for her. At his hardened voice, Rose Rock rummaged through her pockets for her passport and wallet and replied.

“If it were just for one night, I’d want to tell her to take the boss’s bed and sleep, but that would be a bit much, wouldn’t it? She’ll get a small room nearby and stay there. Just answer her calls properly…, and while I do respect the boss’s opinion, I do not agree with Quan dying of old age. Seeing as he’s been alive for three years even after getting lung cancer, I think he’ll live for a few more years, don’t you?”

“Alright, I’ll work hard selling perfume.”

“Just do your business properly.”

Rose Rock retorted coolly and opened the door to leave. The front door closed roughly, but perhaps because it was still early, the hard-of-hearing Madame Therese did not come out to check. Having safely avoided the neighbor’s suspicion of an affair, Yang Euijoo mulled over the words Rose Rock had poured out and glanced at Cheon Yeomyung. Cheon Yeomyung, in the burdensome sight of his light gray and sky blue checkered pajamas, met Yang Euijoo’s eyes. His lips were pressed slightly, as if he were in a bad mood. However, the words that came out were softer than expected.

“If Rose Rock had seen me selling perfume, she wouldn’t have said that.”

It was a glib answer, but Yang Euijoo agreed to some extent. The man was still exceptionally skilled at seducing customers, just as he had been when he and Yang Euijoo were in something like a relationship in the beginning. Yang Euijoo tried hard not to recall the fact that the number of female customers visiting the pharmacy, claiming to be lovesick, had suddenly increased.

“Actually, business is too predictable. If you just show them how potent our product is, or how good the aftertaste is, they’ll try to buy it even if it means selling the underwear off their backs, so there’s no fun in the push and pull of doing business.”

Perfume, though worldly, was at least a legal item, but drugs were illegal and distributing them meant a death sentence. Yang Euijoo found it strange that the man wasn’t arrested even while chattering about illegal things in the middle of Shanghai. And it was also funny how he spoke of illegal sales as if he were selling street candy.

“Then go to Hong Kong and be a drug dealer or a water merchant. Don’t do this here, just as Rose Rock said.”

“What are you talking about?”

Cheon Yeomyung, barefoot without even slippers on, pushed up the cuff of Yang Euijoo’s pajama pants with his foot and sneered. The sensation of a bare foot rubbing against his ankle with a sexual undertone was creepy. Skinship with him was still unpleasant.

“Do you think I’ve gone senile like Quan? You’re here, and you want me to go to Hong Kong?”

Then he might as well strangle him and get him out of Shanghai, or put him in a body bag, or smuggle him out……. There must be many illegal ways for the man to take him from Hong Kong, so it didn’t make sense that he was stuck in Shanghai with him, going on about passports.

“……Don’t you hate Quan?”

Yang Euijoo asked after a slight hesitation. Apart from Cheon Yeomyung’s complicated behavior, he was curious. Why Cheon Yeomyung, who hated Quan so much, didn’t talk about killing him. He couldn’t understand why he chose to mock Quan in this way over such a long period of time.

After all, the first thing about revenge is to seek the other’s death.

“Hate? How can you say such a cute thing? I despise that bastard.”

Cheon Yeomyung corrected Yang Euijoo’s error. Yang Euijoo’s cheek twitched with a displeased expression before he sighed.

“Fine, if you despise him so much, why don’t you kill him?”

It was even stranger that he was still keeping him alive after going through all that. He was intent on finding and killing even Quan’s unborn child in the womb, so why did he leave Quan alone? Cheon Yeomyung, recognizing Yang Euijoo’s simple question, relaxed his lips.

“Isn’t it obvious? The moment God takes his life, he has to know. He has to feel everything he has built up until now crumble into ashes, that it was all a futile struggle.”

A deep-seated resentment was embedded in the man’s voice as he vented his anger towards Quan as if he had been waiting for it. It was undoubtedly a thought that had been engraved in him for a long time, like the scars on his hands and feet that remained since he was twenty-three.

“How is that a reason not to kill him……”

“Killing him is too easy.”

It wasn’t a conversation to be had in a small apartment where the winter sunlight was streaming into the living room. However, Cheon Yeomyung’s eyes shone like someone who had what he wanted right before him. He was as blind as a child who believed Santa Claus would give him the toy he wanted for Christmas.

“I know Quan. That old bastard will struggle until the moment he dies. He’ll try to hold a woman somehow and have a child with a dick that won’t even get hard with medicine. He can’t pass on the organization he has dedicated his entire life to building to a bastard who doesn’t share a single drop of his blood, can he? But when his life, as determined by God, comes to an end and he truly breathes his last, he will realize……. That his efforts were useless, and that God has already abandoned him.”

That old man is a conservative bastard, so he’s incredibly obsessed with bloodlines. Cheon Yeomyung added a footnote as if making a joke. After that, he looked back at Yang Euijoo. Eyes resembling the morning sun pierced through Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo stepped back but was quickly caught by Cheon Yeomyung. He whispered to Yang Euijoo, who was frightened after reading the latent anger within him.

“It’s not that I hate getting my hands dirty. I just don’t want to be used for his unsightly self-consolation of having had no choice but to destroy the organization because he was murdered.”

The sunlight spreading inside was quite warm, but the content of the conversation was as cold as it could be. Yang Euijoo forced himself to admit that the man had actually been quite kind and soft on him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

It seemed he had failed to control his expression because of that. Yang Euijoo made an excuse, as if to defend himself to Cheon Yeomyung, who was looking at him with a sour face.

“……I was just thinking you must really hate him horribly.”

“I do.”

Cheon Yeomyung nodded, with a face that looked like he would tear Quan to shreds if he were in front of him.

“Let’s say there’s a loathing scale from 1 to 100. If you are around 50, then Quan is 100.”

It was quite something that he rated him as high as 50. Yang Euijoo frowned at Cheon Yeomyung, who was saying something that could be either an insult or something else. Perhaps he should be thankful that Yang Euijoo, who had let the newborn, who was Quan’s child, escape alive, was rated a 50. Cheon Yeomyung, who was watching the now silent Yang Euijoo, suddenly raised his hand.

The hand, naturally, was wearing a black glove. He spread his thumb and index finger to show a short distance. It was a gap about the size of a coin.

“From 1 to 50 is about this much……”

Cheon Yeomyung suddenly changed the distance, which had been about a finger’s joint wide, to a handspan. The distance between his outstretched thumb and little finger was quite long.

“And to go from 50 to 100, it’s this much.”

Yang Euijoo was silent for a moment before asking.

“Can’t you count?”

“I think I’m worse at it than you are, teacher.”

Cheon Yeomyung cackled spitefully. He was pointing out how Yang Euijoo had memorized numbers while enduring the darkness in the basement. Yang Euijoo shut his mouth again. Just facing Cheon Yeomyung was tiring. It seemed Cheon Yeomyung also agreed with that fatigue. Finally, silence was granted between them. Yang Euijoo, sprawled on the bed, thought. Loathing. Instead of looking at Cheon Yeomyung, Yang Euijoo looked out at the street. Today, too, the morning in Shanghai was a melancholic gray.

🐑

A neatly dressed man checked his reflection in the mirror. After perfectly finishing his grooming, making sure there were no flaws for the day, he slung a long gray checkered coat over his arm and left. As if hearing the sound of his departure for work, the door of the house across the way peeked open.

“Madame Therese.”

Cheon Yeomyung greeted her softly. The very old woman smiled as soon as she saw Cheon Yeomyung and offered a morning greeting.

“Hello, come visit my house with your wife.”

The old woman, who thought Yang Euijoo was a woman, pestered Cheon Yeomyung for the same thing every time. Having a meal together once wouldn’t be difficult, but it seemed unlikely that Yang Euijoo, who found this misunderstanding horrifying, would agree. Not that it mattered whether he agreed or not.

Feeling the chilly air coming from the stairs, Cheon Yeomyung put on his coat and gently fixed Therese’s untied shawl.

“I’ll discuss it with my wife. Since we’re still newlyweds, she insists on having dinner just the two of us.”

Cheon Yeomyung said, with an eye-smile, words that would have made Yang Euijoo scream “how can you be so shameless” if he had heard. It was better that Therese misunderstood. The authorities didn’t pay attention to an ordinary newlywed couple. If two perfectly healthy young men were living together, they could easily be misunderstood as reactionaries.

At Cheon Yeomyung’s pleasantries, Madame Therese smiled gently.

“Such a romantic couple.”

Cheon Yeomyung, who had used this excuse several times when Yang Euijoo was present, wondered what kind of reaction Yang Euijoo would have when he finally, belatedly, found out about the ‘girlish wife who wants to have dinner just the two of them because she loves the moments of eating a meal personally cooked by her husband’ setting.

He would hate it. In fact, he was saying it on purpose to make him hate it. Cheon Yeomyung glanced back at the empty house, since Yang Euijoo had already left for work early, locked the door, and went straight to the store on Nanjing East Road. The taxi driver occasionally glanced at Cheon Yeomyung’s face but couldn’t bring himself to start a conversation, thinking he was a foreigner. Eyes that gleamed sinisterly under black hair swept over the desolate Shanghai streets.

It had been a long time since Shanghai’s trade, which had developed frighteningly centered around the Bund along the river, had faltered. The moment the Communist Party gained the upper hand, Cheon Yeomyung had pulled out of Shanghai. But because of someone, he had been forced to come all the way back here. At first, he had planned to drag him along with a leash, but seeing that terrified face… Cheon Yeomyung put a hand to his head, feeling a headache coming on.

“Sir, we’ve arrived.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Cheon Yeomyung took a few Chinese bills, handed them to the driver, and got out of the taxi. Even though the owner had not come to work, the lights in the shop were on. After the high-end brand store that had originally occupied the space fled as if in a midnight escape, unable to bear the terrible taxes imposed in China, he had acquired the building for quite a cheap price. He slowly walked up the building’s stairs.

The taxes on his shop were also considerable, but since the items he sold were not terribly expensive, he could manage it within a reasonable range. The fact that it was a loss remained unchanged, but one cannot make a profit in every business.

Cheon Yeomyung’s current love affair was also a matter that saddled him with the worst loss of his life. He opened the glass door and walked inside. A sign indicating that the shop was not yet open for business swayed.

The person who had brazenly entered the ownerless shop was cleaning a shelf with a duster made from ostrich tail feathers. Upon seeing Cheon Yeomyung, her eyes instantly grew as big as fists. Her parted lips looked foolish. She is different from Yang Euijoo. The moment Yang Euijoo saw Cheon Yeomyung, he would turn pale with fear and shock, as if he would die right there if someone touched him, and would stammer. He himself seemed completely unaware of it, so Cheon Yeomyung deliberately did not point it out.

“Boss!”

Linlin, who had jumped up on the spot, ran over and hugged Cheon Yeomyung tightly. Cheon Yeomyung hugged his impertinently clinging younger sister back once. Even though he had been very angry with Linlin and Li Ziliang and had even punished them by sending them to the basement, Linlin did not hate Cheon Yeomyung. This was different from Yang Euijoo, who, after living in the basement for a while, had come to loathe Cheon Yeomyung so terribly that he had even resorted to self-harm.

No, in truth, they had to be different. Cheon Yeomyung recalled how he had treated Yang Euijoo in the basement. It was a justifiable anger. To himself. It did not matter that others did not acknowledge it. Anyway, no matter how he had treated him, it didn’t seem likely that Yang Euijoo would have acted like Linlin. Cheon Yeomyung patted Linlin’s head once and then gently pushed her away.

“How is Hong Kong.”

“Nothing much is happening yet. For a moment, Honglong acted as if they were moving to Macau, but it seems they were just making a threatening gesture to the owner of a casino there.”

Cheon Yeomyung thought of the powerful figure in Macau. It was the man who had acted favorably towards Cheon Yeomyung, even recommending him some snacks, but he had not even had the chance to thank him. Yang Euijoo had eaten the snacks that were all rotten and moldy, but in truth, it was a bit hard to say he had eaten them.

“Still, I think it would be best for you to return as soon as possible. The atmosphere is quite unsettled……”

“Hmm, I suppose so.”

Cheon Yeomyung flopped down on the sofa in the shop and sank into thought. The man, in a lazy state, evaluated himself for not being able to properly resolve even one of the neatly organized priorities in his head. Can he return to normal when nothing has been resolved?

“I have no intention of staying in a place like this for long.”

However, he also had no intention of seeing Yang Euijoo stab himself with a knife again.

He had to sort out his feelings completely. Whether it was love, as Yang Euijoo had said, or an even more sinister emotion, Cheon Yeomyung could not kill Yang Euijoo. Nor did he want his lover to be held in the arms of another man.

If it were a man, he would at least have the confidence to win through some petty squabble, but Yang Euijoo was surprisingly popular with women too. Be it those who were a little younger or elderly ladies, he was so popular with them that the old French lady across the hall, Linlin, and a group of chattering girls eating ice cream all doted on Yang Euijoo. Does my face not make a big impression on that spectrum? Cheon Yeomyung thought, looking at the quiet scene outside.

“Boss.”

Cheon Yeomyung lightly pinched and twisted the whining Linlin’s nose, took out his wallet, found some Chinese money, and held it out.

“Go out and buy some ice cream.”

“Ice cream?”

Linlin jumped up as if she had been waiting.

“There’s a famous ice cream shop across the street. Buy whatever you want.”

“Okay! What about you, boss?”

“I’ll have chocolate.”

Linlin, who was about to dash off, opened her eyes wide.

“But boss, you don’t like chocolate ice cream, do you? Wouldn’t vanilla be better?”

“Just buy what I told you to buy.”

“Hmm.”

It’s time for him to die……. Linlin muttered disrespectfully and darted out of the shop. Dressed in baggy gray work clothes to avoid standing out too much from the Shanghai style of dress, with her hair in two neat braids flying behind her, Linlin, at twenty-eight, now turning twenty-nine, looked more like an eighteen-year-old girl. She’ll get along well with that kid, what’s-her-name, Zhang Xuan. Cheon Yeomyung sighed lightly as he watched Linlin run off excitedly.

The gray checkered coat he was wearing dragged on the floor, but he didn’t care. The image of Yang Euijoo flickered before his eyes. The face, drenched in blood, murmuring as if begging him not to follow. The voice, its light of life fading.

Honestly, he really hadn’t expected anything. It was closer to an act of going to find a corpse. But when he heard that he had survived and walked off, he searched all of Shanghai’s filthy slums like a truly mad man. Whether he was half-crippled or perfectly fine, or had died late from aftereffects, he felt he had to see his condition for himself.

Whenever he saw a familiar shade of gray, he would reach out to something dirty and filthy. Shanghai, though not to the extent of Hong Kong, did have shantytowns where the poor lived. But Yang Euijoo wasn’t there either. In search of that familiar, ashen color that looked as if everything had burned, Cheon Yeomyung visited brothels, hospitals, thieves’ dens, and even detention centers managed by the public security.

But Yang Euijoo was nowhere. If he had died on the ship, the sailors might have pushed him off the railing to get rid of the evidence. Just as Yang Euijoo had once said……. Cheon Yeomyung himself had loaded corpses onto a ship and dropped them into the sea for disposal, so it would not have been difficult.

No, it can’t be. Cheon Yeomyung searched Shanghai, believing only in the possibility of ‘if’. Then, while having tea and talking with Xiaogang, who had brought a pile of overdue documents, he overheard the idle chatter of some women.

That the assistant working at a small pharmacy on Nanjing West Road was pretty. That his eye and hair color were unusual, and that he spoke with a Guangdong dialect…….

Even without going to see for himself, he was certain who it was. But Cheon Yeomyung couldn’t go to catch Yang Euijoo right away. He had a feeling that the moment he came face to face with Yang Euijoo, he would stab himself again. That could not happen. He did not know why, but Cheon Yeomyung did not want Yang Euijoo to repeat that act.

Linda was right. He was the one who had broken Yang Euijoo more than anyone, yet he acted shamelessly as if he didn’t know it.

His golden eyes narrowed. Yang Euijoo, hidden by the gazes of the dockside dregs, greeting him, would not leave his mind. It felt as if he would never be able to forget it. But Cheon Yeomyung had to see that face again.

This time, perfectly unscathed. Not frightened, not consumed by fear, not overcome with resentment, but in his natural state.

He had spent a month stubbornly sticking to that foolish choice, and then he ran into Yang Euijoo by chance. For Cheon Yeomyung too, that reunion was surprising, and even unwelcome.

After the briefly boiling anger subsided, what remained was a sediment of confusion. With his legs propped up on the sofa armrest, the man lay lazily, just blinking his eyes. Impulse galloped through him. He wanted to run to the pharmacy right now, grab that perfectly fine face that was probably attending to customers inside, drag him out, and do as he pleased.

“Boss, get up!”

“You’re back?”

“If you lie there like that, you’ll turn into a cow. Here, the ice cream you ordered.”

Linlin, holding a strawberry ice cream in her hand, held out a chocolate ice cream to Cheon Yeomyung. She naturally did not return the change, but Cheon Yeomyung did not care.

He took a bite of the chocolate ice cream. It was horribly sweet, as if they had mixed chocolate syrup and frozen it instead of making ice cream. He could understand why the teacher had made that face. Cheon Yeomyung took another bite of the ice cream in understanding.

Strangely, it didn’t seem to taste like this back then…….

“You’re not planning to settle down here for good, are you?”

“I’m going. To Hong Kong.”

“But when.”

Linlin whined, clinging to Cheon Yeomyung.

“……When there’s no longer a chance that the teacher will stab himself.”

Cheon Yeomyung said. It was an unstable certainty. Linlin quietly rolled her eyes. Would such a day ever come? Yang Euijoo hated Cheon Yeomyung. It was only natural. If Linlin had gone through the same thing as Yang Euijoo, she would not have lasted even a week. But the teacher had held on quite steadfastly for a long time. And even after that, he survived and eventually left the boss. When Linlin recalled the resolute action Yang Euijoo had chosen at that time, her appetite still vanished. Understanding why Cheon Yeomyung had come all the way to Shanghai and was dawdling, she hesitated before answering cautiously.

“If the boss treats him well, wouldn’t it be okay……”

“I’m already giving him strangely special treatment.”

Cheon Yeomyung pushed the ice cream he had taken one bite of onto Linlin and stood up. Linlin quickly followed him.

“Where are you going?”

“On a date.”

Cheon Yeomyung answered with a swaggering posture and left the shop, turning his back on it. Linlin, holding an ice cream in each hand, let her eyes droop mournfully, but there was no one to help her. When the employer has fled, how can a mere employee stop him? Linlin was a weak employee.

Leaving Linlin’s sad voice behind him, Cheon Yeomyung looked up once at the oppressive Shanghai winter sky.

Cheon Yeomyung could not know what Yang Euijoo, who hated pain, feared getting hurt, and yet did not submit to violence, had been thinking up until the point he stabbed himself. Therefore, in order to understand, a reunion was necessary.

His frozen golden eyes gazed at the vast, surging river. That river was quite different from Hong Kong’s. Unlike Victoria Harbour, which had a strong dark-blue and black hue, the Huangpu River, true to its name, had a dark, earthy color. He felt suffocated. Cheon Yeomyung unconsciously tugged at the knot of his tie. That didn’t relieve the stuffiness. They were together, with a large street between them.

In this bustling city.

🐑

I feel unsettled. Yang Euijoo could not get his mind straight at all. He had placed a large bowl of cold water in front of him and tried to calm his insides with it, but there was no way the anger boiling inside him would easily subside with a single sip of cold water. Zhang Jun subtly watched his expression, which had become particularly frosty these days. As soon as he came to work, he had joked about whether Yang Euijoo’s love life wasn’t going well, and had been punished with a glare from the coldest beauty in the world.

“Are you leaving with that friend again today?”

Yang Euijoo’s hand, which was chopping newly arrived medicinal herbs to a suitable size with a cutting knife, tightened. The sound of the herbs being crisply cut by the knife was chilling.

“……Yes.”

He could not say no. Cheon Yeomyung always came around the time he was cleaning up, watched him from a moderate distance, and waited for him. Saying ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘get lost’ would obviously only attract attention without any gain. Hong Kong was freer in comparison. Here, he was lucky if he wasn’t reported as a subversive element.

It was true. It wasn’t for nothing that Zhang Jun, who had no connection to him, pretended he was his nephew. So, even for Zhang Jun’s sake, he didn’t want to get into a big fight with Cheon Yeomyung.

The sight of Cheon Yeomyung standing in front of a dark alley, waiting for him, was strange. How could that be? Between us……. It didn’t make sense for Cheon Yeomyung to wait for Linda, or to be patient, or to put on such a ridiculous pretense. Originally, Yang Euijoo was the one in the position of waiting for or enduring the unscheduled visits of Cheon Yeomyung. Of course, the weight of Yang Euijoo’s and Cheon Yeomyung’s waiting was different from the start, but to someone else, it might feel similar. The difference between humans came from there, and Yang Euijoo thought that was the essential problem.

“That’s enough cutting. Let’s start cleaning up and greet the customers.”

Zhang Jun patted Yang Euijoo’s shoulder and stood up. He said it’s cold again today. After glancing once at the back of Zhang Jun, who was muttering and stretching, Yang Euijoo scraped the scraps of medicinal herbs scattered on the table with his fingertips and pushed them into the trash can. Sometimes, Mei came to mind. Mei must have gone to a place colder than here; he wondered if she was doing well. And the child, he would have had to be on a boat for a long time; he wondered if he was healthy…….

It was hard to even be certain that it would be better than dying. He cleanly swept away the scraps of medicinal herbs, recalling Cheon Yeomyung, who had chillingly said there would be no mercy of death for Yang Euijoo.

“Excuse me.”

As he was locking the safety device on the cutting knife, he heard a familiar voice. Yang Euijoo looked at the person who had opened the pharmacy door and entered. The face he had seen even in the morning was standing inside the pharmacy. Cheon Yeomyung raised the corners of his lips and smiled. It was a prim smile that didn’t suit him at all.

“I think I have an upset stomach.”

“……”

“Do you happen to have any good medicine?”

Yang Euijoo glared at Cheon Yeomyung, who, far from having an upset stomach, looked perfectly fine, as if he could digest a whole sack of rice.

“We don’t.”

“That’s strange. If a pharmacy doesn’t have medicine, where would it be?”

Cheon Yeomyung tilted his head feigning innocence. Even though he knew Zhang Jun was the owner of the pharmacy, he didn’t give Zhang Jun a single glance and stared persistently only at Yang Euijoo. Separately, Yang Euijoo felt a pain and irritation as if his heart was stopping every time he saw the man who would barge in from the morning and gnaw at his sanity.

“I think it’s a severe case of indigestion, so it would be nice if you could give me some first aid.”

“I’ve never had indigestion, so I don’t know how to give first aid.”

The pharmacy also served as a simple clinic, providing basic wound treatment and emergency prescriptions. Just yesterday, he had pricked the finger of a boy who came in late at night saying he had a severe upset stomach, but Yang Euijoo spoke to Cheon Yeomyung as if he didn’t even know the symptoms of indigestion.

“Instead of getting first aid and suddenly dying, why don’t you go to a safe hospital?”

“I don’t know the geography around here well enough to go to a hospital.”

The sign colors for the pharmacies and hospitals in the Bund were all standardized, so that was quite an excuse. Yang Euijoo glared at the man who was lying without even batting an eye. Cheon Yeomyung rested his arm on the counter and leaned his large body forward. The smiling face that met his eyes was handsome. Yang Euijoo chided Cheon Yeomyung in annoyance.

“What kind of nonsense is this, saying you have indigestion when you ate well this morning too?”

“Oops.”

The exclamation came not from the front, but from the side. Yang Euijoo saw Zhang Jun, who had cleared his throat and was now ostentatiously feigning ignorance, and realized he had made a slip of the tongue. Yang Euijoo’s face instantly turned bright red.

“Pfft.”

Cheon Yeomyung struggled to hold back his laughter as he looked at Yang Euijoo, who was frozen in embarrassment.

“Ahem, ahem, no, since this morning…, and then you were so cold to me……”

Zhang Jun, muttering, pulled open a shelf and took out a disposable needle and silk thread used for indigestion, placing them on the counter in front of Yang Euijoo.

“Just fiddle with him a bit and send him away quickly, okay? I don’t want to get arrested.”

And with that, Zhang Jun gathered all the prescriptions that had come in that morning and went into the dispensary. Yang Euijoo imagined taking the needle and stabbing Cheon Yeomyung with it. The man, who had been shrinking his shoulders and trembling with suppressed laughter, slowly lifted his face. Within his brightly creased eyes, a golden light gleamed. Cheon Yeomyung said cheerfully.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Don’t you think that coming here itself is a problem? Isn’t visiting in the evening enough?”

“It might not be. We have a special relationship, don’t we?”

Saying that, Cheon Yeomyung held out his hand.

“Just prick my finger.”

“……”

Yang Euijoo lowered his gaze deep down. Cheon Yeomyung was wearing leather gloves. To prick a finger, it naturally had to be a bare hand.

“Here?”

“If it really bothers you, we can move.”

The quick-witted Zhang Jun would not come out until Cheon Yeomyung left, unless a customer specifically looked for him. But he didn’t want to take off his gloves in a pharmacy where people frequently came and went. Yang Euijoo sighed and pointed to the side.

“Go in there.”

When he pointed to the break room used for meals and spoke, Cheon Yeomyung walked in that direction as if he had been waiting and said one thing.

“You’re soft.”

Look who’s talking.

Yang Euijoo didn’t answer and followed Cheon Yeomyung, carrying the tools.

The break room, with the heater off, was chilly. Looking at the back door connected to the break room and the window next to it, Cheon Yeomyung’s eyes shone with what looked like amusement. Yang Euijoo wanted to be spiteful and say, “Are you happy?”, but he felt that would only make Cheon Yeomyung even more pleased. Intent on just sticking a needle into the finger of the man feigning indigestion and kicking him out, Yang Euijoo quickly sat down.

“Take them off yourself.”

Cheon Yeomyung obediently took off his gloves. Yang Euijoo tried not to look at the scars on the back of his hand as he tied a silk thread around his left index finger. The finger quickly turned purple. Yang Euijoo unwrapped the needle, rubbed a cotton swab with alcohol over the finger once or twice, and lightly pricked it. A drop of bright red blood fell from the fingertip. It was a vivid red.

Yang Euijoo shot up from his seat. Before his pale body could bolt out of the break room, Cheon Yeomyung grabbed Yang Euijoo with the hand that had no blood on it.

“Let go of me……!”

“It’s just a needle prick, bear with it.”

“Fuck, what do I have to bear with?”

Yang Euijoo screamed hysterically, but Cheon Yeomyung did not let go. Instantly drenched in a cold sweat, Yang Euijoo, panting as if he had run at full speed, let the strength drain from his body. As he slowly calmed down from the momentary shock of seeing blood, Yang Euijoo’s fingertips trembled. Cheon Yeomyung looked down at the coldly chilled body and forcibly grabbed his stiff shoulders, pushing him down into a chair. On the cold wooden chair, Yang Euijoo curled up his body and whispered in a low voice.

“……You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cheon Yeomyung replied, turning his hand over so the finger with the beaded red blood was not visible. Yang Euijoo pressed his hand to his cold-sweat-drenched forehead and glared resentfully at Cheon Yeomyung.

“Really, people like you are the worst……”

His wet hair fell, as if it would poke his eyes. Yang Euijoo forced strength into his frozen fingers. Still, the trembling would not stop.

“Still, in this line of work, I’m a very well-mannered, affectionate, and nice person.”

Cheon Yeomyung claimed cleanliness from amidst the filth. Yang Euijoo used half of his day’s patience to endure the stench.

“That’s why I’m still leaving you here.”

What Cheon Yeomyung said was partly true. If Yang Euijoo had not stabbed himself, this conversation might have continued in Hong Kong. Without looking at Cheon Yeomyung, Yang Euijoo snapped.

“Trash.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

Cheon Yeomyung brushed off Yang Euijoo’s curse and wiped the blood beaded on his fingertip with a cotton swab from which the alcohol had evaporated. Glancing at the distinct bloodstain, Yang Euijoo sneered.

“For someone with indigestion, your blood is certainly clean.”

“I guess it wasn’t a severe case.”

“……I suppose you don’t even remember the time you shamelessly claimed you don’t lie much, do you?”

“Hmm.”

Cheon Yeomyung shrugged as he threw the cotton swab stained with red blood into the trash can under the table.

“I really didn’t, did I?”

“Don’t you remember what happened with Mei?”

“Mei? I didn’t lie about that either. I said I would take good care of her until she gave birth. Did I ever say I would raise the child myself?”

At the shameless answer, which seemed to have completely abandoned all humanity, Yang Euijoo stared at the man with a dumbfounded expression. Just as he had been at the docks, the man still looked nonchalant, as if he felt no shame towards the heavens. No, he seemed to commit shameful acts that abandoned his humanity without hesitation and considered them natural.

“Do you have no sense of integrity or morality at all?”

“Integrity?”

Cheon Yeomyung burst out laughing at the word, as if he were hearing it for the first time in his life. The man’s hand nervously scratched the table.

“Born as the youngest son of an organization that sells people, is it possible to have something like that? It’s impossible for me to talk about things like integrity, sublimity, or morality because I was trash from birth. My father told me that the more excessive the revenge, the more righteous it is, and taught me that mercy must be lacking. He was a man who said that fear and oppression would be the weapons to shake this era. What’s different about me, who was born from the seed of such a father? If you point a finger at trash and say this is a diamond, can it be recognized as a diamond? What you’re saying to me is no different from that. What do you think, don’t you feel wronged for getting caught up with the worst kind of human? It would have been better for your life if you had stabbed me instead.”

At Cheon Yeomyung’s scathing voice, which droned on as if he had been born with a lack of character, Yang Euijoo bit his lip. There were more than one or two things that were grating to the ear. And Yang Euijoo finally realized, going back through it, that among all the things Cheon Yeomyung had, his family environment was the most terrible.

“I’d like to see what that family of yours is like. Because I’m curious how a child was raised to turn out like this.”