Yang’s Master Chapter 11.2 - Uninvited Guest

“Did I not tell you before? I was loved.”

Cheon Yeomyung said something that carried not a single shred of credibility.

He must have been so very loved. A family in the Black Society, whose hobbies were selling drugs and whose specialty was loan sharking, and who would not hesitate to commit human trafficking or organ harvesting if someone could not repay their debt, did not seem like one that would be mentally healthy and full of love.

“Please stop with the lies.”

“Why do you not believe me? Don’t I seem like I grew up without any hardships?”

Hardships……. It was the first time he had ever met a human who could so shamelessly say such words with their own mouth. As Yang Euijoo scowled, Cheon Yeomyung chuckled. While pulling a glove onto the hand where blood had formed, he said in a low voice.

“My dad.”

That damned word, dad. Yang Euijoo already disliked hearing it and frowned. Cheon Yeomyung did not even bother with Yang Euijoo’s reaction and glanced down at the back of his hand. The back of his hand, covered by leather, was smooth and nothing could be seen. Now, neither the bitter smell of alcohol nor the scent of blood remained.

“The only problem was that he was a religious cult fanatic.”

Yang Euijoo instinctively raised his head to look at Cheon Yeomyung. It was a story he had heard once before. It was also a detail he had erased from his mind, having been shocked by Kwon’s story. Cheon Yeomyung observed Yang Euijoo’s complexion, which was not just pale but deathly so, and opened his mouth.

“My father was a man who believed his youngest son, born on Christmas, was the second coming of Christ, and went around saying that he was the chosen one who would be reborn by taking that body. It seems he originally believed in a proper religion, but I guess he was led astray somewhere along the way.”

“……What is that supposed to mean?”

“What do you mean, what? It is a cult, I am telling you. The kind of people who believe the world is ending or that miracles exist. The worthless humans who have absolutely no sense of reality, who insist that God’s miracles overwhelm science, and then, when it does not happen, fall into shock and feebly end their own lives.”

Cheon Yeomyung, answering with an innocent face as if asking if he did not know what a cult was, got up from his seat.

“I should get going now. Let us see each other again in the evening.”

Yang Euijoo blinked as he watched the man tidying his clothes. Is this the end? The feeling of emptiness must have shown on his face, as Cheon Yeomyung raised the corner of his mouth.

“Why, do you want to hear a little more?”

“Well……”

Leaving aside anyone’s family matters, would not anyone be curious if a cult that believed in resurrection or the second coming was right in front of them? Yang Euijoo scratched his cheek, feeling awkward. It was embarrassing to show curiosity right after he had thrown a fit. Cheon Yeomyung, having seen through that psychology perfectly, gracefully lowered his body. The eyes he met head-on sparkled with amusement. It was as if they had stolen their color from the star on the very top of a Christmas tree.

“If you are curious, go on a date with me.”

“What?”

“I said, let us go on a date.”

The moment he saw Cheon Yeomyung’s slick face, Yang Euijoo felt the last of his curiosity dry up like grains of sand. Even seeing that cold face, Cheon Yeomyung was as steadfast as could be. He took advantage of Yang Euijoo’s unguarded moment to lightly press his lips to his cheek.

“Fuck, what the……!”

Cheon Yeomyung grabbed Yang Euijoo, who was roughly pushing him away after a kiss that was, at best, like a child’s prank. Beneath his palm, he could feel the thin clothes and the bones of his arm. It was an outfit that showed no remorse at all, even after suffering from a severe cold.

With a face tensed up like a wild animal with its claws out, Yang Euijoo glared at Cheon Yeomyung. Not that he could run away by doing so, but Yang Euijoo was like an unexploded bomb that seemed ready to spring away fiercely if he let go of his hand.

“Do not run away.”

A voice that suppressed instinct warned him politely. Yang Euijoo paused, hesitating between wiping the cheek where the lips had touched and then left with his other hand, or striking the man’s smug face.

“Because if you even pretend to run away from me one more time, I do not know what I will do either.”

“……”

“If you are curious, you can try it.”

Cheon Yeomyung provoked him shamelessly, knowing Yang Euijoo would not be able to. Upon hearing that, Yang Euijoo could not hold back any longer. With a sound so crisp it was satisfying, the man’s cheek turned red. Even though he had hit him hard enough for his fist to throb, Cheon Yeomyung’s head did not turn in the slightest. That was quite infuriating.

“Are you done hitting me?”

Cheon Yeomyung asked, lightly placing a finger on his stinging cheek. Even in that state, the man looked pure. If nothing else, looking only at his appearance, it was believable that his cult-crazed father would have believed him to be the second coming of God.

“You can hit me a little more.”

“……Really, what kind of a crazy bastard is this……”

“A handsome man looks fine even with a bruise on his cheek, you see.”

At the nonsense he spouted with a bright smile, even the will to hit him more was broken. It was obvious that seeing him walk around proudly with a swollen cheek or whatever would only make his own mood worse. An act of violence should leave an impact on the opponent, so why was the impact rebounding back to Yang Euijoo, the one who did the hitting?

“I am fine. Just get lost.”

“I told you that you are soft.”

The man somberly pointed out Yang Euijoo’s complacency.

“Hit me more, beat me until I cannot even move. Stab me with a knife or cut off a finger. Is that not fair?”

There was no way Yang Euijoo could understand the mentality of a human who recommended violence and mutilation upon his own body. Yang Euijoo had not even been able to kill Du Shanchong. He was a man who blamed himself as if he had killed the white man who had tried to force himself on him while drunk, only to misstep and fall.

“You are telling me to do that to you?”

“I am saying it is righteous revenge.”

“Are you the one telling me that?”

Cheon Yeomyung slowly scanned Yang Euijoo’s frowning face. The corner of the mouth on the face with one cheek flushed red slowly pulled to the side. Cheon Yeomyung made a show of smiling but did not smile.

“It would just be laughable for a son of a bitch to act human, would it not. It is a shame that you are soft.”

“……..”

“No, is it a relief? ……I was not trying to be sarcastic.”

With a shallow sigh, Cheon Yeomyung rubbed the corners of his eyes. His black hair swayed above his forehead.

“Let us talk about the rest in the evening. I am leaving. Hmm, let us meet around seven.”

Cheon Yeomyung checked the time once and then selfishly opened the back door and left. Yang Euijoo glared at the man’s back as he vanished in a flash, then sighed upon seeing the back of his reddened, scraped hand. Why does the hand of the person who hit hurt more? Was he so shameless that his face was really made of scrap metal?

Yang Euijoo, who was pressing his throbbing palm against the cold wall to soothe the burning sensation, belatedly remembered the semi-coerced date proposal.

He would be dragged to that house again after work anyway, but he hated the idea of a date too. Feeling a throbbing headache, Yang Euijoo shoved his hand into his apron pocket. The face that pulled out a half-empty, flattened pack of cigarettes was contorted, caked in displeasure.

However, smoking a few cigarettes and working with a scowl on his face did nothing to overturn the plans Cheon Yeomyung had announced.

Moreover, Cheon Yeomyung came to pick him up in the worst way imaginable, even worse than anything Yang Euijoo had pictured while finishing both his morning and afternoon shifts and cleaning up. The man, dressed from head to toe in the kind of bourgeois, sophisticated attire that would make people in Shanghai itch to grab and beat him up, was not only waiting in front of the pharmacy but was also holding a bouquet of flowers. The moment Yang Euijoo saw Cheon Yeomyung holding the yellow flowers, he let out a curse.

Upon hearing the profanity, a mix of the thick accent of the back alleys and the Cantonese dialect, Cheon Yeomyung grinned as if he had received a compliment.

“Are you smiling now?”

When Yang Euijoo snapped at him, Cheon Yeomyung belatedly covered his lips with his hand and crinkled his eyes. It was a smile more radiant than the bouquet.

“Are you not going to take it?”

“If you want us to get arrested together, I will take it.”

“How rude, together? The only one getting arrested would be you, mister.”

“Then I will take it and get arrested by myself, so you can go do your date or whatever the hell it is alone.”

“That will not do.”

Cheon Yeomyung then casually dropped the bouquet he was holding into the trash can in front of the pharmacy. The beautifully wrapped bouquet of yellow freesias rolled around on top of the garbage, but the man showed no sign of regret.

“You cannot go on a date alone, can you?”

“Haa, fuck……”

There is a limit to how much a conversation can go nowhere. Yang Euijoo brusquely pushed away the man who was sticking to his side and glared at his handsome face from an awkwardly maintained distance.

“Where are we going.”

“Is there anything you want to eat?”

“I think I could eat anything as long as I do not have to see your face.”

“In that case, since it is a date, steak would be good.”

The conversation… is not getting through……. Yang Euijoo completely gave up on saying anything more. All he wanted was to gobble down whatever was given to him, be it steak or anything else, and go back home quickly. Rather than listening to this disgusting talk about a date or whatever, it was mentally and physically more comfortable to pull the covers over his head and pretend to be asleep. Cheon Yeomyung glanced at Yang Euijoo, who was trudging along beside him with a look of resignation. Seeing the cold face looking only at the ground while walking dejectedly made him seem pitiful, and at the same time, made him want to torment him. Cheon Yeomyung took Yang Euijoo’s hand with his glove, which still had a faint scent of flowers, and pulled it into his coat pocket.

“Fuck it, I give up……. I am the crazy one for trying to talk to a son of a bitch.”

Yang Euijoo, realizing that getting worked up over this level of contact was now a waste of energy, moved his body closer to Cheon Yeomyung. He too knew that rather than being far apart and advertising to the street that they were holding hands, it was better to stick close and obscure the view. Knowing that made it even more annoying.

Feeling like he was going to get indigestion before even eating, Yang Euijoo trudged along and was dragged into some restaurant lining the Bund.

The restaurant, located on the fourth floor of a European-style building, was completely empty. Considering the man’s obsessive personality, it was clear he had made a reservation. Yang Euijoo did not ask how much he planned to spend on the date and just watched the waiter accept his worn-out jumper as if it were a one-hundred-thousand-dollar coat.

“It is a problem if you look at another man like that when you are here on a date with me.”

“If you are jealous, you can look too.”

“I am a man of utmost chastity, so I do not let my eyes wander when I am with my lover.”

I do not want to talk to him. Yang Euijoo, feeling his anger rise, grabbed the water glass that was already prepared on the table and gulped it down. The restaurant was unnecessarily meticulous, having prepared lukewarm water instead of cold water. Yang Euijoo tasted the tepid temperature of the water and his mood soured even more.

“Will you drink wine?”

“Brandy or whiskey, or perhaps rum.”

As soon as Yang Euijoo answered, Cheon Yeomyung gestured for the waiter and placed an order.

“Please prepare the wine I ordered in advance first.”

As soon as the waiter acknowledged and left, Yang Euijoo imagined stabbing Cheon Yeomyung’s tongue with a fork and asked. He felt like he would explode from frustration.

“If you are going to do as you please, then why on earth do you even ask me?”

“It is fun listening to nonsense and ignoring it.”

Cheon Yeomyung replied as if he had been waiting for it. It was only after breaking a wine glass just ten minutes into being at the restaurant that Yang Euijoo could finally focus on this so-called magnificent date.

Due to the problem of having to clean up the shattered glass fragments, Yang Euijoo, who had moved seats once, glared at the tender veal steak as if he were chewing on a steel tendon. Something was strange. Cheon Yeomyung, gracefully bringing a wine glass to his lips alone, muttered as if he meant for him to hear.

“Violent, audacious, and nonchalant about destroying property……”

“Please, please just shut up, and what is this?”

“What is what?”

Yang Euijoo glared at the face of the man who asked with a puzzled expression, as if he had no idea.

“Where is my knife?”

He had suggested they go eat steak, but the utensils were incomplete. All Yang Euijoo had was the spoon he had used for soup and a fork for salad. He had already learned, through several dates with Cheon Yeomyung in Hong Kong, that stabbing a whole chunk of steak with a fork and tearing at it was improper etiquette.

“Do you really need a knife? You cannot even handle it properly anyway, can you?”

Cheon Yeomyung asked as if bewildered. It was obvious. Cheon Yeomyung had clearly given instructions beforehand not to give Yang Euijoo a knife.

“You must have been so vexed watching me make a scene with a knife I cannot even handle. How did you stand to watch?”

Yang Euijoo retorted, not backing down. Cheon Yeomyung opened his mouth while staring at the moderately seared veal.

“I was vexed, so I just watched. If you were a professional, you could slit a throat even with that kind of decorative thing, and in a single strike, no less.”

There was a certain power in Cheon Yeomyung’s words. A very wicked power at that. It even sounded as if Cheon Yeomyung had slit a person’s throat in a single strike with that knife several times before. Yang Euijoo said no more and shut his mouth.

“The very reason you are sitting here having a meal with me is your pathetic, tool handling, skill……”

Cheon Yeomyung was being sarcastic, but he seemed unstable somehow. Yang Euijoo noticed the man’s hand was trembling 불안하게. Cheon Yeomyung did not hide it either. However, he also tried not to show it. The gloved fingers that were trembling faintly bent, and then picked up the knife that was given only to him. The hand of the man holding the tool did not tremble any further than that.

“Is there any need for a knife? I will cut it for you.”

In front of Cheon Yeomyung, who was trying hard to feign composure, Yang Euijoo swallowed the new glass of lukewarm water he had received.

“Go ahead, it does not have to be a knife anyway.”

As soon as those words were spoken, Cheon Yeomyung scraped the plate roughly. It looked as though the meat was being butchered, but the man did not swear nor did he get angry. Strangely, both of them were equally exhausted and worn out. The two of them sat facing each other with strange expressions, as if neither of them had anticipated this reunion at all.

Yang Euijoo accepted the plate of steak that Cheon Yeomyung had cut for him, and with a fork, he put one piece at a time into his mouth along with the garnish. The meat had cooled a bit because time had been wasted on the uninteresting squabble, but it was reasonably edible. Yang Euijoo swallowed the steak without even chewing it properly.

From the window, the Huangpu River flowing along the Bund could be seen at a glance. Lights flashed from a building on the opposite side. Although it had shrunk, large and tall buildings stood out, befitting its past as the premier trading city in China.

“Are you finished eating? You should eat more.”

Yang Euijoo’s eyes, as he was putting his hands down from the steak he had not even eaten half of, blazed with a blue light. His eyes, barnacled with irritation and contempt, shot a look at Cheon Yeomyung.

“How can I eat anything with you in front of me.”

“Is that so? Still, eat. Should you not consider a person’s sincerity?”

At the overbearing tone, Yang Euijoo bit his lip hard. Cheon Yeomyung took a sip of wine while waiting for Yang Euijoo’s reaction. In the silence, Yang Euijoo felt a deep sense of defeat and eventually forced himself to eat a few more pieces of steak. Only after he had swallowed a few chunks of meat without chewing properly did Cheon Yeomyung seem satisfied and call the waiter to clear the plates.

For dessert, a beautifully decorated cherry mousse cake and chocolates were served, but no one touched them. Yang Euijoo only picked at a few pieces of fruit placed as garnish before putting his hands down.

“Drink more.”

Cheon Yeomyung pushed a wine glass toward Yang Euijoo, urging him to drink. Having given up on arguing, Yang Euijoo did as Cheon Yeomyung ordered and gulped down the wine as if it were grape juice. The wine, which had almost no sweetness, was heavy and bitter. Vaguely, Yang Euijoo guessed that the wine must be ridiculously expensive. In any case, it was clear that Cheon Yeomyung would be the one paying. As the man himself said, he was very conservative and traditional in certain aspects. Such diligent parts included his insistence on paying for dates, or making reservations to avoid wasting time on trivial matters.

“Do you like wine?”

“Not really.”

“I quite like it. In Christianity, wine is also a kind of symbol, so I have been drinking it in small amounts since I was young.”

He must have been drinking since he was young, so his brain must be rotten. Yang Euijoo finally found one reason for Cheon Yeomyung’s rotten personality. And he also realized that this was the beginning of the story that Cheon Yeomyung, who had visited the pharmacy in the morning, had offered as payment for the date. Yang Euijoo put down his wine glass and looked at Cheon Yeomyung.

His beautiful eyes sparkled as he scraped the cherry cake with a fork and put it in his mouth.

“Well……, actually, what I said in the morning is pretty much the whole story. That my father was crazy about a cult and believed in the theory of resurrection. And the subject of that resurrection was me, his youngest son.”

“A human like you, the second coming of God……”

Unable to bring himself to attach the name of a religiously respected saint to a madman, Yang Euijoo trailed off. Cheon Yeomyung nodded his head, unconcerned.

“Because my eyes are like this.”

He said, pointing at his abnormally colored eyes as if to poke them with his finger.

“Even though there are quite a few mixed-blood siblings among us. I was the only one born with eyes like these. But on top of that, my birthday is even on Christmas, is it not?”

“……”

“There is not much to it after that. Son, you are the reincarnation of Christ, so you must keep your body pure. You must not go to dirty places or do dirty things, you must not shed blood. Do not covet the flesh of animals. Thanks to that, I was quite picky with my food.”

Cheon Yeomyung grumbled lightly, saying that even the name Joseph was given to him by his father after much deliberation. Yang Euijoo thought for a moment. As the son of a cult fanatic, it was not surprising that Cheon Yeomyung grew up to be this kind of person. If he had grown up loved and well-adjusted and still turned out to be such a crazy, human piece of trash, his parents would have felt wronged, but after hearing Cheon Yeomyung’s story, it seemed his parents would not feel wronged either. A crazy son came from a crazy father. It was a perfectly fitting reason.

“So is that why you inherited the organization?”

“Hmm?”

“You are the youngest, but you are the boss……”

“That is a rather reasonable thought, but while it may be common in Northeast Asia to inherit the family business in order of age, that is not how it is with us.”

Cheon Yeomyung said as he took another bite of the cherry cake.

“Because I killed them all.”

The light from the streetlamps sparkling on the river reflected on Yang Euijoo’s cheek. Watching the face stained with the golden color of the water, Cheon Yeomyung’s eyes crinkled.

“Ah, do not look at me like that. I had no choice because it was a situation where I would die if I did not kill them.”

He finished the small cherry cake with a few strokes of his fork, then speared the cherry on top and pushed it toward Yang Euijoo’s mouth. With a deep scowl, Yang Euijoo reluctantly accepted the cherry. The cherry was sweet and sour. After spitting out the hard pit inside, Yang Euijoo wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“You killed them?”

“So, this is a bit complicated……, but if you look at it, it is my fault too. Just imagine, the birthday of your twelfth-born son happens to be Christmas. My father, who was already deeply into a cult, practically went insane because of me. Those who have, their greed just keeps swelling. And so, my father wished.”

Cheon Yeomyung pressed his fingertips to his own chest as he spun his long tale. It was an elegant gesture.

“That he wanted to be resurrected in this young, beautiful body with God’s grace. He has grown old and ugly now, not much different from Kwon Yirang, has he not? I wonder if everyone becomes like that when they get old.”

The man put on a feigned serious expression while talking about his shattered family.

“That is why I plan to die quickly before I get that old. Is around forty a good age? If you want, I will let you kill me then. It can be even sooner, or if you want it to be later, that is fine too.”

“……”

“Anyway, even the cult did not stop my father’s crazy antics. Just forty days after his youngest son was born, he insisted, very strongly at that, that on the day the child turns twenty, he should be offered on God’s altar and a resurrection ritual should be performed.”

The man wore a bored expression. He looked fed up. He seemed to have heard it so often that it felt no more significant than muttering, oh, the couple downstairs is fighting again.

“Even Jesus died at thirty-seven and was resurrected, so is it not too much to kill your youngest son who just turned twenty?”

At Cheon Yeomyung’s jest, Yang Euijoo opened his lips. Various words were jumbled together, but surprisingly, what came out of his mouth was a simple question.

“You said you had many siblings. Did they not try to stop him?”

“My siblings? They were kind to me.”

Cheon Yeomyung answered as if it were amusing. Numerous older brothers and sisters passed through his mind.

“Then why……”

They were certainly kind to Cheon Yeomyung, their youngest brother. However, they did not fight against their father’s strange obsession and love, nor his blind faith in the cult. Among them, there were some who had treated the young Cheon Yeomyung quite well. The older sister who secretly brought him snacks and water when his father punished him harshly for breaking a taboo and ordered him to fast for four days, and the eldest hyung who took him to a distant island for fun. In any case, humans who were affectionate to their young brother…….

“He was a brother who would die at twenty anyway, so there would be no succession battle. Isn’t it natural to be kind?”

Cheon Yeomyung said with a smile as if it were nothing, sticking his lips out in a pout. He showed an innocent expression all over his face, as if showing his image as an immature youngest child.

“I thought it was natural when I was young, but after I grew up a bit, something felt strange. I did not want to die so ridiculously at twenty, you see? So at twenty, I just stabbed my father to death, and while I was at it, I also killed the other siblings who opposed me becoming the boss, and then I took over the Byeokhae.”

The man who told the story of killing his entire family at the end of a date had a terribly wicked personality. Do people all turn out like Cheon Yeomyung after experiencing something like that at twenty? Yang Euijoo truly could not understand the disposition of a man who slept with a portrait of the goddess who punishes murder hanging in his bedroom while admitting to killing his whole family.

Though it was not something Yang Euijoo, who had eaten a meal with the man who had tortured and raped him, should say. The grain was completely different. Cheon Yeomyung’s side was of a worse quality.

Cheon Yeomyung stared intently at Yang Euijoo’s face and then shrugged his shoulders.

“Do not misunderstand. I had a bad personality even before that happened.”

“……”

“If you are curious, you can ask Rose Rock.”

The man who had confidently stated on his own that his personality was bad got up from his seat with a sullen face.

What does he want me to do?

Yang Euijoo muttered belatedly, but Cheon Yeomyung, as he had publicly declared, had a bad personality, so he did not soothe Yang Euijoo or explain further. Yang Euijoo belatedly grabbed the jumper the waiter had brought out and hurriedly followed Cheon Yeomyung. Perhaps because the meal had been long, the building was as empty as if no one was there. Cheon Yeomyung, who was already descending the stairs, stood in the middle of the secluded staircase and looked at Yang Euijoo.

Strangely, the man’s gaze, looking from a lower place to a higher one, gave a sense of incongruity. It was also a position that reminded him of their first meeting. Though their real relationship was the complete opposite, Cheon Yeomyung often looked up at Yang Euijoo from below. It was natural, as if it were a matter of course.

“……I.”

The man who had endured the silence spoke.

“The hatred I imagined you had was different from what I faced directly.”

The stairs, like most buildings in Shanghai, were a depressing gray, and Cheon Yeomyung’s story was a similar color.

“I thought you, Euijoo, would be satisfied with worldly things, but I also belatedly realized that you had an unexpected emotional deficiency.”

It had been a long time since Cheon Yeomyung had called Yang Euijoo by his first name. The moment his name was called, Yang Euijoo felt a shiver run down his spine, and he felt a sense of reminiscence.

“That day……, you said you could not forgive me.”

The man let out a weak smile. The faint smile was impossible to read emotionally. Yang Euijoo often thought, whenever Cheon Yeomyung made such an expression, that he would never be able to forget him for the rest of his life.

“I will not be able to understand you, because I am a worthless human who has never even learned the act of understanding itself. Do you think I felt guilt when I killed my father or my brothers? Not a chance. I just wanted to tell you this story. I formally apologize for inviting you to an unpleasant date.”

The man who had confessed to killing his own father and brothers was still breathing. He had an anxious look on his face. Instead of accepting Cheon Yeomyung’s apology, Yang Euijoo asked.

“Are you saying you will regret it?”

Cheon Yeomyung remained silent.

“Can my regret be the kind of regret you want?”

In the window connected to the stairs, with the moon hanging on the opposite side, there was only a dim, hazy light. On the dark and cold staircase where only enough light existed to distinguish between floors, Yang Euijoo saw a thin breath being exhaled.

“Even if I say I was wrong, would you even accept it?”

The one who was rotten from the core dropped both his hands down. Cheon Yeomyung said nothing to Yang Euijoo. A foolish intuition came to him that perhaps, like Yang Euijoo’s choice, Cheon Yeomyung had also come to Shanghai having already given up on something completely.

After the date that felt like it would give him indigestion was over, Yang Euijoo took a taxi that was pre-parked in front of the restaurant building and returned to Cheon Yeomyung’s house. It was a choice that was made as if it were a matter of course. In reality, the feelings of Yang Euijoo, who could be considered the biggest victim in this whole situation, were not important.

The taxi, which drove smoothly along the riverside road, stopped after about twenty minutes. Cheon Yeomyung, after his selfish ramblings, had been quiet for a while, and as soon as they entered the house, he said he was tired and had to sleep early, leaving Yang Euijoo all alone, washed up, and crawled into bed.

Yang Euijoo considered going back to his own house while Cheon Yeomyung was asleep, but it was impossible to walk to his house at a time when both the trams and buses had stopped running. Unable to shake off the gloomy threat Cheon Yeomyung had whispered on the stairs, he hesitated for a long time before lying down on the living room sofa and falling asleep. He had no intention of sleeping in the same bed side-by-side with Cheon Yeomyung.

The living room, where the radiator was not running, was chilly, and Yang Euijoo woke up several times during the dawn from the cold, curling up his body, covering himself roughly with his jumper, and forcing himself to sleep. When he woke up, he was lying conspicuously in the bedroom where two radiators were turned on. And in front of his face, he saw a familiar face plastered with a petulant sort of affection.

“Uh……”

As soon as Yang Euijoo let out an awkward sound unbefitting a morning greeting, the large, round eyes filled with a deep sorrow.

“Are you feeling alright?”

Linlin asked only that, without another word. Yang Euijoo remembered the cake that had fallen to the floor and asked in return.

“Did you eat the cake?”

“I could not……”

With a gloomy face, Linlin lowered her eyes. Linlin’s hair had now grown quite long, and she had it neatly braided down in two pigtails that reached her shoulders. The way she had it rolled up like buns was also cute, but this was not bad either.

“Did you two set up house together?”

A murderous voice rang out. Yang Euijoo tried to turn his head, but he could not move because a man was hugging his waist tightly from behind and burying his face in him. Linlin rolled her eyes back and forth. After keeping her mouth shut and watching her boss’s reaction, she showed an expression of extreme relief when Cheon Yeomyung pretended to be asleep again. There was no way Cheon Yeomyung was asleep, but she was a truly simple and cute person.

“Does that workplace not even buy you cake?”

“The bonuses are a bit stingy these days.”

After whispering as if sharing a secret, Linlin straightened up. Her expression, which had been dark when they briefly met in the basement and when he saw her at the mansion, had brightened a little. Yang Euijoo tried not to feel the weight of the man wrapped around his waist and spoke to Linlin like a word of blessing.

“You seem to be doing well.”

“I was very worried before I came here, but I was relieved that the boss had not tied you up naked in the house, or cut off your limbs, or killed you and preserved you in a bag. The boss is that kind of person. He is my boss, but he is still trash, right? ……He would not scold me for saying this much, would he?”

“……”

“Anyway, yesterday I ate a full dinner.”

The food in Shanghai is delicious too. As Linlin smiled brightly and whispered softly, Yang Euijoo felt his stomach turn. In this abnormal situation, he could not find a single word to respond with, wondering if he should be grateful now that Cheon Yeomyung, whom his closest aide publicly declared as trash, had not cut off his legs to prevent him from running away, or tied him up and confined him, or just killed him altogether. He could only nod his head.

A chuckle was heard from behind him, as if Yang Euijoo’s stiffly frozen behavior was funny.

“Boss, you should get up too.”

“Umm.”

Cheon Yeomyung pretended to be asleep while hugging Yang Euijoo from behind. Even without seeing it, he could feel him desperately trying to avoid Linlin’s nagging by burying his face in his back.

“Boss, please do not be like that and get up quickly. You need to go to Hong Kong.”

Linlin woke Cheon Yeomyung up with her clear voice. As soon as the word Hong Kong came out, Yang Euijoo felt through his skin the lips of the man stuck tightly to his back secretly mouth the curse, fuck. Soon, Cheon Yeomyung, who had been wriggling behind him, used Yang Euijoo as a support to get up. Yang Euijoo was about to shove a curse at the man who was putting his full weight on his back to get up, but stopped.

Cheon Yeomyung, whose mood had soured in an instant, asked with his eyes cast down.

“……Why?”

His voice, husky from the morning, scratched his throat as it came out. Instead of being scared of Cheon Yeomyung, Linlin answered calmly.

“Kwon has declared a land-grabbing game. I heard he was discharged yesterday, he must have gone crazy after a few shots of morphine.”

“Ah, when the hell is that bastard going to die?”

At the mention of Kwon, Cheon Yeomyung jumped up from his seat as if he had lived his whole life and scratched his head vigorously. His hair, which had become drier than before due to dyeing, got mercilessly caught and tangled in his fingers. Cheon Yeomyung sighed after trying to comb his hair a little with his fingers.

“Rose Rock knew and did not tell me.”

No wonder he did not wish him a long life. Cheon Yeomyung grumbled as he pushed the blanket away and got out of bed. Linlin handed him a cardigan to wear inside the house and followed him closely. Yang Euijoo looked at Cheon Yeomyung’s serious face and quickly followed him out of bed.

“Ah, mister. I bought breakfast, so please eat.”

Linlin said as she pushed Cheon Yeomyung into the bathroom. Yang Euijoo looked at the food laid out on the table. There was a full spread, from light fruit juice to porridge, fried rice and noodles, stir-fried noodles, dumplings, and bread.

“Linlin, may I ask what land-grabbing is?”

“It is our slang, but to put it simply, it is like a game of chicken. Hmm, a game of chicken. So……”

Linlin twisted her braided hair and smiled. At that moment, Yang Euijoo was startled to see the coldness that filled Linlin’s face.

“The Hongryong has no one to inherit the organization if Kwon dies. Kwon has terminal lung cancer, so his days are numbered. He has declared that those who want the Hongryong should fight directly and take their share in advance. It means he intends to go down with everyone.”

“Do you hate Kwon too, Linlin?”

“Uh……, leaving aside just organizational hostility, among the executives, there is no one who has even an ounce of mercy for Kwon. Even Xiaogang oppa, who is the nicest of them all, hates him.”

Linlin stopped talking and scratched her head. Her neatly braided hair became disheveled and messy.

“We have some, uh, old feelings. They have not been resolved yet.”

Although she glossed over it, Yang Euijoo clearly understood what story Linlin was hiding. It must have been the incident at twenty-three, when Cheon Yeomyung was nailed to a wall. For the moment she spoke of Kwon, Linlin revealed her intense anger and hatred without concealment. It was a hatred passed down from Cheon Yeomyung.

“You can just say it.”

Cheon Yeomyung, who came out of the bathroom, spoke in a mumble with a toothbrush in his mouth. He swept his bangs halfway back and pursed his lips. His lips, stained with toothpaste foam, were a shade of red.

He had thrown his pajama top somewhere and, wearing only the pants, strode over and rummaged through the living room drawer. The man grabbed a razor blade and went back with a bored expression. Soon, the sound of spitting out toothpaste and a loud splash of water followed. Linlin rolled her eyes slowly and then let out a soft exclamation.

“……How are you still alive?”

“You are not hoping that I die, are you?”

“Uhm.”

Linlin looked at Yang Euijoo and smiled awkwardly.

“Because everyone who said that to the boss’s face, or made the boss say it, ended up dead……”

“……”

“It is not a good story, you know. Especially for the pride of someone like the boss. I do not want to see it again even in my dreams, the boss was terrible back then.”

After an awkward laugh, Linlin shouted thunderously towards the bathroom.

“Boss! Get ready quickly.”

“That bastard is probably bluffing again, so why are you in such a hurry?”

Cheon Yeomyung, holding a razor with a changed blade and with cream on his cheek, poked only his upper body out again and retorted to Linlin’s urging. It seemed this was not the first time Kwon had made a murderous declaration, as Cheon Yeomyung did not seem anxious.

“You still have to go. This time, Kwon might actually clutch his heart and die. Then you have to go see that.”

“Was the problem his heart, not his lungs? Well, at his age, it would be strange if he was not ailing from something.”

Cheon Yeomyung, who had sarcastically twisted Linlin’s words with a slight smile, said he needed to wash his face and ducked back inside. Linlin, going ‘Ugh,’ clenched her fists and trembled, then turned to Yang Euijoo and grumbled.

“Let us just have breakfast by ourselves.”

Fearing that he too would be chewed up by Cheon Yeomyung’s sharp tongue if he said one wrong word in that relationship, Yang Euijoo sat facing Linlin and silently ate his breakfast. Linlin started by dipping fried dough in a savory broth made from boiled beans, and then began to eat breakfast as if possessed. Watching Linlin munch on a dumpling as big as her own face, Yang Euijoo slowly spooned up some rice porridge with red beans and sugar.

“Before I go, just a moment.”

The man who burst out of the bathroom door sprayed a gush of dampness and the smell of warm air. He threw the wet towel into the laundry basket and then pulled Yang Euijoo’s hair. Yang Euijoo, who was attacked while eating breakfast, his expression instantly turned fierce. Cheon Yeomyung looked at it as insignificantly as a pigeon flying down the street and said a word.

“We have about 30 minutes, right?”

“We do, but……, boss, I do not mind what you do in 30 minutes, but please get the other person’s consent.”

Linlin said desperately. In terms of content, it seemed she was thinking of Yang Euijoo, but the premise itself was wrong. Yang Euijoo complained with a look of utter disgust.

“Linlin, I think I would rather stab this bastard in the throat with a knife than sleep with him.”

“What an honor.”

Cheon Yeomyung ignored Yang Euijoo’s words and ruffled the ends of his long hair here and there.

“It is because I cannot just leave it like this.”

“What is wrong with it?”

“You are not asking because you do not know, are you?”

Cheon Yeomyung grumbled while holding the long hair. Untidy. The man who claimed to be chaste himself chided him and then held up the blade he had detached from the razor.

“I will trim it for you, so do not create any openings to be caught while I am away.”

“You are quite concerned……”

“I thought I was really going to lose my mind because it was not in my sight.”

At the gloomy voice, Yang Euijoo clamped his mouth shut. It seemed better to just let him cut his hair or his neck rather than suffer from provoking the man who had to return to Hong Kong. Linlin, sitting at the table, rolled her eyes and then promptly fled, saying she had to pack Cheon Yeomyung’s luggage.

Cheon Yeomyung, while listening to Linlin’s constant grumbling from inside the room, leisurely trimmed Yang Euijoo’s hair. A sense of skill was felt from the man who cut the hair at the back quite presentably holding only a blade. A person like Cheon Yeomyung would not have done work like trimming hair, so it was clear that he was simply used to handling tools in general.

“You have done well setting up a shop. I thought you would just barge into the pharmacy and drag me away. Should I offer my thanks?”

“Well, if it is thanks you are offering, shouldn’t it be to the little lady?”

Yang Euijoo felt a sudden chill on the back of his neck. The cold blade flashed and skillfully cut the rather long hair. The blade, sharp enough to cut a pulse, cleanly cut only Yang Euijoo’s old, dust-like gray hair, and once it reached a somewhat satisfactory length, it sheathed its edge.

“I was surprised that day too.”

“You were?”

Yang Euijoo, with his somewhat tidier hair, turned to look at Cheon Yeomyung. Cheon Yeomyung brushed the hair off his glove and let it fall to the floor as he spoke.

“Why? Do I seem like a person who cannot be surprised?”

“That is more or less the case.”

Cheon Yeomyung turned Yang Euijoo’s head forward again. Then he picked off the remnants of hair stuck to the back of his neck one by one. At the unwanted kindness, Yang Euijoo squirmed, but when the man gripped his shoulder tightly, he had no choice but to be still.

“I had no intention of meeting like that. That is why I opened a luxury goods store. There is no way you would come to buy luxury goods, especially something like perfume, is there?”

Cheon Yeomyung was right. Even if Yang Euijoo had a thousand dollars in his pocket, he would not buy trash like perfume. That was something well-fed people bought. It was something only people who did not drink it and washed frequently could use. A person with a bathroom where rusty water mixed out when the old pipes were turned on, and that smelled of moss and mold, needed stomach medicine and anti-inflammatories more than perfume.

“If Xuan had not brought me?”

Cheon Yeomyung stopped his hand as he was brushing off the long hair that dirtied Yang Euijoo’s neck. Yang Euijoo was looking at the table laden with food, so he could not see Cheon Yeomyung’s face.

“Then……”

“Then?”

“I wonder if I would have watched to see if you were living well.”

Having said that, Cheon Yeomyung chuckled. It seemed he himself thought it was a shameless and ridiculous answer even after giving it. After brushing off all the hair, he lightly tapped Yang Euijoo’s shoulder.

“If you are not here when I get back, you will see.”

Only then could Yang Euijoo look at Cheon Yeomyung’s face again. It was with the conviction that it was the expression of the Cheon Yeomyung he knew.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Threatening?”

Cheon Yeomyung, hiding the blade between his fingers, made a reluctant face as if he had heard the word ‘threaten’ for the first time in his life. The face pretending to be innocent was similar to the textbook example of a youngest son, who, as he had professed, seemed to have had no hardships.

“Were we on terms to exchange threats kindly?”

However, the words that came out of such a person were excessively cold. Yang Euijoo frowned as he brushed off the hair tickling the back of his neck.

“Then?”

The golden eyes wavered.

“……If you do not want to see the owner of that pharmacy get arrested for unsavory reasons, then listen to me.”

Cheon Yeomyung, who had brought out a petty threat, broke the blade in half and wrapped it in tape. He had thought he would just throw it in the trash can, but he was surprisingly meticulous. After wrapping the sharp blade several times with sticky tape, Cheon Yeomyung cut the tape with his teeth and threw it into the trash can.

“A foreigner with no nationality living on the outskirts. If you are not dying to die, just stay here. No, even if you die, you would not want to be dragged to the public security. They do not see humans as humans.”

At the belated persuasion, Yang Euijoo touched his shortened hair and asked.

“Are you one to talk?”

The most inhuman man Yang Euijoo knew met his eyes. He nodded his head as he casually placed the used tape down.

“Yes.”

“Boss, I have packed all your bags.”

Linlin, who had been in the bedroom, burst open the door and called out to Cheon Yeomyung. The conversation was naturally cut off. Linlin looked at the still half-naked Cheon Yeomyung and made a clouded expression.

“Boss, you are not going to go like that, are you?”

“I will get dressed. Why are you becoming more and more like Rose Rock? Please do not learn that damn nagging.”

Cheon Yeomyung grumbled as if he did not want to hear the nagging and slipped into the bedroom. Linlin dragged the heavy suitcase to the front door, then rummaged through a closet and took out a broom.

“I will do the cleaning, so you can finish eating, mister.”

“It is fine. I will clean it, so you eat, Linlin.”

No one but Linlin could finish all this food. At Yang Euijoo’s suggestion, Linlin made a dazed expression as if she were about to drool, and then slowly approached the table. Yang Euijoo took the broom from her hand and swept the fallen hair on the floor instead. It was also strange for Linlin to clean up for him. Linlin could clean Cheon Yeomyung’s hair, but she was not the person to clean his own hair, was she.

After sweeping the floor clean and pushing the debris into the trash can, Yang Euijoo took off his t-shirt and went to the bathroom to shake off his clothes and back. After shaking off the shortly cut hair, he was about to look for a toothbrush when he felt a strange sensation. His toothbrush was placed right next to the wet one. This feels really shitty. He scratched his head, then squeezed toothpaste onto the dry toothbrush and pushed it into his mouth. The vigorous brushing poked his throat a few times, causing him to gag.

When he finished his fruitless tantrum and cleanly rinsed his foamy mouth, someone barged into the bathroom by opening the door without permission. It was Cheon Yeomyung. The moment Yang Euijoo was in the bathroom with Cheon Yeomyung, he felt a rough nausea and anger that was hard to explain with words.

It felt like he could hear the sound of water dripping in the bathroom attached to the basement. The ice-cold water and the upper body that was pushed in endlessly writhed like an insect, crushed under the man’s body. Yang Euijoo took several breaths through his nose and mouth. Only after realizing that cold, fishy water was not entering his throat did he relax his fists.