Yang’s Master Chapter 11.3 - Uninvited Guest

A cold leather glove pushed into the palm of his hand, which was stinging from the remaining nail marks. Cheon Yeomyung pushed his index finger into the gap of Yang Euijoo’s hand and forced open the clenched fist. Between the fingers that opened powerlessly, the fingers clad in smooth gloves intertwined. As if to bend his wrist, the man’s fingers applied pressure and pulled his hand. Yang Euijoo felt the illusion of the pain in his shoulder intensifying. A shocking chill and fear arose, as if he had fallen into the cold sea. As Yang Euijoo stumbled back, a heavy shower curtain touched his back.

The curtain, which was only good for blocking splashing water, fluttered. Cheon Yeomyung, who caught Yang Euijoo as he was about to fall backward, pulled his body up. It was a similar sensation to when he was pulled out of the sea. Supporting his waist, Cheon Yeomyung covered Yang Euijoo’s eyes, which were catching the bathroom light, and pulled his hand. The moment Cheon Yeomyung’s neck touched his fingers, Yang Euijoo inadvertently applied force.

It was a simple and violent act, more so than judging whether it was good or bad. With his vision blocked from the dazzling light, Yang Euijoo tasted the violence that the man submissively forced upon him. He felt a familiar scent stabbing into his nose.

The man, who reeked of wet wood and the ashes of a completely burnt-out fire, held Yang Euijoo’s head tightly as if to envelop it, letting Yang Euijoo choke his neck as he pleased. The grip was quite strong. Just as Yang Euijoo, mired in confusion, was wondering how much strength he had put into his fingers, Linlin’s voice came from outside.

“It’s time to go!”

Yang Euijoo’s eyes flew open. The light spread as if it were shattering. He instinctively swung his arm to push Cheon Yeomyung away, and only then did he realize what he had done. Seeing the completely frozen Yang Euijoo, Cheon Yeomyung made a subtly peculiar expression. He briefly rubbed his neck, which had been choked with all his might. The man, on whom clear finger marks remained, tightened his loosely undone necktie.

“Answer when I call.”

It was a tone that was certain Yang Euijoo would be staying at this house.

“I don’t even have, a key……”

The man who caught the chin of Yang Euijoo, who was muttering a foolish story as an excuse, stared intensely at his face.

“The spare key, it’s on the windowsill, so use that.”

“……”

“Just stay here. Even if it’s disgusting, this place will be better for your body than that garbage-like single room.”

“When did you ever care so much about my health?”

Yang Euijoo asked as if muttering. Cheon Yeomyung answered without delay.

“You’re alive, aren’t you.”

Cheon Yeomyung, covering his neck, was in his familiar businessman’s attire. He let go of Yang Euijoo’s cheek and immediately left the bathroom. Along with a clamorous noise from the living room, the sounds of the front door being violently opened and closed rang out in succession. Yang Euijoo stared blankly ahead. A spare key kept on the windowsill. Is there really a need to copy something like that? Yang Euijoo stood for a moment, curling the fingers that had just tampered with a person’s life, before barely realizing that he was already late to get ready for work and leave.

Zhang Jun will probably tease me……. With a troubled face, Yang Euijoo placed a hand on his hot forehead and crouched down in the middle of the bathroom. The temporary symptoms of breathing difficulty had disappeared, but he was dazed.

Yang Euijoo would have understood it a bit faster if Cheon Yeomyung had, say, come after doing some drugs. Interpreting relationships to his own liking was not an action that only Cheon Yeomyung was capable of.

Both the threat and his attitude were half-hearted. As Rose Rock or Linlin had said, if Cheon Yeomyung had instead come looking to kill him, Yang Euijoo would not have sensed any problem with the man. However, the face that smiled slyly at the store while exuding a strange scent, the hand that had silently taken the overly sweet ice cream, and…….

This is all a mental illness too. Yang Euijoo pressed hard on his throbbing brow and dropped his head. As the attitude of the man, who seemed unlikely to ever become gentle, changed, Yang Euijoo had also been mistaken. But even before he ran away with Mei, Cheon Yeomyung’s attitude had been similar to this. In his relationship with the one he claimed was his lover, he was not overbearing, and he also knew how to humor him. If he does not step outside the relationship and behavioral boundaries that he himself has set, can being kind be considered real kindness?

In any case, Yang Euijoo would return here alone even while Cheon Yeomyung was hastily returning to Hong Kong. Son of a bitch. Yang Euijoo spat on the floor.

🐑

As soon as Cheon Yeomyung urgently returned to Hong Kong, rumors about the closed perfume shop spread, widely distorted. Yang Euijoo remained silent when he heard the absurd rumor circulating that Cheon Yeomyung had been arrested by the public security bureau. Zhang Xuan complained that she was bored as she looked at the shop that had been closed for four days. Yang Euijoo also knew that Zhang Xuan and her friends often flocked to that shop to eat ice cream and have social gatherings.

“Yang-oppa, where did the gentleman go?”

“……Why are you asking me that?”

“You two are close.”

“Xuan.”

Not close at all. Yang Euijoo said stiffly and corrected the inventory of the medicine that had gone out today. Zhang Xuan, lying on her stomach next to Yang Euijoo, watched him write in the ledger, then pouted her lips and reached out her hand.

“Here, you misspelled this.”

“Did I?”

Even though it was a much younger girl pointing it out, Yang Euijoo did not get offended and looked back at Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan opened a notebook and wrote the correct characters for him. A stroke was missing. Yang Euijoo alternately looked at the characters Zhang Xuan wrote and the ones he wrote and corrected the mistake.

“Thanks.”

“Hmph.”

Zhang Xuan once again lay flat on her notebook and gazed intently at Yang Euijoo, who was checking and filling in the inventory ledger. People would usually get embarrassed and angry when a much younger girl corrected their spelling, but the handsome young man with the unusual hair color was surprisingly humble. Is it okay to use the expression ‘humble’ in this context? Zhang Xuan decided to ask her dad later and once again gazed intently at Yang Euijoo.

Whether it was because birds of a feather flock together, Yang Euijoo, who surprisingly had a strange acquaintance with the gentleman from the perfume shop, seemed aloof but was kind to Zhang Xuan. If the gentleman treated her and her friends very politely, just as he looked, Yang Euijoo was a person who, contrary to his appearance, was both blunt and affectionate.

From the very beginning, Zhang Xuan had really liked the suspicious assistant her dad had suddenly brought in. Unlike the stuffy and boring Shanghai men who seemed to have grown cold, Yang Euijoo’s very way of speaking was unique and interesting. The way he would turn his head with an awkward face as if nothing happened when his eyes met Zhang Xuan’s while he was about to swear—Yang Euijoo was the very image of the oppa she had dreamed of. Even the way he would grant her requests when she pestered him, despite looking troubled, was perfectly tailored to her. Zhang Xuan, who would never have siblings due to government policy, quickly grew attached to Yang Euijoo, who had suddenly dropped into her life.

“Oppa, you’re going to leave this place too, right?”

At Zhang Xuan’s words, Yang Euijoo paused in his writing. His stoic, ash-gray eyes remained fixed on the ledger as he asked Zhang Xuan back.

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone is leaving Shanghai these days……, I heard what Dad said. He said you came from Hong Kong, oppa.”

Yang Euijoo glanced at Zhang Xuan and retorted.

“Don’t tell other people, you’ll just get caught in the crossfire.”

“I won’t tell. School is unsettled too.”

Zhang Xuan propped her chin on her hand with a bored face.

“Actually, even the teachers at school scold us, telling us not to go to stores that only the bourgeoisie of the Bund use. So I was just going to say hello to the gentleman and tell him I probably couldn’t come for a while, but the door just had to be closed, you know?”

Listening to her lament, Yang Euijoo thought that it was better that Cheon Yeomyung had gone off to Hong Kong. The ill-natured man was a person that young and innocent girls were better off not knowing. Yang Euijoo closed the ledger he had finished organizing and took out the old, worn arm protectors, stacking them in a row on the shelf. They were things you wore on your arms when trimming, cutting, or preparing medicinal herbs, and many were torn from being caught on sharp tools. Weilan had asked Yang Euijoo to mend them all before she and her husband briefly left to purchase new herbs.

Zhang Xuan, who was left in the quiet pharmacy, stuck to Yang Euijoo as if she had been waiting and freely chattered about things she could not say when her parents were watching.

“By the way, how did you get to know the gentlemanYirang?”

“There were some circumstances.”

Pausing from threading the needle, Yang Euijoo mumbled in a low voice, like someone whose throat was choked up.

“Adults always beat around the bush like that when something is difficult to talk about.”

The precocious girl, Zhang Xuan, pointed out the fact quite sharply. After fumbling several times, unable to properly thread the needle, Yang Euijoo was finally able to start the sewing that Weilan had left for him. The arm protectors, made by quilting and stitching together a few pieces of cloth and cotton, showed no sign of Yang Euijoo’s clumsy sewing. Zhang Xuan stared intently at Yang Euijoo, who was sewing in silence.

Under her rather sharp gaze, which seemed to be urging something, Yang Euijoo stuck the needle into an arm protector and drank some tea. His throat was scratchy.

“Yeah, something bad happened.”

“Heeh.”

He was not so out of his mind as to tell a young girl every last detail. Yang Euijoo pulled out the needle he had stuck in and spoke to Zhang Xuan in a roundabout way, hiding the appropriate truths.

“So we don’t get along. I really hate that guy.”

“That gentleman said that you were a debtor, oppa.”

If he hadn’t been wearing a thimble, he would have drawn blood from his index finger. Yang Euijoo glanced sideways at Zhang Xuan, who had casually dropped the bombshell. Her black eyes shone with curiosity.

“Did you really run away with a debt?”

What the hell did that bastard tell a kid? Yang Euijoo muttered a few curses in Cantonese so that Zhang Xuan could not understand, then answered.

“Yeah, I owe a huge debt. And I cursed him out saying I had no intention of paying back a guy like that and bolted.”

“Wow……!”

Even though he said he had run off after cheating someone out of their money, Zhang Xuan was impressed instead of frowning. The daughter is just like her father. Yang Euijoo looked once at Xuan’s clear face. The youthful face grinned at him. Her teeth showed. It was a nice, clear smile. Looking at Zhang Xuan, Yang Euijoo could remember what it was that he had lost.

“So are you meeting up all the time these days to repay the money?”

The wording was somehow strange. Yang Euijoo gazed at Zhang Xuan. It seemed unlikely that that innocent face would have spoken with any strange meaning. Before Zhang Xuan could be badly influenced by Cheon Yeomyung, he told her precisely.

“We just meet up and eat dinner.”

“Why? Does that gentleman not have anyone to eat dinner with?”

“……Yeah. He doesn’t have friends.”

“Aah, how romantic.”

Even though he said the man had no friends, Zhang Xuan cupped her cheeks and let out a sigh. The face of a girl in a dream was as fresh as a flower bud in spring.

“What’s so romantic about not having friends?”

“It means you’re his only friend, oppa.”

Yang Euijoo, who had been moving the needle, rolled his eyes. He did not know if Zhang Xuan would believe him, but he said one thing with a very resolute face.

“We are not friends.”

“Are you really not?”

“It would be a disaster if a relationship like ours was called friendship.”

Yang Euijoo replied earnestly, then shook the shoulders of Zhang Xuan, who looked like she was about to melt and drip in front of the stove, to help her up.

“Mr. Zhang told me to check your homework. Hurry up and go in the back and do your homework.”

“Ugh, I didn’t know you would say something like that too, oppa.”

Zhang Xuan, with a dejected face, picked up her notebook and textbook and trudged away. Yang Euijoo looked at the arm protectors that still needed a lot of sewing and thought silently.

The only one……. It was probably not a comfortable enough relationship to attach such a romantic notion to. It was clear that even Cheon Yeomyung would procrastinate if he were asked to make a judgment about their relationship. The brutal words and the attitude that did not match them felt like a foot-long iron nail was being driven down into Yang Euijoo’s psyche.

Something certain is better. If he had brought a body bag, he should either use the bag diligently for its intended purpose or start the dirty deeds again before some ambiguous feelings could arise. Yang Euijoo scraped up the arm protectors he had finished sewing, pushed them into a basket, and got up from his seat.

“Oppa, you have to have dinner with me before we part ways!”

Zhang Xuan, perhaps worried that Yang Euijoo might try to back out, shouted from inside. To Zhang Xuan, who yelled so loudly it was as if she had swallowed a goose whole, Yang Euijoo replied in a loud voice.

“I know, your mother asked me to.”

Yang Euijoo checked the homework Zhang Xuan had left unfinished, and then, from the lunch box shop right next to the pharmacy, he got two bowls of rice piled high with stir-fried bean sprouts and fish fillets and shared them with Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan chattered nonstop, enough to make one’s ears bleed. Afterward, as Zhang Xuan wished, Yang Euijoo held her hand and walked her home.

Since he had taken a roundabout route, by the time he returned to Cheon Yeomyung’s apartment, it was later than his usual time for getting off work. As soon as he entered the house, Yang Euijoo heard the jarring ring of the telephone and frowned.

The phone, which had been ringing sharply through the house, cut off abruptly, and then, not long after, it let out another loud cry. At the sound of the telephone, which felt completely devoid of patience, Yang Euijoo hastily entered the living room. As soon as he picked up the receiver, the voice of a man seething with irritation rang out from the other side.

―Do you want to die?

It was the exact same tone as a street thug’s threat, having thrown away his usual refined way of speaking. Yang Euijoo let out a sigh.

One can come home late, is calling relentlessly until it is picked up really a solution? Out of Cheon Yeomyung’s sight, Yang Euijoo revealed his discomfort and spoke.

“I can be a person who has dinner plans too, you know.”

―Dinner plans? Ha, do you think you are in any position to be making something like dinner plans right now, mister?

“I don’t know why a position is needed for dinner plans. It might be a difficult thing for someone who has no friends, but it’s not difficult for me.”

With the phone between them, he became fearless. It might have been because there was no fear of immediate physical harm. Cheon Yeomyung was silent for a moment, then burst out laughing belatedly.

―You played with the little lady, didn’t you?

He seemed to have guessed the origin of the word ‘friend’. Yang Euijoo wondered whether he should be relieved that Cheon Yeomyung’s anger had subsided, or if he should be wary of Cheon Yeomyung getting too close to Zhang Xuan, as he replied.

“……Yes.”

―A date?

“Why would I go on a date with a child? Mr. Zhang was out today, so I just walked her home.”

―You acted quite the gentleman.

It was a creepy thing to say. Yang Euijoo frowned and corrected Cheon Yeomyung’s words.

“It wasn’t about being a gentleman, I just did something I was asked to do.”

―I know very well how soft you become toward people you think you are indebted to.

It was a sinister sound. To the man’s words, which sounded like nothing other than an open threat to use them as a target for blackmail, Yang Euijoo silently took off the jumper he was wearing and threw it onto the sofa. The receiver’s cord was short, so he could not even sit down comfortably anywhere. Yang Euijoo pulled the luxurious-looking telephone, which seemed more expensive than his own life, and slumped down in front of the chest of drawers.

“If you’ve said everything you have to say, can you hang up now?”

―I think I need to be compensated for the time I wasted in front of the phone, don’t you?

“How about you contact the telephone company and threaten them to lower your bill. Threatening is your specialty, isn’t it? Or was it your hobby, I’m confused because I have no interest in you.”

He had just spouted whatever came to mind, but laughter erupted from the other side again. He laughs well. Seeing him laugh when they were apart, it seemed that he and Cheon Yeomyung were fated to be separated forever. Listening to the laughter of the stupid man who could not even make basic judgments, Yang Euijoo looked at the glass door leading to the terrace. His face was clearly reflected on it.

―How did you hold it in all this time when you were so frustrated?

Yang Euijoo’s expression was strange. He was neither laughing nor crying. Only after a bit of coldness settled again on his face, which was full of frustration, did Yang Euijoo open his mouth.

“Not seeing your face does feel like my indigestion is clearing up.”

―Right, I can feel that, so it’s a little annoying.

Cheon Yeomyung did not get angry at Yang Euijoo. The man now and the man who had snarled, ‘Do you want to die?’ felt like different personalities. Just as Yang Euijoo was about to ask reflexively, ‘Why are you annoyed?’, he quickly quieted down at another voice calling for Cheon Yeomyung. The low male voice was vaguely familiar. Cheon Yeomyung must have covered the receiver with his hand, as the sound of the conversation did not reach Yang Euijoo. Not long after, Cheon Yeomyung called him again.

―I’ll be back soon, so wait quietly. I’ll be there on the weekend.

“I don’t know why I have to wait for you.”

―If you’re not going to wait, then try running away again.

Cheon Yeomyung nonchalantly suggested a second escape. No, it was the third, not the second. Yang Euijoo thought very seriously that it would be better to stab either Cheon Yeomyung or himself, rather than running away three times. Regardless of the success or failure of the attempt, he was only tormented by the anxiety and fear that the man might chase after him even after he ran away. The only moment of relief was that single moment when he saw Cheon Yeomyung’s pale face at the snowy pier. And, Yang Euijoo hated the nervousness of the moment of escape. It felt like a ghost was rushing in from behind and strangling him even when there was no one there.

It was the worst when he was running away with Mei. It felt like the man would appear in front of the two of them at any moment and mock them, asking if they had fun. Feeling a throbbing in his heels, Yang Euijoo idly scratched the calloused spot with his finger. Come to think of it, he did not know where the sneakers he wore back then had gone. Well, most of the things Yang Euijoo owned, or any kind of personality or pride, had been cleanly lost after he met Cheon Yeomyung.

A moon shadow spread across the living room through the terrace window, which was pointing precisely south. Yang Euijoo glanced at the shadow. It was an unwelcome full moon.

“……You left like you were in such a hurry, I guess all of your business is trivial, isn’t it?”

―To be precise, it’s Qin who’s trivial. He puffed up all sorts of rumors and then bolted to Germany.

“Germany?”

―Because Germany’s medical technology is better than Hong Kong’s. Not that going there will cure his rotten lungs. Well, since I’m back, I’ll just do some maintenance and go back again.

“What are you planning to do when you come here?”

―I told you, didn’t I?

Cheon Yeomyung recited his reason for leaving Hong Kong and coming to the shrunken Shanghai.

―I am going to reach a conclusion about my feelings related to you.

Yang Euijoo, who had been twisting the telephone cord around his finger, stopped and blinked his eyes. Sitting alone in the chilly living room without the heating on, Yang Euijoo slowly lowered his gaze to the floor. It felt as if the man were standing there blankly, looking down at him as he crouched in the basement.

“That’s taking a really long time. Are you usually that indecisive?”

―The characteristics of a youngest child, have you ever heard of such a thing?

“……What is that?”

―They grow up receiving all sorts of concessions from their hyungYirang and noonas, so they are immature.

It was an astounding statement. The beloved youngest son, with a cheerful disposition, and now he was also immature. Yang Euijoo was getting to the point of being scared of how Cheon Yeomyung would package himself next.

―So I’m indecisive and just worry a lot.

Nonsense was the best medicine for a madman.

“Then go get your fortune told or something. I saw a lot of advice like that in the horoscopes written in the back of the pulp magazines Xuan secretly buys and reads.”

―I’ll buy one and read it for reference next time.

The way he replied so nonchalantly was the worst. Yang Euijoo snapped back without realizing it.

“It’s not like anything will change just because you read something like that.”

Only then did Cheon Yeomyung fall silent for a moment, as if at a loss for words. It was a moment where it felt as if the gloomy loneliness that used to sweep across the sand-dusted basement floor had rushed in again.

―I don’t regret it.

Yang Euijoo recognized that he had no more anger left to wring out. It was an anger he had given up while crawling on the cold, damp floor, licking his instep and begging to please be let out of there. Praying to the goddess for revenge was part of a just retribution, but he had no desire to shake off all the lingering anger and trauma that remained like dregs. If Yang Euijoo had thought that stabbing Cheon Yeomyung would be a bigger blow, he would have done so. It was just that stabbing himself was more fatal to Cheon Yeomyung.

The shadow of the man, who had stood there blankly, unable to approach even after chasing him as he bled, faintly brushed past his eyes.

He made that kind of face, and yet he says he doesn’t regret it.

―By the way, have you eaten?

“……What did you hear? I said I ate with Xuan.”

―What did you eat?

The man now asked a very obvious question. He heard about today’s dinner menu, Zhang Xuan’s well-being, and an absurdly lighthearted tattling that Linlin had stolen all of his in-flight meal in addition to her own. Yang Euijoo listened to Cheon Yeomyung’s voice carried on the unstable signal.

Cheon Yeomyung chattered as if nothing had happened between them. Yang Euijoo remembered that he was originally a rather talkative man who liked to chat. It was just that a lot of brutal stories were mixed in; on average, Cheon Yeomyung was an interesting storyteller. In his way of speaking, Yang Euijoo smelled the familiar air and scent of salt from Hong Kong. The damp sea breeze mixed with the saltiness he had come to despise for a long time and the sound of the bubbling, foaming waves seemed to get entangled and transmitted all the way to Shanghai.

The port of Shanghai was incomparably large compared to Hong Kong, but its shape was completely different. The endlessly aligned containers at regular intervals and the stopped cranes were all that Yang Euijoo remembered of the Shanghai sea.

Yang Euijoo slowly untangled the telephone cord he had been twisting and turning, and asked.

“By the way, is it okay to use an international call for this long? It must be expensive, you must have a lot of money.”

Cheon Yeomyung, paying the expensive international call fee to his heart’s content, said something utterly absurd.

―It’s expensive. A one-second international call fee is probably the same price as one gram of a cheap synthetic drugYirang.

“Then hang up.”

―Why are you making such a fuss when you’re not the one paying?

“Then at least don’t say that you’re squandering money.”

―You only accept it when I act like I’m making a fuss, mister.

“Ah, seriously, you’re so fucking annoying……”

When Yang Euijoo couldn’t hold it in and got annoyed, a voice that had become even lower began to laugh as if it was enjoying it. Whether it had gotten lower because it had crossed an overly wide sea, or because he had been talking for a long time, Cheon Yeomyung slowly spoke, his voice husky.

―Euijoo-ya.

“……”

―The call fee doesn’t matter, but it’s late, so go to sleep now. See you on Saturday.

It was a really strange feeling. Yang Euijoo stopped replying and remained silent, holding the receiver. Leaning against the heavy, solid wood chest of drawers, Yang Euijoo couldn’t hang up the phone even though he knew that the damn expensive overseas call fee, with its constant mix of crackling static, would be going up like crazy.

After he belatedly came to his senses and fumbled to return the heavy receiver to the phone, the ringing did not come again. Yang Euijoo sat in the cold living room and rubbed the corners of his eyes. His chest ached. He could definitely feel the pain from the wound that had not yet healed, but there were no auditory hallucinations of water dripping in the bathroom.

It was a relief that Cheon Yeomyung had, at least for a while, returned to Hong Kong. Yang Euijoo played with Zhang Xuan, checked her homework, and then returned at his leisure. This time, Cheon Yeomyung did not make any distracting phone calls by randomly guessing his quitting time, but he did contribute to disrupting Yang Euijoo’s sleep by calling late at night. The calls were trivial. While receiving Cheon Yeomyung’s calls, Yang Euijoo revived the memories he had buried with peace of mind.

The man’s vow-like words that he did not regret it and the night at the pier where he had looked so dejected, as if he had tasted a bitter defeat, intersected. Yang Euijoo occasionally felt bitter. The few days until the Saturday that Cheon Yeomyung had given notice of were helpful and yet not helpful. The thoughts that would disappear in the absurdity and anger of the moment when Cheon Yeomyung was in front of him would come to mind one after another when he was alone.

“Get home safely, you worked hard.”

“You too.”

Zhang Jun, holding his daughter’s hand, bid farewell to Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo looked up once at the unlit navy-blue pharmacy sign and gave a slight nod.

Although Cheon Yeomyung had said to see him on Saturday, he had not specified what time on Saturday, so Yang Euijoo had been slightly on edge since Friday evening. But the man did not come at midnight as Friday evening flowed into Saturday, nor did he come at dawn. Even after he finished his Saturday shift, the golden eyes that should have been brazenly loitering in front of the pharmacy were nowhere to be seen. There was no particular sign of anyone as he got off the bus and trudged up the high stairs. Yang Euijoo unwound the gray scarf wrapped around his neck, opened the door with the key, and went inside.

The house was chilly. Yang Euijoo turned on the radiator installed in the living room, threw his jumper and scarf on the sofa, and dozed off. When he opened his eyes due to a sense of unease, the clock hands were pointing toward midnight. It was a time when Saturday could be considered over. Since there was no trust, the fact that the man did not keep his promise was not an unpleasant thing.

With a bottle of commercially produced tea in his mouth, he was wondering if he should eat some dinner, late as it was, and go to bed, when the telephone rang loudly.

Is it Cheon Yeomyung? Yang Euijoo thought of the only person who would call at this hour and picked up the receiver.

“Hello.”

―Sir!

“Linlin?”

Unexpectedly, the caller was Linlin.

“What’s the matter? To call so suddenly……”

―Does that door have a double lock? Lock everything right now!

Linlin cut off Yang Euijoo’s words and shouted. Yang Euijoo frowned at Linlin’s urgent-sounding voice.

“Did something happen?”

―Before you ask, hang up the phone right now and lock the door first. Quickly!

“I understand.”

For now, Yang Euijoo did as Linlin said and ran to the front door. It didn’t have a double lock function, but there was a chain installed to prevent the door from opening all the way. Yang Euijoo hesitated, then latched the chain as well, checked that the door was locked securely, and came back.

“I’ve done it. Now please explain what’s going on.”

―We were tricked by Qin.

Only then did Linlin let out a long sigh as if relieved and said.

“What does that……”

―It seems he spread a rumor to deliberately expose our movements. There was a terrorist attack as soon as we landed at the Shanghai airport, and the boss……

The moment he heard Linlin’s story, his head spun. Pale and ashen, Yang Euijoo held onto the hard wooden telephone and stammered.

“Was he hurt?”

―He wasn’t hurt, the other party used drugs.

“Drugs?”

―A nasty synthetic……, I won’t go into detail. International calls to China are risky. Anyway, we also distribute various drugs, but we don’t sell anything that strong. The only one who handles such low-grade types is Qin. One of Qin’s subordinates was waiting near the airport and stabbed him with a syringe. At first, we thought it was a virus and moved him to the hospital, but he went into shock right away. But in the middle of treatment, the boss escaped……

“……I don’t, understand. What does that mean?”

―Just listen! Understanding isn’t the important part of the story, what’s important is that the boss is not in his right mind. But no matter how much I think about it, it seems like he’s going to go to you, so I called. Sir, you just need to remember one thing. You have to avoid the boss.

The moment he heard Linlin’s voice, which was muttering wrapped in anxiety, a loud noise came from the front door. A cold winter wind whipped in from the front door, which was halfway open, caught on the chain.

―The boss is not in his right mind right now. I shouldn’t be saying this, but he’s really gone crazy. If the public security authorities arrest the boss, do not get involved under any circumstances. If the boss comes looking for you, sir, then just stab the boss instead. It’s difficult for a beginner to defend, so attacking is better. A knife at home, or whatever, don’t hesitate, just stab him and leave the scene immediately.

Thud. Thud. Annoyed that it wasn’t opening properly because of the chain, someone kicked the front door. The rough, loud noise echoed thunderously, but no one came out. The elegant elderly French couple living across the hall was hard of hearing and didn’t hear it, and the floor below……. In a world like this, who would come out when someone was trying to violently tear down a house door and get inside.

If this were Yirang, people would have rushed out as soon as such a noise was made. Yelling, ‘Do you live here alone?’, they would point their fingers telling them to be quiet, and then discover this scene. Shanghai was frozen solid as if it had been refrigerated, and Hong Kong was so cramped that everything was mushy and melted without a chance to freeze. He had thought that aspect of Yirang was terrible, but now he longed for it.

Yang Euijoo, with the phone in his hand, watched as the uninvited guest struck the chain on the front door. As he cleverly pushed his fist into the narrow gap just wide enough for an arm and struck down with all his might, the clasp holding the chain creaked and turned on its own. It was a terrifying grip. After striking the chain a few more times like that, the chain that had been properly latched, along with its clasp and screws, came loose and fell to the floor.

Over that, the sound of the midnight chime echoed crookedly through the living room. The man who said he would come on Saturday had finally returned only after Sunday had passed. It was not surprising that he broke his promise. Cheon Yeomyung was a skilled liar, and his eyes were half-glazed over. There was no smell of alcohol or cigarettes. There was also no musty smell of opium that would waft from him when he occasionally returned to the mansion, steeped in fatigue. Cheon Yeomyung couldn’t walk properly and staggered. The man who had strode in slowly approached Yang Euijoo, who was on the phone. His legs were heavy, strangely dragging on the floor. Yang Euijoo noticed that Cheon Yeomyung was barefoot. His feet were a mess. They were dirty and wounded. Like something that had climbed a hill.

It was the first time he had seen him stagger, unable to control his limbs properly. Cheon Yeomyung was the kind of human who, even when dead drunk, would stand perfectly straight on two legs, smile, snap his fingers at Yang Euijoo, and laugh.

―Sir, are you listening?

The yellow eyes looking at him were strange somehow. The necktie and jacket were nowhere to be seen, and even the gloves were gone. Cheon Yeomyung, wearing a disheveled shirt, revealed a clear scar on the back of his hand and breathed heavily as he looked at Yang Euijoo. Soon, a faint smile spread across his face like a hairline crack. Crack, he heard the auditory hallucination of a dry floor cracking.

―The thing about drugs is, a person loses their instincts too. You shouldn’t even think about trying to persuade him. Okay?

Linlin’s voice rang out noisily, but Yang Euijoo couldn’t give any answer. The hand holding the heavy receiver gradually lowered. Cheon Yeomyung, his eyes bloodshot, fumbled for something on Yang Euijoo with a dazed gaze, as if seeing a hallucination.

“What are you doing?”

The man spoke in English. Yang Euijoo realized that Cheon Yeomyung’s native language was English. It seemed he spoke English when he lost his mind. Yang Euijoo blinked his eyes as he listened to the husky-pronounced English mixing in Cheon Yeomyung’s mouth.

―Don’t tell me you met the boss? Sir? Sir!

Linlin shouted. She was so loud that it echoed even from beyond the receiver. Cheon Yeomyung rolled his yellow eyeballs and glanced at the receiver in Yang Euijoo’s hand. Yang Euijoo instinctively clutched the phone and moved his body to the side, but he was a step too late.

His body was roughly slammed into the chest of drawers, and the receiver he was holding dangled, still connected by its cord. Cheon Yeomyung tore out the cord of the phone from which the shouts were coming. For a moment, he was astonished by the grip that had torn the lock of the front door with bare hands and ripped out the telephone cord, but then, the glistening, beast-like eyes turned toward Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo let out a pained sound as his shoulder hit a protruding handle.

The man slowly approached Yang Euijoo. The eyes that stared intently at Yang Euijoo, who was slumping like a wrongly torn milk carton, still showed no sign of reason.

I have to run. But he couldn’t run. The man, whose pupils were dilated, clearly not in his right mind, revealed his uncovered bare hands and reached out to Yang Euijoo. Linlin’s advice came to him late. Stab him with a knife. It was a problem serious enough to warrant a warning to unhesitatingly stab her precious boss.

But Linlin’s advice was useless. In this house, things that could be used as a weapon were extremely excluded. Kitchen items used for cooking were stored in a locked lower drawer, and Cheon Yeomyung was very sensitive about Yang Euijoo touching sharp objects. The fact that that same sensitivity was now turning to stab Yang Euijoo was just a minor problem.

On his half-rolled-up sleeves, a thin stream of blood had flowed from the inside of his forearm, where the veins were visible, down to his wrist and dried there, as if he had forcibly pulled out a needle.

“Where are you trying to run off to again.”

Cheon Yeomyung muttered, grabbing Yang Euijoo’s wrist, which was clutching his shoulder, and pulling him tight.

“Ah, it hurts……!”

Whether it was because he had lost his reason, the arm that Cheon Yeomyung held felt like it was going to break. Yang Euijoo struggled, letting out a thin scream. Thinking it was resistance, the man’s eyes became bloodshot.

“You’re going to run away, aren’t you?”

Cheon Yeomyung smiled and tilted his head. The strength in the hand gripping his arm did not lessen in the slightest. The eyes pretending to be innocent glistened, steeped in a bizarre madness. Yang Euijoo barely endured the brutish grip that felt like it would bruise him to the bone and panted.

“I’m not going, you crazy bastard. I’m not running away, so please ease up……”

“Run away?”

However, Cheon Yeomyung did not seem to understand Yang Euijoo’s words properly. Shit, what the hell did he take before coming here. Yang Euijoo tried to swear, but the man’s strength twisting his wrist was so strong that he let out a sharp scream.

“Agh!”

The sound of a person’s wrist being snapped echoed. Yang Euijoo screamed in pain as his wrist split and rolled on the floor. The man, who had twisted the other’s wrist with a grip of his thumb, took off his shirt and threw it. A few buttons popped off and fell to the floor.

“Huu, eugh, euk……”

Yang Euijoo, with tears streaming down his face from the pain, looked at Cheon Yeomyung. On his bare body, there were new scars he had not seen before. A long, torn scar on his side and a burn mark next to it, made by being pressed with a cigar. And seeing that the front of the suit pants the man was wearing below his distinct abs was noticeably bulging and faintly stained, Yang Euijoo’s eyes widened.

“You, right now.”

Before he could finish muttering, Cheon Yeomyung grabbed the tear-soaked Yang Euijoo and kissed him. The rough kiss swept wetly inside his mouth. Yang Euijoo struggled while receiving Cheon Yeomyung’s kiss, which sucked as if to pull out the root of his tongue, and every time his wrist was accidentally touched, it hurt so much that he sobbed loudly.

When Cheon Yeomyung lifted his head after the deep and violent kiss that felt like he was ramming himself all the way down his throat as he pleased, Yang Euijoo was soaked in sweat and tears, clutching his painful wrist and crawling on the floor. The front door, swayed by the wind, hit the wall powerlessly, making a heavy sound. The still-frozen city of the Cold War remained silent, sidestepping the tragedy of a person it did not know.

Even after seeing that state, Cheon Yeomyung stretched out both hands without any sympathy. Yang Euijoo helplessly watched as the T-shirt and pants he was wearing were torn apart in both directions. Cheon Yeomyung, perhaps because of the drugs, was constantly muttering something to himself as if he could not see Yang Euijoo’s voice or condition. It sounded like he was saying not to go, but most of it was profanity, and the rest was unintelligible.

“Ah, no.”

Yang Euijoo shook his head as he saw Cheon Yeomyung grab his legs and spread them apart. He hadn’t done it in a long time. Even when they had sex frequently, his size was such that it would draw blood if he was rammed in without any preparation.

However, as soon as Yang Euijoo said no, Cheon Yeomyung’s eyes gleamed. The man unbuckled his pants and took out his frighteningly erect penis. Semen was already flowing from the member, as if he had already ejaculated a few times. Barely holding onto Cheon Yeomyung, who was clearly about to ram it in recklessly, with one hand, Yang Euijoo begged.

“I’m not refusing, so slowly, slowly……, please.”

Even while begging, Yang Euijoo wondered if what he was doing right now was even plausible. He was not even sure if his plea would be heard by the man whose focus was gone. But there was no other way. Yang Euijoo trembled as he held Cheon Yeomyung’s hand. The scar, drawn like a white diagonal line on the back of his bare hand, could be felt.

“Ah, fuck……”

Cheon Yeomyung spat out a curse and fumbled with the inside of Yang Euijoo’s thigh. Yang Euijoo placed a hand on the shoulder of the man who was impatiently touching the dry inside, which would not get wet on its own since he was not a woman. A bead of sweat crossed his face, which was pale with pain. He hated pain. He also hated being mounted like a dog. In any case, he did not want to be raped. It would be better to become primal and pant and tangle together, at least he could stop thinking.

“I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m not refusing, so that it doesn’t, hurt……”

Yang Euijoo tried not to get on Cheon Yeomyung’s nerves and looked around. Anything that could be used as lotion was all in the bedroom. Yang Euijoo slowly swallowed his saliva and tried to persuade Cheon Yeomyung.

“Are you listening to me? Let’s go to the bedroom.”

However, it seemed that such a request did not reach Cheon Yeomyung. As soon as Yang Euijoo subtly tried to pull his body back, Cheon Yeomyung growled, frowning with some curse.

“I said it hurts……! You fucking bastard, it won’t go in just like this!”

Yang Euijoo pushed Cheon Yeomyung away with all his might. His tattered wrist felt like it would break, but he endured it somehow. Before Cheon Yeomyung could break his ankle this time, Yang Euijoo trembled as he spread his legs himself and fumbled for the entrance with his fingers. Cheon Yeomyung, who had seemed about to attack viciously, stopped his actions abruptly and stared intently down below. The face, like a broken doll, with its lips pressed firmly together, watched blankly as the fingers indifferently pushed their way into the dry entrance.

Fuck……. I’m really going to stab you to death. Yang Euijoo bit his lips, from which curses were about to fly out, and fumbled the inside, albeit roughly, with his fingers. It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt, but it was better to be a little less in pain than to have a penis brutally slammed into a place that was not even properly opened. Yang Euijoo panted, pouring out a cold sweat from the pain.

“Like this…, with fingers, open, it up, and then, do it, you son of a bitch.”

Even when trying to end it nicely, no gentle words would come out. As soon as he heard the curse, the violent madness returned to Cheon Yeomyung’s eyes, which had been drooping foolishly. Yang Euijoo flinched his shoulders, watching Cheon Yeomyung’s expression. He had managed to get his fingers in, but any further was stiff and painful. As Yang Euijoo let out a groaning sound, Cheon Yeomyung suddenly grabbed his hand and forcibly pulled it out.

“Ah!”

He thought he was going to break his other hand too, but that wasn’t it. Cheon Yeomyung stared intently at the entrance, which had swollen a little from having his fingers roughly shoved in, then grabbed his buttocks, spread them apart, and bent his body down.

“Wait, a moment, don’t!”

The startled Yang Euijoo shouted belatedly, but it did not reach the ears of Cheon Yeomyung, who had lost his mind to drugs. The man’s hot, wet tongue licked the dried entrance, moistening it. This, he didn’t even do this often usually. Yang Euijoo covered his lips with his palm to hide his groans.

Sweat ran down his back. A wet sound echoed from between the lips of the man who was licking the tightly spread entrance as if to scrape it with the tip of his stiff tongue. The sound of him sucking on the skin was so loud that it was more jarring than the whirring of the radiator weakly blowing out hot air.

“No,……, aah, heut.”

Moans mixed in between his panting breaths. Every time Yang Euijoo panted, Cheon Yeomyung licked him harder below. He casually spread the narrow opening, prodded with the tip of his tongue, and then pushed his fingers into the clumsily opened place and spread them like scissors.

“Ah!”

With a loud sucking sound, Cheon Yeomyung, who had been pressing his lips and sucking, fumbled the inner walls with his fingers and licked every nook and cranny with his tongue, and Yang Euijoo screamed, his hips thrashing. His swollen wrist, pressed against the floor, twitched. Yang Euijoo trembled at the sensation of something hot and wet sucking on his sensitive inner walls and came powerlessly.

“Huu, euu, stop……”

I already came. Yang Euijoo struggled to raise his body and tried to push away the man who had his face buried below and seemed to have no intention of lifting it, but Cheon Yeomyung did not budge. The man with the disheveled hair under his palm glanced up with just his eyes and looked at Yang Euijoo. The golden eyes were glazed over, craving something.

“Ah, haa, heut.”

Yang Euijoo frowned, his eyes filled with tears. The man’s red lips attached themselves to the sensitive spot again and frantically licked him below. Another finger was pushed in, but it didn’t hurt. The man, who had been teasing the area around the entrance, which three fingers had spread with all their might, with the tip of his tongue, sucked on him below again. As he listened to the obscene sounds, chup, chwup, Yang Euijoo’s hips bucked. Transparent fluid leaked from the tip of his erect penis and dripped down the shaft. The man, not even pretending to hear whatever Yang Euijoo was pleading, pushed his tongue deep inside and licked the hot inner walls as if to scrape them, while bending his fingers and scratching hard.

“Eugh……”

Yang Euijoo struggled to lift his arm and rubbed his wet eyes. Drops of semen fell one by one from his stiffly erect penis. Cheon Yeomyung wiped his mouth, which was covered in saliva, and straightened his upper body. Desire overflowed from the eyes that looked at Yang Euijoo, who was stripped naked, trembling from the cold, and had just come while being mounted. Cheon Yeomyung let out a rough breath, grabbed his own penis, and pressed it tightly against the wet entrance.

“Eueu, no, I came, I just came.”

Yang Euijoo, lying underneath, shook his head and resisted weakly, but Cheon Yeomyung naturally ignored him. The penis, which had ejaculated from the mental stimulation even while frantically sucking him below, was wet with semen, so just by pressing the tip of the glans firmly, it was sucked straight in without any problem. To be precise, Yang Euijoo’s inside was sucking on his penis as if welcoming it.

“Agh!”

Yang Euijoo let out a painful scream at the penis that was thrust in all the way to the root in an instant. Cheon Yeomyung grabbed his struggling shoulders and pressed him down firmly against the floor, and as he heard Yang Euijoo’s scream, he immediately thrust his hips up. The penis, so close he could feel the pubic hair, pulled out halfway and then rammed back inside. After being sucked for a long time, the limp and relaxed inner walls frantically swallowed the penis.

Cheon Yeomyung came with every movement of his hips. Intoxicated by the drug that had completely destroyed one of his nerves, the man used every method he could to feel pleasure and thrust his hips up. The hard glans rammed into the tight, firmly blocked inside past the wet entrance over and over again.

“Huu, it hurts, ah!”

Yang Euijoo struggled under the man who was violently thrusting his penis as if to crush his insides, but being pierced by the man who had wedged himself between his legs, struggling only resulted in spreading his legs further or twisting his body and urging the penis on. Cheon Yeomyung, as if not satisfied with just moving his hips, grabbed Yang Euijoo’s waist and slammed his body down hard himself.

“Ugh, ooh, euu……”

Yang Euijoo’s inner thighs trembled as he lay with his limbs spread out. Every time his body was slammed down in time with the man’s movements, it felt like his insides were being twisted. The penis, which had crushed his hot inner walls, prodded around inside randomly, then pulled out far back before being roughly slammed down again.

“……!”

Yang Euijoo lifted his chin and clenched his fists tightly. Semen dripped down onto his completely exposed groin. Cheon Yeomyung, who had finally pushed through the narrow inside, came deep inside his guts, feeling the tightening of the inside convulsing madly in the afterglow of his orgasm. The man let out a long cry.

“Ah, no…, fuck, no, don’t.”

Yang Euijoo, dazed by the afterglow of the orgasm, his tongue loosened, begged instinctively, but his plea was not heard this time either. The man, convulsing intermittently, did not pull his penis out from inside the inner walls that were repeatedly tightening and relaxing, but instead, with his glans tightly clamped inside the guts, he rubbed the writhing inside randomly. Yang Euijoo could not even scream and just bucked his hips. Watching the state of him, drooling from the corner of his mouth and delighting in receiving the man’s cock, Cheon Yeomyung let out a rough breath.

“Haa, Euijoo-ya……”

A momentary anger welled up at the act of calling his name after making a person a mess, but Yang Euijoo had to let out a stream of moans, foolishly writhing at the movement of the penis being thrust into him below again.

Should I have run away when Linlin called? Could he not have thought that the sound of that phone call was foretelling a tragic event? Perhaps Yang Euijoo should have gotten on a boat again when he met Joseph O’Neill, not Cheon Yeomyung. Because he failed to do so, he ended up in this state. Because he had made the foolish promise to return on Saturday, it was as good as luring Cheon Yeomyung to come here barefoot.

But……. Yang Euijoo thought. They are too stubborn to change anything dramatically. One was, as he claimed, an immature young master, and Yang Euijoo was just headstrong from crawling on the very bottom. He could not sell his entire soul for the purpose of revenge.