Irresponsibility Chapter 2.2

It seemed he had dozed off for a moment like that.

Swoosh. There was the faint sound of a blanket rustling.

He opened his eyes in the darkness. A soft footstep was heard, and as soon as the soft click of a door closing followed, Baek Geonhyuk quietly raised his body.

The bed in the master bedroom was empty. His gaze fell first on the disheveled blanket and then on the bathroom door. Only the light seeping through the crack of the bathroom door was vivid in the blue darkness.

Baek Geonhyuk turned back and stood in the middle of the hallway. It was because if Joo Yeoun ran into him right after coming out of the bathroom, he would surely be terrified.

Leaning against the wall, he rolled his neck from side to side. The narrow cot, the sofa. Since his sleeping arrangements had been uncomfortable for a long time, his body was stiff.

Crack, Baek Geonhyuk stretched with a sound and glanced into the room. He heard the sound of water. He assumed he was washing his hands or a simple wash of his face.

However, the sound of water did not stop and continued on.

The image of him hanging from the veranda railing came to mind.

His expression hardening, Baek Geonhyuk entered the room and rushed towards the bathroom door. As he slammed his body against it while gripping the handle, the door swung open easily, its hinges torn off.

CRASH—!

“……”

However, the scene before his eyes was completely different from what he had pictured.

Joo Yeoun was standing under the shower, naked. Streams of water cascaded, whoosh, over his snow-white skin, which was dotted here and there with foam.

*

Around the time Baek Geonhyuk had dozed off, Joo Yeoun opened his eyes.

When he blinked his stiff eyes, he could see the indigo sky outside the window. It must be dawn. He had probably slept for only three or four hours, but he felt as if he had slept for a very long time.

Perhaps because of that, yesterday’s events, when he had cried until he was drained, felt distant.

It wasn’t that he had believed the man’s words at once or that he had cried because he fully understood his own situation.

Why did this happen to me. Why me. Why on earth. Only unanswerable questions had welled up one after another, and what he had let out because it felt like his body would burst was just tears.

Today, the corners of his eyes were completely dry. His mind and his heart, which had felt like it would explode, were also calm.

It wasn’t the first time he had experienced crying for a whole day and then coming to his senses. It was the same back then too. When the crying finally stopped and he fell asleep from exhaustion, by the time he opened his eyes, his heart had become firm.

And, he had done what he had to do.

“……”

Joo Yeoun looked out the dark blue window for a moment, then raised his body. From the feel of the blanket on his palm, he belatedly realized that he had slept in the bed.

His gaze moved from the hand that was fiddling with the blanket. The door to the room, unlike usual, was halfway open.

Yeoun confirmed that only darkness was visible beyond the door and lowered his feet to the floor. The floor that touched the soles of his feet was warm today as well.

When he stood up, his whole body was stiff. Yeoun, who lightly patted his lower back, opened the built-in closet. It wasn’t the first time, but he felt a little nervous when opening the door.

Naturally, there was nothing but clothes inside the closet. The other doors were all empty, and there were only a few articles of clothing in one section.

Yeoun picked out a t-shirt and a pair of pants. Seeing that they were very large in size, just like the clothes he was wearing now, they seemed to be the man’s clothes. There was no underwear, so he took only the clothes and went into the bathroom inside the room.

After taking off all the musty-smelling clothes and standing in front of the sink, he saw his own thin and gaunt figure. He looked like a stranger, so his gaze lingered for a long time. It occurred to him that it had been a very long time since he had looked in a mirror.

Joo Yeoun lightly touched his face, which looked like it would stream with grime, and then turned on the shower. While he had the cast on, he had always used only his left hand, but his right hand naturally went out first.

He looked at his right hand for a moment, which looked fine on the outside although there was a stiff sensation, then picked up the showerhead and wet his hair.

The unexpected event occurred around the time he was standing under the stream of hot water, brushing his teeth.

CRASH—!

A sound like the house was breaking apart rang out.

Joo Yeoun, startled, turned his head towards the door. The steam that had whitely filled the bathroom billowed chaotically. And through it, a large figure was revealed.

It was that man.

It was a frightening thing to face the man in a defenseless state, and Yeoun was also very startled by the noise of the door breaking.

However, gradually, a strange feeling came over him.

The man, standing tall right there, gripping the handle of the completely detached door. The sight of him, having broken down the door only to stare intently at him, was a bit bewildering.

The two of them stood facing each other, both without a word.

The one who acted first was Baek Geonhyuk. Tearing his eyes away from the white skin where foam was trickling down, he leaned the torn door against the wall. Then, he knocked on the door, avoiding the part that had cracked from the impact.

Knock knock.

“……”

It was a belated knock.

“Should I close the door for you?”

At Baek Geonhyuk’s question, Joo Yeoun flinched and stepped back.

“Okay, I’ll close it.”

Baek Geonhyuk said obediently and lifted the door with a heave. When he roughly fitted it into the doorframe and pulled the handle, the door closed with a slam.

Listening to the sound of water coming from inside the bathroom, Baek Geonhyuk went out to the living room. As he sat on the sofa, he tilted his head.

This is a completely unexpected situation. Since he had slept for a long time and woken up, it was natural that he might wash up, but wasn’t this Joo Yeoun?

This was the first time Joo Yeoun was taking a shower.

So he does wash up. He sat back, leaning against the sofa, while fiddling with the back of his neck for no reason. His gaze was directed out the window. It was still dark outside, but it would gradually brighten in less than 30 minutes.

“Why is he washing up?”

Baek Geonhyuk suddenly muttered.

At this dawn hour? All of a sudden? After all this time?

It was so unexpected that it seemed he would have to discuss it with Lee Hyungyu. Lee Hyungyu was probably asleep right now, but wasn’t this an urgent matter?

He had just picked up his phone and was about to make a call.

Clatter, there was a sound. Baek Geonhyuk shot up and moved to the master bedroom. Joo Yeoun was wrestling with the door, which was collapsing towards him.

“I’ll do it.”

Baek Geonhyuk grabbed the leaning door. Joo Yeoun, his hair soaking wet, seemed to hesitate for a moment, then squeezed his eyes shut. Then he slipped right under his arm. A cold sensation brushed near his elbow, and the moist scent of shampoo rushed into his nostrils.

Was that the shampoo he had put there? He didn’t think it was a particularly good scent.

Baek Geonhyuk, who glanced for a moment at the bathroom, which was hazy with steam, lifted the door.

“I should take this opportunity to replace it. The door was a bit loose anyway.”

“……”

I don’t think it was loose.

Joo Yeoun watched from a step behind as the man stood the door up. His muscular back was as wide as the door itself, and the hand gripping the wooden door seemed larger than his own face.

Joo Yeoun quietly took another step back. Just then, Baek Geonhyuk turned around, and they were once again in a standoff.

The light between dawn and morning illuminated the room. Baek Geonhyuk carefully moved his gaze. The wet hair that reached below his eyes, the eyes that were glancing at him, the pale skin and the tightly bitten lips, the slender neck. The thin shoulders were slightly hunched inward.

Is he cold. Baek Geonhyuk tilted his head as he felt the warm heat coming from the bathroom. At that, Joo Yeoun flinched and stepped back.

His downward gaze landed on his white feet. It was a step that had been about to retreat further but had flinched to a halt at his gaze.

“I-is it true?”

At the voice that was suddenly heard, Baek Geonhyuk raised his head. The face he had seen for over a month somehow felt unfamiliar.

“How do I kn-know if you’re, you’re lying?”

The way he was putting his guard up was also like that.

“There might be parts I can’t tell you, but I won’t lie.”

At his words, Joo Yeoun opened his mouth again.

“How, how long do I have to, be here…. Y-you need to tell me, e-exactly.”

A glance. Baek Geonhyuk’s gaze fell on the fists that were hanging down by his sides, clenched tightly. They were hands that looked like they had only ever held a pen, without a single rough spot. He thought that he needed to replace the door quickly. It was an old wooden door, so the surface had some rough parts, and a hand like that might get scratched.

“It’s, it’s your side’s fault.”

“That’s right.”

Joo Yeoun looked up at Baek Geonhyuk, who was nodding, and tensed his body.

He knew it too. In reality, the man might not have done much wrong. If the man’s words were true, it was the man’s subordinate who had tortured him, and it was the man’s superior who had ordered him to be killed. In the middle of all that, he was trying his best to fulfill his duty.

However, Yeoun could not completely separate the man from them. Weren’t they the same group? It was difficult to discard the thought that they were all in it together.

Besides, to borrow the man’s words, the torture he received was an interrogation that shouldn’t be done to a ‘civilian.’ That meant that they did conduct that kind of torture on certain people.

A group where torture and kidnapping are natural. Therefore, Yeoun could not completely trust the man.