Can Murder Be a Workplace Accident? Chapter 4.1

Kwon Hyuk shrugged.

“But I know who the collector is.”

The sound of the door, which had been open about a quarter of the way, shutting again. Min Isak returned to Kwon Hyuk with a somewhat brisk pace.

“Who is it?”

“You want me to tell you for nothing?”

He pointed to his own lips with his index finger.

A kiss?

Dumbfounded, Namgung Tree rubbed his eyes. Through the crack in the door, he saw Kwon Hyuk, eyes closed, lips puckered. He even made smooching noises by pressing and parting his lips.

“This is the office.”

That’s right. Good job.

Min Isak said, slapping his ugly mouth with his fingertips. Kwon Hyuk snatched the hand that had touched and left his lips.

“Let go.”

But Kwon Hyuk pulled Min Isak’s hand to his own lips. As if searching for the fleeting sensation that had brushed past, he pressed his lips firmly against Min Isak’s fingertips.

“I said this is the office.”

“Does that mean it’s okay if it’s not the office?”

“What are you trying to hear?”

Min Isak shook him off with a shudder.

“Sleep with me once.”

A dress shoe slid, shhhk, across the tile. Min Isak and Kwon Hyuk simultaneously turned their heads toward the stall. Namgung Tree clamped his hand over his mouth and climbed on top of the toilet before either of them could check for feet under the door.

Are those two… fuck buddies?

Namgung Tree pictured Min Isak in Kwon Hyuk’s arms.

Just because someone sells their body to others doesn’t mean they can’t have a regular partner. In fact, because it’s a partner they only share their bodies with, without emotion, they might not even care if they sell their body or not.

A dead silence fell.

It was so quiet that he could make out the chatter of the excited employees leaving for the day outside the restroom.

Kwon Hyuk, after checking for any presence, continued what he was saying. Namgung Tree also got down from the toilet and pressed himself against the crack in the door.

“I said, sleep with me. Then I’ll tell you where the Amaral is. Phew, fine. What the hell, I’ll even take responsibility and help with the loan negotiations.”

“No, thank you. I’ll do that with my own abilities.”

“Ooh. So cold. When it was Lee Youhwan, you were begging me to help. Now you’re going to act like this?”

Kwon Hyuk turned his body toward the sink mirror and sneered. His face, gaze lowered to the floor and lips pulled up in a smirk, was reflected in the mirror.

Lee Youhwan?

Why bring up past work? Namgung Tree blinked.

If it had just been the kiss and then the sex, he would have dismissed them as ordinary sex partners and been done with it. But after Amaral, even Lee Youhwan, which was a thing of the past, was brought into it.

Sex and shady business dealings.

The memory of the day he was reunited with Min Isak surfaced in Namgung Tree’s mind. He had proudly said that he’d won the bid for the Lee Youhwan for a low price. After it came in with dirty traces. He had probably paid with sexual acts as the price.

To whom had he paid it?

“Chief Min, you’ve really grown up. You even know how to use and toss people aside.”

“When did I…!”

“You’re doing it right now. I got all sorts of resentment from Seohyeon because I cut the ten-billion-won bid price down to six billion. And you just tell me to cum and get out in a mere ten minutes. Do you know how upset I was? I had even booked a hotel room, what’s with a restroom at an auction house?”

Kwon Hyuk complained about his hurt feelings in pathetic detail. Min Isak took a deep breath as if it wasn’t even worth listening to anymore. Then he snapped, “I’m still not doing it,” and stormed out of the restroom.

“It was that bastard?”

Namgung Tree muttered, making his hiding situation pointless, without even thinking to conceal the sound.

Listening to Kwon Hyuk’s words, the situation he hadn’t known about was pieced together one by one. The attitude of treating him like a long-time lover, yet strangely and coercively demanding compensation. Fuck buddies, my ass. The two of them had a long-standing relationship of exchanging sex for professional gain.

“Heh heh heh heh.”

Laughter escaped. Even clamping his hand over his mouth couldn’t suppress the burst of laughter, and in the end, Namgung Tree laughed out loud, “Wahahaha,” slapping the stall wall with his palm.

Min Isak had refused to have sex with Kwon Hyuk.

Kwon Hyuk had said he would even take care of loaning the Amaral. He could have handled the matter easily without lifting a finger, but he walked out, saying he would do it with his own strength.

Whether it was because Namgung Tree had threatened him, grabbing him by the throat and telling him not to work in a dirty way, or because he truly believed he could acquire the Amaral on his own, that was impossible to know. What was important was the fact that Min Isak had refused Kwon Hyuk.

Bang!

The enraged Kwon Hyuk kicked the door of the stall where the laughter was coming from. The latch rattled. He kicked it a couple more times as if he would tear the door off its hinges at any moment, but Namgung Tree didn’t stop laughing.

“Are you going to shut up?”

“How can I stop? I just saw something more entertaining than watching a fight.”

He threw Kwon Hyuk’s own words about coming to watch a fight right back at him.

“My goodness. I never knew watching a man get rejected could be this much fun. Why didn’t you become a comedian instead of a professor? You were a pretty good actor in front of my mother.”

Beyond his own laughter, he could vividly picture Kwon Hyuk trembling with rage.

“Come out. I said, come out!”

“No. You’re going to hit me.”

“Right, getting hit once by your mom today was enough, wasn’t it?”

Namgung Tree’s mouth snapped shut.

The laughter that had been boiling inside him instantly cooled, and its place was taken by irritation and anger.

“…You fucking asshole!”

He tried to push the door open and burst out, but Kwon Hyuk blocked the stall door with his shoulder. The hinges of the partition creaked under the force of the two large men pushing from both sides.

“Hey, aren’t you going to move?”

“Hey, ahn’t choo gonna moobe?”

“You motherfucker.”

“Yoo mudderfugger. A young punk like you talking down to me?”

Kwon Hyuk mimicked Namgung Tree’s words ridiculously. His temper reaching its limit, Namgung Tree slammed his shoulder into the door. Just as the door was about to open, Kwon Hyuk, who had momentarily stepped back, threw himself against the restroom door again.

One held a doctorate and was a professor, the other was an overseas-educated director from a prestigious art school.

For an act perpetrated by highly educated individuals, it was so childish it was embarrassing to show anyone.

“Hey, Director Namgung. Do you really think Chief Min won’t sleep with me?”

“He said he wouldn’t.”

“Is that so? I can guarantee it… he won’t be able to borrow the Amaral.”

“Why? Why can’t he? He has the ability, so why can’t he?”

“There are so many things in this world that can’t be done with ability alone. …So naive. Chief Min is in for a rough time.”

“Who the hell are you to spout such nonsense?”

Shoulder strength wasn’t enough. Namgung Tree placed his hands on the toilet tank, jumped low, and kicked both his legs out toward the door.

With a loud bang, the hinges of the restroom door broke off. Kwon Hyuk fell flat on his back on the floor.

Shoving aside the door panel that covered his body, Namgung Tree got on top of Kwon Hyuk and grabbed him by the collar.

As he pulled his fist back until it was level with his ear, the smile vanished from Kwon Hyuk’s face as well.

“Mother and son… Is hitting people at the drop of a hat a family tradition of yours? You new-money bastard?”

The smile may have disappeared, but he wasn’t scared. Kwon Hyuk rebuked Namgung Tree with a straight face.

“…”

The fist that had been raised high fell powerlessly, not even grazing his ear. Namgung Tree, looking as if he’d been struck, let go of his collar.

“Why can’t you hit me? You’re different from your mommy, is that it?”

Kwon Hyuk smiled slimily.

“Thanks to Director Namgung, my mood has gotten very bad right now. So let me tell you just one thing. Chief Min? He may act like that, but he’ll contact me soon enough. It’s happened many times before. How many days do you think it will take this time? Three? Four? Or seven?”

“Sh…ut up.”

“Just get out of my way.”

Namgung Tree moved as he was pushed away.

He remained sitting there even as Kwon Hyuk got to his feet, brushed off his clothes, neatened his disheveled hair, and walked calmly away.

Belatedly, he heard the sound of someone running to the restroom. Even as Min Isak opened the door and asked what happened, Namgung Tree could only stare at him blankly.

He couldn’t bring himself to ask Min Isak what had happened, or if everything Kwon Hyuk had told him was true.