Salt Society Chapter 29

Manager Yoo nodded as if to say he understood. Kihyun stood at the entrance wearing a short windbreaker and jogger pants, carrying a basketball bag over his shoulder. Goodbye to a peaceful weekend. Manager Yoo, who had stepped out first, was jumping into the elevator, saying he would go start the car.

Click—. He turned off the living room lights. Bubble, bubble—the sound of air bubbles rising from the fish tank came from a distance. Kihyun stared for a moment at the fish tank emitting a faint light in a corner of the darkened living room, then left the house without even resenting the door that closed with a thud.

I wonder when spring is coming. They said the flowers have already bloomed down south. Seoul was still cold, so cold.

⏳

“Don’t worry and just sleep; I will get you there quickly.”

“I won’t worry. I’m going to sleep so much you’ll be surprised, so don’t wake me up.”

Manager Yoo laughed good-naturedly, saying, “Of course, of course.” Don’t be fooled, he’s only working under Cho Yeonoh because he’s a tough bastard too, Kihyun whispered to himself, and then he closed his eyes without regret.

The sedan driven by Manager Yoo smoothly departed from Kihyun’s apartment parking lot. As he promised, Kihyun slept the entire time. He sensed Manager Yoo stopping at a highway rest stop gas station in the middle of the trip, but he didn’t care and kept sleeping.

The vehicle, released for protocol purposes, had a killer ride in the back seat. Because the chair could be reclined all the way, there was no back pain either. Kihyun, who had been in a deep sleep, woke up as soon as the sedan exited the IC heading toward the country club.

Then he just let out a wide yawn and didn’t say a word. Even though he had slept well, he wasn’t in a particularly good mood. It was obvious that if he mixed words with Manager Yoo now, only irritation would come out. Since he didn’t want to get angry at the blameless Manager Yoo, Kihyun kept his mouth shut until the sedan entered the resort where the country club was located.

As if proving he was a capable secretary, Manager Yoo naturally handed over the card key as the car entered the resort’s drive-in, acting as if he knew Kihyun had woken up. Even after driving for a long time, there wasn’t a single wrinkle in his suit, leading Kihyun to think that a skilled secretary is no different from a monster.

“The room key is here. The Director will likely arrive toward dawn.”

“Good work.”

“Not at all, you are the one who suffered, Mr. So.”

After exchanging moderately social greetings, Kihyun stepped out of the sedan Manager Yoo was driving and entered the resort. Perhaps because it was dawn or because it was a members-only establishment that didn’t take many guests, the lobby was silent.

Kihyun’s standing figure was reflected clearly on the polished marble floor. In front of a wall decorated with marble a tone lower than that on the floor, light pink peonies surrounded by white jasmine flowers were arranged in a vase. At the reception, exactly one hotelier kept their spot with their head quietly bowed. When they gave a slight bow as Kihyun passed, he nodded back and headed for the elevator.

“Room 1504…”

Muttering the room number written on the room key, he boarded the elevator. Kihyun stared blankly at the display, watching the elevator ascend while holding the button. Perhaps because he had just woken up, his consciousness wasn’t clear.

Since he had showered before coming, he felt like he could just go to sleep immediately. Or should he take a bath and then sleep? With so many thoughts swirling, he had no choice but to walk sluggishly even after getting off the elevator.

When he entered the room, what he faced was a suite larger than Kihyun’s house despite it being a resort. Seeing a separate long table for meetings, he thought Yeonoh might stay for a few more days and hold some kind of meeting here.

…But why do I have to be here. Cho Yeonoh’s work should be handled by Cho Yeonoh; he couldn’t understand why he had to be tied up here all weekend. But on the other hand, a thought occurred to him that he should have made these complaints back in Seoul.

If it were that unfair, he shouldn’t have followed Manager Yoo, and if it were annoying, he should have ignored Cho Yeonoh’s request. Everyone stretches their feet after looking at the spot where they will lie down. The spot for Cho Yeonoh’s single body to lie had eternally been provided by So Kihyun. So, whom could he blame?

“…I guess I’ll just have to make all this alcohol mine.”

He pulled out the Salut and a Baccarat glass from the bar, sat down properly on a random sofa, pulled out the stopper, and poured the amber liquid into the glass, drinking it without even adding ice. There were no snacks, but thanks to eating his fill of pizza before departing, he didn’t worry about his stomach stinging.

After drinking two glasses in a row like that, he put the stopper back in quietly, went to the bathroom, and took a quick shower without washing his hair. Since he had shampooed before leaving Seoul, washing it again felt somewhat bothersome. He didn’t even glance at the provided amenities and washed his body with just a bar of soap, but because it was an expensive item, the soap smelled like the perfumes one can only smell on the first floor of a department store.

Upon smelling such a nice scent, he felt tempted by the jacuzzi in a corner of the bathroom, but he felt that taking a bath here would waste too much time. Since he had also knocked back two glasses of liquor straight, he felt like things might go wrong if he slipped up, so he left that lingering regret behind. He roughly threw on a T-shirt and cotton shorts for sleeping from the clothes he brought and looked for a bedroom.

Praying that he wouldn’t enter the room where he was lying, just for today, Kihyun entered the bedroom with a bed smaller than the others. As soon as he rested his head on the pillow filled with goose feathers, he fell asleep. It would have been truly nice if he could have slept like that until morning.

“Ah…”

Kihyun groaned helplessly. An alien scent was coming from somewhere, and it was hard because he was trying to figure out its identity in his sleep. What is it, what kind of scent is it? It was a scent he had smelled before, but it wasn’t familiar; it was just strange.

The moment he thought that, Kihyun woke up from a sleep he didn’t even know when he had fallen into.

“Gasp—!”

“…Sleep more.”

Someone’s thick arm was draped over Kihyun’s chest. As if pressed down between the branches of a large, spreading tree, Kihyun breathed shallowly.

“What the…”

“I told you to sleep more.”

Only then could he realize that the low, sunken voice belonged to Cho Yeonoh. Oh, fuck. Kihyun relaxed his body, which had stiffened in surprise, and endured the moment a light sense of exhaustion swept through his body.

When he let out a weak sigh and groaned, the guy who had his arm around his chest even patted him as if soothing a child.

“…What are you doing.”

“This is the third time I’m telling you to just sleep. Sleep before I sing you a lullaby.”

His warning tone was full of fatigue. …I guess sleeping any more here today is out of the question. With two adult men holding out in a bed that would be moderately spacious for one but cramped for two to lie in, it felt infinitely narrow. Kihyun endured the sigh that was about to escape and stared out the window.

Through the blackout curtains of the bedroom, he could see the dawn breaking faintly far outside. While staring at that blankly for a while, he felt the chest of the guy touching his back exhaling steady breaths. He seemed to have fallen asleep in the meantime.

…Can a guy who sleeps this well be said to have insomnia? Although he couldn’t sleep where the guy was, Cho Yeonoh fell into such a deep sleep by So Kihyun’s side that he wondered if this wasn’t insomnia but just a prickly personality.

After holding out for a few more minutes, Kihyun slowly emerged from Cho Yeonoh’s embrace with a completely clear mind. Then he took out the windbreaker from his bag, put it on, took the room key, and headed out.

By the time he realized he hadn’t brought his phone, he was already in the elevator. Not having the confidence to open the door and go back in to grab just his phone without waking the sensitive Cho Yeonoh, he just headed to the lobby.

Despite it being dawn, there was a faint scent of butter. It seemed the restaurant was preparing food for the lazy rich. Looking at the time, it was now almost 6:00 AM. It was a bit early for a walk, but not a bad time.

Kihyun walked out of the lobby just like that, with the hood attached to his windbreaker pulled over his head. The lawn with morning dew on it was emitting a fresh, green scent. The green of the golf course, which the country club had put effort into cultivating, stretched endlessly and soon touched the distant sea. The faint scent of the sea and the scent of forest grass wet with dew brought a certain thought to Kihyun’s mind.

“They must have sprayed a ton of pesticides.”

Because it made no sense for the green to be so lush all year round. He shook his head as he looked at the green, which was of much better quality than the lawns he would occasionally see when out on mandatory golf support duty.

Unlike other golf courses that promote the country club by hosting KLPGA events, this place was unfamiliar even to Kihyun, who had been on many mandatory golf support duties while working at the hospital. Likely because it was a place that dealt with people like Cho Yeonoh and accepted only a small number of members, there seemed to be no reason to promote it.

He had heard that in places like this, golf bets worth hundreds of millions always take place. Cho Yeonoh, who had been out for entertainment all dawn, would also likely go to play such entertainment golf after waking up and having breakfast. Since he wouldn’t have come down to Namhae if he were the one being entertained, Kihyun’s guess was as good as certain.

It was when he was walking while having such thoughts.

“Excuse me…”