Winter Season Chapter 19

— Sigh. Don’t even get me started, oppa. You have no idea how noisy it’s been all week. Oh, wait a second! The coffee beans that came in boxes? Those, over there! They’re under the storage shelf!

The vivid voice coming through the phone drifted away for a moment. It seemed the music heard faintly in the background earlier was coming from the cafe. There was a brief moment of commotion through the phone, followed by an urgent voice.

— Oppa, something just came up suddenly, so I’ll call you back later! Take your medicine and get some rest, okay?

“…Yeah.”

Yihyeon, putting down the phone after the call abruptly cut off, picked up the water cup he had placed by his bedside. As the lukewarm water traveled down his dry throat, he felt like he could finally breathe. Sitting there in a daze, Yihyeon licked his damp lips. He then looked down at his phone and entered the message inbox.

Advertisement messages and a few group chat conversations were piled up. Yihyeon scrolled down with his thumb to find and click on Yun Subin’s name. The screen changed, revealing speech bubbles clustered on the right side.

[Did the hospitalization process go okay?]

[Is Jinseok alright?]

[Hyung, are you very busy?]

Next to every message he had sent, a mark indicated they had been read, but not a single reply had come back. Yihyeon stared blankly at the stagnant messenger screen and, just before sending a message saying ‘Give me a call when you have time,’ he stopped his finger.

— Subin oppa, I don’t know what has gotten into him suddenly, but whenever I bring you up, he immediately gets serious and talks about something else!

Along with Yunjin’s words, the expression Subin wore when he last saw him at the club a few days ago came to mind. A face biting its lip as if humiliated while having no choice but to follow Gu Seunghyeok’s unilateral command. It was an insult Subin wouldn’t have had to endure if it weren’t for him.

“…….”

Yihyeon, looking down and blinking slowly, moved his finger. The sentence that had briefly appeared in the chat box was dismantled into consonants and vowels before vanishing into a white void.

He had been thinking that he should distance himself little by little, but he hadn’t wanted it to be like this. Yihyeon let out a short breath and hesitantly typed out a new sentence.

[Hyung. I’m sorry. Please contact me.]

He looked down at the chat box where the ‘1’ did not disappear, then pressed the back button. An expressionless face was reflected on the dark screen. He felt like everything had been falling apart bit by bit ever since he met Gu Seunghyeok again. Yihyeon buried his face in his hands and exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

“…Ha.”

The expression Seunghyeok wore while looking at him seemed to be painted before his eyes. The sense of helplessness and futility he felt when facing a similar face a very long time ago seemed to be dragging his whole body down.

It felt as desolate as if a quagmire had formed under his feet, and his chest felt stifled as if someone were clutching and blocking his lungs. His hand, fumbling across the nightstand, found a round plastic container. He poured several pills into his palm, tossed them in all at once, and swallowed the water out of habit.

Yihyeon wiped his face briefly. The sky seen through the window was overcast. Since it was a little past two, the club would probably be empty. The thought suddenly flashed through his mind that he should go pack the belongings he left in his locker before it got any later.

As he slowly rose, the rustling sound of the blanket echoed exceptionally loudly in the quiet room. Was it because he was sick, or was it because his job had suddenly disappeared? For some reason, he felt a strange chill in a corner of his chest today.

༘⋆🤍˚ .❄️₊˚ෆ

“Cough…”

As soon as the back door of the bus opened, the freezing air swept over his face. The wind grew sharper by the day, as if winter were deepening. Yihyeon stepped off the bus that had just come to a stop and scanned his surroundings.

The lobby, which was usually crowded every night with staff, smokers, and customers waiting to enter, was empty and quiet. While pedestrians with expressionless faces busily brushed past him, Yihyeon turned toward the stairs for staff access.

He went downstairs and stood before the door leading to the first basement kitchen. He began to press the familiar password digit by digit when a cluttered noise began to be heard from inside. Snickering laughter, loud voices. It was the sound of people.

Did I hear wrong? His puzzlement lasted only a moment before the door blocking Yihyeon swung wide open.

What appeared in front of him was the face of a man he had never seen before. With a bright red face, he was pulling up his pants as if he had just come from the restroom, and a long cigarette that seemed to have just been lit was wedged between his lips.

The man, who had been snickering with the people following him, was startled to see Yihyeon standing at the door and took a step back. However, he soon leaned his head toward Yihyeon as if trying to focus, and then his eyes flew wide open.

“Hey, hey, what is this? Isn’t this that gay bastard from back then?”

“Who?”

“You know, where was it. The guy in the basement who almost rubbed lips with Yunsu! The one who works here!”

“Ah, the day the General Manager visited?”

There were three men standing in front of him. From their conversation, it seemed they were people who had been at the scene that day.

Yihyeon’s face became expressionless at their attitude of observing him while snickering among themselves as if they had discovered something interesting. His face, showing no emotion, was white and opaque like a doll made of wax.

“No, shit. I only heard about it from the boys because I was guarding the lobby back then. Wow, is that him? Are you sure?”

“Yeah. No, that day hyung-nim’s aura was no joke so the boys were all terrified, and that bastard they called a mole was totally smashed up and half dead. Anyway, I’m telling you, it was a total mess? I was fucking scared too… But anyway, even in that situation, he was just standing there with exactly that expression? Yeah, I’m sure.”

“My, he looks like a girl but I guess he’s got some guts.”

Even at the insulting remarks exchanged right in front of him, Yihyeon did not contort his face or show a single sign of discomfort. He merely slowly lowered his finger, which had been suspended in the air to press the password.

Yihyeon looked down and ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek. He didn’t know the reason why those people were here now, but it looked like his plan to go in, pack his things, and leave was ruined.

I’ll have to ask Yunjin or someone else to clean out the locker for me.

Yihyeon let out a short sigh and turned around just like that. He was about to step up the stairs, thinking he should buy some medicine on the way home.

“…!”

“Hey, hey, hey, you brat. Where are you going when someone is talking to you?”

The hood of his zip-up, which had been pulled taut, suddenly pressed against his neck. Yihyeon, flinching with a frown, turned around and glared fiercely at the men. However, they only snickered as if findng Yihyeon’s reaction amusing.

“Let go.”

When he roughly pulled away the part of the hood they were gripping, his wrist was grabbed this time. The man who snatched Yihyeon’s wrist scratched his forehead and twitched an eyebrow.

“Tsk tsk, if you came when hyung-nim is inside, you should at least show your face before you leave. Is it right to behave this way?”

“I have no business here, so let go.”

“Haha, this one’s personality is no joke either.”

The man standing at the very front spat out his cigarette butt with a ‘tui’ and dragged Yihyeon inside. Even while being dragged, Yihyeon shook his arm to try and pry off the hand holding him, but it was no use.

Both last time and this time, these people seemed accustomed to dragging people along by force. Every time his powerless body was shaken, his head throbbed, so Yihyeon gave up on shaking off the arm and bit his lower lip hard.

Quite a few people must have gathered, as the murmur grew louder the closer they got to the hall. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and the sound of people laughing and chatting echoed loudly in the two-story-high space.

If I had known it would be like this, I would have just stayed quietly lying down at home.

Yihyeon, who had been glaring at the floor with a furrowed brow, slowly raised his eyes. The first thing he saw was the state of the stage hall, which was a total shambles.

The sofas and tables were pushed aside haphazardly, and in the middle, pizza boxes, beer cans, and bottles of soju and whiskey were scattered messily.

Plates and crystal glasses that were clearly taken from the kitchen. Yihyeon was lost for words at the sight of expensive liquor bottles rolling on the floor. It was absurd and ridiculous to see them using a place that had to open for business in a few hours as comfortably as their own living room.

“Hyung-nim!”