Winter Season Chapter 27

“What did you say you came for?”

“…Severance pay.”

“Severance pay?”

“I understand that if one has worked for over a year, they are entitled to receive it.”

His lowered gaze was calm. Seunghyeok, who looked up to steal a glance at Yihyeon, moved his fingers over his phone and let out a smirk.

“Is that so? Well, how much are you looking to get.”

“…Around thirty million.”

“Thirty million, huh.”

“…”

“That is quite a large sum of money to hand over to someone who is leaving. Don’t you think?”

His tone suggested he knew Yihyeon had simply stated the amount he needed without knowing whether he could demand severance pay or even how much he was entitled to.

Seunghyeok sneered, but Yihyeon had no words to offer in response. While only the cheerful pew-pew sound effects of the game manifested their presence in the awkward silence, Seunghyeok spoke.

“Fine. Do you have a contract?”

“…A contract?”

“You have to prove that you worked there for a long time. How can I give you that money just by trusting your word? Hmm?”

Ever since he first started working three years ago, he had never once signed anything like a contract. When he had asked if he wouldn’t be enrolled in things like the four major public insurances he had heard about elsewhere, the President had replied by asking who demands such things for a club part-time job.

“You don’t have one?”

“…Even if there is no contract, there is a record of deposits in my bank account.”

“How am I supposed to know if that money was received from our establishment or if you rolled around somewhere else to get it.”

Seeing Yihyeon’s fist clenched so tightly that it had turned white, Seunghyeok’s eyes crinkled as if it were amusing.

“Where is there severance pay for work done without even signing a contract.”

“…”

“Someone might think you worked at some respectable workplace, Yihyeon.”

Thud. Seunghyeok, who turned off the game he was playing and set his phone down on the desk, stood up from his seat. Moving with the click-clack sound of his dress shoes, he sat on the edge of the desk with his back to the light.

As a result, a long shadow fell over the sofa table where Yihyeon was sitting. Yihyeon’s body stiffened at the smell of perfume that had grown closer.

“If you need money, don’t give such a half-baked reason and just say it straight. Tell me to help you.”

“…”

“Say that things have become urgent enough that you need money earned by beating people up.”

Seunghyeok’s gaze was firmly fixed on Yihyeon’s profile. He unconsciously bit his back teeth slightly as he looked at Yihyeon, who was biting his lip hard and staring only at the corner of the table.

“You can’t do it? That’s why, when I said I’d give you a good opportunity in the basement—”

“Help me.”

“…”

Yihyeon’s head slowly lifted. Yihyeon looked up at Seunghyeok with an unwavering gaze and spoke once more.

“Lend me some money. It turns out there is no one else around me but you to ask for such a favor.”

It was Seunghyeok who was flustered, or rather, caught off guard, by the unexpected sentence that had cut him off. He opened his mouth to say something but could not find the right words and only gripped his fists tightly.

Detecting a faint voice during a phone call with the President and calling Yihyeon to the main office had been a half-impulsive action. Since he had not expected Yihyeon to actually come, a hollow laugh had even escaped him when the door opened and Kwon Yihyeon walked in.

Because Yihyeon had the kind of personality where he would add two or three calm sentences if Seunghyeok said one thing to get under his skin, he had thought he wanted to see Yihyeon yield to him, but once that actually happened before his eyes, he didn’t feel very good.

Furthermore, the expression that there was no one but him to talk to… Seunghyeok let out a chilly sneer and straightened his leaning body.

There must be men all around him; had he been going around enchanting people like that?

Seunghyeok, who looked down at Yihyeon with cold eyes, swept the inside of his cheek with his tongue. The image from his memory that was clear and transparent had vanished, and only a Yihyeon with a pale, rigid face like a mask remained.

Seunghyeok, clenching his molars, turned around as if he had decided on something and moved toward his desk.

“…”

The sound of something being scribbled over the desk drifted across. Shortly after, two sheets of paper were placed before Yihyeon’s eyes. On the white paper, the word ‘Promissory Note’ was written along with the content that the debtor borrows a principal of thirty million won from the creditor.

Seunghyeok sat on the opposite sofa while watching Yihyeon slowly read down the sentences.

“The interest is industry standard. The repayment period is one year.”

“…”

“Is it too generous for a loan given to a kid who has nothing but his body?”

Yihyeon kept his gaze on the paper without answering. Seeing this, Seunghyeok lifted a finger and lightly tapped on the promissory note.

“But there is a condition.”

“…”

“Do a job with me.”

Yihyeon, who had his eyes cast down, lifted his head and looked up at Seunghyeok. He could not gauge what it meant to do a job together.

“There is information I need to obtain by wrapping someone up.”

“…What?”

“I’ve set the whole stage, but I was in a bind because there was no one to move.”

He looked up at Seunghyeok as if he needed more explanation, but Seunghyeok merely twitched an eyebrow and signaled toward the promissory note with his eyes. It seemed he had no intention of explaining further unless Yihyeon stamped the contract.

Yihyeon bit his lips repeatedly and cast his eyes down again. He was in no position to nod his head blindly in a situation where he didn’t even know from whom, what information, and how he was supposed to get it. What if it was a dangerous job. What if it was illegal.

However, Seunghyeok seemed to have no intention of opening his mouth any further, and Yihyeon had no other choice. He didn’t know what kind of work it was, but surely Seunghyeok wouldn’t make him do something he couldn’t handle.

After contemplating for a moment, Yihyeon stared vacantly at the words ‘thirty million won’ written in the middle of the white paper and spoke.

“…I won’t sell my body.”

What returned was a snort that seemed to slip out.

Yihyeon swept his lips once and then picked up a pen. Debtor Kwon Yihyeon. There was no hesitation in the hand that wrote down the characters.

Seunghyeok, having checked the promissory note, called someone and instructed them to deposit the money. During that time, Yihyeon merely sat on the sofa, staring blankly at the paper placed before him.

How much time had passed. Just as he thought a vibration rang out from his phone, a notification window popped up saying the money had been deposited.

While Yihyeon was checking the bank account, Seunghyeok, who was sitting opposite him, put one copy of the promissory note into an envelope and handed it over. Yihyeon received the paper without a word.

“I’ll send you the location, so come there next time.”

“…”

“And answer immediately when I call.”

Yihyeon swept his lips and nodded. His steps as he rose from his seat seemed heavy, yet also light.

Just as he was about to head toward the door, leaving Gu Seunghyeok behind, a slightly strained voice drifted from behind his back.

“Ah, and. I’m late in saying this.”

Yihyeon stopped in his tracks with his hand on the doorknob.

“It’s been a long time. Kwon Yihyeon.”

The low voice was exactly like the one from when they were young. He could not know what kind of face the Seunghyeok behind his back was making as he looked this way, but he could imagine it.

Instead of answering, Yihyeon pressed down firmly on the doorknob. Then, from his stopped posture as he opened the door, he turned his head slightly. Through the gap opened with a click, a chilly wind squeezed through and leaked in.

A premonition that a persistent fate would be connected once again flashed through his mind. Yihyeon spoke coolly while staring into the empty air.

I didn’t know we would meet again like this.

Right. It’s been a long time.

Gu Seunghyeok.

“One pack of Esse, please.”

The part-timer at the counter handed over the pack of cigarettes. After confirming the cigarettes he received and inserting his card into the reader, his phone immediately rang out with a buzz. Thinking it was a payment message, he looked down indifferently at the screen, and a certain address appeared there.

[52, Gawon-ro 27-gil, 4th floor]

What is this.

It was an unknown number. Was it sent to the wrong person? Just as he was about to put his phone away, it vibrated once more.

[8 PM, come on time.]

At the following sentence, Seunghyeok’s face suddenly came to mind. Come to think of it, it had been strange because there had been no contact since the day he went to borrow money.

Instead of replying with a ‘Who is this?’, Yihyeon left the convenience store and pulled a cigarette out to his mouth in the alleyway. The gaze staring quietly down at the message was calmly settled as usual.

“…”

Is he planning to officially start that job he mentioned then. He was likely calling to discuss the details. He didn’t have a clue what the man would say, but he had a vague premonition that it would not be a legal job.