Winter Season Chapter 9

“If you have nothing more to say, I will be going. President.”

“…”

The ending was quite firm, like someone drawing a line at the word “friend.” Even the way he consistently used formal speech made it clear. Seunghyeok, who had been looking down and pointlessly opening and closing his wallet, caught the meaning and let out a snort.

“Is that also not enough?”

“No.”

Yihyeon spoke with a white face that revealed no expression.

“It is because my working hours are over.”

Yihyeon gave a bow and walked toward the door without hesitation. Taeshik, standing behind, quickly checked Seunghyeok’s reaction. However, the picture-perfect face looking only beyond the glass wall remained expressionless.

While Taeshik was quickly turning his brain to decide whether he should stop Yihyeon or let him go as he was, Seunghyeok spoke.

“Kwon Yihyeon.”

“…”

“Do you remember the last thing I said to you nine years ago?”

What flashed through his mind were only hazy images of a dark park, a dirty alleyway, and a street where snow was falling. The nine years that had passed for Yihyeon were not a leisurely time that allowed him to cherish faded memories.

Yihyeon, who had momentarily stopped walking at Seunghyeok’s words, swept his tongue over his lips once. Seeing how Seunghyeok was staring straight ahead with an expressionless face, it did not seem like a remark made in search of an answer. Yihyeon kept his eyes downcast in silence before grabbing the doorknob and turning it. Taeshik watched Yihyeon’s retreating back as he stepped out into the hallway with uneasy eyes.

The image of the opening and closing door was reflected like a mirror on the transparent glass wall. Seunghyeok, who had been staring at it silently, slowly turned his head toward the table.

A whiskey glass sat all alone in front of the empty sofa, with five sheets of white paper tucked beneath it. What kind of expression had Kwon Yihyeon been making when Seunghyeok laid down those checks?

Seunghyeok, who had been staring blankly at the empty seat, let out a sneer and stood up. Then, he reached out and picked up the whiskey glass Yihyeon had left behind.

“Tsk… I told you it was expensive stuff.”

He downed the glass in one go and spoke as if pretending to be composed, but his stomach churned with an emotion he couldn’t identify as either anger or loathing. He had hoped putting something cold inside would make things better, but instead, his chest only felt more feverish.

He picked up a pack of cigarettes and shook it with one hand, but the inside was empty. When he reached out his palm behind him, Taeshik quickly presented a fresh pack with sharp intuition. Taeshik swallowed the remark that Seunghyeok seemed to be smoking significantly more lately and brought a lighter to his face.

A thin trail of smoke, like that from incense, rose up long before scattering. Seunghyeok tilted his stiff neck back and exhaled a long breath while looking up at the ceiling.

How long had he been like that? Suddenly lowering his gaze to scan the inside of the hall, Seunghyeok spotted a man walking staggeringly in the corner, and his hand flicking the cigarette ash paused. Every time the man swayed with half-opened eyes, his deep black straight hair shook softly.

Perhaps he had done drugs and gone in the water, as the skin revealed under his soaking wet clothes was pale. It naturally brought to mind the white face of someone who had been here until a moment ago. The strange sensation that had been lingering at the tip of his throat instantly soured into an unpleasant disgust. Seunghyeok’s Adam’s apple heaved greatly as he swept his tongue over the inside of his mouth. It tasted sour.

Seunghyeok suddenly felt the cigarette smoke filling the room acridly was nothing but nauseating, so he crushed the cigarette out in the ashtray. Even during that, his gaze did not pull away from the thin man stumbling beyond the glass wall. His gait was precarious, making it unclear if it was his first time here or if he had shoved drugs into himself without knowing his own limits.

Just as he was about to gesture to Taeshik to handle it so that no annoying trouble would arise, someone grabbed the thin man’s arm forcefully. It was a muscular man who had been leaning against a pillar.

While he was holding some woman’s lower body and thrusting his waist, he grabbed the staggering man’s jaw to keep it still, forced his thin lips open, and pushed his tongue inside.

Ah… Taeshik, who was standing by the wall as if he were barely there, barely swallowed a groan. He bit his lower lip hard and checked Seunghyeok’s mood, but he could only see the back of his head. He thought the night might pass quietly since nothing had happened with that young-looking man earlier.

“…I am sorry. I will clean this up immediately.”

Even though he had delivered all the cautionary instructions, had they thought it was just something said out of habit? Occasionally, people like that appeared, losing their sense of judgment due to being intoxicated by drugs and alcohol and ignoring warnings.

Perhaps he liked the novel stimulation, as the large-bodied man had even stopped his waist movements and was almost completely turned toward the thin man. Since it looked like he would collapse onto the sofa right behind them at any moment, Taeshik tried to step forward quickly. The one who stopped him was Seunghyeok, who gestured while standing up from his seat.

Taeshik, having glanced at Seunghyeok’s face, shut his mouth and quietly pulled the door open. The music, which had been blocked by the thickness of a single layer of glass, grew in volume, and the moans mixed with cries of pleasure echoed as they reflected off the walls and ceiling like cinema sound effects.

The clack, clack of shoe heels landed ruthlessly on the tile floor. Heading toward the two men who were frantically groping each other’s bodies.

“Hyung-nim, I will…”

Taeshik, who was following behind, tried to speak urgently, but it was no use. Seunghyeok, having pulled away the bulkier of the two entangled men, suddenly struck him near the solar plexus with his fist.

Even if he were sober, there was no way a drunk person could properly handle something he wouldn’t have been able to deal with. The half-naked body, losing its balance, rolled across the floor. Taeshik, who was watching that scene from behind, swallowed his next words and briefly wiped his face with both hands.

“Argh…!”

Seunghyeok watched the man who was gasping and clutching his stomach with an expressionless face before lifting his foot. The woman, who had been lying prostrate in front of the man nearly naked, let out a short scream and moved her body into the arms of another man.

“No matter, how much, in heat, you are…”

“Ugh, cough!”

“You should at least check the hole you’re going to fuck. Huh?”

The sound of pained coughing and the thump, thump of kicking mixed over the loudly echoing music, but no one paid any attention to the man rolling on the floor. They were preoccupied with pressing their lips against the person next to them and mixing their bodies.

As the kicking continued, the man face-down on the floor became a mess. There were only three people watching that sight. Gu Seunghyeok, Kwak Taeshik, and the thin man with straight hair who was huddling under the sofa with his eyes wide open.

“Cough, ugh, gasp…”

Even while his face was all burst and bleeding, his hideously erect penis twitched in the air. As if looking at a trash bag someone had ripped open in an alleyway, Seunghyeok looked down at the man with an expression mixed with loathing. Then, as if to show it to the terrified man watching from the corner, he kicked the large body to turn its direction.

“Hic…”

Eyes tinged with red, looking utterly shocked, rose to Seunghyeok. Watching the trembling, thin man, Seunghyeok ground his shoe heel down firmly onto the dark-red penis. A groan, uuugh, leaked from between the lips of the one lying down. Seunghyeok, who didn’t even cast a glance that way and only looked down at the terrified man, spoke.

“You gay bastards… Where do you think you are.”

“Hic, gasp… hic…”

“…Filthy.”

The man in the corner trembled, his lips turned bluish from terror. Seunghyeok ground his foot down as if to make a point while maintaining eye contact with him until the end. It was only after the man who had half-rolled his eyes back collapsed with something like transparent foam at the corners of his mouth that Seunghyeok took his foot away.

“Kwak Taeshik.”

Seunghyeok looked down at the floor where pool water had gathered and his slippery shoe-clad foot, then cracked his neck with a series of pops.

“…Yes, Hyung-nim.”

“If you let that kind of sight catch my eye one more time, the one who won’t be able to function as a man will be you. Understood?”

“I am sorry. I will make sure this never happens again.”

Seunghyeok stepped away without an answer. All that remained where he left were the tasks Taeshik had to settle tonight. Taeshik sighed and wiped his face.

Taeshik, who was calling somewhere to say they should make a spot in the private ward, looked down at the man who was shivering while naked. The white and clear face reminded him of someone, but Taeshik could not bring himself to voice who that was.