Damn! Damn! Chapter 21

It was definitely a familiar face. Even the shirt, which had been pressed so perfectly without a single crease before his own hands crumpled it…

This guy…

‘…Michael Bernhard?’

Achim muttered while clutching his collar. Then, the man pinned beneath him without any resistance let out a soft chuckle. Before Achim knew it, the man reached out, grabbed Achim by the scruff of his neck, and yanked him down.

Caught off guard, Achim was pulled down helplessly, his eyes widening in delayed surprise.

When they were eye-to-eye, with less than half a span of distance between them, the man firmly gripped Achim’s hips with his large hands as if locking them in place, thrusting him downward while simultaneously surging his own waist upward with force.

Thud! The sound of their lower bodies colliding echoed exceptionally loud.

Achim let out a sharp gasp at the hard sensation pressing against his lower body. As if trying to take back the sound that had slipped out involuntarily, Achim hurriedly covered his mouth with his palm.

Amused by the sight, the man kept his grip on Achim’s hips and curled his lips into a wicked smirk.

Astonished to the point of forgetting to even throw a punch, Achim focused on the man’s slowly parting lips.

Michael let out a mocking laugh and spoke.

‘In the end, you spread your legs for me too.’

“…!”

Achim snapped his eyes open. It took a considerable amount of time just to return to reality.

Unable to grasp the situation, Achim stared blankly at the ceiling for several minutes. Then, slowly, his face crumpled like a piece of paper.

“…Fuck…”

Achim swore under his breath, covering his eyes with his palm.

There couldn’t be a worse nightmare than this. Because it was the same setting, he had naturally assumed it would be that bastard from eight years ago.

Absurdly enough, it was the completely random Michael Bernhard, and doing something so ridiculous…

“Ah, fuck!”

Achim let out a curse that sounded like a scream and bolted upright.

This was all because of the nonsense Linus kept spouting. Talking about butts, Bastian, and adjusting to Michael’s tastes—all that useless crap he babbled!

— Everyone is dying to spread their legs for me, after all.

On top of that, he had actually heard those words. That had to be why he had such a dream. The nonsense must have combined and accumulated, changing a dream he regularly had.

Achim let out a sigh, then rubbed his forehead aggressively.

Had it really plagued him that much? Well, if it was invading his dreams out of nowhere, it was already proven.

With his head lowered, Achim aggressively rubbed his forehead with his palm again, as if trying to erase the memory.

🖤🥀

“Hi, Yvonne.”

“Good morning, Yvonne.”

“Did you sleep well, Yvonne?”

He had just stepped into the laundry room inside the servants’ building.

Achim found the sudden surge of attention so burdensome that for a moment, he almost turned right back around to leave.

However, a maid entering the laundry room at that exact moment thwarted his escape.

As Achim moved his laundry basket forward and offered a polite smile, the maids who had greeted him quickly exchanged glances.

Around the time Achim was tossing the laundry into a large washing machine, one of them asked.

“Yvonne, I heard you went to Mr. Michael’s office yesterday?”

Achim’s hands flinched for a second. He wondered how gossip traveled so fast in this mansion. It made him suspect whether everyone was just gossiping instead of doing their actual work.

Achim naturally shook off the image of Michael from his dream.

“Yeah.”

He said, tossing the rest of the laundry in. Meanwhile, the maids surrounding him were busy making a fuss and chattering among themselves.

Achim, of course, let it go in one ear and out the other. To him, it was all useless information, and he knew that paying attention would only give him a headache.

“Why the office? What did he call you in for?”

This time, a different maid asked. Achim closed the washing machine door and dusted off his hands.

“It’s nothing much. Some translation work came up, and it just happened to be the language of the place where I was born. He called me to ask for a favor with that.”

“Oh, it really is nothing much.”

The maids all looked relieved. Just as Achim was about to pick up his laundry basket and move along, the closed door of the laundry room suddenly creaked open on its hinges.

The person revealed through the open door was Wolfgang. Walking into the laundry room, he looked around as if searching for someone.

The moment Wolfgang’s wandering gaze locked onto him, Achim instinctively felt a surge of anxiety and picked up his laundry basket like a robot programmed to move.

There was no basis for it. It was pure animal instinct. After making eye contact with Wolfgang, Achim squeezed himself through the crowd of maids, hugging the wall as he slinked toward the door.

“Yvonne Rasch.”

However, at the sound of Wolfgang’s polite yet authoritative voice, Achim froze near the door.

Glancing back, he saw everyone, including Wolfgang, looking at him. To be precise, they were looking at ‘Yvonne Rasch.’

Achim rolled his eyes slightly, then forced a smile, crinkling the corners of his eyes.

“Yes?”

Wolfgang walked over to Achim with measured strides. He snatched the laundry basket from Achim’s hands, adjusted his monocle with his other hand, and spoke.

“I am here to deliver a message from Mr. Michael.”

“…”

“Within 20 minutes…”

He’s probably telling me to come to the office again. Dammit. Then this time, I’ll definitely search every nook and cranny of that place…

“He asked you to come to his bedroom.”

“…Excuse me?”

Achim asked back half a beat late. At the same time, the bustling laundry room instantly fell dead silent, as if doused with cold water.

The culprit who had poured that cold water adjusted his grip on the laundry basket he had taken from Achim and delivered the message once more.

“Mr. Michael asked you to come to his bedroom within 20 minutes.”

It wasn’t as if Achim hadn’t understood the words the first time, but Wolfgang kindly repeated exactly what he had just said.

With the atmosphere growing even chillier, Achim just rolled his eyes to scan his surroundings. Sure enough, the maids who had been chatting with him a moment ago were now glaring at him with eyes full of hostility.

No, don’t misunderstand!

“Since your work seems to be finished, let’s head out immediately.”

Looking down at his wristwatch, Wolfgang handed Achim’s laundry basket to a nearby maid and walked back to the doorway.

“Let’s go. Mr. Michael is waiting.”

“…”

No, I mean, why is that guy calling me again? And in his bedroom, of all places?

Achim wanted to demand answers right then and there, but there were too many watching eyes. Let’s just get out of here first and ask on the way. Thinking this, Achim followed Wolfgang out of the laundry room as the man led the way.

“…”

“…Yvonne.”

As if she had been about to enter, an unwelcome face was standing right in front of the door. To face Martina when his mood was already foul—today was definitely turning out to be a stroke of bad luck.

Achim completely ignored Martina, who was holding a laundry basket, and walked right past her.

“Um, Wolfgang.”

Achim hurriedly pursued Wolfgang, who was walking at a brisk pace after leaving the servants’ building.

“May I know what this is about?”

The office was one thing, but what business did he have calling him to the bedroom? And right before clock-out time, no less.

Achim asked as amiably as possible, but Wolfgang only gave back an elusive reply, saying he didn’t know. It was useless no matter how many times he asked. Seeing Wolfgang firmly shake his head, Achim had no choice but to shut his mouth.

— In the end, you spread your legs for me too.

Of all things, having a dream like that just the night before…

Of course, Michael wouldn’t have called Yvonne Rasch for that kind of purpose, but it kept nagging at him for no reason.

Moreover, because he had never imagined he would feel that kind of guilt toward him, Achim was still reeling from the shock.

Why on earth did he have a dream like that? Unable to understand himself, Achim kicked a small pebble in front of him out of habit.

Striken by the tip of his foot, the pebble unfortunately flew straight into the shin of a guard standing nearby. It felt like whenever he ran into bad luck, everything he did went sideways.

Achim put on a surprised expression and raised his head.

“Ah, I’m sorr—”

The moment his eyes met the other person’s, Achim stopped mid-sentence.

— If you don’t mind, could I get your contact information?

Damn it, of all people.