ANTITOXIN Chapter 30

“I-I said a semi-shaman, to be precise. A shaman and a semi-shaman are strictly different. More than anything, I don’t even do it as a profession.”

“Isn’t that six of one and half a dozen of the other?”

“No, it isn’t.”

Even though he had explicitly told him the difference between a shaman and a semi-shaman yesterday, Cha Jaeyi failed to distinguish them. He seemed to have just let it slide past his ears since he didn’t have much interest.

“Alright. Let’s say it’s different, then if you’re not a shaman, what do you do to make a living?”

“That…”

Seolwon, who opened his mouth reflexively, paused for an instant. It was because he remembered that he had glossed it over by saying he was an office worker when they met at the shop yesterday. However, he was in a state where he had already revealed the reason he accompanied Executive Director Hwang to the drinking party. On top of that, the other party knew his name, which he had never told him. It would be correct to view him as being in a state where he already possessed some of his information. Even right now, he might be testing him while already knowing.

In this kind of situation, was there any necessity to lie further? No, if he did, it would rather only invite unnecessary suspicion.

Seolwon, who quickly finished his judgment, soon confessed the truth.

“I make a living by replicating paintings.”

Tsk! Cha Jaeyi snapped his fingers.

“No wonder that necktie didn’t suit you.”

As expected, it seemed he hadn’t believed it from the start. Fortunately, he didn’t interrogate him at that time about why he had lied either.

“But you were an artist? Nice, yeah. Your vibe definitely seems to fit that side.”

Whether he truly hadn’t known or was purposely acting despite knowing… he was a man from whom it was completely difficult to catch a clue. Apart from that, he felt an utterly embarrassed feeling at the word artist. Seolwon could not endure it and attempted a correction.

“Rather than an artist, it’s closer to a technician. Since I merely copy by drawing.”

Just as he couldn’t be called a shaman since he hadn’t received the gods, he couldn’t be called an artist since he didn’t do art. Such was Seolwon’s thought. Even Park Moonhyuk regarded Seolwon as a technician, not an artist.

“Is there a strict need to distinguish it?”

“Yes, well… if possible.”

As if he couldn’t understand, he jutted out his lower lip. However, he soon nodded his head lightly and said.

“Okay. Then did you come to the art museum at that time simply to look at paintings?”

“Yes. Because the painting to replicate was there…”

“Aha, so that’s what it was? And here I thought…”

He trailed off his words with a subtle face. Seolwon wore a bewildered expression at the significant room for interpretation Cha Jaeyi left behind. Taking a sip of his coffee within that brief interval, he added belatedly.

“I wondered if Mr. Han Seolwon was also my stalker. As you can see, I am just so outstanding, after all.”

“…”

Around this point, Seolwon could learn one more thing about the man named Cha Jaeyi. That he was a person whose self-evaluation was extremely high. If nothing else, he was bound to be a person whose self-esteem alone was monumentally high, without a doubt.

Yet marvelously, it suited him. Rather than feeling ridiculous, it actually made sense. It wasn’t merely because of his light tone or his career as an arms broker making a name for himself domestically and internationally. Anyone would just have no choice but to admit it if they were facing this man. He was a person possessing that much of a unique aura and overwhelming presence.

“You went simply to look at a painting, but I was there. In other words, our first meeting was a coincidence. Correct?”

Seolwon answered without hesitation.

“That’s right.”

A smile blossoms around his lips. It was a peculiar smile where neither meaning nor emotion could be read.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He was certain. The meeting at the art museum was a coincidence. If it hadn’t been for the deadly energy, they would have passed by without their gazes even intertwining, let alone speaking. Since he was a person who stood out so much, he might have stared inadvertently, but…

“What about the drinking party. Did you come at that time knowing I would be there?”

“No, I had absolutely no idea.”

He really didn’t know. That that man would be the arms broker. Even though he had seen the photo, though he might have failed to verify the features because the image quality wasn’t good, he hadn’t connected them at all. It was a rare occurrence for Seolwon, who possessed shamanic illness.

To put it another way, the man named Cha Jaeyi was difficult to read to that extent. It was to the point that even this kind of curiosity arose: what would grandmother have been like, if it were grandmother, would she have been able to deliver an oracle even against that person.

“By Mr. Han Seolwon’s standards, both are correct to be coincidences?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Humm…”

He casts a sharp gaze again. It was a look of trying to gauge whether Seolwon’s answer was the truth or a lie. Despite not having told a lie, Seolwon was inevitably tense. As he had felt yesterday too, he was a person where the gap between when there was a trace of a smile and when there wasn’t was substantial.

How much time had passed?

Abruptly, he chuckled.

“It’s fascinating and nice. At the art museum too… shouldn’t this be closer to destiny rather than coincidence?”

What destiny. It was closer to a disaster. At least to Seolwon, that is.

“No wonder you kept popping into my head. I guess that’s why. I’m the type that pursues fateful encounters, you see. Though it’s only coming out now, honestly I was a bit displeased. Wondering why I kept recalling a kid who looks gloomy.”

He didn’t particularly look like a person who believed in something like destiny. Putting that aside… a kid who looks gloomy? Seolwon received a subtle shock at an evaluation he was hearing for the first time in his life. Honestly, having heard compliments quite often since he was young, he considered that his appearance at least belonged above average, in his own estimation. Well, though in recent days he frequently heard that his complexion looked dark or that he looked sick… still, it was his first time hearing that he looked gloomy.

“Oh, you’re pouting.”

Had his sullen mood revealed itself on the outside? Cha Jaeyi raised a finger and teased him. Seolwon, before he knew it, talked back with lips that had poked out.

“I didn’t pout.”

“You really did pout.”

“…”

Seolwon, who honestly was indeed pouting, couldn’t deny it further and let out a low sigh.

“Alright, I’ll correct it for you. Steeped in melancholy—how about this level. It’s fine, right?”

It was six of one and half a dozen of the other. Not even that he was drenched, but something like steeped. This felt like a guy who gave a disease was handing over a pesticide while pretending it was medicine. While his mood had merely been sullen a moment ago, now he was about to get annoyed.

“By the way, don’t you think it’s too much of just me asking questions? What about Mr. Han Seolwon? Do you have anything you’re curious about regarding me?”

He didn’t particularly have anything. Since he was completely caught, it would be difficult to hand over information to President Kim. Investigating further was useless.

“No…”

So he was about to say honestly that he didn’t have anything,

“There’s no way you wouldn’t, right?”

The opponent brought pressure. He was in a spirit where he would drag him back to that incinerator if he didn’t say there was. Startled, Seolwon had no choice but to rack his brain. Fortunately, after a brief contemplation, a question came to mind.

“That… I am curious as to why you are doing this to me, indeed.”

It was a question squeezed out by force, but he was genuinely curious. Even until now, Seolwon could not know the purpose of all his actions aimed at him.

“I think I told you yesterday, it’s because I became interested.”

The returning answer from Cha Jaeyi was simple and clear.

“Did you forget in the meantime? Is your memory a bit lacking?”

The appended interrogation was relentless.

He would rather it be teasing like earlier, but it was a nuance that truly doubted his intelligence. Flares of anger rising instantly, Seolwon clenched his two fists tightly.

“I do remember. But it’s because I have absolutely no way of knowing what the purpose of that interest is.”

Let’s say yesterday’s events were like that because his intentions were suspected, sure. If, as he said, he was such an outstanding human that he was frequently plagued by stalkers, he could have possessed an interest with the purpose of retaliation, viewing the meeting with him in that light. In fact, it was also true that he met him after going to the drinking party with an impure purpose.

But even though he came to know the whole story, far from inflicting harm, he brought him to this kind of place, let him sleep, treated him, and even tries to feed him. Furthermore, revealing his personal details which weren’t asked. This was an action close to goodwill, no matter how one viewed it. The problem was that no matter how much he thought about it, there was no reason for him to possess goodwill toward him. If anything, he would possess hostility.

“You’re asking something obvious. Isn’t it natural? I’m interested in you, meaning I want to strip you once, that’s what it means.”

“St…rip me?”

“What is the appropriate word that can go after ‘strip’?”

…Clothes.

So it meant I want to strip your clothes, and that I want to strip your clothes means…

“It means I want to fuck you.”

“…!”

What the low expression implied was very explicit. Without a shred of room to interpret it differently.

Toward Seolwon’s complexion, which had turned pale white from shock rather than turning ripe red from embarrassment, Cha Jaeyi giggled.

“W-What on earth… why, why do you h-have, have s-such, such thoughts…?”