Hazardous Concentration Chapter 28

‘I’m also curious if it’s because of the drugs or for some other reason.’

‘What? Drugs?’

I asked while twisting my eyebrows, but Yeo Taejun kept his mouth shut, as if he didn’t want to answer. He was a strange person.

Eunhoo watched him for a long while before asking.

‘So the conclusion is that you want to sleep with me? I don’t understand at all, so I’m asking. Yeo… Director, is your preference men?’

Otherwise, why would he be doing this to me?

At Eunhoo’s question, Yeo Taejun wore a bitter smile on his lips.

‘No, I loathe guys.’

Afterwards, he said, “If you even get an erection in front of me… ah, I might just kill you,” and it felt so genuine that it was even more chilling. That was why I couldn’t understand it even more.

‘Th, then why are you doing this to me? I’m a guy, just like the ones Mr. Yeo Taejun loathes.’

What’s the difference between me and other men?

For a moment, a suspicion crossed my mind: Does he know something about my body? It’s not like I’m the only intersex person in the world, but it’s not exactly common either.

For Eunhoo, it was a natural suspicion. Otherwise, there was simply no explanation as to why a man who lacked nothing would make such a proposal to him.

However, no one but my parents should know about my body. Eunhoo was born via home birth, which was quite rare. Because my parents conceived me while fleeing from my maternal grandmother’s opposition, even our relatives only learned of my existence long after I was born. That was why they could keep the secret so thoroughly. Though, there would be records in a few hospitals. Because my parents had once taken a young Eunhoo to a hospital to see if surgery was possible. But after being told that while they could try, it was dangerous, we didn’t go to the hospital anymore.

After that, it was kept a secret known only to my parents and me. Then, recently, my military draft notice came, and I had to reveal the fact that I was intersex once again.

I didn’t know how much Yeo Taejun had investigated me, but it wasn’t a completely groundless suspicion.

‘The reason? There’s no such thing.’

Eunhoo observed him sharply. I wasn’t certain, but it didn’t feel like he knew.

‘I got interested, so I wanted to have you.’

‘What?’

‘Because I have to have what I want.’

‘…’

‘Whether it’s a person or an object.’

The man, who had always possessed whatever he wanted, declared arrogantly.

However, Eunhoo, the party involved, was just stunned. Unable to even think of a reply, he only parted his lips.

Before long, Eunhoo rubbed his forehead with trembling hands. Sweat broke out even though the air conditioner was running.

‘It is fascinating, though.’

What is?

‘That you’re still like a baby.’

At those words, Eunhoo’s face stiffened. It sounded like he was mocking my current state, which had become so shabby that it couldn’t even be compared to the past.

Even though he hadn’t even remembered me until now. After muttering that to himself, the moment he lifted his head to look at him, Eunhoo flinched. Yeo Taejun’s eyes had become sharp. The feeling was different from the gaze I had seen in the alley, but it was so cold that it was hard to look at him recklessly.

‘You wavered when that bastard told you to sell your body earlier.’

Eunhoo’s eyes grew large. Even though I had come to my senses and refused, it was a fact that I had briefly entertained that thought.

How did he…

‘Don’t sell it to anyone else; sell it to me instead.’

He curled the corners of his lips to create a smile.

‘I’ll pay you quite handsomely.’

Eunhoo’s face turned deathly pale.

Sting!

“Ugh!”

Coming out of his recollection due to the sharp pain, Eunhoo lowered his gaze. Perhaps because of the pressure, yellow pus was oozing out from between the bandages.

A few days ago, Eunhoo paid off the last of the interest. Whenever I visited HW Capital, I always felt terrified and hateful, but I had never felt as horrible as I did this time.

I couldn’t fully trust Yeo Taejun’s word that nothing would happen. While there hadn’t been any direct harm yet, you never knew. If I went in, I would have to face the collection agent again, so how could I see him? If he used the incident from that time as an excuse to cause trouble….

My hands trembled with all sorts of terrible imaginings. Eunhoo paced in front of the HW Capital building for over 30 minutes before finally entering. Even that was done out of desperation because his break time was barely left.

To start with the conclusion, surprisingly, nothing happened. The staff, who were always visible whenever I went, were still there, but the collection agent was nowhere to be seen. That was surprising, but the sexual harassment comments that used to be tossed my way like a habit had also disappeared. Dumbfounded, I received the interest payment confirmation and was leaving the office when I ran into a thin, gaunt man. As soon as I saw him, Eunhoo’s face stiffened instantly. He was especially vicious even among the people under the collection agent. For a long time, whenever he saw Eunhoo, he would try to intimidate him as if he were displeased.

He stopped for a moment upon seeing Eunhoo, then crumpled his face. He stared at me with eyes sparking with blue flames, as if he were frustrated that he wanted to pour something out but couldn’t.

Thump, thump. Carrying a heart that was beating loudly with anxiety, Eunhoo moved to pass by him as if to run away.

‘What is your relationship with Yeo Taejun from TS?’

It was just as I had turned my back on him. At the low-voiced question, Eunhoo flinched.

‘You don’t know that he didn’t just break Mr. Hyungtaek’s nose bone, but completely shattered his face? They say that was that guy’s doing.’

The man continued, saying that his nose had collapsed completely, leaving him with no choice but to undergo surgery to lift the bone, and that he had even suffered visual impairment due to an orbital fracture, so he couldn’t move a muscle.

‘After making someone into that state, you’ve been sleeping soundly, you son of a bitch?’

Seeing him collapse covered in blood, I had thought it wouldn’t be a minor injury, but hearing the state of it so directly made Eunhoo’s hands tremble uncontrollably. However, all of this was that man’s own doing. If he hadn’t tried to pull that kind of stunt back then, nothing would have happened.

‘…What are you trying to say?’

The man, who laughed as if the question were absurd, thrust his face close to Eunhoo’s.

‘…!’

Watching Eunhoo pull his body back in repulsion, he frowned and gritted his teeth as if chewing something up, saying:

‘Do you know what that TS Director Yeo is called in this industry?’

‘…’

‘Grim Reaper, Human Butcher.’

They were horrific words to attach to a human being.

‘Everyone misunderstands because his face is so polished, but don’t you know that even our CEO can’t say a word because of how vicious that man is?’

‘…’

‘I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with that toxic human, but I’ll give you one piece of advice for the sake of the years we’ve seen each other’s faces. That Yeo Taejun guy is a truly scary person. They say a man named Executive Director Lee, who had been a TS executive for a long time, recently went missing. Rumor has it that Yeo Taejun killed him and cleared him away, so you be careful too. If you get in his way, someone like you could disappear without a trace.’

‘…’

Yeo Taejun, who had praised my handwriting and smiled, and Yeo Taejun, who had shattered a man’s face with a cold expression, came to mind simultaneously.

Afterwards, Eunhoo fled the place as if running away. I could continue to feel his gaze on my back, but I ignored it.

Whoosh.

The water brushed past the wounded area. While washing vegetables, I flinched, and my shoulders curled inward.

“It hurts….”

Eunhoo opened and closed his throbbing finger, biting his lower lip painfully.

∞ ∞ ∞

Time flowed by rapidly. Even while working hard, I couldn’t shake the thought that time was passing meaninglessly. I was enduring day by day with the feeling that I was bearing it, rather than spending it. The ten-day period of the terrible rainy season had passed, and we had entered full-scale summer. The news reported alerts for heat waves daily, and reported cases of people collapsing from heatstroke nearly every day.

Eunhoo agreed. No matter how much it was summer, this was unbearably hot. Especially from noon, when the sunlight was strongest, until 5:00 PM, it was suffocating enough to just stand outside.

Today was a day off for [Songnim]. I was on my way back after working a part-time job at a logistics warehouse early from dawn. Eunhoo headed straight to the bathroom. He turned the faucet to the cold side and poured water over himself, starting from his head. In the past, even in midsummer, I had always showered with warm water, but now it was different. If I didn’t do this, there was no way to cool the flesh that had been baked by the sun.