Rabbit Hole Chapter 32

He poked with his fingertip at the spot where Heo Sangmuk had struck. Geumseo’s skin was thin and pale, so marks showed very easily. Unlike Go San, whose skin, though equally fair, made any wound vanish quickly like a beach swept clean by the waves.

“Th-that’s… that’s….”

“No. You know what, just don’t speak. I think I can roughly guess.”

Go San murmured brightly, then rummaged in the back pocket of his pants. What came out was a crumpled check.

“Here, yours.”

Then, in the same bright tone, he made Geumseo bite down on the hem of the sweatshirt, clamping it between his teeth. His mouth was gagged in an instant.

“Something that’s been in someone else’s hands is dirty, so….”

Are you talking about the check or are you talking about me?

He wanted to ask, but his mouth was blocked, so he couldn’t.

Go San took off the black short-sleeved t-shirt he was wearing too. Muscles built tight without steroids seemed to each be alive individually. In that state, Go San closed his eyes, made a “mm” sound, and furrowed his brow.

“Ha, fuck, Geumseo-ya… I’m so angry right now… what should I do. I really don’t think I can control it.”

“…”

“If it were up to me, I’d just want to strangle you.”

“…”

“Why are you letting someone else grab your ass? Can anyone grab it as long as they pay? But you told me no. Fuck, should I be happy that you gave me special treatment, right now?”

Having finished those words, Go San opened his eyes in a flash. Geumseo’s shoulders trembled. Go San’s eyes had completely lost it. Only now did he remember Go Unha’s advice. Don’t make San angry. Hyung, if you were going to say that, you should have told me how to calm him down when I do make him angry.

“It makes me not want to give you money either…. In case I end up having something in common with that bastard.”

“…”

“Come on, say something.”

Go San, who had been pinching and pressing the bridge of his own nose, pulled the cloth from Geumseo’s mouth. Drool stretched out in a long string. With his nose stuffy and hiccupping on top of it, Geumseo’s face was a mess.

“I, I thought, hic, I thought you were the one who sent him.”

“Why? Because I said I knew the place?”

Sniffling miserably, Geumseo neither nodded nor answered.

“At f-first, just at first, for a moment, that kind of… that kind of thought….”

“But it turns out I came to rescue you. Just like a script. Like a hero in a movie.”

If he were a hero, he wouldn’t have come to save a citizen and scolded him this much. Still, Geumseo nodded for now. Haeju hyung, who supposedly existed to protect his employees, had looked utterly indifferent when he asked to be saved—more like a hero than anyone—and among the employees, someone chose to close the door instead of being a good Samaritan. In the end, Go San was the only one who opened the door, came in, and dragged Heo Sangmuk off of him.

“Haah…. Yang Geumseo-ya. If that were the case, would I have been a swimmer instead of running a production company? You just have shitty luck. And every time that happens, I’m the one who saves you.”

Every time? Isn’t this the first time? No, there was that shop too. Geumseo looked at Go San with blank eyes, a blank gaze.

“I have shitty luck…?”

At the vacantly asked question, Go San answered brightly.

“Yep. It’s not your fault, but it’s kind of amazing how strangely weird things keep getting tangled up for you.”

Go San used his hands to gently wipe the wetness from Geumseo’s face. His cheeks were pushed, his lips were pushed. “You’re going to bruise,” he clicked his tongue disapprovingly, and Geumseo even felt comforted, forgetting it was Go San who had slapped one of his cheeks.

“What to do. You ended up getting fired from here too.”

Go San smiled mischievously, as if nothing had happened. Geumseo felt that bright face was transporting him to a different genre. Anywhere but on the leatherette sofa.

“How about it? Shall I take you with me? I will?”

Go San asked, like a mischievous lover. Still with his lips wet, Geumseo stared blankly, then nodded. At that, Go San pulled Geumseo up with an “eutcha.” His upper body was yanked upright, and when he came to his senses, he was standing on the bare floor. His shoes were nowhere to be seen, and the check fluttered down like a scrap of tissue. Geumseo, watching it, went “wehk,” and suddenly turned around and vomited. The orange liquor came out just as it was.

Go San, who Geumseo had expected to say at least one thing like “You do all sorts of things” or “Serves you right,” surprisingly didn’t scold him. He opened a new bottle of water, poured it, and told him to gargle and spit. Geumseo spat it right out into the room he had cleaned and set up himself. Go San, taking the water bottle, roughly wiped Geumseo’s face with a tissue. To the dazed Geumseo under his rough touch, Go San asked.

“Are you going to take that?”

He meant the check. If he said he would take it, he felt it would be stuffed into his mouth. Perhaps his sensor was working properly this time, as Geumseo shook his head.

“You thought well. Let’s go, then.”

Go San didn’t tell Geumseo to put on his pants or his shoes. Instead, he picked Geumseo up. He had felt it when he dragged Heo Sangmuk away, but he really was incredibly strong. He had dragged Heo Sangmuk like that, so carrying him would be nothing. Like a koala, Geumseo wrapped his legs around Go San’s waist and hugged his arms around him too. At that, Go San let out a clear, ringing laugh. Along with a “haha,” he rubbed his nose and lips against Geumseo’s side hair and ear, wet with sweat and tears.

“Say my name.”

“Go San….”

“No. Just my name.”

“San-ah….”

“Yeah. You’re grateful to San, right?”

Go San asked, calling his own name. Geumseo was looking at the red hallway floor, which seemed to undulate, over Go San’s shoulder. He felt nauseous. He caught sight of the server standing tall, looking this way with a surprised face. It was the one who had closed the door. His gaze went from Geumseo’s face to the back of Go San’s head, then to Geumseo’s slender, exposed calves. Even if the sweatshirt was very large, he would know that underneath he was bare. But Geumseo didn’t even feel like covering up. He was just tired.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

So he answered without thinking at all. It was a mindset like dispensing a drink because a coin had been inserted into a vending machine.

Soon, Go San turned a corner. Now he could see Haeju hyung. No, Haeju. He wasn’t even worth calling hyung. Indeed, it seemed the only hyung in his life was Unha hyung. Haeju was also looking at him with a complicated expression.

But didn’t he say he was close with the owner, Unha hyung? Geumseo blinked his eyes. Each time he blinked slowly, the scenery changed to a space both familiar and different. Soon, the sound of a door flinging open was heard, and cold wind wrapped around Geumseo’s bare legs. Because it was cold, he reflexively squeezed Go San’s waist tighter. Go San might have laughed.

“But you said you were close with the owner here, Unha hyung.”

Geumseo threw out the words when Go San sat him in the passenger seat and fastened his seatbelt. Unlike usual, Go San had come driving a car instead of his bike. He adjusted the belt to fit Geumseo’s body and nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Then this shop is closer to Unha hyung than to you…?”

“I’m trying to get in a good mood, so why is it Go Unha again.”

Go San asked back in a tone as if he were coaxing a child whose crying had become tiresome. Geumseo shook his head.

“No… just.”

The door closed. With light steps, Go San walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. Then he turned the heater on full blast and murmured like he was humming.

“Our Yang Geumseo must be cold since he’s stark naked down below, so I should turn on the heater so his little pepper doesn’t freeze.”

When they got home, Geumseo showered right away. Even the shower was possible because Go San pushed him in and washed him. Strength had completely drained from his body. It was probably because he had been tense, but Go San said it was because he was cold. When he put it that way, it sort of seemed true.

“Your ass is going to bruise.”

Go San said it as if he himself had never left a single bruise on Geumseo’s body. It had been quite a while since he last slept with Go San, so the marks Go San had left had certainly faded.

“Turn around and face that way.”

Not caring at all that his own clothes were getting wet, Go San directed the showerhead here and there over Geumseo’s body, then turned him around. Then he laid his own hand over the mark left on Geumseo’s buttocks.

“Like this, it becomes mine.”

Traces of someone else’s touch were not a problem at all for Go San. Because he could just overwrite them. Go San squeezed tightly over the handprint until a gasp burst from Geumseo’s mouth. Go San’s hand was, of course, much larger.

“From now on, tell me right away. If something like this happens.”