Rabbit Hole Chapter 8

“Hey. Still, it suited me better, right?”

“No.”

Honestly, he did think it suited him well, but not better than hyung. Even though he had been swept along and fucked again, his right mind was still perfectly intact.

Anyway, Go San was the type to ask and then not even pretend to listen. He tilted his head back, then sat up and placed the sole of his foot against Geumseo’s knee. His large foot covered half of his thigh.

“You were delicious.”

“Huh?”

“You haven’t slept with Go Unha?”

“Of course not…!”

“You can’t even confess properly, and the one confession you did manage was received by the wrong person. And you can’t even bring yourself to pounce on him either. What have you been doing all this time? Just watching?”

Go San said that as if that was the thing that was truly creepy. Well, Geumseo retorted as if to say, what would someone like you, who only has physical relationships, know about my pure heart.

“I, I don’t like hyung Unha in that sense….”

At those words, Go San burst into hearty laughter. The laughter echoed off the high ceiling. After laughing for a long while, Go San asked back.

“Then what sense is it. You’re happy just looking at him? There’s no such thing. Is that what you call liking someone?”

“Why are you talking like that? I do like him! Someone like you, who just grinds up against anyone and sleeps with them, wouldn’t know! Have you ever even liked anyone?”

“So if someone comes onto you, you just stay still?”

“If it were hyung, he would have.”

“Go Unha?”

Go San burst out laughing again.

“I guarantee, absolutely not. And I don’t do this to just anyone either. I have taste. Go Unha, Yang Geumseo. Seriously, that guy is worse than me.”

However, Geumseo, who harbored a fondness close to fandom for Go Unha, didn’t doubt his belief one bit. He let the remark that Go San didn’t do this to just anyone go in one ear and out the other.

He didn’t trust what Go San said. Who trusts Go San? At least he himself didn’t. He clearly heard me going hyung Unha, hyung… you bastard.

Unaware of Geumseo’s tender feelings, Go San kept teasing him.

“You really like Go Unha that much? Never seen a bastard with such unique taste.”

“How many people like hyung Unha…. Even people so cool that someone like me doesn’t even register, they all like hyung Unha….”

“You call bastards with their eyes on the ground like that cool? The world’s gotten weird these days.”

The words came out of Go San’s mouth as carelessly as could be, he who lived in a weirder way than anyone in the world.

“Hyung has a great reputation, high trust from people… he’s solid.”

“You even know words like reputation?”

“…”

“And don’t just stick words like solid anywhere. You don’t even know what solid actually means, do you?”

“I do know….”

That’s why he used it. Go San just didn’t know about Go Unha’s flawless lifestyle, the trust people around him had in him, the expectations that adults, including teachers, had held for him since high school. Of course he didn’t know. Go San hadn’t attended school and had been homeschooled.

As he straightened his upper body, the muscles settled across Go San’s torso rippled. His will to put up a fight shrank in an instant.

“If you’re going to keep saying bad things about hyung Unha, I’m leaving….”

“There’d have to be good things to say.”

“You know perfectly well I like him, so why do you insist on talking badly about hyung to me?”

“Because he’s a bad guy.”

The conversation was going in circles. Geumseo, now feeling wronged, lunged at him.

“I said stop it!”

“Having fun, are we.”

Even when he lunged with all his strength and weight, Go San dodged easily. Then, as if even that was too bothersome, he just let himself get hit. There was a reason. No matter how much he swung his arms, only his own hands hurt, and Go San was completely unaffected. Geumseo eventually gave up. Go San’s skin, pale to the point of pallor, had only turned a little red and it was clear it wouldn’t even bruise.

It was a body reminiscent of a shark. Sleek and beautiful, but if you graze against it, you die. Unlike Go San’s body, which wouldn’t even bruise no matter how hard you threw yourself at it, the backs of his own thighs and his ass, which had been smacked soundly all through yesterday, were already a mess of bruises.

“Hungry?”

Go San capriciously changed the subject. He set Geumseo aside and stood up as if nothing had happened. It was a sudden action, as if Yang Geumseo couldn’t exert any influence on him. Flustered by the casual question, Geumseo ended up nodding.

“Let’s eat something once I wash up. Worked up a bit of a body, so I’m peckish.”

That was a bit? If that was a bit, Geumseo prayed he would never in his life find out what it was like when he worked it a lot.

Soon Go San disappeared into the bathroom.

Geumseo, who had been sitting quietly with his head bowed, snapped his head up at the sound of the door closing. Then he swiftly, swiftly searched the house. His legs felt as if they had frozen in the O shape they had been spread in because of Go San. Even in his haste, his legs walked clumsily and awkwardly.

“This should do, right…?”

Geumseo pulled out a pair of elastic-waist pants from Go San’s closet. He yanked the drawstring as tight as he could and tied it with all his might, so they barely managed not to slip down. Then he came back out and found the wallet tossed on the egg-shaped giant table that looked like it could seat ten people. Fortunately, there was cash.

“There’s only 50,000 won bills….”

So Geumseo, who had meant to steal just 10,000 won, became a thief of a 50,000 won bill out of necessity. Not knowing that the pants he had rolled up and was wearing cost 500,000 won.

Finally, Geumseo slipped on slippers worth 1.3 million won and left the house. He tried to take the bus, but defeated by the harsh snowy wind blowing outside, he decided to catch a taxi.

Go San came out a little less than ten minutes after Geumseo had left. And as soon as he came out, he knew Yang Geumseo had run away. Because Yang Geumseo, who couldn’t even use his body well when he should at least use his body well if he was dumb, couldn’t possibly hide his presence and such.

He picked up the wallet lying open on the table, its mouth gaping. Go San had a good memory. No matter how messily it was left, he clearly remembered where its original place was.

“So it was a little rat?”

And soon Go San discovered a cell phone. It wasn’t his.

“…No, he’s just an idiot.”

Go San grabbed it, picked up his keys, and went outside.

∞ ∞ ∞

Go San found Geumseo at the end of the alley. Yang Geumseo was in the middle of an argument with the driver. Even though he heard the voice ringing loudly from outside the car door, Go San parked his bike a good distance away and walked over leisurely. Geumseo turned around, shivering. He hadn’t even dried his hair properly before leaving, so how cold he must have been.

Apparently, he had been refused a ride because of his attire and was in the middle of arguing.

Go San leaned his tall frame down, holding onto the car body, and held out a card.

“Sorry. We won’t be taking the ride.”

Even in that moment, Geumseo just stood there trembling.

The taxi driver left, and Geumseo, who hadn’t even managed to run away properly, felt a preemptive guilt and held out the 50,000 won bill, which was less than the price of the clothes he was wearing. Go San looked down at it blankly, then pushed that hand away. Geumseo, thinking Go San had misunderstood, even confessed.

“It’s your money, this….”

“You keep it.”

Go San acted as if the 50,000 won was a borrowed eraser or something.

“Sorry I can only give you that much after a good meal.”

Then he added something he didn’t need to say. Geumseo would understand that the “good meal” was about him later, much later—around the time he went home, lay down, and tried to fall asleep.

Clothes that didn’t even fit, hair blown about by the wind and slightly frozen. Go San took the helmet that was hanging and placed it on Geumseo’s head.

“It’s too big. It’s heavy.”

“That’s because your head is small. Get on.”

Geumseo climbed on without putting up a fuss.

“Aren’t you going to hold onto my waist.”

“I’m holding on.”

“If you don’t hold on properly, you die.”

Not that he’d get hurt, but that he’d die, so he had to hold on. Geumseo hugged him tight. Go San soon started the bike. Geumseo belatedly asked where they were going, but Go San didn’t hear him well. Go San answered something, but Geumseo couldn’t make out his voice either.

Without telling him where they were going, the place they arrived at was a Korean restaurant. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed hard to enter looking the way he did, but Go San just dragged him along regardless.

“San, I’m tired. My legs hurt….”

“You really are a piece of work.”

“It’s because you spread them apart, isn’t it….”

His whining should have been annoying, but it was strangely arousing. Had he come out for nothing? It was the kind of sound that would have made him strip Geumseo right back down and start over if they were at home.