A Scorching Day Chapter 65

“Haah— I thought I’d finally get to sleep in a bit yesterday, but then suddenly Cheonghyeon of all things… Ugh, so annoying.”

“What the hell are they doing? How many times is this now?”

It was just as Gawon arrived for work and was crossing the hallway. From inside the slightly ajar waiting room door, the grumbling voices of a few hostesses leaked out.

Gawon unconsciously stopped in his tracks. If it had been gossip about him, he wouldn’t have paid it any mind, but the word ‘Cheonghyeon’ had caught his ear.

“Anyway, it’s so exhausting because of Yoo Huiwon. He flaked out, so I had to fill in last minute and lost my day off.”

Flaked out…? Gawon’s brow furrowed faintly.

Unlike the other employees here, whose schedules were set in advance, even that was unclear for him. Whenever Kim Byeonggwan ordered, “Rest tomorrow,” that day became Gawon’s holiday. He worked without rest except for two or three days off a month at most, so hearing he had flaked out felt a bit unfair.

“Ugh, he’s so damn unlucky. A dick with a guard trailing him everywhere. If you’re a man, go after some ajummas—who wants to sit on the lap of someone with the same parts? Anyway, he’s got no shame.”

“I know, right. Hey, but did you see the Cheonghyeon Managing Director who came yesterday?”

They suddenly changed the subject, having been gleefully tearing Gawon apart.

“He’s so fucking cute, isn’t he? Great body too. I thought he was a model. How can he look like that?”

“The Cheonghyeon girls brag about him all the time. Saying their Managing Director is handsome and has good manners.”

“That’s hilarious. He’s not even their man, what’s there to brag about? But is he really that nice? He doesn’t hit them?”

“He’s a bit scary, but he doesn’t hit. And they say he doesn’t charge debt even if they take time off sick. Maybe it’s because he’s young? Seems like he’s got a soft heart.”

“What luck, fuck. Meanwhile we’re busting our asses off here.”

Cheonghyeon Managing Director? Gawon tilted his head. Why would someone like that come all the way down here? The brief curiosity soon scattered like crumbs. It must have been for management purposes, since the establishments were under the same organization.

“But why would the Cheonghyeon Managing Director come here…”

“Hey.”

Just then, an icy voice cut in. Startled, Gawon turned around just as a foot shot out from behind and kicked the door shut with a bang!

“Kyaaa!”

“You bitches seem to have greased your tongues pretty well? You’re talking a lot of shit.”

Kim Byeonggwan, radiating a menacing aura, stormed into the waiting room. The women, who had been lounging and chattering, screamed in shock. Approaching one of them, Kim Byeonggwan shoved her forehead tauntingly.

“You want your mouths ripped open? Huh? Just say the word. I’ll tear them all the way up to the top of your heads.”

“S-Sorry.”

“We’re sorry…”

The women trembled and dropped their gazes. Kim Byeonggwan cracked his knuckles and muttered in a chilling voice.

“Shut the fuck up and read the room. Don’t come crying after your tongues get ripped out. If I catch you saying that kind of shit just one more time, I swear. Got it?”

Leaving the women answering in hushed, cowering voices, Kim Byeonggwan walked out of the room. Gawon stared up at him. A fierce, savage gaze and a questioning one tangled for a moment.

Why on earth.

But as always, Gawon couldn’t get anything out of him. Snapping his gaze away, he roughly grabbed Gawon’s arm and yanked him along.

“What were you doing eavesdropping like a rat over there? Go get ready for work.”

Gawon’s space was a tiny room attached to the waiting room shared by the male escorts. Solitary confinement. He thought there was no better word for it, and quietly stepped inside.

The clock read 6 p.m. From now until dawn, he’d have to drink and open his body nonstop. Please, let him get through it without serious injury, safely… A vast, suffocating despair gripped his throat.

∞ ∞ ∞

Clack.

Gawon’s footsteps staggered terribly as he entered through the door. Even though he downed hard liquor every single day, his body just wouldn’t adapt. Having been forced to drink more than he could handle, his head spun.

The manager had told him not to be foolish and to just pour it out discreetly, but if caught wasting alcohol, he’d get beaten and charged a fee—all on the employee’s tab. After going through that a couple of times, he’d concluded it was better to just drink it.

Bang. The door next door closed in succession. That was where Kim Byeonggwan stayed. The absurdly thin walls meant he could hear every footstep and phone call. It was two units in name only—in reality, it was no different from the room next door.

“Haah…”

His head spun. The stench of cigarettes and stale alcohol clinging to his body disgusted him. Staggering to the bathroom, Gawon grabbed the toilet and vomited up all the liquor he’d swallowed through the night. With hardly any real food in him, only thin liquid came out.

Even while showering, he nearly collapsed several times. Exhausted beyond measure, his limbs trembled. Barely managing to turn off the water and step out, Gawon couldn’t withstand the wave of lethargy that washed over him and crumpled to the floor.

Over the past few years, his body had wasted away and weakened terribly. Fainting wasn’t anything surprising—it had happened more than once or twice. But being found naked by Kim Byeonggwan was something he’d rather die than endure.

Crawling on all fours, he barely managed to pull out some clothes. Only after putting on a short-sleeved t-shirt, underwear, and pants did a wave of relief wash over him.

Without even thinking to spread out his blanket, Gawon collapsed right there and immediately closed his eyes. A dizzy spell so strong it made him nauseous surged in waves.

As sleep swirled and pulled Gawon’s consciousness under, he was forced to face the afterimages he least wanted to see.

‘Is that the one? That bastard Kwak Cheoljung was working on.’

‘Yeah, that bitch’s kid.’

The beginning of the terrible nightmare always started there. The first day he was brought to Maehwa, led by the hands of men.

Immediately after his mother’s death, Gawon had been confined somewhere unknown for several days. Just as he thought he might go mad in the endless darkness, he was loaded into a car like a piece of meat and transported somewhere else again.

When he finally opened his eyes where he’d been thrown, unfamiliar men were waiting for him.

‘Happy New Year, you fuck. What perfect timing to get delivered, huh?’

One man whistled, and everyone snickered and laughed. In the dim, foul-smelling room, a TV behind them was ringing out the Bosingak bell.

‘Looks pretty usable. Hey, bring the fresh meat and lay him down. We gotta have a big initiation.’

‘Been a while since I stretched my limbs.’

Overwhelming fear engulfed Gawon. With a pale, terrified face, he struggled with all his might, but his tightly bound limbs wouldn’t budge.

The tip of a blade sliced Gawon’s clothes dangerously close. The men’s snickering laughter slithered around his ears like serpents, and their sinister, sticky gazes swept over his defenseless bare skin. Thrown among the men’s rough hands, Gawon trembled and screamed for his life.

It was a terrifyingly long night. Shedding countless tears, blood, saliva, and sweat… that night, faced with the violence of the lowest depths and the darkness of the abyss, Gawon lost something he had been holding onto. The solid heart that could be called his core. The will to live that he had clung to with all his might for twenty years.

All those sensations were still vivid even after three years. The pain, etched too clearly, came alive even in cheap, liquor-dazed sleep.

“It hurts, stop… it hurts… please stop, stop…”

The nightmare that held Gawon in its heavy grip was tighter than the cable ties that had bound his limbs back then. Even as he sobbed and begged, the obstinate drowsiness refused to release him back to the surface.

Perversely, the nightmare always played in reverse. After the horrible night he had been toyed with by the men for a full day, the memory that came to Gawon next was his mother’s death.

The men chuckled and traded crude jokes, while his mother, her joints twisted grotesquely, writhed on the floor in agony. Begging that it hurt, that it hurt too much, she slowly died. Even as he cried until his voice gave out, screaming to please save her… Gawon’s hoarse voice was nothing more than entertainment to the men.

And then, the piercingly blue flower petals inked across the back of one of those men.

While working here, he’d picked up bits and pieces. The blue roses covering their backs were said to symbolize the managers of ‘Cheonghyeon.’

The flower on the back of the man who had snickered and mocked while his mother lay dying was seared deep into Gawon’s mind. Even now, just recalling those blue petals inked across that bulging, lumpy muscle made his stomach churn and bile rise.