By Zephyria 
“Phew. It’s hot, so hot.”
As soon as he stepped out of the car, he felt stinging gazes. Gyu-oh shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand and looked up. Silhouettes were huddled together by the windows of a shabby three-story building. Receiving those looks—a mix of vigilance and curiosity—with his whole body, he picked up a box of energy drinks under his arm.
Thud. The moment he closed the car door, the figures clinging to the windows disappeared. Gyu-oh gave his shoulders a needless shudder and stepped into the entrance of the shabby building. Perhaps it had originally been a shopping center, as various business names were written on the stair walls. Humming and reciting the shop names one by one, he soon arrived at the third floor.
“Is this the place?”
He looked through an old glass door with a ping-pong paddle sticker that was half-peeled off. Beyond the dusty, blurred glass, he could see burly men standing with their chests puffed out. The corners of his mouth curled up instantly.
“Seeing them act like that, it’s definitely here.”
Without hesitation, Gyu-oh grabbed the handle and pulled the glass door open. The first man he made eye contact with recognized Gyu-oh immediately.
“I wondered who it was. You’re the one they sent?”
“Have you all been well?”
Gyu-oh gave a sloppy salute with his fingertips. While doing so, he scanned the faces of the men inside one by one. Though his memory was hazy, most of them were familiar since they had spent a long time at Seong-tak.
“It’s been a while, so I thought it would be rude to come empty-handed.”
He placed the beverage box on a blue table that looked as if it had been stolen from a convenience store. A cold silence fell, broken only by the clinking of bottles inside the box.
“A guest has arrived, yet they won’t even offer a chair.”
“Hey.”
One of the men, who seemed to have some seniority, gave a small jerk of his chin. At that, a large man standing in the corner hesitated before dragging a plastic chair over and dropping it with a thud at Gyu-oh’s feet. They weren’t exactly welcoming, but they weren’t entirely hostile either. Given this attitude, it felt like he might be able to persuade them to some extent with words. But how long would this attitude last? Gyu-oh shifted his cheek and perched on the chair.
“I had my suspicions when I saw the construction company changed this time. Have you already reached that level of seniority?”
“That’s how it happened. Life is unpredictable, isn’t it? Won Gyu-oh, who used to get chewed out by his hyungs, is now walking around with his own business cards.”
He curled his thumb and middle finger together and then snapped them open with force, his fingertips hitting the beverage box. Thud. The relatively loud sound drew everyone’s attention to one spot. Tucked into the edge of the box was a crisp business card with Gyu-oh’s name embossed in silver.
“They’re expensive, so I only brought one. Let’s all take a look.”
He added the words playfully, crinkling his nose. Several pairs of eyes naturally shifted toward Gyu-oh. Gyu-oh brushed off the hems of his training pants, which he had worn specifically to look casual. One of the men, staring intently at every single movement, asked in a raspy voice.
“Considering the old times, you’ll pay us plenty, right?”
“The market appraisal has already been done. Of course, I’ll match that.”
“Hey. If you think we’re going to back off for just that, we wouldn’t have held out in the first place.”
The man snorted and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his inner pocket. He then held out a single cigarette toward Gyu-oh.
“Greed only invites disaster. You’ve experienced it, so don’t you know that?”
With a smile still lingering on his lips, Gyu-oh took the filter between his teeth. He tilted his head slightly and cast his gaze downward. When he heard no sound of a lighter for a long while, he flicked his eyes up to stare at the man.
“Light. Not giving it?”
His pronunciation was muffled because of the cigarette, but the man seemed to understand perfectly. The man, holding an opaque red lighter, let out a hollow laugh. Then, he flicked the lighter. Zzzzt, the tip of Gyu-oh’s cigarette caught fire.
“This is a new approach. The companies that came before were practically crawling on their bellies to please us.”
“And because you treated them like that, the compensation money just kept climbing without end, didn’t it?”
These bastards had been nibbling the compensation amount up until now. If there was a sign of compliance, they’d raise it a bit more; if it looked like that would be accepted, they’d sneakily raise it again. They said that game had been going on for over a year. As a result, the compensation was now 50 percent higher than the initial appraisal.
“We’ve got to make a living too. Right? There were so many guys with nowhere to go after Seong-tak collapsed overnight.”
The man continued talking while staring intently at Gyu-oh.
“Looking back, I wonder if I should have attached myself to your line. I heard money is overflowing over there.”
The man cleared his throat and spat out a glob of phlegm. Gyu-oh let out a smirk as he looked at the lump of spit that landed near his feet.
“I saw you driving a nice car, too. You’re doing well, aren’t you? Throw in a bit extra for us.”
“Extra? How much?”
“Fifty percent. Just add that much, and I’ll step aside quietly for the sake of old times.”
Did he think Gyu-oh didn’t know this was the highest amount they had requested so far? Gyu-oh took a deep drag of the cigarette until his cheeks hollowed. As he exhaled, the pale grey smoke scattered, obscuring the man’s face.
“Did we really have that much ‘old times’ between us?”
Gyu-oh didn’t take his eyes off the man until the smoke subsided.
“…Dig through your memories a bit more. Why wouldn’t we?”
The man frowned and waved a hand in the air. As the smoke cleared quickly, his face, wrinkled in irritation, became clear.
“….”
Strangely, seeing that face plastered with greed reminded him of Min-ho. He wondered if Min-ho had been unable to sleep again lately, as his eyes were bloodshot and he’d been wearing his glasses often. If he had to step into a situation like this, he’d be truly exhausted.
Nevertheless, he had a feeling that Min-ho would soon be joined in this work. It was a hasty thought that occurred only three minutes after sitting down, but Gyu-oh’s intuition was rarely wrong.
After about an hour of fruitless conversation, he left the building. All the way until he drove away from the building, gazes clung to the window, chasing the rear of the car.
“They’re certainly very interested.”
A fed-up voice echoed low in the car. Only after completely leaving the bleak neighborhood did Gyu-oh bring the phone to his ear. The voice on the other end came through immediately, as if waiting.
—Why have those bastards become so crooked?
Min-ho, who must have been listening to the entire conversation, spoke in a tone of disbelief. Following the sound of a click of the tongue, Gyu-oh clicked his tongue in the same way.
“I don’t know. Their inferiority complex is insane.”
Just as Min-ho said, the men had been sarcastic throughout the conversation. The topic was almost entirely about Gyu-oh, to the point where the talk about redevelopment compensation barely lasted.
They sneered that the guy who used to run errands for them and get called for assemblies every time now didn’t know how things worked just because he made some money. They mocked him, asking if he couldn’t even use a calculator because he only wore nice cars and nice watches. There was no will to compromise; they only seemed concerned with Gyu-oh’s appearance.
—Their determination to pull off a big score is firm.
“Exactly. Fuck, maybe I should have walked? They were acting out even toward the car.”
Normally, he would have come on his motorcycle. But because Min-ho had confiscated the keys, he had no choice but to take the car. He had brought the most modest car, the one furthest from his own taste, yet it had only served to stimulate their jealousy.
—Looking at them, I think it would’ve been the same even if you went stark naked.
The calm voice on the line seemed to soothe the nerves that had been on edge throughout. Without hesitation, Gyu-oh changed lanes. He shifted his destination from home to the company where Min-ho would be.
“Should I just go naked to the next appointment? To completely crush their spirit so they can’t even utter a word?”
—Stop talking nonsense.
“Why? Didn’t you hear earlier? They told me to fuck off. I’m just offering to actually show them my cock.”
Since Min-ho’s voice lacked enthusiasm for anything other than work, Gyu-oh felt he had to joke around like this. Fortunately, Min-ho responded with a hollow laugh, though fatigue still lingered in his voice.
—Why the hell would you show your cock to strangers?
Then why do you show your cock to strangers, Hyung? You definitely went out around midnight yesterday saying you had an appointment. You must have gone to meet some rootless bum. That’s why you hated me following you so much.
Seeing as he didn’t smell of alcohol this morning, it meant he definitely did something else instead of drinking. And yet, a man like that asks me why I’d show my cock to strangers? An ugly retort rose to the tip of his throat, but he pushed it back down.
“Ahem, hmm.”
After discovering Cha Min-ho’s secret, he had become excessively concerned and fond of him. Having watched him from the side, he realized that despite appearances, Min-ho was a precarious person who suffered greatly from loneliness. While he acted as if he had built a solid wall, he actually needed a place to lean on more than anyone. He was the complete opposite of Gyu-oh.
He always seemed to crave something stable, but to think he was enduring it with strong liquor and one-night stands. Gyu-oh had decided not to interfere since that was how Hyung lived and a choice he made for himself, but it wasn’t easy.
Perhaps he wasn’t entirely devoid of the arrogance of thinking his presence might be helpful. Of course, that didn’t mean he intended to shoulder all of Hyung’s anxieties.
—Anyway, get some rest now.
“Got it.”
The call ended without any particular lingering. However, Gyu-oh only increased his speed toward the destination he had already set. He thought that if he had come on his motorcycle, he could have arrived faster.
“…Hmm.”
Naturally, the situation from yesterday when Min-ho took his motorcycle keys came to mind.
Since Min-ho had unusually stayed quietly in the office until midnight, Gyu-oh thought he was going straight home. But when Min-ho suddenly left him behind without hesitation, saying he had an appointment, Gyu-oh quietly followed on his motorcycle. But something was strange. The black car, which he expected to head toward a nearby hotel, was heading in the direction of Gyu-oh’s house.
‘….’
There are no hotels near my house. Or is he going to that bum’s house? They’re just a one-night stand, and he’s risking following him all the way home? That Hyung is truly crazy for sex, just crazy. Gyu-oh deliberately slowed down and followed, keeping a distance to avoid being noticed.
He had hoped it wasn’t the case, but Min-ho’s car entered his own apartment’s parking lot. Is he hooking up with a guy who lives in my office-tel? Did he have that kind of face? While these confused thoughts continued, Min-ho slowed down in front of the motorcycle parking area and got out of the car.