By Zephyria 
The blinking cursor spat out letters, gradually pushing to the right.
“You, what… ah, what am I?”
Gyu-oh burst into loud laughter as he read the words Son Pro was typing aloud. Then, he erased all the letters on the screen. He quickly typed onto the white screen.
[If you want to know who I am…]
He left a pause as if trailing off, but Son Pro didn’t lift a finger. It would have been great if he could see the screen, too. It was just a pity that his skills hadn’t reached that level yet. Gyu-oh hesitated for a moment with his hands on the keyboard.
[Tomorrow at 9, at the cafe on the 1st floor of the lesson classroom!]
Still, he punctuated it cheerfully and shut down the laptop without mercy. The equipment that had been running noisily came to a halt.
“A pervert’s cock should be cut off before it even gets hard.”
He wasn’t usually one to move in the morning, but this guy needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
He flopped onto the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. While carefully organizing the things he needed to say when he met the man tomorrow, Son Pro’s image suddenly came to mind. He was tall, and perhaps because he played golf, his thighs seemed thick, and his face… it was greasy, but decent enough, right? Unlike Gyu-oh, who looked like a brat, he had a fairly kind aura.
“Ah, fuck. I don’t want to be outdone.”
Gyu-oh bolted upright and hurriedly stepped off the bed. He flipped over the suitcase standing in the corner and crouched low. After rummaging through the open zipper of the suitcase, he eventually scratched his eyebrow. Everything I have looks like trashy street clothes.
After digging through the pile of clothes for a while, Gyu-oh felt a stiff texture at his fingertips. They were the suits he wore whenever he met the Executive Director.
“As expected, nothing beats this for dominating the atmosphere, right?”
Son Pro might have the physique, but I’ve got better suit-fit. It was a bit too deliberate of an outfit, but still.
After hanging the suit in the closet, he hurried to take out a face mask he had kept in the refrigerator. Fiddling with the cold sheet, he curled the corners of his mouth upward.
“Son Pro, you’re dead.”
It was a competition the opponent was unaware of, but he had to win no matter what. While making this resolve with a mask on his face, a small vibration sounded. He peeled off the mask, patted his moist cheeks, and checked the screen.
[Cha Cha Cha: Food]
“It’s Cha Min-ho!”
It was a touching moment, receiving a message from Min-ho after several days. The joy was short-lived; he tilted his head, looking at the text that abruptly just said ‘Food’. Just as he was about to press the call button under the pretext of asking what it meant, the room bell rang.
He approached the door, silencing his footsteps. Looking through the peephole, he saw a staff member standing with their hands behind their back, having placed a tray. He hadn’t ordered room service. Just as he was on high alert without opening the door, another text arrived.
[Cha Cha Cha: Eat]
His stiff lips curved up smoothly. Hyung sent it? Because he was worried about me.
“Ah, and he acts like that when he’s going to take care of me like this.”
Only then did he let go of his suspicion and open the door, allowing the staff member to push the tray inside. He knew the staff member was looking at him strangely while setting up the food, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Until the staff member left the room, Gyu-oh continued to giggle to himself like a crazy person.
“Does this Hyung think about me all day? Ha, seriously.”
Did it weigh on him that Gyu-oh had mentioned being hungry in the car? Was that why he provided food? If he was going to be like this, why did he act so cold?
Perhaps out of embarrassment, Min-ho didn’t answer the phone in the end, but it was fine. He hadn’t particularly been thinking about food, but since Hyung sent it because he was thinking of him, he wouldn’t leave a single bite.
Gyu-oh took his seat and gripped the fork. He couldn’t let Min-ho’s effort go to waste by letting the food get cold.
* * *
“Good morning.”
Son Pro, who had been shaking his leg while sitting in a secluded spot, looked up. Gyu-oh pulled down the center of his sunglasses with his index finger. As he stared silently with his head slightly bowed and eyes looking up, he felt the other man’s gaze scanning him up and down. His face was still as polished and greasy as if it were slathered in butter.
“Sorry, I’m a bit late, right?”
Despite being 30 minutes late, he sat opposite Son Pro with a leisurely stride. Although they had crossed paths once when he went to pick up Min-ho, that was a long time ago, and since then he hadn’t stepped forward openly, so the man likely wouldn’t recognize him. Nevertheless, just in case, he had found and worn sunglasses since early this morning.
“Yoga in the morning is my routine. I came after doing that. Namaste.”
He pressed his palms together and bowed his head slightly. He suppressed a laugh at the piercing gaze.
“….”
Without looking back, he sat sideways and crossed his legs. A persistent gaze followed his hand as he tapped and brushed his wrinkle-free suit pants. It was a look trying to find any clue to identify him. However, since he had covered his tattoos with a turtleneck and intentionally created scars on the back of his hand and upper lip, it wouldn’t be easy to identify him.
“Who are you? Why do you know about the outside party and all that? How much do you know?”
His voice was heavily suppressed, as if he were grinding his molars. Gyu-oh shrugged and tapped his toes.
“Whyyy? Is it something I shouldn’t know?”
Just as Son Pro was about to slam the table with his palm and snap, a staff member with a tray approached.
“Thank you.”
Gyu-oh replied to the staff member, slightly biting the tip of his tongue between his teeth. The strange looks continued, but Gyu-oh did not waver.
“I only have five minutes. There’s no valet here.”
He gestured with his chin toward the cafe door. There, the motorcycle he had ridden for the first time today was parked. It was quite uncomfortable to ride that while dressed in a suit, but since there were no other options, it couldn’t be helped.
“Did the Executive Director order you? To dig into my background? Or, fuck, who paid you to do this?”
Son Pro shouted with a flushed face, while Gyu-oh simply nodded his head and tapped his toes to the music playing in the cafe. Just then, the phone in his inner pocket vibrated loudly.
“Shut up.”
“….”
When he placed his index finger in front of his lips, Son Pro glared at him with an incredulous expression. He knew he sounded obnoxious using English, but since he had played the role of a foreign-born Korean when facing the Executive Director, it was right to maintain that concept in front of Son Pro as well.
The message on the phone was from The Youngest, who was in charge of monitoring Min-ho. He was the only one Gyu-oh had been in regular contact with lately. Min-ho had gone to work at the crack of dawn and seemed to have come down to the first floor to buy coffee. Two photos were attached, showing him standing at the counter talking to Hong-ju, the cafe employee.
With his sunglasses perched on top of his head, Gyu-oh took in Min-ho’s face. Then, he quickly shoved the phone back into his pocket. Hyung will be a little less tired once this bastard in front of me is gone.
“Sorry. Urgent contact. Shall we continue?”
Son Pro let out a hollow laugh and crossed his arms.
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
“I just want to reveal what things the ‘Pro’ has been up to.”
“Reveal? What?”
Son Pro’s attitude was not intimidated at all. He could be confident because he was the Executive Director’s outside party. But it was their job to shake that evidence. If they said it wasn’t true, then it had to become not true.
“Like receiving backdoor money by pretending to be the biological child? Gently poking this company and that company to get paid? Well, there’s plenty.”
“I don’t know where you heard those things, but there’s already clear evidence, so how dare you be so arrogant—”
“I bet not.”
“I’m telling you it’s true! Even the test results—!”
His voice grew louder. Gyu-oh blocked one ear and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and threw it. Son Pro, who had been glaring at him, grabbed and unfolded the bundle.
“You know how to read numbers, right?”
It was a paper that looked identical to the genetic verification test Son Pro had requested, but it stated a complete mismatch. Son Pro’s face crumpled as he glared fiercely.
“…What is this?”
“What do you mean? It’s clear evidence.”
“Fuck, where did you forge this? I told you, I have all the tests!”
The man shouted, his veins popping. Before long, the man’s voice echoed louder than the music playing in the cafe.
“Exactly. That means you forged those tests too, Son Pro. Having a classmate investigate the Executive Director, threatening him whenever you felt like it. Did you think I wouldn’t know that?”
“Fuck! Did my father send you?”
Gyu-oh held up his palm toward the man, who was now completely agitated by the mention of the Executive Director.
“Not yet. I’m thinking of gradually moving over and letting him know, ‘You’ve been stabbed in the back all this time.’”
“Hey. Do you think he’d believe that? Some random mutt who just rolled in from nowhere.”
Gyu-oh crossed his arms and tapped his toes. The more he did, the more bewildered Son Pro’s face became.
“Even a single word from a mutt would crack the trust, wouldn’t it? When he believed you were his hidden son, but then sees evidence that you’re nothing.”
“What the fuck is this guy saying? Who sent you!”
Finally, Son Pro bolted up and grabbed him by the collar. However, perhaps because there were eyes watching, he couldn’t easily swing his fist. Gyu-oh thought it was a good idea to meet in the building where the lesson classroom was. Readily offering his nape, Gyu-oh pulled the sunglasses from his head back down. His vision became slightly blurred, but Son Pro’s red-and-purple face remained vivid.
“Rather than being sent by someone… I just have a lot of personal grudges against you.”
“…What?”
The man had believed they were complete strangers, so he seemed genuinely flustered when Gyu-oh spoke as if there were some connection. Taking advantage of that confusion, Gyu-oh curled his lips into a smirk.
“You should have lived your life properly. Why did you make me go this far?”
“You, fuck, who are you? Your name, no…”
His red face was full of confusion. Gyu-oh easily shook off the man’s hand. Then, he brushed off the wrinkled collar of his shirt to tidy it.
“How miserably must you have lived that you don’t even remember me.”
“….”
He didn’t forget to add a meaningful remark.
“Anyway. I can’t stand the sight of you living well while eating the crumbs of that man. I can’t watch it with my eyes open any longer.”
Finally, he took a long, satisfying sip of his iced coffee. He looked regretfully at the cup, which had decreased by half in a single go, and stood up.
“S-still, the evidence is solid. Even if the test is redone, I’m confident I can prove we’re blood-related!”
“I am too.”
“…….”
“Confident that I can prove you’re a mongrel.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned around. After walking a couple of steps, he whipped back around as if remembering something.
“Hey. And one more thing.”
“…….”
He pointed a straight index finger at the flustered Son Pro.
“Don’t go swinging your cock around recklessly. You’ll seriously be fucked.”
He lowered his voice to a whisper, then snapped his index and middle fingers together with a crisp, cheerful sound. He nodded while pointing at Son Pro again.
“Your face just says it. Yeah.”
With that, he left the cafe without a second thought. As he hopped on his motorcycle and rode out of the wealthy neighborhood, he felt a lingering, unpleasant sensation that something was following him. Perhaps a tail had been put on him.
After riding around here and there, Gyu-oh headed toward a certain building. This was the building the gangsters from Seong-tak, whom he’d dealt with previously, used as their office. It was laughable that they had set up their office near the station rather than in a redevelopment area, but in times like this, it was actually helpful.
He deliberately bypassed the hollow space where a few low-level thugs were likely guarding and stopped by a skincare clinic on the floor above for a treatment. After changing his clothes and sporting a smooth, polished face, he got into the car he had parked in the ground-level lot.
On the way back to the hotel, he felt no sign of anyone following him.