By Zephyria 
Eun-myeong gulped, swallowing hard.
“Yes….”
Hot, damp sweat pooled beneath the soles of his feet. His toes, so white that the pale blue veins were visible, gripped his slippers tightly. The protruding knuckles of his toes flushed a reddish hue.
“I… I slept well.”
His heart hammered against his chest. There was no way this customer knew he had intended to report him to the police… But his guilt-stricken heart fluttered erratically. It felt as if his heart were being sliced by a gear.
“Yeah, you slept well.”
The corners of the man’s mouth curved deep. He smiled suggestively, as if the question had been a casual one. Then, he picked up a wet wipe and began rubbing his hands clean. The suit he wore emitted a smooth, sleek luster like a python, but there were many lumpy scars on the back of his tanned hands.
An image overlapped atop that scene.
‘Fucking hell, these panties are smaller than my palm.’
The man, wiping blood-stained hands with Eun-myeong’s panties. Eun-myeong’s kneecaps twitched.
“Special Special?”
A voice from the side shattered the delusion. Eun-myeong was instantly yanked out of his wandering thoughts. Amidst the noisy clamor of the shop, a voice with an exceptionally deep resonance pierced his ears.
“Bring that out.”
He gestured with his chin toward a poster on the wall. It was the ‘Special Special Assorted Sashimi’ that Emperor Palace Seafood was promoting. It was a portion meant for five or six people, but given the build of these thugs, they looked like they could finish it off.
“Yes….”
Eun-myeong tucked the menu deep into his side, where his ribs protruded from his thinness. Then, he quickly turned and stepped into the kitchen.
The other people, oblivious to everything, were moving busily as usual. Aunt Jeong-hye stopped her chopping and looked over at Eun-myeong.
“What brings you out today?”
“…I left something behind.”
As he answered, Eun-myeong pinned the order slip to a nail embedded in the upper beam.
“One, one Special Special.”
Then, hesitating, he pulled on an apron, feeling a desperate, agonizing desire to just go home.
“I have to pay anyway… I’ll help.”
He had worked day and night for a whole week, covering his sister’s share as well. His waist and legs felt like they were about to break. He had barely slept, and his eyelids felt as rough as if they had been rubbed with sandpaper. This was the holiday he had barely managed to secure.
And yet.
He couldn’t let other people struggle because of him.
“I’ll get the fish!”
Eun-myeong dashed out of the shop. He plunged a net into the tank. Splash, a small commotion stirred in the milky white water. As he lifted a couple of fish in the net, they thrashed violently.
He felt the pulsing surge of life travel up his wrist. Droplets of water sprayed wildly across his white face. Beads of water clung to his eyelashes, nearly falling like tears. The strength of the fish was no joke.
He loaded the food onto a tray. Slap, slap, he moved his feet in his slippers. The man was quietly watching Eun-myeong as he approached. Eun-myeong felt his courage shrinking rapidly. At this rate, he wondered if he would become even smaller than a sea squirt.
“Here is the Special Special….”
It was a top-grade assorted sashimi platter costing nearly 500,000 won. Naturally, the plate itself was extraordinary. It was a large, concave boat shape, and the jade-colored dragon head at the edge had its maw wide open as if it were about to breathe fire at any moment.
The contents, ranging from the precious spotted knife-fish to the glistening striped beakfish, were a premium assortment featuring all the fancy techniques the aunts had mastered.
After arranging various side dishes around the sashimi to fill the table, Eun-myeong placed the final plate of scallops and tried to turn away quickly.
“Please enjoy your meal….”
But in that moment, the customer’s voice caught Eun-myeong’s footsteps.
“Did you report it successfully?”
Eun-myeong’s already large eyes widened like lanterns, looking as if they might spill out of his sockets.
“Pardon…?”
The man gave a slight smile and asked “Why?” with his dark red tongue.
“Why, did I get caught?”
A large hand picked up a scallop shell. As he slurped the tender flesh into his mouth in one go, his large ribcage expanded significantly. It felt as if Eun-myeong’s own ears had been moistened, as if licked by a tongue.
“Because you can’t even look Mister in the eye.”
The soft, slippery flesh rested on the man’s tongue. Gulp, the man’s large Adam’s apple rose to the base of his chin and then slid back down.
“T-that’s not it….”
Eun-myeong quickly shook his head. He hurriedly scanned the people around them. He could feel everyone’s attention drawn toward them, but since the tables were spaced apart, no one would be able to hear the conversation.
The man violently tossed the shell aside. The innocent shell rolled harshly across the plate.
“Then did you try and fail?”
Eun-myeong felt as if his airway were being choked shut. W-what should he do? The man’s tone sounded so certain that he couldn’t even bring himself to deny it, only biting his tongue like an idiot.
Schlip, perhaps because of the tender and moist residue of the scallop, the man slowly licked his thumb. It was an excessively large and smooth tongue.
“Baby.”
Then, he lifted the next shell. Eun-myeong assumed he was going to eat it, but for some reason, he didn’t bring it to his mouth. Instead, he began doing something strange. With his thick thumb, he lightly rubbed the soft, creamy flesh of the scallop.
“Do you have no fear?”
He poked his thumb deep into the soft, smooth scallop and shook it. The pale, plump scallop flesh trembled and swayed. It was a strangely vulgar and crude touch. Moreover, the gaze he cast upon Eun-myeong was incredibly suggestive.
…Why on earth was he doing this to him? He couldn’t even begin to guess with his own mind.
Eun-myeong gripped his apron tightly with his fist. Seeing the fabric wrinkled as if scratched by a rake, the man chuckled.
“There are perverts who are fucking crazy for things like you.”
The man threw the scallop away. Then, this time, he reached out his large hand and covered Eun-myeong’s buttocks. On the rear that was unusually plump compared to his thin body, a satisfying thwack sound echoed. Compared to his thin waist, where the apron had plenty of room, his backside was quite fleshy.
“Eat a lot and grow big.”
Immediately after, he gripped the butt cheek tightly and shook it. The soft flesh protruding between his fingers was pressed painfully. Eun-myeong’s spine stiffened.
“That way you’ll grow tall, and your cock will get fat.”
Between the suggestively curving eyes, his pupils were smiling strangely. He took his cigarette and crushed it out against the white fish. A black cigarette burn was pierced into the innocent scallop flesh.
Even after returning home, he couldn’t sleep. Eun-myeong sat curled up, pulling his knees to his chest.
Anxious time flowed by.
Eventually, the moonlight that had pooled between his toes vanished like an ebbing tide, and the back of his neck began to grow warm under the sunlight.
“…….”
Eun-myeong stood up. He left the house early in the morning. A chilly breeze brushed against the nape of his neck. He tightened his collar and walked with quick, short steps.
The place he stopped was the bus terminal. While waiting in line at the ticket office, when his turn came, he quickly pressed his face toward the round counter.
“Have you seen someone who looks like this?”
Eun-myeong held out his old cell phone, displaying a photo of his sister to the employee.
“What?”
The man looked to be around 50. Without even looking properly at the miserably outdated cell phone, the Mister answered dismissively, as if he were bored to death.
“How should I know? I don’t know how many people come through here in a day.”
“But just once….”
He waved his hand dismissively.
“Get out of here. People are waiting behind you.”
After stepping back a couple of paces, Eun-myeong was bumped on the shoulder by a man approaching from behind. The person behind him did the same. Everyone was simply ignoring him completely.
However, Eun-myeong did not give up and continued to move. He showed the photo to passersby and asked if they had seen his sister.
“Have you seen someone like this by any chance?”
The answers he received were all the same: they didn’t know. Some people openly treated Eun-myeong like a crazy person. Eun-myeong didn’t mind, but as noon approached, his strength failed him, and he collapsed into a chair.
Just then, a sweet scent wafted from somewhere. Reflexively, hot saliva pooled under his tongue. Following the scent, he turned his head and saw someone selling steamed buns.
‘…Wow.’
A circular steamer was rotating, and inside, soft-looking steamed buns were temptingly piled. They were shrouded in a thick white steam, looking so hot that if he popped one in his mouth, he would instinctively make huff, huff sounds.
He had fasted for almost an entire day since yesterday. His stomach had become so thin that it felt as if the skin were sticking to his back.
“Want one?”
“O-oh, no….”
Having his inner thoughts caught, Eun-myeong blushed in embarrassment. He quickly hurried his steps to leave the terminal. The hour hand of the large clock attached to the wall was already racing toward the number ‘12’. It was time to go back to work.
He trudged along powerlessly. Under the blazing sun, the back of Eun-myeong’s neck flushed red like a well-cooked scallop.
…How much time had passed after that?
A pitch-black sedan, completely out of place in such a dilapidated seaside town, glided smoothly along the road. The windows were tinted dark, making it impossible to see inside.
Eventually, the window slid open slowly. Sinister eyes watched the back of Eun-myeong’s head as he walked down the street through a small gap. Acrid cigarette smoke curled out, swimming up into the sky.