By Zephyria 
No, that couldn’t be. Eun-myeong concluded it was a misunderstanding. Kill him? The man had surely been wearing a faint, mocking smile on his lips when he spat out such murderous words.
He gave a soft tilt of his chin toward himself.
“Hurry up and crawl over here.”
The quiet road of a remote countryside where only a few cars passed by. This time, the voice was heard clearly. Eun-myeong’s heart began to thud, pounding against his lower abdomen. His mind raced. Keeping his eyes fixed on the man, Eun-myeong continued to babble.
“Yong-hee, I think I should go now.”
His chest felt as if it were being pulled forward, ready to leap toward the man at any moment. His feet bounced nervously off the ground.
“I had a lot of fun today. Happy birthday.”
Eun-myeong waved his hand in farewell. Cold wind whipped through his fingers, perhaps because he had already broken out in a cold sweat.
Just as he tried to step forward, a hand shot out from behind and gripped his wrist tightly.
“Why, why….”
Flustered, Eun-myeong asked with wide eyes. Yong-hee raised his voice aggressively, unlike his usual self.
“Fuck, isn’t that guy a gangster?”
A gangster. Eun-myeong’s knees trembled at the descriptor. His head instinctively turned back toward the man. The man had a cigarette in his mouth. Frowning with thick eyebrows, he lit it with a gold snake lighter.
“Hyung, where the hell are you looking? I’m talking to you.”
Yong-hee pulled Eun-myeong’s shoulder, demanding he look at him. When things didn’t go his way, he raised his voice as if throwing a tantrum.
“He’s a gangster, right? He doesn’t look like he’s from around here.”
Startled, Eun-myeong quickly covered Yong-hee’s mouth with his hand. Because of the slight height difference, he even had to stand on his tiptoes. Eun-myeong shook his head frantically.
“No, he’s not. He’s from Seoul, uh, he’s the CEO of the company that supplies goods to our sashimi restaurant.”
Even in the midst of this, Eun-myeong’s eyes darted around, gauging the man’s reaction. He wondered if the man was offended, but the man smiled, one corner of his mouth curving into an arc as if he found it amusing. He mouthed the words, Fuck.
“Yong-hee, I’m really okay. He’s going to give me a ride home. I just need to get in that car and go home quickly.”
Eun-myeong forced his lips into a smile. However, since his eyes were filled with distress, he ended up with a ridiculous expression that was neither a smile nor a cry.
Yong-hee met Eun-myeong’s eyes.
“Are you really okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Eun-myeong nodded quickly. Sweat trickled down the nape of his neck. He was desperate to escape this situation by any means necessary.
“But why are you shaking so much? It’s like you’ve seen something terrifying.”
A worried gaze fell upon Eun-myeong. Eun-myeong couldn’t bring himself to answer. To say he wasn’t scared would be a lie, as he could see his own hands trembling.
“I-I’ll call you.”
Eun-myeong quickly hurried away. He had already sobered up completely. His entire body shivered as if he had been drenched in ice water.
This time, Yong-hee couldn’t catch him. Eun-myeong waited for the signal and quickly leaped toward the man.
Perhaps because his heart had raced ahead of him, his feet tangled and he nearly fell. Eun-myeong reflexively reached out toward the man, but the man did not catch him. He simply looked down at him as he clung to his waist.
“Baby, you want to get in a gangster’s car?”
A chilling question landed atop his head. It was a voice that felt as if it were pressing his head down. With his face buried in the man’s waist, Eun-myeong nodded. He then squeezed his eyes shut.
The air inside the car pressed down on Eun-myeong. It felt as if his skin were being crushed.
Throughout the ride back, the man kept his lower jaw tight and didn’t utter a single word. He simply braced his thighs and slammed the accelerator at an incredible speed. Because of that, Eun-myeong felt as if he were floating, flying without wheels.
Buzz, ring, vring. Even in this atmosphere, the cell phone rang tactlessly. Glancing down at his thigh, the screen was packed with messages from Yong-hee.
[Hyung, did you take out a private loan?]
[That bastard is a gangster, isn’t he? Fuck, coming to collect a debt at this hour is illegal. I’ll report him for you.]
As the word ‘report’ hit his eyes, Eun-myeong startled and quickly grabbed the cell phone.
[No no no please don’t do that don’t do that]
Eun-myeong moved his thumbs rapidly to send a reply.
[He’s really someone I know so don’t do that]
Just in case, he continued to emphasize his sincerity, insisting it was true.
While Eun-myeong was desperately clutching the cell phone, the car came to a violent halt with a vroom, screech!
“Ugh!”
Eun-myeong slammed his forehead right into the cell phone.
Slam! The man closed the driver’s side door as if smashing it and stepped out. Normally, he would have opened the passenger door, grabbed his wrist, and led him into the hotel together, but he was different now.
With the hem of his long coat fluttering, the man entered the hotel entrance alone, leaving Eun-myeong with only the sight of his broad back.
Eun-myeong quickly followed him out of the passenger seat. He opened the door and hurriedly stepped onto the ground.
Was the man angry?
Why? Could it be because I was late today? Because I slacked off and didn’t work?
If so, nothing could be more unfair to Eun-myeong. He had worked his entire life until his nails nearly fell off; he swore this was the first time he had ever played around without a care like today.
Eun-myeong had been happy. It was a time when he didn’t have to struggle or work himself to the bone. Just sitting there, tilting a beer glass and talking with Yong-hee, he had fallen under an illusion.
The misunderstanding that he, too, had become like an ordinary young person of today. And only now, in this situation, did Eun-myeong realize that it was all nothing more than a mirage.
The man stepped into the elevator. Eun-myeong quickly hurried after him.
“Boss, I… .”
If he was angry because he hadn’t worked, Eun-myeong intended to say that he would work hard again starting tomorrow to pay back the debt. He wanted to say that today was just a brief deviation, and that he had mentioned he would be late yesterday, though he didn’t know if the man had forgotten.
He had been too excited lately. Strangely, his heart had been fluttering.
Even though the man didn’t even know, when the man chose and wore the shirts he had ironed, or when he ate with his right hand or held his cell phone, Eun-myeong had been secretly searching for those moments, stealing glances at him.
It seemed as if something had begun to live as a parasite inside his chest.
What was this?
To name an emotion, one needed an education, but Eun-myeong knew nothing. He hated this thing attached to him. He felt as if he wanted to reach down his throat and scratch it out.
But this strange symptom grew worse the more he became aware of it, and the more he was with the man. That was why he was grateful to Yong-hee for allowing him to empty his complicated mind for a while.
Was even that brief moment not permitted for Eun-myeong?
Eun-myeong watched the floor numbers slowly rise. It felt as if he were watching the remaining days of his life, like a terminally ill patient.
“Starting tomorrow, I’ll definitely….”
It was the timing to add, I’ll work hard without slacking off. These were words Eun-myeong had squeezed out of strength he didn’t even have.
“Did you also develop the skill to fuck young chickens in the meantime?”
Words sharpened like a blade sliced through the middle of Eun-myeong’s sentence.
“…Pardon?”
He asked blankly. The man kept his head facing forward, but flicked his eyes toward him. The flash of the whites of his eyes was indescribably terrifying.
“How did you introduce me to that bastard earlier? Did you tell him that this gangster bastard is the one who fucks you every night?”
Eun-myeong’s slightly parted lips closed with resignation. Even if he said no, would it make any difference?
“What did he say? That your bottom is wet?”
He simply stood there, receiving the verbal abuse that poured over him like a bombardment.
With a ding of the machine, the elevator stopped. The doors opened. However, neither of them took a single step out of the elevator, remaining pooled in the cramped space.
Then, a sliding sound was heard, and the doors began to close. The man suddenly grabbed Eun-myeong’s wrist.
“Ah…!”
The hand was excessively large and hot. It felt as if he would be burned.
“Please let go, ah, it hurts.”
Eun-myeong shrugged his shoulders like a burn victim and tried to pull his wrist away, but it was useless.
The man shoved his hand into the gap of the closing elevator doors. Unable to wait even for the brief moment the doors reopened, he violently forced them open. The poor doors were forced wide. The man stepped through the gap with long strides.
“Hng…!”
Not a shred of consideration for Eun-myeong, who was smaller than him, could be found. Eun-myeong followed behind him, his legs forced wide apart.
Soon, the sound of the door slamming shut echoed through the hallway like a burst of noise.