By Zephyria 
With the windows tightly blocked by thick curtains, the surroundings were filled with nothing but darkness.
The man pressed down heavily on the sofa with his massive frame. The leather of the animal that had long been dead let out a wheezing, belching sound.
“…….”
A large hand rolled the wheel of a lighter. Click, click, click. A sharp scratching sound echoed, and soon a reddish flame grew large. The density of the darkness thinned.
He brought the flame to his bare abdomen. He traced the marks of ink that had seeped into the valleys created by his muscles, one by one.
Ja
Jeong
Hyang
“…Pfft.”
He soon twisted his lips in a sneer. Eun-myeong. Baby, you think you own me?
No, that’s impossible. Even if I died and came back to life, there is no way I would belong to you.
He wondered where that brat had picked up such an arrogant thought in that fist-sized head of his. Was it because he had been uncharacteristically soft?
“Ah, right.”
He had been that way only for that thing. He had pampered him, calling him cute, placing him on his thighs and telling him his baby was pretty, lovely, and cute—and now the brat was climbing over his head, oblivious to his own place.
Like a newborn puppy unaware of its own size, wasn’t he barking his head off?
How did that boy act on nights draped in darkness? If the man didn’t hold him, he would tremble and bury his head in the bed covers like a pheasant hiding its face, sticking his hips up in the air.
Whenever that happened, the man would intentionally return to the hotel late. That small body, completely seized by fear, burrowing deep into his embrace….
‘You’re here now, Boss…? I was waiting for you.’
It was so pitiful and pretty. He couldn’t resist that face, acting cute and coaxing him to caress and adore him.
He didn’t know how heartbreakingly lovely that face was, letting out small moans while secretly rubbing the light pubic hair covering his groin against the inside of the man’s thigh.
‘And I’m going to love someone else and get married too.’
No matter how he threw those words like a bomb before leaving, the man believed he would return soon. Wasn’t Eun-myeong starved for the affection the man gave him?
He figured he would return, exhausted from sobbing through a piercingly lonely night. He thought the boy would whine like a child to be held, burying his nose into the man’s side where the tattoos were deeply etched.
“…….”
The man rolled his bloodshot eyes. He looked down at the photos scattered around. Eun-myeong’s face was imprinted on every single one. Though the darkness was excessively thick, he could read them easily. He had already stared at them until every single piece of air in the photos had worn away.
Photos of him bustling around his workplace, scouring the market to fill his belly, slurping noodles with a tiny mouth, and occasionally buying books to carry on with his life.
The man picked up one of the photos. With cheeks slightly flushed red, his cheekbones were puffed up.
“…Ah.”
It was the face he remembered. The face that looked up at him from a lower position, begging for his love.
But in this photo, the person Eun-myeong was looking up at was not him.
“Hmm.”
Crush. The photo crumpled.
He said he fell in love and would get married. Is that why he opened that small, beak-like mouth to welcome a detective’s tongue? Did he take that filthy cock into that propulsion hole to match their bellies?
Eun-myeong’s hole was beyond damp; it was practically overflowing. The fluid flowing from inside used to soak his cock completely white. When the bubbles formed and made a squelching sound, it was embarrassing even for him to hear.
“Haha.”
That hole wouldn’t be satisfied with just anything now. He had done it so much that it would be strange if the boy didn’t end up pregnant.
Then did that detective shove his seed into the belly of the child he impregnated? Grind. The man clenched his jaw, grinding his molars.
“As expected.”
I should have just killed him. He muttered gloomily to the end. Burying a cop would make the cleanup a nuisance, making his hands not just dirty but filthy, but the man currently saw nothing else.
This unpleasantness felt like something was not just eating away at his stomach, but digging deep into the inner walls and gnawing at his organs….
It felt as if his very veins were being blocked.
The man could already feel his judgment crawling toward a twisted direction.
For this to be easy, he should remove Lee Eun-myeong, not the cop. When the prosecution contacted them, the Chairman had flown into a rage, smashing a glass display case with a nameplate.
‘What the hell are they doing in that boondocks, unable to handle one simple task properly?’
And he had told him to kill Eun-myeong.
‘Get rid of that small fry immediately.’
It was a perfectly appropriate cleanup. The sashimi restaurant owner, the orphanage director, and the greenhorn whose courage had outgrown his common sense. Since everything surrounded Lee Eun-myeong, it was the most correct decision.
Naturally, he would be framed as the prime suspect, so the man would have a subordinate kill him and then disguise it as a suicide. Where else could there be such an easy solution?
However, the man had dragged the problem out this far. It was a choice entirely unlike him. He was someone whose handling of affairs was as thorough as a well-sharpened sashimi knife, and whose judgment was superior to anyone else’s.
The moment those words left the Chairman’s mouth, this was the thought that entered the man’s head:
How dare he?
How dare he decide to kill that thing on his own whim?
That thing belongs to me.
Whose permission does he think he has to decide its fate?
Boom! Lightning struck again, illuminating the room.
The man’s pale blue eyes flashed. His gaze was fixed fiercely on the photo. No matter whose arms he was in, he felt like tearing the other person apart just by thinking about it. Whether it was the detective or anyone else, he would fillet them, removing every single piece of flesh clinging to their bones.
Shouldn’t they know clearly? He had to show them as an example exactly whose property they had touched.
It would be fine to just chop off the head like a fish and hang it at the village entrance like a high official.
He flicked the lighter wheel again and again. Since the lighter he had thrown once was completely shattered, he had to gather the debris.
He collected the pieces of the cheap lighter one by one and forced a flame by letting the gas leak. Even though he had loyal subordinates who would bring him a new lighter with a single gesture, he insisted on doing this.
With the flame he produced, he burned the photo.
“…….”
Wasn’t he tired of acting like a gentleman?
He practiced violence as comfortably as using his right hand, kidnapping was routine, and he did not hesitate to kill if it was occasionally necessary.
So, even if he dragged him along with a rope around his neck, it wouldn’t cause much of a stir, yet the man had been patient.
But now, his patience was worn down to the point of snapping. He rose from his seat. The leather sofa that had spat the man out let out a wheezing scream.
He grabbed a shirt and threw it on. He fastened the buttons one by one.
Just then, vrrr, vrrr. The vibration of a cell phone woke the silence. He answered the call.
—Boss, this is Park Woong.
He had just fastened the last button. From the other side of Songhwa-gu, a hint of hesitation was somehow readable.
—They say Lee Eun-myeong has disappeared.
Every movement of his body, just as he was about to leave the hotel, came to a dead stop.
“What?”
He slowly closed and opened his eyes. His jaw stiffened, and then he let out a short laugh.
“What kind of nonsense is that, Director Park?”
Only after his large hand swept back his hair did he realize his bangs had been covering his forehead. He was someone who always maintained a perfect state, yet he had been about to step outside looking so disheveled.
“There should have been tails on him.”
—Yes, he shook off those tails….
And disappeared. His mind slowly processed the voice flowing through the receiver. Who shook off what?
Rumble! Lightning flashed. His mind sparked as if hit by a thunderstorm. It felt as if bone fragments were piercing his brain, causing his cerebral fluid to melt away in torrents.
“Ah.”
The man sighed as something occurred to him. Lee Eun-joo’s face came to mind. That woman had smuggled him out. It was clear that woman had used her meager wits to try and snatch him away from him.
Right, there was no way Lee Eun-myeong would have run away on his own. Unless he crawled back on his own and crushed his cheek against his knee, there was no way he would have cut off his tails and bolted.
The man bit the inside of his cheek so hard the flesh felt ragged. He moved his feet, biting down with his molars as if he would chew and swallow it whole.
He left the hotel room and got into his car. He started the Bugatti, which had a massive exhaust pipe beneath its rear.
The sleek car dove into the darkness like a bat and then stopped.
He strode toward a villa that looked as if it would collapse if he kicked it with his dress shoe. With every step, the lights in the hallway flickered on. Tap, tap, tap.
Having arrived abruptly at Lee Eun-joo’s house, he knocked on the door as if he intended to tear it off.
“At this time of night, what on earth…!”
A disheveled face, not yet fully awake from sleep, looked up at the man with contempt. He pushed past the woman and stormed in, turning the entire house into a disaster zone.
“Kang Pyeong-won, what the hell is wrong with you!”
He opened every single door and didn’t just rummage through the bed—he flipped it over. Lee Eun-joo, who had followed him in, screamed in rage.
“Have you finally gone mad?!”
“Where is he.”
Lee Eun-joo frowned deeply and shouted back.
“What are you talking about?”
“I asked where Lee Eun-myeong is.”
The words he spat out gloomily echoed irritably against the worn-out walls. Outside, thunder and lightning flashed, filling the man’s eyes with a glint. It looked so chillingly insane.
Lee Eun-joo instinctively shrank her shoulders. It felt as if her breath and every pore were tightening.
“Eun-myeong said… he was going to you…!”
The shrill voice sliced through the pale dawn like a whip. Thump, thump, thump. The man’s heart, which had been beating heavily, sank violently as if to crush his ribs.
He’s not here.
He’s not here….
“That bastard, he should just go to hell. Do you realize your life is over now?”