By Zephyria 
“Ugh, ugh……”
Min-ho tossed and turned slightly. He seemed to be having another nightmare, but he had never told Gyu-oh the contents of his dreams. He probably did that because he thought it wouldn’t be of any help. However, Gyu-oh could easily guess what kind of memories were tormenting him.
Suppressing his bitterness, Gyu-oh slid the phone back into his pocket. Then, he stood up and approached Min-ho, who was lying stretched out on the sofa. Only after perching on the low table did he notice that Min-ho’s closed eyes were wet.
“…….”
He seems to cry every time he has a nightmare.
His carefully extended hand shifted direction. Instead of grabbing his elbow to wake him, he lightly covered the wet corners of his eyes. He felt the damp eyelashes cling to his palm, and then the sensation of the eyes blinking slowly became vivid.
“Teacher, you must have been very tired?”
Instead of asking what he dreamed about, Gyu-oh asked playfully, as if he knew nothing. A sunken response soon returned, in a tone that tried hard to act as if nothing were wrong.
“……Not really.”
One desperately pretended not to know, and the other played along. It was the line drawn between the two closest people.
“But do you always snore like that?”
Thump, thump—the rapidly racing pulse was audible even to Gyu-oh’s ears, and cold sweat had formed on Min-ho’s forehead. He should have hidden those before speaking. Gyu-oh, who had been lightly covering the eyes, immediately stood up.
“I snored?”
“I’m telling you, there was a vibration. I thought the place was collapsing.”
“……Hah.”
Behind him, he heard the sound of a hollow laugh and the rustle of Min-ho composing his tears. Gyu-oh stood looking out the window as if to stall for time.
“Look, even those people are looking up here, surprised by the sound of your snoring.”
“…….”
After spouting more nonsense for a while, he peeked behind him. He saw Min-ho, who had wiped away his tears and straightened his disheveled clothes, getting up from the sofa.
“Now, if you’re done with your nap, shall we check the homework?”
“……Did you finish organizing everything?”
“Of course.”
He acted nonchalantly, as if he had witnessed nothing. That way, Min-ho wouldn’t feel embarrassed.
However, the sensation of the hot, damp tears that had seeped between his palms lingered in Gyu-oh’s heart for quite a while.
* * *
To negotiate redevelopment compensation, Gyu-oh met with the guys from Seong-tak a couple more times. Although they hadn’t faced each other at a formal negotiation table, the men were always uncooperative. Sensing that persuasion wouldn’t work, he had no choice but to change direction.
He had to separate the gangsters, who were clumped together like a single body, from the cult pastor. He needed to break their trust and create discord. To do that, it was better to gather as many weaknesses as possible. Most of such work was handled by Gyu-oh, but this time, Min-ho joined in.
[―GAME OVER―]
“Ah damn, I don’t want to rely on item power.”
He had been blocked for the third time at the same level. While Gyu-oh adjusted his hat with a look of annoyance, the passenger door swung open and Min-ho, dressed in a shirt, climbed in.
“Let’s go.”
The fragrant scent of hand cream brushed his nose first, and he noticed Min-ho’s ridiculous appearance, with his tie draped over his shoulder as a habit. Putting aside the serious dilemma of whether to buy items or not, Gyu-oh reached out to Min-ho. He grabbed the soft end of the tie crossing the shoulder, put it back in place, and patted his chest.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Min-ho glanced down at where he had been touched and used his index finger to pull back his sleeve and check the time. His eyes, shot through with red spiderwebs, were calm as always.
“We just need to be back by 12.”
“…….”
Seeing that he set the time for midnight, Gyu-oh wondered if another fucking appointment had been made. Gyu-oh’s lips moved silently, but he ultimately swallowed his words and stared quietly at Min-ho’s lowered eyelashes. Then, suddenly, Min-ho looked up. Because of that, their gazes locked abruptly before either could prepare.
“What are you looking at?”
Are you going to meet a man again, Hyung?
The question rose to the tip of his tongue. Was this question crossing the line? Was this much allowed? How far would Mu-gyeong have asked in this situation? After struggling while chewing his lower lip, Gyu-oh eventually shook his head.
“You have to put on your belt before we can start, right?”
A surprisingly calm voice escaped his lips. Gyu-oh slowly avoided the intense gaze and started the engine. It was a good thing he wore a hat. Otherwise, it would have been obvious that his eyes were wandering.
He heard the sound of Min-ho fastening the seatbelt, and soon the car left the quiet underground parking lot with a loud roar.
Even if they were as close as family, an invisible line always existed. Questions he couldn’t bring himself to ask Min-ho had piled up like this. Would he ever be able to reveal what was inside him one day? He pictured a future that was hard to gauge and shook his head slightly.
It took about 20 minutes to reach the redevelopment district. The alley, lined with demolished buildings, became even more hideous at night. Everywhere the headlights shone, a desolate scene was captured.
Banners written in bright red letters were so tattered that their original forms were unrecognizable, and pipes and rebar lay scattered everywhere. The car slowed down as it passed the entrance of the neighborhood, where the stifling smell of concrete wafted.
“That’s the suspicious building over there.”
Gyu-oh slowed down and pointed to a building. The outline of a two-story commercial building was visible in the darkness.
According to Gyu-oh, that was the building the cult members entered and exited regularly. He said they visited at least twice a day, and once they stepped inside, they stayed for at least two hours. Since there was a separate place for prayer, he wondered if they were doing something that shouldn’t be exposed there.
The purpose of the two today was to find out what was being done secretly inside.
“At this time, everyone should be gathered.”
“They’ve turned off all the lights.”
Min-ho, looking out the window, muttered softly.
“I heard they put something on the windows. And they blocked the back door too.”
Min-ho’s brow furrowed slightly as he listened to Gyu-oh. Everything was suspicious. A building with only one entrance, a space blocked on all sides so that not a single ray of light could leak in, and a chillingly silent surroundings. He almost doubted if there were even people inside.
Zzzing, Min-ho lowered the car window halfway and rested his arm on it. The wind was cool because it was night, but a damp silence clung stickily to his skin. Nothing could be heard except for the sound of the engine and the sound of something being stepped on under the wheels. It was a strange stillness.
“Gyu-oh, let’s get out.”
Min-ho closed the window again. The stifling air squeezed into the car until the very end.
“Just go?”
“Yeah.”
The car left the alley, where streetlights were sparsely lit, with the headlights off. Because they had to kill their presence, the speed was very slow. It was a speed slow enough for someone to run up and jump into the car, so Min-ho took over the watch from Gyu-oh, who held the steering wheel, and guarded the deep darkness surrounding the car.
“Keep going like this?”
“For now.”
The car circled the entrance as if it had taken a wrong turn and then left the neighborhood. Then it stopped at a place a bit further away. It was an alley that wasn’t completely dark because a convenience store was nearby.
Before even turning off the engine, Min-ho hurriedly took off his jacket and threw it in the back seat. At the same time, he grabbed his tie and pulled it roughly from side to side. The long end of the tie brushed Gyu-oh’s shoulder and fell into the back seat.
“Uh, Hyung, what are you doing?”
Gyu-oh, adjusting his hat, moistened his dry lips. He seemed to be pretending to be flustered. It must be flustering to see someone throwing off clothes one by one after parking in a secluded spot. Min-ho, swallowing a smirk, grabbed Gyu-oh’s wrist. The black pupils hidden under the brim of the hat were shaking slightly, yet they were fixed obsessively on him.
“Don’t be scared, open it.”
“What, what. The zipper?”
A hollow laugh finally burst out at the overly cautious question. Did he think that just because he was a guy who rolled around with men, he was in heat all the time? It was absurd and annoying that this guy had been consciously thinking in that direction lately whenever anything happened.
“Are you crazy? I mean open the trunk.”
“……Then you should have said so from the beginning.”
While wearing an awkward expression, Gyu-oh obediently opened the trunk. Leaving the grumbling sounds behind, he stepped out of the car.
Inside the trunk, several shoe boxes were neatly arranged. Various types of dress shoes, hiking boots, basketball shoes, soccer cleats, and even slippers. It was because Won Gyu-oh, the owner of the car, had diverse hobbies and was often called out suddenly. He had to be able to step in anywhere if information was needed.
Min-ho rummaged through the boxes and put on a pair of inconspicuous black sneakers. The size was two sizes too big, so the heel slipped.
“Did only his feet grow?”
Eventually, he bent one knee and tightened the shoelaces firmly. While he was changing into sneakers, Gyu-oh, who had gotten out of the car, searched the back seat where the jacket was strewn. He pulled something out of a pocket, and hearing the sound of a lighter wheel turning, it seemed he had packed cigarettes and a lighter.
“I should prepare some shoes for you to wear, Hyung.”
“Forget it. It’s not like I wander around every day.”
Usually, Gyu-oh was in charge of lying in wait nearby to extract information, and Min-ho’s job was to sit in the office and look at documents. In terms of danger, Min-ho couldn’t even hold a candle to Gyu-oh. Because he felt somewhat sorry about that, he often accompanied him like this.
“Let’s just take one lap and go.”
After tying the sneaker laces tight, he marched in place a few times. He was about to head straight for the two-story building he saw earlier when Gyu-oh suddenly held out the cigarette he was smoking.
“Sounds good. Let’s recharge and start.”
It was a cigarette that had already been puffed a few times and the end was burnt, but Min-ho took it without hesitation. While he bit down on the filter marked with teeth marks, it felt as if those black pupils were obsessively following him.
“Phew.”
However, Min-ho ignored the persistent gaze and gave no reaction. Instead, he stared only at the alley where the pitch-black darkness spread.
Even though summer had almost passed, a hot wind still ruffled his hair, and the whitish cigarette smoke blocked his view. After smoking with one foot in the darkness, he threw the butt into a can under a telephone pole.
“Let’s go.”
“…….”
Gyu-oh adjusted his hat and nodded. The two stepped into the entrance of the neighborhood they had scanned once by car earlier.