By Zephyria 
After eating the dinner Grandmother had personally prepared, Jun-il gave Eun-myeong a ride. On the way back home, Eun-myeong couldn’t bring himself to ask to be dropped off in front of the hotel where the man was staying, so he asked to be let out at his original place of residence.
“This alley is really dark; it must be scary walking back and forth.”
“…….”
The beat-up car wound its way deeper and deeper into the alley.
When it finally stopped in front of a dilapidated house, Eun-myeong gave a small nod.
“Thank you—”
“Eun-myeong, do you really live here?”
Suddenly, the words were tossed over the top of his head. Eun-myeong became quite puzzled. Why ask such a thing? It was unlikely, but it felt as if Jun-il noticed something.
“I mean, the door looks too flimsy. You should get it repaired.”
“Ah,” Eun-myeong’s mouth formed a small circle.
“Since I brought my tools, shall I fix the door for you before I go?”
When Jun-il asked, Eun-myeong quickly shook his head. He didn’t know how much of a mess it was inside. A bright and cheerful person like Jun-il would surely be shocked the moment he saw it. Hadn’t Yong-hee been the same? Because Jun-il was a good person, Eun-myeong wanted to show him only his best side.
“No, it’s okay.”
Eun-myeong shook his head urgently. In the midst of the gathering dusk, his pale hand waved desperately.
“Is that so?”
Fortunately, Jun-il backed off. Eun-myeong stared for a long time at the rear of the car as it exited the alley with a hollow rattling sound. Then, he hurried forward in the same direction.
Classical music flowed through the hotel room. The sound of the violin, becoming piercingly sensitive as it climbed to higher notes, rushed toward a climax.
The man was sunk deep into a leather sofa, looking down at something. Countless photos were scattered around him, and a single photo was gripped in a hand as large as a bear’s paw. It was a shot of that detective picking up Eun-myeong in front of his house during the day.
It was a sight he found utterly distasteful.
The man threw the photo he was holding into the ashtray. He pressed a cigarette butt into it with a searing hiss.
Sssss, the photo burned black.
The man’s eyes flashed sharply as he looked down at it. He looked lucid, as if he had gained some sort of hint.
Soon, he sensed a presence near the door. Looking at the pale face that entered, the man rolled his tongue and muttered to himself.
…Ah, hmm, that’ll work.
The two of them ate, bathed, and coupled as they always did. If the day had ended like this, it would have been a day no different from any other.
However, the vibration of a phone—zzzt, vrrr—woke the dawn.
“…Mmm.”
Eun-myeong, drifting in a light sleep in the dim light, suddenly shuddered. He sat up disheveled.
His reflection appeared in the mirror opposite him. One cheek, which had been crushed against the man’s upper arm, was reddish. He looked utterly foolish.
The sentiment that he must have fallen asleep with his face against the man’s chest lasted only a moment. Immediately, Eun-myeong picked up the cell phone lying beside him.
…Who on earth is calling at this hour?
Wondering if it was another voice phishing scam, he frowned slightly, but to his surprise, it was his Noona. For a moment, he felt his heart drop. He woke up instantly.
His Noona was the most sensible person he knew. But a call at 4 AM? Fearing that something might have happened, he quickly answered.
—Eun-myeong, why didn’t you pick up? Where are you? You’re at the hotel, right?
A frantic voice flowed into his ear. Eun-myeong felt like he was losing his mind under the barrage of rapid-fire questions.
“Yeah, Noona, I just woke up. Is something wrong?”
—The house, the house we used to live in.
Eun-myeong felt a sudden surge of fear and quickly knelt, pulling his knees together, wondering why she was hesitating so much.
—They say it burned down.
“What on earth does that mean?”
Eun-myeong, who had been buried deep in the blankets, leaped up. He stumbled once because of the blankets tangled around his ankles, but quickly regained his balance.
“Why would the house suddenly….”
Eun-myeong pressed himself against the window. He looked down outside with a confused face. The dawn wind swept against the window. The gust of air, scattering everything on the street, felt ominous. The trees were all swaying wildly, like ghosts being grabbed by the hair.
—The supermarket Mister called me, saying there was a fire at our house, so I’m rushing there now.
“Okay, I understand. I’ll, uh, I’ll be there soon.”
Eun-myeong hung up and threw on his clothes haphazardly. His messy hair flew wildly. The soft inner part of his thighs stung. It felt as if they had been rubbed with sandpaper. It was because the man had shoved his cock in and rubbed against him so hard the night before, leaving him painfully chafed.
“Why?”
A dreadfully low voice sounded from behind. The man, seemingly just awakened, had risen from the bed and was supporting himself on his elbows. The blanket slid down from his chest, which was as rugged as a stack of thick bricks.
He, too, was in a primal state, not wearing a single shred of clothing.
“They said the house caught fire….”
No matter how dilapidated it was, it was the first sanctuary he and his Noona had built together. Every memory resided in every corner of that house. It was where the seed of Eun-myeong, who had no foundation or roots, was first planted.
“I have to, I have to go quickly….”
To think it was burning. Feeling his eyes moisten, Eun-myeong pretended to rub his eyes and wiped away the tears with the back of his hand.
“Yeah, right. If the house is burning, you should go take a good look.”
The man sat up completely. His naked lower body was fully exposed, revealing his thick pubic hair. Even in his distress, Eun-myeong averted his gaze, embarrassed by the heavy weight hanging there.
The man picked up his cell phone from the nightstand. He gave an instruction as naturally as if it were a habit.
“Have the car waiting; Baby is going down.”
Eun-myeong was too confused. Even if he had been struck by a bolt of ice water while sleeping, he wouldn’t be this flustered. It felt as if he had fallen deep into a sea of despair. He was so terrified that his molars chattered.
“…….”
The man looked at him. Eun-myeong hesitated with his lips. In truth, he desperately wanted to go with him, even if someone would call it childishly clinging….
However, the naked man was looking at him as if observing him. It was a strange feeling. It felt as if he had become a lifeless painting.
“I’ll be back….”
In the end, Eun-myeong left the hotel alone. The ride home in the car provided by the man was maddeningly anxious.
In the dimming light, a red glow could be seen burning in the distance. As he drew closer, that ominous color grew stronger.
In his entire life, so many people had never come and gone from his house, but today was different. The neighborhood people were swarming in front of his home.
“Oh my, what took you so long to get here!”
“There’s nothing important in the house, right? You should’ve hurried to salvage any gold nuggets if there were any.”
Familiar faces waved, telling him to hurry. The sounds of people chiming in one by one didn’t register in Eun-myeong’s ears at all. As he rushed forward, he saw his Noona covering her wide-open mouth with her hand.
“Noo, Noona….”
“How, our house….”
The flames were already surging beyond any point of control. Water was being blasted continuously from a large fire truck standing to one side, but the fire instead burned in terrifying curls, as if daring them to try.
Thump, the sound of the roof collapsing echoed. Watching the house burn so fiercely, it all felt like a phantom.
“Since the house was made of wood….”
A look of utter despair appeared on the soot-blackened face of the firefighter. Standing beside his vacant Noona, Eun-myeong also lost his soul.
How could this happen? There’s a saying that a tower built with effort doesn’t collapse, but that’s all a lie. A house built with so much effort became a pile of ash in a single moment. Or rather, was the problem that it wasn’t a tower to begin with, but a piece of trash like that house….
Every time the roof collapsed and the doorframes melted, the memories attached to them faded away. Even if there was nothing precious or expensive, everything had been valuable to him.
Eun-myeong watched as his past scattered one by one into the smoke.
Defenseless and mournfully.
The fire only ended after it had devoured the entire house. Fortunately, because it was isolated from other houses, there were no casualties or additional damage. Only Eun-myeong’s house was burned clean.
The gathered people dispersed one by one. They clicked their tongues, looking at Eun-myeong with pitying eyes.
The police remained until the very end, asking a few questions to determine the cause of the fire. Whether Lee Eun-myeong was his name, whether his registered address was here, what he had been doing all day…. They asked with a business-like attitude and noted it in their notebooks.
“We will contact you soon.”
Soon, even the police left.
Almost half-insane, Eun-myeong trudged into the house. Everything had collapsed. It felt as if he had entered a pitch-black cave.
In the midst of a silence that was more than just quiet, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from somewhere—tap, tap, tap. It wasn’t the sound of the man’s shoes. His footsteps always echoed slowly and heavily—thump, thump.
However, thinking that perhaps it might be him, he turned his head.