By Zephyria 
He carefully pushed open the main gate. Screeech—a spine-chilling metallic sound scratched through the silence. The first thing to fill his vision was a back so large it felt threatening.
It was that man.
“Why is the customer…?”
He shifted only his pupils, keeping his gaze fixed. In the dim light, the whites of his eyes emitted a sharp, piercing blue glow.
Turning his gaze back, the man reached out toward the clothesline he had been staring at. A pair of underwear, not yet dry, was hanging there. He gripped the underwear in his fist and buried his nose deep into it. The muscles extending from his sharp jaw twitched erratically like a snake. He was smelling it.
“Hmm, the smell of a cock.”
Eun-myeong stared at him blankly. What did I just hear? It was too filthy to even believe.
“Your bottom still hasn’t grown. Is your cock just dangling around?”
The man didn’t stop there. He carelessly kneaded the area where Eun-myeong’s groin was.
“I wonder if the baby has grown any hair down there. Mister is so worried and unsettled that he can’t sleep well.”
A chilly silence covered the yard like a net. Why on earth did he come all the way to the house? Could it be because I didn’t go to the shop today…?
“Did you hide it?”
The man carelessly threw the underwear back onto the yard. Then, he gestured with his chin toward the cast net lying on the ground.
“Yes.”
Eun-myeong gave a small nod.
It was truly pathetic. A person was dead and his Noona had disappeared, yet he was the one who hadn’t even been able to file a proper report. And yet, in a desperate attempt to make a living, he had stubbornly bought scraps of ramen, and because they looked delicious, he had coveted steamed buns.
His struggle to piece together even a miserable life was no different from a fish being scooped up by a landing net.
“Why?”
“I was afraid someone would see…”
“How sweet,” the man murmured. A pleased smile lingered on the corners of his lips.
Step, step. Suddenly, he approached. His shadow cast over Eun-myeong’s slippers like a sudden rain cloud. Terrified, Eun-myeong slowly stepped backward. Then, his footing tangled, and he fell back with a thud.
“…Hng!”
Clink. Coins spilled out from his pocket. It was then that the man’s eyebrows furrowed sharply. His gaze became keen and piercing. A hot hand reached out and stroked Eun-myeong’s head. Just as he had before, he gently patted his hair, calling him sweet.
“I smell another bastard on you.”
However, his eyes were utterly insolent. A sticky gaze swept over Eun-myeong’s feet. The scattered coins reflected the moonlight, emitting a pale glow.
“Did you sell yourself cheap?”
The bundle slid limply down from Eun-myeong’s wrist. Thump. Two packs of ramen were miserably revealed.
“You should know the value of your body.”
Eun-myeong sometimes couldn’t understand what the man was saying. Now was exactly such a time. Was he telling him not to weave too many cast nets? While he was thinking that, smack, the man unhesitatingly kicked the ramen with his dress shoe.
Eun-myeong shriveled up like dried radish strips and hunched his shoulders. The precious ramen, bought for 800 won a pack, burst open. As he watched the remnants of the ramen leak from the side—
“Come here.”
The man reached out to Eun-myeong, calling him as if he were a puppy. Without realizing it, Eun-myeong shook his head.
“N-no…”
He wanted to run away, but where? Where on earth could he run? This was a man who knew his workplace and entered his home as if it were his own.
“I said, come here.”
The man spoke as if coaxing a puppy. Even like this, he was a man whose mood could sour at any moment. Reluctantly, Eun-myeong brushed off his backside and stood up. He forced his feet to move, though they felt glued to the spot.
“Good, such a sweet boy.”
The man led Eun-myeong into the room. Eun-myeong followed slidingly, like a ghost with severed ankles.
Inside the room, a small folding table was set up. And upon it was a feast of food, prepared at some unknown time. The small table, which had never held more than five plates, was barely holding on, looking as if the legs might snap. There was no way the man had set it himself; it must have been Bear.
The man sat before the dark red table. The table looked excessively small for such a large man. As Eun-myeong stood at the threshold, fully on guard, the man gestured with his chin to the opposite side.
“Sit there.”
Approaching cautiously, Eun-myeong knelt and sat. A savory scent wafted into his nose. Eun-myeong’s thin stomach churned violently. The man twisted the leg of the samgyetang sitting in the center. The meat tore away, dripping white broth.
“Take it with your mouth.”
Eun-myeong stared at the chicken leg in front of him. What connection was there between searching for his Noona and offering him a chicken leg? Eun-myeong looked up at the man, remaining highly alert.
“Why are you giving this to me… gulp.”
He swallowed hard mid-question. Heat rushed to his face as if hot water had been poured over it. The man let out a short, amused laugh.
“If you used your body, you have to fill your belly.”
Eun-myeong took the chicken leg from the man and gripped the bone with his hand. Then, he slowly opened his mouth and took a bite of the meat. Hot steam gathered in his mouth. Eun-myeong exhaled, hoah, hoah. It was chewy, truly plain and savory.
Then, losing his reason, he began to eat ravenously, as if hiding a crab from a hawk. He slurped up japchae with chopsticks and popped in warm white rice—which he hadn’t seen in ages—wrapped in seaweed. Since his stomach had shrunk as much as possible over time, his lower belly soon bulged.
It was when he had finished nearly half the meal.
‘…Gasp.’
Only then did Eun-myeong snap back to his senses and gauge the other’s reaction. His cheeks were still chewing. While he had been eating frantically, the man had been watching him with an intense, singular focus.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
Come to think of it, he had rarely seen the man eat. Even at the shop, he would order the most expensive, highest-grade food but only tilt his glass a few times.
“Why? Do you think I put some pig aphrodisiac in it?”
Why did the man always steer every conversation in such a terrifying direction? Eun-myeong quickly shook his head.
“N-no, it’s not that…”
He began to read the man’s mood. He worried that the man might get angry if things didn’t go his way because of him, but only then did the man pick up the chopsticks painted in fake gold. He then took a bite of japchae.
However.
Eun-myeong noticed something strange. The man’s hand as he used the chopsticks was unnatural. His middle finger was half-bent and would not bend any further. Eun-myeong had glanced at it instinctively, then quickly lowered his eyes, realizing his mistake.
“Ah, this?”
But it was already too late. He had been caught. Eun-myeong desperately tried to pretend he hadn’t seen it, but the man deliberately tapped the old table with his middle finger.
“I had a business entity embezzled and got caught, so my father cut my finger off.”
“It didn’t attach well,” the man said, sucking on his own finger. He put it in his mouth and sucked it, smiling sinisterly. Goosebumps erupted on the back of Eun-myeong’s neck.
“The bastard who peeled the apricot deserved it, but Mister learned a lot from it.”
It sounded like a threat—that he would not leave Eun-myeong alone if he tried to deceive him—and a chilling shiver ran down his spine.
“You still haven’t been able to talk to your Noona, right?”
“Yes…”
His Noona had answered his call a few days ago, but he couldn’t speak to her. Fearing his lie would be discovered, Eun-myeong avoided eye contact.
Since then, his Noona’s cell phone had been off again. He had tried calling numerous times, but each time, the only thing greeting Eun-myeong was the voice of a strange woman.
“I couldn’t.”
Fearing the lie would be exposed, Eun-myeong added more words. He suddenly lost his appetite. He felt a severe thirst. He wanted to drink water. He was afraid that if he swallowed, it would be too obvious that he was excessively nervous.
“W-water…”
Eun-myeong quickly stood up. Sliding his white socks across the yellow linoleum, he bolted toward the kitchen.
He hurriedly opened the refrigerator door. As he hid behind the door, a chill emanated from within.
“Huu, huu.”
He leaned against the damp vapor and gasped for air. He had no courage to return to the room where the man was, but the room was far too quiet. What on earth was the man doing in the room without him?
His heart grew cold for no reason. It would be disastrous if he even tried to redial the phone…
Eun-myeong hurried back into the room with a glass of cold water. As he moved stealthily, he saw the man’s back. He was leaning against the window with a cigarette in his mouth.
“…….”
This was a room he and his Noona had frequented so easily. The man was so tall that the crown of his head almost touched the ceiling. A dim light from the lamp fell over the man’s head. He was close enough to face the lamp if he just lifted his head a little.
It was then. Eun-myeong’s face turned pale as he remembered something. …The lamp! His Noona’s notebook was placed inside the lamp.
At first, he had considered burning it. But if, by some slim chance—really, by some slim chance—a trace of his Noona remained here…?
That was why he couldn’t bring himself to throw it away and had hidden it. He had spent a long time thinking of a place where others wouldn’t easily find it, and that’s where he put it.
It was a perfect miscalculation. He hadn’t known the man’s height would be enough to reach the lamp. Eun-myeong quickly approached the man.
“U-um, I brought some water.”
The man looked down silently at the water glass held out to him. As the silence stretched, Eun-myeong’s eyes, which were always moist and full of water, wavered.
“There’s really nothing in my house.”
The thumb gripping the handle rubbed the surface of the cup anxiously. Toes trapped in white socks wiggled. He was acting like a stray dog in heat. A strange heat, similar to pleasure, bloomed just above the man’s leather belt.
What else was he going to do to entertain him? Shitty bastard, the man rolled the curse over his tongue. The anticipation flooding his chest was immense.
“My Noona’s cell phone has been off, and she didn’t leave anything behind. Even if you come to my house, there’s nothing to find.”
The tongue glimpsed inside his mouth also looked moist and damp. Usually, he kept his mouth shut tight like a clam, but his tongue was suspiciously long.
“If I really find out something, then I’ll tell the customer—”
His face was as white as the sticky samgyetang broth he had eaten earlier. Suddenly, a faint rectangular shadow flickered over it.
“I’ll tell you…”
The man’s gaze shot upward instantly. His gloomy eyes, sunken deep into his sockets like caves, lingered on the ceiling. A strange light flickered in those eyes gathered with darkness. Pleasure surged explosively, striking the man’s lower abdomen. My god, to think he would act this entertainingly.
“Ah, I see.”
The man dragged out his words as if he had realized something. Keeping his chin tilted up, he slid only his pupils down to capture the white teeth in his vision. A face deeply steeped in a sense of ruin.
“Baby, you wanted to hide that.”