By Zephyria 
When Eun-myeong woke up the next morning, he paced frantically. He was in real trouble.
He had to go to the sashimi restaurant, but the areas where he’d been stung by bees had swollen even more. His eyes looked like he’d been punched squarely in the face, his nose was red as a strawberry, and his cheeks looked like he had the mumps.
“If customers see me like this, they’ll all run away.”
Deciding he couldn’t leave like this, he stopped by a convenience store to buy some anti-itch cream. As he stepped inside, the part-timer let out a small “Oh?”
“You’re that guy, right? The one who was tangled up with that perverted son of a bitch.”
Eun-myeong gave an awkward laugh. They say a bad encounter is still an encounter; having met under such strange circumstances, the clerk seemed somewhat glad to see him again.
Just then, the chime of a windbell rang out from behind him. As he turned his head, Ji Jun-il was walking in.
“Oh, that guy’s here too.”
The part-timer pointed, surprised. When his eyes met Jun-il’s, Eun-myeong blinked.
“Eun-myeong, what happened to your face? Did you get bitten by mosquitoes? It looks brutal.”
Eun-myeong had come wearing a hat he’d borrowed from his Noona. Embarrassed, he lowered his head deeply and mumbled hesitantly.
“I was… doing beekeeping.”
“Oh, you do that too? You really are the god of part-time jobs. What else do you know how to do?”
Jun-il’s eyes widened. Eun-myeong, who had been feeling discouraged because of his unsightly face, began to list the jobs he had done one by one. Delivery work, working at a sashimi restaurant, beekeeping, pest control, even cleaning toilets… he added that he’d go anywhere if called.
Jun-il listened with great interest before speaking.
“Then do you want to work for me too? I actually needed an extra hand.”
Eun-myeong blinked. Didn’t he say he was a civil servant? He wondered if the work required a level of expertise far beyond what he could provide… He had only managed to solve two units of the book he’d bought at the market with his Noona. Eun-myeong felt a bit sad. After all, you have to be smart to snap up opportunities like this.
“I’m not very good at things that require a lot of thinking, and I’m only available until 4 o’clock.”
“Hey, you work incredibly well at the sashimi restaurant. It’s fine. You’re a genius, a genius.”
Is that so? Flustered by the praise, Eun-myeong hunched his shoulders. He felt shy because he only worked twice as hard as others since he lacked a natural knack for work, yet it seemed the customer recognized that.
“Then… I’ll help you.”
“Great. I was worried about how you’d manage all that on your own.”
The customer grinned and picked up a triangle gimbap, asking Eun-myeong.
“Want a tuna one? It’s 2+1.”
Eun-myeong nodded lightly. He assumed the man would pick up three, but his eyes widened when the man swept up six of them.
* * *
Late at night, Eun-myeong found himself in a narrow inn room. He clicked on the lamp, which was coated in a thick layer of dust, and sat before a small tray table.
“You need to lay this down so your butt doesn’t hurt.”
The customer personally spread out a thick blanket for him. He had been considerate because sitting on the floor can be uncomfortable. Eun-myeong shifted his hips to get settled, and the blanket sank softly beneath him.
The task the customer gave him was very easy. He just had to fold envelopes and insert the designated documents.
“Your hands are so fast, Eun-myeong. I’m impressed.”
Watching Eun-myeong’s hands move like a machine—snap, snap, snap—the customer’s eyes grew wide. He continued to marvel, saying he’d never seen such speed in his life and asking if he’d done nothing but this since he was born.
At first, Eun-myeong didn’t know what to do with himself, embarrassed by the pure praise. But the man praised him too much.
“You don’t look like the type who could do this kind of work at all, but your know-how is really something else.”
Eun-myeong was dying to finish, but the customer kept talking to him from the side.
“Yes, uh… thank you.”
Eun-myeong answered moderately and focused intensely, putting strength into his eyes. With nimble movements, he worked efficiently—snap, snap, snap. He couldn’t waste a single second. Time was precious gold.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
Eun-myeong’s eyes rolled around. As he hesitated, the customer murmured, “Maybe chicken?” Without realizing it, Eun-myeong nodded vigorously as if possessed. Chicken was great; just one bite could make him feel happy…
“You really like chicken, Eun-myeong.”
Wondering if he had been too shameless, he peeked at the man’s expression, but fortunately, the customer was smiling gently.
“Then I’ll order this, okay?”
Not long after the customer ordered, the chicken arrived. The smell was so mouth-watering that saliva kept pooling under his tongue.
“Thank you for the food.”
He opened his mouth wide, tore off a piece of meat, and chewed with his cheeks full. His reddened nose twitched along with it.
“This is really delicious.”
It wasn’t a market chicken, but an expensive one costing thirteen thousand won per bird. The seasoning was so savory and delicious that he was practically kneeling in his concentration. The customer chuckled beside him. When Eun-myeong looked up to ask why, the man shook his head, saying it was nothing.
“Drink some cola too, or it’ll get stuck in your throat.”
Gulp, gulp. As he drank the cola, everything went down smoothly. Then he tore at the chicken again, then more cola. While Eun-myeong did this, he felt the customer glancing at him. It seemed like he had something to say.
Eun-myeong flinched. Was he being judged for eating too much despite being hired to work?
“By the way.”
The customer picked up a piece of pickled radish, crunching on it as he began to speak.
“I’ve actually seen the person you call your lover.”
“What?”
Eun-myeong was so shocked for a moment that he almost spat out his cola.
“W-where?”
As he asked, he felt a burning sensation in his chest. The cola seemed to churn inside him.
“I went to the Golden Top Hotel for a meal. I think I saw him with you.”
Ah, had he seen him before?
He had never dreamed that the customer would know the Boss. At the sudden mention of the man, Eun-myeong’s knee jerked, and he accidentally knocked over his glass of cola.
Crash. The cold liquid spilled across Eun-myeong’s stomach.
“I’m sorry, I’ll clean it up right away…”
Eun-myeong scrambled to wipe it with tissues, but the customer laughed heartily.
“It’s fine, it’s usually a mess anyway.”
He grabbed a towel from a drying rack in the corner and handed it to Eun-myeong.
“He’s a famous person in Seoul, isn’t he? He appears on TV sometimes. Isn’t he incredibly rich?”
It was a man Eun-myeong had been trying hard to forget, and hearing about him was so painful that he writhed. The damp t-shirt clung stickily to his body.
“Why did you call him a son of a bitch? From what I saw, he seemed to cherish you a lot.”
That couldn’t be… Eun-myeong gave a bitter smile. The sweetness of the chicken he’d eaten moments ago vanished, and his mouth felt bitter as if he’d taken strong herbal medicine.
“He almost carried you around everywhere.”
“No, he doesn’t actually like me…”
Eun-myeong’s eyes drooped. His stomach was still filthily soaked.
He knew very well what the feeling of “liking” someone was.
It was like a summer cold—something that makes a person suffer terribly. If the Boss, if that man truly had feelings for him, he could never have acted that way.
He always had a knife in his mouth, he tried to sell him off to Chairman Go, and he even threatened to throw him away at the slightest provocation. How could that be love? No matter how hard he looked, there wasn’t a single shred of affection to be found.
He remembered what his Noona had said about him. A piece of waste that wouldn’t even burn in a fire.
Besides.
Setting all that aside, if he were someone he cherished so much, there’s no way there would be absolutely no contact until now.
“He’s probably already forgotten me.”
Once the words left his mouth, everything felt futile. Eun-myeong’s shoulders sank like water-soaked cotton.
“I don’t know about that.”
Eun-myeong looked up at the voice from above. Jun-il was smiling kindly, as usual.
“I’m the type who can’t easily forget a past love. I guess there are people like that in the world.”
“I suppose so…”
Eun-myeong nodded slightly. It was strange that a customer, who was far better educated than he was, shared the same thought.
Being with him made him feel at peace. It was likely because he was kind enough to make someone with poor social skills like him feel comfortable.
“And you should change your clothes. You’re soaked.”
As the customer stood up and looked ready to rummage through the wardrobe, Eun-myeong felt too sorry and stopped him.
“It’s okay, I… uh…”
Not knowing what to call him, he used the ambiguous expression “uh,” and the customer’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Geez, calling me ‘uh’ is a bit disappointing. You do know my name, right?”
“No, I know, Ji Jun-il…”
“Then you can just call me Jun-il Hyung.”
Eun-myeong murmured obediently as told. His earlobes turned red from the embarrassment.
“Yes, Jun-il Hyung… I’m fine with these clothes.”
My god, Hyung? The only Hyung he’d ever had was that human scum Jjangja. He felt a little better. Eun-myeong’s face flushed.
“How can you work in that? I’ll just give you some clothes I was planning to throw away.”
Smiling, the man pulled a t-shirt from the closet. Even the clothes he was throwing away were so soft that Eun-myeong lightly stroked the fabric.
“Ah, by the way.”
At the sudden remark, Eun-myeong looked up.
“Did you say you’re off tomorrow? I’m going to do some volunteer work; do you want to come along? It’s not hard work.”
Eun-myeong fell into thought. Was it something like fixing a grandmother’s roof, like last time? Although the customer had removed the bandage from his arm, such work would be uncomfortable to do alone.
“Yes.”
So, he gave a small nod of agreement.
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought it’d be tough to do alone.”
The customer smiled, as if it were a habit.
* * *
It was nearly morning by the time he opened the door to the inn room and stepped out. The work had been so easy that he wondered if it was really over, but the customer encouraged him, saying he had been a huge help.
Clutching 60,000 won tightly in his hand, he stepped outside. The sun hadn’t fully risen yet, so it was still dark.
He started to walk away quickly, then stopped dead in his tracks. In the distance, amidst the darkness, there was a large silhouette towering upward.
W-what is it?
Eun-myeong flinched involuntarily. Then, thinking No, it can’t be, he shook his head. There was no way the Boss would be here; get a grip. Why did he flinch every time he saw someone who looked like him? Like an idiot.
Repeating this to himself, he approached the elevator area, and the smell of cigarette smoke grew stronger.
And then.
Before long, Eun-myeong stopped again. It was because he recognized a scent that pierced his nose intensely.
Eventually, the other person slowly turned his head. A face that vanished behind swirling smoke and then reappeared.
White smoke billowed like a chimney from a nose so sharp it seemed to pierce through his features.
…Ah, this time, it wasn’t a mistake. It was the Boss. Realizing this, Eun-myeong’s heart sank with a thud.
The man moved his jaw slowly. A grim voice pierced the silence of the eerie hallway.
“How are the wedding preparations going?”
Thump-thump, thump-thump…
His heart beat too fast. Eun-myeong gasped for air as if he had just emerged from being submerged in water. Sweat poured down his spine.
It was a reunion after a week and a few days. An encounter that took place in an unexpected place, at an unexpected time, and in an unexpected manner.
“Hmm? Was that your pimp?”
Asking this, the man scanned Eun-myeong from top to bottom. The winding gaze resembled the sinister movement of a snake.
“B-Boss, how are you here…?”
Eun-myeong felt as if his entire body was being squeezed tight. His lower abdomen throbbed as if it were about to burst.