By Zephyria 
So, he’s telling me to betray the Boss… My heart is racing. It feels as if insects are buzzing and swarming around my ears.
“…….”
For a moment, every single thing the man had done flashed before my eyes.
Bad things, bad things, bad things… They poured out in dark red surges, like the guts spilling from a fish that had been sliced open.
It was practically half water, half fish. No matter which one I picked, it would be a huge catch. I felt like I was going crazy from the confusion.
“I, I…”
Eun-myeong reached behind him. He scratched the mirror. He just wanted something, anything, to lean on. The smooth surface felt as if it were within reach, yet it remained elusive. He was anxious and on edge.
“I know, it’s very confusing, right?”
As if he understood Eun-myeong’s heart, Jun-il softened his brows. He spoke tenderly, like someone soothing a terrified child.
“I’m sorry for deceiving you.”
Even so, Eun-myeong had no idea where to place his heart. His cheeks, stung here and there by bee stings, twitched like a baby’s plump bottom.
“I’m okay, you don’t have to apologize.”
Being deceived by him was nothing. He had already been called an idiot and persecuted as useless because of false accusations. A trivial matter like this didn’t bother him at all.
But the Boss…
What if everything is exposed and a problem arises? He must have never suffered such hardships before. The higher the fall, the more—the more painful it would be.
His heart pounded. It felt as if an elephant were jumping all over him. Eun-myeong poured out his words in a clumsy stutter.
“The Boss… he might not actually be a truly good person. He’s not the kind of great man who donates hundreds of millions anonymously or saves people he doesn’t even know.”
But there were reasons for all the bad things he did. There were reasons with the sashimi restaurant owner, with Jjangja, and even with the Director…
Then why was he so mean to this policeman? Because it bothered him that he was being pursued? If so, he shouldn’t have acted that way. It only amplified the suspicion…
“But he’s not someone who just does bad things for no reason… He probably got angry because I wouldn’t listen, which is why he smashed the car and did that to the inn room.”
In the end, that meant smashing the policeman’s car and turning the house into a mess were all because of him. The Boss must have been infuriated because Eun-myeong wouldn’t go along with his wishes.
“I’m really sorry for that…”
Eun-myeong soon bit his lip hard. An apology was necessary, but he feared that if he made a slip of the tongue here, something might happen to the man.
When he clamped his mouth shut, Jun-il seemed to sense something and let out a sigh. He realized that Eun-myeong would not open up easily.
“Just tell me the truth.”
“…….”
“I’ll make sure you’re completely free from your debts.”
“No, that won’t be possible.”
Eun-myeong shook his head vigorously at this.
A life tied and crushed by debt, like a ship bound to an anchor. The end of it was driven as deep as a stake, and he couldn’t imagine anyone actually being able to pull it out.
Besides, even if the anchor were to break now, he was already a foolish ship that didn’t know where to sail.
“No, I can do it. I’m going to make it happen.”
He grabbed Eun-myeong’s forearm.
“Ah…”
Unfortunately, it was the exact spot that had bruised when the Boss gripped him. Eun-myeong let out a small groan and bit his lower lip. Startled, Jun-il quickly let go, apologizing. He continued to soothe him.
“Eun-myeong, you’re still very young. Just think of it as starting a little slower than others. You can study, take exams, and find a new job.”
Could such a life actually exist for him?
To Eun-myeong, it sounded like a dream. To attend school normally like others, to get a job, to rest comfortably in a park, to earn money and occasionally eat at a fancy restaurant with his Noona…
“If you want, I can take you with me when I go to Seoul.”
Eun-myeong slowly lifted his eyes. When their gazes met, Jun-il looked startled and held up both hands.
“No, I don’t mean I have some shameless ulterior motive. I’m just saying this because you feel like a younger brother…”
He was rambling, unlike his usual self. He brushed his hand over his hair as if his mind were cluttered, then let out a deep sigh and added:
“If you’re doing this because you’re afraid Kang Pyeong-won might retaliate, you don’t have to worry.”
Eun-myeong was actually surprised to hear that. Now that he thought about it, the man was exactly the type to do that, but he hadn’t considered that possibility at all.
“We will definitely provide protection.”
Take your time to think about it. His voice echoed softly through the empty orphanage.
On the way back home, the worry clung to Eun-myeong’s lower abdomen like a new organ. It thrashed around, spitting out blood and raising his body temperature.
What should he do?
Would it be right to contact the man immediately?
He should perhaps tell him that a policeman seems to be pursuing him and ask if he needs to take some measures.
But thinking back, he felt that the man might already know.
“…….”
That’s probably why he figured out what car Ji Jun-il, that policeman, drove and smashed it. The man was someone who could smash a car and wreck an inn room even while knowing everything.
Why on earth was he acting like a bulldozer with broken brakes?
The man might truly be going insane beyond help. He didn’t know what other strange things he might do in the future.
He was completely unpredictable.
Feeling stifled, he felt he needed a drink. Eun-myeong heated up some bean sprout soup and brought out a soju bottle.
He drank one glass, then two. He shed a few tears. His mind was cluttered and his heart ached, so he drank alone, letting tears drip down.
Did he lose weight because he was suffering mentally? Well, he would have felt the same way.
Most of the things the man did after coming here happened because of him. If it weren’t for him, the man would have continued to live in luxury as he always had…
Eun-myeong stared blankly at the bean sprout soup that had grown cold. Drinking alone and sobbing without anyone to talk to, he finished half the bottle in an instant.
As he set the glass down on the table with a thud, the bruise on his forearm suddenly caught his eye. Eun-myeong tightly gripped an egg that was sitting to one side. He had brought it to crack into the soup, but he began to gently rub his forearm with it.
He hoped the bruise would fade quickly before his Noona saw it…
He hadn’t been caught because he kept wearing long sleeves, but living together meant there were dangers lurking everywhere.
Eun-myeong continued to roll the egg over his arm. The soft skin was pressed down.
He really is a man like a bruise.
He possesses such a strong color, and it hurts like hell when pressed. Since his own skin was exceptionally fragile, he bruised more easily…
He remembered the man gripping his collar painfully, only to release the strength instantly when he felt Eun-myeong suffocating.
It wasn’t even funny. He had beaten others so casually, without a second thought…
Why did he act as if only he were so special?
As he looked down at his forearm with a vacant gaze, the window above his head suddenly brightened. It seemed a light had been turned on outside. Since it was the window facing the hallway, he thought the neighbor had come home, but then—
“…….”
Suddenly, he felt a gaze. A very gloomy and sinister one. To say it was just his imagination, a pitch-black shadow flickered over Eun-myeong’s pale forearm.
Moreover, the shadow wasn’t small. It was enormous, covering his body like a rain cloud. Eun-myeong slowly lifted his head.
“…Ah.”
Startled, his knees jerked upward.
As expected.
Just as he thought, a black silhouette was cast against the window.
The man had been standing there since some point. Looking down at Eun-myeong from the darkness like a totem pole.
A suffocating silence flowed between them.
“…….”
“…….”
Eun-myeong could have opened the door for him, or at the very least, opened the window and called his name…
But he just watched. This was a man who could exert tremendous power over him; if he let him into this small house, he would be truly trapped.
Then again, opening the window felt like losing his final shield.
The man was someone who would have broken in if he wanted to, but he simply watched Eun-myeong from beyond the glass. He stared without blinking, as if lost in thought.
Soon, the hallway light clicked off. Only the light leaking from Eun-myeong’s house illuminated his face.
Deep darkness pooled in his sunken eye sockets like caves. Whether it was because he had lost weight, the sockets looked more hollow, making him appear even more eerie. However, their eyes did not meet.
Wondering what on earth he was looking at, Eun-myeong followed his gaze and saw his own forearm. The part that had gone from bright red to a deep blue bruise…
The man was glaring at it as if he wanted to carve that part right out. Without realizing it, Eun-myeong covered his forearm with his hand.
“…….”
Only then did the man raise his gaze and meet Eun-myeong’s eyes.
Looking at him, a natural question floated up. Why on earth had he come to find him?
Because he missed him?
Or had he come to threaten him, saying he wouldn’t let him be if he spilled everything to the police? Naturally, the latter suited him better.
Eun-myeong let out a hollow laugh.
“…….”
As he smiled, relaxing his lips, the man frowned even more like a demon. He looked truly ill-tempered…
Only now, with the glass window between them, was Eun-myeong able to face him directly. After spending all this time shrinking like a dehydrated sea squirt and only stealing glances, it was only now.
A new and very unfamiliar feeling surged into Eun-myeong.
The thought that has he been looking at me with those eyes all this time?
No wonder he kept mistakenly thinking the man loved him even a little.
Or maybe…
It would be more accurate to think he had just seen something wrong because he had drunk too much.
Right, I’m drunk right now. Eun-myeong let the egg he had been rubbing on his arm drop.