By Zephyria 
In truth, I was far more worried about the man’s injuries than my own body.
Contrary to my concerns, however, his recovery was truly monstrous. His condition improved by the day. The wounds healed quickly, and the surgical scars closed smoothly.
Still, wanting him to recover even faster, Eun-myeong applied new flesh ointment to the man’s middle finger whenever he had a chance, blowing on it softly—ho, ho. Eun-myeong’s plump cheeks puffed out and deflated.
‘Should I just roast this thing and eat it?’
Every time he did, the man would grab a handful of Eun-myeong’s cheek and knead it. Eun-myeong frowned, feeling wronged. Who was all this because of…?
The Boss had fed him so well—perhaps too well—that he had gained two kilograms. Looking at himself, who would even think he was the patient?
‘Why are you selling fish, you gruntling pig? You should be running a butcher shop.’
Eun-myeong had been bothered because his cheeks seemed a bit rounder even to his own eyes, but hearing the Boss say it made him genuinely upset. He wanted to show only his most dashing side, after all.
‘That’s why I told you I’d stop eating.’
As Eun-myeong’s lips pouted like a duck’s beak, the man tilted his head. He gave a soothing kiss to those plump lips.
The man stayed glued to his side, putting Eun-myeong to sleep and feeding him to his heart’s content. By the time the doctor said he could truly be discharged, Eun-myeong’s body had become strong enough to leave the hospital.
Spending a few days at the hotel where they had previously stayed, Eun-myeong stopped by the shop. When he shared the news that he would likely be leaving for Seoul, everyone seemed reluctant to see him go.
The new sashimi restaurant owner also seemed likely to be hauled away, so some mentioned opening a new shop of their own. A few others seemed to have received scout offers from different sashimi restaurants.
Fortunately, it seemed they were each finding their own paths.
After catching up and chatting for a long time, Eun-myeong left the shop, leaving his regrets behind as customers began to swarm in. He then sent a text to Yong-hee.
[Yong-hee-ya]
[Could you spare some time,,,,,,,,? ^^]
Splash, pat, splash-pat…
Eun-myeong walked slowly along the beach. The sticky air clung to his face. Soon, he saw Yong-hee lingering in the distance on the sandy shore.
Yong-hee was wandering around, kicking the sand with his feet. It looked strangely anxious and unstable, like a stray dog that needed to pee.
“Yong-hee.”
Eun-myeong approached with small steps and called his name softly. At that, Yong-hee froze. He slowly turned his back to look at him.
“Oh, you’re here?”
Since it had been a while, and because of how things ended last time, the air was incredibly awkward. A strange silence flowed between them.
Eun-myeong could feel Yong-hee glancing at him stealthily. He was usually a carefree guy who didn’t care about others’ opinions, so this atmosphere must have been truly awkward for him too.
“Here.”
Eun-myeong stealthily handed over what he had brought. Yong-hee glanced down at the shopping bag.
“What’s this?”
“Sunglasses. You’ll definitely need these once you become a captain.”
Looking back, Eun-myeong remembered only receiving things from Yong-hee. No matter how shameless he was, he wanted to leave a word of gratitude for Yong-hee before departing.
“I think I’ll be leaving for Seoul soon.”
A long sigh of “Ah” escaped Yong-hee. The boy gripped the shopping bag tightly. A somewhat blunt voice returned.
“You must be fucking busy getting ready for Seoul; you came all this way just to give me a gift?”
This time, Eun-myeong stole a glance at Yong-hee. Yong-hee was fidgeting with the shopping bag for no reason. Eun-myeong wondered if he didn’t like the gift, but fortunately, he didn’t seem to feel that way.
“…No, and I had something to tell you.”
Eun-myeong shook his head slightly. Then Yong-hee asked back. A strange, subtle flush of excitement seemed to rise on his face.
“Something to tell me?”
“Yeah,” Eun-myeong nodded.
“I wanted to say thank you for everything. For giving me a job, taking me to great places, and telling me so many interesting stories.”
“And,” Eun-myeong paused.
“And I wanted to say thank you so much for liking me, even though I’m really insignificant.”
Yong-hee was a very precious person who had shown him that he was someone capable of being loved. Eun-myeong now understood love better than anyone and knew how to be grateful for receiving it.
“…Is that all you have to say?”
“Huh?”
Eun-myeong’s eyes rolled. Then what else should he say? As he sank into a brief moment of thought, a look of slight disappointment appeared on Yong-hee’s face. But that was short-lived, and he let out a weak, airy laugh.
“Do you know why I liked you, Hyung?”
It was an unexpected question. Well, it wasn’t that Eun-myeong hadn’t thought about it. He wondered why someone like Yong-hee—who looked decent and was tall, despite his delinquent vibe—would happen to like someone like him.
“No, I’m not really sure.”
Eun-myeong blinked his eyelashes.
“I know you’re really broke, you didn’t go to school so you don’t know much, and you have no friends, so you’re like a loser. I know.”
However, everything being listed was a negative trait. The more he heard, the more Eun-myeong felt awkward, as if he were truly insignificant. Hearing how he appeared in the eyes of a third party so vividly made him feel very embarrassed.
Why on earth does the Boss like someone like me…
“But still, seeing how hard you worked to pay off your debts and how you never once said you were dying of exhaustion, I thought you were really cool.”
This was the first time in his life he had ever received this kind of praise. Eun-myeong felt somewhat dazed. He had simply lived busily from one day to the next, and it felt incredibly wondrous that someone had looked into his life like this and felt affection because of it.
And for some reason, he felt a bit comforted, and his heart swelled.
“Ah, fuck, it’s just because I’m young now, but in about two years, you’ll be fucking craving young chickens too…”
Yong-hee looked very confident, but Yong-hee himself would be the one to meet a much better partner by then. Eun-myeong sincerely hoped that Yong-hee would meet someone far kinder and cooler than himself.
Swoosh, the sea breeze blew gently around the two of them. Yong-hee’s hair became disheveled. The boy opened and closed his lips for a long time, as if he had something to say…
“See you again, Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
Eun-myeong gave him a bright smile. He offered a smile more radiant than any face Yong-hee had ever seen. Thank you so much for everything; thanks to you, I felt like I was alive, even if only a little. He left a final greeting in his heart.
Then he turned around and walked away, stepping firmly into the sand.
Only when he reached the end of the beach did he stop for a moment and look at the sea. Crash, crash. He took in the sight of the white, breaking waves.
Come to think of it, Eun-myeong had lived exactly like those waves. Just when he thought he was barely crawling out of the deep sea, he would break against the sandy shore, break, and break again.
It was a life where neither hope nor anything else was in sight.
While struggling like that, he met the man and went through so many things. Now, he was finally putting a period at the end of it all.
He had never once left Gyeryong Bay; what kind of things would lie in his future?
It was true that he felt a small amount of fear, but the excitement was greater. Because he would be with the Boss…
While Eun-myeong was immersed in sentiment, he felt a gaze from behind and whipped around.
The Boss was standing there. He was leaning against a black sedan with a low chassis that almost touched the ground.
“Boss!”
Eun-myeong hurriedly rushed toward him. Although the man would never leave him behind, his face looked quite serious. Then, Eun-myeong suddenly almost tripped in a comical way.
“Look at you.”
The man reached out and embraced him. Eun-myeong was held like a teddy bear and grinned.
“Boss, what brings you here?”
At that, the man’s eyes curved into a smile as he looked at him. A few strands of damp hair fell over his forehead. A cigarette was in his mouth, but it wasn’t lit. Wearing a deep blue shirt, he wore a smile as if painted onto the night sea.
“I came to find you, fearing you’d walk a long way.”
He continued. “Since you’re walking on two feet, it takes forever to get back.”
“Should I get a Benz for our baby?”
“No… I don’t need something like that.”
As for a Benz, he didn’t know much about it, but he felt he had heard it was an expensive car. The man asked “Why?” and poked Eun-myeong’s cheek with his nose.
“You’re officially Mister’s lover; I’ve got to let you show off a bit.”
“Lover…”
Eun-myeong’s mouth felt ticklish, and he fidgeted with his fingers.
“Hat, chal.”
He moved stiffly, like a robot. He blinked his eyes several times for no reason and sniffed his nose.
“But if it gets out that I’m your lover, wouldn’t that be… a bit much?”
The man was far more famous than Eun-myeong realized. Even lately, everywhere he went, people were buzzing about the Boss.
He seemed to hear things like which family he had an arranged meeting with, or that marriage talks were underway. If that were the case, it might only be a matter of time before he was mentioned.
“Mister would feel proud. Right? His lover is this fucking pretty, has a plump ass, and is incredibly charming.”
Eun-myeong’s soft earlobes turned bright red. Out of embarrassment, he poked the sand with the toes of his shoes. Unable to meet his eyes, he turned his head slightly to the side.
His heart was pounding so hard that he wanted to change the subject out of shyness.
“U-um, but what about the marinated crab…”
And the thing he brought up was, once again, marinated crab.
“I think the season has already passed, so we can’t eat it.”
Once the floodgates opened, Eun-myeong, who became talkative regarding fields he knew, quickly became absorbed and started chattering.
“They said the crabs this year were exceptionally full of roe and had a great yield, but the ones coming out now are a bit late in the season.”
“Then we can just mix and eat them frozen.”
The man babbled this while playing with Eun-myeong’s earlobe. As he crushed and pressed it in his hand, Eun-myeong shrugged his shoulders as if tickled, and he couldn’t have been more pretty and cute. A romantic sentiment naturally pooled in the man’s eyes.
“Hup.”
In contrast, Eun-myeong’s eyes turned ice-cold.
“Boss, frozen is trash.”
He spoke firmly, as if driving a nail, saying it was something utterly useless.
“Frozen is absolute trash you can’t even eat, so don’t even touch that stuff.”
Then he added a small whisper. Since it was winter, he told him lovably that he would make fish cakes for him, as they were a great delicacy.
He clung tightly to the man’s side. He felt something thick through the fabric. It was none other than the bandages still wrapped around his abdomen.
The surgical scar sat atop the tattoo. Every time Eun-myeong saw the spider-leg-like scar, his heart seemed to harden with a cold ache.
The man said he would call the tattoo artist back to cover it with new ink. Had he said he would even draw lilacs this time…?
I wish I could carve something into my body like the man did.
“Boss, I want a tattoo too.”
Even if he did, it wouldn’t be as cool as the one on the man’s body, but he still wanted a trace of him on himself.
“Tsk.”
But as soon as he mentioned it, the man glared.
“Where do you think you’re letting needles be poked into that pretty body?”
Then he added that if he needed a token that much, he would put a ring on Eun-myeong’s body.
“One with a sparkling diamond.”
At those words, Eun-myeong recalled the ring he had seen before.
Could that have been his? Because the size didn’t fit at all, he hadn’t even dared to hope. It was a gift he truly hadn’t expected. His heart was so full that he couldn’t even bring up the fact that the size was wrong. He would have worn it around his neck on a string if he had to.
Eun-myeong nodded blankly.
“Yes.”
The man gripped Eun-myeong’s waist tightly and pulled him closer into his embrace. Though shy, Eun-myeong happily wrapped his arms around the man’s neck. He accepted the happiness that poured over him like a full boat’s catch, with both arms wide open.
“Do something you’re good at.”
Something I’m good at? What is there? Eun-myeong fell into thought.
“Catching fish?”
The man relaxed his lips and laughed. Haha, his chest shook as he let out a laugh that burst through the sound of the wind.
“No, try talking about love.”
Eun-myeong’s lips twitched. Soon, his face flushed deep red, and his lips trembled. He looked with innocent eyes, like a pure youth confessing his first love.
“I love you, Boss.”
Then the Boss opened his mouth and responded firmly. His low voice was layered over the sound of the crashing waves.
“I deeply regret thinking, like an idiot, that nothing would happen in my life even if you disappeared.”
That in this moment of looking back and regretting, he loved Eun-myeong immensely…