By Zephyria 
Yeon-rok did believe that he should treat his name partners fairly. It wasn’t as if he had a lover right now. So, while he knew he should maintain equal physical contact with both of them, he ended up avoiding them as much as possible out of sheer embarrassment and fear.
‘Anyway, it seems bearable even without contact for about a week.’
On one hand, he harbored a slightly spiteful thought like that. That was why, when Choi Hwan visited him late at night, Yeon-rok felt that the inevitable had finally arrived and braced himself. Since people’s lives and health were strictly at stake, he figured he should give it if they asked for it. He was in a resolute state of mind.
However, unexpectedly, Choi Hwan hadn’t come to ask for contact.
Knock, knock-knock. Knock-knock-knock-knock!
Someone was knocking urgently in the middle of the night. Yeon-rok, who had been asleep, opened the door to find Choi Hwan. His face was pale and his eyes were wide open, as if he had seen something shocking. Without permission, he burst into the room and quickly shut the door, speaking urgently to Yeon-rok, who was rubbing his sleepy eyes.
“L-Lee Yeon-rok. I think Yeom Cheon-ho is a murderer…!”
At those words, Yeon-rok woke up instantly. He turned on the bedside lamp and asked, frowning deeply because of the glare.
“What are you talking about? Did you have a dream while sleeping?”
“It’s true! I saw it with my own eyes…!”
According to Choi Hwan’s story, this is what he had seen.
Having returned from an overseas shoot, he had been unable to sleep due to jet lag and was wandering the house in the early hours of the morning. After watching a movie late into the night, he had lingered for a while before slowly heading up to the second floor, where he noticed light leaking from a certain room. It was the room with the white door that Yeom Cheon-ho had previously warned him not to enter with a strange threat.
Who on earth is in that room at this hour? What are they doing in a place where there’s nothing? Driven by curiosity, Choi Hwan approached and pressed his ear tightly against the door. Then, he heard a sound like something blunt struggling. Just as he was wondering what that noise could be…
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Choi Hwan’s shoulders jerked. It was because of the sound of something being struck violently and powerfully with a blunt object.
‘Knife.’
A familiar voice gave an instruction to someone. Slice, slice, slice… Splat. Then came a chilling sound, like flesh and bone being severed.
As Choi Hwan began to feel that something was seriously wrong, his sense of smell finally caught something. It was an intense smell of blood that was impossible to mistake. After a while, Yeom Cheon-ho spoke.
‘It was a good idea to lay down the plastic sheet. I should have done this sooner.’
A plastic sheet…? At that moment, Choi Hwan recalled memories from when he filmed a movie where the protagonist was a killer. To destroy evidence and make cleaning easier, the killer always laid plastic on the floor before committing the crime. Goosebumps prickled down Choi Hwan’s spine. The owner of the next voice was Secretary Kim Jeong-seong.
‘You’ve worked hard today as well. Ah, Mr. Yeom Cheon-ho, you got some on here too.’
‘Sigh…’
Yeom Cheon-ho let out a sigh, rarely showing irritation. Splat, splat. Another kind of noise—the kind he didn’t want to know the identity of in detail—was heard.
‘Well, it’s not like this is the first or second day I’ve gotten dirty doing this… I’ll clean this up on my way out, so please handle the final tidying.’
Choi Hwan scrambled away in a hurry. As soon as he entered his own room and hurriedly closed the door, the room door swung open. Holding his breath and watching through the gap in the door, he saw Yeom Cheon-ho emerge, carrying something heavy in his gloved hand. Even in the darkness, he could glimpse something dark red splashed on the man’s cheek. Blood dripped steadily from the sack as he walked…
He said he had stayed locked in his room, trembling for a long time until Kim Jeong-seong finished cleaning and left the house, and then he ran straight to Yeon-rok.
“…Did you watch a horror movie?”
“I’m serious!”
For a moment, Yeon-rok suspected that Choi Hwan was framing an innocent person out of jealousy. However, while that might be the case for Moon Gyeon-woo, Choi Hwan wasn’t the type of person to use such schemes. Above all, since Yeon-rok himself had always harbored an uneasy curiosity about Yeom Cheon-ho, it sounded quite plausible.
First, he stepped out of the room and checked the hallway, but he couldn’t see the bloodstains Choi Hwan mentioned. Ignoring Choi Hwan’s whining, he went to the room in question and opened the door. It was as pristine as the last time he had seen it.
“I think I smell something, though.”
Is this the smell of blood? While Yeon-rok was unsure, Choi Hwan, who remained anxious, dragged him out of the room.
“Get out, quickly! What are you going to do if that guy suddenly comes back!”
To Choi Hwan, Yeom Cheon-ho had already been downgraded to ‘that guy.’ Returning to the bedroom, Yeon-rok tried to explain logically.
“Even so, would he really commit a murder in a house where several people live? And what kind of murderer commits a crime like that and then confidently tells people to come into the room? He probably just has some strange hobby.”
It’s not like the CEO is some real-life Bluebeard… However, even as Yeon-rok defended him, doubt lingered. If Choi Hwan’s words were true, it was certain that something very strange was happening in that room. Moreover, Choi Hwan didn’t seem to be listening to Yeon-rok at all. Getting sleepy and tired, Yeon-rok tried to kick him out.
“Anyway, let’s talk more about this tomorrow. Now go to sleep.”
“What if he tries to get rid of the witness!”
“Just lock your door and sleep.”
“He’s the homeowner, so he must have a master key or something.”
Yeon-rok pushed Choi Hwan’s back with annoyance, but he didn’t budge.
“Even so, would he kill his own name partner?”
“There are three of us; he could easily slice one of us up!”
Wait. That… that actually sounded plausible.
Of course, Yeon-rok still didn’t take this as seriously as Choi Hwan did. He found it absurd that Yeom Cheon-ho would commit murders so carelessly inside the house. At most, he probably had a strange hobby he didn’t want others to see, or some secret circumstance. He just wanted to pretend not to know and enjoy the recent peace for as long as possible.
“If I ask the CEO tomorrow what he was doing…”
“No! In these kinds of scenarios, asking that leads to disaster! The plot will develop into either you or me being eliminated!”
“What scenario… I’m really sleepy.”
Perhaps because he had encountered so many works, or because his previous role was a killer cop, Choi Hwan voiced his absolute opposition. He went as far as locking the door and crawling into the bed without the owner’s permission. Yeon-rok glared at him.
“Hey, why are you coming in and lying down? Get out.”
“I’m not moving.”
Lying in bed, Choi Hwan rolled his eyes, and a bit of ulterior motive became visible on his smiling face. Since the bed was a large size, it was sufficient for two people to sleep. Yeon-rok gave up and climbed onto the bed. Choi Hwan looked around the head of the bed, reached out, and fiddled with the attachment doll, Yeondu.
“What a waste of your size.”
Yeon-rok criticized him, but Choi Hwan ignored him completely. He placed the Marble Dino doll, Yeoneo, which he had gifted, side by side with Yeondu and said,
“If we sleep together, it’ll be harder for him to suddenly try to kill us.”
“The CEO doesn’t seem like that kind of person.”
“People like that are usually the ones with the blackest hearts. Don’t you know that people who pretend to be nice are always the ones who stab you in the back?”
Becoming far too sleepy, Yeon-rok closed his eyes without answering, and Choi Hwan grumbled beside him. It was roughly something like, ‘You like the CEO too much, it’s unfair.’ After rustling around for a while, he gently took Yeon-rok’s hand. Yeon-rok opened his eyes slightly but didn’t push him away. To be honest, he liked having someone sleep beside him.
When he woke up after a deep sleep, Choi Hwan was fast asleep, hugging Yeon-rok tightly as if he didn’t know the world existed. Their touching bodies were warm, like an electric blanket or a large heat pack. Just as Yeon-rok was about to sleep a bit more because it felt good, his expression changed. He felt an unsettling sensation on his thigh.
“Hey, wake up. Aren’t you going to work?”
With a stern face, Yeon-rok quickly pushed him away with his foot and escaped his embrace. Choi Hwan stirred and yawned. His face upon waking was just a bit disheveled; it wasn’t swollen and looked perfectly fine. As expected of an actor, even his dazed face was honestly a bit cute. Choi Hwan stretched wide and muttered,
“Ah, I slept well.”
Perhaps because they were name partners, Yeon-rok’s condition was also truly great. Choi Hwan, who had been clung to him all night, seemed to feel it too and gave a grin.
“We could keep sleeping together like this, right?”
“I didn’t really like it.”
Fearing that he might actually keep coming back, Yeon-rok spoke bluntly, making Choi Hwan look a bit discouraged. Yet, he stubbornly insisted.
“You’re lying because you actually liked it, right?”
Without answering, Yeon-rok tidied the bedding. With a sulking Choi Hwan in tow, he went down to the first floor, where Mrs. Park greeted them warmly and immediately prepared a meal.
“I tried grilling some fish for breakfast today. Some fresh ones came in.”
While he enjoyed the delicious breakfast with pleasure, Choi Hwan barely touched his food. He always managed his diet strictly, so why was he acting like this when it was a regular meal? The moment Yeon-rok wondered, Choi Hwan glanced at Mrs. Park and whispered in his ear.
“Mrs. Park might be in on it too.”
Yeon-rok had seen Mrs. Park going in and out of that room several times, but he decided not to say anything. It was certain that Choi Hwan would make an even bigger fuss. Even after the meal, Choi Hwan seemed to be seriously contemplating the ‘Yeom Cheon-ho is a murderer’ theory. Whether he had no schedule today or not, he followed Yeon-rok around and said,
“I’ve been thinking about it, and I think it would be best to report this to the police.”