5 – Chapter 5 Part 2

Park Jong-hoon got out of the taxi. The driver followed him out, opened the trunk, and took out his suitcase.

Dragging his suitcase, he walked slowly toward the apartment entrance. His body was weary, and his legs felt as heavy as steel beams.

He walked absentmindedly, looking down at the pavement blocks past the entrance, when his steps faltered at a dark shadow blocking his path. The suitcase he was pulling also came to an abrupt halt beside him.

Park Jong-hoon looked up and flinched. Standing expressionlessly before him was Hyun Woo-jin.

It was all just suspicion, with nothing that could be called evidence, yet everyone who knew him concluded it was Woo-jin’s doing.

If there was anyone capable of such a thing, it could only be Hyun Woo-jin.

There were too many dead people, too many people caught up in misfortune around him to dismiss it as mere coincidence. The face devoid of emotion, with eyes cast down, looked down at Park Jong-hoon with oppressive intensity.

“What… brings you here?”

“Turns out you were my high school senior.”

“…”

Park Jong-hoon swallowed unconsciously. Only after swallowing did he realize his Adam’s apple had bobbed noticeably, but Woo-jin had already caught it.

“What did you say?”

Woo-jin asked.

Park Jong-hoon didn’t know why Hyun Woo-jin had suddenly appeared before him, demanding an answer without any specific prompting, but he couldn’t hide his fear of Woo-jin, only blinking his eyes.

Already exhausted from over twelve hours of flying and unable to sleep well, his condition was a mess.

Park Jong-hoon, his feelings all over his face, asked in return.

“What… am I supposed to say?”

“What did you blab to Hae-won?”

“…”

“You and Professor Park Jong-hoon met the night before he left for Europe, didn’t you?”

The tone was accusatory, and meeting his gaze made it feel as if he’d been struck somewhere on his body.

Park Jong-hoon recalled Woo-jin’s profession. His job was that of an interrogator who operated on suspicion, extracting the truth from people.

Park Jong-hoon took a slow breath in and out before speaking.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I met Hae-won to ask if he could perform at the next concert. As you know, I had to leave the country for a seminar and needed to secure performers before that…”

He was a musician and a professor. He wasn’t skilled at psychological warfare, nor was he good at lying. Woo-jin was someone who dealt with people lying to his face all day long.

He could tell truth from falsehood just by watching the movement of their pupils. Even without that, he had honed the skill of pressuring others with keen observation.

Park Jong-hoon couldn’t meet his eyes and mumbled.

“You know better than anyone that I’m not naive enough to believe such words.”

“…I don’t know why you’re doing this. I’ll be going now.”

“What did you say to Hae-won?”

As Park Jong-hoon tried to evade with a vague gesture, turning away, Woo-jin blocked his path again. This time, his eyes held a threatening glint that suggested he wouldn’t let him go easily. Under the heavy shadows cast on his face, Park Jong-hoon bit the inside of his cheek in distress.

From the rumors, and from the brief glimpses he’d had, Woo-jin during his school days was a student with clear convictions who seemed mature.

But as a teenager, he wasn’t as adept at hiding and concealing his true nature as he was now. He sometimes revealed it hastily. The murderous intent and savagery that the teenage Woo-jin had been unable to skillfully conceal back then were now being openly displayed.

Park Jong-hoon looked at him curiously.

“What’s going on that you’re acting like this?”

“You should know better what’s going on.”

“I’m asking because I don’t know. Did something happen to Hae-won?”

“Don’t worry about that. Just tell me what you blabbed that day. We don’t have much time.”

Woo-jin raised his wrist to check the time and spoke. There was no hint of urgency, but Park Jong-hoon grew anxious. However, he wasn’t foolish enough to reveal the truth.

“I already told you. I just wanted to meet briefly to ask if Hae-won could perform at this concert. If Hae-won said no, I planned to contact a student of mine in Paris during my Europe trip, so I had to meet the night before leaving. If that was unpleasant… I’m sorry.”

“Mr. Park Jong-hoon.”

“Yes.”

“What did you say to Hae-won?”

“…Really, about the performance…”

“What did you say? I’m asking what you had to tell Moon Hae-won that required meeting so late at night.”

“Really. Other than that… I didn’t say anything.”

It felt like being trapped somewhere, forced to answer. Park Jong-hoon felt suffocated. He suffered from panic disorder. Remembering his condition, he suddenly felt as if he couldn’t breathe.

“You didn’t say anything else? What other things?”

“…”

“You graduated from that school too, so you must have heard a lot about me.”

“…You’re misunderstanding. Please step aside.”

“Don’t make a scene. Getting rid of someone like you is nothing to me.”

“Why on earth are you doing this, ugh!”

He twisted his body as if trying to escape. In an instant, a terrifying force shoved Park Jong-hoon. His back slammed against the wall as if thrown. Woo-jin cornered him, his elbow pressing down on Park Jong-hoon’s chest as if cutting off his air.

The elbow, hard as steel, pressed against his chest with enough force to crack ribs. As Woo-jin’s other hand firmly pressed down on the elbow’s fist, the pressure increased. Park Jong-hoon gasped for breath, choking.

“Kgh, heuk… hey, please. I have panic disorder, ugh…”

“What did you say?”

“Huu… u, ugh.”

“What did you say?”

His face suddenly loomed close in the darkness. Park Jong-hoon felt dizzy. Oxygen grew scarce, and breathing became difficult. He gasped for air. Woo-jin’s face, now even more shadowed, looked like a grim reaper come to collect his soul.

“Did you say I killed someone?”

“N, no, ugh, huuk…”

“Then, did you say someone died because of me?”

“…Yes. Huu, yes, ugh…!”

The elbow that had been pressing down hard enough to bruise his chest suddenly vanished.

Woo-jin straightened his posture. He brushed off his disheveled jacket. Park Jong-hoon, bent over, was on his knees. He repeatedly gasped for air, inhaling and exhaling roughly. He rubbed his chest as if his flesh and bones ached. His face was pale and drenched in cold sweat. A delayed panic attack made it impossible to stand. Park Jong-hoon slumped down, trembling violently.

Woo-jin looked down at him with a gaze that reeked of metallic bloodlust.

“Well, back then, a lot of ominous things happened around me. People actually died.”

“Huuu… u, ca, call an ambulance… call an ambulance…!”

As if having a heart attack, Park Jong-hoon’s upper body, which had been slumped, tilted sideways in the darkness. He face-planted onto the ground. With his cheek against the cold stone floor, Park Jong-hoon looked up at Woo-jin. Strangely, there was no expression. The lack of expression made it seem as if he was deliberately suppressing something, struggling to control his impulses.

Woo-jin bent one knee, looked down at Park Jong-hoon who was clutching near his heart and trembling convulsively, then laid him flat on his back, straightening his head. He took out his phone and called an ambulance.

“A person has collapsed. Looks like a myocardial infarction. Please send an ambulance quickly. The location is…”

He calmly relayed the information and hung up. He tapped Park Jong-hoon’s chest, which was trembling and pale blue. Tapping his chest in the rhythm and pace of a cardiac massage, he said:

“Why do you think those kids died?”

“Huu… ugh…”

“It’s because they didn’t know their place and acted out, just like you, Mr. Park Jong-hoon. Understand?”

If things had been just a little slower, he would have died from a seizure on the cold cement floor, but these days, times were good. Everything was fast. Ambulances were fast, and treatment was quick. Watching the ambulance carrying Park Jong-hoon disappear straight to the nearest hospital emergency room, Woo-jin walked to his car.

There’s no way Hae-won would have reacted to just a few trivial words like that.

Woo-jin knew Hae-won’s personality well. Hae-won would have scoffed. Maybe he even found such talk interesting. If so, Hae-won would have hugged his neck, laughing brightly, and asked:

‘Hyung, have you ever killed someone?’

Hae-won was excessively honest and had an innocent side that didn’t know how to suspect people. He wouldn’t have sided with slander from someone who didn’t even know him well. Something this trivial couldn’t shake Hae-won.

Not something this trivial.

Woo-jin drove quickly to Incheon Airport. Because his conversation with Park Jong-hoon had dragged on, he might miss Seo Okhwa’s departure time. He arrived at Incheon Airport’s departure hall, speeding dangerously. Flashing his ID, he passed through the departure area and entered the first-class lounge where Seo Okhwa was waiting.

A flight from Incheon arriving at New York JFK Airport tomorrow afternoon was loading luggage. Woo-jin showed his ID to the staff and said it was official business.

He entered the lounge without difficulty. Seo Okhwa was sitting on a comfortable sofa with her legs crossed, wearing sunglasses and reading a book. Woo-jin walked over to her. Sensing his presence, Seo Okhwa looked up.

“Oh, Woo-jin? You said you might not make it.”

“Of course I should see you off since you’re leaving.”

“I’ll be back soon, why bother when you’re busy? Sit here. Manager Kang, get Prosecutor Hyun something to drink.”

“No, it’s fine.”

At Woo-jin’s refusal, Manager Kang, who was sitting at a distance, started to get up, but Seo Okhwa gestured for him to sit back down. Manager Kang, Seo Okhwa’s personal secretary, nodded at Woo-jin in greeting.

“But how did you get into the lounge?”

“Official authority, for times like this.”

At Woo-jin’s words, half-joking and half-serious, Seo Okhwa burst into laughter.

“Next time, I’ll bring So-young too. The kid seems a bit burdened. Probably hard for her to see her dad in a detention center like that.”

“Yes…”

“The plane will take off in about ten minutes.”

Seo Okhwa picked up the book she had placed on her lap. Woo-jin looked at her.

“Um, Mother.”

“Yes?”

“By any chance, do you know Hae-won… Moon Hae-won?”

“Hae-won, why?”

“No, Hae-won was going to come with me, but something came up so he couldn’t. Hae-won asked me to tell you to have a safe trip.”

Woo-jin was staring intently at Seo Okhwa’s face.

“That kid has been acting strange lately. Or was he always strange? A few days ago, he came to our house to say goodbye, and then he said he was going to come with you to see me off too?”

“…You saw him at home? I heard you met in Jeju.”

“He came to the Hannam-dong house. We had lunch together and talked about this and that.”

“…”

“It’s really strange… Seeing Hae-won always reminds me of our Ha-young. They look nothing alike and talk differently, but while everyone else is busy watching my mood, that kid doesn’t care about that and talks comfortably, so I find it relaxing and nice. He’s a cute kid. Looks cute too.”

Seo Okhwa chattered on without considering Woo-jin’s feelings. Woo-jin let out a faint sigh. He swept back his hair, gripping the back of his neck tightly before letting go.

“By any chance, may I ask what you said to Hae-won…?”

“Oh my… Did Hae-won tell you?”

As if some conversation had indeed taken place, Seo Okhwa responded directly to the abstract question. Woo-jin, hiding his anxiety, asked:

“What kind of… talk?”

“About Prosecutor Hyun and So-young. I said I’d pretend not to know until you guys brought it up first. So he already went to you and delivered the news? I thought it seemed like I was giving permission?”

“…Ah.”

Woo-jin bowed his head. His hand clutched his forehead and swept down his face.

“Ma’am, it’s time to board now.”

Manager Kang approached them. He picked up Seo Okhwa’s bag, book, and other items. Woo-jin and Seo Okhwa stood up.

He escorted her to the lounge entrance. Manager Kang walked ahead, and Seo Okhwa, following behind, looked back at Woo-jin.

“Don’t think about Ha-young anymore… No need to feel so burdened. Woo-jin, you’re already like family to us. I’m always grateful. You know how I feel, right?”

“…Thank you.”

“I’m going. Take care until then. Look after our guy too.”

“Don’t worry.”

Woo-jin bowed his head to her. When he straightened up, Seo Okhwa’s back was already far away. He covered his face with both hands, roughly rubbing it as if washing.

“Haa… damn that bitch.”

A voice devoid of emotion quietly uttered profanity.

Things he had firmly believed were completely suppressed, built up solidly so that no physical force could topple them, were crumbling meaninglessly. The rough impulses he had suppressed and repressed for so long that they had built up resistance surged violently within him. Woo-jin grabbed his hair as if tearing it out, then released it and began walking quickly.

From Seongbuk-gu to Incheon, from Incheon to Yangpyeong, his car sped, ignoring traffic signals and speed limits. Arriving in Yangpyeong, he parked roughly and turned off the engine. As the engine sound died, the surroundings grew quiet as if oxygen was being sucked away somewhere.

He opened the dashboard. Took out a box from it. Untied the neatly tied ribbon and opened the box. Two rings lay on velvet.

“…”

He stared at the rings for a long time before throwing the open box back into the dashboard and getting out of the car. The stairs leading to the bunker were dark, making the already gloomy place look eerie.

He opened the firmly locked door and went down several floors to the underground. In the underground level decorated like a hotel suite, Secretary Choi, who had been panting, sharply turned his head at the sound of footsteps, then lowered his gaze upon confirming it was Woo-jin.

A man was hanging from a pole, his wrists and ankles bound with zip ties, head bowed. Woo-jin took off his jacket. He threw the removed clothes onto the sofa anywhere and approached the man tied to the pole.

“Got caught, right?”

“Ugh… no. Really not.”

“The housekeeper came to the house around two in the afternoon, so how come your text says Moon Hae-won was at the orchestra at that time?”

“I… I really thought he was inside, I thought…”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just say you got caught?”

“…”

“What kind of work is that? What is Moon Hae-won, what on earth is Moon Hae-won?”

“I’m sorry. Prosecutor, I’m sorry.”

“He’s just… he’s just a nobody violinist. Why would a pro like you miss such a kid? Isn’t that more strange?”

Woo-jin genuinely couldn’t understand. He struggled to comprehend, but not understanding was driving him mad. His hand, clearly showing his descent into madness, swept through his hair hysterically.

“I’m sorry. Sorry, please forgive me. Ugh…”

Having been beaten repeatedly by Secretary Choi, a former amateur boxer, even the slightest movement caused excruciating pain. Ja-seok contorted his face in agony.

Saliva mixed with blood foam dripped down, falling drop by drop onto the floor. Secretary Choi brought a hose and washed away the blood Ja-seok was dripping. He kept the area around the drain clean.

Woo-jin loosened his tie and undid the shirt buttons that felt like they were choking him. His breathing kept speeding up, and things he tried to suppress kept surging. It felt like he needed to smash something to make this anxiety and unease disappear, but since that was too irrational, Woo-jin tried to think rationally. He spoke in a calm voice.

“Tell the truth. I’m piecing things together now, so try to make it make sense.”

“…”

“Only then might I understand why Moon Hae-won disappeared from before my eyes.”

A rough hand movement without control grabbed Ja-seok’s wet hair and yanked it up. Bending his head back enough to snap his neck, Woo-jin looked down at Ja-seok, his pupils dripping with contempt and blue fire.

“He found out, didn’t he? Moon Hae-won knows everything now?”

“No, no. Really, no. I thought he was at the orchestra. Not checking was… that was my oversight. Please believe me.”

His chin lifted stiffly, and Seok-jung only flinched as if trying to struggle, but in reality, he couldn’t even budge, his hair viciously gripped.

“Don’t you know me? Do you think I’d just let you walk out of here clean? This whole area is nothing but mountains where no one would know if you buried anything. Do you think I’d just say ‘oh, okay’ and let you go if you deny it?”

“Prosecutor…! Please, please believe me!”

“I want to believe you, but I can’t. I don’t believe you. So, convince me. Make me believe you. Moon Hae-won isn’t the type to go looking for Seo Okhwa just because that bastard Park Jong-hoon blabbed a few words. That means something happened before. And that something is you. You got caught. Right?”

With each word, the fingers gripping his hair tightened, pulling the back of Seok-jung’s neck taut. His face flushed red as if being strangled. Someone’s painful groan scattered bleakly through the air-raid shelter.

Woo-jin released his hair and stepped back. He jerked his chin toward Secretary Choi, who was cleaning the area with a hose.

Secretary Choi, who had shut off the water valve at the hose end, trudged over and, without even taking a stance, drove his fist into Seok-jung’s stomach and chest. Thud, thud—the sharp sound of fists sinking into something heavy and elastic was followed by a series of gasps as if his breath was being cut off.

Knowing this was nothing more than an act in a script with a predetermined answer, Seok-jung gritted his teeth. If he admitted he was caught and told the truth, he knew better than anyone that he would really end up buried somewhere in these nearby mountains. The desperate struggle to survive burst out as a groan through his tightly clenched teeth.

“Seonbae, what happened to you? You weren’t answering your calls. Do you know how much Deputy Chief Prosecutor was looking for you?”

As soon as Woo-jin spotted him, he shoved past Jeong Ho-myung, who was chasing after him frantically, flung open the office door, and slammed it shut right in his face.

He took out his phone to call the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency but just stared at the screen for a long time without making the call. He simply glared down at the phone with a terrifying look.

Chief Hwang tried to say something, but Woo-jin acted as if he didn’t hear, not even looking at him, and entered his private office, closing the door.

Woo-jin slumped into the chair in front of his desk.

“……Haa.”

It felt as if the things he had meticulously stacked and hardened inside him were wearing down, being consumed, and he had gone mad, momentarily forgetting even how to breathe or walk.

Woo-jin had visited the famous jewelry store known for engagement rings that day.

While Hae-won was asleep, he had secretly measured the size between his fingers. Following the clerk’s recommendation, he bought an expensive couple’s ring, one so high-end that even Hae-won, who was picky, couldn’t complain.

Even though he knew full well that such a ring held no binding power, Woo-jin still wanted to put a ring on Hae-won’s finger.

It had no legal effect, couldn’t serve as proof of ownership, and could simply be taken off, but still, he wanted the ring he had placed on the finger that moved the fingerboard to shine with a different light each time he played.

He wanted to make Moon Hae-won his own, to clearly mark the completion of possession. Those pointless acts were enjoyable and pleasing. Woo-jin fiddled with the box containing the ring, buoyed by a sense of preemptive triumph.

Swollen with anticipation, he left work early and arrived home.

The Filipino housekeeper had already left for the day. She arrived when Woo-jin left for work and usually left the house around five in the afternoon, before Hae-won returned home.

After warning her to avoid encountering Hae-won as much as possible and not to listen to his playing, the housekeeper’s comings and goings became as precise as clockwork.

Waiting for Hae-won, who didn’t come, Woo-jin checked the text from Seok-jung. It reported that he had left the orchestra and gone to play tennis. Usually, after his tennis lesson ended around seven in the evening, Hae-won would return home.

Past eight o’clock, he still hadn’t returned. Woo-jin called Hae-won.

The number was disconnected.

Woo-jin thought he had dialed wrong. Hae-won’s number was clear, but even after calling twice, three times, it was a disconnected number. He contacted Seok-jung. He hemmed and hawed. He avoided answering. Woo-jin intuitively sensed something was wrong.

He called the housekeeper. She said Hae-won had looked very unwell. That he had returned home around two in the afternoon and hadn’t moved from his room.

Woo-jin even checked the CCTV. As the housekeeper said, he had returned home around two in the afternoon. Not long after the housekeeper left, Hae-won left the penthouse with his violin slung over his shoulder. He didn’t take his own car parked in the lot.

He went out to the main road in front of the mixed-use building, walked, and disappeared from the CCTV. And that was the end.

Over a week had passed since Hae-won disappeared like that.

No matter how he twisted his arm, Seok-jung insisted he knew nothing. It seemed he knew that the moment he told the truth, he would be buried somewhere around there.

From the last point where Hae-won disappeared, his phone number had also been canceled.

“…….”

He hadn’t returned to his family home, nor had he gone back to his officetel.

Hae-won was nowhere. No matter how he searched, he didn’t appear. Woo-jin, who had always considered himself patient, who had lived thinking there wasn’t even much need to exercise patience, was, with each passing day of Hae-won’s absence, renewing the limits of his patience.

His careless mother, So-young who couldn’t take a hint, Seo Okhwa who was oblivious—everyone around Hae-won who spouted nonsense and caused him to lose control—if possible, he truly wanted to erase them all from this world.

Hearing from Seo Okhwa, who was returning to New York, just how much Hae-won had found out, Woo-jin could only watch as everything he had so meticulously built crumbled overnight.

When Ha-young committed suicide and turned his plans to foam, Woo-jin merely changed his plans, finding another way to circumvent the issue; he suffered no damage. There was no sense of crushing defeat as if something had collapsed due to her death.

It was because there had been no target. Moon Hae-won was utterly useless, only interfering with Woo-jin’s plans. Made him unable to work. Kept driving him to want to go home early. Made him watch strange dramas, drink wine he didn’t even like, and prevented him from having rough sex to his taste.

The days when he wanted to pry open that small mouth and shove his genitals all the way to the root, suffocating Hae-won, Woo-jin had to endure with patience superior to others. He endured too much when there was no need. Showed too much consideration.

Now, he was trying to cut down Lee Seok-joong, who was currently an asset that could be considered the most important in Woo-jin’s personal network, simply because he had bothered Hae-won.

Woo-jin was in the process of expanding his operations. It was dangerous work where, even if he didn’t know whose doing it was right now, it wouldn’t be long before he realized who was holding and shaking Key One. Things he didn’t need to do, shouldn’t do, Woo-jin was doing because of Hae-won. That was why.

Hae-won wasn’t even a target; having him brought no benefit at all. It was because such a Hae-won had suddenly disappeared.

Woo-jin was in the midst of constructing various hypotheses and attaching all sorts of reasons to convince himself why he was so flustered.

There was no other reason. It was simply because someone who was no target at all had suddenly disappeared, vanished from his side, leaving no plan to circumvent or change.

It was Hae-won, who had been harshly treated over So-young’s matter. He was even prepared to break up. No, he accepted breaking up as a matter of course. It must have been something that unacceptable.

Park Jong-hoon’s blabbering, attaching Seok-jung to monitor him, and on top of that, Seo Okhwa, who didn’t even know the truth, must have used So-young’s issue to fan the flames.

Woo-jin knew he had been dumped. He understood in his head that this was Hae-won’s way of saying goodbye, of giving notice, but his head and body simply couldn’t accept such a parting.

Woo-jin was realizing, through Hae-won’s disappearance, that mental fortitude was also a type of thing that could wear down.

Knock, knock. He lifted his head, which had been bowed the whole time. The person cautiously pushing the door open was Chief Hwang.

“……Prosecutor, are you busy?”

He had a face full of trepidation.

“What is it?”

“Deputy Chief Prosecutor said to come to his office…, right now, he’s been saying since earlier.”

“…….”

“Prosecutor.”

It was a tone used to coax a disobedient child. Woo-jin rose from his seat. As he tried to leave, Chief Hwang hurriedly grabbed his arm.

“Why?”

“Change your clothes before going. You have a spare shirt, right? And put on a tie.”

“…….”

Only then did Woo-jin look down at his own state. His jacket seemed to have been left in Yangpyeong, his tie was gone, and several buttons of his shirt were undone, disheveled to the point of showing well below his collarbone—a complete mess.

He changed into the spare shirt he kept in the office. He hadn’t shaved in the morning. The palm he ran over his face felt rough. Leaving behind Chief Hwang, who was watching him like a bomb-sniffing dog, he headed to the bathroom, taking the razor he kept for overtime preparations.

Woo-jin shaved cleanly. Wearing the tie and jacket borrowed from Chief Hwang, he knocked on the door of the Deputy Chief Prosecutor’s office. The secretary stood up upon seeing Woo-jin.

“Is Deputy Chief Prosecutor inside?”

“He’s waiting for you.”

Woo-jin passed the secretary’s desk and knocked on the private office. A voice from inside told him to enter. Opening the door and entering, Woo-jin’s eyebrow twitched upon seeing the Chief of Staff sitting on the reception sofa. He immediately pretended not to notice and turned his gaze to the Deputy Chief Prosecutor.

The teacup on the table, which he glanced at, was bone dry, not a drop of moisture. It meant he had been waiting a long time.

“I heard you were looking for me.”

“Prosecutor Hyun, where the hell did you stuff your phone? Why aren’t you answering calls?”

“I’m sorry. I had some urgent matters to handle and couldn’t contact you.”

“More urgent than me?”

“……Depending on the case, there are matters more urgent than that.”

“Huh, listen to this guy. Sit. Greet the Chief of Staff. You’ve seen him on TV, right?”

Woo-jin greeted the Chief of Staff.

He held on for too long. The Chief of Staff had also now reached his limit of patience, just like Woo-jin. It seemed the person he thought could pressure Woo-jin was merely the Deputy Chief Prosecutor.

Woo-jin sighed in disbelief inwardly. When their eyes met, the Chief of Staff hardened his brow. It held a protest, melted into his expression: I did everything you asked, everything you wanted, so why aren’t you giving me what I want?

“Hello. I’m Hyun Woo-jin from Special Investigation Division 3.”

“You’re the famous Prosecutor Hyun Woo-jin. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

What was so famous about it? The ‘famous’ remarks he heard here and there were particularly grating on his nerves today.

Not showing any expression, he bowed with indifferent eyes to greet him, and the Chief of Staff stood up, offering a handshake. Woo-jin took his hand with a dull expression.

Already tired to death, everything that suddenly appeared and bothered him didn’t just irritate or fatigue him; an impulse surged to the point of wanting to trample it all. To avoid acting irrationally, he chewed and swallowed his emotions.

“Is our Prosecutor Hyun famous over there too?”

“Isn’t he the prosecutor who had Min-guk Party Representative Park Yong-ho arrested? In political circles, everyone shudders at that. How many people got dragged into that affair?”

The Chief of Staff replied to the Deputy Chief Prosecutor’s question. Recalling that such an incident had occurred, the Deputy Chief asked, almost sarcastically, about Woo-jin’s current position.

“You’re not telling me Yeouido is sending love calls to our Prosecutor Hyun, are you?”

“Have they gone mad in Yeouido? Bringing in the prosecutor who slit their own throats? They’re not masochists.”

The Chief of Staff, who would soon be moving his residence to Yeouido, waved his hands dismissively, saying such a thing would absolutely never happen. The Deputy Chief Prosecutor grinned satisfactorily at that answer.

“The Chief of Staff has a favor to ask of Prosecutor Hyun.”

“……Pardon?”

Woo-jin, doubting his ears, furrowed his brow and looked at them. Woo-jin’s complete lack of expression management was so unfamiliar that the Deputy Chief Prosecutor blinked his eyes wide as if seeing something strange.

“It seemed Prosecutor Hyun was too busy to come to me, so I came directly.”

“What do you mean by ignoring contact from the Blue House? Are you that busy? If you’re busy, just how busy are you?”

“…….”

The Deputy Chief Prosecutor, who thought the reason the Blue House wanted to see him was to negotiate President Kim Jeong-geun’s sentence, scolded Woo-jin with a displeased face.

“Well, if you two are finished, Chief, why don’t you go to my office and talk there.”

“Thank you for the tea. Then, I’ll take my leave.”

The Chief of Staff stood up, gave a light bow to the Deputy Chief Prosecutor, and exited his office first. Woo-jin also bowed silently and turned to leave.

Prosecutors and staff members glanced furtively at the Chief of Staff walking down the Central District Prosecutors’ Office corridor.

“Let’s go outside first. He’s not here.”

“I heard things were precarious because of President Kim Jeong-geun, and it really was true. What was the reason for doing that so stubbornly?”

“I believe I told you I was just doing my job. Let’s have lunch together later. If it bothers you that much, I’ll give it to you. I don’t know what meaning it holds, whether original or copy.”

“Remember, there are several people here who can have your head. I’ll be waiting for your contact.”

The Chief of Staff gestured to the aide who had been waiting. They got on the corridor elevator and disappeared. Woo-jin stood rooted to the spot as if planted there for a long time before finally turning away.

“In the video, you promised to guarantee a minimum 30% return, correct? Such actions constitute fraud.”

“All my acquaintances made more than double their investment and left. That’s an undeniable fact, so why do you keep calling it fraud?”

The real estate star instructor specializing in gap investment spoke as if wronged.

Investors who couldn’t recover their funds had sued him. Chief Hwang came in and handed Woo-jin a copy of the dual contract. Woo-jin spread the backdated contracts on the desk, propped his chin with a tired face, and read through them.

The work wouldn’t enter his eyes. He had to work, but everything was just bothersome and tiring. He lifted his head and looked at the petty fraud suspect.

“Things don’t work just because you insist they do when you’re caught. There’s clearly a backdated contract here. Are you still going to deny it?”

“Anyway, if people make money and leave, isn’t that not fraud?”

“And when funds get tight, you bring in other investors, advertising guaranteed returns? What will you do when the Ponzi scheme bursts?”

“Then we gather more investors. Keep gathering investors like that, invest, realize profits with that money, gather more, that’s how it’s done.”

“…….”

Without listening to his blathering, Woo-jin rubbed his temples. He called Chief Hwang.

“Take this person out and get a statement, and since we’ll be conducting supplementary investigations, review if there are any additional charges to add.”

“Huh? No, what supplementary investigations? My statement isn’t finished yet.”

“This gentleman will listen to you. Go outside and talk.”

Bothersome, so take him out quickly, Woo-jin gathered all the documents on the desk at once and handed them to Chief Hwang. Absentmindedly receiving the file Woo-jin pushed over, Chief Hwang, looking bewildered, told the suspect to follow him and left his office.

Leaning his back completely against the chair, Woo-jin let his head hang back. Sitting still, looking out the window, the corner of his lips curled into a sneer.

“…….”

It must mean he wants to break up.

It must mean he doesn’t want to see me anymore, that he won’t meet me.

It must mean he hates the sight of me so much that he’ll disappear from my presence.

He was dumped by Moon Hae-won. Moon Hae-won left him. Hae-won abandoned him.

It was a shame as if stripped naked before a crowd. Just hearing Park Jong-hoon’s words, Hae-won had misunderstood him.

As they claimed, Woo-jin wasn’t abnormal, nor did he kill them. He was only guilty of standing by and watching such events unfold. Those who, like moths to a flame, sought death and were sucked into it was always their own voluntary choice. Woo-jin bore no responsibility. It had nothing to do with him.

But Hae-won must have listened to Park Jong-hoon’s words. To Park Jong-hoon dredging up old matters and vividly blathering as if they happened yesterday, Hae-won might have considered Woo-jin ‘abnormal.’

The biggest point of Woo-jin’s bewilderment lay right there. He was afraid and terrified that Hae-won might think he was abnormal, that he might be judging him as such, that he might appear like a madman to him.

Perhaps Hae-won didn’t leave because he couldn’t stand the sight of him, but because he was scared and ran away…….

It wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t abnormal. But when he thought that Hae-won considered him such a person, a helpless anger boiled up.

He decided not to think about Hae-won anymore. Since such a useless being had left, it was a fortunate thing for him. Trying to possess something that didn’t even bring any benefit was a mistake from the start.

Now it was over.

It’s over.

Accepting the breakup more easily than expected, he closed his eyes. And pretended not to know the face that rose in his mind.

∞ ∞ ∞

Dinner with Mother was like a regular meeting.

Arriving at the main house, Woo-jin got out of the car and stared blankly up at the lit single-family home. He wanted to say he was tired and just go back, but if he skipped dinner, Mother would find it strange and look at him suspiciously.

He trudged through the garden and went inside.

The dining table was filled with Woo-jin’s favorite foods. As if by appointment, Father was absent on the days he came for dinner.

Perhaps Father understood him better than Mother did. Mother, being Mother, couldn’t give up on Woo-jin’s humanity, while Father, having grasped Woo-jin’s essence, knew it was a threatening matter and turned a blind eye.

Except for special family events, there wasn’t even a chance to see Father. On ancestral memorial days or holidays, Woo-jin didn’t attend, citing being busy. Except for briefly seeing him at his Hyung’s wedding a few years ago, Woo-jin hadn’t seen Father for a long time.

After the incident Park Jong-hoon told Hae-won about, Father treated him as a devil born from sin. He disliked his biological father who treated him like a monster, and Father disliked him. Father and son loathed each other, with Father’s side being more severe. A beautiful family.

“Father said he has an appointment today.”

“How novel. When has he ever been home?”

“…….”

Mother made excuses for Father’s absence again today.

Woo-jin sat at the table without even snorting.

Now, Father or whatever didn’t matter at all. Even though Woo-jin was superior to his brothers, he didn’t even feel like showing off his achievements to him, who didn’t acknowledge that fact. It was a meaningless act.

It was just that the coldness of this family, which rejected a child he thought he had grown accustomed to, believed he had developed immunity to through habit, felt newly vivid and stark.

Recalling the disgust shown by his own flesh and blood, the warm memories of being surrounded by Hae-won revived.

The eyes looking back affectionately, the face crying while clinging to Woo-jin, the eyes brimming with tears, the smile directed at Woo-jin, who was absurdly listening through headphones as if enjoying music, having recorded his voice. That sincerity filled with trust, saying he loved him as much as a hundred stars……, assaulted Woo-jin.

Remembering Hae-won like that, the unpleasantness he recognized every time he came to his parents’ house felt very distinct.

Woo-jin was loved by Hae-won. As much as a hundred stars.

Perhaps even more than a hundred stars.

He admitted he had been addicted to it for a long time. Even though the weather wasn’t like that, his bones felt cold in every nook and cranny. It was a cold like a side effect, like withdrawal symptoms.

“Thank you for the meal.”

He said insincerely and picked up his utensils.

“I’m not sure if it’ll suit your taste. I packed some side dishes, take them later. Eat with Hae-won. You said you call a helper to the house every day, right?”

“Hae-won isn’t there.”

“Huh?”

As he replied indifferently while eating, he felt Mother’s gaze on his forehead. As her eyes stared piercingly between his brows, Woo-jin added.

“We broke up.”

“……What? Why?”

Choi Hyun-mi asked, flustered.

She had met Hae-won not long ago. It was Hae-won who appealed to that mother about how well they got along, how loving their relationship was, how great a man Woo-jin was, defending him.

How beautifully he spoke, when talking about Woo-jin, he was so lovely that one couldn’t help but want him as a daughter-in-law even though he was a man.

No matter how lighthearted meeting and parting are for kids these days, she couldn’t believe the sudden breakup of these two who seemed so happy.

“I just ended it.”

“What? Why? Did you start disliking him? Got tired of him?”

Unable to believe it, she questioned as if interrogating.

“He’s too difficult. We can’t communicate, he doesn’t know how to listen to others, he’s capricious.”

Woo-jin replied without even pondering. Before Choi Hyun-mi could add, asking if they broke up over just such things, he spoke again.

“He bothers people. Demands a lot too. Let’s do this, let’s do that, let’s go here, let’s do this……. Sigh.”

“…….”

Letting out a sigh, Woo-jin raised his eyes as if appealing to Mother, asking if she could imagine how much that tired him.

“The most important thing is there’s no time to work. He doesn’t even know how to cook, so he just grabs anything to eat. What to feed him, take care of him, wake him up in the morning to send him to the orchestra, there’s not just one or two things to worry about.”

He didn’t want to bother with such worries, so he hired people. Since he couldn’t be attached to him 24/7 to monitor, he just borrowed someone’s help.

The breakup with Hae-won was a godsend. Woo-jin tried his best to treat Hae-won as insignificant, picking at all sorts of faults.

That’s why they broke up. Not because he was abandoned, not because he was dumped, he was going to end it anyway.

He calmed his agitated heart like that.

“So I ended it for those various reasons.”

He himself seemed unaware, but it was clear Woo-jin had no intention of breaking up with Hae-won at all. It seemed there was some kind of quarrel. Choi Hyun-mi gently tried to soothe Woo-jin.

“Everyone’s like that. That’s how you adjust to each other and date. Did you fight by any chance?”

“Hae-won is six years younger than me. Fight? If Hae-won gets scolded by me, he gets scolded, we’re not in a relationship where we can fight and argue.”

“Hae-won is clearly an adult. Why treat him like a child?”

“Decisively, he’s ignorant.”

“What?”

“All he knows how to do is play the violin and bathe.”

The more he thought about it, the more he reached the conclusion that breaking up was good. The only thing worth looking at was his face. His sharp temper could be charming if considered charm, but it was tiring.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t affectionate. At first, he was so cold, but after opening his heart, he showed everything inside without hiding.

Also, you couldn’t say his hands weren’t pretty. Since he washed so much, it was natural his body smelled good. Touching Hae-won made him feel good. Holding him made him sleep well.

Before, he considered sex merely excretion and handled it moderately, but being with Hae-won made him have to reestablish his previous belief that sex was evolutionary psychology. His relationship with Hae-won, a man, wasn’t about the desire for species preservation either, and to call it satisfying physiological needs would be an understatement given the excessive frequency. Woo-jin had been obsessed with it beyond necessity.

Even when well-controlled, he shook Woo-jin, who had almost no emotional fluctuations, playing with people.

“Why did you quarrel? Should I call him?”

“Don’t. It’s over now.”

Woo-jin coldly cut off the conversation as if telling her not to argue.

Choi Hyun-mi was sorry. She thought a good connection that would finally make him more human had appeared for Woo-jin.

For Woo-jin, it might have been the first, and perhaps the last…….

At least Hae-won was exerting that level of influence on Woo-jin. If he felt like wanting to live together, even if he said such things, it meant he liked him quite a lot.

She wanted to ask more, but Choi Hyun-mi stopped. A huge disappointment washed over her.

“I see. Actually, I saw him on TV and thought about contacting him, but it seemed like being nosy so I didn’t. Good thing I didn’t. I almost touched a painful wound for nothing. You broke up well, right? Didn’t fight badly? Hae-won understood too?”

She asked, taking his word that he ended it at face value.

“Yes?”

“You parted on good terms, right? Didn’t hurt each other?”

“No, what did you just say? He’s on TV?”

“Huh? He was on TV last time. Didn’t you know?”

“When?”

Woo-jin’s hand, which had been eating, froze in mid-air.

“Last week Friday? Some educational program, he was on it. He performed and did an interview with the Announcer. His expression looked a bit dark, so I wondered if something was wrong, but I didn’t know you two broke up.”

She recalled the memory of recently turning the TV channel by chance and Hae-won’s face appearing. Choi Hyun-mi, with a glad heart, stopped what she was doing and watched intently until the program ended.

He seemed lacking energy, and on the other hand, his face felt coldly different from when she met him before, so she wondered if something was wrong.

It seemed that not long after breaking up with Woo-jin, he appeared on broadcast and such distress showed on his expression.

“What was the title?”

“What was it, something like Classic Onion? No, classic some vegetable or nut. Classic Acorn! It must have been acorn.”

Choi Hyun-mi, who was combining the vaguely remembered program title this way and that, said, Ah.

“……Classic Acorn?”

“That’s the program name.”

Woo-jin’s face, looking displeased as he pronounced ‘acorn’ displeasingly, was momentarily unfamiliar and funny, making Choi Hyun-mi burst into laughter unknowingly, then immediately erased it. Woo-jin didn’t laugh at all.

“……Right. It was acorn.”

“He was on it? Hae-won?”

“He appeared quite a while. The lighting suited him so well. He’d probably succeed even as a celebrity.”

Ending things with such a kid, dumping such a kid because he’s bothersome, even though he was her own son, she felt sorry for Woo-jin who made such a choice.

“No contact after breaking up? Hae-won seemed to really like you. He must be having a hard time……. Can’t you be a bit more considerate?”

“It’s already over. We won’t contact each other.”

His eyes widened as if saying he asked first but now stop talking about Hae-won, Woo-jin spoke as if displeased.

Choi Hyun-mi sighed inwardly. Even though he was a man, she didn’t know how grateful and glad she was for Hae-won’s existence, as it seemed Woo-jin was having a normal relationship.

Rather than waiting for such a person to appear again, it seemed faster for Hae-won to admit fault and yield to Woo-jin. Not because he got tired or fed up, but since by his own words he said he was bothered and disliked it, it seemed there might be some hope for relationship recovery.

Woo-jin put down the half-eaten spoon on the table.

“Not eating more?”

“I have something urgent, I’ll go now.”

“Finish your meal and go.”

“Sorry. I have to finish it today, but I forgot.”

Woo-jin hurriedly stood up and walked at a speed that showed no consideration for his following mother, got in the car, and left without even saying goodbye.

As soon as Woo-jin arrived home, he looked for the remote. For Hae-won, who liked listening to live recordings, he had equipped the TV and audio system with top-tier gear.

After Hae-won left, since no one used it, he searched for the remote, lifting each sofa cushion one by one, then found it neatly in the sofa table drawer after a while, frowned, and turned on the power.

“Acorn…….”

Woo-jin searched for past broadcasts.

Searching for acorn, the educational broadcast program called Classic Acorn that Mother mentioned appeared. It had already been half a month since Hae-won left him, and the broadcast was four days ago.

If he wanted to find out where he was, it wouldn’t even be a task. But Woo-jin didn’t do that. He didn’t want to appear as if being dragged along. The initiative should always be his.

Even if Hae-won was hurt by what Woo-jin did and went into hiding, Hae-won, who loved him, had very low endurance to endure something. He was an impulsive, emotional human. Woo-jin was waiting for the right time, thinking he would eventually come back crying, and that he would make it so.

But he appeared on broadcast as if to show off. It was something Woo-jin asked him not to do.

He hated anyone seeing Hae-won. The chest pain he felt when he saw Hae-won on the large wall-mounted screen in the prosecution office cafeteria, the state of trance where his heart suddenly dropped with a thud and he couldn’t be conscious of anything around except Hae-won—he hated the very idea of anyone else feeling that besides him. Such a thing was unacceptable.

If there was truly something he hated in the world, not being able to monopolize Hae-won would be the first of those hated things, Woo-jin had told Hae-won with such feelings not to appear on broadcasts or such.

Hae-won clearly had not the slightest intention of listening to others’ words, both before and after breaking up.

Even though it ended up like this, Woo-jin thought it was for the best.

That Moon Hae-won, who doesn’t listen, is self-willed, has to do everything he wants to be satisfied, is arrogant and ignorant, with only his face worth looking at, insignificant like cosmic dust, abandoned and left him, so it’s rather good, Woo-jin thought now he could finally focus properly on work and felt fortunate, and played the broadcast.

Aside from his main job, he had to manage the group strategy office, and getting former manager Kim on track to make the group run normally was an urgent matter.

That wasn’t all. He had to push K-One Group down in the business rankings too. He wasn’t as idle a person as Hae-won thought.

If he thinks I’ll somehow find him and apologize or something, that would be the greatest delusion among delusions humanity has.

Such a thing couldn’t happen. Woo-jin had never wasted energy on useless things.

He turned up the volume with the remote in his hand. The broadcast began with a lively-looking female Announcer in a small studio decorated like a cafe, sitting on a stool next to a TV showing a scene from the Jeju International Wind Music Festival, looking at that screen.

As Woo-jin expected, the violin concerto by Han-gyeong Symphony, one of the programs of the orchestral festival, flowed out. He had never heard Hae-won play this piece. It was the first time hearing it.

With a completely focused face, he stared piercingly at the screen without even flinching his eyelids.

Though simply dressed in a white shirt and black slacks revealing his ankles, with long limbs and a small face, Hae-won looked stylish.

As the timpani grandly awakened the surroundings and the woodwinds sounded, Hae-won, with the violin tucked between his shoulder and chin, closed his eyes and drew the bow down.

The orchestra held its breath and savored Hae-won’s solo. Matching Hae-won’s performance, the orchestra created a dynamic and grand concerto.

Forgetting to breathe, Woo-jin immersed himself in the screen.

As Hae-won’s movement, pressing two notes simultaneously and passionately, aggressively drawing the bow down, faded out, the camera shifted to the Announcer.

When Hae-won disappeared from the screen, he finally exhaled the breath he had been holding. His chest area felt tightly blocked, and Woo-jin rubbed near his heart with a tightly clenched fist.

『Hello. This is Lee Hyun-joo of Classic Acorn. Those who like classical music have probably heard of the Jeju International Wind Music Festival held every two years. The talk of this Jeju International Wind Music Festival wasn’t the Concours but Han-gyeong Symphony, which handled the opening performance. Especially, there was great interest in violinist Moon Hae-won, who performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26. With not only outstanding performance skills but also warm looks that made the internet hot enough for many inquiries from viewers. Today we have that protagonist here.』

Since when he had been there, Hae-won was sitting on the stool next to the Announcer with a slightly nervous expression. His expression listening to her uttered praises showed no awkwardness. Tilting his head slightly askew as if cutely, Hae-won turned his gaze to the Announcer who was clapping while looking at him.

『Hello, Mr. Moon Hae-won. Thank you so much for coming to the studio. We really had a hard time inviting you.』

『Hello. I am violinist Moon Hae-won. Thank you for inviting me.』

Hae-won greeted neatly and politely, unlike his usual self. The Announcer, with a kind smile, gestured somewhere, telling him not to greet her but to greet the viewers. Hae-won looked around and fixed his gaze.

Woo-jin and Hae-won’s eyes met.

“…….”

A strong force gripped Woo-jin’s hand holding the remote, making the bones of each finger joint bulge white.

Hae-won, who knew nothing about broadcasting, stared straight at the camera. It was as if he was looking at someone. No, it seemed more like he was showing his face to someone.

“Our junior writer said she called Moon Hae-won many times, but he didn’t answer a single one. Is that true?”

At the announcer’s question, Hae-won, who had been looking at the camera, turned to look at her.

“I don’t usually answer numbers I don’t know.”

“Did you anticipate this much heated attention? Actually, since the Jeju International Wind Music Festival is famous as a concours, the opening performance has never been this much of a topic before. Moon Hae-won’s role was quite significant. How did you feel about appearing on TV, Hae-won?”

“Well, since I do it every day… I didn’t really think about it. I did get a lot of texts and calls from people I couldn’t reach before.”

Hae-won responded indifferently to the announcer’s words, which kept praising him. As if it was nothing to be surprised about, nothing to make a fuss over now. His actions were calm, his tone quiet and steady.

“While preparing for Moon Hae-won’s segment this time, we heard an interesting story. We heard that there was originally a separate concerto performer for the Jeju Wind Music Festival opening performance, but that person got injured, so you had to step in as an emergency replacement. Is that true?”

At the announcer’s question, Hae-won gave a simple nod. Perhaps having lost a little weight, Hae-won’s face looked smaller than before. On his sharper features, a barely-there smile flickered on and off his lips.

When Hae-won looked at the camera, their eyes met. Woo-jin’s heart beat rapidly.

“Originally, our symphony concertmaster was supposed to perform the concerto, but he injured his finger before the performance, so I, who happened to have the piece memorized, ended up substituting.”

“Ah, hearing that story, I was reminded once again of life’s truth that opportunity only favors the prepared. You probably didn’t expect it to become this much of a topic, right?”

“Well, it depends on condition, so while changing performers isn’t frequent, it does happen.”

“But isn’t it an astonishing coincidence for a coincidence? There are many violinists at the Jeju Wind Music Festival, but you were the only one who had that piece memorized.”

“No, actually, that’s not it either.”

As Hae-won kept saying no, the announcer seemed a bit flustered.

“Someone forced me to do it. Someone high up.”

“Ah… Since you put it that way, I won’t ask further.”

The camera zoomed in on the announcer’s troubled face. With comical background music, they moved on to the next question.

A violin melody Woo-jin had never heard before filled the studio. The announcer closed her eyes and made an exaggerated expression as if savoring the music. As the intense-sounding coda gradually faded and disappeared, she opened her eyes.

“Haven’t you heard this song somewhere before? Yes, that’s right. It’s the theme song from the weekend drama ‘The Nameless Man’ that aired last year. The fact that the violinist for this very piece is Moon Hae-won, you all didn’t know, did you? It’s such a famous song. Is it true that you performed this OST, Moon Hae-won?”

“Yes, and I’ve done many other album sessions besides this one.”

“Actually, it was just us who didn’t know. Moon Hae-won was already famous, everyone.”

It wasn’t a program introducing classical music but a broadcast digging into Hae-won’s personal life. Claiming to have prepared a Q&A, the announcer poured questions at Hae-won like a speed quiz, and Hae-won answered in short form.

Age, height, favorite composer, favorite piece, favorite food, disliked food, favorite female celebrity, whether he had a girlfriend or not—to questions completely unrelated to music, Hae-won responded concisely. To difficult and sensitive questions, he answered that he didn’t know.

Contrary to Woo-jin’s expectations, Hae-won looked surprisingly unfazed. He was appearing on TV like this, expanding the radius of his life, living just fine. Instead of being holed up somewhere crying while thinking of Woo-jin, he had left without a word and was now laughing, chatting, and continuing the conversation with the announcer with a picture-perfect smile.

Woo-jin’s expression gradually hardened. Rage surged up.

If things had gone as planned, the ring Woo-jin had prepared should have been on that finger, but the announcer fiddled with the long, white finger with nothing on it and showed it to the camera. The cleanly trimmed nails and long fingers filled the screen. Those were the hands that had held and rubbed Woo-jin’s genitals.

Seeing that there was no mention of Hae-won’s background and activities, it seemed Hae-won had no concours history and was merely a symphony member with a decent face, so they deliberately didn’t include it in the broadcast.

“I heard you prepared a piece for today. What is it?”

“I prepared Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo Violin, Chaconne.”

Woo-jin’s eyebrow twitched.

“It’s a piece I really like. Is there a special reason you prepared it?”

“It’s one of the few pieces I have memorized.”

“Ah, I see.”

This time too, the announcer was flustered by the overly honest answer.

Though pretending with an innocent smile, it was a planned and meticulous taunt aimed at Woo-jin.

The location changed. Hae-won was standing in the middle of some empty warehouse. Hae-won, with the violin on his shoulder, closed his eyes and drew the bow down strongly.

The performance he had seen at the Yangpyeong villa, the one he had to have, the one that had gouged out Woo-jin’s insides, began.

“Are you okay?”

“…I’m okay.”

As soon as he finished the performance, Hae-won slumped into the chair as if drained of strength. Kim Jae-min, who had received the PD’s cut sign, asked worriedly. Fortunately, it was covered by makeup and looked fine on screen, but cold sweat had formed on his forehead. He looked clearly fatigued and exhausted.

“Instead of choosing a more comfortable piece, why this long one of all things…”

“I have to do this one.”

“Playing the theme from ‘The Nameless Man’ would have been good. It’s charting again now, you know.”

“…”

Though Jae-min spoke half-jokingly, Hae-won didn’t react. He removed the hand that was holding his shoulder as if supporting him, stood up, took his violin, and walked off beyond the camera.

The classical program PD approached Jae-min, who was watching Hae-won’s retreating back as he packed his violin. He wore a thoroughly satisfied smile.

“Is he really unknown? This piece is good too, but since Bruch is a familiar piece to the ear, evaluations tend to be harsh. But you could really feel how good he was. Personally, I liked the second movement played by Pinchas Zukerman, but now I like Hae-won’s playing more. It’s romantic and dramatic, it made me feel like I was truly falling in love. His visuals are incredibly clean, he might get some popularity. It’s not an innocent feeling, but it’s charming.”

The PD, arms crossed, looked at Hae-won’s figure with satisfaction, much like Jae-min, and spoke.

“Is it okay to end the shoot here? His condition seems really poor.”

“Yeah. He looks tired, let’s end here. It’s a shame the piece is so long, but we’ll probably have to edit it a bit for the main broadcast. We’ll release the full video online.”

The PD firmly pressed Jae-min’s shoulder with his hand and approached Hae-won to offer a handshake. Hae-won, who had been zipping up the violin case, looked up at him, then just bowed his head in greeting and lowered his gaze. Suddenly having his handshake refused, the PD awkwardly scratched the back of his head and turned away.

Jae-min quickly walked over to Hae-won. He tried to take the violin case, but Hae-won refused, saying it was okay.

“Shall we go and rest now?”

“Yes. I want to stop now.”

As if all his energy had been drained by something, Hae-won, who had poured all his strength into the performance, was like a doll with a dead battery.

Jae-min bid farewell to the staff on his behalf and led Hae-won out of the filming location. As soon as they sat in the parked car, Hae-won closed his eyes.

Jae-min, sitting in the driver’s seat, looked back at him. He reached out, pulled the seatbelt across Hae-won’s chest, and clicked it into the buckle.

While Hae-won himself sat motionless, Jae-min, watching him, felt a precarious sense of crisis rising, making him increasingly anxious.

“…”

After staring at Hae-won for a while, who seemed to have already fallen asleep, Jae-min started the car and drove off.

It was about a month ago.

Jae-min saw Hae-won on TV and immediately contacted him, forgetting even how Hae-won had scorned him. Not because he wanted to do something to him, but out of an impatient feeling that he had to sign him quickly, that he couldn’t let Hae-won slip away. Hae-won, who had been unreachable, suddenly called him one day.

It was a call asking him to come pick him up, out of the blue. Jae-min, not exaggerating, literally rushed over immediately. Hae-won was sitting on the roadside with a face that looked like he might collapse at any moment.

Jae-min took Hae-won to the hotel where he was staying. He didn’t look well. At first, Jae-min thought Hae-won had lost his parents and, out of consideration, didn’t ask anything.

He had never seen him cry before, but for days after that, Hae-won cried so much he couldn’t regain his composure. He cried as if shedding his skin, writhing in pain.

Around the time Jae-min had the dangerous thought that he might die from dehydration from that terrible crying, Hae-won stopped crying and this time just slept.

He woke him up to force him to eat. Maintaining only the bare minimum sustenance to stay alive, Hae-won fell into a stupor, lying like a corpse, until a few days later he sat up with a puffy face.

Staring at Kim Jae-min with swollen eyes, Hae-won barely opened his mouth. Jae-min was cautious, thinking Hae-won might shatter. He offered a sports drink, but Hae-won didn’t drink it. His parched lips had white flakes of dead skin.

It was the first words uttered by Hae-won, who had cried and slept without any explanation.

「Please make me famous.」

「…What are you talking about all of a sudden?」

「I need to become famous.」

「Why?」

「That way, they can’t touch me. I have to become famous… so that person can’t touch me. So that if I disappear or die, people will know right away. Please make me famous.」

Jae-min didn’t ask further and showed the video of the Jeju International Wind Music Festival opening performance to a classical program PD he knew. He already knew about Hae-won. Scheduling the broadcast appearance was easily arranged.

“Want to get something to eat before going in?”

“Let’s just go.”

“…Okay.”

Jae-min didn’t insist further and just drove. He was busy thinking about playing the composed songs and starting work on that album, but since Hae-won’s condition seemed to struggle even with handling one piece a day, the words didn’t come easily.

“Drive gently. I think I might throw up.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Jae-min unconsciously lifted his foot from the accelerator he had been pressing and slowed down. Though Hae-won was treating him like a road manager, he still let out a small laugh. It was the first time Hae-won had relied on him like this.

He thought that incident of being rejected to his face when someone else appeared was the end of their connection. Separate from his feelings of liking Hae-won, this feeling of becoming someone’s protector wasn’t so bad. He realized, while taking care of Hae-won, that this kind of willing responsibility ultimately leads to marriage.

“…That thing.”

“Hmm?”

Jae-min, lost in other thoughts for a moment, glanced at Hae-won. Hae-won still had his eyes closed, leaning the back of his head against the headrest as if asleep.

“That mess in my officetel, it wasn’t you, was it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“My officetel… back then, when I wasn’t there, you didn’t turn my officetel upside down, did you?”

“Ahh, now that you mention it, you asked me before if I messed up your officetel? Why would I mess up Hae-won’s officetel? I didn’t lay a finger on your things.”

It was unpleasant that Hae-won misunderstood him as such a rude and ungentlemanly person. With what face did he come looking for me after messing up my own officetel? Hae-won had made Jae-min sick with his expression of disgust and contempt.

Remembering that incident, when Jae-min retorted, Hae-won didn’t apologize for the misunderstanding but muttered to himself.

“…That bastard must have done it.”

“That bastard?”

“That bastard probably did it.”

“Don’t just meet anyone. Do you know how many crazy people are in the world?”

“That bastard was trying to find that… he approached me for that. He planned it from the beginning.”

Hae-won, who had been sitting quietly, shuddered and opened his eyes. Thinking they had dried up, his large eyes were now filled with tears. Biting his lip, barely swallowing the humiliation, Hae-won clenched his fists tightly and trembled.

“…Are you okay?”

“I threw it away, I just threw it away. I… I.”

Overwhelmed with self-reproach, Hae-won covered his face with both hands.

When Tae-shin had sent that thing in the first place, there must have been a reason, but Hae-won didn’t receive the message Tae-shin had tried to convey as his last act before ending his life. Just as his life had been, he discarded even the death as shabby.

Before jumping, Tae-shin had called multiple times, which was annoying, and sending the diary and photos seemed like an attempt to burden that death with guilt, so he tossed them into the trash without a second thought.

Not just the pain of parting from a loved one, but the sense of betrayal towards someone who had given everything, and the disappointment and regret towards himself, the fact that he had betrayed Tae-shin in his heart and fallen in love with Woo-jin—no, the fact that he believed he loved Woo-jin—added to the guilt and anger, so whenever Hae-won thought of Tae-shin, he suffered as if abandoned in a searing inferno. When he remembered that, when he remembered Woo-jin, it hurt as if his whole body was burning.

He wanted to kill Woo-jin. He wanted to inflict more pain than what he felt, his hands and feet trembling violently.

Barely swallowing his tears, Hae-won wiped the streaming tears with the back of his hand.

“Where is the album you prepared coming out? Did you sign a contract?”

“Still looking into production companies. We need a demo, but you’re still… When you’re ready, we’ll circulate the demo.”

Jae-min said while glancing sideways at Hae-won’s unstable state, crying one moment and turning cold the next.

“Look into K-One Group. Contact this person.”

Hae-won turned his body, took a business card from the front pocket of the violin case placed in the back seat, and handed it over. Jae-min, steering with one hand and taking the card with the other, kept his eyes on the road before glancing down at the card.

It was a business card that read: Lee Seok-joong, President, K-One Construction.

“…It’s a construction company?”

“Tell this person to produce the album.”

“At a construction company?”

“If you say you’re Hyun Woo-jin’s cousin, he’ll know.”

“…”

He had heard that the K-One Group had a subsidiary that was an entertainment agency, but it was an agency that invested in movies or dramas, not one that produced music albums.

Jae-min nodded, saying he understood for now, and put the card in his shirt pocket.

∞ ∞ ∞

Woo-jin, who had fallen asleep lying on the sofa, flinched at the sharply ringing doorbell and opened his eyes. He abruptly sat up. He looked down at his wristwatch. It was well past nine in the morning. As he tried to get up from the sofa, he paused and stared at the massive screen occupying half the wall.

The image of Hae-won performing Bruch’s violin concerto had been repeating all night. Woo-jin gazed intently at Hae-won, muted the sound with the remote, and picked up his phone. Sweeping back his disheveled hair, he answered the call.

“Yes.”

―Why haven’t you been in touch? How long exactly do I have to wait?

“…Isn’t today Saturday? Please rest a bit on weekends.”

The voice on the verge of explosion was the Chief of Staff.

―Bring the account books out immediately. I’ll be waiting at the place we saw before.

“Understood.”

It seemed the Blue House personnel announcement wasn’t far off. The Chief of Staff, who absolutely had to enter Yeouido, sharply urged Woo-jin with a pointed voice.

Woo-jin hung up and threw the phone far away.

He lay back on the sofa in the same position as before getting up. He turned the muted sound back on. Into the high-ceilinged room where sound resonated like the Yangpyeong villa, Hae-won’s performance rang out clearly.

Woo-jin slowly blinked, put a hand behind his head, and watched Hae-won. He opened the already undone zipper of his pants and put his hand inside. Slowly stroking his erect genitals, he didn’t take his eyes off Hae-won.

The Hae-won he could no longer see, the Hae-won he could no longer touch, was right before his eyes.

The ecstatic passion of pressing his shame into the deepest place he could reach—as if piercing through the deepest part of those thighs with iron bars—when he held me and came, the inner flesh that secreted fluid when he gripped and rubbed it hard, the sight of Hae-won trembling to climax, curling his whole body, overlapped with the sight before me and seized my vision.

His hand sped up, and his breathing grew rough. Woo-jin gasped, shuddering below. His waist writhed. He let out the breath he had been holding as he painfully stimulated the genitals clenched in his hand.

A thin liquid soiled his hand and pants. Slowly sweeping up the hardened lump of flesh, he poured out the remaining semen, let out a light sigh, and got up.

Woo-jin left the screen on and went into the bathroom.

Even after washing up, Hae-won’s performance still repeated. He changed his clothes. He entered the study looking as neat as any other day. While he moved around the house, Hae-won’s performance did not end.

He took out the thick prosecutor’s practical training record, thick as a dictionary, placed on the bottom shelf of the study bookcase. He kept important documents here. It was easy to store something by hollowing it out.

Woo-jin’s expression hardened as he opened the book.

“……”

The secret ledger obtained from the search and seizure of Kim Jeong-geun’s residence was gone.

He quietly looked down at the empty book, then began taking out books from the shelf one by one, turning them over. He turned the study floor into a mess with books, but nothing came out.

Leaning on the bookcase with his hand, Woo-jin sank into thought. He pondered deeply whether he was mistaken.

Woo-jin did not have forgetfulness. He usually moved according to patterns learned since childhood and did not change habits or routines unless something happened.

It was something whose effectiveness had been verified over a long time, and storing important documents in the practical training record on the bookcase was Woo-jin’s pattern.

All the books from the bookcase had spilled onto the floor as if there had been an earthquake.

Woo-jin stood expressionless in that mess. For a moment, the corners of his eyes trembled faintly.

“……”

Woo-jin left the study immediately without cleaning up. He grabbed his jacket and car keys and left the house.

“I’m sorry it turned out this way. I’ll contact you separately.”

—Hey, Prosecutor Hyun. Are you playing with me now?

“Playing with you? Please choose your words more carefully. Why would I need to play with you, General manager? If you enter Yeouido, it should be a strength to me, and you wouldn’t pretend not to know me, right? I’ll make sure you have no problems entering Yeouido.”

—The more this goes on, the more troublesome it becomes for both of us.

“And even if such a thing happens, I’ll clean it up for you.”

At Woo-jin’s serious tone, the Chief of Staff’s ragged breathing grew lighter. After a long silence, he said he’d see him later and hung up.

Unable to say he had lost the secret ledger, Woo-jin ended the call and roughly swept back his hair with a coarse hand.

Woo-jin was waiting for Hae-won in front of Hae-won’s officetel, just as Hae-won had waited for him.

He could have found out the door lock password with just one phone call even now, but he didn’t go in. He didn’t want to go in either.

Hae-won must have stolen his important documents to make him come here. Reflecting on Hae-won’s clingy behavior after leaving him by disappearing and going into hiding, Woo-jin let out an exasperated sigh.

He still likes me. Even though he left claiming I was two-timing him with So-young, that fragile, worthless pride still can’t let go of me.

That’s all it was. Woo-jin knew how much Hae-won liked him. He had recorded my voice, secretly taken photos to look at whenever he had time, and even set someone else’s face as the background on his phone and laptop.

Hae-won’s antics to lure him here were so pathetic it wasn’t even funny. It must have been a desperate cunning in his own way.

So this is how it ends up……

Hae-won could never leave Woo-jin. He couldn’t abandon him.

After Hae-won appeared on broadcast, tracking his whereabouts was easier than lifting a finger.

Contrary to expectations, Hae-won returned to the officetel where he originally lived. Woo-jin had cleared everything out, so nothing of Hae-won’s remained in that officetel.

Even the bed where Hae-won slept soundly was in his possession. Woo-jin wanted to end this exhausting psychological warfare. If Hae-won begged for forgiveness and clung to him, he was willing to pretend to give in, and if he scolded him about the incident with So-young, he wasn’t entirely unwilling to apologize a little.

It was around the time the wait grew tedious. At the sound of the elevator, Woo-jin turned his head. As the doors slid open, Hae-won’s figure appeared. He straightened his back, which had been leaning against the wall.

Hae-won, who had been looking down, still gazed at the floor as he stepped out of the elevator. His face was gloomy and listless. And behind him, someone else stepped out with him.

A man with a build similar to that fool whose name he couldn’t even remember now, who had firmly believed Hae-won, twenty-nine, was a music college student.

They walked together. The fool following Hae-won noticed Woo-jin and made an “uh” sound. Hae-won raised his head.

Their eyes met.

The fist Woo-jin had tucked in one pocket clenched tightly. Even though he had disappeared without a word, Hae-won walked toward him, fearlessly meeting his gaze directly. It was an arrogant and haughty attitude.

The distance gradually narrowed. Just as Woo-jin pulled his hand from his pocket and opened his mouth to say something properly, Hae-won simply walked past him.

His incredulous gaze followed Hae-won’s back. The fool glanced uneasily at Woo-jin.

“Moon Hae-won.”

He called that name. He called a name he didn’t even want to say. Only after calling that name did Woo-jin freshly realize that the person standing before him was Moon Hae-won.

He had left without a word, abandoned him, left Woo-jin alone. Nearly a month had already passed. He hadn’t seen Hae-won for a month, hadn’t held him.

Moon Hae-won was the brightest, warmest, most valuable existence in the personal bomb shelter he had meticulously built, and at the same time, the most useless existence.

Hae-won, who had stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Woo-jin.

“……”

It was a gaze devoid of any emotion, as if looking at a mineral. It was the same gaze with which he had looked at Woo-jin when they first met. Eyes with no curiosity or interest toward others, merely stopping their gaze because someone was there—dry, expressionless eyes.

The fool cautiously asked Hae-won.

“……Who is it? Someone you know?”

“Yes. Someone I know.”

Someone I know……

He was merely someone I know.

To Hae-won, Woo-jin was nothing more than someone he knew.

He frowned in displeasure. The fool simultaneously gauged Woo-jin and Hae-won’s moods. Hae-won was carrying the violin case. Hae-won didn’t entrust his violin to others carelessly. When he was with me, Woo-jin usually carried the violin case. The case, which remained intact even if a car ran over it, was heavy on its own, but it became even heavier when it contained sheet music or booklets. Unconsciously, Woo-jin felt relieved that Hae-won hadn’t let the fool carry the violin case.

“Hae-won, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He really is someone I know.”

“Then, can I go?”

“Please do.”

“I’ll schedule the next appointment for Tuesday or Wednesday and contact you. If you’re not feeling well, let me know in advance.”

“Yes.”

The fool nodded in farewell, glanced briefly at Woo-jin, and turned back the way he came. He disappeared into the elevator.

Looking at Woo-jin as if he were an insignificant stranger, Hae-won wore an expression that said if he had something to say or something to do, he should say it quickly and get lost.

To bring someone else into this in the meantime. It was an extremely Moon Hae-won-like act.

The corner of Woo-jin’s mouth twisted grotesquely to one side as he sneered at Hae-won.

“Who is he?”

“My manager.”

“Manager?”

Hae-won’s manager was Woo-jin. He furrowed his brows.

“I appear on television now, you know. Did you see?”

“I don’t have time to watch such things.”

“I’ve become famous, so there are people who chase after me for autographs. I’ve become famous, so everyone recognizes me.”

He wasn’t the type to particularly enjoy being noticed by others. The changed gaze, changed attitude, changed mindset—everything about Hae-won was grating. It felt as if someone had ruined the flower garden he had created and nurtured.

“Give me the documents.”

“What documents?”

“You took them. If not you, no one else would have touched them.”

“Why didn’t you go in and search? You’re an expert at searching other people’s houses.”

“……”

His faintly wrinkled eyes twisted distinctly. He had many things he wanted to say to Hae-won, who had left him, but suddenly he didn’t want to say anything.

“I didn’t change the door lock password because I knew you’d figure it out and come in anyway, so why didn’t you go in like a petty thief and ransack the place?”

“Petty thief?”

“Yeah, petty thief.”

“……”

His jaw clenched tightly, grinding his molars.

“You needed the diary Tae-shin sent me, right?”

“……”

“You searched hard but couldn’t find it, so you must have been pissed? Sorry, but I threw that away. Aren’t you curious what was written in it?”

“……”

His eyes gleaming with an interesting sparkle, he merely watched Hae-won ramble on without responding.

“It was written in great detail. What kind of person you are.”

“……Oh? What kind of person am I?”

He took a step closer to Hae-won. The gaze looking up at him grew steeper. Hae-won didn’t move from his spot. Instead, he tightened his grip on the violin case strap.

“What did it say about what kind of person I am?”

Woo-jin asked again in a low voice, as if curious.

“You used him and then discarded him, right?”

“Was that written? So Lee Tae-shin wrote that I used him and then discarded him?”

“Hyun Woo-jin, you killed him, right?”

“Why do you think I did that? If it was written there, why are you asking? If you saw it, you should know.”

If anything, Woo-jin wanted to ask. He hadn’t pushed Tae-shin’s back from the building rooftop, hadn’t urged him to die. He hadn’t used harsh words to wound him or resorted to violence, telling him his worthless life was neither loved nor liked.

Yet they kept saying they died because of me.

They called him a snake. A slaughterer who ruins human souls.

Both had short lives in reality. Their claims seemed credible because they staked their lives.

Now he was sick of it. Lee Tae-shin and Kim Ha-young, who said their once-normal souls deteriorated beside the abnormal Woo-jin and were ultimately devoured like human flesh, and even Hae-won, who concluded that he had killed Tae-shin.

It genuinely made him nauseous.

Because he felt nothing, because he didn’t know pain, sadness, or suffering.

They pointed fingers at Woo-jin, claiming he was perfectly capable of such terrible deeds, insisting it was only right to suspect him. They treated him as a demon born of sin.

You killed him.

It must be you who killed him.

“Why do you think it’s because of me?”

“……”

“Why do you think I did it? What did I do?”

“……”

Woo-jin’s breath hitched.

“I can’t understand. I held you because you said you liked me, spent time taking care of you. If I was so good, why did they act as they pleased, die as they pleased, and then pin it on me?”

That’s why Tae-shin desperately urged Hae-won to run away, not to meet him, to abandon him.

Woo-jin’s hand had unknowingly formed a fist. Like those who couldn’t bear facing some reality or confronting a great secret and took their own lives to reveal the truth, they tried to convey through death that Woo-jin was not human but a monster.

Of all people, those who said they liked him, those who said they loved him.

Both loved him, and both committed suicide. They even turned their backs on life at the same age. And now Hae-won was included. He was concluding that he was a monster.

In Hae-won’s eyes, which looked at him as if suspecting him, Woo-jin heard the sound of some firmly fastened latch coming undone without his realizing. It was the nature he had suppressed, claiming he was no different from ordinary people.

Because of Hae-won, plans kept going awry, he himself uttered unexpected words, something was stirred up. It was an unpleasant sensation.

The unpleasantness he felt seeing Hae-won curled up and crying, the unfamiliar, repulsive something he felt watching Hae-won on the large screen, drove him again into an uncontrollable state.

Woo-jin decided to follow the pattern.

Just follow the pattern. Then nothing would become strange, nothing would seem strange. Self-control wasn’t patience forcibly mustered but something forged through internalized habits, and Woo-jin had trained himself to endure for a long time.

“Stop talking nonsense and give me the documents. I don’t have time.”

The downward gaze was as cold as a frozen lake. Hae-won glared at him as if to kill him. His tightly clenched jaw quivered along with his gaze.

“You approached me because you were afraid it would be revealed that you killed Tae-shin, right?”

“Talk sense. Back then, it was you who messed up someone’s eyes and contacted me. Have you already forgotten?”

It was Hae-won who first sought out Woo-jin, whom he barely knew, and asked for help.

Like a creator arrogantly looking down on the world from above, Woo-jin looked at Hae-won in that way.

No words Hae-won spat out could even leave a scratch on him. The desperate, boiling emotions of a fragile insect incapable of inflicting any damage on him surged up. When he thought of Woo-jin, his whole body burned with pain, but facing and dealing with Woo-jin before him hurt just as much.

“You killed him.”

“I told you not to say ‘you.’”

“You killed him.”

“No. As you know, Lee Tae-shin jumped of his own accord. I didn’t even know he had died.”

Woo-jin was sincere. Hae-won’s eyes twisted painfully as he looked at him.

He felt a surge of revulsion. He didn’t want to feel any emotion toward him. With an icy, hardened expression, Hae-won spoke contemptuously, as if looking at irredeemable trash.

“You made him commit suicide. That’s killing him.”

“Made him commit suicide……, hah, everything you say is full of errors. Whatever choice he made, it was his own.”

“His own choice?”

“Yes. It was a choice he made himself.”

Remembering Tae-shin, Hae-won closed his eyes. He opened his tightly shut eyes. Woo-jin was still standing before him.

“Give me the documents. Don’t do this ridiculous act and just end it since you left. And don’t ask such questions. You’ve already concluded I’m that kind of person.”

Treating his officetel like some hotel, coming only when he wanted, only possible if Hae-won threw a fit and clung to him to do something together. When he acted up, he coaxed and sweet-talked him, treating him no differently from the assessment that he looked like someone who enjoyed spreading his legs. And if he didn’t listen, he manipulated him with the threat of breaking up, which Hae-won feared most.

Memories of being toyed with chaotically occupied his mind. His breath tightened. After doing such things and rendering his soul irrecoverable, he spoke so simply.

“End it since I left?”

“Yes. What kind of vulgar act is this?”

“Vulgar? Me?”

Hae-won burst into laughter. It was so absurd that laughter sprang out on its own.

“It was fun playing with me, right? A guy who looks like he enjoys spreading his legs for men would spread them for you anytime, anywhere, so you were thrilled, right? That’s why you took me to the newlywed home you prepared to move into after getting married? Was sleeping with me so good that you had to do such things? Sleeping with me……, you liked it, right?”

“Stop talking nonsense and give me the documents you took.”

Avoiding Woo-jin’s direct gaze, he spoke roughly.

“You never came to a concert because you wanted to see how I was doing, pretended to come, had people surveil me, said let’s break up but made it impossible for me to do anything behind your back……. You pulled all sorts of tricks because you wanted to sleep with me. Were you so insecure about yourself that you had to do such things to feel at ease?”

Hae-won kept provoking something. If he continued to listen to Hae-won’s sarcasm like this, he felt like he would do something—something irrational and unreasonable.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Who would do that with someone like you?”

“How naive. Did you believe I’d love you forever if you did that? How can a prosecutor be so naive?”

“Moon Hae-won.”

“Ah, now I get it.”

Even though everything he had done to me had been exposed, Woo-jin remained defiant. He insisted he had done nothing wrong. Unless he had personally stabbed someone in the back, Woo-jin hadn’t killed anyone, nor had he done anything wrong.

Hae-won let out a hollow laugh at that defiant, arrogant attitude.

“You really don’t get it, do you?”

“I told you not to call me that.”

“You don’t understand. Hyun Woo-jin…, you don’t understand.”

“……Haah. Just hand over the documents. Stop being annoying.”

As if he couldn’t even be bothered to deal with him, Woo-jin frowned deeply and spoke. He was agitated.

“You don’t have any emotions.”

“…….”

Hae-won now realized what kind of words could strike Woo-jin. And he hit the mark. Woo-jin’s gaze, which he had never seen before, pierced Hae-won’s face dully.

“Hyun Woo-jin, you don’t even know what emotions are.”

“……Stop talking nonsense and just hand over the documents quickly.”

“You’re just a psychopath. Do you know what a psychopath is?”

“…….”

“You’re abnormal.”

“…….”

Why was it?

Even though there wasn’t the slightest change in expression, Hae-won suddenly thought Woo-jin might cry.

That face, expression, and eyes—neither angry nor scoffing in denial, but empty and devoid of anything—stared straight through Hae-won, sinking quietly like a deep, bottomless pit.

“So of course you wouldn’t know. Why Tae-shin killed himself, how happy Kim Ha-young was while decorating that penthouse. You didn’t feel any guilt even when you dragged me into that house, did you? Because to you, that’s just normal.”

It wasn’t about taking responsibility for her, who had become paralyzed from a car accident. Even that was just a byproduct of the goal he was trying to achieve.

“Even if I say this, you still won’t understand, will you? Even though your mind is so sharp and brilliant, you still have no idea what I’m talking about?”

Hae-won was gradually learning what words could hurt Woo-jin. With every word he uttered, the pit grew deeper. An empty wind blew from the pit. The wind raged fiercely within Woo-jin’s pupils.

“Do you understand what I’m saying? Do you even hear it?”

Tapping his own temple with his finger, Hae-won pressed. Woo-jin’s pupils didn’t budge. They were just fixed blankly on Hae-won, who was desperate to mock, insult, and hurt him.

“You’ll never know how I feel right now, how much I want to kill you. Because you’re abnormal, Hyun Woo-jin.”

“…….”

“So I’m going to make you understand. I’ll… I’ll make you understand what it feels like to want to die. You’ll feel it too. I’ll make you want to die.”

He approached Woo-jin, who stood silently. He grabbed his shoulders and lifted his chin. Like a tender lover, he softly pressed his lips against Woo-jin’s frozen lips.

He licked the frozen lips with his tongue. Hae-won’s tongue teased inside Woo-jin’s unresponsive mouth. He gave a long, melting kiss. As if it were the first time, he kissed with all his strength.

Hae-won pulled his lips away.

“Haah, haah……”

His ragged breath scattered. Hot body heat rose like a haze. He could smell Woo-jin’s faint scent.

He rubbed his lips against Woo-jin’s motionless cheek, ear, and temple. For a long time, he inhaled their scents—the familiar, soft scent that stirred tears until his spine tingled. He pressed his lips to Woo-jin’s earlobe and whispered.

“When you start wanting to die, think carefully. Tell me then whether that feeling is a choice you made yourself or not.”

“…….”

“Whether it’s a choice you made yourself or not.”

He pulled away from Woo-jin, who had hardened as if about to crack.

Hae-won entered the passcode, known to both of them, and went inside the officetel.

∞ ∞ ∞

“What did you just say?”

“……I don’t have it with me right now.”

“What do you mean? Did you let it slip outside?!”

“No. I’ll retrieve it soon. It’s practically in my possession.”

“What? Are you making excuses now?!”

Something flew. A ceramic cup hit Woo-jin’s forehead with a thud and fell. The heavy ceramic made a dull sound as it landed on the table.

Woo-jin stared at the cup that had struck his forehead with disbelief. He looked up from the cup and glared at the Chief of Staff.

The Chief of Staff, unable to contain his momentary anger and having thrown whatever was at hand, watched breathlessly as blood streamed down Woo-jin’s torn forehead. Even after doing that to Woo-jin, his anger seemed unappeased.

A trickle of blood passed over his eyebrow, along the corner of his eye, and pooled in his pupil. Woo-jin wiped the corner of his eye with the back of his hand and stood up. He took a handkerchief from his back pocket and pressed it against his forehead.

“I don’t understand how you expect to handle politics if you can’t even manage this level of stress. I’ll take my leave now.”

“Hyun Woo-jin!”

Woo-jin turned, his eyes red with blood. The Chief of Staff, who had risen as if to grab and deal with him immediately, hesitated at the bizarre sight and sat back down.

“Do you know what happens when a person hits rock bottom?”

“What?”

“Do you think the state of not recognizing your own parents only applies when you’re drunk? Should I show you what it really means to be finished?”

“Hey!”

“Think before you speak, before you act.”

He left immediately. Getting out of the car, he took the elevator straight up to Hae-won’s officetel. Woo-jin checked his reflection in the steel wall, mirror-like. The bleeding had stopped, but a scab clung to his forehead. He roughly wiped it with the handkerchief and got off the elevator.

Four investigators were waiting for him in front of the officetel. They bowed their heads in greeting when they saw Woo-jin.

Woo-jin stood before the door lock. The investigators watched his back, waiting for the door to open.

“…….”

He had said the passcode remained the same. That changing it would be pointless, so he hadn’t.

He had told him to go in like a thief and search. That it was something Woo-jin was good at.

“Prosecutor?”

“…….”

Just before placing his finger on the door lock, Woo-jin merely glared terrifyingly at the keypad without pressing any numbers.

“Do you not know the passcode?”

“……No.”

Hae-won’s voice, calling him abnormal and a psychopath while mocking him, wouldn’t leave his mind.

After hesitating briefly, he proceeded as planned. He unlocked the door and went inside.

With few belongings, the officetel felt desolate everywhere. Hae-won was absent.

“Collect every scrap of paper with numbers on it.”

The investigators rushed in without removing their shoes.

Just like the first time they had searched Hae-won’s officetel, they diligently overturned the sparse belongings. Woo-jin searched too. Starting from the kitchen sink drawer, he meticulously checked inside the refrigerator and even lifted the refrigerator to examine the floor beneath.

Since there wasn’t much to begin with, it didn’t take long. There weren’t many papers with numbers on them. Stepping over Hae-won’s tangled clothes, Woo-jin removed the bedding that seemed temporarily placed on the bed and slashed the mattress with a knife. Several investigators joined in to search inside the mattress, but nothing turned up.

Woo-jin was more zealous than the investigators. As if his goal wasn’t to search his house but to wreck it, he trampled on clothes, scattered and tore cherished sheet music on the floor. As he opened the wardrobe and deliberately pulled all the clothes out onto the floor, the investigators searching the house paused and stopped moving.

Woo-jin, who had been kneeling to open the wardrobe drawer, turned his head.

Hae-won was standing at the entrance. He had left the door half-open and was looking inside with a completely unsurprised face, as if he had expected it.

The investigators exchanged troubled glances and looked at Woo-jin, asking for instructions. Woo-jin, who had been looking at Hae-won, turned his gaze back to the wardrobe and said.

“Continue. Don’t mind him.”

The investigators, who had been violently disrupting the house, now moved with slightly more careful hands, reducing noise and proceeding with the search in an orderly manner.

Ignoring Hae-won’s presence, Woo-jin searched even more violently than before. A glass cup placed on the side table fell to the floor. The shattering sound rang sharply, but he didn’t even look back.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything.”

“Did you search thoroughly? Checked the utility room?”

“Yes, we checked.”

“…….”

Woo-jin also stopped searching.

There was nothing. It clearly wasn’t here. He straightened his dirtied knees and stood up. Brushing off his pants, he stepped over the scattered items on the floor and approached Hae-won, who was still holding the half-open door and staring blankly inside.

Woo-jin deliberately avoided giving Hae-won even a glance and shoved his shoulder hard to move past him. The investigators, eyeing Hae-won warily, followed him and rushed out of the officetel.

Hae-won, who had staggered back a few steps from the push, watched the retreating back walking toward the elevator without any explanation or apology.

Woo-jin took out his phone and called someone.

“Move to Moon Woo-sik’s residence.”

“It’s not there.”

The investigators following Woo-jin and his steps halted simultaneously. Woo-jin turned back to Hae-won, who was still holding the door and standing there.

“What’s not there?”

“What you’re looking for.”

Woo-jin’s expression and tone, filled with hostility, carried an irritation that made him reluctant to even exchange words with Hae-won. He was disgusted to the point of shuddering at his past self, who had once desired Hae-won with his entire being—the Hae-won who now called him abnormal. The person who had once claimed to love him so much had now turned Woo-jin into a repulsive being.

Everything rots and decays. He had anticipated Moon Hae-won’s decay as well. After all, he trusted no one.

“What am I looking for?”

“Do you want it?”

Hae-won coldly mocked him. Woo-jin’s breath hitched.

Woo-jin hadn’t slept with Hae-won because he wanted to. He just wanted to control Hae-won more easily. It certainly wasn’t because he lacked confidence in himself to the point of needing to do such things to feel secure.

But Hae-won saw him that way. He regarded him as a human lacking something important. Just as his father had, just as his mother had, just as his siblings had rejected him as an incomplete being.

He was driving a wedge into Woo-jin’s fear, already layered with the suspicion that he might indeed be abnormal, as they claimed. What he held was merely a small needle, but it was buried deep in his flesh.

Whenever Hae-won said something, made a certain expression, or looked at him with a certain gaze, Woo-jin had to feel the pain of that needle embedded in his flesh writhing like a snake, piercing his entire body.

“Last warning. Hand over the documents.”

“Do you want it?”

“You all go ahead first.”

He spoke coldly. He sent the investigators, who were waiting for orders, ahead.

Only Woo-jin and Hae-won remained in the hallway. They stared at each other endlessly.

“Stealing that petty ledger won’t make me want to die.”

“I asked if you want it.”

“Haah…, Moon Hae-won.”

He swept his hand over his face and looked at Hae-won with weary eyes.

“Fine, let’s say I killed him.”

Woo-jin said, though he could never admit it, let’s just go with that.

“Since you keep insisting I killed him, let’s say I killed him.”

“…….”

“Let it be that I killed him. If that’s what you want, let’s do that.”

As if telling him not to be tiresome anymore, if he wanted to hear that confession so badly, let it be that way—insulting even Tae-shin’s death.

He was already disappointed, with nothing left to disappoint. Having hit rock bottom where he felt nothing, Hae-won had to feel yet another subhuman disappointment in him, as if his body were crumbling.

“I wasn’t two-timing with So-young. Sending So-young to America was the end of it. I haven’t seen or contacted her since.”

“Are you going to make excuses for every single thing? There are too many, aren’t there? I don’t have time to listen to them.”

“…….”

“If you want to make pathetic excuses, do it alone facing a wall.”

He grabbed Hae-won’s wrist as he tried to just go inside. When their body temperatures touched, both stiffened momentarily. Though it was merely skin contact, it couldn’t be nothing to either Hae-won or Woo-jin. They had that much history, that much mingling of flesh over time. His hand was so warm that when Woo-jin interlaced their fingers, Hae-won felt a comforting warmth.

Hae-won looked at the man’s hand gripping his wrist. It was once everything to him, the hand he wanted to give his all to. He denied the sharp emotional turmoil. Hae-won glared at him with icy eyes.

“Let go.”

“That really was the end.”

“Your aunt was even planning to marry you two off.”

“I had no intention of that.”

“It’s not that you had no intention, but that you had no need, right? Since you’ve already swallowed Han-gyeong without Kim So-young, you don’t need to act like a dog catering to that family anymore, and you don’t need Kim So-young either. If she had any use, you wouldn’t have disposed of her. That’s the kind of person you are.”

“Don’t provoke me further. I really might do something to you.”

“What kind of pathetic warning is that? You’ve always done everything as you pleased.”

He tightened his grip with even stronger force on the wrist trying to twist free.

“When I hold you like this, you pretend not to know and cling to me.”

“What?”

“This is my last time too. I’ll let it slide once.”

“Hyun Woo-jin, are you really insane?”

“I’ll let it slide once.”

Woo-jin showed mercy, saying he would pretend not to have heard all the words Hae-won had spat out yesterday, determined to trample him.

“I’ll let it pass this time.”

He just wanted to keep Hae-won in his sight, by his side. That was all. There was no purpose. Precisely because there was no purpose, because Hae-won wasn’t a target to be achieved, Woo-jin couldn’t find any detour when it came to Hae-won. That was the sole cause of this perplexity.

Just moments ago, he had cursed himself, disgusted to the point of shuddering at his own desire for Hae-won, but as he held that wrist and touched the skin, he suddenly wanted to forgive Hae-won. He wanted to keep holding this hand. He wanted to embrace him so badly his breath grew hurried. He just wanted to end this conflict and return to how things were before.

“You’ll let it pass? I can’t just let it pass.”

“Hae-won.”

“That document must be really important, huh? If it goes well, you might even kneel.”

“…….”

“Do you want it?”

It was unclear exactly what he was asking if he wanted.

Whether he meant Moon Hae-won or the ledger……

“Do you want it that badly?”

“I want it.”

He answered.

He wanted it. He wanted the Hae-won who called him a monster. If he could have it, he wanted it. Only if Hae-won returned to him now would everything stabilize.

Woo-jin wasn’t accustomed to this. It wasn’t the fear of not having control over what he desired, but the anxiety of losing control over himself—the self he believed he could control—and losing everything he had built and learned.

The fear that the monster his father claimed and his mother feared truly existed within him and might suddenly reveal itself.

Beyond the restlessness and anxiety, a sinister shadow loomed over him, swaying among flames. The driving force that made him human, moved him forward, sustained his life, and kept him going was now fleeing. It was trying to abandon him.

Suddenly disappearing without giving him time to prepare, it was leaving Woo-jin alone as misfortune descended. Woo-jin could barely breathe in the dark forest surrounding him. The oxygen was growing thin.

“I want it.”

He squeezed the tightly held wrist even more painfully.

“Can you do anything? Then I’ll give it to you.”

“Tell me.”

“Then crawl. Crawl and bark like a dog.”

“……What?”

Hae-won, who had been resisting, trying to twist his arm free, suddenly approached Woo-jin. Woo-jin flinched and stepped back. Like yesterday, disarmed, Hae-won pressed his face close. His lips were right before Woo-jin’s nose.

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“……”

“Get down on all fours and bark like a dog. Then I’ll give it to you. What you want.”

“……You’re out of your mind.”

Woo-jin’s nature, which he believed to be as strong as steel, was not that solid. Its durability was weak. Hae-won could touch it every time. Each time he faced Woo-jin’s pupils shattering like crushed glass beads, a thrill that tightened his spine surged.

“Can’t do it?”

“……”

“Crawl like a dog and beg. So desperately that I feel like giving it to you.”

Swallowing and exhaling breaths until his chest swelled, Woo-jin turned his head, deliberately not looking at Hae-won. But he didn’t let go of the wrist he held. Gripping it tightly, he stubbornly stood his ground before Hae-won, who wielded his red tongue like a knife, wanting to tear him apart.

“Guess you don’t want it that much after all. I expected something when I told you to speak up.”

He shook the arm he held, telling him not to act tough when he couldn’t even do it. Treating him like a pervert, he shuddered and tried to shake him off. As he swung his arm violently to break free, Woo-jin’s other hand grabbed Hae-won’s hair in a sudden grip.

Before Hae-won could flinch, his body was shoved against the wall. Woo-jin threw Hae-won into a cornered wall. His back hit hard with a dull thud.

Suddenly, Woo-jin bit Hae-won’s lips. Roughly parting his lips, he pushed his tongue inside. He kissed the lips that thrashed in refusal without hesitation. The hot mass that entered tore through Hae-won. It sucked him in, not letting him regain his senses.

Overwhelmed by the relentless rush of hot sensation, Hae-won’s whole body shuddered. The moment he let go of his wrist, Hae-won hit and pushed Woo-jin’s shoulder. A painful groan scattered from their tangled, struggling bodies.

“Ugh……, ugh! Ugh!”

The scream to let go couldn’t escape as sound, gulping down his throat in waves. Woo-jin, who had been sucking hard enough to hurt while gripping the wildly thrashing hair, flinched and pulled his lips away.

Ragged breaths erupted chaotically. Blood dripped thickly from his lips, staining the front of his shirt red. Blood was also smeared on Hae-won’s teeth from biting Woo-jin’s lip.

“Haa, haa, haa……”

Without releasing the hand gripping Hae-won’s head, Woo-jin wiped his lips with his other hand. Warm pain accompanied it, and fresh blood smeared on the back of his hand.

“Me too……, haa, are you going to hurt me too?”

“……”

“You’ll hurt me too, right? If I’m unnecessary and in the way, you’ll kill them all, won’t you?”

“……”

“Are you going to kill me too?”

“I’ve never killed anyone.”

“Never killed? Do you really think that?”

A vicious force returned to Woo-jin’s hand, gripping Hae-won’s hair so tightly it pulled his scalp.

“Let go of this! Let go!”

The hand gripping his hair was like a stone. As if cement had been poured over it, it remained solid no matter how much Hae-won hit and struggled, the grip not loosening.

Suddenly, he shoved the back of Hae-won’s head against the wall.

Thud, his head hit the wall, making his vision dizzy. Woo-jin’s hand slammed the gripped head against the wall repeatedly.

Thud, thud, thud…….

It wasn’t enough force to lose consciousness, but it was violence sufficient to instill in Hae-won a fear he had never experienced before.

Wiping his bleeding lips incessantly with the back of his hand, Woo-jin spoke.

“You said to act like a dog. Huh?”

Thud, each time the back of his head hit the cold cement wall, Hae-won’s eyes contorted. Before he knew it, Hae-won was flailing, trying somehow to pry off the man’s hand gripping his hair.

It was only a handful, but the needle Hae-won harbored had moved through Woo-jin’s veins to a place where it could inflict fatal injury. Hae-won’s pupils, looking at him in terror, were like that. Yet Woo-jin didn’t stop.

He was making an expression he had never once shown before Hae-won, standing there just blocking his way with his threatening physical condition. Empty, silent eyes devoid of any readable emotion blocked his view.

“You’re acting like a dog. Woof, woof, woof.”

“……”

Woof, woof, woof. Each time the dry mutter of a dog’s bark in a low, deep Guarneri-like tone sounded, the gripped back of his head hit the wall with thud, thud, thud. Hae-won stiffened, unable to move, held by him, his body swaying.

He had only guessed. That he wouldn’t have a human shape. Hae-won had never faced his withered interior. Like a vast black forest blocking escape routes, it enveloped the surroundings.

There, animals couldn’t breathe, plants couldn’t take root. His desolate interior was a pitch-black forest covered in black paint indistinguishable to human eyes. Still, Hae-won, who had believed he knew him at least a little, helplessly watched the completely unfamiliar man gripping his hair before his eyes.

“You said to act like a dog. Woof.”

“……”

Thud, the back of his head hit again. The hand that had been pressing down as if to crush Hae-won’s skull suddenly released. Even leaning against the wall, Hae-won couldn’t find his balance and swayed.

“Send it to my office by tomorrow. If you want to keep getting treated like this, keep acting this way.”

It was an eerie expressionless face and a voice devoid of emotion that seemed to pierce the heart. Facing that sharp gaze, Hae-won choked up.

“……Get lost.”

“Hae-won.”

“Get lost.”

Having been thoroughly toyed with by him, used not as a human but as a dirty flesh to satisfy desires, plotting a bubbling, foaming rebellion against him to somehow break him—despite all that, when Woo-jin openly treated him that way with no emotion, sudden sorrow and resentment surged simultaneously.

Because he was before him, the tears he had barely held back filled his eyes. Woo-jin’s figure blurred hazily.

“Send it to my office by tomorrow. Next time, it won’t end at this level.”

“……”

Hot tears dropped plop plop down his cheeks. The coolly gazing eyes turned away.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Has nothing come for me?”

Woo-jin repeated the question he asked thirty minutes ago. Chief Hwang and the Practical Officer shook their heads.

“Prosecutor, how should we handle the cases nearing deadline?”

Chief Hwang cautiously asked Woo-jin only in the afternoon.

He had been strange lately. Investigations assigned to a prosecutor are given a three-month investigation period, and if unresolved after three months, it counts against their performance record.

Delaying investigations without special reason negatively impacts personnel evaluations, and Woo-jin had been perfect in that regard, never having submitted an excuse.

He didn’t handle rushed work carelessly either. Even staying up nights and not going home for days, thoroughly reviewing and properly handling cases he was responsible for was his way of working.

But lately, he seemed absent-minded somewhere. It also seemed like he had some other important matter.

Though it was known that besides officially progressing cases, he investigated various matters unofficially and pushed them secretly, it was the first time it felt like those unofficial matters weren’t important as they were now.

He was unfocused unlike usual. Distracted, careless. His desk became messy, and his appearance even more so. He hadn’t been seen wearing a tie for days.

“Let’s pass some to Prosecutor Jung.”

He replied insincerely, constantly checking his watch.

“He must be very busy too. It’s almost time for personnel transfers……”

Case handling statistics are numbers that show a prosecutor’s ability. Especially right before personnel transfers, they become an important evaluation criterion.

“Bring only the urgent ones.”

“These are all cases that must be passed on by this month.”

Chief Hwang pointed to the case documents neatly piled on his desk, saying he hadn’t even given the ones with some leeway. It was enough to fill three or four cabinets.

“Leave them for now. I’ll review and handle them.”

“Then when should we schedule the postponed investigation from last time? Shall we proceed with the reference witnesses first?”

“……”

His mind was busy, no words entering his ears. Chief Hwang kept asking questions, making his already busy mind more complicated. Chief Hwang called Woo-jin again, who was just blankly staring at him.

“Are you listening, Prosecutor?”

“Contact for reference witness investigation. If possible, have them come today.”

“Understood.”

Entering his private office, Woo-jin sat at his desk and opened his laptop. An email contained Secretary Choi’s report summarizing Executive Kim’s schedule, work details, and noteworthy matters.

Just move according to pattern. Set priorities. Mustn’t forget take six. Must leak the Chief of Staff’s irregularities to the press too. No, it shouldn’t be just simple, cliché, ordinary irregularities. Not just enough to pull him from his position, but to sow ashes over his political life just beginning, become an indelible stigma that grabs his pant leg and drags him down every time he tries to leap. Then let him tire himself out and self-destruct. Once he becomes a state of pessimistic inability to do anything, there’d be no need to keep paying attention to him.

Woo-jin picked up the phone.

“It’s me. Chief of Staff Park, give me all the materials cleaned up last year. Every single one, even the most trivial. Yeah.”

He planned to contact Reporter Eun to clear a page once he found something. Summons would come after. No, maybe summons wouldn’t be needed. It would be appropriate to blow it up when articles about the ruling party’s recruitment start appearing slowly. He couldn’t overlook the irrational act of the man who smashed his own forehead when things didn’t go his way, and crucially, he had now become useless.

Opening the received email, he formally read through the content not entering his head. While his eyes read the text, his mind wandered to completely unrelated things.

The pupils looking at him in terror, trembling with fear.

Staring at the monitor, he lowered his head. Burying his face in both hands, he took a deep breath.

How did things come to this point?

This feeling of complete mess is a first.

“……”

I killed them? I killed them?

It was ridiculous talk. Nonsensical words.

Woo-jin hadn’t killed anyone.

He hadn’t killed Kim Ha-young or Lee Tae-shin.

Though there had been more than a few times he wanted to kill Hae-won, it was just a thought, he never attempted such an act.

He didn’t even have murderous intent toward them.

But Hae-won was insisting, without logic or evidence, that Woo-jin had killed them.

If by one in ten thousand chance Hae-won was right and if I killed them……

Though utterly incomprehensible and unacceptable, if I killed them……

I don’t know. Because Woo-jin didn’t know at all what their feelings were, what their mood was, what their hearts were like, perhaps according to Hae-won’s claim, maybe I drove them to the cliff of death.

Does that mean I killed them?

He who had not a shred of doubt in himself that he was not at fault. He who had lived until now to correct that misunderstanding, to prove it. The things he did because he wanted to rightly fix the irrationality.

Maybe I really am a monster……

As Father said, maybe I am a monster.

Killing Ha-young, killing Tae-shin……

Maybe even the incident in high school and all those who died then were my fault.

Woo-jin, floundering in deep contemplation, straightened his blurred vision. Shaking his head, he focused on the email on the laptop screen.

It was about Executive Kim carefully considering and postponing the M&A of DayPay mobile payment solution company, which K-One gave up acquiring due to funding shortage.

Executive Kim, just out of prison and still not grasping the harshness of survival of the fittest, had no way of knowing what efforts I made behind the scenes to make that deal happen.

It was a mistake. The world changed day by day. Putting him, who completely lost business sense, in that position was wrong.

Nothing was working. Woo-jin changed priorities. Couldn’t let K-One dominate the online payment market. Couldn’t chase after everything one by one giving instructions. He drafted an email to send to Team Leader Song.

Hae-won didn’t listen to me.

I told him to send the documents he took by today, but he wasn’t listening. Hae-won was never one to even pretend to listen to others from the start. Today of all days, not a single piece of mail came to the office.

Woo-jin needed that. Without it, he couldn’t have any influence, couldn’t keep them under control and domination. He had endured any sacrifice to get it. It was as important as Kim Jeong-geun being punished. The ledger had to be top priority no matter what.

Priorities were topsy-turvy. He couldn’t even write two lines of the email.

Hae-won was completely terrified. Steeped in fear, his eye sockets hardened with tension and rigidity, looking at Woo-jin as if he were a monster, resisting with his whole body to avoid contact.

Shuddering as if touching dirty trash.

Gritting his teeth not to feel resentment or sadness, he vehemently denied Woo-jin’s existence.

The hair that brushed between his fingers was soft, smelled of good shampoo. Bringing his hand to his nose. Though no scent remained, Woo-jin inhaled. His chest swelled as he chased the now vanished scent.

“Prosecutor, they say they’re available around evening today, shall I have them come then?”

“Not possible this evening. Tell them to come tomorrow morning.”

“Then I’ll schedule for tomorrow morning.”

Chief Hwang, who had half-pushed his head into the office, pulled back and disappeared.

The hand writing the email noticeably slowed. The cursor on the screen blinked.

Blankly staring at the only blinking movement, Woo-jin struggled to reconsider priorities and replay the situation. Trying to organize thoughts like tidying objects, but Hae-won disorderly intruded between each. The eyes that dug into the grain of thought trembled soaked in fear.

Hae-won was afraid of me.

“……”

He asked trembling in fear, would I kill him like them too.

Hae-won was different from others. He hadn’t found Woo-jin difficult or scary. Just another person breathing there—initially, Hae-won saw him that way.

And after acknowledging his feelings toward Woo-jin, he changed completely. Opened his whole self to accept him. Lovely and cute. He liked him so much he didn’t know what to do.

That Hae-won……, that person looked at him with such cold eyes, shuddering in disgust.

Through thorough review, he acknowledged that the relationship with Hae-won was an irrational act with no benefit. Though he vowed not to repeat the same mistake, Woo-jin kept ruminating on and longing for that time.

The face that smiled at me like sunlight, the trembling that made his whole body shiver when held, the touch of warm bare legs rubbing against his instep upon waking in the morning, the body heat that reached him—kept coming to mind.

Because it wasn’t in his hands now. Missing it, longing for it. What one cannot have looks bigger and better—an unchanging law.

Closing the email window he was writing, he opened an internet browser.

Hae-won was becoming famous as he said. Many people posted his performance videos on internet sites. Typing Hae-won’s name in any search site brought up the video Woo-jin played all night as the first listing.

Clicked the video. He watched the soundless video until Hae-won’s performance ended. Though no sound came out, Woo-jin remembered the melody by watching the pressed strings and bowing positions. Could hear Bruch’s violin concerto as clearly as if at his ear.

The rough tone when bowing the strings so strongly they might snap, the sound of steel strings splitting into multiple strands striking the back of his ear.

The face changing to find the right note each time pressing the fingerboard, sometimes pitiful, sometimes sad, sometimes quietly sinking becoming the music itself forgetting even himself playing—he stopped everything he was doing and just watched.

Brought his hand to his nose.

With fingers that gave off no scent, touching his cheek, he moved as if Hae-won’s hair was touching it.

Work that usually took just an hour to finish took all day, and Woo-jin got in his car late at night.

The road to Yangpyeong was already dark. Leaving the city, heading to the outskirts, the car raced toward the gradually thinning black forest.

Leaning his arm against the window and resting his forehead in his hand, he lowered the car window to let the wind in. Driving half-heartedly, Woo-jin thought of the documents that hadn’t arrived today.

Now he had a reason to search Hae-won’s officetel again tomorrow. The fact that Hae-won hadn’t sent the documents today didn’t bother him much.

He was sinking into a mood so deep he could feel it himself. His mind was a mess. He hoped the oncoming wind would sweep away his thoughts, but nothing was lifted.

What if I killed them…….

Woo-jin wanted to summon the dead and ask them.

Did I kill you? Did you die because of me…….

Why on earth does the desire to end one’s life arise, for whom, how, for what reason? Did you lie and try to take Hae-won away from me, did you do it on purpose with malice?

If he could summon them, he wanted to sit them down and interrogate them. He wanted to logically refute their claims point by point, proving that he wasn’t the cause, that they hadn’t made that choice because of him, that it was their own decision—and he wanted to show that to Hae-won.

It wasn’t me…….

I didn’t kill anyone.

Empathy was the hardest thing for Woo-jin. The feeling of being the only one who didn’t know what everyone else knew, of not even being able to guess, made him feel isolated, separated, and trapped in alienation. He always felt that dirty resistance from his blood-related father and brothers.

Now he had to feel that glass prison from Moon Hae-won, who once claimed to love him the most in this world. That sense of deprivation was far greater than what he felt from his own flesh and blood. Incomparable.

Not that Woo-jin had believed him from the start anyway. Knowing the limits of human nature, he wasn’t hurt. He hadn’t realized that not having the concept of trusting anyone would help in times like this.

Moon Hae-won was just a liar after all.

Just an ordinary human being, subject to change and corruption.

Woo-jin glanced at the dashboard. Inside was still the ring he had wanted to slip onto Hae-won’s finger. He averted his gaze as if ignoring the fact that the ring was there. The black forest split open before him.

Getting out of the car, he looked for Lee Seok-joong’s car. Unexpectedly, his car had arrived first. He must still have the energy to pull this kind of stunt even while busy with company work. He must have thought of the crisis as nothing more than a passing cold.

Woo-jin liked that kind of carelessness in people. It meant there was plenty of room to interfere and bring them down.

Before entering the bunker, he put a cigarette in his mouth and looked up at the dark sky. After finishing one, he stomped out the butt firmly to extinguish the ember.

He went down the stairs. As he opened the door, faint music spilled out.

Today, too, the bunker was ready to offer them revelry.

“Oh, Hyung-nim, you’re here?”

“Woo-jin’s here? Why so late?”

The moment he entered, unwanted jeers and cheers erupted simultaneously. A clamor insisting they’d been waiting for him all along. Woo-jin, unfastening his jacket buttons as he stepped inside, abruptly froze in place.

Lee Seok-joong was sitting on the sofa where the camera captured the best angle, and next to him sat Moon Hae-won.

“…….”

“Your cousin’s been here waiting for an hour. What do we do now that you’re here?”

Having perfectly replayed the situation and acknowledged through several calculations that Hae-won was utterly useless in his life, Woo-jin stood completely rigid, staring stupidly at Hae-won as if he’d been shot.

“Why are you so late? We waited so long.”

The voice that used to complain, saying he’d wait hugging Woo-jin’s waist when he opened the officetel door late, spoke.

Lee Seok-joong placed a hand on Hae-won’s shoulder. He was half-embracing Hae-won. As if doused with icy water, Woo-jin turned pale from head to toe, his entire body freezing.

“Im Hyo-sang and I agreed. Should we take your cousin as a member?”

“Really? You’ll make me a member here too?”

Hae-won asked brightly. Lee Seok-joong turned to Hae-won with a beaming smile. Hae-won had the looks that made men smile, and when he lifted his lips in a smile, he also cast a spell that placed a noose around their necks. Lee Seok-joong already seemed to have a noose around his neck.

“Of course, if our Hae-won wants it, we have to do it. Do you want to?”

“I want to. But I don’t know if Woo-jin hyung will allow it.”

“He’s your cousin, he should agree. You’ll agree, right? If you agree, it’s unanimous.”

Already knowing Hae-won wasn’t his cousin, Im Hyo-sang tapped Woo-jin’s stiff shoulder and spoke.

Only then did Woo-jin move. He took off his jacket, draped it over the sofa, and sat in an empty spot.

“…….”

The spot where Hae-won and Lee Seok-joong sat was directly targeted by the camera lens.

Lee Seok-joong didn’t remove his hand from Hae-won’s shoulder. He kept pulling him closer, trying to make contact somehow. Whether he was doing it deliberately to provoke Woo-jin, having sensed that Woo-jin was the one pulling the strings behind K-One Group, or simply because he wanted to touch Hae-won, was unclear.

Woo-jin poured liquor into an empty glass and downed it. The heat licking his throat, sliding down his esophagus, and sweeping through his stomach was vivid. Even if he drank ten glasses in a row, he wouldn’t get drunk; he had to watch Hae-won with a clear mind. It was the first time his inability to get drunk felt so disgustingly repulsive.

They had no intention of making Hae-won a member. Woo-jin’s eyes turned to the pole. He knew the procedure. Once drunk on alcohol and drugs, Hae-won would be tied up there. That was what they did in the bunker.

He poured another half-glass of the already consumed liquor. Woo-jin silently downed two glasses in succession.

“Our company decided to produce an album this time, and Hae-won will be the violinist on it. Hey, Hyung-nim. Did you know your cousin is a violinist? He’s really good.”

The hand on his shoulder slipped between Hae-won’s thighs. Stroking the inside of Hae-won’s thigh, Lee Seok-joong spoke.

Woo-jin, with the glass to his lips, watched with lowered eyes where Lee Seok-joong’s hand was touching Hae-won.

He had never been drunk, but heat boiled up from his stomach. It was so hot he couldn’t stand it. He finished the drink, loosened the tie choking his neck, and unbuttoned his shirt. Breathing was difficult.

“Can you play for us once?”

“I didn’t bring my violin.”

“Ah, why didn’t you bring it? Bring it. I want to see our Hae-won play. Seeing that gets me a bit excited.”

“I hate it when people don’t listen to my playing with their ears but chew on it elsewhere.”

Without knowing what was in the drink, Hae-won drank it. Woo-jin didn’t look at Hae-won sitting far away. He only sensed Hae-won’s movements from a distance. His heart raced as if going wild.

“But is this how you have fun here? It’s more boring than I thought.”

At Hae-won’s words, the bunker members burst into raucous laughter. Woo-jin was surprised at how despicable laughter could sound. Everything was readable in the disorderly laughter—mockery, ridicule, excitement, lust… things like worn-out patience.

He habitually poured and drank again. His stomach grew too hot, so he took ice from the ice bucket and crunched it.

Im Hyo-sang, wiping tears that had seeped from his eyes from laughing too hard, spoke.

“We don’t play like this.”

“Then what do you do for fun?”

“We play more intensely.”

“Intensely?”

Im Hyo-sang opened a box placed on the table. It contained marijuana, hallucinogens, drugs, and such. That spot was also where the camera was. Unaware his face was being captured well, Im Hyo-sang took out cocaine with a nauseating smile.

Seeing the drugs, Hae-won looked back at Woo-jin. His eyes held disbelief, an untrusting gaze.

Hae-won firmly believed him to be a good, moral public servant.

Woo-jin looked down at the table, aware that Hae-won was staring at him sharply but not turning his gaze away. The hand holding the glass clenched so hard the knuckles turned white. A little more force and the glass would shatter. He drank with a cold expression.

“Hae-won, have you tried this before?”

“No.”

“How have you lived without doing this? What’s the fun?”

Im Hyo-sang, who had snorted cocaine, rummaged through the box and pulled out a small vial. Staggering, he approached Hae-won and forced the small vial to his lips. Hae-won turned his head away as if smelling something foul and glared at him.

“What are you doing?”

“This is expensive, you know? Don’t you want it?”

“I won’t. I hate taking drugs and getting all sluggish.”

“Ah, that won’t do… It’ll be hard if you don’t take this.”

The dignified face of Im Hyo-sang, whose family was filled with Supreme Court elders, twisted asymmetrically.

Lee Seok-joong grabbed Hae-won’s shoulder. Taking the signal, Im Hyo-sang seized Hae-won’s chin as he struggled, saying no. Clutching both cheeks, he forced the vial into Hae-won’s mouth and tilted it up. Hae-won, forced to swallow the liquid down his throat, slapped his hand away. Coughing as if he’d swallowed a water snake, he shivered with chills. Lee Seok-joong’s hand patted his hunched back as if he were about to vomit.

“Tastes bad, right? It’s okay. It’ll kick in soon. You’ll feel good.”

“Cough, cough…….”

Shuddering, Hae-won pushed away Lee Seok-joong, who was enveloping his shoulder. He snickered, mocking Hae-won.

He wanted to grab whatever he could and throw it, but nothing came to hand. He remembered trying something like this before. When he broke up with Woo-jin, in a fit of emotion, he followed the first man he saw to a motel. The taste and the unpleasant swallowing sensation were similar to what he’d taken then.

“You need to take this for you to feel good, and for me to feel good too… for all of us to feel good. I don’t want to hear you keep crying and saying no.”

Im Hyo-sang whispered into Hae-won’s ear. Hae-won’s body trembled as if cold. Lee Seok-joong swept back Hae-won’s hair, revealing his face clearly.

“I thought this when I first saw you too. How should I put it? You don’t look cheap.”

“What do you mean ‘don’t look cheap’? Your vocabulary level… You ignorant bastard. Tsk tsk.”

Hae-won pushed him with both hands. He tried to push, but the man’s chest didn’t budge. Instead, like a solid rock, it seemed to grow in volume. Strength drained from his fingertips.

He brought me here…….

Only now did Hae-won realize what Woo-jin had done to Tae-shin. Not because the drug effects were gradually spreading, but because the realized fact alone was causing his mind to crumble.

He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t accept it. The more he learned about the true nature of the man he loved, the more he wanted to die. He wanted to erase the fact that he ever loved Woo-jin. If that was impossible, he wanted to tear himself to pieces. A scream surged from within.

“Don’t. Let go…! Let go!”

“Doesn’t he look like he’d suck dick really well?”

“That’s what ‘looking cheap’ means.”

“No. It’s different. The face that looks like it’d go crazy for dick and the face that looks like it’d just want to fuck when lips are forced on it even though they hate it are different. Don’t you know the difference?”

“You don’t even know what you’re saying, do you?”

Lee Seok-joong and Im Hyo-sang exchanged words with Hae-won between them. A cold sensation poured over his body. Someone poured liquor over Hae-won. His shirt soaked wet, clinging to his skin.

“Fuck, look at his nipples getting hard as the drug kicks in. I’ll suck this side, you suck that side.”

“Not tying him up?”

“Suck first. Let’s hear what sounds he makes.”

“Don’t…! Ah, don’t…, don’t! You bastards…, fucking bastards.”

Resisting with his whole body, his held wrists bent hopelessly. His limbs trembled. Hae-won bit his lip to hold onto consciousness. Dirty lips brushed his cheeks and nape. He jerked his head away. Shaking his head brought dizzy vertigo, and his barely sustained body swayed.

Lee Seok-joong rubbed Hae-won’s wet shirt with his hand. He tilted his head and took the protruding nipple into his mouth along with the shirt, sucking. He bit and chewed with his teeth.

Hae-won screamed. He hit his shoulder, but it was immovable. The other side was pressed too. An immense weight pressed down on Hae-won from both sides. Nothing could move. This was what Tae-shin had endured.

“Ah…, ah, no, no…!”

His voice cracked. Just as someone tried to pull down Hae-won’s pants, a sharp alarm sounded along with a strange smell. Lee Seok-joong, who had been sucking Hae-won’s chest, lifted his head. Instantly, water gushed from the sprinklers.

“Fuck, fire! There’s a fire, you bastard!”

Pushing aside Im Hyo-sang, who was mindlessly biting and sucking Hae-won’s chest, Lee Seok-joong hurriedly stood up. He grabbed his jacket and belongings and fled toward the bunker stairs as if escaping. It was three floors underground. If he didn’t get out now, he could be trapped here helplessly. Im Hyo-sang and the other members also hastily got up and ran up the stairs. They stumbled, punched each other trying to get out first, and fled.

“Hah, hah…….”

Hae-won lay sprawled, eyes dazed, drenched by the downpour-like water. Not even the strength to move a finger remained.

Acrid smoke rose into the air. The smoke, vividly foretelling death, took on a thick ashen color like dark clouds. With blurred vision, he watched the billowing black smoke and the toxic gas seeping into every pore of his body.

Tae-shin… was here.

Hae-won closed his eyes. He no longer wanted to live.

Someone lifted him up abruptly. Woo-jin, carrying Hae-won wrapped around him, covered his mouth with his wet shirt and rushed out through the stairs. Climbing three flights, he kicked open the door and, still carrying Hae-won, rolled on the dirt ground. Flames spreading from below flickered red tongues toward the stairs, chasing them.

Propping himself up with both hands on the ground, Woo-jin panted as he watched the flames spewing from the underground stairs, then quickly got up and shut the door. There was no gap for oxygen to enter, and with the sprinklers operating, it would burn out like this. As soon as he poured whiskey over the bedding he’d set on fire, threatening flames erupted, burning Woo-jin’s hand. The back of his hand stung.

“Moon Hae-won, Hae-won! Snap out of it!”

Woo-jin lifted Hae-won, who was collapsed on the ground, and held him. Slapping his cheeks sharply, Hae-won opened his eyes vaguely. The eyes staring blankly upward soon twisted painfully. Hae-won pushed him. Pushed away, he slumped back onto the ground.

Hae-won crawled on the ground. Groping the dirt with both hands, he searched for something. Seeming to find something, he grunted and lifted a fairly heavy-looking rock with both hands.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

As Woo-jin got up and approached, Hae-won raised the rock clutched in both hands above his head. His body lost balance and staggered.

Hae-won swung the rock down toward Woo-jin’s head. Startled, he narrowly dodged. Hae-won, who had struck the ground hard enough to drive the rock in, raised it again. He staggered under its weight alone. The white hands that had never held anything heavy or rough missed their aim again, striking not Woo-jin’s crown but his shoulder.

“Ugh…!”

With a thud, his shoulder sank. Woo-jin couldn’t dodge. No, he couldn’t dodge. Hae-won was trying to kill him. Black smoke billowed behind Hae-won. The black smoke ominously spread into the black forest.

Pain starting from his shoulder swept through his entire body. Blood quickly seeped out, soaking his shoulder. It felt as if one shoulder was collapsing.

After striking Woo-jin’s shoulder with the rock, Hae-won raised the rock again. Then, unable to bear the weight, he fell backward.

It felt as if his flesh was burning. Woo-jin alternated his gaze between his bleeding shoulder and Hae-won collapsed on the ground. Hae-won lay there half-unconscious, moaning.

Woo-jin took out his phone and contacted Secretary Choi. He gritted his teeth.

“Ugh, it’s me. There’s a fire in the basement of the Yangpyeong villa. Retrieve all the materials inside. Ugh, come here now.”

Calling him to prevent any aftermath, he stood up. His legs staggered. Blood flowing from his shoulder down his arm soaked his sleeve, forming droplets at his fingertips that fell, drip, drip.

Hae-won’s body was burning. This was a different quality of drug from the cheap stuff he’d taken last time. The effects came on quickly and, above all, they were potent.

He examined Hae-won’s hands first. He checked the hands that had gripped the stone, brushing off the dirt clinging to them, making sure no wounds had formed, that they weren’t scorched by fire.

All his fingers were intact. Hae-won was a violinist. If his hands were injured, they’d be useless, and he valued his hands greatly. If his hands were hurt, Hae-won might be sad.

“Ugh…!”

Grabbing Hae-won’s wrist, Woo-jin pulled his weight onto his own back. As he hoisted him onto his back, a searing pain, as if branded by fire, shot through him.

He hurriedly walked to the car. Like dogs with their tails on fire, everyone had fled, and only Woo-jin and Hae-won’s cars remained desolately in the parking lot.

He quickly took Hae-won to his own car and sat him in the passenger seat. He opened the dashboard and his hand haphazardly pulled out the water bottle, wet wipes, and other things inside.

Woo-jin picked up a wet wipe that had fallen to the floor. He frantically wiped Hae-won’s hands. He checked again to see if there were any wounds on the hand that had missed his head and struck his shoulder instead.

One of Woo-jin’s shoulders was soaked through with bright red blood, all the way down his arm and sleeve. Mistaking his own blood for Hae-won’s, Woo-jin kept wiping, drop by drop, the blood dripping onto Hae-won’s body, wiping it away.

He would wipe it, and more would appear; he would wipe it away, and before he knew it, he was wiping Hae-won’s body, now beaded with blood, like a madman. It was only much later that Woo-jin realized those were drops of blood falling from himself.

He took off his shirt. The shoulder Hae-won had struck with the stone was mangled, the flesh torn, and a dark bruise was already forming around it. He tore the long sleeve of his dress shirt and wrapped it around the wounded area. Each time he tightened the binding, his face contorted, but Woo-jin wasn’t someone sensitive to pain. He merely made a pained expression as he wound the cloth tightly around his armpit and shoulder once, then wrapped the shirt around again and tied it tightly, not even letting out a suppressed groan.

He wiped the blood off his body with the shirt missing its sleeve and started the engine. The flames hadn’t spread further, but there was a chance the police or fire trucks might appear after seeing the smoke from afar. He couldn’t be seen by anyone in this state.

Woo-jin hastily backed the car out. He drove the car not onto the road but into the deserted forest. He drove deep into the woods where the thin plume of smoke rising from the Yangpyeong villa was visible, then stopped in the darkness. With one side from his shoulder down his arm entirely stained with blood, Woo-jin buried his face in the steering wheel.

“……”

The moment they forced the drug into Hae-won, he thought he would be the one to go mad, not Hae-won. He wanted to transfer the embers onto their bodies. He wanted to burn them to death with the blazing red flames. He wanted to pour strong alcohol over their heads and transfer the embers onto those touching Hae-won, setting their flesh and bones ablaze.

Woo-jin had almost never experienced impulses that swept away reason and made him lose judgment, especially impulses with the clear goal of wanting to kill someone. In his entire life, he had experienced that exactly twice, and both times were entirely because of Moon Hae-won. It was something he hadn’t experienced often, so he almost lost control.

With his forehead pressed against the steering wheel, he numbly let the murderous intent flowing coolly down his spine subside. He vividly recalled the dizzying sensation that remained in his hands. He vividly recalled the forbidden sensation of setting a fire and burning something. His head felt hazy, as if he had taken drugs.

“Ugh… Hng.”

At the groan, Woo-jin raised his head. Hae-won, half-lying on the reclined seat, twisted his body and let out a pained moan.

He wiped Hae-won’s face with a wet wipe. He wiped the cold sweat beading on his forehead and the moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes.

“Hngk…”

Even unconscious, Hae-won burst into tears. As if having a nightmare, he suffered, and tears spilled from his closed eyelids. Suddenly, that pitifulness overwhelmed Woo-jin. The image of Hae-won hunching his back and crying because of him overlapped with the present, causing a pain in his chest.

It might all be because of him…

Lee Tae-shin’s death, Ha-young’s death…

Hae-won crying like this might all be because of him.

Forgetting that Hae-won had tried to strike him dead with a stone, Woo-jin furrowed his brow. The needle embedded in his flesh gradually grew in size and sharpness.

His burning cheeks turned red. Perhaps as the drug took effect, Hae-won began to pant. Woo-jin, who had been staring down at Hae-won writhing and twisting in agony for a while, pushed the seat back.

He climbed on top of Hae-won and pulled down his pants. Pulling down the pants, he tugged off the underwear as well. Due to the drug, the pitifully erect, trembling flesh was visible.

Spreading his legs, he knelt between them. Without hesitation or reluctance, he buried his face in Hae-won’s groin. Parting his lips, he took the trembling flesh into his mouth. He stroked Hae-won’s thighs, touched his stomach, and caressed the sticky skin clinging to his palm.

“Hngk… Ugh, haaang…!”

The entire flesh held in his mouth melted richly onto his tongue. Hae-won’s breathing grew ragged. Panting, his lower abdomen trembled along. Sucking diligently on the sensitively erect part below, Woo-jin swallowed all the poison seeping from there. Not a single drop was wasted; he swallowed it all down his throat. Each time he swallowed Hae-won, his own throat constricted.

“Ahk, ughk! Aaang, uung…”

Wrapping his arms around the splayed thighs, he hooked them over his shoulders and held them firmly in place. His injured shoulder was pressed. Simultaneously, a pain as if flesh were being cut arose. His face grew hot, and the inner thighs pressing against his cheeks also heated up with fever. Hae-won’s waist arched sharply.

“Uung, aah…, ah! Haaak!”

Something scalding hot burst inside his mouth. Even as he gasped through his nose, he didn’t remove Hae-won’s genitals. He bit down strongly, rubbed with his entire tongue, wrapped around it, thoroughly combing through until everything was spilled. And he swallowed everything Hae-won released. His stomach, having swallowed and devoured Hae-won, felt full.

As he ejaculated, the convulsions throughout his body gradually subsided. The twitching movements also ceased at some point. Even so, Woo-jin didn’t lift his face from where it was buried against Hae-won’s lower body.

Rubbing his nose against the pubic bone and smelling the scent, he continued to lick up the flesh that had gone soft as the erection subsided.

Only after Hae-won’s breathing had settled evenly did he raise his head. Hae-won, slumped to the side as if collapsed, had eyes glistening with moisture.

Still on his knees, Woo-jin pressed his cheek and ear against Hae-won’s stomach, embracing him as if leaning on him. That place was his final refuge, the only sanctuary where he could release tension and rest. A warm, comforting scent of flesh wafted up, one he didn’t want to escape. Woo-jin rubbed his cheek against Hae-won’s flesh.