The Secretary arrived exactly 18 minutes later. Park Hae-jun opened the door with his lower body covered by a towel.
“Did something happen?”
At Secretary Yang’s question, Park Hae-jun felt caught.
“What? No? Why?”
“Your face is red. You’re not dressed and the window is open.”
“I was just feeling hot. Please come in.”
His face was red because he had just ejaculated, and he’d opened the window in case there was a scent of semen.
As Secretary Yang entered the room, Park Hae-jun found himself feeling furtive. Of course, Secretary Yang probably knew how helpers and power-holders assisted each other, but he didn’t want to be caught having just done that.
“Have you already had something for breakfast?” Secretary Yang asked, pointing at Lee A-gon.
Park Hae-jun covered his mouth. Good heavens, Lee A-gon was staring at his lower body, licking his lips. He was smacking his lips and licking them, with something white at the edges.
“No? More importantly, did you bring clothes?”
Park Hae-jun raised his voice, blocking Secretary Yang’s view.
Fortunately, Secretary Yang showed no suspicion and handed Park Hae-jun a bag.
“As you requested, I’ve brought everything from underwear to outerwear.”
Park Hae-jun turned the bag upside down and emptied it. The first thing he noticed was underwear. White briefs. He put those on first.
As the tight elastic band lightly pressed against his lower abdomen, Park Hae-jun exhaled. Covering his privates gave him such relief. Above all, he was glad that Lee A-gon could no longer see his penis.
While Park Hae-jun dressed himself, Secretary Yang tried to dress Lee A-gon, but it wasn’t easy. Lee A-gon kept flailing and pushing Secretary Yang away, preventing him from even getting underwear on.
“Let me try.”
Park Hae-jun stepped in after watching the struggle. He threaded both pants and underwear over Lee A-gon’s legs and pulled them up. When Lee A-gon staggered as his legs caught in the fabric, Park Hae-jun used the opportunity to pull a shirt over him, then knocked him onto the bed, and while his feet were in the air, quickly put socks on him.
“You’re good at this. Where did you learn that?”
“I had a senior who would wet himself when drunk. I’ve had plenty of practice changing clothes.”
He was talking about Senior Yang.
Park Hae-jun wore a short padded jacket over his knit sweater. After gathering his phone and wallet, he was ready to go. Secretary Yang helped Lee A-gon to his feet. Lee A-gon docilely followed Secretary Yang.
“May I have your phone for a moment?”
Just as they were about to leave, Secretary Yang snatched the phone from Park Hae-jun’s hand. Then he held both his own phone and Park Hae-jun’s side by side and tapped something.
“What are you doing?”
Park Hae-jun asked, as the Secretary showed no sign of returning it even after quite some time had passed.
Secretary Yang answered indifferently, “I’m cloning Park Park Hae-jun’s phone.”
“What?”
‘What does that mean?’ Park Hae-jun reached for his phone in surprise, and Secretary Yang returned it willingly.
“From now on, all activities you perform on your phone will be transmitted to me.”
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“It’s the minimum measure needed to trust you. Please cooperate.”
Secretary Yang was so brazen that Park Hae-jun was momentarily speechless.
“But to just take someone’s phone like this…”
“Didn’t you say you could do any unreasonable task?”
“Yes, as long as it’s not illegal, I did say that.”
“It’s not you who committed the illegal act, but me, so it’s fine.”
Secretary Yang adjusted his shoulders as if there was nothing wrong. It was nonsensical.
Park Hae-jun closed his mouth, deciding not to argue. In this relationship, he was the subordinate. He was the one who had said he would do anything asked of him.
“You’ll remove the clone when the assignment is over, right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then it’s fine.” Park Hae-jun answered tersely and opened the door. What was done was done. It was better to give up and accept it.
“The safe house where you two will be staying is in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. All arrangements have been made to ensure you lack nothing during your stay. Meals will be delivered to your door once a day at seven in the morning, and if you need anything, write it on a note and leave it with the dishes. I will contact you every evening via the telephone installed in the safe house. At that time, please report on Mr. Lee A-gon’s daily activities. Also, while staying there, neither Mr. Lee A-gon nor you are to go outside.”
Secretary Yang explained as they drove. Not being allowed to go out and having to stay in the house was essentially imprisonment. Using a home phone instead of a mobile phone for contact was part of the surveillance.
“May I ask one thing?”
“Yes.”
“Did I pass the second test?”
“Well, what do you think?”
“Going to the safe house suggests I did.”
What he was curious about was how he had passed. Lee A-gon hadn’t changed much since yesterday. He was still quiet and dull. The assistance Park Hae-jun had provided last night seemed to have little effect.
“You bathed him yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes, what about it?”
“Among all the helpers we’ve tested so far, no one has succeeded in bathing Mr. Lee A-gon.”
“No one?”
“To be more precise, the others all failed the test before even getting to the bathing stage. You are the first helper who spent the night with Mr. Lee A-gon without losing him or letting him get hurt.”
Secretary Yang’s statement wasn’t entirely accurate. Park Hae-jun had lost Lee A-gon once last night. And he had nearly died at Lee A-gon’s hands. Both incidents had merely been averted.
“In fact, Mr. Lee A-gon has never received assistance from anyone until now.”
“What?”
This truly surprised him. Never received assistance since birth?
It wasn’t that his powerful family couldn’t find helpers. Hadn’t Secretary Yang mentioned they had repeated this process several times? So how could he have never received assistance until now?
“For reasons unknown, Mr. Lee A-gon rejected every helper we brought. There were several dangerous situations in the process. Yet he accepted your assistance. Again, I don’t know why. You are the only person who has successfully assisted Mr. Lee A-gon.”
Secretary Yang’s eyes met Park Hae-jun’s in the rearview mirror.
“Please do your best. We have high expectations for you.”
“…”
Park Hae-jun bit his lip.
He had indeed provided assistance to Lee A-gon, but the effect was minimal. That was because their resonance rate was terribly low.
Secretary Yang didn’t know this. If he learned the truth, he might dismiss Park Hae-jun immediately. Park Hae-jun decided not to correct this misunderstanding.
“Secretary, I think Lee A-gon is using drugs.”
“What happened?”
“Last night I saw him taking something. When I took it away, he attacked me.”
Secretary Yang stroked his chin. Seeing that he didn’t seem particularly surprised, Park Hae-jun suddenly realized, “You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Shouldn’t you have told me in advance?”
“Why should I have?”
“Well…”
Out of basic courtesy and ethics, shouldn’t he have given him a heads-up? Especially about something as serious as drugs.
But Park Hae-jun’s contractual subordinate position kept him silent. Theirs was not a relationship based on courtesy and ethics.
“…Never mind.”
Park Hae-jun turned his head to look out the window. Silence fell in the car. Secretary Yang didn’t even turn on the radio.
About an hour later, they arrived at the safe house, a two-story building that looked like a wealthy home from the 1980s, somewhere between a house and a mansion. It was located halfway up a mountain, so remote that there was no sign of people nearby.
“The key can lock from both inside and outside, so always keep it locked to prevent Mr. Lee A-gon from going out.”
As he handed over the keys to the gate and front door, Secretary Yang gave his final instructions.
“Keep your activities strictly confidential. Don’t leave the house. Always answer my calls. I’m leaving one million won as emergency funds in case of unforeseen circumstances. Please do your best.”
With those words, Secretary Yang left. Now only Park Hae-jun and Lee A-gon remained in this large house.
“Lee A-gon.”
Though the exterior was an old red brick house, the interior had been newly renovated and was clean and modern. Sunlight poured like a waterfall through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the first-floor living room.
Park Hae-jun looked at Lee A-gon in the sunlight. Lee A-gon was shrouded in the darkness of the hallway. He was like a young beast whose sense of self had not yet been established—quiet and obedient, but capable of becoming violent enough to hurt someone suddenly.
“I told you. I’ll fix you.”
“…”
“If you trust me and follow me, I will definitely fix you.”
“…”
“Lee A-gon, I’m Park Park Hae-jun. Remember? We met on a drama set when we were young.”
“…”
“I want to get along with you.”
Park Hae-jun ran his hand through his hair and sighed lightly.
“I want to treat you like a human being. If you just follow along, we can be good partners.”
There was a sound of drawers opening. Lee A-gon was kneeling, opening the living room cabinet drawers one by one. Park Hae-jun frowned.
“Lee A-gon, are you listening to me?”
“…”
“What are you doing?”
As Park Hae-jun approached, Lee A-gon looked up at him. Then he moved his lips as if trying to say something. Surprised, Park Hae-jun bent down toward Lee A-gon.
“Did you just speak? What did you say? Say it again.”
Lee A-gon moved his lips again. Park Hae-jun stared intently at those lips. He desperately wanted to know what Lee A-gon was saying.
A moment later, Park Hae-jun felt a chill in his chest and stepped back. Lee A-gon followed him into the light, and his lip movements became more visible.
‘Drug.’
Lee A-gon was saying ‘drug.’