By Zephyria 
“Detective Kim. Are we still far?”
“We’re almost there.”
“Darling, do you know you said the same thing an hour ago?”
Lee-eum stopped walking and turned around. Choi Won-joon frowned in the light, and Lee-eum questioned something that had been bothering him all along.
“I’ve been wanting to ask, why do you keep using informal speech with me?”
“Is it not okay?”
“We’re not that close, are we? Please show some respect.”
“You do it too.”
“……”
Never mind. Lee-eum sighed and continued up the path. Then, he heard murmuring voices from above. At first, he thought he misheard, but soon several people appeared before him. They were wearing hiking clothes and had their hats pulled down low.
Were they the people who came in the car parked below? He felt a strange sense of unease and carefully examined their appearances, but found nothing unusual.
“Good work. Looks like you’re heading up now?”
As Lee-eum made way, the man at the front spoke cheerfully.
“Yes. We’re going to see the sunrise.”
“We were on our way, but my brother said he wasn’t feeling well, so we’re heading back down. Have a safe climb.”
“Yes, you too.”
They disappeared one by one into the darkness, and Lee-eum remained in place until they were completely out of sight.
“What are you looking at?”
Must be my imagination….
“It’s nothing.”
After walking and walking, they finally reached the summit, and Lee-eum put down his luggage on the deck and took a breather. Looking around, he noticed a small tent far away. Judging by the fact that the light was off, it seemed like someone was asleep.
Lee-eum quietly took out the tent from his backpack and began to set it up. Won-joon, who had followed behind, came up to him and leaned his face on Lee-eum’s shoulder.
“I’m dying.”
“Don’t bother me and go sit over there.”
He pushed him away and made him sit on a wooden chair, and he groaned and lay down. Lee-eum quickly finished setting up the tent and took out the sleeping bag to make a place to sleep. Then he looked at Choi Won-joon, who was sitting in the chair and staring intently at him. Lee-eum threw the sleeping bag that had been rolling around in the car trunk at Won-joon. Won-joon caught it and looked puzzled.
“What’s this?”
“You can lay it down and sleep.”
“Where?”
“On the ground.”
“I’m going to sleep in the tent with Kim Yi-eum.”
Lee-eum scoffed. The tent was for two people, but it was impossible for Choi Won-joon and him to sleep together. No, regardless of the size, he had no intention of sleeping together in the first place. Lee-eum took off his shoes and went inside.
“It’s too small. Spread that out and sleep.”
“We can just cuddle.”
“Good night.”
He immediately blocked the entrance to the tent, and it was quiet outside. Is this guy sleeping or not? I don’t know. He’s not a kid, he’ll figure it out. Then, unable to bear it any longer, he opened his eyes and almost screamed. There was a light in front of the tent, and a dark shadow was squatting there.
Lee-eum opened the entrance, and Won-joon was squatting in front of it like a dog waiting for its owner.
“What are you doing?”
“I was raised well, I can’t sleep outside.”
“I was raised well too.”
“Don’t do that, let me sleep with you. Just hold my hand, no, I won’t even hold your hand. If I touch you, you can call me a crazy whore.”
Then, without permission, he stuck his head inside. Ah! He was just trying to push him away, but he was so insistent that his body fell backward and they became entangled. Won-joon, who had suddenly climbed on top of Lee-eum, smiled brightly.
“This isn’t my will?”
Lee-eum gritted his teeth and punched him hard in the shoulder.
“Get off.”
Won-joon moved to the side and lay on his side. Even when bent, he was so tall that the tent was so full that it was about to burst. Lee-eum decided that it would be better for him to go out and sleep, and he tried to get up.
At that moment, he heard sniffing sounds from outside. Lee-eum instinctively realized that a wild boar was wandering around and closed the entrance. Rustle, rustle. He had hung a plastic bag containing sausages and snacks on his bag, so maybe it smelled it. He had had similar experiences before, so Lee-eum waited quietly for the wild boar to disappear.
“Is it a wild boar?”
“I think so.”
“I’m scared. I have a wild boar trauma. Hold me.”
“Be quiet and stay still.”
Lee-eum focused his attention on the outside. The wild boar did not leave easily, and Lee-eum had no choice but to lie down with his back to Won-joon. No matter how hard he tried not to touch him, their bodies touched and he could feel his breath. Damn it. He cursed inwardly, but he couldn’t fall asleep easily. He climbed the mountain, and by now he should be tired and passed out.
At some point, it became quiet outside. He thought the wild boar had disappeared and was about to move out to sleep when Choi Won-joon hugged him from behind. He frowned and tried to remove his arm, but this time he pressed his lower body against him and rubbed.
“If you don’t want to get hit, get off.”
“It’s cold. It’s chilly because it’s a mountain.”
Then he buried his nose in Lee-eum’s neck and inhaled. Lee-eum was horrified and tried to turn around, but it was not easy to escape because his arms were so tightly wrapped around him. He rubbed his nose against his neck.
“It smells like sweat.”
Lee-eum’s ears burned. He went crazy, asking if he was crazy, why was he smelling someone else’s sweat, and this time his lips touched him.
“I’m going crazy. It’s more exciting than the pheromone smell.”
“You pervert!”
“That’s wrong. You were supposed to call me a whore.”
“I warned you. Get off, uh, damn it.”
Won-joon’s hand naturally moved forward and grabbed his pants. Only then did Lee-eum realize that he was erect, and his head went blank with shock. He was so dumbfounded that he tried to make excuses, but he heard a quiet laugh from behind.
“You say you don’t like my mouth, but your dick is standing up.”
“That’s not, uh, stop it.”
“You’re so lewd. Tell me. Is the ‘eum’ in Kim Yi-eum the ‘eum’ for lewd?”
Lee-eum swung his arm and hit Won-joon in the side. With a groan, the strength in his arm was released, and he jumped up, turned on the flashlight, and looked down at Won-joon’s face. Looking at his eyes, he was not asleep, but rather gleaming with desire.
Thinking he had been tricked, Lee-eum grabbed his sleeping bag and stormed out.
“If you sleep outside, you’ll be eaten by a wild boar.”
“It’s better than being eaten by you.”
“You’re so horny. You know how to say things like that?”
Lee-eum ignored him and spread out his sleeping bag in a suitable place. Choi Won-joon tried to persuade him a few more times, but he didn’t even pretend to listen. When it finally became quiet, Lee-eum lowered his hand and pressed down on his genitals.
He was so erect that it hurt. Crazy. Is he just frustrated? Getting hard for anyone. Were you always this unfaithful? He blamed himself and tore at his hair, but then fatigue washed over him and he closed his eyes. Choi Won-joon must have fallen asleep too, because he couldn’t hear any more sounds.
Lee-eum woke up to the faint sound of an alarm and reached into his pants pocket to take out his cell phone. He turned off the alarm and crawled out of the sleeping bag, but frowned when he realized that Choi Won-joon’s sleeping bag was right behind him. When did he start sleeping next to him?
Choi Won-joon was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t in the tent either, so he looked around and found him standing in front of someone else’s tent far away, and he was so dumbfounded that he called him.
“What are you doing there? Come here quickly.”
He didn’t move and pointed at the tent with his hand. Lee-eum sensed something was wrong and got up. He put on his shoes and walked towards him, feeling uneasy. The tent was open, there was no one inside, and there was a large icebox inside. And the icebox was full of something he never expected.
Lee-eum rubbed his face and looked at Choi Won-joon.
“By any chance,”
“It wasn’t me. I just opened it because it was strange.”
“You really don’t know?”
Won-joon turned his eyelids inside out to show him.
“Look, do I look like a drug addict?”
Lee-eum pushed him away in disgust. Okay, just stay away. Then he picked up one of the packaged plastic packs and examined it carefully. It seemed to be drugs. He had seen it a few times before, but it was mostly petty criminals, and this was the first time he had seen such a large amount.
He called the police station and, while explaining the situation in detail, certain people suddenly came to mind. The van he saw while parking yesterday. And the people who were coming down from the mountain.
After thinking carefully, Lee-eum called Won-joon after reporting it.
“I’ll go to the car. I need to check the black box.”
“Because of the black van parked nearby?”
“How did you know?”
“2768.”
“Huh?”
“30du 2768.”
No way…. Lee-eum opened his mouth, and Won-joon frowned and complained irritably. He was happy because he thought it was a date, but some crazy bastard left drugs here. Usually, when you witness something like this, you’d be surprised, but he didn’t care about the drugs and was only angry that he couldn’t spend time with Kim Yi-eum.
Lee-eum chased after him and asked again.
“Are you sure about the number?”
“Yeah. It’s a ㅇㅇㅇ made by oo company, and the front left bumper is broken.”
Lee-eum looked at Won-joon with an incredulous expression.
“You memorized that?”
“It’s a habit I developed after being kidnapped as a child.”
Won-joon’s eyes seemed to be tracing back to an old memory, and Lee-eum couldn’t bring himself to ask him about it in detail.
“When I see a similar car, I compulsively memorize the number without realizing it. If I had seen the number of those guys’ car, I would have caught the remaining one for sure.”
Lee-eum, who was listening, paused.
“The remaining one…? There were two kidnappers? Does that mean you caught one?”
As the questions continued, Won-joon laughed silently and took out a cigarette. “Leave it to your imagination.” Lee-eum quickly snatched the cigarette and put it back in his pocket. He told him that smoking was prohibited on the mountain, and he readily accepted it and pointed to the opposite side with his hand. “Look over there.”
The sun was already peeking out, painting the sky red. He was mesmerized for a moment, but then he heard footsteps behind him. The police couldn’t have arrived already. Lee-eum turned around and his expression hardened.
Men in black suits, who were completely out of place in the mountains, appeared one by one at the summit, carrying clubs and shovels. Among them was one familiar face, the hiker he had encountered last night.
“Ah, shit. I knew something was fishy.”
Then he called someone.
“Hyung. I’ve confirmed the goods and found the rats. I’ll take care of the cleanup neatly, so don’t worry.”
After hanging up, he smiled at Lee-eum and Won-joon with a pitiful expression.
“Don’t blame us. Why did you have to crawl up this remote mountain? Tsk.”
Thousands of thoughts flashed through Lee-eum’s mind. There were eight opponents. There were two of them. Besides, one of them was just a well-built young master with terrible stamina and a smooth talker.
Lee-eum looked at Won-joon with a heavy expression. He knew that he would only be a hindrance if he stayed by his side, so he was trying to send him down first, but Choi Won-joon was unbuttoning his shirt one by one.
“What are you doing now?”
Unlike Lee-eum, who was worried, Won-joon smiled brightly.
“It’s my favorite shirt. I’d be really annoyed if it got blood on it.”