Vol 2 Ch 12

Crawling on all fours, I made my way to the bathroom. I turned on the water and began scooping inside me with my fingers. His cum dribbled down as I dug it out. It stung like hell, but I was used to the pain by now.

After spending some time leaning against the window, I finally left the room once night had fallen. There were several windows along the hallway. I reached for the lever of the window at the far end and pushed the glass open with my palm.

I craned my neck out to check the surroundings.

It was early morning, the dead of night. The streetlights were the only things illuminating the path to the golf course lobby. They cast a lonely orange glow amid the darkness.

“……”

I had to find another route to avoid being seen by anyone. The path to the back mountain was isolated, but the staff at the lodge could spot me.

…Like before.

I slipped my thumb between my teeth and bit down. I gnawed on it, as if I missed the taste of chewing on a cigarette filter. I longed for that sharp, smoky scent that filled both my mouth and throat.

As I was mentally picturing a cigarette, I spotted two employees in uniforms. They appeared, dragging a large blue trash bin on wheels together. It seemed they were on duty for the day.

Before long, they disappeared into the darkness.

The path was empty again. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to leave the window. I just stood there, staring down at that road for a long time, until the sensor light above me flickered off.

“……”

I turned and walked toward the elevator. I planned to stop by the convenience store, buy a pack of cigarettes, and clear my mind with nicotine.

The echo of my footsteps filled the empty hallway.

Soon, I heard another set of footsteps behind me. The two sets of steps created a dissonant rhythm.

Something felt off. Had I heard the sound of a door opening? No matter how hard I tried to recall, nothing came to mind.

I pressed the elevator call button. The footsteps were getting closer. The elevator arrived, and I quickly stepped inside and pressed the close button.

Just as the doors were about to seal shut, a hand shot through the gap. Startled, I stepped back.

The sensor detected the movement and reopened the doors. There stood a man I had never seen before. His hand was crushed in the door, yet despite the obvious pain, his expression remained unchanged as he stepped into the elevator. He stood about two steps away from me.

The elevator started descending to the lobby.

“……”

My eyes were naturally drawn to him. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He was a stranger, but his outfit looked familiar. Dressed in all black, his suit was enough to make anyone suspicious of his profession.

Ding. The elevator stopped at the lobby, cutting short my observation. I waited for the man to exit first. He hesitated for a moment, then stepped out.

Once he was out of sight, I silently followed toward the lobby. A biting darkness had settled outside. A long shadow stretched across the hallway leading to the exit. The shadow remained still, as if waiting for someone to come out.

But no one ever did.

What was that?

I quietly retreated up the stairs back to my room. Without turning on the lights, I approached the window. Pressing my eyes against the gap in the curtains, I looked down at the entrance. The dark figure was still there, standing in the same spot.

The man, who had been standing rigidly like a statue, took out his phone and held it to his ear. His stiff shoulders occasionally moved. He appeared to be talking to someone on the phone.

I was drawn to the phone on the nightstand. I picked up the receiver and slowly dialed a number. The line didn’t even ring before a woman’s voice came through.

– The person you are trying to reach is on another call. Please try again later…

I lowered the receiver. The man in the black suit had also finished his call, lowering his phone from his ear. Soon, the phone in my room rang. It was probably CEO Jang. The timing was so perfect, it was as if it had been orchestrated. Piece by piece, I began to put the puzzle together.

CEO Jang must have known everything that was happening with me. I had long felt like someone was watching me from somewhere. That unsettling feeling remained, even when no one around me seemed to be looking. I had dismissed it as paranoia, since I had no concrete proof.

But now I had seen it with my own eyes. That guy. He was CEO Jang’s eyes and ears.

Ring, ring.

The red light on the phone blinked before going dark. The man in the black suit checked his phone again. He lowered his head and read something on the glowing screen. Then he turned and walked back into the hotel.

I stepped away from the window and wandered aimlessly around the dark room.

This guy had followed me without making a sound, but now he had deliberately shown himself. Why?

There was only one reason: it was a warning. A strong message that said, “We’re watching you.”

Where had he been hiding before he appeared? I hadn’t heard the door open or close, so he hadn’t come from a hotel room. It must have been the emergency stairs. As soon as I left the room, he had followed me. Could it be that he was watching me 24/7?

I stopped dead in my tracks. Was that even possible?

…To escape both CEO Jang’s watchful eyes and the gaze of this guy. The more I thought about it, the more impossible it seemed to pull it off alone. I needed a plan.

The deeper I thought, the more my resolve started to crack. It felt like I was balancing on a sharp edge, barely holding on with one foot.

The sound of the desolate wind could be heard outside the window. The wind slowly shook the entire golf course. The trees, which surrounded the field like a fence, frantically shed their dark crimson leaves, and the grass, covering the vast area, appeared darker than usual. 

I lifted my gaze and stared beyond the mountain. Ashen clouds were pressing heavily on the mountain’s peak. It looked like it might rain again.

The pale face reflected in the window seemed lost in thought. As I sank deeper into the bottomless swamp of my thoughts, I clenched my fists tightly.

Yes, tomorrow…

***

There were still two or three hours left until the hotel started serving breakfast. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I peeled away the dry skin from my chapped lips while shaking my leg. 

The dawn light gradually brightened, and soon, warm sunlight spread over my thighs.

7 a.m. Finally, the moment I had been waiting for arrived. I immediately picked up the phone and called the front desk. After a few rings, an employee’s cheerful voice came through.

“Good morning. How may I assist you?”

“Please bring me Set A.”

“Certainly. And what would you like for your drink?”

“Just water will do.”

“Would you prefer porridge or soup to start your meal?”

I sighed softly and rubbed my forehead with my dry, rough palm.

“Anything’s fine. I’d like Ms. Lee Hyewon to serve it, please.”

“One moment, please. I’ll check on that for you.”

I heard the soft clink of the receiver being set down. Then the sound of typing followed. On days like this, when the weather was poor, schedules tended to be canceled one after another, so it was likely that Lee Hyewon had some free time as well.

Eventually, the staff member informed me that room service would arrive in about 20 minutes. I hung up and grabbed a pen from the hotel’s stationery set, sitting at the table.

I took out five 10,000-won bills and pressed the pen tip firmly onto the paper. I wrote down the sentences I had mentally prepared, reviewing them carefully as I did.

I considered leaving the bills on the table but remembered how CEO Jang, Kim Miran, and Park Jinkyung always took money out of their wallets. So, I retrieved my wallet. Despite the deep bite marks that had reduced its value, it was, after all, still a luxury brand.

As I waited for Lee Hyewon to arrive, I tapped the bills lightly with the end of the pen. Time dragged on, filled with restless anticipation.

A bit earlier than scheduled, I heard a knock on the door. I stood up quickly and opened it. Lee Hyewon, who had brought the food, greeted me with a bright smile.

“Hello.”

Her face was as cheerful as ever, without a trace of shadow. She asked, with a smile that seemed almost unnervingly bright.

“May I come in?”

I stepped back to make space for her to enter. She pushed the tray into the room, her eyes discreetly scanning the interior.

I glanced outside through the small gap in the doorway. At the end of the hallway leading to the elevator, near the emergency stairs, I noticed a shadow lingering in the same spot.

I closed the door and turned back into the room. With well-trained hands, she placed the dishes one by one on the table. I stood off to the side, silently watching her back.

After pouring a suitable amount of water into the wine glass, she bowed her head slightly in a formal gesture.

“Enjoy your meal.”

I looked down at the top of her head with emotionless eyes.

Though we now sat with some distance between us, we had once shared meals from a convenience store together. Triangular kimbap, dry bread preserved with chemicals, cheap cigarettes that, no matter how many packs we smoked, wouldn’t add up to the cost of one cigarette from Park Jinkyung’s stash.

We had spent time stuffing ourselves with such things, yet here we were. I bit my lower lip hard. My lips were dry again, and I felt an uncomfortable sensation with my tongue. I tried rubbing my lower lip with my tongue, but nothing came out of it.

It must have been all in my head. 

Just as she finished and reached for the tray handle, I called out to her.

“Excuse me.”

“…Yes?”

I fiddled with the wallet I had tightly grasped in my hand. As I rummaged through it, I suddenly felt her sticky gaze on the back of my hand. Pretending not to notice, I pulled something out and handed it to her.

“This is your tip.”

“Thank yo…”

A curious look passed over her face as she noticed something written on the bills.

“I have a favor to ask.”

She read the words silently, then looked at me, confusion in her eyes.

“…What is this?”

“I put five bills in there. Could you check if the amount is correct?”

She flipped through the bills. On the next bill, the following was written:

<Since there’s a camera in the room, please respond with your eyes only. This might be dangerous. You can refuse if you feel uncomfortable.>

She turned over another bill.

<But if you agree to help, I’ll compensate you.>

Her eyes lingered on the bills for a while, focusing on a specific part. It was the amount written there. Her small, pale hands finally moved to the last bill and read the message.

<Two days from now, at dawn. Please bring the car to the golf course for me.>

I let my hand fall to my side. The heavy watch clasped around my wrist clanked against the back of my hand. I often wore it to show off to CEO Jang, but it still felt foreign, as if it wasn’t mine. It had a weight I felt I would never get used to.

Her gaze briefly shifted to the source of the sound—the watch—before returning to my face.

“The amount is correct.”

Her eyes darted quickly, as if calculating whether this was worth it. Instead of giving a clear answer, she smiled and asked me a question with a white-cheeked grin.

“Is there anything else you need?”

Was there anything else? I carefully rolled the words around in my mouth, pausing to enunciate each syllable deliberately. Lee Hyewon, too, didn’t take my words lightly. She listened attentively, her cautious eyes fixed on me.

“I’d like to request room cleaning service.”

While every other guest in this hotel received cleaning services, my room had been largely untouched by the staff.

It was clear that CEO Jang had arranged things this way. I could roughly guess why. Now, I felt like I understood the man a little more, the man who had once seemed as elusive as mist. He saw me as his possession and didn’t want anyone else to touch what was his.

“What time would you like the service?”

“You’d be more comfortable if I weren’t here, so let’s schedule it for when I’m out. Perhaps two days from now, in the evening.”

“I’ll check the schedule and get back to you.”

With that, Lee Hyewon pushed the tray and left the room.

It didn’t take long to get a response. The next day, she knocked on the door.

“Room service.”

I had been chewing on a hangnail next to my thumb but sprang up from the sofa as soon as I heard her. I hurried to the door and pulled it open.

Lee Hyewon stood there with the tray tucked under her arm, waiting.

“Yes.”

I took the tray from Lee Hyewon.

“Then, have a pleasant time.”

I closed the door and quickly stepped back inside. As I lifted the plate of food off the tray, a note appeared underneath.

<The burden is heavier than expected. I think I should receive twice the amount as hazard pay.>

…Twice the amount? I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. I had already overextended myself. Twice the amount seemed far too high.

After hesitating for a long while, I eventually picked up the phone. The ringing tone echoed, and soon, the front desk staff’s voice came through the receiver.

– “Hello, how may I assist you?”

“I requested room cleaning service earlier.”

– “Yes, how can we assist with that?”

“Please proceed as requested.”

I hung up the phone. Then I crossed my arms in an X and lifted the hem of my T-shirt. I pulled off my pants and used them to cover the camera lens on the safe.

Standing in just my underwear, I approached the safe and input the code. I pulled out all the cash inside, wrapped it tightly in the bed sheets, and placed the bundle back into the safe.