HPK 15

Wooseung swallowed. There was no way he could feel the slippery sensation, but he felt that way for some reason. He forcibly pushed away the memory and sensation and slowly opened his mouth.

“Um, president. I’m truly sorry to interrupt your meal.”

Even to his words asking for understanding, what returned was silence. Wooseung desperately observed the other person. Taejung, with his elbows on the table and his chin resting on the back of his hand, slightly raised his eyebrows.

He clasped his hands together and continued speaking with a trembling voice. It was the third time he was repeating what he had said to Kim Jeong-oh and then to Hoonyeong, but he tried to speak as calmly as possible. Appealing to the compassion that Taejung may or may not have.

“…So what I’m saying is. Could I possibly see the CCTV footage? Then it will show whether I completed the time, it will, so…”

“……”

“Is that not possible?”

Taejung jabbed at the salad with his fork. While staring intently at Wooseung. He seemed to be lost in thought, and also like a child taking out his anger on the food because he did not want to eat it. Finally, his firmly closed lips parted.

“Yeah, no.”

Wooseung pressed his lower lip with his front teeth and then released it, continuing to speak. He had fully expected that Taejung would not grant permission easily.

“…I won’t look anywhere else, I’ll just look right in front of that room.”

“No.”

He brought the lettuce he had picked up with his fork to his mouth. Crunch, crunch, the sound of chewing lettuce echoed in the quiet room. Wooseung, who was staring at that nonchalant figure, asked without realizing it.

“…Why?”

The fork that was tossing the salad stopped. Taejung tilted his head and looked at Wooseung.

“Um, I’m only going to look in front of that room, so there’s no reason why I, why I can’t.”

Was it because of his desperation? His voice trembled miserably. It seemed like a sufficient reason to watch the CCTV, but he could not understand why it was not allowed.

It was not unheard of for clubs to play games with the table charges, but he had heard that it did not happen, at least not in a place of this scale. So Wooseung had thought that maybe Kim Jeong-oh had mistaken him for another entertainer. Which meant that everything would be resolved just by looking at the CCTV.

“……”

Despite Wooseung’s pleading gaze, the word of permission did not easily fall from Taejung’s lips.

Taejung stabbed a cherry tomato and brought it to his mouth. Then, with an expressionless face, he chewed a few times before putting down the fork as if throwing it.

“Hey.”

After wiping his mouth roughly with a napkin, he leaned back comfortably on the sofa. There was no particular emotion in his voice as he called for Wooseung.

“How much do you make an hour.”

“……”

“No, wait. How much do you think I make.”

Once, Hyojun had rambled on about the clubs the president owned. He would be earning an amount of money that was incomparable to his own. To the point where making a comparison in the first place would be ridiculous.

“To get that little bit of your paltry money, you want me to use my time to what, look at CCTV footage?”

“……”

“Hey. I’ll just give it to you.”

“……”

“That solves it, right? Right?”

Taejung said so and took out his wallet from his back pocket. The leather, plastered with the logos of luxury brands, gleamed disgustingly under the light.

But what made his eyes widen even more was…

So much cash that the wallet could not even close properly. And all of it was either checks or 50,000 won bills.

“You can have the change too.”

Taejung took out three 50,000 won bills and tossed them on the table. He could not even think of picking up the three unfolded bills and just stared at them blankly.

“If you don’t take it, I’m taking it back.”

Taejung said so and playfully pretended to take it back. Wooseung said, “Ah, no,” and hurried over, grabbing the bills as if snatching them. The feel of the bills in his hand was familiar, but at the same time, quite unfamiliar. He carefully opened his hand and looked down at the bills.

Three 50,000 won bills with Shin Saimdang drawn on them.

“……”

What is this… Saliva kept pooling under his tongue, and a sensation of his throat tightening completely came over him. His lower lip, which was numb from being chewed on so much, now stung at the slightest touch of his teeth.

He had not forcibly taken money he was not supposed to receive, so why was he feeling this way? It felt like injustice, and also like sorrow or anger.

His gaze went to Taejung’s wallet, which was still too thick to close properly even after 150,000 won was taken out. So starkly different from his own, which contained only a few faded receipts, a debit card, and an ID card…

The moment he recognized that difference, his eyes trembled slightly. A low voice flowed out from between his reddened, swollen lips.

“…President. You didn’t give me enough money.”

Taejung stopped putting away his wallet and looked at Wooseung.

“What I did yesterday… You didn’t pay me.”

Wooseung hung his head low and stared only at the 50,000 won bills clutched in both hands.

‘Hey, I even withdrew cash to buy you.’

As soon as he came to work yesterday, he had sucked his penis in Taejung’s car. Unlike the taunt that he had even withdrawn cash, Wooseung had not received a single penny.

“What you did then?”

“……”

“What?”

“……”

“Ah, what. I really don’t know.”

Taejung played dumb, acting shamelessly even though he knew everything. When Wooseung hesitated and did not answer, he smiled brightly.

“The time you sucked my dick?”

The smile hanging on the ends of his elegantly curved lips was playful. Seeing that sight, his clasped hands tensed involuntarily. The crisp bills began to crumple slightly from the corners.

“Alright. I’ll give it to you, I’ll give it to you.”

Taejung took out his wallet again and pulled out a wad of bills. This time, they were checks.

“One, two, three…”

Taejung, who was counting the bills one by one, stopped at five and then said, “Here,” tossing them onto the table just like before.

The first time he had sucked Taejung’s cock, he had received a total of ten checks. But the number of checks had been reduced from ten to five.

500,000 won. It was by no means a small amount of money, but it was different from what he had expected, so he was flustered. Taejung, who was joyfully appreciating Wooseung’s expression, continued speaking lightly.

“Even a car’s value drops by half the moment it starts rolling, so there’s no reason for you to get the same price as the first time.”

“……”

“You know about depreciation, right? I still gave you a lot because you’re domestic.”

Having sold his body, he had no excuse even if he had ten mouths, but…

His mouth, which was spouting nonsense about depreciation and being domestic right to a person’s face, was extremely detestable.

“Take it when I’m giving it to you, when I’m giving it to you.”

“……”

“Later on, you’ll be desperate even for this.”

Wooseung did not reply and approached the table, bending his waist. And then he slowly picked up the checks one by one.

650,000 won.

The money earned from working a day at the tuna factory was roughly 80,000 won. By calculation, it was an amount that could be earned only by working a full 8 hours a day for 8 days without a break. 650,000 won was the amount of money that required that much labor to earn.

Then why did he feel that this was insufficient and lacking? Why? For what reason?

“Ah, look at that face.”

At that moment, a voice mixed with laughter flew over. The laughter, which was clearly looking down on the other person, made his face flush in an instant.

“Ah…”

In the first place, 1 million won was a ridiculous amount. 500,000 won was more than enough, and,

If it had been compensation for the assault, as he had spun to the other entertainers, he would not have been this embarrassed. Wooseung contorted his face as if he was about to cry and bowed his head deeply.

“…I’m sorry.”

Taejung lightly swung his crossed legs and watched Wooseung’s face, which was changing from moment to moment.

For a guy who sells his body, he had a naive side. It had not even been a year since he came to Girin, but most guys would become addicted to the easily earned money within a month and would not shy away from doing anything. He remembered how much he had laughed seeing the factory work history that filled his resume. And what about that innocence that was fully contained in the resume? When you get to a certain age, being naive is a sin in itself.

“Then I’ll be going.”

Taejung spoke in a light tone to Wooseung, who was turning to leave after saying sorry once more.

“Yeah, keep up the good work. Sell your body hard.”

His shoulders flinched. Wooseung, who had repeatedly said sorry, this time kept his lips tightly shut and turned away without any reply.

Finding that sight so funny, Taejung could not hold it in and burst out laughing.