HPK 42

“What’s this.”

Taejung flicked his finger against Wooseung’s brow, asking who he thought he was scowling at. Wooseung raised a hand and rubbed the stinging spot.

“What. It’s true that we had sex.”

Taejung said as he hit his own fist with the steamed white rice cake.

“Like this.”

The chewy sound of the dense rice cake striking his fist echoed widely across the stair landing. The raw sound naturally brought that day to mind.

The pain, like being punched in the stomach, the lips damp with saliva and tears. And…….

‘You’re something else.’

The sneering face, as if he found it pathetic when Wooseung, unable to bear the pain, tried to push him away.

After a few days, the pain in his lower body subsided, but the sorrow clinging to his solar plexus became a yoke that would not let him go. That was why, whenever he remembered that day, the area below his chest ached dully.

“If you’re not going to eat it, please give it to me.”

It was a rice cake he had received from the temple. He could not bear to watch him do such a foul thing to it any longer. He tried to take back the rice cake from Taejung’s hand, but he held on tight and would not let go. It created a ridiculous situation, as if they were in a sudden tug-of-war.

He was about to use both hands to grab the rice cake when Taejung suddenly thrust his face right in front of his. Startled, Wooseung squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head. He belatedly realized what a shameful act he had committed and opened his eyes, but it was already too late.

“Hey. You’re not…….”

Taejung narrowed his eyes mischievously.

“Feeling shy?”

After avoiding his gaze for only a moment, Wooseung looked straight at Taejung, dumbfounded. Shy? It was by no means that kind of emotion.

In his early days working at the main building, he had naively followed a customer and had relations. That too was not a respectable relationship as it was mediated by money, but at least he had not been forced into sex as if being trampled on. This was the first time he had been forced into such an act by a man.

That was why he had been so flustered when he encountered Taejung just now, and he could not bring himself to look at him at all throughout their conversation. This was not a feeling that could be dismissed as something cute, like shyness or embarrassment.

“Wow, fuck. You’re fucking hilarious.”

Taejung straightened his bent back and let out a laugh. He seemed to have firmly misunderstood that Wooseung was acting that way because he was shy. Regardless, Wooseung did not miss the fact that Taejung’s grip had loosened and quickly snatched the steamed white rice cake away.

“Ah, what the hell. No fun.”

Seeing him focus on snatching a mere rice cake instead of responding to his words, Taejung grumbled with a look of disappointment. Wooseung put both blocks of steamed white rice cake into the plastic bag.

“Why aren’t you wearing the watch?”

Taejung suddenly grabbed the hand that was closing the plastic bag. His wrist was pulled up to Taejung’s face and twisted back and forth. The aggressive movement made his shoulders flinch instinctively.

“……Ngh, that hurts.”

In that instant, Taejung’s eyes shifted diagonally downwards. The atmosphere changed in a flash. The mischievous playfulness vanished, and it felt as if even the density of the air settling on his shoulders had changed.

Wooseung, with an anxious gaze, glanced at Hoonyeong standing behind Taejung. His eyes happened to meet Hoonyeong’s, who was checking the time on his own watch. With a blank expression, he shrugged. It was a gesture with a clear meaning. He had no intention of helping, nor of stepping in to stop it. Hoonyeong was just standing behind them, spectating with a bored face.

“The watch…… I’ll return it to you. But the manager told me to be here by seven, ow!”

Wooseung cried out in the middle of his sentence.

“Ow, my ass. Are you a kid?”

“It, it hurts, Mr. President.”

“It hurts?”

“Yes. Hmph, it hurts.”

“How about this?”

“Ah!”

Taejung squeezed his wrist as if to break it. His lower lip trembled from the force of the grip, strong enough that it would not have been strange if his bones had crumbled right then and there.

“This also hu, rts.”

“Wow……”

Suddenly, he let out a sound of admiration, his lips stretching into a wide smile.

“I’m hard.”

He was so startled by the words that followed that he ended up looking straight at him. He had been busy avoiding his gaze the whole time, but in this moment, it was impossible. That was how shocking Taejung’s words were.

“I wasn’t turned on at all, so what is this?”

The laughter that seeped through his lips, pfft, pfft, was chilling. A wave of anxiety washed over him that that day might repeat itself exactly. Once was enough. No, even adding the word ‘enough’ was a luxury. It was something he never wanted to experience again.

“Mr. President, I have to work, the manager said there’s a reservation, so he told me to come right away~.”

The words he rambled on in his panic were incoherent. He tried shaking his wrist lightly to signal for him to let go, but Taejung was just smirking as he looked down at his own erection.

“Can you see it?”

“……”

“I asked if you can see it.”

He gestured to his erection with his chin.

“Yes, I can see it. But, Mr. President. I came because the manager contacted me.”

As he listened to the flustered string of words, his expression grew progressively harder. At some point, the smile had completely vanished from his face, but unaware of this, Wooseung was too busy saying his piece. He was acting out of a sense of crisis, but unfortunately, he was dealing with the wrong person.

“So I have to go right now—.”

“Hey.”

He cut Wooseung off coldly. Only then did Wooseung, realizing the shift in atmosphere, shut his mouth.

“Who said I’d sleep with you?”

Taejung took a large step closer.

“What, you think you’re some fucking great lay?”

He grabbed Wooseung’s jaw and yanked it sharply to the right, then the left. With the massive figure, nearly 190 cm tall, blocking his path, his breathing became labored, even though he was not actually suffocating. Wooseung tried hard not to be conscious of the shadow cast over him, but he lacked the ability to stop his eyelids from trembling pathetically.

“You’re just so-so.”

“That’s not what I, meant……”

“Fucking nobody, acting like you’re something special, huh?”

“Mr. President.”

Just then, from behind, Hoonyeong drew Taejung’s attention by saying that time was tight. He had been quiet when Taejung was teasing Wooseung mischievously, but now that the atmosphere had turned hostile, he stepped forward. It was because he sensed that things were about to escalate.

Taejung tilted his head to the side and considered. A moment later, he released his jaw. It had only been for a short while, but his lower face had already turned red. It was numb, as if he had held his mouth open for a long time at the dentist.

“This kid is getting more and more out of line……”

The words, muttered as if to himself, stabbed painfully into Wooseung’s ears.

Taejung withdrew the deep shadow he cast and descended the stairs. He did not seem to be aware of it himself, but every single step was extremely agitated.

“……”

Wooseung remained motionless in that position for a while. He did not even come to his senses until Kim Jungoh, who had spotted him, shouted at him furiously.

The two blocks of steamed white rice cake in the plastic bag squeezed painfully around his wrist.

♡

Thwack, the ledger hit the screen of the karaoke machine and fell to the floor. Hoonyeong’s gaze went to the karaoke machine once, then to Taejung once.

“I mean, fuck. He came too, didn’t he?”

Even though he had been showing signs of not being able to concentrate, restlessly shaking his leg, Hoonyeong had ignored him because he could hear the sound of pages turning. But in the end, he had thrown the ledger. Hoonyeong expertly moved the can sitting in front of Taejung to the back.

“Did I take it for free?”

“……”

“Fuck, huh? I gave him a watch too.”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it was, and Taejung kicked the table. It was damaging enough to his pride that he had come the moment he put it in, but it was infuriating that it seemed like he was the only one who was horny and making a fuss.

“A watch?”

At the mention of giving a watch, Hoonyeong showed interest for the first time. His narrow eyes moved to Taejung’s wrist. The two-tone metal watch, a combination of rose gold and white gold, went well with his copper-toned skin.

Taejung, who was impulsive and whimsical, changed not only his cars but also his watches every single day. That was why he had not thought much of the change in his watch.

“You didn’t give him money.”

“He said he didn’t want it.”

Hoonyeong’s brow furrowed slightly. Recently, he had been running into Wooseung frequently, though not by choice. They were brief encounters, but he could not quite picture him, with his dazed face, asking for a watch instead of money. On top of that, just a moment ago, Wooseung had said he would return the watch.

“Ah, shit, it’s so fucking humiliating.”

“Well, that’s just how prostitution is.”

Taejung folded his legs, put them on the sofa, and rested his arms on his knees. A moment later, an unpleasant sound, crunch, crunch, echoed.

“What.”

When Hoonyeong openly scowled, Taejung just twitched his eyebrow as if to say, what are you going to do about it.

After chewing on his thumbnail for a good while, Taejung eventually flopped down on the sofa. He clasped his hands and placed them under his head. He was lost in thought for a moment. When you got down to it, whether that kid was in pain or not, whether he came or not, had absolutely nothing to do with him.

So why does it hurt my pride so much?

I was in a good mood when he couldn’t even make eye contact and was acting all dazed.

“That kid thinks he’s so fucking nice.”

Hoonyeong, who had been twirling a pen between his fingers, replied indifferently.

“For someone in this line of work, he’s on the gentler side.”

“I’m telling you, it’s all an act.”

Taejung dangled his crossed legs in the air and stared blankly at the ceiling. As he continued to look at the soft light, his vision began to blur hazily.

“It’s an act, an act.”

Taejung, who had been muttering to himself, suddenly shot up. He pushed aside the ledger that Hoonyeong had picked up and brought his phone in front of him.

“When on earth are you going to look at it?”

“I’ll look, I’ll look.”

“Just look at it now instead of hassling Jungoh later.”

“Ah, I said I’ll look.”

Ignoring Hoonyeong’s doubtful expression, Taejung scrolled through his contacts and quickly found the name he was looking for.

[Yoon Wooseung]

Recalling the dazed face that had called him and told him this was his number, the corner of his mouth tilted crookedly.

“Then I’ll send the methamphetamine directly to Department Head Han’s side.”

“Ah, right. Book more reservations for Chief Park’s guys. We need to drain their energy from the start.”

“Yes, I’ll let Moonsu know.”

He was just about to press the call button. The iPad propped up on one side of the table suddenly caught his eye. A familiar figure was caught on the CCTV showing the hallway. The atmosphere was unusual, as if some sort of scuffle was taking place.

Taejung stared straight at the iPad and pressed the call button.