HPK 78

“……I really need to watch my mouth.”

Seohyun smiled awkwardly at Taejung. She had gotten drunk and made a mistake she shouldn’t have. And against Taejung, of all people.

“It’s because I had a drink. I’m really sorry, Mr. Taejung.”

It was an attempt to use alcohol as an excuse to hopefully evade some of his anger. She also corrected the nickname she had been using playfully, “President Eom.” However, Taejung’s gaze did not soften in the slightest.

“……”

Not a single person opened their mouth. As time passed, an uncomfortable silence settled thick and heavy at their feet like fog. In the suffocating silence, just as everyone was looking down.

“Did you two sleep together?”

Taejung finally spoke.

But who would dare answer that question? It was a foolish act that only an idiot who would willingly jump into a pit of fire wuld do.

“I asked if you two slept together.”

At the voice that sounded as if it had been thoroughly chewed and torn, everyone just looked around awkwardly. In the end, Seohyun, who had caused this mess, stepped up to take the fall.

“……That was when he was at the main building. It was one time, just one time. I was so drunk I don’t even remember. Isn’t that right, Wooseung-ah?”

Seohyun repeatedly swept her hair behind her ear. Her fingertips were numb with nervousness, making it impossible to keep them still.

“Hah……”

At the incredulous-sounding sigh, Wooseung’s shoulders flinched. The situation wasn’t much different for the others. Everyone was just watching Taejung’s expression.

“You two slept together……”

Taejung ducked his head low and roughly rubbed his lower face as if washing it dry. Perhaps because of the surging anger, his jaw began to ache with a dull throb.

Suddenly, the hands resting politely on his thighs came into view. The same hands that had scurried after him before he left the house and had surreptitiously grabbed the hem of his clothes.

‘It’s my first time.’

The words he had drawled out with his characteristically dazed face echoed in his ears once again.

In that moment, an unbearable rage surged up.

“This, fuck……”

A large hand, with vicious veins popping, violently grabbed Wooseung’s hair.

“Oh my, what’s wrong, President Eom!”

“Ah!”

As he was bent backward just like that, Wooseung let out a pathetic scream.

“Hey, you told me I was your first.”

A low voice, devoid of any emotion other than fury, bore down on him.

“Mr. Taejung, stop, stop it!”

Seohyun, who had been shifting on her seat, shot up and came towards them. Taejung paid her no mind and glared only at Wooseung. A voice filled with rage poured down on Wooseung like arrows of fire.

“You scammed me with your own mouth, saying you were a virgin. You, you fucking bastard.”

“Ah! I never said that, I didn’t!”

“You didn’t, hah, fuck, really……”

Taejung experienced a hallucination, as if his vision was being dyed completely red. He bewitched a person by saying it was his first time, and now he’s saying he never did such a thing? A throbbing sensation that traveled up his spine exploded below his ear. His head rang as if the ground were shaking.

“Mr. Taejung, I know you’re angry, but this isn’t right! Where on him is there a place to hit……!”

“Hey, you, get over here.”

Taejung shook off Seohyun, who was grabbing his hand to stop him, and pulled Wooseung to his feet. As he strode forward, Wooseung was dragged along like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Heut……!”

The pain was one thing, but the fear of what might happen if he was dragged away like this was greater.

‘Keueo, heu…….’

A strange gasping sound, struggling to escape a constricted throat, could be heard from somewhere.

‘Ah, fuck. Blood.’

And Taejung, who had nonchalantly poured liquor on his hands to wash them.

Wooseung recalled the man who had been mercilessly beaten by Taejung that day. There was no rule that said he couldn’t become that man.

“I meant, with a man, that a man was my first……!”

Wooseung grabbed Taejung’s wrist, which was holding his hair, and shouted urgently. Honestly, he felt wronged. He didn’t understand why he had to suffer the consequences when Taejung was the one who had misunderstood on his own.

“What?”

“I didn’t lie……!”

“Wow, fuck……”

Taejung let out a hollow laugh, as if in disbelief. He didn’t seem to be able to control his own emotions. His chest heaved rapidly, and his breathing grew rougher.

“Hah, a man was your first?”

“Heut……”

“Are you playing with words right now?”

Just then, as his eyelids trembled with rage, the karaoke machine with its screen turned off came into Taejung’s view. Without hesitation, he swung Wooseung as if to smash his face into it.

“Mr. Taejung! Ack!”

Seohyun screamed at the impending, horrific disaster. Yoonjung, in Chanil’s arms, completely blocked her vision, and Chanil urgently pulled Yoonjung’s shoulders closer. But no matter how long they waited, the brutal sound of something being crushed never came.

“Fuck!”

What they heard instead was Taejung’s curse, chewed up and ragged.

“Fucking piece of shit, bitch!”

He pressed his interlocked hands against his own head and breathed harshly. Seized by an uncontrollable rage, he was practically panting. The agitated Taejung was reflected on the black, dead screen of the karaoke machine. His tensed jaw was rigid, and the muscles that filled his back bulged and deflated repeatedly.

“Fuck, you said it was your first!”

“……”

“You said I was your first!”

He roared like a thunderbolt at Wooseung, who had collapsed onto the floor, with eyes full of burst blood vessels.

“You definitely said with your own mouth that I was your first. You’re the one who told the fucking lie first!”

Wooseung, who had squeezed his eyes shut, thinking his face was about to be smashed into the karaoke machine, still couldn’t come to his senses. He could only sit collapsed on the floor, helplessly staring at Taejung, who was raging at him like a demon.

His entire body trembled as if he had been thrown naked into a very cold place. When the black screen was right in front of his nose, he thought his forehead was going to split open right then and there. If Taejung hadn’t released the strength from his hand just before, Wooseung would now be bleeding profusely, just like that customer that day. While making ghastly breathing sounds as if his throat were being choked.

“Does this fucking dog think he can play with people?”

Taejung could not seem to calm his agitation. He had completely lost it over the simple, insignificant fact that he wasn’t Wooseung’s first.

It wasn’t even a relationship that had started as a sponsorship from the beginning. Most of it had been through Taejung’s coercion, and only later, when ‘money’ came between them, did it take a form similar to a sponsorship. If he had insisted from the start that he wouldn’t do it if he wasn’t the first, he wouldn’t feel so wronged now. To think he misunderstood and liked him all on his own…….

“……”

Wooseung’s fingers, which were pressed against the floor, gradually curled inward. The moment his short-trimmed nails scratched the floor with a scrape, Wooseung’s mouth opened.

“……You’re the one who misunderstood on your own, President.”

The movements of Taejung, who had been covering his mouth with both hands and breathing harshly, came to a dead stop. Presently, his eyes slowly moved, shifting downwards. They were eyes tinged with a gloomy color, like a blackened sea at night.

“……Misunderstood?”

The aura flowing from his entire body was extraordinary, and it was frightening. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug right into his palms. The stinging pain slowly brought him back to his senses.

“Why, why are you blaming me? I just answered, answered what you asked me, that’s all.”

“You bastard, you’re the one who lied.”

“I just didn’t say it, it wasn’t a lie.”

Even as his jaw trembled, he tried to retort clearly. His wide-open eyes were already glistening with tears. Getting his hair pulled in front of people and his face almost smashed into a karaoke machine. His reason had long been devoured by fear, and in its place sat something that was either courage or recklessness.

“Mr. Taejung. Ye, yeah. There must have been a misunderstanding.”

Seohyun carefully added a word, but it was not enough to quell the commotion. Taejung still glared at Wooseung with bloodshot eyes, panting roughly.

Yoonjung, deciding that this wouldn’t do, gestured with her eyes for Chanil to go get Chief Choi. Chanil, who slipped out of the room like a rat, immediately called for Chief Choi through Mr. Kim Jungoh.

“……”

He flinched at the disastrous scene inside the room. But he soon expertly controlled his expression and gestured for Seohyun and Yoonjung to come out.

“Haah, let’s go out for now.”

They carefully took a step, cautiously watching Taejung’s expression.

“Um… Mr. Taejung, don’t be too hard on him.”

“Unnie, unnie, stop it. Let’s go.”

Seeing Seohyun about to add another thoughtless comment, Yoonjung grabbed her arm and pulled. Only after everyone, including Yoonjung, had left the room did Mr. Choi also step outside.

“Director-nim……!”

Wooseung stared intently at Mr. Choi through the closing door, but he closed the door coldly with an expressionless face. As he rubbed his temples as if his head ached, that action held not a shred of concern for Wooseung.

“How many people have you slept with.”

Before he even had a chance to resent Mr. Choi for leaving him behind, a murderous voice flew at him.

“What, you don’t do second rounds? Hah……. This fucking bastard.”

Taejung rubbed the back of his neck and hung his head low. Rough breaths followed, then he craned his neck toward the ceiling. For a moment, his face, bathed in the light, became devoid of expression, making it difficult to read any emotion, but his chest was still heaving greatly. His agitation showed no sign of subsiding.

“How many people have you slept with.”

“……”

“Speak.”

“If it was that important, you should have, should have asked from the beginning.”

“How many people have you slept with, you bastard.”

He casually ignored Wooseung’s words, repeating the same question like a doll with a recorded line.

“……”

Wooseung clasped his trembling hands together and brought them to his chest. His heart was beating so fast and hard, thump, thump, it felt like his chest was going to break. His whole body was still not just trembling, but even felt numb. And yet…….

He didn’t want to answer meekly.

“……Then how many people have you slept with, President.”

He looked straight into the eyes with the burst blood vessels.