INFB Ch 11

When it came to money, the order of priority put his half-alive mother first, followed by Jeongho—the only relatively fine member of the family—and then Seobin himself, who had to worry about his immediate meals for the day. Borrowed money from Jaegyu was placed at the very end of that list.

It was shameless, but he couldn’t put anything else behind Jaegyu, either.

Could he bring his mother to the gosiwon where he currently lived, or could he tell Jeongho, who was still a minor, to starve? He had managed to scrape together that shabby 1.18 million won by cutting back on his own food expenses as much as possible.

Seobin, whose head had been hanging low, took a short, deep breath and looked up at Jaegyu.

“I’m… working. I’ll do more. I was going to take a leave of absence from school, but since half the semester has passed, they said tuition couldn’t be refunded. Still, if I get an additional early morning job, I can pay it back…, no, I’ll be able to give you more.”

His voice was quiet, but his pronunciation was clear. He didn’t look like he was mumbling to avoid the situation. Seobin felt extremely embarrassed and sorry about his current situation, but he had no intention of ignoring the mess he had created. He had to take responsibility for it somehow.

“During vacation, I can work more. Special lectures will open at the academy. I’ll do more tutoring, too. At that time, I’ll pay back everything I can’t pay right now, with extra. I’m really… sorry.”

Seobin bowed his head again in apology. His hair, which he hadn’t cared for in recent months and had let grow carelessly, cascaded forward softly.

“…”

Jaegyu watched Seobin closely. Then he narrowed his eyes slightly. Between the scattered strands of hair, Seobin’s fair nape was fully exposed. Because he had his head bowed, his neck bone protruded roundly like a piece of candy, and that was terribly…

Jaegyu’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down heavily. Stroking his eyebrow with his middle finger, he spat out an unexpected word.

“Hyung.”

“Pardon?”

Seobin asked back as if he had misheard. He even looked around. There seemed to be no one here for Jaegyu to call ‘hyung.’ It wasn’t because of age, but because of his position. There were a few large men in the CEO’s office, but by ‘rank,’ all of them were below Jaegyu.

While Seobin blinked in confusion, Jaegyu spoke again in a very gentle voice.

“I’m sorry, hyung.”

“…”

Seobin’s eyes blinked even faster than before. Only after several seconds had passed did he realize what Jaegyu’s intention was. “Ah…” Letting out a sigh, he licked his dry lips. Then,

“…I’m sorry, hyung.”

He repeated Jaegyu’s words. His voice, mixed with a heavy breathiness, was dry. It was low, and a slight tremor could be felt. At the feeling of that voice licking softly against his pinna, Jaegyu exhaled a hot breath—hoo—and crossed his legs in the opposite direction. His thick thighs tensed up, swelling even larger.

Jaegyu thought of something while touching the armrest of the sofa, then gestured with his eyes to the men standing around. Though there was no particular order, the men bowed their waists politely and left the CEO’s office with the sound of their leather shoes.

Soon, only the two of them, Seobin and Jaegyu, remained in the spacious area. The surroundings became quiet in an instant.

“…”

Seobin swallowed bitter saliva out of tension. His heart was wildly fluttering. Was he finally going to get beaten up? Well, since he couldn’t pay back the money, it was only natural that he should be punished.

Every time he walked here, he thought, I’ll get beaten up today, he’ll hit me today, and now that the premonition was touching his skin, his lower abdomen tingled with tension.

He wasn’t used to violence, but he was getting used to it nevertheless. Debt collectors pulled his hair, slapped his cheeks, hit his back, and so on.

But Jaegyu’s violence… felt like it wouldn’t be comparable to that. He occupied this place under the title of representative, but in truth, he had an appearance that suited a gangster or organized crime member much better. His atmosphere was like that. His many tattoos also contributed to that vibe.

If I get hit by someone like that…, he was thinking up to that point.

“Cha Seobin.”

Jaegyu called Seobin in his signature low voice.

“…Yes.”

Seobin answered a beat late. Utterly disheartened, he looked like a model student dragged into the teachers’ office over a single mistake.

Jaegyu stared intently at the side of Seobin’s face. Pale skin, cheeks that looked soft, lips swollen red from biting them incessantly, eyelashes hanging down mournfully, and brown eyes that peeked at his reactions every now and then while keeping his head lowered.

Whether he couldn’t sleep or couldn’t eat, his skin looked dry and rough, but because of that, he appeared even paler and whiter.

Jaegyu scraped the roof of his mouth with the tip of his tongue. His throat was bone-dry. However, he knew it was a thirst that couldn’t be quenched by water—by such a trivial liquid. It was a thirst that had been lingering for several years now.

Uncrossing his legs, Jaegyu rested his elbows on both of his thighs. Leaning his upper body deep toward Seobin, he flashed a pleasant, friendly smile and asked,

“Do you want to sell your body to me?”

At those words, Seobin slowly raised his head. Then he asked back as if he had heard wrong.

“…Pardon?”

“Sell your body.”

Jaegyu repeated the same words without any annoyance. Seobin blinked his eyes rapidly. The color of his face shifted by the second. After churning red and blue, it ultimately turned pale white.

“Uh… by body… do you mean… organs?”

Seobin touched his belly. A stomach so thin that it was beyond slender—so flat one might doubt if internal organs were properly fitted inside. His face, paralyzed with fear, was quite cute.

Jaegyu covered his eyes with his palm and chuckled softly. Then he said again in a kind voice,

“No. Your back hole.”

“…”

At the explicit word, Seobin gasped, holding his breath. Unconsciously, his buttocks tensed up, and his body rose slightly upward.

Back hole.

Regrettably, Seobin understood the word right away. In a chain reaction, he also understood what body he was being asked to sell.

If it were in the past—that is, back in his ‘young master’ days—he wouldn’t have understood. With an innocent face, he might have asked back in a clear, high-pitched voice, ‘What is a back hole? Do you mean a doghole? Are you telling me to dig the ground?’

However, the Seobin of today was rolling around in a muddy environment where he heard insults dozens of times a day.

In the early dawn, a construction site that was half-Korean and half-foreigner was like that,

A restaurant that grilled meat over charcoal fires every night was like that,

And the gosiwon where no exam students lived was also like that.

It meant that he had heard sexual harassment containing the word ‘back hole’ quite frequently.

“Uh…”

Seobin’s thin shoulders slumped. The hands resting on his thighs curled inward, and the soles of his feet, which had been placed neatly on the floor, pulled inward and went beneath the sofa. His back, with its slender lines, twitched intermittently.

It was a gesture full of rejection all over. His mouth didn’t speak of denial at all, but everything else was speaking of denial.

“…”

Jaegyu welcomed that sense of rejection and fear. He delightfully observed him, who had finally boarded the misfortune that he had painstakingly created for a long time—a misfortune made purely for Seobin.

“That is…”

Seobin couldn’t answer easily. Even when he opened his mouth to say something, he often closed it again. But wasn’t it strange? There was no anger on his face, where all sorts of emotions were bubbling up like foam. Even though Jaegyu was prepared to offer at least one cheek to be slapped.

Who the hell are you telling to sell their body?

Who would do such a thing with someone like you?

Disgusting.

Filthy.

A bastard who doesn’t even know his place.

How dare a cockroach-like thing…

Shouldn’t words like that come out?

Ah, maybe they couldn’t come out. Because Seobin wouldn’t be able to reject his offer. He had spoken precisely because he knew that as well.

“I’ll give you 1 million per night.”

Jaegyu threw his next offer while leaning his arm on the sofa handle. It was a kind of bait. Once Seobin took the bait, he planned to drag him in, cut open his belly, remove his internal organs, and eat them deliciously. The key point was whether Seobin took the bait or not.

He probably would. It was a situation where he had no choice but to bite, and it was a situation Jaegyu had engineered that way.

Sure enough. Seobin’s eyebrows shot up high.

“…1 million won?”

“Did you think it was 100 won then?”

“…”