MORE 7

One mountain after another—no sooner had he escaped the wild boar than he faced the tiger. However, that was not the problem Siyul was currently facing. The bile that had been rising and churning in his stomach since he was caught by the pig had now passed his esophagus and was tickling the tip of his tongue.

If I vomit here, it’s not violence, it’s death, he thought, trying to swallow it down by force, but the bile kept coming up endlessly. It was because the moment the tension broke, the muscles that had been tightly gripping his internal organs also loosened.

He tried puffing out his cheeks to hold it back, but he reached his limit. The alcohol he had relentlessly poured down to appease the pig surged back like a tidal wave. The sloshing bile hammered against his throat.

“You really need to learn to be a little afraid of the world…”

Siyul covered his mouth with his hand and showed his palm to the man as a signal to wait a moment. While the man paused, Siyul leaned forward, bracing his hands on the floor. He couldn’t swallow it anymore. With a thick, wretched sound, he vomited the contents he had been holding back, spilling them all over the man’s polished dress shoes.

Siyul gasped, jerking his upper body upright. His eyes were so swollen that he couldn’t see well. He forced his eyelids, which were stuck together top-and-bottom like salted pollack roe, to open, and looked around for his phone. He was sure he had been holding it, but after waking up, it had rolled off somewhere. He crawled over in a hurry and grabbed it.

There were no missed calls.

He turned on the screen and entered the chat room. In the chat window—which he had saved as ‘Yuwoni’ (Kwon Yuwon had corrected it himself)—only the texts Siyul had sent were packed tight: Where are you right now? Why aren’t you picking up? Are you okay? Nothing happened to you, right? I’m worried to death, so please call me.

Despite the desperate barrage of texts, the other party remained silent. Just in case, he tried calling, but he only got the cheerful notification that the customer’s phone was powered off.

Siyul let his arms hang limp. Even on his way back last night, and even after arriving at the inn, he had called and texted like a madman, but there was no word from the other side. He grew anxious, wondering if something had gone wrong, and even put his shoes on to go back, but he stopped, unable to bring himself to step out the door.

‘Instead, promise me one thing. If anything happens, you run without looking back. Don’t think about me.’

Before they went in, Kwon Yuwon had insisted on this, telling Siyul that if anything happened to him, he would also be running off to hide somewhere, so Siyul shouldn’t feel any pangs of conscience.

It was doubtful whether Kwon Yuwon would actually do that, but he felt that staying holed up in the room would be more helpful to Kwon Yuwon than pointlessly rummaging around looking for him, only to have the bad luck of running into the pig again, getting taken hostage, or suffering through another ordeal.

He’ll come if I just wait. Yuwon is smarter and craftier than me, so he’ll surely dodge that bunch of pigs like a squirrel and come back. Thinking this, Siyul gripped his phone. He had resolved not to sleep until Kwon Yuwon returned, but his body, exhausted from the alcohol and the various other incidents, couldn’t hold out.

And now, Siyul sat crouched in the corner, fiddling with his phone. Even if he filed a missing person report with the police, a full day had to pass. Moreover, even if one filed a report for an adult, it often ended as a simple runaway case. Since his own line of work was what it was, he felt uneasy relying on law enforcement, like a thief having a guilty conscience.

“Ha… I’m going crazy.”

There was exactly one person Siyul knew who held clues as to where Kwon Yuwon had disappeared. He had even received the man’s number directly from him last night.

Last night, Siyul had vomited heavily over the man’s shoes and feet. It was mostly thin fluid, but the filthy vomit had splattered all over the man’s sharp, tailored pant cuffs. Siyul wanted to stop halfway, but his stomach was so upset that he clung to the man’s shins like a telephone pole and poured it all out, as if trying to pull out his very entrails.

‘Hah…’

Surprisingly, the man didn’t kick Siyul. He only sighed, as if dumbfounded, while looking down at the top of Siyul’s head. It wasn’t a curse or violence, but that sigh was more terrifying than a fist.

I’m really going to die now. Even if I beg for my life, it won’t work. The worst-case scenario is a drum can, the best is being buried alive, Siyul sobbed inwardly. Still, harboring a shred of hope that the man wasn’t a ruthless murderer, he knelt, barely supporting a body that wanted to collapse backward.

‘Sorry…’ 

‘Are you done?’

The apology hovered in his mouth before vanishing. Startled by the sudden break in the flow, Siyul gulped down sour saliva and looked up.

‘Yes?’ 

‘I asked if you were done vomiting.’

The man had asked that after quietly watching Siyul retch. When Siyul, still dazed, nodded his head, the man took a handkerchief from his pocket and roughly wiped off his own pant cuffs and shoes. After leaving Siyul, who was still kneeling, behind him, he threw the handkerchief away and meticulously cleaned his own dirtied hands.

Siyul had thought the man would beat him to a pulp and then drag him out as a corpse. In the face of this unexpected turn of events, Siyul just sat there, wiggling his sore toes.

‘Your phone.’

The returning man held out his hand. When Siyul handed it over with trembling hands, the man asked for the pattern. It’s a big letter ‘N’, Siyul replied, tracing the air with his finger. Believing that was the only way to survive.

The man tapped the unlocked phone screen a few times, checked his own phone, and then returned it to Siyul.

‘Pick up immediately if I contact you.’ 

‘Yes?’ 

‘You need to pay for the dry cleaning.’

Siyul just stared with his mouth agape. He couldn’t fathom the man’s intentions. Hadn’t he just kicked the pig out and folded up his sleeves as if he were about to hit Siyul? Did he actually feel sorry for him after watching him vomit?

It was impossible to believe that a man whose veins seemed to carry cold razor blades instead of warm blood would spare his life just like that. Dazed, Siyul finally regained his senses and prostrated himself on the floor.

‘Thank you, thank you!’

Whatever change of heart he had, the man didn’t hit or kill Siyul. Siyul’s booming shouts hit the bathroom walls and echoed back. The man frowned as if his eardrums were stinging, then waved his hand and turned away. As he walked away with heavy footsteps, he stopped at the door, as if he had suddenly remembered something.

‘Do you know my name?’

The man asked, looking back. How could he? They weren’t on a first-name basis. Siyul shook his head ‘no’. And if possible, he wanted to live their lives without ever knowing each other.

‘Woo Hyunse. Pick up when I call.’

But the man had left, giving his name in the end. With the three syllables of ‘Woo Hyunse’ as the conclusion, Siyul snapped out of his memory. Returning to reality, he looked at his phone. Kwon Yuwon, who had contacted him like his hair was on fire as soon as he left the bar, was still completely silent. He was seriously considering calling the man and asking him.

He rested his elbows on his folded knees and buried his face between his arms. As he tried to calm his wavering mind while clutching his phone with both hands, the door suddenly burst open. Since he had been deep in thought and hadn’t sensed any presence, Siyul jumped into the air. He was so startled that a thick curse, “Fuck!”, flew out of his mouth automatically.

“Kwon Siyul!”

It was Kwon Yuwon. He must have wandered around all night, because he looked like a total mess. As soon as he saw Siyul, he kicked off his shoes, came stomping in, and hugged him tight. His rough, panting breath hit Siyul’s neck. He thought he heard a small sobbing sound, too.

“You… You! Where were you!”

He shouted loudly, but Kwon Yuwon just stared wide-eyed, grabbed Siyul’s face with both hands, and scanned him thoroughly to see if there were any injuries. Seeing that his eyes and face had swollen like full moons, he hugged him tightly once more. When Siyul tapped his back while choking, he finally let go.

“You’re the one who should be saying that! Where were you!”

“Why didn’t you come back last night!”

The two shouted noisily at the same time. Kwon Yuwon, as if he felt so wronged by something, grabbed Siyul by the shoulders and shook him vigorously. He shook Siyul’s head back and forth until it was dizzying, and only let go when he saw how pale Siyul’s face had turned.

“Answer me first. Why didn’t you come back to the room yesterday? Did you meet that pig bastard in the bathroom? Did that bastard do anything to you?”

His glaring eyes were fierce enough to kill. Siyul gulped. If he revealed what he had gone through last night, Kwon Yuwon might run out right then, declaring he was going to slit that pig’s throat. Since he couldn’t turn his friend into a murderer, Siyul quickly pushed the corners of his mouth upward and shook his head vigorously.

“No. I didn’t see him. I just drank so much alcohol that I couldn’t go back because I was vomiting. By the time I went up, you were already…”

“Is that true? You aren’t lying to me, are you?”

Kwon Yuwon stared at Siyul with eyes full of suspicion. Since they had spent more than a day or two together, all of Siyul’s sloppy lies usually showed. But those years had also thickened Siyul’s skin.

“Why would I lie to you? But what about you? There was no one there when I went up, what happened? Did you leave me behind?”

When Siyul turned the tables, Kwon Yuwon got upset and bit his lip. He shouted, asking how that could possibly be true. It was a shout so loud that a complaint came from the room next door: “Keep it down so we can sleep!”

Only after hearing the annoyance from next door did the two settle down and sit. Saying since you’ve returned safely, that’s all that matters, Siyul first took out bottled water from the refrigerator and handed it to Kwon Yuwon. Perhaps because he was extremely thirsty, Kwon Yuwon popped the cap off roughly and gulped it down. He drank more than half in one go and wiped his mouth.

“I tried to go look for you because you weren’t coming back last night.”

After catching his breath, Kwon Yuwon leaned his back against the wall and quietly reflected on last night. Siyul, who was sitting right next to him, nodded and listened.

Because he hated the disgusting interest the pig was showing in Siyul, and while he was looking for a way to slip away, Siyul had left his seat, saying he was going to the bathroom. The pig had also left, pretending to drink, saying he needed to relieve himself as well.

Though a bad feeling had suddenly struck him, causing him to jump up, the pig’s associates had grabbed Kwon Yuwon’s arms and forced him back into his seat.