NTH 56

Before Euntaek could finish his sentence, Yeoheun shot him a frosty glare.

“Who do you think you are?”

“What?”

“Who do you think you are to save me? And what am I to you? I am just a pickpocket who stole your things, a lowly commoner who failed in another attempt to drug you and steal from you, and ended up getting fucked from behind all night. Do you still say this knowing that?”

“I, I am just……”

“You want me to trust you? I told you. I do not trust anyone.”

“But I……!”

“Stop acting so spoiled, showing off that you grew up like a flower in a greenhouse, and go back to your hometown quietly. Go get married to a lady from a good family, have children, and live well.”

Having finished his words, Yeoheun kicked the door open and left.

 

Yes. He is right.

There is nothing wrong with what Yeoheun said from beginning to end.

Yet, what on earth is this feeling that I must somehow save Yeoheun, that I must feed him well, dress him warmly, and take care of him, and that I will only feel relieved after finding that basket seller and completely wringing the life out of him.

After parting with Yeoheun, Euntaek thought until his head felt like it would burst, but he could not find the cause or even a clue to a conclusion, and so he returned to his residence. In the meantime, he had Soesim fetch from the pharmacy a restorative medicine to replenish the energy of a thin and weak body, and an ointment to apply to the heat sores swollen from friction.

With not much time left to stay in Hanyang, Euntaek’s heart grew even more anxious. It felt like his chest would burst from frustration if he just continued to spend time idly.

When it became late afternoon, Euntaek rose from his seat and prepared to go out. The place he went to was Choi Chanmyeong’s house.

“Well now, Euntaek, my friend, I was just about to go see you myself.”

Chanmyeong said, smiling awkwardly as if slightly flustered.

“So, did you have a good time last night? Everyone was so envious when you took Suhyang out separately.”

“Chanmyeong. I will overlook everything else, so just tell me one thing.”

“Hm? What do you mean by that?”

“Where is the gisaeng house where Heukyeong goes to play the gayageum disguised as Suhyang?”

At Euntaek’s words, Chanmyeong’s face turned pale. He kept swallowing, his mouth dry, and replied.

“H-Heukyeong disguised as Suhyang, what on earth are you talking about……”

“Last night, I heard everything from Heukyeong.”

“Heukyeong, what do you mean by that.”

“Let us stop pretending and be honest with each other. There were no twin swords in the first place. I used you to draw out Heukyeong. So let us just say we have both done wrong once and forget about the past transgressions.”

“Th-that, that is, such……”

“There is only one thing I want to know. Just tell me where the gisaeng house where you first met Suhyang, where Heukyeong plays the gayageum, is.”

Chanmyeong, with a dazed face, told Euntaek the name and location of the gisaeng house. Euntaek immediately left Choi Chanmyeong’s house and went to find that gisaeng house.

When he met the headmistress of the gisaeng house separately and asked about Suhyang, she refused to answer with a cold face. Only after Euntaek gave her enough money to not feel slighted and repeatedly promised to keep everything strictly confidential did she finally open her mouth.

“There are days when he comes to work, and days when he does not. It is unpredictable.”

“Are there many customers looking for Suhyang?”

“It is so chaotic that it is tiring. There are even those who send their servants every day to see if Suhyang has come or not.”

“Tell me everything you know about the man who first brought Suhyang here.”

“That man is tall and has dark skin, with a snake tattoo on the back of his neck. His eyes also have a lot of white, so they are a bit scary. He has a cold aura, so just being near him gives me the shivers.”

“I see.”

“When Suhyang came and asked to be allowed to play the gayageum, I was so scared that I would be killed if I did not grant his request. So I decided to just give it a try, but his skill was better than the gisaengs who had worked for years, and he was so beautiful that it was hard to believe he was a man, so I ended up allowing it.”

“Has it ever been revealed to the customers that Suhyang is a man?”

“Never. If the customers get drunk and become rowdy, saying they want to hold Suhyang, the men who work at our gisaeng house drag them out.”

“Hmm. Then do you not know where Suhyang or that man with the snake tattoo lives?”

“I do not know that, but as it happens, today is the first day of the month, so it is the day Suhyang receives his wages. If Suhyang does not come, that man will at least come to collect the money.”

With the help of the headmistress, Euntaek hid in a place where he could get a good view of the entrance to the gisaeng house and waited for the man to appear.

When the sun had completely set and darkness fell, a tall man with two snake tattoos on the back of his neck walked alone and entered the gisaeng house. It was undoubtedly the basket seller who remained faintly in Euntaek’s memory.

When he came out of the gisaeng house again, Euntaek checked the dagger at his waist and secretly followed him. After leaving the marketplace for quite a while, he passed through a sparsely populated neighborhood and climbed a low mountain.

After a while, Euntaek arrived at a place so thickly wooded that he wondered if anyone could really live in such a place. He could see the vermilion light of an oil lamp leaking from a small, shabby, and squalid house. When the man with the snake tattoo opened the door and went into the room, Euntaek secretly peeked inside through a crack in the door.

Right there, was Yeoheun.

He was stark naked, with his wrists tied in front of him, standing facing the wall. His thin shoulders, smooth back, a small, round bottom below a slender waist, and straight, gaunt legs were visible.

Yeoheun was visibly trembling, whether from the cold or from shame. Euntaek clenched his fists, barely restraining himself from kicking the door open and rushing in right away.

“Do you like being like that?”

The man asked in a low, cold voice. Yeoheun was as still as a statue, without an answer or a movement.

“You have been punished, so now I will give you a reward. Stick your ass out.”

When Yeoheun did not move an inch, the man forcibly pushed down on Yeoheun’s upper body, forcing him into a position where he was kneeling with his ass raised. Something black was inserted into Yeoheun’s hole.

“Because if I do not fill you up with something here, your lewd self will not be satisfied.”

“Shut up……”

“Hurry up and tell me who the bastard was who fucked this asshole until it was swollen last night.”

“Shut up……, heut!”

The man repeatedly pulled out what was inserted in Yeoheun’s hole and then thrust it back in. It was a dildo made of ebony wood.

“I told you to pretend to be a gisaeng, who told you to actually offer up your ass?”

“Heut, it hurts! It hurts!”

“Thanks to you enjoying yourself to the fullest with another bastard, I have been lying down all night since last night. Do you know that?”

“What does that, have to do, with me, heuk……!”

“That is why you should not have been shooting your cum without my permission. Especially not all night long.”

“Heuk heuk……, please stop……, fuck, it hurts so much……”

“It hurts? If it hurts, why are you so hard. You are crazy about this kind of fucking, are you not?”

“Ah! Ah! Aheut……!”

The man threw Yeoheun’s body onto the floor as if to slam it down and took his member in his mouth. As he repeatedly inserted and removed the dildo from his hole and stimulated Yeoheun’s member by sucking it, after a moment, Yeoheun arched his back and his body stiffened.

But the man did not take his mouth off Yeoheun’s member and swallowed the fluid he ejaculated with gulps. Yeoheun’s chest heaved greatly as he sobbed his heart out.

The man stood up. He snatched the dildo out of Yeoheun and threw it away, then lowered his own trousers to insert his erect cock into Yeoheun. Unable to bear it any longer, Euntaek drew his dagger and threw the door open with a bang.

“Stop! Do not move!”

The man with the snake tattoo slowly turned his head. His three-white-eyes flashed as he gave a chilling smile.

“So it is you.”

Yeoheun’s eyes, who had spotted Euntaek, widened in shock. Euntaek, holding the dagger up, looked the man straight in the eyes and said with a firm expression.

“Get away from Yeoheun right now.”

The man, his gaze fixed on Euntaek, grabbed Yeoheun by the hair. He stuck out his long tongue and licked away the tears that were streaming down Yeoheun’s face. Seeing this, Euntaek clenched his fists. His chest felt like it would burst with anger and disgust.

“What are you doing! Can you not get away from him right now?”

The man with the three-white-eyes, not even pretending to have heard Euntaek’s words, whispered in a chilling voice into Yeoheun’s ear.

“What should I do? Should I pull that guy’s tongue out right in front of you? Or should I cut off the dirty cock that fucked your hole so happily last night?”

“Do not do it! It was all my fault, so just let that spoiled young master go!”

At Yeoheun’s plea, the man pulled his hair even more roughly.

“This is very suspicious. Did you two promise to become lovers in one night or something?”

“No! That guy is the child of a prestigious family, so if you kill him by mistake, it will be a big problem. You could really be executed for it.”

Euntaek, concerned that Yeoheun, who was caught in the man’s grip, might get hurt, could not get any closer and said, knitting his brow.

“I will not ask for my treasured sword that you had Yeoheun steal back, nor will I hold you responsible for robbing the belongings of noblemen until now.”

The man looked at Euntaek with a vile smile, as if he found it interesting. Euntaek took off the dopo he was wearing and draped it over Yeoheun’s stark white naked body before continuing.

“So just let me take Yeoheun with me.”

“Hmm. What are you going to do with him after you take him?”

“I plan to let him live as he wants, as a normal person, not as the pouch-snatcher Heukyeong.”

Hearing those words, Yeoheun shook off the man with the snake tattoo, stood up abruptly, and threw the dopo at Euntaek, shouting.

“Who asked you to do that? Why are you doing such a stupid thing that no one asked you to do! Get out of here right now!”

“Yeoheun. Do not be like that and come here.”

“Shut up! Do you think I have only seen one or two hypocrites like you? You pretend to be doing it for my sake on the outside, but you are full of thoughts of taking me away and fucking me! It is disgusting, so get lost already! Get lost!”

Yeoheun shouted at the top of his lungs, his eyes glaring like daggers. Euntaek put the dagger he was holding back into his waistband and picked up the dopo that had fallen to the floor. Euntaek strode over to Yeoheun and put the sleeves of the dopo on his bony arms.

“What is this doing……”

“Stay still.”

Euntaek, who had firmly tied the waist sash of the dopo, which was large enough to fit another of Yeoheun’s body, continued.

“Come with me. I can set you free.”

“I told you I do not need it! Get out right now!”

“I will help you in any way I can. Whether you farm or do business, it is much better than living by stealing……”

“No!!!”

Yeoheun, startled, shoved Euntaek to the side with a sharp push. A large club narrowly whizzed past Euntaek, who had lost his balance and fallen to the floor. Yeoheun quickly stood in front of Euntaek.

“Please, please just let him go, okay? I am begging you like this!”

“I cannot bear to watch this without tears. Move.”

“From now on, I will do whatever you say, so please, ah-aack!”

The man, without a shred of hesitation, kicked Yeoheun hard in the stomach. Yeoheun let out a scream of pain and was thrown into a corner of the room. Seeing this, Euntaek shot up from his seat. He put all his strength into his fist and struck the man’s cheek, then grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the floor.