PA 40

‘What a sight.’

His voice wouldn’t even come out. He looked at his own body reflected in the mirror, scanning it from top to bottom, and let out a bitter laugh. His entire body was covered in red bruises. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to do any public activities for a while.

In any case, after his mother—the one person Yejun thought he had to protect until the very end—died, he couldn’t muster up any motivation for anything.

Where did it all go wrong?

Yejun leaned his bare back against the cold wall. His legs gave out and his whole body slowly crumpled. He sat in the corner of the bathroom, unaware of the tears flowing endlessly, and stared into the distant, empty air for a long time. The thought that filled Yejun’s mind was the fact that he was a whore who sold his body.

Whore.

Like a hopelessly tangled skein of thread, he couldn’t see any way to start unraveling his life. He didn’t have the courage to coldly push away everyone who had violated him. Letting just anyone have his body was worse than death.

Just leave me alone.

Yejun’s chest filled with a heavy, suffocating emotion. He felt so frustrated it was like his insides would burst, but he couldn’t even scream.

If I disappear… then.

Everything would go back to how it was before, as if nothing had ever happened. Sanghyeon and Junhyuk would soon return to their daily lives as father and son. And the vulgar interest of those bastards who only coveted my body would turn elsewhere.

If only I disappear.

Yejun held his breath and began to sob.

I don’t have the strength to endure anymore either….

Last night, he remembered Junhyuk holding him from behind, fucking him like a beast. When Yejun’s thin body couldn’t withstand Junhyuk’s rough strength and was about to fall forward, Junhyuk gripped his iliac crest firmly. Every time Junhyuk’s cock plunged deep inside Yejun’s body, Yejun’s own penis, trembling and erect, would spurt out semen. Junhyuk had told him to remember that vulgar sight clearly.

A cheap body that reacts to a man’s cock.

Yejun picked up a bottle of shampoo and threw it violently at the mirror.

The mirror shattered with a clang and a crash. Yejun bent his knees and squatted down. Then he picked up a shard of the broken mirror. A wistful smile spread faintly across Yejun’s face. He began to fill the bathtub with hot water.

With a very peaceful expression, Yejun submerged his body in the water-filled bathtub. His unfocused pupils no longer shone. Yejun fixed his eyes on the mirror shard he was holding in his hand. Then, he dug the mirror shard deep into his right wrist and began to slice it forcefully.

Dark red blood burst from Yejun’s wrist and trickled down. He smiled faintly and plunged his wrist, blood streaming from it, into the hot water. Then, in a very comfortable posture, he leaned his bare back against the sloped wall of the tub and closed his eyes.

How much time had passed? Yejun felt his whole body float and his mood improved greatly. At the same time, a wave of sleepiness washed over him.

Thud.

☂︎

The container was too vast to be illuminated by a single light. Inside the container, the sound of something thudding against a wet cotton bundle echoed. The wet cotton bundle hanging in the air was a person, their entire body broken and crushed. Unaware that he had wet himself, Yeongsik prostrated himself on the ground, head down, and begged for forgiveness.

Just then, the container door opened and Junhyuk strode in. The fishy smell of the sea drifted into the container from outside the door. At that, everyone inside the container stopped what they were doing and bowed deeply to Junhyuk in greeting.

“You’ve arrived?”

Junhyuk quietly looked at the two men who had been beaten all night.

“I told you to leave them able to speak.”

“Please wait a moment.”

They turned on a few more small lights, and only then did Junhyuk notice he was standing in a pool of blood and took a step back.

“Please sit here.”

Junhyuk sat comfortably on the camping chair they brought for him. The rustling sound of the plastic sheet laid on the floor seemed particularly loud. A man carrying a dented aluminum bucket came and doused the two men hanging in the air with cold water.

“Ughh! J-Just kill me, please!”

“Aaaack!”

President Jo and Director Park, who had tried to rape Yejun, were in such a wretched state that it was hard to recognize their faces. They wailed, begging to be killed instead. Their voices, sounding like scraping metal as if their vocal cords were damaged, struck Junhyuk’s eardrums. Junhyuk narrowed his brows, looking displeased.

“Be quiet.”

A man from among the men dressed in black stepped forward and brought down a wooden beam, which had nails randomly hammered into it, onto their battered bodies.

“Ack!”

“Aaargh!”

Junhyuk watched them being beaten for a moment before getting up from his seat.

“Take care of it.”

The two men hanging in the air were dragged out like rags, and the only person left in the dark container was Yeongsik.

“P-Please spare me.”

Yeongsik prostrated himself at Junhyuk’s feet and began to beg.

“Were you the one who took Yejun to Cha Sanghyeon?”

“If I didn’t take him, I’d be a dead man. S-So just this once… ugh, ughheok!”

Junhyuk mercilessly crushed Yeongsik’s hand with the heel of his shoe. The bones were shattered, and crimson blood flowed from his hand. Yeongsik gritted his teeth and didn’t make a sound, worried he would get on Junhyuk’s bad side.

“The reason I’m letting you live is on the condition that you don’t show any sign of this to Yejun. Yejun will continue his entertainment activities naturally, just like before.”

“O-Of course.”

Just as Yeongsik let out a sigh of relief. The men standing around silently suddenly lifted him up.

“I’ll just make it so you can’t use your right leg. You’ll still be able to walk.”

“Ah, Ah! Please! Ack!”

After watching Yeongsik’s right ankle get completely twisted, Junhyuk slowly walked out of the container and headed towards a black sedan. Then, having changed into clean clothes and shoes, Junhyuk got into the black sedan.

☂︎

Click.

The sound of the door closing seemed unusually loud today. Junhyuk stood there for a moment without turning on any lights. The sound of the clock’s second hand moving rhythmically seemed louder than usual.

In the pitch-black darkness, the shapes of objects began to appear faintly. But the living room of the suite felt strangely cold. Junhyuk strode through the dark living room and went straight into the bedroom.

“Yejun.”

Junhyuk couldn’t sense any human presence in the frighteningly silent bedroom. He reached out his arm and pressed the light switch. The bright light turned on, and Junhyuk confirmed that there was no one on the wide bed. His brow furrowed.

It was then. He heard the sound of water droplets dripping inside the bathroom. Junhyuk, pressing down the ominous premonition that kept rearing its head, spoke cautiously from in front of the bathroom door.

“Yejun… are you in there?”

No sound came from inside the bathroom.

“Lee Yejun.”

Junhyuk raised his voice and called Yejun once more. But still, there was no reply, only an ominous feeling in the air.

“Lee Yejun.”

Unable to bear the continuing silence any longer, Junhyuk roughly opened the firmly closed door. At that moment, the sight of Yejun lying deathly pale in a bathtub full of crimson water entered Junhyuk’s vision.

“Yejun, Lee Yejun!”

His legs trembled as he felt his heart drop to the floor. Junhyuk immediately lifted Yejun, who was lying neatly, into his arms. For a second, the crimson water sloshed and overflowed out of the tub.

While running to the bedroom holding Yejun, Junhyuk couldn’t think at all. He hurriedly laid Yejun on the bed and urgently shook his thin shoulders. At the same time, he roughly tore a pillowcase and tied it tightly around Yejun’s wrist, from which crimson blood was flowing.

“Yejun, Yejun!”

Junhyuk began to wipe Yejun’s chillingly cold body with a towel. At the same time, he kept calling Yejun’s name. Junhyuk pulled a blanket over, wrapped Yejun’s body in it, and began to rub his whole body with his palms.

“Wake up, Lee Yejun!”

Junhyuk picked up his phone to call somewhere, but his trembling hands just wouldn’t obey him.

“Room service.”

Just then, room service arrived. Junhyuk roughly opened the bedroom door and shouted loudly.

“Call 911 to the underground parking lot, 911!”

“Yes? Ah, yes!”

Junhyuk emphasized calling the ambulance to the underground parking lot, where they could best avoid people’s eyes for the sake of the well-known Yejun.

“Th-This is the Taejin Hotel.”

After confirming that the hotel employee was making the call, Junhyuk ran back to Yejun. Junhyuk’s heart pounded as if it would break, and his hands trembled uncontrollably. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to stand still and take a deep breath.

“Get a grip.”

Junhyuk slapped his own cheeks with both hands. Only then did Junhyuk realize that tears were flowing down his cheeks.

“Yejun, wake up.”

Junhyuk kept talking to Yejun while dressing him. He didn’t wait for the paramedics to come up to the room. No, he couldn’t. Junhyuk lifted Yejun into his arms and urgently ran down to the underground parking lot.

“Where is it?”

“H-Here.”

As soon as Junhyuk came down to the basement, he asked the employee standing at the entrance. It was almost midnight, and the ambulance, having moved very quickly, had just arrived there. Hurriedly putting Yejun in the ambulance, Junhyuk gripped his hands tightly with both of his and squeezed his eyes shut.

Please, please….

☂︎

Sanghyeon was definitely changing mentally. However, today too, he only sent a single short text message.

[Mirae Hotel, Room 3201]

He was about to ask Yejun what he wanted to eat for dinner, but then he quietly placed the phone he was fiddling with down on his desk.

“Chairman.”

Sanghyeon, who had been staring at his phone for most of the afternoon, lifted his head and looked at Secretary Song without a word. He immediately understood Sanghyeon’s unspoken command to continue.

“There is an executive meeting scheduled for three o’clock regarding the Saeil Department Store Grand Festival.”

“Okay.”

Sanghyeon, who usually just nodded his head, even gave a verbal answer. Secretary Song observed Sanghyeon without being obvious. It seemed he was in a good mood.

“Chairman, did something good happen?”

“Me?”