Vol 6 Ch 11

I don’t know in what state of mind I finished the meal and returned to the room. Perhaps because I drank more beer than food, my feet staggered as I changed into indoor slippers. I placed my hand on the hallway mirror and then removed it, leaving a mark on the previously flawless surface. Kwon Taeha, having changed into black slippers, loosened his perfectly straight tie down to his chest and headed towards the bedroom.

The herringbone pattern of the carpet dizzyed my eyes. The closely arranged V-shaped pattern of the carpet felt particularly fatiguing today. Intending to rest for a moment before going in, I sat on the floor. I scratched the densely woven V’s with my fingernail. It’s called herringbone because it resembles the backbone of a herring. I wondered how many herring backbones went into this carpet. It wasn’t made with actual herring, but I wanted to do the simple task of counting numbers. There were over 30 V-shaped ‘bones’ in just one segment of my index finger. Perhaps because it was woven so tightly, standing up made the pattern seem non-existent. But in reality, it was this dense.

“What are you doing?”

Kwon Taeha, who had already changed into a new suit as if planning to go out again, tilted his head.

“……”

“Is this a new form of protest?”

“It’s not that…”

I stopped the scratching motion and got up from the spot. He caught my staggering body. His solid arm wrapped around my waist, and in my tipsy state, I almost leaned my face against his shoulder. I pushed his chest with one hand. He didn’t easily let go.

“Try trusting me a little.”

It felt like he read my mind. His hand slipped under my shirt, and his fingertips rubbing my chest stopped near my heart.

“CEO… can you trust me?”

“You showed me all your inner thoughts, didn’t you?”

“……”

“I’ve rarely shouted or gotten angry in my life. Thinking about it, most of those rare instances involve you.”

WikiLeaks, the conditions I set—now there was nothing left. To Kwon Taeha, I was penniless.

“Is it because I have nothing left to deceive you with that you’re acting like this? You can speak so freely because I have nothing left.”

He let go of the arm encircling me.

“Is that your sincere thought?”

The words ‘Actually, no’ hovered on my lips, but I couldn’t easily shake my head either. I grabbed his sleeve as he tried to leave me behind. I really caught it with difficulty. I looked only at the floor, and he remained motionless for a while.

“CEO, aren’t you… resentful of me?”

A small sigh, as if resigned, escaped him. “Joo Hawon.” He embraced me, lowering his lips to the nape of my neck.

“…Should I not go?”

My eyes widened as I looked up at him. His expression was nonchalant and calm.

Kwon Taeha pressed the call button on his phone. While conversing in German, I only understood the word ‘Zeitplan’ (schedule). It seemed like he was saying to finish his schedule, so I belatedly released my grip on his sleeve. Suddenly feeling ashamed of my impulsive action, I tried to head to the bathroom, but Kwon Taeha turned me back around.

What rose in his cool-toned pupils was unmistakable desire, and within it was a power that could make one succumb to pleasure, even if branded with a scarlet letter. I lacked the demureness to mimic an abstinent Puritan in the face of sex, which could dominate the dominator.

Our discarded clothes trailed all the way to the bedroom like animals shedding skin. I lay naked on the bed, watching him remove his watch. Kwon Taeha climbed on top of me, nibbling my earlobe. A hand slipped between my buttocks and immediately began rubbing my perineum slowly. A slick sound seeped from below.

Looking at Kwon Taeha, I hallucinated heat rising from muscles more tightly woven than the carpet. Kwon Taeha, highly aroused, seemed to be losing his self-control with me beneath him. I raised my legs, wrapping my hands around my thighs.

I waited for him to enter in a half-folded position. The blunt glans rubbed against my hole. The way it pressed and released the entrance, almost entering but not, made it impossible to release my tension.

“Ah!”

He finally entered. Even though only the tip was in, it felt like my bottom was splitting in half. At the sound of Kwon Taeha’s deep breath, heat rose in my body. His fingers pried open my hot mouth, and I sloppily coated the shaft that hadn’t fully entered yet with saliva. Perhaps because it had been a while, my insides didn’t open easily.

Like boys having sex for the first time, we struggled just with insertion. He slapped my butt, telling me to relax. Instead, I tensed up, and he frowned. Sweat dripped down my cheek. Kwon Taeha’s hand stroked my cheek, trailed down my jaw. It tickled. The moment he gripped my fully erect length, he completely entered me.

I released my hands from my thighs and clutched the sheets. My hips lifted, and the hairs on my head stood stiff. He forcibly pressed down my writhing body.

“I’ll come once.”

A spasm ran through my whole body; I gritted my teeth and exhaled.

“Ah, no. Just… keep going.”

“You said it hurts.”

“Then it’ll hurt even more.”

What kind of logic is that? He thrust in, and asked.

“Ah!… The more you do it, the longer it gets, doesn’t it?”

For some reason, feeling wronged, I looked up at him. On days when he deliberately came quickly early on to wet my insides, the sex lasted longer than other times.

“Right now… don’t come.”

I rubbed my aching lower abdomen as if soothing it. He pressed his body down firmly, resting his forehead against mine.

“That has the opposite effect.”

He began exploring my depths roughly from the start. As he recklessly pried open my tight inner walls, my lower abdomen visibly moved, and I helplessly moaned, wrapping my legs around his waist. Each time he pulled his p*nis out, I sobbed under the illusion that my hole was turning completely inside out. But my body was already addicted to this act accompanied by pain and pleasure.

I awkwardly moved my hips in time with him, and the more I did, the more Kwon Taeha seemed to corner me further. ‘I can’t keep up. CEO, please be a little gentler.’ He suddenly gripped my waist tightly. His pubic hair touched my buttocks, rubbing against them roughly. I shuddered, losing my composure. Inside, I felt him swelling even more.

Behind a vicious laugh, the eyes that had been watching me were now gone, replaced by the gaze of a beast that seemed like it would devour me in one bite if my thoughts wandered even for a moment. As if my body was melting and becoming one with his, I raised both hands and wrapped them around his shoulders. The moment he struck that most sensitive spot inside, semen erupted from my untouched genitals. Not just once or twice, c*m scattered onto the skin touching his.

Peak excitement forced my body, stiffened from the aftermath of orgasm, open. Ah, I don’t like this. Even while I was coming, he recklessly plowed my increasingly tighter depths with his fierce c*ck. He blocked my pleas with his lips, then even captured my hand clawing at his shoulder, interlocking our fingers. As I turned my head, gasping for air, he persistently followed. A dizzying, intense kiss left me unable to move a muscle.

***

Rustle, rustle.

From time to time, the sound of turning pages echoed loudly. The volume and interval of the noise weren’t enough to disturb sleep, yet my eyes opened. Since I had been sleeping face down, it took a while before my blurry vision cleared.

The wide screen, usually hidden in the bedroom, was covering the wall, and Kwon Taeha sat a little apart at the table chair, watching the screen. I stared at him. He was so focused on the screen that he didn’t even notice my gaze, pressing only the remote. Again, rustle. The sound was artificially produced with each page turned. While his eyes remained on the screen, he tapped the laptop placed on the table with one hand and used the remote with the other to flip to the next page.

Resting his chin in his hand as he read the documents, he suddenly turned my way. He seemed a little surprised that I was awake. As though embarrassed at being caught trying to watch me sleep, he gave a small laugh. For some reason, my chest ached.

“Awake?”

“……What time is it?”

“A little past eleven.”

I had been tormented until dawn and then drifted off in the bathtub while bathing. Thanks to the hot water soothing my muscles, the aftereffects of sex were less severe.

“You didn’t…… go to work?”

“There should be days like this, too.”

Instead, he seemed to be working from home, the screen full of documents in German. I lowered the blanket pulled up to my chin and sat up. Dropping my legs over the side of the bed, I ran a hand through my hair.

“Were you going to head out to work?”

“No. It’s nothing important.”

“Everyone has their role. Talking like that only means you’re dismissing your own work.”

“……I didn’t mean it that way. You sound as if you respect every worker, CEO.”

“Is that sarcasm?”

He responded while tapping on the laptop.

“How much is your monthly salary?”

Kwon Taeha looked dumbfounded. Using the word ‘salary’ for the CEO of Füssen might not even be accurate.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“I once worked as hard as you, sacrificing sleep. At least until right before I boarded the Max. But surely, the amount of money you and I earn is completely different. Why is it that working hours and salary don’t go hand in hand?”

My voice came out husky.

“There are many reasons. Education, wealth, connections, family……. In short, the world is unfair.”

Coming from someone who had everything, the word unfair was ironic.

“You’re not asking because you don’t know that.”

“I just wanted to know what you thought about it.”

“You’ll get paid properly for the work you do.”

Was he really thinking I was worried about something like that?

“If you don’t, I’ll have no choice but to form a one-man union against you.”

“A union is a necessary evil to a company. If it’s a one-man union, then are you my necessary evil?”

“So, what you’re saying is…… that it would be more desirable for you if I disappeared?”

Even after saying it, I couldn’t understand why my mouth tasted bitter.

“You really have a knack for souring someone’s mood right after waking up.”

He wasn’t wrong, but it had been him who first brought up the idea of a necessary evil. I didn’t want to clash with him. Every time we did, the exhaustion was worse than when I stood at a casino table as a hidden taker. At least the work as a dealer was something I could grow accustomed to, but not him.

I swallowed, feeling a sting in my left tonsil. Though I craved a cigarette, I held back, things like this only got worse in such a condition. Rubbing my throat, I asked Kwon Taeha, who was once again absorbed in his work.

“From now on…… what should I do?”

“Live as you usually do. If you want to know something, try to find it out yourself.”

“What about WikiLeaks?”

“……”

He answered a ringing phone with brief words and instructions, then hung up.

“There’s no need to worry about half measures. Even if Aeil got hold of Kim Jaeyeon’s.”

He turned his chair in my direction. He rubbed his lips with his hand.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“……?”

“Did Kim Jaeyeon really love Joo Sangkyung? Enough to keep a promise to a dead man even until the moment of her own death?”

As if to say, Is such a thing even possible? Again, my chest tightened. This time, in a different way.

“You said it yourself. That it was her father who saved her.”

“If she lived on the run just to repay a dead man’s grace, that makes even less sense.”

“She…… must have loved him. Truly, deeply.”

“Enough to lay down her life?”

“There are people who can love in an agape way, in a way neither you nor I could.”

“Are you talking about self-destructive love, like Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde?”

Hearing him bring up romantic, tragic love stories made them feel like nothing more than cheap entertainment.

“I don’t know.”

“In other words, you don’t think I’d lay down my life for you?”

“……Am I wrong?”

Kwon Taeha made a sound of thought and fell silent. Then he easily gave an answer.

“If I die, you’d be better off dying too. I don’t want to see you living well in a world without me.”

“That’s selfish.”

“No more than you are.”

Kwon Taeha nodded.

“I……”

“You what?”

“I feel the same. I don’t want to see the one I love live well in a world without me either.”

“See? We’re really alike.”

His voice reached me from behind as I headed to shower, but I only shook my head. Just as he said, agape love isn’t something just anyone can have.