THM Ch 10

He closed his eyes. The agonizing thought continued. Call him, or not. Tell him to rush over right now and take off his clothes, or not.

Now that he opened his eyes, the remaining letters around Goo Taegyuk were ‘or not.’ He made the choice to gather the gradually pooling anger all day long, and then pour it out all at once.

He called the person he trusted and cherished most, excluding his family. As if proving it was worth doing so, Sanggoo picked up before it even rang twice, saying, “Yes, hyung-nim.”

“They say Ok Myeongchan is coming in. Cancel all today’s schedules and come pick me up by three o’clock later.”

Closing his eyes again, his Adam’s apple twitched. He was thinking like that day.

“…”

Blessing comes to those who endure; Goo Taegyuk will surely satisfy his current thirst…

Disagreeable sounds began from the moment of picking him up at the airport. At 5:30, until he lowered his buttocks and sat on the cushion of a high-end Japanese restaurant booked in advance, what his maternal uncle caught fault with and dragged out was Nando’s hair length.

“This bastard still hasn’t cut his hair. Because you go around looking like a punk like that, whenever I just bring up your name, your mother flings the phone down and hangs up. What, do you think she hates you for no reason?”

Sitting in the passenger seat of the car driven by Sanggoo, his maternal uncle poured nagging at him all throughout. Not stopping there, he ended up reaching out his hand and messily undid his hair that had been tied up nicely. Only picking up the tie right before going down, Nando had to remain with his hair disheveled until arriving in front of the restaurant.

“You know Uncle is joking, right? Here.”

“…Thank you.”

“I’m going in first. Clean yourself up nicely so you can eat comfortably and come in.”

“Yes.”

Receiving a call and waiting in front, the restaurant manager saw the maternal uncle getting off the car and smiled brightly. What kind of relation the two were and what relationship they were still in was out of Nando’s interest. There was no wish other than wanting his maternal uncle to piss off from before his eyes even a moment sooner.

Enduring his heart, Nando neatly tidied his hair. Getting out of the car and stepping into the restaurant, he stopped and looked back at the rear where Sanggoo was standing. Gesturing to call him close, he spoke into Sanggoo’s ear.

“Goo Taegyuk. Tell him to go to the house right now.”

Having a meal time with a human he couldn’t possibly like was as nauseating as scooping up and eating excrement. That feeling continued even when leaving the restaurant, moving to a room, and pouring alcohol with both hands. Pretending to swallow and listen to unnutritious words that couldn’t even become nagging, he even exerted effort to force a smile in order to calm his anger.

His maternal uncle, who was getting drunk on alcohol, had no limits. As if he had received such an order assigned by his father, as if he had received such a request passed on by his mother, today he was all the more enthusiastic about tormenting Nando.

“Hey, what is it, Director Joo. Let’s peel off your tattoo once in a long time.”

Tucking even Nando’s partner—who had entered formally—into his side, his maternal uncle mocked him. As expected, was it Mother’s side rather than Father’s?

Before rising from his seat, Nando accepted and drank the liquor held out by his maternal uncle. After that, in front of hostesses who were much younger than himself, he took off his upper garment. There was a way to refuse, but if so, the next day was painful. Not even a week had passed, so seeing Nanbaek’s tears again was not something that could happen.

Still, not knowing how fortunate it was that the world bore a nature of unconditionally moving forward, Nando thought behind the back of his maternal uncle, who was boarding the elevator heading to the hotel while receiving support from both sides by a hostess and an establishment employee.

“Have a good night.”

Through the closing doors, a young hostess waved her palm at him. Smiling, she said, “Director, bye.” She had an oblivious, cheerful personality. One that couldn’t pull him in even a bit.

“Sanggoo-ya.”

As soon as he got into the car, he called Sanggoo coarsely. Bringing the bottle containing whisky—which Sanggoo had prepared in advance—to his lips, he spewed out the following resentment.

“I want to fucking kill that dirty bastard. Do you have a knife? You have one, right? Go up and kill that fucking bastard. Fuckingly stab him to death. Kill what’s already killed again and make it a mess.”

He was a fellow who knew his words as law. Immediately pulling out and gripping the pocket knife he always carried in his chest, he tried to get out of the car.

“I will be back.”

The shoulder of such a Sanggoo was caught with a thud from behind by Nando. With a voice that had calmed down in the meantime—no, with a voice stubbornly suppressed from enduring, Nando recited softly.

“It’s a joke.”

The car split through the dark night street rapidly. It was a road heading toward home, toward a space where violence would be materialized. Goo Taegyuk would be waiting in that place. Looking at the room mirror reflecting Kang Sanggoo’s eye lines rather than Goo Taegyuk’s, Nando muttered.

“If it’s something I order, you’re a fellow who would suck even my dick, you.”

As an obvious fact, Sanggoo answered without a hitch. “That is actually so, hyung-nim.”

“There’s nothing dirty and nothing nauseating.”

“That is correct.”

“If it’s something I do, everything is clean. Everything is correct words and everything is the right answer.”

“There has never been a time when it wasn’t so.”

Nando did not doubt for a moment that Sanggoo’s words were the utmost sincerity. Not flattery, but Sanggoo was really a bastard who would suck if told to suck. Since he was a guy who grew up suffering through the hardships of beatings together, it had to be seen as a relationship already surpassing trust. Hence Nando nodded his head and spoke to him like this. Still, don’t suck my dick alone.

“If you suck that, we can’t go long.”

While the house drew near, he was recalling the situation from just a moment ago, applying it to Taegyuk. Imagining Goo Taegyuk, he answered with a flushed face.

‘If it’s something I order, you’re a fellow who would suck even my dick, you.’

‘…That is so.’

‘For you, there’s nothing dirty and nothing nauseating.’

‘As far as it concerns Director…’

He knitted his brow. Because seeing himself think all these thoughts about a fellow whose purpose was entirely that made him think, It seems my expectations of that fellow are not small.

Upon arriving, a single black car was parked near the house. It was Taegyuk’s car gifted by Nando. Sanggoo might have told him to park over there and go in like he did with the ones in the past, but today everything was bothersome. Throwing out the cigarette he was smoking outside the window, he instructed Sanggoo.

“From next time, tell him to park in the garage. Don’t make it obvious from the front that I’ve arrived.”

The inside of the house was in a state pitch-blacker than the night sky. The foolish fellow was staying in the dark without even turning on a light. Looking or not, without giving even a single glance to the sofa or the kitchen dining chair, he would be doing that while standing erect.

“Go on in.”

Getting off the car, he headed limply toward the front door while being seen off by Sanggoo. Opening the door easily with fingerprint recognition, he slipped into the dark nest as if gliding. The fellow was standing near the front door in a form like a chunk of shadow. It was to the extent that because it was dark, only the outline was barely visible.

Nando extremely hated environments suddenly growing bright. Hence he had turned off the front door sensor light, and for that reason no light appeared at all. Bypassing the fellow who spoke while bowing his waist, “Have you arrived?”, he went to the living room. Dark curtains drawn like a veil seemed to be the cause of this darkness. Heavy ink seemed to be streaming down the curtain cloths.

Familiarly fumbling along the wall, he pressed the switch attached at the very bottom and turned on the indirect light. Turning around, Goo Taegyuk wrapped in a bluish light was seen. He was in a suit. The light rays falling softly from the ceiling were scattering in all directions along the suit tailored with good quality cloth.

“…”

“…”

An unbearable defective product had met a proper repairman and was reborn, as it were. Clothes make the man, as they say; it was a figure that would be good to set up anywhere like a sandwich board. But how should one put it… it felt like the taste that belonged only to Goo Taegyuk—which felt like Goo Taegyuk—that he felt at their first meeting had become smudged and hazy.

At any rate, a different atmosphere was continuously bursting out from the fellow, but Nando was not in a plight to appreciate it leisurely. Because from a certain moment, resolving the anger surging up as if tearing his stomach and breaking his epigastrium and collarbone was the top priority.

“Take it off.”

He spoke, picking up the liquor bottle set on the sofa table. The alcohol effect was already wrapping around his whole body, but just because he took one more sip didn’t mean his fist would turn into a knife.