BOREDOM 3

I’d barely been gone for a moment to meet my youngest brother, but the parking manager’s nagging was particularly harsh. I ran around without a moment’s rest, and it wasn’t until 2 a.m., when the customers thinned out, that I could finally catch my breath.

“Whew.”

I planned to curry favor with the parking manager by making him a cup of instant coffee. Just then, I saw the parking manager coming out of the security booth. He was gesturing for me to come closer, as if he had something to discuss. Wondering what it was, I approached him, and he put on a grim look, his face a mask of trouble.

“Hey, what are we going to do about this? I can’t find a designated driver.”

Watching the parking manager scratch the back of his head in frustration, I tilted my head.

“Why?”

“It’s about car 8820. It’s such an expensive car that everyone’s saying they can’t drive it.”

When we used designated drivers at the club, we didn’t go through an agency. We would simply hold onto their ID, give them the car keys, and when they returned after driving the customer, we would give back the ID and settle the payment. Naturally, there was no insurance or any of that nonsense, so if you so much as scratched a car, you’d be saddled with a massive bill. They were all expensive foreign cars, so the costs were no small matter. Still, unlike going through an agency or an app, there was no commission fee, and payment was in immediate cash, so many people wanted the work.

However, a few days ago, a designated driver had wrecked the bumper of a foreign car and was now on the hook for a repair bill amounting to tens of millions of won. And was it just the repair bill? He was in a position where he also had to cover the hospital bills and rental car fees for the customer who was in the car at the time. The other designated drivers who saw that got scared and were now avoiding excessively expensive cars.

“You can just go home from there, so you drive.”

My eyes went wide at the parking manager’s words as he tossed me the keys.

“What? Me?”

“You drive it back and forth all the time, so it should be fine, right?”

“No, the parking lot is right here, but this means I have to go all the way to the customer’s house.”

“So what, you want me to push the customer to drive drunk?”

The parking manager pressed me to be the designated driver, mixing in some unreasonable logic. When I still didn’t agree, he started to gently coax me, as if dangling candy.

“In return, I’ll let you take a day off on the weekend.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’ll give you Sunday off, so you can spend time with your brothers. Didn’t you say you don’t even have time to eat with your brothers?”

I thought of my youngest brother, who had come all the way to the club late at night just to see my face. I had left him in my grandmother’s care for years, only seeing him during school vacations, so it would have been natural for us to be awkward, but we weren’t. He was as affectionate as could be. The thought of being able to spend the weekend with a brother like that made it impossible to refuse. I nodded my head and curled my fingers around the car key I had been holding uncertainly.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

I turned and headed for the parking lot. As I walked to car 8820, Kwon Taeshin’s car, which was parked in the best spot as always, I thought that I must have run into him at the convenience store because it was my fate to drive his car today.

I steeled myself and got into the car. The moment I climbed into the driver’s seat, the scent that emanated from Kwon Taeshin seeped into the tip of my nose. Unable to chase the scent away, I was completely enveloped in it as I drove the car and stopped in front of the club. Then, I got out of the car again to wait for Kwon Taeshin to come outside.

Because of the late hour, the night air was chilly. My bare skin under the single layer of my shirt shivered. I had been wearing only a light padded vest with no jacket, but I had taken it off for my youngest brother, so it was quite cold. It felt even colder because Kwon Taeshin wasn’t coming out quickly.

Just as I was rubbing my arms, which had grown as cold as a frozen fish, Kwon Taeshin appeared. I had been shivering so much that I was stomping my feet, and as he approached the car, escorted by a waiter, I bowed my head toward him.

“Good evening, I am your designated driver.”

At those words, his gaze landed on my forehead. Glance. When I lifted my head, he was looking at me as if it were strange. He seemed to recognize me as the Zeus employee he had encountered in front of the convenience store. His eyes asked why I was acting as a designated driver here, and I explained briefly.

“It was difficult to assign a designated driver, so I am filling in.”

“Hmm…”

Kwon Taeshin’s gaze was fixed, as if he were waiting for some further explanation. His meaningful eyes slid along my slightly protruding forehead, my nose that could not be called high, and my short jawline. Eventually, his gaze came to rest on my hunched shoulders and shrunken chest beneath the thin shirt. Why is he staring like that? As I wondered, I lowered my head to look at myself and discovered a rather embarrassing point.

Due to the cold, my nipples were standing at sharp attention. Beneath the thin, cheap shirt, the small bits of flesh, the size of red beans, were so prominent they were practically conspicuous.

Startled, I raised a hand to cover them. Seeing that, Kwon Taeshin let out a small laugh.

A beat later, a feeling of shame washed over me. It was only after hearing him laugh that I became aware I had covered my body, conscious of his gaze. There was no way someone like Kwon Taeshin would be interested in an ordinary man like me; I had just overreacted all by myself.

“…W-well then, please get in.”

Pretending not to notice my reddened face, I opened the passenger-side door for him. It was a sports car, so there was nothing that could be called a back seat. After watching Kwon Taeshin get into the car, I quickly went back around and got into the driver’s seat. Then I started the engine and, looking at the navigation system that turned on automatically, I asked.

“Should I go to the location saved as ‘Home’?”

Kwon Taeshin nodded. I took a short, deep breath, gripped the steering wheel, and pressed the accelerator.

I drove the car so slowly it was laughable for a sports car. The time was heading toward 3 a.m., so the roads were completely empty, but I was still on edge, worried I might crash the car somewhere.

As I drove at a speed no different from a crawling turtle, Kwon Taeshin, sitting next to me, yawned. Seeing him open his mouth wide in a deliberate gesture and wipe the corners of his eyes, I increased my speed.

As I drove, the underside of the low car body scraped every time I went over a speed bump. Each time, beads of sweat broke out, and I regretted having offered to act as a designated driver. Fortunately, Kwon Taeshin seemed to understand that driving a car like this in downtown Seoul inevitably meant scraping the bottom of the car. He didn’t say anything even when an ominously loud noise came from under the car.

After a period of time that felt like an eternity, I brought the car to a stop in front of a villa. Though it was called a villa, it was actually a housing complex located in an affluent neighborhood overlooking the Han River and the nightscape of downtown Seoul. I parked the car, perfectly aligned within the lines in the first-floor parking garage, and the moment I got out of the driver’s seat, I scurried over to open the passenger-side door. Then, I returned the key to Kwon Taeshin as he got out of the car and bowed 90 degrees.

“Well then, have a good night.”

As I retracted my hands, uncertain if this was the correct way to say goodbye, Kwon Taeshin remained motionless for some reason. Worried that I might have made some mistake, I glanced at him, and my eyes met his as he was looking my way.

With his head tilted, he gave off a somewhat unpleasant vibe. I felt a sense of curiosity mixed with a spoonful of some unidentifiable malice.

I cautiously opened my mouth.

“…Is there, something you’d like to say…?”

He opened his mouth but didn’t speak right away. He hesitated with a vague expression that was hard to define, and then said something unexpected.

“I should give you a tip, but I don’t have any cash.”

A tip? I should have felt pleased, but I didn’t. Instead, I fought the urge to frown and shook my head.

“It’s alright. I have already received the designated driving fee.”

In truth, I hadn’t received it yet; I would have to get it settled when I went to work tomorrow, but I replied that way out of a desire to leave the situation quickly. As if he had seen right through me, Kwon Taeshin straightened his posture and smiled. When his smooth lips curved into an arc and rose upward, he looked so handsome it was slightly chilling.

“You’re not a real designated driver, are you? It seems like everyone else didn’t want to drive my car, so you drove me all the way here even though you’re a club employee.”

“W-well… you are a regular customer, so this much is no big deal.”

“Don’t be like that, come up for a moment. I want to give you a tip.”

A tip, I wonder how much he’s planning to give. About fifty thousand won?

Finding it difficult to refuse the offer of money, I hesitated. In the end, I followed Kwon Taeshin, who had already turned and stepped into the elevator. He operated the elevator, which had only three buttons, and it began to move.

Before long, the elevator doors opened, and he got out. Then he turned on the keypad, entered the password, and opened the front door. Hurrying to follow him in before it closed, I looked up at the vast, silent corridor and the lights that turned on one by one with his every movement. Thinking they must be sensor lights, I looked around as he disappeared into what I assumed was the entryway.

Then is this not the entryway? I’ve never been in a house this spacious, so it was hard to adjust. Just then, the sensor lights turned off, and the corridor went dark. Standing there in the middle of it, I debated whether or not I should follow him inside. Soon, a voice called out from inside.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Ah, no, thank you.”

I replied hurriedly and craned my neck. Cautiously, I took a step, and the sensor lights that had gone out turned back on. Before they could turn off again, I entered the space that seemed to be the entryway. Kwon Taeshin’s shoes were there, so I could tell that was the entryway.

Inside, beyond an inner door, was a space so wide it was reminiscent of a plaza. In it were a sofa and table that looked more like works of art than furniture. By the window, a bar had been set up to allow for contemplation of the view outside, and there, Kwon Taeshin was pouring whiskey from a decanter into a glass.

I watched him drink in silence. I followed him here because he said he’d give me a tip, but I don’t know why he’s doing other things instead of giving me the money. How long am I supposed to wait? Should I say something first? As I hesitated with these various worries, he glanced this way while sipping his drink.

To be precise, he was staring intently at my chest.

“…”

Given the embarrassing situation from earlier, I tried hard not to be conscious of his blatant gaze on my chest. I suppressed the urge to cover my nipples, which kept hardening, by repeatedly telling myself it was just me being self-conscious. Just then, he spoke to me out of the blue.

“The person you met in front of the convenience store earlier, is that your younger brother?”

“Ah, yes.”

“There seemed to be quite an age gap.”

“He’s my youngest brother; he’s still in middle school.”

“I see. Your brother seems to be very fond of you.”

Why is he asking things like this? As I replied, “Yes,” with a slightly uneasy feeling, he grinned. It was a far more ominous smile than I had imagined, and my heart began to beat rapidly.

“How much do I have to give?”

Thinking his question was about the tip, I thought he was finally going to give me the money and replied.