CRT Ch 40

💎

It was unbelievable that even Lee Taeon had become Noeul’s slave. Even with his universally praised acting skills and deception, he couldn’t erase the stench of this corrupt, fishy smell. However, could one conclude that he was Noeul’s slave just based on the foul odor? Perhaps he had stopped by the company and the smell had lingered on him? No, when Cha Yilhyun met him at the company, there was no trace of Noeul’s stench on him.

Seok Ryu glared at Lee Taeon, his eyes twitching. Even at this moment, as he was about to interrogate him, he prayed that he was wrong.

“When did you meet Noeul?”

Lee Taeon’s brow furrowed.

“What’s it to you?”

“If you’re going to play dumb, at least get rid of Noeul’s stench. It’s so disgusting, it’s making my nose rot.”

Lee Taeon pulled his jacket up to his nose and sniffed. Looking at the other board members, it seemed those who were doped couldn’t smell it. Lee Taeon’s fingers tapped a rhythm on the table. He drained the remaining whiskey and slammed the on-the-rocks glass down. His liquor-laced lips slowly twisted into a sneer. He swallowed the whiskey as if suppressing laughter, then opened his mouth.

“This act doesn’t suit me. I can’t keep this up.”

Lee Taeon spoke with a deflated tone, but his eyes sharpened.

“So what if I met him? What are you going to do about it?”

A hollow laugh escaped Seok Ryu, stunned and dismayed. He suppressed his agitated breathing.

“…Was it during the advertising agency meeting? Or afterward?”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

Lee Taeon uttered a line one would hear in a third-rate movie, his expression that of a cheap villain. It was Seok Ryu’s mistake to have taken Lee Taeon’s words at face value all this time. It was Noeul’s mistake not to know how much Lee Taeon hated acting off-camera.

Lee Taeon suddenly waved his hand in front of Seok Ryu’s face.

“But why is he still alright? I heard he’d lose his mind after just one drop?”

“That’s impossible. What’s going on?”

The bartender at the bar looked bewildered. The nuance of their conversation was undeniably suspicious. Could it be…?

“Did you drug my cocktail?”

“You’re quick on the uptake with this kind of thing. Were you playing hard to get when I was coming on to you so strongly?”

Lee Taeon seemed unaware of Seok Ryu’s true nature. Seok Ryu wasn’t drunk, and even if he had taken the drug, it wouldn’t have affected him. He had experienced all sorts of ordeals at the hands of his former master’s followers, so this was nothing new.

However, he never expected Lee Taeon to become Noeul’s slave, nor did he ever dream he would stoop to such despicable acts. It seemed the title of “actor” had been the last rein on Lee Taeon’s morality. With Yoon Yubin holding that rein, no one could stop Lee Taeon’s rampage.

The reason for luring Seok Ryu out with Director Choi as bait and drugging him to keep him tied up could only be one thing. Cha Yilhyun and Yejun were in danger.

Seok Ryu bolted from his seat and dashed out the door. He ran down the narrow hallway, dialing Yejun on his phone. Yejun didn’t answer. A hand shot out from behind, wrapped around Seok Ryu’s waist, and snatched the phone.

Lee Taeon threw the stolen silver phone to the floor, shattering it into pieces. Seok Ryu lashed out, hitting him in the face and kicking his shin.

“Let go! Get away from me!!”

Lee Taeon raised his hand with a menacing expression. He let out a puff of air and lowered his hand.

“There’s no point hitting you.”

Seok Ryu’s hair was grabbed, the grip so tight it brought tears to his eyes. At the same time, something wet covered his lips. Lee Taeon sucked on Seok Ryu’s tongue as if swallowing it whole. The pressure of his groin against Seok Ryu was hot and hard. Seok Ryu bit down hard on the invading tongue.

Still gripping Seok Ryu’s hair, Lee Taeon touched his own tongue with his finger. His eyes turned fierce as he confirmed the blood.

“They told me to keep you here, and I did as I was told, but I can’t just twiddle my thumbs with you right in front of me, can I?”

His voice was malicious and insidious. Lee Taeon immediately grabbed Seok Ryu’s clothes and dragged him down the narrow hallway in the opposite direction. As they rounded the corner, a black door came into view. Seok Ryu had a feeling that if he went in there, he wouldn’t come out unscathed.

Struggling and clawing at Lee Taeon’s arms, Seok Ryu’s shirt ripped and was half torn off. Lee Taeon, as if noticing something on Seok Ryu’s back, stopped abruptly with a hardened expression. He forced the pushing and struggling Seok Ryu against the wall. After staring at his back for a while, he muttered a curse.

Just then, a customer opened the door and entered from behind. The customers, spotting Seok Ryu and Lee Taeon, froze in place. Seizing the opportunity, Seok Ryu pushed Lee Taeon away and ran towards the entrance.

He escaped outside the building and looked around. The dazzling city lights, the intoxicated people, and the sparsely passing cars made him dizzy.

At some point, Lee Taeon had caught up, close behind. He grabbed the back of Seok Ryu’s neck and dragged him, then threw him down where the sidewalk met the road. A flash went off somewhere. It was either a paparazzi chasing Lee Taeon or a sasaeng fan lurking near the officetel.

He wished Lee Taeon’s disgrace would be exposed and he’d be ruined. Only then would Noeul discard the useless Lee Taeon, freeing him from slavery.

“Hey, look over there! Something interesting’s going on.”

Seok Ryu’s jaw was gripped so tightly it felt like it would break, his gaze forcibly fixed. He gasped at the sight before him. Across the street, under a streetlight, a tall man stood with his back turned. Even from behind, he recognized him instantly as Cha Yilhyun. Facing him was Noeul. Seok Ryu held his breath.

Venomous eyes met Cha Yilhyun’s unguarded ones. They were captivating eyes that, once met, could not be defied, even by a god. They were the devil’s eyes, controlling and manipulating the mind. Noeul, finally face to face with Cha Yilhyun, revealed his pearly white teeth in a triumphant smirk.

As if paralyzed by Noeul’s gaze, Cha Yilhyun’s fingers loosened. Thud—his phone fell limply to the ground, a fallen leaf rolling over it.

“No!! Don’t look!!”

Seok Ryu screamed until his throat was raw, but his voice was swallowed by the traffic noise and didn’t reach them. Seok Ryu ran into the street with all his might. Lee Taeon yelled something.

Honk———!! Screech———!!

The piercing sound of car horns echoed through the night sky. Immediately, the smell of burning tires filled the air. Seok Ryu scrambled onto the sidewalk, pulled Cha Yilhyun’s head towards him, and embraced him. The sound of a scoff from behind made his hair stand on end.

Seok Ryu knew very well that this was more than enough time to be captivated by the miraculous gem. More than the tragedy that he and Yejun would face, the sense of loss at having Cha Yilhyun taken away felt like his heart was shattering. He was terrified to confirm that Cha Yilhyun had become Noeul’s slave.

“Why did you look? Why…”

After losing everything, this person was all he had left… Seok Ryu squeezed his eyes shut and suppressed the sobs escaping through his gritted teeth.

“No, I should have protected you better. I should have warned you more firmly…”

All this misfortune was Seok Ryu’s own fault, for not being as perfect as Noeul. He pressed his lips against Cha Yilhyun’s hair, imprinting his warmth and scent, which might be the last time he experienced them, into his memory. It felt like he was endlessly floundering in Noeul’s nightmare.

Yoon Yubin, who had been hiding behind a tree all along, revealed himself. He approached Noeul and obediently offered his cheek. Noeul kissed his master’s cheek, handing over the highest-grade slave. Then, Yoon Yubin suddenly winced and rubbed his cheek.

“What?”

When handing over a doped slave, the cheek should feel hot, but the temperature was lukewarm. It felt like Noeul’s own body temperature. Noeul furrowed his brow slightly and kissed Yubin’s cheek again. But again, there was no reaction.

“What?! Why isn’t it working?!”

Yubin fiercely shook off Noeul’s hand. Backlit by the streetlight, the smile disappeared from Noeul’s face. A moment later, Noeul’s eyes narrowed, and he covered his mouth with a chuckle, letting out a “Pfft—.”

“Because I didn’t dope him, of course.”

Seok Ryu’s head snapped up. He thought he had misheard because of the traffic noise.

Yoon Yubin looked bewildered, then his brow gradually furrowed.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Noeul shrugged.

“I didn’t dope him. Just letting it slide this once.”

Yoon Yubin’s eyes widened, and he lunged at Noeul, trying to strangle him.

“You, you, crazy bastard! I went through hell for days to get this opportunity, and you’re playing games?!”

“Don’t you trust me? Today’s not the only day.”

“Do it again! Do it again, I said! You crazy bastard! I’ll really kill you!!”

Noeul burst into laughter as he watched Yoon Yubin go berserk.

Seok Ryu blinked. He had been so out of it that he failed to check something he absolutely should have. He brought his nose close to Cha Yilhyun’s neck and sniffed. He had the sudden illusion that Cha Yilhyun’s shoulders had stiffened. There was no trace of Noeul’s stench on Cha Yilhyun.

Cha Yilhyun, who had buried his face in Seok Ryu’s embrace, lifted his head. His eyelids opened, and a slightly feverish gaze met Seok Ryu’s. Seok Ryu brushed the hair that had fallen over Cha Yilhyun’s eyes with his trembling hand. The dense black pupils seemed so resolute, impervious to any impurities. Seok Ryu’s vision blurred.

Noeul, having finally calmed his raging master, walked towards a flowerbed. Only then did Seok Ryu realize that the person lying in the flowerbed was Yejun. Noeul stroked the drunken Yejun’s hair. Then, eyes blazing with disgust, he fixed his gaze on Seok Ryu.

“Tell Yejun to make his choice quickly before he cries tears of blood.”

It seemed something had transpired between Yejun and Noeul that Seok Ryu was unaware of.

Lee Taeon, who had crossed the street at some point, was hailing a taxi. He opened the back door and waited for his master to get in. Like when he had said he would film a romance, it was a completely incongruous image.

Seok Ryu cupped Cha Yilhyun’s cheeks and looked into his eyes until the very last moment. He felt like his heart would stop at the thought of not seeing him again.

“Are you alright?”

“No, I’m not alright.”

Cha Yilhyun’s voice trailed off languidly. Those words brought all sorts of bad scenarios flashing through his mind. The sound of the taxi starting made Cha Yilhyun try to lift his head. Seok Ryu hugged Cha Yilhyun tightly, his knuckles turning white, blocking his view. Noeul was watching them through the car window. It was the gaze of Medusa, which he must not meet, not even for a moment.

He had trembled in fear every day, imagining the day when Cha Yilhyun would become Noeul’s slave. He had had many nightmares. Just like the day he woke up from those nightmares, Seok Ryu’s cheeks were drenched with tears. Until the car Noeul had boarded disappeared completely, Seok Ryu held Cha Yilhyun in his arms with all his might.

💎

Cha Yilhyun pushed the blocks and drone scattered on the floor into a corner with his foot. He tidied up the cluttered table and straightened the disarrayed sofa. He turned on a soft mood light so as not to disturb his sleep.

After roughly cleaning the living room, he sat down at the foot of the sofa, stretching his legs out. Seok Ryu was sound asleep on the sofa, covered with a cream-colored blanket. After putting the drunk Park Yejun to bed, he came up to the penthouse to watch Cha Yilhyun and then dozed off shortly after. Cha Yilhyun wanted Seok Ryu to sleep in his bed, but Seok Ryu stubbornly insisted on the sofa.

After today’s incident, Seok Ryu would tighten his surveillance even more. The thought of Seok Ryu fearfully following him around made his lower body throb.

That man, Noeul, seemed like a clumsy replica of Seok Ryu. There wasn’t even a hint of the captivating beauty that paralyzed one’s thoughts, like when he first met Seok Ryu, only the unpleasantness of bugs crawling around. He had secretly hoped to be hypnotized, but he felt nothing, which was disappointing. He learned today that they call their hypnotic technique “doping.”

Cha Yilhyun leaned against the sofa next to Seok Ryu’s head and loosened his tie. He put on Bluetooth earphones so as not to disturb Seok Ryu’s sleep. He took out the phone he had copied Park Yejun’s data onto and opened the screen. He would find a clue if he searched through everything, from phone numbers to photos.

The photos were a spectacle in themselves. They were all photos of Cha Yilhyun circulating on the internet, expensive cars, and houses. There wasn’t a single photo taken with Seok Ryu.

One folder caught his eye. It contained a 20-second video and a photo of a young-looking man. The face in the photo was Yoon Yubin.

He opened the video. The shaky footage started in someone’s living room. The person filming seemed to be gripped by fear, gasping intermittently. On a bare bed lay a boy, or rather, something that looked like a human mannequin, naked.

Dried glue covered his entire body, layered and hardened, resembling a giant insect wrapped in cobwebs. The only movement came from his weakly blinking eyes. The dark, hollow eyes turned towards the camera. Glue was also dried around his mouth, making his voice sound close to a moan.

—Inoh hyung… It hurts…

—What are you filming?!

The moment someone shouted sharply, the screen shook, and the focus blurred. The recording ended there.

Inoh… Yoon Inoh? Was this a fake documentary film? It was the most bizarre and realistic special effects makeup he had ever seen. Cha Yilhyun replayed the video several times.

Just then, Seok Ryu stirred. He clutched Cha Yilhyun’s arm, which was resting on the sofa, in his sleep and nuzzled his cheek against it. The soft sensation rubbing against his bare skin paralyzed Cha Yilhyun. Then, long, thick eyelashes fluttered, and drowsy burgundy eyes opened, locking onto Cha Yilhyun. It was an intoxicating color that made him lightheaded with just one glance. The eyes closed again, and Seok Ryu fell back asleep, breathing evenly.

Seok Ryu was like a warding doll, absorbing his master’s misfortunes. He would only talk to him when Cha Yilhyun wore the skin of Park Yejun’s slave. Only then would he look at and touch Cha Yilhyun properly.

He tilted his head and captured Seok Ryu’s sleeping lips. He slid his tongue between the parted lips. A moan escaped his throat at the sensation of the moist mucous membrane.

Sometimes, he wanted to give up everything and hide Seok Ryu away where no one could find him. How could he possess him, how could he take him without hurting him too much? How?

If the reality of the cabin Seok Ryu feared was an absurdity forbidden by the world, and if he had to shake hands with that absurdity to possess Seok Ryu, he would gladly sell his soul to the devil.

💎

Yubin continued to rant inside the taxi, but upon arriving at the hotel, he went straight to his room. The hunting dog, having fulfilled its duties for the day, returned to its kennel.

The moment Noeul locked the bathroom door, he collapsed to the floor. Only then did his body begin to convulse uncontrollably. His hands trembling, he called Heewan. As a collaborator assisting Heewan’s experiment, he had the privilege of calling him directly.

After a long ring, Heewan answered the phone in a sleepy voice. This couldn’t be happening. Something impossible had happened to him, a perfect gem. It was absolutely impossible, even if the sky were to split in two. Noeul glanced at the bathroom door and whispered,

“I, I failed the doping today.”

—What?

He couldn’t dope Cha Yilhyun. It wasn’t that Noeul let him off the hook; it was a clear failure.

“It doesn’t make any sense, no matter how much I think about it. I’m a perfect gem, so why…?”

—It might not be as effective as before since it was hastily restored. It could be a side effect.

Noeul gritted his teeth.

“I’ve doped over ten thousand people since I left the workshop with Yubin until this evening. Ten thousand. And I haven’t failed a single one of them.”

He had made slaves of not only those Yubin needed but also random passersby just for fun. Heewan was silent for a moment. Noeul bit his nails and rolled his eyes.

“I think that guy, Seok Ryu, is pretending to be oblivious after the accident. Look up the client list.”

Only Seok Ryu, the owner of that garnet, or someone possessing another guardian stone would be immune to the garnet’s effect. But Heewan’s reply was cold.

—Don’t you know you’re not supposed to leak the client list?

“Experimenting without reporting to the association is already breaking the rules. Just this once, please?”

—Are you threatening me now?

Noeul inhaled and gripped the phone with both hands.

“Heewan, you’re the one who gave me a new life. How dare I threaten you? Just tell me if he’s on the list or not. Please…”

After a moment, the sound of Heewan typing on a keyboard reached him.

—What’s the name?

“Cha Yilhyun.”

The typing stopped abruptly.

—He’s not a client.

“How do you know without even looking?”

—Seok Ryu kept failing with him too. He barely succeeded after nearly a hundred attempts.

“That half-assed attempt succeeded, so I should have succeeded too!!”

Noeul jumped up and paced around the bathroom. There were only Noeul and Seok Ryu’s garnets in the workshop anyway. If Cha Yilhyun hadn’t bought another guardian stone, how could this be? Was it really a side effect from the hasty restoration? But he had doped ten thousand people without a single failure so far, so it didn’t make sense that only Cha Yilhyun would be an exception.

—I’ll find out if there’s another reason, so wait.

Heewan, who he thought would hang up, added coldly,

—Seok Ryu needs to come back to the workshop safely. I won’t forgive you if anything happens to him.

“Of course! We promised!”

Heewan hung up without even saying goodbye. The reason Heewan hastily restored Noeul and sent him here wasn’t just out of his obsession with research. This was a collaboration between Heewan, who couldn’t do anything without Seok Ryu, and Noeul, who wanted to do so much for Seok Ryu.

Unilaterally retrieving Seok Ryu from the workshop and having Yejun personally return him were completely different things. That’s why he hunted slaves like a goblin and offered them to Yubin. To make Yejun, upon seeing this, feel inferior and consider Seok Ryu a burden.

Of course, Seok Ryu wouldn’t willingly walk back into the workshop. He hadn’t even repaid half of what he had suffered. That pretentious face needed to melt, his flesh rot, and his bones break, experiencing the same pain he had endured.

To do that, he needed Seok Ryu’s choker. To be precise, he desperately needed Yejun to destroy Seok Ryu’s choker. Because only the master could destroy the choker.

Suddenly, his eyes throbbed. It had started after he tried to dope Cha Yilhyun today. The aftereffects of his first failure were deep and sharp, piercing to the bone. Noeul huddled in the bathroom until the pain in his eyes subsided.