M 25
by Sorai“Huh? Uh, when did you come?”
The boss stuttered for some reason. It seems like he was taken aback by the sight of the owner of the office.
“Director Ki, listen to me. Samwol, well…”
“Would you like to go out and smoke a cigarette? You seem very angry.”
There were times when that happened. When your perception is slower than your gaze.
When you were clearly watching, but you were not quite sure who the person in front of you was or what was going on. You didn’t even realize that tears were streaming down, you didn’t realize you were hurting right now, and what hurt right now wasn’t your body but your heart. Sehwa remained that way for a while, and then a beat later, when the hazy remnants became clear when the sounds around suddenly opened up like blooming flowers, and only then did the raw cry burst like a dam.
“Sigh… I’m letting it go because I saw Director Ki’s face! Director Ki don’t let Samwol off easily, huh? After being so nice, he’s going this far just because I gave him a bit of leniency!”
“Yes, understood.”
Ki Tae-jeong suddenly appeared and skillfully appeased the boss. Sehwa just cried in a daze. Meanwhile, his swollen cheek was sore, so he slightly lowered his head. So that tears wouldn’t touch the swollen skin. He found it funny that his instinct was to avoid pain by using familiar tricks.
“I have something to tell you.”
There was a tapping sound from below. When he glanced up, he saw the toe of a sharp shoe tapping on the bottom of the sofa as if calling him. Luxurious shoes with a straightforward classic design. The owner of the shoes was, of course, Ki Tae-jeong. Sehwa barely blinked his wet eyelashes. What was he trying to say this time? Was this man trying to open up his wound with his words? Was he not pitiful enough? Or maybe it was irritating to watch him being so pathetic. Whatever it was, Sehwa wished that Ki Tae-jeong would just leave him alone…
However, Ki Tae-jeong was a more persistent person than anyone Sehwa knew. He just stood there as if nailed to his feet until Sehwa raised his head and revealed his swollen face.
In the end, Sehwa raised the white flag first. Pressing his tears with the sleeve of his gown, he raised his head. Ki Tae-jeong will hold on like that until he gets his way, and the boss, who was tired of waiting, will get angry again. If the boss bastard screamed here, Sehwa wouldn’t be able to hold it in any longer and his eyes would literally roll back. Sehwa reasoned that it would be better to give in to his will before something bad happened. He had taken off everything, cried, begged, so what was so embarrassing about this.
“…”
But surprisingly, the man who persistently demanded to see his face said nothing. After glancing over the disheveled Sehwa, he turned around. And then,
‘It must hurt.’
He just made the shape of his mouth.
‘Take your medicine.’
… That was it.
The sound of the two people’s footsteps and the boss swearing loudly becomes quieter… Sehwa crumpled the ledger he was holding with all his might and collapsed onto the sofa. Hearing the consolation to take the medicine shattered shattered every last shred of heart he could barely hold onto.
Sehwa, who had been breathing heavily like a fighting dog for a moment, took several pieces of gauze from the box. He piled a few on top of each other and bit into them all at once as if they were the boss.
They all sucked. He’s going to kill them all. He hated not only the boss who had turned his life upside down with a petty move, but also Ki Tae-jeong who suddenly appeared. Everything was disgusting, all of it…
“… Haa.”
Sehwa sighed deeply and tried to find a reason as he thought of his lost resentment. In the end, it was his own problem. It wasn’t like he’d only been treated unfairly once or twice. It was not like he had been slapped in the face for a day or two. Feeling sorry for himself would only make him feel worse. He should have been thinking about making money at a time like this. Don’t cry. Crying only makes the stomach hurt. How did the cake he ate earlier taste…
Sehwa removed the gauze, which was thoroughly soaked with blood and saliva, and folded it back and forth so that the clean side was exposed. He stuffed the piece of cloth back into the area where there was a lot of blood and looked up at the ceiling blankly. He blinked quickly and swallowed back the tears that kept trying to come out. What are you crying about? Why are you crying?
Why…
“…Huh, ugh….”
Ah, damn it… his heart, which he had tried so hard to calm down, burst out again. Normally, he could easily stop crying, but for some reason, he couldn’t do so now. Was the problem that he had convinced himself that he had experienced this every time? Sehwa cried as he chewed on the gauze. He clenched his empty hands tightly as he swallowed the blood and saliva that flowed into his throat.
Yeah. Why does this kind of thing happen to him every time?
The House was frequently visited by priests, monks, and shamans. They exchanged donations and offerings for playing cards or drugs and lectured Sehwa. This life is difficult for you because of karma from previous lives. If you repent and live well now, you will go to heaven when you die, or you will be reborn in paradise or with good fortune…
At one point, Sehwa had also heard such words and received comfort. He believed that fair salvation would come to him as well. He even tried offering a ritual to his ancestors, spending money to hold a grand ritual on the first full moon, and making offerings on Christmas or Buddha’s Day. Whenever he felt like he was trudging along a thorny path with bare feet, he thought of the heaven and paradise that would eventually be his. He even imagined the people who made his life difficult, including the boss, falling into the flames of hell.
However, as time passed and he thought about it more, a sense of injustice overwhelmed Sehwa. Since he didn’t wish for things like heaven or reincarnation, was it impossible for him to suffer less now? Wasn’t it possible to live an ordinary life, die an ordinary death, and be born again? He didn’t wish for a place like heaven.
Guests had said that if one sincerely prayed, they would eventually receive a response. However, the innocent heart of a lamb living outside the church seemed useless even to the gods. As Sehwa became more and more exhausted, he stopped believing in anything intangible—religion, beliefs, or other people’s hearts.
At what age did he stop making donations and offerings? Was he 13? Sehwa thought of useless things in an attempt to stop crying. At the same time, he piled up the scattered syringes. It was a habit. They charge 50,000 won for each syringe. f it broke, he had to ask for a new one, which was troublesome. But. The syringe wasn’t the problem now. The damn boss threw the ledger into the bin here, and some of the drugs became unusable. What to do about this now? Since it wouldn’t go to the customers anyway, Ki Tae-jeong probably would overlook it.
“…I hope he overlooks it.”
Sehwa muttered as if scolding himself for thinking nonsense. His voice was all cracked and pitiful.
“He probably going to put it on my debt…”
Although it seemed like he was giving away this and that, in the end, the man was someone who would definitely get what he wanted. Well, not just get it but make a profit somehow. Even with sex. Even though he said he wouldn’t put it in, in the end, he forcefully pushed himself in and ejaculated. The meals and cake he provided were delicious, but he was the one who didn’t give him proper clothes and kept him from going outside for over two weeks.
Sehwa gathered up the scattered powder like he was building a sand castle. Pure white piles that look like the essence of crime sparkled under the fluorescent lights. Sehwa laughed without even realizing it as he watched the drugs fluttering around, no matter how many times he collected them. It was a pretty but utterly useless laugh. Like the scene before his eyes. Like always.
***
“Bri, Brigadier General! First of all, let me explain…, Argh!”
“You don’t want me to feed you expensive things?”
Ki Tae-jeong opened the boss’s upper and lower jaws as if to separate them, and poured the medicine he had into his mouth. H3. It was a treatment that was immediately effective in treating external and internal injuries and could only be used by those of a certain rank in the military. It was a higher-grade item than the medicine he had consistently fed Lee Sehwa so far.
“Ugh, Lie… Lieutenant General.”
“Huh? You have to pronounce it correctly. It’s not a Lieutenant General, but a Brigadier General. People in higher positions are so sensitive about my rank.”
Horror flashed in the eyes of the dazed House boss, Son Byeong-gyu, who had been turned to mush. As the pill passed through his esophagus, his torn lips and bruised face slowly returned to their original state. It might take a bit more time for the injuries inside his body to heal, but he would recover soon.
“Boss.”
“Yes, yes…!”
“Why did you do something you weren’t told to do? We’ve been doing well so far.”
“I thought it was a clearly agreed-upon matter…”
The guy was crying and clinging to Ki Tae-jeong’s legs.