NFS 1.2

‘You guys eat expensive food? You must be rich.’

Gi-ho’s words made the female classmate’s expression sour.

‘You came in here to eat too, Oppa.’

‘Are we the same as you? We make money. You guys are just working part-time. And you ordered a salad?’

‘I have a coupon for this.’

‘Hey, it’s your parents’ hard-earned money, save it.’

Gi-ho gave his advice with a stern, smug look and disappeared. Ahn-jae was already sitting at an empty table across the way. It was too far to hear the conversation, but the female classmate lowered her voice.

‘Ugh, he’s so annoying.’

‘He’s the worst. He’s making money thanks to Ahn-jae oppa too.’

‘Besides, Ahn-jae oppa is constantly in the red because he’s only doing development. It’s not easy to get investments. But when I look at Gi-ho oppa, he’s always getting free meals. He’s a total freeloader.’

The male classmate who was listening chimed in, saying that wasn’t true.

‘Gi-ho hyung is clearly doing his part of the work, so of course he should get paid. And Ahn-jae hyung isn’t stupid, why would he pay and feed someone who can’t do their job?’

She looked at him incredulously.

‘Do you think we don’t know that? We’re just saying it because he’s annoying.’

‘No, being annoying is one thing, and working and getting paid is another. Maybe they agreed to provide meal expenses, but if you judge it so emotionally…’

‘You’re annoying too.’

The man stiffened in shock.

‘Seung-ha, what are you doing, come on, take my side.’

He grabbed Seung-ha’s arm and shook it, pleading. Seung-ha shook his head firmly, even while being shaken.

‘I can’t do such an emotional favour.’

The girls laughed loudly and said that Seung-ha was the only one they liked. Seung-ha smirked, spinning his fork out of habit, and his gaze locked with Ahn-jae, who was a few tables over. Seung-ha assumed the loud noise had caught his attention. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have looked at him.

Gi-ho, who was sitting across from him, kept talking to himself, but Ahn-jae’s eyes were fixed on Seung-ha. There was clear annoyance in his eyes. It read as if Seung-ha being in the same space as him was unpleasant. Seung-ha stopped smiling and looked away. Seung-ha was the one who had entered the restaurant first, but he felt like he had committed a crime. He forced the pasta he had only been twirling into his mouth.

That night, Ahn-jae’s movements were unusually rough.

“Ugh! H-hyung… Just a moment, it hurts, ugh! G-gently… Ah!”

As soon as Ahn-jae entered the hotel, he made Seung-ha kneel like a dog and inserted himself without any preparation. No matter how used Seung-ha had become to Ahn-jae’s size, he always needed some time to adjust at first, so right now Seung-ha felt like his body was being torn apart. Unable to bear it, he grabbed the bed cover and tried to move forward to escape, but Ahn-jae’s hand roughly pressed down on his head. Seung-ha buried his face in the bed and turned his head to breathe, but a scream soon escaped his lips.

“Haa! It, it hurts… Ah! Hyung, it hurts, p-pull it out quickly… Ah!”

“Don’t exaggerate.”

Even amidst the pain, the icy, cold voice sent a chill through him.

“You like being fucked, don’t you?”

The hot, thick cock thrust hard inside. He felt like he was going to throw up. It hurt as if he was being stabbed deep inside his stomach with a hot skewer. But he barely swallowed the scream that was about to come out. He didn’t want to disappoint Ahn-jae. Instead, he put the blanket in his mouth and bit down hard. To get used to his cock pounding into him from behind, to alleviate the pain, Seung-ha barely managed to reach out and grab his shrunken genitals.

He knew from experience that if he focused on finding pleasure, even if it was painful, the pain would disappear. To do that, he had to feel pleasure. Grabbing his genitals was only out of desperation to escape the pain. As he struggled to rub his genitals, he heard a sneer from behind.

“You’d probably cum even if you were fucked by a beer bottle.”

It was a vulgar thing he wouldn’t normally say outside. But it wasn’t the first time for Seung-ha. Whenever Ahn-jae’s cock entered his body and Seung-ha moaned, he always got annoyed and spat out vulgar curses. He was surprised at first, but Seung-ha even found that special. He disguised the hurt as a reward, telling himself that the reaction he showed was only directed at him. But this time, it was difficult to do that. It hurt too much. No matter how much he touched his genitals, arousal wouldn’t sprout.

“Hic… Ugh! Ugh…”

The edge of the blanket he was biting trembled. Then suddenly, a burning pain, as if he was being branded with fire, surged in his ass. Seung-ha twisted his shoulders as if having a seizure. At that moment, Ahn-jae suddenly stopped moving.

“Shit.”

He pulled his cock out with a curse. His hand released Seung-ha, and Seung-ha collapsed onto the bed. He was out of his mind with pain, so he didn’t have time to think about why he had stopped. He grabbed the blanket as if tearing it apart with his hands and held on, then he vaguely heard him leaving. As soon as the door slammed shut, Seung-ha let out the moans he had been holding back.

“Aaaah! Haa… Ugh… Haa…”

He thought something was wrong. As his mind became accustomed to the dizzying pain, he barely lifted his upper body and looked down. The first thing he saw was the sheet stained bright red. As he realized that the wetness soaking his lower body was his own blood, his mind went blank. It was the first time he had bled so much, so the pain was temporarily pushed back.

What should he do? He tried to get up, but even a slight movement hurt his rear, making it difficult to even stand. It seemed difficult to do it alone, but the room was as silent as a tomb. The fact that Ahn-jae had left him like this finally dawned on him. But he didn’t feel resentful. He didn’t hate him at all, even though he had abandoned him. Instead, he was worried about what would happen if he said he wouldn’t do it anymore.

He was just ashamed of himself, and he hated the sight of his bleeding body. Seung-ha gritted his teeth and got up. He gathered the sheets in one place, put on his clothes, put on his shoes, and grabbed his bag. He didn’t remember properly how he left the hotel room in what state of mind. That’s why he didn’t notice Ahn-jae’s bag was still there as he left the room. He barely made it back home, but before he could even open the door, he heard a scream-like shout.

“You thought I wouldn’t know you were embezzling money?! You’re trying to run away alone because we’re going bankrupt, you son of a bitch!”

Seung-ha recognized the voice as his mother’s and took his hand off the doorknob he was about to open. There had been problems with his stepfather for several months. Seung-ha’s mother had remarried solely for the money, but the problem was that she hadn’t checked where the money came from. Or rather, she probably knew from the beginning but ignored it. Because all that mattered was that he had a lot of money.

Seung-ha had only suspected it, but recently he found out that the money he was spending lavishly was obtained through fraud. But the guilt was only momentary. He also ignored the source of the money and gave it to Ahn-jae. Even that was no longer possible now.

“Who’s going bankrupt, you watch your mouth!”

Crash, clang! The sound of furniture breaking echoed loudly. Seung-ha turned away as if it were someone else’s business and took the elevator. He knew it was his mother who had broken the furniture. She always made a scene first and then called the police. According to her, she had to accumulate evidence to get money in the event of a divorce.

She had the know-how gained from her past three marriages, so she would be good at disguising herself as a victim. So he wasn’t worried about his mother. It’s just that there wouldn’t be any money to extort this time. Seung-ha came outside, but he stood blankly with nowhere to go. He could have gone to any hotel, but he didn’t want to that day. He felt feverish, probably because of the injury. He was cold and shivering, but he couldn’t go anywhere.

“There’s been no contact for a week? None at all?”

“Yeah,” Seung-ha mumbled in response, just playing with his udon noodles with his chopsticks. Seon immediately frowned and scolded him.

“Hey, didn’t I tell you not to do that with food? If you’re going to eat, eat properly.”

“Yeah,” Seung-ha quickly responded and slurped up the udon noodles. But he couldn’t chew and swallow right away. He heard Seon’s harsh curse.

“What a fucking bastard.”

“Don’t curse at Ahn-jae hyung.”

“No, he deserves it. Even among people who abandon their dogs, many do it because the dog is sick. Because when they’re sick, it’s troublesome and costs money. That bastard Ahn-jae is just like those people. He abandoned you because you got sick.”

Although the word ‘abandoned’ particularly stung, Seung-ha couldn’t argue back. He couldn’t get angry at Seon. Knowing she was the only one who got angry on his behalf, he managed only this much of a response despite his rising emotions.

“Still, people who abandon dogs are worse. People can live alone.”

Seon just drank her soju with a disapproving expression.

“Did something bad happen to you?”

“Someone abandoned another dog at the shelter.”

“How did they know the address? That’s why they don’t give out the shelter’s address.”

“When we checked the CCTV, it was a former volunteer. That bastard abandoned their own dog they claimed to cherish so much.”

This time, ‘abandoned’ was about the dog that was left behind, but it pierced Seung-ha’s heart like an awl. At least that dog had been cherished and loved. Seung-ha poured out the water from his glass and filled it with soju. When he tried to drink, Seon hurriedly stopped him with her hand.

“Hey, you can’t drink when you’re injured.”

I’m all better, Seung-ha was about to say, when he noticed the wound on Seon’s hand.

“What’s this?”

“That dog bit me. It hurt but I couldn’t feel angry at all.”

“…”

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Seung-ha lifted his blank gaze from the glass of alcohol.

“I wonder what would happen to me if I was completely abandoned.”

Seon’s eyes wavered. Seung-ha thought he’d made a mistake. Despite her crude language, she understood his wounds better than anyone. There was no need to make her worry.

“Seon…”

“What do you mean what would happen? You’re human, so you’ll live well on your own.”

Seung-ha smiled wryly at having his own words thrown back at him. They drank in silence for a while.

That drinking session didn’t end until 2 AM. Though they’d emptied several bottles of soju between them, they appeared fine on the outside, except for giggling at trivial things.

“Hey, look at that sign. Min Hair. Hehehe, bald, it’s a hair salon but bald, hahaha~”

“Haha, bald hair, is it where bald people go just to wash their faces?”

“Puhahaha, bald face wash!”

They bent over laughing on the empty street. Their laughter echoed loudly between buildings, but neither cared.

“Ah, that’s so funny. Ow, I’m tearing up.”

Seon was actually wiping tears as she continued examining store signs, when she suddenly stopped. When her expression twisted in anger, Seung-ha asked “What’s wrong?” and tried to find what she was looking at. He didn’t have to look long. Seon walked quickly toward a store while cursing.

“Dogs aren’t for sale, you bastards!!”

CRASH!

Seon kicked hard at a standing sign in front of a store. Seung-ha ran to stop her but stopped when he saw the store sign.

‘XX Pets. Purebred Dog Specialists’

“Why are you selling family for money! You bastards!!”

The agitated Seon suddenly dumped out her bag’s contents and started searching for something.

“What are you looking for? Huh? Why a marker?”

Before Seung-ha could stop her in surprise, Seon wrote large letters on the glass wall.

‘NOT FOR SALE’

“Keeping poor dogs locked up just to breed forever! Throwing puppies in the trash when they’re sick even before they die! You fuckers, don’t sell dogs! Dogs aren’t objects! Don’t buy dogs with money, you bastards!”

Seon yelled for a while and turned around, still fuming. Only then did she notice Seung-ha crouching beside her bag.

“Seung-ha, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick? …Huh? Are you crying?”

Seon was shocked and sat down beside him, trying to see his face, but Seung-ha kept his face buried between his knees. Though he made choking sounds as he tried to hold back his tears, he couldn’t stop them. Teardrops fell onto the ground with soft plops. He spoke with a voice mixed with sobs.

“I wish hyung wouldn’t see me as just a money-making trash. I wish he wouldn’t abandon me even if I don’t have money.”

Seung-ha bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, trying not to make crying sounds. But the tears kept coming up, impossible to hold back. He sat there crying for a long time. Seon kept stroking his back without saying a word.

Though he’d drunk until dawn and embarrassingly cried in the street, he had to leave home after barely sleeping for a few hours. From early morning, his mother and stepfather started fighting and breaking things again. Seung-ha went to school for the first time in almost a week. Before, he would have entered the main gate hoping to see Ahn-jae, but today he looked around nervously, afraid of running into him.