TTD 136

As Ja-kyung was calculating the dates, he realized that Kang Il-hyun’s mother’s death anniversary was coming up in a few days and sighed inwardly. Whenever his mother’s death anniversary approached, Kang Il-hyun would become somewhat gloomy, and this year was no different. Kang Il-hyun opened his closed eyes and looked at Ja-kyung.

“I get worried when you go to meet Jang Tae-ho.”

“Why?”

“You know how much Prosecutor Jang hates me.”

“No need to worry. He is him and the CEO is the CEO.”

“Then tell me.”

“What?”

“If both Jang Tae-ho and I fall into the water, who will you save first?”

A red light flashed in his head. Beware, a crazy person has appeared. Run away. If possible, do not feed them. If you get bitten out of bad luck, you might die.

“You’re a good swimmer, CEO.”

“So.”

“I heard Tae-ho hyung can’t swim well.”

“So.”

Ja-kyung’s lips quivered. Damn, I made a mistake. I should have said Kang Il-hyun unconditionally. What’s so hard about sweet talk?

“Of course it’s you, CEO. I will save you. I don’t care if my brother drowns or not!”

“What if the Wang brothers and I fall in?”

“Unconditionally you, CEO!”

A satisfied smile spread across Kang Il-hyun’s face. He grabbed Ja-kyung’s cheeks and kissed him.

“You really like me the most. Right?”

“Of course.”

“You love me the most.”

“That’s right.”

Even while readily answering, he was worried. Has this guy gone mad? Why is he acting so scary again? Then he asked an unexpected question.

“Then what if Kang Yoo-jung and I fall into the water?”

For a moment, Ja-kyung was at a loss for words. There was one thing Wang Han had drilled into his ears since childhood. Under no circumstances should you bully women and children. So even when receiving requests for commissioned work, women and children were always excluded.

“Yoo-jung is… different, isn’t she?”

“What’s different?”

At the sharp tone, Ja-kyung came to his senses as if he had been slapped.

“I misspoke. I will save you, CEO. That’s the right thing to do!”

Kang Il-hyun got up from his seat. He leisurely returned to his seat, picked up a glass of alcohol, and emptied it while staring intently at Ja-kyung. There was a smile on his lips, but it was definitely unsettling. The moment Ja-kyung quickly got up to run away, Kang Il-hyun swiftly picked him up and threw him over his shoulder.

“What, what are you doing! Wait!”

With that, he threw Ja-kyung into the swimming pool. Splash! Ja-kyung, who had sunk into the water, came up to the surface and spat out water. Stunned by the sudden turn of events, he wore a bewildered expression as Kang Il-hyun approached with a cigarette in his mouth.  He tilted his head obliquely and looked down at Ja-kyung.

Ja-kyung frowned and shouted, 

“Damn it! What did I do wrong to deserve this!”

Kang Il-hyun smiled kindly with the cigarette still in his mouth.

“You should have answered correctly.”

He turned around and left without hesitation, and Ja-kyung came out fuming. As he wrung out his wet clothes and headed home, he saw two security guards changing shifts at the entrance. But he noticed a faint scar on one man’s face. It was small, but he could tell what it was at a glance. 

Ja-kyung stopped and stared closely at the man. He spread his fingers to gauge the man’s height and their eyes met, but the man hurriedly avoided eye contact and fidgeted. As he walked closer, the sound of footsteps made the man’s shoulders visibly tense even from a distance.

“Excuse me, could I borrow a light?”

The man turned around, looking flustered as he rummaged through his pockets. After receiving the lighter, Ja-kyung casually observed him.

“What happened to your face?”

“This was outside… I accidentally fell…”

“It was cut with a knife, wasn’t it?”

The man avoided eye contact as if embarrassed, and Ja-kyung returned the lighter. Put some ointment on it. It’ll leave a scar. The man swallowed hard after receiving the lighter. He looked like he had a lot to say, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut.

Ja-kyung had a strong suspicion that this man might have been the one who entered the room. He considered pressing further but decided to just observe for now, as the man didn’t seem to pose much of a threat. He turned around and went inside the house, where the housekeeper was waiting with a towel. It seemed she had witnessed the commotion outside.

“The CEO is still as mischievous as ever.”

Ja-kyung took the towel and wiped off the moisture, smiling. He’s not mischievous, he’s just a crazy bastard. Unable to fully express his true feelings, he headed to Kang Il-hyun’s bedroom, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Hearing the sound of water from the bathroom, he went and found him taking a half-bath in the hinoki tub. Il-hyun slowly turned his gaze towards Ja-kyung, who had been leaning his head back.

“You’re here? Did you reflect on your actions?”

“Don’t talk nonsense about reflection. Shut up and get out.”

“Was the pool water not enough?”

Ja-kyung hurriedly took off his clothes and went in to take a shower. As he was lathering up with a lot of foam, Kang Il-hyun followed him in. He had already grabbed a shower puff and was gently scrubbing Ja-kyung’s back.

“Next time, answer that it’s me without any hesitation.”

“This is gaslighting.”

“What’s gaslighting?”

“Constantly brainwashing the weak to do as you please. Like you, CEO.”

Upon hearing this, Kang Il-hyun turned Ja-kyung around and asked seriously,

“Do you really think you’re weak?”

“……”

“You’re the one who holds my lifeline and shakes it, aren’t you?”

“……”

“Do you admit it?”

This time, he also lathers foam on his chest. Glancing down, Kang Il-hyun’s d1ck was already erect and in a state of excitement. Kang Il-hyun tossed the shower puff aside and cupped Ja-kyung’s cheeks with his foam-covered hands.

Due to their close contact, their d1cks were pressed together, and his lower abdomens felt heavy. Their lips met in sweet kisses. Forgetting the earlier incident, Ja-kyung lowered his hand and grabbed the two d1cks, rubbing them up and down. A picture-perfect smile appeared on Kang Il-hyun’s face. The two of them indulged in each other and stayed there for quite a long time.

***

Ja-kyung sat on the second-floor terrace, appreciating the scene before his eyes. Construction was in full swing behind the building, with excavators digging around, leaving the center of the ground untouched.

“What on earth could that be….”

Even when he asked Kang Il-hyun out of curiosity, he only laughed and never told him. On the other hand, Ja-kyung was worried that the workers might disturb the watermelon field in the front. If they dug carelessly and a pile of human bones poured out, it would be a headache in itself.

After watching for a while, he suddenly felt bored. Ja-kyung’s daily life had changed a lot from before. The life of constantly moving around and always being anxious about someone coming to kill him no longer existed.

Instead, he often felt tedium. He thought about learning something new at his age, but he had no idea where to start. Meanwhile, Jang Tae-ho wanted Ja-kyung to study and go to school.

However, Ja-kyung had no interest in studying. If they were brothers, they should have similar intelligence, but it seemed to have gone in only one direction. Wondering what would be fun to do, he got up from his seat and moved to the fitness room.

He went in, changed into workout clothes, lightly stretched, and then turned on the switch of the treadmill. He turned on some music and gradually walked before starting to run, and after running for a while, he felt a presence behind his back.

When he turned around, he saw the security guard from the other day awkwardly greeting him. Ja-kyung pressed the stop button and got off the treadmill. He wiped the flowing sweat with a towel and approached the man, who politely greeted him.

“What’s the matter?”

“First of all, I’d like to apologize. Actually, on the day you returned, I went to your room. I heard you were looking for the corridor CCTV footage from the security team that day… I think I may have acted in a way that caused misunderstanding, so I came in a hurry to explain.”

As expected, it was the right man. There was still a knife scar on his face, and his face was even more haggard and his eyes were sunken compared to that time.

“That’s a relief. I was worried it might be a ghost. Why did you come that day? It doesn’t seem like you entered the wrong room.”

“Well… I heard you do various things. Do you also find people? I’ll pay you as much as you want.”

Ja-kyung smiled apologetically. He didn’t know how the rumor had spread in this household, but finding people was not what Ja-kyung did. His specialty was finding and killing people. When he gestured with his eyes for the man to say more without answering, the man explained the situation.

“I have a younger brother. He’s a college student and an athlete. Recently, a friend introduced him to an illegal fighting ring, and he worked there a few times, but I haven’t been able to contact him for two weeks. I was worried, so I went there to look for him… But those people said they didn’t know and threatened to kill me if I came back again.”

Ja-kyung finally understood why there was a knife scar on the side of the man’s face. It was useless to report to the police, and both of his parents were sick, and his mother was skipping meals out of worry for her second son, so he was asking if Ja-kyung could possibly find him.