ACJY C65

As usual, the man woke up at 4:30 a.m. He carefully moved between the living room and the kitchen, keeping the main room door closed for Detective Oh. Taeheun, who had been listening attentively from inside the room to the sounds of the man relieving himself and showering, opened the door just as the man came out of the bathroom. The man, who was drying his hair with a towel, stopped upon seeing Taeheun.

“Did you sleep well?”

His voice was gentle.

“No. Sleeping alone makes it hard to fall asleep.”

The man laughed at Taeheun’s feigned complaint. For some reason, the man’s face also looked haggard. Could it be that, like him, the man had tossed and turned all night? He held a flicker of unfounded hope.

“Didn’t you see me in your dreams? I sent you tons of telepathic messages.”

“Go wash up. I’ll make some hangover soup.”

What harm would it do to react a little?

The man changed the subject again.

“I already washed up. Look at my face. It’s all clean.”

He pushed his face forward, but it was ignored.

Taeheun had been awake all night. Even if he wanted to sleep, he couldn’t. He couldn’t doze off, not even for a moment. He had endured the tedious hours of the night and even finished showering before the man woke up.

The man continued to dry his wet hair as he walked unsteadily towards the kitchen. Taeheun stared blankly at the man’s back and left the room. He deliberately stomped his heels on the floor as he crossed the living room.

Looking up at the sky from the veranda, there wasn’t a single cloud, as if the rain had never fallen. The scorching morning heat suggested that the daytime would be unbearable.

The mountains and fields, drenched by the overnight rain, looked even greener. Birds chirped energetically. The dogs were running around the still-damp yard, leaving paw prints. Taeheun was about to take down the laundry hanging on the veranda when he shouted towards the man.

“Mr. Gibeom, should I take down the laundry? Or hang it back up in the yard?”

He didn’t care if Detective Oh woke up or not.

The man gestured for him to lower his voice, but Taeheun ignored him.

“You want me to take it down?”

Finally, the man hurried towards Taeheun. He wobbled more than usual because of his hurried pace.

“In the yard,” he whispered.

“Alright. Why are you being so careful?”

“It would be rude to wake him when he’s tired.”

“And I’m not tired?”

He asked curtly, annoyed that the man was concerned about Detective Oh.

“That’s not what I meant.”

The man was flustered.

“I’m just kidding. I’ll hang the laundry.”

Despite saying it was a joke, he didn’t smile. He knew he should smile, but he was too upset with the man for being more considerate of Detective Oh. The man said, “Okay,” with a sullen expression.

Ah, now I don’t like this.

“Is it pollock soup?”

This time, he asked with a grin, revealing his teeth.

As if the sight was hideous, the man flinched and stepped back.

“…Yes.”

“Jihye will want some for her hangover too.”

“I guess so.”

Finally, the man smiled.

His smiling face was truly charming. Not only that, his white, even teeth and his rather plump, red lips seemed perfect. Taeheun stared at the man. The man stared back at Taeheun, then belatedly blushed.

“The soup’s going to boil over.”

The man hurried to the kitchen, worrying about the soup that wasn’t even boiling.

“It’s not the soup, it’s me that’s going to boil over,” Taeheun muttered under his breath.

Would the man understand the hidden meaning?

Shaking his head, he took down the laundry and draped it over his arm.

The soles of his feet stung. The wounds seemed to have gotten worse because he stubbornly refused the man’s offer to treat them. He should ask the man to treat them later when they were alone. Imagining the man disinfecting the wounds and applying antiseptic made him smile. Would he bend his large frame and blow on them again this time? The mere thought made his whole body flush.

Honestly, I’m much prettier than Kwon Yongjun. Of course I am. He suddenly compared himself to Kwon Yongjun, feeling confident. Of course, the man’s preference might be small and petite men, but once they were completely naked, all that was left was the face, wasn’t it? It went without saying that his body was as good as anyone’s.

Whistling, he stepped down into the yard. He hung his underwear next to the man’s. True to his character, the man wore plain white cotton briefs. Taeheun wanted to buy the man the same kind he wore, expensive and high-quality, so-called boxer briefs. White would suit his dark skin, so preferably white. Imagining how beautiful the man’s genitals would look above the tight-fitting underwear made his gums dry with excitement.

If he had to go to Seoul, he could buy them right away, but at times like this, he regretted being stuck in the countryside. He could ask Detective Oh to buy them, and he would probably do it without complaint, but Taeheun wanted to buy the underwear for the man himself. The man would surely be shocked by the price, but Taeheun wanted to enjoy that reaction.

“Good morning, Father.”

He heard the child greet the man.

“Ahjussi’s in the yard!”

Taeheun shouted. Not even a second later, the child appeared on the veranda.

“Ahjussi, good morning.”

“Sure. Did you sleep well, you little drunkard?”

“Hey, I’m not a drunkard.”

The child squirmed, embarrassed.

“What do you mean you’re not? You were about to drink the whole kettle if I hadn’t stopped you. Don’t you dare lecture me about drinking from now on.”

“Tsk, that’s not fair. I only had a few glasses of makgeolli.”

He stuck out his lips.

“But, Ahjussi.”

The child beckoned Taeheun closer. When he approached, the child whispered,

“Is Father angry?”

His tone was cautious. Taeheun burst out laughing.

“Have you ever seen Mr. Gibeom get angry?”

“No.”

The child smiled brightly and ran inside. He stomped his feet, then suddenly seemed to remember something and started walking carefully on tiptoe.

Seeing this, a sudden realization dawned on Taeheun. He finally understood that the child and the man’s consideration for Detective Oh, which had irritated him until just a moment ago, stemmed from the fact that they weren’t entirely comfortable with him. He was truly clueless.

Taeheun chuckled foolishly and looked around, wanting to do something more for the man who seemed more at ease with him.

“Mansu, Moogong, want some food?”

At Taeheun’s call, the dogs stopped what they were doing and looked back. They weren’t excited enough to run over, but at least they didn’t bark or bare their teeth.

“Mr. Gibeom, I’ll feed the dogs.”

He deliberately spoke loudly and went into the storage room. As he came out with a bag of dog food, the dogs wagged their tails and ran towards him. As expected, the best person for an animal was the one who fed them. Taeheun smiled, seeing the smaller dog approach his feet, which it rarely did.

He naturally thought of his uncle. The person who fed and gave money to Lee Seonjae. Everyone in the family, including himself, was his dog. They always wagged their tails in front of him. They did whatever he wanted.

As a child, Kim Jiyoon used his small, pencil-holding hand to organize ledgers in the dusty storage room. Because his uncle said time was money, he repeatedly skipped grades, graduating early from elementary school, and then took equivalency exams for all his courses.

Lee Seonjae had no memories of a typical school life. He only achieved good enough grades to get his name in the newspaper for participating in the Math Olympiad. College was out of the question. While his brother and Lee Hyeonjun attended cram schools and received private tutoring, Lee Seonjae was busy with ledger work.

Then, on a whim of his uncle, he belatedly, at the mere age of seventeen, received tutoring to match the level of VIP clients, and entered the top university in the country the following year.

His college years were Lee Seonjae’s golden age. It was the only time he dreamed of a future of his own, a world without his uncle. Even then, he was nothing more than a dog off its leash.

“Please wash the bowls.”

The man, who had come out to the veranda, spoke.

Taeheun felt playful. He wagged his tail at the man like a dog. The man, seeing Taeheun wiggling his hips, frowned as if he had seen something unpleasant. And he truly pretended not to see it.

“They must be dirty from last night’s rain.”

“They look clean.”

He wiggled his hips again, but the man didn’t pat his head. Avoiding his gaze, the man said, “Still.”

“Alright. I’ll wash them clean and give them food.”

“And water, too.”

“Yes, Master.”

This time he imitated a servant. Finally, the man couldn’t help but twitch the corners of his lips.

“Come in after you feed the dogs. Breakfast is ready.”

The man said this and disappeared inside.

Taeheun stared at the sliding door where the man had vanished. Being like this made him feel like the head of a household. The man was his wife, and he was the man’s husband. To the neighbors, he might appear incompetent. He was pale, while his wife was tanned dark.

He found it amusing that he was constantly fantasizing and imagining things.

Lee Seonjae was an excessively realistic person. He never indulged in fantasies. He always sat in the office, buried in ledgers and documents. He only dated women, and even that was purely calculated. Marriage or children were never a consideration.

On the other hand, Kim Taeheun was always out and about, lost in random thoughts and fantasies. He liked men, not women. He was blindly devoted to a man he hadn’t even kissed, let alone had sex with. He naturally wanted to start a family, and the man’s child was as precious to him as his own.

He had the absurd thought that someone had switched his brain on the day Lee Seonjae died. He chuckled.

“Let’s eat, guys. Mom’s busy preparing breakfast, so Dad will feed you.”

Taeheun washed the dogs’ food and water bowls, shaking off the excess water.