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It felt like several hours had passed since he was locked in the basement. At first, he thought someone would appear, but no matter how long he waited, no one came. Finally losing patience, Ja-gyeong went into the bathroom and looked around. Fortunately, there was no CCTV, so he stepped on the bathtub and pushed the ventilator with his hand.
Even when he applied force, it didn't budge. He looked for something useful in the kitchen and brought a steak knife to pry open the gap. But the ventilator, fixed with screws, remained immovable. In the end, he gave up and sat on the floor huffing in anger, tilting his head back.
Shit. If they're going to lock me up, they could at least give me cigarettes. They filled the fridge with food but there's not a single cigarette. In this frustrating situation, not having that is driving me crazy. He didn't even touch the food since he didn't know what might be in it.
He went out, opened a bottle of water and drank it, then let out a long sigh. He went back to the elevator and forced the doors open. The elevator was stopped on the upper floor. But there was no way to go up. If he climbed the cable and the elevator came down by mistake, he could be crushed to death.
"Hey! Managing Director Kang!"
He shouted loudly and his voice echoed. Surely they could hear it, but it was quiet. He shouted even louder.
"Let me out! You son of a bitch!"
"Pervert bastard!"
"Crazy bastard!"
"Go get struck by lightning and die!"
"At least give me cigarettes! Cigarettes!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, but all that returned was silence. Ah, I'm so pissed. He grabbed the back of his neck and headed for the bedroom. Fuck. Are they going to keep me locked up like this and raise me like livestock? Or are they really planning to stuff me? That human would go that far and more.
Stuff me and stand me in the bedroom and jerk off every day, maybe. Huffing in anger, he was walking about halfway down the corridor when suddenly a cunning idea crossed his mind. Holding his forehead, he wobbled like a sick person and collapsed, lying motionless in the middle of the corridor with his eyes closed. If they're watching, someone would come to check sooner or later—that was his thinking.
***
Il-hyun, sitting on the bed watching the footage on TV, couldn't wipe the smile from his lips. Ja-gyeong, flopping around like a freshly caught fish, had thrown himself on the bed, gone into the bathroom, paced back and forth in the corridor, moving without staying still for even a moment. Being locked up must be driving him crazy, and his irritation reached all the way here.
He forced open the elevator doors and screamed at the top of his lungs, making it echo throughout the whole house. Il-hyun was watching with an amused face when suddenly Ja-gyeong collapsed while walking across the corridor. Il-hyun's expression hardened. He wasn't moving at all.
After a while, a call came from Tae-soo.
[Chairman. Security contacted us. It looks like Ja-gyeong has collapsed. What should we do?]
Il-hyun, watching the screen closely, chuckled.
"Leave him. He'll get up soon."
After ending the call, he looked at the screen. 10 minutes passed, maybe about 20 minutes, when suddenly Ja-gyeong bolted up and glared at the CCTV. As if to show off, he raised his middle finger, and Il-hyun let out a low laugh. I told you his acting is terrible.
Then after drinking water, he went to the bed and lay down. Ja-gyeong didn't touch the food in the fridge at all, only drinking the bottled water. He tossed and turned on the bed, then curled up and went quiet.
It seemed like he was really asleep this time. He couldn't take his eyes off that sight for a long time. Who knew observing someone could be this fun. Should I just keep him locked up there forever. He didn't know how much he wanted to touch him while drugging him to sleep and changing his clothes himself. He struggled to suppress his desires to wash him, fuck him, and kiss him.
That's why he bit his nipple a little. If he discovered that too, he must be furious. It seemed he needed to think a bit about what to do with Ja-gyeong. Il-hyun murmured to himself toward Ja-gyeong on the screen.
"Sleep well."
The screen went dark, and Il-hyun also lay down on the bed. It was a night when sleep wouldn't come easily even with his eyes closed.
***
"Still?"
"Yes. They say he didn't even touch water today."
After work, he heard that Ja-gyeong hadn't eaten a single meal today. It's already the 4th day. On the first day, he threw a tantrum demanding to be let out and screamed, but from the second day, he strangely just lay on the bed without moving. Still, until yesterday he at least drank water, but now they say he won't even drink water.
Il-hyun, about to loosen his tie, turned on the TV with the remote and changed the channel. The bedroom where Ja-gyeong was staying appeared. As Tae-soo said, he was lying on the bed in a sleeping position, not moving a muscle. He was definitely in that same position this morning too.
"Tell the housekeeper to prepare food."
"Will you go down yourself?"
"Yeah."
"I'll accompany you."
"It's fine. Just prepare the food."
Yes. After Tae-soo disappeared, Il-hyun looked at Ja-gyeong on the screen then went outside. The housekeeper put the dinner on a tray, and taking that, he took the elevator down. His footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.
After the accident a year ago, everything in the house was moved elsewhere, leaving the basement completely empty. If he had kept the shooting range, Ja-gyeong might have been a little less bored. But if he had, he would have probably sprayed the ceiling with bullets.
Going toward the bedroom at the very end, he saw Ja-gyeong lying on the bed with his back turned. He didn't even budge at the sound of footsteps, so he put the food on the table beside the bed and quietly sat down, looking at his back.
"Want a cigarette?"
At that sound, he reacted and turned his body to lie on his back. He looked like he just woke up. His hair was tousled from rolling around on the bed so much, looking cute. When he reached out his hand, Il-hyun tried to take out a cigarette case from his pocket, but Ja-gyeong shook his head slightly.
"No. Hold me. It's been a long time."
One of Il-hyun's eyebrows went up crooked. Asking to be held with that groggy face still heavy with sleep. He watched to see what he was up to, but he didn't withdraw his hand. Thinking to just go along with it, he got on the bed and willingly gave his body to the guy.
The guy hugged his neck first and their lips overlapped in an instant. Il-hyun's eyes widened slightly. He pushed his tongue between their overlapping lips. His lower body grew hot. Il-hyun slipped his hand inside Ja-gyeong's shirt and groped his chest. That's when the tie separated from the shirt.
The moment he noticed and tried to pull away, Ja-gyeong quickly wrapped the tie around Il-hyun's neck and rolled to the other side of the bed, pulling it tight. In an instant, Il-hyun's breath was cut off and he groaned. At the pain of being strangled, his temples and neck bulged with veins.
He tried to put his hand between his neck and the tie, but Ja-gyeong was supporting it with his body so no gap opened. He changed direction and rolled toward Ja-gyeong, falling together off the bed. From the shock of falling, the tie choking his neck momentarily loosened, and Il-hyun pulled it hard to separate it from his neck.
Ja-gyeong bolted up and stepped back, cracking his neck left and right slowly. Il-hyun rubbed his neck where the tie had been wrapped until just before and laughed.
"Was that just now a honey trap?"
"Shut up."
"Don't do it elsewhere. Only use it on me."
Ja-gyeong charged right at him. When he dodged the flying fist, he immediately tried to strike with his knee. When Il-hyun just blocked and dodged, Ja-gyeong wrapped Kang Il-hyun's arm with the tie and bent it backward. Then Il-hyun kicked the back of Ja-gyeong's knee and untied the tie wrapped around his wrist.
Their tangled arms and legs separated and distance opened between them. Ja-gyeong, limping on the leg that was kicked, wrapped the tie around his right hand. He charged again and they exchanged attacks and blocks tensely before Ja-gyeong's fist quickly struck Il-hyun's jaw.
Crack. Along with the sound, his face turned and Il-hyun's expression hardened dangerously. He swept his tongue inside his mouth and tasted blood. He spit on the floor, and sure enough, blood was mixed in. He glared at Ja-gyeong in front of him, and Ja-gyeong was wiggling his fingers and giggling.
Il-hyun ground his teeth and laughed along.
"Honey, are you really going to be like this?"
Ja-gyeong ignored him completely and charged, throwing a kick. Il-hyun dodged quickly, grabbed Ja-gyeong's foot, tucked it under his arm, and slung him over his shoulder in one motion. In an instant, Ja-gyeong's body was lifted into the air and he struck Il-hyun's back with his fist.
Thud, thud, he didn't budge at the hits, then threw him onto the dining table. Crash, the table shattered and his body fell to the floor. Ja-gyeong staggered up, pulled out the steak knife and fork stuck in the kitchen, held them in both hands, spun them around, and took a fighting stance.
Il-hyun unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and walked forward, letting out a long breath.
"Stop it. I think I'm really going to get angry."
"The one who should be angry is me. Our reckoning was already finished."
"Who decided to finish it. You broke the promise. Did I ask you to shoot my leg?"
"You told me to kill you first. Did you think I wouldn't know?"
Il-hyun made a hurt expression.
"I didn't really kill you though."
Ja-gyeong was dumbfounded. So does that make everything that happened unhappen?
"So you're trying to kill me now?"
Seeing his expression full of venom, Il-hyun loosened the strength in his hands and sighed.
"If I intended to kill you, I would have killed you as soon as I found you. Same with your brothers."
Ja-gyeong kept his mouth shut tight. That was true. Lying on the bed for days thinking about it, it didn't seem like Kang Il-hyun brought him here to kill him. Stuffing him was even less likely. Then what on earth was it for?
Il-hyun's eyes sank a bit deeper.
"I thought about you sometimes."
"...."
"Actually, often. You won't believe this either, though."
At the atmosphere like a love confession, Ja-gyeong scowled in distaste. Seeing that, Il-hyun grinned sly.
"That, you're happy about it, right?"
Ja-gyeong snapped.
"Shut up and tell me the real reason."
There was one thing that came to mind, but he thought surely not. But through his mouth, he learned that 'surely not' was actually true. Il-hyun soon wiped away his smile and got to the main point.
"I want you to take on a new job. Of course, you'd have to allow it."
As expected. Ja-gyeong kept his mouth shut and just glared. As if he had been waiting, Il-hyun's phone rang. He finished a short call with someone and looked at Ja-gyeong.
"Let's go."
"Where."
Forgetting the brawl from just before, he smiled brightly. The bruise marks on his face where he was hit were vivid.
"Your brothers have arrived. Upstairs."