I shot up from the sofa.
“I'll be going now.”
“Hold on, wait a sec.”
The junkie kept rambling behind me, but I didn't stop walking.
“Hey, I said stop. I got my hands on a precious item, and...”
Flinch. My steps halted on instinct.
...No way?
The junkie rummaged through his pocket and pulled something out. An object that glittered beautifully even in the faint light caught my eye.
“!”
“You like stuff like this, don't you? Shiny things.”
It was Hyunwoo.
The second I saw it, I spun right back around and approached the sofa again.
Just as I went to grab it, Hyunwoo vanished before my eyes. The junkie, having dodged my hand, grinned.
“Ah-ah, no you don't.”
“...”
“What do you have to do to get this, hmm?”
“Weren't you pulling it out to give it to me?”
“I was. But it suddenly felt too good to part with.”
The junkie played coy, clenching and unclenching his grip on the jewel. Then he went and pinned the brooch onto his clothes.
“Maybe I'll just keep it.”
“Haha.”
It was pearls before swine if I ever saw it.
Going by that attitude, it seemed he wanted something else...
I bent my body in a servile posture.
“Don't be that way. Is there anything else you'd have me do?”
“Something to have you do? Hmm.”
“Yes, Director. Just give the word and I'll do anything. As long as you give me Hyun- the brooch...”
“How cheap.”
The Director laughed as if appalled and crooked his index finger downward.
“Kneel,” he means.
I cleared away the liquor bottles scattered on the floor and knelt near the junkie's feet.
“Awakeneds, you've really got to treat them like animals like this for them to understand.”
“Right you are. Those damned bastards.”
I'd just have to give up on going home early after all.
“Hey, is the Boss doing well?”
I picked up the glass the junkie had dropped earlier and poured liquor into it.
“As well as ever.”
“Sheesh... how does he live so holed up like that. He'll get sick that way. He ought to show his face at gatherings like this now and then.”
“...”
At those words, the Boss came to mind. He was always coughing inside that dim room. I could practically hear the heavy sound of his coughing.
He's definitely not a healthy man.
As I nodded inwardly, the junkie muttered.
“I'd like to see his face just once.”
“Agreed. I've never seen it either.”
At the words I'd tossed off without much thought, the junkie's eyes went wide.
“What? You've never seen his face?”
“? No.”
“Don't tell me you've only ever heard his voice all this time?”
“That's right.”
The Boss never took off his mask, no matter what.
“Is there some problem?”
“...To think he's hidden away that thoroughly.”
When I handed him the glass, the junkie swallowed a mouthful of liquor.
“Hm...”
He had the look of someone mulling something over. Though what could a head this pickled in alcohol possibly think about, and how much.
“Surprising. I figured he'd at least trust you. Rootless thieving bastard though you are, he's known you a fair while.”
“Of course he trusts me. It helps that I've got a bit of talent.”
“You don't even know his face, you said.”
“His face, probably...”
No one knows. As I went to say it, I faltered. Because Go Sangwon, who'd always stuck to the Boss like a second skin, came to mind.
When I couldn't finish, the junkie needled me.
“See, you don't, huh?”
I didn't. All this time, I'd naturally assumed he avoided showing his face because of the burn scars.
But, had Go Sangwon seen the Boss's face?
Don't tell me that bastard, before me?
The moment that possibility surfaced, it felt like a smack to the back of the head.
“Ditch a guy whose identity you don't even know and come work with me, like I keep saying.”
The Director, smacking his lips, picked up the item he'd tossed onto the table. Checking the contents with a rustle, he raised an eyebrow.
“What is this, it's just junk.”
“...”
On that point, I had no excuse. I smiled in silence.
“You messing with me? Where am I supposed to use trash like this.”
“It seems like a perfect match for you, Director.”
“That's not what I'm talking about.”
The junkie unfurled the folded whip.
“Something like this isn't even close to enough to develop a new product that surpasses his.”
“Haha, looks aside, it's an artifact that came out of a dungeon. Research it and there might be a use for it somewhere.”
It was a lie. Going by the info on the status window, it was just a very sturdy whip. I knew it was junk, but I peddled it anyway.
Even after I gave it a subtle sell, the junkie scowled. He wasn't even a researcher himself, so what was there to complain about.
“Next time bring something more useful. Not garbage like this.”
“Understood.”
I nodded along vaguely. I was letting his grumbling go in one ear and out the other when something the junkie said in passing caught my ear.
“Good thing I landed another supplier this time...”
“Another supplier?”
Was he saying there was someone besides the Boss willing to join hands with a pathetic human like this?
“Yeah. From a guild-”
The junkie, reading my expression, stopped himself.
“Curious?”
From his tone, digging into the details seemed like it'd only invite trouble.
“No. More importantly, my knees are starting to ache.”
All I wanted was to get back quickly. My knees fidgeted naturally. The sharp-eyed junkie stepped on my thigh.
“Take off your clothes.”
“What?”
“Don't tell me you think it's over just because you handed off the item... you're not that irresponsible, are you?”
As far as the job went, I'd delivered the item, so it didn't matter if I left. But...
The junkie licked his lips and tapped his own chest. The brooch pinned to his clothes swayed, reflecting a brilliant flash of light for an instant.
My eyes snapped open.
Hyunwoo.
Right. A hostage was being held. The whole reason I'd started this conversation was to rescue Hyunwoo.
As his older brother, I couldn't very well abandon my little sibling.
“You're the one who brought it, so you'd better prove yourself whether it's a useful item.”
That twisted little man ultimately just wanted to see an awakened kneeling and suffering.
Instinctively, I realized this was the final hurdle.
Showing him exactly the suffering he wants would be the best move.
At this point, there seemed to be no way to avoid a baptism of whip strokes.
Even so, with a fluttering heart, I took off my clothes.
I want to get my hands on that shiny thing, fast!
Seo Sinwoo stripped off his top and knelt. He had the look of someone obediently awaiting the next order.
The Director wore a satisfied expression as he approached Seo Sinwoo.
“Awfully docile today, aren't you? Let's see, you're not running a fever... did you get beaten somewhere again and run out of energy?”
A coarse, almost rude hand swept across Seo Sinwoo's forehead. Even with a hand on his face, Seo Sinwoo, for once, stayed still.
Finding that strange, the Director stroked his hair a few times, which mussed the neatly arranged bangs so that a few strands fell onto his forehead.
“Without the fun of you acting up, it's kind of boring.”
The words had barely left his mouth when he noticed the corner of Seo Sinwoo's mouth twitching.
Is he forcing himself to hold back?
As expected, having someone touch his head must be unpleasant.
“Shall I head back?”
“No.”
The Director abruptly shoved a glass at him.
“Here.”
“...”
Seo Sinwoo took the glass. He didn't drink right away, instead staring intently down into it. A brownish liquid sloshed in the transparent glass.
The Director knew. Seo Sinwoo couldn't hold his liquor well. Even when offered just one glass, he always adamantly refused.
This time too, seeing him hesitate as expected, the Director added a remark.
“I'm giving it to you for your own good.”
It was transparent nonsense, but Seo Sinwoo deliberated. And then.
Hyunwoo, your hyung's going to save you.
He brought the glass to his lips. The harsh smell of alcohol stung his nose, but he endured it.
Gulp, gulp.
A burning sensation followed down his throat and into his guts. After his throat bobbed a few times, all the liquid in the glass was gone.
“You can drink just fine. Not even gagging.”
Stroking Seo Sinwoo's hair as he pleased, the man tapped the table with the whip.
“On your hands and knees.”
The alcohol must have already been hitting him, because Seo Sinwoo swayed as he rose. Unable to stand watching him hesitate, the Director unpinned the brooch.
With a vile smile, the Director confirmed that Seo Sinwoo's gaze was fixed on it, then tossed the brooch in his grip onto the table.
“!”
Crash!
Seo Sinwoo lunged across the table and snatched up the brooch. In that opening, the Director set his foot on the back before him.
“Khh!”
When he threw his weight onto it, Seo Sinwoo was forced flat on his face.
“Kept calling you a dog, a dog, and you've actually gone and become one?”
The body pinned beneath him was trembling. At a glance it was hard to tell whether he was crying or laughing.
Still terrified of pain, same as ever.
The Director snorted and ran a hand along the whip. The whip was the type with several broad straps attached to the end of the handle. The leather-like straps gathered and scattered softly in Director Kim's hand.
“When I was a kid, the family next door kept a dog.”
“?”
“That mutt was real fond of the kid in that house, but it'd bark at me like it wanted to kill me.”
Seo Sinwoo let out a single line in a sunken voice.
“You must have made quite the bad impression.”
“Shut up.”
Crack!
“Ngh!”
“A fire broke out next door and the damn dog burned to death... but whenever I see you, somehow it reminds me of back then.”
The Director looked down at the skin where red welts were beginning to rise. Unlike before, his expression had hardened considerably.
“...”
The truth was, there was one more being he thought of when he looked at Seo Sinwoo. His own younger brother. The enemy who'd stolen his rightful place with nothing but a single power.
The Director hated those who lived life easy on the mere grounds of being awakened, without putting in any effort.
He swung the whip, filled with rage.
“Khh!”
Each time the body before him flinched, a tight satisfaction washed over him.
The man who'd helplessly offered up his body to him right now was an awakened. A rather capable one, at that. And here such a man was, submitting without resistance while he lashed away with the whip.
Power or whatever, in the face of authority, you're nothing but a tool, see.
“...”
When I opened my eyes, it was quiet all around.
Did I doze off for a bit...
Swaying, I barely managed to get up. As my line of sight rose, my stomach churned harder.
“Urp!”
I was bent over from the waist, retching, when someone grabbed my collar.
“Where you going?”
His speech was a mumble, mind clearly fogged. When I tried to ignore him and leave, the junkie threw his weight into pulling.
Crash!
The two of us tumbled down, tangled together. The junkie sprawled on top of me, squirming. Every time he moved, a strange part of him rubbed against me, so I really wished he'd stop...
The junkie buried his snout near my neck and gnawed at the flesh his mouth landed on. Then he abruptly jerked his face up.
“Ah... look how handsome the bastard is.”
Now he just outright bit my cheek and mouthed at it. While I was briefly dazed from the drink, my face got smeared with spit.
Having licked my face to his heart's content, the junkie aimed for my mouth too, flicking his tongue out. When it grazed my front teeth, I recoiled in horror.
Crackle!
[Penalty triggered: 〈Restriction〉 in effect. (00:05)]
Maybe because he was drunk, even a weak current dropped him fast.
Maybe I should've just done this and swiped it from the start.
I cleared away the window that popped up. After confirming the collapsed junkie still had a pulse, I shoved him off. He was thoroughly hammered anyway, so he wouldn't even remember once he woke.
“Mmm...”
I looked around in case anyone was awake. Once I confirmed they were all asleep, it suddenly struck me as a waste to leave just like this.
Carefully, I slipped the accessories off the bodies of the men strewn about. I searched the room once over, but the wallets all seemed to be locked in the safe.
After punching in a few passwords and giving up, I pushed myself to my feet.
I checked one last time that the item was on the table, then headed for the entrance.
“...Huh?”
Just as I really went to leave, something caught my eye.
Not a breath of wind was blowing, yet the curtain swayed faintly. A bird perched on the railing seemed to have flown off.
He was a bastard in many ways, but I'd gotten Hyunwoo, so as a bonus, I carefully shut the window tight and left the room.
Deep in the dead of night. Yeom Hajae had come out for a walk. His head was too tangled for sleep.
Hyung... his expression wasn't good.
The face he'd seen that evening kept circling in his mind. He'd been smiling, but it was different from when they'd run into each other earlier in the day. His eyes had clearly been sunken. Like a man dragging himself off to do something he didn't want to.
It was the moment he was wandering aimlessly around the hotel, deep in worry.
Tap.
Something nudged his foot. When he looked down, a single dress shoe came into view.
It was a familiar shoe.
“...Hyung?”
