CHAPTER 16

As Dae-won said, Taeju’s father, Dan Ki-hwan, was a former gangster.

He did all sorts of bad things in collusion with politicians and spent a few years in prison holding their secrets.

And those secrets soon became Ki-hwan’s backing. At one point, there was a rumor that all of Korea’s cash was in his hands. He was a person who frighteningly scraped money together.

For those present here, the life they inherited was a given, and the class that came with it was clear. No matter how much money he had, the label of his father being a loan shark with a gangster background was hanging around Dan Taeju’s neck from birth.

“Do you also do business with gangsters? Oh, no. You wouldn’t need to employ gangsters separately. Blood cannot be deceived. You’re good at fighting too. You guys remember, right? When we were in school, this guy broke the student council president’s front teeth and it was a mess.”

Dae-won looked at him with a crooked smile as if to provoke him. At the cheap provocation, Taeju chuckled.

“I can’t remember well because it was a long time ago… Ah, I do remember you peeing your pants in fear when you saw that guy pull out a knife.”

“Has this guy gone crazy? It wasn’t pee. I fell into a puddle, a puddle. A guy who only knows how to fight!”

Dae-won’s face turned bright red in an instant.

It was true that his father was a former gangster, and that fact did not bother him. It was a bit annoying to have guys like this crawling up now and then.

“Your father seems to be having a hard time with an affair scandal these days. It’s really a headache. Why? Is it so bad that you need gangsters because it’s not working even with bribes to silence journalists?”

“What?”

“I’m busy so I can’t, but if you need, I can give you the contact. You need to be careful, you’ll be unemployed if your father gets ousted.”

“Shut up, you son of a b*tch! Do you think anything you spit out with your loose mouth is a word?”

Dae-won, who couldn’t really attack, got up from his seat, grumbling. The friends who were sitting next to him quickly grabbed Dae-won’s arm.

“Hey, why are you guys like this when you meet after a long time?”

“Yeah, stop it. Taeju, why are you talking like that when you even had a blind date with Dae-won’s sister? Taeju, didn’t you insult these guys’ fathers by going on a blind date and calling them merchants or something? That’s not something you should say, right? That’s why Dae-won is angry.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

When he, who had been laughing, suddenly turned serious, the people around him finally started to take notice.

“Blind date? You’re talking nonsense. If you put your daughter up for sale and ask for political funds, what is it if not a merchant?”

The rumor that Congressman Jang was short of election funds and was poking around everywhere for money was already well known.

“I’m leaving now. Have fun.”

“Hey! Hey, you, stop right there. Let go, let me go! D*mn it! You! don’t move!”

That was enough time for him to go. Taeju glanced back at Dae-won, who was screaming as if throwing a tantrum, and got up from his seat.

“Bring the car to the front.”

He spoke to the staff standing at the entrance of the hall and went upstairs, where his car was parked right in front.

“Boss, shall I take you straight home?”

As Taeju got into the back seat of the car, the familiar substitute driver asked formally.

“Please do that.”

He closed his eyes for a moment.

***

“Yes… you were asleep. I… upstairs.”

He seemed to have arrived home unknowingly. The voice of the substitute driver echoed in his sleep. The backseat door opened, and the driver’s thick hand supported him.

“Boss, we’ve arrived home.”

When he opened his eyes, he saw a blurry figure of Sunwoo standing on the stairs.

“You’re alive.”

Like someone who had decided to live in hiding, she never came down to the third floor when Taeju was around. She avoided him so well that it was unbelievable. Occasionally, he would notice that the cup he used at night was cleaned and placed on the shelf, or he would hear a faint sound of the terrace door opening.

It was annoying that she was unnoticeable and quietly living.

“You’ve done enough. You can go now.”

Taeju rummaged through his wallet and handed the driver whatever cash he could find. Then he stumbled up to the second floor and fell onto the bed.

He faintly heard Sunwoo and the driver conversing downstairs.

A cat. Yes, she was acting like a cat.

He remembered a scruffy cat that had jumped over the house fence and lay in the sunny yard a long time ago.

He had no idea where or how it had come from. It was a kitten that seemed to have not been long separated from its mother. No one in the house was interested, but the cat seemed to find that comfortable.

The garden inside the house was large. He couldn’t tell if the cat was hiding somewhere, and he didn’t care.

One day, as a boy, he found a dead cat in the bushes.

It must have been dead for about three days. Its twisted and stiff figure looked as if it had eaten rat poison. It was probably due to the poison laid by one of the employees who was annoyed by the shedding animal wandering around the house.

He didn’t particularly feel sorry or pitiful. After all, it was just a nameless stray cat. Whether it’s an animal or a human, if someone powerful doesn’t protect it, or if it can’t rise up and bite the neck of someone trying to trample on it, then death is the same.

Being weak is a sin.

Taeju fired the employee who had put out the rat poison. He seemed to have responded to the employee who asked why, saying he was annoyed. Simply, he had the power to do so, so he did.

His thoughts became increasingly blurred, and he was about to fall asleep.

The small sigh at the foot of the bed caught his attention. It seemed like she was hesitating, wondering how to handle this situation. At first, he closed his eyes because he was too lazy to get up, but he was also curious about how she moved and acted around him when he was asleep.

She came closer, seemingly after making a significant choice, and seized his slumped shoulder. With a grunt, she turned him over so his gaze met the ceiling. Her lengthy hair cascaded over his cheek, causing a tickling sensation on his neck and all over his face.

“Huh….“

Her soft sigh of exhaustion rustled the hair near his ear. She carefully untied his tie, took off his suit jacket, and even removed his socks.

She began to unbutton his shirt one by one. When she was halfway through, he opened his eyes and looked at her.

“Go.”

His calm, sharp voice echoed faintly.

“……”

“You can’t understand, can you? Run away.”

In the darkness, she blinked several times. It appeared as though she was contemplating whether his semi-conscious state was a result of intoxication or if he was genuinely clear-headed.

“Sunwoo-ssi, you’re good at escaping.”

He grabbed a handful of her hair and ran his hand down. The sensation of her cool hair brushing against his palm gathered all his senses in one place. He was already heavy between his legs.

“I’m gathering all the patience I have on the ground, and I’m speaking very kindly. So go to sleep. Keep hiding carefully like a cat as you are now. Even if you’re curious about me, don’t come near.”

Don’t delude yourself that a promise like a contract will protect you.

Taeju mumbled and tossed in his bed. Whether she understood his words or not, her presence faded away.

His head was unbearably heavy. It was either because he had drunk strong whiskey for the first time in a long time, or because the guy sitting next to him had been smoking marijuana continuously. His unsatisfied s*xual desire was irritating. He unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants.

As he pulled down the band of his briefs, his p*nis sprang up into the air. He quickly grabbed it with one hand. The thick flesh p*nis was just enough to wrap in his large hand.

Simply by holding it in his hand, a tingling sensation caused a stream of fluid to flow down his p*nis.

“Ugh….”

A deep grunt, akin to him clearing his throat, escaped through his clenched teeth. The faint scent of alcohol wafted through his warm breath.

Normally, ma*turbation was just a dry act of shaking his g*nitals and ej*culating, nothing special.

“Ugh…”

But the moment he reflexively thought of Sunwoo, an intense stimulus made his waist shudder. The sexual desire he had been suppressing squirmed in his hand. It was quite a shocking thing for him.

“D*mn, did I really get into heat?”

He leaned his head against the head of the bed, muttering curses as if chewing them. His hand was still holding his p*nis. He wanted to shake his hips like a beast, and his lower abdomen tensed. In disappointment, he began to stroke his p*nis using his hand up and down.

As he closed his eyes, chaotic imaginations rapidly filled his mind. He recalled her gaze, looking at him from under her lowered head, pretending not to see. He also remembered the small sigh she let out as she brushed his back with her hand.

“Can I touch it once?”

As he recalled the erotic voice, his tongue was parched with thirst. Hot energy gathered around his eyes, and a dull breath seeped through his tightly closed teeth. He spread the pre-ejac*late fluid on his p*nis and shook it up and down quickly.

Squelch, squelch.

The sticky sound of his palm gripping his p*nis hitting the scr*tum echoed loudly. His head was so hot that it seemed to boil at any moment, but no matter how much he shook it, he couldn’t ej*culate.

“Ugh… hmm.”

Suddenly, Sunwoo appeared in his view as he groaned slowly with his jaw clenched. She hadn’t gone up to the third floor. She was standing with a glass of water and a towel, seemingly to bring it to him. The moment their eyes met, a tingling sensation ran down his back.

“Uhh.. huhh.”

What a defenseless face. He bared his teeth and laughed briefly.

She looked as if she wasn’t even sure what she had seen. In the dim light, her eyes looked bigger and darker.