MS Ch 9 part 2

Nothing was different in the employee cafeteria this afternoon.

“Oh yeah, did you hear?”

“Hear what?”

“About Lim Kyujin.”

Someone threw out the name that no one wanted to hear.

“I heard things have been crazy. His house caught on fire.”

“Whaaat? What fire?”

“Well, I’m sure it was an accident. The fire burned down his home, and I heard he lost an eye. The rumors about his hidden cameras have already spread, but now he’ll really have a hard time making ends meet. Jeez, when I see how things play out, I can’t help but feel that your life can go down the drain in an instant. Just a month ago, he was considered the ace of the hospitality department.”

Someone clicked their tongue loud enough for everyone to hear.

“It’s his own fault. Who told him to do something like that?”

“That’s true. Honestly, everyone feels a bit uneasy. They’re worried they were recorded by those cameras.”

“Of course, who wouldn’t be? These days, people even take the recordings and sell them online. Imagine my face showing up in one of those places one day. Ugh, disgusting.”

While everyone else was talking excitedly with one another, Euncho stared blankly down at her plate.

“Euncho-ssi.”

“……”

“Euncho-ssi?”

“Ah, yes?”

“What are you thinking about?

Euncho stopped moving her chopsticks and smiled.

“I was wondering whether I should have some warm coffee for dessert.”

In order to hide the uneasiness that wouldn’t go away, Euncho changed the subject.

The employee looked bewildered.

“How can you be so relaxed? Who do you think we’re referring to?! You of all people should be listening to this, Euncho-ssi.”

“I did listen.”

Although she was worried, her mind was too muddled to think about it.

The video she had seen the other day still had a tight hold on her mind.

Even though Kang Seora disappeared, Ki Taeju still stayed at the hotel. He came back from work as if nothing happened. Since Euncho was still working on the EFL, they ran into each other from time to time.

And whenever they did, Euncho avoided him.

If they happened to run into each other, she’d stare at the floor.

She couldn’t stop thinking about it.

‘What could have…’

The content of the video showed indiscriminate violence.

Ki Taeju dragged Kang Seora by her long hair, hit her face, and kicked her.

He showed no mercy, and Kang Seora struggled like a person who was about to die. Although the video had no sound, her shrill screams seemed to pierce Euncho’s ears. For a couple who was supposedly dating, there didn’t seem to be an ounce of affection between them.

Ki Taeju’s face did not appear in the video.

Within the fuzzy video, he only showed his back to the camera, the black ink of his tattoo peeking out from underneath his collar. His aloof and cruel back made Euncho frantically close the video.

However, the dreary chill that flowed through her body did not go away. Her palms were still drenched in sweat.

She quickly realized why Ki Taeju had acted like that. He discovered that Kang Seora had laid hands on her.

…Again.

The sense of alienation began to surge from her fingertips once again.

‘Euncho, don’t get mixed up with that person. He is a really dangerous man.’

But he was a kind man to Euncho.

Far from being violent, he would only play pranks on her or tease her. While she was sleeping, he had washed the blankets soaked with their nightly activities. When he saw that she ate unhealthy food like instant ramen, he filled her stomach with nutritious meals she’d never heard of.

So when Heejin grabbed her and gave her such a frantic warning, Euncho couldn’t help but feel skeptical.

Could the Ki Taeju that Unnie knows be the same person I know?

As she waited for Ki Taeju in the small apartment, the sun setting outside the window, Heejin’s words continued to repeat inside her head.

But this time, she finally saw it with her own eyes. The way he acted towards Kang Seora more than proved what Heejin-unnie had told her.

He was a terrifying person, and he was also a dangerous person.

Euncho’s head throbbed.

Because it was now clear that he treated her differently than how he treated others. And this fact rekindled the fuse of Euncho’s deeply-held suspicions.

As for Kang Seora… To be frank, she wasn’t any of Euncho’s business. They weren’t close enough for her to feel sympathetic towards her over something like this. If she had to define it, their relationship was merely that of a difficult customer and the employee who took care of her.

Therefore, any feelings she had towards her were limited to pity or shock. As if she were merely witnessing someone in an accident.

The one who left an uncomfortable trace in Euncho’s heart was not Kang Seora. It was Heejin.

As the winter drew near, in the face of Heejin’s suspicious death, with her palms covered in dirt, a terrible suspicion entered Euncho’s head.

Maybe Ki Taeju… did that to Unnie.

The suspicion she had hoped to be false came one step closer no matter how much she tried to deny it. The revived suspicion brought about confusion and distress that she could not shake off. She could no longer shamelessly face Ki Taeju from now on.

After finishing her meal, Euncho went up to the lounge and spent her afternoon as usual.

When she looked out the window, she realized that it had already grown dark and silent.

Now that summer had passed, the days had gotten much shorter.

Ki Taeju returned to the hotel around this time. Euncho instinctively avoided him. As he passed the desk, he stopped for a moment before walking away.

As the end of her shift approached, the large, curved glass windows that lined the walls of the lounge began to grow damp.

‘Summer is almost over, so what’s with the rain…?’

Euncho watched the raindrops hit the window before turning back to pack her things and get ready to leave. 

Suddenly, a call came from the VIP room.

Kang Seora was no longer here, so there was only one person who could be making this call.

Euncho didn’t have the courage to ignore the call and leave. From her experience, postponing problems that needed to be dealt with produced terrible results that still haunted her to this day.

Can I do this?

Will I be able to interact with Ki Taeju as if nothing happened?

Euncho clenched and unclenched her hands as if she couldn’t make up her mind.

Click, clack.

The sound of her heels as she walked towards the room overlapped with her heartbeats. After knocking to announce her arrival, Euncho went inside.

Ki Taeju was inside the inner bedroom that had a large king-sized bed.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed and smoking a cigarette. Seeing as how she didn’t smell smoke, it seemed that he hadn’t lit it yet. His head was turned to the side, lost in thought. It turned when he noticed her presence.

Once their eyes met, her fingertips twitched. Her eyes ached as if she were suddenly drained of energy.

He rolled the cigarette with his tongue before pulling it out of his mouth.

“Let’s have dinner together.”

This wasn’t something that required a formal call to the desk. But considering the history between them, it was too intimate.

“What did you like to eat again… You liked to eat anything with broth.”

At first, she thought he was joking.

But Ki Taeju walked over to the bedside table and grabbed the phone.

“What are you doing…”

“I said I want to have a meal together.”

He perched the phone between his ear and shoulder as he looked back at Euncho’s bewildered face. The look on her face made him snicker.

“What? You don’t want to?”

“……”

“Ah, because you can’t avoid me while you’re eating?”

Suddenly, he slammed the phone down into its cradle.

“You’re so busy ignoring me these days.”

He turned away from the phone as if it had all been for show and slowly approached her.

“Tell me.”

“……”

“What’s the problem?”

Euncho didn’t avoid his piercing gaze. She didn’t think avoiding it would solve anything.

The moment she realized this, her mouth began to move on its own.

“Is she okay?”

“Who?”

“Miss Kang Seora.”

Ki Taeju’s eyes gleamed.

But it only lasted a moment.

“How would I know?”

Even though his indifference was directed at Kang Seora and not at her, why did it make her stomach churn?

She couldn’t swallow as if someone were strangling her.

“…Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

“……”

“So why are you talking like that?”

She didn’t want to, but she had to keep going.

It kept happening… Kang Seora and Heejin-unnie kept overlapping.

Her current situation, the situation she was facing with her eyes wide open, kept…

Even though they were in a seemingly romantic relationship, Ki Taeju continued to treat them with cruelty and without mercy.

So Euncho kept feeling as if the truth was hidden behind a thick curtain she couldn’t peer through.

He was definitely hiding something.

He truly was.

“…Ha.”

Euncho laughed bitterly.

He was still the same. His expressions revealed his true thoughts for a moment. His hard eyes pierced through her. There was a quiet determination in his gaze to keep her in the dark.

Well, has this man ever been honest with me?

She felt like an idiot for having expectations in the first place.

Euncho took a step back.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to eat together.”

It was as if her voice was squeezed out of her throat. Even to her ears, it sounded bad.

“I’ll be leaving now, so if you need further assistance, please call the front desk in the lobby…”

She could barely hear her own mumbling words. But none of it mattered. She was overwhelmed with merely keeping her composure in front of this man. 

After she finished speaking, Euncho moved to go out. Before she could, something grabbed her wrist. The distance she had gained by stepping back was quickly lost, and she found herself back in front of Ki Taeju.

“Why are you shaking?”

“I’m not shaking.”

“You are shaking.”

She tried to regain her composure and snatch her hand back, but she couldn’t escape his grasp.

Nevertheless, Euncho continued to try. A small struggle ensued. Despite her attempts to get him to let go, Ki Taeju did not loosen his grip. The fierce scuffle finally caused the pent-up emotions to surge out of her throat.

“Is it because of me?”

“What?”

“Because… Kang Seora-ssi put her hands on me?”

“……”

“Is that why you… beat her up like that? Kicked her, grabbed her hair, and flung her around?”

Euncho’s face gradually sank.

As she gasped out each word, her breaths grew more ragged. 

She felt like she was suffocating even though nothing was covering her nose and mouth.

Just like the day when she saw what had happened to Heejin. The woman who turned into a cold corpse in Unit 203, a place Euncho had frequented like it was her own home. The day she faced the pure white sheet that hid Heejin’s appearance from her.

She felt as if someone had grabbed her head and pushed it into a deep pool of water.

“Just like you did to that person, did you…”

As the words continued to flow out, terror began to gather in Euncho’s eyes.

“Did you do that to Heejin-unnie, too…”

Did you kill her?

She thought she said the last part out loud, but it was lost inside her throat.

The part she couldn’t bring herself to say crumbled on the tip of her tongue. 

Ki Taeju frantically picked Euncho up and sat her down on the dresser next to him. A large hand spread out on her back and slowly stroked up and down.

“Take deep breaths.”

Only then did Euncho realize she was hyperventilating.

A terrible dizziness came over her as her breaths got caught in her throat. Ki Taeju held her in his arms, and she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. His hand patiently stroked her back.

But she still couldn’t calm down at all.

Tsk, she heard him click his tongue. Suddenly he grabbed her chin and pressed down. As her lips parted, something covered her mouth.

“Ugh… hnng.”

His tongue entered first and stroked the walls of her mouth as if it were marking its territory. As her clenched throat relaxed, his breaths filled her mouth.

Euncho barely managed to receive his breaths as she held onto his arm. His tongue tapped on the roof of her mouth, urging her to widen it. He sucked on Euncho’s stiff tongue as if he were massaging it. At this point, she couldn’t tell if this was artificial respiration or a kiss. 

The confusion was partly due to Ki Taeju’s increasingly aggressive behavior. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss. His tongue moved in and out, sucking her upper lip and lower lip in turn. He persistently rubbed the roof of her mouth and then under her tongue…

Ki Taeju swallowed the saliva that accumulated and pulled away from the kiss with a wet smack. She got her answer from the way he lingered over her lower lip, stroking his tongue along its length. 

This was a kiss.

“Kang Seora is not dead.”

“……”

“And I didn’t kill her.”

He answered twice, adding certainty to his confirmation.

The first one was in regards to Kang Seora, and it was clear who he was referring to in the second one.

There was no way she wouldn’t realize who it was.

It was possibly the answer to the question that Euncho had feared and struggled with for the past seven years. The answer to the question that she had been avoiding, unable to bring it up in fear that the answer might be ‘yes’.

He might be lying.

Lies are supposed to taste sweet.

Still, she wanted to be fooled.

She wanted to believe him.

That he truly did not harm Heejin-unnie.

That he didn’t do anything.

As soon as she reached this conclusion, the lock that Euncho had worked so hard to keep closed came undone.

“…Why did you disappear?”

Euncho looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

“Why did you leave without saying anything?”

Her hand tightened on Ki Taeju’s arm.

“You knew I wanted to see you. I even told you to come find me when I left the villa. But you never showed up. You just disappeared without a trace.”

She felt that if she relaxed even a little, the tears would flow down her cheeks. Therefore, she maintained the tension in her eyes as her last ditch effort to preserve her last bit of pride.

“Were you planning on doing this from the beginning? Did you plan to just… fool around with me?”

“……”

“Because I was young and naive? So you wanted to try and mess around with me just once?”

For Euncho, Ki Taeju was not defined by just one thing.

He evoked sorrow, yearning, and fear. He was a complex man who could not be defined by just one feeling. That’s why he was a troubling existence that she could not resolutely let go or bravely embrace.

He was a heartless man who made her lose the entire season of summer.

“Fool around with you?”

“……”

“Me? With you?”

Ki Taeju let out a nasty scoff.

His smile carried the strong scent of the season that had flowed away seven years ago. The voice was steeped in self-mockery as it spoke to Euncho.

“If that were the case, it wouldn’t have been this difficult.”

“……”

“Who’s the one that drove me out of my mind? Who are you to tell me that I was fooling around? Bullsh*t.”

Even though he was cursing at her, why didn’t she feel bad?

Was it because his eyes, which had been dull and empty when he spoke about Kang Seora, were now bright and alive? Or was it because she could see his jaw clench as if he were holding back?

Euncho stretched out her hand as if she were possessed.

When she began to stroke his hardened jaw, Ki Taeju snatched her hand.

She thought he was going to push it away, but he suddenly grabbed the back of her hand. His grip was stronger than she’d expected, so she frowned. Ki Taeju covered her lips with his.

This time, she could tell that he wasn’t doing it to help her breathe. Nevertheless, Euncho automatically opened her mouth. He pulled her wet lower lip between his and sucked.

It felt hot.

His tongue, his saliva, all of it. She felt like she was being burned.

When she felt delight surge through her, she realized how fickle the heart could be. It would confuse a person without giving away a single clue and then make the same person let down their guard just because someone said, ‘I didn’t kill her’…

Ki Taeju’s tongue stirred inside Euncho’s mouth like a fish in water.

“Hnng, ugh… nng.”

His crude movements reminded her of his penetrations. The way his tongue pulled out with sticky saliva before pushing back in until it almost reached her throat was not that much different from the fierce thrusts of his hips.

The man’s arousal was completely obvious.

Before she knew it, the large hands that were holding Euncho’s knees spread her legs apart. He thrust his lower abdomen between them and began to rub against her. Like two puzzle pieces that had found their match, their privates fit together until there was no space left in between. As he continued to explicitly grind against her, Ki Taeju pulled his lips away.

“Give up.”

“……”

“You’re not leaving here today.”

Her toes curled inside her shoes. Euncho, who had been lowering her arms, lifted them again and wrapped them around his neck. Ki Taeju pulled her skirt down with brute force.

If there was one thing he didn’t know, it was that she wanted him, too.