DMH Ch17
by misacchi‘Live in my room.’
Not even his house, but live in his room. He really has a unique way of expressing himself. Wan shouted ‘No way!’ at Mu Jeonghoo and stomped home, devouring Park Gwangcheol’s kimchi stew. He even bit his chopsticks while eating stir-fried mushrooms. Wan rolled around on the floor, clutching his aching front teeth. As the physical pain accompanied him, Mu Jeonghoo’s words came to mind clearly, and his stomach churned.
It’s natural for those who have a lot to share. But just because someone shares doesn’t mean that those who don’t have to accept it unconditionally. Mu Jeonghoo looked at Wan, who had refused with a ‘no,’ as if he were a strange creature. His gaze was an explicit expression, like, ‘Someone like you who has nothing should be grateful and accept when I give, where do you get off shaking your head?’ His way of thinking was as nasty as his way of speaking.
“Do you think money is everything in life?”
Wan grumbled and scooped up kimchi stew. Park Gwangcheol ladled cold rice into his own bowl and replied,
“Of course! It’s everything!”
“…”
Wan glared at Park Gwangcheol for butting in without a clue. Then, he scooped up another spoonful of warm white rice and shoved it into his mouth.
“Did you think I’d say thank you and go live there?”
He dipped his spoon back into the kimchi stew to pour broth over the rice on his tongue. Meat was scooped up along with the broth. The meat on the spoon was all fat, as if it had been picked up from leftovers. Wan stirred the kimchi stew with his spoon. There was nothing but chunks of fat, no lean meat.
“…”
“Why are you stopping?”
Wan, who had lost his appetite, put down the spoon he had been eating with. He had been eating good quality food for five days out of the week. Dishes that were comparable to the restaurants that Mu Jeonghoo had taken him to. But seeing the cold rice with scorched rice crusts that Park Gwangcheol was eating, or the kimchi stew with only chunks of fat floating in red pepper powder, his chest felt heavy. If there was anyone he envied at this moment, it was the employees who worked at restaurants. After lunchtime, they would pack up the leftover dishes and ingredients. If Wan were alone in a restaurant, he would take the largest container used for making kimchi and sweep up all the food to give to his father. Wan felt guilty for being the only one eating good food and wearing a nice uniform. Out of guilt, he deliberately lashed out at Park Gwangcheol.
“Did you only bring leftovers? What’s with this meat?”
“Pork is all about the fat, fat. Think of it as pork jowl and eat it.”
Park Gwangcheol picked up the chunk of fat that Wan had put back into the kimchi stew and ate it with gusto. Seeing Park Gwangcheol’s face, which was darker than last year, Wan felt sorry for him. He probably didn’t have a penny to his name after paying for the uniform.
“Do you have money for transportation these days? You’re not walking around, are you?”
Wan asked, looking at Park Gwangcheol’s dark nose. Wan had a secret fund that Park Gwangcheol didn’t know about. He had been saving up little by little by working part-time at wedding halls or as a kitchen assistant in restaurants on weekends. Occasionally, when unexpected things happened, Park Wan would take out a little from his emergency fund. He felt sorry for being the only one living comfortably, so if Park Gwangcheol complained about being in a difficult situation, he was willing to give him even a small amount.
“Why wouldn’t I have money for transportation? The young master even bought you a uniform.”
“What are you talking about? I paid for the uniform. He only lent me the money I was short.”
“…”
“I paid him back after that.”
“No. Last time, the young master called me and gave me a wad of cash, saying it was the money you paid for the uniform?”
Wan jumped up from his seat. The spoon that had bounced off his knee fell to the floor with a clang! It was always like this. Just when he started to feel sorry for his father, his sympathy would disappear because of his father’s constant self-abasement.
“You took it?”
“Of course, I did!”
The moment Wan heard Park Gwangcheol’s answer, his head spun. Maybe he should have gotten an IV drip while he was at it. He regretted feeling sorry for Park Gwangcheol in the past.
“Ugh, I’m going crazy. Who’s worrying about whom?”
He was eating well and getting around thanks to the money Mu Jeonghoo gave him. Wan got up from his seat and headed to the corner of the room. He took out the low desk that was leaning against the wall. The narrow desk didn’t allow him to sit cross-legged, so he had to stretch his legs out. As a result, his back ached and his neck stiffened. Park Gwangcheol spoke to Wan, who was sitting with his back turned, munching on his rice.
“Not eating?”
“No! You eat it, Dad!”
With this, he had received a total of three things from Mu Jeonghoo.
Buzz. He felt a vibration in his pocket. Wan took out his phone with an annoyed expression.
[Dad]
“His bad habits don’t even last a few weeks.”
Wan pressed the check message button.
[Scary people came to the front of the house in a car!!!]
The content of the message sent by his father was very different from usual. His father, who was not familiar with punctuation marks, left a message with three exclamation points. It was definitely not a joke. There were only 10 minutes left until the end of class. Wan anxiously tapped his foot, waiting for the class to end. He chewed on his fingernails until they were ragged, and as soon as the bell rang, he ran to the faculty office. Fortunately, the homeroom teacher was sitting at his desk.
“I have an urgent matter, so please give me a pass to leave early.”
“What urgent matter?”
“I got a call from my dad. It seems like something happened at home.”
“If it’s something that needs to be proven later, bring the supporting documents.”
That kind of thing didn’t matter to Wan. The homeroom teacher, with a look of annoyance, began to scribble on the pass and the paper stating the reason. He was so slow that Wan almost grabbed the teacher’s wrist and urged him to move faster.
“Next is my time, so there’s nothing else to say.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Be back within an hour.”
“Yes.”
The temperature in the faculty office was chilly enough for people to have blankets over their shoulders and knees, but Wan’s head was soaked with sweat. Wan, who quickly left the school gate, grabbed a taxi on the street in front of the school. It was an act he would never have imagined doing, given his spending habits.
“Welcome.”
“Please go to Pasong-dong.”
Wan said his home address without taking a breath. Sweat was running down his face from sprinting across the vast playground. The taxi was stuffy because the air conditioner was not turned on. When he opened the window slightly, the wind rushed in through the gap. Wan’s mind was filled with all sorts of imaginations as he watched the scenery outside moving quickly.
He said scary people. He had seen scary people so many times growing up that he was sick of them. There were no major incidents, but when the interest on a small loan borrowed from a third-tier financial institution exceeded the principal and tattooed people chased him to his house, or when Park Gwangcheol’s former colleagues, who had not received the money they had lent to Park Gwangcheol, swarmed in like a swarm of bees. But those weren’t such big debts, and they weren’t heavy incidents that made him feel his life was threatened enough to put three exclamation points. Since settling in this neighborhood, financial problems had hardly occurred, but Park Gwangcheol’s three exclamation points made Wan uneasy.
“Oh, it’s going to be difficult to get in.”
The taxi driver muttered quietly, holding the steering wheel. Even if he wanted to go another way, there was no other way to go according to the navigation. It wasn’t easy to back up, and it wasn’t easy to pass through the narrow alleyways with walls packed tightly. It was a road where an accident was likely to occur if a novice driver drove on it. The taxi driver glanced at Wan in the rearview mirror. The car was gradually going uphill. Wan felt like his body was floating as his back reclined. Finally, the taxi reached the desolate open space where Wan’s house was located.
“Here!”
As soon as Wan saw the familiar container wall, he took out a bill and handed it to the driver.
“Student! The change….”
The door was already closed. The taxi Wan had taken turned around in a hurry, kicking up dust, lest he open the door to get the change back.
It was the first time he’d seen so many people gathered in the desolate vacant lot. Even the residents from the lower neighborhood had come up. When he drove up, he noticed that no one was sitting in front of their gates; they must have all been gathered here. He hurried toward the crowd.
Park Gwangcheol’s words were no lie. It was more chilling than when people came looking for him over money issues. They weren’t just carrying wooden sticks or baseball bats to intimidate; menacing-looking men were operating excavators that could instantly kill anyone they ran over. It was obvious they were hired thugs. Just turning the excavator’s wheel could crush the container boxes like dominoes. This shocking event had suddenly occurred without any warning.
“Dad!”
“Wan!”
Park Gwangcheol rushed to Wan.
“Why is this happening all of a sudden?”
“What do we do, Wan! This is private property, and it seems the owner found out we’re living here.”
Park Gwangcheol explained the situation with tearful eyes. He didn’t know the full details either. But combining the owner, private property, and illegal containers, he could quickly grasp the situation. So, this was private property, someone found out that illegal containers were built and people were living there, and they couldn’t just let it go. The current situation was that they brought in hired thugs to drive people out and redevelop the area.
Wan stared at the massive excavator, speechless. This was a home he had grown attached to, at least. It was small, but he had lived there the longest, and at night, he would sit on a desk he’d found somewhere, looking out at the night view and stretching. Although there wasn’t a proper roof, and the shoes left outside would sometimes get wet in the rain, his longest memories with his dad were made here. It was practically his hometown.
“We’ve lived here well for so long. But the owner…”
Suddenly, Mu Jeonghoo’s voice echoed in his ears.
‘Live in my room.’
“Could it be…”
“Why, why, Wan!”
“No way.”
He hoped he wasn’t that much of a scoundrel. But knowing Mu Jeonghoo, he was capable of carrying it out heartlessly. Wan looked at each of the neighbors, including Park Gwangcheol, staring at the homes they lived in. They all sat there with a look of having lost the world. Their empty eyes, devoid of any will to live, registered in Wan’s mind.
The woman who had tied her hair back and was sitting there had recently brought rice cakes to their house, relieved that her son had finally gotten into a good university after his third attempt. He remembered her bittersweet smile as she said she had to live in this house until her son graduated and succeeded. The man sitting blankly on a round stone couldn’t move because his daughter had run away and he didn’t know when she would return, even though he had money. If his daughter changed her mind and came back, and the container was gone, she might never see him again. Wan remembered the corners of that man’s lips as he smiled, showing him the only thing he had left, a photo of his daughter as a baby.
This was too cruel.
Wan’s suspicion grew like a wildfire.
“Dad, stay here. Keep me updated on the situation.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have somewhere to go.”
“Our home is in this state? You should join the people there and stand up! We need all the help we can get!”
Park Gwangcheol grabbed Wan, trying to stop him from leaving. Wan coldly shook off his persistent hand. Instead of holding a flag and protesting there, he thought it was right to take down the person at the very top.
“Wan!”
Park Gwangcheol shouted at his son’s departing back. Wan didn’t look back and ran down the slope. Moving in the opposite direction of the onlookers coming up the hill, he quickly caught a taxi slowly rolling along ahead.
Arriving at school, Wan headed straight for Mu Jeonghoo’s location. First, he went to the classroom. As elusive as ever, he wasn’t there. The obvious place for Mu Jeonghoo, who came to class whenever he felt like it, was the infirmary. He had overheard Mu Jeonghoo saying “infirmary” in response to someone asking “Where were you?” as he passed by once. Wan walked to the infirmary at a moderate pace, neither too fast nor too slow. The infirmary hallway was cool even without the air conditioning on. He stood quietly in front of the white infirmary door.
OUT OF OFFICE
A simple sign with red letters hung in the center of the door. Without further ado, he opened the door and went inside. Upon entering the infirmary, there were six beds with bedding on the left. White curtains surrounded the bed areas. The infirmary was empty.
“Slurp, slurp.”
Instead, he heard a strange sound. A sucking sound. He slowly walked toward the noise. The sucking sound suddenly stopped at the sound of Wan’s footsteps. Wan lowered his head under the curtain. He saw knees kneeling between two feet. The kneeling person was supporting himself with his hands on the floor, and the soles of his shoes were clearly visible under his buttocks.
Without hesitation, Wan pulled back the curtain. Mu Jeonghoo was sitting on the plush bed, receiving oral sex. The source of the lewd sound, seemingly not ashamed of the explicit scene, stared intently at Wan. The omega kneeling beneath Mu Jeonghoo’s arrogant posture tried to look around. Mu Jeonghoo greeted Wan while holding the back of the head of the person sucking his lower body.
“Hello. Are you feeling better?”
The small-faced boy who was kneeling on the floor and sucking his genitals widened his eyes and looked at Mu Jeonghoo. Wan stared silently at Mu Jeonghoo, keeping his mouth shut. He didn’t want to bring up the story in front of other people. Mu Jeonghoo allowed Wan’s silence. Then, he tapped the cheek of the omega he saw for the first time in the hallway today, who was kneeling between his legs.
“Get out.”
As soon as Jeonghoo finished speaking, the omega opened his mouth wide and pulled out the genitals he was holding in his mouth. A stream of sticky saliva dripped onto the infirmary floor. The omega straightened his unbuttoned shirt and left the infirmary. As the infirmary door closed, they were finally alone. Wan glared at Mu Jeonghoo, who was fastening his pants buckle, as if he had forgotten to blink.
“This is your doing.”
“What are you talking about?”
Mu Jeonghoo replied with a face that showed he didn’t understand at all. Wan stared at Mu Jeonghoo silently. His eyes were full of fierce venom, unforgivable. Mu Jeonghoo brazenly looked at Wan and rolled his eyes. He pretended to be thinking, trying to recall something. The voice that followed was playful, as if teasing.
“Hmm…”
“…”
“Isn’t it time for a change of scenery?”
“…”
“Why are you acting like this when you know what’s going on?”
He was mocking Park Gwangcheol’s job as a gardener at his mansion. Wan couldn’t shake off the hot energy spreading from his toes. He clenched his fist and rushed towards Jeonghoo, who was sitting on the bed. If he could just slap that cheek once, he would be happy even if he didn’t eat dinner for a week.
“Why are you doing this to me!”
It wasn’t easy. Wan’s outstretched fist went straight into Mu Jeonghoo’s wrapping hand, like playing a game of ‘wrapping rice’. The hand that blocked the fist was firm. Mu Jeonghoo wrapped Wan’s fist in his hand. He tickled the soft back of his hand with his fingertips.
“I told you to live in my room.”
“Shut up.”
“I want to be with you.”
Wan shook his hand roughly, as if a fly had landed on it. He wanted to be with him? So he was pushing away a place where people were living? Wan found Mu Jeonghoo, who was saying his thoughts so casually, more unfamiliar than usual. Just for that reason, just because he rejected his offer, he was causing things that involved people’s lives to happen like smashing toy blocks, which didn’t make sense to him. He was getting more and more scared. What was the end of what he could do?
“Are you even human?”
“Aren’t you here to ask me for a favor?”
“What?”
“I didn’t know there were so many people living there?”
“End it while I’m being nice. The other people don’t matter.”
“What are you going to do if you say bad things to me?”
Mu Jeonghoo said with a smirk. What if he hadn’t come here, hadn’t looked for Mu Jeonghoo, and had joined the movement to oppose the demolition, as his dad had said? Wan realized it painfully. If he didn’t want them to be deprived of their well-lived homes, he had to dance to Mu Jeonghoo’s tune.
“I’ll decide after seeing what you do.”
“You piece of trash. You, you, you don’t have an ounce of conscience-”
Wan was so angry that he couldn’t even finish his sentence properly.
“Ah!”
Mu Jeonghoo interrupted Wan’s monotonous words, which were boring, and got up from the bed. He dusted off his pants and approached Wan, who was standing close to the curtain. Wan backed away as Mu Jeonghoo approached. The light curtain brushed against his body.
“I was born with everything, but I missed one thing.”
“…”
“Do you know what it is?”
The distance between Mu Jeonghoo and Wan was barely half a step. Facing the playful but cold face, Wan couldn’t move, as if his body was frozen. Mu Jeonghoo bent down. The downy hair on his ear tickled Mu Jeonghoo’s upper lip.
“Conscience.”
“…”
Wan’s body trembled. He clenched his fist again until his veins bulged, but he didn’t throw it again. The fact that it was useless to struggle, even though he didn’t want to get involved in any way, was implicitly standing on his feet. Mu Jeonghoo stroked Wan’s sweaty bangs like petting a dog and whispered.
“So, you with a conscience, bear with it.”