N | Chapter 1.3

A few days had passed since graduation. He had submitted resumes to places that offered high pay for high school graduates, but he was repeatedly rejected for being too young and inexperienced.

‘Maybe I should have just accepted it.’

He collapsed onto the blanket spread on the floor. On his phone screen was a message from Haechan on graduation day.

[Give me your account number]

Haechan had always said he’d give him the deposit once he inherited his fortune. Though he had said no, and thought it was half a joke, seeing him ask for his account number right after graduation made him block him that day.

It wasn’t that he disliked Haechan; it was more of a self-defense mechanism. He knew that his self-hatred would worsen amidst Haechan’s well-meaning kindness.

‘I’ll contact him once things stabilize, at least once the housing issue is resolved.’

He didn’t want to be pitied by his friend. To face Haechan with even a little pride, he needed to find a job as soon as possible.

Horan submitted a resume to a beer pub located near a university, and luckily, he got an interview scheduled for that evening.

“If you sit over there, the boss will be with you shortly.”

“Thank you.”

Following the staff’s guidance, Horan sat in a corner of the pub and looked around. Despite being early evening, the place was bustling with customers.

‘I hope I get this job.’

Though the hourly wage wasn’t high, the working hours were longer, allowing for more overtime pay.

‘And they said full-time employees get meals.’

He had been eating convenience store food for so long that his arms had started itching.

Before, Horan’s proper meal was just one school lunch, and he often skipped dinner. During vacations, he only ate convenience store food, and when he started getting rashes or headaches, he would eat at the cheapest diner nearby.

The owner lady never asked questions, but when he paid, she would hand him a heavy bag, saying she made too many side dishes.

At those times, Horan felt grateful, sorry, and miserable. At least if he worked here, that wouldn’t happen.

“You’re Lee Horan, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

Startled by the sudden voice, Horan quickly looked up. The boss, who seemed to have just started his shift, looked young for someone running a large pub.

“Let’s see…”

The boss, sitting across from Horan and skimming through the resume, tilted his head.

“What about school? Aren’t you going to college?”

“No.”

At the short answer, the boss seemed to want to ask more but put down the application.

“Usually, we hire part-timers your age and full-timers who are a bit older and have experience in pubs…”

The boss seemed doubtful whether a kid who had just graduated could handle such a schedule.

“Or maybe switch to part-time now?”

Knowing that good-looking staff attracted customers, the boss didn’t want to lose Horan.

He planned to coax him into part-time, fearing he’d quit if the full-time job was too tough.

“I’m fine. Please let me work full-time.”

But Horan was firm. The boss, contemplating, crossed his arms and groaned. The silence between them was drowned out by the pub’s music.

As Horan nervously fidgeted with his hands under the table, the boss, as if making a decision, uncrossed his arms.

“Start tomorrow.”

❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎

“Here’s your side dish.”

“Hey, do you have a girlfriend?”

Just as Horan was about to turn around after placing the dish on the table, a customer struck up a conversation. Horan looked at the woman who shyly grabbed his wrist.

“I’m sorry.”

He gently pulled his wrist away and apologized mechanically. The woman, embarrassed by the rejection, turned her face, blushing, towards her friend.

No wonder they kept pressing the bell. It was strange that they ordered in several rounds instead of all at once, and as expected, there was a reason.

“Lee Horan~ Isn’t this the third time today?”

The boss approached Horan, who was registering the menu on the POS machine.

“She had quite the figure—why did you turn her down?”

“Just because.”

Horan, accustomed to the boss’s trashy comments, continued pressing the POS machine without responding. After working for almost a month, he realized that the boss was more of a thug than he thought.

He had a hobby of making lewd jokes to customers, and his acquaintances, who came in groups to support the business, were covered in tattoos.

“Or is your taste—”

“Ah, boss. There aren’t any beer kegs in the storage, where are they?”

“Kegs? In the back. Are they all gone already?”

“Yes. I’ll go get them.”

Horan naturally cut off the conversation and disappeared to the back. The boss, though annoyed by this kind of avoidance, couldn’t hold onto an employee and chat idly.

A moment later, Horan returned, dragging a beer keg. To avoid giving the boss a chance to talk, he immediately knelt in front of the beer dispenser and opened the lid.

The boss sneakily glanced at Horan, who was replacing the keg at his feet. The black hair swayed with each push of the heavy keg, and the sweat that ran down his neck rolled into his uniform.

“Haa.”

As Horan finished the replacement and straightened his back, the boss flinched and averted his gaze.

“Boss, I’ll head out first.”

“Yeah, good work.”

Horan, who finished his work slightly past quitting time, entered the changing room, which doubled as a storage room.

“Haa…”

He sat on a makeshift chair in the corner and let out a tired breath. As he rubbed his eyes, which were hot from overwork, and slumped his body, he felt like he could fall asleep immediately.

‘Should I skip deliveries today?’

Working twelve hours from early evening until dawn at the bar and doing a few delivery runs from a nearby snack shop on the way home was taking a toll on his body.

“Get a grip.”

But he had to endure to match the money by the day he promised the landlord for the deposit. Still, payday was coming soon, and if he endured for a few more months, he wouldn’t have to worry about housing anymore.

He forced his heavy body up, opened the cabinet, and took off his uniform. Just as he was about to change into the clothes he came in, the doorknob rattled.

“What, you’re still here?”

It was the boss. He seemed startled by Horan’s bare upper body and narrowed the door gap.

“You can come in.”

Horan said as he put on his sweatshirt.

“Are you going on deliveries today too?”

“Yes.”

“Why is a kid so obsessed with money? Doesn’t your family support you?”

Horan awkwardly smiled and closed the cabinet. Recently, the boss had been subtly prying into his family affairs like this, which was very unpleasant.

“I’ll take out the trash on my way out.”

“There’s a lot. I’ll go with you.”

As he lifted the trash bag from the corner, the boss followed him out. After placing the trash in front of the store and trying to say goodbye again, the boss dusted his hands and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket.

“Want one?”

Even though he had said he was a non-smoker from the first day, the boss offered him a cigarette whenever he had the chance.

“No, I’m fine. I’ll be going.”

Horan dryly refused and bowed.

The boss watched Horan’s retreating figure while taking a deep drag on his cigarette. Then he muttered.

“That damn bastard is really playing hard to get.”

Lately, Horan kept catching his eye. Despite his looks, he was diligent and didn’t slack off, but the fact that he didn’t grovel was a big flaw.

‘He doesn’t talk about himself at all.’

Having played around during his school days and running a fairly large bar, he was surrounded by people trying to get on his good side. Yet, Horan was distancing himself more and more instead of trying to cozy up.

“Hyung!”

At the sound of someone calling from behind, he turned to see a familiar younger guy.

“Where are you going?”

“To your bar, hyung.”

“We’re closing. Come next time.”

Even though he said to come next time, the guy didn’t seem disappointed and peeked inside the bar, lowering his voice.

“Hyung, does Lee Horan work here by any chance?”

“You know Lee Horan?”

“He’s a classmate, and he’s really famous.”

“Well, he is good-looking.”

“Not just that… he’s quite pretty…”

The guy suspiciously trailed off.

“That guy’s an orphan, you know.”

The boss’s eyes widened, forgetting to exhale the cigarette smoke.

“You didn’t know? His mom was a single mom, went crazy, beat him up, and then killed herself.”

The guy seemed pleased that the information he had surprised the boss, and he kept talking without being asked.

“And they say he sells his ass to old men for money.”

With that, the boss dropped his cigarette. He didn’t need to smoke to feel the dopamine rush. He slowly nodded, extinguishing the still-burning cigarette end.

“Ha, damn, no wonder… he’s different…”

The boss’s face, looking at the spot where Horan had disappeared, was filled with the joy of discovering a weakness, not sympathy or pity. His mind was filled with the image of the white back disappearing into the clothes he had seen in the changing room.

“Lee Horan, aren’t you going to get it together?”

For some reason, the boss’s attitude changed overnight. Even though Horan was working as usual, the boss kept picking on him and eventually yelled at him in front of the customers.

Even now, he was getting scolded harshly for breaking a water glass. It’s common to break a glass or two when things are busy and hectic. Just a moment ago, another part-timer broke a glass, and the boss didn’t say much.

“Stay after closing.”

In the end, Horan couldn’t leave after work and was left alone in the empty bar.

“Whether it’s delivery or hosting, you should make sure it doesn’t interfere with your work here.”

Horan, sitting across from the boss with a soju bottle between them, wished this uncomfortable and annoying situation would end soon.

“This bastard doesn’t even know how to drink.”

The boss muttered as he filled his own glass. He seemed displeased that Horan’s glass was still untouched.

“Is this because I broke the glass?”

Even after apologizing, the boss kept repeating the same thing, making Horan feel frustrated. No matter how he thought about it, the only recent mistake he made was breaking the glass today.

“Are you talking back?”

But the boss was trying to pick a fight by any means necessary. Responding to someone who had already made up their mind would only result in a late night.

As Horan kept his mouth shut, the boss leaned back in his chair after downing his soju.

“Why do you do deliveries? Is it for money?”

Horan lifted his gaze from the floor. Would anyone do it for fun, leaving food at strangers’ doors? He barely held back the urge to retort.

“Should I introduce you to a job? I know a guy who runs a labor office, and he says there’s a high-paying job.”

Horan frowned at the boss’s gaze, which alternated between his neck and lips.

“It’s something like a sponsor, but the clients there are well-mannered. You just have to spend a day with them. You get paid, and then you give me and the guy a percentage. How about it?”

“…What?”

Horan was dumbfounded. He wondered what the boss was getting at, only to realize he was suggesting he sell his body.

“They say you were doing compensated dating even before graduation, right? So it shouldn’t be hard for you.”

Where did he hear that from? He underestimated how easily rumors could spread beyond school walls.

“I mean, you don’t have parents, right? But there are plenty of people there who would act like a dad for you. Isn’t that good for you?”

The boss revealed all his dirty intentions. Horan realized that the reason he had to endure this humiliation wasn’t because he broke a glass, but because he was a poor orphan.