AGC | Chapter 1.4

Kang Jinsong had no interest or hobby in men, but he acknowledged that Yoon Jiwan had a pretty handsome face.

The two underlings working under him, managing Jiwan in the villa, had been talking all day about Jiwan’s looks. Saying he looked young, like an idol. Kang Jinsong sighed, recalling their noisy chatter.

Kang Jinsong hesitated for a moment. Jiwan was still sniffling, leaning against the headboard. There was no manual for comforting a hostage. Still, he decided to rack his brain.

“You don’t have to worry too much.”

Jiwan’s gaze turned to Kang Jinsong. His face seemed to ask what nonsense he was spouting. His eyes, swollen from crying, had turned fierce. Was it a case of giving a disease and then offering a cure? Kang Jinsong scratched his right cheek and continued.

“As you might have noticed, the Director considers Jiwan-nim a very valuable hostage.”

“…”

“As long as you don’t try to escape, your life will be safe.”

Jiwan’s face twisted like a crushed can. He had tried to offer reassurance that as long as he didn’t do anything foolish, there was no need to worry too much, but it seemed his words didn’t provide much comfort to Yoon Jiwan.

“What I mean is… if you can’t avoid it, enjoying it isn’t a bad idea.”

This was the extent of Manager Kang Jinsong’s ability to comfort someone. Whether it would actually calm him down was uncertain.

⋆ ☾⋆ ☾⋆ ☾⋆

Staying here, Jiwan lost all sense of time. Of course, there was no phone, and the bedroom didn’t have a clock. He could only guess the time by the color of the sky outside.

Jiwan got up and headed to the bathroom. His swollen eyelids ached like they were being pierced by needles. Splashing cold water helped a bit. He took a deep breath, gripping the sink. It wasn’t because he felt like crying again. He had to prepare.

Carefully, he opened the bedroom door and moved quietly. The first floor was dimly lit by the rising sun, but there was no sign of movement. Even the three gangsters seemed to be asleep at this hour.

Holding the railing, he cautiously descended the stairs, one step at a time. He didn’t know where he was, but he sensed that now was the perfect time to escape. Even if this villa was in the middle of nowhere, there had to be at least one house nearby.

Jiwan tiptoed across the spacious living room like a mouse, slipping on the slippers neatly placed by the front door. He gripped the doorknob tightly.

Please, please, don’t let an alarm go off when I open this.

He turned the knob, chanting silently. Thankfully, no alarm sounded. It was just a regular door lock.

He carefully opened the door and closed it without making a sound. The locking sound was the same as when it opened.

Jiwan breathed a sigh of relief and turned around. He blinked at the garden spread out before him.

“What the…”

The garden was too vast to take in at a glance. A wall taller than Jiwan surrounded it. Despite the beautiful scenery, the wall made it feel like a prison.

Now wasn’t the time to admire the garden’s size. Jiwan ran straight toward the gate in the distance.

Right in front of him was a large oval-shaped tile. As he looked at the modern design, Jiwan thought, Is this Cha Minhyung’s taste? Without hesitation, he stepped onto the tile. Or tried to.

“…Ugh!”

He plunged straight into the water. It wasn’t a tile he stepped on, but water, so naturally, he couldn’t run across it.

He was utterly confused. Water shouldn’t be black unless it’s mixed with ink. He didn’t dislike water, but this situation was an exception. His unprepared body flailed wildly in panic. From the moment he fell into what seemed like a pool, Jiwan’s heart sank to his feet, and he couldn’t control his body, possibly due to panic.

“Jiwan-ssi.”

The voice that brought him back to his senses was calm and right in front of him.

“…It’s not deep.”

Minhyung was kneeling, looking down at Jiwan, who resembled a drowned rat.

Jiwan stopped flailing his arms and took a deep breath. Once he calmed down, he realized the water wasn’t deep; it barely reached his chest.

Minhyung, watching him, raised one corner of his mouth and extended a hand.

Was that a smirk?

Jiwan glared at Minhyung with eyes stinging from the water. Still, he took the hand and managed to crawl out.

Sitting soaked, he examined the pool closely and realized the water wasn’t black; the tiles at the bottom were. Is this the trend these days? Jiwan rubbed his stinging eyes with the back of his hand.

The slippers he lost floated aimlessly in the pool. Jiwan, staring blankly at them, turned his gaze to Minhyung. He had fallen in stupidly, but why was this guy here? He said he’d come in two days. His head was pounding.

“Wondering why I’m here?”

“…Yeah.”

“I rushed over because I heard you cried all night, and here you are.”

Jiwan could only sigh deeply. The manager or whatever seemed to report everything. It was obvious that escaping was out of the question now that he’d run into Cha Minhyung. Annoying him was just a bonus.

“You couldn’t open the gate anyway…”

Minhyung clicked his tongue as he looked Jiwan up and down, soaked.

“Are you going to try escaping again?”

His voice was gentle, but Jiwan hesitated. After today’s fiasco, surveillance might tighten. They might even confine him to his room. He knew that would mean no more dreams or hopes.

“I wasn’t trying to escape; I just wanted to dive in for a swim.”

He couldn’t help but shake his head at his own stupid excuse. No one would believe that unless they carried their brain as decoration.

Minhyung looked at the pool where Jiwan had fallen.

“I didn’t know you liked water that much.”

“…What?”

“Good thing I told them to make the pool big.”

What is this guy even saying? Is his brain really just for show?

Jiwan was at a loss for words, his mouth slightly agape.

“…What is this?”

Manager Kang Jinsong, who had rushed out at the commotion, was also speechless at the scene before him.

Jiwan, drenched from head to toe, left anyone who saw him at a loss for words.

Regardless, Jiwan, who had lost all motivation, shook his wet hair half-heartedly. His clothes, soaked with water, felt heavy. Water dripped from the marble floor, almost forming a puddle.

“Manager, I heard there are pool supplies.”

“Yes?”

Manager Kang Jinsong frowned, finding Minhyung’s words hard to understand.

“I heard Jiwan-ssi likes swimming.”

“…Did he say he was swimming?”

Kang Jinsong, looking bewildered, glanced at Jiwan’s appearance again.

Jiwan found the situation so absurd that he let out a small laugh. If Kang Jinsong were a loyal underling of Cha Minhyung, he’d speak his mind. Who goes swimming at dawn? He was probably just trying to escape. Jiwan, now almost resigned, ran simulations in his head.

“Please wait a moment.”

Contrary to expectations, Manager Kang Jinsong didn’t say that. Instead, he hurriedly left and returned shortly with something. It was a portable clothes rack.

Ignoring Jiwan’s bewilderment at the unexpected item, Kang Jinsong began pointing at each item on the rack, explaining at length.

“There are rash guards, briefs, and box trunks. There are also 5-part swimsuits, so choose according to your preference.”

Are they doing this on purpose?

Jiwan stared blankly at the portable clothes rack the manager had brought.

It looked like a swimwear store, with a variety of colorful swimsuits hanging densely. Just looking at it made his head hurt like an earthquake.

The manager suddenly sat down and brought something to his mouth.

Huff, huff.

“…What are you doing?”

He couldn’t help but ask, unable to watch any longer.

Manager Kang Jinsong was puffing his cheeks and diligently blowing air into a tube. The deflated tube slowly inflated.

“I’m inflating a tube.”

Kang Jinsong wiped his mouth and spoke in a monotonous tone.

“It’ll be fully inflated in 30 minutes. Please wait a moment.”

Who doesn’t know it’s a tube? The question is, why are you blowing it up? Jiwan pressed his temples hard. There were indeed all sorts of people in the world. And those various people were driving him crazy.

“No, it’s fine… I’ll just go wash up.”

“No, please wait a moment, and I’ll have it ready for you.”

And so, Jiwan found himself on a ridiculous banana-shaped air cushion. The tube that Manager Kang Jinsong had diligently inflated.

He had attempted to escape, made a foolish dive into the pool, claimed he jumped in because he loved swimming, and Cha Minhyung believed that excuse, leaving him in the pool. All this happened in less than an hour.

“It’s a Cosmopolitan.”

Jiwan looked at the cocktail glass with a cherry garnish and then back at Manager Kang Jinsong.

“What time is it?”

“It’s 7 o’clock.”

“…It’s not even day drinking; it’s morning drinking.”

“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

Kang Jinsong glanced between the cocktail and Jiwan before walking toward the entrance.

Now, only Yoon Jiwan and Cha Minhyung were left in the garden. One was in the pool, and the other was watching from outside.

Jiwan slid off the banana tube. Thanks to the snug rash guard, he moved toward the cocktail without water resistance. He had only been to a pool once as a child and never wore a rash guard or anything like it since. Of course, the situation of wearing it now was absurd in itself.

As he downed the bright pink cocktail, Minhyung, who had been watching, frowned.

“…What?”

Your underling gave it to me, so what’s the problem now? Jiwan was getting annoyed.

“You just drank it all at once.”

Jiwan sighed at Minhyung’s words. He felt like he needed to down the drink in one go to escape this reality.

Cha Minhyung was half-leaning on a sunbed. He wasn’t reading a book, using his phone, or even drinking. He just kept watching him in the same position. Jiwan tried not to be conscious of it, but it was impossible not to notice.

“Don’t you like water?”

“I don’t dislike it.”

“Then why aren’t you in the pool?”

It was a question thrown out without much thought, but Minhyung seemed to ponder it, lowering his gaze.

“Watching is more enjoyable.”

Jiwan shook his head in disbelief.

But it seemed Minhyung wasn’t lying about enjoying it. There was a slight smile on his face. It was a barely noticeable smile, but for someone whose default expression was blank, it was a significant change.

With half his face submerged in water, Jiwan rolled his eyes around. He began to notice things he hadn’t seen during his frantic escape attempt. Like the well-maintained plants and the neatly arranged decorative paths.

Looking up at the villa’s exterior, with its clean black-and-white color scheme, it seemed even larger than it felt inside. It was excessively luxurious and opulent for a villa in some rural area.

A villa so luxurious and sophisticated it made you gasp, a well-maintained expansive garden with a uniquely designed large pool, and Yoon Jiwan drinking in that pool.

Thinking this far, Jiwan let out a deep sigh. If someone who didn’t know him saw him, they’d probably think he was either a nouveau riche or someone enjoying a vacation. At least, this wasn’t the kind of hostage treatment he’d learned from dramas or movies.