Swallow Hunting - Chapter 23.1
The reason the word ‘Baeksong’ sounded familiar was because it was the name printed on the business card Lee Kang-ju had given him. The identity of his Daddy Long Legs had finally been revealed.
If he were a cunning person, or one of the common, shameless humans in this industry, he would have fled to a remote corner of the countryside or another country the moment his debt was settled.
However, Hae-jun was not that kind of person. While he was good at acting cute to be loved by others, he significantly lacked the craftiness found in those who worked in the same trade.
Then again, if he had been sharp and full of tricks, he wouldn’t have lived his life taking on his father’s blind debts as they were. Even if he had caught a target to manipulate, he wouldn’t have grabbed a card like Han Young-hwa.
Hae-jun sat in a crouch for a long time, fiddling with his phone. It was right after he had finished smoking a cigarette.
“…….”
He had Lee Kang-ju’s contact information pulled up on the screen. At the very least, he wanted to say thank you. Regardless of the intent, it was a fact that the man had liquidated his debt.
Would a text be better? Or a phone call? His head knew that speaking over the phone was the polite thing to do, but sometimes that low bass voice would ring in his ears like a hallucination, just as Lee Kang-ju’s face and naked body flickered before his eyes. Perhaps because of that, he couldn’t make a decision easily.
“Ah, damn it.”
He roughly rubbed his neatly styled hair and finally made up his mind. It wasn’t right for a human being to take money and then just keep their mouth shut without even an acknowledgement.
He pressed the call button with such a solemn heart, but as time passed, he grew anxious and bit his lower lip. He didn’t have a habit of chain smoking, but it felt like he might develop one because of Lee Kang-ju.
-Yes.
Hae-jun inhaled sharply. His heart was pounding like a drum just from hearing the man’s voice. It was hard to distinguish the emotion. Was it fear, or something else?
“That, hello. This is Cha Hae-jun. I was wondering if it was you, CEO, who paid off my debt.”
-Yes.
A languid yet clear and deep voice. If one were to express that voice as a drawing, this would surely be a massive swell of a wave. The kind that swallows everything the moment it reaches the shoreline. It felt as if his eardrums were the boundary between the seawater and the sandy beach.
“……Why did you do that?”
He was curious about the reason. Was it because the man liked him so much after sleeping together once? For that to be the case, he hadn’t even contacted him for several days.
-If you don’t like it, should I put it back?
“No! It’s not that. ……I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you.”
-It isn’t free service, though.
“Then, perhaps, the price for sleeping together last time……”
-Cha Hae-jun, you set your own value quite high. Was it really worth that much?
“I’m sorry.”
Hae-jun apologized quickly. Putting the debt and the payment for sex on the same level was going too far. Wasn’t it a world full of guys shoving their backsides at people for a few pennies? If Lee Kang-ju offered his face instead of money, there would be a long line of people willing to get into bed first.
“Then why?”
-It is a down payment.
It meant there would be a next time. Hae-jun covered his face with his palm. His cheeks, visible through the gaps in his fingers, were flushed. His fingertips, which brushed against his skin, felt strangely tingly.
“What were you going to do if I just took the money and ran?”
He asked indirectly, wondering what the man believed in to do something so reckless. Though for Hae-jun, it was like a stroke of luck falling from the sky, enough to make him raise both arms and cheer.
Do you think the Boss there is the only one who knows how to cut ankles?
A low chuckle came through the receiver. In an instant, goosebumps raced down his forearms as if a cold draft had blown in.
It was only because there had been several incidents that offset the image of their first meeting, but Lee Kang-ju was not an ordinary citizen. Hae-jun still remembered the sounds of beating and the screams he had heard from behind the wall on the day he went to the office.
Hae-jun hated thugs. He especially found their behavioral patterns and mean habits—beating people like livestock and threatening them to extort what they wanted—to be horrific. Lee Kang-ju would not be fundamentally different from them.
……But.
-See you soon.
The call ended. Hae-jun stared at the black screen for a long time. Eventually, he bowed his head, scratched his cheek, and let out a deep sigh.
Is this really the right path? He held his head in his hands, lost in deep thought. His chest felt heavy in a situation where he couldn’t find an answer with his own intellect.
However, he couldn’t see any other path for now. Hadn’t his life been like a buoy with its string cut anyway? It wasn’t as if he had been in a position to choose and measure things for a long time. Nothing had changed except for the fact that the main cause of the waves had changed to Lee Kang-ju.
A group came out through the back door of the shop, as it was a slow time. Hae-jun erased his expressionless face and beamed a bright smile. After exchanging some idle greetings, he left the spot nonchalantly.
***
Just as the Boss warned, the rent rose by a full 30%. His back was already bent and his windpipe constricted just from the interest on the private loans, and now he had the rent on top of that. It was an amount that was simply impossible to handle.
His bank balance was like a bottomless pot, so after paying for this and that, not even a pittance remained. He didn’t even have the luxury to buy the cheapest product at a convenience store.
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