Swallow Hunting - Chapter 4.1
“Yo, yo, you pretty little bastard. I knew you’d pull it off. Fuck, I had an eye for talent.”
“Huh? Boss, wh, huh?”
“I knew you’d land a big one someday. Hey, hey, you pretty thing.”
The boss planted loud kisses all over the crown of Hae-jun’s head, piling on praise without restraint. Having been cursed at plenty of times but never praised even once, Hae-jun rolled his eyes in confusion. A big one. The only fish he had bitten recently was something rotten to the core.
Still, he could not bring himself to break the cheerful mood, so Hae-jun chuckled along and matched the boss’s enthusiasm. He had no idea what news the man had heard to make him act like this, but if the boss said things were good, then they were good.
“Did you take yesterday off to get ready? You sly little fox.”
When Hae-jun started coughing, his throat squeezed tight, the boss loosened his arm. He patted Hae-jun’s shoulder firmly, like he was sending a son off to the army.
“They’ll be here soon, so serve them well.”
Nothing he said made sense. Hae-jun rubbed his stiff neck and asked blankly.
“What?”
“What do you mean? You said you introduced this place to them, right? They’re coming in person, so you need to go greet them. Why are you standing there going huh, huh like an idiot.”
“…What?”
“Look at this little shit. You said to come personally. You were throwing a fit about not wanting male clients, then sneaking pumpkin seeds out the back and playing innocent. The nerve.”
If he said ‘what’ one more time, he felt like he would get smacked on the back of the head. Hae-jun racked his brain, replaying every memory of when he might have bitten someone. No matter how hard he tried, nothing came up.
Had he gotten blackout drunk, a second personality popped out, latched onto a customer, and handed over a business card or something. But he had not been drinking much lately. He had even been behaving himself, keeping chaste and not working his body at all, because he was pouring all his effort into Han Young-hwa.
“Don’t leave out a single thing they want. If they say suck, you suck. If they say spread, you spread. If they say give it, you give it. If they spit, you swallow it. If they piss, you just accept it.”
The boss grabbed Hae-jun’s ass hard. Even as tears welled up from the pain, the hand did not let go, kneading him like it was loosening muscle. Then, like a whip, he smacked it with a sharp crack.
“And say you want a high price!”
With that, he was told to wait quietly and kicked out of the office. Still stunned, he staggered back to the waiting room. He still had no grasp of what was going on.
“Hyung, did the boss give you hell?”
One of them slid over and asked quietly. Hae-jun stared blankly into space, then slowly shook his head. It was hell, but a different kind.
“No. I didn’t get scolded.”
“Then why do you look so spaced out?”
The guy even threw an arm around his shoulders, acting friendly. Hae-jun dragged both hands down his face. He still had no idea what had happened.
“I don’t know either.”
“If you don’t know, who does.”
“They said I got a reservation. But I don’t know who it is.”
“Hyung, that’s huge…! Reservations are fucking amazing.”
He had heard of being requested by name, but never of reservations. When Hae-jun asked what that meant, the guy smacked his lips and really got going.
“Requests are by the hour, but reservations mean the customer keeps you as long as they want. They have to put down a reservation fee and rent the whole room. Your TC is going to be insane.”
He looked openly envious. Was this really a good thing? As Hae-jun scratched his head, the boss’s excited rambling suddenly resurfaced in his mind.
He definitely said… it was a man, did he not.
Hae-jun’s brow furrowed. Why did it have to be that?
Soon after, a call came in. Some of those who had been waiting stretched, others cursed as they headed out the door. Hae-jun almost followed out of habit, but the guy beside him pushed his shoulder down.
“Hyung, you have a reservation.”
“Oh. Right.”
It should have been a chance to make big money, something to be happy about, but his mood felt off. Why did it feel like he was walking straight into a tiger’s wide open jaws? He wanted to bolt straight to Yohan’s place.
As if sensing his unease, the boss called. This time, he did not miss it. He answered with a yes, and immediately got told which room to go to. Then came another warning.
– Do everything. All of it.
He did not know how far that all of it went, but one thing was certain. If he did not go, the boss would kill him.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
