I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 58
When Jaewoo arrived at work that morning, Mujin’s apartment was empty. That was a stroke of luck; things with Mujin were still awkward after what had happened the day before. If they could avoid each other for even one day, that would be great.
After he’d finished his work, Jaewoo sat on the sofa, staring blankly into space. He was starting to wonder if he could just leave and go back home when his cell phone suddenly rang. The number that appeared on the screen was the one that he’d seen the other day. After hesitating for a moment, Jaewoo accepted the call and heard Mujin’s familiar voice.
─ I left some important documents in the bedroom. Bring them here. Do you know where my office is?
“Yes, I know.”
He hadn’t wanted to see Mujin’s face, but it looked like he wasn’t going to get what he wanted. Jaewoo sighed and went to look for the documents in the bedroom nightstand.
‘I wonder how he got my cell phone number, anyway?’
Jaewoo knew that Mujin already had all of his personal information, but for some weird reason he didn’t like being reminded of it. But what could be done? Mujin had ties to organized crime; there was nothing that Jaewoo could do to him.
Jaewoo grabbed the documents and headed outside. Now that he thought about it, couldn’t Mujin have ordered one of his subordinates to pick them up? Why had he asked Jaewoo to do it? It was a mystery. He got into a taxi with a sigh and soon arrived at Mujin’s company. It was a huge, shiny building – it looked like such a legitimate business that it was hard to believe that it was run by gangsters.
Time to head in. As he was walking inside, a tall man approached him from far away, walking over slowly. At first Jaewoo had wondered if the person was also here for business, but his approach seemed strange.
‘Is he coming to me?’
He wasn’t imagining it. Whoever it was, they were approaching Jaewoo. Only once the man got closer did Jaewoo realize their identity – Yoon Jiheon. Someone Jaewooe hadn’t wanted to meet for a variety of reasons.
Honestly, who would? He’d met this man while being forced to entertain him with his company, so he couldn’t bring himself to feel happy about seeing him again. He’d only been there because Mujin had forced him. Jaewoo moved to try to avoid Yiheon, but the man followed him no matter where he went.
What happened next was what Jaewoo had just experienced. Jaewoo had desperately tried to pretend not to know him, and Jiheon had completely ignored his attempts. Then he’d started claiming to be his friend.
“Aren’t you being too mean to your poor friend?”
What did he mean, ‘friend’? Jaewoo was aghast and started trying to refute it, but he couldn’t figure out how to address Yoon Jiheon in order to do so. For many reasons, he felt reluctant to call Jiheon by his name, for fear that it would sound too intimate. As he hesitated, Jiheon seized the advantage.
“Please call me Jiheon.”
“What?”
“Aren’t we friends, after all?”
Then he closed his eyes and smiled. Mujin and Hyunjin’s looks were top notch but Jiheon was no slouch either. For a moment, Jaewoo was stunned, but he quickly came back to his senses.
“I don’t have any friends like you.”
“That hurts. I thought we became friends the other night.”
Who could become friends in that sort of situation! That was like saying a frog was friends with a snake. That’s how different they were.
“You’re mistaken.”
“That’s not true. I feel like we’re destined to be great friends.”
Then Jiheon took a business card from his pocket and handed it to him. ‘Director Yoon of Yoram Construction.’ The logo on the business card felt vaguely familiar to him. Had he seen it somewhere before? Jaewoo stared at the card, trying to remember, when it finally occurred to him.
He’d once brought Hyunjin lunch at work. The logo on the card was the same logo as he’d seen on the wall of the construction site. A chill traveled up his spine. Why? Why was it the same? What else had happened in the novel that Jaewoo didn’t know about? No matter how hard he tried to remember, he still couldn’t figure it out.
Jaewoo lifted up his head stiffly and stared at Jiheon. He was still smiling, but it felt like a mask over his true feelings.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No, i-it’s nothing.”
Jaewoo tried to appear calm.
“Then I look forward to hearing from you. You’re going to call me, right?”
When he said those words with that fake smile on his face, it sounded like a threat. Was it possible that the logos were just a coincidence? But Hyunjin had said that there wasn’t much construction work during the winter. He’d even said that he’d had a lot of trouble finding his current job. Could this really all be a coincidence? Jaewoo’s head was spinning.
Jiheon stepped closer and whispered in Jaewoo’s ear.
“Trust me, Jaewoo.”
Jaewoo felt a sense of familiarity in that short sentence. Why did Jiheon seem like he knew him? Why was he so friendly? It should have been easy for Jaewoo to refute him, but for some reason his voice didn’t want to come out.
“Why…”
Why did he feel this way? Jaewoo tried to talk to Jiheon again, but he had already turned around and walked away as quickly as he’d arrived.
The only thing left was the business card in Jaewoo’s hand.
‘Let’s keep this for now.’
Jaewoo didn’t know what Jiheon’s intentions were, but he had a hunch that it might come in handy someday. Jaewoo tucked the business card away safely.
Delivering the documents to Mujin wasn’t difficult. It took him a bit to get to his office from the lobby, but after that, everything went smoothly.
“Here you go.”
Mujin took the documents without saying anything. Then he looked at Jaewoo with an unreadable expression on his face.
“I hear you met Director Yoon.”
It seemed like the news had arrived before Jaewoo did.
“We met.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I didn’t tell him anything.”
“Tell me.”
This was too heavy-handed. But since nothing good could come from defying him right now, Jaewoo answered obediently.
“I told him we weren’t friends.”
“Who aren’t friends?”
“Me and him.”
“You and Director Yoon, friends?”
The corners of his tense mouth began to twitch up, but Jaewoo got the impression that he wasn’t really happy.
“Do you think that’s possible for the two of you?”
“No.”
“Good, you understand. That’s settled, then. Director Yoon is an important person whose true feelings are unknown. You need to be cautious around him.”
Mujin wasn’t exactly easy to get along with either. Jaewoo stared at him warily. Didn’t Mujin have a tendency to become violent at the drop of a hat, then act like he was taking pity on him? Jaewoo still hadn’t quite figured him out.
“Answer me.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Alright. Go back to the apartment.”
“Will you be back later tonight?”
“Maybe.”
With that, the conversation between the two ended. As Jaewoo exited the building, Dongsoo, Mujin’s subordinate, was there waiting for him.
“I’ll take you to your destination.”
“I can get there on my own.”
“It’s the Director’s order.”
No, since when was Mujin allowed to give him that sort of order? Jaewoo grumbled, but allowed himself to be led into the car by Dongsoo. Dongsoo got behind the wheel, driving skillfully. Meanwhile, Jaewoo fiddled with Jiheon’s business card in his pocket.
‘I need to contact him.’
He just needed to work up the courage first.
As soon as Jaewoo left, Mujin made a noise of annoyance. During the night at the VIP Bar, Mujin had thought that Jiheon was paying too much attention to Jaewoo. Seeing him approach Jaewoo again, it seemed as if he’d really caught Jiheon’s eye. How annoying.
Even more troublesome, Jiheon wasn’t the sort of person that Mujin could easily lay his hands on, at least not yet. For now, he had no choice but to wait and see how things turned out.
‘Really.’
There were too many things happening that Mujin didn’t like. If it were up to him, he would have gotten rid of everything bothering him and done exactly as he pleased. But strangely enough, he found himself having difficulty with that. It was like that the day Jaewoo returned for his phone, too. He’d wanted to leave an impression on that arrogant pup, so he’d resorted to violence, but in the end, he hadn’t been able to see it through. As he’d looked at Jaewoo’s suffering face, his hands had unknowingly loosened their grip.
‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’
Whether it was a person or an object, he knew how to easily obtain it. Why couldn’t he do so now? Mujin kept opening and closing his hand repeatedly, as if picturing grasping something.
He tried to imagine it. He could use violence to break Jaewoo’s will to resist, then threaten his family in order to tie him to his side. He could cut him off from the outside world, confine him, and manipulate his body into responding to him. He could do that right now if he wanted to.
But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Why couldn’t he treat Jaewoo however he wanted? This had never happened to him before. Mujin rubbed his throbbing chest with his hand. He knew that he taken a bit of a liking to Jaewoo, but that was all.
These newly blossomed emotions were eating away at Mujin.
‘This doesn’t suit my nature.’
It really didn’t suit his nature. Mujin smiled bitterly to himself.
Time flowed on like a river. The workweek flew by, and Saturday arrived. This week, Saturday meant movie day.
“Okay, ready!”
They’d bought chicken for the kids while the two adults were out watching the movie.
“I love chicken!”
Woohee was satisfied with the chicken, and didn’t try to cling to Hyunjin. Hyeonu was the same way.
“Brother, have fun watching the movie!”
They proudly saw their brother off. Hyunjin stepped outside first, followed by Jaewoo. White steam rose from Hyunjin’s mouth as he took a deep breath of the air in the yard. His jacket was old and worn, and his hair was messy. Still, it was such a nice sight that Jaewoo couldn’t help but smile.
He even forgot for a moment that things were still awkward between them.
“Hyunjin.”
“Yes?”
Hyunjin looked back at Jaewoo.
Click.
Jaewoo quickly pressed the photo button on his cell phone. Hyunjin, who’d just turned around, was captured quite nicely.
“Look at how it turned out.”
As Jaewoo showed it to him with a laugh, Hyunjin smiled and held up his own cell phone.
“I want to take a picture too.”
“Me? A photo of me?”
While Jaewoo was still confused, trying to think about what pose he should take, a clicking noise rang out.
“I wasn’t even ready yet!”
“But it turned out so nice.”
“Let me see.”
Hyunjin showed him the photo. Jaewoo didn’t know how that photo could be considered ‘nice’. He felt like if he allowed this to pass, it would end up being a dark shadow over his life. He lunged for the phone, trying to delete the photo, but Hyunjin quickly raised his hands over his head defensively.
“No.”
“Reshoot!”
“I’m fine with taking another picture, but I don’t want to delete this one.”
“Why!”
“Because I like it.”
This lousy guy. Jaewoo’s body trembled with annoyance.
