CH 20.1

They drove for about 30 minutes from the Yangpyeong villa. The car stopped at the entrance of a hanok-style mansion that was close to several hundred pyeong. The majestic building was a dreamy space where the past and the present coexisted with bare windbreaks and fog. A man in a bow tie ran up to him, greeted Cha Yiseok at a 90-degree angle, and handed over the car keys. He was guided by another man and entered the front door.

In the center of the yard, there was a watermill, and there were pine trees and natural stones everywhere. Somewhere, there was a sound of laughter mixed with the sound of a zither plucking. Women dressed in improved hanbok, even wearing hairpins, melted into one of the landscapes. A woman who appeared to be in her early thirties came up and bowed, dragging a red hanbok skirt.

“It’s been a while. Executive Director.”

Cha Yiseok replied with a light smile. The gisaeng-like woman gave Cha Yiseok a soft smile and greeted the group behind her.

“Come this way…”

The woman twisted her body slightly and held out her hand. She looked as if she had been meticulously trained in facial expressions and gestures. The exterior looks like a hanok, but the interior is a combination of East and West. The woman went up the stairs to the third floor, stopped in the farthest room, and opened the sliding door.

On one side of the room, there was a large screen and ink paintings on the walls, and traditional patterns made of gold leaf were engraved on each piece of furniture. Chairs were arranged on either side of a long table in the middle of the room. It was a completely enclosed space except for the window on one side of the wall.

Only the place is different, but Paradiso or here, fifty-two hundred, but Cocaine had a gritty face. Then, the opposite door opened and four women in modernized hanbok entered. A faint scent of musk followed. They exuded classic beauty and urban sophistication at the same time. Yaba wrinkled his forehead, thinking about what those women really were. Cha Yiseok glanced at the woman who seemed to be the highest in rank.

“Just dinner for today.”

The women walked out in unison. Cocaine frowned and looked at Cha Yiseok.

“You must come here often.”

“I did. There is a variety of food.”

Cha Yiseok took a seat in the middle, leaving only strange words, and Cocaine stood in place and admired the luxurious interior. Yaba got out halfway and went to the bathroom. The bathroom was clean, but the wind could be heard from the cracked walls. Like a virgin ghost or a black cat crying… The stain marks on the wall looked like a mark carried by the ghosts. There was a fairy in such a remote place, and there were more than one or two suspicious things with the eyes of the gisaeng looking at Cha Yiseok.

Yaba glanced at the cracked gap with a pitiful heart. Someone who came first took a toilet and sprayed urine. There was a urinal left, but Yaba went into the toilet compartment. When someone was present, he tended to pee inside. It was because of the concern that the scrotum might be caught while urinating. It was also the reason for not going to public baths, and most of the eunuchs did the same.

The toilet looks clean, but it would be infested with hundreds of thousands of bacteria. Yaba moved as far as possible from the toilet and lowered the zipper. He pulled out his underwear and a cheque wrapped slipped and pressed firmly on the perineum and entrance. He urinated and tucked inelastic chunks of flesh into his clothes. The check was well stored in the groin.

When he came out, the man was gone, and Cocaine was washing his hands in his sink. Yaba walked briskly to the sink and next to Cocaine. The opposite mirror reflected the two opposite bodies without filtration. Yaba glanced around and spread liquid soap on the palm of his hand. Cocaine shook his hands and turned to this side.

“Don’t you have something to tell me?”

Yaba returned the question.

“Your face didn’t change a single color. You were good at lying.”

“Then what should I do in that situation? Do you know how dumbfounded and startled I was?”

“Stop beating around the bush and say it. You want me to say I feel bad for imitating you.”

“It’s not just you, I don’t like when anyone impersonates me.”

“Are you afraid that I may have disturbed your high-profile reputation?”

“I wasn’t worried about that.”

“Then what?”

Yaba looked straight at Cocaine as he brushed his wet hands off.

“Yiseok said I could do whatever I wanted, so I did it to my heart’s content.”

Cocaine furrowed his eyebrows. And unexpected words came out of his biting lips.

“You… call that person by name?”

It was funny to focus on such a thing, it was unlike Cocaine, but it was also annoying. Cocaine doesn’t seem to want to hand over the name Cha Yiseok. Yaba asked coldly.

“Isn’t it made to be called?”

“The Executive Director doesn’t say anything?”

“Not at all.”

Cocaine’s complexion froze even more. Of all the things Yaba had seen, it caught his eye more than anything else. It was the first time he had ever seen that expression from Cocaine, and it was a familiar smell to Yaba himself. The stench of a loser who was robbed from little by little and had only empty hands. His back was numb. Yaba stared at his face for a long time, holding back his lips from curling.

“Do you want to gain honor by saving Cha Myunghwan and look good to Yiseok? But to get one, you have to let go of one.”

Cocaine’s lips were dyed with a cold color.

“Don’t keep provoking me. Because the more you scratch me, the more I want to accept Director Cha’s job.”

“You said it was impossible with your own mouth. What kind of trick do you think you’re going to use to revive a half-dead person, whose cancer has spread all over his body? Everyone is holding you up like a god, so you think you’re a real god, don’t you? Did you fix the person you really wanted to fix before?”

Cocaine’s expression changed at the surprise question.

“It’s not an obvious disease, but should I ask?”

“That person, if he doesn’t get better after a long time of healing, there’s no hope. Why don’t you wash your hands off him like Cha Myunghwan?”

“The problem is that I don’t feel like it at all.”

“Do you want to fix it as yourself? Or as a healer?”

Yaba asked carefully and without hesitation. The shadow beneath Cocaine’s lashes flickered in the light. After a while he opened his mouth.

“It’s myself.”

Drops of water dripped from Yaba’s fingertips. Cocaine calmly pushed his hair back. The black pupil, which had been shaking all the time, became clear.

“Executive Director Cha’s brother, putting other things aside and focusing on it, it’s not really impossible. If I had to take your advice and choose between the two… I also want to challenge the impossible once in a while. As a healer.”

Cocaine said adamantly. Yaba hid the boiling anger with a smile.

“If you fail, Chairman Cha will come after you first, but can a singer from a brothel handle it? Wouldn’t Yiseok be happy too?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.”

Cocaine lowered his piercing gaze. He grasped Cha Yiseok’s weakness that wasn’t weakness, but he had no intention of taking advantage of it. Cocaine believed he wasn’t bad enough to control him with such a low trick. He was thrilled to share a secret with him, and today he helped him… Yes, his heart raced with a strange bond. That was it. Cocaine said.

“No matter what Executive Director Cha had in mind when he put you there, what they wanted in the first place was me.”

“Who said that?”

“But why do you look like you’ve had something taken away?”

“…”

The words of Cocaine cut Yaba’s neck. His body twitched like a man whose head had been blown away. It took time to restore it to its original state. Yaba said with his lips raised coldly.

“It doesn’t matter whether you take on Cha Myunghwan’s case or give up. He’s a little dense, but he doesn’t lie, so it’s worth it. Please treat him well in the future. With that plain song.”

For a moment, Cocaine’s face stiffened. Even after seeing him hurting his pride, Yaba’s mood rarely improved. He wanted to step on him a little more, but suddenly everything was bothersome and lethargic. What face does he have now? Yaba turned and went out. The medicinal energy he had poured out before departure from his villa returned and his legs staggered.

The inside of the room was visible through the door that opened at the far end of the hallway. Cha Yiseok and Hashish sat opposite each other with a long table in between. Compared to Cha Yiseok, who leaned leisurely on the backrest, Hashish did not hide his discomfort. Putting aside their Cocaine-fighting rivalry, putting aside being top and bottom of the food chain, the difference left between them was having the balls and not having them. Hashish’s expression in front of Cha Yiseok was probably the same reason why Yaba only uses the toilet.

Cocaine walked past Yaba one step ahead. He went straight to the room and sat down next to Cha Yiseok. As if he had been in his place from the beginning, there was no hesitation. Yaba and Hashish became frozen at the same time.

He had no intention of sitting next to Cha Yiseok. However, Yaba had no intention of sitting next to Hashish either. Hashish would agree. Cha Yiseok glanced at Cocaine and smiled without saying a word. There’s no reason to give a seat next to a fake person over the real thing.