CH 7.2

At that moment, Cha Yiseok’s eyes widened slightly. The stiffening of the air around him was clearly felt on his skin. Unable to see the expression that was about to change over there, Yaba lowered his gaze. His heart was on the verge of bursting. All the worms under his blood vessels and skin were killed, and the eggs delayed hatching. After being in the same position for a while, he could feel him slowly turning his head.

Yaba barely blinked and then looked at him. His vision narrowed and all he could see was his face. For a moment, a clear smirk passed in his eyes. At this moment, the eyes were not a means of communication, but a tool used to attack, for him. It would be useless to ask the other person if he did not want to do it. Just imagining this lump of flesh covering your face and hugging and kissing your scaly body would make anyone nauseous.

You said you needed me.

I’m confident I’ll be good at pissing people off.

Sadness gathered around his eyes.

“… It’s okay if you don’t want to. Find someone else.”

He didn’t answer this time either. He’ll probably never return an answer to him. He felt like he was going to suffocate, so he wanted to get out. It was the moment he got up straight away, a large hand wrapped around Yaba’s shoulders and sat him back down. When he turned his head, the man’s cold, refined features filled his eyes. He was motionless to the point that he doubted whether he was the person who forced him to sit down. After a while, he pushed the silence away.

“Is that really enough?”

He doubted his ears at the question. His heart pounded out of the water and was beating terribly. Yaba stiffened for a while, then nodded his head without making eye contact with him. Cha Yiseok’s eyes twinkled meaningfully.

“Only the lips? Or even the tongue?”

It was said with a mischievous intention. He seemed unwilling to make his choice until he heard the answer. Yaba wrinkled his brows and answered.

“At the back…”

There seemed to be a creaking sound from his chin. His sharp eyes curved.

“Fine. If you do the job properly, I’ll make your tongue melt.”

Blood rushed to Yaba’s face and the drums pounded in his head. The other person didn’t even ask why he was making this offer. He didn’t seem to even want to know. It’s fine either way. It was more important that he accepted it. Yaba himself didn’t realise that he had made such an offer, nor that the other person had accepted it, so he sat there blankly. Cha Yiseok turned around the sofa and sat down next to him. Then, he put his hand on Yaba’s mask.

“What… !!”

Yaba almost slapped his hand away. He was genuinely startled to the extent that his pores shrank. Cha Yiseok touched the mask again. Yaba took hold of his wrist and swallowed his voice.

“… What are you doing?”

“We’re in this together, so I have to know your face.”

Cha Yiseok got his wrist out of Yaba’s hand and tried again. Yaba reflexively pulled his body back.

“It’s against the rules. Giha’s outside.”

“I’m just looking at you secretly, what would he know?”

“No… !”

Cha Yiseok pulled the ribbon without hesitation and the knot came loose. Yaba stepped back and sprawled on his sofa. Cha Yiseok took the chance to swoop in and untied the remaining knots. Yaba caught the mask that was about to fall off his face quickly. If he saw his face now, he definitely would break his promise. Because Yaba was hidden under the mask, Cha Yiseok accepted the absurd deal. His body temperature dropped to the bottom.

“No! No! Don’t do that!!”

He kicked him as hard as he could. As the other person groaned briefly, Yaba sprinted from his seat and ran away, hiding his face behind the mask. When the door opened loudly, Giha and Imsoo, who were outside, looked puzzled.

Bang—!!

He opened the waiting room door and walked forward, looking only forward. Dozens of eyeballs gathered on him. Yaba threw the mask down and started trampling on it. The eunuch singers looked at such a Yaba from a distance and murmured.

“He’s gone crazy again. He’s indeed gone mad again. How many times has he done that to those expensive things?”

The sleeping rage deep down arose and Yaba stepped on the mask with his feet. He was disgusted with himself who could only hide behind a mask to talk to him, stare at him, kiss him, and so on. If the other person turned away all his promises even now, he will gladly let him go. No, he actually wanted to look into those eyes up close just once. Just once, just once, when he’s sober! Heat rushed to the corners of his eyes. He trampled on the shattered mask and crushed it.

Cha Yiseok was like a still-life painting. From a distance, he attracts attention with his lively splendor, but if you look closely, you can see the raw and cold texture of the paint… Such amiability will be the leisure of those who do not know failure.

At that moment, Imsoo came in and shook his head as he looked at the crushed mask. And he said to the Cocaine.

“Executive Director Cha is waiting for you in the dressing room. Come on.”

“Yes.”

Cocaine put on a mask and left the waiting room, looking at the mess with distraught eyes. Imsoo followed along and stared at Yaba.

“Executive Director Cha said he was coming to pick you up tomorrow. Prepare in advance.”

Yaba took a deep breath and stopped kicking. Imsoo went out of sight before he could confirm with him.

“Whew…”

Cha Yiseok sat down in the Thai massage therapy room, loosening his tie and rubbing his eyes. The enclosed space with adequate lighting and moderate darkness seemed to replicate the Thai imperial family with Tosakan statues, elephant sculptures, and expensive ornaments on both corners. He poured Martell into a glass. Shook the crystal glass, the white powder dissolved into the dark liquid. With alcohol in his left cheek, he reflected on what had happened a while ago.

Was that guy’s name Yaba? He expended his energy just by being with him, but he was the perfect guy for this job. There was no way that Chairman Cha would entrust his son’s life to a child of cheap origin. Even if Chairman Cha was senile and accepted it, he was not a healer anyway, so it was like an empty can. Even if you solve one, you have to be prepared for all the other variables.

Cha Yiseok lowered his eyelids and savoured the effects. The pleasurable white powder swirled rapidly through his blue veins and absorbed into his whole body. The whole body became relaxed as if it had been licked by a damp, long tongue. The atmosphere of Thailand hidden in the scarlet light was distorted. His unfocused eyes were staring at the darkness deeper than the night. He took in a long breath. Cigarette smoke, the smell of alcohol, the sound of the moans, they were all the smell of a vital life.

Suddenly, there was a sound of a small cough. His eyes followed the sound. A young man in a Venetian mask was standing by the doorway. Cha Yiseok’s eyes, which had been to an unknown space, returned to reality. After a few moments he said,

“Did you think I was gone?”

Cocaine smiled and nodded his head. The crystal beads on his feathers rang clearly. His curved figure with his back to the light occupied his dull vision. Cocaine spoke from a few steps away.

“I’ve been here since five minutes ago. What are you thinking so hard about?”

The hazy gaze in the air shifted to Cocaine.

“How much do you believe in your power? Can your song even save lives?”

“I’ve never raised the dead, but I have experience with those battling cancer.”

“How great.”

Cha Yiseok tilted his glass and admired Cocaine who was surrounded by light. A voice in which yin and yang coexist, a collaboration created by God and man. With a decadent name, he could perform noble miracles, and he was a perfect fit for this place where heaven and hell meet. That was why the world of sound created by Cocaine was so wonderful. But why couldn’t that miracle voice save him?

“Drugs were also used for therapeutic purposes in the first place. But because of the useless imagination of man, their purpose has been changed and they have become a demon that eats away even the body and mind.”

Cha Yiseok’s distorted face was projected onto the ice crystals drifting over the alcohol.

“Will your songs be like that too?”

For a moment, Cha Yiseok’s eyes lit up. It disappeared before he could even catch the light, Cocaine’s expression darkened. Cha Yiseok was a person who fascinated others. Still, the reason he couldn’t approach him so easily was probably because of his destitute eyes, different from his loose behaviour. The deep eyes that hide secrets sometimes reveal their true nature, preventing them from taking even a single step closer. At this moment, he thought that his song might be incompetent compared to alcohol and drugs.

“I think you want to be alone today, I’ll go out if you want.”

Cha Yiseok’s body was pressed against the sofa. He reached out his hand to the miraculous youth.

“Come. Come and heal the tainted soul.”