CH 20.3

Cocaine looked at this petty squabble with more heavy eyes than necessary. He quickly cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and put the browned mushrooms and meat on a small plate. Cocaine’s hand turned to Cha Yiseok.

“Thanks.”

Cha Yiseok wiped his hands thoroughly with a wet towel. At night, his hands, which he used to dust off drugs and grope corpses, now looked as clean and ascetic. Cocaine took the meat and served it to Hashish and Yaba. Do you know how cruel the order is, intentionally or not? Still, it was a little comforting because of Hashish’s annoyed face.

Cha Yiseok placed lettuce and perilla leaves in one hand and placed the mushrooms and meat given by Cocaine on top of each other. Lastly, he put the rice on top and wrapped it up. The wrap he thought was going to his mouth stretched out in front of him. The final destination was Yaba’s lips. Cocaine stopped picking up the meat. Hashish also narrowed his eyes with a hardened face. Yaba furrowed his brow. Cha Yiseok closed it tightly and patted his bare lips with his wrap.

“Say ‘ah’, butterfly.”

Yaba almost bit his tongue. He was trying to use him to provoke jealousy. Whether he detested Cocaine being with Hashish or whatever, it was of low quality and one-dimensional, but the effect was clear. Cocaine’s face darkened like dirt. Yaba bowed his head and nervously grabbed his chopsticks.

“No.”

“Is it too big? Well, you have a narrow mouth after all.”

Cha Yiseok muttered shamelessly. Yaba’s neck was on fire. He cut the wrap and trimmed the corners. With satisfied eyes, he looked around at the size of the wrap and held it out to Yaba again. He muttered and stared intently. Cocaine averted his black eyes. Yaba said, lowering his eyes. His ears were hot as if they had been devoured by fire.

“No. You’ll get saliva on your hands.”

“It’s happened often, it’s nothing new.”

Apparently he’s going to push Cocaine up to the cliff. Cocaine’s complexion turned white, but it didn’t stop there. The desire to stay here and turn the insides of Cocaine inside out and the desire to run away were a mess. In the end, he endured because today was the last day of Cha Yiseok’s kindness.

“Stop it.”

“Hm?”

Cha Yiseok pretended not to understand, and raised his eyebrows lightly. Seriously, he wanted to put that thick skin on the fire. Yaba looked at him so that the corners of his eyes turned red. His loosely opened eyes twinkled brightly.

“Stop it. Stop- Mmph.”

As soon as he opened his mouth, he shoved the wrap into his mouth. His fingers reached deep into him and brushed his tongue out. Yaba bit the wrap in the confusion of the moment. Cha Yiseok watched Yaba’s lips as if he would not back down unless he ate it. The colors scattered over the fire plate melted into Cha Yiseok’s black eyes. With his fluttering tongue, he licked his face and his outstretched shoulders.

Tomorrow Yaba would be robbed of his seat. Cocaine played a major role in helping Cha Yiseok escape from the crisis. But Cha Yiseok ignored it. It was not just Cocaine who knew the full story of all these conspiracies. Besides, he knows his sexual preference, so he held his two big weaknesses. So he was not in a very desperate situation. He can afford to enjoy his hollow kindness and the aroma of this mushroom.

Yaba started chewing. The combination of chewy meat and matsutake mushrooms betrayed his feeling of eating filth. Hashish wrapped up one himself in competition and handed it to Cocaine.

“Thanks.”

As Cocaine reached out his hand to take it in embarrassment, Hashish avoided it. And while turning red, he repeated.

“Say ‘ah’.”

“No, I’ll just eat…”

“Hurry.”

After a long squabble, Cocaine opened his mouth with a puzzled face. When the wrap went into his pretty lips, Hashish blatantly turned his eyes to Cha Yiseok. Cha Yiseok smiled and pretended to be relaxed, but he would want to break Hashish’s hand. The heat in his head boiled over, and Yaba was even dizzy. His blood circulated rapidly, and the medicinal energy surged.

As he chewed, something hard caught on his teeth. Yaba put it on his palm. What Yaba spit out was like a finger-like mass, dark as if it had decayed. It didn’t just look like a finger, it was a real human finger. A real finger with a nail in it.

Ugh!! Yaba shuddered and threw out his finger. He couldn’t even scream and shifted backwards, startled bugs poured through his skin. The table knocked by his knee, cold bowls toppling over and glass of water overturned. The three pairs of eyes looked at him at the same time. Yaba was in a panic, unable to swallow or spit what was in his mouth. Cha Yiseok jumped up. He said, pulling Yaba’s forearm hard and putting his hand under his chin.

“Spit it out.”

Yaba coughed and spat what was in his mouth into his hand. Cha Yiseok shook off the food that Yaba had spit out into the empty bowl and wiped his hands with a wet towel. His hand grabbed the glass of water and reached out to Yaba. Yaba drank water and barely calmed down. Cocaine froze with his mouth open, and Hashish sighed.

“This is the reason you don’t gain weight.”

Yaba snapped.

“Shut up.”

“That’s why you don’t have friends.”

Hashish retaliated. Yaba bowed his back and looked for the finger he had seen a moment ago. No matter how hard he searched the floor and the table, he couldn’t find it. He knew this would happen. It was only now that he realized why he had to bring him to a place he rarely visited, and why Cha Yiseok didn’t even touch the food. What he ate just now must have been poisonous mushrooms. As the witnesses got annoyingly entangled with the plot, while they lost their minds eating poisonous mushrooms, Cha Yiseok was going to grind them well and apply them as fertilizer. It was clear that the finger was one of the earlier victims.

He had no intention of telling this to Cocaine and Hashish. It was their mistake of being careless with Cha Yiseok. Someone grabbed Yaba’s chin and raised it. Cha Yiseok narrowed his elongated eyes and entered Yaba’s consciousness.

“How much medicine did you take in the evening?”

His ears were numb like water. The shrill breath sounded like tinnitus.

“… Five.”

“I told you not to overdose.”

He furrowed his eyebrows and tapped Yaba on the cheek. The touch made his head more numb. After a while, a bow tie server came running and cleaned the messy table. Cha Yiseok ordered truffle porridge, but Yaba was determined not to put the food in his mouth from then on, even if a knife came through his neck. Suddenly, the back of Cha Yiseok’s hand caught his sight. There were bloodstains on the back of his hand and joints, as if he had struck something. He hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t there before he went to the villa, but when… Yaba looked at the back of his injured hand from a distance. Cocaine followed Yaba’s gaze while using his chopsticks and saw the wounds. Cocaine’s eyes widened.

“What happened here?”

Cha Yiseok clenched his hand lightly, stretched it out, and clicked his tongue. Yaba licked his lips and jumped up. He staggered and went downstairs. The bow tie straightened his waist and greeted him.

“Give me a bandage and medicine.”

“Who was hurt?”

“Yiseok.”

“Mr. Cha? What happened?”

“I don’t know. How he got hurt. Give me some medicine.”

“If you rang the bell, I would have gone up.”

The man rummaged through the counter and held out a first aid kit. He did not lose his courteousness even with someone younger than him. It was a gentleness that made him want to tip. But Yaba couldn’t put his hand in his panties now and pull out the cheque. It was also funny to ask for change for a million won. Yaba took the medicine box and walked staggeringly. He climbed the stairs and entered the hallway. As he approached the room, he heard a familiar singing voice. The gisaengs, dressed in hanbok, gathered on one side of the hallway and listened to the song.

“Oh my… Who on earth is singing?”

“Shh! Quiet. Let me hear him sing.”

Yaba’s heart beat faster and his gait slowed. He moved closer to the room. Through the half-open door, he could see the back of Hashish staring somewhere. At the end of that gaze, there was Cocaine singing while holding Cha Yiseok’s hand. At some point in his beautiful rhyme, the scars disappeared. As such, only a true master could win with one final blow. His cracked ribs began to crumble one by one at the sight that pierced like shards of glass.

The singing ceased, and Cocaine noticed Yaba standing through the crack in the door. Ah, Cocaine let out a small exclamation. Everyone’s attention was focused on the first aid kit in Yaba’s hand. Cha Yiseok looked at the first aid kit for a long time. His eyes gleamed brightly again. No matter how plain the song was, it didn’t change what a miracle could do. In front of the miraculous song, the first-aid kit was shabby. Yaba shuddered and turned around. It was at that moment,

Clang… !! A violent burst reverberated inside. Suddenly, he paused and looked back. Cocaine and Hashish were stunned and frozen. Under the broken window, Cha Yiseok looked down at his hand with a piece of glass in it. He stretched out his blood-dribbling hand and slowly turned his gaze to Yaba.

“Gosh, I’m hurt again.”

And sometimes unexpected variables pop up and upset the situation. He was not sane. He must be really crazy. Sweat dripped from Yaba’s temple. His blood-drenched vision turned white. The box overflowed and vomited his intestines. The screams of the women sounded like hallucinations. A loud vibration pounded the body scattered on the floor.

Yaba’s body floated up and moved somewhere. It was a warm space. There was also a faint smell of medicine. A sharp needle pierced his forearm. At first glance, Cha Yiseok had a stiff face. Cocaine, even stiffer, flickered over his shoulder. Hashish’s eyes staring at him were cold.

At some point they were nowhere to be seen. The vision of Cha Yiseok split into two, then split into three. He wished he could have at least one of them. Corrupt emotions filled his eyes. He moved his distorted fingers to him. Several Cha Yiseoks looked down at him at the same time with their fingers on his chin. His face fell with his back to the light. All of his senses flickered as if his flexible jawbone was opened and swallowed from the beginning of his head.

***

“… !!”

Yaba jumped up and got up. When his consciousness returned he was in his room and the sun was pouring down. He didn’t remember what happened after he saw Cha Yiseok break the window last night. Yaba’s clothes were the same as yesterday and were sparsely stained with blood. His whole body lost its strength. An empty Cocaine’s bed came into view. There were no blankets, bags and coats in sight.

He must have gone to the villa. He would also stop by Cha Yiseok’s mother.

Sitting next to him…

He stared blankly at the ownerless bed, then took off his clothes and went to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth until they bled. The cold water from the shower hit his skin. After taking a shower, he took medicine and dug into the blanket. Knock knock, he gnashed his teeth. The fatigue that had accumulated over the past day came rushing in. The body was sucked under the bed. Yaba closed his eyes and sucked in the air.

Have you ever smelled despair? It’s not musty or musty or rotten food. In such an ordinary place, it quietly seeps into it and gnaws at the bottom. Expired memories and Cha Yiseok’s weakness. It was the last hope he held onto. This desire to sing a lullaby to him who was once again twisted one day was a crumbly foolishness. Yaba rolled up the blanket and covered his nose.

Still, the trembling did not go away.

t/n (not important, feel free to skip):

this is the end of volume 2! i’ve translated 235k korean characters~~ hope everyone has enjoyed it so far :’)

i do get this thought multiple times throughout the novel but i think the two leads match each other quite well, what do you think? speaking of, i know there’s one reviewer on NU who had an unfavourable opinion of the ML, which is totally fine, i’m not calling anyone out HAHA but i just thought it was interesting because i also initially thought ML was some typical overbearing rich guy when I was reading the novel for the first time. it’s not that that’s untrue, but over time i do see some charm in him. if that person who wrote that review is reading this, it’s been a while since chapter 9, feel free to update your review~ i’m curious if you still have the same opinion? and not just them, i always like to hear the readers’ thoughts lolol ^_^