Double Junk - 138

Ajin, with the blanket pulled up to his chest, slowly blinked his eyes. He looked no different from an ordinary person waiting for sleep to come, but his face was excessively pale. His cheeks were gaunt, and his mouth hung slightly open as if he were dazed.

He lay like that for an hour. No, maybe two.

As midnight passed, the noisy gang members started heading to bed one by one. There were no more songs, no more laughter. Only the faint sounds of nocturnal insects could be heard.

The deep night. The heavy silence. The occasional sounds of nature. It was the perfect environment for sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come.

Of course, he couldn’t sleep.

He was afraid Seokju might be sleeping. He was on edge, worried Seokju might be lying beside someone else. He couldn’t sleep because of it.

Ajin glared at the ceiling beams.

He had said he didn’t need to sleep. He had said he couldn’t sleep without Ajin. He had said so himself.

Ajin remembered every word Seokju had said that day. He wasn’t particularly talented at memorizing or recalling things, but anything related to Seokju was strangely vivid and clear.

“Sleep?”

“I don’t sleep. I have too much work.”

“That’s a lie.”

“I can’t sleep. Because you’re not here.”

He had definitely said that.

“It’s okay, though. I gave up the desire to sleep a long time ago. I’m used to being awake at night now.”

“There are good things about not sleeping. It means I can think about you for longer.”

In a gentle voice,

“I think about you day and night, Ajin.”

“I shamelessly miss you.”

“I enjoy the time I spend missing you.”

He had said that. Sadly, as if he couldn’t help it, but also genuinely happy.

It was a lie. It was a lie.

How dare you. How dare you lie to me.

Ajin kicked off the blanket. He was fuming inside. His body was usually feeble, but now he felt hot enough that even his eyes seemed like they might melt. He gritted his teeth so hard his gums ached. He could feel his temples throb.

Ajin tossed and turned, writhing with anger until he couldn’t hold it in any longer and sat up. The crumpled blanket slid off the bed.

Without thinking, he flung open the door and stormed out. Heading for Seokju’s room, he stopped at the corner of the hallway, then suddenly turned back to his room.

He went straight to his desk. Breathing heavily, he rummaged through a drawer and pulled out something heavy and thick. Grasping it, he stomped out of the room again.

Ajin arrived at Seokju’s door and threw it open without knocking. It was a rude action. No one in this house would dare open Seokju’s door so recklessly. But Ajin was not included in that ‘no one.’

Pushing the door wide open, he strode into the room with mismatched steps.

As he walked down the long corridor to get there, he had imagined a certain scene. No, actually, he had been imagining that scene ever since he saw the pretty women get out of the car.

Seokju and a woman. A woman and Seokju.

Two bodies entangled on a clean blanket. A scene of Seokju caressing the woman’s body gently, brushing back her hair, holding her in his arms as he did with Ajin, and falling asleep with her.

But.

“…Ajin?”

But in the room, Seokju was alone. Completely alone. There was no one else.

He was sitting at the desk in his study. His upper body was bare, without even a robe, holding a fountain pen in one hand while the other hand was pulling a gun from a drawer, wary of the sudden intruder.

Then, a beat later, he recognized the intruder’s face and relaxed his tensed muscles.

“Ajin, why are you…?”

Seokju put down the gun and stood up.

Ajin, instead of answering, looked around, searching for any signs of a woman.

However, there wasn’t even a blanket on the floor. There were no traces of intimacy. Instead of warm air, a cold breeze was coming through the open shoji door, and instead of lewd moans, only the lingering sound of Seokju’s pen scratching remained. There was no characteristic fishy smell of semen. Only the faint scent of paper and tobacco from the pile of documents on his desk.

Ajin, who worked at a gambling den and brothel, had cleaned countless rooms after men and women had finished. Based on his experience, nothing had happened in this room. It was just Seokju’s room.

Ajin took a deep breath.

He hadn’t slept with that woman. He couldn’t. Whether it was because of me, his guilt, or a problem below the belt, it didn’t matter. It served him right.

But the anger didn’t subside. The fact that he had even attempted was a betrayal. It betrayed his guilt and my tears. His body trembled. Rage surged like a violent wave.

Ajin pointed out what he brought at Seokju.

What Ajin had brought was a gun. The same gun Seokju had given him at the hospital.

“….”

Seokju’s lips tightened. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, and his gaze on Ajin grew very dark and intense.

Ajin felt even more anger at that expression. His hand holding the gun trembled.

Why that face? Why? Was he lying again? He told me to kill him anytime. He said he wanted to die by my hand. Did he now not want to die? Did he not want to die by my hand? Did he suddenly want to live? Or did he think that what he did to me wasn’t a crime worth dying for?

Would he grab my hair again? Would he beat me up for daring to point a gun at him? Would he lock me up in this room again and punish me for trying to harm him?

Thinking like this, everything that happened in this room came back to him. How much pain he endured, how unjust it felt, how scared he was, how sad he was. He remembered enduring, hoping Seokju would become gentle, clear up the misunderstandings, and hold him tenderly.

Bastard. Fucking bastard…

Ajin was so angry his cheek twitched. Yet, he couldn’t easily pull the trigger. Then suddenly, he remembered what Seokju had said when he gave him the gun.

‘You think the boss is crazy, right?’

‘Yeah. He’s crazy. Completely nuts.’

‘So, think that a madman is doing something crazy. If this madman hits you again, shoot him. Pull the trigger without hesitation. Blow his brains out. Since he’s crazy, it doesn’t matter if he dies that way. Think like that.’

Yes. He’s crazy anyway. He deserves to die. He promised to die if I killed him. Whether that promise was a lie or not, I have that promise.

Despite being swept away by waves of anger, Ajin was unsteady, but Seokju didn’t move an inch. Even though the gun wavered between his head and chest, he wasn’t scared. He had looked surprised when Ajin burst in, but now he was calm.

That calmness irritated Ajin even more. It made him want to smash that handsome face to pieces.

“Ugh…”

Gritting his teeth, Ajin pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The loud gunshot echoed through the world.

Myungjin, who was sleeping, woke up with a start at the sound of the gunshot. Without thinking about who, how, or why, he sprang up. Naturally, he ran to Seokju’s room. Even in his half-asleep state, not knowing where the gunshot had come from, he instinctively headed for Seokju.

As he opened the door and came out, he saw other gang members running toward him. Myungjin felt a chill run through his entire body. It seemed the gunshot had indeed come from Seokju’s room.

“Boss!”

“Seokju hyung!”

“Who the fvck? Who dared to attack our boss?”

Myungjin and the other gang members burst into Seokju’s room. Then they abruptly stopped.

The scene before them was strange.

It was past midnight. Ajin was sitting on the floor, slumped down, and Seokju was standing in front of him. Between them lay a gun, presumably the source of the gunshot. Thankfully, there was no bl00d. Seokju was standing unharmed.

However, Seokju was the kind of person who would stand tall even if he had been shot or stabbed. Myungjin quietly approached him and inspected his body. His well-built upper body was covered with scars, but there seemed to be no new wounds.

“Boss. Is everything alright?”

Myungjin asked. Seokju replied without taking his eyes off Ajin.

“Nothing happened. I’m fine, so leave.”

“…”

“I’m fine. Get out, now.”

Despite Seokju’s words, Myungjin and the gang members didn’t move. They were on edge, having heard a gunshot instead of something breaking.

“…”

Seokju turned his head toward the gang members. His gaze was icy. He looked as if he was ready to break their necks one by one if they didn’t leave immediately.

Myungjin, sensing the mood, gestured for the others to leave. He also bowed slightly before exiting the room, making sure to close the door that had been left wide open.

The gang members, who had run to the scene half-awake and still drunk, looked at Myungjin with bleary eyes. Myungjin waved them off.

“It’s alright. The boss seems fine, so go back to sleep.”

“But, boss…”

“Hurry up. Disperse, disperse.”

Myungjin clapped his hands to shoo them away. The large men headed back to their rooms one by one. Left alone, Myungjin looked at Seokju’s door. He let out a long sigh before returning to his room.