Chapter 14: The Queen’s Gambit

“Hey, if you’d just told me to skip the MT and run away—!”

In-tae, about to unleash his furious voice, abruptly stopped speaking.

He already knew the answer. Conspiring with him to sneak out in the middle of the MT, deceiving their peers, was simply not Jung Ban-ri’s style.

Rather than resorting to clumsy lies, acting, or schemes that carried the risk of exposure, it was far more perfect for him to genuinely create a ‘situation’ that necessitated their departure.

But to ejaculate inside him?

Surely, not to cause him pain?

No, that wasn’t it. Even Jung Ban-ri couldn’t have predicted such severe abdominal pain. He wouldn’t be ignorant of the most basic principle: one must not harm others. In-tae himself hadn’t anticipated such agony.

He had often fallen asleep mid-s*x with Jung Ban-ri, his semen still inside, but never before had he suffered such intense stomach cramps.

Even so, Jung Ban-ri must have known that In-tae wouldn’t last long.

Regardless of his apparent disinterest in the aftermath of s*x, he would have understood that if bodily fluids were inserted into someone’s intestines, they couldn’t be left there.

Ultimately, Jung Ban-ri must have anticipated that In-tae would have no choice but to find some excuse to leave the MT before the semen leaked out.

That was why he had prevented In-tae from washing himself and emphasized, ‘In-tae is a precious friend to Jung Ban-ri.’ He intended to use In-tae as an excuse to leave together, all while pretending to care for him without uttering a single lie himself.

Every piece of the situation clicked into place.

‘Damn it, what an elaborate build-up.’

And he, In-tae, had been thrilled by such a scheme at every turn.

The butler’s words echoed in his mind once more.

‘For the young master, human relationships are much the same. Everyone is a pawn on a chessboard. They can be moved according to his will… and even if things don’t go exactly as the young master wishes, they are, at best, mere toys squirming in his hand.’

He had known. He had known it all, yet he simply couldn’t tolerate these words.

“No matter what, you bastard, how could you do that to me?”

“What, what we did in the shower?”

“…!”

The immediate retort carried the hidden meaning of their sexual encounter. This insane bastard. Despite its quietness, the low voice filled the car, palpable and potent. In-tae met the taxi driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

Having sensed the unusual atmosphere from their previous conversation, the driver seemed poised to interject at any moment. While they both warily watched each other, only Jung Ban-ri continued to speak, completely unfazed.

“Did you dislike it?”

“…Hey.”

Instead of an answer, In-tae growled Jung Ban-ri’s name, as if ordering him to shut up. Yet, Jung Ban-ri merely tilted his head nonchalantly.

“If not that… did you dislike me telling you to rest at the drinking party?”

“…”

“Was that what you disliked?”

Did he dislike it? If asked that way… damn it, how could he possibly say yes?

In truth, everything had also been his own choice. Despite the circumstances, he had wanted to fool around with Jung Ban-ri, and even as the pain in his stomach persisted, he had stayed.

When he tried to slip away to wash himself, Jung Ban-ri had indeed held him back, but ultimately, it was In-tae who couldn’t break free.

If Jung Ban-ri had designed a perfect picture, In-tae had been the one to complete it.

He had assented to Jung Ban-ri and had been unable to refuse him.

Because he liked this monstrous bastard that much.

“Or perhaps, In-tae, is it that you dislike us leaving together like this right now?”

Jung Ban-ri, drawing closer, locked eyes with him, posing yet another unanswerable question. He blinked cautiously, hesitantly.

But hidden within those eyes were pupils like ink, giving away no emotion, yet seemingly absorbing everything.

‘Could it be that this bastard… knew my feelings and acted accordingly?’

Ultimately, this situation arose because In-tae had moved according to Jung Ban-ri’s will. Like a chess piece in the grasp of a player who sees several moves ahead.

In-tae gazed at himself, trapped within those jet-black pupils. Suddenly, the butler’s forgotten admonition resurfaced.

‘Never forget how you appear in the eyes of a monster. Only then…’

He felt the tactile sensation of a chess piece in his hand. The clever butler knew how to employ various associative methods for a child with a short attention span.

Belatedly, the butler’s forgotten warning returned to him.

‘…will you avoid being used.’

Delivering that firm warning, he had squeezed In-tae’s hand tightly. His tender skin smarted against the hard piece. At the time, In-tae had dismissed the butler’s words, instead thinking of Jung Ban-ri’s soft hand, wishing it wouldn’t hurt.

Regardless of the tingling in his own hand, In-tae had long fiddled with the piece, only opening his small hand much later.

Within his reddened palm lay a sharp, pointed piece.

It was the queen, the most powerful piece on the board, save for the untouchable king.

***

The forgotten memories surfaced, one after another, like a chain. He wondered why he had completely forgotten the queen.

‘What a shame. If I’d just concentrated a little more, I would have gotten it right.’

‘Sorry. I was just… thinking about something else for a moment.’

He stammered out an excuse, having made the same mistake on similar problems repeatedly. Jung Ban-ri, sitting beside him, had specifically found and given him practice problems of the same type.

His repeated errors weren’t due to stupidity. It was because the blood that should have gone to his brain was rushing in an entirely different direction.

When Jung Ban-ri explained, when his finger traced a problem, or even when In-tae caught a whisper of something like his breathing, his lower body would grow hot.

‘What were you thinking about?’

Jung Ban-ri fixed his gaze on In-tae. Unable to confess that he was imagining Jung Ban-ri in the lewd video he’d watched with a friend, In-tae subtly averted his eyes.

As his gaze aimlessly scanned various spots on the desk, something swiftly passed by with a *whoosh*, leaving a lingering afterimage. Startled, he looked back at Jung Ban-ri.

‘Why is that…’

Jung Ban-ri held the riding crop that had been resting beside the desk. It was an heirloom from Jung Ban-ri’s maternal grandfather, carefully stored in his room rather than the stable.

‘Are you going to… hit me?’

It wasn’t a question born of fear, but a reflexive joke, a jab from his guilty conscience. He knew he was making ridiculous mistakes, and the fantasies causing them truly deserved Jung Ban-ri to hit him ten times over.

Instead of replying, Jung Ban-ri idly fiddled with the riding crop for a moment. He gripped the handle with one hand, ran the other over the taut leather, and then tugged at its tip.

The crop arced smoothly, bending into a semicircle. In-tae was quite surprised; he hadn’t imagined Jung Ban-ri possessed such strength then.

As he stared blankly, another *whoosh* cut through the air. A small gust of wind brushed his face. *My face?* No matter what, his face? He flinched, utterly shocked.

‘Hey, are you seriously…’

‘Of course not.’

Jung Ban-ri gently cut him off. His brows slowly furrowed, forming a look of incredulity.

‘I’m not an animal…’

‘…’

‘How could I do such a thing to a person?’

*Tap, tap,* Jung Ban-ri tapped a new problem with the tip of the riding crop. His earlier flourish with the crop had been an attempt to focus In-tae’s attention, much like a teacher using a pointer.

The joke Jung Ban-ri hadn’t humored left In-tae feeling utterly abashed. With a flushed face, In-tae read the next problem.

‘Choose the sentence with a double meaning from the following.’

This was the type he had been consistently getting wrong. Before he could even finish reading the provided text, Jung Ban-ri once again came to mind.

Come to think of it, weren’t Jung Ban-ri’s recent words also double-edged?

His phrase, ‘I’m not an animal,’ could be interpreted in two ways depending on the subject: ‘One cannot hit a person who is not an animal,’ or ‘I am not an animal, so I cannot hit a person.’

His gaze stealthily drifted towards Jung Ban-ri again. As his head was bowed, reading the problem, his field of vision was limited.

Still, he could see the hand gripping the riding crop’s handle. Bluish veins stood out on his transparently white skin, subtly twitching as he exerted pressure.

Jung Ban-ri was twisting and squeezing the handle with considerable force. In-tae, to his chagrin, was once again assailed by lewd thoughts.

The handle, coincidentally, was both rounded and thick, and the way Jung Ban-ri handled it somewhat resembled In-tae’s own fantasies.

Ever since he had started masturbating, the image of those white hands touching him had always been present in his mind.

Beep, beep, beep.

The stopwatch on the desk chimed. It was the alert that the time Jung Ban-ri had allotted for that problem was up. So fast? He was about to quickly choose any answer when the flat riding crop struck the tip of his pencil.

‘Were you thinking about something else again?’

He had been caught. Fearing Jung Ban-ri might ask what he was thinking about, In-tae preempted him.

‘Uh… Hey, aren’t I incredibly frustrating? Why don’t you just hit me once?’

He jested, pressing his palms together and extending them. He felt he deserved to be hit for his thoughts, and hoped that a little pain in his palms might quell the heat rising in his lower abdomen.

And, well, he also wanted to grow closer to Jung Ban-ri by fooling around like this.

Jung Ban-ri slowly raised his hand. A long line of shadow stretched across In-tae’s palms. Even knowing it was a joke, In-tae’s throat bobbed slightly with tension.

Come to think of it, that riding crop was unusually thick and sturdy. He remembered it wasn’t for general use but for training.

Given its purpose for initially taming wild beasts weighing hundreds of kilograms, even a gentle swing might be quite painful.

‘Wait.’

Too late. The shadow wavered. Feeling as if the riding crop would plunge straight into his palm, In-tae squeezed his eyes shut.

‘In-tae.’

‘…Huh?’

At the affectionate call, he squinted his eyes open. The shadow of the riding crop, which had been hovering over his palm, spun 90 degrees and disappeared behind his head.

Then, something gently settled on the crown of his head. There couldn’t be weight in a shadow, could there? Only after turning his eyes back to Jung Ban-ri did he understand what had happened.

Jung Ban-ri had rotated the riding crop’s handle to hold it vertically, then used that hand to gently stroke the back of In-tae’s head.

‘Let’s try to focus a little more, okay?’

Jung Ban-ri had chosen the carrot instead of the stick. As if that was how one should treat a person… or, indeed, how one should treat people.

‘I’ll help you.’

‘Oh, oh…’

His scalp was gently pressed down. His face turned towards the problem sheet. The hand slid a little further down, settling on his flat nape.

Then, Jung Ban-ri, in a low voice, carefully read the problem and the options, ensuring they resonated clearly in In-tae’s mind.