Chapter 33: The Weight of an Anchor

Eyes as round as black glass, dark enough to swallow everything, remained fixed solely on Yunhwan. It was a gaze with a precise target, never wavering.

Just as Junseong had once said, this man, whose life’s center had become Yunhwan, occasionally acted with the submissiveness of a younger brother who wanted to be “good.” Yet, at other times, he didn’t hesitate to act as though he were about to leap over the line drawn between them.

Yunhwan guessed that the turning point had been Seonghye’s recent Rut.

“Good job,” Yunhwan said, taking a step back and speaking as calmly as he could. Seonghye stood still, watching him. “Even if I forget in the future, you have to make sure you take them yourself, just like today.”

Seonghye nodded obediently. At that, the tension in Yunhwan’s stiff shoulders finally melted away, and his heated palms returned to their normal temperature.

“…!”

But the relief was short-lived. In the blink of an eye, a firm embrace lunged forward, casting a large shadow over Yunhwan’s upper body. Yunhwan could only blink in a daze.

Barely regaining his senses, Yunhwan let out a faint frown. “Hey… you said you were going to try and control your dopamine. If you suddenly do this again—”

“I just realized it today,” Seonghye cut him off abruptly. “I…”

“…….”

“I never knew until today that being praised felt this good,” Seonghye murmured, holding him tight.

Between their closely pressed chests, a heartbeat—though whose it was, neither could tell—thumped loudly. Before the flustered Yunhwan could pull away, Seonghye let out a shallow sigh.

The praise from the person whose recognition he craved acted like a heavy anchor dropped into his empty heart. A ship that has dropped anchor can no longer leave; it can only circle the spot. To a man whose world now had only one standard, this was a welcome fate.

Seonghye tightened his arms around Yunhwan’s waist, swallowing hard.

“I wish every day could be like this.”

“Seonghye-ya… I told you, if you keep doing this, it’s not good for your treatment….”

If you keep this up, I won’t be able to look Kim Junseong in the eye…

At the thought of Junseong, a long, deep sigh escaped Yunhwan’s lips. Despite the half-hearted response, Seonghye simply nodded.

“The Min Seonghye from before he lost his memory… he would never have known this feeling.”

“…Uh, well….”

“So, this is something only I can know.”

The moment Seonghye’s lips curled into a smile, his pocket vibrated. Yunhwan’s gaze naturally drifted downward. Yunhwan felt a small surge of relief at the arrival of this unexpected “relief pitcher.” Clearing his throat, he pointed out the vibration between them.

“You’re getting a call.”

In response, something hard and warm bumped against the crook of his neck. A soft groan, “Mmm,” escaped Seonghye’s throat. He leaned his forehead against Yunhwan’s shoulder, bumping it gently once, twice, before pulling away.

“Go on.”

“…Talk about timing,” Seonghye muttered under his breath. He had been clinging stubbornly to Yunhwan, and his brow furrowed with irritation at the interruption. “I’ll take this and be right back. Get some rest.”

It was painfully obvious he didn’t want to let go, but apparently, it was a call he had to take. He stepped back. Feeling the sudden chill where the warmth had been, Seonghye moistened his dry lips with his tongue.

“What did you just say?”

Seonghye’s voice was ice-cold as he faced the man standing before him. The man, looking like a complete mess, spoke while incessantly brushing dried mud off his clothes.

“I’m telling you, Boss, there are way too many people here besides me.”

“What do you mean, ‘too many people’?”

At the sound of Seonghye’s voice—strained with suppressed irritation—the man stopped brushing the mud, looked around shiftily, and lowered his voice significantly.

“Listen closely. There are fifteen houses total in this village. Three are empty. Including your place, six have owners. That leaves six houses… and I’m telling you, suspicious-looking people are living in them.”

The man continued his explanation.

“I’m a curious guy by nature, so I took a peek at one of those houses. And man… it’s definitely weird. There were tons of middle-aged guys in suits swarming the place.”

“Guys in suits?”

Seonghye pushed back his rising annoyance and stared at the man.

“Yeah. And as if that wasn’t enough, one of them started tailing me today! I tripped and rolled down the mountain trying to lose him.”

The mystery of the twigs and mud on his clothes was finally solved, but Seonghye’s expression remained unchanged. The “suit-wearing guys” were clearly Manager Park’s people; the only difference was that their numbers had visibly increased since he had collapsed coughing up blood.

Finding nothing particularly noteworthy in the man’s report, Seonghye quickly changed the subject.

“Fine, I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I’d like to see what I asked for.”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

The man looked around once more before pulling a USB drive from his back pocket.

“It was a pain to dig up, but since you always pay so well, Boss…”

Gathering various pieces of information and providing them to those willing to pay was how Kim Hyeon-su had made a living for nearly ten years. Having met Seonghye three years ago, he spoke with a tone of unwavering trust.

“I only got this because it’s you, Boss. I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else. You know that, right?”

“You talk as if there’s some great bond of trust between us.”

“Aiyoo, of course! It’s been three years. Would we still be connected if there was no trust? This is destiny!”

His exaggerated voice was jovial, but his inner thoughts were quite the opposite.

It went back to three years ago, during a summer of record-breaking heat in Seoul. Hyeon-su remembered the heat for a simple reason: while everyone else fled to cafes and restaurants to escape the tropical nights, Hyeon-su was in his office—which was usually cool enough to be chilly—when a devastating wave of heat hit him.

Specifically, the power in his office had been cut, and the air conditioning had stopped. But the important thing wasn’t the blackout; it was the ferocious voice that suddenly spoke out of the darkness, sounding as if it were ready to tear him apart.

‘Why aren’t you answering your phone? Do you want to die?’

‘W-who’s there?!’

‘Who do you think, you f*er? A customer.’

As the voice drew closer, Hyeon-su felt a strange sensation, as if a blade were being pressed against his throat. Faced with an intruder, he tried to push his chair back and run, but in that instant, he was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and slammed onto the floor.

‘Don’t move, and listen. There are people outside.’

‘What the hell! Who are you?!’

Pinned to the hard floor, his limbs trembled. He realized then that this crazy intruder—whoever he was—was no amateur; the technique used to flip him over wasn’t something an ordinary person could do.

‘I told you not to do whatever the f** you want. Why the hell are you ignoring my calls?’*

Only then did Hyeon-su remember the two calls he’d received that morning and afternoon. Stuttering, he tried to argue that the man could have just left a text, but the man only snorted.

‘You really don’t know the basics of business, do you? You ghost a customer’s call, and you expect a f*ing text?’

In the meantime, the acrid smell of smoke filled the air near his face; the intruder was actually smoking. It was unbelievable. Not only had he cut the power to someone else’s office, but he was also behaving like this.

‘Hey. Do a job for me.’

As the man took a deep drag and exhaled, the tip of the cigarette glowed bright red and then faded. Hyeon-su coughed repeatedly in the dissipating smoke. At the time, he didn’t even have the energy to ask what the man thought he was doing smoking in front of a non-smoker.

In the cold, silent air, the man made his offer.

‘I’ll pay you. A lot.’

The moment he heard those words, a rumor flickered into Hyeon-su’s mind. A few days prior, a junior in the same line of work had mentioned a dangerous man who had appeared in the area. A man who appeared out of the darkness with an unknown proposal—if you refused, he vanished, but if you accepted…

“Take it.”

“Aigo, here I am receiving this money again.”

He provided an enormous reward. Hyeon-su smiled broadly as he quickly pocketed the envelope. True to his creed that money is king, he couldn’t quite control his expression, but neither he nor Seonghye particularly cared.

Instead, Seonghye told him to leave without another word. Hyeon-su made a grand promise to handle the remaining task soon.

“I came down here to do some digging, so I might as well finish it. I’ll check things out quietly so I don’t catch anyone’s eye.”

“Right. Do that.”

After the perfunctory reply, Seonghye turned around immediately.

Returning to the house, he stopped habitually in front of Yunhwan’s bedroom. Even without asking, he could sense exactly where the other man was.

He already missed the brief hug they’d shared before he went to meet Kim Hyeon-su. Recalling the warmth of Yunhwan’s body that had filled his every sense, a desire to embrace him again flared up.

Something had definitely changed since that last Rut.

For the past few weeks, his mind—stripped of its memories—had been busy absorbing Yunhwan. Having pushed aside his dormant self and placed a stranger in its stead, his standards of behavior and goals were naturally centered on Yunhwan. But conversely, his physical desires for the man were also starting to rear their head.

Seonghye tilted his head back as a dull ache began to build in his lower body. His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed as if he were struggling with a surge of emotion.