Sentimental Shower

#007

Upon entering the VVIP club inside Eden, one could engage in a slightly different kind of gambling. Those gathered in the enclosed space were more focused on feeling up the naked bodies of those next to them than the cards laid out on the table.

Moans filled the room. The dozen or so people kept changing partners, intertwining and overlapping with each other.

This was also the only place in Eden where drugs were allowed. While drug use elsewhere in Eden would get you kicked out, this place was an exception.

It wasn’t particularly because Yeon Tae-soo trusted the VVIPs or wanted to treat them well. Eden had to provide them with an escape. Because they were worth that much.

“Mr. Yeon, it’s been a while since we’ve seen your face, hasn’t it?”

For instance, this woman who greeted him cheerfully as soon as he entered the room was the former president’s daughter.

“I brought some pretty boys that you’d like, Mr. Yeon. Stay and play today.”

Where the woman pointed with her chin, three handsome men were already moaning, held by other men. Even from here, you could clearly see a man’s genitals glistening as they moved in and out between the obviously well-maintained white buttocks.

Normally, Yeon Tae-soo would have joined in without refusing, grabbing one of the men and spreading his legs. He would be thrusting his own genitals into a hole that had already received several cocks, while his hands fondled another man’s buttocks or genitals.

However, Yeon Tae-soo shook his head.

“I’ll pass.”

“What’s going on? You’re the one who’d die for pretty things.”

The woman asked mockingly while stroking the head burrowing between her legs.

All the VVIPs knew that Yeon Tae-soo’s cock had been worn out from entering various places. Yeon Tae-soo didn’t particularly deny it either.

As the woman said, he was crazy about pretty things.

“You said life had no meaning without pretty things, didn’t you? I know you’re more depressed than you look, Mr. Yeon.”

That was true too. Yeon Tae-soo always thought he was living a life given to him as a bonus.

Maybe he was so obsessed with pretty things because he didn’t care when he died. Things like flower petals that wither in a day or two. Things that would share his fate, alive today but possibly dead tomorrow.

But somehow today, even seeing this scene didn’t particularly excite him.

He didn’t need to worry about something being wrong with his body. As soon as he imagined one face inserted into this chaotic scene, his previously lifeless body immediately responded.

“I’ve found something really fucking pretty. I don’t think I can get it up for anything else.”

The woman who had been moaning while rubbing the back of the head between her legs suddenly burst out laughing at his words.

“You crazy bastard, what are you saying?”

Yeon Tae-soo laughed along, giggling. Even he didn’t know what he was saying.

“I know, right? I must be out of my mind.”

After leaving the VVIP room, he took a tour around Eden. While he couldn’t go up and down the 20-story building every day, it was good for the customers to see the owner’s face occasionally.

He already knew that his appearance accounted for a significant portion of Eden’s sales.

When he made eye contact with customers and occasionally approached them with a sly smile to comment on the cards they were holding, that table’s sales would spike for several hours.

“Ah, I think you could throw in a bit more.”

“Really? Really? I’m throwing in more because I trust you, Mr. Yeon?”

Even as he laughed while enthusiastically massaging the shoulder of one mark, Yeon Tae-soo’s mind was actually elsewhere.

When would he get to remove that mask?

He had prided himself on being good at savoring things slowly, but when it came to that veterinarian, he kept getting impatient.

His broken senses were starting to act up. Just from thinking about him.

Right now, he wanted to rush to Byeolbyeol Animal Hospital, remove that pretty thing’s gown and mask, and knock him down. He was curious about the taste of his bare skin. Something that pretty couldn’t possibly taste bad.

As he was about to leave the table, putting his hands in his pockets to hide his lower body that was starting to react, one of his men hurriedly approached and whispered to him while checking their surroundings.

“Boss, we found him.”

An emotion other than amusement flashed coldly in Yeon Tae-soo’s eyes.

***

The interior of Eden was strictly composed of Yeon Tae-soo’s direct employees.

Just because they had struggled together in back alleys to get here didn’t mean there was no betrayal. Yeon Tae-soo knew this fact, so he didn’t trust anyone 100%, even those directly under him.

That’s probably why he had survived. If he had trusted 100%, he would have ended up as a burning corpse in the incinerator behind the mountain by now, not just with a single bullet.

The captured man was crouching naked when Yeon Tae-soo kicked him once, and only then did he raise his head, startled. He was already a mess, with his face and various parts of his body beaten up.

“Dong-young, you bastard… if you ran away, you should have lived well. Why did you get caught like this?”

Yeon Tae-soo sat down in the chair placed in front of the man and put a cigarette in his mouth. One of his men lit it for him.

Yeon Tae-soo exhaled a long stream of smoke and looked down at the man.

Park Dong-young. Although not as long an acquaintance as some others, he had helped manage Eden’s money thanks to his abilities.

He had thought the guy was smart, but apparently not. He had succeeded in persuading a few others working at Eden, but failed to convince Yeon Tae-soo’s closest men, the ones who used their bodies for security.

The guy had shot at Yeon Tae-soo recently. Several of Eden’s management staff had joined his cause.

They acted as if they were carrying out some kind of revolution, but they failed. Yeon Tae-soo wasn’t careless enough to lose Eden to a slippery eel. He had known early on that the guy was trying to overthrow him. He had only pretended to be fooled to catch him in the act.

When Yeon Tae-soo, shot in the side, swung his knife without even looking surprised, the guy got scared and ran away. And now Yeon Tae-soo’s closest men had thoroughly searched Haeya-dong and brought him in.

“Do you know why you were caught?”

Park Dong-young shook his head with a terrified expression. His jaw seemed to be broken, as saliva dripped every time his face moved.

Yeon Tae-soo, with the cigarette at the corner of his mouth, held out one hand to the side, and one of his men handed him a hammer.

“Because you weren’t thorough enough. You stupid bastard.”

Yeon Tae-soo stood up from the chair, turning the hammer this way and that as if gauging its weight. Park Dong-young trembled and tried to crawl backward, but his battered body couldn’t even crawl properly.

“After shooting and getting stabbed by me, you shouldn’t have run away, but attacked again.”

As the hammer fell on his hand, Park Dong-young screamed.

“To kill me, you should have been prepared to die twice.”

At Yeon Tae-soo’s gesture, his men came and forcibly spread out Park Dong-young’s broken hand. Yeon Tae-soo pointed at each of the five fingers with the hammer, then decided to start with the thumb.

“Without that level of determination, I have no intention of dying.”

As the hammer came down again, screams erupted.

***

A 9-month-old cat named ‘Choco’ was still small. Its owner was an eighteen-year-old girl living in the neighboring area.

“So, is Choco going to die?”

At the owner’s question, Mr. Yoo couldn’t answer for a moment and just stared into her eyes.

Choco, oblivious to everything, kept burrowing into its owner’s arms. It must be stressed from being in an unfamiliar place. Especially when it’s not feeling well.

“No, we just need to get the medicine. It’s a bit difficult to obtain, though.”

“Why? Is it expensive? How much?”

Choco’s disease was one that didn’t exist in cats in the old days. This vision deterioration symptom, which rarely occurred in small feline animals after the war, was a vicious disease that could lead to blindness over time.

It was fortunate that there was medicine for it. The problem was that the manufacturing process was complex, and since the disease was rare, only large hospitals kept it in stock regularly.

And the medicine was quite expensive. It cost 20 jeon for one treatment.

Mr. Yoo glanced away from the eyes that seemed to urge an answer and made a note on his tablet.

“…It’s not that expensive. About 5 pun.”

Relief showed in the owner’s eyes.

“Well, that’s okay if it’s just skipping snacks twice. Please treat Choco.”

The owner had previously introduced Choco as a cat that the children were raising together in the factory dormitory.

When she and her colleagues first brought Choco in, forcibly taking it away from the factory workers who were bullying it, Choco was only 3 months old.

As the owner was about to leave the animal hospital, putting Choco in the carrier, she turned back and left one last comment.

“If you had said Choco would die, I was going to go somewhere else.”

Mr. Yoo, not knowing how to respond, looked back and forth between the very angry Choco in the carrier and the owner before finally answering.

“…Don’t worry, Choco won’t die.”

The owner burst out laughing at something funny and left the hospital.

***

The very next day, Mr. Yoo took an underground bus to visit a large animal hospital about 10 minutes away.

A male veterinarian who had been contacted in advance came out to greet him. It was Dr. Kim, whom he had met a few times before.

“Mr. Yoo, I’m really hurt. You only contact me when you need something. Is that the kind of relationship we have?”

“Is the medicine ready?”

When he immediately got to the point, Dr. Kim frowned.

“Wow, that’s too much. Come this way.”

He led Mr. Yoo into a small room inside the hospital. It seemed to be used for examining cats.

“This is it, right?”

After carefully checking the offered medicine bottle, Mr. Yoo nodded and took out his tablet to transfer the payment.

“Please confirm the amount.”

As he was about to turn and leave, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.

“You’re leaving without even saying thank you?”

He turned back with a frown. His eyes met gleaming ones.

Mr. Yoo inwardly swallowed a sigh. He had seen such eyes far too many times.

Sure enough, a hand reached out to the side and locked the door.

“Heh, really. Who’s going to eat you? Why are your eyes so wide?”

Even as he said this, there was aggression in Dr. Kim’s voice. He leaned his upper body towards Mr. Yoo. A repulsive body odor hit him.

“Mr. Yoo, you think I don’t know… that you’re illegally treating people?”