Chapter 8

Cha Gyuhan was not the type of man who flustered easily. In every aspect of life, he carried himself with unshakeable confidence. Even when others harshly dismissed him as simple-minded or uneducated, he merely felt regret that they failed to recognize his true worth rather than sinking into sorrow, and he certainly never shut his mouth because of it.

With nothing to feel inferior about, he harbored no complexes, which meant there was nothing for anyone to prick at.

That was the man Cha Gyuhan was.

Yet yesterday had been entirely different.

“Guh…”

Gyuhan squeezed his eyes shut. To avoid shattering the glass gripped in his palm, he channeled all his strength into the rest of his body, trembling from head to toe.

Why the fuck was I hanging around someone else’s house without underwear? Wearing borrowed sweatpants, no less.

Ah, well, that’s because I had a wet dream from some incredible fantasy I can’t even remember. My underwear is drying, and I’ll wash your pants before giving them back.

If only he had just said that.

Even though blurting that out wouldn’t have solved a single thing, Gyuhan agonized over failing to say it, as if that silence alone had triggered the catastrophe.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for him to realize just how foolish that thought was.

Solved, my ass! Like hell it would. It’d just be completely fucked.

Gyuhan clawed at his hair in misery. How much of a raving lunatic must that cold-blooded bastard Gong Jio think he was? Having a wet dream in another man’s house? That alone was disastrous enough, but going commando? And just as Jio had pointed out, he had been wearing Jio’s pants.

After cycling between turning ghost-pale and burning beet-red in sheer panic, the only pathetic excuse Gyuhan had managed to stammer out was simply “I know, right?”

Hearing that brainless, idiotic response echo out loud—not in his head, but from a living voice right beside him—Gyuhan blinked and groggily turned toward the sound, looking like a half-dead wreck.

“Haven’t seen him around lately, have you?”

“Someone told me they saw him leaving with a guy the other night.”

“Ah, that was me.”

One of the men in the group raised his hand. He had a neat, clean-cut appearance.

“What happened? Spill the details!”

“No idea,” the man replied sullenly.

“What do you mean you don’t know? Why not? Ah, fine, alright. Drinks are on me tonight. Happy now? Give us the breakdown. I heard he’s a fucking god in bed.”

“I seriously don’t know anything. Good in bed or not, does his dick even work? You sure he didn’t just throw money around to spread those rumors himself?”

“What kind of wealth and glory would someone even gain by spending money to spread rumors that they’re a Gay Sex Machine…?”

A Gay Sex Machine.

It was a combination of words impossible to forget. Despite his gloomy state, an involuntary snort of laughter escaped Gyuhan.

At that sound, the three men glanced over, whispered among themselves, and then the prettiest of the bunch sauntered toward him.

“Excuse me. Would you like to join our table? It’s much better to chat openly than eavesdrop from over here.”

“No, I’m good.”

Gyuhan knew that look. He had received it countless times before. He was so familiar with the routine that he knew precisely how the next steps would unfold. The moment he revealed that his dick already had a (future) owner and that he only wanted the bottom position, the guy’s eyes would glaze over with disappointment.

Normally, he would have handled the situation with gentle courtesy, but right now he had zero energy to spare. After all, he had just barely managed to reconcile with his friend, only to pull that stunt at his house… and the rest was better left unsaid.

“I didn’t come here for that.”

“For that? What do you think we’re trying to do? We’re just having a fun chat, having a few drinks. I’ll even tell you about the sex machine. Isn’t that why you laughed?”

“I laughed because the nickname sounded hilarious, but I already know who you’re talking about.”

Know who it was? They used to be regular hookup partners. Though his nickname sure got fancy. Back when they fooled around, Go Woonha had been a monstrous slut who showed STD test results before getting into bed. But a sex machine? Wait a minute. If those rumors are circulating again, does that mean that bastard is cheating on my brother right now…?!

As Gyuhan’s eyes turned bloodshot with rage and he moved to pull out his phone, the man beside him naturally linked arms with him and asked, “Who do you think we’re talking about? Someone you know?”

“If it’s who I think it is, I have to kill him, but I’m hoping it’s not. On three, let’s say the name at the exact same time. How about it?”

Is this guy playing a game?

The man found the proposition ridiculous, yet strangely amusing, and gave a nod.

With Go Woonha’s number pulled up on the screen, Gyuhan gripped his phone hard enough to shatter the glass and glared with wide eyes.

“One-two-three!”

Doesn’t a person usually count one… two… three?

Instead of the steady rhythm ingrained since childhood, Gyuhan rattled off all three numbers in a single breathless burst. He had to know immediately. That way, he could rush over and murder the bastard while the crime scene was still fresh.

“Go Woonha!”

Having counted at lightning speed, Gyuhan naturally opened his mouth first. Then he had the nerve to snap in irritation, “Hey, why didn’t you say it on three?!”

His interest instantly evaporating, the man unlinked his arm. His demeanor grew noticeably drier.

“That’s not the name. The machine I was talking about is Gong Jiho.”

“Excuse me?”

“Or was it? Gong Jiho? That’s what it sounded like.”

Gyuhan let out a hearty, magnanimous chuckle. The abrupt change in attitude made the man tilt his head in confusion. But Gyuhan wasn’t laughing because his anger had subsided.

“Jiho? With an h, right? Ho? Not Jio? Not with an O, but Ho?”

“I don’t know. Does that matter?”

It fucking matters!

Gyuhan ended up shouting that at the top of his lungs, which earned him an immediate ejection from the bar for causing a scene. Even the owner, who had always sympathized with Gyuhan whenever he grew frustrated by suitors demanding his dick perform its traditional duties, showed him the door without hesitation.

Exiting the bar, Gyuhan furrowed his brow and puffed furiously on a cigarette.

Come to think of it, back then…

The last time he had been drinking alone, he had definitely seen Gong Jio. Because this place was a newly discovered refuge meant to replace his usual haunt—a spot that now only brought sorrow by reminding him of Go Woonha—Gyuhan himself had only started frequenting it recently. In the interim, his relationship with Jio had soured, leaving no chance to introduce him to the place. Back then, encountering him there had been such a shock that Gyuhan hadn’t even asked why Jio was present.

No, that had to have been a pure coincidence.

In any case, looking back, Jio had left with another man that night. How can grown men date each other? You can’t get married, and you can’t have babies. Stuck in such narrow-minded thinking, Gyuhan had never even considered suspecting Jio’s companion, even while he himself avoided his old watering hole because it reminded him of his ex-hookup partner. Of course, the sorrow evoked by memories of meeting his ex wasn’t born of longing, but of crushing guilt for having introduced such a bastard into Gyuwon’s life…

Regardless, Gyuhan was profoundly shaken.

“Ha. My friend. Gong Jio. That Gong Jio sleeps with men?” Gyuhan muttered blankly. “And a s-s-sex machine, on top of that?”

Gyuhan grimaced.

Fuck, I’m jealous.

He still had zero intention of racking up experience by swinging his own front around, but he couldn’t help envying such talent. How did the guy get blessed with a gift like that, too?

Yet the moment Gyuhan recalled the unforgettable combination of words, that envy snapped right back into pure shock.

“Wait, a Gay Sex Machine?”

One might have scoffed at the tacky moniker, but it made complete sense. Gyuhan pictured Jio’s rigid, machine-like facial muscles and his frigid tone. Wasn’t his nickname at the company the AI of the Legal Team? His nicknames back in their school days had been along the exact same lines. All they had lacked were the words ‘sex’ and ‘same-sex’… So this is the kind of adult you became… Gong Jio.

Gyuhan sighed heavily. And as if summoned by that very sigh, Gong Jio appeared in his field of vision. It was an almost magical coincidence.

“I know, right?”

This was their first encounter since Gyuhan had sputtered out that atrocious excuse.

“I took it off for… ventilation, and I guess I forgot to put it back on, you know? They say a man’s lower half should always be kept cool. You should try it sometime.”

The atrocious drivel hadn’t stopped at a single line, either.

When Jio hadn’t offered a single response, Gyuhan had wanted to drop dead on the spot. Just recalling the sight of himself waddling out the door while clumsily yanking up his pants delivered a blast of humiliation potent enough to kill even the healthiest morning erection.

“I-I’m leaving. Your dick… it was pretty. Take pride in it and keep up the good work taking care of it.”

His brain entirely short-circuited, he had fled back home in Jio’s borrowed sweatpants looking like a complete fool, just a few days ago.

Surprise gave way to fleeting envy, and envy swiftly curdled into indignation.

That bastard. Possessing hardware like that, and instead of taking proper care of it, he’s been whoring it around? To men, of all people? And after all that, he has the nerve to get pissed off at me?

At the office, Jio had maintained his silence, treating Gyuhan with strict professional detachment. It felt as though a line had been drawn even more starkly than when he had been actively angry. Was it harder to treat him normally after seeing his friend waltz around commando?

In the midst of all this, hearing the tale of the Gay Sex Machine—hereafter known as the GSM—made Gyuhan squirm with awkward hesitation, even without Jio drawing the line first.

After days of such uncomfortable tension, they had finally crossed paths. Not in an official workspace, but in a private setting. What was more, the machine was in the company of another man.

Just then, Jio turned his head.

Their eyes locked dead-on.

Spurred by an inexplicable surge of irritation, Gyuhan pointed an accusatory finger and bellowed, “Hey, damn it, Gong Jio! Your parents would be heartbroken if they saw you like this!”

Jio spat out the toothpick between his teeth. “Look who’s talking.” He wasn’t flustered in the slightest, nor did he look bewildered. He simply shut Gyuhan’s mouth with devastating ease, wielding an undeniable truth. “Besides, I don’t have parents to feel sad for me.”

With that final strike, he drove in an unshakeable wedge, ensuring the other man would be struck utterly speechless—or rather, wouldn’t dare utter another word even if he had one.

Jio brushed past Gyuhan and stepped into the bar. As the footsteps faded into the distance, Gyuhan clutched his hair and screamed silently in agony.

Cha Gyuhan, you crazy bastard!

Descending the stairs, Jio let out a quiet snicker. He could practically hear Gyuhan’s screams. He couldn’t physically hear them, but he knew they were there.

The man beside him glanced over. But Jio’s chuckle had been faint, and by the time the man looked, Jio’s face had already reverted to a blank mask that made one wonder if he had ever smiled at all.

“Someone you know?”

“Obviously. He didn’t look like a stranger, did he?”

His voice was bone-dry, his tone distinctly insolent. What stung the man’s pride even more was the certainty that Jio didn’t even care enough to intentionally offend him. By the time that phantom chuckle had sounded, Jio’s arm had already slipped from the man’s shoulder.

Feeling slighted, the man masked his annoyance and pressed sullenly, “Is this some kind of jealousy ploy?”

“Jealousy? He doesn’t know what that is. That’s way too high-level an emotion for him.”

“Then what was that? It’s not fair to use me and not even tell me why.”

Jio furrowed his brow in mild annoyance before smoothing it out. Having already achieved his objective, continuing these steps felt like a pointless waste of time, making the whole affair feel tedious and bothersome. Yet heading back up now risked running into Gyuhan and spoiling the pot just as the rice was finishing.

Taking another reluctant step forward, Jio replied with detachment, “He doesn’t understand, so consider it an audiovisual aid. Teaching him at the most primal level. When you’re hungry, you eat; when you’re sleepy, you sleep; when you’re horny, you fuck. And the person who makes you horny can be a friend, and another man.”

“You think something like this will work? At this rate, he’ll just go sleep with someone else.”

The man’s attempt to throw a wrench into the works was almost admirable, but Jio wasn’t listening. There was zero reason to explain to an utterly insignificant entity how he had arrived at this point, or why he was letting the pot simmer even while rushing the meal.

So you dared to sleep with a man.

Jio ran his tongue over his sharp canine, swallowing down a savage smirk.

Meanwhile, his companion probed again. Even though he had realized Jio’s interest in him had plummeted to zero and that he had been humiliatingly, thoroughly used, desperation drove him to keep making self-defeating blunders.

“So, you’re going to train his body first?”

Instead of answering, Jio pushed the door open.

But knowing silence was an admission in itself, the man sneered, “Whoa. Talk about an ambitious schemer.”

“Ambitious?”

Jio suddenly laughed. This time, the man saw it clearly. It was a sight so mesmerizing that it made him forget his blunder and tempted him to make another just to see it again. The laugh lingered longer than usual.

“No, not like Boys, be ambitious kind of ambition—more like some sleazy adult manga plotter.”

“I know. If you’re going to spout nonsense, let me buy you a drink so you can drink up and shut your mouth.”

Vicious bastard.

Yet Jio’s utter loathing of idiocy was already well known. Just as famous was the fact that virtually nothing else was known about him.

Refusing to give up, the man lingered and walked right into another trap.

“Do you really not have parents?”

About to order drinks, Jio froze for the briefest fraction of a second before letting out a dry smirk. “Of course I do. I just said that to tease him.”

“You joke on something like that?”

“How about we call it even with your question, which would have gotten pretty awkward if I really didn’t have any?” Jio tilted his head, regarding him with a slanted gaze. His lifeless eyes curved without the slightest sincerity. Even his imitation of a smile lacked any effort. Watching the startled man freeze in silence, Jio spoke in a low murmur. “Get lost now. While I’m still asking nicely.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’m not.”

Jio spoke without even meeting his eyes. Faced with such brazen insolence, the man let out a hollow laugh and spat out whatever came to mind to provoke him.

“You didn’t make up that nickname and spread those rumors yourself, did you?”

“Nickname? Ah. Would I ever come up with something that tacky?” Jio smirked.

The man grew even more offended by Jio’s complete indifference, unfazed no matter how much he sneered. “Don’t even feel guilty about using people, do you?”

“Nope. Not really. I bought you a drink.”

“You think that gives you the right to use people?”

“I’ll even give you permission to make up a weird nickname and spread rumors about me.”

“Crazy bastard. Shameless and unprincipled.”

“Yeah, that’s accurate too. Lucky me, since I was never taught any better.”

“Fuck, you’re impossible to talk to.”

Jio completely tuned out the fuming man as he turned on his heel and walked away, taking a seat at a table.

The reason he chuckled again after ordering his drink was because of that phrase—an ambitious plotter in an adult manga.

There was an episode related to that. Naturally, it involved Cha Gyuhan.

Back in school, there had been a guy who proudly showed off an adult manga magazine he had snitched from his uncle. Even while complaining about why anyone would look at ancient comic books when videos existed, the brats had looked thoroughly thrilled. One of the guys huddled close whispered with a grin toward Gong Jio, asking if his uncle had stuff like this.

Back then, Jio seemed to recall smiling far more often than he did now.

With a sweet smile, he had said, “Why look for pictures when you can just watch it live in person?” and risen from his seat. Gripping his chair.

The guy clearly hadn’t worried about the consequences while running his mouth. Just as Jio took a step forward, staring down the panicked kid who stammered and tried to back away, Cha Gyuhan had burst onto the scene in his usual boisterous fashion.

“Hey! What are you guys huddled up doing? Count me in!”

Cha Gyuhan, surrounded by countless friends and beloved by everyone who knew him. A guy who loved people so much he was practically a monkey.

Gyuhan greeted Jio simply by slapping him on the shoulder with his open palm. Jio was virtually the only person Gyuhan never addressed by name during a greeting. It was likely because they were close enough that words were entirely unnecessary.

Squeezing his way into the cocoon of huddled heads, Gyuhan raised his chin a moment later and unleashed a thunderous roar.

“You little bastards! Why the hell are you looking at this garbage?!”

At first, Jio assumed Gyuhan was angry because they were doing something that would get them scolded by the teacher. But it didn’t take long to remember that Gyuhan had never once gotten that furious over such a boring reason. Sure enough, Gyuhan bellowed out the cause of his outrage at the top of his lungs, hands propped on his hips and legs set wide like some energetic old grandpa hollering from the summit of the neighborhood mountain.

“Watching your wife sleep with another guy?! What kind of demented bastard gets off on this shit?! Cut your cocks off! Chop ’em right off!”

Ah, so that’s what it was?

Jio had been struck dumb. The grip he had maintained on his chair slackened completely, drained by sheer absurdity and disbelief.

Yet Gyuhan’s rage showed no signs of cooling. Drawing in a massive breath and holding it tight in his chest, he roared again, “Haven’t you ever heard of monogamy?! You sons of bitches, I’m throwing this in the trash!”

Overwhelmed by his ferocious momentum, their classmates stood helpless like snot-nosed kids caught shaking an arcade cabinet in front of the neighborhood’s notorious tiger grandpa, watching their adult comic get confiscated without resistance. And Gyuhan had marched straight to the incinerator to burn it. Only after Gyuhan left did the culprit realize what had happened, turning pale and pacing frantically.

The moment Gyuhan returned, the boy grabbed his arm and pleaded, “Hey, Gyuhan-ah. Did you really throw it away? I took it from my uncle without asking, I can’t lose it, damn it! I have to put it back!”

“I tore it to pieces and burned it. Why the hell would you read criminal filth like that?”

Resting his chin on his hand from his desk, Jio, who was already familiar with the Cha family history at the time, thought, Are you one to talk?

Yet having known Gyuhan for years, it wasn’t a particularly serious thought. Gyuhan was the complete opposite of what anyone would expect given his family background, while the one who truly fit that background was a bastard like Jio himself.

In any case, Gyuhan shook his head with a stern expression. “It’s a comic that promotes crime.”

“I-It’s not a crime! It’s not an affair, the husband was r-right there in the room! The husband likes it! Gyuhan, it’s called NTR, okay? Netorare! It’s a technical term!”

Pulling his gaze away from the friend trying to convince him, Gyuhan stared straight ahead, his eyes so unswervingly upright, clear, and radiant that Jio sat up straighter in anticipation, eager to hear what absurdity he would utter next.

“Why the hell would anyone make that into a profession?”

“Huh?”

“Why make that a specialty? Can you go out in public and proudly call yourself an expert in that? Like an attorney, a prosecutor, or a doctor—can you call yourself a Licensed Netorare Practitioner? A Ph.D. in NTR? Are you going to go brag to your parents about that?!”

The boy was struck utterly speechless. Who would ever brag about something like that? He wouldn’t even admit to reading smut in the classroom in the first place.

Gyuhan didn’t stop there. To him, the problem wasn’t merely looking at dirty comics. How dare anyone watch—or even imagine—their spouse sleeping with someone else? The world was going to ruin. It was his personal duty to rip this rotten mindset out by the roots right here and now. Gathering his strength with a deep, held breath, Gyuhan set his hands on his hips once more and roared, “NTR is! A crime!”

Jio had laughed until the other kids looked at him as if he were possessed by a ghost. He could say with absolute certainty that it was the first time in his life he had ever laughed that hard. Because he had never learned how to laugh properly, his face must have looked somewhat grotesque, but he couldn’t help himself.

Regardless, Gyuhan bellowed once more, “Netorare is! Illegal!”

“Ah, fuck.”

Recalling that day, Jio rested his forehead against the back of his hand and hung his head low.

After letting his shoulders shake with silent laughter, he raised his head once more, without a single trace of mirth remaining.

That was why he had turned down the offer.

When he had deliberately walked out with that companion right in front of Gyuhan, his only goal had been to provoke him; he had never planned on hopping into bed. On top of that, realizing Gyuhan couldn’t care less who he left with had thoroughly ruined his mood.

The moment he stepped outside, he had clamped a cigarette between his lips. If he could have, he would have shoved the entire pack—all twenty cigarettes—into his mouth and puffed away. Filling his lungs with nicotine like a diver loading up on oxygen before plunging into a pool, Jio’s lifeless gaze belatedly registered the makeshift companion waiting for him.

“Sorry.”

He lit a second cigarette, his manner holding not an ounce of apology. “Can’t get it up.”

The apology had been insincere, and the excuse even more so.

Baffled, yet unwilling to leave with his pride wounded and lingering regrets clinging to him, the man had played a desperate gamble.

There were quite a few people like this around Jio. People who grew impatient and desperate, trying to save face with a bold move that turned out to be a fatal blunder. And every single time, Jio never missed the mistake, using that opening to turn the tables and corner them.

“Then let’s have a threesome. You can watch us do it, and if you get hard, you can join in; if not, you can just watch. I’m into that too.”

This time was no different.

“Is the other guy’s name Go Woonha, by any chance?” Jio asked casually.

The man blinked at the name, paused, nodded, and then shook his head.

“No. Haven’t seen Go Woonha in a while anyway. Wonder if he’s dead? Why? You want to run a train?”

“Who’s in the middle?”

“Go Woonha, obviously. He takes front and back.”

Jio waved his hand dismissively. Of all the bizarre bastards to run into. Had Gyuhan been the one topping, Jio might have told him to call the guy over so he could fuck him too and become sexual in-laws, but if not, forget it. Even if that were the case, he would never engage in a threesome anyway. The reason was obvious.

“I don’t do NTR. It’s a crime.”

“R-Really? That’s a crime?”

You’re an attorney… Is that for real?

To his flustered companion, Jio replied with total indifference, “You didn’t know? It’s true. So be careful.”

And then he had returned home. It was that very night he adjusted his strategy, concluding that driving Gyuhan’s body into rut might be far faster than trying to make his thick skull understand. Of course, separate from the strategy, he had needed a bit more time to cool down his infuriated head…

Even so, he had made it this far.

“At least I managed to get my name on the roster.”

He hadn’t even imagined standing here in the first place. It wasn’t pleasant, but looking at the results, that was the reality. An endeavor he had written off as utterly hopeless had suddenly kicked open the coffin lid, dug its way out of the grave, and presented itself fresh as ever.

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