Please Leave
"......And that's how I ended up coming."
Na Wangrang explained to Dan Chuyeon why he was here.
"Mom and Dad worry way too much. I would've been fine on my own......"
Dan Chuyeon cleared his throat. The only reason Na Wangrang had come all this way was Dan Chuyeon himself. Leaving him alone between Alexei and Dan Miryong felt too precarious, so they had called Na Wangrang in as backup, hoping a best friend at his side might take some of the strain off his mind.
"Be good to your parents. They called me first and made the offer."
"And why did you even take it?"
"You know how my house is. Three little siblings. Add Mom and me and that's five mouths, and somebody has to cook every single meal. How's a place like that supposed to hold together?"
Na Wangrang pressed thumb and forefinger together into a circle.
"I do it for the money. I'm not a volunteer."
The moment a hard, practical business arrangement settled between friends, Dan Chuyeon found it unbearably awkward. He had never once tied himself to anyone in a professional way, and that doubled the discomfort.
"......A business I never even imagined. Between you and me."
"Work a few part-time jobs. Then you'll see how heavenly a deal is when it starts clean and ends clean. Easy talk, from someone who's never had to grind."
Na Wangrang clicked his tongue like a man senior in the ways of life, and Dan Chuyeon swallowed the bitterness of advice from a friend who had actually been out in the world.
"And you don't need to feel bad about it. I'll work exactly as much as I was paid."
"Isn't that a little cold? You're starting to scare me."
"Ha! Once money's changed hands, your feelings don't even enter into it!"
With that, Na Wangrang cast a quick look around the living room.
"I've said my piece to the young master of my employer, so I suppose it's time I got to work."
"What work?"
"Maid work."
"......???"
"Young master."
Na Wangrang seized Dan Chuyeon by the shoulders. In his eyes was a wolf that had surrendered to greed.
"I turned it down at first. I didn't want to keep seeing you over something like this. But......"
There had been too much money to refuse.
"......How much was it?"
"That's a secret. Keeping quiet about money is a virtue. But I told you."
I work exactly as much as I'm paid.
"Starting today, I'm a servant of this house."
"......"
"Woof."
In that instant Dan Chuyeon remembered what his family was.
A house with the wealth to replace any politician in the country at will, wealth no conglomerate chairman could sidle up to even if he arrived carrying his entire fortune. The hidden shadow steering Korea from behind.
The unease drained clean away. Thinking about it, however much money they handed over, it would all be pocket change to them. Unless it climbed into the hundreds of millions of won......
This really wasn't something I needed to worry about.
Mom and Dad had just pressed some spending money into his hand and sent him over to play. So he wouldn't be lonely. Struck by the boundless love of his parents, Dan Chuyeon's eyes went warm.
"Wangrang."
"You called, young master?"
Na Wangrang dropped to one knee, mischief risen to full height. Dan Chuyeon crossed his legs with arrogant ease.
"For a servant newly entered into our house, your clothes are a disgrace. Go change into a maid outfit at once. The skirt, of course, should sit perilously high above the thigh......"
"Die, you crazy bastard!"
"KYAAAAAK!!!"
Na Wangrang's straight punch buried itself in his solar plexus. Dan Chuyeon toppled backward, squealing like a pig at the slaughter.
"You lunatic, you want to put a man in a maid outfit?!"
"I-it was a joke! Please forgive me!"
A fist too fast for the eye came flying, and Dan Chuyeon took it with a pitiful little sound.
"And you call yourself a friend! Thank god you didn't go for my back door in the sauna, I swear!"
"There were other people there besides me back then......"
"Bullshit!"
The wages of pointless sexual harassment were brutal. Face swollen black and blue, eyes like pounded chestnuts, Dan Chuyeon knelt with meek, folded grace.
"Damn it. Hit you, and now I see it's lunchtime. Stand right there with your hands up until I'm done cooking. I'll look the kitchen over myself."
"......You know how to cook?"
"Better than my mom."
Na Wangrang tied on an apron. The slim line of his back stood out with worrying emphasis, and the jeans cinched all the way down his thighs were alluring enough to stir indecent thoughts, even knowing he was a man.
An apron alone, and Na Wangrang carried himself like a new bride. Nor did it end there. He caught a hair tie between those dainty lips, seized a fistful of wild, rake-like hair, and swept it back. Broad shoulders and a slender neck came into view. Flawless, unmarked skin seemed to breathe.
With his hair tied up, Na Wangrang was a different person. The wildness that had been beating Dan Chuyeon senseless a moment ago had vanished without a trace, and in its place stood the goddess of the kitchen, guardian of the home.
"Don't lower your hands. I warned you. Lower them and we're done as friends."
Na Wangrang growled. A warning that ought to have set a man's balls and cock trembling looked, instead, like a pout.
Dan Chuyeon crushed the sudden pounding in his chest and nodded for all he was worth.
Satisfied, Na Wangrang smiled and went into the kitchen.
"Finished with the lovers' scene?"
"...Uncle?"
Alexei came into the living room, dragging Dan Miryong with him.
"How long have you been there?"
"Since that friend of yours showed up."
Alexei had killed his presence with care, so that not even a hint of it reached the kitchen.
"Back then. The little brat hiding behind you, shaking like a leaf."
"......You don't feel anything in particular, do you?"
"If this body were normal, I might."
Dan Miryong meant to erase everything tied to the Dan clan. Friendships were included.
"Some joke."
Twitch. Twitch.
His courage screamed. Dan Miryong's hair rose in a shiver.
The edge of nature waited like a reaper.
Alexei let out a quiet breath of admiration.
For killing intent to leak unconsciously at this level...... They say a tiger sires no dogs, but this one has already gone past that.
He could have sworn to it. Even Dan Miryu, at that age, would not have reached a quarter of this.
Polish him just a little and he could be thrown into the field at once. His master was that woman, wasn't she? She's made a finished piece of him.
Alexei pictured the future that would have followed, had he been the one to recover the Stone of Resurrection.
I would have died at that child's hands.
A future that no longer existed.
"Chuyeon, did something hap—"
Perhaps the killing intent was simply that fierce. Na Wangrang poked his head out of the kitchen.
"Huh?"
Alexei's gaze, Dan Miryong's, and Na Wangrang's crossed.
"Wangrang. This is......"
Flustered, Dan Chuyeon tried to spring to his feet.
"It's fine. I heard everything from your father."
Na Wangrang stopped him, then bowed neatly to the two of them.
"I'll be helping with the housework and looking after the patient for the next few days. My name is Na Wangrang. Please take care of me."
A greeting as polite as something out of a picture. Not a flicker of agitation in the restrained movement.
"Right."
Alexei tipped his chin, short and blunt. Dan Miryong only looked bored.
"Could you wait just a moment? The food isn't ready yet......"
"Take your time."
"Thank you. Chuyeon, don't you lower those hands."
Na Wangrang went back into the kitchen.
"Peculiar."
Alexei murmured it, chin resting on his hand.
"Wangrang does have backbone."
"That isn't what I meant."
Alexei had not missed the glance that flicked downward for the barest instant.
"Dan Miryu's son, so of course the friends he keeps are peculiar too."
"My friend isn't that kind of friend. He might be hiding something, but he's an ordinary person."
"What's strange is sticking 'ordinary' in front of 'person.'"
From somewhere, he could have sworn he heard it.
Alexei's expression hardened by a fraction, and he waited while Na Wangrang prepared the meal.
Silence settled over the living room.
Evening sky under a setting sun. Dan Chuyeon saw Na Wangrang off at the front door.
"You worked hard today, Wangrang."
"Wasn't even that hard. Next to looking after my little siblings, this is nothing."
Na Wangrang smacked his own forehead.
"Right. Get home and I've got dinner to make again. I'm gonna lose it. Wonder if Mom's even there."
"Order delivery today. You said you got paid plenty."
"Guess I should. I was so set on working I forgot about the house. What a headache."
"That...... never mind. Wangrang, just go. You'll be late."
Na Wangrang didn't bother pointing out the words his friend had swallowed. Pretending not to notice was how you got through the next day with an easy heart.
"I'll head out, then."
Na Wangrang waved and stepped out past the gate.
Leaving his friend's house behind him, he went back to the house that was waiting.
Beep-beep-beep. Brrring.
"I'm home."
The door opened. A lightless entryway greeted Na Wangrang.
"Kids?"
Silence. From the entryway to the living room, the house lay sunk in pitch-black dark. There were no shoes by the door. Even so, the house was not empty.
"......Haa."
Na Wangrang sighed.
"Come out. This isn't funny."
......
Creak.
"Aunt? Would you come out, please?"
"Hohoho. Our Wangrang is home? I thought my neck would fall off, waiting like this."
Srrk. A shadow rose right in front of his nose.
A woman with eyes like a crescent moon smiled, bewitching.
"Where are the kids?"
"Same as always, dear. I sent them off to eat something nice. They'll stuff themselves at the buffet."
"Thank you. Now please leave."
"You're doing this again? It hurts this aunt's feelings."
"Please leave."
The woman called Aunt broke into a cold sweat. She lowered her eyes and moved carefully toward the hall.
"Wangrang? You'd do well to mind how you carry yourself. Even this aunt's indulgence has its limits."
"......"
"Hohohoho!!! I'm joking. Joking. I'll be going, then. The kids will be back before ten. Don't you worry!"
Na Wangrang watched until his aunt was gone.
He waited at the front door until his siblings came home.
Only when they did could he smile.