cw: violence
As Cheongyeon poured a new batch of beer, additional orders came in from all over the place. The Dandelion Pub, which had been frozen since Muwon’s arrival, quickly came to life. While Cheongyeon served beer and grilled dry snacks like squid and fish snacks, Muwon switched to strong whiskey.
The man who had once made a month’s worth of sales in a single day had ordered the most expensive drink of the night. It was the last day of his part-time job, and despite all the twists and turns, Cheongyeon thought he might get a nice bonus. He took comfort in that.
He glanced at the other man in between cleaning the cups. Ever since he’d shoved his finger in his mouth, Muwon had been drinking normally. He’d emptied nearly a bottle of whiskey, but he hadn’t been injecting or starting a fight. On the contrary, he was rather foul-mouthed when he was sober…
“Would you like some more?”
Cheongyeon asked when the last glass was gone. Muwon, who was still tilting the whiskey bottle, laughed absurdly.
“Wow, I’ve never seen a guy taking advantage of me before.”
Muwon let out a silent exclamation of admiration. However, it didn’t sound like a joke because of the bright yellow glare.
“That’s… not true.”
Who could possibly treat Tae Muwon like a pushover here? Of course, he couldn’t deny that he was selfless in his desire to earn a bonus.
“The boss here used to sell me alcohol.”
Suddenly, he remembered the boss who had asked him a meaningful question when they were talking about Muwon.
“So you saw him?”
“Huh?”
“It was at the inn in front of your store.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He asked for the umpteenth time. Muwon kept looking at him, so he had to watch his mouth. It seemed that once a man nailed himself as a male prostitute, he would never change his mind. It was a reasonable enough suspicion, considering he kept accusing him of smuggling Boksu flowers without much evidence.
“You know what?”
“…I don’t know.”
Muwon swallowed a mouthful of whiskey that matched the colour of his eyes.
“You found a good job, apothecary, suits you fucking well.”
Cheongyeon blinked at the unexpected compliment. He wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or a sarcasm. It was probably more of a sarcasm, but he nodded his head.
“Th… ank you.”
“Thank you my ass.”
Muwon grabbed the neck of a new whiskey bottle and stood up. Cheongyeon watched him uneasily as he strode past the bar table and into the crowd of drunks and sat down at an empty seat. It was next ot the younger of the twin brothers. Those who could not escape the spot averted their eyes in contemplation.
Muwon poured whiskey into the twin’s glass. Instead of throwing a punch, he poured them a drink, leaving them dumbfounded. The younger brother supported the glass with two polite hands and bowed his head, as if he were grateful for Muwon’s whim. Muwon set the whiskey bottle upright and grabbed his jaw.
“Drink.”
“Yes, hyung-nim, thank you!”
The younger brother gulped down the undiluted liquid without any ice mixed in. The colour returned to the man’s cheeks as he carried out Muwon’s orders without taking a breath, and he couldn’t hide the glint of anticipation in his eyes. Who knew why, but he seemed to think Muwon liked him.
“How does the liquor poured by a prostitute taste?”
Cheongyeon was startled. It was so quiet Muwon’s voice could be clearly. His brother’s cheeks puddled with nervousness and fear.
“…That’s- I… what I mean is that…”
“Do you have to drink more to find out?”
He grinned toothily and turned the whiskey bottle upside down to fill the glass. His brother’s hands shook uncontrollably as he gripped the glass.
One couldn’t tell from his smiling face whether he was angry or genuinely amused.
“I… Muwon-nim.”
The other brother, who was worried about his brother, opened his mouth with a polite smile. Smack! With a swift move that was more agile than an animal, he punched his twin brother in the head. The teeth of the whiskey bottle, which had been shattered by a single impact, stood sharp.
The twin’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. The shattered tip grew sharper as Muwon struck him in the back of the head with the bottle once more.
“Brother!”
The younger brother lunged at him, his eyes watering with tears. Muwon struck him down with a sharpened glass bottle. Blood and flesh splashed from his hands as he blocked the attack. The drunk customers screamed and scattered as if a tidal wave had hit the bar. Those closest to the door had already fled the pub.
Cheongyeon looked at the twin brother’s hands, which were becoming rags. Muwon had deliberately kept hitting the same place so that he could block it with his hand. The younger brother tried to punch him or ram him with his body, but to no avail. Watching them from a distance, Cheongyeon strained his shaky legs to keep from collapsing.
Was this like a fight between a child and adult? No, it was more like the difference between a god and a human. The younger brother tried to strike Muwon somehow, but it was a futile effort compared to the latter’s swift movements. The disparity in strength was so clear that it was hard to tell if they were the same person.
Cheongyeon projected himself onto the twin brother, who was covered in blood. It tingled as if his palm had been torn open. No, if it had been him in the first place, she would have already screamed and died in the corner of the bar without even thinking about stopping anything.
The twin brother, who was gradually being pushed back, was pinned against the wall. Muwon looked down at the now shapeless whisky bottle and struck the man in the jaw with his left fist. There was a snap, the sound of something breaking, and soon the younger brother, his eyes rolled back in his head like his older brother, was slumped against the wall.
Golden eyes resembling a crazed beast, reached out to Cheongyeon. Cheongyeon thought of the kitchen knife on the inside of the bar table. But he couldn’t grab it. It was wiser to hide the fangs that wouldn’t even scratch the other party.
Blood dripped from the broken whiskey bottle. Cheongyeon backed into the liquor cabinet behind him.
“Hey.”
He swallowed dryly and tried to say yes, but only his lips moved. No voice came out.
“If you clean up these bastards, you too will die.”
Pow! He threw the whiskey bottle into the twin brother’s face.
***
‘Why is Peira’s boss, Tae Cheonoh, looking for the Hwa clan?’
Cheongyeon’s senses were on high alert as he lay in his quilt. The owner hadn’t returned to the pub until dawn. Moreover, because of Muwon’s words, he had to return home with the store only roughly tidied. He tried to force himself to sleep, but he couldn’t.
“If you clean up these bastards, you too will die.”
He didn’t like the twin brothers, but he didn’t want them to die either. He stayed in the store long after Muwon had left, shaking the older brother to wake him up. There was no sign of life, and he wondered if he was dead, but fortunately, his temple was pulsing.
It was easier to wake up the younger brother, who was more injured. His jaw was back in place, and he could barely utter a swear word as he picked him up. He felt that he hadn’t disobeyed the Muwon’s orders because he hadn’t cleaned up the mess himself and the younger brother left on his own.
When they left, he cleaned up what he could see and went home, but he couldn’t linger for too long because he was afraid that Muwon would send someone after him. More honestly, he felt sick to his stomach as he cleaned up the torn flesh and pools of blood.
The stench of blood was so thick that it almost drowned out the scent of the Boksu flower. When Cheongyeon got home, he took a quick shower because he felt like he was covered in blood, and then he stayed under the covers for the rest of the night.
‘Why did he go to such lengths…’
Cheongyeon couldn’t understand. Even if the twins had said something out of line… If it were him, he would have just cut it out of his mind. But then he suddenly wondered, what if he was as powerful as Muwon?
What if he didn’t tolerated the others’ insults and set an example so that they would never speak on him again? Cheongyeon didn’t have an answer because he had never been down that road. He could only assume that his aversion to blood kept him away from violence.
The tension was building and building.