"Come here."
Mr. Yang got up from his chair and waved for Min Hyun to approach him. Although he knew what to expect, the guy did not hesitate to obey his order - the sooner it happened, the sooner he could go home.
Slap! - Sharp, hot, stinging pain spread across Min Hyun's left cheek which instantly turned red and started pulsating. It was fine, it was not the first time, and he anticipated it.
"How many fucking times do I have to slap you so that it finally gets through?!"
Mr. Yang looked at his son with eyes full of malice and raised his hoarse voice. The guy rubbed his throbbing cheek and looked down at his feet. How many times, indeed? His father continued,
"Every fucking time! Every fucking time you go there, I have to answer Mr. Choi's enraged call and listen to him yap at me like a rabid dog! Do you have any idea how annoying this is?"
Min Hyun smirked and looked at the old man from underneath his eyebrows.
"Geez, what's the big deal? So you got a call from that fat junkie, that pig can't live without our stuff anymore, so all he can do now is whine like the pathetic bitch he is."
Slap! - Tha man's hand inflicted another wave of hot pain on the same cheek. His hands grabbed Min Hyun by the collar of his shirt, and a pair of dark, mad eyes looked straight at him.
"I don't think this is what you wanted to have said. What you wanted to say was "I'm sorry" and "I won't do this again." And I mean it this time, Lee Min Hyun. If you throw a fit like this again, you will regret it. You know what I mean."
Min Hyun knew what he meant. There was only one thing his family could threaten him with and unfortunately, it worked every time. "That thing" was the last link to the love he was thirsting for.
"Alright. I understand. Are we done now?"
Min Hyun fixed his hair and clothes but was still reluctant to look at his father again. Mr. Yang shared that way of thinking; he stood with his back to his son and gestured for him to leave. Even though he could not see it, the guy still offered his father a bow and hurriedly left the room. A whirlwind of emotions rushed through his mind as he walked towards his car. Everything was incredibly irritating and upsetting - the bright yellow light in each hallway and elevator, the color of the floors and walls, the sound he made when his feet touched the ground, the artificial smell of flowers and essential oils... It was repulsive. It was making him sick. Min Hyun rushed out to the street and took a deep breath, the polluted city air burnt his lungs like boiling water. He did not know how long he had been standing there, gasping for air, trying to suppress the urge to vomit, but when he finally felt like he could think clearly again, the platinum watch on his wrist was already indicating the start of a new day.
'I need to get back home... I need to rest.'
Despite Ji Seon's desperate attempts to convince him that he was not in a driving state, Min Hyun still got behind the wheel and started the car. He wanted to be alone, he needed that. The rumbling sound of the car engine mixed with the outside noise that was flowing inside the salon through the rolled-down window managed to subdue his distress quite successfully, but it was only when the bitter taste of a cigarette touched his lips that he started feeling that the sense of calm and serenity was finally coming back to him.
Once he closed the door to his apartment and took off his clothes, Min Hyun reached his hand inside the inner pocket of his jacket to check his phone and when it did not respond to his frantic tapping on the screen, he tossed it on the couch and headed straight to the bathroom.
In times like those, Min Hyun found it strangely refreshing to take a cold shower, it was a bad habit that he picked up when he was nineteen and could not break even after all that time. However, tonight he wanted to let go. He wanted to feel warm. He wanted to feel normal.
The splashing sound of the running water filled the bathroom and bounced off its black, tiled walls almost as if it was palpable. The rapid clouds of steam were now mixed with the white smoke of the cigarette in Min Hyun's mouth. It was already his fifth. The guy watched the transparent beads of vapor running down the walls as if they were sweating and it made him smile. He touched his left cheek with his wet hand and the new stinging feeling washed over it as if he was slapped once again.
"The old man sure knows how to hurt me... He sure does."
Being slapped by his father was nothing new to him. In fact, slapping was the only way for Min Hyun to feel his father's touch; that short, sharp, stinging feeling of pain was as far as their physical contact had ever gone. Mr. Yang despised Lee Min Hyun. He found his existence a nuisance. He should have never been born, he should have died when he was a baby, that would have been better. For both of them. Instead, he tortured Min Hyun and his mother in the cruelest way - by taking them away from each other and holding them hostage, threatening them with their own lives, just to see who would give up first.
The guy threw his cigarette onto the tiled floor, leaned back in the bathtub, let out a long exhale, closed his eyes, and submerged his whole body under the hot water. He furrowed his eyebrows as he felt the water touch his damaged skin but soon enough, everything went dull, and he could no longer feel anything, except for how surprisingly heavy his own body was.