Dictatorship

I didn't want to open my eyes.

Everything that happened last night would seem like a dream if I didn't open my eyes. I thought so. So Seoyoon stubbornly closed his eyes and never opened them. Her desperate hands gathered under her chest seemed to represent her desperation. From a while ago outside, John kept knocking on Seo-yoon's door and calling her, but if she answered back, reality seemed to come.

"Hani!"

Eventually, John, who couldn't stand it, opened Seoyoon's unlocked door.

At that moment, her patience ran out.

"You!"

Seo-yoon quickly returned to reality with an implicit cry, "If only you hadn't come in, you could have ended up with a dream!" Still, my right finger, which I signed last night, was having a slight twitching. It must have been crazy. Or you were as young as you were in the 8th grade.

I don't shy away from a walking fight.

It certainly was when I was in my second year of middle school. It was also called the 8th grade syndrome. However, older, according to the lapse of time to die if you could avoid damage. That became her motto.

Seoyoon wanted to avoid it.

Ashan, the polar bear, and the shadow of death that follows behind him like an envoy.

"The shadow is now upon me."

Seo-yoon murmured resignedly in a self-help voice.

"Does your shoulder hurt a lot?"

If Ashan was a polar bear, John was more of a brown bear. A black man seemed to have found Seo-yoon in the morning with a patch in his hand. When I think this is all because of him, I get angry, but because of this careful consideration, I end up forgiving him.

Without a word, Seo-yoon turned his sore shoulders toward John. Seo-yoon's smooth shoulders stretched out between the half-stretched white T-shirts. The bruise on Ashan's shoulder did not disappear easily. Rather, it became darker and more painful day by day. Thinking that it would be fantastic unification, Seoyoon sighed again.

Like this!

John, who put on a pain relief patch and hit it with his palm, hummed a pleasant hum as if he was satisfied. One realized again the ironic world of morning hell, and one could have fun. When Seoyoon tried to fall back on the bed, John reached out his hands and took her body out.

"Let me go. I'm on evening duty today...….”

Seo-yoon murmured helplessly with a face that seemed to be driven by 10 years of fatigue overnight.

"Hani."

"Why?"

"I'll do my best!"

John said, hugging Seo-yoon, who was about to fall over the pillow. I wasn't happy to hear that John was nice to me. Rather, I was so conscious of Seoyoon that I hoped not to cause any accidents.

"I have a question.”

"Yes, yes! Ask me anything!"

In Seoyoon's words, John shouted in a voice that seemed to shout loyalty unconditionally.

At that moment, Seo-yoon jumped up from John's arms and sat cross-legged on the bed. The loosened eyes suddenly came to life, and the drowsiness on her face had long disappeared.

John tilted his head at the sudden change and sat carefully on the edge of the bed pointed at Seo-yoon.

"You were there, weren't you?"

"Huh? When?"

"You were in Afghanistan the day your next Sultan was killed, weren't you?

John shook his shoulders at Seoyoon's words. The reaction was strange. Seoyun was also surprised because of her bear-like size."Why do you ask that?”

John's face was the most complex face I've ever seen. His face hardened as if he clearly remembered what happened that day.

"Tell me, why weren't you with the prince that day?"

I just couldn't understand why the two princes were there, leaving the guards out. The hand he was holding could not be Ashan's Why can't it be a weakness? Because he's the only son left of the Sultan? Because even if he killed his own brother, we can't punish him here?

"……when I arrived in Afghanistan…….”

"Wasn't that confidential?"

John, who was serious about something, just opened his mouth, and a quiet voice interrupted their conversation. Asuka appeared between John's unclosed visits.

"Dear Asuka."

Surprised as if he had done something wrong, John jumped up from his seat. Asuka said softly, looking at him scratching his back head.

"John, I saw Salmon looking for you earlier."

Asuka smiled as usual, clearly turning around the word to leave. John wasn't stupid enough not to know what he meant.

'Well, I'll see you later on duty, Hani!'

Asuka closed the door when Seo-yoon tried to open her mouth while watching John's back disappear like the wind.

"I've been worried. I heard Ashan had a go at it yesterday.

Asuka has always been great. Can the action be described as a swarm?

Seo-yoon shook his head thinking of the bullet that passed by him. In a way, Asuka and Ashan seemed to be blood-mixed cousins at times like this. It shows language skills that are incomprehensible to ordinary people.

"I don't think that's what you'd call a tear."

Seoyoon said honestly. Asuka smiled at her honesty and sat on the spot where John sat. His hands gently pulled back the tangled hair of Seo-yoon.

"I was there, too.”

"What?"

"Hani was there, in Afghanistan, wondering.”

Was Ashan's impression too strong? His group, who later reunited, could not get into Seoyun's eyes. I can't believe Asuka was there with you. Seoyoon's eyes grew for a moment with surprise.

"Did Asuka recognize me, too?"

"No way. It was Ashan who recognized Hani."

Asuka's eyes bent beautifully in half moon as if she was enjoying Seoyoon's question. Seoyoon could suddenly realize the smile.

…I acquiesced!

Asuka knows it was Ashan who killed his brother. And I knew it beforehand, but I condoned it. Seo-yoon's hand reflexively struck Asuka's arm thinking that it was the meaning of the smile.

"Do you?"

"What happened there?”

"……Are you curious?"

Is that what he's curious about? There was a different level of fear than when I asked John. When I asked John, I asked him to get the picture straight and once again to make a deal with Ashan. It was not that now. This couldn't be the deal itself. Asuka, who was always right, friendly, and the only one here Seo-yoon believed in, seemed dangerous for the first time.

"No."

It occurred to me that I should not listen to it. Seoyoon decided to believe in his instincts.

Asuka smiled again at Seoyoon's answer."Hani, you know when to back off."

I could see the tip of his lips shaking as he uttered it.

It was like a euphoria, and it looked like it was grieving. On that subtle look, Seoyoon said nothing more. Today's Asuka was strange.

"Hani has it, doesn't she? Something that will never be forgotten in years, or in life."

"Yes."

"That's what happened in Afghanistan to me and Ashan."

Suddenly, Ashan's empty eyes came to mind. Did he really think about dying there even though he warned that the bombing would begin?

"I'll tell you when Hani wants to know more about Ashan.”

"That won't happen."

"Hahaha, you don't know yet that there's no guarantee in this world."

Smiling but Asuka didn't seem to smile at all. Seoyoon was quietly listening to the laugh because he realized that he had pushed down Asuka's unwelcome disgrace.

Salmon told me where Ashan is now, and I felt uncomfortable walking there the whole time. As soon as he saw him, he clenched his hands so that his fists would not fly away, even though he was going to take turns.

I thought it was crazy to sign the contract all night, and I thought I was going to burst my brain trying to figure out the odds of leaving the country with a slap in the back of Ashan's head. Originally, it was Seo-yoon, who was far from mathematics.

"What's wrong?"

John found Seo-yoon walking with an unusual expression in front of him, looking at the outdoor Ashan swimming pool in the distance, and asked.

"Why the pool?"

Seoyoon murmured to himself.

There was Ashan in the pool, which had turned him into a great deal of water. Usually in the evening he didn't come to the pool very well. No, I've been here for about 6 months and saw Ashan in the pool for the first time that evening. Of course it was none of her business where the employer went, but the pool was her first shift right after signing a life contract. I could smell something strange just by looking at it.

"Well, good luck."

As usual, Ashan lay languidly in his couch, wearing Sarwalman, smoking water. The only difference from that day was a bandage wrapped around his right shoulder.

Passing Seoyun and John, Salmon patted her on the shoulder a couple of times, saying, "Good luck all night."

"Come here."

Ashan said, pointing a chin at his side. John, who was next to Seo-yoon, strode to approach him.

"Not you."

"Yes."

Then, he stepped back again and crossed his hands behind his back as if nothing had happened.

It was after hearing from my doctor that I didn't dress all day today. It was Ashan who personally ordered his doctor to go to Seo-yoon and tell her how to dress. So there was a first aid kit in her hand.

Seoyoon approached, but Ashan did not even think about raising himself, leaning half way against the couch, pointing only at his shoulder.

"It hurts."

I almost snorted at the words.

It was never the sound of a person walking out of the operating room with two feet with a normal face.

According to Ashan's caution that the perpetrator should clean up the wound, Seo-yoon was forced to take care of the wound until he was fully healed. I always bragged about not working overtime, but that didn't apply to the perpetrator. Until the wound healed, I had to run whenever Ashan called me.Slowly remove the bandage, even the gauze attached to the wound. I was told that there was no problem with the bone because it was penetrated cleanly. The person who said it hurts when dressing with a tweezers of disinfectant cotton on top of dark red flesh did not change a single color of his face.

"Whoo...."

Ashan sucked in the water cigarette and spat out smoke on Seo-yoon's face. It was obvious that I did it on purpose. She raised an eyebrow. As soon as he was about to put on a gauze and dress the back part, Ashan gave Seoyoon cigarette smoke again.

"I can't see it because of the smoke."

I didn't want to use it as an excuse to touch the wound with tweezers.

"Oh."

A dry moan came out of Ashan's mouth. Seoyoon looked at Ashan's shoulder because he thought he had touched the wound, but he hasn't even touched it yet.

"I haven't even touched it yet."

Seoyun said stiffly in Ashan's apparent teasing attitude.

"Isn't it hurt to be still and upset?"

Ashan grinned as he uttered the words.

Seo-yoon grabbed him by the shoulder as he finished disinfection and wrapped the bandage again. When he tried to wrap the bandage tightly so that it wouldn't come loose, his palm and face were forced to touch Ashan's bare chest.

It was white skin. He also looked pale. I knew that the more sunlight this skin receives, the more it burns red, not burnt.

He was a prince that anyone would have dreamed of if he kept his mouth shut.

"……Shall we try?”

"What?"

Seo-yoon quickly put the bandage back on again in case Ashan noticed the hand that had stopped for a while.

"Swimming."

Seo-yoon's hand, which was bandaged again, paused.

Are you saying this man is sane? Seoyoon shook his head, calmly saying that he would enter the pool with a wound.

"It's still too much."

"I know. You go in, not me."

Once again he sucked in the water cigarette deeply.

Seoyoon opened the bandage without answering because he thought he heard it wrong.

"Take it off."

Mindlessly, Ashan threw the word out.

I never imagined a day would come when I heard that directly from a man.

"Why me?"

"I want to swim now, but I can't.”

Ashan replied insincerely, even though the answer was annoying.

John, who glanced, was alternating between Ashan and Seoyun with round eyes. Soon after, when his eyes met with Seo-yoon, he turned away as if he was wary of his surroundings.

"Oh, really? You can get well soon."

"Take it off."

Ashan ignored Seoyoon's words and said it again. Nevertheless, when she didn't budge, he dropped the water cigarette he was holding on to the couch.

"Then I'll come in."

Standing up from his seat, he strode to the pool. Seo-yoon, who knows that he keeps what he once said, caught him reflexively.

"Take it off. You're taking it off now!"

The wound needs to heal quickly. If water goes into the wound, and if you struggle to swim with water in it, this kind of servant will not end even if it takes a lifetime.

This bloody employer had to get well soon.

"Aha, are you naked?"

Seo-yoon took off his hoodie as if he had hurriedly ripped off his shirt.

He looked at this man naked a lot. To add to the lie, I've seen enough hair to count. Because he was always naked when she removed the body. And this man also saw Seoyoon's body in this pool. They didn't perceive each other as men or women. Seo-yoon himself was just a funny toy that he wanted to play with to the man in front of him, and to Seo-yoon, men were nothing more than an employer.John wasn't looking to see if he instinctively felt that he shouldn't turn his eyes this way.

Ashan sat down on the couch again, watching Seoyoon take off his clothes. The wide Sarwal fluttered in the night breeze.

Red lips open and suck the end of the water cigarette.

It was not known what Ashan's eyes, deep in darkness, were thinking.

Ashan rested his chin on Seoyun's gray sports bra as he looked at it in a dull manner.

Splash!

Seoyoon, who obtained it by frying white spray, stuck out his head in the water.

"Are you satisfied now?"

"I said I wanted to swim.”

"Whoo...."

As Ashan ordered, Seoyun took a deep breath and began swimming through the current. As he came back in front of Ashan in a 200-meter round trip, he answered casually, still resting his chin on his back.

"One more time."

When Seo-yoon came back from a round trip without saying a word of mouth, he said without even looking this time.

"One more time."

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...….”

Her heavy breathing was inaudible, and Ashan's tone was dull and indifferent. Perhaps from that attitude, he would have asked himself to swim in the pool all night. It was in the water, but there were peregrine sweat on its forehead.

"You don't like it?"

"No."

When Seo-yoon returned from a round trip once again, Ashan, who did not speak as if he was lazy this time, just opened his fingers, closed his eyes at all. He looked relaxed as if he was trying to fall asleep here, not in the bedroom.

I was out of breath. Perhaps Ashan's hobby was to drown himself for a moment. The polar bear seemed to want to kill Seoyoon by dropping him into the pool. He glared at Ashan, who closed his eyes for a while, and soon lay down behind Seo-yoon.

As soon as she relaxed, her body slowly floated over the pool, swimming along the waves as the wind blew.

"Backstroke is swimming, too."

Whether the voice was heard by Ashan or not, it didn't matter now. He didn't even care as if it didn't matter if Seo-yoon was in the water anyway.

The black night sky caught my eye. The shooting star, which had reached the end of its life, was dripping down every minute and second between the densely embroidered stars.

The heat was boring, and the sand dust was more boring, but Seoyoon liked it as much as the stars he saw here.

The white hands blowing into the water stretched upward as if they were catching a star.

The son-in-law was silent.

Obviously Ashan and John were nearby, but they couldn't even hear breathing. I could only hear the sound of water swaying in my ears from time to time.

When Seo-yoon closed her eyes for a while with her hand stretched out, an unexpected cool hand grabbed her wrist and lifted her up.

"Ah...!"

The spirit, which had been halfway between fantasy and reality, quickly returned to its place.

The person who made me face the reality was in front of me.

He faced her with a very unpleasant face, holding Seoyun's hand and lifting her up with a wrinkle on his forehead.

My feet were about to touch the floor. Seoyoon faced Ashan, who seemed to have no intention of letting go of his hand with his tiptoe in the water, with one hand raised.

"Let go of me, please.”

His grip still lingered to the point where he wondered, "Is this really the power of a sick person?" Of course, I wasn't holding Seoyoon with my injured right hand.To the shame of the person who said it, he didn't let go. He also knew too well that he wasn't the kind to listen to himself. I felt pain in my toes stiffening in the water and armpits raising my hands up to the maximum.

But I couldn't show it to the man in front of me.

It was a strange war of nerves even in Seoyoon's opinion. I didn't want to lose - money or power - by all accounts. I've never even beaten this guy in a power struggle, but I've tapped her again.

He faced the eyes of a man standing half-way down near the water, holding Seoyun's wrist.

"Prince."

Seoyoon called him a little lower this time.

He was unlikely to take any action, but bowed a little more. His face came down close to the held palm. Seoyoon's head tilted to the side to see what he was trying to do reflexively.

“……!”

Unknowingly, he bit the tip of his lip. It was a struggle to prevent the scream from bursting. The hot, soft thing stayed on Seoyun's palm. There was a blue day in the black eyes looking at Seo-yoon through the palm of his hand.

His lips gradually came down. As he pulled his wrist, Seo-yoon was dragged close to the swimming pool wall with his tiptoe on. Standing Ashan's leg was in front of her. And Ashan's lips came down to Seoyoon's wrist as if it were for granted.

He pressed her lips hard, stigmatizing where her pulse was beating.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Seoyoon's ears seemed to hear his pulse beating.

The heat of the wrist, but that cool look down at yourself.

"You..."

After removing his lips from Seo-yoon's wrist, Ashan opened his mouth. I got goosebumps as if I was going to freeze it blue or white. Seoyun didn't ask for the following words to him, who no longer spoke.

It was a favor from a man she couldn't see.

"Did you think I was dead?"

Did he think he was dead when he relaxed and just floated in the pool?

That's all I could think of. The displeasure that the man who 'gave' himself first showed.

"It's alive. I just checked it out.”

Still, my shoulder fat and armpits hurt. I thought there would be a man's legs in front of me, so I thought I would walk my feet and fall back into the pool, but I was afraid of the aftermath.

Once he hits, this man cuts the bud with a knife. Recalling the Korean proverb, "Give back and receive back with words," Seo-yoon once again said patiently.

"If you've checked, please let me go."

Ashan, who confirmed that the frown on Seo-yoon's face was not unpleasant, but from pain, slowly let go of his hands. The fingers wrapped around her wrist fell off one by one.

As if touching, Ashan's fingertips swept Seoyun's wrist, swept over her palm, and returned to where she needed to be.

"Tomorrow..."

Ashan slowly opened his mouth. I listened unconsciously because I was worried about what other bomb-like words would pop out of my frustrating lips.

"Wear something prettier."

He said, pointing to Seoyoon's sports bra with his eyes."……Why me?"

"Shouldn't the people watching be happy?”

He uttered it in a way that asked the obvious.

It was a mountain over a mountain.