Speak of the Devil - Chapter 10

“… jealousy?”

My eyes widened at the sudden thought.

It was 20 minutes before the alarm went off. Normally, I would have curled up inside the blanket a little more, but the strange thoughts did not stop and I completely lost my sleep.

Jealousy. Otherwise, there are no words to describe it.

Eventually I jumped out of bed. Then I went straight to the bathroom and ran cold water in the shower to wet my body. It’s easy to get distracted by the friction of cold water in the early morning, but I still feel like I can’t sleep. Jealousy, doesn’t it sound like a dream?

When I returned from Busan a few days ago, I was constantly reminding myself why Jeong Yiyeon had a bad mood and then suddenly improved again. From the moment he came to my room drunk the day before, everything was full of strange things.

He noticed that I was on my way out. Okay, let’s say that he came to me because he had a drink and his sexual desires moved. In the first place, he was the one who proposed to me for a relationship because he was ‘tired of finding someone’, so he came to me because he wanted to do it.

But I couldn’t explain why I suddenly felt depressed the next day. Wouldn’t it make sense to ask about my relationship with Seo Jae-oh, or to say that I wasn’t in a relationship makes him feel better right away?

If this isn’t jealousy, then what is it?

“Hey, you bastard, alarm!”

It was then that I heard screams outside the bathroom. Not just shouting, but bang! With a sound, the door shook as it was about to fall.

Startled, I shut the shower and opened the door. Even though it wasn’t locked, my older brother, Lee On, who banged his fist on the bathroom door enough to bleed to express his annoyance, stood in front of the door with an extremely ugly face.

Lee On. My older brother was tall, over 190 cm, and he had a large body. He didn’t look like me, but if I had a sharp and intelligent image, he had a more intense and bitter impression than me. There were long scars around his eyes that made his handsome face look somewhat frightening.

It was right after waking up, so it was funny to say that he broke the house, but the spirit of my brother, who was glaring at me, was very vicious. The moment our eyes met, my older brother’s wretched hand flew in.

‘Ahh! Hyung! Hyung!!”

My older brother, who has been doing all the bullying in the neighborhood since he was a child, and didn’t hide his dog-like temperament, was very violent. At least he was weak to me, so I could scream like that.

If it were anyone other than me, he would have shoved a loud cell phone into my mouth and crushed me.

“I surrender! I surrender!!”

Since it’s me, it’s just a chokehold, tightening the breath, and cutting off my articulation. A mixed martial arts battle took place with me naked and wet, and my brother wearing only one piece of underwear. It was really suffocating and it wasn’t until I gurgled and tapped frantically on the floor that my brother let me go. In the meantime, there was a fierce look in his eyes.

Looking down at me clattering on the floor, my brother suddenly said:

“What, are you having a hard time? You lost some weight.”

After strangling a person and trying to kill them, what are you worried about now? It was absurd, but this was my older brother.

I rarely came home because I was busy with my work, so my brother, who I met after a long time, grabbed my face and turned it around and frowned.

“Should I find you a job?”

His temper is quick. It’s not like I’m having a hard time, but seeing him talking about changing jobs to an easier place to work because I seem to have lost some weight.

I smiled faintly at the offer. He always treats me like a very young little brother and always insists on living comfortably as I pleased. It was the same when I was in college. He was responsible for not only my tuition but also living expenses, and told me not to worry about anything else, just study and do what I wanted to do. He was a person who was one year older and pretended to be so much older. Of course, it was also true that I was grateful for everything.

But I didn’t want to be indebted to him any longer. I have no intention of relocating right now. It’s true that I lost some weight, but it’s not because the work is hard… It was just that I lost weight because I was a little tired of my love affair with Jeong Yiyeon.

“I’m not tired. My social life is all the same.”

“Then what?”

It seemed that there was no answer to the extent that it was not because of work. I was choosing what to say to the bitter eyes that wanted to know why I lost weight, but in the end I vomited out the truth with a small sigh.

“… No, it’s just a lover that sucks me dry.”

“… ah fuck, take this.”

My shoulders flinched at the threateningly shaking fist in front of me. It never struck though. Because he’s an older brother, he pretended to be a little scary.

“Why are you asking like that?”

How could you get mad at the person who answered when you asked? Conversations with my brother used to end up being unfair on my side like this.

“Ha. Yes, it’s time for you to get married too.”

“Hyung has to go first, so I won’t go either.”

My brother was thirty-one. But I’ve never seen his girlfriend. I’ve never even heard of it, let alone seeing it.

Where there are only women, I only vaguely know that my brother is a gangster and that he owns a few businesses, but I didn’t know exactly what he was doing. I had only seen one of my brother’s subordinates once or twice.

He didn’t tell me about himself like that, and I didn’t bother to wonder what he didn’t tell me. From a young age, my older brother was a person who never showed his insides to anyone.

“Wash up and go to work. Wash with hot water.”

My older brother nags, saying it’s cold, and then went out of the bathroom. No, but doesn’t that hand need some treatment? He slammed the door so hard that his knuckles were torn and blood was pouring out. I wanted to know if he was hurt.

If he just falls asleep like that, he’ll wake up and think for a long time why his hand is like this, and when he thinks of what happened this morning, I think he will attack me again. In the future, I will try to avoid my brother. Humans are so cruel that my throat throbbed for a brief moment.

There was a small incidened, but now it was time to prepare for work in earnest. As I was washing my body with hot water as my brother said, I woke up 20 minutes earlier than the alarm and realized that I had been bathing in cold water until the alarm went off.

I was drenched in cold water all that time, but I didn’t even know it was cold and I didn’t know the time was passing. It was because the jealousy theory never left my mind.

If not jealousy, what other reason is there?

It was never a question I could answer. However, it is a question that Jeong Yiyeon also will not answer. No, I wouldn’t even ask if he was jealous in the first place.

In the end, I wrap my head around it and think about it over and over again. Even though I constantly remind myself that the conclusion I’m coming to is probably nothing more than my delusion. There was only one answer I could give to a question that could not be answered.

After standing in the hot water for a while and painstakingly breaking the chain of delusions, I got out of the bathroom and headed to my room after a long shower. It was called my room, but it was actually a living room. It was a two-bedroom house, but the small room was too small, so my brother occupied the large room, and I had a bed in the living room, and the living room was used as my own. The small room was a common dressing room.

This small house into which I moved after my parents passed away has been my older brother’s home for a long time. Nevertheless, the reason there was no inconvenience was because it was rare for a busy older brother to come to the house because of work. Even if he did come, he would come in without me realizing he had come in like this time and would only sleep and leave, so it was not much different from living alone.

He put a choke hold on the younger brother he hadn’t seen in a long time. I looked in the mirror while putting on my shirt and my neck was red. It was pathetic, letting out a deep sigh. However, it was not enough to be a reason for an absence.

When I arrived at the office, Jeong Yiyeon was already in the president’s office. I always got to work earlier than that, so I felt like something was wrong even though I arrived earlier than usual. I am such a prepared, loyal slave.

Looking back, I had a feeling that I was a little late for work after I went to Busan. It wasn’t on purpose, it was because I was so engrossed in his jealousy theory that I couldn’t break free from my delusion. I urged myself to come to my senses again.

After tidying up, I went into the president’s office with a cup of coffee as usual. Putting coffee on the desk of the man with his head stuck in the paperwork was the first start of my day.

But today was a little different from usual. Jeong Yiyeon, who had never even looked at me, who usually came in with coffee, was staring at me.

Because the owner of the gaze was Jeong Yiyeon, my heart was burning like a high school girl’s heart on a spring day. I don’t think he’s trying to reprimand me for coming later than the boss.

Then also… jealousy? Are you jealous? So you keep looking at me? Am I crazy??

“Secretary Lee.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t look good..”

Could it be that I failed to manage my facial expressions? For a moment, my heart pounded. Did the corners of my lips go up? Was I unable to hide my inner feelings and even laughed out loud? Most of all, it was natural for the accident to come my way, because it was something that I should not let him know.

However, that was not what Jeong Yiyeon pointed out.

“What’s wrong with your neck?”

“Yes?”

I turned my head and checked myself in the mirror attached to one side of the president’s office. And I was surprised. The red marks on the neck were clearer than before. It was a strange sign for anyone to see.

“Was your partner a sadist last night? Is secretary Lee like that?”

“Absolutely not.”

“You seem to be coming to work later than usual.”

“My brother choked me in the morning, and all that is left is the mark. I got into a fight with my brother in the morning…”

Damn Lee On. He’s like a gorilla who is ignorant of his power! Does it make sense to choke me with your forearm to make a mark like this in a sibling fight like some kind of mixed martial arts? In that short time.

It’s even more absurd that he thought he was a younger brother to others. Suddenly, I deeply mourned the subordinates who worked under my brother. For a very short time. Now, it was urgent to resolve Jeong Yiyeon’s strange misunderstanding.

“And these days, I don’t have enough time to sleep, but at night … I’m not that physically fit.”

“I thought I had given you enough rest.”

3 days after returning from Busan. Of course, there was no sex, but didn’t you constantly work overtime and to say that you gave me a break?

I couldn’t hide his face. Jeongyeon smiled softly. Then he pulled the end of my tie. As I reflexively followed the tie and bowed, Jeong Yiyeon put his finger on my tie knot. And pulled tight.

The expression on my face as I stared blankly at him would have been stupid. The untied tie fell on the desk. His long, graceful fingers unbuttoned the top of my shirt.

“… now?”

“No? It’s been a long time.”

No what… He asks for sex as soon as I go to work. Of course, the morning hours are empty until today’’s lunch outside schedule. Still, while other employees are at work.

Jeong Yiyeon, who had loosened the second button easily, rubbed my collarbone with his finger. What was contained in the finger that wiped the bruise on the neck was an outright temptation. But instead of going over, I grabbed his hand.

“If you were going to give me a break, you should have given me an on-time leave.”

It was nine o’clock in the early morning. It’s a schedule where you can’t help but be tired just by washing and sleeping. I wonder if Lee On was nagging me because I lost weight.

“Is secretary Lee’s house too far away?”

“It takes about an hour.”

It was far. It took about 50 minutes to an hour by public transport. An office worker whose salary is not small, but not too much, does not take a taxi unless the company’s expenses are being taken care of. It wasn’t like I was driving a car.

“You have a spare key for my car.”

I had the keys to his company car, and I also had the keys to his private car. It was because Jeong Yiyeon used to go alone without a driver, so I always drove his car after I became a secretary.

“You can ride it on your way home from work, and when you go to work, you can pick me up and go to work with me.”

Jeong Yiyeon said softly. Using his car for commuting. A word that seems to be caring, but not caring.

An uncontrollable thrill from that single word warmed my heart and filled my heart. It was thrilling.

“Hmph….”

My hand grabbed the back of his head and pulled him towards me. My body moved out of my control, and my lips overlapped his lips.

Jeong Yiyeon’s eyes widened in surprise at my sudden kiss, but I didn’t care, I twisted my head and rubbed my lips more deeply.

I think I could hear him laughing low. Suddenly, a warm palm wrapped around my cheek. Unable to afford a luscious kiss, he shoved his tongue between my lips and skimmed through my even-sweet mouth.

It was ridiculous when he said he wanted to do it by unbuttoning my tie and shirt, but now I’m in big trouble too. I wanted to hug him.

Give me the car key and let’s go to work together. Is this too sweet? It feels like my heart is melting.

As expected, Jeong Yiyeon, you seem to like me. I guess you like me. At first, on the topic of having a relationship without emotions, it seems that his feelings for me are growing like a drizzle and gets his clothes wet. All that is left is a matter of recognizing and acknowledging emotions.

I rubbed my face against the hand that grabbed my cheek. The warmth is so good that all the languid sighs come out. In my mind, I wanted to take it off right away and rub my skin with him.

But on the other hand, the idea that the basics of love are push and pull crosses my mind. I wanted to make him fussy. If I make you crave without being caught, won’t Jeong Yiyeon finally admit his feelings for me?

I want your chest to be pounding like mine. Such a childish but tickling desire warmed my heart.

So when his hand was about to dig into the shirt, I grabbed his hand and pulled it off. With him I also removed my tongue and lips, and set a distance from him.

“Not now.”

My voice was filled with the heat and desire of the kiss, but I muttered bluntly, pretending nothing was wrong. Jeong Yiyeon looked at me blankly, as the face that he had been holding in his hand face was taken away, and his expression wrinkled. I struggled to swallow the smirk that came out of me, reaching out and gently rubbing his wrinkled forehead.

“We’ll have sex after work.”

His face is so cute that I want to bite it.

“So, how about leaving work on time today?”

How can a person be so cute? In the end, I couldn’t hide the leaking smile, so I gently raised his mouth and showed him my smile.

“Ha. Secretary Lee is a really talented secretary.”

I deliberately tilted my head, pretending not to understand. Jeong Yiyeon was grunting, but there was a smile on his lips. A smiling face that seemed to be absurd and joyful, tickled my heart.

“I’m going to raise my boss’s work efficiency to this level.”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter at his face that said he wanted to leave work right away, so I smiled. I always pretended to have a poker face in front of him, but now I can’t keep my expressionless facade. Jeong Y-yeon also looked at me and smiled.

Not dating, just having sex. But now, this tickling was more stimulating and exciting than the first love. Every moment was bad for the heart.

As I calmed down my excitement, I slowly returned to my original expressionless face and adjusted my clothes. I took a step back from Jeong Yiyeon, carefully fastened the buttons and tightened the tie.

“Then I’ll go out.”

I waved goodbye and left his office as if I had no regrets. I felt his gaze on the back of my head until the moment I left the room, but I ignored it.

But sitting in my seat outside the president’s office, I anxiously checked the clock all day. Sadly, every time I looked at the watch, the hands only moved by 5 minutes.