episode_0575

575

While heading to the cafeteria, Siwoo opens the chat window he was exchanging messages with Cheoljin on his smartphone.

The photo of the ledger’s slave contract that he sent earlier is displayed in the chat window as read.

Cheoljin didn’t react to the text messages, but Siwoo couldn’t forget the surprised expression Cheoljin had when he looked at Siwoo back then.

**

Siwoo arrives at the cafeteria.

Cheoljin was sitting with a group of classmates near the sink, eating.

Cheoljin sees Siwoo and waves his hand as if he’s unusually happy to see him.

Feeling unnecessarily awkward, Siwoo waves back lightly, avoids looking at Cheoljin for a moment, and picks up a tray to get food.

As Cheoljin said, the main dishes today were unusually Tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patties) and Budae-jjigae (Korean army stew).

Siwoo receives rice, side dishes, and soup, and approaches the place where Cheoljin is sitting.

“Why are you so late after going to the bathroom? Did you beat off thinking about your new girlfriend?”

Cheoljin jokingly asks, as if for the surrounding friends to hear…

The eyes of the friends sitting nearby and the girls standing close are focused on them.

“What the hell are you talking about, you crazy bastard! I just had a bad stomach, so it took a while!”

Feeling a bit startled, Siwoo responds by yelling back, as he usually would, relieved by Cheoljin’s unchanged attitude of making jokes.

Siwoo joins his friends and eats with Cheoljin.

Cheoljin didn’t have any particular conversation with Siwoo while eating.

He just stirred his spoon, chatting noisily with other friends about the latest popular OTT programs or community issues, as if he didn’t care.

The friends finished their meals and started leaving one by one.

Siwoo, who started eating late, had naturally not finished his meal yet.

In the deserted school cafeteria, there are now more empty tables visible here and there.

Cheoljin seemed to be adjusting his eating speed on purpose, staying at the table with Siwoo until the end.

As Siwoo was finishing his meal, Cheoljin opened his mouth in a low voice.

“Shall we talk for a bit on the rooftop after eating? I’ll buy you a drink this time.”

Cheoljin conveys the words to Siwoo, focusing his gaze on the tray as if he’s indifferent…

“Huh? Uh… sure?”

Siwoo, who was just sitting there, reacts with a start and answers Cheoljin’s sudden words.

After that, Cheoljin quietly finished his meal, checking his smartphone from time to time, until Siwoo finished eating.

After finishing his meal, Siwoo organizes his tray and heads to the school rooftop with Cheoljin.

“Did you get home okay with Seehee noona (older sister) that time?”

Cheoljin asked Siwoo again, as if speaking normally.

‘That time’ seemed to refer to the night of the meeting (blind date) on Friday when they parted ways.

“Yeah… I got home okay… I was the last one to come out of the police station after everyone left…”

Siwoo answers Cheoljin, recalling what happened at the police station that day.

“Didn’t Sunjoo imo (aunt) say she couldn’t come because she was busy with work? What happened after we left?”

Cheoljin asks, as if curious about who came to pick up Siwoo and Seehee noona at the police station that day.

Cheoljin probably doesn’t know yet that Yoo Yena-sensei (teacher) was the one who came to pick up Siwoo and Seehee noona that day.

Or he’s asking as if he doesn’t know, testing Siwoo…

“Ah~ It was resolved somehow~ My aunt happened to be nearby… She came to pick me up right after you guys all left.”

Siwoo mentions the word aunt as if giving a hint, without directly mentioning Yoo Yena-sensei (teacher).

“Aunt? You had an aunt?”

Cheoljin asks back, his eyes twinkling for a moment.

“Yeah, I do~ Someone like that… I don’t think we’re that close because we don’t interact much… Thanks to her, it was resolved well… Well, anyway, what about you? Did anything happen after you went with Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt) like that?”

Siwoo glosses over the story about Yoo Yena-sensei (teacher) and continues the question, as if turning Cheoljin’s attention away.

“Ah – don’t even mention it… I got scolded by my mom the whole way home… I’m old, but she keeps nagging me so much~ I really thought my ears would get holes drilled through them that day~”

Cheoljin laid out the story as if he was relieving himself, talking about what happened on the way home with Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt), as if he was joking.

Siwoo feels considerable awkwardness at Cheoljin’s words that he was scolded by Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt).

Considering the complete master-servant relationship between Cheoljin and Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt), the words that he was scolded sound quite strange.

Especially when thinking about Gyuri ajumma’s (married woman/aunt)’s bondage play that was done last Wednesday, the situation of Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt) scolding Cheoljin is now impossible to imagine.

“Scolded? Weren’t you and your mom like that…? You even did that kind of thing on Wednesday, right? But you’re getting scolded for fighting and going to the police station?”

Siwoo turns his head and looks at Cheoljin, asking as if he’s puzzled.

“What? What are you talking about? Of course, there are times when parents and children get scolded…”

Cheoljin replies as if he doesn’t understand Siwoo’s words instead.

In an instant, Siwoo’s head and heart seemed to be intricately tangled like a skein of thread.

In the bewilderment as if cognitive dissonance had occurred, Siwoo awkwardly pauses.

“Didn’t you say that you really thought of your mom that way at some point? You said that the play won’t work if you’re not serious?”

Siwoo quickly pulls himself together and asks back, recalling the words Cheoljin had said before.

“That’s only when I’m doing the play, of course! How can I live all day like that with my mom?”

Cheoljin says, looking at Siwoo with an absurd expression, with a mocking sneer.

Siwoo felt a dizziness as if his eyes were going white for a moment, as if he had been hit.

The mothers’ slave contracts…

And their past contained within them.

All of those things were already enough to shake Siwoo’s common sense and concepts.

Each and every sentence and word written in that document broke down all of Siwoo’s known world and values, and placed a question mark on the boundary of a new world.

And furthermore, the perverted master-servant relationship between Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt) and Cheoljin undoubtedly gave Siwoo a lot of inspiration and had a great influence in forming new relationships with his mom and other family members.

Entangled with each other in a way that broke the mold, he made Siwoo deeply explore the boundary of emotions that exist beyond common sense.

Those processes naturally presented Siwoo with a new way of life.

Relationships with his mom and other family members were also newly formed.

Possibilities that were previously unimaginable began to open up.

But now, another word from Cheoljin creates another crack in front of it.

Common sense was just like a line of empty meaning, and the moment that line was crossed, he even felt as if everything contradictory was scattered and collapsed.

“The funny thing is, most of the nagging my mom did was about your face, Siwoo~! She keeps telling me why I was with you and let it get to that point. I got bruised here and there too, you know.”

“At first, she grilled me a lot, asking if I didn’t hit you together with the older guys! It seems like our mom feels like you’re really her lover or husband after doing it once~ Isn’t she really acting like a fool at her age? Hehe!”

Cheoljin once again throws a joke to Siwoo that crosses the line, and uses the sexual relationship between his mom and his friend as a light joke material, as if it were a trivial everyday story.

Siwoo walks along next to Cheoljin, who is excitedly chattering away on his own, unable to think of anything to say.

Could it be that what Cheoljin wants is an aggressive sexual relationship with his mom, like what he had with Gyuri ajumma (married woman/aunt)?

And if that kind of exchange is something that everyone involved in the slave contract has no choice but to accept like fate…

Siwoo listens to Cheoljin’s jokes that cross the line and draws distorted scenes of taboo in his head, as if falling into a delusion.

Suddenly, a welling emotion surges up from deep within his chest and presses down on his Adam’s apple.

Siwoo painfully shakes his head as if shaking off the intensely clinging delusion.

Cheoljin is either pretending not to notice those reactions of Siwoo, or he hasn’t noticed at all, and continues to talk about what happened that day as if he’s rambling, heading to the rooftop.

**

“But you haven’t forgotten that you were going to let me touch Shinbi’s chest that day, right? I’ve been really looking forward to it since then! That’s why I had no choice but to leave Seehee and my partner Semi there as is~”

Opening the steel door and stepping onto the rooftop of the school building, Cheoljin still speaks as if throwing a question like a light joke.

“Will that work? Do you think Shinbi noona (older sister) will let you touch her chest just because I told her to!”

Siwoo responded as if strongly dismissing Cheoljin’s joke, saying he was dumbfounded.