ONE ACT

No one was in the room he was searching.

Gable looked around the empty room for a moment before returning to the hallway. If there was no one on the second floor, then they must be in the room to the left of this one. This was the room of the young man who had accompanied him.

As he approached, he could hear sounds coming from behind the door. It sounded like talking or arguing, but he couldn’t make out the words because of the heavy door separating them. But there was definitely more than one person in that room.

Gable didn’t hesitate to knock on the door. After all, the man Gable was looking for would have sensed his presence the moment he stepped onto the first step of the staircase leading to the second floor.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Gable knocked on the door and spoke briefly, waiting a second or two before turning the handle. Even though there was no response, he didn’t care much. From the start, the person inside was not someone who would respond to such unnecessary questions.

The door opened. Gable took a step inside and then stopped. As he had thought, there were two people in the room. It was indeed with a young man. Up to that point, everything was as he had predicted, but there was one situation he had not anticipated.

“……”

No one spoke. Gable, the man, and the young man all remained silent. The young man didn’t even move. He had his back to Gable, frozen in place.

The timing wasn’t right.

Gable felt a bit sorry for the young man, but not for the man.

The young man had his face buried between the legs of the man sitting on the bed. Judging by the pale hands gripping and pressing down on the young man’s head – Gable knew well how strong and firm those beautiful, smooth hands were – they seemed to be holding the struggling young man down.

The moment he entered, the poor young man seemed to freeze when he sensed Gable’s presence, with the man’s penis still in his mouth.

Gable watched the scene silently. The man sitting across from Gable pressed down on the young man’s head with one hand and spoke.

“Is it urgent?”

“Not really. I’ll wait downstairs. Come down when you’re finished.”

The man waved his hand slightly in acknowledgment. Gable turned away from the man, quietly closed the door, and left. Just like when he went up, he descended the stairs lightly. There was no rush. It was just rumored that the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States would soon be replaced. It would be a while before it was announced, and it wasn’t urgent news right now.

Sitting on a bench in the hallway downstairs, Gable picked up a newspaper from the stack on the table. He opened the paper and clicked his tongue.

The man had already undressed. His usually squinted eyes were more heated than usual. So, it was unlikely that this would end with just a few words. After ejaculating once or twice in the young man’s mouth, he was likely to pin him down and continue. Gable was about to sigh deeply when the landlady walked by, tilting her head and asking if there was anything troubling him.

Gable shook his head.

“No, just thinking I might have to clean up another dead body today.”

“Oh my God. No way. Please don’t do anything that would bring the police here.”

The landlady probably thought he was joking. She laughed and then disappeared into one of the rooms.

But Gable wasn’t entirely joking.

He had faced such situations quite a few times. Before working outside, he had worked with James under Kyle at the T&R headquarters. To be precise, James managed the company on behalf of their lazy boss, while Gable handled matters related to the boss’s personal issues.

The problems Kyle faced couldn’t even be counted on both hands, but the biggest problem he had to deal with came from his own family. Among them, his younger brother was the most significant issue. His biological brother.

That younger brother – the man who was on the second floor – had been a problem even before he reached adulthood.

When he was three or four years old, Kyle once wondered: “I wonder if I named my brother incorrectly. I think it would have been better to name him Damian*.”

(*Damian: Gentle, friendly, restraint/ or in the Bible: The tamer – likes to control things that belong to him.)

Kyle was already an adult at that time and had a considerable age gap with his younger brother. People said that although the boy was a promising child with great potential, his beautiful hair might need to be shaved off to see if there was a Satan demon stuck somewhere in his head.

Strangers took it as a joke, but Gable knew it was the truth. Of course, most people who knew about the younger brother understood what kind of person he was.

Initially, the one who handled most of the messes caused by the younger brother was James. Then, a few years ago, when James had to undergo psychological counseling and sought every possible way to resign due to the enormous workload, Gable took on part of James’ responsibilities. And dealing with Kyle’s younger brother was one of those tasks.

There are things he still remembers very clearly.

He had once had to dispose of a dead body.

Gable quietly carried the body away, never imagining he would have to do something like that in his lifetime. Gable looked at the young man, wondering whether he had been defending himself or overreacting when he caused this mess. The young man just stood there motionless, staring down at the blood on his hands.

At that time, he wasn’t old enough to be considered an adult and was still a young man. He wasn’t even of legal age yet, and Gable thought this probably wasn’t the first or only murder he had committed. Gable asked bluntly. 

“Shocked, aren’t you?”

When he asked, Gable remembered the first time he killed a man.

Of course, he hadn’t killed because he wanted to. When he was young, he had worked for the Department of Defense for a short period and had no choice but to kill someone in self-defense during an encounter. However, the memory of the hot blood rising at that moment was something he would probably never forget until the day he died. Maybe the person would have certainly killed Gable if he hadn’t killed them, and even though the cause of all that trouble was the opponent, he didn’t have to feel guilty or regretful or suffer from a guilty conscience because of it. And that was the first time he killed someone.

Looking at the horrifyingly bloody corpse in front of him, he didn’t think to say anything kind to the young man. But seeing him standing there, staring at his bloodstained hands, Gable spoke up unconsciously. “You’re shocked, aren’t you?” The smell of blood, the feeling of the warm blood that he had only imagined before was now vividly real before his eyes with the motionless corpse. Was he shocked?

But shortly after, Gable received a reply he had vaguely expected.

“Hmm?”

Gable made eye contact with the man looking at him and immediately realized he had asked a pointless question.

“Amazing. Do you have a wet towel? I should have wiped it before the blood dried. Once it dries, it’s hard to clean.”

Gable quietly pointed to a nearby bathroom. Then he continued to clean up the body.

This wasn’t his first time. Gable, James, and the others hadn’t known that he was already quite familiar with killing. His voice carried no guilt. “Tsk, maybe I should wear gloves next time” – He muttered.

Yes. He was that kind of person. A person without the emotions a human should have.

“……..”

These wandering thoughts didn’t stop him from thoroughly reading the evening news in the paper while still deep in thought. Today, the world was a mess.

Gable glanced up at the second floor. There were no more sounds coming from above.

He stood up, went to the kitchen, grabbed a fruit from the basket, and wiped it on his pants. Gable took a bite, eating as he looked out at the small square outside the window, then returned to the hall. On his way back, he received a telegram. Gable slowly made his way to the hall, glancing through it to see if there was anything he could respond to immediately. Then he saw him coming down from the second floor, now sitting on the sofa.

He was flipping through the newspaper on the table, wearing only pants, looking slightly disheveled compared to his usual self, as if proudly showing off what he had just done. The clear bite marks on his arm looked like they had been clenched by someone’s hands.

Gable turned and walked towards the second floor when he saw the man who didn’t even glance at him, just flipping through the newspaper, aware of his presence.

It was time to dispose of the corpse.

In fact, he had come down faster than Gable had expected. Gable thought it would take longer for him to finish, surprisingly. Has he run out of stamina over the years? Or had his sexual tendencies changed?

Previously, he didn’t care if his partner’s body was torn apart or unconscious, he would disregard it and quickly satisfy his desires before nonchalantly leaving.

That’s usually how it went.

A few years ago, shortly after Gable took over handling matters related to him, the man finally reached adulthood, no longer a child and capable of handling his own messes without relying on others. At that time, Gable had to leave Germany for overseas assignments. Their connection ended, but until then, Gable frequently had to clean up the dead bodies left behind by him.

Of course, not all of them were dead bodies.

It was like this. 

When he was rolling around with another woman or man on the bed.

Depending on the situation, but not limited by time or circumstance, it would take hours before he left the bed. After he finished, he would go straight to the bathroom, and Gable would take care of the poor victims while he was showering.

Generally, his main job was to quickly take the unconscious person to the hospital, usually with blood-soaked legs or a face covered in tears, mucus, or other bodily fluids. If the victim was a man, there were situations where they had to go to the hospital due to severe internal injuries or rectal prolapse……

Even Gable had to frown at the sight of the man’s organ when he accidentally saw it a few times. There were even people who blindly wanted to follow him. But when he undressed, they would pale, screaming and crying to go back.

After waking up in the hospital, some of them said they would sue. And almost all of them gave the same reason.

No matter if they said no, cried, begged, or resisted in anger, the man would ignore their pleas and proceed. Blood from their torn bodies would flow down their thighs, soaking the sheets, but he wouldn’t care until he was satisfied. After finishing, he would casually head to the bathroom alone.

Gable knew all this because he was the one who took them to the hospital after they passed out.

Seeing them faint with bloodied bodies, yes. Even if there were no dead bodies but just unconscious people, Gable sometimes felt like fainting too.

Gable sighed and walked up to the second floor. Although he hadn’t seen him in years, it seemed he hadn’t changed.

But the young man he had brought along – who might now be a bloodied corpse on the second floor – was someone Kyle had previously mentioned to Gable.

“Maybe he’ll be with Ilay. He’s a good guy and Jeong Jay’s younger brother. Help him out and take care of him.”

However, before he could help or take care of him, the young man had already died. On the very first day they arrived here.

Maybe he wasn’t actually dead. Gable clicked his tongue. The young man had left a good impression on him, and Gable also had a good feeling about him. After all, where had he gotten caught by that inhuman man? Gable climbed the stairs to the second floor, hoping the island’s medical facilities could handle it and it wouldn’t be serious enough to require going offshore to a major hospital on the mainland. However, after climbing a few steps, he heard a voice behind him.

“Where are you going, Gable?”

Gable turned to the voice calling him. He was still holding the newspaper and spoke in a monotonous tone.

Gable raised an eyebrow.

“Well…… I’m going to clean up.”

When Gable replied that he was going to take care of the body upstairs, he lowered his voice.

“Don’t go.”

Gable stared at the man. He was still flipping through the newspaper, his face expressionless as if nothing had happened.

Gable descended the stairs again and sat across from him.

This situation. It seemed he had made a foolish mistake. Previously, he would have quickly realized this atmosphere.

His mood was very bad. Although he was still flipping through the newspaper indifferently, his voice cold and his hand movements calm, Gable could sense his unusual mood. In this case, if he made even the slightest mistake, he might see a ‘real corpse.’

Gable looked at him with a puzzled expression. He couldn’t understand why his mood had dropped so suddenly.

But thinking back to when he was on the second floor, his mood had been off ever since Gable caught that unexpected scene. Gable still remembered his cold voice when he asked him: “Is it urgent?”

From what Gable could infer, there had probably been an argument with the young man.

But another question arose.

Based on Gable’s understanding of this man, he wasn’t someone who would do that with someone he didn’t like. If he truly disliked someone, that person would likely be a corpse by now. No, for those he didn’t like, there was no humanity in his treatment from the start.

That man……

When he met him at the airport and saw the young man for the first time, although he didn’t show it, Gable had been very surprised when the young man called him by that name. And he responded with a calm face. Until now, at least to Gable, he had never seen anyone call this man by his name other than his family.

Gable had been very curious about how this man had such a friend and even more surprised to know he still kept him as a friend despite being Jeong Jaeui’s younger brother. (Even though he had never heard anything like this from Kyle).

And now. This situation also completely surprised him.

Could it be that because he was Jeong Jaeui’s younger brother, he cared about him like this? Of course not, because this man was not the type to care about anyone for such reasons.

“Gable.”

Suddenly, he spoke, still not taking his eyes off the newspaper. Gable remained silent, waiting for his next words. He glanced at Gable. His eyes were as cold as ice.

“Never enter without my permission when I’m with him.”

“And forget what you saw earlier.”

“……I understand.”

These words also astonished him. Perhaps it was because this man had changed over the years without Gable knowing.

“Alright. What’s the matter? Nothing to discuss?”

“Ah. The boss contacted me. It seems the Arab ambassador to the US will soon be changed. UNHRDO might also receive the news soon.”

“Who?”

“The Hazard lineage probably has the most power, so it could be one of the two princes.”

“Then Musta……”

He was talking while folding the newspaper, but then he suddenly fell silent. Gable tilted his head slightly, waiting for his train of thought to conclude. It seemed to be something related to work.

Gable waited patiently. And the words that followed left him going from one surprise to another shock.

“This matter might require a longer discussion. Let’s continue in your room…… but before that.”

Gable stood up, following the man who had just put down the newspaper and risen from the sofa. He was about to walk away but suddenly stopped, frowning in silence after speaking. Gable raised an eyebrow, pretending to be unaware.

“……The owner of this place asked her to prepare food for him first. Because he said he was very hungry.”

Gable stood in stunned silence at his unexpected words. After a moment of quiet, Gable replied: “I understand.” Then he instructed him to go to his room first while he headed to the kitchen to convey the message to the landlady. He had been here quite a while, and the landlady was quite friendly with Gable. She responded with a radiant smile: “Alright”, and went upstairs.

Gable tilted his head and took a few cans of beer from the refrigerator before returning to his room.

Indeed, he had witnessed all kinds of things in his short life.

*************************

The work that needed to be discussed was quickly finished in less than 5 minutes.

Honestly, there wasn’t anything particularly special. Gable and he talked about various events happening around the world, the plans Kyle had made, and the developments they could foresee.

Discussing work with this man always ended succinctly.

If the matter didn’t require any assessment or decision, he usually just listened and reviewed the information Gable provided. When a decision needed to be made, he didn’t ponder too long but simply checked a few things and made a decision immediately.

In this regard, Kyle and he were alike. At least regarding work matters, Gable had never felt uncomfortable talking to them.

“……That’s all the work to discuss today.”

“Mmmm.”

When Gable finished speaking, he gave a short reply.

Gable sat still for a while, waiting for him to stand up and leave the room since all the work had been discussed. But the man sitting on the long couch, one knee bent on the seat, seemed still lost in his own thoughts. *Tok*, *tok* His fingers tapping on his knee showed no sign of stopping his train of thought.

He had been like that for a while…… Clearly, he was still listening to what Gable had to say. Occasionally, he would ask questions and also answer Gable’s questions. If there was any part that seemed doubtful, he would delve into it and seek more details. So, it wasn’t that he was just nodding along without actually listening.

But clearly, his responses to Gable were very dry. It was like one side of his brain was listening to Gable, while the other was preoccupied with other thoughts.

Gable couldn’t know what he was thinking, but he could somewhat guess the reason for the man’s discomfort.

Gable sat down in front of him, opened a can of beer that he had taken from the kitchen earlier. Then, he drank the beer while flipping through the book he had been reading the night before. He didn’t know what the man was preoccupied with, but if he was worrying about something, it would be better for him to think it over in his own room, wouldn’t it? And Gable didn’t want to talk to someone in such a bad mood.

The man pondered deeply but was not unfocused. He grabbed a can of beer, popped it open, and drank it down like it was water.

“Sultaisra*. He would like it.”

Suddenly, he muttered. Gable glanced up from his book to look at him. The man seemed to be talking to himself and didn’t need a response from Gable. He went back to his book again.

Would he go back to his room after finishing the beer?

But the man didn’t return immediately. He continued drinking more cans of beer in silence. He kept gulping them down one after another like water, so the number of beers Gable brought quickly dwindled to empty cans. Gable had brought four 1000ml cans, and the man had downed the remaining three while Gable had only finished one and was still reading his book.

When he finished the last can and placed the empty one on the table, Gable had just turned to the final page of his book. He looked at the empty can and said, 

“Do you want me to get some more?”

He didn’t respond. Gable took the silence as a yes, so he got up and went to the kitchen. The landlady was washing dishes. She looked happy to see Gable.

“Yuri. Shall we have dinner?” 

“Yeah. Later. Have they eaten?”

“If you mean the others, only Taei has. He just finished dessert and went upstairs. He seemed very tired, even fell asleep while eating. He’s probably asleep by now.”

“Alright. I’ll eat later then. I’ll bring some beers first.”

Instead of saying goodbye, Gable responded with a kiss on the cheek and returned with three or four more cans of beer.

The man was still sitting there, lost in thought, just like when Gable left. But his expression seemed even more troubled than before. Gable sighed deeply and set the beers down in front of him.

“Taeui finished dinner and went to his room. Anna said he’s asleep now.”

“Asleep?”

Suddenly, a deep wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows.

“Asleep? Asleep now?!”

“……Uh, I don’t know. He was nodding off while eating, so he’s probably asleep now.”

Gable spoke calmly, even as the man glared fiercely. However, Gable pretended not to notice and took a sip of his beer.

“He cried so much, so that’s why he fell asleep.”

*Tok, tok* The fingers tapping on his knee seemed to press harder. Even his voice, though gentle, was lower than usual.

Gable raised an eyebrow and silently drank his beer. Crying? He couldn’t understand what the man was saying.

“Let me tell you, he doesn’t actually hate it…… Even if at first, he said it was uncomfortable because he felt tired and demeaned, eventually he would give in and accept it. He said there were times when he felt like he was losing his mind. So, I just did it naturally.” 

Gable pressed his lips together slightly.

Because in order to live……

“So, even if he cries, it’s not really crying. Right?”

“……Mm. I don’t know the context, so……”

Gable really couldn’t understand. Because the things this man was saying were words he never thought he would hear from him. What exactly was he trying to say? If it were someone else, he wouldn’t be confused, but because it was him speaking, Gable found it incomprehensible.

“He actually doesn’t really hate me…… clearly.”

Ilay mumbled to himself. He downed another can of beer like it was water, lost in his own thoughts.

Gable watched him for a moment before slowly asking,

“If he really hates you, is there something that’s bothering you?”

When Gable asked, still not understanding the context, Ilay was silent. Suddenly, his expression turned somewhat strange.

But then he frowned in dissatisfaction, pondered for a moment, and slightly tilted his head.

“No.”

Gable nodded and closed his mouth.

There was no need to say anything further. The conclusion had been reached. After answering like that, Ilay shook his head thoughtfully again. Gable counted the empty beer cans. He wasn’t the type to get drunk on just a few 1000ml cans of beer.

To be honest, Gable had witnessed all the strangest things in his life in just one day.

No, realizing that Ilay was actually drunk, Gable suddenly wondered if he himself was the one dreaming from being so drunk.

Yes, that might even make more sense.

Gable was considering whether to go outside into the garden to breathe in the fresh air when Ilay stood up. It seemed like he was planning to go back to his room.

As the sun set and darkness enveloped the place, the landlady turned on the garden lights. It wasn’t something everyone needed, but it was used to welcome unexpected guests in the middle of the night or anyone who wanted to take a walk in the garden.

Thanks to this, Gable, who was naturally night-blind, could comfortably walk in the garden, even at midnight, without worrying about what was underfoot. Sometimes he would even jump into the pool for a few laps if he felt like it.

But today, he wasn’t in the mood for swimming. So he slowly walked under the fruit trees in the garden and took a deep breath.

Starting tomorrow, he would be busier than he was now. Of course, up until this point, he had faced many difficulties in gathering even the smallest pieces of information. Traveling from one country to another, from India to the Middle East, he had traveled thousands of miles without hesitation to gather even the smallest piece of information. So, finally, he discovered that the person he was looking for was here.

From tomorrow onwards, they would have to make a real effort to find that person.

“You won’t be the one to find Jeong Jaeui, it will be his younger brother.”

Kyle had said. And that was the young man. When Gable asked why, Kyle smirked and said there was no reason. But it had to be that young man. Because he was Jeong Jaeui’s lucky charm.

Gable decided to trust Kyle’s words. From his long experience, he knew that choosing to believe that was the wise thing to do.

While strolling through the garden in the cool night air, he suddenly looked up at the second floor. Earlier, Vivi – a shy black young girl who lived in a small house less than a five-minute walk from there and helped Anna with the housework – had hesitantly asked Gable, looking extremely bashful, who the older brother in the room upstairs was. Vivi was picking fruit in the garden when their eyes met. Gable smiled gently.

Since it was the last room on the second floor, Gable thought of both the man and the young boy who had used that room together and pondered who the last user was. After some thought, Gable mentioned the young boy’s name. Vivi repeated it after him several times with a clumsy pronunciation: “Tay, Tay.”

Gable understood the shyness on Vivi’s face when she remembered the young boy. He seemed to be someone who easily garnered goodwill from those he interacted with. Gable looked up at the second floor from right beside the fence next to the mango tree that Vivi was about to pick from. Indeed, from this position, one could clearly see what was happening inside the last room on the second floor.

Gable casually glanced up at the room and tilted his head. The light was still on. Anna had said that he was fast asleep, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

However, when thinking about it, he quickly tilted his head to the side. In that last room on the second floor, there was a figure faintly visible by the window. He was leaning against the window, quietly looking down at the bed. It was the same man who had been drinking beer like water in Gable’s room earlier.

“……”

Gable rubbed his eyes and looked up again. He was still standing there.

Ilay wasn’t the type of person who wouldn’t notice someone blatantly watching him, no matter how far away that person was. But he didn’t seem to care and just stared down at the bed in silence.

What was so interesting that he had to look at it with such a gentle gaze? Wasn’t it just a young boy sleeping soundly?

Gable leaned against the fence, folded his arms, and prepared to observe slowly. He wanted to know how long the man would continue to do such a perplexing thing.

The man, like Gable, was also standing with his arms crossed. He leaned his head slightly against the window, staring intently at the bed as if his gaze wanted to cling to the person lying there. Then, suddenly, he slightly moved away from the window, his previously emotionless face breaking into a smile as if he had seen something. He extended his arm, seemingly touching the person on the bed, but then immediately leaned back against the window and crossed his arms again.

Gable, confident in his own persistence, felt a bit disheartened by this. The man wasn’t doing anything specific, so there was no reason for him to keep watching. Gable checked his watch. It was late. Time to head back and sleep.

Gable left the fence and looked up at the second floor once more. The man was still there. Motionless. He couldn’t possibly sleep in that room. Gable thought wryly. Because he wasn’t the type to sleep with someone else on the same bed.

Gable sighed, hmm, and rubbed his neck. He looked down at his feet, this time falling into his own thoughts. But those thoughts didn’t last long. Gable shook his head and shrugged.

There are many things in the world that human perception cannot understand, and many things that cannot be understood even on a personal level, even if human perception could grasp them.

Gable watched for a little longer, then finally sighed and decided to stop thinking about things he couldn’t understand.

He walked away slowly, hands clasped behind his back, and immersed himself in thought.

He didn’t understand…… But what did it matter?

He never meddled in other people’s business and didn’t talk much. That was good for him, after all, because perhaps now he wouldn’t have to deal with dead bodies anymore.

FINISHED.