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Somehow it seemed Nam Seon-ho always ended up speaking to Yi Seung-gye in the evening.
Another man would have been offended that his master never found time to speak to him during the day, or might have felt uneasy at the reminder that the sort of work he did for Yi Seung-gye was often unsuitable for open discussion in front of others, unfit to be seen in daylight. Seon-ho could see an advantage in meeting Seung-gye in the evening, though. At this hour, the king was tired enough from the day that his inhibitions, the restraint that would keep him from agreeing to some of Seon-ho’s bolder ideas, were partly lifted. At this hour, Seon-ho would be the last person the king met with before retiring for the day—his words would linger in the king’s mind with no one to contradict them or distract from them for the whole night. So when Seon-ho had a more dubious plan to present, he always figured that speaking to Seung-gye in the evening, as late as possible, would be ideal.
Tonight he was proposing the elimination of a certain noble named Kang Dae-hyun.
He had some good arguments prepared in his favor:
Kang Dae-hyun was vocally supportive of Yi Bang-won and dismissive of the actual crown prince’s legitimate claim to the throne. He’d never actually dared to say such things in front of Seung-gye at court, but it was well known the way he talked in private. He made his allegiance no secret.
He had recently hired some of the local toughs to work as servants at his manor, and they had been seen carrying weapons. While he did not have enough of them to count as an army, he was approaching at least a number to intimidate some of the other nobles.
Seon-ho had, after doing some basic investigation, discovered he was bribing a couple officials in the ministries of taxation and works.
These were not the acts of a loyal noble.
Yi Seung-gye heard him out patiently. Truth be told, there was nothing that dangerous about Kang Dae-hyun. Many nobles acted similarly. Quite a few nobles preferred Yi Bang-won to the crown prince—it was essentially a whole separate faction—and it was not uncommon to keep a few guards against regulations or to commit some quiet bribery. Of course, that didn’t mean Seung-gye liked any of it. The question was, “What do you want to do about him, then?”
“With your majesty’s approval, I can get rid of this threat,” Seon-ho said. “It would set a good example for others who try to get away with similar crimes, and prevent him from causing any further trouble.”
As if he’d managed to cause much trouble already.
Seung-gye considered the proposal. He didn’t care much about Kang Dae-hyun either way, and until today he wouldn’t have thought Seon-ho did either. Something had to have happened that Seon-ho didn’t want to bring up, or Seon-ho was getting restless and just wanted an excuse to kill someone. On the other hand, Seon-ho wasn’t wrong that taking down one or two nobles who committed quietly treasonous acts was a good deterrent against others. And letting a restless Seon-ho blow off steam wouldn’t be a bad thing either.
He sighed. “This wouldn’t be a quick case to handle in court.”
“No. Kang Dae-hyun has too many connections. If no one else, Prince Jeongan might step in on his behalf.”
Bang-won… it occurred to Seung-gye, faintly, that he’d heard that Seon-ho and Bang-won had been on friendlier terms lately too.
But that was ridiculous. The two were known enemies, and here Seon-ho was wanting to kill yet another of his supporters. Seung-gye brushed the thought aside. “Exactly. So I’d trust you to handle this with discretion. But do as you think is right.”
Seon-ho bowed. “Yes, your majesty. I’ll take care of the matter tonight.”
As he left the hall, Seung-gye shook his head and wondered just what Kang Dae-hyun had done to bring himself to Nam Seon-ho’s attention.
What had Kang Dae-hyun done?
To put it briefly, he had voiced some poorly thought-out opinions at the wrong time.
Nam Seon-ho had a secret. Well, it was beginning to be more of an open secret at this point, but as no one knew the details with any certainty, it still qualified as one. The secret was, as he might have put it to someone he trusted, as he had in fact put it to Hwang Sung-rok at one point, that he and Yi Bang-won had established something of an alliance in the last few months. This description did not cover all points, but it was not exactly incorrect either.
Had one asked Bang-won, he would have put it more delicately and ambiguously and said they had established “an arrangement”. And had one asked someone cruder—or perhaps someone more optimistic, or sentimental—they might have said Bang-won and Seon-ho were having an affair. But neither Bang-won nor Seon-ho liked such terms. What they were doing was mostly meeting in private and exchanging information and advice; that they ended up fucking nearly every time they met was their own business and anyways beside the point. To call it an affair would have to them seemed ridiculous.
Seon-ho and Bang-won sometimes met up at Bang-won’s manor, especially when Seon-ho had something urgent to discuss and needed to find Bang-won quickly. They also, however, sometimes met in a private room at Ihwaru. After all, it was too suspicious for Seon-ho to be going over to Bang-won’s manor too often. And there were also some things Seon-ho was unwilling to do if they weren’t on neutral ground.
Two nights before Seon-ho’s meeting with Yi Seung-gye, he was at Ihwaru with Bang-won for exactly this purpose.
They’d already discussed all they had to discuss, and fallen into their usual pattern of insults and insinuations, drinking and exchanging rough kisses. Then, while Seon-ho was distractedly kissing Bang-won’s neck, Bang-won had brought out a rope from under the table and looped it around Seon-ho’s wrists.
Seon-ho stiffened for a moment, looking down at the rope. (Had Bang-won really been hiding it under the table for their whole conversation? Schemer.) Then he gave Bang-won’s neck a slightly nastier bite. “Prince Jeongan, what do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m tying you up,” Bang-won said calmly. (But there was a dark heat in his eyes that Seon-ho had become familiar with.) “After what you did last time, don’t you deserve to be punished?”
“So you’re going to punish me? You think yourself capable?”
“Do you think yourself capable of defying me?” Bang-won retorted. He pulled on the rope, tightening the loops around Seon-ho’s wrists.
Seon-ho grabbed the rope and tugged it away enough to loosen it so he could slip free. Pulling Bang-won away from the table, he shoved him to the ground and began to push his robes down over his shoulders, pull them open. Bang-won allowed it and even slipped his arms free of his clothes before hooking his legs around Seon-ho’s and flipping their positions.
Seon-ho growled and pushed up; Bang-won shoved him back down. “No. You’re not in charge today, Inspector Nam. Lie back.”
“Get off me.”
“Lie back,” Bang-won said.
“Get off.”
“Is it really that important to you to win right now? Don’t you want me to take care of you?”
Seon-ho glared. Bang-won’s voice had softened, and he was leaning closer. He had Seon-ho pinned by the hips and had a hand clamped down on Seon-ho’s shoulder. Moreover, he had brought a rope with him and wanted to tie Seon-ho up. What business had he to talk about “taking care” of him? He clearly just wanted to go on a power trip.
He was meeting Seon-ho’s glare steadily, though, and there was something about his gaze, and the firmness of his hand on Seon-ho’s shoulder, that made Seon-ho relent. As soon as he relaxed and let his head drop back on the floor, Bang-won did get off, but only to fetch the rope again. He brought it over, sat down next to Seon-ho, and said, “Take your clothes off. It’ll be a hassle to manage once you’re tied up.”
“You expect me to make this easier for you?”
“Make it easier for yourself.”
Seon-ho was already undressing, but he rolled his eyes.
He had barely gotten naked when Bang-won was tackling him back onto the ground again. (Bang-won, who was still wearing his pants, which didn’t really seem fair.) This time Seon-ho landed on his side, and Bang-won shoved him onto his stomach. The wooden floorboards were colder and harder against bare skin, but Bang-won didn’t seem to feel any qualms about this. He twisted Seon-ho’s arms behind his back and looped the rope around his wrists a couple times, cinching it almost too tight for comfort but not quite. Seon-ho tugged a little. He could move his wrists against each other but probably wouldn’t be able to get free if he wanted to.
He felt a brief flare of panic at this thought as Bang-won pulled him up into a kneeling position and ran the rope over his chest, pulling his arms tight against his back. Bang-won really could do anything to him like this. He struggled briefly, but Bang-won only pulled the ropes tighter and clicked his tongue.
It would be fine, of course. Seon-ho had allowed this—he could have left, and he could have fought Bang-won off earlier. Easily. Bang-won would have let him, then, though he probably wouldn’t tolerate much at this point. But Seon-ho had allowed this because he wanted it, he told himself. And they were at Ihwaru. Bang-won wouldn’t do anything that bad to him at Ihwaru—certainly couldn’t kill him—because (with a couple notable exceptions) he honored Ihwaru’s neutrality. If he killed Seung-gye’s favorite inspector on Ihwaru grounds he would both get himself into deep trouble with Seung-gye and lose his friendship with Ihwaru. He wouldn’t want to do that. So for Seon-ho to allow Bang-won this much power at Ihwaru… it was fine.
He steadied his breathing. Bang-won would take the struggling as a show of defiance, not as fear. That was fine too, then. He glanced back at Bang-won, who was looking down at his legs. “Are you done yet?” he asked irritably.
Bang-won hummed. Abruptly he pushed Seon-ho back down, so quick Seon-ho almost landed on his face (but Bang-won had pushed him by the neck, and didn’t let him hit his head). As Seon-ho grunted in protest, he grabbed one of Seon-ho’s ankles and pulled it up to meet his wrists. The rope looped around. Seon-ho kicked at him with the other foot—it was caught and similarly restrained. A couple more loops, a final knot. Bang-won sat back. “I’m done now.”
Seon-ho would have loved to sit back so casually, but with neither arms nor legs available, the most he could do was arch his back and crane his neck to glare at Bang-won and see that he was looking horribly satisfied with both himself and Seon-ho’s awkward position. “Crazy bastard,” Seon-ho muttered.
“Do you like the rope?” Bang-won asked conversationally. “I was going to just use what I had around, but Madam Seo offered me some that the gisaengs use here. It’s supposed to be more comfortable.”
It was indeed smoother and nicer than Seon-ho would have expected, but “comfortable” would have been going too far in his opinion. “Let me up,” he said.
Bang-won actually did so, maneuvering Seon-ho into a kneeling position. He was still smirking. “You look good.”
Seon-ho smiled back. “Do I look like I’m thinking of killing you?”
“A little, but that’s all right. Very pretty.”
He kissed Seon-ho on the lips, hard and deep. There was hunger behind all that smugness. Want. That was the meaning behind it all. He wanted Seon-ho so much that he wanted to tie him up, that he would come to Ihwaru time and time again and keep on playing these games over and over again. And that was why Seon-ho put up with it. It was nice to be wanted.
He wouldn’t have said as much to Bang-won, but Bang-won already knew it, which was both embarrassing and reassuring. Embarrassing at the moment, as Bang-won pulled out of the kiss and glanced down and said, “Ah, Inspector Nam’s enjoying himself after all.”
He ran his hands slowly down Seon-ho’s thighs and stopped just short of his erect cock. Seon-ho growled and shifted forward, bucking his hips towards that hand, but Bang-won’s hands glided around and squeezed the side of his hips instead. “I shouldn’t be so nice to you. Didn’t I say I would punish you?”
“Fucker.”
“If nothing else, you should be taught better manners.” Bang-won pinched one of Seon-ho’s nipples and tugged at it meanly. “Don’t you think?”
Seon-ho lunged forward, but Bang-won grabbed him by the shoulders and braced him back. They met in another kiss, this one angrier and more biting.
And at this moment—the worst possible moment—an idiot named Kang Dae-hyun made his entrance.
Seon-ho and Bang-won had been so caught up in each other that they hadn’t noticed the sound of footsteps approaching the room. Had they heard, they would have assumed it was a gisaeng passing in the hallway. Bang-won paid good money for privacy, and there was no reason to think they would be disturbed. In fact, they might not even have noticed the quiet slide of the door opening if it hadn’t been accompanied by a voice saying, “Prince Jeongan.”
The kiss broke as they both looked towards the doorway.
Kang Dae-hyun was a noble closer to Nam Jeon’s age than to Bang-won’s, though in between the two. In court he rarely voiced a strong opinion, and always knew the proper thing to say. In private he supported Bang-won, but had never fully committed as some had. This evening he was a little disheveled and perhaps a little tipsy, as one might expect of a man visiting a gisaeng house. He had spoken Bang-won’s name but his eyes were on Seon-ho.
“Lord Kang,” Bang-won said. He’d been faux-authoritative with Seon-ho earlier, but his voice was fully authoritative now, almost bellowing. “What brings you here?”
Kang Dae-hyun looked at Bang-won at last. “I’d heard about this.”
“About what?”
“Your highness, I had heard you were here tonight with this man. I thought it couldn’t be true.” His eyes stole back to Seon-ho. (Oh yes, thought it couldn’t possibly true, Seon-ho thought viciously. You didn’t come here hoping to peep at all.) “Have you really taken up with this bastard son of a slave?”
“It’s kind of Lord Kang to worry over who I sleep with,” Bang-won said. He still had a hand on Seon-ho’s shoulder, and it clamped down like iron as Seon-ho shifted to face Kang Dae-hyun head-on. “But I believe that’s my concern.”
“Nam Seon-ho works against you at court constantly. He’s killed or ruined many of our fellows, too. I think I should warn you, your highness, against leaving yourself open to betrayal. Not that I don’t think you can handle it,” he added, before Bang-won could respond, “but even so… if you consort with filth, you’ll end up dirty. Nam Seon-ho is a dog and his mother was a bitch. I can’t imagine…”
He didn’t finish his sentence. Seon-ho had shaken off Bang-won’s hand and straightened his back, and now he said, “If you keep talking, I will see your guts spilled on the floor. I will slice you open from your neck to your balls. Is that what you’re looking for here?”
Bang-won pulled him back again. “Lord Kang, I think you should leave now. If you want to advise me, we can surely find a better time and place to talk.”
Kang Dae-hyun’s eyes traveled over Seon-ho’s body, and Seon-ho’s face heated. The contempt in Kang Dae-hyun’s expression made it clear what he saw here: Seon-ho, the bastard son of a slave, tied hand and foot and easily controlled by a princely master. His eyes lingered on Seon-ho’s cock for a moment. Seon-ho was still hard—anger hadn’t killed his arousal, though shame was beginning to.
He opened his mouth to speak, and Bang-won squeezed the back of his neck. He muttered in Seon-ho’s ear, “If you keep threatening him, you’ll weaken my position.”
Seon-ho was in too high of a rage to fully process what he heard. But he understood the word “weak.”
“Later, then,” Kang Dae-hyun said. Amiably, he added, “perhaps I’ve said too much. I see you have him in hand. But one can never be too careful.”
He left, closing the door behind him.
Bang-won let go of Seon-ho and Seon-ho whirled around and head butted him. He had the advantage of surprise and smashed their foreheads together quite hard. It hurt him as much as it probably hurt Bang-won, leaving his ears ringing, but the pain could hardly compare to the anger racing in his blood. The humiliation.
Bang-won, clutching his head, stood and backed away. “Calm down.”
“Untie me.”
“Control yourself.”
“Why would I need to control myself when you so clearly have me ‘in hand’ already? Untie me.”
“I suspect, if I come any closer, you’re going to bite me.”
“Why, because I’m some kind of rabid dog?”
“At the moment, you seem something like it.”
“I’ll murder you,” Seon-ho promised. “Untie me.”
Bang-won didn’t come any nearer. “I’ll untie you when you calm down. You can’t react this wildly.”
“You weren’t the one he was insulting.”
“He insulted my judgment. But I don’t go crazy over a man like Lord Kang.”
“I suppose it means nothing to you. Nobles mean nothing to you when you’re a prince; it’s all petty gossip.”
“On the contrary,” Bang-won said. “I deal with nobles carefully. I don’t lash out like you do.”
“If you don’t untie me right now, you’ll see how I can lash out.”
Bang-won stood back for another long moment while Seon-ho glowered at him. Finally he must have judged that Seon-ho was as calm as he was going to get for the time being, for he crouched down next to Seon-ho and reached for the knots at his wrists.
Seon-ho wanted to head-butt him again, but his forehead still ached. He couldn’t bear to sit still, though, and after a moment of Bang-won fiddling with knots, he smashed their lips together into a clumsy kiss. Bang-won grabbed his cheek to align the kiss more properly, but Seon-ho slid away to suck at his neck, biting the same places he had already bruised earlier. They were pressed chest to chest.
“Do you want me to untie you or not?” Bang-won asked.
Seon-ho shifted his hips against Bang-won’s, dragging his cock against the front of Bang-won’s pants where he was also clearly hard. “It’s not about what I want anyways, is it, your highness? You said yourself I’m not in charge.”
He’d said he’d take care of Seon-ho. Of course, he was a fucking liar, but Seon-ho would still at least partly hold him to it.
Bang-won let out a sigh that was half a moan. “You’re impossible.”
He pulled out his own cock and took his and Seon-ho’s cock both in his hands, and began to rub and pull. The friction chafed, but Seon-ho didn’t mind. He came quickly, and Bang-won soon afterward.
“Now,” he said, still gasping and trembling just a little, “untie me.”
Bang-won did so.
As soon as he was free, Seon-ho dressed himself. Pants, inner robe, outer robe, belt—all were thrown on hastily. Then, feeling the need to look a little more put together, he carefully smoothed his outer robe down and made sure his belt was straight. Fixed his hair as much as he was able without taking it down and putting it up again, or using a mirror. Pulled his collar up over as many hickeys as possible, and his sleeves down over the light chafe marks on his wrists.
He gave Bang-won, who was still sitting lazily on the floor, half-naked and ogling Seon-ho, a final glare.
Bang-won said, “You still want to murder me?”
“I will someday,” Seon-ho said flatly. Then he stormed out.
He couldn’t actually kill Bang-won. For a variety of reasons.
Killing Kang Dae-hyun, on the other hand, was a more achievable goal.
And so he considered—and investigated, though not that deeply, being in a rush and knowing the basics about most local nobles already—reasons he could propose murdering Kang Dae-hyun to Yi Seung-gye.
And so, a few hours after meeting with Seung-gye and getting his approval, Seon-ho was lurking outside the Kang manor. It wasn’t all that well guarded. This, Seon-ho thought, was all of his efforts to eliminate private armies finally bearing fruit in a way that benefited Seon-ho personally. Some nobles still had an outrageous number of “servants who just happened to have swords” (especially Bang-won), but mostly, less powerful nobles like Kang Dae-hyun only had a couple. Despite what Seon-ho had said to Seung-gye, he really wasn’t much of a threat.
Wasn’t very useful to Bang-won either, Seon-ho thought bitterly. Bang-won could have afforded to argue with him at Ihwaru. That talk about Seon-ho’s aggression “weakening his position” was ridiculous. Why did he need Kang Dae-hyun to like him and support him? If anything, Seon-ho’s support was far more important. He at least gave helpful information from time to time, and if he opposed Bang-won in court on a number of matters and still hadn’t committed to helping Bang-won become crown prince, well, he was a Nam and he was Seung-gye’s man first. What did Bang-won expect?
Nothing. He didn’t expect anything. He saw Seon-ho as an easy fuck and a fit, pretty body. Beyond that, he probably agreed with Kang Dae-hyun that Seon-ho was filthy and dangerous. That was why he’d held Seon-ho back.
Well, Seon-ho could be dangerous. Kang Dae-hyun had known; in the afterlife, Seon-ho hoped he wouldn’t complain.
Stealthily, he climbed up the manor wall and hopped down to the ground. He didn’t see anyone patrolling. Good. Now to find the man of the hour. Probably he would be in bed by now, but Seon-ho didn’t know where his bedroom was. He’d have to look around.
It was at least easy to find the main house rather than the servants’ quarters, though Seon-ho almost ran into a wandering maid. (He dodged into the shadows. Servants were easy to silence when they weren’t the type to run around with swords, but he only wanted to kill one man tonight.) In the house, he crept down the hallway. It was quiet. Very quiet, and dark.
In the dark, he stumbled over something. When he crouched down to see what, it was the body of a guard, sword still clenched in a dead fist, blood still warm and wet on an unmoving chest.
Someone, another assassin, was here. Unless Kang Dae-hyun had thrown a temper tantrum and killed his own employee, and he had never seemed like the type.
Silently, more cautiously than ever, Seon-ho crept down the hall. He heard noises coming from a room that was just barely lit—perhaps a single candle—and peered inside.
A tall man, roughly dressed, stood over a corpse, back to Seon-ho. Seon-ho still recognized the assassin’s back before the corpse. He stepped inside and hissed, “Cheon-ga, what are you doing here?”
Cheon-ga turned around, scythe flashing. He lowered his weapon when he saw it was Seon-ho, but did not relax. “I could say the same to you, Inspector Nam.”
Seon-ho looked down at the corpse, and saw it was Kang Dae-hyun. His chest and stomach had been sliced open, and Seon-ho wondered if it was a coincidence that Cheon-ga had killed the same way Seon-ho had planned to, the same way he had threatened to at Ihwaru.
He took a deep breath, then released it. “Well, you’ve done what I came to do. Let’s say neither of us were ever here.”
“Fine with me,” Cheon-ga said.
He left first, brushing past Seon-ho, leaving Seon-ho standing over the cooling body. But not for long. There was no more vengeance to take here, and Seon-ho had no intention of getting caught. He slipped out the same way he had come in, fortunately not running into anyone. In fact, he ended the night with a body count of zero, far from his expectations.
Bang-won and Seon-ho made a point of not meeting too often. Meeting too often, they would have told anyone who asked them—and Seon-ho had in fact told Sung-rok at one point—would draw suspicion, and the rumors of their “alliance” or “arrangement” might gain more credence. Nam Jeon might even start taking them seriously, in the worst case scenario, or Yi Seung-gye.
What Seon-ho might have told someone he trusted, if he trusted anyone in the world enough, was that when he saw Bang-won too often, he began to feel more comfortable with him. Friendly, affectionate. These were feelings that accompanied physical intimacy or even too much physical proximity. They were feelings he really could not afford to have for Bang-won. For this reason, he tried to see Bang-won in private maybe once every couple weeks at a maximum, and when possible he tried to meet him on neutral ground, so he wouldn’t get too at home at Bang-won’s manor or in Bang-won’s space, so he wouldn’t start feeling too welcome or safe there. Hence Ihwaru.
However, there were exceptions. When, for example, Seon-ho had something particularly urgent to say to Bang-won, he could hardly wait for a meeting to be properly arranged at Ihwaru. And so on such occasions he would go straight to Bang-won’s manor and demand a meeting.
This was what he did the night after his technically failed attempt to murder Kang Dae-hyun.
They met in Bang-won’s study, a place appropriate for a meeting between an inspector and a prince, nowhere scandalous. But the door was closed and the servants and guards had all been firmly ordered away, except for one guard who stood around the corner to keep away any possible intruders. It was private enough for any kind of conversation one might like.
Bang-won leaned back in his usual chair. “What did Inspector Nam want to talk about?”
“You know what I want to talk about.”
Bang-won took out his fan and opened it. Eyes fastened on the designs painted on it, he said, “Cheon-ga reported to me that you broke into Kang Manor last night. The word going around is that Kang Dae-hyun was killed by an agent of the king, for treasonous activity.”
“People say that about a lot of deaths lately, even ones that seem natural.”
“People are often right.”
Seon-ho crossed his arms. “Why did you kill Kang Dae-hyun? I thought you said that me even threatening him would weaken your position at court.”
“When did I… Oh. Right.” Bang-won waved his fan dismissively. “No, what I meant was that when you threaten someone before you kill them, they’re more likely to guard against you. Killing them becomes much harder that way. It’s better to just kill without warning. And, too, when you threaten to kill someone, it becomes too obvious afterwards who committed the crime.”
“I wouldn’t expect that kind of advice from you.”
“Wouldn’t you? I’m a shameless murderer.”
“They say you warned Poeun, and everyone knew you did it afterward.”
Bang-won closed his eyes. “I never wanted to kill Poeun. I wanted him to back down. I tried to reason with him.”
A moment of silence.
“Anyway,” Bang-won said, “obviously Lord Kang had to go. Anyone who calls himself my supporter but dares to intrude on me in private and offer me such unsolicited, insulting counsel… what else could I do? He was asking for it.” He shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d object.”
“I’m not objecting. You should have told me what you were planning, though.”
“Well,” Bang-won said peaceably. “You know now.”
Seon-ho did know now.
“Was that all you came for?” Bang-won asked. “Was there anything else you had to say?”
“No, nothing else.”
“Are you still angry with me, or am I forgiven?”
Seon-ho was always angry with Bang-won, but perhaps less so today than usual. He shook his head. “I can forgive everything on one condition.”
“Oh?”
“Tonight, you must allow me to tie you up.”
Bang-won’s fan closed. His expression was just bland enough that Seon-ho could guess he was actually intrigued. Perhaps Seon-ho had taken him by surprise. Or perhaps he’d been thinking about letting Seon-ho tie him up for some time, and was trying not to show it. “Hm. You want to punish me for how things went the other night?”
“I was thinking I could reward you, if your highness will allow me to take care of you this time.”
The fan opened again, hiding Bang-won’s face.
Seon-ho stepped closer. “You’ve been so good for me,” he purred. “Saved me all the trouble of killing that annoying man. I should be good to you, shouldn’t I? Prince Jeongan?” He touched the edge of the fan with one finger and gently pushed it downward. (Bang-won let it be pushed.) “I’ll be very nice this time, I promise. Anyhow,” he added, “we’re in your manor. If I hurt you while you were tied up, your guards would kill me in an instant.”
“I wasn’t worried about that,” Bang-won said, raising his eyebrows.
Oh. Well. “Anyway, I know you want me to. So just let me.”
“Fine,” Bang-won said magnanimously. “I’ll have someone bring us some rope.”
“No need,” Seon-ho said.
“…you can’t possibly have some hidden on you.”
“I don’t have such complicated plans as you. My belt will suffice.”
“Just your belt? Very makeshift.” But Bang-won’s eyes were already fastened on said belt. “I suppose it could work.”
Seon-ho smiled. “Just relax, your highness, and let this filth take charge. I’ll ruin you tonight, and you’ll like it.”
Bang-won leaned back in his seat, fan discarded on the table, and put his hands behind the back of the chair. Seon-ho stepped forward and looped his belt around his wrists. Another game was begun. He wanted Bang-won. He also was in the mood for a power trip. And maybe a small part of him did want to be good to Bang-won, did want to make Bang-won happy. And maybe Bang-won knew that. It was a little embarrassing, but Seon-ho didn’t mind, because Bang-won had killed Kang Dae-hyun for his presumption but also for Seon-ho, and there was a small part of Seon-ho that suspected Bang-won wanted him to be happy too.