ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 26

~ 102-3, Yujin Apartments, Sanggye-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul

After returning home from the fight, Minho had pulled off all the sheets from his bed and tossed them in a bucket. He did the new laundry next, then the old laundry and when he couldn't find more clothes, he just rewashed them all.

He just wanted to put his mind somewhere else. He attacked the tiles next, dousing them in floor cleaner and scrubbing aggressively until they shone reflectively. The mop was soon drawn out from the drying hanger and Minho got down on all fours, wiping the floor until it squeaked.

The walls were dripping with rain water, soaking the patches of black mold growing into the open crevices. Minho brought out the cleaning bleach and poured it down the vertical length of the wall, grabbing a washcloth to rub the fuzzy mold out.

He crouched low at every corner, manically wiping the gunk out as his knuckles nearly peeled from the constant friction. The skin on his hands was also starting to crack but Minho would rather suffer the bleach seeping into his skin than break down from the pain inside his chest.

Break down? he heard Cha's voice in his head. You're already breaking down.

He couldn't get him out of his mind. His tone, his anger, his words... it was terrible to have faced the truth by a voice he found the warmest out of them all. He hadn't even realised up until that point, that he had expected Wookyung to think differently of him.

Regardless of his apprehensions against it, his accusation carried the truth. Even as he pointed it out in his own mind, the fact that he secured a position for adjunct because of the fact that he graduated from the same University was glaringly obvious.

It came as no surprise in his world of unfortunate events that the job he worked for years and put in elbow grease to get from week to week with the lowest pay possible, not to mention the humiliation he faced at the hands of the Dean, was not given to him because of his efforts but because of a co-incidental perk.

It was old news that alumni were given preferences but he felt ashamed for thinking otherwise, that it was more about his work. The world was run on the fuel of things much more effective than hard work, as in the likes of titles, patronage, jobbery, iniquity and unspoken loyalties. He just wasn't being observant.

*

Minho finally bandaged up his raw, cut-up fingers, now stinging from the cleaning products and went on to contact about 15 major University offices to check for vacancies, finding about 1 or 2 positions. Most of the universities were post-saturated and he still felt uncertain about his next plan of action.

He definitely liked to teach. Nothing could ever change that. He liked going to college, researching new themes, studying written works for cues, interacting with his students. He liked talking about writing and helping others with the same. It had sustained for quite long, albeit staggeringly so.

But he wasn't so sure whether he could continue comfortably in lieu of the truth that had come to light. What would happen if he was kicked out as easily as he was hired? Though the Dean never expressed it, he definitely did not like him that much. He would just bring another teacher in and all his work would be passed on.

What could he do that was unique to him? A task that was so specific to his hand that no one could replace him in the world. What could he do to make him absolutely indispensable to people? A love so desirable that he couldn't be abandoned, a writing so notable that it couldn't be ignored.

His talents were of note on their own and didn't need commendation, Minho tried to tell himself. He wasn't some pitiful case that needed special kindness and a carefully carved niche made by someone else, someone more connected than him to occupy. He could very well do it himself as he had in the past.