Chapter 109
Director Nam could only swallow nervously. That’s how it appeared. The change of heart from someone who had promised to protect couldn’t possibly seem normal. Moreover, if the prophecy about Eunseong was true, it meant his body was capable of pregnancy.
“How much… how much more must I endure? When we both want this, how much longer must I keep hurting him?”
“…”
“When I told him not to make the boy beg with tears… I… I painfully realized that I loved him.”
“…”
“If I were to take him instead…”
“…CEO.”
“That would be acceptable, wouldn’t it?”
Yoo Siwoon spoke slowly as he picked up meat with his hand and put it in his mouth. His jaw muscles bulged as he chewed the meat vigorously. The herbal smell was growing stronger.
Yoo Siwoon seemed out of his mind. For good reason—when the “great gap” smelled this herb, he would react as if he had swallowed an aphrodisiac, and it affected Yoo Siwoon’s autonomic nervous system as well. It caused his sympathetic nervous system to become excessively activated, putting him in a state of continuous arousal. It was also addictive, clouding judgment with continued exposure.
The reason Yoo Seongil and Yoo Oseon appeared mentally unhinged was largely because they had been taking this herb for a long time, and Yoo Siwoon had been careful to avoid taking red tea for precisely this reason. Yet now he seemed more intoxicated by it than they had been.
“It’s right for me, who loves him, to have him, isn’t it?”
Eunseong was barely twenty years old. Moreover, he knew nothing. Apart from liking Yoo Siwoon, Eunseong had done nothing wrong. If being born that way was considered a sin, if that was original sin, there could be no more unjust statement.
Director Nam wished Yoo Siwoon would come to his senses. He furrowed his brow.
“…And if, if he actually becomes pregnant, what then? What do you plan to do?”
“If it happens, we’ll keep it.”
“What did you say?”
“It’s natural, isn’t it? Having a child with someone you love—it’s not just what I want. Isn’t it what everyone normal wants?”
That was the argument they had been making. Seeing one’s seed through the prophesied being. And if that would be the Asura who would rule this world, it was the belief of the Yongse Pacheon Church—which Yoo Siwoon had so despised—that it must be made to happen no matter what, by any means necessary.
“It might not be a baby… That’s what’s written in the prophecy, isn’t it?”
“That’s just nonsense.”
“You’ve always said the ‘great gap’ was nonsense too.”
“I did. I did say the great gap was nonsense.”
“But it’s not nonsense. Eunseong is real.”
“…”
“You said you confirmed he was real.”
“He is real. Unfortunately… damn it all, he is real.”
Yoo Siwoon’s expression subtly contorted as he acknowledged Eunseong’s reality, as if feeling the impact of this fact anew. The pain of Eunseong being the great gap, and the ecstasy because he was the great gap. These contradictory emotions were occurring simultaneously.
“Eunseong doesn’t know anything—how do you plan to deal with this later?”
“Nothing to deal with will arise.”
“CEO.”
Director Nam, urging Yoo Siwoon to regain his senses, could no longer bear the smell and waved his hand at the air accumulating around them.
“Let me ventilate first.”
Yoo Siwoon immediately stopped Director Nam as he rushed toward the window.
“Leave it.”
Yoo Siwoon’s sharp, glowing eyes made Director Nam pause. It was as eerie as meeting the eyes of a predator hiding in the underbrush.
“…CEO.”
“Hah, strangely, I’m still hungry no matter how much I eat. This feeling of hunger just won’t go away.”
It was because the red tea acted like marijuana.
As if disgusted by his hunger, Yoo Siwoon shook his head and put the last piece of meat in his mouth. Disheveled hair, an unkempt atmosphere. The tattoo he had deliberately etched on his body to disguise himself as a low-class street thug to hide his true intentions now seemed like Yoo Siwoon himself. He was like a beast.
Intoxicated by the smell, he tilted his head languidly.
“So you’ve decided to go that route? You’ve… chosen the path to become the successor quickly?”
“I told you I’m not using Eunseong, but you don’t seem to understand. It’s not like that. I’ve lost interest in the Seongha Group now. Let that cult flourish or perish, I say let them handle it themselves.”
When he spoke like that, he seemed sane again. He appeared mad one moment, then normal the next. His speech was too coherent and clear to call him insane, and his gaze fixed on Director Nam was unwavering.
“I called you here today for that reason. I need to leave this place.”
“…”
“To a place where no one will care what I do with him. Where no one will look for him, where no one knows his identity. Where no one will bother us.”
Yoo Siwoon pushed a small envelope that he had placed somewhere on the counter toward Director Nam. The envelope was stained with what looked like blood or meat juices. Director Nam looked at Yoo Siwoon questioningly.
“Please transfer all my stocks, bonds, and cash into a Swiss numbered account. That’s Eunseong’s passport—no, Shin Wooyoung’s passport. Please prepare everything so we can leave as soon as everything is settled.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Am I speaking unclearly?”
“You’re only speaking nonsense.”
“…”
Director Nam stared directly at the disheveled man who had lost his reason.
This couldn’t be resolved this way, and it wasn’t something they could escape from. They had to think about the people who had lost their lives at the hands of the cult followers. Among them were Eunseong’s biological parents. Yoo Siwoon was essentially saying he would become a traitor and betray everyone.
If he disappeared like that, everyone left behind, including Director Nam, would be in danger. Especially if Seongha family and Yoo Seongil discovered that Yoo Siwoon had disappeared with the “great gap”—it was clear as day they wouldn’t leave them alone.
“What did I say that was difficult to understand? I just want to live happily with my wife. Is such a modest wish nonsensical?”
Yoo Siwoon tilted his head toward Director Nam with a face that showed complete incomprehension. It felt so sincere that it gave Director Nam chills.
“And what about us? What about those of us left behind? Team Leader Lee Joon-seung asked what happened to Executive Director Kwon Junho, and I told him not to look for him. How long do you think I can keep this hidden? The people who participated in this because they believed in you… their lives are at stake.”
“…”
“I understand your feelings for Eunseong, your affection for him… your anxiety and unease. It must be even more so since you’ve seen evidence of the prophecy firsthand. Both you and I have always kept in mind the possibility that Eunseong might not be the ‘great gap.'”
“…”
“Your father wouldn’t have wanted this when he entrusted Eunseong to you. Are you planning to forsake even your father’s last wishes?”
Director Nam was deliberately targeting his vulnerable spots. Like someone actually being hit, Yoo Siwoon flinched at every word.
“…Then what should I do? Should I blow everything open and fight a battle I can’t win? When we don’t know when it will end, how it will end, or who will win?”
“That’s exactly what you should do. You need to set things right somehow.”
“Hah…”
Yoo Siwoon exhaled a deep sigh and harshly ran his hand through his ash-colored hair. It was visible how much he was pulling at his scalp.
“Why must I risk everything?”
He spoke painfully. Making this decision and turning his back on everything couldn’t have been easy for Yoo Siwoon either.
“I finally have one thing I want in life… why must I…”
“…Because that’s the kind of person you are, CEO.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you.”
“Don’t worry about my disappointment. I’m worried about the disappointment you’ll feel toward yourself.”
“…”
“I still have company matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave now.”
As Director Nam turned to leave, Yoo Siwoon’s voice stopped him. He pointed to the envelope that Director Nam hadn’t touched.
“Take it.”
“…”
“Don’t lose it.”
Director Nam reached out and grasped the envelope.
∞ ∞ ∞
The herbal smell had also permeated Eunseong’s room. The scent wrapped around Eunseong’s body like the trunk of a large, winding snake forming a band. Eunseong’s room was contaminated with a lascivious, opaque air.
His naked body twisted intermittently on the bedding. The mark on his neck, his body responding to the red tea, his existence trembling in his lower abdomen, unable to control himself as he craved a man—it all embodied everything described in the prophecy. It was the miracle the non-believers had so desperately wanted.
Entering the room, Yoo Siwoon stared at Eunseong lying on the bed for a long time. It wasn’t just the realization of the prophecy. The great gap possessed a beauty that was difficult to compare to anything.
His ivory skin, damp with sweat, rubbed his legs against the bedding in helpless desire. Eunseong’s appearance swept away all the thoughts in Yoo Siwoon’s mind that had been dejectedly sinking due to Director Nam’s admonition, creating only one blind obsession.
This was the only thing he wanted. He didn’t want or desire anything else. Yoo Siwoon was someone who had rarely indulged in any desires throughout his life.
Taking off his robe, he climbed on top of Eunseong. Just as the banded scent covered Eunseong, his limbs entwined around Eunseong like a snake.
He buried Eunseong’s back against his chest and held him tightly. Yoo Siwoon’s large hand caressed Eunseong’s lower abdomen. Eunseong’s lips and eyelids trembled like the transparent wings of a dragonfly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
