Chapter 193
Yoo Siwoon finished brewing the coffee and took a sip. Director Nam cleared his throat unnecessarily and brewed his capsule coffee. The espresso flowed out with an unusually loud machine noise.
“Eunseong, would you like some coffee? Should I get you a cup?”
“…I don’t like coffee.”
“You seemed to drink it well before. Ah, you only drank coffee made by the CEO, right? CEO, please give him a cup.”
Seeing the awkward and cold atmosphere between them, Director Nam could imagine how they had spent the previous night, and he found it almost suffocating.
Yoo Siwoon, believing that the more he obsessed, the more it troubled Eunseong, was trying to keep his distance, while Eunseong, claiming to find a way to forgive him, was somewhat understanding and accepting of Yoo Siwoon’s situation and true feelings.
Director Nam turned to Yoo Siwoon and encouraged him to give coffee to Eunseong. Yoo Siwoon glanced at Eunseong. Eunseong, who had been crunching on an apple, also looked at him briefly.
“…Would you like some?”
“If you’re offering…”
After awkwardly glancing at each other, Yoo Siwoon took out the prettiest cup and poured coffee into it.
The coffee cup was placed at a distance where Eunseong would have to stretch his arm to reach it. Before Eunseong could get it, Director Nam moved the coffee closer to him. Director Nam frowned oddly as he stood between their awkward behavior.
“Bring the wheelchair.”
“Since you said it wasn’t necessary, I’ll bring it.”
At Yoo Siwoon’s words, Director Nam immediately left the dining room, pulling the wheelchair.
Eunseong drank the coffee Yoo Siwoon had brewed for him. The flavor that seeped into his chest and the aroma of coffee moistening his nasal cavity felt especially rich today.
Eunseong and Yoo Siwoon each retreated to their rooms and thought about each other until late at night.
“…Are you busy this weekend?”
Yoo Siwoon, lost in thought, hesitated at Eunseong’s casual tone. He put down the coffee cup he was bringing to his lips. Without even looking at him, Eunseong continued.
“I asked if you’re busy this weekend.”
“Are you talking to me?”
“Who else is here?”
Eunseong asked as if it were absurd. Director Nam had already left with the wheelchair, and only Eunseong and Yoo Siwoon were around the island table. Not even an ant was present.
“I don’t think I have anything special going on this weekend. Why?”
Yoo Siwoon asked, puzzled. There was no reason for Eunseong to ask him such a question.
Eunseong hated him to death. He resented him to death. If he had nothing going on for the weekend, he might demand that Yoo Siwoon bring his biological parents back to life. He might make an impossible threat, demanding that Yoo Siwoon bring those who couldn’t be revived right before him. He tensed slightly as he waited for Eunseong’s next words.
“I have somewhere to go.”
“You’ll need to go with security until the investigation is wrapped up. I’ll tell Director Nam.”
“Not with Director Nam… I need to go somewhere with you, ahjussi.”
“…With me?”
“Yes.”
“…”
“I have somewhere to go with you, ahjussi. This weekend. So keep your schedule clear.”
“…”
Eunseong got up without waiting for Yoo Siwoon’s answer. He left the dining room, carrying his half-eaten apple in one hand and the coffee cup Yoo Siwoon had given him in the other.
Yoo Siwoon stared blankly at where Eunseong had disappeared, feeling bewildered.
“Why are you in a daze? Where’s Eunseong?”
Director Nam, who had returned after putting away the wheelchair, asked Yoo Siwoon, who was left alone.
“He said he has somewhere to go this weekend, with me.”
“Eunseong did?”
“…”
It was both sudden and incomprehensible, especially since Eunseong had been pushing him away so adamantly. Furrowing his brow, trying to understand the intention behind it, Yoo Siwoon asked skeptically:
“I wonder if he’s planning to push me off a cliff or something.”
“Who are you talking about? Eunseong?”
“He hates me a lot.”
“If he really hated you, he would have left when you told him to move out. There would be no reason for him to stay with someone he can’t stand to see.”
Only then did Yoo Siwoon notice the clue hidden in Director Nam’s words.
“What… have you heard?”
“…”
“What did Eunseong say about me?”
Yoo Siwoon asked seriously.
He felt anxious due to Director Nam’s hesitant response.
“What did he say?”
Though he had vowed not to interfere in their affairs anymore, Director Nam thought it would be fine to share this much for the sake of Yoo Siwoon’s quick recovery. Promising himself that this would be his last intervention, he spoke.
“…He said he would find a way to forgive you, CEO.”
“…”
“He said if there’s a way, he wants to find it.”
“…Did Eunseong really say that?”
“Yes.”
Yoo Siwoon finally understood the reason behind Eunseong’s behavior yesterday and today. He suddenly felt a wave of weakness, as if the tension that had been constricting his entire body was released. He took a sip of coffee with a low sigh.
“He wants to find a way to forgive me…?”
“Yes, he specifically said if there’s a way in this world to forgive you, he wants to forgive you. That’s exactly what he said.”
Director Nam relayed Eunseong’s words without omitting a single detail.
“If he can’t find a way… then, I won’t be forgiven. It doesn’t seem like there is a way.”
“You have many sins, CEO.”
“Yes. I’ve committed… many sins.”
No matter how much he thought about it, there seemed to be no way for Eunseong to forgive him.
He had made a fool of Eunseong by keeping him in the dark. Eunseong’s biological parents had died because of them. Not content with ruining Eunseong’s childhood, his stepfather who had raised him had also died.
He had put Eunseong in danger and provided the pretext for him to be sacrificed to others. Even now, Yoo Siwoon was making sharp cuts to drive away that group, breathlessly.
To Eunseong, Yoo Siwoon’s very existence was a danger, pain, and misfortune.
“Just do as he says. You don’t have a choice anyway, CEO.”
“…”
Director Nam was right. Yoo Siwoon had no choice.
“Even if it’s a department store you hate so much, you have to go.”
Director Nam made a joke, but Yoo Siwoon didn’t laugh. With a face more rigid than ever, he nodded once solemnly, saying he would go even if it were a crowded department store that he truly disliked.
∞ ∞ ∞
The weekend morning Eunseong had mentioned arrived. Though he didn’t know where they were going, Yoo Siwoon woke up early on the weekend morning and waited for Eunseong to wake up while drinking coffee. The coffee aroma that filled the house woke Eunseong as well.
Eunseong, who came out in his pajamas, saw Yoo Siwoon waiting and sat down in the chair without a word.
His posture seemed to demand coffee, so Yoo Siwoon brought him the brewed coffee.
“Can you drive, ahjussi?”
If he did it slowly and carefully, it was possible. Yoo Siwoon nodded, indicating he could, and asked:
“Is it somewhere we need to drive to?”
“Probably.”
Another cold silence fell.
Eunseong handed something to Yoo Siwoon, who wasn’t asking about the destination. He immediately recognized that it wasn’t the type of phone Eunseong used.
“…”
Eunseong turned on the screen and opened the text message app. He showed him a message sent by Lee Joon-seung.
It was CCTV footage. Eunseong stared at the profile of Yoo Siwoon as he focused on the phone screen.
His rigid eyes stared intently at the image of Seo Jeong-gi disappearing into a building and, shortly after, himself in a black coat, vanishing as if following him.
It was undeniably Yoo Siwoon, even from behind. His downcast eyes remained fixed on the screen without flinching.
“It’s here.”
“…”
“You didn’t hold a funeral, did you?”
Yoo Siwoon couldn’t raise his head even after the CCTV footage ended. The screen that eventually turned black reflected Yoo Siwoon’s frozen face.
“Is Dad… here? Or did you move him somewhere else?”
“…”
“Please tell me honestly, tell me the truth.”
Eunseong wanted to show him Seo Jeong-gi’s body in the body bag on the morgue table but refrained. He waited for him to speak honestly. He hoped that he would no longer hide the truth and that there would be no more lies in front of him.
Yoo Siwoon’s hopes, which had been somewhat raised by the news that Eunseong was looking for a way to forgive him, came crashing down. He stiffly raised his head.
“I had him cremated and placed him elsewhere.”
“Where?”
“There’s a separate place where the family keeps their remains.”
Though he had thoroughly deceived Eunseong about Seo Jeong-gi all this time, he could no longer hide or lie. Eunseong knew all of Yoo Siwoon’s deeply hidden, flawed desires. Yoo Siwoon was practically stripped bare before Eunseong.
“Why.”
“…”
“Why did you lie? Why did you deceive me? Why… why did you take me there when he wasn’t even there?”
“…”
“If it wasn’t you who did it, you could have just said he was found dead like this. I would have believed you anyway. I would have just believed you.”
Eunseong’s voice trembled with indignation. No matter how much he tried to understand from Yoo Siwoon’s perspective, he couldn’t comprehend him, and it was painful not to understand. He wanted to find a way to forgive, but the very person who needed forgiveness was hindering him.
Yoo Siwoon painfully took in the sight of Eunseong, who looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment.
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“…”
“Because it couldn’t be explained. If I had told the truth, you wouldn’t have believed me.”
“…”
Eunseong was perfect as the being that Yoo Siwoon’s family, which he had long despised and loathed, had been waiting for, and the fact that Yoo Siwoon had come to love and desire such an Eunseong seemed too coincidental to insist it was unintentional, even though it wasn’t planned.
Moreover, he didn’t want to provoke Eunseong, who had run away twice, with the news that Seo Jeong-gi, whose whereabouts he had been delaying by saying he was still searching, had been found murdered. He considered it shocking. It was now useless to regret that if he had been honest from the beginning, such a catastrophe wouldn’t have occurred.
“…If the prophecy is true and a baby is conceived between us.”
“…”
“I thought you wouldn’t believe that I didn’t kill Seo Jeong-gi.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
