Chapter 177
A roar like a lion’s echoed across the yard. Jerome, startled, squirmed and burrowed into Hyeon-woo’s arms. As Hyeon-woo held Jerome closer, protecting him like a parent shielding their young from a threat, Tae-geon’s eyes flashed with anger at the sight.
“Do it! Say something!! An excuse, anything…!”
“……”
“Please…!!”
Tae-geon’s fist trembled as he shouted through gritted teeth.
Hyeon-woo couldn’t understand why this violently rough demand felt more desperate and heart-wrenching than a plea. He frowned as an inexplicable pain throbbed near his heart.
A cold mountain breeze from Neungra Mountain swept through the yard. The red bandage around Tae-geon’s neck, who was wearing only a thin patient gown, fluttered in the wind.
They couldn’t keep Tae-geon, who had just come off the operating table, standing out here forever.
Hyeon-woo bit his lip in awkwardness. He had a feeling that words unsuitable for Jerome’s ears were about to be exchanged.
“Wait a moment. I’ll put the child to bed and come back.”
“Why are you putting him to bed?”
Tae-geon’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, clenching and unclenching his fist, betraying his anxiety and impatience. Hyeon-woo stared at him silently.
He knew. He was asking despite knowing full well. As if wanting to deny an unbelievable reality.
“He’s my child.”
Hyeon-woo replied firmly. He emphasized once more, as if driving in a wedge:
“I said he’s my child.”
“……”
A strange tension hung in the silence that fell between them.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere between the two, Mrs. Kyung-ae approached Hyeon-woo and whispered:
“You two seem to have a lot to talk about. I’ll take Jerome inside.”
“…Thank you.”
“Sure, sure. Come on, Jerome, let’s go inside with auntie~ Daddy will come in a little later.”
Mrs. Kyung-ae tried to coax Jerome, who was refusing and dodging her attempts to take him.
“Should we eat the strawberries you picked with daddy later? I’ll help you wash up. Doesn’t daddy like strawberries? He’ll be so happy~”
Only then did Jerome obediently get down. He called out, “Daddy!” to Hyeon-woo. Tae-geon’s eyebrow twitched at the word from Jerome’s mouth.
Intimidated by the sharp gaze looking at him disapprovingly, Jerome mumbled in a cowed voice:
“Come quickly…”
Despite this, Jerome said everything he wanted to say, glared briefly at Tae-geon, then ran into the house. Mrs. Kyung-ae quickly followed Jerome inside.
Bang-.
The front door closed, leaving the two alone. Tae-geon’s voice spread low, cutting through the air that had settled cold and eerie in its silence.
“…’Daddy’? Hah.”
His mocking laugh was chilling.
“So you had a child?”
“……”
“You fooled me completely all this time.”
“I never deceived you.”
Tae-geon twisted one corner of his mouth as if amused by Hyeon-woo’s immediate rebuttal.
“Says the one who came in hiding the fact he was an omega. You’ve become quite brazen while I wasn’t looking.”
“……”
Hyeon-woo fell silent as he recalled a fact he had forgotten, pointed out by the accusation of concealing his trait when he was hired for the home-stay position.
Tae-geon’s brow furrowed intensely, seemingly displeased that Hyeon-woo remained silent after being backed into a corner.
Hyeon-woo’s quiet reticence, when he should have been pleading and begging that it wasn’t like that, that it was a misunderstanding, fueled Tae-geon’s anger.
“So, what, you’ve set up house in this godforsaken place?”
“……”
Though Tae-geon had said it to provoke Hyeon-woo, the silent affirmation that followed made him lose his temper instead.
Hyeon-woo was confused when he noticed Tae-geon’s jaw muscles bulging as if swallowing his anger. He couldn’t understand the reason for Tae-geon’s fury.
If Tae-geon was angry about breaking a promise, Hyeon-woo was prepared to apologize profusely and beg for forgiveness. But incomprehensible words were flowing from Tae-geon’s mouth as he interrogated Hyeon-woo with a cruelly twisted gaze.
Tae-geon began approaching Hyeon-woo one step at a time.
“…But you’re really something, Hyeon-woo.”
“……”
“Even if it was charity, still. How could you think of doing that with me?”
“……?”
Barely concealed waves of anger roiled beneath his sarcastic tone. Seeing Hyeon-woo’s blank face that didn’t understand his words, Tae-geon muttered to himself:
“…Fuck, that face again.”
That innocent face that seemed to know nothing. It reminded him of years ago when he had been blindsided multiple times, fooled by that very expression.
Tae-geon stopped, grinding his teeth, when he reached right in front of Hyeon-woo. He slowly brought his head close to Hyeon-woo’s ear and whispered in a distorted voice along with hot breath:
“Does your sugar daddy know how many times you came, impaled on my cock?”
“……!!”
As the shocked Hyeon-woo tried to back away, Tae-geon quickly grabbed his chin and pulled his retreating face back.
“Is this why you said no kissing?”
The more Hyeon-woo struggled to break free, the stronger the grip on his chin became. Hyeon-woo’s cheeks were squished in Tae-geon’s firm grasp, unable to even let out a proper groan. With eyes gleaming with madness, Tae-geon snarled:
“Why. The lower hole is fine but you don’t want to share the upper one?”
“Nngh, ugh.”
“Tell me, Hyeon-woo. Who was better?”
“Ugh!”
“It was me, right? You’re crazy for my cock.”
Hyeon-woo strongly kicked Tae-geon’s shin as he tried to forcibly kiss him.
Oof-!
“Stop talking nonsense!!”
Hyeon-woo, having barely escaped Tae-geon, shouted while furiously rubbing his ear with his sleeve as if to clean it of the dirty words.
“I don’t deserve to hear such filthy things from you! Even if everything you said was true, it was you who accepted the offer, saying you’d gratefully take anything in your begging position!!”
Tae-geon’s eyes flashed with madness at Hyeon-woo’s outburst.
Hyeon-woo couldn’t understand why Tae-geon was looking at him with such eyes. He was confused about how to deal with Tae-geon, who was expressing his anger while trembling with a sense of betrayal, as if he had been backstabbed.
It was hard to comprehend Tae-geon’s obsession with him now, when he had tried to drive Hyeon-woo out of the mansion by framing him as a thief before.
If you think about it, Choi Tae-geon was the one who started it. He was even engaged! When did he cruelly cut off their relationship, comparing it to chewed-up gum? What right does he have to interrogate me now? Why is he obsessed with me? Why does he keep confusing me?!
“Whether I have a child or I’m living with someone! What does that have to do with y-, agh!”
Tae-geon suddenly grabbed the back of Hyeon-woo’s head and buried his face in Hyeon-woo’s bent-back nape. He found the spot where the pulse was rapidly beating and rubbed his nose there, strongly inhaling Hyeon-woo’s scent.
After taking a deep breath to the limit of his lungs, a satisfied exclamation soon burst from Tae-geon’s mouth.
“…Haa.”
As Tae-geon repeatedly stole Hyeon-woo’s scent like this, his eyes glazed over eerily, unfocused and dull. Those hazy, unfocused eyes reminded Hyeon-woo of someone from his memories.
Kevin’s eyes, when he was out of his mind on drugs, looked exactly like Tae-geon’s now. Blindly craving the drug, unable to think of anything else, as if some part of his brain had completely broken down.
A chill ran up Hyeon-woo’s stiffened spine.
After a long while, Tae-geon’s voice, mixed with his breath, scattered hotly on Hyeon-woo’s cooled nape.
“Right, it doesn’t matter. Second, whatever. I don’t care even if I’m just one of many cocks entering your hole.”
…What… did he say…?
Hyeon-woo’s face froze in shock.
More than the vulgar statement treating him like a dirty rag, he felt like going mad at himself for being confused and hurt by Tae-geon’s incomprehensible anger, feeling like a fool.
He only had business with the body. He had almost foolishly wasted his emotions again on Tae-geon, who only had use for his pheromones and a hole to thrust into. He had almost attributed a strange meaning to his anger. Because of his attitude that showed interest in nothing but Hyeon-woo’s voice reading books, because of the gaze that looked at him tenderly, he had almost fallen into a pathetic delusion again.
“…If you’re going to keep talking bullshit, get out.”
“……”
“My ears feel like they’re rotting.”
As Hyeon-woo glared at Tae-geon and spoke through gritted teeth, Tae-geon’s eyes shook violently like a storm. However, his low voice was still gentle and affectionate.
“It’s not me spouting bullshit, it’s you, Hyeon-woo.”
“Ugh!”
“Every time you open your mouth, it’s lies.”
Tae-geon grabbed Hyeon-woo’s collar, not hiding his boiling anger as he pressured him.
“What was that about not being married? Was it just lip service? Huh?”
“I’m not!”
Hyeon-woo shouted, pushing Tae-geon away with both arms.
“I said I’m not married!!”
Pushed back by Hyeon-woo’s forceful denial, Tae-geon narrowed his eyes.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
