Chapter 161
“What’s going on…?”
Tae-geon had never stepped foot outside his room.
While hiding in the forest, he had constantly observed the activities at the mansion, but after the men who tried to drive him out left in their cars, he hadn’t detected any other external movements. So he must still be somewhere inside the mansion.
“…Where on earth did he go?”
As Hyeon-woo was thinking about where Tae-geon might be, the butler’s voice suddenly flashed through his mind like lightning.
‘Once the search of the room is over, I’ll pack up your belongings and send them to your home.’
Search…!
Could it be that Tae-geon was conducting the search himself…?
It made sense. Since the missing item belonged to the young master, if the other employees couldn’t find it, Tae-geon might have decided to look for it himself.
As Hyeon-woo hurriedly turned to go to his own room where Tae-geon might be, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and clutched his head.
“Ugh!”
His head felt like it was about to split from the throbbing pain. Even after entering the mansion, the trembling in his body wouldn’t stop. Hyeon-woo’s face was so pale that it wouldn’t have been strange if he collapsed right there. Biting his blue lips tightly, he took one stubborn step after another.
By this point, Hyeon-woo wondered if Tae-geon had really lost something. Although it was frustrating to be treated like a thief, if Tae-geon was personally searching an employee’s room, maybe something truly precious had disappeared.
What on earth did he lose?
Just as his curiosity was about to peak, he arrived at the door.
Hyeon-woo lowered his breathing and carefully listened for any movement inside, pressing his ear against the closed door. He could hear rustling sounds. Someone was definitely inside.
He turned the doorknob in his hand quietly. Hyeon-woo peered through the crack of the slightly opened door with one eye.
As expected, Tae-geon was inside his room.
However, he didn’t appear to be searching for anything. He was standing still in front of the bed, pulling Hyeon-woo’s blanket to his face and burying his face in it. And he was doing this persistently, for quite a while.
What on earth is he doing?
As Hyeon-woo observed Tae-geon with narrowed eyes as if watching something bizarre, his eyes suddenly widened.
“…Haa.”
Tae-geon, who had removed his face from Hyeon-woo’s blanket, let out a deep sigh and once again buried his head in the blanket. It looked as if… as if he was smelling it.
Tae-geon’s nose rummaged through every corner of the blanket as if searching for areas with a strong scent. Soon, with his head deeply buried in one side, Tae-geon’s shoulders and back rose and fell repeatedly with each deep inhalation.
…He was smelling it. Tae-geon was smelling his scent.
“Gasp.”
Hyeon-woo barely swallowed the scream that was about to burst out, hastily covering his mouth with a look of shock on his face.
I knew it, I knew it….
As he unconsciously stepped back, he must have stepped on an uneven part of the floor, causing a creaking sound at his feet. Startled by the noise, Tae-geon raised his head and shouted sharply towards the door.
“Who’s there?”
Thump thump thump, his heart was beating frantically. Cold sweat had formed on Hyeon-woo’s forehead, who was extremely tense. As Hyeon-woo stepped back, gasping for breath, his feet suddenly stopped.
He hadn’t meant to run away. He needed to confront Tae-geon. Wasn’t that why he had come back to the mansion?
If it’s now….
Hyeon-woo took a short breath to compose himself, then clenched his trembling fists tightly and strode into the room.
Hyeon-woo’s shoulders were as stiff with tension as Tae-geon’s, who was on high alert due to the sudden presence of someone. Although he stood before Tae-geon with a resolute expression, he found it difficult to speak.
After a long silence, Hyeon-woo finally managed to open his mouth.
“…It’s me, Hyeon-woo.”
“……!”
Tae-geon’s eyes widened to their limit, seemingly surprised by the unexpected voice. Hyeon-woo glanced at the corner of his blanket still in Tae-geon’s hand.
“Looks like you knew all along.”
“…How, you, why are you here…?”
Seeing Tae-geon stumble over his words, so unlike him, it was clear he was quite flustered.
“You’re wondering why I’m still here after being driven out?”
This was the moment Hyeon-woo had imagined countless times in his head. The reunion with Tae-geon, this moment of revealing himself.
Perhaps that’s why Hyeon-woo felt no hesitation or obstacle in facing this situation that had now become reality. Once the floodgates opened, it felt like something inside him was pouring out without restraint.
“Accusing me of theft, that’s unfair, isn’t it?”
“……”
“I just couldn’t understand it. Why theft of all things?”
“……”
“I kept wondering, was this your intention all along?”
Seeing Tae-geon tightly grip the corner of the blanket as if struck at a vital point, Hyeon-woo twisted the corner of his mouth.
“When was it? When did you figure out my identity?”
“……”
“How did you know?”
Hyeon-woo’s barrage of questions continued. Tae-geon’s expression, which had been dazed as if hit on the back of the head, quickly regained composure.
Hyeon-woo couldn’t stand Tae-geon’s silence, keeping his mouth shut without a single sign of agitation, unlike himself who was interrogating like someone in a frenzy.
“Answer me!”
Only after Hyeon-woo shouted did Tae-geon slowly open his mouth.
“…By your scent.”
“……”
“…I knew by your scent.”
Hyeon-woo felt his anger rising at Tae-geon’s brazen and calm response.
“When was that?”
“The day you fell into the bathtub while helping me bathe.”
The day he fell into the bathtub….
As Hyeon-woo searched his memory, he clenched his teeth hard. It was more than a month ago. His identity had been discovered long before. How foolish and pathetic he must have looked, pretending not to know all this time. Barely suppressing the rising fury, he asked again.
“You knew everything but pretended not to? Why? And after all that, why try to drive me out now?”
Hyeon-woo pressed, but Tae-geon didn’t answer.
“Why did you pretend not to know when you knew everything?!”
Hyeon-woo shouted once more. Tae-geon’s face, silent and lost in deep thought, began to color with resignation that resembled despair. It was the very expression Tae-geon often showed while looking at him with incomprehensible eyes.
Whenever Hyeon-woo faced that expression, he was overwhelmed by an unbearable feeling. His stomach churned as if he was about to vomit, and his chest ached.
It was painful to breathe, as if he had been thrown naked into space without oxygen. He felt like he would drown, tightly bound by the unknown, sticky emotion that filled Tae-geon’s eyes.
Hyeon-woo roughly turned his head away from that gaze. As he tried to shake off that feeling that was once again washing over him like a tide, taking deep, rough breaths with his chest heaving greatly, Tae-geon’s low voice reached his ears.
“…I thought you approached me with a purpose. I waited to see when you would reveal your true intentions.”
“……”
“But as time passed, I felt that wasn’t the case, so I tried to send you away. That’s all.”
Purpose. True intentions.
Every word from Tae-geon stabbed Hyeon-woo’s heart like a dagger. No, perhaps it hit the mark. It was true that he had decided to stay by Tae-geon’s side because there was something he wanted to find out.
Feeling as if Tae-geon had seen through all of his selfish intentions, Hyeon-woo swallowed dryly and visibly faltered. Clasping his trembling hands together and trying to act nonchalant, he spoke in an even more twisted voice than before.
“Right, I was just looking for an opportunity to take advantage of you, a blind man. I could have made a fortune if things had gone well, but I got caught?”
Tae-geon frowned at Hyeon-woo’s sarcasm.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“If not that, then what? You did treat me like a thief and throw me out.”
“……”
As Tae-geon closed his mouth again, Hyeon-woo’s resentment rose to his throat, making him wheeze with heaving shoulders.
Damn Choi Tae-geon.
You said you were waiting for my true intentions to be revealed, so why now do you say that’s not what you felt?
There wasn’t a single satisfactory answer. Hyeon-woo’s anger boiled over at Tae-geon’s evasive responses that skillfully avoided the core issues and only offered empty replies.
As Hyeon-woo was pulling up his sleeve to wipe his sweat-soaked forehead, Tae-geon’s low voice continued.
“…I thought you came looking for me to complete your unfinished revenge.”
“But then I learned that you had helped me during my rut, and I realized my thoughts were wrong. I felt this couldn’t go on any longer. That’s why I tried to send you away.”
It was a voice that seemed to have given up on everything. Paradoxically, that powerless voice conveyed a sincerity more poignant than ever before.
As Hyeon-woo slowly digested Tae-geon’s words, a faint sneer formed on his lips. It was amusing. Tae-geon’s words about waiting to see when he would reveal his true intentions and assuming it would be revenge sounded as if he had been waiting for the moment to be retaliated against.
Did I even have enough emotion left to dream of revenge?
He had left Korea, putting all his resentment towards Tae-geon behind him. After returning with Jerome, he had been so caught up in the intensity of life that he had no room to dwell on the past. There was no time to reminisce about lingering attachments, regrets, or memories of days gone by.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
