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Taein’s eyes swept over Donghwan without malice.
Something else. Not money.
Money was important, but there were many other things besides that. He had failed to keep the promise he made with the man, and the man had stopped by JAM for personal business and ended up seeing him. His memories weren’t complete. He could only guess what had happened based on the fragments he remembered combined with what the man had told him. Taein continued to stare at Donghwan’s face.
Donghwan tilted his head slightly at Taein’s gaze.
“What’s gonna come out if you keep staring?”
Then he pushed his face forward. Taein stepped back at the sudden action.
“Why are you backing away? If something’s gonna come out from staring, then keep looking.”
The man followed Taein’s step forward. His stride was long, so he ended up standing even closer than their original distance. Taein stopped his retreating steps as he dragged his feet backward. Right behind him was a stone wall, and his shoe heels were touching the wall with a thud. There was nowhere left to retreat.
He seems angry.
Not only had he failed to keep his promise, but according to the man, he had gotten an injection in front of him and made a disgraceful scene. Even after waking up, instead of showing sincerity, he had just fled the hotel room like he was running away. Since then, he had lost his burner phone, so he couldn’t call or do anything. Even as Taein thought this, he felt guilty. Even if the phone had been in his hands, what would he have said to the man?
The man who insisted they had sex when he had no memory of it.
It didn’t seem like a lie, though there were aspects about the man that felt awkward.
In Juhang, he had never had sex with an Alpha man, let alone any meaningful interaction.
He had only gotten headaches from guys who created strange atmospheres, and he had never willingly gotten involved in such relationships.
Alpha or Omega, man or woman. He wasn’t interested in either, and he didn’t want to have a deep relationship with anyone.
He had to deal with the urgent problems that fell on his feet, so such things couldn’t catch his eye.
Being born alone and dying alone quietly was the only path in his life, so he just followed that.
Eundo had suddenly entered the picture, and now he just had to take responsibility for that child.
Because of Yoon Donghwan, the man who had suddenly barged into every part of his body, Taein’s head was spinning. Unlike the guys who spouted nonsense, Yoon Donghwan’s influence on his life was different. He couldn’t just recklessly put up walls and deal with the man.
‘Hey Taein, let’s do this just once. I can pay up to 30 for your hole as a one-time thing.’
‘Hey, are you that great? Lower your standards a bit and try meeting me.’
The guys who immediately came to mind were fucking beggar bastards who didn’t even know their own future.
If he didn’t curse them as beggar bastards and animal bastards behind their backs like this, he couldn’t endure daily life. He didn’t show it outwardly, but he was human too. If he had to listen to such talk while unloading alcohol from trucks, even a sound mind would go crazy. Living a life of covering his eyes, blocking his ears, and running away was perhaps an inevitable choice.
That habit had emerged in the man’s hotel room too, and he had just blindly escaped from there.
Even knowing that the man was the rope that had barely come down before his eyes.
Taein looked at Donghwan with calm eyes and opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
He wanted to lower his speech as the man had told him to, and say what he wanted to hear.
“Sorry?”
The man who repeated the word raised just the tip of his eyebrow. His face was somehow filled with dissatisfaction.
“Yeah, sorry. That day my head was dizzy and I couldn’t judge well… And I’m sorry for not contacting you until now. I should have contacted you first and said these things.”
Then the man’s lips slowly curved upward. It wasn’t a satisfied smile, but a face that said ‘so you can say all these things too.’ Taein observed the man’s expression and slightly frowned his own brow. He had forgotten his next words because of the unpredictable attitude. There was a limit to spitting out words like a machine.
“Keep going, why don’t you.”
“……”
“It sounds nice to hear.”
Seeing him say such things with a slight smile, it seemed he wanted to tease him. Taein roughly grasped his meaning and just nodded once. He knew the man wouldn’t harass him too severely. So he meant to do as much as he wanted. He seemed to have his own standards, so there probably wouldn’t be anything for him to get upset about. Even if he did make him feel bad, he wouldn’t presumptuously grab the man’s throat like that time.
The man was the only one in his life…
“If you’re done talking.”
The man came close enough that Taein’s body was pushed back. Their knees and shoulders briefly touched each other. Though Taein was reluctant to be so close, he didn’t show it. He just tensed his upper body as if to bury his back into the stone wall.
“I can say my piece now, right?”
“Yeah.”
“First, I’m not accepting your apology. Just saying it with words isn’t enough since you crossed the line…”
As he said this, he began unbuttoning his shirt one by one.
He undid three buttons and opened his shirt collar, revealing red scratches above his firm collarbone. Even if others couldn’t tell, he alone could recognize those marks. They were scars left from being strangled.
“…Sorry.”
“I said I’m not accepting verbal apologies.”
“…Yeah.”
Though he answered “yeah” easily, it seemed like they shouldn’t end it like this. Taein added more words.
“What should I do to—”
Suddenly the man cut him off. He made an exaggerated breathing sound.
“Tsk, haah… what should… uh…”
The man’s head turned to the side. He seemed not to have thought specifically about it. As he moved his body with his shirt unbuttoned, his well-defined muscles were naturally revealed. Taein unconsciously looked at his chest, then hurriedly looked away.
“Honestly, I’m anxious too, you know? Our customer, I did pull money for you.”
As if some thought had occurred to him, his head turned back to its original position.
“Your contact keeps getting cut off so fucking often. It’s not like you’re working somewhere.”
It was all true, so it was hard to argue back. Taein lightly bit his lower lip and continued listening to the man’s words.
“Your house is completely trashed.”
It seemed he had visited the house during this time. Taein, already having poor credit, hurriedly opened his mouth, worried it might hit rock bottom because of the house.
“That’s not something I did wrong.”
“You suddenly popped up looking like this too.”
At the man’s words, Taein looked down at his own appearance.
He had forgotten, but he was wearing the man’s shirt that he had stolen-like worn out that day. At least he had changed pants, which was fortunate. During his job hunting, he had only worn the man’s pajamas in the motel. Though they were luxurious and of good quality, they were still sleepwear. Since he didn’t have money to buy other pants, he had brought work pants that were crumpled in a corner of the motel room. They were pants someone had thrown away, covered with paint and dust.
Black, loose pants with paint of various colors splattered on them.
Taein closed his mouth and looked at the pants, then brought his legs together in a straight line.
He was trying to hide the stained fabric even a little, but the man no longer looked in that direction. His eyes had moved to Taein’s straight forehead visible between his bangs, his well-defined nose.
“You trust your face too much, or your thinking is a bit short.”
Taein, who raised his head, met the man’s eyes directly.
The man seemed a bit startled that their eyes suddenly met head-on. He cleared his throat and raised his eyes upward.
“I’m going to buy clothes at the market tomorrow or so.”
Since Jang Ihwan and the gangsters had cut or torn all his clothes with scissors, there was no way to bring anything from home. As he said, he had planned to go to the market and buy suitable clothes. He couldn’t do so now because he had no money. Taein calmly explained his plan, but the man just laughed hollowly at those words too.
“…I’ll dry clean the shirt and give it back to you.”
It was the most luxurious cleaning method he knew. Taein knew that several rough marks remained on the man’s designer shirt too. If he did manual labor for a few days, he could definitely earn that much money. With that money, he planned to make at least the man’s clothes neat and return them. If he couldn’t even do that, his repayment ability would be seen as absolutely zero. Conscious of this, he added these words:
“If it’s weird because I wore it, I’ll buy a new one and send it to you. I can earn money quickly.”
The man’s eyes, which had been laughing “huh, hah” continuously, moved downward at those words. Unlike his thought that pretending to be pitiful should be done in moderation, his face showed no expression. He seemed to live easily saying such things usually. Donghwan looked at the sunlight that had settled like dots on Taein’s face with bewildered eyes. It was a face that would be perfectly fine even seen in a dim alley corner. Actually, the clothes he was wearing hadn’t even caught his attention. He had just roughly mentioned his appearance because the clothes became visible while talking.
“I’ll write a promissory note if you want.”
“…You must have written a fucking lot of promissory notes.”
It was an inappropriate remark for a young man with no loan experience to suddenly add. How many loans must he have taken. No. He might have been severely screwed over by evil loan sharks like those bastards. Yoon Donghwan made his own assumptions first and closed his mouth. Taein also looked at the man as if hit where it hurt, then said nothing more. After a few seconds of silence like that, Donghwan made a “tsk” sound and turned around. The place he headed toward was the brown brick building. That very building the gangsters had entered.
Taein thought he was leaving him behind to go handle his own business, but the man stopped in front of the door.
“Customer. Wait a moment, will you?”
Sometimes he spoke gentlemanly, sometimes his speech carried a cheap tone. Taein, standing at a distance, only briefly uttered “yeah.” The man who had spoken jokingly was seen entering the building that had no sign or anything.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
