Chapter 68
“Aaah!”
He was so startled that his body jerked up reflexively. It felt like his heart had crashed to the ground and then bounced up to the sky. As if that wasn’t enough, goosebumps rose all over his body.
Seo Won clutched his heart that was pounding like it would burst and sat down on the ground. They say people lose all their strength when they’re too shocked, and he could understand that immediately. His legs really had no strength in them.
He looked up at the person who had made him like this with eyes full of horror, as if he had seen a ghost.
It was Baek Rak.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“…Hah.”
Then did he look like he wouldn’t be surprised? He had suddenly popped out without warning in an empty space. His heart was still pounding wildly.
“Suddenly, jumping out like that… Hah, really.”
Even while speaking, something kept rising up his throat. Wondering if his sanity was trying to jump out of his mouth, he forcibly swallowed it down.
“But what can’t you ask for help with?”
“…Huh?”
“What you just said.”
It seemed like Baek Rak had heard him muttering. He was looking at him with distrustful eyes.
Should he hide it? He pondered briefly, but Baek Rak definitely wouldn’t believe him. His track record was too colorful, so it couldn’t be helped.
“…There was someone who tried to help.”
“Help with what?”
“That, getting a room. Since we’re guests but were being neglected, I guess he felt bad about it.”
Baek Rak nodded slightly as if telling him to say more. It was an unexpected reaction. He had expected him to glare silently or scold him for not listening.
“He asked an acquaintance and got us a room, but it fell through when the supervisor caught him. On top of that, he was apparently threatened not to help us anymore.”
Baek Rak just quietly listened to his explanation. So he added a bit more like making excuses.
“I felt sorry, so I didn’t think I could ask for more help… I was just muttering to myself.”
“That person approached you first and offered to help?”
Baek Rak asked a question. As if asking whether he had ulterior motives, Seo Won shook his head.
“He did approach first, but it seemed like it was just out of curiosity. Through our conversation, he found out we had nowhere to rest, so he tried to help.”
“But in the end, you couldn’t get a room?”
“Well…”
It would have been a bit more dignified if they had gotten a room without being caught by the supervisor, which was disappointing. He slightly avoided eye contact and turned his head, when Baek Rak suddenly lifted him up from where he was crouched.
When Seo Won looked at him in surprise, Baek Rak slowly set him down on the bench. Being on the floor like that must have looked really unseemly.
Before he knew it, his heart that had been pounding like crazy had calmed down. Only then did he realize that Baek Rak, who had disappeared last night, had returned. The guy who had kissed him arbitrarily and then gone off somewhere by himself was right in front of him.
But the returned Baek Rak seemed somehow different from usual.
His nastiness seemed to have mysteriously decreased, and he wasn’t looking at him expressionlessly either. Moreover, he wasn’t showing irritation or looking at him pathetically. Should he say he seemed a bit calmer? It was hard to believe he was the same person as last night.
Baek Rak sat down next to him on the bench without any particular interrogation. He rested his elbow on the armrest, propped his chin on his hand, and stared straight ahead at nothing.
Seo Won quietly watched such Baek Rak and asked.
“Did you find the hunter?”
“Not yet.”
“Any clues?”
“None. People didn’t know who it was either.”
Had he not only searched around secretly but also asked people? That Baek Rak? He couldn’t imagine it at all and was a bit surprised.
“How do you know? Did you ask people?”
“I overheard conversations. Even if the people here know, they won’t tell us. They all know we came from Yeongdeungpo Station.”
“…Why? Are they afraid we’ll take that person away?”
“Something like that.”
He wondered if there was really a need to be so wary of each other, but anyway, each individual hunter was directly connected to the shelter’s safety, so it couldn’t be helped. This was probably also why they didn’t think we came with good intentions.
But for Baek Rak to answer so readily like this. He wasn’t usually someone who explained things well, so what was this about?
When Seo Won stared at Baek Rak intently, he slowly turned his head. Their eyes met.
“…What.”
“What do you mean what.”
“You weren’t originally like this. Why are you answering so well?”
Baek Rak chuckled at something he found amusing.
“Don’t you like me being nice?”
“It’s not that… I’m asking if there was some change of heart. Just yesterday you… got irritated and disappeared.”
As he spoke, last night’s events came to mind.
The rough kiss that felt like he’d be devoured, the hot breath touching his nape, Baek Rak’s retreating figure disappearing like he was fleeing, and himself cooling down his heat while left alone. Because of that, he could no longer meet Baek Rak’s eyes. He felt strange.
Even though he had been helplessly swayed by Baek Rak’s kisses every time, what was different about yesterday? It felt like he had secretly glimpsed Baek Rak’s hidden inner feelings. The emotion Baek Rak had revealed was no different from a typhoon. It was just amazing that he had hidden such a thing so well until now.
Baek Rak didn’t answer his question for a long time. Wondering if he had already returned to his original self, he glanced at him.
“……”
Baek Rak was looking at him with a languid gaze while propping his chin. The guy who always looked at him with sharp eyes, indifferently, or persistently was nowhere to be found.
Had he bumped into something or fallen and lost his senses? Or had something happened to his own eyes? Why did Baek Rak look so soft? The atmosphere was unprecedentedly gentle.
“Are you sick somewhere?”
“No. Why?”
“But why are you so…”
He couldn’t continue speaking. The moment he asked why he was looking at him so softly, he didn’t know how Baek Rak might react. Right now, Baek Rak was in a state where he couldn’t tell if he was a live round or a dud.
Surely he wasn’t unaware of his own state?
“Why do you stop talking? What am I?”
“…Nothing.”
He couldn’t watch anymore. Seo Won turned his head away from Baek Rak.
“You usually ask questions just fine, but suddenly you’ve become mute.”
If it had been any other time, those words would have sounded like mockery, but now they didn’t sound like that at all. Rather, it seemed like he wanted to poke and prod a cute animal once in a while.
Seo Won felt strange and slowly moved his body to the side.
When he reached the end of the bench like that, Baek Rak spoke as if he had been waiting.
“You said you wanted to get along.”
“…Huh?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to get along well with me?”
When he looked back at him again, Baek Rak was looking at him strangely. As if giving him a hint, asking whether he had been lying all this time.
Could it be that getting along, from Baek Rak’s perspective, was like this?
Baek Rak was not just tearing down the wall he had been building but approaching first. And naturally, as if he had always been like this.
“…I did.”
“Then don’t run away and come over here.”
“Why?”
But regardless of wanting to get along well, going near Baek Rak right now was impossible. Right now, he wasn’t the Baek Rak he knew.
Baek Rak with that expression, that voice, doing meaningful actions was priority number one to be wary of. And he had always approached arbitrarily, so why was he telling him to come over now?
Baek Rak immediately provided the answer.
“Are you confident you won’t get nervous if I come over?”
Seo Won swallowed dry saliva. Confident he won’t get nervous? Of course not. Whether Baek Rak came over or waited, he was concerned about everything equally, so how could he ignore it?
While he was at a loss like that, Baek Rak slowly got up and said.
“If you don’t come, I’ll go over.”
What? He’s coming? Seo Won abandoned what he had been pondering and hastily shouted.
“Sit! Stay sitting!”
Baek Rak shrugged and sat back down. Then he put one leg up on the bench, placed his arm on the backrest, and turned his body toward Seo Won.
At that blatant action, Seo Won squeezed his eyes shut.
He didn’t know why this made him so nervous and concerned. Hadn’t he already shown Baek Rak every unseemly sight?
Seo Won steeled his heart and opened his eyes. While avoiding Baek Rak’s soft gaze as much as possible, he abruptly stood up and sat next to him.
“There, I came. Why did you tell me to come over?”
Yoon Seo Won’s bravado was very awkward. Baek Rak quietly watched Seo Won’s obviously nervous appearance and smiled lightly. Then he leaned his face against the arm resting on the bench backrest and said.
“From now on, stay with me.”
“…Why?”
“Because we don’t know what might happen or how.”
“After leaving me alone all this time?”
“Exactly. You caused trouble even when we were together, so what was I thinking leaving you alone?”
When the alpha incident was mentioned, Seo Won couldn’t say anything and shrank. No matter how many times he thought about it, that incident was definitely his mistake.
Recalling the day his shoulder was torn, he somehow felt like the injured part was throbbing. Since he heard it was well-treated, it was probably phantom pain.
While Seo Won was secretly rubbing his shoulder and just rolling his eyes, Baek Rak got up and reached out his hand.
“Why are you rubbing it? Are you in pain?”
Baek Rak’s large hand covered both Seo Won’s shoulder and the back of his hand. When Seo Won’s shoulder flinched in surprise, Baek Rak stroked the newly grown flesh with his thumb.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
