Chapter 163
Mitchell kept laughing. Even as he revealed his darkest side, his face was radiant. While he looked so bright on the outside, I wondered if his inside was the same. Sweat beaded on his palm, but the bedroom wasn’t hot at all.
“Did you… resent him a lot?”
I regretted the question as soon as I asked it. I had asked as if it was natural to resent someone who did such a thing.
Honestly, that was how I felt. I was the one resenting Mitchell’s biological father for tormenting him.
“…At that time, I was simply distressed, hungry, and sad, but I didn’t resent my father. I was only worried about what if father hated me because I made a mistake. I was scared of being left alone.”
“…”
Watching Mitchell speak with a smiling face, my eyes grew hot. Why does he keep smiling while talking about his painful past? I secretly composed my surging emotions.
“Father must have been suffering too back then. Mother had left with another man. He drowned his depression in alcohol every day and forcibly continued to make a living. I think it was hard for father to look at me because I resembled mother so much.”
This seemed to be the reason why Mitchell disliked alcohol. Every time I drank, he might have been troubled by memories of his father. Feeling sorry, my body stiffened.
“There was something father always said. If a loved one doesn’t contact or show their face for a week, it means their heart has left. I guess that’s what our mother did.”
Mitchell closed his eyes tightly and continued.
“Father eventually abandoned me and left too. He didn’t come home for a week. I left the house and went to the police station. I said I felt like I was alone in the world. I still remember the moment I said those words to the police officer.”
He laughs again. I don’t find it funny at all.
“After that, father lost custody, and I was adopted by my current parents. That’s all. My childhood, not very interesting, is it?”
It was like a cruel fairy tale. Mitchell reached out his hand towards my face. I’m not sure what expression I was making, but he caressed my cheek as if to comfort me.
“That person… has appeared again.”
I had thought the appearance of his biological father was just a momentary incident. I expected that the drunk who had caused a commotion in public would turn out not to be the real father, and it would end with the journalists who fell for the lie looking foolish.
But Mitchell said his biological father had appeared.
“Is it… certain?”
When I asked cautiously, almost as if talking to myself, Mitchell slightly raised the corner of his mouth. The slowly curving lips looked as if he was putting on an act in front of me. As if he was playing the role of someone pretending to be unbothered.
“It’s certain.”
Mitchell turned his body and lay on his side. He completely buried his face in my stomach and hugged my waist with his arm. It seems he no longer wants to force a smile.
“Are you going to meet him?”
“He disappeared again.”
Brandon had looked into it, he said. Through the identity left at the police station, they confirmed that he was the biological father, but his whereabouts after that are unclear. The registered residence has been empty for years, and although they’ve hired someone to investigate further, they haven’t received any notable news.
Mitchell said quietly that he thought his biological father might hide away like this. I stroked his hair and patted his back.
That was all. My mouth felt too heavy to offer obvious words of comfort.
***
This morning, I woke up without an alarm for once.
I couldn’t feel his arm that should have been wrapped around my waist. I couldn’t feel the warmth against my back or the heavy weight of his leg entangled with mine. Rubbing my sleepy eyelids, I immediately left the room after confirming the empty bed. My eyes snapped open because Mitchell wasn’t beside me.
“Huh?”
A delicious smell was coming from somewhere. This was surely kimchi stew. Real kimchi stew with red pepper powder, not removed!
It wasn’t like that clear curry-like soup with washed kimchi. I appreciate Mitchell’s effort, but I still can’t forget that shocking taste. I headed to the kitchen a bit quickly, drawn by the smell of real kimchi stew.
“Are you cooking?”
On the induction stove, a red broth presumed to be kimchi stew was indeed boiling in a pot.
Although Mitchell often cooks for me, it’s not traditional Korean food. For dishes like kimchi stew that are difficult for Mitchell, we always just reheated what the helpers had made, but today he was trying a new challenge.
“Yeah. You like to eat a hearty breakfast, right? Just wait a bit.”
I saw the back of a man with spiky blonde hair, wearing indoor slippers and only black boxer briefs. It was so amusing.
Suppressing a smile, I hugged Mitchell from behind. As I placed my hand on Mitchell’s chest, I could feel his heart beating vigorously from the morning.
“You should at least wear an apron. What’s this?”
I lightly scolded him, nuzzling my face against his back.
“You wear it.”
He just said this nonsensical thing about me wearing an apron when I’m not even cooking. When I shook my head saying no thanks, he seemed a bit disappointed. Come to think of it, I remembered that Mitchell liked seeing me in an apron. If I wore it, I might have to shake my hips on the dining table.
After clinging to Mitchell’s back for a while, I went to the bathroom. After showering and changing into outdoor clothes, I ate the food Mitchell had prepared.
Surprisingly, this time it was ordinary kimchi stew. There was even Korean-style rolled omelette. Mitchell’s cooking skills were improving day by day. Honestly, I was touched. I wondered if I should do something for Mitchell too.
While eating breakfast and preparing to go out, Mitchell kept making silly jokes and grinning. He looked so bright that it was hard to remember the dark story he had shared yesterday.
“Let’s go together in my car. I didn’t call the driver, so we can do it lightly in the car. Or you can suck me off now.”
He kept saying a lot of naughty things. Meanwhile, he carefully observed me as I ate with my chin resting on my hand. Mitchell had only eaten a simple breakfast of coffee and buttered toast.
“Your eyes are round, your nose is round, what are you eating so much of? Your mouth is small too. You couldn’t even fit all of mine in your mouth. Eat slowly. Now that I look closely, you’re quite cute, aren’t you?”
He had said that cute people were his type. I was called cute while gobbling down breakfast. I became a cute person so easily, it made all my worries about how to become cute seem pointless.
“Your muscles are all gone. You haven’t been working out lately, right? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you exercise when you’re with me. But I like that your butt is plump. Let me feel your chest later.”
He was observing and commenting in such detail today that I felt like I might choke on my food. It’s good that he doesn’t look depressed, but I have a feeling we might do it once before going to the filming set. Usually, he doesn’t touch me in the mornings, saying it would interfere with filming.
I finished a proper meal and brushed my teeth. When I came back to the living room, Mitchell had already finished cleaning up the kitchen. He’s so diligent and neat that there was nothing left for me to help with.
I followed Mitchell and put on my shoes at the entrance. From morning until now, his attention had been completely focused on me, but Mitchell is an unpredictable person. I get confused every time because I don’t know what’s in his head, but today, I could glimpse a bit of myself in him.
He seemed similar in the way he deliberately focused on other things to avoid dwelling deeply on negative thoughts.
It’s something I often did. I would fixate on a target and focus only on that.
Right now, Mitchell seemed to be forcibly avoiding thoughts about his biological father. And in that process, he needed me.
Naturally, I found myself watching Mitchell’s reactions. Even though Mitchell didn’t say anything or show it directly, I could sense his instability.
Mitchell is certainly a difficult person to judge, but…
“I didn’t know until now that you liked doing it in the car, Geon-woo.”
Still, who else but me would understand Mitchell…
“…Huh? What?”
I suddenly looked around. Lost in my study of Mitchell, I had somehow taken the elevator down to the parking lot and gotten into Mitchell’s car. I was so engrossed in uncovering Mitchell’s psychology and interpreting it in my own way that I hadn’t even realized I had gotten into the car. My mind was so fiercely occupied with thoughts about Mitchell that he seemed to have misunderstood my docile entry into the car.
“I thought you’d definitely say to do it at home. Looks like you like the thrill. Sorry for not recognizing your preferences.”
“Wait… Mitchell?”
“It’s a shame, but we should end it with this, right?”
He tried to pull down my pants. Although we were in a corner of the underground parking lot and wouldn’t be caught on CCTV, there was a risk of being discovered if someone passed by. Alarmed, I stopped Mitchell with my hands.
“No, no! Not here!”
“Then, where?”
“Uh… uh, the trailer.”
“Ah, good. That’s thrilling too. Let’s go for now.”
“…”
The personal waiting room at the filming set has more people coming and going than Mitchell’s car. It would be insanely thrilling. I thought it might be better to do it quickly here and be done with it, but the car had already started moving.
While I was thoroughly analyzing how Mitchell might be feeling and contemplating how to comfort him, Mitchell was just teasing me.
Sigh… I guess I was wrong this time too.
My status as an authority on Mitchell studies was declining day by day. I have no idea what this sly bastard is thinking. Mitchell seems fine, but I’m the only one worrying and being cautious.
Maybe Mitchell is okay because I’m here?
I raised my chin and raised an eyebrow. I felt proud, thinking that I’m the only one who can make Mitchell happy.
“People are already here.”
As we arrived at the filming location, I started to worry quietly. Even though we came quite early, many staff members had already arrived and were filling up the place.
“This won’t work, will it?”
Thinking there’s no way he’d actually do it in this situation, I asked cautiously. Looking at Mitchell who was parking the car, he shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s fine if I make you finish quickly.”
Mitchell really intended to do it.
