Kiss the Scumbag – Chapter 187

It felt like being struck hard in the head—his mind went blank.

With his eyes wide open, Yu-jin just stared at Winston. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His lips moved several times, and only after a long moment did a voice finally squeeze through—harsh and broken, like a damaged door creaking helplessly in the winter wind.

“What… what are you saying right now?”

The words barely made it out, shaking violently under the weight of overwhelming emotion. Yu-jin pressed on, as if wringing the words out of himself.

“How could you say something like that? Me… sleeping with Harold? That’s insane… Why would I ever—?”

“So then why? Just why?”

Winston twisted his lips into a bitter smile.

“Was I not enough for you? Or was it that you wanted what my father had too? Or did you just think you could have both? Hell, how would I know? You’re the one who did it.”

“No…!”

“You’re telling me you’re pregnant with my child?”

Yu-jin frantically denied it, but Winston cut him off coldly.

“Sweetheart, if you really wanted to fool me with that lie, then the moment I caught you, you should’ve thrown yourself at me, crying your eyes out, saying my father tried to rape you. At least that might’ve worked. But to act like it never even happened?”

A low chuckle escaped him, his shoulders giving a small shake, like he couldn’t hold back anymore.

“I saw it. With my own two eyes.”

He exhaled a short, sigh-like breath and added,

“Next time, try using your brain a little, sweetheart. Don’t make the same mistake again.”

With that syrupy, scolding tone as a final remark, he turned away.

This was the end.

Yu-jin could feel it in his gut—Winston was never coming back to him.

“Winnie!”

Losing all sense of reason, Yu-jin ran after him in a panic, stumbling to block Winston’s path. He looked up at him with trembling, pleading eyes, clinging to him with all his strength.

“Don’t do this, please. Don’t you remember? Look at me—it’s me. Try to remember…”

Please, remember.

Tears welled up in Yu-jin’s eyes, threatening to fall. He could barely breathe. For Winston to look at him with eyes so cold—it was unbearable.

We loved each other so much.

“Of course I know who you are,”

Winston slowly moved his lips, then leaned in close and whispered, his voice low, every word pronounced with biting clarity, like spitting out poison.

“Whore. Slut. Filthy trash who’s addicted to cock.”

Yu-jin froze completely.

He looked up at Winston, breath caught in his throat, body paralyzed.

Winston smiled bitterly.

“And I’m the idiot who almost threw everything away because I got fooled by someone like you.”

Through vision blurred with tears, Yu-jin saw Winston raise a hand. For a moment, it looked like he might gently stroke his cheek, like he used to.

But the hand paused midair, awkwardly suspended between them.

Silence fell.

And when Yu-jin’s tears finally spilled over, clearing his vision, Winston came back into focus—wearing a bitter smile.

He slowly lowered his hand again.

Winston moved.

As he walked past Yu-jin, a faint, sweet scent lingered in the air behind him.

Yu-jin stood there in a daze, frozen in place, only turning his head after hearing the door shut behind Winston.

No.

He bolted out the door too late—Winston was already far down the hallway.

Yu-jin ran after him, shouting with everything he had.

“Don’t go, Winnie! Winston!”

His desperate cries echoed through the air, but Winston didn’t look back.

This isn’t happening. This can’t be real. This can’t be how it ends.

A raw, anguished sob ripped from Yu-jin’s throat. Choking on tears, he pleaded again and again.

“Don’t go, please! Don’t leave me… Winnie, don’t leave me! Please don’t—!”

In his desperation, Yu-jin’s foot slipped on the sleek marble floor, and he went sprawling across the ground.

A dull thud rang out sharply.

He lay there, stunned by the impact, before slowly lifting his head.

But Winston was already too far. Beyond reach.

Crushed by despair, Yu-jin collapsed again, trembling with sobs, calling out the only name that mattered.

“Winston…!”

Winston didn’t stop.

He didn’t even glance back.

He just kept walking, at the same steady pace, unwavering and unshaken.

Away from Yu-jin.

Away from everything they once had.

As if it had all never happened. As if none of it had ever existed.

***

Yu-jin blinked vacantly, slowly coming back to his senses.

Winston was staring at him, his brow furrowed. An awkward silence settled between them. Then, at last, Winston—who had said nothing until now—spoke in a slow, even voice. “So.”

His tone was as subdued as the look in his eyes as he continued. “Are you finally done resenting me?”

Yu-jin stared at him in silence for a moment, then shook his head faintly.

“What’s the point? It’s all in the past now.”

Winston rested his chin in one hand and asked, “So you’re saying it was me that night? Not my father?”

Yu-jin didn’t answer. He only kept silent. A bitter sigh escaped Winston’s lips, full of disbelief.

What the hell was I expecting?

Maybe it was time to just admit he’d gone insane.

“I’m not asking you to believe me. There’s no point in that anyway.”

His calm tone made Winston falter slightly. Yu-jin kept speaking with a serene expression.

“You didn’t believe me back then. And you don’t believe me now. All I’ve got are my words. I can say I’m innocent, but that’s it. No proof, no witness. Just my word.”

He let out a hollow, self-deprecating laugh and lowered his gaze.

“If you’ve already decided not to believe me, then what more can I possibly do?”

Winston said nothing. Because Yu-jin was right. Believing something like that now would be pure madness.

Don’t fall for it. He’s trying to fool you again.

The voice of caution echoed deep within Winston’s chest. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he never would’ve believed it either. Yu-jin sleeping with another man? Especially his father? He would’ve laughed in disbelief.

But…

If Yu-jin was denying something so strongly—denying what Winston knew he saw—Wasn’t there a reason for that? Just as Winston wasn’t a fool, neither was Yu-jin.

If there’s really something I don’t know about that night…

“…The tea.”

Winston finally spoke after a long silence.

“You said you drank tea? And then your memory goes blank?”

“More precisely… it was after I came to your room. After I met you…”

“My father’s room,” Winston corrected him.

“You mean after going to my father’s room. After meeting him.”

Yu-jin fell silent and stared at him, then exhaled a short sigh.

“…Right. That’s what you saw, after all.”

Even now, he wouldn’t admit to it. Because what Yu-jin remembered… was completely different from what Winston believed to be the truth.

Winston frowned, but didn’t say anything more. He simply pressed his fingers to his furrowed brow and let out a low groan.

Yu-jin just watched him in silence.

“…Alright.”

Winston finally murmured in a low voice.

Yu-jin wanted to ask what he meant by “alright”, but Winston didn’t give him the chance. He stood up at once.

“Get some sleep. You must be tired.”

With just that, Winston turned and walked toward the door.

Does he just need time to think?

The thought passed briefly through Yu-jin’s mind, but he didn’t try to stop him.

Only after hearing the door shut did he let out a deep sigh and slump back. Suddenly, an overwhelming wave of drowsiness swept over him.

He washed up quickly and crawled into bed.

Fortunately, sleep came to him before any useless thoughts or emotions could.

***

Fwooo…

Winston exhaled deeply into the still night air that blanketed the garden.

On any other night, he would’ve already lit a cigarette and had it between his lips. But not now.

Angela had come back. And Yu-jin was here too.

He brushed off the irrelevant thought of secondhand smoke risks, only to shake his head irritably a second later.

Why does he keep telling such transparent lies?

Until now, Winston had believed Yu-jin was just a clumsy liar—or maybe someone too proud to admit his own mistakes. But what if he wasn’t?

What if Yu-jin really was telling the truth?

Can two completely different memories… both be real?

It was absurd. To believe that, swayed again by those wide, innocent eyes, would be nothing short of confessing just how stupid he truly was.

Or—admitting that he was still madly in love with Yu-jin.

Any other time, he would’ve scoffed or laughed at himself. But tonight, Winston didn’t smile at all. A memory he’d long forgotten suddenly resurfaced.

“There was a time I almost got married,”

That was what Sam had once said the first time they met. She’d opened up, sharing a piece of herself she’d kept tightly locked away.

“There was a man I loved. I couldn’t get enough of him—I’d see him every day and still miss him. I was dying to marry him, to live together as soon as we could.”

A wistful smile had touched her wrinkled face as she recalled the past. But it hadn’t lasted.

“Then one day, I saw him kissing another woman.”

Winston had stayed silent, listening. He ignored the sharp ache that throbbed in his chest.

“I blew up. Took off my ring and threw it at his face. He begged me to listen, said it was all a misunderstanding, but I didn’t want to hear it. I saw it. With my own eyes. What more explanation did I need? I saw it!”

She had repeated herself, then gave a bitter smile.

“I was so angry. Shaking with betrayal. I swore I’d hate him for the rest of my life. No matter how much he begged, I told myself I’d never forgive him.”

Winston had still said nothing. But soon, he learned why she’d told him all this.

“But in the end, I never found out what really happened. He died.”

At that point in the memory, Winston’s brow gave a slight twitch. For a split second, a vision of Yu-jin covered in blood flashed before his eyes, and he instinctively closed them.

“That day… he tried to chase after me in his car, and… there was an accident. He died on the spot. Just like that—it was over.”

Sam’s eyes had started to glisten with tears.

“I still regret it, you know. I should’ve at least listened to what he had to say. Did he really cheat on me? Did I see it wrong? Maybe there was something I didn’t know…”

“The man I knew… he wasn’t the type to cheat.”

She slowly shook her head and continued.

“But now, I’ll never know. Because he’s gone from this world.”

Sam let out a soft sniffle, took a deep breath while gazing up at the ceiling, then gave her advice.

“Listen to what the other person has to say, Winston.”

Looking at the man sitting silently across from her, she added with a gentle, sympathetic gaze,

“You can make your judgment after that. At the very least, you won’t have to live with regrets.”

Winston had tried to listen to Yu-jin. But if he was being honest, that had been a terribly arrogant impulse. Looking back, it wasn’t about giving Yu-jin a chance to explain.

What Winston really wanted… was for Yu-jin to finally admit his lie, to beg for forgiveness, to tell him he had been right all along. But that wasn’t what Sam had meant at all.

Why did that memory come back now, of all times?

Winston felt a wave of discomfort rise in him—unwillingly, he had to admit something to himself.

Maybe this was… a second chance.

Haa…

He exhaled deeply, eyes hardening as his gaze fixed on the distance.

Let’s make sure. Let’s go back… and find out what really happened that day.

Author: Levia