Chapter 76
Only silence lingered inside the moving car. But neither of them was the first to open their mouth.
Yuwon gripped his seatbelt tightly and looked out the car window. Though he had mountains of things he wanted to ask Jeonghyeok, the air pressing down on him was so heavy that he couldn’t say anything right now.
He had clearly said he was going to a funeral hall in Busan, so why hadn’t he left yet? Maybe he was planning to see his face before going? If that was the case, then why did he say he would come back tomorrow morning in the first place?
But most puzzling of all was how he knew where he was and came to find him.
Swallowing his endless curiosity, Yuwon bit the soft flesh inside his mouth. His chest felt stuffy, so he stopped thinking any further.
The car drove at high speed and soon arrived home. After parking in the garage, the two stood in front of the elevator.
When the doors opened, Jeonghyeok let Yuwon get on first. Yuwon obediently got on the elevator and quietly watched Jeonghyeok’s back as he turned away from him. Another wave of thoughts came rushing in.
“…”
Could he have been following me from the beginning?
Unless he had deliberately tailed him, there was no way to know his location. If there was someone among his companions who would contact Jeonghyeok instead of him, that would be different, but that wasn’t the case either.
Yuwon slightly furrowed his brow and shook his head lightly.
Well, maybe he just happened to discover him while passing by. He wasn’t someone idle enough to follow him for that long, and he didn’t want to think about it in such a negative way.
While he was making resolutions to himself, the elevator doors opened. This time too, Jeonghyeok stepped aside and let Yuwon get off first. Even while opening the front door and taking off their shoes, Jeonghyeok silently stood behind Yuwon.
His body stiffened for no reason under the presence of Jeonghyeok standing firmly behind him. A precarious tension flowed as if he were standing on an invisible tightrope.
As they entered the house, only the soft sound of footsteps echoed in his ears. Yuwon placed his phone on the dining table as naturally as possible. He took off the thin shirt he was wearing and moved toward the bathroom.
Then, the long silence was broken.
“Going to wash?”
Pulling down the tie that was choking his neck, Jeonghyeok asked.
“…Yes. I’ll wash inside, so you can—”
“Let’s wash together.”
The black tie dropped to the floor with a thud. On top of it, the black suit jacket and white shirt fell in succession. Yuwon watched it quietly. Since he didn’t have the confidence to meet Jeonghyeok’s eyes, he fixed his gaze on the clothes that had fallen to the floor.
“I want to wash alone.”
As he squeezed out the words, Jeonghyeok’s hands, which had been unbuckling his belt, stopped.
“Why?”
A listless laugh flowed out at the end of his low voice.
“Have you lost interest in me?”
“Why would I lose interest in ajeossi…”
“Then why aren’t you asking me anything? You must be curious about a lot of things.”
Jeonghyeok took a step forward, and Yuwon took a step back. At the distance that wouldn’t close, Jeonghyeok’s brow furrowed sharply.
He was gradually reaching the limits of his patience. He was exerting superhuman strength to suppress his anger to the point where he thought he couldn’t endure any more, but Yuwon kept testing him.
Throughout the entire ride home, he kept his mouth shut and wouldn’t even make eye contact with him. He even refused to enter the bathroom together. He could only think that he was blatantly avoiding him.
The anxiety that had been quietly growing finally completely covered his mind. And it made it impossible for him to think normally.
Jeonghyeok strode toward Yuwon, who had moved away from him. He caught and firmly held the wrist of Yuwon, who was about to step back again.
A sharp scream burst from Yuwon’s mouth at the sudden force.
“Ah…!”
“What did you do there?”
Sparks flew from Jeonghyeok’s threatening eyes. He could see Yuwon’s expression contorted with distress, but he didn’t have the luxury to care about such things right now.
“What did you do in that house that you had to hide it from me?”
“Let, let go and talk.”
“Answer first.”
The grip on his wrist became increasingly stronger. Yuwon endured the pain and said.
“Nothing happened. Minhyeon was just too drunk, so I brought him home, that’s all.”
“You went in there and didn’t come out for a good 30 minutes. And you want me to believe that?”
“Minhyeon was, he was too drunk…”
He held onto me. Crying and begging me not to go. He couldn’t bring himself to say the rest, and as he hesitated, Jeonghyeok’s eyes narrowed.
“Too drunk. So what.”
Persistent suspicion crossed his pitch-black pupils. The look of someone glaring at a lover who had committed adultery. Feeling like he had become the worst kind of person, Yuwon’s pupils began to tremble finely.
Though this wasn’t the first or second time he had received such misunderstanding, he suddenly felt like the dam he had firmly built in his heart was crumbling down. Something he had tried so hard to suppress overflowed with just that one remark.
Yuwon didn’t hide his surging emotions and glared up at him.
“This is exactly why I did it. You don’t even listen to what I say, and it’s obvious you’ll get angry like this again. What’s the point of being honest when it only leads to more fighting?”
“Still, you should have been honest.”
“Then you be honest too, ajeossi!”
After shouting loudly, Yuwon caught his breath a few times before continuing.
“How did you know Minhyeon’s address and come find me? No, how did you even know I was there in the first place?”
“…”
“The Busan thing was also a lie, wasn’t it? You knew everything from the beginning, but you deliberately tested me to see how I would react, right?”
He asked hoping for a denial. That he had discovered him by chance, that he had just followed after seeing him with Kim Minhyeon. That going to Busan was also real. He hoped he would say that.
“Yeah. It was all lies.”
But Jeonghyeok didn’t give Yuwon the answer he had hoped for.
“I always knew your location. I had someone tail you.”
It was an unbelievably calm tone. Not a trace of guilt could be felt from his peaceful face.
He had someone tail me? Me?
It was incomprehensible. His facial muscles hardened so much that he couldn’t make proper expressions. Yuwon stared blankly at Jeonghyeok with his mouth slightly open.
“You, who hadn’t contacted me once, went into that bastard’s house together, so I called you.”
“…”
“I thought you would at least be honest when I could reach you. If you had been, I wouldn’t have been this angry.”
Lies. Yuwon inwardly denied Jeonghyeok’s words.
If he had honestly said that he went to his house to take care of Minhyeon, Jeonghyeok would have been furious as he always was. He would have demanded to know why he was taking care of Kim Minhyeon and questioned him fiercely.
“But you deceived me until the end. You hadn’t even come out of there yet, but when I received your text saying you had arrived home, how much I…!”
“So it’s all my fault?”
Yuwon’s eyes became sharp as he cut off Jeonghyeok’s words.
“Regardless of all the things ajeossi has done to me so far, you’re just saying it’s all my fault no matter what?”
“I’m not saying it’s anyone’s fault right now.”
“Then what are you trying to say? Why exactly… why are you going this far?”
What did I do so wrong? Yuwon felt like he was going crazy with injustice. He couldn’t understand Jeonghyeok’s behavior at all, wondering which part made him so distrustful that he would do this to him.
“Don’t meet Kim Minhyeon.”
“What did you say?”
“Stop going to the orphanage too. We’re moving soon.”
Moving. What was that supposed to mean now? Jeonghyeok’s eyes looking at the stunned Yuwon were just calm.
“I got a new house. It’s much bigger and better than here.”
“…”
“But it’s a bit far, so we’ll have to completely leave this neighborhood.”
This wasn’t how he had wanted to say it. He had wanted to convey it sincerely in a more stable atmosphere.
“If there’s something you want to do, you can do it. Studying is fine too. I’ll help you with everything, so come with me.”
Though he spoke with sincerity pressed down firmly, Yuwon’s face became terribly distorted. Transparent tears soon gathered in his resentful eyes.
“So what ajeossi is saying is…”
“…”
“You’re telling me to leave my hometown right now.”
“I want to start over with you in a new place.”
“I never said I wanted to do that!”
Yuwon, who had shouted loudly, roughly shook off his arm. His wrist, which had red handprints, throbbed with pain, but his heart hurt even more.
For several days, he had agonized over his feelings toward Jeonghyeok. He still liked him, but on the other hand, his growing fear confused him.
Still, he thought he could endure it because his feelings of liking him were much stronger. But he no longer had the confidence to handle Jeonghyeok, who was completely selfish. It felt like all the efforts he had carefully built up were crumbling to pieces.
Tears welled up, blurring his vision hazily. Yuwon roughly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and took a deep breath.
The moment of separation had arrived.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
