Chapter 83
At the voice filled with anger, Taeju froze completely.
“Do I not know you? Or do I not know Kim Yuwon?”
“Hyung-nim……”
“Speak quickly. It’s already too late.”
A sneer flowed from the corner of Jeonghyeok’s mouth. The sight was so unfamiliar that Taeju became dazed. It seemed like he had no choice right now.
“He said he was too frustrated and wanted to go outside.”
“And?”
“He asked me to find his phone……”
After saying that much, he began to worry about Yuwon in the room. But now wasn’t the time to worry about Yuwon. His own nose was three feet long right now.
“So. Did you say you’d find it for him?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Taeju desperately shook his head as he spoke.
“I was about to ask what had happened when hyung-nim came in, so I couldn’t give any answer.”
If Jeonghyeok hadn’t come in, he might have greatly pitied Yuwon’s situation and made some effort to find his phone for a while.
But Taeju knew well how meaningless that action would be. Jeonghyeok was more meticulous than anyone else he knew. He who could detect even small lies couldn’t possibly fail to notice his intentions. It was rather fortunate that he was caught by Jeonghyeok at this point.
Surely he wouldn’t dismiss me over something like this. Even if he occasionally made mistakes, hyung-nim was someone who would usually let them slide. Taeju hoped for the merciful side of Jeonghyeok that he had seen so far.
“Don’t contact me for a while.”
“……”
“And don’t be curious about where I am either.”
However, what he heard was an ice-cold tone. His downcast eyes were full of distrust.
Did I mishear something? Taeju mulled over what he had heard. Don’t contact him for a while, and don’t be curious about where he is.
“Go now.”
“Hyung, hyung-nim……”
“Get out.”
The brief single word was as sharp as a well-honed blade. His heart ached as if it had been cut. Taeju clenched his jaw and gripped his empty fist.
He wanted to immediately kneel and beg Jeonghyeok for forgiveness, but he knew that would also be useless. Right now, whatever he did would only provoke Jeonghyeok’s anger.
“……I’m sorry.”
Taeju bowed at a right angle before heading to the entrance. With the sound of him hastily opening the door and leaving, silence followed.
The living room was quiet with the tense atmosphere lifted. Jeonghyeok let out a low sigh and moved his steps to open the bedroom door.
He could see Yuwon sitting forlornly on the edge of the bed. His tightly shut mouth revealed stubborn determination.
“If you wanted to go out that badly, you should have talked to me instead.”
Yuwon glared sharply at Jeonghyeok, who spoke with feigned leisure.
“If I talked to you, would you have let me out?”
“No.”
At the word-play response, Yuwon’s face crumpled with anger. Looking at Yuwon openly showing his irritation, Jeonghyeok gave a hollow laugh.
Right, I thought you were being too obedient. Even when shown such a small opening, you try to leave. What was I thinking, leaving you alone?
“You said you wanted to go outside.”
Jeonghyeok asked, rubbing his tired face.
“Why is that? Did you like Taeju that much?”
“What?”
Was he suspecting something between Jo Taeju and himself? At the absurd speculation, Yuwon made a shocked face. Jeonghyeok’s expression was too calm, making it hard to tell whether these words were a joke or serious.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that? It’s just because I was too frustrated. I wanted to get some fresh air outside……”
“Then the phone. Why did you ask him to find that?”
“You said we’re moving soon. I need to contact the people around me too.”
“Who do you have to contact? Kim Minhyeon? Yoon Jaejoon? Choi Seongcheol?”
Jeonghyeok, who had been listing the few people around him, paused for a moment then sneered as if he finally understood.
“Ah, is it Yoon Sohyeon? I had forgotten about that woman.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then why on earth did you do it? Why on earth!”
Suddenly Jeonghyeok’s voice rose. Yuwon, startled, flinched and his shoulders trembled.
“I asked you to wait just ten days. Just ten days, I said that…!”
Reading the fear reflected in his wide-open eyes, Jeonghyeok stopped speaking and took a deep breath.
He didn’t want to frighten Yuwon. He already disliked him enough, and he had no intention of making him dislike him even more than now.
But it wasn’t easy to calm his agitated emotions.
It was only yesterday that he had said let’s break up. His heart, torn to shreds, still ached, and he couldn’t come to his senses from the anxiety that Yuwon might run away. In the midst of all this, even his biological parents had come looking for Yuwon – it felt like someone was deliberately trampling on the ends of his nerve strings.
If you knew that your biological parents had returned, what would you do? You’d probably leave me without hesitation, forgetting all about the promise to become family, saying you want to live with those people. There would be no reason to stay by my side when you’re already sick of me.
Imagining Yuwon leaving without looking back made his solar plexus ache. He absolutely couldn’t let that happen.
That’s why he had gone to the orphanage and told that ridiculous lie. And to keep that lie from being discovered, he had to hide Yuwon somehow. At least until they left Seoul.
Ten days wasn’t that long. If Yuwon wanted, he was even thinking of moving in before the ten days were up, even if the house preparations weren’t completely finished.
“If you’re really that frustrated, let’s move a little earlier. It’ll be a bit inconvenient since it’s still empty, but it’ll be much better than now.”
No matter how much you dislike it, you can do at least this much, right? Jeonghyeok spoke with a pleading heart.
However, Yuwon’s expression remained cold.
“……I don’t want to.”
“What?”
“I don’t want any of it, whether it’s a few days or whatever.”
A voice clearly showing exhaustion echoed.
“Why do I have to be locked up here? Why do I have to live without a phone? There’s no need to go this far.”
Yuwon was just as desperate as Jeonghyeok. He didn’t want to live like this even for a few days. It was clearly an abnormal life, and they would surely exhaust each other as time went on.
Yuwon got up from the bed and approached Jeonghyeok. With each step, his torn bottom stung, but he bit his lip and pretended not to notice.
“Ajeossi, yesterday…… yesterday was really a mistake. I said I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I won’t say such things.”
The words about breaking up were half-impulsively spoken. Of course, at that moment he had truly made up his mind to break up with Jeonghyeok, but it was closer to a decision made in anger rather than a resolution reached through long deliberation.
If he had known that Jeonghyeok would confine him like this, he wouldn’t have acted so impulsively. He would have thought more carefully and ended the relationship through normal conversation.
Yuwon reached out and grasped Jeonghyeok’s fingertips. Opening his eyes as gently as possible, he spoke pleadingly.
“I’ll do better. So please don’t do this, okay?”
He thought it wasn’t too late yet. First, he’d calm Jeonghyeok down, spend a few days together preparing for the move, then talk things through step by step. Let’s take a little time, let’s think seriously about this relationship. Then Jeonghyeok would be able to make a more rational judgment than now.
But the expression on Jeonghyeok’s face was colder than ever.
“You’re telling me to believe your words now?”
Jeonghyeok let out a sneer, shook off the hand holding his, and grasped Yuwon’s shoulders.
“From the beginning, I clearly told you no. I pushed you away without giving you any opening, pushed you away again and again.”
“……”
“But you were the one who persistently kept coming. You shook up someone who was living well alone, and made them do this kind of crazy thing.”
Memories of that particularly cold winter day came to Yuwon’s mind.
On the day they first met, he had called out to Jeonghyeok like someone possessed. He had become even more desperate for the indifferent Jeonghyeok’s attention. Though clumsy, he had tried with the heart of wanting to be looked at. The way they had shared their hearts felt like something from a very long time ago.
“But how can I trust you?”
“……”
“Hm? How can I trust you, Yuwon?”
From his eyes that had been red all along, a single tear dropped. Yuwon’s mouth opened slightly at the unbelievable sight.
Ajeossi was crying. None other than ajeossi was shedding tears in front of him.
“I like you. I like you so much that it’s painful and difficult.”
Jeonghyeok contorted his face like someone feeling terrible pain. Looking at him blankly, one corner of his heart ached and hurt.
The man who had always been unshakeable like Mount Tai looked infinitely weak at this moment. Making his thoughts of how to break up seem meaningless, he wanted to wipe away his tears.
Yuwon thought such feelings of his were ridiculous. Ajeossi was the person who had hurt him. He was clearly a bad person. Even though he knew all that.
“I love you.”
“……”
“I love you, Yuwon.”
The moment a desperate confession flowed out with hot tears, Yuwon stretched out both arms and embraced Jeonghyeok’s waist.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
