Moreover, only his hands were tied behind his back; his feet were fine. He couldn’t understand why they would tie just his hands. Suhwan was frowning at his unbound feet when he managed to fully sit up.
“You’re awake?”
“…”
Geonyul entered the room and casually greeted him. Momentarily speechless, Suhwan could only stand rigid, staring at Geonyul. Geonyul approached Suhwan with a leisurely attitude.
“Where is this place?”
Startled by Geonyul who had suddenly come right up to his face, Suhwan asked. Looking down at that face, Geonyul smirked.
“If I was going to tell you where this is, would I have brought you here like that?”
“…”
“Sit down for now.”
Geonyul pointed his chin toward a nearby chair. Before Suhwan could respond, Geonyul flopped down on an antique-style chair. Then he smiled languidly, like a satiated carnivore. Despite his young age, Geonyul fit in perfectly with the lavishly decorated space. Swallowing nervously, Suhwan sat down across from Geonyul.
“Untie my hands.”
“You liked whiskey, didn’t you, hyung?”
“Ju Geonyul.”
Seeing Geonyul pretending not to hear him, Suhwan frowned. The way he was trying to act normal after practically kidnapping him didn’t seem right at all. It was increasingly creepy. Placing his whiskey glass back on the table, Geonyul slightly furrowed one eyebrow.
“What? Uncomfortable?”
“Obviously.”
“Bear with it a little. You’re an alpha too, hyung. If your hands and feet were free, who knows what you might do? What could I trust?”
It was a strange thing to say. Where was this coming from when his dominant pheromones could make people completely immobile? If he wanted to, he could subdue Suhwan at any time, even with his hands and feet free. The one who should be worried about getting hurt wasn’t Geonyul, but himself. Suhwan frowned as he spoke.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re the one who brought me here against my will.”
“Well… that’s true.”
“If you want to talk, untie my hands first.”
Geonyul’s gaze turned peculiar. His eyes widened slightly as if surprised, as he looked at Suhwan’s rigid face, then soon smiled as if finding it amusing, the corners of his mouth turning up. But unlike his smiling lips, his black eyes were darkly subdued.
“I guess you don’t understand your situation yet, hyung?”
“What?”
“Anyway, they all act like this when I try to be nice.”
Geonyul shook his head and got up from his seat. Then he took long strides toward Suhwan and stood in front of him. As Suhwan looked up, not knowing what was happening—
Thud!
“Ugh!”
Geonyul’s extended leg stomped on Suhwan’s abdomen. In that moment, Suhwan felt such pressure that he couldn’t breathe, and the pain came rushing in a beat later. Suhwan bent over in agony.
“My being kind to you is just a whim. Understand?”
“Urgh.”
“Answer me, hyung.”
The foot, hard as steel, was still pressing down on Suhwan’s abdomen. Geonyul looked down with an expressionless face at Suhwan, who was struggling in pain, unable to breathe. Suhwan barely managed to speak.
“I… understand.”
“Good, I’m glad you understand.”
“Gasp.”
When the foot was removed, Suhwan gasped for breath. Watching him, Geonyul smiled smugly. Then he returned to his chair and sat down again. His eyes turned toward the whiskey he had been drinking.
“I thought we could have a drink together after so long, but what is this? You’ve ruined the mood.”
“…”
“Hyung.”
“…”
“Suhwan hyung.”
Geonyul persistently called out to Suhwan, who kept his head down without responding. Suhwan raised his head with a tired face. He saw Geonyul’s sneering face.
“This belongs to Lee Seunghyun, right?”
“…!”
A simple silver bracelet sparkled in Geonyul’s hand as it caught the light. Suhwan’s restrained hands instinctively tensed.
“…Give it back.”
Suhwan said quietly through gritted teeth. But Geonyul pretended not to hear, playfully twirling the silver bracelet in his hand. Just seeing the bracelet that Seunghyun had given him in Geonyul’s possession made Suhwan’s mood worsen.
“I really don’t understand, you know.”
“…”
“Why did Lee Seunghyun choose you?”
His tone suggested that he couldn’t comprehend it. It didn’t seem like he was asking out of simple curiosity. Suhwan frowned, feeling ominous. So Geonyul still hasn’t given up on Seunghyun? Suhwan anxiously moved his lips.
“You… you still… Seunghyun…”
“Haha, me?”
At Suhwan’s stammering question, Geonyul burst into laughter. Even before Suhwan could finish his sentence, Geonyul asked back and continued laughing loudly.
Suhwan looked at Geonyul with a disgusted face as he laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes. He didn’t know how to react to such unpredictable behavior. Then suddenly, Geonyul stopped laughing. With the abrupt change, the surrounding air also grew chilly.
“I’ve been thinking. Where exactly did things go wrong?”
“…”
“I thought everything would go according to my plan, but it didn’t.”
Geonyul’s gaze shifted to the sparkling bracelet. It was a familiar accessory even to his eyes. It couldn’t be otherwise. It was the bracelet that Seunghyun always wore without ever taking it off. When he confiscated Suhwan’s belongings and saw this bracelet, he couldn’t help but laugh mockingly. Wearing Seunghyun’s bracelet as if flaunting it like some trophy.
Where had it all gone wrong? Geonyul had been pondering this for a while. But he still couldn’t figure out the reason. His plans had always been perfect.
But at some point, Suhwan changed and did things that were unexpected. It felt like watching a puppet suddenly cutting its strings and acting on its own. To him, Suhwan had always been nothing more than an easily manipulated chess piece.
“You’ve also gotten close with Noona Hwalyeon. After swearing you’d never see her again.”
“That’s…”
“And after crying so much over just one letter.”
“…”
“Remember? Back then, you asked me to write that letter for you.”
Letter…?
Suhwan recalled the day he first met Hwalyeon. At that time, Hwalyeon had glumly hinted at what had happened with the original Jin Suhwan.
‘I thought you were very angry when you sent me that letter.’
‘I’m sure you were disappointed in me, but I want to apologize now. I was very sorry back then. For leaving you alone and going away.’
A letter that Hwalyeon supposedly received from Jin Suhwan during her studies in America. After receiving that letter, Hwalyeon believed that Jin Suhwan harbored ill feelings toward her. Because of that misunderstanding, they didn’t try to see each other even after her return. And now, Geonyul was saying he wrote that letter? Suhwan stared at Geonyul with wide eyes.
“You… you wrote that letter?”
“Heh.”
A suppressed laugh escaped from Geonyul. Soon, as if he could no longer contain himself, he burst into laughter.
“Haha, it’s truly a masterpiece. How could you not know?”
The loud laughter pierced Suhwan’s ears. Geonyul was a man who had meticulously planned to use Jin Suhwan to get Seunghyun. And his preparations to use Jin Suhwan as a chess piece would have been consistent from a very young age. Jin Suhwan, with his needless pride and stupidity, would have been the perfect target for Geonyul to exploit.
“You bastard.”
Hwalyeon was the only person Jin Suhwan had relied on after losing his parents. When she said she was going to study abroad, he would have been very angry at first. He probably threw tantrums, crying and doing whatever he could to hold her back.
But Hwalyeon couldn’t give up her studies that would benefit her business in the future just because young Jin Suhwan disliked it. Although it pained her, Hwalyeon left Jin Suhwan behind, and she thought he had sent her a resentful letter as retaliation.
But the truth was different. From the beginning, it was Geonyul’s scheme to distance Jin Suhwan and Hwalyeon.
“You might not have known, but Noona Hwalyeon was quite formidable too. Even after receiving such a letter, she still sent a reply! Do you know how hard it was to intercept it?”
The original Jin Suhwan from the novel, although he did unforgivable things as trash, wouldn’t have been so twisted from a young age. He probably deeply regretted saying harsh things and hurting Hwalyeon, whom he considered his only family. At first, he might have said hurtful things out of anger, but once Hwalyeon actually left, he became afraid. Afraid that he might truly never see her again.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
