Chapter 169
He pushed the half-peeled apple toward Eunseong. Eunseong, who was keeping his distance with his back against the wall in a place far away with nowhere to retreat, trembled greatly all over his body even at Yoo Siwoon’s small movement.
Yoo Siwoon was examining Eunseong in detail. Whether he was hurt anywhere, how his complexion was, how his mood was… he was looking at him with the eyes of someone who treasured him.
Eunseong found his gaze disgusting. It felt like it had ulterior motives. Even those eyes filled with longing seemed to have some purpose.
With Eunseong frozen in place unable to move, Yoo Siwoon opened his mouth. During the few days Eunseong was absent, Yoo Siwoon had suffered as much as Eunseong, and apart from the suffering, there was also the heavy burden of guilt for failing in his duty as an adult who should properly protect and guard Eunseong.
“Do you remember your father saying our family was a crazy household?”
“What? That ahjussi’s family is a crazy household?”
“Did he say they were crazy?”
“He said they weren’t in their right minds. I don’t know yet in what way they’re not in their right minds though.”
“They’re not in their right minds, that’s true. But didn’t he mention that I would be the one to protect you in that place?”
Eunseong remembered the conversation he had with Yoo Siwoon on the day they first met.
He also clearly remembered that he had said he would be the one to protect Eunseong in that crazy household.
“I also remember ahjussi saying you could protect me here. Though it was a lie.”
“…Do you think it was a lie?”
“Yes, I think it was a lie. All of it.”
“…”
Watching Eunseong speak coldly and mercilessly like a sharpened blade, Yoo Siwoon sat back down at the table and continued peeling the apple. He neatly arranged the peeled apple pieces on a plate one by one.
Only after stopping the mindless action of peeling the apple and quite some time had passed did he break the chilly silence and open his mouth.
“You don’t need to worry. There’s no one left who would treat you carelessly.”
“…”
“Because they’re all dead.”
Those who tried to use Eunseong in such a way no longer existed in this world.
He meant there was nothing to fear or be scared of anymore, that he could be at ease. Eunseong found that even more frightening. The fact that because of him, Yoo Siwoon would kill someone and such things would happen.
Yoo Siwoon’s world made no sense at all. It was a world Eunseong didn’t know. And he didn’t want to know it either.
A frightened voice still refuted his words as if the truth had to be spoken.
“How can I not worry? When ahjussi is here. You’re here.”
“…Right, I was here.”
“…”
“I… I was alive.”
At Eunseong’s words, Yoo Siwoon muttered in despair. Eunseong was anxiously looking for a chance to escape, staying far away from Yoo Siwoon as if facing some monster.
“I… I thought you would want it too.”
“Want what? That ahjussi killed all my precious people and used me? That too… since I was born, disgustingly, waiting until I grew up? Are you talking about waiting for me to grow up and then making the father who raised me die too?”
This was what was truly creepy, Eunseong’s trembling voice barely finished speaking and bit his lips.
Yoo Siwoon, who had been listening quietly, shook his head.
“No, my child.”
“…”
“I thought you would be happy too. If we had a child between us… I thought you would like it too.”
“…Are you really insane, ahjussi?”
Eunseong’s expression and voice were both stricken with horror. At Eunseong’s reaction, who didn’t want or think about a child at all and wouldn’t have been happy even if one had been conceived, Yoo Siwoon muttered bitterly like talking to himself.
“I guess I was the only one whose heart was burning.”
The disgust and loathing for himself, who had become an abnormal person, an insane person by choosing Eunseong, showed disturbingly on his face.
“Everything’s been sorted out. We need to wake up Eunseong and go up now… Eunseong.”
Director Nam, who had been coming in brushing off his two hands that had gotten dirty from whatever he had sorted out, stopped when he discovered Eunseong. Soon he breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that Eunseong was fine without any injuries.
That was their problem. That made Eunseong angry. The way they treated him created the illusion that their feelings seemed genuine.
“I’ll explain. I understand this is a situation that could cause misunderstandings.”
“…Director, you knew everything too, didn’t you? Who I am, and that ahjussi approached me… Director, you knew everything, didn’t you? From the beginning.”
“That’s not true.”
He knew Eunseong would misunderstand like that. That was the only way he could think about it. Director Nam shook his head with a deeply troubled expression.
“What’s not true? It’s true that my dad died, it’s true that my birth parents died… and it’s true that ahjussi tried to get me pregnant. I know what that plant is. I heard what happens when you smell it. Are you saying I’m misunderstanding that too? How long are you going to keep lying!”
His rough protest telling them not to deceive him anymore sometimes broke off and sometimes choked with tears. He didn’t seem ready to listen to any explanation. Director Nam looked back at Yoo Siwoon with troubled eyes.
With eyes as if animal claws had scratched and passed through his chest, Yoo Siwoon was staring intensely at Eunseong.
Of all times, when everything had been sorted out, when both the Seongha Group and the Yongse Pacheon Church had come under his management as Yoo Siwoon wanted, at this point Eunseong, whom he wanted to keep by his side even if it meant throwing away everything else, was looking at him with horror. It was no longer the gaze of someone treating him as a loved one, as a lover. To Eunseong, he had become not a stranger but a detestable human being.
“I don’t want to see you anymore.”
“…”
“I don’t want to be involved with ahjussi anymore.”
“Eunseong!”
Director Nam called out to Eunseong in panic, telling him to stop, while checking Yoo Siwoon’s complexion. Yoo Siwoon was frozen like ice, looking so precarious that just a slight touch would cause cracks, unable to take his eyes off the person who said he never wanted to see him again.
Yoo Siwoon grabbed the back of his chair and struggled to stand up as if defying gravity was difficult.
“Let’s go home now.”
“Don’t come near me.”
When he took a step and approached, Eunseong was terrified. The entrance was blocked by Director Nam, and Yoo Siwoon was approaching in front of him.
Eunseong tried to flee to the bedroom. He was determined to jump out the window if necessary. Just as he was about to run, Yoo Siwoon’s two arms, who had somehow approached, suddenly grabbed his moving body. He embraced Eunseong in his arms. Eunseong’s spine stiffened with a start.
“Eunseong.”
“Let go… let go, let, let go of this. Let go! I said let go!”
He struggled to escape from his arms, but it was futile. Like a snare tightening around his body, the two arms firmly bound Eunseong. He trapped him in his embrace and wouldn’t let him go. A sigh of relief that he had finally caught him – goosebumps rose on Eunseong’s bare skin as he remembered there had been a time like this before.
“I caught you.”
At that time, when he had suddenly embraced Eunseong, Yoo Siwoon hadn’t said “I found you.” At that time, when he bound Eunseong with both arms and held him in his embrace, Yoo Siwoon had whispered “I caught you.” He had been mistaken all this time. It wasn’t a voice moved with emotion saying he had found him. Realizing it was an obsession saying he had caught him, that he had finally gotten his hands on him, Eunseong was horrified.
“Let go! I said let go! Let go!”
Eunseong made a fuss trying to escape from his embrace. The more he did so, the more Yoo Siwoon wouldn’t let Eunseong go. The struggling that had stubbornly rejected him grew tired and subsided, and only Eunseong’s gasping breath echoed loudly in his ears.
“…Let go, let go, let go…”
Showing disgust with his whole body and rejecting him as if reptilian skin was wrapped around his body, Yoo Siwoon overwhelmed Eunseong with gentle force. He trapped him in his embrace and wouldn’t let him go. He held on tenaciously, waiting for Eunseong to get tired and give up trying to escape from him, to resign himself.
Tears fell from the arms that held Eunseong. The tears that flowed down his cheeks pooled at the tip of his chin and dripped, wetting his jacket sleeves.
“…Let’s go home. Okay?”
“…”
Yoo Siwoon, who let go of Eunseong and made him look at him, tried to wipe away the tears that moistened his cheeks. Even though tears were pooled enough to make his eyes glisten, Eunseong coldly turned his head away to avoid his hand.
After watching Eunseong, who wouldn’t even look at him and turned away, for a long time, Yoo Siwoon lowered the hand he was holding.
He looked back at Director Nam. Director Nam approached and patted Eunseong’s shoulder soothingly, telling him to go now and making him turn around. Eunseong moved with completely drained, powerless steps.
In the parking lot outside the resort, the personnel called in to deal with the executive directors were just leaving. They were all intimidating-looking, large-built men.
Director Nam put Eunseong in the back seat of the car. Eunseong didn’t look at Director Nam either. It was behavior that felt intentional, as if he would perfectly ignore everything by not seeing anything and not hearing anything, but Eunseong, who couldn’t hide his emotions, continued to shed sorrowful and painful tears.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
