Chapter 148
*
His body felt heavy, like water-logged cotton. Woken by the morning call, Hyeon-woo forced open his reluctant eyelids and hurried to prepare for work.
A strange tension hung in the cool air of the mansion. He slightly parted the blackout curtains in the hallway to look up at the sky. It was completely ashen, covered by dark clouds pouring rain like a downpour.
He knocked on the door with Tae-geon’s breakfast. He waited for Tae-geon’s usual “Come in,” but after a long while, the voice that finally came was different than expected.
“Take it back, and…”
“…”
“Don’t come near here for a while.”
Hyeon-woo headed back to the kitchen with the trolley. The head butler, who happened to be standing in front of the dining room, spotted Hyeon-woo and approached quickly. Examining the untouched food, he made a knowing expression and said to Hyeon-woo:
“This happens once a month. Maybe it’s because the weather is gloomy. He usually doesn’t get like this so early in the morning…”
“…”
“You experienced this last month already, didn’t you? Stay in your room for the next 3 days starting today. Meals will be delivered to your room during that time.”
The head butler’s face was filled with solemnity. Hyeon-woo turned and headed to his room in the basement. He felt nauseous, like he was about to get motion sickness. He lay on the bed and tried to force himself to sleep. But there was no way he could fall asleep feeling like this.
Whenever he had time, he had been searching for rut suppressants that might exist somewhere in the world, but he never found any.
Well, if suppressants existed, Tae-geon probably wouldn’t be suffering like this in a place like this. The horrific image of Tae-geon bound limb by limb flashed through his mind. As if it was painful to recall, Hyeon-woo bit his lip hard.
It didn’t seem likely that Taeryeong would spend enormous time and money developing suppressants just to take care of Tae-geon. If that had been their intention, they wouldn’t have abandoned him in this mansion in the first place. Even before the rut, the imprinting alone had essentially made Tae-geon lose his value as a commodity.
The existence of the new drug, which he had never thought deeply about before, suddenly took on great significance. Where would he be in life now if Legatum didn’t exist? In a world without legal and institutional improvements brought by the new drug, it certainly wouldn’t have been easy to raise Jerome this far on his own.
As Hyeon-woo was lost in these thoughts, he heard a knock at his door. He got up and opened it to find manager Okhee holding a tray with sandwiches and fruit.
“It’s lunch.”
“…Who’s taking care of the young master’s meals?”
Okhee shook her head with a bitter smile at Hyeon-woo’s question as he received the tray.
“He can’t eat anything. Soon he won’t even be able to swallow a sip of water.”
“…”
“Are you worried?”
“…”
After a silence, Hyeon-woo asked the manager:
“Why is the East Wing constantly neglected? The broken statues, the floor, the walls… Did the young master make it all like this?”
The manager shook her head.
“No. The East Wing was in this state before the young master came.”
The manager slowly closed and opened her eyes as if recalling memories, then continued:
“Since the head butler, who has managed this place for a long time, doesn’t say anything, I don’t know exactly what happened in the East Wing. Maybe there’s some secret story hidden that we don’t know about.”
“…”
“Eat your meal, Ian. I’ll be going now.”
After the manager left, Hyeon-woo sat alone at the desk and ate the sandwich on the tray. But he only managed two bites. He had no appetite. He opened a book from the desk and tried to read, but nothing sank in.
Around midnight, when everything was plunged into pitch darkness, a familiar engine sound came from outside. Parting the curtains to look out, he saw Kwon Hak-gyu’s car.
Hyeon-woo returned to bed, pulled the covers over his head, and closed his eyes. He wanted to fall asleep quickly like this. But as if mocking that wish, agonized screams echoed loudly through the mansion.
“Aargh…!”
Along with the sound of something tumbling on the floor, sharp metallic noises spread through the air in waves. It was the sound of the chains binding Tae-geon scraping against the pillars.
Hyeon-woo’s shoulders shook. He tried to calm his pounding heart and clear his mind, but the image of Tae-geon from the other night vividly appeared before his eyes. The sight of him gradually losing his sense of smell while unconsciously bound to the pillar.
Hyeon-woo covered his ears against the continuing roar and became lost in thought. After being immersed in those thoughts for a long time, he seemed to make a decision. He threw off the blanket and got up. Taking suppressants from the drawer and packing some in a small tin case, Hyeon-woo left the room with a determined expression.
Hiding his body at the corner of the third-floor stairs, he stared at the room at the far end of the corridor where light was leaking through the door crack.
As the loud noises ceased, a deathly silence settled eerily. Soon the door opened and Hak-gyu appeared with his medical bag. Behind him, one of the two large men had a blue bruise around his eye. From their sweaty, exhausted appearance, it was clear that subduing Tae-geon had not been easy.
Hyeon-woo remained motionless even after confirming that everyone had dispersed to their rooms. Only after a long while did he begin to move.
He hesitated with his hand on the doorknob, then steeled himself, remembering his earlier resolve.
Three months. Three ruts, no, two ruts remained since one had already passed. He intended to help Tae-geon endure those two times without drugs, like last night. When Tae-geon overcame the drug’s side effects and regained his sense of smell, that would be the moment his own identity was revealed and they would face all the truths.
If asked why he wanted to reveal his identity this way, he could only explain it as purely selfish.
He didn’t want Tae-geon to lose his sense of smell after already losing his sight. Although he had rationalized that he wasn’t responsible for Tae-geon’s imprinting, he couldn’t just listen to the desperate groans assaulting his ears without feeling anything. He wanted to ease the weight of responsibility pressing down on him, even a little.
Maybe he was trying to create his own grounds for exemption to free himself from the guilt plaguing him, at least until he uncovered the truth Tae-geon held. If he could only suppress the inexplicable pain in his chest and the torment that surged whenever he faced Tae-geon, it wouldn’t be a bad choice for him.
Having made up his mind, Hyeon-woo resolutely opened the door and entered Tae-geon’s room. Along with the soft breathing of sleep, a terrible smell pierced his lungs.
Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve, he headed straight for the source of the smell. An unknown drug was dissolving in a transparent glass cylinder placed in the same spot as that day.
Looking around, Hyeon-woo saw a silver tray in the same place as before. Without hesitation, he picked it up and covered the cylinder, causing the drug to solidify into a haze.
Now that he had extinguished the sedative, Tae-geon would soon regain consciousness. He had to hurry and suppress the rut before then.
Hyeon-woo immediately drew back the canopy of the bed where Tae-geon lay and squeezed his eyes shut. Although he had seen this scene once before, he still couldn’t get used to this wretchedness.
As Hyeon-woo barely managed to open his eyes, he saw that the straps restraining Tae-geon’s wrists were soaked red with blood, testament to his violent struggles. Nearby, blue bruises from needle injections had spread.
Clenching his teeth, Hyeon-woo carefully wiped Tae-geon’s sweat-soaked forehead. His deeply furrowed brow was burning hot like a fireball. Hyeon-woo’s hand, which had been caressing the small wound above Tae-geon’s eyebrow, traced over his closed eyelids, sharp nose bridge, and rough lips in turn. As Hyeon-woo’s cold fingertips moved, Tae-geon’s head twitched slightly, and hot breath burst from his mouth.
“Haa…”
“…”
“Hyeon-woo… hey.”
Hyeon-woo… Hyeon-woo.
Seeing Tae-geon frantically calling his name, Hyeon-woo felt a strange ache in his chest.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
