#71
‘I was just following orders…’
He found the doctor connected to Ryu Jeong-woo.
Eunsol had continuously been unable to let go of his attachment to the pregnancy, despite having firmly established in the contract that all rights to the child belonged to him.
He had expressed his reluctance to use contraception, or casually asked what Hyun-oh thought about having a baby.
The way he had acted like he had something to say before he disappeared only made sense after Hyun-oh learned about the pregnancy.
It was six weeks into the pregnancy.
Since several days had passed since Eunsol ran away, he might have entered the seventh week by now.
Hyun-oh held the ultrasound image that had been placed in his hand and stared at it for a long time.
A life the size of a bean was breathing inside Eunsol’s belly. It was something that could be called a miracle.
With Eunsol’s pheromone grade, his chances of getting pregnant were so slim they could be considered practically nonexistent.
Yet Eunsol had broken through those slim odds and become pregnant. Carrying none other than Hyun-oh’s seed.
At first, he had felt dazed.
He had lived his life thinking he would never have children. Even after becoming Chairman, that hadn’t changed. He thought that as he aged, he could find a suitable successor to whom he could pass on the group.
It didn’t matter if they weren’t blood-related. After all, Hyun-oh had lived his life forming relationships with his blood relatives that were worse than those with strangers.
From the beginning, Hyun-oh had no desire to leave what he had to future generations. It was enough for him to fully enjoy his achievements while he was alive.
That’s how uninterested Hyun-oh was in anyone other than himself.
When had it happened? When had someone else slipped into his boundaries without him even realizing it?
‘Haven’t slept at all again today, have you?’
With Kim Myungjun’s words, Hyun-oh finally realized that since Eunsol’s disappearance, the total time he had closed his eyes didn’t even add up to a few hours.
Even that had been more like a semi-sleep state. His eyes were bloodshot from not having slept properly for a long time.
It seemed he couldn’t sleep properly even when he was too busy to go home. But his insomnia had worsened simply because Eunsol wasn’t there when he returned home.
No matter how much he strained his senses in the empty house, Eunsol’s pheromones were only faintly perceptible. Knowing how sweet the scent was when he buried his face in that slender neck and inhaled deeply, his thirst grew worse as time passed. It felt like drinking salt water day after day.
Eunsol was someone who gave Hyun-oh a sense of peace he had never felt from anyone else.
He only realized this painfully after Eunsol disappeared.
‘We’ve found Mr. Eunsol’s whereabouts!’
When Kim Myungjun opened the chairman’s office door with a noticeably happy face, the stagnant breath in Hyun-oh’s lungs extended.
He retied his necktie, which he had unconsciously loosened, and listened to Kim Myungjun’s report. The ultrasound image he had been fingering until just a moment ago was now inside his jacket pocket.
‘Let’s depart immediately.’
Even though they had found the hideout where Eunsol was expected to be, if he wasn’t there when they arrived, Hyun-oh planned to search the entire surrounding area thoroughly.
For this reason, he departed with three black vans full of people.
He called Ryu Jeong-woo. He hadn’t known the man’s abilities were good enough to deceive Hyun-oh’s attention to this extent.
He let out a sigh at the fact that someone who should have been in Tokyo, according to his public schedule, was with Eunsol. The manpower alone that went into discovering the number Jeong-woo was using amounted to dozens of people.
As expected, there was no response. Hyun-oh placed the phone, its screen now dark, beside his seat almost as if throwing it, and leaned back against the car seat.
The frantically racing heartbeat felt unfamiliar. Even though the car was already moving at its maximum possible speed, it still felt slow.
As they left Seoul and entered Gangwon Province, the snowfall intensified. Without the streetlights, the road engulfed in darkness was difficult to discern even a step ahead.
There wasn’t much left until they reached where he was. That thought alone suppressed his anxious feelings.
His mind was still complicated about what to say when he met Eunsol.
His chest, containing the ultrasound image, felt heavy. He could imagine how Eunsol must have trembled after finding out about the pregnancy.
…He seemed to understand why Eunsol couldn’t bring himself to tell him until the end, and his breath continued to jump erratically.
Even if he could go back to the past, he still wouldn’t be able to be a gentle husband to Eunsol. He would most likely choose to push away the person who kept disturbing him, with his work being most important.
In any case, the past cannot be reversed.
Nevertheless… Hyun-oh found that he wasn’t displeased by the fact that Eunsol was pregnant with his baby, more than he had expected.
No, rather, he might have even felt somewhat satisfied at the thought that it would become a living restraint that would prevent Eunsol from ever leaving him.
He even had the idle thought that if the baby resembled Eunsol rather than himself, it would be somewhat cute.
Upon learning that the reason Eunsol had run away was not because he disliked Hyun-oh but to protect the baby, the thread of reason that had been barely holding on seemed to grow more tenacious.
Picturing how terrified Eunsol’s face would look upon seeing him, Hyun-oh even prepared to soften his hardened expression.
But why…
“…Lee Eunsol.”
Hyun-oh stood still in front of the crushed car door. There was no vitality in the face that hung limply in the passenger seat.
Although there were no visible external injuries, his complexion was terribly pale, even in the dim light.
His own breath naturally stopped. It felt like a sharp piece of glass was stabbing and twisting in his heart.
Fearing that Eunsol might crumble if touched, he froze, forgetting that he had frantically moved his body to approach the front of the car.
Eunsol’s image was imprinted in his vision, with his pupils dilated and motionless.
“…Eunsol!”
His body moved after seeing the slight rise and fall of Eunsol’s chest. Hyun-oh opened the passenger door, not even aware of how he had called out to Eunsol.
Kim Myungjun, who had arrived on the opposite side, carefully removed Ryu Jeong-woo, who was bleeding from his head, from the driver’s seat with a pale face.
“Chairman, I think we need to evacuate this area first!”
The ground was soaked with oil that had leaked from the car. Danger was instinctively felt. Kim Myungjun hoisted Jeong-woo onto his back and moved his feet hurriedly.
Hyun-oh gritted his teeth and lifted Eunsol into his arms. Although they didn’t know the actual condition of his body after the accident and should try to keep it from moving as much as possible, there was no choice.
His brow furrowed deeply at how incredibly light the body felt in his arms.
Just as he had managed to move away from the car with creaking steps…
BOOM!
Hyun-oh wrapped Eunsol’s face and buried it in his embrace at the sound of the explosion from behind. The car, which made such a tremendous sound that it caused a tingling sensation in his ears, was soon engulfed in flickering flames.
From another vehicle, an unconscious middle-aged man was dragged out by men in black suits.
“This way, sir!”
A man with a scar on his face approached Hyun-oh.
“We’ve reported it, but it seems it will take some time due to the road conditions. I think it would be faster to meet at the halfway point.”
The man had already reclined all the back seats of the van. Hyun-oh carefully placed Eunsol on the back seat. Jeong-woo and the driver of the other vehicle were loaded into a different car.
Hyun-oh knelt at Eunsol’s feet and gave orders. His voice, escaping through his lips, was terribly rough.
“…Go, now.”
“Yes, sir.”
The brakes of the vehicle carrying Hyun-oh and Eunsol were released. As the car moved somewhat abruptly, Hyun-oh gripped Eunsol’s shoulders as if to stabilize his body.
His throat was choked. His trembling fingertips touched below the round nostrils. There was a faint but warm breath.
Still, unable to manage his suffocating breath, Hyun-oh removed the necktie that had been strangling his neck with a rough movement.
He took off his jacket. Although Eunsol was wearing a padded coat and had a scarf wrapped around him, he looked cold. It might have been because of his lips, which had a slight blue tint, unlike in his memory.
Just then, something fell from inside the jacket. His dimmed gaze fell on the image containing what was not yet recognizable as a human form.
His hand moved slowly to pick up the photo and place it on Eunsol’s chest.
He pulled Eunsol’s hand. He overlapped his own hand with Eunsol’s, which was as cold as if his breath had stopped.
“…This is the child you were determined enough to run away from me to protect.”
The gently lowered eyelashes were wet with tears, holding a deep color. Hyun-oh moved his trembling hand to wipe away the teardrops that had formed at the corner of Eunsol’s eye.
It felt as if Eunsol’s tears were seeping into his own heart as well. As if in atonement, he bowed his head, grasping the photo and Eunsol’s hand with both of his hands.
The cold sensation felt from Eunsol’s hand became a sharp thorn, scratching deep inside his chest.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
