“Mm…”
His closed eyes scrunched up sharply. Beep beep, a small but discordant sound dug into the layers of accumulated sleep. When he shifted slightly, the leather sofa beneath his body made a creaking sound. Only then did Saehyeon recall that he’d dozed off on the sofa.
Once the floodgates of memory opened, they poured out like a dam that had lost its banks, stabbing at various parts of Saehyeon. With memories he wanted to escape from, frustrating situations, and various worries mixing together, there was no way he could stretch out his legs and sleep comfortably.
In the end, Saehyeon had chosen to lay down like a body pillow next to the child after putting him in bed. A while later, when the child’s breathing became even, confirming he was sound asleep, he’d staggered back out to the living room.
The reason he hadn’t stayed in the bedroom was simple.
‘Ah, damn it. My head’s gone crazy again…’
Saehyeon shook his head sharply from side to side.
The bedroom was the place where Saehyeon had ‘stayed’ the longest since coming to this house. It was also the place where he’d done unspeakable acts with Gil Taeseo.
Of course, it was after everything had been cleaned up neatly, but the problem was that the memories couldn’t be cleaned. Whenever he lay on the bed, he kept recalling what happened then.
Saehyeon shook his head vigorously at another vivid scene that suddenly surfaced.
Thinking that even a sleepless night was better if it was less agonizing, Saehyeon chose to flee to the living room every night. Just when he thought he’d spend another night with eyes wide open today too, it seemed his body, having reached its limit, had automatically shut itself down.
As if delivering a final blow to his slowly awakening consciousness, thud. A small vibration resonated along with the sound of a door closing. These were things too vivid to be auditory hallucinations heard in sleep or part of a dream.
The sound of shoes dropping on the entrance floor, and even the rustling presence.
A realization shocking enough to completely dispel drowsiness flashed through his brain. Just now, someone had entered this house.
‘Who?’
He could quickly answer the question that instinctively arose. It was clear. Either a thief or the homeowner.
And it was probably overwhelmingly likely to be the latter. With gangsters scattered all around, if someone could enter this quietly, it was certain.
Saehyeon held his breath and listened to the intruder’s movements. It wasn’t intentional. It was just close to an instinct that he should do so.
The intruder was crossing the living room without hesitation. It wasn’t too noisy, but a rustling sound was added over the heavy footsteps. It seemed to be the sound of clothes brushing along with the gait.
And then suddenly stopped still. It seemed something unexpected had been discovered. A moment later, when the man took steps again, the presence had diminished to the point it could hardly be heard.
It was so quiet that Saehyeon could only notice the man approaching when he was almost right beside him. By the time a shadow fell over his closed eyes.
‘…Should I get up and grab him by the collar first?’
Something touched Saehyeon’s forehead as he pondered. Something slightly lukewarm gently brushed aside the disheveled hair to the side. Sound and scent followed that movement. The sound of a collar brushing softly like stepping on snow, and a familiar scent. A slightly acrid yet somewhat fragrant scent mixed with the damp air of dawn.
These were pieces of information that added certainty to what he’d already guessed.
The moment the fingers that had stayed on his forehead descended and touched his cheek. His obliviously tense body reacted. The closed eyelids crumpled slightly and his shoulder jerked. It was commendable that he’d barely suppressed almost having a fit, but it seemed insufficient to continue pretending to be asleep.
No, wait. There’s no need to pretend to be asleep, is there? He’d instinctively held his breath, but he had nothing to feel guilty about. On top of that, there was also something he needed to question the other person about.
“Hey.”
Saehyeon, whose eyes snapped open, grabbed the fingertips floating in the air and pulled hard. Since his body had become so frail, he thought he’d at most wrinkle the man’s clothes no matter how off guard he was, but the man lost his balance surprisingly easily. It was the result of the tendons that had rippled with strength the moment he grabbed them quickly softening.
When the man, who had collapsed while in a bent posture, caught himself by pressing his knees and hands. The hand that had moved from fingertips to forearm, from forearm to collar, firmly grasped the shirt hem.
“You’re only coming now? You should’ve just stayed away for a million years.”
The resentment that had been accumulating all this time found its exact target and boiled bubbling.
“That can’t be. Why would I do something good only for you?”
But the answer that came back was too leisurely. Even while being suddenly grabbed by the collar and interrogated, Gil Taeseo was at ease. That nonchalant composure was infuriating beyond words.
From the day they first met until now, Gil Taeseo acts like someone for whom nothing in the world is difficult. It made him feel truly pathetic for being swept up in it and struggling.
“How is that something good? I’m trapped here!”
“Why? What exactly are you so dissatisfied about?”
He was so dumbfounded that words were blocked. He absolutely couldn’t understand Gil Taeseo’s attitude. What am I dissatisfied about?
“Are you calling that a question right now? I’m about to be stuck groveling here when I have my perfectly good house, so of course I’m thrilled.”
“Ha, perfectly good?”
But it seemed Gil Taeseo couldn’t understand Saehyeon’s words either.
“An abandoned house that wouldn’t be strange to collapse at any moment is ‘perfectly good.’ Should I schedule you an eye exam?”
“…You apologize to our house. It’s standing perfectly fine and people even live in it, so what abandoned house?”
A groan of “urk” naturally leaked out, but Saehyeon could barely swallow it down. Honestly, when he first came to his senses in his current body, Saehyeon had also been dismayed.
Even though he’d grown up being mistreated, since he was from a somewhat well-off family, the truth was that an old one-room that leaked rainwater in summer and cold wind in winter wasn’t familiar at all.
There was no way the alpha, whose nerves were on edge, wouldn’t notice such hesitation.
“It’s not like I starved you, and it’s not like I didn’t give you medicine.”
He had indeed been fed very well three times a day. To the extent that he’d never eaten such substantial menus before. In the morning, porridge that didn’t burden the stomach came out, then changed to rice and soup at lunch, so there was never an instance of pushing medicine into an empty stomach.
Perhaps to the extent that he’d never been taken care of this well throughout his entire life.
The medicine was the same. Expensive medicine that could empty his bank account came out steadily, and Saehyeon just had to swallow it and that was the end.
At first he’d tried not to take it, but out of spite he’d ended up accepting it all… He had nothing to say about this.
“You trapped me here unable to move regardless of my will. Don’t you think that itself is wrong to begin with?”
But this was the essence of the problem. Saehyeon gathered his blurring focus and resolve. What’s the point of treating someone well after hitting them? You shouldn’t have hit them in the first place.
“I don’t understand why you’re going this far in the first place.”
Not feeling any justification also played a part.
What if he had saddled Gil Taeseo with an enormous debt guarantee and run away?
Then Saehyeon probably would have been convinced. Because separate from his irritated feelings, it would seem reasonable.
But right now, there really wasn’t anything like that at all. It was the same no matter how much he’d racked his brain over the past few days.
Right now, Gil Taeseo’s actions clearly existed in a realm Saehyeon couldn’t understand.
“We’re not in that kind of relationship.”
At least not within the extent he remembered.
In this moment, Saehyeon felt a faint curiosity raise its head for the first time. Since waking up in his 28-year-old body until now, he’d been attaching question marks to everything in the world, but this…
Saehyeon looked up at the pitch-black void while harboring such doubts. His eyesight, which had deteriorated along with his body that had been overworked and worsened from before, couldn’t clearly distinguish shapes even after dark adaptation was complete. It was clearly there, but he couldn’t confirm it properly, so he had no choice but to estimate arbitrarily.
But in contrast, the alpha’s bright eyes clearly pierced through the dawn. A persistent gaze swept over various parts of the pale face. Things like the area under the eyes with faint shadows, the lips with hangnails, the eyes shaking aimlessly. Even though everything could be seen clearly, the result was the same.
“Why aren’t we in that kind of relationship? We’re fuck buddies.”
In the end, this was the only thing Gil Taeseo, who tilted his head, could spit out.
“Isn’t it a relationship where we push each other down and fuck when we’re horny? I don’t see why we have to do such shitty tedious things like deciding on a place and coming and calling…”
…So, right now. Is he saying he trapped someone here to conveniently do that?
He hadn’t thought there would be some grand reason, but it was beyond imagination.
“…You’re joking right now, right?”
“I didn’t know I looked leisurely enough to play around with jokes about this kind of thing.”
When he received the final confirmation kill, his vision spun. The sensation of having to grab the back of his neck and collapse was dizzying.
Whether Saehyeon was dumbfounded or not, as if he’d said everything he had to say, Gil Taeseo just shut his mouth. And then, like it was the natural course of action, he began lowering his body.
As if to personally prove that his words weren’t a joke.
