Click—
Just then, the bathroom door opened and Vermouth walked out. Seeing him, Ian instinctively hunched his shoulders. With only a towel precariously wrapped around his waist, Vermouth’s body was like a perfectly sculpted statue. More than the water droplets beading on his wet muscles, what intensely captured Ian’s gaze was his perfectly regenerated arm.
Holy Knights could also use minor healing abilities. Moreover, Vermouth was the strongest among Holy Knights. Though it consumed power, without the poison, regenerating an arm wouldn’t have been difficult.
“Ian-nim.”
Vermouth approached, sweeping back his wet hair. His languidly relaxed violet eyes held the particular languor of a beast that had finished feeding. He knelt before Ian, who sat perched on the edge of the bed. Then he extended his newly grown arm and carefully yet firmly pulled Ian’s waist into an embrace.
“Vermouth.”
Unlike being held with one arm, this felt stable. Vermouth pressed his nose against Ian’s abdomen and drew in a deep breath.
“It’s like a dream. That I can hold you completely again with these two arms.”
The long eyelashes framing his violet eyes fluttered like butterflies. Watching that, Ian’s breath caught involuntarily. Really, at least in appearance, he was a perfect bastard.
“Hey, I can’t breathe. Move back a bit.”
Ian said this while pulling on Vermouth’s hair, but he didn’t budge.
“I refuse. Let me stay like this just a little longer. Your body’s scent is too sweet.”
Sweet, my ass! After the two of them had rolled around enthusiastically on the bed, the smell was obvious. Ian hadn’t even washed yet.
‘Shameless bastard!’
Vermouth put pressure into the arms wrapped around his waist as if acting spoiled. Ian stopped trying to push him away and eventually carefully stroked his wet hair.
Just moments ago he’d been driving him so roughly, yet when burrowing into his embrace like this, he was exactly like a large dog. Ian’s heart pounded irregularly. He really disliked this guy, so why did he keep allowing him close?
‘Did I really get gaslit or something?’
He was thinking that when—
Beep-beep. Click.
The cheerful mechanical sound of the front door’s lock releasing cut through the quiet house. Ian’s shoulders jumped up. Vermouth also turned his head while still holding Ian’s waist.
“Ian. Hyung’s home.”
Choi Jaeheon, who had said he was going to the Management Bureau, had returned home much earlier than expected. Heavy footsteps crossed the living room and headed straight for Ian’s bedroom door. Soon the door opened silently, and Choi Jaeheon in comfortable clothes stepped into the room.
And his steps stopped dead.
Ian sitting on the bed with his face red as an apple, and Vermouth completely naked, tightly embracing that Ian’s waist with both arms. That wasn’t all. The strange atmosphere filling the room, the fishy yet strangely sweet smell, the explicit marks blooming in vivid colors around Ian’s collarbone—
Silence fell.
Without a chance to make excuses, the air in the room froze rapidly.
Choi Jaeheon’s gaze started at Ian’s reddened face, passed over Vermouth’s broad back, and finally reached Vermouth’s newly grown ‘left arm.’ He wasn’t an idiot either.
‘I know.’
He knew what kind of acts Ian performed to wash away the deadly poison that had dug deep into Vermouth’s veins. And he’d guessed it wouldn’t stop at kissing. But even knowing, he couldn’t control his emotions.
‘While I was away from home.’
Choi Jaeheon’s eyes lost their light and sank pitch black. The gravity in the room seemed to instantly become several times heavier as a terrible pressure began crushing the space.
Crrrack.
Under Choi Jaeheon’s control, his telekinesis was crushing the air itself. The reinforced glass of the window silently cracked under the invisible force, and the highest-grade marble tiles on the floor fractured minutely. It was a taut and chilling murderous intent so intense that even breathing was painful.
However, Choi Jaeheon tried not to be angry at Ian.
Even as his reason was being shaved away by rage, he bit his own tongue and suppressed that enormous killing intent as cold as ice.
Choi Jaeheon’s gaze was fixed directly not on his hateful rival, but on Ian sitting on the bed.
“…Ian.”
Choi Jaeheon opened his mouth. His voice was far lower than usual, chillingly cold.
“Just answer exactly what I ask.”
Choi Jaeheon didn’t even blink.
“This. Did you agree to it?”
“Huh?”
“I’m asking if this happened because you permitted and fully consented of your own will, not because that guy forced you or used the situation as an excuse to threaten you.”
It was a clear and firm question. If even the slightest nuance came from Ian’s mouth that he’d been forced. Choi Jaeheon was ready to tear Vermouth’s limbs apart even if it meant collapsing this building immediately. Sensing where that chilling and blind rage would be directed, Ian frantically nodded even in his confusion.
“Y-yeah! That’s right! I consented! It absolutely wasn’t forced! Just, to completely purify the Shadow Stalker poison, it couldn’t be helped, a little.”
The moment Ian’s answer fell, the terrible telekinetic pressure that had been crushing the room enough to burst it receded like a tide.
Choi Jaeheon slowly unclenched the fist he’d been gripping until veins bulged. Ian had consented. With that, the justification to kill Vermouth immediately disappeared. But just because he’d withdrawn his killing intent didn’t mean the jealousy and rage burning his insides had vanished too.
“Ha!”
Choi Jaeheon let out a low sigh as if dumbfounded while dry-washing his face.
“Couldn’t be helped. A little?”
Choi Jaeheon’s chilling gaze sharply swept over Ian’s body again.
Then, Vermouth, who had been holding Ian’s waist, slowly raised his upper body. Using the fact that Ian had wanted it as a shield, the beast wore his characteristic arrogant and relaxed smile as if there was nothing left to hide.
“As you heard, Choi Jaeheon-ssi. The Saint took pity on me and personally bestowed mercy. Thanks to that, as you can see, I’ve completely shaken off the Shadow Stalker’s deadly poison and recovered perfectly.”
“Shut your mouth. Before I really twist your neck off.”
“Having received the Saint’s grace abundantly, my body feels very light. Would you like to test it?”
Vermouth quietly provoked while raising his newly grown left hand. A dazzling pure white aura based on holy power burst from his fingertips. Pure white mana without a trace of murkiness wrapped around Vermouth’s entire body, confronting Choi Jaeheon’s chilling presence without backing down an inch.
“You, really.”
The corners of Choi Jaeheon’s eyes curved coldly. He’d been barely holding onto his reason because of the fact that Ian had permitted it, but seeing Vermouth acting so shamelessly, rage boiled up from within again.
“You’re picking a fight without knowing your place. That arm, should I tear it off again for you?”
“Are you capable of that? One shouldn’t speak words they can’t put into action.”
Choi Jaeheon’s telekinesis radiating killing intent and Vermouth’s pure white aura with an arrogant smile collided in midair, making a sharp explosive sound.
“Both of you, stop it already?!”
Ian, who had been holding his breath on the bed, finally exploded and shouted. Only then did the two turn to look at him.
“Hyung, first withdraw that presence! I’m suffocating to death! And Vermouth, you don’t needlessly provoke! And put on some clothes!”
Ian clutched his throbbing head and collapsed face-first on the bed. When he had one arm, he’d endured it out of pity. But he had no way to stop the suffocating standoff between the beast grown arrogant after regaining both arms and his chilling hyung whose eyes had rolled back from jealousy even while maintaining reason.
It was maddening.
Ian pulled the blanket over his head completely. Living peacefully from now on was hopeless.
“Haah.”
At Ian’s rebuke, Choi Jaeheon finally let out a deep sigh and completely withdrew his telekinesis. As the pressure that had been freezing the room lifted, the precarious vibrations hitting the window also stopped. Choi Jaeheon roughly loosened his tie and swept back his disheveled bangs.
“I really didn’t come home early today to see this mess.”
This mess! What an irritating way to put it. Ian poked his face out from the blanket and glared at Choi Jaeheon.
