Adding Insult to Injury (4)
Kneeling, Dogyeom’s lips slowly parted.
“I’ll apologize in his place. Even though I don’t know what hyung… did wrong or what was lacking.”
“……”
“I’ll beg in his place. Please, please. Just forgive him this once.”
“……”
“That… I was wrong for talking back and acting up all this time. So just once, just once. Hyung…”
Dogyeom’s voice finally cracked. Unable to finish his words, he deeply bowed his head.
The lounge became quiet.
Even the music that had been playing until just before seemed to recede. Murmuring gazes turned toward him, but Dogyeom didn’t care. His two knees touching the floor were cold. But it was okay. As long as Yoon Jaehyuk returned to Kang Jeongbae.
“Dogyeom, stop—”
Sejin urgently approached, but Jaehyuk raised his hand to stop him. Sejin froze in place.
Jaehyuk was silent for a long time. Standing beside the chair, he only looked down at Dogyeom kneeling on the floor.
“…You’re crazy.”
After a long while, a small mutter came out. An inscrutable expressionless face coldly scanned Dogyeom.
“Do you even know what you’re doing right now?”
When Dogyeom raised his head, the area around his eyes was red and wet.
“For hyung, I’ll do anything.”
Jaehyuk’s lips twisted slightly.
“Jeongbae hyung was abandoned without even knowing why.”
Dogyeom didn’t stop.
“Hyung thinks he was abandoned because he’s embarrassing.”
Tears beaded in Dogyeom’s eyes. His knees were still on the ground.
“You hid him because hyung is a stain on your life, that’s what he thinks.”
His voice lowered. It was almost a whisper.
“Is hyung… such an embarrassing person to you?”
Dogyeom bowed his head with a strange sense of relief and regret. The thought that he’d done all he could and the thought that it was wrong now crossed his mind. It was when a brief silence had settled.
“Wow, you told me absolutely not to follow you. I almost missed a good show, didn’t I?”
A suddenly interjecting low, heavy voice. Dogyeom’s and Sejin’s gazes simultaneously turned in that direction. Jaehyuk’s previously expressionless brow crumpled fiercely. A man in a perfect suit had already approached. Height similar to Jaehyuk’s. Slightly more masculine and neat features. A gentle yet intelligent face was smiling pleasantly.
“Get lost.”
Even at Yoon Jaehyuk’s sharp rebuke, the man didn’t bat an eye.
“Ah, is that person Kang Jeongbae-gun?”
The man tilted his head slightly.
“Much prettier than I thought.”
“No… I’m—”
Before Dogyeom could continue, the man casually stepped closer. Then he offered a handshake to him kneeling on the floor.
“I’m Yoon Jaeseung. Jaehyuk’s older brother.”
“Brother?”
The moment Dogyeom hesitantly clasped hands, his body was pulled up from his position by a strength stronger than expected.
“Up you go.”
It was so natural there was no room to refuse.
“Ah…”
“It’s not proper manners to keep such a beauty kneeling on the floor.”
Jaeseung smiled leisurely. This time it was Sejin’s expression that crumpled.
“He’s not Kang Jeongbae.”
At Jaehyuk’s one indifferent remark, Jaeseung’s eyes widened.
“Ah, then who…”
Jaehyuk turned his head sharply, then uncharacteristically hesitated, chewing his words. But eventually he opened his mouth.
“He’s my brother-in-law.”
Jaehyuk’s eyes darkened briefly as he sighed. Dogyeom, still holding hands with Jaehyuk’s older brother Yoon Jaeseung, ended up making a dumbfounded expression.
‘What… I thought he’d broken up with Jeongbae hyung?’
***
Yoon Jaeseung was slightly disappointed. He’d naturally thought that the dizzyingly pretty omega kneeling in front of his younger brother Jaehyuk would be Kang Jeongbae…
‘It’s not him… Just where did he hide him?’
Jaeseung had come running excitedly, putting aside everything at the thought of seeing the problematic ‘Kang Jeongbae.’ He’d first heard about him from his father Moohyun.
‘Jaehyuk will probably be getting married soon.’
‘Pardon?’
‘He’s found a good person. Someone named Kang Jeongbae-gun…’
Jaeseung thought their good-natured father had been completely fooled by Jaehyuk again. He knew Jaehyuk’s romantic history better. Annoyingly picky and never lasting long.
‘A guy who lives like trash just like me. Marriage?’
He naturally didn’t believe it. He thought at most he was dating some fairly polished-looking omega a bit longer than usual. Until leaving for America, Jaeseung had watched Jaehyuk the closest. Their soft-hearted kind father or their obsessively attached mother either didn’t know or weren’t interested in Jaehyuk’s true nature.
Jaeseung would accept anyone as a partner as long as they passed the appearance preliminaries. But his younger brother Jaehyuk was fastidiously picky like doing business. He met people after thoroughly examining appearance, education, preferences, even family background. Their only commonality was changing partners like eating meals.
Unable to believe his father’s words, Jaeseung quickly called Jaehyuk.
‘I heard you found someone to marry?’
—Who said that?
‘……’
Here Jaeseung already felt something off. If it were the Yoon Jaehyuk he knew, he would have immediately cursed at him to stop talking bullshit. Jaeseung, a master at messing with his younger brother, immediately said something that would scratch.
‘We should have a meeting with the families. How beautiful must they be?’
—Mind your own business.
Then the call disconnected. But he never said it wasn’t true until the end. Jaeseung, having developed a taste for teasing, often called to pick fights with Jaehyuk.
But until returning to Korea, he hadn’t thought about it seriously at all. He was his one and only cute younger brother. He knew him better than anyone. Yoon Jaehyuk wasn’t the type to fall in love easily.
What surprised Jaeseung was Jaehyuk’s call that suddenly came three days ago.
—Hyung, please do something about me.
The voice beyond the phone wasn’t the Jaehyuk Jaeseung knew. He hurriedly gave him the address of the hotel where he was staying.
Jaehyuk, who silently opened the hotel room door and entered, had his usual expressionless face but something was strange. He had no color at all. It was their first meeting in a year, yet not even a glad greeting came out.
“You… what…”
“Tie me up.”
Jaehyuk was trembling while clenching his fists so hard his knuckles had turned white.
“What do you… mean?”
“Do something so I can’t go to Kang Jeongbae.”
“Kang Jeongbae, you mean the one you said you’d marry…”
“……”
Jaehyuk’s gaze that had been directed at the floor turned toward Jaeseung. At the cold look, Jaeseung unconsciously stiffened.
“No. Why should you…”
“I want to capture and confine Kang Jeongbae.”
“What?”
Jaeseung swallowed.
“I want to tie him up somewhere with no one around and have him look only at me.”
“Hey, Yoon Jaehyuk, you…”
“Forever. I want to make him depend only on me in a place with no light.”
“……”
His younger brother speaking of a clear crime in front of him, a lawyer. One person overlapped in Jaeseung’s eyes.
‘Mother, who knows only Father her whole life.’
Jaeseung’s fingertips turned cold.
‘I never thought Jaehyuk would resemble Mother.’
Jaehyuk tiredly rubbed his deep-set eyes with his hand and slumped down on the bed.
“……”
Jaeseung hesitated for a moment, then rummaged through his bag and took out a few sleeping pills.
“Sleep first. Don’t think.”
Jaehyuk, who’d been staring at him blankly, unhesitatingly took the pills and threw them in his mouth. Watching Jaehyuk gulp down the water bottle he’d offered, Jaeseung caught his breath.
“Lie down.”
“……”
“Let’s talk when you wake up.”
Jaehyuk turned over without a word. Jaeseung sat in a chair and slowly sank into thought.
‘Kang Jeongbae. The person Jaehyuk is crazy about. Just who could he be…’
To think the excellent Yoon Jaehyuk would show rock bottom like this. Curiosity and anxiety wrapped around Jaeseung over just how great and dangerous a figure he must be.
Jaeseung’s prediction was somewhat correct. Jaehyuk, who woke up after sleeping like the dead for a full day, wasn’t eating or drinking and was only looking at his phone.
[Location Tracking App]
Refresh the screen.
Refresh again. Long fingers endlessly touched the smartphone screen.
“At least eat some food before looking at it.”
At Jaeseung’s words, Jaehyuk didn’t even raise his head. The food they’d barely ordered through room service was growing cold. Jaehyuk looked at the screen with a languid expression. As if ready to run there immediately if the coordinates on the screen moved even a little.
Jaeseung slowly approached and sat in the chair opposite the bed. He had to sort out this situation not as a lawyer, but as an older brother.
“Jaehyuk.”
This time Jaehyuk’s hand stopped.
“That, from the moment you started watching it, it’s already over.”
Jaehyuk’s lips hardened stiffly.
“I’ve seen it countless times as a lawyer. Once you start suspecting the other person, hell’s gates open from that moment.”
At those words, Jaehyuk’s eyes came alive with a flash. Exactly as if he’d been caught at something.
Jaeseung let out a low breath.
“So… tell me what kind of person this friend Kang Jeongbae is.”
“…Ha.”
“What’s with that reaction?”
“If I tell you? You’ll try to steal him if you like him?”
“No matter what, I wouldn’t steal someone you like…”
“You stole a lot when we were young. My toys. Things I liked…”
“Hey, that was just as a joke…”
“A joke? You have a record, hyung. So I’m not talking about him.”
At the ridiculously childish response, Jaeseung momentarily lost his words.
“Let me ask just one thing.”
“I won’t answer anyway.”
“No, it’s not that. Have you ever told that person about your dark thoughts?”
“Why would I tell them that? So they’d run away?”
“……”
“You want me to say with my own mouth ‘I am a monster’?”
“…If the other person likes you too, wouldn’t they understand?”
Jaeseung thought of his father. Who accepted any of Mother’s twisted affection.
“Should I confess with my own mouth that I want to kill every bastard who even touches him with a finger?”
“……”
“Understanding? You want me to tie up their hands and feet and ask for understanding?”
“Right. That’s also a method.”
“What?”
“Confine them.”
“……”
“If you want to do that, do it. Confine them.”
Jaehyuk’s eyes widened.
“Hyung, what are you…”
“But look into that person’s eyes every day.”
“……”
“The light going out. Can you live your whole life watching that?”
“……”
“Rather than that, it’s better for you to trust the other person.”
The room became quiet. The app screen refreshed once more.
The coordinates…
Still hadn’t moved.
