Daerim tore open the luxurious envelope stamped with the Gangwon Branch’s seal. Inside were formally arranged phrases, but the content was bizarrely absurd. Daerim’s brow furrowed.
[We hope that the Kwonmyeonghoe Boss will newly establish a household, bear children, prosper for generations, and live happily.]
“What does this mean? Children…?”
Just as he let out an empty laugh, a sharp exhaust sound that shook the courtyard was heard. It was Siwon’s return. Daerim ran out to the courtyard in a hurry. Siwon, who got out of the bright yellow supercar, looked a mess. Blood and mud had dried on his shirt hem, and his hair was disheveled. He passed by Daerim who had come out to greet him and headed unhesitatingly toward the main building.
“Where is Lee Seongyeom?”
“He should be sleeping. More importantly, Boss, is your body alright? Are you injured anywhere…”
“Is that so? You’re saying he’s sleeping. That’s a relief.”
Siwon muttered without even responding to Daerim’s question. His deeply sunken voice seemed both angry and strangely excited. Though he’d watched Siwon from the side for ten years, this appearance was also unfamiliar. Daerim felt a strange sense of disconnect as he followed Siwon up the stairs.
“I received contact from the Gangwon Branch, but the content is a bit strange. Don’t they know that Seongyeom-nim is a man? Establishing a household is one thing somehow, but bearing children—does that make sense?”
Siwon’s steps stopped abruptly. The gaze that turned back was so terribly sunken that Daerim unconsciously closed his mouth. Siwon roughly took off his ruined jacket and entrusted it to Daerim as if throwing it.
“It seems the rumors about his gender haven’t spread yet. Anyway, that’s how it turned out. If I officially raise Lee Seongyeom as Kwonmyeonghoe’s mistress, the Gangwon Branch agreed to lend their strength.”
“Really?! If that’s true, it would be a great help to our side.”
Daerim’s eyes sparkled with hope. Just a few days ago, he’d said they shouldn’t drag in a civilian. The sight of him getting worked up saying they should send Seongyeom away immediately was nowhere to be found. Siwon stared at Daerim like that. At that dry gaze, Daerim subtly lowered his tightly clenched fist.
“Why… are you looking at me like that?”
“No, just. First, just know that’s the situation.”
Siwon roughly loosened and threw off his necktie as he climbed the stairs. This path passing through the courtyard, through the entrance, and heading upstairs felt particularly long. Even while engaged in a battle of wills with Pyo Changgeon in Jeongseon, even while hearing the screams of the Dogang Faction bastards, his head was filled only with that pale face.
I hope he’s not crying in fear.
He hoped the spacious room he’d given him would become the only sanctuary for that guy. Digging up Seongyeom’s past wasn’t to criticize him, but because he wanted to pull him out of that ‘hell’ that tormented him. It was Siwon’s own kind of respectful consideration.
When he entered the room and opened the sliding door inside the bedroom, what greeted Siwon wasn’t tears mixed with relief.
“You’re back?”
Unlike the report that he was sleeping, Seongyeom was crouched on the bed floor. As the face beaded with cold sweat was revealed under the light left on the nightstand, shadows fell on Siwon’s brow.
“Why are you like that?”
There was no gaze cast down to the floor as usual, no carelessly spilled laughter. Seongyeom looked at the mud stains on Siwon’s pants, then raised his body from the floor. He leaned against the bed with an indecipherable face and let out a languid breath.
“Background checks on others, fighting… You must have been busy.”
“…What?”
Siwon’s eyebrows twitched. His eyes that had been wavering with worry instantly lost their light. I came back pathetically swayed by someone sixteen years younger. The first words that greeted Siwon were sharp sarcasm.
This hurts a bit.
Siwon grabbed his left chest and pretended to be in pain. As Siwon suddenly staggered, he saw Seongyeom’s cold eyes widen in bewilderment. The shameless president held back the laughter trying to escape and bent his waist, acting like his heart hurt.
“Ugh…!”
“P, President!?”
The startled Seongyeom threw off the blanket. Then the bandages wrapped diagonally from his shoulder to his chest and the mottled bruises below his stomach were revealed. Siwon, who had been about to collapse immediately, had sunken eyes at the body without a single uninjured spot.
Seongyeom couldn’t approach because of his injured ankle and was at a loss while sitting in place. That sight stimulated a subtle possessiveness. Siwon narrowed the distance with Seongyeom while swaying as if about to collapse or not.
“A, are you alright?!”
As he caught the collapsing Siwon, the blood on his shirt hem stuck stickily to his hands. The acrid dirt dust and fishy metallic smell coming from Siwon stabbed Seongyeom’s nose indiscriminately. His empty stomach felt like it would turn over and churn at any moment, but conversely, his body and mind felt an unparalleled sense of stability. It was because of the thought that he didn’t have to endure this space alone.
“Ugh.”
“…Do you feel like throwing up?”
Siwon suddenly changed his complexion and raised his body. Seongyeom was dumbfounded by that sight and stared at Siwon with round eyes.
“Take a deep breath.”
“Hup… ha…”
When Seongyeom seemed to have calmed down to some degree, Siwon unbuttoned the shirt he was wearing one by one. Seongyeom hurriedly averted his eyes and asked.
“Wh, why are you suddenly taking off your clothes!”
Looking at Seongyeom who made an X with both hands, Siwon burst out laughing as if absurd.
Is it because he’s in his twenties? His imagination is really exceptional.
Siwon, who stubbornly took off and threw away the shirt that was a mess with blood and muddy water, looked down at Seongyeom.
“I, I’m still not over being angry, you know!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Siwon answered roughly while inserting his arm below Seongyeom’s knees. At the feeling of his body floating, Seongyeom had no choice but to wrap his arms around Siwon’s neck. When he was held in the broad embrace, Siwon’s lips were right in front of his eyes. Seongyeom gulped.
Is he going to do it… again?
At such thoughts billowing up in his head, Seongyeom’s face flushed hotly. Every time his cheek touched Siwon’s firm chest, the heavy heartbeat sound transmitted from beyond his skin rang in his ears. Seongyeom deeply inhaled the smell of faint cigarette scent mixed with Siwon’s body odor.
Whether Siwon knew Seongyeom’s feelings or not, without any other words, he carefully lowered him onto the bed. Unlike Seongyeom’s thought that he would kiss him like this, Siwon picked up the blanket that had fallen to the floor.
“If I hadn’t looked into it separately, when were you planning to tell me?”
“What? Ah, that… well…?”
“Were you planning to tell me?”
“S, someday…?”
Even at Seongyeom’s vague answer, Siwon only wore a calm smile. The touch covering him with the blanket was so affectionate that Seongyeom couldn’t bear to make eye contact. At the thought that his weakness had been discovered, his face grew uncontrollably hot. Strength went into the fingers gripping the edge of the blanket, feeling as if his shabby parts had been discovered.
“B, but… you should respect my privacy. No matter how curious you were, you shouldn’t have done a background check…”
Thanks to his handling, he was breathing and receiving treatment here and now, but he couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Seongyeom fidgeted while avoiding Siwon’s eyes. When he was finely trembling his shoulders, feeling Siwon’s gaze directed at him, a low voice burrowed into his ear.
“Then, should I have left you alone whether you died or not in your dreams?”
“What…?”
At the unexpectedly sharp question, Seongyeom’s head turned blankly. He looked directly at Siwon’s face while trapped in his arms.
“Is that respect for you?”
“Ugh!”
Seongyeom drew in a breath at the hand snatching his chin. The man who had been affectionate enough to make him blush just moments ago was gone. At Siwon’s sudden attitude, Seongyeom’s pupils trembled faintly.
“If you have a mouth, tell me. What should I have done for you to be satisfied?”
“S, satisfied!”
Siwon’s hot breath descended onto his nape. The feeling of him finally sticking out his wet tongue and licking up his neck was too vivid. Seongyeom squeezed his eyes shut.
“Hm? I told you to tell me?”
Siwon kissed his nape while observing Seongyeom’s reaction. As the moist sound tickled his ear, Seongyeom quickly became a well-ripened tomato. Siwon, who had already descended near his chest, raised his head and made eye contact with Seongyeom.
“!”
Just making eye contact made his toes curl. It felt like electricity was running through his entire body. Seongyeom felt his lower abdomen pull with a tingling sensation. Not only that, but his rear, which had only been throbbing and uncomfortable until Siwon appeared, heated up to an unbearable degree. As the inner walls tightened as if feeling thirsty, goosebumps rose on the back of his neck.
This is strange. How did it end up like this?
That thought was brief—at the sensation burrowing into his chest area, Seongyeom unconsciously ruffled Siwon’s hair. When the lips that came down avoiding the bandages bit his collarbone, he reflexively hugged his head.
“Hngh…! It hurts…!”
Because the aftereffects of the last intercourse hadn’t all subsided, his body quickly reacted sensitively. Siwon buried his nose in Seongyeom’s chest. He buried his head so deeply that his high nose bridge was crushed and bent, willingly enduring the suffocating thirst. He was receiving punishment for doing a background check on his own.
When he licked the skin with his tongue tip since it felt like he was gradually suffocating, laughter leaked out—pshh—at the hand that pushed his head away in surprise.
“It tickles!”
“You’re really demanding.”
He grabbed Seongyeom’s hands trying to push him away and pressed them above his head.
“Ugh!”
Siwon, who paused at the face contorted in pain, checked Seongyeom’s injured shoulder. If he enters Kwonmyeonghoe with this kind of body, that would truly be like becoming a living target. Thinking about it again, he didn’t like it and his mouth tasted bitter.
“President…?”
Seongyeom, who was moistening his lips with his tongue while enduring the pain in his shoulder, hesitantly called Siwon. He felt strength going into the wrists that were held. At Siwon’s expression as if he’d fallen into some deep contemplation, Seongyeom opened his mouth that had been smacking.
“Hyung…?”
A different light momentarily turned in his deeply sunken eyes. Siwon let out a snicker at Seongyeom’s appearance trying to provoke him fearlessly.
“What did you just say?”
Goosebumps rose at the low rumbling voice. Even if he wanted to retreat, he was only buried deeply in the bed sheet with no place to escape. Siwon pressed his body close below Seongyeom.
“You seem to think that form of address will help.”
Siwon’s hot breath touched Seongyeom’s ear.
“Very accurate.”
