He let out a very faint sigh.
“I don’t have time to play along with childish games.”
Dowon turned around again without hesitation. This time, it really seemed like he would lose him for good.
“N-no!”
Yeohwi cried out desperately.
“Again! I’ll do it again. This time… I can do well.”
“That’s enough.”
Dowon lightly pushed Yeohwi’s shoulder, turning him toward the bed. That was the bare minimum of consideration he could offer.
“Acting cute won’t change anything. Just go to sleep.”
“Really? Am I cute?”
“……”
“Was I… cute…?”
“This one keeps pushing it. You little brat.”
Dowon, judging that any further civilized conversation would be a hindrance, criticized him sharply.
“Are you that starved for attention?”
“Pardon…?”
“Because you’re an orphan with no one to rely on, because you lost all your blood relatives and grew up alone with nowhere to turn, do you just latch onto whoever’s in front of you without even looking?”
“……”
“Just because you got married once, did you think everything became yours, that I’d become your person?”
Having poured out everything he had to say, he turned around coldly, opened the bedroom door, and left.
The sound of it slamming shut rang out.
All that remained by Seong Yeohwi’s side was the chilly air filling the room.
***
When the hazy dawn light faintly seeped through the bedroom’s thick curtains, Seong Yeohwi suddenly woke up.
Last night, after hearing those humiliating words that pierced like daggers and being thrown alone onto this enormous king-size bed, he was certain he’d spend the night wide awake. Out of indignation and resentment, and because of the anxiety of being in an unfamiliar place.
But what do you know.
Contrary to his expectations, Yeohwi had buried himself in the expensive ultra-premium mattress and slept like a log.
“……I slept well.”
His body felt surprisingly refreshed.
It was so absurd he let out an empty laugh.
As he turned his large shoulders and sat up from the center of the bed he’d monopolized to his heart’s content, the blanket that had wrapped around his body slid off smoothly. Morning sunlight warmly penetrated through the gaps in the curtains, and the beam of light illuminated Yeohwi’s face.
Yeohwi, just awakened from sleep, seemed like he would smell of the cozy fabric softener scent that comes from laundry dried well in the sun.
His tousled brown curly hair floated softly like dandelion seeds, and his cheek that had been pressed against the fluffy pillow was flushed red. His clean nape and thick chest revealed between the loosely opened gown. His muscular arms and legs. He was unmistakably a warm, large dog that had just woken up from a good sleep.
“Uaaah.”
Yeohwi stretched out his entire body.
After sleeping through the night, last night’s cold atmosphere, Dowon’s harsh words that had flown at him like a slap to the cheek, and even the humiliation of the clumsy first kiss all seemed like nothing.
Okay. Yeah. Let’s accept it.
I’m a little brat, and that person is an adult.
‘Yeah…… Dowon-ssi, Dowon hyung…… Mmm, Won-i hyung……’
He tried out the embarrassing terms of address to himself, then shook his head from side to side.
‘Well, a man so handsome, capable, incredibly cool, really damn cool like that…… there’s no way the world would have left him alone.’
Yeohwi recalled those cold, parched eyes.
The weariness as if exhausted by everything. Surely he must have lived a tiresome life because of all sorts of people clinging to him until now.
‘So someone clumsy like me, a little brat…… Hah……’
A sigh came out naturally, but even if it was sad, he had to acknowledge what needed to be acknowledged.
‘There’s no way a greenhorn like me would catch his eye. It can’t be helped. I’d be the same if I were him.’
But the strange thing was, even though he’d heard such harsh words and been perfectly rejected, he didn’t dislike him. Rather……
‘I like him so much.’
Why was that? Those eyes without light last night, that touch like ice, that cold voice kept circling around in his head.
The moment he was repeatedly retracing past memories, the last words he’d thrown came to mind.
‘Are you that starved for attention?’
‘Just because you got married once, did you think everything became yours, that I’d become your person?’
Yeohwi’s clear light brown eyes sank down calmly. His focus blurred as if looking at something far away. Various thoughts that came to mind circled around him. The vitality slowly disappeared from his face.
Right at that moment, the sound of a polite knock came from outside the door.
“Young master, are you awake?”
The voice of an elderly housekeeper followed.
“Breakfast is ready.”
“Ah, yes! I’ll be right there!”
Yeohwi quickly ran to the bathroom, washed his face with cold water, opened the carrier he’d brought when entering this house, and hastily gathered clothes to put on.
Even though he prepared as quickly as possible, he seemed to be late anyway.
The food set on the enormous dining table was truly at the level of a hotel breakfast.
Freshly baked croissants and baguettes, smoked salmon and avocado, scrambled eggs with truffle oil. Finally, even a crystal bowl filled with fresh fruit. All made with expensive and healthy ingredients.
And Dowon had already taken one side of that table.
He looked different from how he’d appeared in the bedroom.
An Italian three-piece suit. With even a dark-colored vest worn flawlessly, he looked exactly like an intellectual executive you’d see on the cover of a business magazine.
Unlike last night’s damp hair, today he had his black hair set back without a single strand out of place, and the platinum-crafted ornaments on the cuffs of his perfectly ironed shirt brilliantly reflected the dining table light.
Yeohwi unknowingly swallowed his dry saliva.
Then, with a scraping sound, he pulled out a chair and carefully sat down in the seat across from Dowon.
He glanced around cautiously, but Dowon didn’t care at all about the fact that Yeohwi had arrived and only slowly tilted his coffee cup.
He saw those long fingers grasp the handle of the slender teacup and slowly bring it to his lips.
He seemed like a cold, detached, difficult-to-approach adult. But somehow a sense of fatigue could be felt from that face.
Is he very busy with work?
The silence was suffocating.
Yeohwi bravely opened his mouth to break the awkwardness.
“Did you…… sleep well?”
There was no response.
Dowon didn’t even look at Yeohwi. He just lowered his long eyes without double eyelids and sipped his coffee.
‘Right. It means don’t do pointless things.’
The back of his head felt a bit awkward. However, Seong Yeohwi had no intention of stopping and giving up here.
It was fine even if there was no one listening. He tore the bread in front of him with his hands and, muttering to himself, began to talk about the conclusion he’d reached on his own after much thought.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“……”
“I think you’re right.”
“……”
“I think I’m thirsty, for attention.”
Dowon’s straight black eyebrows furrowed very briefly, as if in passing, then found their original form again. Yeohwi put a piece of bread studded with olives in his mouth and continued while chewing.
“Because I was lonely, because it’s true I lived a lonely life. I think I had a subconscious desire to quickly get married, build a family, and become stable. Everyone has family, so I too……”
Feeling like his throat was choking up, he took a spoonful of warm soup.
“You know, there’s that kind of thing, right? Like a harmonious household? A couple that lives together for a hundred years? Anyway, I guess I had a romantic dream. So, that’s why, it’s natural for me to be like this. Even when I ended up marrying Dowon-ssi, although it’s an arranged marriage, I was happy thinking I could have my own family.”
Yeohwi put down his spoon and looked directly into Dowon’s eyes for the first time.
“Now, no matter what anyone says, hyung, Do…… Dowon-ssi is my husband…… It’s not wrong to want to be lovey-dovey with my husband. There’s nothing wrong with it at all.”
Thud.
Dowon put down the coffee cup he was holding with a sound.
Those pitch-black eyes without light looked at Yeohwi like last night. Rather than containing contempt or anger, it was a gaze like looking at a whining child.
“Mrs. Park.”
At Dowon’s call, the housekeeper standing at the kitchen entrance immediately approached.
“Yes, Director.”
“I’ll be late today. Don’t prepare dinner.”
“Understood. Have a good day.”
Dowon, who had only drunk a cup of coffee, merely pretended to wipe the corners of his mouth with a napkin and stood up from his seat just like that.
The housekeeper bowed in greeting as if accustomed to it. Yeohwi stood up as well, flustered.
“You’re leaving already? You haven’t eaten anything at all……”
Dowon headed toward the entrance, naturally and completely erasing and ignoring Yeohwi’s existence.
Yeohwi unconsciously followed after him.
“Uh, be careful and have a good day!”
The resonant voice seeing him off echoed in the long, empty corridor like an art museum. Dowon put on his dress shoes silently without looking back even once.
Bang.
Only the heartless sound of the front door closing came back as an answer.
