Yeohwi raised his head stiffly.
“True. You’re right. If it’s a transaction, it should be done like a transaction. Dowon-ssi said so yourself. That the most expensive thing in this world is free. That a heart without a price is the scariest debt.”
“So?”
“You’ve received so much of my heart for free. I was the only one being sincere, I was the only one pouring it out. Then I should get some of it back! Isn’t that the calculation method Dowon-ssi talks about?”
Dowon let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
To twist his own logic into such sophistry and thrust it at him like this.
“Seong Yeohwi, next time choose your opponent carefully before you mess around. You’ve crossed the line. From a long time ago.”
Dowon took a step closer. An oppressive shadow descended over the bed.
“So what? What if I cross the line a little. We’re married, aren’t we?”
“No, when was such a thing ever established? That’s your delusion.”
“So what, did I say I’d pin you down? Did I say I’d devour you!”
Yeohwi screamed. It was like a scream from the edge of a cliff.
“Other people come on honeymoons and create feelings that didn’t exist. Just sharing the same bed once, just sleeping next to each other—is that such a terrible crime?”
“Seong Yeohwi.”
Dowon pressed his hands on the edge of the bed and leaned his upper body down. A cool scent, the smell of wet skin, and heat mixed with chilling anger could be felt from him.
“I clearly said I don’t see someone like you as a sexual object.”
His rarely heated eyes roughly swept over Yeohwi.
“But you insist on crawling into one bed—what do you expect to gain? Isn’t your purpose obvious? Do you want to make me give in physically and mess up our relationship disgustingly?”
Those words became a sharp dagger stabbing into Yeohwi’s chest. Not even an object. The purpose is obvious. In Dowon’s eyes, he seemed to look like nothing more than a dog in heat, or a whining brat.
“Just.”
Something hot welled up in Yeohwi’s eyes. His vision became blurrily distorted.
“I just want to be next to you. Because I like it.”
“…”
“I can be anxious, can’t I. I might want it a little. Anyway, someday Dowon-ssi will leave. You’ll disappear. I’m scared of being left alone.”
The empty terror of being left alone at a young age after losing his parents and even his grandfather falling gravely ill. The greedy eyes of relatives who came running at the smell of money, and the painful betrayal by Executive Director Gye whom he’d trusted like a father. He wanted to escape from the loneliness of being all alone in the world, but there was no hope even for that.
The only man by his side was now looking down on Yeohwi with contempt.
“I want Dowon-ssi to be next to me when I open my eyes… Is wishing for just that one thing so wrong?”
Hearing those words, Dowon furrowed his brow.
He was pushing with emotion, and it was no longer a situation where words would get through. Dowon reached out and grabbed the arm of Yeohwi who was sitting firm on the bed.
“Get down.”
“N-no!”
Yeohwi held on, gripping the bed headboard tightly with both hands. His nails dug into the leather headboard as if they would break. Their strength was about even. In terms of build, Yeohwi who had grown rapidly was slightly more dominant, but Dowon was a long-time martial arts expert. The difference in skill was desperately clear.
Dowon twisted Yeohwi’s arm to subdue the joint, and used his firm thigh to press against the bed, collapsing his center of gravity.
“Ugh…!”
Under the perfect restraint, Yeohwi’s upper body twisted limply. Not missing that gap, the muscles in Dowon’s forearm bulged clearly. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pushed Yeohwi’s body off the bed.
With a thud, Yeohwi tumbled onto the carpet on the floor. His spine rang from the shock of falling on his bottom.
“Ah!”
Yeohwi let out a groan as he pressed his hands on the floor. But there was no time to hurt. Like a roly-poly that doesn’t fall, he sprang up and before Dowon could make a move, climbed back up onto the bed mattress. Between his disheveled light brown hair, eyes flashing with venom glinted.
“I absolutely won’t leave! I’m sleeping here!”
Yeohwi screamed and threw himself toward the inside of the bed, clutching the blanket. It was desperate, as if he was rushing in with his life on the line.
Dowon let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. It seemed he needed to respond more seriously. Roughly sweeping aside the hem of his shower robe, he placed one knee on the bed. The mattress sank deeply as Dowon’s massive weight pressed down on Yeohwi.
“Fine. I’ll make you get down.”
Dowon grabbed Yeohwi’s ankle. His large grip crushed the ankle bone as if to break it.
“I said no! Let go!”
Yeohwi held on, gripping the bed sheet until his nails turned white. He struggled with his legs and desperately tried to push away Dowon’s chest. He rolled and tossed trying to flip his suppressed body, but Dowon skillfully didn’t budge.
He pulled Yeohwi’s ankle hard and dragged him down below the bed. Yeohwi’s large body, which had been holding on to the end, gradually came down. His nails scraped the sheet with a sharp screech.
Soon another thud, he was thrown onto the floor. This time the impact was greater.
“Ugh…”
Yeohwi, sprawled on the floor, gasped for rough breaths. Dowon sat perched at the edge of the bed, straightening his disheveled robe collar while looking down at him coldly. His wet chest rose and fell steeply from the intense movement.
“Give up now.”
Dowon snapped coldly. But Yeohwi bit his lips hard and raised his body again. He lunged toward the bed, squeezed between Dowon’s legs, and pushed his upper body onto the mattress by force. He was ready to crawl up on all fours if necessary.
“You really…!”
Dowon’s eyes also became bloodshot. What a tenacious bastard.
He reached out again to grab Yeohwi’s nape.
But, at that moment…
“Heu, huk.”
Yeohwi’s head dropped, and his shoulders began to heave violently.
Like a dam that had been holding out finally breaking, the tears he’d been holding back burst forth.
Dowon’s hand stopped in midair. The fingers that had been about to grab Yeohwi’s nape froze, losing their destination.
“Are you crying right now?”
Dowon asked fiercely in a sarcastic voice, as if dumbfounded.
“N-no! *sniff*, I’m not crying…!”
Yeohwi shook his head vigorously while rubbing away tears with the back of his hand. But his voice was already soaked with moisture and pathetically broken.
He felt wronged, sad, and miserable. He couldn’t bear how pathetic he was for wanting to stay by Dowon’s side even without pride, being driven out, and being thrown on the floor like a sack of luggage.
Yeohwi quickly wiped away his tears and raised his face pretending to be fine. But the face reflected in the stand lamp light was already a mess.
Eyelashes wet with tears. Reddened and swollen eyes. And his left cheek.
Earlier at the opera house box seat, where he’d lunged at Dowon to kiss him and gotten severely hit, a bruise was rising darkly blue. Because his skin was pale, it looked even more vivid and miserable.
“…”
Dowon’s gaze fixed on that bruise. His pupils wavered minutely.
What the hell was he doing right now.
What the hell was this unseemly damn mess.
He saw Seong Yeohwi sniffling while fixing his completely disheveled hair. Such a desperate struggle to cling to the bed even while tumbling on the floor. Suddenly, he recalled the foolish figure who had been holed up in a corner of the room until collapsing at his single word.
Dowon roughly swept back his wet hair.
Something hot surged from inside as if about to overflow, then subsided helplessly.
‘…Haa.’
A deep and heavy sigh burst from him.
It was a fight he couldn’t win. No, what would be the point of winning?
Against someone crying so miserably with a face full of wounds, he felt even more pathetic and childish for exerting himself to defend just one bed.
The bed sank deeply.
Yeohwi looked up with tear-soaked eyes in surprise. He looked at Dowon who had laid his long body down at the edge, on half the bed.
With one arm placed on his forehead to support his heated head, Dowon looked at the ceiling and spoke dryly.
“Get up here.”
“…What?”
Yeohwi’s eyes widened round. Transparent teardrops rolled down his cheeks.
“R-really?”
Yeohwi asked in a nasal voice.
“You won’t chase me out anymore? I can really sleep here?”
Dowon turned his head to look at Yeohwi. It was a look that said he was terribly tired and felt pathetic to death, but there was no longer any sign of driving him away.
“If you want to get lost, leave on your own two feet.”
