Chapter 15: Stained with Blood
The man looked at Dohyuk, gave a quick bow, and hurriedly left the room. Dohyuk’s gaze shifted to Yeon. The sound of him clicking his tongue seemed abnormally loud. Even though Yeon hadn’t done anything wrong, Dohyuk’s cold stare made him feel small.
“I can’t believe you can even seduce men. Is that how you’re trying to escape from here?”
At these unexpected words, Yeon’s face hardened. Was this person implying that he had tried to seduce the security guard? It was an unpleasant misunderstanding. Especially one he didn’t want to receive from him.
“I never seduced anyone.”
“Then you should thank me. I saved you from a potentially rough situation.”
Was it just his paranoia that made him feel Dohyuk was mocking him?
“This is your house, and he’s employed by you. He probably knows more about you than I do. I don’t think such a person would act against your wishes.”
It felt like a quiet whirlpool was churning inside his chest. Though he didn’t raise his voice or show his anger, he couldn’t completely hide his displeasure.
“You understand well. That I’m your employer too.”
Dohyuk strode over and grabbed Yeon’s chin, lifting it up. Yeon slightly furrowed his brow at the pain from his grip.
“So don’t drag in some random guy. Unless you want to watch people die because of you.”
Drag in who? Yeon firmly knocked Dohyuk’s hand away with a sharp sound.
“You were the one who treated me like a prostitute first, Kang Dohyuk-ssi.”
Perhaps he should have made it clear back then that he didn’t do such things. Had it been anyone other than Kang Dohyuk, he would have rejected the request without a second thought.
Because it was Kang Dohyuk… because he was his fate connected by a red thread… that’s why he had acted awkwardly. He knew that even if he refused, fate would eventually bring him before Dohyuk again, and the more he resisted, the more their relationship would tangle in harsh ways. Knowing this, instead of resisting, he had tried to brush it off by using the fact that Dohyuk had no desire for him yet, but he hadn’t expected this kind of misunderstanding.
“Treated you like a prostitute…”
Dohyuk’s eyes narrowed.
“You mean that’s not true?”
“It’s not.”
It felt distasteful to think that Dohyuk was having vulgar thoughts about him in connection with his past clients.
“Well, let’s say that’s the case for now. Though it’s not very convincing, given your appearance.”
“You’re the one who made me look like this. None of my other clients have made such demands.”
Among all the people he had ever met, Dohyuk was the most suspicious. Above all, he couldn’t comprehend the idea of calling a shaman to solve problems. That’s why Yeon had backed off. He had to do his job. But now he was reaching his limit.
Though Yeon had lived with many resignations, this wasn’t like those times in his memories. His life might not be ordinary, but that didn’t mean he deserved such treatment from Kang Dohyuk.
“I’m leaving here.”
It wasn’t a request or plea to be let out. It was a declaration of his own will to leave, and Dohyuk’s expression became subtle. As Yeon tried to pass through the doorway, Dohyuk extended his arm to block him.
“Tell me the truth about what you’re hiding from me. I warned you that you can’t leave before doing so.”
A murderous aura flowed, as if he might draw out the knife that had been aimed at Yeon’s neck the previous night. Yeon bit the inside of his lip and turned his head to look at Dohyuk.
“If I tell the truth? Can you handle it? No, will you even believe it?”
He looked straight at Dohyuk as he asked. The two of them stared at each other in silence for a moment.
“‘Can I handle it’… Do you know how strange your question is?”
Despite Dohyuk’s remark, Yeon’s expression remained unchanged as he looked at him. Even if he didn’t believe it, he would still be concerned after hearing it all. Few people could completely ignore hearing about their own fate.
“Let me hear it. What kind of story I can’t handle.”
Dohyuk stepped back from Yeon. He went to his bedroom, pulled out a chair at the table and sat down, indicating the seat across from him to Yeon.
“If you’re going to try to deceive me with nonsense like yesterday, saying you’re here because of some connection, it would be better not to even start.”
Dohyuk warned in a low voice as soon as Yeon sat down.
“Let’s say there is a connection between us. There must be something. Something you desperately wish to break.”
Dohyuk gazed at Yeon intently. Last night, him overhearing Yeon’s muttering had caused all this trouble.
“Kang Dohyuk-ssi and I…”
Yeon slowly opened his mouth. All kinds of thoughts flashed through his mind in that brief moment. Should he just say it was an unfortunate connection? A connection that would only end when one of them died. It would be different from what Dohyuk might think of as unfortunate, but since it would ultimately end in death, it wouldn’t be a lie.
But if he answered like that, the current Dohyuk would surely try to break that connection by killing him immediately. Though Yeon wasn’t attached to life, he couldn’t die by Dohyuk’s hand now.
If he died, Dohyuk would die too. So he couldn’t die here now.
“We are connected by a red thread.”
Lies beget more lies. It’s better not to tell lies from the beginning.
“What does that mean?”
At Dohyuk’s question, Yeon took a deep breath. He could already imagine how Dohyuk would react after hearing this answer. He would probably sneer. He might hold a knife to Yeon’s throat, telling him not to say such ridiculous things. The wound from being cut by him the other day still stung, not yet healed.
“Do you remember asking me yesterday if I had a predetermined marriage partner?”
Instead of answering, Dohyuk frowned. Yeon knew that Dohyuk hadn’t asked him that out of curiosity about his marriage partner.
“Fated lovers are born with both red and blue threads intertwined. Kang Dohyuk-ssi doesn’t have a connection with those two threads.”
In reality, Dohyuk had numerous threads connected to him, but among them, there was no connection with a blue thread. There was only one—the red thread connecting him to Yeon.
“What does that have to do with what you’re hiding from me?”
There was still not the slightest hint of emotion at being told he had no marriage partner, meaning he might have to spend his life alone. Perhaps it’s because you’re such a cold-hearted person, Yeon thought, that you don’t have a proper lover’s fate, and a bitter smile escaped him.
“But I am connected to you, Kang Dohyuk-ssi, by a red thread.”
At Yeon’s calm answer, Dohyuk’s eyes, which had been quietly observing Yeon, gradually narrowed. Then he let out a disbelieving laugh. It was a perfectly normal reaction, and one that Yeon had expected. Even if it were himself, he would be dumbfounded if a man he’d only met three days ago claimed they were connected by fate.
“To avoid misunderstanding, let me clarify. Proper lovers have both red and blue threads coexisting, but between Kang Dohyuk-ssi and me, there is no blue thread.”
He wanted to make it clear that they weren’t lovers.
“What’s the difference?”
Dohyuk asked back. This time, Yeon couldn’t answer and his lips tightened. They weren’t normal lovers. But they were still bound to each other. It was closer to obsession than love. Dohyuk didn’t have that level of emotion yet.
“I… don’t know.”
It wasn’t a lie. Yeon also didn’t know exactly why there was only a red thread or what the difference was compared to when a blue thread was present.
“If you don’t know, why do you want it broken? Because I’m a man?”
Because they were the same sex. If it were simply that kind of problem, in today’s world, he might have brushed it off as no big deal, saying what’s wrong with being homosexual. Even in the past, many engaged in male-male relationships, though not openly.
“At the end of this red thread connection…”
Yeon paused briefly and grabbed the red thread waving in the air. If only he could break it with his ability or at least blur it.
“There exists only blood as red as this thread.”
Yeon’s eyes sank deeply. All kinds of memories, with no discernible order, tangled together. Long ago, even longer ago, and even before that… He couldn’t even tell how many times this had been repeated.
“Did you kill me…?”
Yeon had thought Dohyuk would mock him, but his reaction was unexpectedly cold. Perhaps he didn’t believe it at all, so it wasn’t even worth mocking.
“No.”
Yeon shook his head.
“Then did I kill you?”
Again, Yeon shook his head. Only then did Dohyuk let out a sigh.
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“What I know is that if I stay by your side, I die. And after I die, you don’t live much longer either. That’s about it.”
Yeon finished speaking, but Dohyuk still silently stared at him. His gaze seemed to be measuring whether Yeon was trying to deceive him with lies. Yeon also calmly met Dohyuk’s gaze.
Dohyuk quietly inhaled. Everything Yeon said wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t about distinguishing whether he was committing fraud through his eyes or expressions. Dohyuk’s criterion for judgment was whether what was said would benefit the speaker or not.
But now, nothing in Yeon’s story would benefit him in any way. His claim that he wished this connection to be broken because being near Dohyuk meant death was convincing.
“Did you know me before receiving my mother’s request?”
Yeon shook his head.
“After receiving the request, I felt a vague attraction to the name Kang Dohyuk, but I couldn’t be certain. However, the moment I entered this house, or more precisely, the moment I faced Kang Dohyuk-ssi, I saw it.”
Dohyuk didn’t ask the foolish question of what Yeon had seen. The red thread connecting him and Yeon. Was it true that this guy could actually see the connections between people as threads?
It’s nonsense. Unbelievable.
Thinking rationally, it was all groundless talk. But Yeon’s calm tone and expression, along with his story about a terrible connection that wouldn’t help him in the slightest, stuck to Dohyuk like something clinging to the soles of his feet, impossible to shake off.
“Now that I’ve told you everything truthfully, it’s your choice, Kang Dohyuk-ssi.”
Yeon spoke.
“Whether you’ll keep me by your side even knowing all this, or cancel the request and never get entangled with me again.”
