Chapter 28: Embroidery on the Clothes
As he shifted his body, the soft blanket felt pleasant against his skin. Soon, he realized his bed was far too comfortable. His eyes snapped open to see an unfamiliar yet somehow familiar ceiling. And Kang Dohyuk’s cold face looking down at him.
Yeon was so startled he couldn’t even make a sound. Without turning his head to check, he could tell he was lying in Kang Dohyuk’s bed. Unable to understand why he was here, he nervously swallowed.
“If you’re awake, get up.”
No sooner had Dohyuk finished speaking than Yeon quickly rose and got out of the bed. He clearly remembered crouching in a corner of the room last night until he dozed off, so why on earth was he in someone else’s bed? Had he crawled into Dohyuk’s bed while half-asleep…? The thought sent a chill through him. There was no way he would have secretly crawled into Kang Dohyuk’s bed of all people. If he had done that, this man wouldn’t have just let him be.
Unconsciously, he raised his hand to stroke his neck. The spot where Dohyuk had held a knife to him a few days ago had scabbed over and felt rough.
“Why am I here…?”
The words didn’t come easily. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t have climbed into Dohyuk’s bed on his own. But it also seemed unlikely that Dohyuk had carried him there. If asked which was more probable, it would be the former.
“I’m sorry.”
He thought he should apologize first. If he had invaded someone’s bed without permission, it was entirely his fault.
“For what?”
Dohyuk asked. Yeon couldn’t answer and just rolled his eyes toward the bed. Dohyuk then made a short “ah” sound and chuckled.
“You think you climbed into my bed while sleeping?”
His voice lifted at the end, indicating how ridiculous the idea was.
“If that had happened, do you think you’d still be alive?”
At this calm question, Yeon bit the inside of his lip hard. No. If that had happened, he would have likely been stabbed or slashed with the same knife that had been held to his neck before. He swallowed these thoughts.
But if not that, then did Kang Dohyuk-ssi move me here himself?
This was what he really wanted to ask, but he couldn’t voice it. It would be even more confusing if that were true. He looked down at his body. His ceremonial clothes were disheveled, but there was no sign that anyone had tried to undress him. He sighed in relief, which caused Dohyuk’s eyebrow to rise crookedly.
“Your reaction.”
Dohyuk’s voice rumbled deeply.
“It seems like you’re anxious and guarding your body, worried about what I might do to you. Am I mistaken?”
Yeon stared at Dohyuk without even blinking.
“You know, when someone cowers like that, it can give bad ideas to people who didn’t have any to begin with.”
“That’s—!”
He opened his mouth to object but Dohyuk’s cold gaze stopped his words. Don’t be agitated. You’re just getting swept up in the atmosphere. He barely managed to calm himself and suppress his emotions that had suddenly become a tangled mess.
“It’s because you have a prior record.”
“A prior record?”
“Yesterday, you forcibly kissed me.”
“Ah.”
Dohyuk’s lips curled up as if understanding, and he turned his gaze away from Yeon.
“At first, when you said you could do even more, I naturally thought you’d be experienced. Who would have thought you’d be a virgin.”
Dohyuk tossed out the comment and watched Yeon’s reaction. The observation about his virginity wasn’t wrong, but Yeon didn’t see why it mattered and met his gaze directly. Dohyuk found Yeon’s response amusing and chuckled again.
“It’s not bad having some spirit. Just be careful who you show it to. That aspect of yours might provoke a desire to conquer in some people.”
His words sounded as if Kang Dohyuk himself felt that way, making Yeon’s mouth go dry. It seemed that his efforts to avoid entanglement had instead provoked Dohyuk’s stubbornness.
“Isn’t it time for work?”
Wanting to change the subject, he checked the time. Come to think of it, Dohyuk wasn’t dressed in his usual suit. He was wearing beige cotton pants and a loose white sweater.
“It’s the weekend.”
Since his work didn’t follow a weekly schedule, Yeon had lost track of the days. The mention of the weekend evoked two simultaneous emotions. He felt relieved that they wouldn’t have to go to the company and worry about others’ eyes, but also tense about having to spend the entire day alone with Kang Dohyuk.
He found it increasingly difficult to read this man. When he had tried to get close, Dohyuk rejected him, but now that he was trying to back away, Dohyuk kept narrowing the distance.
***
Despite his intense anxiety about what might happen, the day passed quietly. Dohyuk spent the entire morning working in his study, and after lunch, he sat in the living room reading news articles on his tablet PC and seemingly reading a book. He didn’t particularly speak to Yeon. Just as Yeon acted as if Dohyuk wasn’t there, Dohyuk disregarded Yeon and spent his time in his own way.
Thanks to this, Yeon’s tension eased. In the calmly flowing time, he observed Dohyuk’s surroundings, looking for malicious connections tied to him, and fortunately, when he found something notable, he cut it off.
“That pattern on your clothes.”
With his eyes still on the tablet PC, Dohyuk addressed Yeon who was sitting across from him. Silver thread embroidery adorned the chest band and waistband of the ceremonial clothes Yeon was wearing, which Dohyuk seemed to be pointing out.
“Does it have meaning?”
He wondered when Dohyuk had noticed the embroidery, having thought he hadn’t paid any attention all day. None of Yeon’s previous clients had ever been curious about the patterns sewn into his clothes. Most just considered it ornate with silver embroidery on white cloth, without examining what the pattern actually depicted.
“A phoenix? But why are all the birds killing other birds?”
But Dohyuk was different. Just as he said, on both sides of the chest, the waistband, and both sides of the lower part of the ceremonial robe—five places in total—birds were embroidered attacking or causing other birds to fall.
“It has no meaning.”
Silence followed Yeon’s answer.
“I told you before. That you’re not good at lying.”
Dohyuk put down his tablet PC and approached Yeon. Yeon instinctively leaned back, but it was a meaningless gesture as he was already blocked by the sofa’s backrest.
Dohyuk’s hand grabbed Yeon’s chin and lifted it. His head was forcibly raised to look up at Dohyuk.
“Don’t try to deceive me. I won’t tolerate that.”
Despite having done nothing wrong, Yeon’s heart seemed to freeze at the menacing warning.
Dohyuk soon released Yeon and returned to his original seat. He wasn’t the type to go on at length, but he was confident Yeon had understood his intention from just this much. As he moved away, he could see Yeon quietly steadying his breath.
The more he looked at him, the stranger Yeon seemed. After spending several days together, he found him even more peculiar. It wasn’t that he lacked presence. Wherever he sat, he was noticeable enough that people would turn to look at him. But when they were alone, he was like air. He existed in that space but seemed not to exist. This was the first time Dohyuk had encountered someone who didn’t bother him despite being in the same space.
He thought it might be possible to keep Yeon by his side all day. That’s why he had allowed him to enter his bedroom.
“Kang Dohyuk-ssi.”
Yeon, who had been seemingly scanning Dohyuk or something around him, quietly called out to him.
Kang Dohyuk-ssi. He didn’t like the formal address. It felt presumptuous coming from someone who appeared much younger than him, addressing him so stiffly by name. But having him call him “Managing Director” like others did would have been ridiculous too. Though he disliked it, he had left it as is for now since there was no suitable alternative, but it grated on him every time Yeon called him “Kang Dohyuk-ssi.”
“Is there someone who might harbor strong ill feelings toward Kang Dohyuk-ssi?”
“Many.”
Though it was a serious question, Dohyuk answered lightly. There were countless people who were desperate to kill him.
“Not momentary ill will, but long-standing… strong enough to want to kill you…”
Yeon seemed to grab something in the air and frowned. There were times when a white light briefly formed and disappeared between his fingers, and his previously expressionless face would contort as if experiencing pain.
“These aren’t recent connections. They’re malicious feelings that are at least several years old. Perhaps 10 years or more.”
He was asking Dohyuk to think about who might have such long-standing grudges against him.
“If I know what caused these malicious connections, it might be easier to sever them.”
Even with that explanation, no one specific came to mind. Or rather, there were too many to single out one. Especially after starting his work with Dragon Holdings, the list was endless.
“The one most desperate to get me is probably Kang Sunhyuk.”
If asked about a long-standing grudge, it would definitely be Kang Sunhyuk. Though they were only a year apart, they had been polar opposites from birth, and thanks to Chairman Kang Mansik, they had to keep each other in check. He was constantly causing a ruckus, coming after Dohyuk with threats, so there was no need for further explanation.
“Who is Kang Sunhyuk?”
“You saw him yesterday. The guy who came to my office and made a scene.”
“Ah…”
Yeon let out a groan. Confusion showed on his face. If he could see the threads connecting people, and if Kang Sunhyuk was one of the serious malicious connections Yeon had mentioned, shouldn’t he have recognized it when he saw him yesterday?
“I’m sorry. I was too flustered then…”
Waiting for Yeon’s answer, Dohyuk let out a dejected laugh. He wasn’t disappointed that Yeon had failed to recognize a potential enemy right in front of him. The thought that this person was human after all, that he had genuinely been flustered because of him in that moment, made him laugh.
“You’ll see him again soon enough, so there’s no need to feel sorry.”
At Dohyuk’s words, Yeon exhaled a sigh that could have been either relief or self-reproach.
“Try not to touch him next time.”
At the grinning addition, Yeon’s face hardened. The glimpse of his nape turning red wasn’t an illusion. No matter how well he tried to hide it, Dohyuk could now clearly see that Yeon was being shaken by his provocations.
