Ch 3. Choi Hongdan
He had no idea what state of mind he’d been in when he came back from the park to home.
“Hongdan, are you okay……”
“Try coming into my room without permission while I’m sleeping again. Then I’ll immediately call your mother and tell her to come pick up her precious son, forget your entire fortune or whatever.”
Slam—!
Hongdan went straight into his room without listening to Seonha’s response. Then he collapsed onto the bed just like that. The fact that he couldn’t hear any sign of anyone following didn’t matter much.
No, actually, he wasn’t thinking anything.
Not the thought that he should change clothes, not the thought that he should wash up.
He just didn’t want to think about anything. Didn’t want to use his brain. If he could just turn off his brain, he wanted to keep it off for about a week. If a week was too difficult, he wanted to stop all his thoughts for even just one day.
His body, crushed by fatigue, was as heavy as if dozens of tons of stone had been placed on it.
The only thing he could do with his remaining strength was squeeze his eyes tightly shut and summon sleep from far away.
……He’d just have to throw away that coat. It had been a fairly cherished piece of clothing.
The problem was that he’d hastily wrapped it around Seonha just to cover his face.
Without thinking that the guy’s pheromones would stick all over it.
Given the nature of pheromones, it was obvious they wouldn’t wash out no matter how many times he laundered it. He knew that better than anyone. There had been many days when he could barely breathe in Yeon Seonha’s closet.
On the way home, when Seonha had draped the coat over his shoulders saying the wind was cold, he’d almost vomited up everything he’d eaten for dinner.
Because the thick coconut milk scent rushing into his nose was revolting.
Because the past three years he’d been fooled by that sweetness felt so pathetically idiotic all over again.
When it gently hovered around him, it had been somewhat bearable, but when he was suddenly covered in his scent without warning, it felt like all his organs were twisting.
What happened after that?
Had he thrown it at Yeon Seonha? Or had he just roughly shoved it into some random trash bag nearby? Ah, but it was quite bulky, so maybe he couldn’t do that.
He must have truly gone crazy—even memories from just a few minutes ago were now hazy. Honestly, the very fact of returning home alongside him felt distant, as if fog had settled over it.
They’d only been together for two days and his IQ seemed to have already dropped by about 20 points. At this rate, he’d surely become an idiot like before.
……I don’t want that.
Hongdan curled his body even more desperately.
I hate it.
A stinging pain transmitted from his forcibly pressed-down eyelids.
I just hate everything. I hate Yeon Seonha and I hate myself for suffering like this because I can’t get over that bastard. I hate it so much. It’s pathetic. Stupid. Idiot Choi Hongdan. I hate you the most. You can’t do anything right. You’re the biggest problem, you. If only you weren’t so lacking. If only you weren’t so deficient. If only you didn’t like Yeon Seonha……
If only we’d never met.
“Hnngh……”
He’d thought his tears had completely dried up from crying so much, but after meeting Seonha, they seeped out again after just two days. Was he somehow fetching water for his tear ducts every time without him noticing?
Thud—thud—
Please, please let this vivid consciousness become blurred—Hongdan hit the side of his head.
Endlessly.
Strongly enough to be heard even by Seonha still standing outside the door.
Thud, thud. Thud thud thud.
Just let it all shatter.
Thud thud thud thud thud.
Whether reality, memories, or emotions. Just let everything related to Yeon Seonha shatter.
***
It had been a day flowing by normally like any other. If not for a few messages that arrived from an unfamiliar number.
[010-xxxx-xxxx] Did you look carefully at the photo I sent? What you married isn’t a prince, just some slut bastard
[010-xxxx-xxxx] Acting like Cinderella or whatever when you were just chosen by Yeon Seonha because you were easy
[010-xxxx-xxxx] There’s no idiot as much of an idiot as you
[010-xxxx-xxxx] If you still want to keep living together like this, at least get STD tests every month
[010-xxxx-xxxx] Someday you’ll be grateful for this text
For a moment, Hongdan thought he’d forgotten how to read Korean.
He rubbed his eyes several times and even went to get his glasses for no reason. He even enlarged the font size to the maximum like middle-aged people sad with presbyopia.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t easily read the letters displayed on the screen. No, he somehow managed to read them, but his brain wouldn’t accept it. Ah, since he couldn’t properly recognize the photos this crazy bastard had attached either, perhaps both his eyes and brain had malfunctioned simultaneously.
Hongdan opened his eyes wide once more and muttered the densely packed text.
His old friend and husband, Yeon Seonha, had many admirers befitting that impressive physique. It was fair to say his daily life was just a continuous series of large and small temptations.
Among such people were the youngest son of a family wealthy enough to comfortably rank within the top 5 of the domestic business world, though not quite at Yeonhwa Group’s level; popular actors and idols; rising stars in politics; and even employees of this household who subtly aimed to gain favor while just doing his laundry.
So when it became known that the marriage partner of that remarkable Yeon Seonha was just one ordinary civilian—no, a man with shabby circumstances practically no different from a commoner—Hongdan had truly received the envy and jealousy of the entire world. He’d thought he’d experienced every kind of hatred in his life, but that kind of blind, faith-like hatred was overwhelming even for him.
They found out Hongdan’s phone number and even terrorized him. Even when he changed his number, as if they’d formed some information organization with one heart and one mind, they shit with their fingers into Hongdan’s phone as if it were a toilet whenever he was about to forget. Of course, he tried blocking numbers and sometimes even filed lawsuits, but it was useless. Their specialty was self-reproduction like cockroaches.
Therefore, when he first received the text “Do you like Yeon Seonha that much?”, Hongdan had intended to just fire off some profanity as usual. However, with the series of explicit photos that occupied the screen, his thumb ultimately had to stop at “Hey, you life’s loser bi—”
Then.
“……Ah.”
While forcibly turning his frozen brain and only blinking, the coconut scent that had been gently spreading through the house gradually grew thicker.
If only sweetness had tickled his nose, he might not have noticed, but occasionally the freshness of lemon stabbed at his senses. No matter when he smelled it, it always seemed exactly like skin lightly burnt by sunlight.
There was only one alpha Hongdan knew with pheromones this harmless yet sensual.
“It’s Seonha.”
His husband.
Now beyond friendship, the one he loved endlessly, his only family.
And the protagonist of these photos.
“Yeon Seonha.”
Before long, Seonha walked into the study flaunting his characteristically long legs. The leisurely gesture of sweeping up the black hair he’d seen in the photos was still the same.
“Should we go out for dinner tonight? The weather’s exactly the kind you like. Not humid, appropriately overcast so the sunlight isn’t harsh. What do you want to do, Choi Hongdan?”
“Did you sleep around with other people?”
Aah.
In the end, his mouth moved before he could choose his words.
The smile hanging on Seonha’s straight lips was erased in an instant.
“……Who said that?”
“I don’t know. Some crazy bastard. But the one naked here is definitely you.”
Hongdan held out his phone toward the desk. Then Seonha, who had been standing by the door, strode over. Standing before the desk, he didn’t bother to pick up the phone, just lowered his gaze.
“Aha.”
After staring at the screen for a while, that was his impression. Just two syllables.
“I thought that face looked ominous.”
Then he let out a scoff and added an indifferent response as if it were someone else’s business.
Hongdan was confused. Had they made some agreement about partners when he received the proposal? No, no matter how much he dug through his memories, there was no such insane promise.
When Hongdan just looked up at him with a blank face, Seonha closed his eyes once in a smile. Then he bent down and left a brief kiss on his round forehead. He also stretched out the slightly plump cheeks, thanks to feeding him well. It was a routine he always repeated like daily life when he came home.
“I asked how you wanted to do dinner. Going out is fine, right? I actually already made a reservation before coming.”
It was also an attitude that seemed to treat all of this as Hongdan’s absurd imagination. Seonha showed only a brief flicker of emotion, if it could even be called that, then immediately returned to his usual self. Even though Hongdan was still immersed in the screen. Without a single word of explanation, he just pulled him into the peaceful daily life where he existed. As if it were strange to be tied to such a place until now.
But.
Slam!
“Has this slut bastard gone crazy?”
Hongdan’s daily life had already collapsed.
