LLU 49

“…Sorry.”

Kim Junwoo obediently pulled away and bowed his head. The ears of the kid, who was stammering out an apology, had turned bright red. He roughly scratched the back of his neck and then bowed his head deeply again.

“I… fuck… ha…. You’re already going through so much.”

The kid couldn’t continue speaking. Neither I nor Kim Junwoo could look each other in the eye. The bodies that had been pressed so closely together now faced the gently approaching waves.

Tap, tap. He kept kicking the sandy beach with the toe of his sneaker. In truth it was a meaningless gesture. Silence lingered beside us for a long time. Only the loud sound of shwaaa, the water receding, filled the air.

“…Let’s go inside.”

How much time had passed. I slowly turned my head and spoke to him.

Kim Junwoo silently nodded and obediently stood up. By the time we returned to the minbak, the gradually fading drunkenness brought a wave of fatigue crashing over me like a tide. We took turns washing up and then lay down for a nap.

Until the sun set completely dark, Kim Junwoo and I slept deeply without even dreaming. Unaware that the real nightmare came not in dreams but riding on reality.

Junghan’s gaze fixed on the painting hanging on the wall. It was the first time he had seen it in this house. The work, bathed in soft lighting and displaying an elegant figure, looked at a glance like it could fetch hundreds of billions. Choi Mu-hyeon always hung his cherished pieces here.

What had originally been hanging in this room?

Slowly rolling his eyes, several works flashed through his mind at once. A snort of laughter leaked out.

Nothing had changed even after years. Choi Mu-hyeon’s fickle taste and eye for things applied to every aspect, as changeable as boiling and cooling porridge.

To the business items he was planning, to the collections he was gathering, and even to the filthy relationships he claimed were love. At first he bulldozed forward with overwhelming action to seize them, but as time passed the once-clear colors faded into vagueness and eventually vanished cleanly from his mind.

And probably the same would apply to the woman in front of him now.

“Really… really, Mister Junghan.”

The woman’s damp, wet voice filled the room. In the space where even the servants had been dismissed, only Junghan and the woman remained.

His gaze slowly shifted from the artwork and settled on her. At the steady stare the woman swallowed hard with a sharp intake of breath and asked, her trembling lips barely forming the words.

“Really… did you do that… to our Oon-ah?”

“Hm. You even have the courage to ask me directly.”

Junghan tilted his head slightly with a faint smile. For someone who had so ruthlessly cast aside that pitiful child, it was both ridiculous and a little admirable that she trembled while requesting a conversation, claiming the child as her own.

“It seems Oon’s spirit resembles his mother.”

“Why… why on earth did you do such a thing… to that child….”

Her twitching lips let out sobs again. Burying her face in the handkerchief she held, the woman cried quietly. The makeup under her eyes had smeared pitch black. Even in this state she was extremely careful not to let any sound leak outside, which looked comical.

“I’m the one who wants to ask.”

The kindness he had worn just moments ago peeled away in layers, revealing raw coldness underneath. The woman forgot she had been crying and held her breath.

“Why didn’t you choose that child?”

“…….”

He was genuinely, purely curious. Was that little lump of blood really that precious? Or had playing the mistress of this house felt so good? Even so, it was astonishing that she could so unhesitatingly let go of something so pretty.

“Where did all that fearless confidence go—the kind that dared to take over the master bedroom of this house. What, he said he won’t put you in the family register? Did you at least register the marriage?”

“…….”

“You must have gotten tired of it already, huh? So soon.”

Junghan’s tone was as light as if he were casually unwrapping a piece of candy. Watching the playful smile curling around his lips, the woman bit her lip hard.

“It’s… not like that.”

“Not like that? What do you mean not. The kind of person who acted like he’d give you his liver and gallbladder the moment you gave birth to a child. Anyway, a dog can’t change its habit.”

“No. It’s just… for a little while. He said he’ll do it soon. Right now there’s some legal issue tangled up, so he’s distracted dealing with that, but once it’s sorted out he said he’ll do it then….”

A scoff escaped. Legal issue my ass. This time it had lasted quite long. Well, including the period before she got pregnant, it was already the second year. Considering that debauched nature, it was an astonishingly long stretch.

“So Mister Junghan. I’m begging you. Please….”

Tears that had briefly stopped flowed down again from the woman’s eyes. Her frail body, which had been trembling without daring to come close, suddenly closed the distance in big strides. The way she clung desperately to Junghan’s sleeve was pathetically earnest.

“Please… don’t torment our Oon like that. I want to protect both Oon and Roa. I can’t bear to make Roa a fatherless child. So please, I beg you like this….”

“Isn’t that something the person who so mercilessly abandoned that child shouldn’t say?”

“…….”

“Is it okay to raise Oon as a motherless child?”

The cold voice rang low through the room. The woman froze, still clutching Junghan’s sleeve. By now the soft laughter had completely vanished from his low tone.

Large jewel-like eyes kept shedding tears without pause. Were those tears born from guilt over abandoning her own son? Or from fear of what she would lose if she stormed out of this place? He tried to gauge the woman’s feelings but found it difficult. In any case it wasn’t his concern.

He took one big step toward her. The woman flinched in surprise, let go of his hand, and stepped back. As he advanced another step, crocodile-like small pupils tightened around her.

Unconsciously the woman let out a trembling breath. The silence that felt like it was strangling her throat was frightening. Just being near him made the air thin and closed off her airways—right now, in this moment, the woman was genuinely terrified of Junghan.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of him.”

A gentle smile soon spread across Junghan’s face.

“Unlike you, Mother, once something comes into my hands I cherish it to the very end.”

The car glided smoothly along the Gyeongbu Expressway. In the car where not a single note of music played, only silence flowed.

Their loosely interlocked fingers, clasped together, rested on his knee. Staring at the scenery flashing rapidly past the car window, Junghan listened expressionlessly to the sound coming from his earphones.

—I want to protect you. I want to… stop you from ever going through something like that again.

—I like you, Oon-ah.

A sharp puff of air escaped from his broad chest. The mood was so melodramatic. Were the two of them filming some pathetic melodrama against a sea backdrop? With nothing but ankles that ran a little faster than others, who exactly was he protecting.

How dare he.

—Kim Junwoo, wait….

A wet sound could be heard. The sound of hurriedly drawing in breath, the rustle of clothing. The kid’s flustered, stammering voice. That overall mood-ruining sound pierced clearly into Junghan’s ears without being drowned out even by the fluttering sea breeze. At times like this the unnecessarily excellent performance of his company’s product felt fucking unpleasant.

Junghan slowly pushed his tongue against the inside of his cheek. His eerily lightless pupils slanted downward. Tap tap, the fingers that had been drumming on his knee stopped.

The crooked sneer hanging on his face disappeared. In the place where all expression had been erased, only a chilling emptiness remained.

His heart pounded fiercely. Thump, thump. Each beat felt like someone was slamming a fist into his chest area, bringing an unpleasant sensation. Cracks spread jaggedly across the expressionless face.

“Faster.”

At Junghan’s low command the car increased its speed.

The servants had been waiting in Busan since yesterday. From the moment the child burst out of the mansion with his mother, his servants had also begun tracking. He had instructed them to maintain sufficient distance from Pioon and to quietly observe what the kid was doing.

There were two reasons Junghan hadn’t immediately dragged the kid back and chained his ankle.

First, he wanted to know where Pioon would run to and who he would meet when pushed to the extreme. He needed to identify every detail: where the refuge was that the kid crawled into when trying to hide, and from what insolent thing—not him—he dared to seek comfort.

The second was that he wanted to let him breathe some outside air after so long. Having stayed confined indoors for such a long time, it must have felt stifling. The kid must have mustered considerable resolve to pull off something like this, so catching him right away would feel anticlimactic. Junghan thought it was quite generous on his part to let him have a sufficient walk before returning.

A smooth smile quickly spread across his lips for a moment. His solid shoulders trembled. The vibration even reached the arm he had propped long against the car window.

“Ah… really.”

Junghan let out a giggling chuckle and covered his mouth with his hand.

“Our Oon really turns people into fucking romantics.”

Junghan had never felt this way before. Torturing something that suited his taste in a sadistic way to shape it even more to his liking had been his greatest pleasure until now, but he had never bothered to chase down something that tried to crawl away on all fours at his feet. Because there had been nothing to miss.

But now.

He knew his pretty little brother was no ordinary thing, but he hadn’t expected this much.

Not only had he shown mercy by letting him breathe fresh air so he wouldn’t feel stifled, but he had even made himself personally go all the way to Busan to capture him.

Even Junghan himself found it a little unexpected. He had thought it would be enough to just keep him locked in the house and fuck him endlessly. That much would match the value of having personally brought him in, and that alone would make him sufficiently special.

He didn’t even know why he was moving personally. He could have simply ordered the servants waiting nearby to capture both of them right away. No—that had been the original plan. But.

When he heard the sound of the kid desperately calling that friend’s name over the phone and wailing with all his heart, an emotion he had never felt before suddenly surged up inside him. Junghan didn’t know what to call this feeling or whether other people felt it too.

Ignorance brought displeasure. Displeasure soon transformed into sharply honed anger. Something that was his could not be touched by another’s hands. In the end Junghan had stood up abruptly.

That pretty flower must look only at him, must be touched only by his hand, and could be broken only by him.

“We’ve arrived.”

The blazing sun was preparing to sink over the sea. After burning half a day on the road, it was already afternoon.

Junghan got out of the car and slowly stepped onto the sandy beach. The sand grains clinging to his shoes crunched annoyingly.

Fortunately there was no need to hurry his steps. If the two of them were passed out drunk, that was a stroke of luck for them. If they had done anything more than that fucking kiss, that friend bastard would never have left this beach alive.

Well, he would still have to pay the price for touching what belonged to someone else.

He strolled casually into the shabby minbak office. The owner, who had already been handsomely paid off, greeted Junghan with delight. Kindly handing over the room key, he left the premises.

From now until tomorrow morning, no outsider’s eyes would be on this quiet seaside or minbak. Except for the servants he had planted.

Somewhere a beast-like suppressed scream kept ringing in his ears.

The mind clouded by alcohol tried to ignore the sound. Sweet sleep stubbornly refused to release his consciousness. Without even thinking of opening his eyes, I kept sinking into the languid sensation.

The sound buzzing like a bee in my ears grew distant, then close, then gradually smaller. Then it soon vanished completely.

I took a deep breath through my nose and turned over. But something felt off. My hand wasn’t moving properly.

The moment I realized that, a powerful premonition stabbed sharply into my brain.