MW 33

And so he promised the trembling Yijae that he would protect him, that he would not leave him alone anymore.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

“Ugh…….”

Yijae opened his eyes, clutching his head which felt like it would shatter. Frowning at the headache, the likes of which he’d never experienced before, he held his breath at the scene that slowly came into view.

‘Why is Jaeha sunbae here…….’

Jaeha was sleeping on a makeshift bed on the floor below the bed. Yijae covered his own mouth as memories started to surface one by one.

The things he had done, thinking they were a fantasy, thinking they were a dream, were real. The memories of hugging him, crying and telling him not to go, kissing him—Yijae’s face was painted with horror.

And that wasn’t all. When he kissed him, Jaeha had kissed him back as if in response. And Yijae, remembering him saying he would protect him and be with him from now on, squeezed his eyes shut.

‘No.’

If Dohae finds out about this…….

Yijae’s body trembled with fear as he hurriedly got out of bed. Perhaps because he moved too quickly, his legs didn’t seem to be fully awake yet; he lost his balance and almost fell, but Yijae found his discarded clothes, put them on, and left the room.

“I have to go. Qui, quickly.”

He was so grateful and sorry to Jaeha, but he felt that his firm resolve would crumble if he saw him. Yijae regretted his shameless behavior yesterday after having hurt Jaeha so much.

He took all the remaining bills from his pocket, placed them on the living room table, and quickly turned away. Just as he left the room and was moving quickly towards the front door.

“Seeing as you’re trying to run away as soon as you wake up, I guess you fortunately remember everything.”

At the voice, Yijae turned around. As if he had been watching him all along, Jaeha was standing in a lopsided posture, smiling at him. Yijae, flustered, stepped back towards the front door.

Can I escape from here? But if I leave like this…….

While he was debating in his head, Jaeha strode over, snatched his wrist, and pulled Yijae into his arms.

“Gotcha.”

“Heuk!”

As if to punish Yijae for trying to run away, Jaeha hugged him tightly and laughed with a faint whoosh of air.

“You can’t run away now.”

Yijae, who was near the front door, felt his body freeze like a frozen tuna as he watched Jaeha lift him up and head back inside.

“What do you want for breakfast?”

“I-I’m sorry, but I think I have to go home…….”

His mouth was dry, and he couldn’t face him. Yijae looked down at the spotless marble floor of Jaeha’s house and had the illusion of standing on freshly fallen white snow.

“…….”

When no answer came, Yijae’s eyes slowly turned to Jaeha. He simply bit his lip, watching Jaeha walk forward, staring straight ahead.

“At least eat before you go.”

“…….”

“To be honest, I don’t want to send you to that house, even if it means locking you up here.”

As he said that, the veins on the back of Jaeha’s hand popped out. He scoffed at the reality that he had nothing prepared yet and placed a hand on top of Yijae’s head.

“There’s a lot to prepare to bring you over. So just wait a little longer.”

Somehow, the way Jaeha spoke felt bitter. And what did he mean, there’s a lot to prepare to bring him over? Yijae replayed the words Jaeha had whispered to him last night and curled his fingertips in his dizzy head.

“So today, at least eat with me before you go. You can do that much for me, can’t you? Hm?”

After hearing that, how could he cruelly leave him? Yijae finally turned around to face Jaeha.

.

.

.

“I tried to imitate it, but I’m not sure how it tastes.”

Yijae looked down at the bowl of white rice and soup that was now in front of him. Did bean sprout soup originally have fish cakes in it? Looking at the soup he couldn’t identify, he swallowed a laugh and said.

“I’ll eat well.”

“Okay.”

Yijae had to hold back another laugh at Jaeha’s face, which was pretending not to, but was clearly full of expectation. He changed the direction of his spoon, which was heading for the rice, and took a taste of the soup. The gaze on his face became more intense.

“It’s delici……ous.”

It was actually quite good. Yijae took a few more sips of the soup and then lifted his head. He was met with Jaeha’s satisfied face.

“I bought the side dishes while you were sleeping.”

So that’s how it was. He had been feeling sorry, wondering when he had prepared so much food. Yijae nodded, looking at the table full of only his favorite side dishes.

“You don’t seem to handle spicy food well.”

Jaeha said, placing a plate of white kimchi in front of Yijae.

“How did you know?”

“Because you’d stick your tongue out whenever you ate kimchi. And your face would turn red.”

Feeling like he had shown an embarrassing side of himself to Jaeha, Yijae pointlessly gnawed on his innocent lips. Then, realizing that there was truly nothing spicy among the side dishes Jaeha had bought, the tips of his ears turned red.

‘So I can’t handle spicy food well.’

And Jaeha had noticed that after seeing it only a few times. Yijae felt his heart grow heavy again and lowered his gaze. He felt like he would cry if he looked at Jaeha’s face.

How much time had passed like that. Yijae’s eating pace had slowed down significantly. Although it was still quite early, he had to return before the family members woke up.

As Yijae’s anxious glances at the clock increased, the smile on Jaeha’s face also began to fade.

“I’ll take you home when you’re done eating.”

Jaeha lightly tapped the shoulder of Yijae, who was forcing himself to eat, and stood up. As he followed Jaeha with heavy steps, an object that didn’t belong here caught Yijae’s eye.

His own sneakers, completely faded and torn at the toe.

Taking them in, Yijae felt so ashamed of his situation that his eyes welled up. He knew from the beginning that he and Jaeha didn’t belong together. He knew it clearly in his head, but after coming to his house, the cup, the sofa, even the clean marble floor—everything felt like confirmation that he didn’t fit in.

The dam of emotions he had been holding back collapsed the moment he saw his worn-out sneakers.

Tucking his lip into his mouth in shame, he hurriedly put on his sneakers at the sound of Jaeha’s approaching footsteps.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

“You don’t look so good. Did you force yourself to eat? Do you have indigestion?”

Jaeha was concerned about Yijae, who seemed to have been in a much lower mood since leaving the house. Jaeha, holding the steering wheel, turned his head at a red light to check Yijae’s expression.

He hadn’t said a word for a while, and his face was pale. He was worried that he might have made him uncomfortable.

“No. I’m o, kay.”

Jaeha looked back at Yijae, who answered in a voice that was anything but okay, but Yijae avoided his gaze and leaned his face against the window.

The car they were in entered the neighborhood where Yijae lived. Yijae, watching the gate get closer, quietly said to Jaeha.

“Please drop me off at that bus stop over there.”

“……Alright.”

Jaeha didn’t ask anything and stopped the car where Yijae had pointed. Before Yijae got out of the car, Jaeha stopped him.

“You’re free on Friday, right?”

“Ah……”

Friday was the day he met with Jaeha under the pretext of an assignment. But last week, he had told him it would be difficult to continue the lessons.

“I, I…….”

“I have something I really need to tell you. You don’t have to make a lot of time. Just give me one hour.”

Seeing that he wouldn’t let him go unless he answered, Yijae reluctantly nodded. He should be able to avoid Dohae’s eyes for about an hour.

“I, I’ll let you know the place. I’m so sorry about yesterday…… and thank you. Please get home safely.”

“Okay. You get in safely too.”

Yijae knew it was time to part with him. But he couldn’t bring himself to let go. Just then, the sight of a servant entering the mansion caught his eye.

“I, I’m really going now.”

Feeling an urgent need, Yijae reached for the door handle.

“Yijae.”

At the sound of his name, Yijae slowly turned his head.

“Call me anytime you need to.”

“…….”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Yijae gave a small nod and closed the door. As he walked away with his back to the car, he wanted to turn back and go to him countless times.

But reality was the place standing right in front of him now. Yijae was scared to open the gate and go in. Biting the inside of his cheek and clenching his fists, he took in the sight of the still-parked car and stepped inside the gate.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

Fortunately, Chairman Gu and the others didn’t seem to be awake yet. Yijae passed the kitchen where preparations for a meal were beginning and carefully went up the empty stairs to the second floor.

“Hoo.”

Back in his own room, Yijae locked the door with a click and let out a long, tense sigh.

“Been somewhere?”

“Heut!”

His eyes met with Dohae’s, who was sitting on the edge of the bed as if he had been in the room all along. So startled that his legs gave out, Yijae collapsed to the floor. Dohae approached him, glanced at the clothes he was wearing, and sneered, his lips twisting into a smirk.

“Where have you been?”

How was Dohae here at this hour? Yijae felt his breath catch at the sight of him, his cool gaze suggesting he already knew everything.

“I asked where you’ve been!”

“Heuk, Do, Dohae.”

Yijae scrambled to his feet and grabbed the doorknob, but Dohae was faster. Grabbing Yijae’s shoulder hard, Dohae checked his clothes once more and burst out laughing.

“To think you’d wear clothes like that.”

Clothes?

Yijae looked down to where Dohae was pointing. It was the zip-up hoodie Jaeha had given him before he got out of the car, saying he’d be cold wearing just that.

“Do you even know how much that costs?”

Dohae continued, his grip on Yijae’s arm tightening.

“Ha, right. Of course you wouldn’t know. So. Was it fun being with Kang Jaeha all this time?”

“Do, Dohae…….”

Why was he already tearing up when he hadn’t even done anything? Dohae was so annoyed and sick of even looking at that face now. Right. He was sick of monitoring him, of parasitically receiving that pheromone liquid, he was tired of it all.

“Why are kids like you always like this? You never listen when I try to be nice. And you try to crawl all over me the moment I’m a little good to you.”

Dohae swept a hand through his hair and, with a weary face, picked up his phone. Yijae watched Dohae, who was making a call somewhere, with anxious eyes.

“Yes, this is Gu Dohae.”

Who was he calling? Yijae, holding his breath and looking up at him, trembled at Dohae’s next words.

“I’m cutting off support for patient Kim Heeju in the VIP ward, starting today. Please also halt the new drug development.”

“Do, Dohae?”

“The overdue hospital bills will be paid by Ms. Kim Heeju’s son, I suppose. It’s none of my business from now on, so please contact him.”

“Dohae. Dohae…… heuk…….”

All he had right now was the 800,000 won from his part-time job at Hidden. There was no way he could pay for his mother’s hospital bills with that money.

“Yijae. The way of the world is, if you give something, you should get something back, you know?”

“Eu-heu…….”

“And I, I don’t need you anymore.”

The corners of his lips lifted, and his eyes gleamed. If he didn’t need him anymore…… would he be abandoned just like this? Then what about his mother…… school…….

“If you understand, let go of this.”

“I was wr, wrong.”

Dohae shook off Yijae’s hand and stared emotionlessly at him, who was now kneeling and clutching his ankle.

“I won’t meet him. Never, heuk, even if I die, I’ll never meet him again!”

“Haa. Is this the first or second time you’ve said that? That’s enough. You can find someone else. Pack your things and get out of my house.”

“Do, Dohae. Heuk, even if I have to leave…… my mom, okay? She’s still the person who ga, gave birth to you……”

At the unwritten rule that slipped from Yijae’s mouth, something in Dohae’s eyes snapped.

“Ugh!”

As he choked him and drew closer, Yijae met the murderous intent coloring his eyes.