Love Born of Pity Chapter 116

As Do Yeonjae turned his body, the two men inside reached out their hands. Though they knew they couldn’t be caught, they cried out, begging for him to just give them a chance. When Team Leader Kang slammed his cauldron-lid-like hand against the bars with a bang! to scare them, they began to weep sorrowfully.

“Let’s go up now.”

“Yes, yes.”

They climbed the stairs just as they had come down. The only thing that had changed was that this time, Do Yeonjae was leading the way. When Team Leader Kang turned off the light, Kwon Yoon Taek grabbed the bars and shook them, saying he would rather die.

“I’d rather bite my tongue and die than live like this! I mean it! Do you want to clean up a corpse? Huh?”

Do Yeonjae, who had gone about halfway up the stairs, bent only his waist to look down at Kwon Yoon Taek. The man stuck his tongue out long and bit down on it hard, as if he could really do it.

“Go ahead, then. But if you can’t die, isn’t that an even bigger problem? Because I’m not going to get it fixed.”

“…”

“Ah… Come to think of it, Mr. Kwon Yoon Taek, you haven’t mentioned wanting to see your daughter.”

“…What?”

“Kwon Heeyeon said she wanted to see her father who gave birth to her. I guess the situation is different. The daughter is under emperor’s confinement in a hotel while the father is in this gutter selling his body, saying he’d rather die.”

Do Yeonjae, who had been sneering for a while, spoke as if to punctuate his sentence.

“Then again, in a situation like this, why would you want to see your child so much?”

“Our… Heeyeon… You, you, you bastard! You, don’t you touch her! Huh? Don’t you dare touch her! I-I’ll do it, I’ll do it. I’ll do as you say, so… so Heeyeon…!”

“I won’t touch her. Why would I do something like that?”

Is that all that’s in his head, so he can only think in that direction? Sneering, Do Yeonjae continued.

“Compared to what you two did, Kwon Heeyeon didn’t do much. Just being disrespectful to her older brother? Being stupid and ill-mannered is annoying, but it’s not a reason to make her roll in the mud.”

Reassured by Do Yeonjae’s explanation, Kwon Yoon Taek muttered his thanks repeatedly. Thank you, thank you, his muttering voice was full of tears. The sight of him being overly relieved, his defiant spirit broken, was also displeasing. Fuck, how carefree of him. Muttering, he continued.

“Still, if she stays in Korea, she might hold Kwon Jiho back, so I’m going to send her abroad. I don’t like it. If things that aren’t even family cling to him, I feel like Jiho… won’t come to me completely.”

“…Ab-abroad, wh-why, no—where, where to…”

“Even if I told you where, would you know, Mr. Kwon Yoon Taek?”

With that question that wasn’t really a question, Do Yeonjae’s figure disappeared completely. As Team Leader Kang turned off the light and came up, a scream-like cry was heard. Even the curses about the noise flowed up the stairs, but they stopped the moment the wooden panel was closed.

“Even while they’re throwing such a fucking fit, they don’t try to kill each other like they did when the lights were on because they have nowhere to turn in the dark.”

“They get along better in the dark, I see.”

Team Leader Kang laughed in agreement with Do Yeonjae’s sarcasm. Then, seeing Chief Kim standing by the door, he waved his hand in greeting. After receiving a “good work,” he scratched the back of his head, took out a notebook, held a pen, and began to check things off one by one.

“So, for the alpha, I’ll have the kidney and liver extracted, take care of things roughly, and send him to a place I know well, right? As for the omega over there, he’s old but he’s still an omega… so I can just say he’ll be used for that.”

“There’s no need to bargain for more. Just take what they offer.”

“Yes, I understand. Then I’ll handle this side like that. I’ll clean everything up within this week and report to you, Shiljang-nim.”

Chief Kim, who was listening to the brief explanation, nodded. The three of them didn’t stay any longer and left the mountain cabin. When Team Leader Kang turned off the lights, the atmosphere of the cabin, with the forest at its back, became as eerie as an abandoned house.

“Good work.”

“What good work. I’m just grateful that there’s always work you trust me with.”

Team Leader Kang bowed deeply to Do Yeonjae. He carefully took the hand offered before him and shook it slightly. Watching him let out a small laugh, he scratched his cheek as if embarrassed and opened the back seat door himself.

“Get home safely.”

“I will.”

Click.

As the back door closed, Chief Kim offered a handshake as if he had been waiting.

“Team Leader Kang, you’ve worked hard. Let’s have a glass of soju when you come up to Seoul.”

“I’m always up for it. Chief Kim, you drive carefully too. The road is dark. Be safe.”

The two men, seen off by Team Leader Kang, drove away from the mountain cabin. The silly worry that those idiots might escape from there never even crossed their minds in the first place. He just hoped they wouldn’t commit a double suicide before the work was done in there. He wanted them to die after they were sold, if they had to die.

“Ah, how should we handle the costs?”

“When we receive that money, I’m thinking of using it for Kwon Heeyeon’s study abroad expenses.”

Chief Kim, who had been wondering if it wasn’t a cruel measure, stopped thinking and answered.

“Yes, then I will prepare it that way.”

“I think I smell a bit…”

Do Yeonjae sniffed the musty smell that seemed to have clung to his body. The damp, funky smell of mold unique to basements, mixed with the smell of garbage.

“Shall we stop by the residence for a moment?”

“That would be good.”

After answering, he closed his eyes. He wanted to go to Kwon Jiho as soon as possible, but when he thought of him, who was sensitive to smells, it was only right to wash up.

If there was one fact he had overlooked in his excessive concern for cleanliness, it was that he hadn’t thought about what kind of suspicion it might arouse.

♬⋆.˚

At the same time, Kwon Jiho, having thrown up everything he had eaten, still couldn’t calm his churning stomach and was retching while holding onto the toilet. Thinking he might feel a little better if he held cold water in his mouth, the moment he put ice water in his mouth, he felt nauseated even though it was the tea he always drank, and spat it out.

Ice, water, juice. Nothing helped. Unable to leave the bathroom, he was sobbing while hugging the toilet when he heard a presence outside. At the sound of someone calling his name and approaching, Kwon Jiho managed to get up and turn on the sink water.

“…I’m in here. I’m coming out now.”

His voice was completely hoarse from crying while heaving. Even after washing with cold water, the redness on his face didn’t subside. His eyes and the whites, where the capillaries had burst, were all red.

“Can I come in?”

At the question asked through the door, Kwon Jiho turned off the water. Staring at the water droplets on his face, Kwon Jiho shook his head slightly. It’s too bright in here. I don’t want to show myself in this state in detail.

“…No. I’ll come out. I’ve finished washing up.”

Taking a towel from the cabinet, Kwon Jiho moved, pressing it firmly to wipe away the moisture. Even with his hand on the doorknob, he hesitated for a moment. It would be better if I were somewhere he couldn’t see…

“Mr. Kwon Jiho.”

“I… I threw up. So… it’s just because of that, so don’t be surprised.”

Suddenly, the door rattled. The voice that answered that he understood was urgent. Unable to resist the urging to open it, as soon as Kwon Jiho pressed the doorknob, the door flew open. Since he hadn’t been able to let go of his hand, his light body was pulled along without resistance.

“…Ugh.”

Do Yeonjae, who lightly caught the staggering body, immediately checked Kwon Jiho’s face. Because the bedroom was dark, he was pushed back inside.

“Should we go to the hospital again? Are you, okay now? Did no one come? What on earth was everyone doing while you were like this? If you were sick, you should have called… Hah.”

“…It’s just morning sickness. It’s morning sickness, but…”

Kwon Jiho’s gaze moved from Do Yeonjae’s face up to his hair. And then down again.

Those aren’t the clothes he was wearing.

There was also a strangely cool scent. And a sweetish scent. He couldn’t understand why the scent that hadn’t been there for a while was back again.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, why…”

“Why?”

It felt strange to bluntly ask why his clothes were different from before. Where did you change? Did you wash up before coming? They weren’t in a relationship where they could ask such things.

Still… he told me he likes me. Did he meet someone else? And he just came, but because the pheromones would be bad for me, he washed up and changed all his clothes before coming? How kind of him.

“What is it? Is it because you’re sick? Why? Let’s go to the hospital. Can you walk?”

“…”

“Why did you endure it when you were in so much pain that you cried like this? It’s not like there’s no one in the house.”

“…Director, why… did your clothes change?”

The question he asked with a voice so hoarse it sounded pitiful just to hear was about nothing more than his clothes.

“…What?”

“…”

“Wait, I didn’t hear you properly. Are you asking why I changed my clothes?”

The emotion was clearly visible on Do Yeonjae’s face. His lips kept curving. He had thought that since Kwon Jiho was so uninterested, he was only reluctantly allowing him to be by his side because of the baby, but could it be that’s not it, that there’s still a little bit of feeling left?

But even so, he tried not to get too excited. He suppressed his uncontrollably fluttering heart and managed his expression, but it didn’t work well. Kwon Jiho avoided his gaze and let thick tears fall.

“…Why. You said you were sorry, and there’s… the baby.”

It seemed that Kwon Jiho thought he had been in an inappropriate relationship with someone, which was too much to be happy about. He had never been in a proper relationship, but he knew that this kind of misunderstanding was not a good sign.

“So, I’m happy. I’m really happy that you seem to care about me. But it’s a misunderstanding.”

“…”

“The place I said I was going to for a bit was a dirty site, so I washed up and changed my clothes. It wasn’t for any other reason. I couldn’t come to see you looking dirty. Besides, Chief Kim was with me the entire time.”

Gently rubbing the wet cheek, Do Yeonjae nodded as if to say it was okay.

“You can check if you want.”