Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 120

“Did you want to buy a cactus?”

Taejun asked as he took off his suit jacket. Haeshin quickly took the jacket from Taejun and began to chatter away.

“I went out grocery shopping with Madam today to get some fresh air, and there was a place selling them. This little guy was just sitting right there on the display shelf, and he looked so cute that before I knew it……”

“Did you always like plants?”

“It’s not really like that, but just…… I thought if I could move to a sunny house someday, I wanted to try growing one at least once.”

Taejun, who had been heading toward the dressing room, suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at Haeshin. He didn’t want to overreact to Haeshin’s past misfortunes anymore, but when he heard about it at an unexpected moment, his body reacted before he could even think.

“But now that I’ve actually brought him home, I’m feeling a bit of regret.”

“Why?”

“I’m worried what if I make a mistake and kill him……”

“Hmm.”

Taejun couldn’t think of any particular response to Haeshin’s reply and moved his steps back toward the dressing room. It was because he momentarily felt at a loss for what would be the best thing to say.

What does it matter. If it dies, you can just buy a new one.

This sounds too psychopathic.

It’s okay. You’ll be able to grow it well.

This feels like too cliché of a comfort.

After repeatedly bringing up and eliminating numerous candidates in his head, Taejun barely managed to find a reasonably safe answer and opened his mouth.

“Growing something probably isn’t easy. Still, let’s work hard at it together. You’re good at that kind of thing, Cha Haeshin.”

It wasn’t a response he was one hundred percent satisfied with, but he felt relieved thinking it was passable enough. Then Haeshin, who had followed him into the dressing room to organize and hang the jacket, suddenly spun around to face Taejun.

Just as a chill ran down his spine, wondering if he had chosen the wrong answer, Haeshin asked with twinkling eyes.

“Together?”

“Huh?”

“Are you interested in plants too, Mr. President?”

“Huh? Uh?”

Taejun was flustered. Far from plants, he was someone who didn’t even have a particular interest in animals. The only subject Han Taejun was interested in right now was Cha Haeshin.

However, unable to bring himself to turn away from Haeshin’s gaze filled with anticipation, Taejun shrugged his shoulders and spoke.

“No, well…… It’s not that I was originally interested, but since you say you’re growing it, I think I’m starting to get interested too……”

“Yes! I love that. Let’s grow it well together.”

“……Right.”

At that moment, Taejun felt his face suddenly flare up. Absurdly enough, the reason was because of the reply Haeshin had just given.

Let’s grow it well together.

Come to think of it, didn’t these words sound exactly like something a married couple would say to each other? Even while thinking to himself how ridiculous he was being, he couldn’t stop his heart from thumping wildly.

“Ahem. Anyway…… you made a good purchase. It’s fine if you want to make something like a flower bed in the garden, so just say the word if you want to.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah. Because I can make everything you need.”

“Thank you. First, I’ll do my best to grow this cactus well!”

Haeshin replied with a bright smile. The man who suddenly offered to make a flower bed just because he bought a single cactus the size of a fist seemed foolish, yet lovely.

Knowing that if he stayed like that, he might feel the sudden urge to pull him in and kiss him, Haeshin hurriedly changed the subject.

“Then go ahead and change your clothes quickly. You haven’t eaten dinner yet, right?”

“Yeah. I’m hungry.”

“I’ve got everything ready, so I just need to set the table.”

“Alright.”

Taejun nodded. The fact that the conversation they just shared also felt exactly like a married couple, making his inside tickle, was Han Taejun’s own little secret.

☂️

“Stop it while I’m still speaking nicely.”

“Mother!”

“I won’t say it twice.”

Youngmin, who was about to protest, shut his mouth at his mother’s chilling voice. Youngmin had always found his mother more difficult to deal with than his father.

Han Jeong-yeon, Youngmin’s mother, took a deep breath as if to suppress her anger before speaking again.

“That you have your own grievances—yes, Mom understands that much.”

“It’s true. I met him first. Stalking? Ask the people around Cha Haeshin how well I treated him!”

Excited by the sign that she seemed to believe his words, Youngmin opened his mouth in delight. However, Jeong-yeon looked at her son with pathetic eyes. Under that cold gaze, Youngmin’s voice died down.

“Pathetic fool.”

“Mother.”

“Whether you knew him first, or whether it was real dating and not stalking—does that really matter?”

“Pardon?”

“It’s absurd enough that it’s a man, but with a kid who was rolling around in some bar……!”

The further the words went on, the sharper Jeong-yeon’s voice became. Youngmin’s face turned white. Because he had been excessively immersed in the absurd situation taking place right now, he had briefly forgotten what kind of person his mother really was.

“Do you think it makes any sense to turn against Taejun because of a kid like that?”

His mother’s tone became calm again, but Youngmin, who could easily feel the contempt and anger contained within it, bit his lip.

He knew his mother wouldn’t accept Cha Haeshin easily. That was why Youngmin, too, had been preparing himself in his own way.

Since they were parents who had always given Youngmin whatever he wanted since he was young, he was confident that although it would be difficult, he would eventually gain their permission this time as well.

But the situation had changed too much. Stalking wasn’t the issue. There was no way his mother would allow him to meet a wretched guy who had nothing but debt, even to the point of turning Taejun into an enemy.

“I would rather be grateful to Taejun. Thanks to Taejun, didn’t we stop you from falling for a kid like that?”

“Mother, please listen to me.”

“Shut your mouth.”

Jeong-yeon quietly silenced her son. In her heart, she felt like slapping his cheek just to bring him to his senses. When she first heard from her husband that something like this had happened, it felt as if the sky itself had turned yellow.

She thought she had raised her son without any major, unmanageable trouble so far, but to think he would cause such a massive accident at his age. Her head was completely throbbing.

The only saving grace was that, as she said, the situation hadn’t flowed into the absolute worst scenario. As long as Taejun was there, Youngmin wouldn’t have any further reason to get entangled with a fellow named Cha Haeshin. Ending it at this point was a relief.

Jeong-yeon was a person who took pride in her own abilities. She didn’t possess the sordid greed to expand the company further by selling off her son through marriage.

However, that absolutely did not mean she would let just anyone into her house. To enter as a member of the family she had built, they had to be a person with abilities that matched it at the very least.

Yet a guy who was worse off than poor, working at a bar. Jeong-yeon felt a deep sense of humiliation when she heard those words. If he had even the minimum amount of respect for the parents who had raised him without lacking a single thing all this time, he wouldn’t dare think of bringing a kid like that before her.

“Now that you are an adult too, you probably want to say that you’ll live your own life as you please.”

“…….”

“If you insist on doing that, I won’t stop you. But if you’re going to live as you please, you shouldn’t think about leaning on the results built by my hard work either.”

“Mother……!”

“If you want to lay down everything you were able to obtain thanks to being born as my son and leave, how could I stop you? But know this: you will absolutely never enter my house together with that guy named Cha Haeshin or whatever he is.”

Finishing her words, Jeong-yeon stood up from her seat without waiting for Youngmin’s response. She didn’t want to be any more disappointed in her son than this.

“Ha……”

Left alone in the living room after his mother departed, Youngmin wrapped his head in his hands and let out a sigh. Out of deep helplessness, not even a curse word would come out.

Youngmin knew it in his head too. His mother’s words were entirely correct. He felt wronged by being framed as a stalker, but separate from that, there was no reason to be this obsessed with Cha Haeshin.

It was already offensive enough that the guy had resisted him despite having nothing, but he was even someone who had properly stabbed him in the back. Even if they had been sharing a love of a thousand years, it was a situation where his feelings would cool down—so what on earth was the reason to sacrifice his own flesh just to offer a one-sided devotion?

He knew that. It wasn’t that Youngmin didn’t know that.

But why was it so impossible to give up? Why did it feel like it had to be him and no one else? Even with things turning out this way, why did he still want to possess Cha Haeshin to this extent?

When he pictured Cha Haeshin standing next to Han Taejun, why did such rage surge within him?

His chest felt tight and he was suffocating. It felt as if the whole world had become his enemy. Once the wave of helplessness passed, anger and hatred rapidly filled its place.

He’s mine. He was mine, but Han Taejun stole Cha Haeshin away as he pleased. I hate him.

If only Han Taejun wasn’t here.

If only that bastard who suddenly intervened disappeared, wouldn’t Haeshin come back to his side again? Once he made the person Cha Haeshin could lean on vanish from the world, wouldn’t Cha Haeshin have no choice but to cling to him in the end anyway?

No, in the first place, what if Cha Haeshin was also tied to his side because of Han Taejun’s intimidation?

Unable to leave the spot for a long time after that, becoming consumed by emotions that even he himself found hard to handle, Youngmin’s eyes were gradually being dyed in the shadow of obsession.