Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 22

“Oh come on, why would the department head do that to me? He hasn’t done anything like that to me, he’s been nice.”

But that emotion disappeared in an instant. It was so fleeting that for a moment, he wondered if he had been mistaken. Haeshin spoke as if it were nothing.

“If anything, he told me to contact him if you bother me again.”

“What do you mean, I…”

“Exactly. You’ve never bothered me. Ah, thank you.”

Just then, the next dish arrived, and Haeshin thanked the waiter. Taejun looked at Haeshin as if he were a curiosity.

He was definitely acting natural, but something felt off. As if he were hiding something. What on earth was he hiding? Why was he putting on such a pointless act? Taejun’s eyes began to shine with more and more interest.

“Can I ask you something too?”

This time, it was Haeshin who asked a question. Taejun nodded as if to say, go ahead. Stirring the soup that came before the main dish, Haeshin spoke.

“Why are you doing this, sir?”

“Doing what.”

“You’re being nice to me. Honestly, there’s no reason for you to care so much about someone like me.”

Haeshin’s gaze, which had been on his plate, was now looking straight at Taejun. It was an intense gaze, different from before. It felt like he could see right through him.

“Even just today… If you just wanted to ask about Department Head Jin Youngmin, you could have called, or had your secretary find out… Anyway, anyone would think it’s strange for you to reserve a restaurant like this and bring me here.”

For Haeshin, this was an issue that had to be addressed. Han Taejun’s behavior was definitely problematic. No chaebol would visit a shantytown out of simple pity, or eat a meal alone with a bar employee. Let alone give his personal number? That was out of the question.

And yet, Han Taejun was doing all of those things for Cha Haeshin right now. There had to be a reason. There was no guarantee that he would tell him the truth just because he asked, but at least he might find a clue in Taejun’s reaction.

“Why are you worried about me, and why are you being nice to me?”

Haeshin continued to stare into Taejun’s eyes. Why did you listen to my story back then? Why did you come all the way to my house? Why did you come to, save, me? Haeshin’s eyes held many questions he couldn’t ask outright.

Taejun mulled over Haeshin’s question and drank a glass of water. It wasn’t an unexpected question. Since Haeshin didn’t know Taejun was a regressor, it was only natural for him to be bewildered by the current situation. Taejun slowly opened his mouth and gave the answer he had somewhat prepared.

“We’ve detected suspicious movements from Jin Youngmin related to company affairs. Whether it’s because he thinks he can get away with anything after being coddled as a younger brother since childhood, or because someone is egging him on.”

“Ah…”

“If it’s simply a matter of him getting too big for his britches, it’s not a big deal, but if someone who could be an actual threat is involved, it could become tiring for me.”

Haeshin blinked slowly. His expression was unreadable. Taejun shrugged and continued, so he wouldn’t take it too seriously.

“But since he seems to be head over heels for you lately… he might say things in front of you that he wouldn’t say elsewhere, so.”

“…”

“And help a neighbor in need while I’m at it?”

The last part was meant as a joke. It was in the same vein as when he had called it experiencing the life of a commoner. But this time, Haeshin didn’t take the joke as he had before. Instead, Haeshin was frozen stiff.

“Cha Haeshin…?”

“Perhaps… perhaps if you’re thinking that I should intentionally get close to Department Head Jin Youngmin… that I… have to give you information, something like that…”

“What’s wrong with you?”

Taejun frowned. Haeshin’s voice, which had deftly retorted most things he said, was trembling severely. His already pale face became so white he looked ghastly.

“I… I don’t want to. Something like that… I won’t do something like that. Jin Youngmin is… I won’t get close to Jin Youngmin. I don’t want to. I don’t want to.”

Haeshin repeated “I don’t want to” like someone in a panic. A startled Taejun hurriedly opened his mouth.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you. Are you okay? Who said you had to… to Jin Youngmin! It’s not like that.”

What Taejun had said was a lie purely to quell Haeshin’s suspicions. He needed to provide a plausible reason for someone of Han Taejun’s stature to keep contacting Cha Haeshin and to be monitoring the situation between him and Jin Youngmin.

To put it bluntly, he wasn’t a psychopath; would he really send someone who had died at Jin Youngmin’s hands back into his arms to dig up information? It was the opposite. Taejun intended to put as much distance as possible between Jin Youngmin and Cha Haeshin.

“I don’t want to…. I won’t do it…”

But Taejun’s words didn’t seem to reach Haeshin at all. Finally, Haeshin shot up from his seat. The dishes fell to the floor with a loud clatter, but he had no mind to care.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be leaving now.”

Leaving a short farewell, Haeshin turned around. It wasn’t that Haeshin didn’t know he was acting strangely. But the trauma that had consumed a person’s soul was no different from a tsunami, and it was impossible for a mere human to stop a tsunami.

It was literally uncontrollable. And sadly, Haeshin was even familiar with this kind of panic. No matter how much Haeshin had adapted to this life and grown accustomed to violence, it didn’t erase the scars engraved on his body and soul.

You can’t perfectly mend a cracked roof with a thin piece of tape. When a storm rages and water pours through the gap, the taped-up patch is bound to be torn apart in an instant. The moment the memory surfaced, the horrific violence, the misfortune he had to endure in silence, the numerous deaths, the repeated abuse flashed before his eyes. All those memories tore Haeshin’s soul to shreds and clawed at his heart.

So Haeshin fled desperately. At times like this, there was nothing to do but bury his head in the darkness and wait for the tsunami to pass. Until he was okay again. He wanted to melt into the darkness until he could pretend to be crazy, pretend to be okay.

“Heok, heok…!”

By the time he rushed out of the restaurant, it was already difficult to even breathe. Haeshin desperately looked around. He needed a place to curl up. But in the bright, spacious building where the restaurant was located, it wasn’t easy to find a place for Haeshin to hide immediately.

Please, please, someone help me. Someone save me.

Ultimately unable to even stand properly, Haeshin collapsed to the floor and curled up into a ball. The scream he had been holding back since childhood, when he was locked in a small room and beaten all night, churned in his throat.

“Cha Haeshin!”

It was at that very moment that an unfamiliar voice broke through the pitch-black darkness.

☂️

“Damn it…!”

Taejun swore as he held Haeshin’s crouching body tightly in his arms. The surroundings were getting noisy, but he couldn’t even care about that right now.

The moment Haeshin had stormed out of his seat, he had been too stunned to even move. Taejun had seen Cha Haeshin’s death twice, but this was a different kind of shock.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, Cha Haeshin.”

Taejun muttered whatever came to his mind, not even knowing what he was saying. Every time Haeshin, held in his arms, gasped for breath and his body shuddered, it felt like his heart was sinking.

“You don’t have to be scared. I’m here.”

I’m here.

Why did those words come out? He wasn’t going to be by Cha Haeshin’s side forever; he had only approached him in hopes of finding a small clue to end his own hell, and yet, in this moment, Taejun spoke with a desperation as if he would protect Cha Haeshin for life.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Taejun pressed Haeshin’s face into his chest and continued to mutter, holding his trembling body tightly.

He pushed aside all questions like why Cha Haeshin was acting this way, or why he himself was doing something he didn’t have to. The important thing right now was to calm down Cha Haeshin, who looked like he was in agony, lost in a panic.

“It’s going to be okay now.”

The two of them held each other like that for a long time.

☂️

Where am I? What was I doing? Did I fall asleep?

Haeshin slowly opened his eyes, wandering through a hazy memory. He had no recollection of trying to sleep, yet his body was lying on a soft bed.

Wait. A soft bed?

The moment he registered the sensation that shouldn’t belong to him, Haeshin shot up from his lying position. Before his eyes was a literally unfamiliar scene. The spacious, clean, and luxurious-looking room was, thankfully, not a place Haeshin knew.

And as he looked to the side, Haeshin saw a familiar face that suddenly appeared, startling him into gripping the blanket tightly.

“Sir…?”

Sitting on a sofa a short distance away, looking at him with a serious expression, was none other than Han Taejun.

Only then did the blurry memory become clear. Eating with Taejun, asking Han Taejun why he was being nice to him, and then having a panic attack.

Haeshin squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t care about showing a disgraceful side of himself, but the problem was that his actions were suspicious. At this point in time, Jin Youngmin and Cha Haeshin’s relationship was still nothing special, yet he had reacted that way.

Haeshin opened his eyes with a sigh and spoke to Taejun.

“I’m sorry, sir. You must have been surprised…”

“Wouldn’t you be, if you were me.”

Taejun replied bluntly. Honestly, “surprised” wasn’t enough to describe it. When Haeshin, who had been gasping in his arms, fainted just like that, he thought his head would actually explode.

Being startled by the sudden situation was one thing, but having already seen Cha Haeshin go limp while bleeding twice had also had a bad influence.

He couldn’t even remember how, in his right mind, he had put the unconscious Cha Haeshin in the car and brought him home. Only after calling his personal doctor and confirming that there was nothing seriously wrong could Taejun finally breathe properly.