Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 58

Everything is just a means to an end. They are all branches of various efforts to ensure that Haeshin no longer suffers at the hands of Jin Youngmin. Once he was certain which direction would be best for the desired outcome, Taejun didn’t care whether he was the one to speak first or the one to wait.

What was important was that Cha Haeshin would no longer be alone. Even if the end was suddenly triggered and he returned to some moment in the past, Han Taejun would now be by Haeshin’s side.

It was the same for Taejun. The lonely and solitary wandering, where he had drifted without reason or purpose, was over. It was as if he had found a compass that he wouldn’t lose, no matter when this round ended or to what point in time he returned.

Cha Haeshin.

From now on, Taejun’s life could always start anew from that name.

So how could Taejun resist? How could he not revere that name? How could he not worship this being who appeared like a savior in Taejun’s life, which had repeated without any meaning?

Taejun slowly lowered his head and pressed a kiss to Haeshin’s smooth, exposed forehead.

From now on, I will gladly walk through this hell for you.

It was a self-confession akin to faith and Taejun’s first prayer dedicated to another.

☂️

“Do you… do you think I’m going to back down just like this…?”

Youngmin, disheveled and slumped on the floor, seethed with an unquenched fury. Fragments of broken and shattered objects were strewn around him.

After fleeing the restaurant, Youngmin had returned home and immediately started breaking things at random. He screamed, spewed curses, and went on a rampage until he collapsed from exhaustion, but his emotions would not subside.

“They must have taken me for a fool.”

The humiliation he suffered today flashed through his eyes, which burned like flames. Han Taejun was one thing, but the thought of Cha Haeshin, who had so thoroughly backstabbed him with an innocent face, made his stomach churn.

How dare someone like Cha Haeshin. A nobody from the dregs of society, how dare he do this to me.

“I shouldn’t have been so polite from the beginning…”

A late regret washed over him. He had been kind because he liked Cha Haeshin, because he wanted him to genuinely like him back. There were times when he was frustrated by Haeshin’s reluctance to give in, but he had been confident that he would eventually become his, so he had enjoyed it and let it be.

“I shouldn’t have…”

If he had pressured and pushed him with money from the start, Cha Haeshin would have been by his side long ago. He felt like he could die from the regret of the time that was now irreversible. Look at him, acting all uninterested in money, only to fall for Han Taejun in a flash. In the end, Cha Haeshin was just another snob obsessed with money.

“Fuck, fuck…”

Youngmin spat out his still unresolved anger in curses. One thing he couldn’t understand about himself was his own desire to still have Cha Haeshin in his grasp, even after being humiliated to this extent.

It wasn’t about getting revenge and destroying him. It was important to make sure Han Taejun couldn’t have him, but that alone wasn’t enough. Even at this point, Jin Youngmin wanted to make Cha Haeshin his.

He’s mine. He had thought so from the moment he first saw him. It was the same now. Han Taejun had stolen what was originally his, so it was only right to take it back.

“As if I would back down like this. Not a chance.”

Youngmin took a long breath and pushed himself up from the floor. He swept back his messy hair and straightened his clothes. Many cowards would have been scared off by the subtle pressure Han Taejun had shown today, but he was not one of them.

As if he had never been enraged, Youngmin calmly walked out of the wrecked room. First, he needed to teach some manners to the ungrateful person who had repaid his kindness and consideration in this manner.

☂️

Haeshin slowly opened his eyes in the quiet. He felt languid, as if his body were floating on warm water. Haeshin had rarely slept soundly in his life, but it felt like he had been in a deep sleep for the first time in a long while.

“Huh…?”

However, the sense of peace was fleeting. As the scene in front of him came into focus and his memories returned, a startled Haeshin straightened his body, which had been leaning against the backrest.

“Sleep well?”

He turned his head toward the voice coming from his side, and sure enough, Taejun was looking at him. Haeshin covered his face with both hands, his eyebrows drooping.

“I’m sorry, CEO. Did I sleep for a long time?”

“What’s there to be sorry about. We just arrived.”

“I don’t think so…”

With a gloomy expression, Haeshin took out his phone to check the time. No matter how much traffic there was, it definitely wasn’t the time they had just arrived.

“You should have just woken me up.”

“You wouldn’t wake up even when I tried?”

Unlike the worried Haeshin, Taejun’s voice was playful. At that one remark, Haeshin relaxed and pouted his lips just as playfully.

“I doubt it. I’m a very light sleeper.”

“You wouldn’t wake up even when I practically held and shook you.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Why are you arguing about something like this?”

“Well, it’s because you’re insisting on something that’s not true first.”

“Arguing? Did you just say I’m arguing with you?”

“Me? Did I? I doubt it.”

Haeshin, who had been retorting while slyly avoiding his gaze, was the first to burst into laughter and get out of the car. A smile also graced Taejun’s face as he got out as well.

This was exactly the atmosphere Taejun wanted. He wanted Haeshin to be utterly comfortable, at least in front of him. As they continued their trivial bickering and entered the house, Haeshin stretched and said without thinking.

“Ah, home.”

Then, startled, he quickly clamped both hands over his mouth and turned to look at Taejun who had followed him in. In an instant, his earlobes turned bright red. As his eyes met Taejun’s, Haeshin quickly opened his mouth as if to make an excuse.

“Home, anyone would think this is my house, right? Gosh.”

A hollow laugh escaped out of embarrassment. He couldn’t understand why those words had suddenly popped out, but what was even more baffling was himself, feeling so comfortable in this space that he would say such a thing without realizing it.

It had only been a short while since he had been afraid of what would happen if this place became another hell, and had even collapsed from past memories resurfacing. It was strange how he had become so comfortable in such a short time.

Moreover, even after first marrying Jin Youngmin, Haeshin had never felt that house was his own, right up to the end. It was the same even before the abuse began. Even when Youngmin was treating him well, it had always felt uncomfortable and difficult, like someone else’s house.

He couldn’t understand it no matter how much he thought about it, so he just gave an awkward laugh. Just then, Taejun, who had been silently watching Haeshin, spoke.

“What’s the problem? If you’re living here, it is your house.”

“Pardon?”

“You eat, sleep, and do everything here. What else makes a house a home? Is it only my house if I bought it with my own money?”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Haeshin tilted his head. It wasn’t wrong. In principle, you have to buy it with your own money for it to be your house, but people usually refer to the space where they eat, sleep, and stay as ‘our home’.

But still, he felt it wasn’t something to say in front of the owner of the house when he was a freeloader who hadn’t paid a single penny, so as Haeshin hesitated to answer, Taejun continued.

“Of course, this is my house.”

“Yes.”

“But until you leave, it’s your house too.”

“…”

“Are you comfortable here?”

At Taejun’s subsequent question, Haeshin nodded his head as if there was no need to think about it.

“Yes. It’s comfortable.”

“When you come back after finishing your morning work, does it feel like you’re going to a new workplace, or does it feel like you’re returning home?”

“…It feels like I’m returning home.”

It was an honest answer. In his head, he would think about the various chores he had to do at home, but in his heart, Haeshin always felt like he was returning to a space where he could rest after finishing work.

“See? Then it is your home.”

Taejun grinned with his handsome face. And the moment he saw that face, Haeshin thought. Perhaps the place he truly felt comfortable in, the place he felt he wanted to return to, was not this house, but Han Taejun, who was in this house.

After all, Han Taejun was the only person in Haeshin’s long life that he could completely rely on. A smile had already appeared on Haeshin’s lips.

“Yes. Then I’ll think of it as my home from now on.”

“Good.”

That brazen face was so endearing that Taejun wished Cha Haeshin would smile like that forever and ever.

☂️

“Department Head, have you been well! It’s been a while.”

Inchan, the restaurant’s hall manager, felt an inexplicable sense of anxiety at the sudden appearance of Jin Youngmin, but still greeted him warmly. After Haeshin stopped coming to work, Jin Youngmin’s visits had also ceased completely, so his sudden appearance felt like a bad omen. Inchan’s anxiety soon became a reality.

“Get Cha Haeshin.”

Youngmin said as he walked straight to the room he usually frequented. Unlike before, his voice was cold and hard.

Normally, Jin Youngmin was quite polite to most of the staff working there, even if they weren’t Cha Haeshin. It was to make a good impression on Haeshin. But today, Youngmin’s voice was completely different from what he had heard before. Feeling a sense of tension, Inchan replied.

“Department Head, I’m sorry. Haeshin quit his job here… What should I do?”

Youngmin’s footsteps came to a halt. Inchan, who had also stopped, turned his body toward Youngmin at that moment. With the sound of flesh hitting flesh, Inchan’s face snapped to the side. Jin Youngmin had slapped Inchan across the cheek. He had been hit so hard that his cheek immediately swelled up and turned red.