Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 82

“Ha! Hahaha.”

Youngmin could not hide his excited feelings and burst out laughing. It was worth enduring, being patient, and putting in the effort. As a result, the exhausted and despairing Cha Haeshin would recall Jin Youngmin’s consistent kindness.

In the end, Cha Haeshin had no choice but to throw himself into Youngmin’s arms. It was not just simple fate. It was a destiny that Jin Youngmin himself pioneered and brought about.

Youngmin stopped laughing and leaned back deeply in his chair, humming. He was really looking forward to what would happen next.

Of course, Cha Haeshin would suffer a little more in the process, but that was okay. If he only chose him, all the current hardships would be rewarded.

Wishing that Cha Haeshin would collapse and despair sooner, Youngmin spun his chair once and looked out the window. If he could only get Cha Haeshin, it wasn’t bad for him to be a little more broken.

☂️

“You’re just… eating it like this?”

“Yes. Haven’t you ever eaten it like this?”

Haeshin answered confidently to Taejun, who was looking at the whole cake in front of him with a bewildered expression.

“Who eats cake like this?”

Taejun mumbled like someone who was intimidated. Haeshin suppressed the laughter that was about to burst out, as he looked a little foolish.

After work, Haeshin asked Ingkyu to stop by a cake shop famous for selling delicious cakes.

He wanted to do something for Taejun, who cared so much about him, and then suddenly remembered hearing from a movie that Taejun liked cake.

Of course, Taejun would have eaten luxurious cakes beyond Haeshin’s imagination, and Haeshin didn’t have the means to buy such cakes, but still, Haeshin plucked up the courage.

Because if it was Han Taejun, he would gladly eat the cake he bought from the market. Haeshin searched and searched for the most delicious cake he could afford and bought it with cash.

As expected, Taejun seemed quite touched as soon as he heard that Haeshin had prepared a cake for him. As always, he pretended not to care, but Haeshin could see all the signs of his joy.

The problem arose when Haeshin opened the entire cake and suddenly put a fork in Taejun’s hand. Taejun seemed quite shocked by the fact that the situation of eating the cake without dividing it into plates was ‘actually’ happening in front of him.

“Oh, if you scoop it out and eat it like this, it has its own unique taste.”

“Really?”

Taejun asked back, tilting his head. He naturally knew that some people ate it this way. But that was only ‘knowing’ it; Taejun had never done it. It was the same with his family.

Haeshin thought about teasing him a little more, but soon changed his mind and got up from the sofa.

“Well, that’s possible. It would be unhygienic to scoop it out and eat it with someone else… I’ll go get plates.”

“No, hey.”

It was Taejun who quickly grabbed Haeshin’s wrist.

“Why do you talk like that?”

Was it just his imagination? Taejun’s expression looked glum. Haeshin, who wondered why this person was suddenly acting like this, soon understood his thoughts and burst out laughing.

In short, Haeshin really didn’t have any other intention when he said that. He didn’t mean, “How disgusting must it be for a noble young master to scoop and eat cake with someone like me?”

Haeshin just wanted to say that he understood Taejun. After all, it was the same cake, so how it was eaten wasn’t that important.

But it seemed that Haeshin’s meaning didn’t quite reach Taejun. Haeshin still smiled and said,

“I really didn’t mean anything bad. I’ll go get the plates quickly.”

“It’s fine. Just sit down.”

Despite Haeshin’s explanation, Taejun didn’t change his mind. Haeshin was in a difficult position.

“No, you really don’t have to! I also like eating on individual plates…”

“Ah, I said just sit down!”

Haeshin, who was trying to explain more actively, was pulled by Taejun’s force and plopped back down on the sofa before he could finish his sentence.

“I’ll try eating it like this too, I guess.”

“Mr. President, do you know you have a subtly eccentric stubbornness?”

“Stubbornness? It’s flexibility.”

“Mmm, I’ll say so.”

Haeshin easily ignored Taejun’s glares, smiled, “Heeh—” and then continued,

“Eat it quickly. I did find a place that’s supposedly quite delicious… but I don’t know if it’ll be up to Mr. President’s standards.”

“Standards, what standards. My taste isn’t that picky.”

“Still, it might be very different from what you’ve eaten so far…”

As he spoke more, Haeshin’s voice became softer and softer. When he bought the cake, he was confident, thinking, ‘This is all sincerity and heart,’ but now he was worried that he might be causing Taejun unnecessary trouble.

There was a high possibility that Taejun, even if he didn’t like it, would force himself to eat it for Haeshin’s sake. That was not the outcome Haeshin wanted.

“Just in case, if it doesn’t taste good, don’t force yourself to eat it. I can eat it.”

Taejun glanced at Haeshin, who was adding words out of impatience, then scooped a large portion of cake with his fork and brought it to his mouth. Haeshin gripped his fork tightly and watched Taejun.

Soon, the cake Haeshin had bought for Taejun for the first time entered his mouth. A breathtaking silence flowed only for Haeshin. In the meantime, Han Taejun, who had chewed the cake well and swallowed it, said,

“It’s alright.”

Haeshin couldn’t easily believe those words.

“You’re lying, aren’t you? You’re just saying that to make me feel good.”

“Do I look like such a good person that I’d lie just to make you feel good?”

“Yes.”

“Goodness.”

At Haeshin’s answer, without a second of hesitation, Taejun was momentarily speechless. To be honest, he had intended to say it was delicious even if it wasn’t, so it wasn’t entirely wrong. However, what Taejun was saying now was not a lie.

“It’s really fine. It’s delicious. Of course, it’s not the best. If I had to compare, it’s not more delicious than the cakes I’ve eaten so far. But being not as good doesn’t mean it’s not delicious, right?”

“Ah…”

“It’s delicious. Really. It hurts my pride a little to say this, but it feels even more delicious because you, Cha Haeshin, bought it. Or… is it because we’re scooping and eating the whole thing?”

Taejun’s face, as he said that, didn’t look hurt at all. On the contrary, it even looked warm and playful. Haeshin, who bit his lip for no reason, soon scooped a forkful of cake himself and put it in his mouth.

The sweet and soft cake melted smoothly in his mouth. It was delicious. More than any cake Haeshin had ever eaten in his life. And the sweet taste of the cake brought back an old memory.

Haeshin gazed at Taejun, who was scooping and eating the cake quite naturally for the first time, then carefully opened his mouth.

“You know, Mr. President.”

“Hmm?”

“Can I… tell you something that might spoil your appetite?”

“What is it? Tell me.”

Taejun was a little nervous inside at the sudden change in atmosphere, but he responded, trying not to show it. He wanted Haeshin to talk comfortably about whatever it was.

Haeshin was silent for a moment, biting the tip of his fork with his lips. He seemed to be wondering if he should really say this. After a silence long enough to make Taejun a little anxious, Haeshin opened his mouth.

“The first cake I ever bought with my own money, you see. Hmm…”

“Speak comfortably. What can’t we say between us?”

At Taejun’s calm kindness, Haeshin let out a small laugh. He was right. In front of the only person to whom he could tell everything, even death and regression, what else was there to hide at the bottom?

“After my dad died. After he was cremated and scattered, I was sitting blankly in the house where he could finally never come back, and suddenly I really wanted cake.”

“…”

“Until then, the only cake in my life was a few slices I’d had at a friend’s birthday… but suddenly, like a revelation, I had this thought. Oh, I should buy a cake.”

Hearing that story, Taejun thought of Cha Haeshin, who must have felt his father’s death like a half-hearted liberation. The young Cha Haeshin, who knew that even though his father was dead, the hell he left behind would not end for a long time.

“I ran to the bakery and bought the smallest, cheapest cake. It was probably the first luxury I’d ever indulged in my life. And I left my mom, who was exhausted and asleep in her room, and just gobbled it all up by myself.”

“You did?”

“Yes. Like I was possessed by a hungry ghost… And then I threw up all that precious stuff. I had severe indigestion and suffered all night, and after that, I never bought cake with my own hands again.”

Taejun gripped his knee tightly with the hand that wasn’t holding the fork, until it hurt. If he didn’t control himself, he felt like he would rush out and find the already dead body of Cha Haeshin’s father to behead him.

Unlike Taejun’s agonizing emotions, Haeshin continued speaking in a very calm manner.

“Do you know what the last cake I ate was? It was the cake I ate on Jin Youngmin’s birthday.”

“Ah…”

And when Haeshin finished those words, Taejun groaned like a beast.