The House of Three Chapter 6.2

“You already noticed, so what’s the point in asking? It hurts my mouth to say it.”

He cruelly spat out words that were no different from a death sentence to Seowon.

With Cha Gyojin having already made up his mind, all Seowon could do was make one last struggle. If the other side was going to back down, was there any other choice but for this side to push forward?

Seowon, who had been breathing heavily, unable to calm down, slowly settled his breathing. He calmly straightened his disheveled clothes and hair and acted nonchalantly as if nothing had happened.

“Unlike you, Mr. Gyojin, I was raised delicately, so I’m the type who is only satisfied when I get everything I want. If I was going to give up, I wouldn’t have even come into this house. We were supposed to have a meal with the Chairman soon, the three of us, you haven’t forgotten, have you?”

You still intend to show courtesy to the Chairman, don’t you? And our relationship isn’t definitively over either.

At the words that followed, Gyojin frowned as if he didn’t want to deal with him anymore. He thought, That Lee Seowon is truly no ordinary, persistent bastard.

Even a bastard like this clings to me so fervently, so why is Lee Heeyoung so indifferent? If I were to name one of the reasons Lee Seowon clings to me, this well-built appearance would certainly play a big part.

Come to think of it, Lee Heeyoung seemed to have no reaction whatsoever even after seeing this body, this face. He hadn’t shown a single sign of being shy even when I got close.

Why the hell is that? Thinking about it again, it’s fucking strange. Even the child of a rich family is so fucking, virulently desperate to have me.

Gyojin, who had become serious at a strange moment, gave up the war of nerves with Lee Seowon. He left the room, sneering in a voice tinged with annoyance.

“Yeah, that’s great. We can just end it between you and me at that meeting, right? Let’s definitely have a meal with the Chairman.”

Afterwards, he closed the door without any lingering attachment.

Even though he should have been drained of energy and emotionally disturbed by the conversation with Lee Seowon, Gyojin moved as if he were a person who couldn’t feel fatigue.

Rustle.

He slung the bag of medicine he had carelessly tossed in front of the room onto his wrist and quickened his pace.

His feet were still on the first floor, but his gaze had already reached the second floor.

Heeyoung, who was squatting in front of the hallway, waiting for Cheonghyun to come out of the shower, turned his head at the sudden sound of footsteps. Gyojin, who had come up to the second floor, was already approaching him.

“What are you doing there?”

Perhaps his fully squatted posture looked utterly pathetic. The man, who had come right up to him, scrunched up his face and asked irritably. Heeyoung hurriedly got up and opened his mouth.

“Ah, Cheonghyun went in to take a shower. I was waiting.”

“Aah, in that state?”

What came back was a sarcastic reply. Gyojin casually scanned Heeyoung’s body, which stood there limply.

The hands hanging below his waist were limp like dried leaves. And what about his eyes? Looking at his unfocused eyes, he looked as if he would collapse at any moment, but only Heeyoung, the owner of that body, didn’t know it.

He tossed the bag of medicine that had been dangling from his wrist into Heeyoung’s arms. Thud. As something was cradled in his arms, Heeyoung, who had accepted it in a daze, opened his eyes wide.

When he looked at him as if to ask what this was, Gyojin wiggled his eyebrows and joked.

“Tell me honestly. You liked it when I gave you medicine last time, didn’t you.”

He certainly had a knack for flustering people every time he opened his mouth. At his sudden remark, Heeyoung, with a large question mark floating in his mind, glanced at the bag he was holding and asked.

“What do you mean by that?”

Through the opaque bag, several square boxes of medicine were visible. Fever reducer, multi-symptom cold medicine, vitamins… Every medicine needed for a cold was in there.

Looking at it, his mind went blank. Why is he giving this to me? As he rustled the bag with a dazed expression and looked up, Gyojin let out a strange, hollow laugh and chided Heeyoung.

“Isn’t it because you liked getting the ointment from me back then? Huh? Fucking hell, only acting frail in front of me. Like you’re asking me to take care of you.”

…So he’s saying that because I liked receiving the ointment from Boss last time, I’m deliberately pretending to be sick.

I don’t know where he gets that confidence from. Last time, he definitely gave me the ointment while saying something about it being a welfare benefit. In an instant, he makes a person seem shady and weird.

Heeyoung created a deep furrow between his brows and retorted. It was a timid and calm voice, but the sentence he uttered had a hint of undisguised bewilderment mixed in.

“Why would I do something like that?”

As he even let out a faint sigh as if to show him on purpose, Gyojin’s expression instantly turned fierce. His thick, dark eyebrows twitched wildly and the muscles in his tightly clenched jaw flinched savagely. It was the reaction right before his temper was about to explode, and,

“Aish, can’t a person do something like that?”

Indeed, a booming voice echoed fiercely. Startled by the sound, Heeyoung hunched his shoulders and suddenly tilted his head. Thinking about it again, the answer was a little funny.

One moment he’s chiding me, driving me into a corner like a weirdo, and the next he’s saying can’t a person do something like that? It was a statement that was beyond bewildering, leaving him dumbfounded. Which tune was he supposed to dance to?

Giving up on retorting and closing his mouth tightly, Heeyoung just quietly looked up at Gyojin’s handsome face. He stared intently, finding it strange that his sulky face strangely resembled Cheonghyun’s.

Then, Gyojin, who had whipped his head away, suddenly snatched Heeyoung’s wrist. He started walking without restraint, dragging the weaker body behind him.

The destination was obvious. The place where his large feet stopped was in front of Heeyoung’s room.

“Boss, just a moment. Why, why are you doing this.”

“Go in and rest.”

“I still have things to take care of for Cheonghyun…”

When the door was finally flung open, Heeyoung forcibly pulled his captured hand away and shook his head. He still had a lot of work to do to just go into the room and rest. He had to get Cheonghyun’s clothes out, watch him get into bed, and stay by his side until he fell asleep.

This wasn’t volunteer work, it was a job he was getting paid a salary for, so he couldn’t just half-ass it.

When he refused to rest, citing his sense of responsibility, Gyojin finally dragged Heeyoung’s body all the way into the room.

“I’ll take care of my son, so you stop being so feeble and get some rest. Why don’t you listen to what I fucking say.”

He acted as if Heeyoung had no choice in the matter from the beginning. Reaching the front of the bed in just a few steps, he immediately laid Heeyoung, who was resisting, down.

He didn’t even have to use much strength. When he tapped his thigh with his knee, Heeyoung, who was making a dazed sound of “uh, uh,” collapsed onto the bed.

Heeyoung, who found himself lying on the bed in the blink of an eye, stared blankly at the ceiling and moved his lips. He was grateful for Gyojin’s consideration, but he was just flustered by his one-sided pushiness.

As if to drive the final nail in, Gyojin even covered him with a blanket. The way his hands pulled the thick blanket up to his neck was unnecessarily delicate.

His out-of-place actions didn’t stop there. Gyojin placed his hand, as big as a pot lid, on Heeyoung’s forehead. No, it would be more accurate to say that he pressed down on his forehead with a rough force. Just like pressing down on a hotteok.

Whether he couldn’t control his strength or not, he measured his temperature in a somewhat awkward posture.

One, two, three. Even after he had accurately counted to three in his head, the rough palm pressed against his forehead did not move away. For a moment, a silence so thick it was hard to swallow a single drop of saliva fell, but Gyojin seemed oblivious.

Gulp… The only one feeling awkward about the sudden skinship was Heeyoung.

Maybe it was because he had a fever, but Gyojin’s hand on his skin felt cool and it felt good. Heeyoung, who had almost unconsciously relaxed his body and gone limp, barely managed to hold onto his senses.

When he put strength into his drooping eyelids and looked forward, Gyojin was making a fuss.

“Ah, so hot, shit. It’s a wonder you’re still alive and not dead yet.”

It was a little funny how he was overacting, pulling his hand away as if he had been burned by hot water. However, Heeyoung let out a sigh instead of a laugh.

“I’m really okay…”

Just as he said that and was about to push himself up from the mattress with his elbows.

“Ah…!”

Gyojin, who had been watching the pathetic sight with displeasure, ended up pushing Heeyoung’s upper body away forcefully.

Heeyoung, who let out a short, faint scream as he fell, couldn’t help but collapse onto the bed again. His vision spun from being pushed with such force. Cough! A groaning sound escaped along with a cough.

Ugh, ugh, as he let out a deep, throat-scratching sound and pained breaths, Gyojin’s body suddenly flinched.

His insides were in an uproar right now. A warning light had turned on just from Heeyoung’s short gasp of “Ah!”.

Fuck. I only pushed him lightly and he’s moaning and shit. Making a person horny.

His eyes, which had reached the limit of their rationality, fell upon the defenselessly lying Heeyoung. This kind of downward-looking composition. It wasn’t unfamiliar at all.

Gyojin recalled the time he had masturbated with Heeyoung lying on his thigh. Without even trying to remember, the image of Heeyoung’s face that he saw that day, the atmosphere, even the damp air, were drawn out on their own.

He didn’t know why the memory of that day was overlapping now, of all times, when Heeyoung was sick. But Gyojin had to endure the blood rushing to his lower parts somehow. He wasn’t a beast, so he couldn’t get a hard-on in a situation like this, so he gathered all his rationality and sang the national anthem.

He, who had been dousing the fire in his heart with a fire extinguisher, put on a nonchalant face and changed the subject.

“Hey, but are you always that quiet? Don’t people tell you you’re a pushover?”

It was a question whose meaning he couldn’t understand at all, so Heeyoung closed his mouth again this time. What does he mean by that? That I’m quiet and a pushover. As he just rolled his eyes, Gyojin, as if frustrated, swept his hair back and began to give advice.

“A person has to know how to be moderately shrewd so they don’t get taken for a pushover, you know? You can’t be too nice.”

After making him lie down while telling him to rest without any warning, he now didn’t hesitate to nag. Heeyoung, who was listening quietly to his words, wondered what he was suddenly talking about, but then he unexpectedly recalled what had happened in the morning.

The incident where he went out to clean the swimming pool in the middle of winter without being able to talk back to Lee Seowon once, and then got into trouble… Even he himself thought he was like a foolish pushover, so he couldn’t help but think about it.

If so, could it be that Gyojin had noticed what had happened to him long ago and was giving him advice? Surely not…

Thinking that, his chest churned greatly. Sorrow rushed in like a fierce wave, and it felt like it would burst out past his throat.

However, Heeyoung was not swayed by the emotions that welled up impulsively. The words ‘surely not’ were enough to make a person a fool, so he deliberately replied playfully.

“I’m not that nice.”

Actually, it was half-joking and half-serious. Where in the world is there a person who is only nice? When he argued with an expression that said he too had a mean streak like others, Gyojin smirked.

He even muttered to himself as if he had heard something truly pathetic and funny. Like, what the hell is he saying now.

“All the bastards who work at my store are cunning, but you’re the only mutant, Lee Heeyoung. Those bastards, if they get a pushover customer, they rack their brains nonstop to take advantage of them somehow, you know? Huh? Everyone acts like they’ll die if they suffer a loss, but you,”

You.

Gyojin cut off his words there and swallowed the remarks he couldn’t bring himself to utter. One moment he was firing off words like a machine gun, and the next he had come to a screeching halt, unable to do either this or that. Heeyoung, who suddenly became curious about the rest of the sentence, tilted his head, but he did not open his firmly closed mouth.

To be precise, he couldn’t open it.

Lee Heeyoung you, even when I’m blatantly showing that I’m willing to be taken for a pushover, why can’t you take advantage of it?

Ah, this guy is hitting on me a little, when you think that, you should be like, alright! and whenever you’re being bullied, you should come running and say, “Boss, that bastard hit me! Please screw him over even more shittily than what he did to me!” and it wouldn’t be enough to just tattle, so why do you say “I’m okay, I’m okay” every day.

How could he say to his face that that was exactly what being too nice was?

Looking at the innocently blinking Heeyoung with a complicated expression, Gyojin changed his mind.

Right, is being nice a sin? I’ll just let myself be taken advantage of. Fuck, what other choice is there.

Having finished organizing his thoughts by himself, beating the drum and playing the janggu, he felt his lower body getting tight and hurriedly turned around.

“That’s enough. Just take your medicine and go to sleep. And you, stay quietly cooped up in your room tomorrow.”

Heeyoung, who had been lying there blankly the whole time, shot up only when the command-like instruction was given.

“What? What do you mean by that? Cheonghyun is…”

“Hey, hey. Where are you trying to follow me? I’m taking ChaCheonghyun out tomorrow, so you just rest at home. So just lie down and sleep, please. Yes? I’m begging you like this, fuck.”

As he asked, following him closely, Gyojin pushed Heeyoung’s forehead without hurting him. He stared at Heeyoung, who kept getting up no matter how many times he laid him down, with a look of exasperation and asked, no, begged. He even went so far as to bow his back and kowtow, so Heeyoung had to return to the bed without continuing the conversation.

“If you crawl out again, you’re really dead. Kwaak.”

Soon, leaving a warning, he slammed the door and left.

Gyojin, who came out of the room, opened the window at the end of the hallway wide and breathed in the open air. The cool wind was sucked deep into his lungs, but for some reason, he didn’t feel refreshed.

His chest felt stuffy and dizzy, as if something was stuck in the middle of it. As he tapped the area around his temples with his wrist, he suddenly realized something to the bone.

He had been spouting off many times that his ideal type was a good person who hadn’t been tainted by the world, but now he wanted to take back all the ideal types he had thoughtlessly spewed out in the past.

He should have said he liked a cunning person more than a good person.

If his youngest sibling came and asked about his ideal type again, he would answer like this.

A person who, no matter what happens, never endures it and comes running to him to cutely tattle. A person who can relax comfortably while taking advantage of him.

And he very naturally imagined Heeyoung’s face. Lee Heeyoung, with tears welling up in his rabbit-like eyes, hugging him and saying, ‘Boss, this happened today, can’t you scold them all?’.

Even though it was just an imagination, it was so pretty and stimulating that he wanted to grant him anything.

Fuck, now that I’ve acknowledged my feelings, these indiscreet thoughts keep popping up all the time. And why is my lower part in this state again? The disgustingly swollen front of his pants showed no sign of subsiding.

You’re not just fucked, Cha Gyojin.

As he was rubbing his dry face, overwhelmed by all sorts of emotions, the cute sound of footsteps, chap, chap, chap, got closer from a distance.

“Dad! What are you doing there?”

Cheonghyun, who had just come out of the shower wearing only his underwear, ran over and asked innocently. Gyojin, who had his forehead pressed against the hallway wall, found his son with wide eyes and waved his hand listlessly.

“You’re going to catch a cold like that. Hurry up and go put on some clothes.”

“What about Heeyoung hyung? I didn’t get to say goodnight.”

“Hey now, let’s just go to your room quietly today. What’s with the goodnight greeting? If you really want to, do it with Dad.”

“Uweeeck.”

The child, who pretended to vomit while bending his back sharply, ran into his room in a distracting manner. Gyojin slowly followed behind him, dragging his slippers.

As he entered his son’s room, he stuck his hands in both of his pants pockets. This way, the outline of his swollen member was naturally hidden. Cheonghyun was already a playful kid, and if he showed such a vulgar sight, it was obvious that he would stay up all night asking, ‘Dad, but why is your pee-pee like that?’.

“You can get your clothes out and get ready for bed on your own, right .”

“Uh-huh. Because I’m a big brother in elementary school now.”

“You little punk, whose son are you to be so spirited.”

Gyojin, who sat on the sofa and crossed his legs, waited until his praiseworthy son had changed his clothes by himself and lay down on the bed. Fortunately, he was able to calm his lower parts a little in the meantime.

Afterwards, he meticulously asked if the child was hungry, if he was hurt anywhere, then left him with a goodnight and turned off the light. He looked down at Cheonghyun’s face, who fell asleep in a flash, with a rather fond expression, and didn’t forget to properly cover him with a blanket.

Gyojin, having finally finished his day’s work, quietly left the child’s room and returned to his own. He didn’t wash up right away, but grabbed a pack of cigarettes and went out to the terrace.

Tap, tap. He tapped the cigarette pack on his palm a couple of times and expertly took out a long cigarette and put it in his mouth. When he rolled the lighter wheel with his thick thumb, a red flame flared up. Gyojin, who sucked deeply on the filter until his cheeks hollowed, exhaled a long puff of acrid smoke.

With the cigarette, which had burned quite a bit for having just started, held between his fingers, he took out his phone and made a call somewhere. It was a fluid motion that took less than a minute to search through his contacts, find the desired name, and make the call.

On the phone screen, the name saved as ‘Chairman’ appeared along with the message that the call was connecting, and before long, the ringing tone was cut off.

—Oh, our Managing Director Cha. What’s the matter at this hour?

Following that, the voice of an old man who sounded somewhat excited came over.

“Are you busy right now?”

Gyojin, who flicked the cigarette ash into the ashtray, asked with appropriate courtesy. Since he had grown up like the Chairman’s son, he didn’t offer a stiff greeting or put on any plausible formalities.

Despite Gyojin’s cynical voice, the Chairman just laughed heartily as if he was simply pleased.

—What busy matters would an old man have. What is it? Speak comfortably.

“It’s not something I can tell you over the phone right now. I’d like you to spare some time soon. I’d like to meet you in person.”

Having neatly requested for his time, he waited for a reply while sucking on the cigarette filter irritably. As he turned his head and exhaled the smoke, he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, ahem, ahem, from over the phone.

Chairman Baek was a man with inherently good intuition and was quick-witted. He probably had a rough idea of what he wanted to talk about just from his voice. No, perhaps he had figured out the purpose of the call just from the fact that he had called at this hour.

Sure enough, the Chairman, who had sensed something, gave a nonchalant reply.

—Yes. As it happens, I had just told Seowon that we should all get together for a meal soon, so this is great. I’ll set the date. You know Chairman Hong, right? I’ve arranged to go on a tour of Europe with that gentleman for a few weeks. Now that I’m old, I want to see the world so much, shouldn’t I travel here and there before I die?

A tour of Europe. He was acting so nonchalantly even though he knew he had called because he was in a hurry. Gyojin, who had furrowed his brow tightly, uttered a sharp reply without any fear.

“You should do your sightseeing in moderation. What are you going to do if your kneecaps give out?”

—Hoho, this fellow and his worrying. I’m still hale and hearty. Anyway, I’ll call you when I return to the country, so come out with Seowon and show me a friendly side of you.

He wanted to end his relationship with Lee Seowon right away, but it seemed his insides would only get more frustrated for a few weeks because of the quick-witted old man. He was surely trying to buy time using the European trip as an excuse.

Gyojin irritably threw the completely burned-out cigarette butt into the ashtray. If he had his way, he would kick Lee Seowon out tomorrow, but he couldn’t end this relationship without the Chairman.

In any case, he was the one who had proposed this meeting in the first place, and Chairman Baek was also involved in the promise made that day. Since he was the one breaking the promise and ending the relationship first, he had to show final courtesy to the man who was like a father to him.

“Then please call me when it’s convenient for you. The sooner the better. You know I’m impatient.”

However, his patience had reached its limit, and he couldn’t help but let a thuggish tone slip out.

The Chairman laughed heartily until the very end and hung up the phone. Even though they hadn’t had a very heartwarming conversation, he didn’t lose his smile until the end.

The only one whose lips didn’t even twitch was Gyojin.

Fucking hell, things are rolling along so damn frustratingly. It seemed that from today, each and every day would feel tediously long. Of course, Lee Heeyoung’s days, which he would have to spend with Lee Seowon, would also be nothing short of hellish.

Gyojin made a decision at once.

He would have to coop himself up well in this damn house for the time being, even if it meant taking a long vacation.