Cold City Romance Chapter 10.2

In the end, it was just a moment of passion and play, with the only memory being that insignificant short recollection of rolling around on this bed together and watching that movie. That is why it was fortunate. Because they had sorted it out quickly, Cha Dokyung truly felt relieved at the fact that there was not even a small memory worth recalling with Hyun Jaehwi. After all, sleeping with that kid a few times was the essence and entirety of this relationship.

If this relationship had lasted longer and accumulated many memories with that kid, it might have hurt so much that he would have had to burn and destroy something pitch black like that. For someone like Cha Dokyung, who had been rolling in the entertainment industry for ten years and was now over thirty, he was already too exhausted and dried up to handle such luxurious and consuming emotions.

The long intercourse scenes or the boring wordplay, the excessively long long take of burning the portrait. It was a movie that languidly contained all those useless things for a long time within its sensual imagery. The flames on the screen blazed fiercely for a long while without going out, until the portrait was completely burned away into ashes.

The excuse of a busy schedule going back and forth between domestic and overseas trips with no time to catch a breath no longer worked. He had even grown accustomed to deliberately avoiding that guy’s calls.

When it became impossible to avoid no matter what, Cha Dokyung could no longer ignore Hyun Kangwoo, who had come looking for him on his own two feet.

A quiet silence permeated the top-grade private room with thorough security and soundproofing. Inside the sealed space, the two people sat facing each other awkwardly across the table. After sending the server away, Hyun Kangwoo personally poured wine into the glass and offered it to Cha Dokyung.

“This is the wine you like.”

“I do not know much about wine.”

“No, you know it well. Because over the past ten years, I have trained your taste to be refined.”

“……”

“You do not even touch anything else.”

Cha Dokyung’s current appearance, dressed in a plain outfit that was hard to believe for a top star with his hat pulled down low, felt so out of place in this secretive and luxurious space that it gave an impression of mismatch.

His bare face was excessively clear and clean. As if trying to hide his eyes on purpose, he had pulled the large hat down even lower. Even though only his slender and sharp jawline and red lips were revealed, the glances from people peeking at him all the way here had been stinging.

“It is you who likes alcohol, not me, Kangwoo.”

As if frustrated, Hyun Kangwoo loosened his tie and got straight to the point.

“How long are you going to avoid me? For a whole month, you did not even take my calls. Your agency just kept repeating like a parrot that you were abroad…… I thought I was going crazy from frustration.”

“……”

“I will not do it. I said I will not…… If you hate it, I will not do anything without your consent, Dokyung.”

Along with a deep sigh, the neat face hidden inside the hat finally lifted his head and spoke.

“If you bring up that kind of nonsense one more time, like last time.”

Hyun Kangwoo swallowed hard.

“You bastard, I will kill you.”

At the affectionate curse, Hyun Kangwoo let out a relieved expression and laughed brazenly.

“I was trembling, thinking you might say we are cutting ties.”

Cha Dokyung wore a faint smile.

“Are we kids? At this age, to cut ties……”

Hyun Kangwoo nodded and muttered.

“Yeah, we are all grown adults now.”

“Just one more time……”

Cha Dokyung placed a warning once again with an uneasy face, unable to feel at ease.

“Marriage or whatever…… If you spout that kind of insane nonsense in front of your father or family. I will never see you again.”

At those words, Hyun Kangwoo grinned slyly with a hearty laugh.

“Yeah, yeah. Since Cha Dokyung is the top, I have to adjust to whatever you want.”

It was Hyun Kangwoo who could make such a natural smile with a brazen face as if nothing had happened, like a snake slithering over a fence. For the first time, he vividly realized that he had been catering to his whims like that for thirty years. His perfect way of handling things was so servile and heartrending……

Hyun Kangwoo spoke first, as if striking preemptively.

“Dokyung, yeah…… Let us not get serious.”

It was a statement that only the person who knew best what words could reassure Cha Dokyung could utter.

“If you hate it. Yeah, then it is not for me either. There will be no breaking of the friendship we have maintained until now over something like that. You and I are brothers and family.”

At his words of brothers, Cha Dokyung, with a relieved expression, took off his hat and swept back his hair. That simple action strangely drew attention.

“You with your younger brother…… Really, you are different.”

Cha Dokyung unwittingly let it slip out like that and was surprised at his own slip of the tongue, clamping his mouth shut again.

Hyun Kangwoo replied composedly.

“What do you mean?”

As you said, in the end, it means that no one else but you, Kangwoo, will remain by my side until the very end.

The person who knew best how to reassure the complicated human named Cha Dokyung was none other than Hyun Kangwoo. Even at this moment, Hyun Kangwoo was reassuring him and only saying the words he wanted to hear. In contrast, the one who drove him into uncontrollable tension and anxiety, heart-pounding pain and jittery excitement, was Hyun Jaehwi.

“Just…… It means that the friend I grew up with for over thirty years is the best.”

Cha Dokyung had watched Hyun Kangwoo’s numerous lovers. It had been the same since school days for Hyun Kangwoo as well. Over thirty, they knew each other’s fleeting connections, so in their close brother-like relationship, it was impossible to suddenly spout absurd nonsense like marriage with him.

That crazy bastard, is he really someone with a properly screwed-on head?

Cha Dokyung looked at him incredulously and sneered.

“Do I not know the women you dated? The guy who used to change partners like collecting them in a frenzy…… Why did you suddenly spout that crazy nonsense in front of the chairman and your family?”

As he said himself, he was the type whose standards were too high, not even glancing at anyone who was not celebrity-level in looks. Cha Dokyung had never seen him date a man either. Since he was probably an alpha too, if it were an omega, he would not distinguish between men and women. It was just that he had never shown dating a man in front of him. It was no different from how Cha Dokyung had deliberately hidden his promiscuous private life frequenting ‘Messiah’ for the past two years due to disturbance.

“Even if you talk about marriage or whatever, thinking of your past, there is not a shred of sincerity.”

I should curse that crazy bastard thoroughly.

“And Hyun Kangwoo, Kangwoo…… You punk, you are not my type.”

Because you are the only one who can cheekily catch even a joke thrown in a serious situation.

Hyun Kangwoo laughed brazenly and shot back.

“Haha, I am not your type? Yeah, let us hear it…… Then, what kind of guy is Cha Dokyung’s type exactly?”

He had a genuinely curious expression. When Cha Dokyung snorted and haughtily ignored the question, Hyun Kangwoo shattered the solid peace treaty between them.

He lifted only one corner of his mouth in a smile and asked coldly.

“……Hyun Jaehwi?”

Cha Dokyung froze in place and lifted his surprised eyes. The calm pupils shook messily.

“You like kids in their twenties? Guys with good bodies and handsome faces?”

“Are you in your right mind?”

“That bastard has to be at that level to catch your eye, right? Fuck, I have to acknowledge that Cha Dokyung lights up ridiculously at faces.”

His plump lips trembled faintly.

“You think you are crossing the line right now? You bastard, do not spout off with that loose mouth.”

“Why? Is it not?”

“It is not. No matter what you are thinking. That kind of thing absolutely did not happen.”

“You might not, but that guy seems like he did……”

“……”

“He could not even recognize his own brother…… That guy looked ready to hit me.”

“……”

“With him, I realized I could not win with strength anymore. Still, as the older brother, getting really hit by my fresh six-years-younger little brother punk would be embarrassing.”

As if it was hard to listen to his banter, Cha Dokyung appealed.

“Kangwoo, stop it……. You are mistaken. Jaehwi and I really had nothing going on.”

Hyun Kangwoo smiled bitterly with a face that pretended to be fooled even though he knew.

“If that is what you want, I will remain your unchanged friend like now. But in return, promise me just one thing.”

“……”

“Cha Dokyung, do not stab me in the back.”

The red lips he had been biting trembled faintly, and the clenched fist shook. No, his entire body shook. His vision shook. The shaking made him nauseous, bile rising.

“If I cannot have you, Dokyung……. Then you absolutely cannot have that guy either.”

He had to put on a mask like an actor and perform skillfully. Because that was the only theft he had learned and eaten by.

“Do not write novels. It is not the kind of relationship you are imagining.”

Cha Dokyung brazenly played innocent, but Hyun Kangwoo only slowly sneered at him.

“Kangwoo, you really do not believe me?”

“Yeah. If it is not you, then it is not. You are the guy who can brush off things that happened as if they did not and live pretending they never existed. As you said, when I beat that bastard half to death back in college, you are the one who knew but deliberately pretended not to.”

“……”

“No, actually, you are the vicious one who pretended not to know until the end for life, afraid that your father would fall out of favor with my father…… Dokyung, why do I not know you?”

“……”

“So, if it is not Cha Dokyung, then it is not.”

“Hyun Kangwoo…… You really cannot trust me?”

Even as he acted aggrieved and pitiful, he found himself loathsome. He was trash. Instead of shallow excuses that would not work, Cha Dokyung decided to tell him the words he most wanted to hear.

“I value you more, Kangwoo.”

“……”

“The person who has been with me since birth, always by my side, is not some other guy but you. You, who for nearly thirty years have catered to my whims and played the role of brother and friend by my side, are far more important to me than anything.”

Hyun Kangwoo seemed quite satisfied with Cha Dokyung’s answer. From that satisfied smile, he knew he had passed his test.

No matter what the relationship between Hyun Jaehwi and Cha Dokyung was, or what had happened between the two, the most important goal for Hyun Kangwoo was exactly that.

To become the most important person to Cha Dokyung.

Hyun Kangwoo reached out and patted Cha Dokyung’s shoulder. It was the touch of a reliable friend he had known for over thirty years, not one of lust or passion.

“Yeah. That is all that matters. Dokyung, I trust you.”

That one sincere word from Hyun Kangwoo meaning he trusted him touched the deepest guilt that had tormented him most while rolling around with Hyun Jaehwi. The guilt of deceiving his closest friend.

And that one word of trust was an act that simultaneously placed on his shoulders the unspoken pressure and heavy responsibility of ‘I trust you, so handle it well on your own.’

As always, Hyun Kangwoo handled it with his usual cheeky sociability. He very familiarly and skillfully reassured Cha Dokyung once again. It was as if he knew the control method of the remote that manipulated Cha Dokyung.

“Yeah, let us stop this kind of talk. Throw away the mood-ruining bullshit…… Hey, let us go fishing sometime.”

“……”

“Then, I will let it all slide.”

“Haa, fishing……”

All the words you boasted turned out to be true.

—Dokyung, if it is not you yet, then it is not me either. But I know the end. You will come to me in the end.

—I know you well. The guy who will stick by your side forever from now on is none other than me. Catering to your cautious, fearful backward steps, the one who has stuck by your side for dozens of years until now is me.

In the end, as you said, perhaps the only one who will remain by my side until the end is you.

Because you know better than anyone how to stay by the side of the complicated dual-personality holder named Cha Dokyung, catering to his whims until the very end. Even if that is another form of emotion disguised as brotherhood or friendship.

Cha Dokyung smiled languidly with a drained face.

“Haha, fuck…… That damn fishing.”

“……”

“Yeah, let us go.”

If everything stops here and I do not betray you, our relationship will remain unchanged forever. But if I have already secretly stuck with your youngest little brother behind your back, eating together and deceiving and betraying you until now……. Then, I have no choice but to stop that act right here and deny it until death, pretending it never happened.

Not breaking the current peace. Not inviting greater disaster. Not splitting those two brothers ethically. Covering up the errors born from reckless desire tightly so no one knows and straightening it out properly. That is exactly the duty he must bear as the adult who is at least a year older than Hyun Jaehwi, shouldering the responsibility.