Cold City Romance Chapter 17.4

“…”

“Even if it’s revealed to the world that Cha Dokyung is an omega, I’ll make it so there’s no impact on me.”

“…”

“YT is no longer Representative Yeom’s YT, it’s my YT now. YT needs even more large-scale billboard stars who are the current representative faces. After oppa won the lead actor award at Berlin and then vanished, rejecting all advertising proposals and not shooting any advertisements, on the contrary, your market value has skyrocketed to the heavens. The newly advancing HK ENM and my entertainment media business need the image and ripple effect of Cha Dokyung, the top star among top stars, at this point…”

“…”

“Let’s make a contract with me.”

Cha Dokyung still could not close his mouth due to the shock.

“Jaehwi bought up YT starting from when he was twenty?”

“…”

“That kid pressured Representative Yeom and protected me from external pressure or coercion regarding sexual tributes?”

“…”

“Ha, I like a fool… I had absolutely no idea until now that he was protecting me from behind in that way.”

To the man who had been striving since the age of twenty to acquire the agency to which I belonged, I had pushed away the six-years-younger him with prejudice that he was immature and young, and how much I had hurt him in the meantime.

Then, during the past four years as well, he had not said a word to me until the end, and from behind, he had silently endured until the contract termination, reflecting my intentions.

“Serin-ah, give me some time… I’ll think seriously about the contract issue again.”

The businesswoman Hyeon Serin asked for a handshake with a satisfied face.

“Good. If Cha Dokyung resumes activities and makes a contract, then I’m the first priority.”

To Cha Dokyung, who still could not collect his wits and wore a dazed expression, Hyeon Serin asked his intentions once more.

“Tomorrow, before Jaehwi leaves, for the last family dinner we’re having together, do you want to go out with me?”

“…”

“One thing, what’s on my mind. Tomorrow at the dinner with Father, a man named Robert Choi, who is a high-ranking executive of that institution, will be attending together.”

Cha Dokyung bit on a cigarette on the balcony of the penthouse where they sat side by side, and let out a deep sigh with an uncertain face. The cigarette smoke slowly dispersed over his neat and unadorned face.

“No, how could I go to such a place. I’ll only be a hindrance.”

During sex, without even completing ejaculation, he pulled out his penis, ignored me, and turned away coldly; the face of that cold-blooded man came to mind.

—I don’t trust you.

—I won’t be fooled again.

—Fuck, don’t even babble things you won’t remember.

Hyun Jaehwi no longer trusts me.

It was a natural thing to say. Four years ago, Cha Dokyung had secretly hidden it from everyone and treated him like a sex partner and a toy, saying let’s play with fire together. When the promised one year passed, along with saying never return forever, he had threatened him that he must definitely forget me and leave Korea. However, after just three months, he had deceived him with lies without even informing him of going to Taebaek Mountains for a year-long extended shoot.

From the beginning to the end, at every moment countless times, Cha Dokyung had hidden his true feelings and deceived him with lies and hypocrisy. Until the very end, he had deceived his pure affection. He had sexually enjoyed him conveniently and used him for his own troubling bond disorder.

And in the end, right in front of his eyes, he had chosen Hyeon Kangwoo, saying he was a more important person to me. It was a perfect betrayal. Until the last, with promises he would not remember, he had inflicted wounds and abandoned him several times.

Looking back, he was no different from deceiving and toying with the pure heart and long-held pure affection of Hyun Jaehwi, who at twenty-six was hung up on his first love.

Yet, even in the midst of that, he had been steadily acquiring YT to protect me. That such a man no longer trusted me was ultimately the natural consequence of what I had done.

I had already completely lost trust with him. Now, no matter what he did, it would be difficult to turn back Hyun Jaehwi’s heart that had turned away.

Before departure, tomorrow going to such a place, even if he grabbed him and confessed that he liked him, would he believe it.

Absolutely not. He no longer trusted me. Now, even if Cha Dokyung spoke his true true feelings and made any promises, Hyun Jaehwi would not believe any words.

More than a hundred words that had disappointed him, he wanted to show with actions. If it was something that required proving trust, not mere simple words…

“Serin-ah, can you give me a pen and some paper?”

On the table, Cha Dokyung began quickly writing down the address. It was the address of the Hwachon villa where he had vanished and stayed for the past two years.

“For a cozy last family dinner among family, with important people even attending, I don’t want to intrude unnecessarily and cause a disturbance.”

Cha Dokyung handed over the paper containing the address.

Four years ago, when that place was an open villa operated by two directors and their spouses. It was that address where Hyun Jaehwi had come to find me in the mountains, breaking through the dawn darkness from Seoul.

That day, Cha Dokyung had imprinted on him there.

—Jaehwi-ya… If we have a child, let’s go live in a place where no one knows. Since I’ve been running without rest for over ten years, conscious of people’s gazes, not the cold city, but in the forest like this, build a house like this and in a place where no one knows.

—I want to live like you and those two.

Whether he remembered that promise, he did not know. That ephemeral promise to live together in a place like this, he could not guarantee whether he even remembered it now, over four years later. But if he remembered the vow from that day when he had imprinted on you and that promise.

I definitely wanted to prove it to you.

“If you meet Jaehwi tomorrow, can you please deliver this?”

“…”

“It’s not that I forgot the promise with you but that I remember… Because I want to keep the promise, I’ve been waiting here until now, so if you can’t trust me, come directly and confirm it with your own eyes.”

Hyeon Serin received the paper with the villa’s address and the message written together.

“Please, Serin-ah. Please definitely deliver it to Jaehwi.”

At first, his only thought was that he had to somehow hold him back before he left for America. However, after hearing Hyeon Serin’s story, Cha Dokyung changed his mind.

Trust was not something that could now be recovered with simply a few words.

Hyun Jaehwi had not given even the slightest hint to me no matter the situation during that time. Even though I had not acknowledged it at all, he had been working from the shadows since the age of twenty until now to protect me. The past four years that he had thought was the end and that he had forgotten him, he too had been the same as before, silently from behind.

So I too, even if it took time… Even if it took another four years, he had no choice but to silently keep the promise with you and prove his sincerity.

The me who had imprinted on you, here keeping the promise, no matter how long it took, would wait for you, so if he could not believe it, he hoped that you would come to that place and confirm directly with your two eyes that it was not a lie.

Confirm with your eyes that it was not that he did not remember and that my words were not lies. When you truly believed me, when my words reached your ears as truth, not lies, at that time, he would definitely confess this sincerity.

That he liked you…

Hyeon Serin looked curiously at the note Cha Dokyung had handed over and asked.

“Oppa, really… is just this enough?”

Cha Dokyung nodded.

“What if Jaehwi never contacts oppa again?”

If he did not remember the meaning of this message that I had given, if your heart had truly left to the extent that you did not want to confirm anything anymore, then could he forcibly hold you.

But still I…

“Please tell him I’ll keep waiting here.”

Just like you had unrequitedly loved me alone there for over ten long years. Now it was the turn of the imprinted me to wait here alone for you without promise.