Cold City Romance Chapter 6.6

“Those clothes, they look really sensual on you, hyung.”

A suitable reply did not come to mind.

Cha Dokyung only looked straight ahead at the terrace and deliberately did not look towards Hyun Jaehwi. The sound of the rain grew louder. Even though he had already smoked a cigarette on the terrace, this awkward silence and tension did not get any better.

“Why aren’t you looking at me?”

Red lips exhaled white cigarette smoke. However, he deliberately did not even turn his head towards Hyun Jaehwi. For some reason, he could not bring himself to face him.

He simply stared blankly at the scenery of the pitch black forest where the rain scattered in the darkness tinged with the light of the street lamps, and replied indifferently like that.

“……Why do I have to look at you?”

Cha Dokyung swept back his rain dampened hair.

Standing on the wide terrace lit by indirect lighting, Hyun Jaehwi, who had been staring intently at Cha Dokyung’s side profile, suddenly started laughing out loud like a possessed man.

At that boyish, refreshing laugh, Cha Dokyung finally turned his head to look at Hyun Jaehwi.

“Why are you laughing?”

I do not know why he is laughing with that kind of face. Who is he trying to bewitch again…….

“Do you know you only look at me when I laugh?”

I really do not want to be found out. That I like your smiling face.

“I’m right, aren’t I? You wouldn’t even look at me, but now that I’m laughing, you’re finally looking at my face.”

I feel like I need to go home quickly. This is why I did not really want to face him.

“And you, why do you stare at people so intently?”

He hated looking him straight in the face because he was uncomfortable with that unique, nonchalant and aggressive gaze that seemed to strip a person bare and interrogate them. It felt like all his inner thoughts were being exposed.

Moreover, after the disturbance had subsided, after the beastly pheromonal heat had passed and he had regained his sanity with a clear mind. He was extremely weary because he felt like he would end up spouting useless nonsense to that kid again.

To the question of why he was staring so intently, Hyun Jaehwi spouted some outlandish nonsense out of the blue.

“Because your bare face after washing up is so different from when you were wearing a suit and makeup earlier. It’s just, a little fascinating.”

Cha Dokyung’s appearance, with his pale white, freshly washed bare face and damp hair, was excessively clear and pure compared to his glamorous appearance at the party earlier.

“Is that, by any chance, an insult?”

Hyun Jaehwi waved his hand as if to deny it and said.

“It’s not that, it’s because your face after washing up looks so much like a baby’s. It just doesn’t look like your actual age at all.”

Could he be sarcastically referring to how I had scoffed at him for being too much of a baby when I heard his age at Messiah during our first meeting?

“You’re saying all sorts of things to a man over thirty.”

Even though he had not said much, the rims of Hyun Jaehwi’s ears were flushed bright red. His gaze was heated.

“Hyung, when you don’t wear makeup, you look just like you did back then.”

His light colored, transparent eyes were moist with wetness. The long, elegant neckline revealed between the flowing neckline, the slender jawline without a single flaw, and the pale skin. Although he had a cold and aloof impression, his still clear and neat face was no different from the twenty three year old Cha Dokyung that Hyun Jaehwi last remembered.

Cha Dokyung knew very well why he was saying such things. It was because it was something he often heard from people when he did not wear makeup.

“Ah, because I look too pale on screen or in photos, I wear makeup that’s much darker than my skin tone. Depending on the need, I also paint my eyebrows and contour my face more darkly to look more manly……”

“……”

“If I don’t, I might look like an omega.”

At that answer, Hyun Jaehwi fell into a dead silent stillness. On the other hand, Cha Dokyung asked back playfully with an indifferent gaze.

“Why, do I look strange when I wear broadcast makeup?”

However, unlike Cha Dokyung, Hyun Jaehwi answered with a serious gaze, devoid of any playfulness.

“For so long that I can’t even remember, the person named Cha Dokyung has been an object of unreachable admiration for me. Whatever you looked like, I always thought you were cool and beautiful.”

It sounded like a pure confession, to the point of making the listener embarrassed.

“Whether you wear makeup or not……. Whether you’re an omega or an alpha, since before your presentation, no, since you were even younger than that.”

He took a breath and chose his words properly again.

“It doesn’t matter what. Because I’ve watched who the real person named Cha Dokyung is since I was young.”

Cha Dokyung reached out to Hyun Jaehwi, who was much taller than him. He playfully stroked the head of the man who was confessing so seriously and whispered softly.

“That’s a touching story……”

Hyun Jaehwi grabbed Cha Dokyung’s arm, which was stroking his head as if he were a child, with an irresistibly strong force.

“Because what I’m used to since I was young is this current appearance, I was just surprised that your face after washing up hasn’t changed from back then.”

He continued to make excuses to me, blushing easily like a clumsy boy. It seemed he misunderstood and thought I was offended.

Just a moment ago. He had not treated me like an elder at all, even though I was six years older, and had acted cold and firm like a man and an adult, even threatening me.

He had so many different sides that it was confusing. I still could not quite distinguish whether that kid was a boy or an adult, what his true self was.

“Okay, I get it……”

“……”

“So, stop staring. My face is going to wear out.”

However, despite being told to stop looking, Hyun Jaehwi could not take his eyes off him and continued to stare at Cha Dokyung in a daze. His gaze fell on Cha Dokyung’s shoulder. The neckline of the large T-shirt slipped down, revealing his collarbone and one shoulder. Cha Dokyung habitually pulled up the slipping collar.

“Stay the night.”

In the sky beyond the terrace, a fierce downpour was falling as if it would pierce a hole.

“It’s too late and it’s raining too much, so stay the night and leave tomorrow.”

Cha Dokyung read an unconcealable passion in Hyun Jaehwi’s eyes. However, it was a little different from a light physical desire. It felt like an affection that had been harbored for a very long time. Cha Dokyung replied playfully in a relaxed voice.

“There’s only one bed……”

His long, cool eyes, as if drawn, curved into a smile. His smiling face was pretty. He did not feel any pheromones at all, but that languid and refreshing smile made his lower back throb again. He was keenly aware of the fact that he had been suppressing his physiological desires all along and had not been able to come.

He seemed to be laughing that way to tempt me, as if he knew perfectly well that I was weak to that smile.

You are not naive, you are as cunning as a fox.

“Then, I’ll move to a house with two beds.”

“……”

“Just stay the night today. I’ll move to wherever you say you like, hyung.”

Those words sounded so strange that he could not help but laugh out loud as if to embarrass him.

Does he want to play house? After just a few kisses.

“It sounds like you’re proposing we set up house together.”

“……”

“Sorry, Jaehwi. I’m really sorry. I think I might have made you misunderstand……. The Cha Dokyung in heat in a state of disturbance earlier and the sane Cha Dokyung right now are completely different people.”

Cha Dokyung turned his back on his throbbing body and regained his cooled off composure.

“The me who has returned to my senses like now……. I have absolutely no intention of crossing the line with you.”

“……”

At that direct and firm declaration, Hyun Jaehwi stared blankly at him with a smileless face.

“So, I hope you don’t misunderstand.”

I like your looks. Because you are the very definition of my perfect type, to the point where I fell for you at first sight.

It is true that I am drawn to that insanely sexy body and your refreshingly smiling face. No, even if you do not smile, even if you get angry and ignore or threaten me with a cold, cold blooded face like before, and even if you act rough and violent like trash, in fact, I think that is all I will be able to think about when I see you.

So, that is just a sexual attraction.

I do not really know what depth there is to it. However, I know very well that it does not have enough weight to be exchanged for everything I must protect.

I still cherish Hyun Kangwoo and Hyun Serin, with whom I have maintained a friendship for decades, more than you. The advertising business relationship between HK Group and actor Cha Dokyung is far more important, and I am more concerned about the private circumstances of my father, who is a puppet hospital director under the ‘HK Medical Foundation,’ which receives enormous support from Chairman Hyun.

I feel like I need to draw the line that it is just that. You agreed with your own mouth that it was okay for me to use you. So, under our mutual agreement to keep it a perfect secret from people, you are just being used for the purpose of treating my disturbance…….

I do not want to ruin the close relationship and private affairs of our two fathers, the precious memories with my only childhood friends, and the solid relationships with the people around me that have been built up over many years, all because of a momentary impulse.

Because I absolutely do not want to have any kind of adventure with you, do not even think about dragging me into your life. Do not move because of me, do not even dream of playing house with me, and come to your senses.

There were so many things I wanted to say, but when I saw the hurt man’s—no, the boy’s face, I could not bring myself to say anything.

“Sorry, I’ll just go back today.”

A long silence hung between them for a long time.

Hyun Jaehwi erased his hurt expression and gave a cool, bitter smile.

The drizzle suddenly turned into a downpour, pouring down in the scattering pitch black silence. It was not a spring rain, but like a summer monsoon with a raging storm.

“Where are you going when it’s pouring like this.”

Behind the sharp face that had turned chillingly cold, a massive clap of thunder roared in the darkness, and a flash of lightning flickered across the terrace.

“Because I don’t want to make you mistakenly misunderstand.”

Cha Dokyung’s voice was buried under the roaring thunder and the sound of the rain.

Hyun Jaehwi skillfully concealed the immature boyishness he had shown me until now, as if it were all a lie. With a mature and composed face, he spoke.

“Ah, so you don’t want to cause any misunderstandings or misconceptions. You just want to use me as you please whenever you need me?”

It was as if the shy boy he had seemed to be just a moment ago was an act, and this was his true self.

“……”

He whispered, smiling coldly with a hint of sarcasm.

“Is it because you’re a prince in a greenhouse.”

Cha Dokyung’s eyes narrowed. The words sounded absurd. It sounded as if Hyun Jaehwi himself had rolled around in a dirty mire, not a greenhouse. Coming from a young master from a chaebol family who wouldn’t know the first thing about hardship.

“Are you boldly demanding to use my trait for free with that pretty and haughty attitude, right now?”

The shy boy who had been blushing in front of him moments ago had, in the blink of an eye, turned into a cold and arrogant man. The temperature change was so drastic it was bewildering.

“Who asked you to date me?”

His cool eyes stared as if to pierce right through me.

“Who asked you to like me?”

“……”

“I don’t particularly expect something like that from you either, so don’t needlessly tell me what to do with my trivial feelings, calling them misunderstandings or misconceptions.”

You don’t particularly expect it? Then, why on earth are you acting like this towards me…….

“I don’t have much time.”

He sneered coldly with a resolute face.

“Sorting out my feelings is my own business anyway, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“……”

“I don’t have any intention of letting anyone know about this either. For the time we have left, just think of it as creating one unforgettable memory in my life.”

I did not ask what he meant by not having much time. Instead, I decided to ask a more productive question regarding this relationship.

“In exchange for using your trait……. what is it that you really want, then?”

Once again, a loud clap of thunder roared with the sound of the rain, and Hyun Jaehwi pulled Cha Dokyung’s pale body from beyond the terrace into the living room, holding him close as he spoke.

“I won’t do anything funny, so just sleep over after your pheromones are controlled because of a disturbance, like today……. It’s not that hard.”

“……”

“If you’re that uncomfortable with me, I’ll sleep on the sofa, so you can sleep alone in the bed.”

“How can I shamelessly kick out the owner of the house and sleep in the bed alone? Forget it, I’ll sleep on the sofa, then.”

“Unless you want to sleep in the same bed with me, just obediently sleep in the bed alone.”

Cha Dokyung lifted his head stiffly as if in disbelief. He glared with a cold, prim look in his eyes.

“It’s not like we’re going to do that, so why is it so important that I sleep over at this house?”

“……”

“Instead, just demand sex in exchange for using your trait. Then, I’ll agree to those terms.”

He let out a crooked sneer with a cold face.

“Hah, I think you’re the one who is mistaken. I don’t particularly want to have sex with you that badly.”

“……What?”

The defiant eyes, with his head held stiffly, slowly scanned the delicate face that could not hide its bewilderment.

“Do you know what it means to be a Dominant trait holder?”

“……”

“I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t really feel the need to do that with a partner who doesn’t get on their knees and desperately beg and plead for my pheromones, for me to have sex with them.”

He let out a low sigh and came closer to me, pressing his broad shoulders and firm body against mine.

“What’s more, even if someone were to strip naked and seduce me, dripping pheromones, asking me to do it with them, I’m not particularly moved by it.”

“……”

“I can perfectly control and move myself as a human being with just my control and self-restraint, regardless of instinct or desire.”

“……”

“The Organization needs Dominants who are controlling and machine-like. I have been thoroughly and highly trained according to that demand since I was seventeen.”

Cha Dokyung was just listening to Hyun Jaehwi’s words with bated breath, his gaze calm and subdued.

“Demanding sex from you in exchange for using my trait?”

“……”

“To a guy like me, sex is nothing more than a base desire that can be controlled at any time.”

“……”

“So, the idea that what I want from you is merely sex is clearly a thought on your level, Mr. Cha Dokyung.”

Unlike before, when he called me hyung and used honorifics, the title and tone he used now were quite unfamiliar and authoritarian, as if he were reprimanding me. The military-style, top-down tone ingrained in his speech was so out of place and strange that Cha Dokyung, who had been looking him up and down, ended up scoffing in disbelief.

“Could you just stick to one title?”

“……”

“Seriously, I’m getting so confused about what your true self is. One moment you’re confessing to me, calling me hyung and being all flustered. The next, you’re threatening me, and now you’re ordering me around, calling me Mr. Cha Dokyung?”

“……”

“Why don’t you just drop the formalities and call me ‘you’?”

Hyun Jaehwi did not back down, his eyes curving calmly.

“I was planning to do that anyway. I’m just as confused about what your true self is, Cha Dokyung.”

“……”

“I don’t know which tune to dance to with your whims, going back and forth like this.”

The pretty lips spat out a curse, not backing down.

“To a hyung who’s six years older, fucking hell……, your manners are really something else.”

Hyun Jaehwi, who had been slouched to match Cha Dokyung’s height, straightened his broad back and let out a hollow laugh.

Even his empty, hollow laugh made my heart flutter absurdly. At his low laughter that seemed to say he was no match for me, Cha Dokyung felt a sense of relief. He could not understand why.

Even when Hyun Jaehwi chattered with a rude, insolent tone or spoke informally, Cha Dokyung did not feel particularly offended. Perhaps it was because he never felt that Hyun Jaehwi was a younger brother or someone much younger, despite being six years his junior.

Though he denied it, even at this moment, Cha Dokyyung only saw him as a sexy man who exuded an insane amount of sexual charm, and when Hyun Jaehwi occasionally called him hyung and showed a surprisingly boyish side, he instead felt a self-reproach for being like trash, along with a secret sense of perversion. Because he wanted to sleep with both the boy and the adult man…….

Perhaps that was, as he said, clearly a thought on Mr. Cha Dokyung’s level, merely thinking about sex with him.

The clock was already pointing to 3 in the morning.

In the end, Cha Dokyung lay down on the bed in his room as Hyun Jaehwi told him to. If he did not want to do anything funny and did not want to have sex with me, then there was no reason not to refuse the simple request of just sleeping over at this house after using his precious trait.

Hyun Jaehwi, who was looking down at me lying on the bed, reached out with his thick upper arm and pulled the blanket up.

“Go to sleep. I’m going out to the living room.”

Cha Dokyung, lying down, stared up at Hyun Jaehwi who was covering him with the blanket and said.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Why. After a disturbance passes, you should normally fall into a deep sleep, so deep you wouldn’t know if someone carried you away.”

Lying in bed, his low and gentle voice was pleasant to hear.

“Because you spouted that nonsense about me being a prince in a greenhouse, I can’t stop thinking about what a prince in a greenhouse is.”

Hyun Jaehwi whispered softly.

“You’re used to people loving you. Since you’re always surrounded by fans who like you, you probably can’t even imagine someone refusing your demands.”

Cha Dokyung glared with the corners of his eyes as if pouting.

“You’re just as sharp-tongued as Serin.”

He just stared with his handsome face, not giving any other answer. The man who was standing motionlessly in the dark room, looking down at me as if putting a child to sleep, stooped his broad shoulders and said.

“If you can’t sleep, shall I make you fall asleep?”

Cha Dokyung, lying on the white pillow, smiled innocently.

“You know how to do that too?”

Hyun Jaehwi stared down at Cha Dokyung intently. His Adam’s apple, masculine and prominent, bobbed as he swallowed hard. The slender face buried in the pillow and the uncharacteristically childlike smile strangely stirred a murky, carnal desire.

“……How do you do it?”

Cha Dokyung was now dying of curiosity about what the true nature of Dominant trait holders really was.