Cold City Romance Chapter 7.2

Hyun Jaehwi speaks informally to him without any hesitation. It felt strange every time he did that. It was as if, from the very beginning, he did not even think of him as a hyung.

“The Disturbance…….”

“…….”

“Since that day you helped me……. my condition got so much better, I was going to contact you to say thank you.”

“…….”

“But, I don’t know your contact information.”

In the car stopped at a traffic light, Hyun Jaehwi wordlessly reached his long, veiny arm towards the glove compartment on Cha Dokyung’s side. His thick forearm, with its shirt sleeve rolled up, touched Cha Dokyung’s leg without restraint. Cha Dokyung flinched and trembled, but he paid it no mind at all.

Hyun Jaehwi took out an unopened new box of business cards from the glove compartment. He immediately held out a single business card to Cha Dokyung, who was sitting next to him.

It was a business card engraved with the title, Head of Headquarters, HK Group.

“After a whole month of no contact like this, you were just going to look for me as a last resort only when you couldn’t bear the Disturbance with medicine, right?”

Cha Dokyung sighed with an indifferent face.

“If you tell me not to come, I won’t.”

“…….”

“Ah, you have Messiah, so it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Haa, you’re not a kid…….”

As if he were acting like a child driven mad by jealousy, Cha Dokyung gazed blankly at his defiant profile. Hyun Jaehwi seemed even more provoked by Cha Dokyung’s words treating him like a child.

“Are you going to wander around there in a state of Disturbance, looking for a guy who looks like me again?”

“…….”

His startled face, with eyes wide open, became fixed on him.

“What did you just say?”

As if it never happened, Hyun Jaehwi hid his immature rebelliousness and instantly reverted to the cool-headed face of a mature man.

“It’s nothing. Just stop talking nonsense and come to me unconditionally when the Disturbance starts. Going to another guy is a clear breach of contract.”

“…….”

“The place we’re going to now is the place you need to come find me when the next Disturbance starts. I painstakingly chose a place where no one can find out, just as you wanted, so look forward to it.”

Cha Dokyung stared at him coldly as if he were absurd and said.

“Wait a minute, what did you mean by that earlier? That I wander Messiah looking for a guy who looks like you…….”

However, the tall, high bridge of his nose only faced forward, as he calmly held the steering wheel. His cool eyes narrowed, and at the same time, the car slid quickly onto the highway. Inside the speeding car, he let out a faint sneer.

“Why? Does something prick your conscience?”

“…….”

“Don’t mind it. I was just spouting whatever I felt like.”

They say when bodies touch, you can see pheromones vividly, so can you also see what kind of guy he slept with?

And that he did such a thing with a guy whose smiling face resembled yours?

Cha Dokyung, feeling as if his innermost thoughts that he did not want to be revealed had been exposed, turned his face, flushed red with shame, and opened the passenger side window.

It was early summer, but the weather was already hot and humid. The thin silk shirt fluttered in the night breeze, flapping wildly against his pale body.

*

“Hyun Jaehwi, why on earth did you come here?”

‘Riverhill,’ renowned for its tight security with the best Han River view, was one of the ultra-luxurious high-end villas where famous figures and celebrities lived together.

Even when they reached the gate entrance of Riverhill, Cha Dokyung just thought this was one of Hyun Jaehwi’s pranks.

Because this was his current residence.

It was meticulously designed so that the gate would only open upon the entry of a single designated vehicle registered to a resident, and the CCTV simultaneously transmitted the screen of the registered entering vehicle to each unit’s wall pad and mobile phone.

The tall and magnificent steel electric gate of the luxurious villa, with its strict and thorough security, opened at once upon detecting the vehicle. The familiar security guard at the gate meticulously checked the vehicle once more. When Hyun Jaehwi’s car passed through the gate, Cha Dokyung was at a loss for words.

It was clearly Hyun Jaehwi’s vehicle, not his own, yet the sensor had detected Hyun Jaehwi’s vehicle as a resident’s and opened the gate. It meant that Hyun Jaehwi’s vehicle was registered as a resident of this villa.

Cha Dokyung muttered softly.

“This is my home…….”

Hyun Jaehwi, who had skillfully entered the parking lot, smiled with a perfectly calm face.

“I know.”

“Really, you’re not going up to my place?”

However, in the private elevator that went up to his home after getting out in the parking lot, Hyun Jaehwi pressed the button for a different floor, not Cha Dokyung’s floor. It was the top-floor penthouse, one floor above his own.

“Stop joking around!”

Hyun Jaehwi replied coolly with a firm face.

“I’m not joking.”

The ill-mannered brat, still speaking informally.

In the elevator that stopped one floor above Cha Dokyung’s home, Hyun Jaehwi quickly grabbed the wrist of the dazed Cha Dokyung and pulled him. He could not make sense of the situation at all.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

As if to show him, Hyun Jaehwi opened the door to the penthouse of this ultra-luxurious villa, located on the floor above Cha Dokyung’s own residence, with a metal card key he possessed and a few simple touches, and went inside.

The interior structure upon entering was identical to Cha Dokyung’s home one floor below.

A huge panoramic floor-to-ceiling window showing the night view of the Han River and the road lights on a dark night, and a vast, empty living room without even any furniture, were revealed.

Leading the dazed Cha Dokyung, Hyun Jaehwi headed towards the two bedrooms that were situated side by side.

“For the past month, I’ve been looking for a house that suits your standards in a place you’d want.”

His large hand was still holding Cha Dokyung’s wrist over the soft-textured, thin silk shirt. The captured wrist felt hot, as if burned by fire.

“As you wished, I bought and put in two new beds.”

“…….”

“I considered a place that could maintain perfect secrecy and where you wouldn’t have to be conscious of your surroundings when you come and go, and it seemed that a different floor in the same building was the only option under those conditions.”

“…….”

“I wanted to find a house before your next Disturbance came. It was a pain to find it in just a month.”

Cha Dokyung was so dumbfounded he could not even laugh. He did not know if this place had been on the market, but if he had to move into this house within a month, he would have had to pay an absurd premium and make an unfair, forced deal to get in.

“……So, you’re saying you moved into the penthouse of this building, right above my place, in just one month?”

“It’s just one floor up by elevator or stairs, so you don’t need to be conscious of people’s gazes. And if we move along the same path within the same building, there’s absolutely no fear of being discovered by people inside or outside, or by reporters.”

“Alright, I get it. I admit it’s the perfect place to come find you during the Disturbance. It’s just one floor up, so there’s nothing difficult about it.”

“…….”

“But, if the Chairman, or Kangwoo, or Serin find out that you moved in right above my place?”

“That won’t happen. I’ve taken care of everything.”

“…….”

“I moved secretly without using my name, pretending to still be living in that mansion so no one knows I’m here. I didn’t receive any financial help from anyone……. So, absolutely no one can find me here.”

“Haa, you’re like a cop or something? How can your methods be so perfect and meticulous?”

This was not on the level of playing house. The fact that he had orchestrated something like this for him seemed to be proof that the kid’s feelings were by no means light.

So Cha Dokyung decided to ask Hyun Jaehwi what he had been genuinely curious about for the past month.

“Why are you doing all this for me? Didn’t you say you’re returning to the agency in two years?”

Cha Dokyung did not know exactly what the Dominant Center agency was either.

According to Professor Yoo Jinseo, the very existence of that agency was a secret. However, he could guess from a few passing conversations that he still belonged to that agency and had to go back for work.

“You weren’t just letting my words go in one ear and out the other, were you? It’s a bit surprising that you remembered that…….”

“…….”

“To be precise, it’s not two years, but 1 year and 3 months left. I wasted too much useless time at Bain & Company.”

“So you’re saying you’re going back to America where the agency is in just one year, not two?”

“Since that’s my last chance to return, it will probably be that way. When I go back this time, I have no intention of ever returning to Korea.”

He had spoken vaguely about possibly returning, but it seemed Hyun Jaehwi’s mind was already firmly made up.

“I have no desire to live my life playing the part of a chaebol in Korea, sitting at a stiff desk and approving documents. Cunning maneuvers and business don’t suit my constitution either…….”

“…….”

“Although Father seems to want me to live within his fence like a flower in a greenhouse, just like my older brother and sister.”

His calm eyes gazed blankly at Hyun Jaehwi. Cha Dokyung asked, as if bewildered.

“If you were going to go back anyway, why did you come back to Korea?”

“The agency is still requesting my prompt return. But, I also need to live a normal life, free from the agency, at least once.”

“…….”

“I was granted a grace period of two years as time to make that choice by my own will. Thanks to my father’s wealth and donations……. My father desperately wanted me to return to Korea.”

Hyun Jaehwi looked at Cha Dokyung with a determined expression, having already made up his mind about everything.

“So, shall I tell you the truth now? Why I really came back to Korea.”

Under the soft lighting, his transparent eyes blinked slowly. The corners of his eyes, moistly wet, gazed at him calmly.

Hyun Jaehwi unconsciously reached out his hand towards that unreal, dreamlike, fantastic face. However, he ended up retracting his hand in mid-air, unable to touch him.

His low voice resonated gravely in the space.

“Because of Cha Dokyung…….”

“…….”

“The real reason I came to Korea is because of you.”

The grown man spoke with the face of a fond boy.

“Because of that very Cha Dokyung who, for the past ten years since my adolescent days, has always existed in my heart as the object of a terrible one-sided love…….”

“…….”

“Because of the shadow that is you, I couldn’t form any kind of relationship with anyone else. I held up the standard of Cha Dokyung to everyone who approached me.”

“…….”

“I have never once wanted anyone other than Cha Dokyung.”

At that fond and earnest confession, as if he had returned to a boy dreaming of his first love, Cha Dokyung’s eyes also wavered greatly, as if ripples were spreading.

“So I thought I’d come back to Korea and confess to you, come what may, and if it still didn’t work out, I’d give up cleanly.”

He was at a loss for words at his heartfelt confession.

“The reason you allowed me was because of the Disturbance, and the rational and realistic Cha Dokyung ultimately cannot accept a being like me because of the entangled surrounding interests……. Yes, I understand that well.”

“…….”

“Still, if I mobilize everything I can like this and pour out all of these feelings that are driving me crazy. Won’t my feelings for you get sorted out a bit then?”

Cha Dokyung found that confession rather shocking.

“So, you had a one-sided crush on me there for the ten years you weren’t in Korea……. and you came back to Korea to sort out your feelings for me?”

“That’s right. So I’m asking you one last time, right here.”

The man with the cool-headed face stated firmly.

“When I go back to America and return to the agency, I have no intention of ever coming back to Korea again. And just like for the past ten years, I have no intention of appearing before you again.”

“…….”

“So please allow me to have you for just the remaining one year. Let me pour out all my feelings completely…… and after that, let me be able to give up on Cha Dokyung completely.”

He could tell that his confession was sincere by looking at his eyes now.

Hyun Jaehwi had always been hiding something from him. The man who had been nothing but a riddle and a mystery was now beginning to show who he was. He showed his desperation down to its very core, with his emotions laid bare.

With a face that was pressed for time.

“I think it’s because of the fantasy and longing for something I haven’t been able to have since my adolescent days.”

“…….”

“Now I’m sick and tired of living captivated by it, so I’m asking you to end it for me.”

He strode forward and grabbed my shoulders tightly with a fond and seemingly explosive heat. Then, he pleaded, as if spewing out the ball of fire hidden in his chest in a hot cry.

“If I just suffer through a fever-like love with the real Cha Dokyung for just one year, I think I’ll be able to forget everything and give up.”

“…….”

“Answer me. If you say you don’t want even that, I’m thinking of leaving Korea without any lingering feelings and returning to the agency as early as tomorrow.”

Cha Dokyung, with his shoulders held, watched the man who was earnestly confessing his pure love with an ardent gaze, with a detached face.

The time left for Hyun Jaehwi was not even two years, but only one year.

In exactly one year and three months, he will leave Korea, never to return, and will permanently go back to America where the agency is.

Cha Dokyung was suddenly reminded of the feature-length epic <The Civil Official> by writer Song Eonhee and director Pyo Woongje, which he had been contemplating until the very end.

The feature-length series, which requires a full year of filming away from civilization in the deep backwoods of the Taebaek Mountains, untouched by the ways of the world, with the Joseon Dynasty as its backdrop, overlaps with the timing of Hyun Jaehwi’s return to the agency.

Cha Dokyung had developed a desire for that project after the staff meeting and had already verbally confirmed his appearance. Only the paper contract remained. Filming would begin in about three months.

So, if he entered that project and filmed for a year, the time left for Hyun Jaehwi and Cha Dokyung was only a mere three months, given before he goes into filming in the Taebaek Mountains.

Not one year. To be precise, the time he could be with him is only a mere three months.

His heart, which had not changed at all even at the mention of one year, began to shake frighteningly as if the axis of the earth had shifted at the thought that it was only three months.

If there were only three months left, the story would be completely different. Moreover, the declaration that he would leave for America where the agency is in a year and would never return to Korea had very significant implications.

If Hyun Jaehwi leaves and never returns to Korea, then as he said, it would not be difficult to conceal this as an eternal secret between the two of them from everyone.

Now, his judgment began to lean towards the side that none of the problems he had worried about would occur.

He had thought from the beginning that something like the Disturbance was his own burden to bear. He knew he could not lean on Hyun Jaehwi forever either, and was only hoping that his condition would improve even a little with his ability.

What he had been worried about more than anything was the inappropriate relationship he formed with Hyun Jaehwi being discovered by Chairman Hyun, Hyun Kangwoo, Hyun Serin, or the world.

His father’s position as a figurehead hospital director was in Chairman Hyun’s hands, and for the Cha Dokyung family, a family of doctors including his professor mother, sister, and brother-in-law, excluding Cha Dokyung himself, it held very intimate circumstances related to their promotions, success, and making a name for themselves in the medical community.

The countless advertisements he was shooting and his foundation were also related in some way to the affiliates of the HK Group. So, Cha Dokyung’s family owed an unpayable debt and great favor to his father and his family.

If it were discovered that he, who had grown up with his twenty-six-year-old promising young son since childhood and acted as his big brother, were sleeping with him, it would be no different from stabbing Chairman Hyun in the back, ignorant of his grace. It would be the same for his childhood friends, Hyun Kangwoo and Hyun Serin.

However, if all of this were a short-lived dalliance of his last youth in his thirties, and he were to leave for America for good in a year, and it were to remain a perfect secret between the two of them that no one would ever know…….

Perhaps, his anxious concerns were nothing more than useless, groundless fears.

Cha Dokyung, with a more detached and calm face than ever, asked him back seriously.

“Can you promise?”

“…….”

“There’s no going back on it later. You have to go back to the agency in a year, no matter what……. and as you said, you must never come back to Korea.”

Hyun Jaehwi laughed lowly at those cruel words.

“I’ve already submitted the paperwork to the agency to return. For the past ten years, I’ve lived under strict military discipline, receiving training to perfectly restrain and control myself. So rest assured. I’m realizing every single day, while watching my own flesh and blood, Hyun Serin, that a vain life in a chaebol family, stained with desire and ignorant of restraint, just doesn’t suit my constitution.”

Cha Dokyung once again cruelly stated with an indifferent face.

“For exactly one year, we’ll have a fling. After that, you’ll forget me as if nothing ever happened. As our own perfect secret that we’ll take to the grave.”

He gave a bitter smile to the cruel Cha Dokyung, who, even at this moment, was worried about their relationship being discovered rather than their separation.

“I promise.”

He, with his sense of shame sealed and his pheromonal thoughts and instincts gone, existing only as reason, was indeed like the cold and indifferent real Cha Dokyung. His indifferent and noble appearance, keeping a wall up to others and not easily letting them get close, was also the familiar image of Cha Dokyung that Hyun Jaehwi remembered from long ago.

However, Cha Dokyung, even after getting a promise from Hyun Jaehwi, hesitated, unable to make a decision readily, with a dark face seized by guilt, as if he regretted the careless remarks he had just uttered.

“Well…… I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do.”

“…….”

“I’m sorry, I think I was careless. With time, I need to think more…….”

At that moment, Hyun Jaehwi, who had approached the hesitating Cha Dokyung, stooped his fierce back and broad shoulders downwards. He knelt at Cha Dokyung’s feet without hesitation.

Cha Dokyung watched his sudden, unexpected action with a cold face. Hyun Jaehwi, even in a moment like this, looked up at the haughty, noble, cold beauty and smiled.

He said in a low voice.

“I’ll do anything you tell me to do.”

The handsome man with restrained features looked up at him, knelt, and pleaded. He prostrated himself at Cha Dokyyung’s feet, kneeling before him like a saint worshiping a god. Just like that, with a shameless face, he kissed Cha Dokyung’s instep.

“Get up! What are you doing right now.”

“I’ll do anything you tell me to, anything you order, so please be with me for just one year.”

He babbled with a vulgar face like a madman who knew no shame.

“I swear. If you want, I’ll even be your dog.”