Winter Season Chapter 43

I dragged Yihyeon and placed him in front of the bathroom before heading to the kitchen. While I was taking a bottle of whisky out of the cupboard, I heard the click of the bathroom door locking.

The scent of oak rising from the glass brushed past the tip of my nose. After a brief silence, an inexplicable thirst rose up at the faint sound of running water, so I lifted the glass and moistened my lips. My gaze remained fixed on the bathroom Yihyeon had entered.

I could have just booked a nearby hotel and sent Yihyeon there.

This was the first time I had ever let an outsider, other than Taeshik, into my home. I felt puzzled at myself for blindly bringing Yihyeon to my own officetel. But.

What happened at Rose Balm was clearly a mistake on our part…

Thinking that this level of consideration was merely the bare minimum of a conscience, Seunghyeok tilted his glass once more.

While he was gulping down the whisky without any side dishes, the bathroom door opened with a click. He saw Yihyeon coming out with wet hair, clutching a towel at his chest. Seunghyeok’s Adam’s apple moved significantly.

Yihyeon spotted Seunghyeok standing at the kitchen island bar and approached him. Seunghyeok’s brow furrowed sharply at the wafting scent of body wash. The reason that familiar fragrance was uniquely bothersome must be because the person wearing it was Kwon Yihyeon.

With a hardened face, Seunghyeok poured whisky into a glass and held it out to Yihyeon, but Yihyeon just stared blankly down at the golden glass placed before him.

His long, moist eyelashes fluttered purely every time he blinked. His sluggish behavior today caused a surge of frustration, but Seunghyeok held it in and spoke.

“Drink.”

Looking at that skin as white as a water-soaked lily made his stomach twist with a feeling close to nausea. Feeling as though things might be slightly better if he drank some whisky, Seunghyeok roughly grabbed the glass bottle.

“The office… I went there to apologize.”

It was then that a small, low, yet clear voice was heard.

“Because I felt like I took my anger out on you yesterday while I was drunk.”

‘Do you want to sleep with me?’

Seunghyeok’s hand, which had been tilting the bottle, paused. It was a moment where he felt like an idiot for being unable to erase a simple drunken slip of the tongue from his head all day.

“So it was just taking your anger out while drunk.”

Seunghyeok, setting the liquor bottle down on the table, muttered lowly.

“You certainly have one hell of a drinking habit.”

“…”

“I suppose that’s how you’ve rolled around with so many people.”

Saying “let’s sleep together” to a man is a drinking habit… It was the cheapest and most vulgar drunken behavior Seunghyeok had ever heard of. He swept the inside of his cheek with his tongue once and looked up to glare at Yihyeon. Yihyeon’s face was also twisted in a frown at the sharp sentence.

“Don’t be sarcastic. I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”

“After making someone feel like shit with those kinds of words, what’s with this ‘don’t be sarcastic’ act?”

Clink. The ice melted and sank into the dark-colored liquid. Seunghyeok, holding the glass with his large hand, tilted his head crookedly while shaking the cup.

“Did other bastards enjoy it and pounce on you when you said that?”

“…”

“Ah. You said it was good.”

“…”

“But what a shame. I don’t think I’d even get hard for a bastard with a cock.”

He was throwing out words intended to scratch and hurt, but the more he spat them out, the more unpleasant his own mood became. The more he saw Yihyeon’s face becoming expressionless, the more his chest felt tight and his nerves grew on edge.

You’re so worn out, yet you wear a face that’s hurt by mere words like these.

Seunghyeok gripped the glass tightly.

“…”

It was when the silence grew long that Yihyeon, who had been standing in front of the kitchen bar table, turned around and began to put on his coat. Seunghyeok, who had been watching Yihyeon’s actions with a crookedly raised eyebrow, stepped forward quickly as Yihyeon turned toward the entrance.

“What do you think you’re doing.”

The eyes looking down at the snatched forearm were sunken and cold. Yihyeon roughly shook off the arm and whispered softly.

“I shouldn’t have followed you.”

“Where do you think you’re going at this hour.”

“Anywhere will be better than here, so mind your own business.”

“Why. Are you going to crawl into another man’s bed again?”

Anger suddenly surged at the sight of him trying to avoid Seunghyeok without even looking at him. Yihyeon’s gaze turned fierce at the words spat out without a second thought.

“Gu Seunghyeok.”

“…”

“It was like that in the past, and it’s like that now.”

“…”

“You, until the very end, can’t think of anyone but yourself.”

Yihyeon, glaring at Seunghyeok with a sharp gaze, shook off the arm that was being held forcefully once more. Seunghyeok gritted his teeth at Yihyeon’s words, which were thrown like an assault.

Yihyeon looked up once at Seunghyeok, whose expression had turned grim, then turned around without hesitation and pushed through the front door. There was no hesitation in his steps.

The sensor light on the ceiling illuminated the entrance for a long time before suddenly, click, the light vanished. The scent of soap remaining in the air brushed subtly past the tip of his nose.

Seunghyeok stood in the darkness for a long time with his fists clenched. Trying hard to suppress the unprovoked rage and the unpleasantness boiling in his gut.

After taking the elevator down, the cold night air scratched against Yihyeon’s cheeks.

He had come down blindly because he didn’t want to face Gu Seunghyeok’s face anymore, but since he had been dragged out of the office earlier without even a wallet, there was no place he could go immediately.

I should at least ask Yeo Eunho if he can come for a moment…

When he took out his phone and entered the messenger app, the profile pictures of his few friends appeared in a row. The photo of Yeo Eunho that he swiped and touched was a back view taken with someone under the Eiffel Tower.

[Traveling. Please do not look for me.]

He belatedly remembered talking about travel plans or something during their last meeting. To think the time he would be traveling around various European countries with his lover was exactly right now.

Yihyeon was moving his finger to find someone else to ask for help when he caught sight of a name and paused. General Manager Gu Jinhyeok. Seeing the three letters of the name next to the basic profile picture, the conversation he had with him at the restaurant flashed through his mind.

‘Tell me if you need help.’

To think that the person I seek after escaping Gu Seunghyeok is Gu Jinhyeok. What am I doing between these brothers?

Self-mocking thoughts arose, but there was no other way. After a moment of hesitation, Yihyeon dialed the eleven digits of the man’s phone number.

— Yes.

“…Hello.”

The man’s voice over the phone was clear without a hint of sleepiness. Because of that, it became even harder to speak, so he hesitated before opening his mouth.

“You said before to tell you if I needed help…”

Just as he was thinking he had called for nothing during the silence that flowed for a moment, the man’s voice came through the phone.

— Where are you.

“Here… in front of K-Officetel in Gaseong-dong.”

— I’ll send someone, so wait.

After staring at the phone that had hung up abruptly, he put it in his pocket.

While he felt grateful for Jinhyeok’s words that he would send someone without asking anything, his heart grew heavy at the thought of having to deceive him.

The closer I get to Gu Jinhyeok, the more it benefits Gu Seunghyeok. A hollow laugh leaked out at the absurd situation.

How long had he been standing there? By the time the tip of his nose was frozen cold, a pitch-black car stopped smoothly in front of Yihyeon.

He had thought a hoodlum-like person would appear, similar to the ones Seunghyeok took around, but the person who got out of the driver’s seat was closer to the image of an executive secretary. He opened the back door and gave a light nod as if telling him to get in.

Due to everything that had happened throughout the day, his entire body was as heavy as water-soaked cotton. He didn’t even have the strength left to think or worry. Yihyeon dragged his exhausted body and got into the back seat of the sedan.

Passing through the middle of the city where the lights never went out, the place the car arrived at was a wealthy neighborhood densely packed with large houses. After passing high walls and reaching a black-painted iron gate, the men dressed in black suits who were blocking the way quickly cleared the path.

“You can go in alone from here.”

After getting out of the car and giving the man a nod, he moved toward the large mansion where the lights were on. It was a house that felt similar to the one he had lived in as a child, but it gave off a somehow overwhelming atmosphere.

Approaching the entrance and pressing the doorbell, a long vibration sound went vrrr. After a moment, as the door opened automatically, Yihyeon cautiously stepped inside the entrance.

“…Hello.”