Heavy Rain Chapter 10

The sun was invisible behind thick rain clouds, but it was already the hour when darkness sets in. Even so, Haejin felt no need to wait until the next day to leave this mansion.

He felt as if he had become a small machine moving strictly out of necessity. Feeling a profound sense of hollowness, as if something significant had been drained out of him, he trudged toward the exit of the estate. He never expected a ride from the start.

Just then, urgent footsteps were heard from behind. It was the butler.

“Mr. Bright. Are you leaving now?”

The butler’s face, which had been so difficult to find when he was looking for it, was seen quite easily the moment he decided to leave this mansion.

“Yes.”

Since he was already wet, Haejin was not even holding an umbrella. He was still wearing black mourning clothes, and the old carrier in his hand was the same item he had brought into this mansion. The few pieces of clothing inside were all things he had brought himself.

Did he call out to stop him because he thought he might steal something? With such a question in mind, he looked at the butler, who flinched his fat body.

“Um, well…”

Startled by the sunken gaze of the umbrella-less Haejin, the butler flinched and handed over the umbrella he was using.

His face held an anxious expression similar to the driver’s. It was mostly guilt, but there were other hidden emotions mixed in. Just like when he saw the driver, Haejin knew well what he wanted.

But that was none of Haejin’s business either, was it?

“I will have a car prepared.”

Haejin stared blankly at the faint kindness, then looked the butler in the face again. Soon after, ignoring all the goodwill, he turned around and went on his way.

Everything was just a nuisance.

“…”

He had not spoken for several days already. He only chewed and swallowed a biscuit whenever he felt like he might die of hunger. As a result, the intervals between opening his mouth to eat something grew longer.

Lying on a sofa that smelled of dust, Haejin stared blankly at the window where a faint light was filtering through. He spent most of his day like this.

More than half of his remaining money had disappeared to temporarily rent this small room. His legs were so painful from walking that he hadn’t even managed to get very far from Lyle’s mansion. However, the physical distance didn’t matter anyway. Haejin simply collapsed here, having walked to his limit.

After that, it was a succession of vacant days. Because tears would not finally fall, he felt guilt. Was the task of keeping his parents alive so difficult and exhausting? To the point where he couldn’t shed a single tear.

Thinking this way made the strength drain out of his body even more. On the occasions he stood up to drink water, his head spun more frequently. Even so, he had no motivation, so he repeated the cycle of lying down and sitting up.

I have to live.

If hyung saw this state, he surely would have nagged severely. Haejin was a child who studied well until high school. The university he received an admission letter from before the accident was a fairly good place.

However, the admission fee he had paid in advance was likewise entirely consumed by hospital bills. Since Haejin’s injuries were severe anyway, by the time he recovered, it was far too late, to the point he couldn’t meet the university enrollment period.

One way or another, the path ahead was only dark. Haejin, who lived peacefully under the protection of his adoptive parents, failed to learn the things he should have learned as soon as he became an adult. Since he had manifested almost right before the accident, he was also ignorant about matters regarding secondary genders. For the past five years, his daily routine was nothing more than cowering in the Vermouth mansion.

Thus, returning to the city in a delicate mental state—neither an adult nor a child—Haejin knew how to do nothing. He didn’t even know the fact that the owner of this room was overcharging his naive self. Likewise, he had no blueprint for how he should live in the future.

Just trying not to be swallowed by a massive futility; that was all Haejin could do.

Just then, he heard a knock on his door.

“…”

Somewhat surprised, Haejin stood up slowly, contrary to his feelings. In his mind, he thought of that day in broad daylight when the butler knocked on the door. As the news that arrived after hearing those knocks came back to him in succession, his mind became distant.

The knock sounded politely once more. Only then did Haejin snap out of it and move toward the door with difficulty. There was no one who would visit him. Since there were two weeks left in his rental period, the landlord wouldn’t have come.

As if knowing Haejin was hesitating after approaching the door slowly, the knock sounded again. At this point, it felt like someone who was certain there was someone inside.

After debating, Haejin opened the door. There was a familiar face in front of him.

“Hello, Mr. Bright.”

“…”

It was Lyle’s personal secretary, whom he had seen several times. He could recognize the face immediately because it was the one he encountered when making the contract or when Lyle summoned him.

Since it was a truly unexpected guest, Haejin reflexively frowned.

“I have come to visit in haste like this because I have something to tell you.”

With that, the secretary politely held out his business card. It was exactly the same manner as when he first came to propose the contract.

Haejin, who received the card in a daze, stared slowly at the secretary’s face. The secretary nodded once as if understanding and opened his mouth.

“Mr. Vermouth has expressed his intention to discuss the contract once more.”

“…A contract?”

“Yes. He said the conditions would be adjusted more generously than before. He also said that if there is anything special you desire, he would specify it in the contract.”

“…”

The secretary babbled for a long while more with things he couldn’t understand. Since he was listening silently for now, the secretary even tried to hand over a draft of the contract for him to look at. Seeing the documents pushed in front of him, the time he first went to see Lyle came back faintly.

Naturally, he was not interested.

“Tell him I won’t do it.”

“…Understood.”

Fortunately, the secretary withdrew submissively. At the same time he closed and locked the door, Haejin put the secretary’s business card into the trash can next to him.

Lying back on the sofa and smelling the dust, a familiar depression enveloped him.

He thought it would end like that.

𓂃ﾟ ⋆ ﾟ ☂︎ 🍂༄˖°

The sound of the door clicking shut was heavy. Throwing the secretary’s business card into the trash can for the fifth time already, Haejin narrowed his eyes.

“…”

Every time he visited, the secretary had an expressionless face. However, he gradually increased the conditions one by one, trying to persuade Haejin. After seeing his own business card in the trash can next to the door by chance, he would always return after pressing the card into his hand without fail.

Haejin’s mind turned slowly at the secretary’s incomprehensible behavior. At first, he thought the man had come to him because he grew desperate while looking for a new contract candidate. However, the conditions that kept increasing were things that even to his ignorant eyes were beyond the secretary’s authority. He could only conclude that Lyle had ordered it himself.

Therefore, it made even less sense. Lyle had turned away without regret when Haejin said he would quit in the first place. And if they were the conditions being offered now, they were things that even an Omega living well would be tempted by. It didn’t have to be Haejin.

Something is strange.

But that was as far as his limit went. Even if he knew it was strange, he had no intention of accepting that contract. Even if it guaranteed a peaceful life for his lost self.

It wasn’t that he was particularly angry at Lyle. Haejin simply had an amazing lack of motivation for everything. Being angry at someone was a difficult task that required more energy than one would think.

After the secretary left, it was quiet for two days. Haejin spent his days lying listlessly on the sofa again.

When someone knocked on the door again, he simply thought the secretary was quite persistent. What on earth did he want from him to keep coming like this?

However, the sound of the door being knocked roughly was quite different from the secretary’s polite behavior. Haejin was surprised for the first time in a while at the voice that followed.

“Jin. Open the door.”

𓂃ﾟ ⋆ ﾟ ☂︎ 🍂༄˖°

Lyle had a dream.

It had been the same dream for several days already. It contained slightly different scenes, but there was one thing in common. It was Haejin.