Heavy Rain Chapter 25

The boy was so terrifyingly empty that for some reason, it felt like falling into a vast abyss.

“This city is my hometown, Mr. Vermouth.”

He must have opened the window on purpose since the weather was rare and fine. However, Haejin closed the window without lingering regret and soon even drew the curtains shut. As if to ensure not even a sliver of a gaze could reach Lyle.

Watching those tightly sealed windows, Lyle narrowed his eyes. A clear sense of rejection billowed and surged across the distance between them.

It felt as if the bright sky had suddenly turned dark.

Lyle only returned to the study as dusk was approaching. He had remained out there for a quite a long time, but Haejin’s window never opened again.

Haejin’s room, with its curtains drawn without a single gap, was exceptionally conspicuous when looking at the mansion from afar. This was because, in the middle of a mansion lined with transparent windows to welcome the clear sky, it sat there like a bothersome dot, grating on his nerves.

In the first place, it was his mansion, so it was absurd for the boy to show such signs of discomfort. Out of sheer stubbornness, Lyle had even handled his lunch right there on the spot.

Back in the study, Lyle mulled it over repeatedly before opening a drawer. It was the place where documents related to Haejin were kept.

“…So his hometown really was here.”

Seeing the black hair, he had thought the boy was perhaps adopted from overseas, but he could see that Haejin had been raised here from the start. They were documents he had certainly reviewed before, but honestly, he had forgotten until this very moment. To him, it had been entirely useless information.

Would it have been better if he had shown he was offended by the misunderstanding? The afterimage of Haejin disappearing after saying dryly that this was his hometown lingered in his mind for a bothersomely long time.

Just then, the butler knocked on his study door. Entering upon Lyle’s brief permission, he spoke in a polite tone.

“I am about to prepare dinner. Is there any particular food you would like, Master?”

Lyle, who had been looking at the document with Haejin’s photo until then, asked about the point that had been bothering him for a while.

“Did Jin eat?”

“Ah, well…”

The butler seemed flustered by the unexpected question. Only after reflecting for a long moment did he offer an answer.

“I believe he has been skipping since morning.”

Once again, tap, that scratchy sensation flickered before Lyle’s eyes. The butler’s words, spoken as a mere guess, were strangely unpleasant.

However, the important thing now was the fact that Haejin ended up not eating that damn meal.

“Did I not clearly instruct you on your role?”

At his razor-sharp voice, the butler quickly bowed his head. Yet he soon protested in a tone that sounded quite aggrieved.

“I even prepared food from Mr. Bright’s hometown, but he pushed it away without even touching it. I am doing my best, but…”

The tap-tap scratchy sensation vanished instantly at the butler’s words. Of course. The butler must have been trying his best to treat the guest well in his own way. Lyle was easily convinced.

Scanning the letters on the file, Lyle nodded once and threw new information to the butler. Things that he, too, had just found out.

“Jin is from here, so just prepare ordinary food.”

“Ah… Understood.”

Even so, the unpleasant sensation still did not disappear. At any rate, it wasn’t as if the butler had only been bringing food the boy had never even seen before. Haejin’s thin body was not in a state that could be excused by just that one remark.

Facing a bothersome problem without an answer, Lyle shoved the documents regarding Haejin back into the drawer with somewhat rough movements.

“What is it?”

Haejin, who had been sprawled out listlessly today as well, only barely managed to pick himself up as evening arrived. He had been eating his meals quite faithfully in his own way. It was annoying that Lyle kept pointing it out, but he also had no intention of recklessly abusing his own body. Thus, he had been eating at least a small amount of the trays that came in without skipping.

He had been lying down until now, but it was when he had just come out after washing his body to prepare for sleep. He ran into a servant who was suspiciously peering around inside his room.

“Ah… Just for a moment, the cleaning.”

“I believe the cleaning was done earlier.”

The servant was holding crisp new clothes in his arms. And the place he was stepping out from with cautious strides was the dressing room connected to the drawing room of this suite.

“Ahem. It is cleaning.”

Even while seeing exactly where his gaze was headed, the servant coughed awkwardly. For some reason, he had wondered why the dressing room was properly filled with clothes; it seemed they intended to take them back. Haejin, for whom everything had become a bother, simply turned around and vanished into the bedroom. I should lock the bedroom door before sleeping, he thought casually.

“Fuck, giving me the evil eye like that.”

He simply ignored the words whispered softly toward the back of his head. He thought it didn’t matter whether they took them or not since they weren’t his belongings anyway.

On a somewhat cloudy morning, Haejin walked toward the outside of the mansion, unable to hide his look of annoyance.

He was told he had to go to the hospital for his leg problem, but it was an irrational structure where it felt like his legs would be damaged just from walking through this vast mansion. However, since Haejin had never even made a hospital appointment of his own will in the first place, he was merely being led toward the mansion entrance by the person the secretary had sent.

Last time, he had opened his eyes to find himself at the hospital, but in truth, Haejin didn’t much care for seeking out a hospital on his own feet. Especially, the moment he had to go to that distant place and be reminded of things that were now gone was horrible.

Whether his slow-slow pace was annoying, the servant who came to relay the secretary’s words kept looking back with a cold glare. However, was it not also an irony to overwork his legs just because he was afraid of that look? In the end, Haejin had to stick to his slow pace in silence.

However, upon arriving at the place where the car was, he deeply regretted that decision. As if it had overlapped with Lyle’s commute time, his brilliant blonde hair was conspicuous even from afar.

“…”

The moment he saw the servants moving in an orderly fashion in front of the mansion, Haejin turned his steps around. He intended to wait in a secluded spot for a bit and then head out once Lyle had left. The person guiding him had said their job was done since they had come this far and hurriedly disappeared elsewhere.

But the moment Haejin turned his back, Lyle’s gaze turned toward him as if by magic. The moment he saw the back of the figure walking slowly alone into a dark part of the mansion, Lyle moved his legs urgently.

His body moved first before he had time to think of anything. Since most of the mansion’s people were gathered here, Haejin was heading toward a secluded spot alone.

The secretary, who was reporting the schedule beside him, followed by his side in surprise. The moment he saw the black hair swaying along with the unstable gait, Lyle instinctively felt that he had to catch him first.

By the time he came to his senses, he had already roughly grabbed the arm of Haejin, who was about to turn the corner.

“Ah…!”

“Where are you going?”

An inexpressible, unpleasant emotion manipulated Lyle. Only after snapping at him roughly did he notice Haejin’s absurd expression.

Only then did he realize he had misunderstood something, and at the same time, Lyle recognized that his own behavior was extremely strange.

“Mr. Bright.”

The secretary, who had quickly followed, first offered a greeting to Haejin. The secretary’s subtle gaze moved to Haejin’s arm, which Lyle was still tightly clutching.

“Chairman. Shall we escort Mr. Bright together?”

Sensing the atmosphere, he asked tactfully. Because Lyle was the one who had said previously that Haejin’s hospital was included in the route and suggested they go together.

“…Where to?”

“He has a hospital checkup today. I sent someone in the morning asking him to come this way as I would prepare the car.”

Like a capable secretary, he knew how to naturally offer the appropriate information. Lyle, realizing he had misunderstood something, furrowed his brow in trouble. Only after Haejin’s indifferent gaze, which he was facing, dropped heavily to the arm still holding him did Lyle loosen the strength in his body.

As if there were weight in the gaze, his hand also fell away on its own. Because his own appearance was strange and also absurd, Lyle fell into thought.

And it was just when he was about to withdraw with the words that it was fine.

“I am okay.”