Heavy Rain Chapter 40

Lyle was extremely anxious about Haejin’s condition, as he had not given a proper answer for a while now. Apart from the anger venting out of him, a strange nervousness was gnawing at him. Feeling the trembling in the shoulders he was holding, he reflexively lifted the blanket and wrapped it around Haejin’s body.

The image of that back, walking staggeringly through the rain, would not leave him. Even in this moment, as he looked at Haejin sitting quietly on the bed.

Then, Haejin’s eyes, which had been strangely docile since he was lifted into Lyle’s arms, returned to the empty void. A dry voice, cracked and split, crawled toward Lyle.

“Right now, it is difficult to fulfill the contract. Mr. Vermouth.”

He must have thought that pheromone resolution was needed again. Haejin could think of no other reason why Lyle would seek him out so urgently.

“What? I simply…!”

Simply, what should he say?

That he said it because he was worried about Haejin? That he was asking why he was out there so miserably without an umbrella or shoes on a day with such heavy rain?

That since it wasn’t his fault, it was right to be angry at this side rather than running away like this.

There was no way he could put such meager sympathy into words. For the first time in his life, Lyle keenly understood what it felt like to be ashamed.

Had this mansion not made the fellow like this? Like a tattered, fluttering fallen leaf.

So, Lyle could not say anything for a long while. The anger that had ignited with a snapping sound earlier was now hovering around him uncontrollably. The tingling sensation kept growing in volume, using Haejin’s pheromones as nourishment.

The angrier he got at this pallid complexion, the harder it was for Lyle to think of other questions. It was as if the irregular footprints engraved on the lawn were rummaging through his mind. Hesitating, he ultimately could not stop the final question that burst out like a sigh.

Why he only gnawed away at himself instead of getting angry.

“…Why did you not say anything all this time? At the very least, I would not have been able to ignore important contract terms.”

“… .”

He shouldn’t do this. His weak reason screamed at him. In truth, this anger was not something that should flow into Haejin. It was a problem born of his own incompetence and indifference. Therefore, such a question was not befitting for the victim, Haejin.

Nevertheless, strangely, emotions kept surging up. Thinking of the way he had confidently asserted the contract details when he briefly left the mansion, doubts kept remaining. Why did he not demand that Lyle strictly keep the contract? No matter what, if he had said even one word over the past 5 years, would something not have changed? Would things not have reached this point?

He wouldn’t have broken the fellow like this.

“Then what changes?”

Even at such a question from him, Haejin did not get angry. He merely asked back hollowly.

“Something would have changed!”

In the end, Lyle poured out his misplaced anger into this room. Only then did Haejin’s gaze, which had been looking only at the air, face him again. Unlike before, a faint emotion was dwelling there.

That choked his windpipe again. Even though he had clearly entered the room, it felt as if the damp streaks of rain were still falling.

“I already went to speak. And nothing changed.”

“What…?”

At that moment, the night when Haejin had called out to stop him as he was leaving work passed through Lyle’s mind.

He remembered the night when the faint moonlight shone on that sorrowful face. Lyle had personally witnessed the day Haejin had waited for him so desperately. Had he not been replaying the traces of that sorrowful day through the dead footage all this time?

Ah, so you did come to me.

It must have been the day he came to say he couldn’t go see his parents. Since the Butler had ignored his desperation even though he searched for him all day, he must have waited for Lyle as a last resort.

It must have been the day when the fellow, who had endured being starved, shivering in the cold, and being treated with contempt for the past 5 years, finally gathered his courage because he could endure no more.

Lyle had ignored that with a single sentence.

‘Are we in a relationship where we talk, like this, privately?’

What choked Lyle even more now was the fact that even if he went back to that moment, nothing would change.

He would naturally ignore Haejin, and Haejin would naturally wither away. In this dark mansion where only his old resentment was piled up.

“Nothing changed.”

At Haejin’s voice, which spoke as if driving in a wedge, Lyle reflexively covered his mouth. The anger that had been sweeping through the entire mansion finally found its destination. The blind resentment that had lost its way and tried to head toward a misplaced target.

It wasn’t the mansion that made Haejin like this. It was simply Lyle’s fault.

Lyle, who had shoved Haejin into this place and never once thought to look back, was the sole perpetrator.

“I am…”

A trembling voice touched his palm that was covering his mouth. Startled by that moist sensation, Lyle reflexively lifted his head.

Haejin was merely staring into the air, regardless of what pheromones Lyle was emitting in front of him. He looked piteous, completely soaked by the rain.

At that moment, he felt an actual sensation of being strangled, so Lyle faltered and stepped back. The piled-up intangible energy was slowly pulling him back while choking his neck. In the place he barely managed to look back at, his actions from the past were pulling him while wearing a mean smirk.

“… .”

Whether this appearance was certainly strange, Haejin showed a faint emotion for the first time. As if Lyle’s agitation was truly puzzling. In its foundation, an indifference that expected absolutely nothing from Lyle was melted in.

Upon realizing that, Lyle could no longer remain in this room. Cowardly.

“…From now on.”

“… .”

“From now on, it will change.”

After barely spitting out a half-finished sentence, Lyle hurriedly turned around.

However, even as he spat out the words, he doubted whether he was truly qualified to say such a thing.

𓂃ﾟ ⋆ ﾟ ☂︎ 🍂༄˖°

“Mr. Chairman?”

Only after the sound of the door closing did Lyle finally breathe. For some reason, Haejin’s faint pheromones were persistently clinging to him even though he had been in the rain. Stickier than the rainwater that had encroached upon his entire body.

Seeing him appear to find Haejin personally, suddenly soaking wet, the secretary could not hide his questioning look. The same went for the face of the doctor who had returned after wandering around looking for the escaped patient.

The moment he saw the doctor, Lyle thought of Haejin. Very naturally.

“…He was just in the rain. Have him change his clothes and raise the room temperature. After that, look after the wound on his arm.”

“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”

The doctor tilted his head in puzzlement at the mention of a wound. Nevertheless, there was no hesitation in his steps as he entered the room with the temporary servant summoned by the secretary. Because Haejin was so weak now, if he had been in the rain with his bare body, they really had to take measures quickly.

Watching those quick movements, Lyle swept back his hair, which was hanging damply. Rainwater flowed down his wrist profusely. Seeing that, the secretary made a phone call and had new clothes to change into prepared in Lyle’s room. He was truly losing his mind from suddenly hiring new servants and replacing the security firm.

Lyle, who had been taking steps while watching the secretary work, opened his mouth as something suddenly came to mind.

“Tell them to keep the window in Jin’s room closed tightly from now on.”

“The window? Yes, Mr. Chairman.”

The image of Haejin wandering outside with an emaciated body on a rainy day encroached on his mind. Like his clothes that were becoming damply soaked, Lyle could not shake off a bizarre premonition.

Then, a certain fact suddenly occurred to him.

“…But did Jin know that his room had changed?”

“Well, as I reported, I understand he had been unconscious ever since before coming to this room.”

“… .”

The moment he opened his eyes and approached the window, he would have naturally realized the room had changed. Judging objectively, that was correct.

Nevertheless, Lyle strangely could not shake off a lingering uneasy feeling. Come to think of it, it seemed like Haejin’s pheromones crossing the window frame had been leading away very naturally.

It felt as if something dull had been struck into his throat. Forgetting even to move his steps, Lyle remained lost in thought and added one more word.