Desire Me If You Can Chapter 14

“Haa, haa.”

The fire chief clutched his chest and took a deep breath. Nothing in this world comes for free. If you want something, you have to pay the price. And right now, the price they had to pay was Grayson Miller.

Just endure it for one year.

He promised himself again. A year would pass in the blink of an eye. If he just gritted his teeth and held on, Grayson Miller would disappear. The only problem was that this nightmare was only just beginning.

With his steps heavy and dragging under the weight of a bleak future, the chief stumbled toward his office. Despite the ominous atmosphere, the sun set, and the welcome party the chief had painstakingly prepared finally began.

∞ ∞ ∞

They gathered quite early at a bar they often frequented whenever there was something to celebrate at the fire station. By the time the chief arrived at the hour he had specified, some of the staff were already appearing quite tipsy. Shouts and laughter erupted from here and there as people got drunk.

“You’re here, chief.”

“You made it! We’ve already started drinking.”

As the chief appeared at the entrance, the staff who had arrived earlier greeted him one by one to acknowledge his presence. The chief nodded, returned their simple greetings, and discreetly scanned the crowd.

“Where’s Miller? Not here yet?”

When he asked about the protagonist of the day, whom he couldn’t see, a man leaning against the bar counter drinking beer replied.

“Yeah, not yet. I’d be happy if he never showed up at all.”

“Pwahahaha!”

At the listless remark, the staff member with him burst into laughter. The chief wanted to ask what was so funny, but arguing with a drunk person was just a waste of time. The chief quietly took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer. Drinking usually helps people get along better. He hoped they would all get along and forget about the day’s incidents.

Even so, once the alcohol wears off, things will just go back to how they were.

Haa. Just as he let out another deep sigh at the gloomy future ahead—

“He’s here.”

He heard someone say, and suddenly, the air in the room changed. The staff who had been laughing and chatting stopped one by one, and a cold tension hung in the air. All that could be heard was the loud music the owner had put on. The cause was, as expected, the same. Grayson Miller had entered the bar.

He was dressed in ordinary attire, with a jacket over his shirt. Of course, compared to the men gathered there—who were all wearing grungy T-shirts and worn-out jeans—it was an incredibly dressed-up look. Wearing a cream-colored jacket and slacks with three buttons of his shirt undone, he looked quite relaxed. His stride, neither slow nor hurried, looked almost like that of a large feline. Even amidst gazes filled with hostility and discomfort, he walked across the bar as if he were completely unbothered.

Where does that brazenness come from?

The people at the bar watched him in disbelief. Any normal person would have been unable to endure such an atmosphere and would have run away. Grayson Miller was the opposite. Perhaps he was thinking, ‘So what if you act like this? What are you going to do about it?’ And, of course, that was the truth, but it didn’t stop the chief’s insides from churning.

Grayson Miller approached the counter in the center of the bar at a speed that was neither fast nor slow. Everyone in the bar openly turned their heads to track his trajectory and glare at him.

Get lost! Just get lost! A thick hostility, impossible to mistake, flowed through the silent bar. However, Grayson didn’t even care, as if he were used to even this. Goodwill and hostility were both things he had experienced in overwhelming abundance in his life.

“Hello, chief. It’s a lovely night.”

Grayson, who had greeted the chief first, beamed with a smile. It was a bright smile that no one could doubt, but it only made the chief’s spine tingle. Trying his best not to let his feelings show, he nodded as if nothing were wrong.

“Welcome. Everyone was waiting for you.”

When he returned the casual greeting, Grayson came to his side as if he had been waiting for it and said,

“Thank you for throwing this party. I am truly touched.”

Everyone watched Grayson, who had one hand on his chest and was wearing a literally ‘touching’ expression, with strange gazes. Even with all eyes on him, his attention was focused on only one thing. The chief felt an indescribable discomfort and broke into a cold sweat.

“No, well… if you just do well going forward…”

“Is everyone here now?”

Everyone’s expressions twisted again at his action of cutting off the chief’s words before he could even finish and looking around the room. What on earth? Who does that guy think he is? As similar feelings and thoughts passed between them, the chief also watched Grayson with a baffled expression.

“Ah… probably? I don’t check the attendance one by one…”

“Then that means more people might come. I understand.”

Again, Grayson cut him off at will and surveyed the room. More accurately, he looked closely at the faces of the people in the bar one by one. Those who had been glaring at him would flinch needlessly whenever they made eye contact with Grayson, either averting their gaze or glaring back because they didn’t want to lose. To them, it looked like a provocation, as if he were daring them to do more, but in reality, Grayson’s goal lay elsewhere. The chief blinked at his actions, dumbfounded, before finally coming to his senses and speaking to the bartender.

“Hey, can you get Miller a beer, too? What is everyone doing? Let’s all have a toast. Welcome, Miller.”

“Thank you. I am truly happy to be welcomed like this.”

As the chief lifted his glass first, everyone reluctantly lifted their glasses as if to toast. Grayson made a moved expression, as if he were a great actor who had just won an Oscar, and turned to toast the empty air.

“Come on, come on, everyone drink. And you over there, keep playing your billiards. Yeah.”

The chief gestured toward his staff to somehow smooth over the uncomfortable atmosphere. The staff, who had been watching Grayson with heavily furrowed brows, reluctantly took their eyes off him and returned to what they were doing. After the gazes had faded somewhat, the chief sighed and drained his glass. The uncomfortable atmosphere continued, all because of Grayson, who was standing right next to him. Although he had been pretending not to notice, the chief eventually couldn’t hold it in and spoke first.

“It’s admirable that you decided to become a firefighter. How did you come to think of that?”

He thought it was a plain question, but the moment he heard those words, a sudden glint appeared in Grayson’s eyes. The chief recoiled instinctively, pulling his shoulders in, while Grayson’s voice became much brighter.

“There is someone I am looking for.”

“Looking for someone? Among our team members?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected answer, the chief had no choice but to ask, even though he didn’t really want to. Grayson said “Yes” and continued.

“I am looking for the firefighter who saved me before. I want to reward him.”

“No, that’s… you could have just asked, there was no need to go as far as getting a job…”

The chief swallowed the inner thought, ‘Does that mean you’re going to tear our team apart like this?’ and trailed off. Seeing Grayson’s clean-cut face—the same guy who had been cutting him off so sharply earlier—now listening attentively with a deliberate smile, the chief’s blood began to boil. Instead of letting out a sigh, the chief chugged his beer and spoke again.

“Alright, what happened? Tell me, I’ll find out who it is for you.”

Thinking it was better to resolve annoying matters as quickly as possible, the chief waved one hand as if fanning himself, urging him on. Grayson replied, still keeping his smile.

“Thank you. There must be firefighters who were dispatched when a fire broke out at Mendez’s party a few days ago.”

“Mendez? …Ah, that pheromone party?”

“That’s right.”

That day had been a truly enormous commotion. Of course, all fires are tragedies and life-altering disasters for the victims, but the sight of victims all running out naked, intoxicated by alcohol and smoke, shedding tears and snot, was not a sight even he saw often. On top of that, although people were keeping it hush-hush, there were those twins who had acted like madmen….

Watching the chief turn these thoughts over, Grayson added an explanation.

“I’m not talking about all of them. There is one firefighter who came all the way to where I was and saved me, and I want to find him.”