KISS THE SCUMBAG Chapter 22

“Wh-what, how much can you possibly know just from a br-birth date? Don’t s-say such ridiculous things!”

The more he spoke, the more he felt like he was digging his own grave. His voice was trembling, his words were stuttering—it was truly pathetic. Right now, even a three-year-old wouldn’t trust Yujin’s performance. Of course, to Winston Campbell, it was even more absurd.

“Mate.”

Winston narrowed his eyes mockingly and asked gently, “Did you really think I wouldn’t anticipate you acting this way?”

His composed demeanor made Yujin even more anxious. For a moment, Yujin flinched, shrinking his shoulders, and Winston offered a proposal in an unchanging, smooth tone.

“If you’re going to play dumb like that, I have no choice. Let’s do a DNA test.”

Yujin turned deathly pale in an instant. A DNA test?

“Yeah.”

As if hearing the scream inside Yujin’s heart, Winston gave a thin smile.

“It’s the most certain proof, isn’t it? If I’m wrong, the results will prove it. Doesn’t that actually work out well for you, since it’ll serve as evidence? That is, if you’re actually telling the truth.”

Yujin’s mind couldn’t function properly in the face of this unexpected situation. Winston pushed on without giving him time to think.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean you have any chance of winning.”

He continued in a smooth tone without hesitation.

“If we go to court, you’ll lose 100%? No, 1,000%. You’ll have the child taken away and end up penniless—can you handle that? You’re good with numbers, after all. You don’t honestly think you can win against me, do you?”

Yujin wore a blank expression, as if he had been shocked. Was he serious? Did Winston really know?

If they did a DNA test.

His world truly went dark. What would happen if proof emerged that Angela was Winston’s child?

‘Did you think I would entrust my child to you?’

The words he had heard just a moment ago vividly revived in his ears, and he was so terrified that goosebumps broke out all over his body. Yujin would never be able to see the child again for the rest of his life. The thought of never being able to see the child who was his entire world made it feel as if the world were collapsing.

What, what do I do.

His brain wasn’t working right. To think such a thing would happen. He should never have come here in the first place. He regretted it, but it was already too late.

“Are you, are you threatening me right now? You’re going to take Angie away from me?”

His voice was trembling terribly. Winston’s face, looking down at him, became nearly expressionless. Yujin failed to notice his subtly changed reaction.

“It’s not like I can’t.”

“No, Angie is my daughter. I can’t live without her!”

As Yujin stood up urgently and screamed with a raspy, metallic voice, Winston slowly opened his mouth.

“Do you want to protect the child?”

Yujin’s eyes welled up with tears in an instant. Watching his frantically trembling pupils, Winston stood up and headed toward the desk. Having reached his destination in just three or four steps, he held up a piece of paper.

“Sign this. Then the child is yours.”

It was obvious what the paper in Winston’s hand was without even needing to read it. Yujin’s mouth felt parched, as if it were burning up. To him, frozen and deathly pale, Winston continued coldly.

“You just have to marry me and bear ‘my child.’ And after a year, we divorce, and it’s all over.”

After emphasizing it on purpose, he added nonchalantly.

“It’s simple.”

There was no error in his words. There wouldn’t be a way to execute the will more easily or simply than this. If he dragged it out, Winston’s mind might change. He was saying that, as of now, he would at least leave Angela to Yujin.

How merciful.

This was the very opportunity Yujin had wanted so badly.

However…

Even so, accepting this contract was impossible. There was still something Winston didn’t know. How would this man react if he found out the truth? Yujin was terrified, but he couldn’t help but bring it up.

“…I can’t.”

Winston furrowed his brow at the sound, which he had barely managed to squeeze out. Yujin confessed with a trembling voice.

“I can’t bear it, your child.”

“Ha.”

What returned to his difficult confession was a sigh of disbelief. Winston ran a hand through his neatly combed hair with an annoyed gesture. When Yujin, who had been hesitating, tried to speak again, Winston suddenly slammed his fist onto the desk.

At the loud bang, Yujin was startled into silence. Seeing him immediately terrified, Winston opened his mouth—still in a quiet voice.

“You bore Father’s child, but you can’t bear mine?”

“…What?”

Yujin was bewildered by the unexpected remark. What did he just say?

“…Harold’s child?”

To Yujin, who mindlessly repeated his words, Winston spat out roughly.

“Don’t you remember what we’ve been talking about? Do you want me to tell you everything from the beginning?”

“N-no, that’s not it.”

His brain finally started to function. Yujin realized then and there that their entire conversation had been wrong from the start.

He doesn’t know.

A shiver ran down his back. Winston doesn’t know. He found out the birth date, but the conclusion he deduced from it was completely wrong. Why did he make such a mistake, thinking Winston knew everything?

That man doesn’t trust me at all.

Suddenly, his heart began to pound like crazy. Winston’s deep-rooted distrust of Yujin had actually returned as a great stroke of luck for him.

He would never even imagine it—that Angie could be his own child.

Yujin hurriedly clasped his hands behind his back. Now, his body was trembling for a different reason. It was too early to be relieved. He tried his best to calm his excitement somehow. Winston could reach the truth at any time. Yujin had only been granted a brief grace period.

If Yujin refused the marriage until the end, Winston might really perform a DNA test. If that happened, he would find out that Angela was his child, not Harold’s, and then…

It would be as if the terms of the will had already been fulfilled.

It felt as if the blood was draining out from under his feet. The exact content of the will was ‘to bear a child within one year of marriage,’ but that could change depending on the interpretation. If it were the likes of McCoy, they could surely find a loophole in the will with wordplay. The outcome was too obvious. The horrific imagination resurfaced, and Yujin turned pale once again.

Think, quickly. How can I use this situation?

There was only one way. Yujin barely opened his mouth, but it took even greater courage to make a sound.

“…I’ll marry you.”

He barely managed to get the words out in a raspy, exhausted voice. Once a method came to mind, his body no longer trembled. He gently unclenched his clasped hands and took a deep breath.

“I’ll marry you.”

For now, he had to buy time. He would stay quiet, follow instructions as much as possible, and behave well. Until Winston let his guard down. And when that time comes…

A thin, cynical smile played on Winston’s lips. Staring straight into the cool purple eyes of the man looking down at him, Yujin solidified his resolve.

I’m going to take Angie and run.

Yujin’s parents died in an unexpected accident long before he even entered elementary school. He moved from one relative’s house to another and was naturally placed in an orphanage. During the years he grew up there, many children younger than Yujin were adopted and left his side.

It was rare to be adopted at Yujin’s age, and Yujin, too, did not leave the orphanage through adoption, but for a different reason. A wealthy foreign businessman had taken him. He didn’t know what procedures were involved, but Yujin didn’t have to wait very long to leave the orphanage. And finally, he entered the grand mansion known as ‘the most perfect joy.’

During the flight over, Yujin had imagined countless things. A strict but affectionate father, a gentle and kind mother, mischievous or blunt siblings, maybe even a lovely younger sibling. Things like family photos where family members with different hair and skin colors gathered together, smiling brightly.