The New Groom Chapter 24

Joo Seungchan, who had been watching silently, cursed foully. Then, suddenly, his eyes lit up as he asked, “Should I suck it out for you?”

“…Ah!”

With rage rising to the top of his head, Lee Jeongrok hurled his coffee cup from the desk. Joo Seungchan, perched on the windowsill, merely lifted both feet to dodge it. The coffee, having hit the wall below the window, splashed back onto Lee Jeongrok, leaving a stain on his dress pants.

Even the trivial act of throwing a coffee cup didn’t go the way he wanted. Lee Jeongrok wanted to cry and scream.

“Get out.”

Instead of yelling, Lee Jeongrok sank into his chair as if collapsing.

“Just, get out. Now, it’s enough now, just, please…”

“Drink this.”

Joo Seungchan strode over and placed his own coffee cup on the desk. He then casually kissed Lee Jeongrok, who was slumped like a rag doll. After planting a loud kiss on the cheek that was still red and swollen from being bitten and chewed on Saturday night, he walked out of the office.

A hollow laugh escaped him. They say you laugh when you’re truly dumbfounded, and it was certainly true. Lee Jeongrok adjusted his clothes and straightened up the messy desk, laughing intermittently.

He had just gone through such an experience, yet it still didn’t feel real. It had exceeded the limits of what he could understand and accept, to the point where he couldn’t even properly perceive reality. The fact that he had been raped by a man in his office as soon as he arrived at work—how, no, just how. Even until Friday, things he couldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams had happened as if they were perfectly natural.

That was the point Lee Jeongrok found most impossible to accept in all of these events: the fact that unimaginable things happened “naturally.”

Joo Seungchan was as confident and brazen as someone doing something expected. He didn’t show a shred of shame, or at the very least, a minimum amount of guilt. That was why Lee Jeongrok felt like he was losing his mind—because nonsensical things were happening naturally and being brushed aside as if nothing were wrong.

The most absurd part was that after being subjected to such things, he couldn’t do anything about it.

He had already had a history of trying to get rid of his bodyguard. When he first met Joo Seungchan, he had been so overwhelmed by his irrational and frivolous behavior that he had expressed to Hwang Imin his desire to go without a bodyguard. Hwang Imin had flatly refused. Back then, Lee Jeongrok had felt it vaguely—a choking sensation, as if he knew that any attempt to go against or escape the family’s decisions would not be tolerated. It was a wall that Lee Jeongrok, the “Young Master” who had lived his whole life as he pleased, was facing for the first time.

Firing Joo Seungchan was impossible. It was also impossible to tell anyone what that bastard had done and ask for help. He felt like he was trapped in a snare. It felt as if someone was playing a very nasty and spiteful prank.

Could it be that these things will continue to happen in the future?

He shuddered at the conclusion he reached after a long thought. He sat in front of his neatly cleared desk, lost in thought for a long time.

To shake off what happened in the morning, Lee Jeongrok tried to immerse himself in work throughout the morning. He discussed the schedule with the team leader for the power plant construction site inspection and reconfirmed the agreements via video conference with officials from the city and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. However, throughout his work, he felt like an empty shell. It was as if the human Lee Jeongrok wasn’t there, and a shell performing the role of Executive Director was sitting in his place.

By the time the empty shell had scrambled to regain its senses, as if struck by lightning, it was already lunchtime. Joo Seungchan came to find him to eat.

“Did you hear, Executive Director? Today’s menu is spicy tonkatsu. You can’t eat spicy food, right? Let’s go out and eat.”

Joo Seungchan did knock, but as usual, he didn’t wait for an answer and just barged in. Taking over the sofa, he propped his feet on the table and took out his phone.

“What do you want to eat? The weather’s gloomy, so I’m craving pork rice soup—but you don’t eat that, right? Or should we have galbitang (short rib soup)? It would be perfect if we ordered a plate of dumplings with the galbitang. What do you think?”

“I’m not eating.”

He didn’t expect him to come and ask to eat lunch together after doing that to him in the morning. Lee Jeongrok’s heart was pounding. His rage was surging, making his eyes feel like they were about to pop out. He gritted his teeth and snapped at him.

“Eat all you want by yourself, you… psychopathic bastard.”

“Ah, you don’t want to eat?”

Only then did Joo Seungchan take his eyes off his phone. When his eyes met Lee Jeongrok’s, he smirked. His fair, small face and neat features were sleek, without a single flaw.

“Then do you want to suck my cock instead?”

From that face came foul language without any warning.

“Do you want to eat my cum? Should I shoot it into your mouth? Should I shove my cock in until your throat tears?”

“…”

Joo Seungchan, having risen from the sofa, approached the desk in two strides. Lee Jeongrok instinctively pushed his chair back. Joo Seungchan, leaning on the desk with both hands, tilted his body toward him.

“Or should I feed you through your back hole like this morning? Personally, I’d fucking love that.”

“Y-you crazy bastard.”

“Do you want galbitang, or do you want dick? Make a choice.”

Lee Jeongrok grabbed the armrests tightly and gasped for air. He was so shocked he couldn’t speak. Joo Seungchan didn’t ask further and unbuckled his belt. As soon as the buckle clicked open, Lee Jeongrok stood up as if bounced. Joo Seungchan licked his lips and smiled.

“You made the right choice.”

The restaurant was a five-minute walk from the company. They headed out, mixing with the crowd of people rushing out for lunch.

Usually, Lee Jeongrok had his meals brought to his office. He used the company cafeteria on rare occasions, but most of the time, he ate alone with Joo Seungchan in his office. Unless he had a luncheon appointment or was following an external schedule, he almost never ate outside. He only went out when Joo Seungchan pestered him because he wanted outside food, and even then, he only went out as if doing him a favor.

He already hated the idea of mingling with commoners and eating cheap, low-quality food in a crowded place, and being dragged along by threats made him feel unspeakably filthy.

Lee Jeongrok, with his umbrella on his shoulder, was looking only at his feet while walking, so he noticed “the gazes” a beat late.

Once he realized it, they were so blatant he wondered how he hadn’t noticed. As they left the company and headed toward the restaurant district, people kept glancing at them. After looking at Lee Jeongrok and then at Joo Seungchan, they would invariably whisper among themselves.

When Lee Jeongrok realized the strange flow of gazes, his heart felt like it had plummeted to his feet. His mouth went bone-dry, and his throat constricted.

Could it be that they found out?

The act from this morning, could it have been discovered and already become a rumor…

You fucking bastard!

With his mind going blank, Lee Jeongrok stopped walking. Suddenly, tears blocked his vision, so he hastily pulled his umbrella down low.

“Executive Director, why are you walking so slowly?”

Joo Seungchan, who was walking ahead, urged him on in a loud voice. But Lee Jeongrok could barely keep himself from collapsing, let alone walk. Noticing something strange, Joo Seungchan approached. He grabbed the brim of the umbrella and yanked it up. Lee Jeongrok held onto the handle with all his might, but it was no use.

Discovering his face, half-filled with tears, Joo Seungchan’s mouth fell open. He blinked his eyes with an unbelievably stupid expression and asked, “Was eating that unpleasant?”

“…”

“If anyone saw you, they’d think you were being dragged to the slaughterhouse. Alright, alright. Don’t eat. Don’t eat. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to, so why are you crying? A grown man is just cute enough to die for. I really can’t live because of you. Kyahaha.”

Hearing his nonchalant laughter made his blood boil. Lee Jeongrok, trembling all over, shouted in a low voice.

“People are looking! They’re… looking at you and me and whispering!”

“Huh?”

Joo Seungchan, who was saying something idiotic, looked around and shrugged his shoulders.

“Which asshole is staring? Nobody’s looking.”

“They were looking! They kept looking! Ah, this morning… that… they heard everything. That’s why… sob, because of you…”

“Hey, no. Your office is super soundproof. Even if you killed someone in there, they wouldn’t know.”

“You bastard… you psychopathic bastard…”

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that! You’re overthinking it, Executive Director. If they really were staring, it’s not because you got fucked this morning, there’s another reason.”

Joo Seungchan, who had let go of the umbrella brim, leaned in close. Lee Jeongrok didn’t believe a word of it, but because he would have wanted to jump into the middle of the road and die right then and there if he didn’t believe it, he didn’t back away and kept quiet. Joo Seungchan whispered in his ear.

“They think I beat you up.”

“…What?”