Flower Fiancé Chapter 56

Perhaps he might go all the way with Choi Moohyuk tonight—along with that thought, the Polaroid photo lingered in his memory like an afterimage. No matter what he thought about, what remained at the end was the person in that photograph.

“Was he with that person… for a long time?”

Of course, he had never assumed that Choi Moohyuk had no past. Just seeing how skillful he was in everything he did, it was something he could already infer—that he had a sufficiently rich past.

Perhaps it was a lover he had dated before. Where in the world is there a person without a past? Moreover, how many Omegas would leave alone a dominant Alpha like Choi Moohyuk, who was not only handsome and fit but even affectionate on top of that?

But the fact that he still kept the photo—didn’t that mean the relationship had been that deep?

He remembered that the backdrop of the photo in that book, whose title was even [First Snow], had also been snow. That being the case, he could speculate that perhaps something unhappy had happened between him and that person in the photo, entangled with snow.

For example, they broke up on a snowy day, or on a snowy day…

That was when it happened. He felt the vibration of water behind him. Ji Yeonwoo, who had paused and raised his head, turned around.

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

Choi Moohyuk, having finished showering, had entered the bathtub and was sitting down. Ji Yeonwoo, who hadn’t sensed his presence, swept his flustered gaze over Choi Moohyuk, seated across from him.

Right before his eyes was Choi Moohyuk’s bare, broad-shouldered upper body, wearing nothing at all. The moment he saw it, he felt his mind go completely blank.

A water droplet that had fallen from his wet hair passed his angular, sharply defined jawline and trickled down to his chest, where muscle was firmly set. Ji Yeonwoo, who had been following that sight with his eyes, swallowed dryly—gulp—for no reason.

Even though he hadn’t done anything, Ji Yeonwoo felt his face flush hot for no reason and heat rush to it, so he quickly averted his gaze to the side. A smile tugged at the corner of Choi Moohyuk’s lips as he silently observed Ji Yeonwoo.

“Why are you suddenly avoiding my eyes? Embarrassed?”

“Yes. A little….”

“I think it was Mr. Ji Yeonwoo who asked me to come in first, though.”

“Exactly. Why did I do that, I’m in the middle of regretting it.”

It was true. He resented his past self, who, blinded by jealousy, had acted out in a fit of pointless bravado.

“I-, I think I should get out first. I need to wash more… hyat!”

Ji Yeonwoo, who had been carrying on the conversation unable even to meet his eyes, thought this was no good and tried to stand up. The previously calm water surface rippled and swayed, and at the same time, Choi Moohyuk rose up, seized Ji Yeonwoo’s arm, and pulled him into his embrace. Whoosh—pulled in, Ji Yeonwoo was instantly cradled in his arms, his back flush against Choi Moohyuk’s chest.

“If it’s because you’re embarrassed, let’s stay like this. That way, I’ll only see the back of Mr. Ji Yeonwoo’s head.”

His warm breath touched Ji Yeonwoo’s chilled nape and shoulders. In the embrace that held him from behind, Ji Yeonwoo sat frozen as if he had turned to stone.

As if unaware of his anxious heart, worried that the sound of his loudly pounding heart might be heard, Choi Moohyuk’s hands, wrapped around him from behind, burrowed deeply over his chest and waist. His body, which had been cold in the air, was now warmed by Choi Moohyuk’s body heat, and before he knew it, he slowly melted within that warmth.

The thought that there was someone else besides him who knew this warm embrace made his heart sink endlessly. On the other hand, he could not fathom the depth of Choi Moohyuk’s heart—that he had so easily dismissed even the knowledge that Ji Yeonwoo had been divorced. He knew it was discourteous to reveal his jealous feelings to him, who understood everything, but he couldn’t help the turbulence in his heart.

Choi Moohyuk, who had been quietly embracing Ji Yeonwoo from behind, leaned his back against the bathtub just like that. Beneath the warm water, Choi Moohyuk’s solid legs wrapped around Ji Yeonwoo’s legs, stretched out straight.

Ji Yeonwoo, leaning his back against Choi Moohyuk’s chest and nestled against him, languidly closed and opened his eyes. In his field of vision, he could see the bathroom tiles, flawlessly white and gleaming.

“Managing Director… I think you….”

Ji Yeonwoo, who had been staring blankly at the white bathroom tiles, finally broached his inner thoughts with difficulty.

“I think you must have been just as tender to the people you dated before.”

The hands of Choi Moohyuk, who had been leaning comfortably against the bathtub and idly stroking Ji Yeonwoo’s bare waist and chest under the water, faltered. Following the abrupt movement of him sitting up, Ji Yeonwoo, who had been half-submerged in the water, also sat up.

“Mr. Ji Yeonwoo, will you look at me?”

Sensing something strange upon hearing his thoroughly subdued voice, Choi Moohyuk followed Ji Yeonwoo’s gaze. But because Ji Yeonwoo was facing away, making it hard to meet his eyes, Choi Moohyuk grasped Ji Yeonwoo’s waist and turned him around to sit.

The position where back and chest had been touching had now changed to one where chest and chest were pressed together.

“Why did you suddenly think that?”

Ji Yeonwoo couldn’t bring himself to meet his eyes and kept his gaze cast downward.

“I’ve been thinking something was off since earlier.”

“….”

“It doesn’t seem to be an external factor. It seems like something that happened inside the house.”

Choi Moohyuk assessed Ji Yeonwoo’s reactions and pieced things together one by one. As the encirclement gradually tightened, his heart began to pound nervously for no reason.

“You saw something while looking around the house. Am I right?”

Having finally pinpointed the cause, Choi Moohyuk followed Ji Yeonwoo’s downward gaze and asked. Ji Yeonwoo, who had just been biting down hard on the tender flesh inside his mouth, nodded his head repeatedly.

Ha, a low sigh escaped from the lips of Choi Moohyuk, seated across from him. Choi Moohyuk stroked Ji Yeonwoo’s bare back as if soothing him.

“What could there possibly be to see? There’s nothing.”

Burying his face in Ji Yeonwoo’s bare, damp shoulder, he retraced his thoughts. But no matter how much he thought, nothing seemed to come to mind, so he murmured, ‘Ah, what is it,’ and swept his wet hair back.

“The photo.”

At Ji Yeonwoo’s reluctant confession, Choi Moohyuk’s hand stopped in midair.

“A photo?”

“Yes.”

“What photo? There’s no way there’s anything like a photo in the house….”

“Actually, I went into the study and saw a book.”

The more Ji Yeonwoo spoke, the more Choi Moohyuk looked as if he couldn’t understand.

“Maybe because I’d heard you say you dislike snow, that book especially caught my eye. In the end, it was something I shouldn’t have seen, but….”

“You mean a book?”

“Yes. The title was [First Snow]….”

Choi Moohyuk, who up until this moment had worn an expression of not knowing what this was about, opened his eyes wide the instant he heard the title.

“Inside it, I saw a Polaroid photo. A photo of a male omega, taken with snow as the background.”

“Ah….”

After hearing the last words, a flustered look, rarely seen, flickered across his face. Glancing at that expression, Ji Yeonwoo let out a small sigh, enough to make his chest rise and fall heavily.

Just as I thought—it was a person entangled in a story far from ordinary. Though he hadn’t seemed to know exactly where everything was, the fact that he recognized it instantly the moment the book title was mentioned suggested it was an important object.

“Mr. Ji Yeonwoo, that photo is….”

“It’s all right. You don’t have to explain.”

“Mr. Yeonwoo.”

“The Managing Director can have a past, too. Who am I, divorced no less, to dare have anything to say about the Managing Director’s past lover? Especially when the Managing Director has even sheltered someone like me.”

Ji Yeonwoo, who had been speaking with his gaze cast diagonally downward, slowly raised his head. He met Choi Moohyuk’s face, which had grown somewhat more serious than before.

“But why do I feel this unhappy.”

At the quiet question, Ji Yeonwoo forced the corners of his lips up and smiled bitterly.

“More than anything, it’s because I’m disappointed in myself.”

“Now what does that mean. Why are you disappointed in Mr. Ji Yeonwoo.”

A hand wet with water cupped Ji Yeonwoo’s cheek as he asked.

“Because in real time, I feel like I’m becoming petty and small-minded.”

“….”

“‘He must have been tender to that person, just like he was kind to me. Between that person and me, who did he treat better?'”

“….”

“I know that everything I’m receiving from the Managing Director right now is more than I deserve, but unconsciously, I keep weighing and measuring. Even as I tell myself I shouldn’t, I keep….”

Having poured out all his inner thoughts, Ji Yeonwoo let out a deep breath—hooh. Choi Moohyuk’s face, which had been watching Ji Yeonwoo with a tense expression, relaxed loosely.

“Hmm, so that statement, then, can be interpreted as our Mr. Ji Yeonwoo having been jealous.”