Flower Fiancé Chapter 71

Ji Yeonwoo knew that voice better than anyone. It was definitely Choi Moohyuk’s voice.

The air around them froze in an instant. Ji Yeonwoo, who had been exchanging glances with Lee Hyunjoon, turned his eyes toward the door. “M-Mr. Moohyuk?” At the sound of the voice escaping Ji Yeonwoo’s lips, Lee Hyunjoon’s face twisted.

“What the. Choi Moohyuk?”

Lee Hyunjoon faltered as if taken aback.

It was only just past 8:30. How could someone who was supposed to be elsewhere be here…

“If you open the door and come in, you die by my hand.”

In that moment of hesitation, a low growl rumbled, accompanied by another slam against the door—bang. The voice sounded as if fury had risen to its absolute limit.

“How did you…”

Lee Hyunjoon muttered as if denying reality.

“That’s impossible. He should definitely be at the 00 Hotel by now, how… More importantly, how did he even get in here? The guys outside wouldn’t have just let him—!”

Seized by confusion and anxiety, Lee Hyunjoon suddenly seemed to remember something and pulled out his phone. The other party answered after a few rings, but only the painful groans of several people came through the phone; there was no proper voice to be heard.

In truth, he had stationed several bodyguards outside the officetel, including Jung Doowon. Even though he knew that Choi Moohyuk had a personal schedule and could not come, he had done it to prepare for any possible ambush. But the fact that no one was answering the phone properly could only mean that Choi Moohyuk had taken care of them all before coming up. Lee Hyunjoon, who had been standing still lost in thought, let out a hollow breath as if utterly dumbfounded.

“Fuck, useless bastards. Can’t even stop one measly gangster… Hah.”

Unable to grasp the situation easily, he cursed whatever words came out of his mouth. With nothing going according to plan, he floundered, not knowing what to do, and slammed his fist against the wall to vent his anger.

The tables had turned. The problem had been how to take Ji Yeonwoo and leave, but now the key issue had become how to escape from here.

He was quite literally trapped. There was no way Choi Moohyuk, camped outside the door, would simply step aside and clear the path. Yet, if he obediently opened the door as Choi Moohyuk demanded, a fist would undoubtedly come flying straight into his face.

As Lee Hyunjoon hesitated anxiously, his gaze turned toward Ji Yeonwoo. Mentally shattered, Ji Yeonwoo sat slumped in a daze, eyes brimming with tears. Looking at Ji Yeonwoo, Lee Hyunjoon’s expression shifted abruptly, as if an idea had struck him.

“You, come here.”

“…!”

The moment Lee Hyunjoon’s hand touched his body, Ji Yeonwoo instinctively shook off the arm and kicked out his feet, resisting. But the more he did, the tighter Lee Hyunjoon’s grip clamped down on his arm.

Lee Hyunjoon positioned Ji Yeonwoo in front of him like a shield and bound both arms so he couldn’t move. When Ji Yeonwoo still twisted his body, trying to escape, Lee Hyunjoon grabbed his jaw and forced him to look back at him.

“Stay still. Unless you want to be shown being beaten in front of your lover.”

Listening to the repulsive whisper, Ji Yeonwoo glared at Lee Hyunjoon. Smirking smugly, Lee Hyunjoon twisted his lips upward, reached out, and released the lock.

Click. The moment the sound rang out, the door swung open as if it had been waiting.

“…!”

Choi Moohyuk, who had been striding in with his fist clenched, stopped in his tracks when he saw Ji Yeonwoo standing right in front of him.

Ji Yeonwoo’s expression by the door looked as if he might collapse at any moment. Choi Moohyuk hesitated at the sight of Ji Yeonwoo. Without missing that split second, Lee Hyunjoon shoved Ji Yeonwoo hard toward Choi Moohyuk.

As Ji Yeonwoo’s body lurched forward, about to fall, Choi Moohyuk’s face filled with alarm and he lowered his body to catch him. With Choi Moohyuk’s posture blocking the door thrown off balance, Lee Hyunjoon seized the opening and tried to flee swiftly.

But Choi Moohyuk was not one to simply stand by and watch. Choi Moohyuk gathered the collapsing Ji Yeonwoo in his arms and quickly steadied himself. And the moment he spotted Lee Hyunjoon fleeing through the half-open front door, he reached out and snatched the back of his collar.

“Agh!”

Lee Hyunjoon, hit by the counterforce of being yanked from behind, stumbled, losing his center of gravity. Still gripping the back of Lee Hyunjoon’s collar, Choi Moohyuk hurled him into the apartment. Though Lee Hyunjoon was by no means small in build, he was overcome by the tremendous force and flew like a piece of paper, tumbling across the floor.

“Agh, ahh, ah, shi—…”

Thrown back inside before he knew it, Lee Hyunjoon collided with the corner of the shoe cabinet in the entranceway and crumpled. He writhed on the floor in agony, clutching his waist with one hand. Unable to even lift his body properly and at a loss, he froze at the sight of the approaching dress shoes.

His gaze started at the black leather shoes, traveled up the long stretch of legs, and rose higher. And when his eyes finally met those of Choi Moohyuk standing before him, the expression on his pain-ridden face slowly drained away.

“No, that’s not it…”

The knuckles of Choi Moohyuk’s tightly clenched fist were already red and wounded, as if he’d already had a round with someone.

“W-wait…!”

Still on the ground, Lee Hyunjoon scrambled backward using only his legs. Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, a fist came flying at his face and connected. With a thud, his head snapped to the side, and as he started to collapse sideways, Choi Moohyuk grabbed his collar and began pummeling him with relentless punches.

“I told you, if you touched, Ji Yeonwoo, I wouldn’t let it go.”

Thud, thud. The dull, heavy sounds echoed through the apartment.

With each fist that connected with Lee Hyunjoon’s face, blood pooled and trickled from the corner of his mouth, but Choi Moohyuk did not stop.

Standing by the entrance, Ji Yeonwoo watched the scene with wavering eyes. The atmosphere suggested that if left unchecked, this would turn into a corpse-beating. While it was true that Lee Hyunjoon was a bastard who deserved to die, Ji Yeonwoo did not want him to end up killed by Choi Moohyuk’s hands.

Thinking he should step in and stop it, Ji Yeonwoo started to approach but then faltered, grabbing onto the shoe cabinet. Of all times, dizziness washed over him again. This time, his stomach churned as well. Even though he hadn’t eaten properly, his stomach kept lurching, making him feel as if he was about to throw everything up.

“Fuck, you, who reeks from rolling around with an omega…”

Still covering his mouth with the back of his hand, Ji Yeonwoo lifted his head at the sound of Lee Hyunjoon’s voice coming from ahead.

“You bastard, what did you just say.”

At the same time, Choi Moohyuk, who had also heard those words, stopped his raised fist. Lee Hyunjoon, with blood pooling in his mouth, let out a repulsive laugh—heh, heh.

“Take care of the omega pheromones plastered all over your body before you talk. It’s disgusting.”

Choi Moohyuk tightened his grip on Lee Hyunjoon’s collar and frowned. Catching his breath, Lee Hyunjoon worked his mouth a few times before spitting out the blood that had pooled—ptoo.

“I told him everything. Since it didn’t seem like you were going to tell him.”

“What bullshit.”

“Why pretend you don’t know. You bastard who left his lover behind to go on a matchmaking date.”

“…What?”

It was only a brief moment, but Choi Moohyuk’s eyes wavered. Watching his subtly shifting expression, Lee Hyunjoon chuckled.

“Who’s the one pulling bullshit? I told you, I said everything. Where you went, who you were with.”

As he spoke, Lee Hyunjoon held Choi Moohyuk’s gaze and grasped the dirt that his hand could reach. It was the soil from the flowerpot that had shattered when Lee Hyunjoon’s head had been struck earlier.

“Still, do you have at least a shred of conscience since you can’t deny it?”

“You…”

Choi Moohyuk pulled the collar of the still-babbling Lee Hyunjoon even tighter and raised his fist.

“Will Ji Yeonwoo really be able to remain unshaken? From what I saw earlier, he seemed pretty shocked.”

“…!”

Finishing his words, Lee Hyunjoon flung the dirt he had grabbed into Choi Moohyuk’s face. Choi Moohyuk, who hadn’t caught onto his subtle movements in time, only belatedly noticed the dirt flying toward his face and blocked it with his arm, turning his head away.

Not missing the opening, Lee Hyunjoon shoved Choi Moohyuk hard and fled. The sound of footsteps running down the hallway grew faintly distant beyond the slowly closing door.

“Urgh!”

Choi Moohyuk, who had been in pain from the dirt that he couldn’t dodge entering his eyes, turned toward the door. His eyes bloodshot red, Choi Moohyuk ground his teeth and yanked the door open.