As True as a Dream Chapter 81

“Ugh, boss… stop…!”

 

Shivering helplessly, Hae-Joo bit her lower lip as she arched her back against his fingers that had been stroking beneath her perky breasts.

 

Yi Ho rubbed his cheek lightly against hers, as if pleading with her, and sucked lightly at the back of her neck. A stray strand of hair below her ear scattered, disheveled from all the cuddling.

 

She straightened and arched her back in response to his fingers sliding up and rubbing the soft flesh beneath her breasts.

 

“Boss… Hmph!”

 

“No?”

 

Yi Ho asked, his voice uncharacteristically deep and choked.

 

At the same time, his fingertips brushed over the nipples that protruded from the tips of her breasts.

 

Hae-Joo shook her head, her hands clenching over his clothes.

 

She knew she liked kissing and cuddling with him, but she was afraid of anything more.

 

Her whole body was hot, and the pit of her stomach was so tight with unknown sensations that she didn’t know what was happening to her body.

 

“Yeah. Okay. You don’t like it, do you?”

 

He asked again, removing his hand that had been roaming over her breasts.

 

Hae-Joo bit her lower lip in frustration and shook her head again.

 

“No… I’m more scared than…”

 

“Scared?”

 

Hae-Joo nodded dazedly, her eyes even more languid and hazy than usual, but her voice seductive.

 

“If you’re scared, you’ll get used to it, won’t you?”

 

“Get… used to it?”

 

“Yep. Just take it one step at a time and you’ll be fine.”

 

‘Get used to what?’

 

As she thought, her head foggy with fever, she felt his hands cupping her small, nondescript breasts.

 

Hae-Joo looked down and saw Yi Ho staring at her with a grin on his face.

 

Before she had time to react, he casually slipped his hands out of her clothes and wrapped them around her back, pulling her into his arms.

 

Hae-Joo was stunned.

 

She could still feel Yi Ho’s hands on her breasts, where he had just grabbed them so blatantly.

 

Her nipples stood erect and tingled against her clothes.

 

The conflicting feelings of expecting something more and being relieved confused Hae-Joo’s already frazzled mind even more.

 

But soon her heartbeat, which had lost its rhythm and was racing uncontrollably, calmed at the touch of his hand on her still back.

 

She could feel his affection in the soft kisses that lightly touched the hair beneath her ears.

 

She smiled softly, resting her forehead on his neck and closing her eyes.

 

She was exhausted, and now that the intense emotions had passed, she felt a sudden onset of fatigue.

 

It wasn’t long after she pulled Yi Ho close to her that Hae-Joo’s consciousness faded and she fell asleep.

 

In her sleep, she could hear Yi Ho’s voice.

 

Yi Ho, meanwhile, sighed involuntarily as she listened to Hae-Joo’s breathing, which had calmed down as if she were asleep.

 

He didn’t care when he didn’t know, but now that he did, he was insanely greedy.

 

Yi Ho leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes closed and his saliva dripping down his throat.

 

His mouth went dry as he longed to feel the dry, elastic feel of her in his hand again.

 

Or the soft flesh that slid as if it were melting.

 

Just remembering the sensation made his lower body feel stiff and uncomfortable.

 

“Holy shit…”

 

* * *

 

After carrying a sleeping Hae-Joo to his bed on the second floor, Yi Ho went to his study.

 

He opened the door and found Hongo standing there, looking as if he’d been waiting for a long time.

 

“Mistress Hae-Joo is ….”

 

“She’s sleeping.”

 

“Still, it’s good that you found her quickly. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen my master so impatient.”

 

Yi Ho narrowed his eyes at Hongo’s questioning manner, as if looking at him, and walked over to the desk and sat down on it at an angle.

 

“…Humans usually call something like the relationship between Master and Mistress Hae-Joo as being lovers, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Yi Ho nodded briefly, knowing that if he didn’t answer definitively, this question would come up again and again and bother him.

 

But if he said yes, it was a problem.

 

Hongo looked at him with a stunned expression.

 

“You look stupid. Shut up and be surprised. I’m surprised myself.”

 

At Yi Ho’s words, Hongo immediately controlled his emotions and straightened his posture.

 

“Crows, I left you at Bonggae Mountain. Find out who the men who chased Hae-Joo are and who sent them. There’s a good chance that it’s Mao Saito. From now on, keep an eye on Hae-Joo. If anything happens, we’ll know immediately.”

 

Hongo nodded dutifully at Yi Ho’s calm words.

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

That was it.

 

Yi Ho suddenly frowned, folded his waist in half, and spat out a gush of blood that burned from the inside of his chest and flowed down his throat.

 

Hongo’s face stiffened at the suddenness of the situation and he saw Yi Ho spit out the remains in his mouth.

 

In an instant, the floor of the study was covered in blood.

 

Yi Ho lowered his eyes and looked down at some unidentifiable black globules mixed with the blood.

 

“Master!”

 

Hongo tried to stumble forward, but Yi Ho reached out and stopped him.

 

He closed his eyes and looked at his body.

 

His stomach felt empty.

 

It was different from the feeling of hunger.

 

He didn’t know what it was, but it felt like something important that made him up was broken, like a piece of him had fallen off.

 

Hongo was silent, as if he too had seen the black mass, but soon he opened the veranda door and went out, calling a few crows that could pass for people.

 

There was an eerie silence in the study as they swept and tidied the floor.

 

It wasn’t long after the crows had flown away that Hongo looked at Yi Ho, whose eyes were still closed and who had a furrowed brow.

 

Yi Ho opened his slowly closing eyes and looked at Hongo.

 

“We need to find him as soon as possible, and we also need to find out how far he is in the process of completing the Ten Thousand Blood Stones.”

 

Yi Ho opened his slowly closing eyes and looked at Hongo.

 

His complexion was even whiter than usual from the vomiting he’d just had.

 

“You look more like you’re dying than me, Master Hongo.”

 

“I am…”

 

“First of all, take care of what I said, I have a plan.”

 

“I see.”

 

Hongo replied with a grumpy face, but Yi Ho didn’t care and went into the secret room of the study, grabbed the celadon bottle, and went back to the bedroom.

 

It takes ten thousand lives to make a complete Ten Thousand Blood Stone.

 

Yi Ho needs this bloody human blood.

 

Only then will he have the slightest chance of survival.

 

Opening the bedroom door and standing in the doorway, Yi Ho stares into the distance at Hae-Joo, who is curled up in bed, asleep.

 

The image of Hae-Joo’s face, angry and saddened by the loss of his life, flashed through his mind.

 

He had always fought and led, always fought against this life that had never favored him.

 

He had never hesitated or regretted any of his decisions.

 

But for once, he hesitated in his plans.

 

He wondered if she would be okay with it if she knew what sacrifices were being made to create the human bloodstone he needed.

 

After standing at a distance for a while, Yi Ho soon sat down on the bed and poured the medicine from the celadon bottle into his hand.

 

He rubbed the medicine on Hae-joo’s wrists, which had been cut by the rope.

 

Then he carefully applied it to her neck and a small cut on her forehead where a branch had scratched her.

 

‘I don’t want her to get sick. I don’t want her to be hurt. I want her to smile. No worries, no fear.’

 

In other words, he didn’t want to tell Hae-Joo the story of Guishan Dao anymore.

 

It hadn’t mattered before, but it didn’t matter now.

 

* * *

 

Same time, same street.

 

It was just before curfew, so there wasn’t even a rat on the street.

 

A man dragged his weary feet up the deserted sidewalk, unlike the bustling daytime, and slipped silently into the shop next door.

 

“What happened?”

 

As if expecting him, the woman sitting at a table inside the shop raised her eyebrows.

 

“I’m sorry, ma’am. We missed her.”

 

The man lowered his head, and the woman’s face, which had been smiling in anticipation of what he was about to say, turned sour.

 

“Missed her, how could you miss her, two guys can’t handle one girl, are you kidding me?”

 

“Well… this girl isn’t just a little bitch, she’s got a huge will to live.”

 

“Why are you alone, where is Jung-man?”

 

“He got hit in the head with a stone by that bitch, so I sent him home for now. The blood wouldn’t stop bleeding, so I went to…”

 

At the man’s next words, the woman rose from her seat, slammed the table, and screamed.

 

“You sick bastard, that’s what you call it? getting stoned? Is that how you do your job? I throw money at you for doing a good job, did you think it was easy to make money?”

 

Her weeping voice was different from her face, which had always been casual and sweet.