PHUW 75

“Let’s talk later.”

“No. We’re talking now.”

If he could, Haeri would’ve grabbed Jeong Mok by the collar.

“You said you kicked me out because you couldn’t stand the sight of me, so why are you hanging around, huh? Are you afraid I’d do something weird? That the great Hyeonsan Vice Chairman is actually a liar, a fraud, someone twisted in the head with a filthy temper who goes berserk and beats people half to death when he snaps? Did you think I’d go around exposing that?”

“……”

Jeong Mok shut his mouth again. Worked up, Haeri fumed, then he said.

“I saw Song-i’s photo. Janggun’s owner showed me.”

The man’s gaze on him started to tremble.

“You.”

“Fuck. There’s a limit to making a fool out of someone. If you’d just told me properly from the start, I wouldn’t have pushed myself so hard with Gom-i…”

He was about to lashing out.

“Excuse me! Keep it down, will you?”

The guardian in the next bed snapped. Jeong Mok pulled back the curtain and silently stared at him. That alone made the man flinch and back off.

“Sorry,” Haeri apologized on his behalf. Then he turned back to Jeong Mok and spoke sharply.

“Thank you for saving me. But I can be alone now. So go.”

He snapped his head to the side.

Whether Jeong Mok ignored the dismissal or simply refused to hear it, instead of leaving he came closer and sat down on the guardian’s folding chair.

“I’m not going.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t leave you alone.”

“And yet you had no problem throwing me out.”

“That was my mistake. I’m sorry.”

Jeong Mok apologized without hesitation. But this time Haeri didn’t even hear it. It was too light. If he could apologize this easily, why had he hurt him in the first place?

“Back then, I thought it was the right thing. I was wrong.”

Haeri shut his eyes and turned his head the other way to show he wasn’t listening. But Jeong Mok kept talking anyway, regardless of what Haeri did. He had once accused Haeri of being self-centered, but if anyone was self-centered, it was him.

“I thought not seeing you would make it easier. But it didn’t.”

“…….”

The explanation went into Haeri’s ears against his will, like a top news anchor’s report.

“You were on my mind so much I couldn’t function. You didn’t answer my calls or read the messages I sent you. So I followed you. I had to know if you were okay.”

What the hell was this? Shooting a drama? Writing a novel? He was the one who threw him out, so why was he the one agonizing? When Haeri had begged and cried, he hadn’t cared, he just snapped in anger.

Haeri hadn’t known Jeong Mok had called or messaged at all. He had blocked him for two months.

The confession – that the one who forced him out couldn’t find peace and suffered for it – made Haeri less angry. He said he had worried a lot. He said he couldn’t focus on daily life. And seeing as he’d followed Haeri every night, it didn’t seem like a lie.

Haeri turned his head slightly back.

“You… called a lot?”

“Yeah. Twice a day, regularly. You never answered.”

“I thought I unblocked you… Or maybe not?”

He couldn’t check, he didn’t have his phone on him.

“Let me see.”

Jeong Mok pulled out the phone with the broken screen and showed him the call history.

The last outgoing call was about a day or two before Haeri had unblocked him. Bad luck.

“…And the texts?”

“Here.”

He scrolled endlessly through messages with no check marks: How are you, are you well, is everything okay, it’s raining don’t forget your umbrella, the wind is strong dress warm… All full of everyday concern.

Haeri’s last reply was a simple “Take care of yourself,” sent right before he blocked him after moving. Under it, at the same time, was Jeong Mok’s “Where to?” He had read Haeri’s text instantly and replied right away.

Haeri had thought he checked hours apart. But it had been blocked in real time.

‘I really screwed it.’

It wasn’t intentional, but that was the result. Ignored constantly, until at last it drove him to stalking. But Haeri felt inwardly satisfied.

Ridiculously enough, his sulking heart melted away. Just like that. Like an idiot. He wanted to stay angry, but his lips were already twitching. If he didn’t get a grip, he’d end up grinning like a fool. He deliberately frowned.

“If you were going to worry like this, then why’d you do it?”

“Yeah…”

Jeong Mok smiled bitterly. The regret on his face made Haeri’s heart drop. Seriously, why had he done it.

Haeri chewed his lip, then suddenly remembered the day Gom-i bit him.

“How’s your arm?”

“My arm? It’s fine.”

“No, I mean where Gom-i bit you.”

“It’s healed.”

Jeong Mok pulled up his sleeve. Other than a faint scar, it was fine.

“I’m sorry. If I had handled Gom-i properly, you wouldn’t have been bitten.”

That one really was his fault, so Haeri apologized immediately. And he meant it.

“You don’t need to apologize. Gom-i was angry at me because I was angry at you.”

“So if I hadn’t made you angry…”

“No.”

Jeong Mok cut Haeri off.

“It wasn’t you who made me angry. I just lost my temper on my own. It had nothing to do with you or Gom-i.”

“You don’t need to comfort me. If I did wrong, then it’s my fault.”

He shook his head again, firmly drawing the line.

“This time it’s not a lie, it’s the truth.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Even while feeling sorry, he couldn’t stop himself from saying it. Jeong Mok had lied to him too many times.

“You said Song-i was your dead girlfriend.”

At the sullen accusation, Jeong Mok scratched his forehead with his uninjured hand, looking troubled.

“I was used to saying that, so it just came out that way.”

“That was too much. Of course, Song-i might have been as precious as a girlfriend, maybe even more, but it was too much.”

“I’m sorry.”

He sincerely apologized.

“Don’t lie to me anymore.”

“I won’t.”

He promised. Haeri didn’t believe him. Who stops lying forever just because someone tells them to? If they did, they’d be a fool or a lunatic. But the fact that he promised right away was enough to satisfy him.

“And why didn’t you tell me you were the Hyeonsan chairwoman’s nephew?”

“Mm, does that matter?”

This time Jeong Mok tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“It’s not that it’s a problem. But you could have just told me. I thought you were some Neotuber. And since you said you were in construction, I even wondered if you were part of some rough organization.”

Jeong Mok smiled.

“People who don’t know often assume that. But I don’t do social media or internet streaming at all. It doesn’t suit me. Anything else you want to ask?”

“You’re a vice chairman. Aren’t you busy?”

“I am.”

“Then what about staying here like this?”

“You’re more important than the company.”

What, did he suddenly rinse his mouth with sesame oil? What was that? It was so greasy.

“That sounded like something a playboy would say.”

“Playboy? That’s unfair.”

Jeong Mok scrunched his face, as if he was wrongly accused. Haeri had no intention of believing him, but his seriousness alone was strangely pleasing.

“So you’re not going to tell me why you suddenly threw me out?”

“That…”

Even with Haeri pressing, Jeong Mok seemed too pained to open his mouth.

“Can’t I explain later, after I’ve sorted things out a little?”

“I want to hear it now. Otherwise I’ll keep dwelling on it.”

“Ha… it’s, how should I put it… it’s embarrassing enough to make me want to die.”

He covered his face with his hands, not caring that they were injured.

“More embarrassing than me? Do you know how many stupid gags I’ve done in front of you? If I was going to die of embarrassment, the coffin lid would’ve been nailed shut already.”

“Haha.”

Jeong Mok laughed. It wasn’t a sneer, but more like a laugh that slipped out because it was absurd.

“Don’t worry about that. No matter what you do, you’re cute.”

Haeri’s lips twitched again.

Cute. Cute. Whatever he did, always cute. He was sick of hearing it. If he let himself be swayed by that slippery talk, he’d never get a straight answer.

Until now, he had kept quiet out of too much consideration, only to get misunderstood and tricked by a worthless lie. He didn’t want that again. He steeled himself and pressed harder.

“So why did you do it then? What was so embarrassing that you kicked me out?”

With Haeri’s repeated questioning, Jeong Mok lowered his hands and opened his eyes. He looked straight at him, a faint flush at the corners.

“…Otherwise… I thought I would.”

“Huh? What?”

“Otherwise, I would…”

“I can’t hear you.”

Frustrated, Haeri grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand down. He realized the flush had spread from Jeong Mok’s eyes to his cheekbones and the rims of his ears. Maybe it really was that humiliating.

“I thought I would… kiss you.”

“Kiss what?”

“Kiss.”

“…What?”

Had he misheard?

“Kiss? All of a sudden?”

“…Yeah.”

What the hell is he talking about?

“Who?”

“Me.”

This was getting weird. It wasn’t the kind of situation he had imagined.

“To whom?”

“You.”

“……”

So the reason this man in front of him had suddenly gotten angry that day and kicked him out was because, otherwise, he thought he would kiss him?

What kind of nonsense was that. No logic, no context, no sense, no awareness.

A joke? If it was, it was the worst, trash-tier kind.

No, no. He must have misheard. No way a perfectly fine man would say that out of nowhere. He had checked more than once that he wasn’t gay. There was no way he would have feelings for him.

Every time Haeri had asked him why, he had always reacted with innocence, making Haeri feel like the crazy one. That was why he had tormented himself, drowning in self-reproach.

He tried to deny what he’d just heard, going over the conversation in his head to see if he had missed something.

But without being asked, Jeong Mok nailed it down.

“If I stayed like that, I thought I’d kiss you.”

So he hadn’t misheard after all.