By Zephyria At the unexpected name, Yu-jin’s eyes widened in surprise, and he stopped moving altogether. He had never dreamed that the name would come out of that man’s mouth, so he just stared at him blankly for a moment. Winston just watched him without saying anything.
Only after what felt like a long time did Yu-jin finally speak. Slowly blinking with a dazed expression. Winston narrowed his eyes as he saw Yu-jin’s face. Yu-jin finally made a sound, unaware that he was slowly crossing his legs. His gaze fixed on Yu-jin’s faintly flushed cheeks and lips.
“…Who?”
Yu-jin quickly cleared his throat to clear his voice, which had cracked terribly. Winston, who had been staring at him without moving, slowly moved his lips.
“Sam Brown, the police officer who was in charge of you.”
Ah, Yu-jin sighed briefly and slumped his shoulders. It felt like his mind was barely working. Soon, a mix of complicated emotions came with a sense of futility. He ran his hand through his hair as if he was tired and spoke.
“So?”
“What?”
At Winston’s question, Yu-jin narrowed his eyes and sneered at him.
“I bet you’re disappointed. You probably thought he was another guy I rolled around with.”
He expected an unpleasant reaction, but unexpectedly, Winston chuckled briefly.
“Yeah, I was wrong.”
How should he take that reaction?
Yu-jin hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to laugh or get angry, but soon gave up.
“What do you want to talk about? If you met Sam, you must already know everything.”
He waited, looking at him with an unwelcome gaze, and Winston unfolded his crossed legs and opened his mouth.
“I didn’t hear it.”
Winston continued slowly as Yu-jin frowned.
“I didn’t hear it, about that incident.”
The calm voice was unmistakable. Yu-jin, realizing that he had heard correctly, belatedly let out a dumbfounded sigh.
“Then why did you even go there? Did you just want to see what kind of scumbag I was rolling around with?”
“Sam told me to hear it from you.”
Winston still answered calmly to the rough voice.
“He said it would be better to hear it directly from the person involved, and I agreed with that. Sam didn’t say anything.”
‘He was such a pitiful child.’
Winston recalled the middle-aged woman who had sighed with a face full of sympathy. She had asked if Yu-jin was doing well and also checked about Angela. She smiled brightly and said, ‘I’m so glad.’
‘To think that child is now living happily and well, how wonderful…’
“I don’t have much to say.”
Winston was awakened from his reminiscence by Yu-jin’s sharp voice. When he fixed his gaze, he met Yu-jin’s eyes, who was glaring at him with a face full of displeasure.
“It’s what you think. I slept with a man because I wanted to sleep with a man, and I stole money while he was asleep and ran away before getting caught. Now, are you satisfied? I’m going to go see Angie now.”
“Wait.”
Winston ordered, but Yu-jin didn’t listen. He got out of bed and practically ran across the room, but before he could reach the door, Winston grabbed his arm first.
“Tell me honestly, that’s not all there is to it.”
The voice, which had been calm until now, was threateningly low. The hand holding his arm tightened, and Yu-jin frowned at the pain.
“What are you doing? Let go!”
He tried to shake him off with all his might, but the resistance was useless, and he was grabbed by the other arm as well. Forced to face Winston, Yu-jin glared at him with all his might as his last act of defiance.
“Honey.”
Winston called Yu-jin with a sighing voice. Unlike the sarcastic tone he had used until now, he spoke with a somewhat disappointed tone.
“I’m asking you to talk, right now.”
“It’s too late.”
Yu-jin gasped and spat out roughly.
“I already tried to explain to you. But you wouldn’t even listen, would you? So why now? Are you going to show me mercy? Too bad, I’m not grateful at all.”
Winston tried to say something, but Yu-jin spoke even faster.
“What was the reason you went to see Sam in the first place? You wanted to confirm that you were right, didn’t you? But now that you know Sam is a woman, you’ve changed your mind a little? If Sam was a man, you would have been arrogant, thinking you were right, wouldn’t you? Just keep thinking that way. It doesn’t matter what you think of me, nothing will change. I’m already at the bottom! I’ve fallen to the very bottom of the gutter, because of you!”
“Let go,” Yu-jin shook his whole body and resisted. When he still didn’t budge, he bit Winston’s arm in a fit of anger.
“Argh!”Taking advantage of a gap when Winston unexpectedly lost his grip, Yu-jin quickly turned and dashed out of the room. Winston tried to chase after him, but at that moment, his cell phone rang loudly. Hesitating for a moment, Winston irritably checked his phone and paused. It was a call from his secretary. He let out a short breath and answered the phone, and his secretary immediately began her report.
“…Okay, this afternoon.”
As expected, she was a capable secretary. Winston thought he should give her a special bonus for letting him know the results so quickly, and then he hung up. Soon after, he casually put his phone in his pocket and strode towards Angela’s room.
After catching his breath for a moment in the hallway, Winston knocked briefly and carefully opened the door. Fortunately, Angela was still asleep. Winston stopped in his tracks when he saw Yu-jin sitting by the bed, looking at the child’s face, startled and wary.
“I’m going to work now.”
In a nonchalant voice, he quietly continued.
“Let’s continue our conversation after I get off work. I’ll come as early as possible.”
“I have nothing to say.”
Yu-jin said, stifling his voice so the child wouldn’t wake up. Winston, who was about to close the door and leave, stopped and looked at him.
“You will want to.”
He said something that he didn’t know where the confidence came from and left. Yu-jin stared at the closed door in disbelief, then shook his head with a belated, dumbfounded sigh. He was truly an unbelievably arrogant man. He couldn’t believe that he had once loved that man more than his own life.
Hoo…
Only after confirming from the window that Winston’s car had left the mansion did he let out a deep sigh. He finally felt at peace.
An unexpected guest came to Yu-jin after lunch while he was walking in the garden with Angela. Yu-jin, puzzled by the employee’s words that someone was looking for him, took the child’s hand and went back the way he had come. Could it be Georgina or Charlotte? They were the only two people who would come looking for him.
Could it be Mrs. Campbell…?
A chill ran down his spine at the sudden ominous name, but he quickly shook his head. If it were her, the employee would have said so. Then who could it be?
When he asked who it was, the employee replied, “They said you’ll know when you meet them.” Yu-jin headed to the drawing room, puzzled.
With a light knock, he carefully opened the door and reflexively stopped at the sight of the interior. It was the very place where Mrs. Campbell and Gordon had treated him coldly on his first day back at this mansion. At the time, he had brushed off the shameful words and insults, but it seemed they had remained in a corner of his mind. Hoo, he took a shaky breath and quickly blinked to fix his gaze.
The people there were not them. Someone he had never expected, but one of the very few people who had extended a warm hand to Yu-jin during his life, rose from the sofa. Yu-jin’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of her face, and he couldn’t speak. She smiled brightly and opened her arms wide.
“Yu-jin, you’ve become even more beautiful. Angie, my goodness, you’ve grown so much.”
Even after hearing her voice, it still didn’t feel real. She approached Yu-jin, who was standing awkwardly, and carefully embraced him. He felt the warmth of her body and the weight of her arms around him. Only then did Yu-jin feel a sense of reality, and his nose tingled. Soon after, his eyes filled with tears, and he burst into tears and hugged her.
“Sam…!”