By Zephyria 
Kwon Rae-i wore a beautiful smile, as if painted with a brush. Pale pink lips curved softly into an arc. The eyelashes lowered towards Tae-hwon were long and dense like bird feathers, and his cheeks were slightly flushed.
Narrowing his eyes, he lowered his head and kissed the parted lips.
“Mmph.”
His tongue invaded his mouth, digging in deeply as if to violate it. Unlike Tae-hwon’s rough lips, his tongue was softly wet and pliable.
Tae-hwon raised his left hand, which he could still move, and pushed against his shoulder. But no matter how hard he tried, Kwon Rae-i didn’t budge, standing firm like a cliff. The aching muscles throbbed. Even when he tried to avoid his head, the chin held by his hand was only pulled back.
“Hngh.”
“Haa…….”
Tae-hwon’s expression contorted visibly. Somehow, everything was messed up and confusing.
Kwon Rae-i was fiery, rough, and savage. It felt like being pushed, plundered, and devoured. Like a beast lunging and pouncing.
He teased him intimately, making blatant, wet sounds as his tongue touched his, and even exhaled hot breaths between his teeth. Now, lips soaked with saliva were sticky, and his breathing rose and ripened. The foreign sensation of being sucked and rubbed by his tongue gradually turned into pleasure.
Kwon Rae-i was quite good at kissing.
To be exact, he knew exactly where Woo Tae-hwon felt it, what he was weak against.
Tae-hwon, pushed to his limit where he could no longer endure, gasped heavily and bit down on his lips. He bit quite hard with his front teeth, and only then did Kwon Rae-i finally fall away.
“Huk, haah……!”
While Tae-hwon barely replenished his insufficient breath, Kwon Rae-i nonchalantly wiped the blood seeping from his torn lips with his thumb. His eyes were still softly curved, smiling prettily. It was a mystery why that unrealistic, snow-white face, which didn’t seem like that of a living person, looked so dangerous.
“Wow, I’m even better at kissing now.”
“Rae, Young Master Rae-i. What is all this.”
“Since you’ve been serving my father, Tae-hwon, you’ve been entertained countless times here and there. I had no choice but to gain experience, right? So I was really skilled.”
“Entertainment……? No, wait a minute. Am I serving Chairman Kwon?”
“Yes, well. Anyway, you’re really bad at kissing right now. Haha, is it because you’re so surprised? Anyway, wow…… you’re cute. I shouldn’t be thinking about how cute you are right now, but you’ve become so cute, Tae-hwon.”
“Just a moment, Young Master. Are you making a bad joke? How am I serving the Chairman? Besides, with a Young Master who’s ten years younger, what, ki, how did we end up kissing, huh?”
“Did that seem like a joke just now?”
Kwon Rae-i asked back gently. His voice was like honey, but for some reason, goosebumps ran down his spine. It was chilling.
“Even if you’ve lost your memories, you should know, even with your twenty-year-old brain, Tae-hwon, what kind of eyes I’m looking at you with.”
Tae-hwon’s dark eyes wavered. His head throbbed as if being drilled, and it was hard to even support his battered body. It was also hard to grasp the nonsensical, jumbled situation.
His breathing quickened, and his pulse raced.
“It’s only Woo Tae-hwon to me. I don’t care if your body is ruined, if you become an idiot, if you’re cruelly abandoned and betrayed…… I don’t care about any of that, I just like you, Tae-hwon.”
“…….”
“I love you. You only scoffed when I said that, but it’s okay. I don’t need anything else. It’s over now.”
Love? Over……?
Kwon Rae-i lowered his head and pressed his face close again. The approaching face was so clear and fantastical that it seemed like a dream, and the way he pressed his lips against his cheek was as natural and blatant as if he had done this many times.
His eyes deepened even further.
Tension filled the air, and it felt like the room temperature had risen.
He could no longer fail to notice that fierce sparks flew every time their eyes met. Kwon Rae-i was burning his soul for Woo Tae-hwon.
“Four days ago, you shot my father, Tae-hwon.”
“Wh, what are you talking about?”
“It was an assassination and a betrayal. Thanks to that, Gyeongjeong is in an uproar. My three older brothers are rampaging with bloodshot eyes, saying they’ll find and execute the traitor Woo Tae-hwon, and they’re swarming out like bees, stirring things up everywhere.”
Startled, Tae-hwon forced his injured body up. He gnashed his teeth as if to chew them and glared at Kwon Rae-i.
“Th, that can’t be…….”
“What do you think will happen if you’re caught by Gyeongjeong in this situation, Tae-hwon? You won’t be able to die easily.”
“…….”
“You’ll be subjected to terrible torture as revenge, your fingernails and toenails will be pulled out, your skin will be peeled off layer by layer with a plane, you’ll become food for worms, your soft insides will be gnawed away, and your Dick will be cut off and forced into your mouth. You can’t die so miserably, can you?”
He resented his body, which wouldn’t move as he wished, and everything he said sounded like a lie. It was such an absurd reality for Tae-hwon, who only had the memories of a twenty-year-old, that he couldn’t help but deny it.
“The only way for you to live, Tae-hwon, is to be by my side now.”
Tae-hwon’s face turned white. His lips trembled slightly, and his head ached as if it would explode. It was painful.
A flash of light burst like a flash, and he saw a pitch-black night sky. A narrow alleyway with heavy rain pouring down. Dazzling neon signs. A street covered in blood…….
“Kuh…….”
It hurts.
With his mind in a jumble, Kwon Rae-i’s voice overlapped.
“Recover your body and find your memories in this hideout where I’m hiding you, and live with me.”
He stared straight at Tae-hwon without batting an eye.
His cold eyes didn’t contain any clumsy emotions like agitation. A snow-white face with snow-white hair. It was like a tsunami that was swarming towards Woo Tae-hwon.
It was a disaster that would soon sweep over him, engulf him, and suffocate him.
“I’m saving you, Tae-hwon.”
“You’re living with me, Tae-hwon.”
He straightened his position so that his head rested on the pillow and patted his chest, comforting him. Even so, Tae-hwon’s heart was only beating wildly.
Woo Tae-hwon was a traitor to Gyeongjeong, and he had assassinated the Chairman who had taken him in.
If it was a joke, it was a ridiculous load of crap. It should be a blatant, false trick that deserved anger. But Tae-hwon’s instincts and intuition kept shouting loudly. He had to come to his senses. He shouldn’t turn away or ignore the cruel truth that had been poured out on him.
Tae-hwon, who was out of his mind, blankly closed his mouth.
He tried to refute or deny it, but he couldn’t readily utter a word. Everything was sudden and terrible. He felt like all the blood was draining from his body.
‘Ten years of memories…….’
He had lost a whole ten years…….
Ah…….
Ah…….
***
200 million. At that time, Woo Tae-hwon’s debt was 200 million won in Korean currency.
The principal was 70 million won, and the interest was 130 million won. Of course, it wasn’t a debt that Tae-hwon himself had incurred.
Tae-hwon’s biological father, who couldn’t quit gambling even after his thumb was cut off for using his cunning to skim off the bottom of the deck while frequenting Gambling Dens.
That indomitable father, who wouldn’t even drink soju because it blurred his mind and made him unable to read the cards, and who even quit smoking because it dulled his senses, grabbed sixteen-year-old Tae-hwon’s wrist and took him to a gambling den as soon as his severed finger healed, saying he would get revenge.
“This is my son, and he’s all grown up now. Look at his size. He’s as good as any strong man, you know? This time it’s for real. No cheating, real money, huh? Hey, President Kim. I’m going to make a killing and pay off all the overdue principal and interest!”
Tae-hwon silently watched his insane biological father, who had dragged his son along as collateral and was spouting nonsense, with dark eyes.
He was turned away from three Gambling Dens as if to show off, and his father was even beaten severely.
And that night.
Tae-hwon retraced the locations of the gambling dens he had memorized, one by one. He carried gasoline cans from the gas station where he worked without even receiving minimum wage in both hands, and in his pocket, he had a lighter with a Chinese restaurant phone number printed on it.
He set it on fire.
Of course, he was caught.