By Zephyria 
“It seems that way, doesn’t it? I guess you were really planning to run away. Master saw it very accurately.”
“…….”
“And Woo Tae-hwon. I don’t usually give this kind of advice to strangers, but it’s better not to go against Master Rae-i’s will. I’ve served all three brothers of the Gyeongjeong main house, and Master Rae-i is different.”
Tae-hwon, who couldn’t open the iron bars, clenched the fake key and frowned. His black eyes trembled violently. His stiffened face was desperate.
How did he know?
How in advance……?
Tae-hwon didn’t show any signs on the outside. Besides, didn’t Kwon Rae-i seem to know nothing until just now? He seemed really surprised and hurt by Tae-hwon’s betrayal, but how…….
“Um. Anyway, then…… I have to go now according to Master’s instructions. He told me not to say unnecessary things either. Oh, I hope you take good care of yourself.”
Han-seon sent a greeting with his eyes to Tae-hwon, who was trapped behind the iron bars, and then turned around and left. His back, opening the lock and going out the front door, was getting farther and farther away. Tae-hwon didn’t even have a chance to show the knife he had prepared from the beginning.
In just a moment, all his plans crumbled in vain.
Of course, it wasn’t a very solid plan and there were some flaws. But it was definitely a possible plan. If this key wasn’t a fake key, Tae-hwon would have opened the iron bars and threatened Han-seon with a knife to go outside.
“……Huh.”
Tae-hwon let out a bitter laugh.
The escape plan, which started with a determined heart, ended in vain in just a few minutes. No, even if he failed, the fact that Kwon Rae-i had seen through and prepared for all of Tae-hwon’s plans was even more shocking.
It was Woo Tae-hwon, not Kwon Rae-i, who had been completely deceived. From the beginning.
Beeeeee.
A high-pitched tinnitus rang in his ears and his mind temporarily stopped. How did he know? Did he show it? Did he feel something? If so, then…….
“Tae-hwon, do you understand now?”
And then. He heard footsteps approaching from behind. Kwon Rae-i, who had gotten out of the elevator, was walking leisurely across the wide living room to the iron bars of the front door where Tae-hwon was standing. He had tied him up quite tightly, but how did he get out? Tae-hwon’s heart sank and he slowly turned around with a frowning and crumpled face.
He felt fear at the sight of him walking gracefully across the brightly lit living room.
“Master.”
Kwon Rae-i casually turned one wrist and adjusted his thumb joint. He had taken out his hand joint to untie the tie and get out. He had heard somewhere that he could take out restraints like handcuffs like that, but he never thought it would actually be possible. And Kwon Rae-i did it with a calm face. It was shocking.
The way he adjusted his joints and lightly clenched and opened his hands to check his condition was very unfamiliar. He was not the Kwon Rae-i that Tae-hwon knew, but a dangerous creature he was facing for the first time. Unlike him, who constantly smiled and grinned, his coldly frozen face was unmoving as it turned to Tae-hwon.
“I told you not to go, didn’t I?”
“…….”
“I begged and pleaded so much. Didn’t you feel sorry for me? Did you not care at all? Is abandoning me and leaving again Tae-hwon’s choice?”
“……It’s not that I was trying to abandon you.”
“Besides, now you’re even deceiving me and tying me up. It hurt. My heart was torn into a thousand pieces, ten thousand pieces, and it hurt so much that I felt like I was going to die. I waited until the end, thinking you wouldn’t really go, you’d come back, you’d change your mind…… but it was all useless.”
Kwon Rae-i, who had come to the front of the iron bars, held out one hand to Tae-hwon. Tae-hwon was as stiff as a rock and only stared at that hand.
Kwon Rae-i lightly instructed.
“Give it to me.”
Tae-hwon swallowed a miserable sigh and dropped the fake key into his palm. Kwon Rae-i didn’t bat an eye and instructed again.
“Give me the knife too.”
“……Yes.”
What could he do when things had gone wrong like this? He wouldn’t have the heart to threaten Kwon Rae-i with a knife, let alone Han-seon. He returned the kitchen knife he had brought to his white palm with the key on it. Kwon Rae-i took it.
“Okay. Then choose now.”
Choose? What……?
While he was wondering, he had an ominous premonition.
His unusually calm eyes were chilling. He looked calm on the surface, but inside he was burning like a blue flame. As if resentment and anger had exceeded the threshold and had sunk far away. Some emotions may have been too big and heavy to be uttered.
“Ankle or neck.”
“…….”
“I’m telling you to choose yourself.”
As soon as he heard those words, a memory came to mind.
Thump, thump, thump. His heartbeat was too loud and strong. It felt like it was about to break through his ribs and pop out. His white face and blue eyes were telling Tae-hwon. It was no longer a warning. Kwon Rae-i was planning to restrain Woo Tae-hwon with complete sincerity, without even a hint of wavering.
“Or should I just put both on?”
Tae-hwon clenched his teeth tightly. There was no place to retreat anymore since he was prepared for parting. Since he had failed miserably and even revealed his thoughts, he thought he should strongly express his opinion.
“Stop it, Master. This is enough.”
It would have been nice if he could have left cleanly, but he couldn’t help it. He had no choice but to face it as it was.
“It’s not going to work if you hold me like this. If I hide in your arms, I might be able to survive a few more days, but in the end, it will only resonate. Not only me, but you will be in danger!”
“It’s okay, I’m telling you to choose yourself. It’s better to talk about that later.”
“No matter how much you talk about a dreamlike future and whisper sweet hopes, it’s useless. Do you really think I’m such a fool that I’ll be relieved by such easy deception? I have the Gyeongjeong Faction and this world engraved in my bones!”
“Later, Tae-hwon. Later. Right now I’m…… ha, shit.”
Kwon Rae-i let out a sigh mixed with profanity, then distorted his hardened face and threw the things he was holding in his fist with all his might. The sharp kitchen knife and key made a loud noise as they rolled on the floor and were pushed and shoved into the corner of the hallway.
“Shut that mouth, please! You say you’re not a fool, but don’t you even know how much I’m holding back right now? I, shit, I really don’t want to get angry at Tae-hwon!”
And he covered Tae-hwon with a terrifying force. He slammed Tae-hwon’s body against the iron bars with coercive force and grabbed his neck in his fist.
“Cough!”
Tae-hwon tried to push his shoulder and shake off his hand. But Kwon Rae-i strangled Tae-hwon’s neck with a terrifying force and gave him strength so that he couldn’t breathe. So that he would suffocate completely.
“Look at me. Huh? I’m trying to talk nicely. I’m trying to ask Tae-hwon’s opinion without being scary. How surprised would Tae-hwon be if I really acted as I pleased! I’m now, because of Tae-hwon, tattered, and in pain as if all the bones in my body were crushed. But still, I…….”
“Eukeuheuk, Master, agh……!”
“What can I say to Tae-hwon, shit, that Tae-hwon will believe me? When you’re running away like this. The only thing I asked you not to do was to leave. Tae-hwon can’t even keep that one thing, but I have to read Tae-hwon’s face even though I’m miserably deceived and abandoned again!”
His suppressed neck trembled. No, in fact, it was his hand that was strangling Tae-hwon that was trembling. He was angry at Tae-hwon but also begging, and he seemed to have completely lost his mind and turned his eyes upside down. He was out of his mind.
“It’s strange that you’re going to leave me when it’s dangerous, dangerous. If Tae-hwon dies, I’m going to commit suicide after Tae-hwon anyway. I told you I’d be buried with you in Tae-hwon’s grave. But why! We’re together whether we’re alive or dead, why don’t you understand that?”
“No, it can’t be. Not like that, cough! I’ll finish it, ugh…….”
“Finish? What are you going to finish? You’re just going to go out and die alone!”
Tae-hwon scratched Kwon Rae-i’s arm and shook his head. His vision blurred as his breath was cut off. His thumb was intentionally and very clearly pressing on his trachea, and no matter how hard he tried to push it away, it didn’t budge. It was to the point where he suspected that Kwon Rae-i had deliberately weakened his strength and tested Tae-hwon when he fought to tie him up with a necktie in the dressing room. He completely cornered Tae-hwon with a force that was on a different level than then.