BSW 245

“…….”

Dong-ja looked at the sorrowfully weeping Ho-eun, then shifted her gaze to Tae-muk. The corners of her mouth twitched intermittently. Then, at some point, she slowly loosened her grip on the hand that had been restraining Ho-eun.

Ho-eun immediately tried to shake off her hand and rush toward Tae-muk. However, just as his hand was about to slip free, Dong-ja narrowed her eyes and snatched his wrist again.

“It won’t be long.”

“Pardon?”

“He may be like this now, but he’ll recover soon. It’s dangerous right now.”

“Ha……, ah……, aaah…….”

Ho-eun let out a suppressed groan. He strained his entire face, scrunching his eyes, nose, and mouth. He couldn’t breathe properly. It felt as if his insides were twisting into knots.

The current situation was simply too horrific. Everything felt overwhelming, cruel, and painful. He wanted to jump off unauthorized Read on Read BL Novelscopya cliff, or slam his head against the floor until his skull shattered.

Ho-eun swayed as if he were about to collapse, but then suddenly braced himself and stood straight. Then, looking directly at Dong-ja, he spoke clearly.

“Then I will stay by his side only for that ‘short while.’”

“…….”

“He can’t do anything right now. He’s unable to. So just until then, only for that long…….”

Ho-eun pleaded with a damp face. It was an expression so wretched and desperate that it was heartbreaking just to look at.

“…….”

But Dong-ja did not answer. Nor did she let go of Ho-eun’s hand. In response, Ho-eun leaned his body back, struggling desperately to escape her grip.

“Please……. Please let me do something for the General. Please. Please! The General is in pain! He’s in so much pain, like that! Why……. Ah! Sister!”

After struggling so violently, Ho-eun eventually visit [Read on Read BL Novels]style="display:none;" aria-label="unauthorized copy">unauthorized copyour sitebroke down, stomping his feet like a child and sobbing loudly.

“Let go! I am that man’s Bondmate! Why won’t you let me do anything! Why!”

Unable to bear the surging sorrow, he screamed at the top of his lungs. He thrashed like a fish, scratching the back of Dong-ja’s hand and twisting her fingers.

“Young Master…….”

As Ho-eun completely lost his reason, Dong-ja’s pupils wavered like crashing waves. Seeing the usually modest and calm Ho-eun act this way was bewildering, pitiful, and strangely frightening. She feared he might actually do something reckless.

It was just as she was anxiously staring at Ho-eun’s slender wrist, which rattled in her grip as if it might break.

Flutter.

The entrance of the tent shifted.

“Dong-ja.”

Man-soo poked his head in. Dong-ja looked at him. Then, Man-soo spoke in a low voice.

“Let him go for a moment.”

“What? No. The Captain—”

“Exactly. That’s the Captain’s thought. The Young Master’s thoughts might be different. I’d be climbing the walls if I were lying there in that state. So just let him stay.”

At Man-soo’s earnest words, Dong-ja’s eyes wavered again. She opened and closed her mouth, contemplating. She was weighing Tae-muk’s orders against Ho-eun’s desperation.

“…….”

She looked back and forth between Tae-muk, who continued to cough up blood, and Ho-eun, who was weeping so sorrowfully it seemed he might stop breathing, and finally looked at Man-soo’s face…… before slowly releasing Ho-eun’s wrist.

Without even a moment to offer his thanks, Ho-eun tried to dash toward Tae-muk. However, this time Dong-ja pulled on Ho-eun’s elbow.

“Sister!”

Misunderstanding that she had changed her mind, Ho-eun looked at unauthorized [stolen [Read on Read BL Novels]content]copyher with a pale face. But Dong-ja rummaged through her pocket and placed something in his hand.

A rounded shape, the size of a rice ball, but heavier than one; a temperature so cold it felt chilling to the fingertips; a texture that was hard yet strangely smooth; and a protrusion at the top like an apple stem.

It was a grenade.

Ho-eun’s mouth slowly fell open.

“……Sister?”

He looked at Dong-ja with a bewildered expression. Then, Dong-ja spoke with a face more serious than ever before.

“Use it if something happens.”

“Use…… what do you mean by that…….”

“Throw it at the Captain, or shove it in his mouth, whatever.”

At those words, Ho-eun gasped. He heard her clearly, but he couldn’t understand. Do what with a grenade? Use it on Tae-muk? But visit our sitewasn’t this a bomb? Read on Read BL NovelsFor a moment, he wondered if he had misunderstood the purpose of a grenade.

“H-how could I do such a thing to the Captain…….”

His already white face turned even paler as Ho-eun tried to let go of the grenade. But Dong-ja grabbed his hand and forced him to grip it.

“You wouldn’t be able to stab him even if I gave you a knife. With this, you just have to throw it. Easy, right?”

“But—”

“Even if this goes off, the Captain won’t die.”

“…….”

“But if the Captain does something to you, you will die.”

“Sister…….”

Ho-eun knew well what Dong-ja was worried about. However, he didn’t have the slightest confidence that he could harm Tae-muk with his own hands. Moreover, to inflict more wounds on a man already drenched in blood, a man who had suffered in pain his entire visit our sitelife. And it was a bomb, no less. His barely recovered body would surely be torn to shreds again.

“I can’t, I can’t do it. I can’t.”

As Ho-eun shook his head vigorously, Man-soo stepped into the tent and spoke.

“Young Master. The Captain would be more distressed by the fact that he hurt you with his own hands than he would be if this grenade exploded inside his own chest.”

“…….”

“You know he’s that kind of person.”

At those words, Ho-eun’s lower lip trembled slightly. It was true. Tae-muk would be unable to endure the thought of him getting hurt because of him. Even now, he had ordered his subordinates to isolate him just to keep him safe; if he were to be broken or injured by Tae-muk’s hand, he might never want to see him again.

He would choose to be abandoned by him.

When Ho-eun remained silent, unable to deny it, Man-soo took his hand with both of his and made him grip the grenade.

“So use it.”

“…….”

“You know how to use it, right?”

Ho-eun blinked slowly a few times, then nodded. Man-soo gave a proud, beaming smile. Then, linking arms with Dong-ja, he stepped out of the tent.

“We’ll be outside. Call us if anything happens.”

“Make sure to call! Okay? You have to call!”

Even as she was being pulled away by Man-soo, Dong-ja continued to shout out of worry.

“…….”

Left alone in the tent, Ho-eun looked down at the grenade filling his palm and tucked it carefully into his pocket. He didn’t know if he would ever have to use it, but since it was the result of Dong-ja and Man-soo’s concern, it seemed only polite to keep it on him.

Ho-eun looked at Tae-muk, who lay with his eyes closed under a blanket. After swallowing a sob, he brushed back the stray hairs with his palm, tightened his Hair Tie, and unauthorized [stolen content]copytidied his clothes before approaching Tae-muk.

“General. It’s me.”

Ho-eun made his presence known.

“…….”

Tae-muk did not answer. Ho-eun knelt quietly beside him. Up close, Tae-muk’s condition was even more disastrous. His skin, once firm and lustrous, was rough and pale, and blood had pooled and hardened in every contour of his face. His tightly closed eyelids looked as if they would never move again.

Ho-eun almost collapsed on top of him and wailed. But he endured it. He had things to do.

Suppressing another sob, Ho-eun carefully placed his hand on Tae-muk’s cheek. However, his body temperature was so high it felt as if he had plunged his hand into a furnace.

He had touched the hot Tae-muk many times before, but it had never been this hot. Indeed, his fingertips turned reddish, as if they had been burned.

“General…….”

Ho-eun called out to him, gently stroking Tae-muk’s cheek. But Tae-muk’s firmly unauthorized copyclosed eyes did not budge. When he first arrived, [Read on Read BL Novels]Tae-muk had been coughing, but now there was no such thing—only blood steadily flowing from between his teeth.

He couldn’t tell if it was because the wounds were healing or because they had worsened.

Ho-eun cupped Tae-muk’s cheeks with both hands and concentrated his energy into his palms. He didn’t know if this would help the man feel him better, but it was the only thing he could do right now.

Ho-eun spent a long time caressing him—stroking his cheeks, brushing back hair soaked in blood and water, tracing the protruding brow bone and the bridge of his nose, and rubbing his angular jaw.

Then, he leaned down and began to kiss his face. His lips, damp with tears, landed on Tae-muk’s forehead, the space between his brows, his eyelids, and finally, on his blood-slicked lips. He pressed each kiss with such intensity that not even a popping sound was made.

“General…….”

Ho-eun tentatively lay down beside Tae-muk. It was to get as close to him as possible. But lying side-by-side like that, he felt more vividly how much the man had shrunk. He had always been as massive as a great mountain, so how had he become like this…….

Ho-eun had to bite his lower lip hard to keep from bursting into tears again. Still, he couldn’t stop the tears streaming down his cheeks. Wiping them away roughly with the back of his hand, Ho-eun wrapped his arms around Tae-muk and pressed his entire body against him. Then, he carefully kissed his lips.

Tae-muk’s lips were hotter and drier than usual. And they tasted strongly of blood. It was a fishy, cloying taste, and he felt he finally understood why Tae-muk had once described it as the ‘taste of fodder.’