SMW 98

Despite Choi Seol’s cold words, Executive Director Kang replied as calmly as ever.

“I came to deliver the clothes you’ll be wearing and to ensure you aren’t experiencing any discomfort. That is my job, after all.”

“The person you need to look after is lying in the annex, so focus your attention there. I’ll take care of things on this side if necessary.”

“I shall do so from now on.”

As soon as Choi Seol heard the reply, he pulled me along and led me further into the room. I followed instinctively, glancing back, but the door slammed shut before I could see anything clearly. I stared blankly at Choi Seol, wondering what on earth was happening, but a fierce aura still radiated from his profile.

I had seen him act like this exactly once before, when he met Vice Chairman Baek Han. Even so, I wasn’t used to this side of him. Moreover, it was the first time I’d seen him be so cold toward an elder. I figured there must be a reason, but the atmosphere he was creating now was too unfamiliar. A sudden surge of fear hit me, as if Choi Seol had become a completely different person during the time we were apart.

“Let… let go of my hand. It hurts.”

“Sorry.”

At my strained words, he released my hand far too easily. Just as I was feeling absurdly relieved by such a reaction, a shadow loomed over me.

“Aren’t you cold?”

Choi Seol fixed his gaze on me closely, as if searching for something.

“You got drenched in the rain earlier. I told them to make the room as warm as possible, but tell me if you feel unwell. I’ll call someone immediately.”

“Someone?”

“A doctor, obviously.”

Isn’t a doctor someone you meet by going to a hospital? As if reading my confused thoughts, Choi Seol kindly added a further explanation.

“There’s a hospital our company sponsors five minutes away by car. I just have to ask them to send one over.”

“Forget it. It’s raining this hard; why go through all that trouble?”

“What trouble? That’s exactly why I pour so much money into that place—to use it for times like this.”

I could hardly believe my ears; I was hearing the kind of lines only chaebols in dramas say. I mean, he is a chaebol, but I really couldn’t get used to the fact that it was Choi Seol saying it.

“I said it’s fine. I just got a bit of rain, don’t overreact. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Then aren’t you hungry? Should I have them bring some food? Do you want meat?”

Why is he being so aggressive?

“…I’m not hungry right now.”

“Then is there anything else you need?”

“Nothing. I don’t need anything, so stop asking.”

Faced with a relentless barrage of questions, I finally snapped. Choi Seol flinched, and his expression stiffened. Only then did I realize my mistake. Whether Choi Seol lost his temper like he did earlier or made a pitiful face, both were troublesome for me.

“…It’s just because I’m tired. I just want to rest and do nothing for a while.”

“Okay. Then let’s rest.”

His recovery and reaction time were truly impressive.

Choi Seol immediately began leading me away. We arrived at the bedroom. Despite the torrential rain, it was still early evening. I said I wanted to rest, not that I was sleepy.

Thinking he intended to make me sleep right away, I tried to stop him, but Choi Seol happened to come to a halt. Taking the opportunity, I spoke up.

“Wait, when I said I wanted to rest, I meant sitting—”

Before I could even finish my sentence, Choi Seol leaned down. His firm arms immediately wrapped around my waist, and his hand slid beneath my knees. Just as I felt like I’d seen this scene somewhere before, my body was lifted into the air. Before I could even react in surprise, I was sat down in the center of the wide bed.

“Hey. What’s with the sudden—”

“You said let’s rest.”

A languid resonance drowned out my voice.

Right, I did say let’s rest. The word ‘rest’ could be interpreted in many different ways. In that sense, I didn’t know how to interpret Choi Seol’s behavior as he deliberately pushed his way into the spot beside me.

His leaning upper body was bare skin. I couldn’t tell if he hadn’t tied his bathrobe properly, or if the robe simply couldn’t contain that magnificent chest of his.

Anyway, as I stared, unable to breathe, pushed against that nearly naked chest, he reached out and cupped my cheek. Our eyes met, and Choi Seol’s long fingers dug into the hair behind my ear.

“Your hair isn’t dry yet. Want me to dry it for you?”

It seemed he was planning a second round of “What can I do for you?” on the bed. I barely managed to avert my eyes from the temptations in sight and spoke.

“Forget… it. Dry your own hair.”

“Too lazy.”

I narrowed my eyes at his half-hearted response.

“Then why are you offering to dry mine?”

“Because touching you feels good. Of course, it’s even better when you touch me.”

While I was flustered by what that meant, Choi Seol took my still stolen contenthand and brought [visit our site]it unauthorized copyto his cheek. The skin that touched it unexpectedly was soft.

“How is it?”

“What, what is?”

“Do you hate touching me?”

Hate it? It was quite the opposite. Perhaps he had taken a cold shower, as his body temperature was lower than the air in the room. Because it felt cool, I stayed still without realizing it, and the corners of Choi Seol’s eyes curved gently as he looked at me.

I had seen that smile many times back in the countryside. At the time, I had simply stared at him, entranced, but now, for some reason, my stomach fluttered. I felt a ticklish, hot sensation rising from below, mixed with a suggestive hue.

“Han Yeo-reum?”

“Get… move away a bit.”

Trying to regain my reason, I attempted to withdraw my hand from Choi Seol’s cheek. It was just as I was trying to pull my body back to remove Choi Seol’s touch, which was stubbornly entangled in my hair.

“Shall we sleep?”

What? Before the question could even leave my lips, my body was pushed backward. My back and head hit the plush sheets, and both my hands were immediately pinned down onto the bed. With Choi Seol mounted on top of me, he spoke again.

“Han Yeo-reum. Let’s do it.”

In that moment, I realized.

This guy has lost his mind.

“Choi Seol.”

“Yeah?”

“Bring your face a bit closer.”

Choi Seol moved as I told him, closing the distance. It was the perfect distance for a kiss.

“Just relax for a second.”

I slammed my knee into his abdomen with all my might. Ah, damn it, my knee. I let out a silent scream at the impact felt in my knee. Is his stomach made of stone? I tried to take down a crazy bastard, but it felt like my knee was the one that got shattered.

Still, the blow must have been significant, as Choi Seol coughed and clutched his stomach. In the meantime, I pulled myself back and scrambled off the bed.

“Are you awake now?”

“Suddenly… cough! What was that for?”

“Suddenly my ass. Why the hell did you suddenly lose your mind? Do you know your eyes looked seriously weird just now?”

At my words, Choi Seol clutched his stomach, [Read on Read BL Novels]his shoulders shaking. I thought he was crying because it hurt so visit our sitemuch, but looking [stolen content]closer, he was laughing. It was absurd.

“Hey. Are you laughing right now? You’re laughing?”

“Just… but this is a bit too much.”

The way he protested toward me was quite a sight. That guy was really laughing. Whether he’d gone mad from the pain or was just taking the situation lightly, he was laughing with tears in his eyes. Suddenly, heat rushed to my head.

“Oh, I’m the one who should be saying that. After meeting someone for the first time in ages, all you can say is ‘let’s do it’? What? You crazy bastard! If you were running a hope circuit thinking that because I let you kiss me earlier, the situation was settled, you’re a truly terrible prick. I told you. I’m going to kill you.”

To be honest, until right before I came to meet Choi Seol, these words weren’t even an option in the conversations I planned to have with him. But facing him like this, the old feelings of resentment revived and overflowed uncontrollably.

“Why didn’t you contact me? You said you liked me, that I was your first? And then I got into a car accident and was unconscious for two days, but weren’t you even worried? Why did a guy who says it’s heartbreaking when I’m hurt not show his face once without a single word? Why did I have to search for news articles just to find out how you were doing!”

It was by no means a coincidence that I saw the article about Baek Seol-ha’s inauguration as president. After Choi Seol left, I habitually searched for Baek Seol-ha’s name in portal search bars whenever I held my phone. However, other than the fact that he was the eldest son of Chairman H.S., there was no information anywhere that could lead me to a trace of him. Nevertheless, I checked every single day to see if any new news would pop up. That was why I was able to check the inauguration article less than three minutes after it hit the main news page.

“Now that you’ve regained your memories, do you hate me? Did you suddenly realize your mistake? You’re a successful chaebol heir and a president now, so were you afraid of being tied down by an incompetent, unemployed former classmate?”

“Han Yeo-reum.”

“What? Are you going to brag that you remember my name even if you forgot how I’m doing? No, your cousin told me. You stalked me for ten years? They said your memory loss might have been a lie. Is that it? Was it boring to play with me while lying, so you lost interest because I wasn’t a big deal? Is that why you just left me with a single bank account and disappeared!”

My voice echoing through the room felt truly pathetic.

Really, I didn’t come here for this.

I wanted to make sure he was doing well, and I wanted to hear how he still felt about me. And I wanted to tell him how I felt about him. I didn’t take a bus all the way to Seoul, feeling nauseous, just to degrade myself with resentment and misery. I had intended to just throw a bank account at him with an overly cool attitude as payment for the debt. I really had.

“But then why are you still acting so affectionate toward me?”

“….”

In reality, I didn’t even know where that bank account was, as it had likely ended up in the laundry room along with my bag after I got soaked in the rain. Moreover, the guy I thought would have changed his heart was clinging to me as if he’d die the moment he saw me.

Because that alone told me that he had missed me frantically as well, I only felt more miserable.

“Why on earth did you ask to kiss me?”

The fact that he was still so unrestrained in expressing his emotions, while I was the only one who had spent all that time suffering in silence, felt so unfair and contrasting that I couldn’t help but feel pathetic again. I hated that. Why did I have to feel the same patheticness I felt ten years ago in front of the same person?

“Han Yeo-reum.”

Choi Seol approached me and reached out. I stepped back to avoid his touch, but soon hit the window. The torrential rain drumming outside further shook my emotions. So, before Choi Seol’s touch could reach me, I lowered my head.

“Han Yeo-reum. Look at me.”

“I don’t want to, you mean psycho bastard. Stop playing with me.”

“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

He really was a guy who knew how to apologize perfectly. And what was wrong with me, that my heart wavered instantly?

“Forget it. ‘I’m sorry’ my ass, do you think I came here to get an apology from you? I was so pissed that you ignored me without even acknowledging the grace of feeding me all this time, so I came here to hit you. If I didn’t do at least that, I’d be too frustrated…”

I bit my lip. Finally, the tears I had been holding back burst forth.