Vol. 2 Chapter 77: Chapter 77

Vol. 2 Chapter 77:

Translated by Chef

Edited by Chef

As it passed with a huge splash of water, the car in the next lane honked its horn irritably. Normally, he would have opened the window and apologized, but he didn’t even have time to do so now.

He had to go quickly…

Inseop nervously grabbed the steering wheel.

As soon as Inseop realized why Lee Wooyeon lied to him, he immediately called CEO Kim.

‘Did you find out where Lee Wooyeon is?’

As soon as the call got connected, CEO Kim urgently asked. He could tell that his words when he told him not to worry were completely empty words.

‘I don’t know yet. Can I ask where you went to find Lee Wooyeon?’

‘I looked at both his old house and his new house.’

‘Can’t you contact him at all?’

CEO Kim sighed. And he began to lament the regret he had endured over his life.

‘He left his cell phone behind, so I’m going crazy right now. I watched him for three days while sleeping on a hard supplementary bed in case he got into an accident. How could he do this to me? If he disappears without saying a word, what will happen? If he walks around in a patient’s uniform in this situation, I know what reporters will say, and I will go crazy. He disappeared, leaving behind his cell phone. I am getting very old. I’m getting old.’

‘What about the car keys?’

CEO Kim seemed taken aback by Inseop’s question.

“Car keys?” he asked back. Then, he rummaged around for something and realized there were no car keys! He shouted in a happy voice. It was fortunate that he wasn’t just walking.

Inseop hung up the phone with CEO Kim and prepared to leave. As he was trying to think of places he could go, Inseop called CEO Kim again and asked to borrow his car as a thought crossed his mind.

CEO Kim immediately drove the Ferrari to Inseop’s house. He said that since it was the fastest car among his cars, he could use it as much as he wanted. Normally he would have refused, but Inseop accepted the car keys without a second thought.

When he applied the accelerator, he made a heavy sound and the body of the car moved forward. It was difficult to see ahead due to the pouring rain. Nevertheless, Inseop did not slow down.

He wasn’t sure that Lee Wooyeon would be there. He only mentioned it once. But other than that place, there was no other place that came to mind.

I hope Lee Wooyeon is there.

He repeated the same prayer all the way from Seoul.

Please please… please,

Shortly after exiting the national highway, he saw a villa near the lakeside. A car parked in front of the villa caught his eye. It was Lee Wooyeon’s car.

Inseop parked the car as if throwing it away and ran outside holding an umbrella.

Is he in the villa?

Inseop turned around, thinking he needed to check inside. But he found a locked door and started looking around again. The rain poured down with the force of breaking through the ground. Just standing there holding an umbrella was difficult.

“Mr. Wooyeon!”

He called his name out loud, but it was in vain, blocked by the sound of rain.

It was just a loss.

He wondered if he just parked his car here and went somewhere else. Or not ….

The surface of the lake was visible, splashed with rainwater. Feeling an overwhelming sense of anxiety, Inseop quickly shook his head.

He wouldn’t have gone far. Somewhere around here…

“……?”

Inseop’s eyes widened.

Inseop ran straight to the bench in front of the lake. Lee Wooyeon was sitting on the bench. He was looking at the lake with an expressionless face.

Since when has he been there? His hospital gown was soaked. He held out a large umbrella and covered his body.

“…you’ll catch a cold.”

Hearing Inseop’s words, the man sitting on the bench slowly raised his head. The moment their eyes met, Lee Wooyeon frowned at him as if he was extremely shocked. Then he look down at his hands.

Inseop became even more worried about his incomprehensible behavior.

“Are you okay?”

Inseop asked, but Lee Wooyeon did not move and just stared at his hand. Then he suddenly sighed and cupped his face.

“What’s going on? Why are you here?”

Only then did Lee Wooyeon open his mouth.

“I came to look for Mr. Wooyeon.”

“Did you put a tracking device on my car? Or did you decide to become my stalker again?”

“… I remembered what you said before.”

Before the movie premiere, Lee Wooyeon hugged Inseop and whispered in an excited boyish voice.

‘Where should we go after? this? You liked the lake we went to together then, right?

After recalling what he had said, he couldn’t even think of anywhere else. Inseop immediately drove to Gangwon-do.

Lee Wooyeon laughed a little after hearing Inseop’s answer.

“Did the CEO send you?”

Lee Wooyeon raised his head.

He shows no signs of nervousness or agitation that he showed when he first met his eyes.

It was a neat face that skillfully captured emotions.

“I came looking for you.”

“You did something useless. I came here to get some fresh air. I was just about to go up.”

Lee Wooyeon laughed. Unlike other times when he smiles kindly, kindness was nowhere to be found.

“I know you lied.”

“What lie?”

Lee Wooyeon asked again. He had a calm expression.

“What you said about meeting Chae Yeonseo. I know that’s not true. I saw the article.”

Lee Wooyeon smiled, the corners of his eyes creasing.

“I don’t get pictures taken. Only idiots get taken.”

“..I misunderstood.”

“What misunderstanding? Mr. Inseop, there was no misunderstanding. It’s true that I met a girl and fucked her.”

Lee Wooyeon smiled and continued.

“I’m that kind of guy. You’ve investigated my background, so you know better. Don’t you?”

“You don’t have to say that on purpose.”

“Hahaha. What was this on purpose? I guess you thought I wouldn’t get tired of Mr. Inseop. You thought a bastard like me would keep his faith as long as it’s a big deal to fuck a man’s hole.”

He lazily said cruel things. It was a familiar sight to Inseop.

It was the face of an actor he had seen on screen.

“I’m sorry,” Inseop bowed his head and apologized.

“What is there to be sorry for? That’s how I was born.”

“…sorry.”

Inseop bowed his head and apologized once again. Even if he apologized thousands or even tens of thousands of times, it wasn’t enough. Inseop kept repeating the same thing. Sorry Sorry,… sorry.

Lee Wooyeon stood up.

“When you go up to Seoul, go straight to the United States.”

Lee Wooyeon’s cold voice clearly pushed away any emotions.

Inseop caught Lee Wooyeon, who was trying to pass him. The umbrella he was holding was blown away by the wind and rolled around on the floor. The cold rain hit his face, but Inseop strengthened the hand holding Lee Wooyeon.

“I, I was wrong. I misunderstood… I didn’t trust Lee Wooyeon, so I acted cowardly like that.”

Inseop’s hand holding Lee Wooyeon was trembling. Lee Wooyeon placed his hand on Inseop’s hand.

“Mr. Inseop.”

His hands were as cold as ice.

How long has he been sitting here?

Inseop barely held back his tears.

“I never trusted you either. So there’s no need to apologize for every single thing.”

Inseop shook his head.

Lee Wooyeon bent down and picked up the umbrella that was rolling on the floor. He held up the umbrella and continued speaking.

.

“I’ll be honest. Now I’m just tired. I care about what you think of me, and I also have to try to live up to normal standards. I just want to live comfortably like before.”

Lee Wooyeon slowly caught his breath.

“Go back to America. You knew it would end up like this anyway. It’s not like you’re going to play a love game with me for a thousand years. What if a photo is taken and an article is made about you while we’re together? It’s not like you can take responsibility for my life.”

It was all reasonable and correct. There wasn’t even room for refutation.

Inseop looked up at Lee Wooyeon. Rainwater flowed down his cheeks.

Lee Wooyeon smiled brightly.

“Honestly, I was getting tired of working with Inseop. No matter how many times we had sex, the sex didn’t really improve, and I often felt like I was being crushed by a log. It’s also cumbersome to have sex with a sick person.”

Lee Wooyeon fixed Inseop’s collar.

“Inseop, you too, live without paying attention to what I think. Raise a dog and a cat, live with people you like, and live normally. I’m tired of imitating things like that.”

His voice was calm. He was like the eyes that looked upon the lake. These are deep eyes, as calm as death, without any emotional agitation.

He looked the same as the one he saw in the show, but was completely different. The Lee Wooyeon in his dream was an illusion created by his anxiety, and the person in front of him was a reality created by his weakness.

“… Don’t say things like that.”

His voice was wet with crying and trembled slightly.

“Then what should I say?”

“Can’t you tell me honestly?”

Lee Wooyeon smiled lightly and said, “Honest.” There was an eerie look in his eyes.

“I don’t know how other people predict common sense or emotions. So I’m just roughly imitating it. I don’t know if my feelings are the same as yours, so what are you asking me to be honest about?”

“…It’s okay if it’s not the same.” Inseop answered in a slightly trembling voice.

It started like that from the beginning.

It’s okay that it doesn’t have to be the same, and even if it’s similar, that’s enough.

However, he became more and more greedy towards him and ended up doing things wrong.

“Didn’t Inseop say that the reason he likes me is because of an unwritten intention?”

“…”

The wind full of moisture blowing under the umbrella brushed Inseop’s cheek. His mind wandered at the word “unwritten intention.”

“I don’t know if Inseop got better because of this unwritten intention. If it bothered me, I would have just cut him off. You may have been special from the beginning. But, as I said, it doesn’t end there. I want to hurt things. How are these similar feelings?”

Lee Wooyeon’s voice becomes increasingly harsh.

“I don’t want to see your friends, your family, or even a single blade of grass you grow. Fuck, do you understand? Shall I be more honest? I just want to lock you up and not let you go anywhere. Even if you cry no matter what, I just want to rape you, set fire to the house you are returning to, and twist the necks of the people you like and the people who like you.”

A bitter anger seeps into Lee Wooyeon’s eyes.

“But is it okay if it’s not the same?”

“I am…”

At that time, Inseop’s eyes caught Lee Wooyeon’s shoulder. Everything is wet from the falling rain and water is flowing.

The umbrella in Lee Wooyeon’s hand was tilted towards Inseop.

It felt like his heart was being crushed.

“Anyway, it was a relationship that was imitated, but it was time to get sick of it. What’s so great about a relationship when you don’t know when you’re going to die?”

Lee Wooyeon could not finish his sentence. Inseop’s hand touched his cheek and then fell. The force was so weak that it could not even be said to have hit him. Lee Wooyeon looked at Inseop blankly in a completely unexpected situation.

“At that time, you told me to do it like this… I’m sorry.” Inseop burst into tears.

He tried desperately not to cry, but it was no use.

“I’m sorry. I said it was okay to have similar feelings, but I’m sorry for being greedy and making it difficult for you. I was wrong. I’m all…”

Tears poured down his cheeks. Lee Wooyeon’s fingertips trembled.

Inseop lowered his head and continued his words.

“At first, they said I wouldn’t survive until the age of three. Then, they said it would be difficult to live past the age of seven, and then ten. Even the doctor couldn’t guarantee whether it would be possible for me to live even if I received a transplant surgery. Now, I am living a normal life. I know that. I do it better than anyone else. I always felt like the day I would die was closer than the day I could live, so I know what it’s like to know that I could suddenly die one day.”

Inseop raised his head. Big eyes filled with tears look endlessly at Lee Wooyeon.

“I’m sorry.”

When he was young, he was afraid of being sick. Because he didn’t know when he might die.

His parents have always been people who bravely faced everything, so he always thought that fear was his responsibility.

It was like that until that day.

It was the day before his tenth birthday. He made the excuse that he wasn’t feeling well and stayed in bed all day and didn’t say anything. When the doctor said that he wouldn’t live past the age of ten, he was actually very scared.

He got out of bed after midnight and confirmed that he was still alive. As he was going downstairs because he was thirsty, he heard his mother’s voice.

Sitting at her kitchen table, her mother was crying and praying. She asked the Lord to allow her to love her beloved son even one more day.

That day he saw his mother cry for the first time. And he realized that his death is his, but the fear of it was not entirely his.

From then on, Inseop tried not to show that he was scared, no matter how much it hurt.

The same was true for Lee Wooyeon. Hee was always fine, he said. Then he believed he would be okay too. He wasn’t okay at all…

“I’m sorry because I’m sick, because I’m in this kind of body… I didn’t want you to feel that way, too, Mr. Wooyeon… I’m sorry.”

Even in moments like these, Inseop did not blame anyone and only blamed his own mistakes.

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m… ”

As Lee Wooyeon watched, the tendons in his hands stood out.

“Wooyeon is right. I don’t know when I’ll die, and I don’t think it’s a great relationship. So…”

Inseop stretched out his hand as if to cling to Lee Wooyeon.

“It’s not a great relationship, so why not just do it before you die?”

Inseop seemed to have lost his emotions and shed tears.

The moment he saw Lee Wooyeon’s completely wet shoulders, he remembered the voice that had read the book to me all night.

He liked him.

He loved the guy who smiled at him like a mischievous boy, the guy who made a light sound as if he was in a good mood when he kissed him lightly, the guy who read a book with his eyes downcast, and the guy who asked how he was doing.

Even though the emotions he showed were not the same as the ones he had, he couldn’t bear it because he liked the emotions he showed.

Inseop grabbed the hem of Lee Wooyeon’s clothes with his trembling hands. He didn’t even move.

“If you don’t want me to be sick… I’ll stay by your side as long as I’m healthy. If you’re in pain or feel like you’re going to collapse or die, I’ll go the day before, I’ll go. So just until then…”

He was suddenly pulled in.

His body was trapped in the man’s strong arms.

“Don’t go”

Lee Wooyeon said while burying his face in Inseop’s wet neck.

“Don’t go. Inseop.”

Lee Wooyeon hugged Inseop’s back with trembling hands.

“Please, I’m begging you, don’t go…don’t die.”

Lee Wooyeon expressed his raw, unadorned true feelings in a trembling voice. Inseop nodded his head. He felt like the man, who was big enough to cover his entire body, was young and weak, so he nodded several times to reassure him.

“I’m sorry. … Because it’s not okay, without Inseop, I… I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”

The man’s broad shoulders shook from crying. The more Inseop cried, the more strength he held in his arms and the more he held back the tears.

The lake shrouded in fog was drenched in rain.

His heart clenched as his emotions surged through him. He felt like he was submerged in deep water.

Inseop closed his eyes.