Come Back

“And how can I forgive each and every one of those bastards who took that person away?”

Now he was no longer trying to hide his anger. But soon he turned his head as if he regretted showing his negative emotions in front of his lover and took a deep drag on the cigarette filter. Due to the continued lack of sleep and his nerves becoming sharp, the silhouette of his face from his forehead and eyebrows to the bridge of his nose and the outline of his jawbone became more prominent. He seemed to be trying to control his emotions through the ritual of bringing the cigarette to his lips and then blowing out the ash, but unlike usual, it didn’t seem easy.

Choi Hong-seo, who had taken a sip of ginger tea and moistened his lips, put down the glass and stood up. Tiffany, who had been curled up on a single-person sofa, raised her head and looked up. He stroked the boy’s head and walked towards Lee Hae-seong, who was leaning loosely on the desk.

“You smell like cigarettes. Don’t come this way.”

The anger that had been blazing just a moment ago had disappeared, and his voice sounded almost limp and drained.

“I said it’s not that I don’t particularly like smoking. Why don’t you believe me?”

I leaned against the desk and moved closer to Hae-seong, who was now at lower eye level than usual.

“It’s even more frustrating that you’re trying to hide it from me.”

“What good thing is it that I’m going to smoke in front of you?”

“I’m your lover and I’m 28 years old… so you’re really going to educate me like a baby?”

He seemed to agree with that statement, and smiled blandly. After taking a puff of smoke, he gently touched the fingertips of Choi Hong-seo, who was standing in front of him, with the hand that was not holding the cigarette. As if he didn’t have the courage to hold on tightly.

“Isn’t it scary?”

“What is it?”

“Can’t you see me again?”

“why?”

Choi Hong-seo’s face was filled with pure doubt as he said he had no idea why he was saying such things.

“Whatever the reason, he has blood on his hands.”

“……”

“I didn’t want to kiss you, and I didn’t want you to come near me. I was scared for a while that you would treat me like a monster.”

“Are you scared? The old man?”

“Don’t be afraid of Hongseo.”

Choi Hong-seo was the first to grab hold of Hae-seong’s hand, which was barely hanging on with just a fingertip.

“You know that no matter what choice you make, I won’t look at you differently. Are you doing this on purpose?”

“…It’s not that I don’t trust you or your love. I’m just too scared.”

He lowered his gaze and brought the cigarette to his lips. He was a large man both physically and socially, and he confessed to ordering people to kill. His broad and thick shoulders, which seemed like they could carry a mountain, looked pitiful to Choi Hong-seo at that moment. He held onto the fingers in his hand even tighter.

“A person who had tried to remain rational until the end, thinking that revenge was just venting anger, changed his mind. It was because of me… How could I not understand that feeling?”

Choi Hong-seo held the hand he was holding with both hands as if massaging it and kneaded it vigorously.

“I know those emails must have caused you a lot of pain… That just breaks my heart.”

He, who had been quietly handing over his left hand, suddenly grabbed Choi Hong-seo’s hand tightly. Then he pulled him closer to him.

“I don’t regret it one bit.”

Confident eyes looked up at Choi Hong-seo.

“The day that ‘Yoon Hye-an’, who had been unconscious for several months, woke up was the very day that Lee Seo-kyung was murdered in Thailand. I absolutely do not think it is a coincidence.”

“ah…”

It was a long time after I opened my eyes in Yoon Hye-an’s body that I searched for what happened to Lee Seo-kyung and Myeong Do-hoon after my death, and the ending of the ‘X-gun Scandal’. Just thinking about them for a long time made my body tremble from the inside out.

The news that Lee Seo-kyung had been shot and died in a foreign country was shocking, but I didn’t feel any sympathy. And I didn’t pay much attention to the date. I didn’t even realize that it was the same day I woke up in Yoon Hye-an’s body.

While feeling a strange thrill at the fact that the two dates overlapped, Lee Hae-seong gently kissed Choi Hong-seo’s hand. Choi Hong-seo gently cupped his face. As he often did.

“Don’t regret it. Even Lee Seo-kyung wouldn’t have regretted what she did until the end, so why do you regret it?”

Lee Hae-seong, who had pulled Choi Hong-seo tightly between his legs, raised his head. His face appeared closer to him thanks to their different eye level than usual.

“Legal punishment, personal punishment… I don’t know anything about that, but I know that Seo-kyung Lee deserves to die. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

He had been silently looking into Choi Hong-seo’s eyes, and he tilted his head. He held the cigarette with his right hand, leaning on the edge of the desk, and wrapped his left hand around her waist. His dry lips touched her neck and slipped between her generously sized pajama collars.

Choi Hong-seo seemed to know the meaning of the kiss.

From the moment he kissed the back of my hand, he had been kissing every spot where a birthmark had appeared.

“Don’t worry. As long as I live with understanding, the video that Jo Seong-hyeon had will never leak out into the world.”

“What are you going to do?”

“It won’t be that complicated. I’ll handle it in the quickest and cleanest way possible. Our departure on Sunday can’t be delayed because of something like that, right?”

The tone of voice suggested that it was as simple as choosing the food you want to eat from the delivery app and paying with a fintech service.

Understanding kissed the deep root of Choi Hong-seo’s neck between the loose collars and looked up at him, resting his chin on his chest.

“Hongseo, can you understand me? Okay?”

“mister.”

“Hongseo said it wasn’t my fault that I killed Lee Seo-kyung.”

“No, sir. That’s not it.”

Choi Hong-seo, who gently hugged Lee Hae-seong’s head, shook his head.

“Whether it’s Lee Seo-kyung, Myeong Do-hoon, or President Cho. If you can’t forgive him, don’t forgive him. Instead…”

“……”

“I am your accomplice.”

“What does that mean?”

Hae-seong slowly straightened his back. He stubbed out the cigarette that was burning between the fingers of his right hand.

“It happened to us. I don’t like it when you just get your hands dirty and hide behind it while I’m comfortable and innocent. Tell me what you’re trying to do and how things work out.”

“Hongseo…”

“People like Jo Sung-hyun. People like Lee Seo-kyung. I know that I can’t deal with them in a legal and fair way. I don’t say things like “don’t take revenge” like a greenhouse flower. Instead, I’ll do the same.”

At the words, “Let’s get revenge together,” Lee Hae-seong made a desperate expression, as if he had heard the words, “Let’s break up.” Choi Hong-seo grabbed Lee Hae-seong’s hands. They were neat and clean, but very large and heavy.

“If there’s blood on your hands, sir, then there’s blood on my hands too.”

“……”

“I love you badly, selfishly. Like us.”

Understanding held the fingertips that were touching each other as if they were interlocked, applying strength to them, as if trying to console a disobedient child.

“Hongseo is really sick. What if I find out all the details of that and get sick again? It’s not a good thing. As for Jo Seong-hyeon, can I just take care of this last one?”

Lee Hae-seong sat up from his desk. This time, he grabbed Choi Hong-seo’s shoulders and pushed him forward as if he was pressuring him. Under the force, Choi Hong-seo took three or four steps back. Niya? Tiffany, who had been lying down quietly, still curled up, as if she thought the two were fighting, jumped down from the sofa.

“I understand that you want to protect me. But, what should I do if the love you taught me isn’t like that?”

“How could I make you hold a knife, Hongseo?”

Choi Hong-seo gently stroked Lee Hae-seong’s arm, which was exerting such force that it seemed as if it would crush his shoulder blade.

“Even though I’m much younger than you… I’ve had to see and experience everything, both the good and the bad. I’m much more poisonous than you think.”

“It wasn’t poisonous. It was strong.”

I wanted to thank him for saying that, but my throat was choked up and I couldn’t open my voice because tears were about to fall. I just tried to smile awkwardly. The strength in Hae-seong’s hand that was holding my shoulder slowly disappeared.

“And because you had to become strong to endure, I want to cherish you as much as I can.”

Tiffany, who had gotten off the sofa, continued to pace around anxiously. Choi Hong-seo had to pick her up as she cried in an anxious voice.

“I know. I also know why you call me baby… That’s why, when I’m around you, I feel like even my past self is being taken care of. Even the me before I met you.”

To prevent Tiffany from feeling suffocated in Choi Hong-seo’s arms, Lee Hae-seong gently wrapped his arm around his lover’s shoulder. His breath felt warm and ticklish on Choi Hong-seo’s forehead.

“Then, can’t I keep the knife in my hand without Hongseo knowing?”

“No matter how dead the other person is, even if he is a piece of trash, the blood on his hands remains as darkness in his heart. When I smile brightly in your arms, there is a darkness inside you that I don’t know about. I don’t like it. Just let me put my hand on the hand you hold the knife in. Even if a darkness as hard as a rock remains, it’s better for us to share it.”

I held her in my arms, as if she wanted to be held, but this time Tiffany cried even louder and threw herself to the floor. She didn’t even want to go out of the study. She still hovered around the two of them. It was impossible to talk anymore because she kept raising her head and crying loudly.

Choi Hong-seo sat on the floor and stroked Tiffany. Starting from the nape of her neck and moving towards her armpits, he slowly massaged her favorite spots while calling her name in the softest voice possible.

“Tiffany, Tiffany. What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell? It’s okay, we’re not fighting.”

Hae-seong sighed from above and said, tossing his hair as if he had no choice.

“Should I bring some snacks?”

“I guess so. This is my first time doing something like this, so I’m worried….”

Choi Hong-seo, who was petting Tiffany’s gray long-haired dog that kept crying and licking its front paw anxiously, suddenly stopped and looked up at Lee Hae-seong.

“Sir, what did you say back then? Tiffany’s name.”

“name?”

“It’s not a jewelry brand name… I told you that at the officetel.”

“Oh, it’s probably named after Freddie Mercury’s cat. It looks very similar.”

Understanding answered the question from a completely unexpected direction with a bewildered look.

“By any chance, does that person have a ‘Romeo’ among his cats?”

“That’s true, but…”

“I, I… I have a feeling something is wrong.”

Choi Hong-seo, who got up with a face full of excitement, grabbed Lee Hae-seong’s arm in a hurry.

“Cellphone. Sir, can I borrow your cellphone?”

Choi Hong-seo, who had unlocked his phone, went to the sofa, sat down, and looked for a SNS app. It was a SNS mainly used by the younger generation, based on sharing photos and videos rather than text.

ARA Hae-seong’s phone surprisingly had the app downloaded on it. He had been following ‘Choi Hong-seo’s’ account. That account was still there, so Hae-seong couldn’t have deleted the app either.

Without asking what was going on, Lee Hae-seong quietly came over to Choi Hong-seo and sat down. Tiffany jumped onto his lap, and he watched Choi Hong-seo’s hands as he gently massaged the spots he liked.

“If Tiffany’s name really came from the name of the cat that the band’s vocalist had… Dong-ha’s cat would probably be the same, too. His name was Romeo.”

It was unlikely that Yoon Hye-an, who did not seem to like animals that much, would have voluntarily raised a cat. Judging from the fact that her family raised dogs, she was more likely to be familiar with puppies than with cats. It was hard to believe that it was a coincidence that the two people who were sponsored by Jo Seong-hyeon ended up raising cats with such names.

Choi Hong-seo entered the names of the cats that ‘Freddie Mercury’ had been with in his lifetime into the SNS search bar one by one. If it was President Cho’s ritual to give cats named after ‘Freddie Mercury’s’ pet cats to sponsors, it seemed certain that there were other targets besides Yoon Hye-an and Park Dong-ha. Maybe that would be a clue to finding Jo Sung-hyun’s weakness.

Oscar, Tom, Jerry, Delilah…

The sponsored target was obviously a celebrity, so if he had just posted a post, it would have been exposed at the top of the search results. However, no posts of note were noticed. Choi Hong-seo’s hands, which had been moving anxiously, stopped after searching for the fifth or sixth name.

“……”

“……”

Choi Hong-seo and Lee Hae-seong looked at each other.

#Goliath #companion cat #novice butler

The protagonist of the post from two years ago, with a multi-colored short-haired cat with a hashtag like this. It was Go Ji-woon.

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