“I’ve set up most of it… Could you give me the phone you’re using now? I’ll see if I can transfer the numbers.”
Gently lifting his head, Yigyeom, with a shy expression, handed the phone that was beside his head to Kwon Taejung.
Kwon Taejung, receiving an excessively old phone for a twenty-year-old, opened the folder and went into Yigyeom’s contacts. There were about twenty contacts saved.
Seeing the name ‘Kang Jihoon Hyung’, Kwon Taejung tilted his head slightly. The name of that guy who wore a cat mask naturally brought up the memory of that idiotic friend. Wonder if that guy is still pretending to be someone important.
That should’ve been the moment to kill him. The memory of him clinging to his legs, begging and groveling before crawling away, got stuck in his mind, making them feel extremely uncomfortable. Kwon Taejung tried to fill his mind with better thoughts while gently stroking Yigyeom’s hair.
“Hmm…”
Scrolling down, he found contacts labeled ‘Kang PD from the broadcasting station’ and ‘Lee PD.’ Casually skimming over those, Kwon Taejung scrolled further down. Following that were a loan shark, a laundry auntie, a supermarket uncle, until his number appeared.
Chief. Those five letters oddly made his heart flutter. Kwon Taejung spent a little more time looking at the names saved by Yigyeom before scrolling further down. Below were a few local residents, some unknown names, and the saved contact of Baek Yoonjung, a writer at the broadcasting station.
Two PDs and one writer seemed to be in continuous contact with Yigyeom. Kwon Taejung narrowed his eyes, thinking of a man and a woman he had seen in a cafe.
“Because it’s an old phone, it might not transfer immediately.”
“Ah… then, I’ll redo the saving separately. There aren’t many saved contacts, so I can do it quickly. There are also phone numbers of people not in contact anymore, so…”
“There are three contacts from the broadcasting station. Are all these people contacting you?”
“Yes…”
Considering deleting or blocking the numbers and pretending not to know, Kwon Taejung briefly exhaled and looked at Yigyeom. Rather than silently begging from behind, it seemed better to say something to Yigyeom.
“I hope you won’t participate in the broadcast.”
“Ah…”
Yigyeom nodded understandingly. Waiting for Yigyeom to ask why, Kwon Taejung waited for the next words.
“Chief hopes the demolition goes smoothly… I thought you would do that. If the broadcast goes on, it’ll be difficult for the demolition, right?”
“Yeah, right. Honestly, I’d prefer it if this place doesn’t attract attention and collapses quickly. There’s no reason for it not to collapse when everyone else leaves.”
“…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The existing photos were only of beverage recipes and a signboard with event company numbers. Kwon Taejung closed the phone and looked back at Yigyeom, waiting for a response.
“Don’t make me confess repeatedly when you won’t accept it.”
“…”
“Just think of it as someone wishing for you not to suffer.”
As Kwon Taejung’s hand lightly tapped Yigyeom’s cheek, trying not to cry, tears began to fall from his eyes. Kwon Taejung placed his lips over Yigyeom’s tears, gently sucking them in, realizing that tears might even taste good.
“You don’t have to accept it in your heart, but you can accept help.”
“…”
“Use that as an excuse to keep showing your face.”
When Kwon Taejung smiled, Yigyeom cried even more. Seeing Yigyeom crying quietly, his face drenched, Kwon Taejung leaned in. As he pulled Yigyeom with his warm arms, the smaller body easily drew closer.
Yigyeom’s heart was weakened enough to accept help as a weaponized threat, but even knowing that, Kwon Taejung didn’t suggest building something out of that vulnerability. Taking advantage of a weakened moment to sneakily delve in wasn’t his style. Yigyeom wanted to confidently enter his heart with both hands, sprinting toward him.
“Don’t accept help from others. I can do everything for you.”
“…”
“I’ll stop Koo Daebeom. He won’t dare approach me. You don’t have to worry about anything. I can solve the debt problem too.”
Yigyeom, who had his face buried in Kwon Taejung’s shoulder, raised his head, meeting his gaze. Whenever he faced that pitiful expression, an unbearable feeling, almost like trash, stirred in Kwon Taejung’s gut.
“…I’m already receiving too much help… The debt is out of the question. That’s my responsibility, so I’ll work to pay it off. Besides, you’ve already sent a significant amount of money.”
“There’s still money I haven’t sent.”
“You don’t have to send it anymore. The money you sent last time was already too much…”
“Still, a promise is a promise.”
He might have agreed to give Yigyeom a hundred thousand won per hour and started spending time together for that purpose, but Yigyeom no longer wanted to receive money from Kwon Taejung under such pretenses.
If every moment spent together was calculated in terms of money, even the time spent hanging around due to a heat cycle would be converted into money. The thought alone made Yigyeom’s heart ache, and he lowered his head again. He couldn’t deny that his feelings had already shifted towards Kwon Taejung.
“Okay.”
Kwon Taejung decided to comply with Yigyeom’s wish. Yigyeom, pleading not to convert their time together into money, looked excessively lovable. Anyway, once he paid off the debt to Koo Dae-beom at the right time, it would all be over. Imagining properly settling the interest and then metaphorically kicking Koo Dae-beom’s face in made Kwon Taejung feel relieved.
“So, now I just want to be together because I want to.”
Seeing Yigyeom with his ears burning like he has been crying, Kwon Taejung smiled and gently placed his lips on the corner of his eye.
“Actually, I’ve felt that way for a while.”
“…Me too…”
“Yeah?”
“…I’ve never thought about money when meeting the Chief… Because you gave me money… I’ve never, really never, thought like that.”
Yigyeom’s voice, barely a whisper, struck deeply. Kwon Taejung leaned in, holding Yigyeom’s lips as if asking for trust. Unlike before, his lips were now open without any guard, making Kwon Taejung feel like his head might explode. Damn, when did he become so docile?
“…Mm…”
Holding each other tightly, teasing their lips for a while before pulling away, Yigyeom looked at Kwon Taejung with unfocused eyes.
“More?”
Yigyeom’s timid nodding, revealing his courage, made Kwon Taejung smile. He gently touched Yigyeom’s lips with his and tenderly explored his mouth with their tongue, enough to make Yigyeom completely melt away.
Yigyeom, completely dissolved, leaned entirely on Kwon Taejung, not even opening his eyes, receiving the kiss fully. Even though the kiss was long enough to cause shortness of breath and it was impossible to tell how much time had passed, parting lips left a bittersweet feeling.
“Haah…”
“Ha… Yigyeom, I have a favor to ask.”
Huffing softly at the request, Yigyeom raised his gaze. Kwon Taejung, noticing Yigyeom’s slightly plumper lips, playfully smiled and touched him with his fingertip.
“I’m going home today.”
“Ah…”
At the mention of going home, Yigyeom’s heart started pounding rapidly. It was natural for Kwon Taejung to go home, nothing to be upset or disappointed about, yet something felt off in Yigyeom’s heart.
“Come with me.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s go to my place together.”
“Me too?”
“Should I go alone? Should I leave you here? Baby, now that I’m not giving you money, do you not want to spend time with me anymore?”
Pressed against Kwon Taejung’s large body, Yigyeom was overwhelmed by the closeness of their bodies and the morning pheromones that wafted more intensely. Even though he knew Yigyeom felt this way, Kwon Taejung intertwined his body with the smaller one.
“I realized, we don’t need to be like this, leaving behind a big, nice house. Not that here is bad, but relatively, we don’t need to stay here when there’s a bigger house.”
“…”
“Let’s go together. Hmm? Just for a few days.”
Yigyeom couldn’t refuse Kwon Taejung’s words. The desire to be together was so overwhelming that he couldn’t bring himself to say it was okay to stay alone in this house. He already knew it wouldn’t be okay.
“Yes. I’ll go. Together.”
Smiling, Kwon Taejung lifted Yigyeom’s face buried in his embrace. That smile made Yigyeom’s heart pound again.
He couldn’t think of anything now except that he liked Kwon Taejung.
Taking only the clothes and shoes he bought, Kwon Taejung left without looking back, heading towards his home from the redevelopment area. This might not be the end forever, but for now, the thought of staying with Yigyeom in his own home made him very happy.
There might be better places to go, but what was even better than that was Yigyeom agreeing readily to go together. Now, just seeing Yigyeom’s face made everything seem perfect.
Ahh so cute.
But there definitely feels like there is some difficulties to overcome
Hi nicotine, thanks for the las chapters, this is a beautiful story, have a great 2024