Chapter 91: Refusal

Bang!

The car door slammed shut as if it might break apart.

The footsteps striding toward him carried a desperation that felt like the difference between life and death.

Even under the blazing sunlight, his gaze flashed with danger.

The instant their eyes met—those bloodshot, fiercely reddened eyes—Han-geon unknowingly held his breath.

It had been exactly a week since he last saw that face.

During that time, every minute, every second, he had thought of Eun-gyeol.

There was not a single moment that wasn’t engraved with him, yet when he actually came face to face with him like this, the time they had spent together felt distant, like a past life.

Was it because none of this felt real?

Even as Eun-gyeol approached with a face that looked ready to swallow him whole, Han-geon’s body remained frozen in place, stiff as hardened wax.

“Choi Han-geon!”

The voice was so pained it was practically a scream.

Though his eyes looked like those of a hunter driving prey into a corner, he instead resembled someone being chased himself.

Watching Eun-gyeol close the distance in one swift motion, Han-geon forced himself to stand up.

Just as the outstretched hand was about to touch Han-geon’s shoulder, Jinwoo stepped in front of him.

“What the hell?

Get lost.”

Eun-gyeol spat the words as he glared at Jinwoo, his expression like he was about to kill him.

His voice was rough and unrefined.

Jinwoo frowned deeply and shot back.

“You look way too worked up to see straight.

Calm down a bit.”

“What are you, jumping in like this?

Know your place.”

“Cha Eun-gyeol!”

His vision swam.

Out of habit from his days as a manager and bodyguard, Han-geon quickly scanned the surroundings.

Thankfully, the weekday beach was deserted, and there were no signs of sasaeng fans or suspicious movement trailing Eun-gyeol.

Han-geon took a deep breath.

Forcing his turbulent heart to settle, he looked at him with a composed gaze.

“Watch your mouth.

And you… how did you even find this place?”

“You’re standing here right now, you f*cking—”

Eun-gyeol clenched his teeth and cut himself off.

His face, completely steeped in rage, had gone deathly pale, with dark shadows pooling beneath his eyes.

He looked worse than Han-geon had ever seen him, as if it wouldn’t be strange for him to collapse at any moment.

Eun-gyeol took another step closer.

He grabbed Han-geon’s wrist from behind Jinwoo’s back and yanked it roughly.

“What the hell are you doing here?

You disappeared like that—do you know how much I—f*ck.

And what about that bastard?

Who the hell is he?”

“Cha Eun-gyeol!”

Unable to hold back anymore, Han-geon shouted.

He shook off the hand gripping his wrist and glared sharply at Eun-gyeol.

“I told you to watch your mouth.

Who do you think you are, calling Jinwoo hyung ‘that bastard’?”

“…What am I?”

An indescribable emotion flickered across his stiff, pale face.

Eun-gyeol looked more shaken by those words than by having his hand slapped away.

He failed to continue speaking, drawing in a harsh breath, and only after a long while did he manage to force the words out.

“You’re saying that… to me….”

He couldn’t finish the sentence.

The muscles in his jaw bulged harshly.

His clenched fist trembled visibly, as though he were crushing his emotions down by force.

Han-geon finally tore his gaze away and turned to Jinwoo.

“Hyung, I’m sorry.

I’ll talk to him for a bit and then come back.”

“Stay together.

That guy’s way too agitated right now.”

“No, it’s okay.

I’ll handle it.”

Jinwoo immediately shook his head, but when he saw how calmly Han-geon spoke, he eventually relented.

“Haah… fine.

Talk, then come back.

If anything happens, call me right away.”

“Yes.”

It was the moment Jinwoo turned his back.

Eun-gyeol’s sharp voice sliced through the air between the three of them.

“Who the hell is that guy?

Why is he acting like that toward you?”

“I told you to watch what you say.”

Despite Han-geon’s growling warning, Eun-gyeol spat back with murderous eyes.

“Who the f*ck is that bastard, acting like your guardian?

Did you already hook up with him while I wasn’t around?”

Before Han-geon could even respond, Jinwoo spun around and strode forward, rage blazing across his face.

He grabbed Eun-gyeol by the collar.

Han-geon’s eyes widened as he saw Jinwoo’s large fist rise high.

“Hyung!”

There was no time to stop him.

In an instant, bright red blood burst from Eun-gyeol’s nose as his body staggered.

Han-geon’s vision went white, his ears ringing.

As he rushed forward to grab Jinwoo’s arm and break them apart, Eun-gyeol lunged like a beast.

He tore Jinwoo’s hand off his collar and slammed his fist hard into Jinwoo’s cheek.

“Ugh!”

“Cha Eun-gyeol!”

Jinwoo groaned in pain as the punch landed cleanly.

Even then, Eun-gyeol’s hand gripping Jinwoo’s collar showed no sign of loosening.

Blood trickled from Jinwoo’s mouth as he tried to twist Eun-gyeol’s wrist away, but the feral grip, stripped of reason, refused to let go.

Pulling him even closer, Eun-gyeol raised his fist again.

Jinwoo’s eyes flashed as he clenched Eun-gyeol’s collar in return, ready to counterattack.

“Stop it!

Both of you, stop!”

Han-geon forced himself between them with all his strength.

As Eun-gyeol hesitated for a split second, Han-geon quickly pried Jinwoo free from his grasp.

Panting heavily, he shouted.

“What is this—
You’re both bleeding!”

His voice shook.

Eun-gyeol’s nose was bleeding, but Jinwoo’s lip looked completely split.

The amount of blood Jinwoo was losing was incomparable to Eun-gyeol’s.

The blood pouring out fast enough to chill his heart soaked Jinwoo’s T-shirt in no time.

Instinctively, Han-geon’s gaze went to Jinwoo, bleeding profusely.

As he frantically checked his face, his wrist was suddenly seized.

Eun-gyeol’s eyes bore into him, sharp as blades.

“You’ve got me right in front of you, and you’re worrying about that bastard?”

“That’s not the problem right now—!”

“You…”

Eun-gyeol’s face twisted grotesquely.

“How can you…

How can you do that?”

“…What?”

“You, who used to worry only about me—how can you stand there now, right in front of me, and….”

His accusing tone trembled violently.

He looked more unstable than ever, like a mortally wounded animal.

The sharp, wavering gaze pierced straight into Han-geon’s chest—
a mixture of anxiety, resentment, reproach, and desperate pleading.

That pale face staring at him, blood streaming from the nose—
the face of the man he had tried so desperately to forget for an entire week.

It felt as though his airway was slowly being crushed.

All the time he had spent struggling to steady his constantly wavering heart became meaningless.

At this very moment, Eun-gyeol was shaking Han-geon’s entire existence to its core—
with nothing more than a brief meeting of their eyes.

He couldn’t stay like this any longer.

Just as he was about to support Jinwoo and turn away with him, a powerful grip clamped onto his arm.

“Where are you going?”

“Back.

I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

“…Choi Han-geon.”

Eun-gyeol’s face crumpled in agony.

The hand clutching Han-geon’s arm trembled violently.

So did his voice.

He could be ruthlessly cold and composed, yet at times, he was more fragile with Han-geon than anyone else.

Because Han-geon knew that, he also knew how terrified Eun-gyeol was right now.

But Han-geon shook his head, forcing those thoughts away.

He shook off the hand gripping his arm.

From now on, this had nothing to do with him.

No matter what state Eun-gyeol was in, no matter what he felt, Han-geon had already decided to treat him like someone he could neither see nor hear.

He had resolved to use his heart only for himself.

“Let go.”

“Choi Han-geon.

When you disappeared like that, I—”

The moment Han-geon shook him off, Eun-gyeol desperately grabbed him again, his voice breaking in pain.

Taking a step closer, Eun-gyeol released pheromones so dense they felt threatening.

A body that had gone a week without an alpha’s pheromones flinched, instinctively accepting what he emitted.

Even as he bit his lip and tried to turn his head away, he could feel his senses focusing on Eun-gyeol’s scent on their own.

Even the presence in his womb reacted, his lower abdomen twitching uncontrollably, as if welcoming the one who had created it.

“I thought I was going to die.

Without you, I really thought I’d just die.

I searched for you like a madman for a whole week.

So please….”

He bit down on his bloodstained lip.

Whether blood flowed from his nose or hot blood filled his mouth, he didn’t care.

“…don’t leave like this.

Talk to me… please.”

The earnest, unwavering gaze fixed on him felt unfamiliar.

Had Cha Eun-gyeol ever looked at him like this before?

Han-geon thought that with a numb expression.

The words and expression directed at him now, from eyes sunk deep in despair, felt profoundly alien.

A bloodstained hand reached out toward Han-geon.

Han-geon silently looked down at it.

A white hand, smeared with red.

He had never once refused it before.

No—his entire life, he had never known how to refuse Cha Eun-gyeol.

Whenever Eun-gyeol reached out, he would grab hold without hesitation.

Because there had never been a moment when he hadn’t loved him.

And because the warmth Eun-gyeol gave him, like alms offered at his own convenience, had felt shamelessly good.

But this time, Han-geon turned his head away, ignoring that hand.

“…No.”

He opened his mouth and rejected him.

He did not take Eun-gyeol’s hand.

For the first time, Choi Han-geon refused Cha Eun-gyeol.

Everything about it was a first.

“Choi Han-geon!”

“I have nothing to talk about with you.

I don’t want to see your face anymore.

That’s why I came all the way here—to a place without you.”

The calm tone he used made the words feel strangely detached, as if someone else were speaking through him.

But he had to get used to it now.

To speaking like this.

He should have said these things from the beginning.

From the moment Eun-gyeol displayed his heart and cruelly mocked it.

From the moment he trampled over his body without care.

From the moment he turned him into an omega.

And… from the moment he impregnated him without consent.

It didn’t matter if it was too late.

He would no longer be swayed by Eun-gyeol.

He would not entrust himself to hands that lured him with sweet words only to push him off a cliff.

He could no longer accept Eun-gyeol’s intrusion, coming back with a desperate face to shake his resolve once more.

“So go back now.”

Han-geon slowly took hold of Jinwoo’s arm.

Then, without hesitation, he turned his back on Eun-gyeol.

“Don’t ever come looking for me again.”