Chapter 39: A Desperate Kiss

Ryu Yishin, I realized, had taken me home after my guiding session, instead of abandoning me while I slept. Though the clothes he lent me were uncomfortably large, he had personally offered them when he saw mine were too ruined to wear.

‘Considering all this… it’s ambiguous to say he has no interest in me.’

“You can’t deny it, so it’s true. Team Leader, can I report Ryu Yishin to HR? He wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, even for workplace bullying. No matter if his father is the Director…”

“Oh, no, hyung. I’m really fine. Team Leader Ryu is good to me…”

Jung Hanseol was sweating profusely, struggling to restrain Jo Jinwoo, who looked ready to storm the HR counseling team. Jo Jinwoo’s gaze sharpened instantly when Hanseol took Ryu Yishin’s side.

“Ryu Yishin is good to you?”

“Yes…”

“Hey, talk sense. Is there anyone who doesn’t know that bastard’s personality is completely ruined? There’s no need to defend him.”

Team Leader Joo and Min Yugeon silently nodded in agreement, as if to confirm Jinwoo’s words were true on this point. Hanseol felt Jo Jinwoo’s emotions stirring so intensely that his own temples throbbed, making him restless. Fortunately, Min Yugeon changed the subject.

“Oh, right. Hanseol, what are you doing tomorrow evening? Do you have plans?”

“No, nothing special…”

“Perfect. You should come tomorrow too. We’ve been hectic, but now we finally have some free time. Jin Taeyoung and Lee Seokhyun hyung are coming up, so we decided to meet them. And the team leader is treating us to dinner.”

“Huh? When did I say that?”

Team Leader Joo was the first to react to Min Yugeon’s quietly unfolding words. Hanseol chuckled softly, watching Team Leader Joo make a comical face, tilting his head as if he’d never heard such a thing.

Surrounded by these three, laughing without a care for a brief moment, Hanseol felt as if he had returned to his old days in Team 7. Seeing Hanseol’s clear smile, Jo Jinwoo casually draped an arm over his shoulder, closing the distance between them.

“Jung Hanseol, you’re coming, right? The hyungs want to see you too. The team leader is paying anyway, so all we have to do is eat. The menu is Hanseol’s favorite, beef!”

“Uh… I don’t think anything special will happen, so if I finish early, I’ll go. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow yet… Aaaargh!”

Hanseol hadn’t worked overtime once all week, so he expected to leave work without incident tomorrow as well. As he continued his casual reply, his body suddenly shot into the air, causing him to shriek in terror.

Jo Jinwoo, whose arm had been draped over Hanseol’s shoulder, was startled and recoiled.

“Jung Hanseol.”

From not far away, a chillingly low voice chewed out Hanseol’s full name. Seized by terror, Hanseol stiffly turned his head, only to find someone standing menacingly close. He had to clamp a hand over his mouth.

Ryu Yishin stood there with a frigid, expressionless face, radiating a menacing aura.

“Where are you going?”

His low voice, seemingly capable of piercing the Earth’s core, froze everything around them. Hanseol’s face turned ashen, and he trembled, unable to even properly exhale.

As everyone stood dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events, Team Leader Joo was the first to regain his composure. He stepped forward and faced Ryu Yishin. Though fear was evident on Team Leader Joo’s face, he deliberately cleared his throat and spoke.

“Um, Team Leader Ryu… first, please put Hanseol down…”

“Jung Hanseol. Why aren’t you answering?”

However, Ryu Yishin seemed oblivious to anyone else, his gaze fixed solely on Hanseol, whom he held suspended in the air. The moment their eyes met, Hanseol experienced a peculiar sensation: his entire body froze, and the world seemed to solidify around him.

The irritated expressions and blunt remarks he had seen from Ryu Yishin until now were nothing compared to this. Ryu Yishin’s face was perfectly blank, not a furrow in his brow nor a twist of his lips, yet Hanseol realized for the first time that this very lack of expression only intensified his fear.

An immeasurable rage seemed to have consumed his entire being. It was enough to make Hanseol’s mind reel.

“f*ck, are you insane? Put him down right now!”

As Jo Jinwoo, belatedly grasping the situation, stepped forward, Hanseol’s heart pounded with urgency. Ryu Yishin, who practically despised Jo Jinwoo, might do anything if he “went crazy,” as Gwon Jiwook had put it.

Hanseol thrashed desperately in the air, crying out.

“I’m not going anywhere! Ah, I won’t go, Team Leader…”

“…”

“So… could you please put me down…”

“…”

“Uh, let’s go up together quickly, Team Leader…”

For Ryu Yishin, who could casually smash desks, breaking a person’s bone would be no trouble at all. Hanseol desperately tried to shake off the terrifying thought that someone might end up in a funeral procession right there, and struggled to persuade Ryu Yishin.

Hanseol, who had been studying Ryu Yishin’s unchanging face, blinked once, and the environment in his sight completely transformed. In an instant, Ryu Yishin had teleported him to his own room.

“…”

Thankfully, his feet were now on solid ground, slightly lessening the immediate threat to his life. However, his breath hitched again the moment he saw Ryu Yishin standing resolutely before him. This chillingly frozen version of Ryu Yishin was something Hanseol had never experienced before. It made him realize that the Ryu Yishin he had known until now had been rather gentle and kind.

‘What should I do? How can I possibly handle this?’ His mind was a muddled mess, and his anxiety only intensified.

‘But ever since Hanseol came, his desk is still intact, and he seems to get angry less often… So I wonder if Hanseol’s guiding is effective.’

Suddenly, Gwon Jiwook’s words flashed through Hanseol’s mind. They were merely a conjecture: that his guiding seemed to be effective on Ryu Yishin. He had replayed those words again on his way to work this very morning, the words that had given him a faint certainty that he might be a guide whose waves aligned with Ryu Yishin’s.

“…”

Just a few hours prior, Hanseol had found that fact despair-inducing, but now, an earnest desperation to gamble on even the flip side of a coin consumed him.

There was no time for deep thought. Hanseol reached out a trembling hand and grabbed Ryu Yishin’s wrist.

Then, taking a step forward, he pressed his lips against Ryu Yishin’s without hesitation. Though he flinched slightly at the coldness of Ryu Yishin’s lips, Hanseol paid it no mind, pressing his own more forcefully.

He hoped, with all his might, that a modicum of peace and stability would settle in Ryu Yishin’s heart.

“Ah…”

Hanseol, who had been trying to ignore the frantic pounding of his heart and focus on guiding, stumbled backward. Ryu Yishin, who somehow appeared even more enraged, had forcefully shoved Hanseol’s shoulder.

“Ha… damn it.”

Suddenly, Ryu Yishin cursed roughly, exposing his raw emotions without filter. Hanseol froze like a stone statue, unable to move his body.

“Hanseol.”

For the first time, Ryu Yishin murmured just Hanseol’s given name, sweeping back his fallen bangs. Though it might sound intimate to an outsider, to Hanseol, it felt even more terrifying.

A chilling smile, almost a sneer, played on Ryu Yishin’s lips as his eyes held nothing but Hanseol.

“If you’re going to do it, do it properly.”

No sooner had the words left his lips than Ryu Yishin strode purposefully toward Hanseol and crashed his mouth against his. Hanseol, stumbling backward from the powerful shove, could only stop when his back hit the bookshelf.

Trapped between the bookshelf and Ryu Yishin, utterly immobilized, Hanseol was forced to endure a kiss more urgent and rough than any he had ever experienced.

He truly couldn’t think of anything anymore. It felt as though a storm raged within his mind. Just as his bitten lips began to throb, a deeply intrusive tongue tangled wildly with his own, draining all strength from his body.

The wet, sensual sounds were the only noise filling the frigid office.

His breath caught. Hanseol lacked the skill to deftly handle such a unilaterally aggressive kiss.

He clung to Ryu Yishin’s waist, gasping, barely managing to keep pace. No, it was more akin to being unilaterally seized by the collar and dragged along.

“Haa, hngh…”

No sooner had a ragged breath escaped his briefly parted lips than Ryu Yishin relentlessly crashed his mouth against Hanseol’s once more. He delved in even more persistently than before, as if intent on unearthing and devouring Hanseol whole.

Even as fear and terror dominated his senses, a strange sensation climbed his spine each time their tongues tangled, making his body twist. Breath and saliva, indistinguishable as to whose they were, were unilaterally forced into him.

He couldn’t tell if his increasing disorientation was a side effect of guiding or simply from his inability to breathe properly.

“…Ha… hngh, mmph…”

Hanseol, finding it difficult to contend with Ryu Yishin’s roughly rubbing tongue, instinctively leaned into him, pressing his body closer and parting his lips further. Clinging tightly to Ryu Yishin’s waist, Hanseol squeezed his eyes shut, gradually feeling his own breathing stabilize.

He had, only then, reminded himself of the reason he had initiated the kiss with Ryu Yishin in the first place.

As if clinging to his sanity, Hanseol pressed his body fully against Ryu Yishin’s, tensing his arms. He briefly entertained the self-deprecating thought that even if Ryu Yishin left him to sleep and went home today, he would have no right to complain, but then he quickly shook off all such thoughts.

Awkwardly yet tenderly sucking on Ryu Yishin’s lower lip, Hanseol poured his entire being into the moment. Then, taking the distant voice calling his name as a lullaby, he succumbed to sleep.