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Join the Server“You didn’t come here thinking that, did you?”
Jin-yeop strode forward and stood in front of Jung-hoon.
If he’d come to see if he was okay, he should at least have the decency to lie.
Jin-yeop had been wronged by Jung-hoon too many times to believe such words.
A pretentious man whose words and actions were completely inconsistent.
He packaged himself to the world as the ultimate romantic, utterly devoted to his spouse, but at home, he was a man who wouldn’t even meet his eyes.
That was Kang Jung-hoon.
He was sick of his image-making.
It was only natural.
Having seen that same act repeatedly for the past ten years made his blood run cold.
This was the man who, when he was sick and dying, never once told him to go to the hospital but instead appeared on talk shows sending him video letters professing his love.
He himself was the crazy one for thinking that was Kang Jung-hoon’s stoic way of expressing love.
Scoffing at himself, Jin-yeop stepped closer and straightened his shirt collar.
At the touch, Jung-hoon flinched.
“I won’t kill you, don’t worry.”
“…..”
“Were you worried about me?”
“…..”
“But where did you find the time to get so… well put together from head to toe?
If you were truly worried, you’d have rushed over as you were.
Not dressed like this, clearly conscious of the reporters swarming outside the hospital.”
In a neat suit, shoes so shiny they looked newly worn.
His hair, neatly swept back, clearly looked like he’d just come from a salon.
“I had a shoot.”
“Who asked for an excuse?
I don’t care either way.
Whatever you do, it’s none of my business now.
I just…”
“…..”
“I just wish you’d cut the crap.
That stuff doesn’t work on me anymore.”
Jin-yeop expertly adjusted his shirt collar and tie.
Just looking at the two standing face to face, they looked like a very affectionate couple.
But as he fixed his tie, Jin-yeop was thinking of Eun-ru.
The way he’d looked, face a mess, clothes a mess, as he first checked on his safety outside the dungeon.
The face of the one who’d come into his room without even taking off his torn gloves, shouting that he deserved to be loved.
A faint smile played on Jin-yeop’s lips.
Watching Jin-yeop smile as he tidied his clothes, Jung-hoon slightly furrowed his brow.
Because some indescribable emotion was washing over him.
But it was only for a moment.
As their eyes met, Jin-yeop suddenly hardened his expression and stared at Jung-hoon with a cold gaze, then abruptly yanked the neatly adjusted tie.
“What are you…!”
Jung-hoon quickly grabbed Jin-yeop’s wrist.
His face slightly flushed from being choked, he faced him, and Jin-yeop spoke.
“Want me to tell you why you came?”
“Let go of that, then talk.”
“So I told you to say your piece and leave, so why do you have to rile me up?”
“Cha Jin-yeop!”
Jung-hoon roughly wrenched Jin-yeop’s wrist and quickly pushed it away.
Staggering slightly, Jin-yeop snorted.
“You got word from Lee Soo-hyuk, didn’t you?”
“…..”
“Your theft of my artifact is exposed.”
Jin-yeop burst out laughing.
He laughed so hard he clutched his stomach and rocked his body as if he was having the time of his life.
Jung-hoon, irritated by the sharp, piercing laughter, frowned and nervously loosened his tight tie.
“Ah, this is hilarious.
You, showing up like this even while your life is going down the drain.”
“…Is it funny?”
“Yeah.
Thank you so much, Jung-hoon.”
“…..”
“Best get-well gift ever.
Thanks for the laugh.”
“Is there any reason for us to fight like this, rolling in the mud?”
Jung-hoon asked, gripping his loosened tie tightly in his hand.
Truth be told, Jung-hoon found this situation a bit strange.
Of course, he was the one who had held the press conference first to turn the situation to his advantage, but nothing was going according to his plans, from start to finish.
First, the Cha Jin-yeop standing before him was utterly unfamiliar.
As if someone else’s soul inhabited his body.
And second, during their short, one-year marriage, there had been no major friction between him and Jin-yeop.
To put it bluntly, he hadn’t cheated, nor had he caused any headaches with gambling or drugs.
In short, the Cha Jin-yeop before him was acting strange.
He’d expected him to cry and cling, and had only thought about how to get rid of him then.
Now, Jin-yeop’s eyes were filled with only vengeance and hatred towards him.
Honestly, he couldn’t understand why he’d gotten so angry at the restaurant, why he was glaring at him like he wanted to kill him.
The whole situation was just bewildering, again and again.
“We’d already grown distant.
You might be angry thinking I unilaterally grew cold, but I had my reasons too.”
“So.”
“Do you really have to make the artifact story public?”
“What are you trying to say?
That I should keep quiet about you being a thief?”
“Wasn’t it you who didn’t want to reveal where you got that artifact, what happened back then?”
“So you stole it?”
“…..”
“Because you thought I’d turn a blind eye to something I don’t want revealed?”
At Jin-yeop’s question, Jung-hoon pressed his lips together and didn’t answer.
“I know.
You don’t need to answer.
You thought I’d be the type to let it go, even if I got divorced, without accusing you of theft or taking it to court.”
“…..”
“Also, you thought I’d be…”
Jin-yeop, who had been speaking rapidly, suddenly fell silent as if something was caught in his throat.
His eyes reddened, he couldn’t even breathe properly, and with watery eyes, he looked at Jung-hoon, struggling to move his lips.
“Because you thought I was such a pushover that I’d willingly hand over my dead brother’s only remaining trace to you, even if it was that artifact.”
The moment he uttered the word ‘brother,’ Jin-yeop involuntarily shed tears.
The tears welling up in his eyes fell without pause.
“You asked if we need to fight like this, rolling in the mud?
Do you really need to ask why?”
“…..”
“You, who stole my brother’s keepsake, come to me talking about being my guardian.
That’s why you’re getting divorced.”
“…..”
“Unfortunately, my only family in this world is you.”
It was something he’d started to avoid calling him family anymore, but the moment he said the word, his heart felt like it was tearing apart.
To erase the feeling of being left alone in the world, to escape the loneliness eating away at him, Jin-yeop had chosen to slowly erase himself instead.
It was an unbearably foolish thing to do.
He had even tried to turn back time to reverse their relationship.
But now he knew.
It wasn’t the situation or his circumstances that needed to change.
If he himself didn’t change, turning back time countless times would be meaningless.
“There was a time I believed that if I had you, I wouldn’t be lonely.
The more I focused on you instead of myself, the more I felt myself disappearing…”
“…..”
“It was good.
Back then.”
Jin-yeop roughly wiped his tears with the back of his hand.
Jung-hoon just stared at Jin-yeop, who was quietly sobbing, with a subtle expression.
“I hated myself for living so shamelessly.
I was tired of pretending to be some great savior when I couldn’t even save my own brother.”
He had lived obsessively raiding dungeons.
Unable to bear resting, driving himself to exhaustion was his daily life.
The reason was simple.
He needed a reason to live.
Only when someone needed him did Jin-yeop finally feel worthy of being alive.
Jin-yeop spent countless nights tormented by nightmares.
Dreams where his brother, who had died horribly before his eyes, came to him as he was and poured out resentment.
The image of him, face bloodied, screaming why he hadn’t saved him, why he’d saved others, always flickered before his eyes.
“That’s when I met you.
The worst mistake of my life.”
Jin-yeop muttered in a muffled voice.
Ridiculously, small laughs kept escaping.
Even to himself, it was an endless string of unbelievable excuses.
“I loved loving you so much.
When I was drunk on happiness, it felt like I was losing my mind, like I was on drugs.”
“…..”
“I’m a person who doesn’t deserve happiness, but when I was with you, I could envision a future I could never have drawn alone.
It was suffocatingly wonderful. ‘I have a family again,’ I thought. ‘I can make you my reason for living.'”
“…Jin-yeop-ah.”
“But can that work?”
“…..”
“How can someone else be your reason for living?
My reason for living should be me.
Isn’t that right?”
“…..”
“Like you.”
“…..”
“Like you, who never once chose me.”
Jin-yeop jabbed Jung-hoon’s shoulder with his index finger.
Through eleven lives, during that long, tedious, repeated time, Kang Jung-hoon’s choice was always himself, never Cha Jin-yeop.
That was right.
He had to admit this much.
Just as Kang Jung-hoon always prioritized himself, Jin-yeop now needed to live that way too.
“I have no intention of letting you off the hook anymore.
The only reason I ever let you slide was because, for a time, you were my family.”
If he’d known it would come to this, he should have registered it sooner and put it up for auction.
It would have been better to let it go to a stranger’s hands.
Anyway, it was an object that was useless even when he kept it.
He’d said it was his brother’s keepsake, but that wasn’t really true.
It was never something his brother owned.
It was simply the last item he’d acquired in that dungeon where his brother died.
It was just a trace of that day, so he hadn’t even kept it preciously from the start.
A symbol of painful memories.
Jin-yeop was still afraid to face that artifact, when it returned.
“Get lost.
Now.”
“…..”
“If you ever show your face in front of me like this again, you really will die then.”
You’ve got to see this next! Eat Me, Sweetie will keep you on the edge of your seat. Start reading today!
Read : Eat Me, Sweetie
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