Chapter 39: When Control Begins to Crack.

At first, he was furious.

The heat rose to the top of his head at the thought of how Sayoung dared to show such an attitude towards him, to the point where he couldn’t even breathe properly.

It was fortunate that he hadn’t lost his temper in front of Sayoung until the very end.

Jaewoo calmed his anger and tried to think rationally.

When he first demanded a divorce, he hadn’t bothered to analyze it deeply.

After all, he was human too, so no matter how blind his love was, there was bound to be a limit, and he simply considered that he had finally reached the point where he could endure no more.

From Sayoung’s perspective, he actually should have quit a long time ago.

He had endured unjust treatment for too long, immersed in vain expectations and hope.

Although it was Jaewoo who had cleverly crumbled his mind so that he couldn’t make proper rational judgments, it meant that the point where he couldn’t take it anymore and had to escape had passed long ago.

If Sayoung had finally come to his senses and decided to cut off this tedious connection and demanded a divorce, there was nothing particularly strange about it.

He had thought simply like that.

However, after seeing that Sayoung had suddenly gotten involved with Kim Yoojun since then, and observing his attitude toward him today, he kept getting a feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

The human mind is weak against violence where attacks that clarify superiority are continuously inflicted.

It wasn’t for nothing that brainwashing was said to be dangerous.

Jaewoo had meticulously spent a very long time destroying Sayoung’s mind, senses, and self-esteem.

In particular, Jaewoo had an inferiority complex about the fact that he started gaining popularity by using Sayoung’s name.

So he had specially and painstakingly instilled in Sayoung the perception that he was staying by the side of someone who was now nothing and actually had been nothing from the start, and therefore, hearing that he succeeded thanks to him was very unfair to him, and he should feel sorry toward him.

Thanks to ruining him so carefully, Sayoung dared not harbor any intention to refute Jaewoo or attack him in return, even when he acted arrogantly all this time.

Yet, how could Yoon Sayoung say such a thing to him, asking if he hadn’t approached a successful actor to change his life, of all things?

Until he saw Sayoung in person today, Jaewoo had thought the suspicion that he approached Kim Yoojun on purpose was speculation.

He was convinced that Sayoung had neither the will nor the guts to do so.

Han Jaewoo himself had made him that way.

But the sudden demand for divorce, the entanglement with Kim Yoojun, and even today’s attitude.

Once all those things came together, it was true that he felt too uneasy to simply dismiss it as coincidence.

“What on earth is he plotting….”

Whatever intentions Sayoung had, he wouldn’t be able to do anything significant now, but he couldn’t help but be bothered by the side of him he hadn’t seen when they lived together.

“Eunseong-ah.”

“Yes.”

When Jaewoo, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly called his name, Eunseong, who had been focusing all his senses behind his back while pretending not to care, answered quickly.

Jaewoo spoke while still looking out the window.

“I told you what to say if my visit to Yoon Sayoung’s house last time became known to the outside world.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s release that story.”

Jaewoo didn’t add a long explanation.

However, as he had heard it beforehand just as he said, he wasn’t confused about what he was talking about.

Only, Sayoung’s voice asking if he didn’t also know that it was unjust kept lingering in a corner of his heart.

“Yes, understood.”

However, Sayoung was nobody to Eunseong. He couldn’t influence Eunseong’s life, nor did he give him money.

Eunseong replied in a mechanical voice, ruminating in his head on the order of people who could influence his life.

Even if he felt some petty pang of conscience, Eunseong had no intention of disobeying Jaewoo.

Having heard Eunseong’s answer, Jaewoo leaned deeper into his seat.

If Yoon Sayoung had really prepared all these things to gain his attention, it was certainly a decent attempt.

It had been so long since he focused on and cared about him this much that he couldn’t even remember when it was.

Once, he had controlled every single word and even the sound of his breath to take away and ruin everything of Yoon Sayoung.

He had practically bet everything he had and groveled just to receive even a little more of Sayoung’s love.

That time only deepened the feelings of Jaewoo, who already had an inferiority complex toward Sayoung.

It wasn’t something Sayoung forced.

But surprisingly, Jaewoo might have hated him less if Sayoung had forced it.

The fact that all those selfish and servile actions were his own voluntary actions for success made Jaewoo feel even more miserable.

So when Sayoung’s power and his were finally reversed, Jaewoo became colder, indifferent, and eventually even violent toward Sayoung, as if taking revenge.

The one who made himself most miserable was none other than Han Jaewoo himself, but since he couldn’t take revenge on himself, he made Sayoung the victim.

It would be unfortunate from Sayoung’s perspective, but Jaewoo thought it couldn’t be helped.

At that moment, a hypothesis flashed through Jaewoo’s mind.

It was a hypothesis he had never thought of before.

The conjecture arose that perhaps Yoon Sayoung was trying to take revenge on him now.

Come to think of it, it was the most reasonable thought.

It was strange that he hadn’t thought of it until now; it was a guess anyone who knew the situation up to this point would bring up first.

But Jaewoo soon erased that hypothesis from his mind.

The reason Jaewoo hadn’t even been able to bring the keyword ‘revenge’ to mind in the first place was because the opponent was Yoon Sayoung.

It was that very Yoon Sayoung who had only clung to him with eyes craving love, despite suffering all kinds of insults and contempt from Jaewoo all this time.

Far from getting angry, he couldn’t even raise his voice once, and for the person who would come and nuzzle his head against him if he just held out his hand to seek revenge.

It was nonsense to the point that it was laughable he even thought of it.

Just as it is hard to find a dog that takes revenge on its owner for abandoning it, Yoon Sayoung, who had lived thoroughly under Jaewoo’s training, did not have the ability to do so.

Since Sayoung wasn’t a real dog but a human who could speak, he might be able to demand a divorce and run away, but revenge—that was impossible.

He could be certain of it.

Then, the most plausible hypothesis was that he was playing tricks to attract Han Jaewoo’s attention somehow.

A faint smile appeared on Jaewoo’s face, which had been hardened seriously.

He had let it slide thinking it was for the best, but honestly, Jaewoo’s pride had been secretly hurt that Sayoung demanded a divorce first.

But to think even that was part of an effort to win him over.

Feeling the emotions that had hit rock bottom slowly rising, Jaewoo relaxed his body, which had been stiff.

The reason he didn’t withdraw the order given to Eunseong even though he felt somewhat relieved was that it was a punishment for Sayoung, who had poured out such base verbal abuse toward him nonetheless.

Jaewoo still thought he was entitled to that much.

****

“Hah, seriously.”

Yoojun let out a small, hollow sound of disbelief and looked at the passenger seat.

There, Yoon Sayoung was sound asleep with a pale face.

He had already fallen asleep about halfway on the way to Sayoung’s house.

“How can he sleep after causing such a commotion?”

Han Jaewoo’s unpleasant scent was still faintly drifting from Sayoung’s body.

And along with it was Sayoung’s own pheromones, which seemed clearly to have been released defensively to protect himself from that scent.

Thanks to that, Yoojun had to drive all the way to Yoon Sayoung’s house, of all places, in a very sensitive state between unpleasantness and stimulation.

To take Sayoung home, that is.

Yet the person in question was sleeping so nonchalantly.

There is a limit to looking down on someone; he was almost speechless.

But contrary to his mind which was noisy with complaints, Yoojun was just looking at Sayoung with very careful movements, like someone worried he might wake up.

Deep fatigue lingered around his closed eyes despite the fact that he was sleeping.

A scar was visible around the bandage Yoojun had applied to the back of his hand, which was resting quietly on his thigh.

His lips were so dry that they looked like they would crack and bleed with the slightest movement.

No matter how he looked at it, it was the appearance of a person who hadn’t slept properly.

He opened his mouth to wake him, calling “Mr. Yoon Sayoung,” but closed it without making a sound.

He could easily figure out why he couldn’t sleep properly without even having to deduce it.

A certain winter night. Cold asphalt. Snowflakes falling over red blood and death. And the long and painful days leading up to that death.

Even Yoojun, who was completely unrelated, had restless nights occasionally thinking of that winter night after hearing those words, so he wondered how much worse it must be for the person who possessed those memories intact.

Even if it wasn’t something that actually happened but just a delusion in Sayoung’s head, it wouldn’t change much.

Anyway, at least in the world of this person in front of his eyes, everything would be true.

Furthermore, facing the behavior Han Jaewoo showed today, he could be certain that while he didn’t know about turning back time through death, the fact that he had been abused by him for a long time was true.

How could a person who had gone through all those things and only just escaped sleep comfortably at night?

On top of that, he even went through such an event today. It wasn’t strange that he fell asleep as if he fainted.