Chapter 9: A Soft Kiss

“In any case, he couldn’t stay here forever, could he?”

Kwon Seungjae had told him to stay put, but he himself… did not want to be here.

A paid prison with even designated walking hours.

That was Yoon Heesu’s impression after staying here for some time.

Of course, it was an undeniable fact that it was far better than an actual prison.

What he saw most throughout the day here were the faces of orderlies and guards.

Even though shifts seemed to rotate constantly, he had seen several of them often enough to memorize their faces.

It meant he was being monitored that thoroughly.

Besides himself, what other children of wealthy families had been dragged here?

“If not for me, you’d be in prison getting passed around like a cheap toy.”

Kwon Seungjae’s words suddenly flashed through his mind.

Though the thought crossed his mind that getting used in prison or used on the outside wasn’t much different, the outside was still better than prison.

As for comparing here to the outside… he didn’t know.

There were plenty of reasons he wanted to leave.

Because he couldn’t do drugs.

Because it was suffocating.

Because it was human nature to want to flee when confined.

And, because he couldn’t understand Han Suyeon’s true feelings.

Ever since turning down s*x, Han Suyeon hadn’t come to visit.

Remembering the events of that day made his face flush red again.

Han Suyeon truly was a man gifted with a peculiar talent.

A talent for making a person feel miserable.

A talent for making a person feel utterly humiliated.

When he returned to his room, it was already growing dark outside the window, and dinner was soon served.

Yoon Heesu didn’t even open the lids of the dishes, setting the tray straight back outside.

There was no way he would have an appetite.

The food was tasteless, and he was in no mood for it.

Just as he lay down on the bed with the thought that he should at least lie down even if sleep wouldn’t come.

The door to the room opened without a knock.

“…”

Standing by the open door with a meal tray in one hand was Han Suyeon.

Speak of the devil, he had just been thinking of him, and he suddenly showed up today.

“…What?”

The meal tray and his immaculate suit did not go well together at all.

Staring blankly at Han Suyeon for a moment, Yoon Heesu blurted out.

“You… have a lot of free time, huh?”

“I thought you were busy.”

“I am busy.”

“I work like an ant.”

“An ant…”

For a second he almost burst out laughing, but managed to hold it in and spoke.

“What kind of ant are you supposed to be?”

Calling Han Suyeon an ant was an insult to people who actually worked like ants.

Yet Han Suyeon showed little reaction, walking over to raise the overbed table and setting the meal tray onto it.

The meal, which had only just been placed outside, still retained its warmth.

“Don’t pick a fight.”

“Eat your food.”

“…I don’t want to, it tastes bad…”

“Are you at an age to be throwing tantrums over side dishes?”

“Even for hospital food, it’s way too bland.”

At that, Han Suyeon tilted his head slightly and walked toward the storage cabinet.

It was a cabinet Heesu hadn’t even thought to open once during his stay of over a week.

When Suyeon opened it, disposable spoons, chopsticks, and forks were absurdly stored inside.

Besides those, it held every single textbook supply that ought to be in a hospital room.

‘So that was in there…’

It was practically an exclamation of awe.

Han Suyeon calmly pulled out a disposable spoon, opened the lid of the soup bowl, scooped up a bit of seaweed soup, and brought it to his mouth.

“Tastes bad, doesn’t it?”

But Han Suyeon shook his head.

“It isn’t bland at all.”

“It’s no different from regular food.”

“It is bland.”

“I’m telling you, it has no flavor at all.”

In front of a grumbling Yoon Heesu, Han Suyeon uncovered each lid of the rice and side dishes one by one.

The savory aroma of food wafted up, yet hunger still did not strike him.

Truthfully, he knew the food wasn’t actually bland.

His senses had dulled from drug addiction, practically killing his sense of taste.

Normally, he rarely ate food, and even when he did, he only touched things that were excessively spicy and salty.

Thus, there was no way hospital food—even if it was virtually ordinary home-style cooking—would suit his palate.

“Bear with it and eat, even if it’s bland.”

Han Suyeon crossed his arms and began monitoring Yoon Heesu intently.

Having no choice, Heesu picked up a spoon, scooped up some rice, and put it into his mouth.

It felt like chewing on grains of sand, but he forced it down.

With Han Suyeon standing right beside him constantly nagging—eat the soup, take a bite of this side dish, try that side dish too, chew slowly—he couldn’t tell whether the food was going into his mouth or up his nose.

Once Heesu barely managed to finish the entire bowl under fierce surveillance, Han Suyeon quickly cleared the tray and put it back outside.

In the meantime, Yoon Heesu bolted toward the bathroom, nauseated by the lingering taste of food coating his mouth.

Han Suyeon remained quiet while he brushed his teeth.

Taking the chance to scrub his face roughly and wipe it down with a towel, he stepped out to find the room filled with cold air.

Han Suyeon was ventilating the room by opening the window that had been kept shut all along.

“It’s cold…”

“Bear with it for a moment.”

“Pull up the duvet.”

He would have pulled it up even if told not to.

Buried under the cozy duvet up to his nose, Yoon Heesu gazed at Han Suyeon’s back.

Suyeon looked out the window for a while, then closed it and turned around.

“Could you close the curtains too?”

“Look at the scenery outside.”

“It’s dark, you can barely see anything anyway…”

‘I’ll just close them after he leaves,’ Yoon Heesu grumbled inwardly as he turned over.

He had meant to turn his back to Han Suyeon, but Han Suyeon calmly walked over to face him.

Turning over again felt too childish, so he just stayed as he was.

“Are you keeping up with the program?”

“I don’t know…”

“Ask them directly.”

“I am asking directly, to you.”

“No, not me.”

“I mean to the people who instruct and counsel me.”

“It’s because how you receive it matters more.”

“…”

Even after closing the window, the room remained chilly for some time.

Without emerging from under the duvet, Yoon Heesu stared blankly at Han Suyeon.

“Can I ask you something I’m really curious about?”

“Don’t.”

“It sounds like it’ll be pointless.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Han Suyeon looked at Yoon Heesu with a cold gaze.

It was a look that clearly said ‘pointless.’

Yet for Yoon Heesu, it was far from pointless; in fact, it was a vital question.

He had wondered the entire time.

Why he was acting like this toward him.

“Then I’ll ask something else.”

“…”

“Are you really not going to have s*x with me?”

This time, he let out a heavy sigh.

In Heesu’s own way, this was also an important matter.

Would he get sick of him at this rate?

Would he despise him?

As Heesu quietly gauged his mood, Han Suyeon bent down, swept Heesu’s bangs aside, and gazed at his face for a long while.

“…?”

Then, very briefly, lips touched his forehead and pulled away.

Bewildered, Yoon Heesu blinked his eyes.

“This is my answer for now.”

“…”

Just then, Han Suyeon’s phone gave a short ring.

Checking the screen, he tucked Yoon Heesu’s duvet in tighter and left the room.

Left alone, Yoon Heesu touched his forehead in a daze.

His answer for now.

A kiss on the forehead that meant nothing.

He seemed to hear footsteps receding from the room, though there was no way they could be audible.

Yoon Heesu’s mood sank endlessly.

***

At first, he didn’t even know where the vibration was coming from.

Because he hadn’t had any reason to receive a call since coming here.

Though he habitually charged it and watched streamed videos, no contact came from anyone.

Since he had no one to contact other than Kwon Seungjae to begin with, it was only natural.

At any rate, after looking around for a while to find the source of the buzzing, Yoon Heesu finally located the phone ringing at the head of the bed.

Holding the incessantly vibrating phone, Yoon Heesu twitched an eyebrow.

On the screen, three letters displaying [Han Suyeon] appeared.

As he had no memory of saving it, Suyeon must have entered it himself.

Hesitating briefly, he pressed the call button.

– Why did you pick up so late?

– I didn’t know you were calling.

– Heesu.

At the low voice calling his name, Yoon Heesu flinched.

But what followed made him shrink back even further.

– Is it true that you owe a debt to Kwon Seungjae?

– …

A debt—he had one.

Quite a large one, at that.

Though he didn’t know why Han Suyeon was suddenly asking about it.

Sitting on the bed and scratching his fingernails against the sheets, Yoon Heesu answered.

– Yeah, that’s right.

– That’s right?

– I have a debt…

– And the house you unlocked and walked into, that’s actually Seungjae’s too.

– I owe a lot of money.

– How did you end up in debt?

– You inherited quite a bit of wealth.

– I spent it all buying drugs.

– Don’t lie.

– I know you weren’t doing drugs back then.

– I did them afterward, which is why I spent it all.

– Drugs aren’t that expensive.

At the relentless interrogation, Yoon Heesu replied in a sullen voice.

– What are you talking about, drugs are ridiculously expensive…

– Seungjae doesn’t give discounts either.

It was a lie.

In truth, he had been receiving the drugs for free.

Although it was tacked onto his debt on paper, since Kwon Seungjae had no intention of collecting that money, it was practically as if the debt didn’t exist, and the drugs were likewise essentially free.

Even if the apartment was registered under Kwon Seungjae’s name, he had a home and no restrictions on spending money.

It wasn’t as if debt collectors came pounding on his door, nor did he receive collection calls.

There was nothing inconvenient.

But oblivious to such circumstances, Han Suyeon pressed Yoon Heesu.

– Aren’t you unable to even open a bank account under your own name right now?

– You even looked into that?

– Yes.

– Because I felt I needed to hear what happened from you directly.

– Well…

That was true, too.

Yoon Heesu began to invent vague excuses.

That he had splurged wildly on luxuries, that his spending exceeded what his inheritance could handle, and on top of that, the drugs were expensive.

– So… that’s how it turned out.

– …

The silence over the phone was heavy.

Yoon Heesu dug his fingers into the sheet.

In reality, it was a debt manufactured behind his back through multiple promissory notes written by Kwon Seungjae.

Under all sorts of pretexts.

He didn’t know where that money had gone.

There were his adoptive parents’ debts too, or so he had been told.

He had merely accepted it because Kwon Seungjae said so.

Within the bounds of that debt, doing what Kwon Seungjae ordered would deduct some amount, and taking drugs would bloat it back up—it worked like that.

It had repeated so many times that he didn’t even know how much the debt amounted to.

It was too exhausting to explain all of that.

He didn’t want to deliberately admit to Han Suyeon that he had acted like a fool, and it was also true that doing drugs had increased the debt.

– …All right, I understand.

– You don’t need me to explain more?

At Han Suyeon’s low voice, Yoon Heesu gauged his reaction carefully.

The sheet was now being scratched hard enough to make a grating sound.

There was no sensation in his fingertips.

– Yes.

– You don’t need to worry about the debt anymore.

– What do you mean, I don’t need to worry about it?

– I’ll take care of it.

– In return, even after you leave here, never meet with Kwon Seungjae again.

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