Chapter 202:

“Don’t live your whole life looking at something you don’t want to recall. We’ve parted ways, and it’s right for each of us to go our separate paths a hundred times over. So, keep hating me. Even if you hate me, it no longer hurts or saddens me.”

“…”

“Don’t waver in front of me.” Lee-yeon stared into his eyes and firmly stated. It was a message to not be indecisive like this and to hate her resolutely. Kwon Chae-woo, with a face suddenly filled with anger, responded.

“Why shouldn’t I waver?” His pupils were ablaze with fiery red sparks.

“Some bastards kept their grudges locked up for years, so why am I the only one, goddamn—” He pressed his trembling lids hard with his fingertips.

As if all his strength had drained away, he was sitting quietly on the floor, but suddenly, as if using all four limbs, he approached her and grabbed her bedding. His knuckles were so white from clenching that they almost pierced through his skin, the sight of him biting into the fabric was intense. Caught in his fierce momentum, Lee-yeon couldn’t move an inch.

“Why am I the one struggling so much, while you, Lee-yeon, seems to be fine?”

He let out a pained groan as if the pain was surging.

“I’m still buried in a pile of garbage.”

Kwon Chae-woo pulled her into the bedding and rested his head on it. Lee-yeon couldn’t escape the raw emotions, forced to experience them exactly as they were. On his knees on the floor, he breathed heavily.

“Can’t you just hate me enough to want to kill me?”

“…!”

“Do I really not matter? Am I not even needed as an outlet for your anger?” Kwon Chae-woo exclaimed.

“…I don’t want to waste my energy.”

“Why is it that you think of you a hundred times and you don’t seem to think of me once?”

“…”

“Why don’t you hate me anymore, Lee-yeon?”

Her eyes, a mixture of various emotions, swirled with intensity and bitterness. They resembled the countless nights that Lee-yeon had to endure, even as she withered away, and conversely, they held the pit of destruction she hadn’t chosen.

Lee-yeon gradually noticed his intensifying and unstable state, yet she didn’t back down.

In response to her resolute answer, Kwon Chae-woo’s face contorted further.

“…Like Kwon Ki-seok said, do you wish to have a normal relationship, get married, have kids?”

“That’s none of your business.” She spat at Kwon Chae-woo.

“Then why did you help me at the sex party?”

“…”

“Why did you loosen my buckle there and turn Kwon Ki-seok’s eyes on the subject of neither loving nor hating me?”

His strained voice erupted huskily. Lee-yeon, who had been tightly sealing her lips, met his gaze with a transparent look that revealed no emotions whatsoever.

“I felt relieved when you took helped me escape the people in the garden. That’s why I helped you too. didn’t want to owe you.”

“…”

“That’s all.”

The residue that had clung stubbornly to the man’s face suddenly washed away. Kwon Chae-woo burst into laughter. Unfathomable feelings of disillusionment and defeat deeply pierced his pitch-black pupils. In that moment, the man threw off the blanket, climbed onto the bed, and lowered his arms, enclosing Lee-yeon.

Their legs intertwined, and their stomachs pressed against each other. As he bowed his head, the intensified scent of blood made Lee-yeon hold her breath.

“Lee-yeon, do you know this?”

Kwon Chae-woo blinked his sleep-deprived eyelids, and they twitched open. His reemerging pupils showed a finely simmered patience pushed to its limits. Lee-yeon fervently hoped it wouldn’t turn towards her, but the stubbornly set face seemed unsettling for some reason.

“Even if you hate me, we can still have s*x.”

“…!”

“Even if you hate me, we can live together for a lifetime…”

For some reason, he was licking his lips like a beast freed from chains.

“Even if you hate me, I can still love you.”

He looked like a lost child in a snowy wilderness.

“Lee-yeon, do you truly not need me?”

“…I don’t.”

Before that sentence could finish, Kwon Chae-woo ominously subdued Lee-yeon’s arms and pressed his lips onto hers.

“…!”

Although she stiffened a beat later, her hands were already forced down onto the mattress.

Instinctively, Lee-yeon clenched her teeth, but the hot and experienced tongue forcefully made its way through the parted lips.

Through the slightly open gap, the tip of his tongue intruded aggressively. Like a boiling ember, the fervent tongue ventured deeper, licking the mucous membrane and nibbling on her lower lip. He moved his jaw as if he had been starving for years, pressing down and sucking on her plump lips.

As the strength slowly drained from Lee-yeon’s body, he finally released her lips. The man’s face turned pale as he panted.

“Do you really not need me?”

“…”

Lee-yeon stubbornly refrained from answering, and Kwon Chae-woo just stared at her parted lips.

“Lee-yeon, you still can’t handle a dog properly.”