CH 103

Woorim continued calmly. “They can both manage themselves. Seohang is a scaredy-cat, so he probably cooped himself up in a room a while back. Nothing will happen as long as everyone is in a room until dawn. Your manager still might be roaming the hallway, but you don’t need to care about that guy.”

I nodded slightly. Woorim sighed with a smile on his face. “Those two are probably exhausted and hiding somewhere. Let’s stay here and rest until it’s safe for us to go out again. If we go now, even if we find the other two, they’ll only drag us down.”

“…”

“I get that you’re worried, but even if I like you, I can’t go around this mansion carrying you on my back,” Woorim said teasingly. My limbs finally went limp. I leaned against the wall, looking away from Woorim. A wave of abject misery and despair crashed in, tarnishing me, but he was right. Going out now was no different from suicide.

I frowned. “…I got it.”

“Good.” Woorim pulled me into his arms. I was a bit calmer by then. He stroked my hair like I was a well-behaved child. “Good boy.”

I closed my eyes, listening to the younger man soothe me.

Unlike my body that was busy tumbling and running so far, his condition wasn’t much different from when I last saw him. I buried my nose in his nape, and I could only smell the stately antique wooden furniture from the old living room. Unlike my heart that was racing from nervous tension, Woorim’s heart was steady and slow like a lullaby.

It only quickened when his lips met my forehead.

“Did you have anything to eat? Aren’t you famished?” Woorim asked.

I tried to remember what I ate the past day—soy milk and milk. Was I a calf in my past life? The only things I ate were dairy products and their alternatives. I made a severe mistake. I should have swallowed the bread that Hyehyun brought me instead of spitting it out. I should have ended his life with the strength from that bread.

“Don’t you think you need to eat something to run, catch people, or whatnot?” Woorim practically read my mind. Then, he handed me a chocolate bar. They grabbed it from the same place, so it was the same kind of chocolate as the one Hyehyun handed to me. I stared at it for a moment before taking it.

“…Thank you.” I ripped open the wrapper and bit into it. The mellow sweetness melted my tongue. It was so delicious that I almost forgot that I didn’t like this type of candy bar. I felt like I could understand why chocolate bar ads always featured people working out at a gym or a pool.

Woorim watched me eat the chocolate at an appropriate distance. He surely saw my bloodied knife and clothes, and even if it was dark, he could probably smell the blood. He probably heard me screaming that I would kill Hyehyun, and yet he didn’t ask anything.

He stood there peacefully, watching me like I was his pet hamster eating a sunflower seed. He didn’t look like someone who was left for dead downstairs. Well, I was the same since I never asked him how he made it upstairs.

“Are you a bit calmer now?” he finally asked.

“Yes, thank you,” I replied.

Afterward, there was a brief silence.

As Woorim hovered over me, I finished the chocolate. I didn’t notice before since I was so out of my mind, but the room we were in was decorated like a record shop; old CDs were scattered about, and damaged speakers rolled around. The poster of the female artist was from quite a long time ago.