Bring Me the Guy Who Stole My Daughter!! (5)
—Kughh!!
From inside came the sound of Hwa-young's groan.
"Uh, well, I mean. Should we go to a café or something first and come back later?"
"Mm, why? Why would we? Why?"
Hajin floundered at Hae-sol's question—the most difficult kind of reply, a "why"—and tilted his head, answering in a vague tone.
"Well, I mean, they're having a good time together, and if we're there, we'd be in the way... right?"
"Why? If it's a good time, isn't it better to share it together?"
"Uh, well, that's a little different from that kind of thing... isn't it?"
The conversation kept looping back to "why," and Hajin, faced with Hae-sol's pure, innocent eyes, couldn't bring himself to say that the two of them were about to do that sort of thing inside. He was racking his brains when Seol Si-yun cut through the conversation with a single, blunt statement.
"The two of them, having sex?"
"Pfff—!!"
Hajin spat out a spray, coughing repeatedly, and glared at Seol Si-yun for being so direct without any euphemism. His eyes seemed to ask, "Why would you say that?" Si-yun looked puzzled. He had only spoken what he saw, and couldn't understand why he was getting that look. Hajin fidgeted and glanced at Hae-sol. In moments like this, he felt relieved that Hae-sol still had that childlike innocence.
"What's that?"
"It's—mmph!"
"Okay, I'll explain!"
Hae-sol tilted her head, asking what Si-yun meant by "sex." When Si-yun tried to answer, Hajin quickly covered his mouth and softened the explanation to avoid shocking Hae-sol's pure mind.
"It's... two people sharing love. Yeah, something like that."
"Love? Does Cheon-seong love the red one?"
"Uh... I'm not sure about that 'red one'—it sounds dangerous—but I think... maybe? Lately, even Hwa-young mutters Cheon-seong's name during every break—"
Hajin stopped mid-sentence, flinching as a sharp, cold aura that felt like it was cutting through his skin came from beside him.
"Uh... excuse me, are you... all right?"
Reflexively, he used honorifics—something he'd never even used with Cheon Seong or Hwa-young. In response to his question, Dang Hwa-ran, the sole daughter of the Sichuan Dang Clan—a poison family among the five great martial clans—turned her dead, black eyes toward him. She had pulled out the red hairpin from her long, dark green hair and was biting her lip. The aura felt like a venomous snake crawling over his entire body. He instinctively swallowed dryly, and his vision seemed to darken.
"I, uh, wait... just a moment..."
His breath grew short, and just as his knees were about to give way, Seol Si-yun stepped between Dang Hwa-ran and Hajin.
"I don't know what's going on, but stop. He's Cheon-seong's friend."
Si-yun, thinking of the opportunity to score points with Cheon-seong since Hajin was his close friend, acted. But when Dang Hwa-ran still didn't rein in her aura, Si-yun swallowed that sharp energy.
"If you're going to push further, I'll take you on."
Si-yun's clear, transparent eyes met Dang Hwa-ran's dead, black ones. As Hwa-ran gradually regained her vitality, Si-yun withdrew the energy he had been emitting.
"...I'm sorry. I got a little excited for a moment."
"It's fine. Just don't do it again."
Si-yun's warning not to repeat it settled the situation, but the awkward atmosphere between them remained. Dang Hwa-ran herself was most aware of being the source of that awkwardness, yet she still clenched her hands tightly, unable to suppress the murky emotions churning inside her.
Hwa-young's betrayal—though it wasn't exactly betrayal, Dang Hwa-ran thought of it as such. The betrayal of a friend who had become just another woman loving the same man. And the anger that Hwa-young, who had started liking him later than her, had gotten closer to him first.
'Cheon-seong... Cheon-seong already has a lover he promised a future with. Hwa-young knows that too... how could she...?'
She wanted to approach him, but feared drifting apart, so she could only watch from afar. She, who had fallen in love first, watched from a distance, afraid to get close. But why could Hwa-young, who had fallen in love later, approach him like that, unlike herself?
Hwa-ran was angry at this situation. She resented Hwa-young. And she resented Cheon-seong. She hated that he showed Hwa-young a face he had never shown her. But the more she hated Cheon-seong in her heart, the more it hurt—not Cheon-seong, but Hwa-ran herself. The more she hated the one she loved, the more her heart ached.
"I... I'll be going now."
Feeling tears welling up, Hwa-ran held them back, didn't look back, and returned to her dormitory.
Thud-thud-thud!
Bam!
"Sniff, sniff! I love him too... I love him too... Hwaaah!"
Back in her room, Hwa-ran closed the door and finally let out all the sorrow she had been holding back. Unlike her, who had loved but couldn't approach, her friend had loved enough to ignore others' gazes and go for it. She had always hesitated and lost to others. But she understood and tried to understand. Because if she didn't, everyone would leave her. She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to be isolated by loneliness. The family that had raised her only to carry on the bloodline, and the household that had isolated her and driven a wedge between them, saying she needed a strong maternal body—she didn't want to suffer that loneliness again.
'I just have to yield, just have to understand... just sacrifice. Then everyone will stay by my side. So that's what I should do... I know I should...'
Drip.
Drip.
"But this time... when it comes to Cheon-seong... I don't want to give up... I don't want to give up..."
She could give up everything else. She could yield. She could understand. But she couldn't yield or give up on the person she loved.
"If I've always hesitated and lost... then this time, I won't hesitate."
Hwa-ran recalled the image of Cheon-seong and Hwa-young—how he hadn't kept his distance from Hwa-young despite having a lover like Yuna, but had instead grown closer. She had only watched from afar, and the warm smile and touch she had merely observed, because he had a lover named Yuna, now flared up again today, ignited by the warmth Cheon-seong showed Hwa-young.
'I want to receive that warm face you showed Yuna and Hwa-young too.'
"It's all... all Cheon-seong's fault... I had given up, I was content just watching, but you showed Hwa-young, who fell in love later than me, that side of you..."
A single drop of deep green emotion fell into the pink of love. Her emotions—love, jealousy, affection, obsession—took on a murky pink, tinged with a faint green. Hwa-ran's emerald eyes, which had regained their vitality, were now stained black by those murky feelings. The falling tears seemed to shimmer with a dark green hue, and her gaze slowly turned to an old booklet lying on the corner of her desk.
Hwa-ran opened the old booklet, flipping through it quickly, and muttered.
"...I haven't done anything wrong. It's Cheon-seong's fault for making me, who had given up everything, hesitate..."
Flip, flip, flip, thump.
The pages, turning rapidly, stopped at a certain spot. Hwa-ran looked down at the book with eyes that were dead black but glowed with a murky pink, and said,
"So now, I won't hold back either."
What was written in the book was the Love Poison (愛毒).
As the name suggested, it was a poison that aroused love in the one it was administered to—in other words, a "love potion."
The Sichuan Dang Clan, one of the five great martial clans, prided itself on being unrivaled in poison. The poisons of the Dang Clan could be life-saving medicines depending on how they were used, or they could be deadly toxins that killed dozens or hundreds. For the Dang Clan, who took poison when sick and even when healthy, poison was a treasured tool that could solve all problems. Hwa-ran, as she read about the love poison, was also a member of the Sichuan Dang Clan.
Unable to bear her shame, Hwa-young fixed her clothes and fled the nurse's office as if escaping.
After Hwa-young ran out, leaving a commotion and a strange misunderstanding behind, Hajin decided not to come today, so the only person left to visit was Yuna.
Cheon-seong had originally preferred quiet, but after regressing, he found a slightly livelier atmosphere more comfortable. The silent nurse's office felt boring, and he waited for Yuna to come. An hour passed, then two, then three. The bright sun outside gradually hid its face, and darkness fell.
"...Could something have happened to Yuna?"
But as the outside grew dark and Yuna still hadn't arrived, Cheon-seong suddenly sat up in bed, worried that something had happened to her on the way. Just then, a hand pushed him back down, and a pleasant voice tickled his ear.
[Yuna is fine, so lie down.]
"Noona?"
[Heh, it's been a week since I heard that. Yes, it is I.]
Beatrice sat on the edge of the bed and gently stroked his head. Enjoying the pleasant sensation of her touch, Cheon-seong forgot to ask why she had come instead of Yuna and simply savored her hand.
'I must have really been apart from her for a long time...'
He had heard that he had slept like dead for a week, but honestly, he had only collapsed, had a strange dream, and then woke up, so he didn't feel the passage of a week. It felt like he had just overslept a little. But now, receiving Beatrice's touch, the time that hadn't felt real seemed to rush by all at once. His body responded to her touch, his heart pounding quickly. Just from her touch, his heart raced like this, and he realized how much he loved and adored her.
[Do you like my touch that much?]
Beatrice smiled at the sight of Cheon-seong enjoying her hand like a gentle puppy, and asked. In response, Cheon-seong gently wrapped his hand around her delicate one and slowly nodded.
"I like it. I like everything about you, noona."
Closing his eyes, he rubbed his cheek against her hand. The adorable sight of her beloved made her smile deepen. But at the same time, the condition of Cheon-seong's body, so clearly visible to her eyes, made sadness seep into her smile. At that moment, Cheon-seong pulled her hand toward him.
Her slender yet curvaceous body fit perfectly into his arms. His hand stroked her as he spoke.
"Don't be so sad. I'll always be by your side, Beatrice."
[....]
Hearing his gentle voice, which had noticed her sadness and comforted her by saying he would always be there, Beatrice buried her face in her disciple's embrace, in Cheon-seong's embrace, in the embrace of the man she loved.
[...Thank you for living. Truly.]
"I'm grateful too. Thank you for worrying about me, for loving me, noona."
The two of them, grateful to each other, pressed their chests together, sharing the pounding of their hearts. The adorable embrace of the lovers they loved, and the clear thumping at their ears. Cheon-seong and Beatrice's breaths grew heavier, their bodies hotter.
Shh.
[Cheon-seong, I truly love you.]
The title changed from "you" to his name. She sat up, straddling him, and looked down at him with mesmerizing eyes that seemed to have pink hearts floating in them. Cheon-seong knew what was about to happen.
"I truly love you too, Beatrice."
He didn't refuse her. Instead, he reached out first, cupped her cheek, and sat up, wrapping his other arm around her slender waist and kissing her.
Smack.
The two lovers reunited after a week. The night of the lovers, confirming their reunion, began.