Chapter 108: Change of Heart (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 108: Change of Heart (4)
The atmosphere at the table grew somber.
As Shin Hyo-seop rambled on like a drunken man complaining, the other two men glanced at each other and blinked, unsure of how to react.
Shouldn’t he be happy that he could finally live comfortably? That this was his reward for all the hardships he had endured?
But the face, flushed red with alcohol, was clouded with a crippling sense of inferiority.
As the two men racked their brains for a way to change the subject, Miss Kim, who was sitting close enough to touch Shin Hyo-seop, came to his defense.
“Oh my… Agent Shin, you must have had such a hard time…”
Her voice was filled with pity, as if she understood everything.
She filled his empty glass to the brim with liquor.
“Let’s think of it this way.”
“Huh…?”
An intimate whisper reached his ear, his eyes now heavy and difficult to keep open.
“All the hard times you’ve been through… they were all just to lead you to this moment.”
A warm comfort and a single kind word.
A sly smile crept across his lips.
“See? There’s no one like you, Miss Kim.”
He genuinely believed it. She was the only one who understood the sorrow and hardship of his past.
Shin Hyo-seop’s arm wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her into his embrace. As she let herself be drawn in, feigning helplessness, he buried his face in the nape of her neck and took a deep breath.
A suggestive laugh escaped Miss Kim’s lips.
“Aah… that tickles…”
Seo Jeong-hee, who was taking in the entire scene with her own eyes and ears, felt as if her pounding heart would leap out of her mouth at any moment.
“Haa, haa…”
Her head spun.
Even as she gasped for air, her whole body seemed to be screaming for oxygen.
She had known.
When the building was transferred to her name and their impoverished life became affluent, her husband had instead been plagued by an inferiority complex, shrinking into himself.
She knew he was struggling, so she had tried her best, which had been a struggle for her as well.
You think you were the only one struggling?! I had it so hard, too!
She had been meticulous about her every action, her every word, all to prevent him from misunderstanding and thinking she was looking down on him.
She couldn’t count the ways she had tried to boost his shattered ego. She had let him do anything he showed the slightest interest in and had cheered him on.
All that time had been nothing but stress for her.
No matter how hard she tried, nothing improved. He reacted sensitively to the smallest things.
Still, she endured it.
Because she loved her husband.
Because the memories of him dedicating himself to his wife and daughter were still vivid in her mind.
Because she believed that one day, he would return to his old self.
That was why.
That was why she hadn’t stopped him when he said he was going to Haenam alone.
If it were up to her, she would have wanted the whole family to move and live together, but she respected his wishes.
Relief?
She hadn’t felt an ounce of it.
She was always worried about her husband living alone so far away, and she missed him.
On the days he didn’t call, she would lie awake all night. She lived only for the days he would visit.
And yet.
“Aah… really. You can’t do this here.”
“There’s hardly anyone around, so what’s the problem?”
From the way they touched each other’s bodies so freely, it was clear they had been carrying on like this for quite some time.
She took a few ten-thousand-won bills from her wallet and placed them on the table.
This was enough.
She didn’t need any more information.
“Hah.”
After a short breath, she walked out of the establishment with steady steps.
She didn’t take a detour.
Her husband, dead drunk as he was, wouldn’t be able to recognize her anyway.
Her turbulent emotions had finally settled.
No, they had turned cold.
A brief surge of resentment had flared up at his selfish attitude, acting as if he were the only one who had suffered, but that was all.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t that angry.
At the sight of him skillfully groping another woman’s body?
She had no right to be angry about that. She, who had crossed the line with a man who was only twenty, was an even worse person than him.
But she felt it was deeply unfair.
To think that while she was spending sleepless nights waiting for a call that never came, worrying herself sick over his claims that every day was hell due to his overwhelming work…
He had been here, delighting in a life of his own. The thought was unbearably unfair.
At the same time, she was utterly disillusioned with her husband.
“You coward…”
If you didn’t love me anymore, if you didn’t want to live with me, you should have asked for a divorce.
And if you didn’t want a divorce, you should have at least been honest about what was making life so difficult for you…!
She grew to hate him for endlessly postponing a decision, all while being hell-bent on his own pleasure.
“…None of it matters anymore.”
Her husband had left to find his own happiness long ago.
In that case, what was there to hold her back any longer?
The face of one person surfaced in her mind.
The man who had lain dormant in the earth for so long before finally spreading his wings.
The man who changed day by day, shaking her heart to its core. She desperately wanted to see him.
She wanted to rush to Seoul right now and throw herself into his arms, but she stopped herself.
Since she was already away, she would continue her trip a little longer.
She would soothe her heart by filling her eyes with the most beautiful sights and her mouth with the most delicious food.
She didn’t want to seem like someone who would throw herself at him in a fit of anger, on a whim.
She would approach him whole, ready to reciprocate his sincere feelings.
Having erased her husband from her heart, she finally began to stand on her own.
*
Lately, Shin Yu-jeong had been spending more and more time in my room.
“You seem to be coming to my room a lot these days, don’t you think?”
The moment she entered my room, she flopped onto the mattress and shot back at me with a confident expression.
“So? You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it.”
I didn’t dislike it.
After all, the only things I did when I was alone were bodyweight exercises and watching TV.
“I’m just curious.”
That’s all it was. I was just curious what had gotten into her, making her come up to my room all the time and hit on me.
To which she replied:
“It’s boring being home alone.”
So she said.
What a load of crap. Even when the Ajumma was home, she’d just coop herself up in her room and barely talk to her.
Anyway.
I didn’t really mind Shin Yu-jeong hanging out in my room.
When she was around, it gave me something extra to look at.
Namely, her suggestive outfits.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Not really.”
All she had on was a thin white tank top and black dolphin shorts.
Considering the season, I couldn’t help but think she was being a little too defenseless, even if she was just coming upstairs.
But it seemed like that was exactly what she was aiming for.
Whenever I blatantly stared at her ass, she would notice with uncanny perception and look back at me.
Then, with a smirk, she’d say:
“Touch it if you want to.”
It was quite a sight.
At first, I thought it was some kind of trap and just looked, but now, I’ve decided to be more forward.
So I immediately reached out and grabbed one of her butt cheeks.
“Ugh… Hey.”
She must not have thought I’d actually touch her, because she glared at me, her face turning red.
I met her gaze with an equally confident expression.
What? Why? What.
“You said I could touch it.”
“…Be gentle.”
She couldn’t really argue because of her own words, so she just made a funny request and looked away.
The texture was different from the Ajumma’s ass.
Unlike the Ajumma’s, which was soft enough for my fingers to sink into, the harder I squeezed Yu-jeong’s, the stronger the resistance pushed back against my hand, struggling to get free.
Was it because her whole body was packed with muscle?
“Hoo…”
A deep breath escaped her lips as she lay on her side, looking at her smartphone.
Her exposed neck was slightly flushed. It seemed she was starting to feel it.
At first, it took several touches for her to react, but as time went on, her responses became quicker.
“Hnngh… Hhhh…”
Her breathy moans naturally got me excited, and my hand movements grew bolder.
Until now, I had only been touching her over her clothes, but I took advantage of her unguarded moment and suddenly shoved my hand inside her shorts and panties.
Her body flinched hard.
“Hey, you son of a…!”
She could get mad, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Why? I’m just touching your butt like you said.”
Outside the clothes, or inside.
The fact that I was touching her butt didn’t change.
At my confident reply, Shin Yu-jeong looked dumbfounded for a moment, then stared at me with a displeased look and asked.
“You’ve gotten pretty shameless lately, haven’t you?”
“Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten much more comfortable with you than before.”
At my words, the corners of her lips crept up slightly.
“W-well… ahem, if that’s the case…”
The way she tried to hide her obvious happiness was just plain cute.
Being with Shin Yu-jeong like this made me feel a certain way.
Like I was slowly taming a wild beast?
I couldn’t help but wonder how much this rough girl, so clumsy with her expressions, would change in the future.
I brought my face close to her ear and whispered.
“Yu-jeong.”
“Hnng… what.”
“Want to sleep over tonight?”
My direct question made her face flush a pretty shade of pink.