AAGULT Ch 25

Chapter 25

 

Tsk. The sound of him clicking his tongue made Jaeha realize how rude he had been, and he reopened his eyes. The man clearly didn’t like it when he was ignored or avoided like this. Uneasily, Jaeha rolled his eyes and looked straight at the boss.

He was staring at him.

“…….”

“…….”

The longer the silence stretched, the more anxious he became. The things that could be gleaned from his unpredictable behavior were very limited, and Jaeha already had a lot to feel guilty about.

He tilted his head slightly. He looked puzzled. That’s how close their faces were. His thick, masculine brows were slightly furrowed, and his high nose bridge and strong jawline were plainly visible.

He leaned in closer. Out of nowhere, he remembered kissing Aiden, and it scared him a little. Even so, he had no courage to reject this man’s touch, so he just froze up.

“Where did…….”

“…….”

The boss murmured languidly. Fortunately—although the very thought was shameful—he didn’t kiss him or do anything strange.

……It would’ve been better if he had.

He brought his face close to Jaeha’s nape.

“Did you put something weird on?”

He sniffed.

Just like when he, feeling the guiding scent from Jaeha, longed for it blindly and wanted to touch it, as if he could now smell Aiden’s guiding scent on Jaeha.

Jaeha froze in terror.

“I… I was just working hard cleaning the store today. Maybe that’s… the smell, haha……”

What eventually came out of Jaeha’s mouth was a pitiful and feeble excuse, even by an outsider’s standards. He had thought, briefly, about just dropping to his knees and begging for forgiveness, but he judged he had come too far for that. He wanted to bluff and laugh it off, but the fear overwhelmed him, making his voice tremble awkwardly.

“So… you came to get guided, right? I’ll go down and quickly call a certified guide from the Holy Center……”

Unable to bear seeing the reaction, he blurted that out in haste. Inside, he was fiercely berating himself.

I lied to the boss. I just stabbed the boss in the back, didn’t I? I just, in front of the boss…

“…….”

What the hell am I doing?

Even the breath against his nape felt cold. It was hard to believe such a temperature could come from a large man like him.

He was like a predator slowly waking from a long winter hibernation. Brushing off the snow piled on his body, staring at the rabbit that foolishly wandered into his den and woke him up.

One second felt like an hour, one minute like a day. His stone-like hand gripping Jaeha’s face was so large it could easily grab not just his face but his neck too. That hand moved slowly.

“Uh…?”

He curled his thumb and pressed down on Jaeha’s light lips to force his mouth open. As his mouth opened, the man shoved his thumb inside and scraped his tongue. His jaw began to ache dully, but Jaeha didn’t dare to resist.

“Ugh, hhck…”

It was as painful as biting into a solid, icy lump. His finger felt strangely hard. Fighting back a gag reflex, Jaeha endured the torment. As if confirming something, the man dryly scraped the inside of his mouth and then pulled his hand out.

Tap, tap. He lightly slapped Jaeha’s cheeks. His hand, wet with Jaeha’s saliva, glistened.

He let out a brief chuckle. It wasn’t a sneer or a sarcastic laugh. He genuinely seemed amused, as if he really found this funny. A soft breath escaped from between his lips. It sent a chill down Jaeha’s spine.

“Cough, gasp……”

“Yeah.”

“…….”

“That’s right……”

He knew he had been found out.

From that short reply, he instinctively understood. The man walked past him. Jaeha panted and forced air into his crushed lungs. He didn’t have the courage to look back.

“Come down.”

“…….”

As if he saw through Jaeha’s cowardly intent to pass everything off to Dowon, the man added with a chuckling voice. Like he was amused, watching to see just how far this punk would go.

He was terrified. So scared he felt like he could die. His vision spun. He felt dizzy, nauseous, and his esophagus, already torn and aching from earlier blood vomiting, throbbed even more from the man’s touch.

“Seems like you’ve learned how to crawl a bit now.”

“……Boss……”

“Act wisely.”

“…….”

Click. The man placed something on the bartender’s table and went into the storage room.

Left alone in the bar with limited time, Jaeha saw a flash of memories like a life reel. Cold sweat dripped down his chin and hit the floor with a splash.

“…….”

Only after the presence disappeared completely did he slowly turn his stiff body. From the sore jaw muscles, he suddenly realized the boss might have noticed the slightly torn corner of his mouth from a few days ago.

He spotted the item placed on the bartender’s table and closed his eyes. He wanted to escape from reality for a moment, but even after opening his eyes again, the item was still there. It was familiar. Something he had desperately hoped to never see again, to never hold in his hands again.

“Haa……”

He wanted to cry. But he had no time to, no luxury to. Jaeha covered his face with both hands and rubbed it dry. He had to find a way somehow. He didn’t want to die yet. His hands trembled, soaked in sweat.

“…….”

He lowered his hands. Forcibly gathering his fading consciousness, he put strength into his weak legs. Staggering, he reached for the revolver on the bartender’s table.

Click.

The cold, metallic feel in his hand was more chilling and rigid than he remembered. He had no idea whether it was loaded or not, so he had to be careful not to drop it or touch the trigger.

When he opened the storage door leading ‘below,’ even though he had never used it to go down before, he saw that it was already open.

“…….”

He rolled his eyes and looked inside the storage room. The room he had cleaned meticulously just the other day to close shop for meeting Aiden was now full of his regrets and foolishness.

His gaze, taking it all in, looked completely clouded.

Now he understood why the boss had come. It was the heavens helping him. To scold him for clinging to and not letting go of the relationship, thinking it was the luckiest moment of his life—to save him before he fell into the trap again.

The boss had come to……

He couldn’t die by the boss’s hands.

Jaeha’s face, pale with fear and panic, gradually calmed down.

“Hoo……”

Taking a deep breath again, Jaeha grabbed a handful of ampoules from the storage. He ripped one open and shoved it into his mouth. After swallowing it, he tore open another and forced it down, then another, and shoved it in again. The disgusting liquid slid down his throat. He repeated it a few more times.

He felt like vomiting. No, if he hadn’t forced it down, he definitely would have thrown up. If not for the overwhelming tension, he might have passed out from his rapidly breaking body.

With no proper place to discard the thin glass bottles, he stuffed them roughly into his pockets. The turbulence inside him was being compressed and crumpled up. He recalled the doctor’s tongue-clicking warning. All the voices of people he knew appeared in his mind to scold him, then spun and vanished.

“Ugh……”

He paused on the stairs, grabbed the wall, and covered his mouth with a hand. A sharp surge tried to rise from his churning gut. He pressed it down with all his strength and slowly descended.

Having arrived at the guiding facility, Jaeha blankly stared down the white hallway. It was always a quiet place, but perhaps due to the boss’s presence, it felt like everyone had completely zipped their lips in tension. Jaeha savored the feeling of walking straight into a gaping beast’s maw for his own sake as he quietly knocked on the door.

“…Boss. It’s Jaeha.”

“Come in.”

He opened the door. The boss was seated in a chair. Leaning back arrogantly and lazily with a cigarette in his mouth, he didn’t even turn his head, only slowly rolled his eyes to look at Jaeha.

“…….”

“…….”

He didn’t issue any orders or speak, but Jaeha, trained for years, naturally walked to him and carefully knelt. This time, he did so closely and submissively, even before being corrected. Since his knee height was about the same as the man’s lap, he had to tilt his head all the way back to look up at him.

The man silently held out his hand, and Jaeha placed the trembling arm on top of it and set down the revolver. Like an obedient dog responding to a command.

“Have you decided?”

“…Yes.”

He answered slowly, voice hoarse to the extreme. The man, cigarette still in his mouth, exhaled smoke slowly and spun the revolver’s cylinder once. The distinct clicking sound echoed in Jaeha’s ears.

“Where?”

Click. After loading it, he asked blandly. Trembling, Jaeha lifted his clenched fists to his knees, then hesitated before lowering his face onto the man’s lap like he was rubbing against him. He desperately acted cute. Then, he opened his mouth wide.

The man let out a faint laugh.

“I thought you only learned how to crawl.”

“…….”

He shoved the revolver into Jaeha’s mouth. It seemed he wasn’t moved at all by that level of pleading.

“Ghk…”

A scream nearly escaped. He knew the man hated it when he avoided, but due to overwhelming fear, his eyes instinctively squeezed shut. The cold metal rubbed against the inner lining of his mouth.