CHAPTER 31 – Tell me (Part 2)

The fact that Seoyeon was clinging to him, desperately panting, inexplicably gave Dojun a strange sense of satisfaction. He wanted to make her cling to him longer, more.

So Dojun pushed himself back into Seoyeon’s quivering body. A whimpering sound escaped the listless Seoyeon leaning on his shoulder.

“Wait… just a moment.”

Dojun found the bewildered look in Seoyeon’s eyes appealing. Her body, flushed from climax, was red. Her thighs gripped by his hands were red, her heated face was red, the bitten and sucked areas were red, and her parted lips were a vivid scarlet.

Dojun reached out, cupping Seoyeon’s reddened cheek. As he crushed her scarlet lips with his thumb and thrust up, Seoyeon squeezed her eyes shut. His relentless movements elicited cries like screams from Seoyeon’s lips. Fireworks of all sizes kept bursting inside her, and each time, Seoyeon shook her head, clinging to Dojun.

“Enough… now.”

Enough time had passed. Seoyeon, seemingly exhausted, said while embracing Dojun’s neck. He momentarily paused his movements and she took a few shuddering breaths on his shoulder before lifting her face. Her disheveled expression, and flushed eyes, looked back at him. Her eyes were reddened with moisture.

Maintaining eye contact, Dojun moved again. He saw his reflection in Seoyeon’s wide-open eyes. The aimlessly swaying Seoyeon let out a sobbing cry.

“Stop… hic.”

Tears streaming down her face, Seoyeon shook her head. In contrast, their joined parts were stubbornly gripping him, the rushing heat overwhelming her. Her chest sank as she realized the sounds she was making were from her inability to bear the intense sensation.

“It’s too much.”

Seoyeon clung tightly to his body, as if to prevent him from moving. Burying her face in his chest, her trembling body pressed against him.

Dojun stroked her hair. The conflicting urges to punish and soothe were dizzying, leaving him both irritated and pained. 

What a f*cked-up feeling. 

Looking at Seoyeon, Dojun spoke.

“Then tell me.”

Seoyeon looked up with a puzzled expression, her eyes moist. Dojun traced Seoyeon’s delicate features with his gaze as he spoke.

“That you missed me.”

I don’t want to leave. I like you. Don’t go. Say it.

Seoyeon shook her head, closing her eyes. Unable to say those words, not wanting to say them, she bit her lip and shook her head.

Dojun let out a bitter laugh and gripped Seoyeon’s waist. Soon, the sound of Seoyeon’s whimpering filled the room again.

The night seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Seoyeon stared at the ceiling with clouded eyes. Dojun’s traces were everywhere on her body. Her tender membranes were swollen, crushed, and gently bitten by him.

Farther down, he bit into the delicate flesh. A torrent of agonizingly intense pleasure struck her body all at once, her breathing cutting off before stuttering back.

As she calmed her body with a long exhale, the upright Dojun grabbed her legs. Holding her weakly parted thighs in one hand, he kissed her inner thighs and calves, gently caressing with his thumb before biting down hotly.

“Do you want me to stop?”

Dojun said as he returned to hover over Seoyeon, brushing the disheveled hair from her face and firmly biting her lower lip. Despite her raised pain threshold, a sound rose from her lower abdomen once more.

She wanted to tell him to stop. And at the same time, she didn’t want him to. She wanted to end it all here, pretending there was no tomorrow, but she also wanted to keep intertwining their bodies like this every day until the end.

“No…”

Seoyeon said in a hoarse voice. She wanted to keep going until it was a mess. She wanted to explore each other’s bodies like people with no tomorrow and greet the morning. She wanted to be entangled as one, with no boundaries.

“Please, keep going.”

Seoyeon whispered, embracing Dojun’s neck.

“There’s only two weeks left.”

The look in Dojun’s eyes as he gazed down at Seoyeon deepened. Her legs parted, and Dojun pushed into her. Seoyeon clung tightly to his back. Their time, intertwined as one, began to flow again.

Dojun, now fully clothed, looked down at Seoyeon’s sleeping form. Her white body, lying face down, was flushed in various places. He silently gazed at the vivid marks before pulling the sheet up to cover her.

As the sheet was pulled over her, Seoyeon curled up into a ball, small whimpers escaping her lips, as if having a painful dream. Habitually, Dojun placed the back of his hand against Seoyeon’s cheek. The warmth reassured him.

The thin, shallow breaths. The swollen lips. The tears clinging to her eyebrows.

Even in this state, Yoon Seoyeon did not tell him to stop.

She didn’t say “I missed you”, “I don’t want to break up”, “I like you”, or “Don’t leave”. She shook her head and said only one thing, that there were only two weeks left.

Dojun chuckled wryly. Wearing a bittersweet smile, he brushed Seoyeon’s hair and placed a kiss on her forehead.

After closing the door behind him, Dojun opened the drawer under the TV. In the drawer, where various phone chargers were kept, a red Heritage case caught his eye. He opened the case and pulled out a USB drive.

Whoever’s decision is it to break up?

Pocketing the USB, Dojun left Seoyeon’s apartment. The cold morning air brushed against his cheeks as he strode away.

* * *

Seoyeon woke up to the sound of the alarm. Her whole body ached. Her eyelids were heavy, and her limbs felt stiff, as if someone else’s. Thinking she might be coming down with a cold, she sat up.

The alarm sound seemed to be coming from far away, and when she turned her head, the nightstand where she always kept her phone was empty. Getting up from the bed to turn off the phone on the dining table, a stinging pain shot through her inner thighs.

Yesterday was…….

Seoyeon looked down at her bare body. There were more marks than usual all over her. Considering the similarity in size and color, it didn’t seem like Dojun had carelessly handled her. The image of his gentle kisses came to mind.

Was it intentional? Why did he do it to this extent…

She couldn’t dwell on the thoughts for long, as the incessant alarm kept ringing. Sighing, Seoyeon went to the living room. As expected, the phone was face down on the dining table, vibrating and blaring the irritating alarm.

After silencing the loud alarm and flipping the screen, she saw several missed calls, all from Sehyun. There were also many messages.

[I’m back from the business trip. Have you thought about it?]

[I’m a bit late, but I’ll come by the apartment for a bit. I have something to give you.]

[Seoyeon, I’ll be downstairs.]

[Answer me. Don’t keep me waiting.]

[I’ll leave the chocolate with the concierge.]

[Are you seeing Hwang Dojun?]

The messages were all after 9 PM. She had been so absorbed with Dojun that she didn’t even notice the messages coming in. The missed calls were mostly around 10 PM. 

Around that time… 

Her face flushed just thinking about it.

If I had known my body would be this heavy, I wouldn’t have switched shifts. 

Chuckling, she briefly thought about it as she headed to the bathroom. If only she hadn’t seen the distressed expression on Assistant Manager Chae Sohee’s face, as she tearfully blamed her boyfriend, Seoyeon would have never offered to switch.

Laughing, Seoyeon walked into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. Thighs, abdomen, chest – she had known about those from when she looked down.

But there were also red hickey marks on her shoulders and neck. She lifted her neck and counted them one by one, her eyes burning and her anger rising.

He knew I was careful, so why… Did he do this on purpose, to show it off?

Sighing, Seoyeon turned on the water forcefully. While the marks won’t disappear, she scrubbed them aggressively with soap. Even if they fade in a day or two, the sudden irritation is unavoidable. If it was the weekend, it wouldn’t be a problem, but she had to provide customer service at the store.

Thinking about wearing a scarf, Seoyeon turned on the hot water. She decided it was better this way. If Hwang Dojun was as sweet as he was the day he brought her seaweed soup, she wouldn’t forget him easily, it would be better if he just kept up these hateful acts.

With these thoughts in her mind, Seoyeon took a shower. Drying off with a towel, she took out a blow dryer to dry her hair, but the alarm went off again. She was sure she had turned off the repeat alarm earlier, she thought, going back to the living room.

[Sehyun]

What she thought was an alarm was actually Sehyun’s ringtone. She changed the ringtone to avoid answering the phone, and it sounded like an alarm. She turned over and laid down on her stomach, but the ringing continued.

Seoyeon picked up her cell phone. She wasn’t angry anymore.

“Yes. This is Yoon Seoyeon.”

– Ah, Seoyeon. It’s me. Why aren’t you answering the phone? Did you get the chocolate?

Seoyeon sighed before responding.

“No.”

– I originally wanted to eat dinner together last night, but the flight was delayed, so I was late contacting you.

“Sehyun.”

– Yes?

“I hope you find a good person.”

– But, Seoyeon…

“I really don’t want to make things difficult for you and Haewon.”

Seoyeon spoke sincerely. There was silence from Sehyun on the other end of the line. Just as she was about to hang up, Sehyun spoke in a solemn tone.

– Believe it or not, Yoon Seoyeon, I’m serious. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine.

“What do you mean…”

Her throat felt choked up. 

Does he not realize that disregarding the other person’s feelings can become a form of violence?

Seoyeon felt a headache coming on.

“No matter what you do, you’ll never be the Sehyun I thought I knew. I’ll have to tell your parents if you keep this up.”

– Okay, tell them. Tell them. I’ll just say it was a momentary lapse. Men sometimes stumble, right? The vice president will understand.

Sehyun’s voice boomed loudly. Seoyeon pinched the bridge of her nose.

– I might as well tell everyone about Hwang Dojun too. You tell them, and I’ll tell them. If everyone at the company knows, do you think Hwang Dojun will keep seeing you? No, he’ll definitely dump you. I think that’s better. At least that’ll make you come to your senses. Both of us made a mistake.

“Okay.”

Seoyeon said firmly.

– What do you mean, ‘okay’?

“Go ahead and tell. Do as you please, Sehyun.”

– You, you’re really going to let me do that? Yoon Seoyeon, I’m serious, not just threatening you.

“Stop calling like a creepy stalker and just go ahead and tell.”

Saying this through clenched teeth, Seoyeon hung up the phone. She found it ridiculous that Sehyun was acting like her relationship with Hwang Dojun was some kind of crucial weakness. 

Tell them, huh? By the time it’s revealed, it’ll be over anyway. 

Whether it’s revealed and then ends, or it ends before being revealed, there’s no real difference.

If that’s how I can say goodbye to both Hwang Dojun and Sehyun, then that might be better.

Seoyeon thought as she turned off her phone.