Side Story 9

Side Story 9

Smell hit her first.

A construction site stench, paint or cement, seeped into her nose. Cold air brushed her skin like the wind was blowing, and someone had covered her eyes with a blindfold.

She tried to move. Thick rope bound both arms and both legs. She could not budge.

So this really was kidnapping.

The air against her skin stayed chilly. The floor felt soft, like a mattress.

At least the blindfold and rope did not scrape or bite. Nothing hurt. Only the posture, the restraint, and the fact that she had no control made her skin crawl.

Before she blacked out, she had caught the kidnapper’s face. She remembered it now.

“Kwon Chae-woo, come out here while I’m still asking nicely!”

You trash.

Don’t tell me you’re trying to threaten me into signing something. No. No.

You’re going to bury me. No. No.

“What is this, seriously. When you said you were going to quit, did you mean being human?”

Her shout slammed into the walls and bounced back in echoes. But no matter how hard she listened, she heard no footsteps, no rustle, not even a breath. The corner of her mind that had stayed calm because it was her husband turned ice cold. The wind made her start to shiver.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

Her voice softened without her permission.

Really… no one? Kwon Chae-woo. Chae-woo. Hey, Kwon Chae-woo.

She forced her upper body up as far as the restraints allowed and whipped her head around.

“What are you doing. I’m scared, okay?”

An old memory surged up, sharp and foul. The day Kwon Gi-seok had dragged her away without warning. Back then, she had landed in the middle of a slaughterhouse.

Maggots writhing. Flesh hacked away in chunks. Buckets of blood sloshing to the brim.

The thought made nausea rise in her throat. Her knees knocked together in short, hard taps. In the end, Lee-yeon’s voice turned small, trembling as she called for her husband.

“Kwon Chae-woo, hurry. Please. Honey, I’m scared…”

At that exact moment, the blindfold ripped away.

A man stood right in front of her, breathing hard like he had been holding it back.

Lee-yeon shoved her resentment aside and pressed her cheek to his. She needed his warmth right now. When Kwon Chae-woo wrapped her up tightly, the tension finally eased out of her.

“Chae-woo. Wait. Just listen to me for a second.”

Lee-yeon spilled the words in a rush.

“Even if you hate me, even if you want to punish me like this, you still can’t divorce me. Please, just think about it one more time. I can’t do that. I can’t.”

“…Divorce?”

His eyes widened, but his voice stayed cold.

“I’ll pretend I never saw this,” Lee-yeon said quickly. “This illegal, nasty way of trying to do something to me. I’ll let it go.”

“…”

“I know you’re furious. I know I’ve done nothing but make you suffer since we got married. I know that, I really do. So I get it, if you wanted to scare me like you used to, I can understand that too…”

“…”

“You were always kind of a bastard, anyway…”

The moment her eyes went hot, his lips landed at the corner of her eye. That gentle kiss made her feel like she might cry for real.

Then she heard a small laugh.

Lee-yeon froze, halfway into self pity, and lifted her head. He was laughing. Kwon Chae-woo pushed his bangs back, then laughed again.

“Lee-yeon. Don’t say that so easily,” he said. “Don’t even think it.”

“What, divorce?”

“Yes. That.”

Kwon Chae-woo frowned like it annoyed him. If not divorce, then why kidnap her?

Only then did Lee-yeon finally take in her surroundings.

Her pupils flared.

“…!”

This was not a grimy construction site. Not a slaughterhouse. It was just a house.

A house with a high ceiling, where sunlight poured in through huge windows like a waterfall.

“Wow…”

Warm wood filled the space. When the natural light hit the floor, the grain gleamed in fine, golden detail.

A cream colored sofa and a solid wood table. Small, pretty vases sat here and there like ornaments. One wall held a massive bookshelf, like a private library. She had the sudden thought that Gyu-baek would love it.

Next to the shelves sat a turntable and a neat stack of LPs. A spiral staircase rose to the second floor.

But Lee-yeon could not stop staring past the glass wall at the garden spread out beyond it. It was so wide she could picture it in every season. Tulips and daisies in spring, tomatoes and peppers hanging heavy in summer.

“Where… are we?”

“Our new place. The house we’re going to live in.”

Lee-yeon’s mouth fell open.

The garden was basically a sports field.

“Isn’t this… too big?”

“We need to separate the hospital from the house,” he said. “We’ve got a bigger family now. Gyu-baek will grow up. Nam-woo will too.”

“…”

Without realizing it, Lee-yeon nodded. Then she caught herself.

Wait. Why is this conversation sliding along like this?

“So you kidnapped me to show me the house? You tied up my arms and legs for this?”

“Two birds,” he said, shameless.

“Who introduces a house like that? Scaring someone half to death?”

“I do.”

The way he said it, smiling with his eyes, made all the resentment she had been holding back explode.

“You don’t do this to Nam-woo, so why do you bully me? Your face was terrifying. We’re married, we had a baby, we’re raising him, and you’re saying I’m supposed to be scared of my own husband. Even if it’s only sometimes.”

When Lee-yeon shrieked, Kwon Chae-woo only grinned. He loosened the ties around her ankle, then moved in between her legs. She yelped and tried to scoot back, but he caught her by the waist.

“A baby and a wife aren’t the same,” he said. “If I made this face at Nam-woo, he’d cry.”

“I can cry too, so why only me…!”

He tucked her loose hair back and whispered low.

“Because you’re the only one who knows I’m a bastard.”

“…!”

“And you’ll take me anyway. Like you did today. Even if I stop pretending to be good, you’ll still cling to me. You’ll still hang off my cheek.”

He freed her hands.

Kwon Chae-woo looked like he had stepped straight out of the past, like one of those old days. A black muscle fit T-shirt that hugged his torso, loose boots, and that already dark hair falling over his forehead.

When their eyes met, his gaze was nothing like it had been at home.

It was openly hungry.

Hot.

Lee-yeon flinched.

“I really wanted to be a good husband. When Lee-yeon couldn’t walk after giving birth, I would have rather transplanted all my nerves.”

“….”

“Even when I suggested we just step out into the yard, Lee-yeon told me she didn’t want to see the straw hat and asked me to put it away. My Lee-yeon is a tree doctor who climbs trees like it’s nothing and keeps her saw sharp, but she said she couldn’t stand the sight of a straw hat.”

Kwon Chae-woo muttered softly. Occasionally, his brow furrowed as if recalling that time. But a bitter smile followed, and his eyes lowered with sadness.

“The doctor said you shouldn’t push yourself until your legs are completely healed. He told me to be extra careful because recovery is slow. But I, every night, got an er*ction from the smell of your breasts.”

“…”

“Even on days when you cried yourself to sleep, I dreamed every night. Your legs, stiff as trees, were spread apart, burrowed in, and moved in and out like a madman. I had wet dreams all the time, and I just wanted to die.”

His confession made my face flush.

“No, why… Er*ctions aren’t a sin.”

“I don’t know. Just thinking about you makes me want to die. That’s how much I want you, Lee-yeon.”

Kwon Chae-woo suddenly rose onto his knees, crossed his arms, and yanked off his T-shirt.

Ah.

Lee-yeon blinked. Only then did she understand why he had dragged her here.

Her skin prickled with tension. Now she understood why there was a mattress sitting alone in the middle of the new house.

“So I even tried chewing hair loss pills.”

“…What did you take?”

“Hair loss pills. They say it kills your libido.”

“…”

“Feels like it works, feels like it doesn’t. Instead my dick just gets bigger…”

He kicked off his boots, undid his belt, and stripped down until he was wearing only his drawers. Then he crawled toward her on all fours. His hands made quick work of Lee-yeon’s pants, yanking them off in seconds.

“Anyway, I held it in, and held it in, and held it in until I felt like I was going to start cursing.”

Kwon Chae-woo spread her legs and pushed in close, biting into the soft flesh at her groin. He worried it between his teeth without looking away, their eyes locked. Desire, ready to burst, aimed at her like a knife. Her tongue went dry.

“Why do you flash your tits in front of me like it’s nothing?”

He hauled up Lee-yeon’s T-shirt and unhooked her bra with practiced ease. Before she could even flinch, her full breast was sucked into his wet mouth.

“Ah…!”

It was nothing like being touched. Kwon Chae-woo buried his face in her and sucked at her areola until the room filled with a slick, obscene sound. He wrapped both arms around her shoulder blades, pinning her in place, and drew hard on her flesh.

“Hng, ah…!”

Her head tipped back. Goosebumps raced over her skin. He sucked so hard his cheeks hollowed, but instead of pain, a sharp, thrilling pleasure spread through her.