Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Again…

Heejae chewed over those words. She gripped the pastry wrapper a little tighter.

He spoke like he knew exactly what she was going through. He didn’t press her when she didn’t answer. He just tore open his own wrapper and devoured the pastry, like he was used to the silence.

Heejae sat in silence for a long time. Finally, she forced her lips to move.

“If you get hit in the head… do you die?”

He stopped right before taking another bite. He said the exact same thing Kim Sewon had just said.

A hit to the head would kill. He told her to aim for the nose or the jaw, it would cripple a person, but it wouldn’t kill them easily.

His gaze slowly swept over her red, swollen cheek and busted lip.

“Actually, making them half-crippled might be fine too. Looking at the state of you.”

He added it like an afterthought.

Heejae finally looked away from the pastry wrapper. She looked at him. The green nametag she’d seen on the bridge came into focus again. This time, she could read the tightly stitched characters.

Kim Sewon.

She lifted her trembling gaze. The youthful face belonged to the Kim Sewon she knew. He met her eyes, his gaze so much softer back then, and spoke.

“Come to me when that happens. Don’t wander off to dangerous places like the bridge.”

He whipped his head away. He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly awkward.

“And don’t do anything… you’ll regret.”

His low voice echoed as the young boy’s face slowly faded away.

…

Her blurry vision cleared. The present-day Kim Sewon came back into focus.

“Eleven years ago…”

Heejae forced the words past the lump in her throat.

“The person who caught me on the bridge back then… was it you?”

Sewon stopped wrapping the tie around her hand. A heavy silence fell over them.

His lips remained stubbornly shut. Heejae let her gaze drop past his jaw. An unfamiliar tattoo peeked out from the open collar of his shirt. She could only see the very edge of it, but it was definitely a rose.

“Don’t tell me you planted the roses in the backyard, too…”

She trailed off. She yanked her hand out of his grasp, pulled her knees to her chest, and clutched her head. It throbbed like it was going to split open.

Sewon finally parted his lips, but she beat him to it.

“You said snakes can’t get past the rose thorns. Right?”

“…”

“I’m asking you! Is my memory right?”

She screamed. She couldn’t take his stony silence for another second.

Was any of it real? Or was it just her fractured mind playing tricks on her? He was the only one who could give her the answer. She had to press him.

Honestly, there was something else she needed to know even more.

Heejae loosened her grip on her hair and looked up.

“Did you… like me?”

She knew she sounded insane. It was absurd to jump to that conclusion just because she remembered him looking out for her a few times.

But she couldn’t shake the thought. She had to know.

“Did I… I mean, Kim Sewon…”

Please tell me that wasn’t it.

“Did I like you?”

Tell me we weren’t like that…

Say no. Tell me I’m full of shit. Call me crazy.

Heejae stared at him, her eyes trembling, silently begging him.

It couldn’t be true. If it was, what did that make her? She’d run away, acting like a single petition was enough to clear her conscience.

“I didn’t… right?”

“Ah, fuck…”

Sewon ground out a low curse. He tilted his head, looking out the side door.

His expression was unreadable. His jaw clenched tight, the muscles jumping just like they had when he was beating Sangcheol to a pulp. He rested his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. The thick blue veins bulging on the backs of his hands looked just as violent.

Was he angry? 

Sewon scratched his temple with a bloodstained fingertip. He finally looked back at her. This time, he had an answer.

“I told you. We knew each other really fucking well.”

“So what does ‘really fucking well’ mean?”

Heejae forced her heavy eyes open and glared at him. Sewon bit his lower lip, then released it. A low, dark laugh slipped from his mouth.

“It wasn’t as innocent as you’re hoping.”

He wrapped a hand around one of her knees. Slowly, he pulled her leg away from her chest, forcing her knees apart.

Any wider and her underwear would show through the wide legs of her baggy shorts. Heejae frantically grabbed his hand to stop him. But her body refused to cooperate. She didn’t have the strength to pull her legs back together.

Sewon stared down at her. He slowly slid his hand up the inside of her pale thigh.

“We did things like this, too.”

“…”

“What’s wrong? Don’t remember this part?”

It was the first time he’d given her a straight answer about eleven years ago. His brazen expression didn’t look like a lie. Or maybe he was just an incredibly good liar…

“Stop…”

She was in no position to argue with him right now. Her voice came out weak and defeated.

Her breathing hitched. Her heart hammered so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.

“Kim Sewon…”

She wanted to ask him to take her somewhere; a hospital, a motel, anywhere. Deep down, she had this strange, irrational certainty that unlike Sangcheol, Sewon wouldn’t cross the line.

She was dead wrong.

Sewon’s hand didn’t stop. His fingers slipped under the hem of her shorts.

Heejae flinched like she’d been doused in ice water. She let go of his hand and shoved hard against his solid shoulder.

“What are you—!”

“You actually thought I saved you from Yeom Sangcheol.”

How naive. His belated addition rang in her ears. Was he smiling? Her vision blurred again. She couldn’t read his expression.

“Ah… wait…”

Heejae dug her fingers into his broad shoulder. Sewon didn’t even flinch. He just stroked the inside of her thigh with his thumb.

The way her skin flushed from such a simple touch was maddeningly arousing. The way she kept flinching, the way her legs parted just a fraction more on their own; it was chipping away at his patience.

“Fuck, you’re so hot…”

He dropped to his knees on the floor. He hooked an arm under the back of her knee and dragged her forward.

Heejae slid across the floor without resistance, ending up half-sprawled on her back.

He draped her leg over his thigh. A hollow laugh escaped his lips.

“The more I think about it, the more ridiculous this is, Kang Heejae.”

“…”

“I ruined my own life to help you, and what? You don’t remember?”

He pushed his hand deeper up her shorts as he spoke.

“You vanished overnight. And now you have the nerve to show your face here again?”

“Hngh…”

“I was going to let it slide because you’re exactly my type, but you just had to push your luck, fuck…”

The hem of her shorts bunched up around his veiny hand, riding all the way up to her panty line. His thumb brushed against the damp cotton. His Adam’s apple bobbed hard.

He hooked his thumb under the edge of her panties, lifting the fabric, and slowly slipped his fingers inside.

Heejae’s head snapped up.

“Wh—stop…!”

She couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. She was begging him to stop, but her thrashing legs kept brushing against the thick bulge straining against his left thigh.

She was practically grinding the back of her thigh right into it.

The sight of her black bra peeking through her torn shirt had already pushed him to the edge. Now, his cock twitched violently, hard enough to ache.

“Haa…”

Sewon let out a ragged breath. His control snapped. He shoved his hand deep into her panties and roughly parted her soft curls.

He spread his knees wider, forcing her legs apart with them. His fingertips found her swollen clit.

“I haven’t even done anything and you’re already soaking wet, Lawyer Kang. Are you a pervert?”

He wasn’t lying. Her clit, her plump lips, even the cotton of her panties pressing against the back of his hand, was completely drenched.

Sewon pressed his thumb down hard on her slick clit. Heejae bucked wildly.

“S-stop… Ah.”

“Fuck… You stop. You’re the one who started grinding on me.”

Sewon gritted his teeth. His voice was a harsh, ragged growl.

She wasn’t just rubbing against him anymore. Her thrashing leg was pressing down on his cock so hard it actually hurt.

And the way she was twisting her hips didn’t look like resistance. It looked like she was chasing the pleasure.

“What do you want me to do? Here?”

He gripped her hip tight with one hand and circled his thumb around her clit.

“You want me to touch you here?”

“Ah, no… Hngh…”

Her hips twitched helplessly in his grip. He found the exact spot and rubbed it gently. Heejae squirmed, desperate to twist away.

Sewon just pinned her hips down harder and sped up his fingers.

Squelch, squelch. The wet, sticky sound of her slick juices filled the air. Her legs began to tremble violently.

Beneath her, his cock throbbed shamelessly, leaking enough pre-come to leave a dark stain on his pants.

“Fuck, I’m going crazy…”

He was already close to coming. He squeezed his eyes shut, his brow furrowing hard, then forced them open.

Heejae shoved at his shoulder again.

“I said stop, Kim Se— Ah!”

“Stop? We haven’t even started yet.”

He ignored her weak struggles completely and slowly leaned his heavy upper body over hers.

“Getting me worked up and then running away…”

He brought his lips right to her ear. His voice dropped to a dark, husky whisper.

“That’s a really fucking bad habit, Heejae.”