Chapter 48.2

Chapter 48.2

Heeju’s hand froze mid-motion, the ointment brush still hovering over his arm. She looked up at him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“A month or two. Think of it as a vacation. It’s freezing here anyway. Somewhere warm might be nice.”

“My contract’s for five months. It’s been three and a half… no, three and a half minus the one month you said you’d cut earlier, so there’s two and a half left. And you’re saying I should take the next two months off?”

“What other boss gives you that kind of deal? You got lucky with me, huh?”

“What’s the reason?”

At her question, Gukhyun flicked the unlit cigarette aside, as if he’d lost the urge to smoke altogether.

“Do I need a reason?”

“You probably have one. You just don’t want to tell me.”

“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it.”

She could almost hear the unspoken words that followed… he didn’t want to scare her.

“Then I don’t want to go.”

Heeju smeared more ointment on his wrist and pressed several bandages over it, one after another. Her touch grew a little rough, and Gukhyun let out a dry, amused sound.

“I don’t get why you’re so against it.”

“You drag me here to pay off a debt, and now you’re telling me to leave the country? Are you my dad or something, ordering me around?”

“Calling me your dad would be a bit blasphemous.”

He toyed with one of the clumsily placed bandages as he spoke.

“After all the times we’ve slept together, aren’t we more like lovers?”

He reached out and cupped her cheek, tracing gently beneath her eye with his thumb.

“If your boyfriend says he’s sending you on a trip, why do you look like that? You look like someone died.”

Heeju met his gaze, her eyes trembling faintly. She couldn’t tell what expression she was making. She only knew it felt eerily similar to when she’d sat alone, staring at the Christmas tree, waiting endlessly for him to come back.

“If you give me a reason I can accept, maybe I’ll think about it.”

Gukhyun lowered his hand from her cheek and let out a weary sigh.

“You’re not easy, you know that?”

There was something strangely lonely about him then. And Heeju, too, felt a deep loneliness take hold of her chest.

That feeling of being left alone… ever since her sister’s death, it was the one thing she still couldn’t endure. She’d thought she was finally getting better, but maybe that was only because she’d grown used to the man beside her.

She’d told herself their sex was just a way to fill the emptiness and escape reality, but somewhere along the line…

“I want to stay with you.”

What the hell did I just say?

Before she could even realize it, Heeju had simply spoken the thought that rose in her mind.

“I don’t want to be alone.”

Maybe it was the liquor finally kicking in after several gulps, or maybe it was just her heart twisting and spinning out of control. Either way, Heeju didn’t care anymore.

At this point, was there really anything left to be embarrassed about? He was the man who had already seen every shameful, humiliating side of her.

“So don’t tell me to go anywhere.”

“Hah…”

What kind of girl says something like that, Gukhyun muttered under his breath and let out a hollow laugh. His mouth curved into a crooked smile, but his long, narrow eyes didn’t smile at all.

“Are you done treating me?”

Heeju tidied up the disinfectant and ointment, glancing over his body.

“If there’s nowhere else you’re hurt.”

He was the type who never said he was in pain, even when he was, so she couldn’t trust his word without checking for herself.

Gukhyun caught her wrist as she shut the medical kit and yanked her toward him, setting her on his thigh.

“My d*** aches. You might need to do something about that too.”

The moment her hand brushed against him, the hard, twitching bulge under his pants throbbed violently. He’d been painfully aroused since their kiss earlier, so the fact that he’d held it back this long was almost impressive.

“…Should I s*** you off?”

“You really just say things like that now, huh? How’d my innocent little girl end up like this?”

He squinted one eye, half teasing, and pinched her lips lightly, not enough to hurt. Heeju turned her head away, brushed his hand off, and shot back coolly.

“This is because of some guy’s fault.”

“Whoever that guy is… he must be a real piece of trash.”