TIN 65

He seemed ready to do exactly that if I said I liked it. Or maybe it was consideration as if he’d try to understand if I had such a perverted hobby in the first place.

Naturally, I answered with a sour expression.

“I don’t like getting hit.”

Life might have been a bit easier if I had such a hobby. Of course, even if I did, I wouldn’t have chosen Wang Wei as my partner.

“But why?” 

Joo Do-hwa asked, seemingly unable to understand. As if I was driven to deliberately get hit. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t wrong, but I had a good excuse.

“Your fiancée was about to get hit.”

I didn’t know from where he saw it, but if I summarized the necessary information, it was like this. It was also a jab at Wang Wei’s petty excuse that he hadn’t laid a hand on Lee Yuna.

“That’s quite a sacrifice.”

The reply was truly unenthusiastic. It was a crisp comment and sounded almost sarcastic. His sunken gaze seemed to be demanding, ‘Since when were you so kind?’ so I added with a light sigh.

“She was about to get hit because of me.”

It was a simple reason that needed no excuse. Not a benevolent motive as he suggested, but just because I didn’t want unnecessary trouble. I wanted to resolve it on my own level, lest I end up having bad dreams about it later on.

“It’s better if I take the hit and end it.”

Even if it wasn’t Lee Yuna but Kei, or even Theo, I would have stepped in. Well, if it were those two, they probably wouldn’t have stopped Wang Wei in the first place.

“Do you really think so?”

However, Joo Do-hwa still didn’t seem to accept my words. I couldn’t tell if his narrowed eyes were glaring at me or mocking me.

“…Then should I have let her get hit?”

“Yes.”

A clean answer came back. As I furrowed my brow, hesitating, Joo Do-hwa calmly drove the point home.

“You should have let her get hit.”

“…”

What kind of nonsense is this?

Even if it was a political marriage, she was still his fiancée. Putting that aside, one couldn’t just stand by and watch in such a situation. I hadn’t expected that much warmth from Joo Do-hwa, but hearing it out loud left me feeling rather dumbfounded.

“You’re looking at me like I’m a bastard.”

Reading something in my expression, Joo Do-hwa let out a chuckle. Before I could flinch at his sharp observation, a monotone voice flowed from his mouth.

“If Yuna got hit, the Gold Road Liquors would have stepped in.”

I knew that. That was why I thought Wang Wei was crazy for trying to lay hands on Lee Yuna.

“She’s not the type to get scared over one slap, and Hwayang Tobacco would have paid the price for one wrong move.”

After saying that, Joo Do-hwa closed his mouth for a moment. His curled lip corners held his characteristic arrogance.

“But if you get hit, who do you think would step up?”

“…”

I couldn’t give any answer. It was because I had belatedly realized what he was trying to say.

“You’ve got nothing, so what are you doing taking hits for others for?”

It wasn’t that I was right and things would’ve ended there, but rather that I was in a situation where I couldn’t do anything right from the start. In the end, Joo Do-hwa did step in, but there was no one there to help me. No, it would have been the same anywhere else too. Just like how Oceans’ employees couldn’t even express their resentment when hit by customers.

“That wasn’t for Lee Yuna’s sake, it was to help Wang Wei. You took away Yuna’s excuse to get hit once and be stepped on.”

In my cooled-down mind, I recalled Lee Yuna’s image that I had glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. How she wasn’t scared even when pushed by Wang Wei, how her expression didn’t change even when she saw Wang Wei raising his hand, and how she even spoke in a confused voice to me who blocked her way.

‘Hey, you…’

“From the moment Wang Wei touched Yuna, there was no place for you to intervene. You seem to be mistaken…you’re not even in a position to take the hit for her.”

Though the dry remark wasn’t meant as an insult, it still stung my insides. The matter-of-fact tone, as if stating a fact, made it cut even deeper into my heart.

“You don’t even have the standing to be her savior. You know?”

“Ah…”

I let out a long sigh. A deflated breath escaped through my parted lips like air leaking out. 

Unable to look at him straight, my gaze, which had been staring blankly, kept falling to the floor.

“You’re right.”

“…”

“You’re right.”

I should say my pride was hurt. While I didn’t regret stepping in to stop Lee Yuna from being hit, I, at least, felt embarrassed. I wasn’t expecting to be thanked, but I ended up being confirmed as having just interfered unnecessarily.

“I ended up feeling sorry for Lee Yuna.”

It was also arrogant of me to think that Lee Yuna would’ve intervened because of me in the end. It might have been because of me at first, but midway through, she probably got upset by Wang Wei’s attitude. Lee Yuna and I weren’t anything to each other, and she wasn’t an altruistic person either.

“I’ll apologize when I see her next time.”

“Apologize?”

I thought this would be a satisfactory answer, but Joo Do-hwa immediately picked at my words. 

Asking in a low voice, he leaned his upper body toward me, placing one hand on the seat.

“The person you should apologize to is me.”

“…”

I reflexively narrowed my brows and looked at Joo Do-hwa. Why should I apologize to you? 

That was the kind of rebellious feeling I had at the moment.

Joo Do-hwa defined such a question in just one sentence.

“I don’t like it when someone touches my things.”

Things. That one word stuck in my ear. Due to the suddenly close distance, a sweet pheromone wafted over.

“I told you, didn’t I? That you’re mine.”

Sparks seemed to fly in his yellow eyes. The claim that might sound romantic at first was part of an abnormal and strange obsession. An extension of his anger when he insisted that I was his because he had bought me with money.

“But what am I supposed to do when you’re throwing your body around carelessly?”

Throwing around carelessly. Even knowing that wasn’t what he meant, it was a suggestive expression. I should be used to this kind of talk by now, but I couldn’t help being at a loss for words every time I heard it.

“When I told you to wait for a bit, how do you think I feel when you come back with such injuries?”

He grabbed my chin with his free hand and forcibly made me look at him. It was close enough that he could have kissed me, but what was contained in that gaze was a more dry and cold displeasure.

“In the end, I’m the one who ends up doing troublesome things.”

“…”

A chill ran up and down my spine at his heavy, lowered voice. I wanted to argue back, to ask if it was my fault, to demand what he expected me to do now, but I couldn’t voice any of that.

“Touching my things is insulting me. I took you to look only, not to go around touching as you please.”

I was used to being treated like an object by others. It meant I had no reason to be newly offended even if he treated me like a trophy. If he wanted to dress me up like a doll and put me on display, I was willing to comply obediently.

“How have you lived your life that men are drawn to you wherever you go?”

The problem, however, lay in his way of speaking. This behavior of directing all the blame on me and venting his anger fully, despite having no real reason to be this angry. This conversation where he treated me worse than a rag, despite saying I was his ‘hyung.’

“… So you want me to apologize?”

I felt sick to my stomach, but I asked anyway. I wanted to know what he wanted, at least that much. If an apology would end this, it wouldn’t be bad to get out of this situation with just a few words.

“…”

But for some reason, Joo Do-hwa couldn’t readily agree. He stiffened for a moment and glared at me with tightly closed lips.

Silence lingered for a while. The light from outside the car window created long shadows, and shade fell on his lowered eyelashes.

Finally, his lips moved slowly.

“Go ahead, try it.”

“…”

“I said, try saying you’re sorry.”

I intuitively realized it. That a mere apology wouldn’t improve his mood. That his reason for telling me to apologize was an arrogant permission as if to say he’d listen if I really insisted.

Right, he thinks he’s in that position.

My self-esteem had been eroding since he started talking about Lee Yuna. No matter how much I had been thinking of apologizing just moments ago, I couldn’t help but feel upset after seeing this attitude.

As he said, I had nothing to my name, and that was why my pent-up resentment burst out.

“I’m not sorry to you.”

At this blunt truth, Joo Do-hwa’s eyes turned cold. It was a clear danger signal, but I couldn’t take back the words that had already started spilling out.

“If you didn’t want men to be attracted to me, you shouldn’t have brought me here in the first place.”

I was angry. More precisely, I felt humiliated. Whether it was because my patience had worn thin from the damn cigar smoke, or because my reason was clouded by the pheromones emanating from nearby. I felt like my insides were not just twisting but turning black and dying.

“You know how that bastard’s head got cracked. It’s not the first time men have lost their minds trying to stick their dicks in. Didn’t you expect this kind of situation?”

It was Joo Do-hwa who brought me to the party knowing Wang Wei would be there. It didn’t make sense that he couldn’t have anticipated this, given that he knew full well what had happened between Wang Wei and me. After prodding me to at least greet him if we met, now he was trying to hold me responsible for what happened.

“I greeted him just as you wanted. So why…”

Before I could finish saying “…are you making a fuss?” Joo Do-hwa slammed his fist against the partition connecting to the front seats.

He gave a short command into the intercom installed in the limousine.

“Stop the car.”