My Bloody Valentine - 77

Taeshin bought land near Namhae in joint ownership with Chairman Bae. This will be the site for a new hotel.

Unlike in Seoul, where securing land was difficult and they had to settle for a 4-star hotel under the international standard of ‘star ratings’, the new hotel is planned to be a 5-star establishment with more than three dining venues, a swimming pool, and other facilities.

Due to his focus on that, Junho naturally took over the operations of Tacenda. In this situation, maintaining the title of representative seemed meaningless, especially as Chairman Bae continually nagged him to hand over the business to subordinates.

Persuaded by his insistence, Taeshin was working on the paperwork to transfer the representative position of Tacenda to Junho and Jina.

After finishing his tasks and returning to his room, Taeshin heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom. It hit him that this space was no longer just his own. Although it felt strange, it wasn’t an unpleasant kind of feeling.

As he entered the living room, he noticed a faint smell of plastic. When he followed the scent, he discovered a canvas hidden behind the sofa that Han had stashed away. There were also paint stains on the glass tabletop that hadn’t been wiped off.

It seemed that she had indeed brought that painting to his place. The painting of a woman’s face resembling a feline was nearly complete.

Taeshin took a knife from the inside pocket of his jacket. The heavy jackknife smoothly spun in midair and landed in his hand.

The sharply honed blade aimed at the canvas. However, it never made contact.

With a dissatisfied expression, Taeshin returned the canvas to its original spot and sat down at his desk. As he twisted and pulled at his tie’s knot, Han came out of the bathroom.

Surprised to see Taeshin, Han looked as if she had stumbled upon an unexpected person.

“Oh, when did you come?”

“Just now.”

Taeshin gazed at Han with an indifferent look.

Han’s brown hair was damp, sticking together in strands across her forehead. The scent of body gel imitating frizzies mixed with the smell of water wafted through the air. Han’s cheeks were flushed pink from the warm shower.

Their cohabitation, which had been ongoing for several days since their trip to Gangneung, continued quietly without any major incidents.

The only change was in Han’s attitude toward Taeshin; fundamentally, Taeshin remained calm, with little emotional fluctuation, like deep water.

Whenever Taeshin maintained a long silence, Han felt uncomfortable. She had not learned the social skills necessary to pretend that nothing was wrong or to act nonchalantly.

Han rolled her large eyes around, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Oh, I’m just getting ready to visit Jung.”

“…….”

Feeling a sense of obligation to fill the void with words, Han began chattering.

“Jung is doing really well. It’s surprising that he’s still unconscious.”

“…….”

“I called the caregiver to ask, and most of the surgical site has healed… Oh, they removed the stitches yesterday.”

“…….”

“To be honest, I was worried because he bled a lot back then. Plus, I didn’t know, but it turns out Jung has a rare blood type…”

“Boring.”

At Taeshin’s words, which escaped like a sigh, Han flinched and stopped speaking. Then, she closed her slightly parted lips tightly and glanced at Taeshin.

“If you call that name just one more time, I might just rip open that wound you said is healing.”

Han, whose eyes had widened in surprise, nodded vigorously.

“Ah, okay…”

Taeshin slowly stood up. The sound of leather creaking echoed through the quiet room.

With the deliberate pace of a languid beast, Taeshin approached Han. He placed his palm gently on the back of Han, who was wearing only a thin t-shirt. Lately, she had been eating earnestly like a diligent child doing homework, but she hardly gained any weight.

Gazing intently at Han’s face, he slowly leaned in. He kissed her on the damp hair and then lowered his head to press his lips softly against her slightly parted ones.

At the feeling of their lips meeting, Han trembled lightly. Taeshin softly sucked on Han’s warm lips, which were slightly warmer than his body temperature.

Han raised her hands, which had been resting gently, and placed them lightly on Taeshin’s shoulders. Taeshin’s brows furrowed as he stiffened. This seemed to signal Taeshin, and his tongue eagerly pushed in.

The light kiss quickly deepened into a passionate one. Saliva and breath intertwined in a frenzy, and their tongues wrapped around each other. Waves of sound echoed within their mouths.

Taeshin’s tongue clumsily shoved his saliva deep down his throat. If it continued like this, he would be dragged back to bed again. And then he wouldn’t be able to leave the bedroom all day.

Han pushed against Taeshin’s shoulders with her palms. Taeshin, still biting down on Han’s lower lip, reluctantly let go. As he pulled away from her lips, a sound of release echoed.

“Ha… I, later…”

“Later?”

“After I get back…”

“Shall we do the rest after you come back?”

Taeshin smiled, pulling the corners of his lips up as if he had heard something amusing, while Han’s face flushed red as she turned away her gaze.

Sitting in the back seat of the sedan driven by Myungseop, Han carefully touched her lips with her fingertips. She felt her plump, swollen lips. The area around her lips tingled and burned as if electrified.

Thinking she needed to cool down a bit, she opened the window. The warm spring breeze flowed in pleasantly.

The hospital where Jung was admitted was about a 20-minute drive from the hotel. After getting out of the sedan, Han walked towards Jung’s hospital room with a man in a black suit following her like a shadow.

Han visited Jung every other day, staying for about an hour each time. That time provided a brief respite for the caregiver.

When Han entered after knocking, the friendly caregiver greeted her, seemingly waiting for her arrival, before heading outside. She had also been quite intimidated by the men in black suits guarding outside the hospital room at first, but now she naturally exchanged glances with them.

The air in the hospital room was dry. Han adjusted the humidity control on the humidifier and checked on Jung to see if he was comfortable.

After carefully covering him with the freshly laundered blanket, she sat in the caregiver’s chair, lost in thought.

Sitting in front of her friend, who was deeply asleep, felt oddly lonely.

Since Taeshin had disappeared, Han had been living a life accustomed to solitude for over a decade. It felt ridiculous to feel lonely because a few people had left her side for just a fleeting moment.

As Han stared blankly at the closed window, she shook her head lightly, as if to shake off her thoughts. At that moment, someone asked her.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“Just, various things… huh?”

When she turned her gaze from the window to look down at the bed, she saw Jung slowly blinking at her.

“Jung!”

Han hurriedly pressed the nurse call button to summon the medical staff. The doctor, accompanied by nurses, arrived at the hospital room to examine Jung.

She shone a light in her eyes and asked various questions about her condition. Finally, she lifted Jeong’s patient gown to check the surgical site.

Jeong, curious, lowered her head to check her own wound. Despite a half-hand-sized scar crossing her clean skin, her expression showed no particular agitation.

The doctor, with a face that suggested everything was okay now, said she could be relieved. Since it was a general anesthesia surgery and there was damage to the lungs, the key point was how much the lung function would recover.

The medical staff left with the last piece of advice to start walking a little and to focus on exercises that would increase her lung capacity.

Once they finished re-dressing the wound and covering her with the patient gown again, Han, who had been turned away, hurriedly sat down next to Jeong as soon as the medical staff left.

“Does it hurt?”

“No. It pulls a bit, but it’s fine.”

Jeong smiled as if it was nothing. However, her face still looked gaunt, and her lips were dry. A great wave of guilt swept over Han once again.

“Because of me….”

Pretending not to hear the voice that was as faint as a mosquito’s wings, Jeong said,

“I’m really okay. But I might be a bit nervous when I wear a bikini.”

Han smiled sadly with tear-filled eyes. After quietly looking at her pitiful face, Jeong asked,

“Do you remember… what I said that day?”

There was no way she could forget. Han clearly remembered everything: the temperature, humidity, and even the acrid smell of blood from that day.

“I like you… I like you, Han-a.”

The recorded images in Han’s mind played back like someone pressed the play button.

“Run away.”

The desperation in Jeong’s eyes, the blood seeping out of her abdomen, and her face growing paler. All of those memories would never be forgotten until the day she dies.

“Jeong-a….”

From the look in Han’s eyes, she could anticipate the answer he was about to give. Suddenly, the day she first met Han flashed in her mind.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Jeong-a, they’re asking to tie you up in Room 3? Director Lee of Il Yang Industries.”

“Ah… I don’t want to, really.”

At the words of Manager Jo Kyung-cheol, Jeong instantly frowned. The other party was the representative of a manufacturing company known for being a notorious hand and mouth nuisance. He constantly asked throughout the drinking session,

“Why do this kind of thing? How heartbroken would your parents be if they knew you were pouring drinks here?”

Yet, he was endlessly groping around with his hands.

Jeong requested that the customer be placed on the blacklist, and Jina accepted that immediately. However, on days when Jina did not come to work, Manager Jo invariably sent Jeong to that room. It was because it was a room that made money.

“Please say I didn’t come today because I caught a cold.”

“It doesn’t matter if you rest, but what about my boss? Are you going to give it to him?”

“… I’ll take a 30-minute break and then go.”

Sighing at her situation, the door opened, and a waiter came in carrying someone and threw him down in a chair.

“What is that? Who’s that?”

Jeong asked the waiter who had brought him as she looked at the man sprawled on the sofa through the mirror.

“He’s a new player. He just came out of Director Jang’s room. Wow, the smell of semen….”

“Hmm….”

Intrigued, Jeong got up from her seat and approached the sofa.

So, is Director Jang into this kind of thing?

Curious, Jeong’s gaze landed on the man’s face, who was dressed in luxurious clothes that looked rented. His cheeks were swollen and red as if he had been hit by someone, and there was blood on the torn wound at the corner of his lips.

Beneath neatly arranged brown eyebrows matching his hair color, his eyelids were thin enough to see the blood vessels, and the long eyelashes hanging below his horizontally elongated eyes were especially prominent.

From the sharply defined jaw to the protruding Adam’s apple, Jeong was distractedly staring when she suddenly jolted back as if something heavy had fallen on her foot.

Feeling like she had just stolen a glance at someone else’s naked body, Jeong quickly turned back and sat down. Then she hurriedly began to fix her makeup.

Just as she was reapplying her lipstick, the man screamed as if he were having a nightmare and opened his eyes. He blinked in confusion as if he had just fallen into another world.

“… Are you okay?”

Even as an empty remark, it would have been appropriate to reply, but the man shook his head as if he were about to burst into tears.

Finding that sight quite cute, Jeong stood up and headed to the refrigerator. She pulled out an ice pack and approached, offering it to the man.

“I’m ‘Yu Jeong.’ It’s a single-character name, and I’m twenty-eight.”

In this murky life that spun on like a hamster wheel day after day, Han suddenly appeared. And things that appeared suddenly tend to disappear just as quickly from life.