Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 60

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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60.
“Once, in Paris, we apprehended a Defense Ministry employee who was trying to smuggle classified documents out of South Korea. The files he carried looked like this—different format, but the same feel.”
“Feel?”
Hee-ju, turning his words over in her mind, exhaled deeply with a soft sigh.
“Well, we’re both amateurs in this field anyway… Oh.”
Her eyes brightened mid-sentence.
“I know someone who can help.”
“Noel?”
“Noel specializes in forged documents. But if this really is a weapon schematic, like you said, there’s someone who’d recognize it at a glance.”
“And of course you’ve memorized his address.”
“Obviously.”
Hee-ju shrugged with a touch of pride.
“Your trip’s going to be longer, then.”
“Sorry.”
Liam’s tone was light, but Hee-ju’s expression fell at once. She knew all too well how much she owed him. And now she’d owe him more.
The debt was mounting.
Liam reached over and removed the USB, tossing it into his bag before meeting her eyes.
“This looks like a chance for you.”
“A chance for what?”
“To repay me.”
Hee-ju’s eyes darted around, but Liam’s gaze followed her relentlessly.
“There are no minors here, and no elderly women crashing cars into walls.”
“Fine. I’ve been waiting for this moment anyway.”
Hee-ju rose from her seat with grave determination—not the motion of someone leaving a room, but a general taking the field.
Liam reclined against his chair with unhurried ease, crossing one leg over the other.
“I checked earlier and hot water works fine. Looks like no one’s touched this place since Melpis died. Go ahead and shower first if you want.”
“Got it.”
Her stride was resolute. There were no obstacles here, no interruptions. Her face flushed as she headed toward the bathroom.
***
Liam froze as he emerged from the shower. Hee-ju was sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, hugging her knees.
She stared into the wavering flames with a fragile air about her—as though her feet barely touched the ground.
A gentle breeze could send her flying away.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
He had to say something. Anything to keep her grounded. It was an absurd instinct, yet he spoke without thinking.
Hee-ju turned slowly. Only when her gaze met his could Liam finally exhale with relief.
“Nothing much.”
“Nothing much?”
“Just thinking… you’d survive just fine in the middle of the desert.”
Liam frowned, not following. Hee-ju continued casually.
“Finding screwdrivers in an empty house, turning on hot water, lighting a fireplace. You’d make it anywhere.”
“What about living with someone?”
At his unexpected words, Hee-ju’s eyes widened slightly.
Liam dropped down beside her abruptly. Propping himself up on one hand, he leaned his torso toward her.
“I could keep you fed.”
……
Hee-ju studied his slate-gray eyes. Beyond the crackling flames, her own face was reflected in them.
Her heart thundered—thump, thump—so loud she wondered if he could hear it.
She could unfasten her shirt buttons right now. She truly was grateful to him, and she understood the terms of their arrangement.
Or that’s what she told herself. The truth was simpler: she wanted to spend the night with the man in front of her.
He was attractive enough, dangerous enough to make her burn. There were still countless complications ahead, yet for the first time, she wanted to surrender not to reason but to feeling.
And yet, at the bottom of her heart, sediment drifted. Call it worry. Call it dread.
His sincerity now would fade. It always did. And then what?
He would withdraw as ruthlessly as he’d advanced. He was a wind that passed through—leaving nothing behind but the next fascination drawing him onward.
But her? The flame that kindled slowly burned long. No matter how much time passed, no matter how fiercely the gales blew, it would burn steady and true.
Their endings were already written, vivid and clear.
In the end, I’ll be the one left clinging.
Alone.
Yes, she’d be alone again. Better to have never had him at all. At least then she wouldn’t feel the loneliness.
Something he’d said once came back to her.
‘Don’t draw a line just against me. If you do, I’ll cross it.’
Following his warning, Hee-ju had drawn an invisible boundary around herself—one she couldn’t cross, one no one else could breach without permission.
It was a shield, a last defense. A struggle not to be wounded.
But Liam had crossed it easily. He walked through her territory with muddy feet, leaving clear footprints behind.
Hee-ju’s mouth took on a bitter curve.
I hate this.
……
Liam never looked away from her face. He could guess, roughly, what she was thinking.
Tonight, he suspected, Hee-ju would come to him. She was the type who couldn’t live with debt, and that was their agreement.
Moreover, she had goodwill toward him. But she wouldn’t surrender everything.
Eighty, ninety percent perhaps—but not a hundred. She’d keep one last fortress, one final refuge for herself.
That wasn’t what Liam wanted. All or nothing. Everything or nothing. He wanted Hee-ju to give him all of herself.
To choose him as irreplaceable, as singular.
To achieve that, he would do anything. Expose his weakness. Court her pity.
It would likely work. Hee-ju couldn’t leave the suffering alone—though she’d never admit it.
And so, having made his decision, Liam opened his mouth.
“I am…”
He frowned faintly. His voice came out worse than expected.
Damn. As he made a low sound of frustration, Hee-ju’s gaze traced along his lips.
Liam turned his eyes away slowly. Rather than look at Hee-ju, he gazed at the crackling flames and spoke softly.
“A Spare.”
……
Confused, Hee-ju tilted her head slightly.
Liam pressed both palms to the floor and looked up at the ceiling. The pop and crackle of burning wood cut through the silence.
“My family is quite prominent.”
She knew that much. A hereditary noble house, with Grandfather even having served as a senator—it was far from ordinary.
What Hee-ju didn’t know was why he did this.
Liam’s steady voice continued over her silence.
“In families like mine, if you’re not the eldest son, you’re useless. I’m just Philip’s replacement.”
“…Liam?”
Hee-ju’s eyes widened at words she hadn’t expected. A replacement?
She opened her mouth, then closed it again without speaking.
Liam exhaled slowly.
“As a child, I didn’t understand. I didn’t question why I had to follow wherever my brother went. I was just excited to play with him.”
……
“But one day—I think it was that summer when I turned nine.”
Hee-ju swallowed hard without meaning to. Alarm bells rang in her mind, telling her not to listen further.
If she heard the rest of this story, she’d pity him. She’d realize that the man she thought perfect was anything but.
And then she could never leave him. Not by choice, anyway.
Yet she didn’t stop him. She didn’t rise to her feet. She simply watched his shadow-darkened face, transfixed.
“We went to France for a family vacation. My brother was in a car accident and needed surgery right away. His blood supply was critical—RH Negative.
So I had to get on an operating table too. To maintain a steady blood supply for him during his surgery.”
!
“At the time, I thought it was natural. He was my brother. But after we moved to the recovery room, I overheard Grandfather talking. I think he believed I was asleep. That’s why he said it.”
“What did he say…”
Hee-ju finally asked. Even as she forged her own chains.
Liam laughed faintly. Eyes still on the ceiling, he murmured carelessly.
“That it was fine to sacrifice the Spare to protect the heir. That this was the Spare’s purpose. That’s why I followed Philip everywhere—I was his blood supply.”
“Liam!”
Hee-ju’s cry was almost a scream. Her face had gone pale. Her eyes trembled with shock.
“That can’t be real. Who cares about things like that anymore?”
Liam laughed again.
“It’s real because such families exist. The older the noble house, the fouler the air inside those walls. Still water rots.”
Liam let his gaze fall slowly. He looked at the dancing flames, then rose gradually and fed a few more pieces of wood to the dying fire.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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