Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 96

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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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Epilogue 5.
Their once-separate lives had begun to overlap. The intersection of their worlds had widened, and there were more people to check in on now.
“Why that expression?”
“What expression am I making?”
Hee-ju stopped mid-reach to rub her cheek. Right—she’d put on makeup.
She lowered her hand quietly. Liam answered not with words but with silence, letting the quiet press for her reply.
Hee-ju looked down and tugged the corner of her mouth into a smile.
“Just. The food is delicious.”
Liam didn’t press further. He simply nodded, his expression settling into acceptance.
“That’s true. You’ve always liked Korean food.”
At that, Hee-ju tilted her head. She’d never thought of herself as particularly fond of it, but perhaps he was right.
“I suppose. I do like it.”
“So do I.”
Liam agreed without making a fuss. She caught the weight beneath his words—this wasn’t about the food at all. Heat crept up her cheeks.
She muttered something so quietly it barely escaped her lips.
“I can’t tell if the rice is going into my nose or my mouth.”
***
The two of them left the restaurant and stepped into the elevator without a word passing between them. The heavy machinery bore them upward toward their floor.
Moments later, the car slowed with a subtle lurch and stopped. Hee-ju—no longer the naïve high school girl she’d been—kept her expression carefully neutral as she stepped out.
Both of them knew what was coming. The air had grown taut, their backs stiff with tension.
Click. Liam unlocked the door with his key card and opened it slowly. Hee-ju stepped inside with an awkward smile.
The room wasn’t as spacious as the suite Benjamin had occupied, but it was considerably larger than a standard business room.
As Hee-ju looked around, her eyes widened.
“Oh?”
Wine and cake had been set out on the table by the window. Her gaze softened.
“You have a romantic side after all.”
“You seemed to be looking forward to Christmas, so I thought I’d prepare something. Do you like it?”
Liam poured a glass of wine and handed it to her. She reached for it from her chair.
She brought the glass to her lips. A bitter aroma brushed past her nose, and a sharp taste stained her tongue.
Liam stood by the window with his arms crossed, looking down at the city below. Cars with red taillights moved like busy ants in a single line.
His gaze drifted upward. In the dark glass, Hee-ju’s reflection appeared. He stared at it as if entranced.
She was lost in thought, slowly rotating her glass, when she suddenly spoke.
“Should we go to England at the start of the year?”
The question caught Liam off guard. His eyebrows lifted slightly. Hee-ju elaborated.
“Your grandfather extended a formal invitation.”
“He did? He hasn’t contacted me. Though he’s not the type to reach out for Christmas anyway.”
“I contacted him first. Wished him well for Christmas. He said to stop by whenever I had time.”
“There’ll be people to greet, pleasantries to exchange. It’ll be a hassle. Decline.”
Hee-ju lifted her head. In doing so, their eyes met through the window’s reflection.
“I’ve already said yes.”
“Is that so?”
Liam replied as if it were nothing.
“When?”
“Well, once things here are wrapped up.”
“Understood.”
Understood. She turned the word over in her mind, and a smile tugged at her lips.
She didn’t ask for a specific date. For him, time and place didn’t matter. If she was going, he would too.
Just as he had followed her from England to Korea, from Korea to America. This time, too, he would follow her to England.
“Awkward atmospheres, uncomfortable meetings. There will be so much tedium, won’t there?”
At her words, Liam picked up his own glass.
“You don’t have to go. Should I call your grandfather and tell him?”
“When I was in America, I had a thought. The day I lost my biological father, when I saw you appear before me—I realized that life isn’t just about losing things or gaining them.”
It wasn’t a direct answer to his question. Yet Liam said nothing.
“Perhaps one person has to leave for a new one to arrive. Like how I lost my trusted colleague, then gained your grandfather, Noel, and Margaret.”
Liam smiled sweetly.
“I have no intention of vacating my place, so don’t even dream of filling the one beside me with someone else.”
The words were half-joke, but entirely sincere. Both of them knew it.
Hee-ju held his gaze directly. Their eyes tangled deeply together.
“You’re saying you’re ready to step into my life.”
“!”
For a moment, Liam’s eyes went wide. It seemed the wine glass in his hand trembled slightly.
With an embarrassed expression, Hee-ju looked away and stood up.
“I should shower first—”
But her words never finished. They dissolved into Liam’s mouth instead.
Liam swallowed her words. In their place came heat, searing through.
Two hot tongues tangled together. Each time that raw flesh coiled around her, her back trembled.
His large hand burrowed through her hair. Then, in one motion, he gripped the nape of her neck.
“Ah!”
Goosebumps prickled across her skin. Whether from the coolness of his hand or something else, she couldn’t say.
Hee-ju wrapped her arms around his neck and let out a soft moan. She felt him smile against her.
There was no going back now.
Hee-ju accepted it like resignation, repeating the thought to herself. She had truly stepped into Liam’s life.
That place was barren—no living thing could be found there. And so her footprints were all the more vivid.
There was no escape. Wherever she went, he would follow.
“I love you. Very much.”
Hee-ju whispered the words in a breathless voice.
Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if measuring the weight of her declaration.
Suddenly he moved his lips, but he didn’t return the same words. Only the rough sound of his breathing escaped between his teeth.
Love, he thought.
Was this feeling love? Could it be defined by a single word?
Perhaps not. What she called love and what he felt were similar, yet different. Hers was bright and warm; his was something deeper, something darker.
But Liam gave no sign of this. He had no intention of letting it show.
If Hee-ju were startled and fled in her shoes, it would be better to keep the secret until the day he died.
One person leaves, another enters? My place?
Absurd. Did he look like a fool? Not before the day he closed his eyes forever.
Liam smiled coldly and slipped his fingers into her shirt. It was soft, smooth. Her skin clung to his touch.
Hee-ju’s body jerked lightly.
“Liam—!”
She reflexively pushed against his shoulders. He gently seized her wrist and brought her palm to his lips.
Then, with only his eyes, he looked up at her. Naked desire in his gaze.
A hot tongue slowly licked her palm. He sucked at her fingers, biting each knuckle.
“!”
Heat flooded Hee-ju’s face. That single gesture was more baring than removing clothes, more intimate than skin against skin.
Her heart throbbed. Her lower belly ached. She crossed her legs and whispered in a trembling voice.
“Hurry…”
As if he’d been waiting, Liam pulled her close and kissed her hard. The leisurely gentleman from moments before had vanished, leaving only a creature wild with hunger.
Liam bit at her indiscriminately. Her lips, her neck, her shoulders, her chest.
Sounds—moans or cries, she couldn’t tell which—poured from between her teeth.
The room was instantly engulfed in heat. The sharp lines of the cars’ headlights below grew hazy, veiled in condensation.
Liam brought one hand to her back, the other to her thigh. He lifted her, cradling her in his arms.
“!”
Hee-ju’s eyes went round with surprise. She stretched her arms and looped them around his neck.
Liam’s eyes narrowed in satisfaction. Soft. Hee-ju’s back fell onto the bed.
A brighter smile spread across Liam’s face. Sweet and seductive as the devil himself.
“Welcome.”
“…”
“Into my life.”
He didn’t voice the warning—that entry would be at her pleasure, but departure would not be.
Instead, he whispered the most tender threat. Liam called her name.
“Hee-ju.”
No—that wasn’t right. He wasn’t calling her by her name.
His lips moved again. This time the words emerged clearer.
“I need you.”
Liam nodded to himself. Yes—it wasn’t that he loved her. He needed her.
He needed her to taste the richness of food, to smell the fragrance of coffee, to laugh at pointless things. He needed her to add color to his grey life.
Like air. Like water. A necessity for survival.
I NEED YOU.
Then Hee-ju cupped his face in both hands. And looked him straight in the eye.
“Don’t forget—when I stepped into your life, you stepped into mine too.”
“That’s quite an honor.”
Liam replied with playful deflection as he began unbuttoning her shirt one by one. Soon a crease formed between his brows.
“Must you insist on wearing a shirt?”
For all the leisurely tone of his voice, his fingers worked with urgent haste. At last, Hee-ju burst out laughing.
“Hahaha.”
She collapsed backward, and Liam’s body descended over hers. The solid weight brought a deep sense of relief.
Christmas carols seemed to drift from somewhere. Though that couldn’t be, tree lights sparkled before her eyes.
Soon Hee-ju smiled brilliantly and spoke.
“Merry Christmas, Liam.”
Liam paused, then pressed his forehead to hers.
“Merry Christmas, Hee-ju.”
Beyond the dimly lit window, white crystals began to fall. The delicate grains accumulated, building into thick, rolling snow. The White Christmas they had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Dopamine addiction, end.

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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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