Unhealthy - Chapter 34

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 34. An Old Dream

 

Taejun lifted Hae-yeong’s foot and slowly brought it to his lips.

 

His hot breath touched Hae-yeong’s toes.

 

The moment his moist lips touched the top of her foot, Hae-yeong trembled at the strange thrill that ran down her spine.

 

Hae-yeong got goosebumps and tried to curl up her legs, but Taejun’s grip was firm.

 

“What matters is making you kneel before me.”

 

“D-don’t do that.”

 

“I can even lick your feet. If it makes you forgive me, I’ll do worse things.”

 

“I said I don’t like that kind of thing.”

 

She said she didn’t like it and pushed him away, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

 

Between her toes that were white and smooth like corn kernels, Taejun’s red, hot tongue slipped in like a snake.

 

The sensation of the wet mucous membrane sliding over each joint of her toes was explicit and lewd.

 

Though it should have been disgusting, Hae-yeong felt an indescribable ecstasy at Taejun’s gaze as he held her foot in his mouth and stared at her with narrowed eyes.

 

“It’s… dirty.”

 

Regardless, he was the type of person who, once he decided on something, would see it through to the end.

 

Taejun took Hae-yeong’s big toe deep into his mouth and sucked it up.

 

Slurp, the wet friction sound echoed obscenely through the quiet room.

 

At the languid stimulation transmitted from the tip of her toes, Hae-yeong’s toes curled inward.

 

He was persistent like a glutton savoring the sweetest thing in the world.

 

The more force he put into the hand gripping her ankle, the rougher Hae-yeong’s breathing became, and her mind flashed white.

 

Slurp, slurp. To him who licked and sucked as if it were delicious, Hae-yeong had already surrendered her feet completely and decided to willingly accept Taejun’s false atonement, even knowing it was a foolish choice blinded by love.

 

***

 

While Taejun had been extremely restrained at the Hannam-dong residence, conscious of his family’s watchful eyes, now he acted like a wild dog let off its leash. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean it was dangerous.

 

That unfamiliar appearance evoked a sense of déjà vu, as if a model student who had never once gone against his parents’ and teachers’ teachings had become a completely different being after some tragic incident.

 

It seemed as if the Gi Taejun that Hae-yeong originally knew had completely vanished from the world.

 

She acutely felt this change the next morning at the breakfast table, where silence hung heavy.

 

Taejun forcibly woke up Hae-yeong, who said she had no appetite and wanted to sleep a little more, and dragged her to sit at the dining table.

 

Taejun’s composure in taking his seat as if he didn’t care at all about the self-respect or family prestige that had been so brutally trampled yesterday was truly astonishing.

 

It was a place where Gi Chairman, who had given such unpleasant humiliation and even used violence at the company yesterday, and Gi Jae-jun, who had made that ridiculous declaration about making her his wife, were sitting with their eyes wide open.

 

He moved his chopsticks as if nothing had happened, picked up neat side dishes, and placed them on top of Hae-yeong’s steaming rice.

 

“Eat.”

 

“…?”

 

Hae-yeong stared blankly at Taejun while holding her spoon.

 

Hae-yeong wasn’t the only one who was bewildered.

 

Deep wrinkles formed on Gi Chairman’s face. Even Jae-jun, who rarely hardened his expression, ended up twisting his face fiercely.

 

In the silence like the calm before a storm, Taejun brazenly invaded Hae-yeong’s space and placed her under his protection.

 

“This too.”

 

Gi Taejun had definitely gone crazy.

 

He was acting as if one spoonful of rice going into his mouth was more important than the world turning upside down.

 

Since he was expressing his madness, which he no longer had any intention of hiding, in his own way, it felt like she would be the one punished in the end, not Gi Taejun.

 

***

 

In her first year, she had to be stuck at school almost every day, but it was true that her schedule had become quite relaxed thanks to arranging her timetable well after moving up to second year.

 

That’s also why she could spend more time with Taejun.

 

Ji-su, who spotted Hae-yeong walking listlessly toward the lecture building, jumped when she saw her noticeably haggard complexion.

 

“Hae-yeong, your face is half gone. What’s wrong?”

 

Ji-su vigorously pulled Hae-yeong into an embrace, buried her in her chest, and patted her back.

 

The healthy and vibrant warmth transmitted from Ji-su’s embrace felt rather foreign to Hae-yeong.

 

“I haven’t been able to sleep lately.”

 

“Are you secretly studying or something? If you’re going to study, let’s do it together.”

 

Even at Ji-su’s playful concern, Hae-yeong couldn’t respond with laughter.

 

Final exams were just around the corner.

 

While she had somehow gotten through midterms, she had to be fully prepared for finals, so her worries deepened even more.

 

This semester, her mind had been particularly elsewhere, so she was in a position where she had to worry about failing not only her major classes but even general education courses.

 

“I haven’t studied at all.”

 

Hae-yeong hugged Ji-su’s waist and whined pitifully like a child clinging to their mother.

 

“But why is your face so dry and rough? What’s going on?”

 

“It’s just… family matters.”

 

If she didn’t package herself plausibly like that, it seemed like no one would like her—an orphan with a different eye color despite looking like a normal Korean on the outside.

 

Since Taejun and Jae-jun were also nominally classified under the hierarchy of cousin brothers, it could seem strange to honestly reveal this precarious and unhealthy relationship she had with Taejun at this point.

 

The truth she had nowhere to confess festered only within Hae-yeong.

 

The secret she kept to herself, proportional to the time she had built with Ji-su, was becoming a chain that pressured Hae-yeong every single day.

 

“Didn’t you say it was because of family matters last time too? Is someone in your family sick?”

 

“No, it’s not like that.”

 

“Our Hae-yeong’s pretty eyes are all dead, how sad.”

 

Behind Ji-su’s gentle scolding, Hae-yeong hurriedly changed the subject.

 

“What about you? What happened with Chang-hyeon?”

 

“I don’t know. We’re still in the same state.”

 

“Still?”

 

“After he heard harsh words from me when we broke up, it feels like he’s intentionally ignoring my calls as if he’s getting revenge.”

 

“Would he really go that far?”

 

Even though she said that, Ji-su and Chang-hyeon were quite a well-matched pair.

 

Han Chang-hyeon’s reputation on campus was excellent, and while she couldn’t gauge the depth of his character, the general consensus was that he was at least someone with no disqualifying factors as a boyfriend.

 

“He’s been busy with part-time work lately, so we don’t contact each other much.”

 

“Bad guy.”

 

“What’s gotten into you? That’s An Hae-yeong who usually only said good things even when I badmouthed Han Chang-hyeon.”

 

“Ah, without realizing it…”

 

Hae-yeong bit her lip, surprised by the harsh words she had uttered herself.

 

The hostility she had built up toward Taejun had burst out like shrapnel in an unexpected place.

 

Ji-su shrugged as if this side of Hae-yeong was unexpected.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Curse a little like that. Live life with some edge. You’re too nice.”

 

Curse a little, live life with some edge…

 

Those things that seemed so easy to Ji-su felt incredibly difficult to Hae-yeong.

 

As soon as she entered the classroom, her body drooped like waterlogged cotton.

 

“Phew. Educational theory is the hardest.”

 

Educational theory still felt as distant as an impregnable fortress. In fact, there was Taejun behind her choice of English Education as her major.

 

Actually, Hae-yeong had no particular dreams since childhood.

 

She lost her mother early and lived with countless stepmothers, but she was lucky to always receive more love than she deserved from everyone and lived comfortably. Not to mention her father’s blind love.

 

Because of that, she had never felt lacking in anything.

 

Had abundance dulled her thirst for the future?

 

Hae-yeong didn’t think intensely about tomorrow. The person who colored her bland life with something called dreams was Taejun.

 

Once, Gi Jae-jun had asked in passing what her future aspirations were.

 

She had never thought about such things and was getting flustered when Taejun, who was eating with them, said indifferently:

 

“The kid should just live like a kid. What grand future aspirations?”

 

“Still, how could she have no dreams? Hae-yeong, what kind of person do you want to become? Academic field? Or technical field?”

 

“I, I just…”

 

“Since she’s a kid, teaching kids would be perfect for her.”

 

It was just light, playful words, not even interference, but from that day on, Hae-yeong imagined tomorrow for the first time in her life and set the goal of becoming a teacher.

 

Of course, she was clearly realizing that what you want to do and what you’re good at are separate domains, but that path Taejun had drawn for her remained as the only correct answer for Hae-yeong.

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