Unhealthy - Chapter 40

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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 40. I Love You

 

“….”

 

“Go hide somewhere Gi Gyeong-un won’t be able to find you. Don’t ever think about setting foot on Korean soil again.”

 

Hae-yeong drew in a breath.

 

In the elaborate plan Taejun had designed, there had never been a place for him from the beginning.

 

She had thought he was diligently atoning and staying by her side because he had something he wanted, or because his usefulness still remained.

 

But now, he was telling her to leave.

 

The words telling her never to set foot in Korea again became a cruel sentence of separation that tore her heart to shreds.

 

“Then what about you? What happens to you?”

 

Suppose she followed Taejun’s words and preserved her own worthless life.

 

Then what comes next?

 

Given Gi Chairman’s personality, he wasn’t the type to leave Taejun alone after he deliberately ‘let her go.’

 

He had lived his entire life as Gi Gyeong-un’s faithful hunting dog, or perhaps as something even worse than a tool.

 

When such a Taejun defied his master’s orders and rebelled, the price he would pay was as clear as day.

 

The fear that every moment she survived and breathed might be the result of his miserable sacrifice strangled her throat.

 

She couldn’t leave him alone in this hellish house and go.

 

What meaning could freedom without Taejun, comfort in a world where he was absent, possibly have?

 

Hae-yeong felt the weight the man before her carried was far too overwhelming.

 

So she felt an impulse to rather break apart together with him.

 

“Why are you worrying about me now? This is a matter of your life.”

 

Taejun’s face reflected in the mirror was so terribly cold that Hae-yeong was startled with fear.

 

Yes, she was truly afraid.

 

In his colorless eyes, there was no lingering attachment, no fear visible.

 

He looked as if he felt relieved, like someone who had finished what he was supposed to do.

 

Faced with him threatening her with his life and pressuring her that she absolutely had to leave, Hae-yeong was at a loss for what response would be right and found herself speechless.

 

“I don’t want to. I won’t go anywhere alone. Why only me…!”

 

“Hae-yeong.”

 

Taejun grabbed Hae-yeong’s shoulders and turned her to face him.

 

Though it wasn’t strong force, an irresistible sense of intimidation cut off Hae-yeong’s words.

 

“Go and never come back. Run away without looking back.”

 

That was not a request but a command.

 

The target that both Gi Chairman and Gi Jae-jun were desperately aiming for was ultimately An Ji-min.

 

And Taejun knew better than anyone that the moment An Ji-min was secured, the final sacrifice to be trampled would be An Hae-yeong.

 

He was already instinctively sensing that Gi Gyeong-un and Gi Jae-jun had begun tracking his movements.

 

The eyes of a predator before a death struggle were deeply embedded in Hae-yeong’s vision.

 

“I’ll get you there safely, and after that it’s up to you. All I can do is buy a little time.”

 

“Don’t say things like that… Don’t say such strange things, really.”

 

“Rather than dying a dog’s death, you need to stay alive somewhere so we can meet again, right?”

 

His voice throwing out the thin hope of reunion like bait was terribly low.

 

Hae-yeong couldn’t bring herself to speak and tightly gripped the hem of Taejun’s shirt.

 

Taejun carefully removed Hae-yeong’s hand, briefly kissed her forehead, then slowly straightened up.

 

“Pack your things.”

 

As Taejun coldly turned to leave, Hae-yeong urgently grabbed his hand.

 

Warmth touched the back of Taejun’s hand that had always been cold. Warm and beautiful like sunlight.

 

“Does it make you feel better to leave like this? Do you feel good after letting everything go like that?”

 

“Do I look like it?”

 

Taejun straightforwardly gazed quietly at Hae-yeong’s wet eyes.

 

Hae-yeong couldn’t dare read the countless emotions contained in that silence.

 

Whether it was sadness or perhaps relief, she couldn’t tell as she quietly faced that colorless abyss, and in the end, instead of answering, Hae-yeong threw herself forward and hugged Taejun’s back as he turned away.

 

She hated it to death when he turned his back, but somehow, at this moment, she wanted to hold onto even his back view with all her strength.

 

When she pressed her cheek against his solid back, the regular but heavy beating of his heart was transmitted completely.

 

“I understand. That I absolutely have to go, and that when I meet Aunt I have to leave without thinking about anything, I understand it all… How about staying just a few more days before going? Just one week. No, just three days. If that’s too long, even just two days. Tomorrow is too soon.”

 

“You can buy what you need as you go.”

 

“It’s not about that, it’s not because I need something…”

 

Knowing, knowing everything, Taejun only pretended not to know.

 

“What do I do if I miss you?”

 

Hae-yeong’s voice was muffled with tears.

 

Taejun stood without moving, enduring her crying.

 

“Adults can endure that much.”

 

“…Can you endure it? Since you don’t have feelings for me anyway, can you replace me with anyone else? With Seo I-jeong or someone like that?”

 

It felt like suddenly receiving a terminal diagnosis.

 

The tears she had barely held back overflowed and flowed endlessly down her cheeks. Taejun’s back was soaked with tears.

 

Honestly, right now no matter what logic Gi Taejun used to persuade her, it wouldn’t register. She only thought this separation was too sudden and cruel.

 

“I won’t.”

 

“Won’t what? You will. When you feel like it, you’ll sleep with anyone, right? If a prettier, younger woman than me says she likes you, you’ll treat her well like you do me.”

 

Though she shot back resentfully, Hae-yeong had actually said it hoping Taejun wouldn’t do that.

 

There was no way Taejun wouldn’t notice that.

 

“I won’t do that kind of thing.”

 

“Lies, lies… How can I believe that?”

 

“Believe me, this time.”

 

Taejun, who had been about to turn away, was ultimately defeated by Hae-yeong’s desperate pleading.

 

He slowly turned around and roughly pulled Hae-yeong into his arms.

 

Cupping the cheeks of sobbing Hae-yeong with his large hands, he clumsily wiped away the teardrops pooled in her eyes with his thumbs.

 

“Stop.”

 

Hae-yeong tried to hold back her overflowing tears by biting her lower lip hard.

 

“Don’t do this, it hurts.”

 

Taejun pressed his thumb to open Hae-yeong’s lips that had turned white from losing blood.

 

“Just endure it.”

 

His low, soothing voice helped organize her swirling emotions a little. Still, the sense of injustice didn’t fade.

 

“It might not be endurable. Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you can endure everything. And I… I don’t think I’m an adult yet.”

 

Taejun put his lips to the ear of Hae-yeong, who was sniffling but still expressing all her thoughts without hiding them, and whispered softly.

 

“Considering what you and I have done together, if you’re not an adult, what does that make me?”

 

Hae-yeong stepped up onto Taejun’s feet.

 

Standing precariously on her tiptoes, she desperately wrapped her arms around his neck.

 

“Just be a bad guy. Keep being bad and promiscuous. Just pretend you don’t know anything…”

 

“You know it’s not allowed.”

 

She knows.

 

She knows what Taejun is saying, why he’s trying to send her away, and she understands the words about enduring because she’s an adult.

 

But Hae-yeong didn’t want to understand any of those things.

 

“Don’t abandon me…”

 

“I’m not abandoning you.”

 

Taejun had never abandoned her in the first place. No, he had never once tried to let go of this hand. Rather, he had gripped too tightly, preferring to cause wounds rather than let go.

 

Taejun, supporting Hae-yeong’s bottom as he held her, slowly pressed his lips against hers, then pulled away reluctantly and said.

 

“I love you.”

 

It felt like she couldn’t breathe.

 

No, it felt like her heartbeat had stopped.

 

A distant illusion washed over her, as if only Gi Taejun and she stood alone in the center of a destroyed world.

 

“I love you.”

 

Hae-yeong, without even thinking to wipe her flowing tears, was drawn to seek Taejun’s lips and took them in her mouth, then pleaded.

 

“Please say it again.”

 

“I love you, Hae-yeong.”

 

She had struggled desperately to turn away and push him out, but in the end, it was a love she couldn’t abandon.

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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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