Unhealthy - Chapter 43

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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 43. Traffic Accident

“You must have hated it. You always disliked the smell of cigarettes.”

“It wasn’t harsh or disgusting like that… just really subtle, pleasant… it was just like that.”

As Hae-yeong hesitated, Taejun crushed his cigarette on the ground and approached her.

He grabbed the front of the jacket draped over her shoulders like seizing a collar and lowered his head to devour her lips.

A rich fragrance spread between their overlapping lips.

Then Taejun slowly pulled his lips away, looking down to meet Hae-yeong’s gaze as he asked.

“I was bad.”

Taejun’s voice resonated languidly.

Hae-yeong pulled his waist into an embrace.

Having to crane her neck up just to face him, almost buried in Taejun’s chest, Hae-yeong lifted her chin and said pleadingly.

“I want to do more bad things.”

As if they were the only two left in the world, the two people who held each other in their eyes pressed their lips together again.

Tongues intertwined between heated lips, and their bodies quickly grew hot from the sensation of roughly exploring each other with desperate intensity.

When Taejun bent his waist to cup Hae-yeong’s cheeks and kissed her deeply, it felt like the sound of a contented cat’s purr was coming from inside Hae-yeong’s throat.

Unaware that the jacket on Hae-yeong’s shoulders had fallen to the ground, they invaded each other’s territory without restraint before slowly pulling their lips apart.

“You’ve become quite lewd, An Hae-yeong. In front of everyone watching.”

As Taejun murmured languidly, Hae-yeong pressed her cheek against his chest and hid her flushed face.

“The lewd one isn’t me, it’s you…”

“We should go now.”

Even as he said this, Taejun seemed reluctant as he pulled the back of Hae-yeong’s head deep into his embrace.

The sun was already setting gradually.

Before the lingering sensation of the passionate kiss with Taejun could fade, the fact that separation was imminent was what Hae-yeong feared most.

Furthermore, she couldn’t help but worry about meeting Aunt Ji-min.

Damp, wet breath escaped heavily through Hae-yeong’s teeth.

“…Will Aunt recognize me?”

Her mind, which had been complicated with various thoughts throughout the journey to Ueda, seemed to turn completely white.

Though she had left Korean soil determined to find her only remaining blood relative, she kept wondering if this step, abandoning even her daily life, had been too reckless.

When she imagined facing Aunt, her vision went dark.

Setting aside the issue of not recognizing each other, it was uncertain whether Aunt would listen to her explanation completely without misinterpreting her words.

“The girl who left home and abandoned her family because she was sick of watching her delinquent brothers, we should at least let her live in peace. No news is good news, that’s how she lives.”

Father had missed his only younger sister terribly while he was alive.

Even when Aunt had stormed out in fury, saying she was disgusted with Daejin and Daecheon for playing dirty money games with other people’s blood money, Father hadn’t uttered a single complaint.

However, he always kept one room empty for her in the sunniest spot in the house, waiting for her eventual return.

Also, on Aunt’s birthday, the family would gather to eat seaweed soup and celebrate the absent Aunt.

“She’ll recognize you. They say blood calls to blood.”

“…I’m scared she might hate me.”

“Even if she seems that way on the surface, she won’t feel that way inside.”

Taejun pressed his lips to Hae-yeong’s forehead and pulled away. Then he kissed the bridge of her nose that protruded like a sock shape, and gently sucked on her slightly swollen lips before releasing them.

“She can’t. You’re too pretty.”

Taejun, who had been marking Hae-yeong’s face here and there as if reluctant to part, picked up the jacket that had fallen to the ground.

After shaking off the dust, he draped the jacket over Hae-yeong’s slender shoulders again. At his meticulous care, Hae-yeong felt like she might burst into tears at any moment.

***

Deep silence had settled over the quiet outskirt road shrouded in thick darkness.

Cutting through that profound quiet, there was a thud—! The car body swayed with a dull friction sound.

It was when they were leaving the city area and entering the mountain village where An Ji-min’s residence was located.

A black sedan that had been following them during a traffic light wait rear-ended Taejun’s car without even touching the brakes.

The impact was enough to throw their bodies forward and back, but fortunately it wasn’t fatal enough to deploy the airbags. However, that unpleasant vibration was enough to drop Hae-yeong’s heart to the floor.

For a moment her vision flashed white, and only the regular blinking sound of the hazard lights filled the silence inside the car.

Night had already fallen completely, making everything pitch black.

While Taejun was checking on Hae-yeong’s condition with his hand on her shoulder, they heard the sound of the perpetrator’s car door opening. The rearview mirror clearly reflected the silhouette of a man getting out of the driver’s seat.

Under the streetlight, his bulky frame was revealed along with tattoos glimpsed through his shirt sleeves. Taejun’s eyes grew coldly sharp at the arrogant manner of the man walking over while rolling his stiff neck.

They weren’t simply perpetrators who had made a driving mistake. They were likely Gi Chairman’s despicable subordinates deployed to hold them back and waste time.

“Shit.”

Taejun muttered low in self-mockery and snatched a memo pad from the console box. Then he took out a fountain pen from his jacket pocket, bit the cap with his mouth, and scrawled an address on the memo pad.

The sound of the pen tip scratching roughly across the paper added to the tension inside the car. The address scrawled on the memo pad was completely different from the fake address entered in the navigation.

Taejun had deliberately set the address to some nearby location to divert the pursuers’ attention.

An Ji-min’s actual home was about 10 minutes away from there.

“I’ll handle the situation here, so you go to this address.”

Taejun’s voice as he pressed the memo pad filled with writing into Hae-yeong’s hand was so unnaturally calm that it felt surreal.

Even in her confusion, Hae-yeong grasped the paper with trembling hands. Instinctively sensing that the situation was extremely bad, she swallowed her tension and gripped the handle of the bag in her arms until her knuckles turned white.

“…Will we never see each other again?”

The fear that this might be the end forever consumed Hae-yeong.

She hated the thought of leaving him in the darkness and departing more than death itself.

As if reading her anxiety, Taejun hesitated for a moment, then gently caressed Hae-yeong’s wet cheek with his rough hand.

“What do you mean never see each other. It’s not like I’m going to die.”

He lightly tapped the unfamiliar number written below the address with his finger.

“It’s a clean number that won’t be traced, so contact me through this if you need to.”

When Hae-yeong burst into tears she had been holding back, her shoulders shaking like a child, Taejun gently wiped away her tears with his thumb and whispered softly. It was a promise too tender to be called a threat.

“Stop.”

Confirming the man who had reached the back of the car, Taejun gave Hae-yeong a brief look.

“I’ll draw his attention, so get out on the opposite side when the timing’s right. Run without looking back.”

The moment Taejun unfastened his seatbelt and opened the car door, Hae-yeong instinctively ducked down.

And the instant the perpetrator driver’s attention was completely focused on Taejun, Hae-yeong opened the opposite car door and moved into the darkness.

With the rough cursing and arguing sounds behind her, Hae-yeong quietly left the scene, clutching Taejun’s lingering warmth in her hand while suppressing her grief and footsteps.

The humid early summer air pierced her lungs, and she could see the red hazard lights blinking in the distance.

Even sitting in the back seat of the taxi she barely caught, Hae-yeong kept looking back at that street corner where Taejun had been left.

Through her blurred vision, she could only see Taejun faintly. She bit her lips and barely held back her tears.

“You can do this, right?”

Without Taejun’s encouragement and request, she wouldn’t have dared to take even a step this far. So she had to endure it. For both their sakes.

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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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