Unhealthy - Chapter 46

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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 46. You Must Have Been Scared

Taejun’s cynical rebuke made Jae-jun’s face flush red with shame.

Jae-jun tried to act nonchalant and feign composure, but as Taejun’s chilling aura tightened around his throat, he unconsciously gripped the cigarette in his hand harder.

Taejun didn’t miss that cowardly trembling and crushed Jae-jun beneath his feet even more mercilessly.

“I don’t know what scheme you’re plotting, but give it up now. There’s nothing someone like you can do.”

“That remains to be seen, doesn’t it? What right does hyung have to stop a prospective groom who came to greet his aunt? Father approved of this, so how can hyung possibly stop it?”

Using Gi Chairman’s name as a shield, he struck back with feigned confidence, but the end of Jae-jun’s voice cracked slightly with instinctive fear.

Taejun snorted as if he wasn’t even worth responding to, pushed past Jae-jun’s shoulder, and approached the entrance gate.

“You seem to be under some grand delusion, so get a grip on reality first. You’re just a disposable item to be used until you’re thrown away.”

The moment Taejun’s harsh words ruthlessly trampled Jae-jun’s self-esteem, the tightly closed entrance gate opened again with a sliding sound.

Through the pouring yellow lamplight, Ji-min’s cold silhouette was revealed.

She coldly looked down at the two men confronting each other in front of the gate as if they were insignificant creatures scattered on the roadside.

“Sigh, what are you both doing? In front of someone else’s house.”

Ji-min’s voice was lower and sharper than the night air.

Jae-jun approached with a fake smile and wagging tail as if he had been waiting for Ji-min’s appearance, but Ji-min stopped his advancing steps with a resolute gaze.

She cast a cold look at him as if denying Jae-jun’s very existence.

Jae-jun’s face, who had been confident that everything was turning in his favor, visibly stiffened. Taejun also had to narrow his eyes at Ji-min’s resolute attitude.

Ji-min crossed her arms defensively and looked over the faces of the two men caught up in different emotions in turn, then opened her mouth with a dispassionate tone as if driving in a wedge.

“It’s too late today. That child is already resting upstairs, so I plan to let her sleep here tonight. If you have something to say, come back tomorrow morning after the sun rises.”

At Ji-min’s unilateral declaration, Jae-jun’s complexion instantly turned ashen.

While pondering how to lure An Ji-min out, recalling Gi Chairman’s instructions to bring Ji-min to Korea by any means, Taejun bowed his head respectfully first.

“Yes, then I’ll visit again when dawn breaks tomorrow.”

When Taejun took a humble stance first, Jae-jun couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

And for good reason—Gi Taejun was the one who had been working for years to get his hands on Hae-yeong’s inheritance and was finally within sight of that goal.

In such a situation, his head became complicated at the prospect of stepping back instead of somehow trying to dissolve Ji-min’s hostility.

“Aunt, Hae-yeong and I are going to be married soon. I can’t leave Hae-yeong here and return alone. Please let me stay in this house too. One room would be enough.”

Jae-jun gritted his teeth and pleaded desperately, but Ji-min didn’t even bat an eyelash.

Rather, terrible contempt rose in her eyes. Ji-min gripped the door handle tighter and replied firmly.

“Your engagement is your family’s business, and this is my house. Even though I’m Hae-yeong’s biological aunt, I’m seeing my niece’s face for the first time today—do I have to take care of you too?”

Overwhelmed by Ji-min’s fierce momentum, Jae-jun couldn’t retort further and gritted his teeth.

Unable to overcome his rising anger, he shot Taejun a murderous glare once, then roughly got into his car.

After the loud engine noise scraped past the end of the alley, the night was once again buried in terrible silence.

Taejun didn’t take his eyes off the afterimage of the receding red taillights until they were completely swallowed by the thick darkness.

Taejun, who had been staring as if recording every trace of Jae-jun’s disappearance, finally let out a low breath that had been suppressed in his lungs.

Taejun’s shadow, stretched long under the streetlight, swayed faintly.

He slowly turned his head and shifted his gaze to Ji-min standing firm by the gate.

After chasing Gi Jae-jun from her front yard, Ji-min was now gripping the door handle to push away even the last remaining intruder.

Yellowish light fell obliquely over Taejun’s disheveled suit shoulders.

Taejun faced Ji-min’s cold eyes head-on without avoiding them and spoke in a heavily settled voice.

“Aunt, I would appreciate it if you could spare me a moment. I have something urgent to tell you.”

Taejun paused briefly and looked up once at the tightly closed window.

Just imagining the fear Hae-yeong must be experiencing made his chest harden as if he had swallowed a lump of lead.

He looked at Ji-min again and added in a very low voice.

“Hae-yeong must be very anxious right now. I’ll just see her face briefly and leave. It won’t take long.”

His tone strangely mixed command, pleading, and terrible possessiveness.

Behind his rational attitude of trying to persuade Ji-min lay a blind obsession that he wouldn’t move a single step without confirming Hae-yeong’s safety with his own eyes.

In the silent air, Ji-min’s gaze slowly swept over Taejun’s injured lips and tightly clenched jaw.

For a long while, instead of answering, she breathed in the atmosphere of the night that had grown cold.

Eventually, Ji-min loosened her grip on the door handle slightly and turned her body diagonally to the side as if overwhelmed by Taejun’s momentum.

“My husband will be back soon. Leave before then.”

He passed by Ji-min and stepped into the interior of the mansion shrouded in thick darkness.

***

Only after the loud engine noise from Jae-jun’s vehicle scattered sharply at the end of the alley did Hae-yeong slowly unfold her body that had been crouched in the room where not even the wall light was turned on.

When that unpleasant noise heard beyond the tightly closed door was completely eliminated, the tension that had been pressed deep in her lungs finally released, and terrible fatigue washed over her.

She had succeeded in staying here by lowering Ji-min’s guard, but the days ahead were all shrouded in fog.

Just trying to figure out what words to use to persuade Ji-min and what intentions were hidden behind those cold eyes made Hae-yeong feel like she was standing on the edge of a hopeless cliff.

There was still no contact from Taejun.

Even when she tried to contact him first using the number he had given her, she didn’t know what to say and just meaninglessly swiped the phone screen.

Hae-yeong buried her head between her knees.

She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the cruel truth that Gi Jae-jun had chased her all the way to this distant place and boasted about his marriage approval in front of her aunt, or that the aunt she had longed for her entire life didn’t welcome her much.

She didn’t want to add her own pitiful wounds on top of the burden he already carried.

Knock knock. At the knocking sound that cut through the silence, Hae-yeong’s shoulders jumped up.

“Yes.”

Her voice trembled slightly as she answered while holding her breath.

Until coming here, she had dreamed of reuniting with Ji-min thousands of times and looked forward to it, but the reality of facing her felt too unfamiliar and difficult.

Convinced that Ji-min was beyond the door, while anxiously wondering what expression she should greet her with, the door slowly opened.

Hae-yeong very slowly raised her uncertain eyes.

And she stopped breathing at the surreal figure that filled her vision.

The person standing against the backdrop of the old wooden door frame was not her aunt.

Gi Taejun, whom she looked up at in a daze while standing awkwardly, was wrapped in the terrible night air.

He still stood there in the most wonderful and reliable appearance in the world that Hae-yeong knew.

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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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