ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 39

THAT SAME MORNING

~ 107-2, Sunshine Residences, Jangwi 3(sam)-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Minho stopped typing the paragraph he was working on for the past hour and looked up and around the house feeling dazed. It seems like his hours had stretched into a whole night and sunlight had started filtering through the curtains, setting everything aglow in an early, pale, pink hue.

He should've slept but didn't want to... he should've eaten but he couldn't. He should've been okay without Cha Wookyung in his life but he wasn't. Him sleeping outside the house, spending hours around his residence, hurting like he said he was in his voice call... he was going to fall terribly sick this way.

And what could be done about it? Was this not all his own doing? The following, the orchestrating, the flirting, the fighting. If Wookyung hadn't pushed him so far, he wouldn't be in this situation himself. Minho had expected him to angry, desperate and uncomfortable. To be throwing a hissy fit and punishing everyone in the process. The thought was sweet.

He knew that Cha Wookyung didn't like it when things didn't go his way... which was sufficient revenge but still... this was too much. He barely sounded like himself on the call and it was haunting Minho since then... how could he comfort him? How could he go and make everything right with Wookyung when it meant so much to not do it in the first place.

All the hiding and radio silence, being off the radar for so long... It was all so that he wouldn't take him for granted anymore, so that Minho had a chance to build himself up as an equal to someone like Cha Wookyung. So that he wouldn't be at his mercy... He was tired of being looked down upon by people he... cared about... Minho shook his head.

How could he admit to himself that he cared about Cha Wookyung after everything he went through. He was the whole reason he was in this situation in the first place, the reason he resigned from a job he worked so hard for, the reason he was living with someone else, the reason he wasn't able to eat or sleep... he needed comfort too!

How could he just go up to him just to make sure he's okay when he wasn't either? Minho endlessly tapped the space button on his keyboard until he reached a second page. Yes, he was hurting but he couldn't bear to see Wookyung this way. He could just reach out to him in a small way. Maybe send him a small message asking if he's fine? tell him that he's okay and to not worry about him?

That's too curt... Minho thought.

He could go to his house with an olive branch and tell him to take care and not bother himself so much over his disappearance... tell him to get some rest... eat well. Hard as he tried to cope with the thought of it... he didn't want to imagine Wookyung falling sick because of him. That wasn't ever his intention. Suddenly a door clicked open and Minho sat up.

Ahn Eunyeong slowly shuffled into the room, rubbing her eyes "Good morning Oppa" she greeted him.

"Good morning Eunyeong" he took off his glasses, rearranging the things he had scattered over his makeshift bed, she might think he's spoiling her living room. "Did you like the bed?" she brought out a box of cereal and milk from the fridge. "Uhh" Minho thought about it, aside from the slats under the thin mattress digging into his back, it wasn't too bad.

"It's... nice" he said sheepishly and watched as Eunyeong walked to her door to get her newspaper. "Tell me the headlines" Minho told her, returning to his glaring, blue laptop screen, he hadn't read the newspaper in the longest time... "Alrighty" she said pulling the paper from the doormat outside, squinting at it.

"Mount Paektu's Cheonji crater lake becomes a vision of peace as leaders of two Koreas join hands" she read off nonchalantly and Minho lay back on the couch-cum-bed, scratching his arm where the starchy nightsuit was irritating him. He had gone for the full-sleeved, ankle-length ones he rarely wore so she wouldn't feel too uncomfortable around him...