Exotic Love (Novel)

90

CW// Profanities, mention of drugs, mention of killing, angst
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The distance was close, so I quickly arrived at the place where he said he was. It didn't take long to find him who said he was standing on the side of the road. He was standing on the sidewalk and I pulled over in front of him. It was late and the trees were casting their shadows on the street lamps on the sparsely populated sidewalk. Yoon Hee-gyeom was leaning against a wall on one side of the sidewalk.

I rolled down the passenger seat window and called Yoon Hee-gyeom. Even though he was only three meters away, he would have seen my car, but he didn't come, he just stood there.

I thought about calling out to him, but I just got out of the car. Is there any other reason why he can't get in the car, or is there anything he want to do? I thought so simply and I didn't feel a sense of difference until then.

"Why aren't you getting in?"

It wasn't until I circled around the car to the sidewalk and reached infront of him that I noticed he was holding a can of beer. And that his face colored in the shade of the street tree is strange.

".....Yoon Hee-gyeom ssi?"

...It was such a face and eyes that makes me not knowing what to say. I don't think he's drunk with a can of alcohol. It is not his usual drunk and shaking eyes. His eyes looking at me is shaking, and his face distorted as if he was biting his teeth. At that moment, I felt that Yoon Hee-gyeom was about to break and disappear. I knew it couldn't be, but he looked so precarious that I secretly reached out. To grab his presence by touching his cheeks, which had been cooled by the cold wind.

But my hands couldn't reach him.

Tak! With a sound, something in the air hit my hand and fall off before my hand could reach him. It took me a while to realise that Yoon Hee-gyeom had hit my hand. It was a gesture of rejection that Yoon Hee-gyeom had never shown as far as I remembered.

".....What is it?"

Later, my hands began to heat up and throbbed. But I looked at him without a moment to wrap my hands. His gaze was still shaking, but he looked straight at me. He smelled a little bit of alcohol, but I was sure he wasn't drunk.

".....Is it really you Director Jung?"

"What?"

When he finally spoke out, my patience was showing its limits. The first time I experienced his refusal, and the question after a long wait, was a question beyond the scope of my understanding, so my answer was blunt. Yoon Hee-gyeom biting his lips in the dark looked dim. Something painful happened, and his forehead was deeply caved in.

Finally, he opened his mouth.

"Cannabis and drugs found in my house. Did Director Jung ordered my road manager to put it in?"

At that moment, I felt my heart stopped. Or felt like it was constantly falling to the floor. My mind was in a mess and my thoughts were cluttered. No, it felt empty. What should I say? How should I react? The thoughts were cut off in my head and did not continue.

"What are you talking about?"

If there was one thing fortunate, it was that I was a person who hid my emotions well. Before I could comprehend my thoughts, my mouth spit out words that denied him. I will have to show a face that I am unaware about the situation. Emotions or facial expressions should not be read to show that I didn't understand what he said and asked back. I always lived with a poker face. I was perplexed on the inside, but I was sure that my expression on the outside wouldn't change much.