VDN Ch 88

The semester’s exams are over.

Seo-oh opened his locker and took out the neatly arranged books to put in his bag. Then he started walking down the quiet hallway.

In fact, not long ago, he had been feeling very down. The events that happened that night were constantly replaying in his head. The nightmarish night when he lost his father and Hyung was hurt.

What if I had acted differently then? What if I had done things another way? 

He was tormented by the thoughts that only brought regret that kept surfacing.

He couldn’t sleep because his heart felt pain. The lack of sleep made him feel a sudden surge of violent emotions.

Sometimes he wanted to rush out of the room and beat Chairman Seok with a steel pipe until he was hurt, just as Nam-woon had been hurt. He wanted to take revenge for the terrible thing his father had gone through. Violent feelings constantly swirled inside Seo-oh.

If he hadn’t checked Nam-woon’s injuries, he might have been unable to resist the impulse and gone to find Chairman Seok by now.

Nam-woon’s injury brought Seo-oh back to reality. No, I can’t just give up on everything and only think about revenge. Right now, taking care of Hyung and Se-han is my main priority. He had also arranged for work at the errand center, so as long as he didn’t give up searching for his dad, he knew they’d meet again someday

He had to act rationally for Hyung, who had risked his whole body to protect their father.

“Who would dislike someone like you? You work so hard.”

The feeling of loss from losing his father made his feelings for Nam-woon grow even stronger than before. Hyung, who always played around, acted childishly, and said careless things, was a real adult, unlike himself.

After crying in Nam-woon’s arms, Seo-oh deeply regretted his behavior. He was glad that his father hadn’t run away because of what he said. Embarrassing as it was, it was something he shouldn’t have said to Hyung.

Nam-woon had already been abused by Chairman Seok when Seo-oh first entered that house.

The day he first discovered the traces of beatings on that small body, the ignorant him approached Nam-woon and asked,

“Are you okay?”

“What? This fucking kid…! Are you making fun of me?”

But all that came back was curses and a fierce punch.

From that day on, whenever Nam-woon was summoned by Chairman Seok and came back battered from his fists, he would visit Seo-oh and unleash his anger on him with punches. It was unjust treatment, but despite his young age, Seo-oh understood the tangled emotions behind Nam-woon’s actions. The shame, the inferiority complex, the rage, and the childish need to prove to the child in front of him that he was still standing strong. All kinds of tangled emotions must have engulfed him.

Of course, that didn’t justify his actions.

Seok Nam-woon’s beatings continued for quite some time. When his father was under Chairman Seok in middle school, he just took the beatings, but after high school, he didn’t put up with it and hit back. When he was a child, he felt sorry for him but after he learned about Seok Nam-woon’s true nature, he didn’t feel much sympathy for him.

Like father and son. That’s all he thought.

“Shall we have dinner together?”

But one day, Hyung changed as if he became a completely different person. Although he still sometimes got insanely angry, beneath it all was a layer of concern and kindness toward Seo-oh.

At first, I thought it was all hypocrisy and deception. ‘He’s just caught up in something weird, he’ll snap back soon.’ That’s what I told myself.

However, as he spent more time with Nam-woon, his thoughts slowly changed. Maybe it’s not a lie. Maybe it’s okay to trust now.

I couldn’t escape Hyung’s kindness. Now, it felt strange if Nam-woon wasn’t by his side. He couldn’t imagine life without Hyung. No, he didn’t even want to imagine it.

A small seed of trust that sprouted from distrust grew and gave birth to greed, and greed led to possessiveness. He now wanted to monopolize Nam-woon’s heart. Even though he knew Nam-woon’s attention was already on him, he craved his attention. He wanted Nam-woon to look only at him and no one else.

Love wasn’t a strong enough word to describe what he felt for Nam-woon.

Seo-oh walked down the hallway, lost in thought. Nam-woon had said that when looking at men, he values their face and money. The former was settled since he had heard directly from his lips that he was pretty, but the latter was a problem. To continue being with Hyung, he needed financial power. Only then could he become a man Hyung could trust and rely on.

As he headed for the elevator, wondering if he should rethink his career plan, he saw a man walking across from him. The man, who had been looking down at his phone, seemed to sense someone and looked up.

“……”

“……”

Their eyes met. The man’s light-colored pupils stared directly at Seo-oh.

He was someone he had seen a few times in class while going to and from the lecture hall. On the day he had failed to call Hyung, he had run into this man. The man stared at Seo-oh without blinking. Before he knew it, he had stopped walking.

Suddenly, Seo-oh emitted pheromones. It was an instinctive reaction.

Soon, an unpleasant smell began to creep up beneath his nose. Soon, a foul smell began to creep up beneath his nose. Dirty, sticky, unpleasant… a stench like garbage. The scent that used to come from Nam-woon was now thick in the air around him, like a thick fog.

He seemed to recognize Seo-oh’s wildly raging pheromones and lifted one corner of his mouth. Then, pretending to ponder something, he looked up, and an unknown light flashed in his eyes.

After a moment, the man lowered his gaze to Seo-oh and spoke in a calm tone.

“Have you ever sucked on Nam-woon’s nipple? I was expecting it to be delicious because of the pretty color.”

“……”

“Next time, I’ll ask him to give me a hole.”

I’m going to suck on that too. He curled his thumb and forefinger together and stuck out his red tongue, pretending to lick the inside of it in a lewd manner, then bared his teeth and laughed in amusement.

He couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“You fucking bastard.”

Seo-oh threw a punch without hesitation.

***

“Ugh.”

Nam-woon placed a large box on the living room floor and rotated his injured shoulder a few times. Seeing that the pain was almost gone It seemed like it was almost healed, thanks to the care of Seo-oh and Se-han. Nearby, there were several boxes that had already been packed. Is everything here? Nam-woon thought as he rummaged through the boxes to check the contents.

He was currently moving out of his home, or more precisely, the apartment he had been renting. Although he had decided to move some time ago, he was late in packing his things.

When Nam-woon announced his intention to clear out the studio apartment soon, the boss of Umpyeong was taken aback.

“Are you really going to clear everything out? Why all of a sudden? Are you moving?”

“…I rarely even stay at home and it’s a waste of money. So tell Su-in for me.”

The monthly rent was a burden, and this kind of place didn’t suit him. He hadn’t told Seo-oh yet that he was planning to get rid of the apartment. If he left it as it was, it would cost him a lot of money every month, so he decided to start with the apartment first.

Still, I should have a place to call my own…

If things work out with Seo-oh and Jin Hae-geon, Nam-woon would probably have to move out of Seo-oh’s house. He would be just an outsider in their relationship.

He should find a place similar to where he lived in his previous life. Since, according to the system, the house he lived in before already had an occupant, it would be a good idea to get a house near it.

In the novel, Seok Nam-woon was portrayed as a materialistic and greedy person with luxury clothes, bags, and accessories scattered everywhere. There was no way he had money himself, since he was in a poor situation where he had to give money to Chairman Seok. It seemed he indulged in luxury using his lover’s money or credit cards.

In fact, the real owner of this house, through President Umpyeong, had told him to leave all the items worth over a million won that were bought with his card. Later, he even received the receipts as proof, which made packing easier. Without those, it would have taken a lot of time to look up the prices of each item one by one.

He finished packing the last box and stood up. Then he noticed the quest window taking up one side of the wall.

[Main quest: Establish a meeting between Kwon Seo-oh and Jin Hae-geon!]

“Not much time left.”

The bar indicated the time had decreased even further.

The meeting between Kwon Seo-oh and Jin Hae-geon was only natural. If anything, it felt later than expected.

The problem lay in why Jin Hae-geon became interested in Seo-oh. Unfortunately, it was due to witnessing Seo-oh brutally beat Seok Nam-woon to a pulp. In the original story, it went like this.

“You fucking bastard, didn’t your dad run away because you’re such a pain in the ass?”

The words Seok Nam-woon said when he visited the university triggered the entire incident. Seo-oh, who didn’t care about the stares around him, brutally assaulted Seok Nam-woon. Then, Hae-geon, who was passing by the gate, happened to witness the scene and became interested in Kwon Seo-oh. That was the original story’s development.

By the way, Seok Nam-woon’s line was really awful. What a disgusting villain. Nam-woon cursed the author and the system once again.  Even if that was how the original story went, could he really say such trashy lines to Kwon Seo-oh? The answer was no.

“But this time, knowing that Dad didn’t just abandon us and leave… that was such a relief, and selfishly, that was what made me happiest and most at ease.”

He could still see Kwon Seo-oh’s face as he broke down, consumed by guilt and helplessness. The wet breath on the nape of his neck and the feel of his arms clinging to him with more strength than he had ever felt before remained alive on his skin.

It hadn’t been long since he’d gotten a glimpse of the wounds that Seo-oh had been carrying inside him for so long. and there was no way he could scratch that wound. Still, he couldn’t think of any other way to make Seo-oh violent towards him.

Nam-woon crouched down and leaned his head and back against the wall, and then he lightly slammed his head against the wall.

He was a villainous supporting character. Someone who was supposed to connect the two main characters and quietly disappear.

So why did he keep dreaming futile dreams?

“I just want to live like this.”

He wanted to spend peaceful days with Kwon Seo-oh and Se-han in a small room, eating three meals a day, chatting about trivial things, falling asleep, sometimes going to the Namnam supermarket to hang out with the old owner, or doing puzzles and claw machine games.

…I guess I can dream, can’t I?’

It was an impossible dream.