He removed his foot from the protruding, torn collarbone and laughed softly and low.
Suddenly, a bright flash pierced the darkness, illuminating the surroundings as if struck by lightning. The flash flickered several times.
Lee Young-jin, who had been standing dumbfounded, turned his head towards the source of the light with his mouth agape.
Ratatat! The rotor blades noisily tore through the air. A siren blared, and a booming loudspeaker yelled.
The silence broke, and the noisy siren and the whir of the propeller motors erased the sound of the waves and the wind.
[Don’t move! You are surrounded…… Drop your weapons and surrender quietly……]
Lee Young-jin turned his head back.
Seo Seung-hyun was standing slightly askew.
The light from the searchlights shot down from the helicopter flickered behind him. Shadows fell across his face.
Lee Young-jin tried to read his expression.
But there was no need for that.
Seo Seung-hyun spread his arms towards him.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
Lee Young-jin’s mind cleared instantaneously. In a moment, he was sprinting. After what felt like the half-life of uranium-233 or a single Planck time, Lee Young-jin found himself in Seo Seung-hyun’s strong arms.
Panting, he looked up at him.
“CEO, the item, it…”
“Forget it. Screw that crap.”
Seo Seung-hyun sharply cut off Lee Young-jin’s hesitation.
His arm tensed, pulling Lee Young-jin’s body into his warm chest.
At the same time, Seo Seung-hyun’s hand roughly grasped Lee Young-jin’s chin. His head was jerked up harshly. Their eyes met. Lee Young-jin’s eyelids rolled up. His black eyes fluttered. A piercing, sharp gaze meticulously scanned Lee Young-jin’s face.
The broad back of his hand, ready to crush the small jawbone, bulged with veins, but Lee Young-jin felt no pain at all. It was because those rough fingertips were trembling terribly.
“Did that bastard Kwon Shin-woo come by?”
At the mention of that familiar name, Lee Young-jin’s breath hitched.
How did he know?
Eyes filled with unvoiced questions fluttered. Seo Seung-hyun’s hand stroked beneath those blinking eyelids.
“What did that bastard say, what did he make you do…”
His anxious voice suddenly cut off.
“What’s this?”
A spasming thumb pressed down on Lee Young-jin’s chin. That finger slowly traced his Adam’s apple.
A bulging carotid artery under the skin about to burst, purple bruises connecting dots beneath the skin layer.
Lee Young-jin’s lips trembled with confusion. He tried to push away Seo Seung-hyun’s hand that was persistently probing his skin. Just when his hand seemed to move away, it clung again. Lee Young-jin pushed it away once more. However, once again, this time with even more aggression, Seo Seung-hyun’s grasp clenched Lee Young-jin’s chin. The other hand traced down Lee Young-jin’s neck, exploring the protruding blood vessels and bruises. Suddenly, he roughly grabbed Lee Young-jin’s wrist. The sleeves of his shirt and hoodie were rolled up in an instant, revealing a pale forearm in the darkness. Following the pronounced green veins under the thin skin gleaming like a marble sculpture were lines of bruises.
Seo Seung-hyun’s breathing roughened.
Rough breaths roared out of his nose and mouth. His chest and shoulders heaved violently.
“This, this is.”
Lee Young-jin tried to explain, but Seo Seung-hyun didn’t give him a chance.
“That son of a bitch Kwon Shin-woo…”
Seo Seung-hyun growled ominously, grinding his teeth.
“When? When did you get this? How many hours ago?”
Urgent questions poured out.
Lee Young-jin’s lips quivered several times. Seo Seung-hyun roughly caressed his cheek.
“Lee Young-jin. Quickly.”
“Ah, earlier, at night…”
Lee Young-jin stammered.
“About nine hours ago…”
A cold, dry voice promising twelve hours came to mind, sending shivers down his spine. Amidst this, the palm cradling his cheek felt hot. His eyes grew warm. Lee Young-jin closed his eyes and tilted his head, pressing his cheek slightly against that palm. A long, trembling breath fell on his heated forehead and the bridge of his nose. The warmth of the palm was as comforting as the breath. The boiling turmoil in Lee Young-jin’s head slowly settled.
“Lee…”
“CEO.”
Lee Young-jin cut off Seo Seung-hyun as he tried to call him.
“I brought the item. The time limit has passed, but I extracted that file, hacked into the server… So…”
His tongue twisted, nearly biting his own tongue. He lightly grimaced and then managed to speak again.
“I said I would return it to you.”
A bloodless hand fumbled with the backpack strap on his shoulder.
“So I brought it. Here, it’s here. It’s yours, so I’ll give it to you.”
Seo Seung-hyun looked down at him.
Lee Young-jin didn’t even feel that piercing gaze. He just nuzzled his nose against his collarbone, fumbling with his backpack with his fingertips.
“Now, there’s no need for codes or time limits…”
Neither the nanorobots flowing through his veins, the red guidance beams of the assassination machines stitching the sky, the urgent sirens and spinning searchlights, nor the blaring loudspeakers concerned Lee Young-jin.
Lee Young-jin managed to slide the backpack off his shoulder and pushed it towards Seo Seung-hyun.
Seo Seung-hyun received the backpack strap with one hand while gripping Lee Young-jin’s shoulder with the other.
“Lee Young-jin.”
His eyes, long and narrow with a rising smile, looked down at Lee Young-jin.
Frozen by that gaze, Lee Young-jin could only look up at him.
“This is a weapon.”
Seo Seung-hyun’s face came closer. His attractive lips whispered sweetly and softly in his ear.
A chemical weapon capable of instantly taking countless lives, worth tens of billions of won and even more.
The lips parted again.
The eyes, curved with a smiling crease, quietly watched Lee Young-jin.
“What do you think I’m going to do with this? Aren’t you curious about this as well?”
Lee Young-jin looked into his eyes.
Pupils dilated, absorbing the light from the searchlights and guidance beams, and the achromatic iris. The smile in the corner of his eyes, narrowly folded. Lee Young-jin lowered his head again. His chest was right in front of his nose. It was then that Lee Young-jin finally noticed his scent. An intense fragrance that the sea and waves couldn’t wash away assaulted him. The deep oak scent of cigars, whiskey, and wine, mixed with a hint of sweat and the smell of shower cologne, it was exactly that scent that reassured Lee Young-jin.
Strength drained from his entire body.
The moment he realized it, his knees also weakened.
His legs wobbled, and his body fell downward.
He expected to collapse onto the floor, but that didn’t happen. Strong arms firmly wrapped around his waist.
Lee Young-jin lifted his eyes.
His backpack lay carelessly at his feet, while Seo Seung-hyun’s arms were instead holding Lee Young-jin up strongly. Since there was no strength in his legs and feet, Lee Young-jin almost entirely leaned his weight against Seo Seung-hyun’s chest. Yet, the body that embraced him was firm and unmoved.
Lee Young-jin’s eyelids fluttered down and then back up.
A sheen circled his eyes, deep and moist like the sea.
“I’m not curious…”
Finally, his lips moved in response to Seo Seung-hyun’s question.
“It doesn’t matter what the CEO does…”
As always, Lee Young-jin felt no need to justify Seo Seung-hyun’s actions.
Faith does not require a reason.
He doesn’t believe in fairy tales that seem too good to be true, in nonsensical happy endings, in blind love, friendship, or trust.
But at this moment, he wished they could be rewarded.
And a microsecond later, that small wish, which had never been fulfilled in the twenty-five years of his life, came true.
Seo Seung-hyun kissed him.
At the same time, the sound of a 9mm Beretta M9 firing tore through the night sky.
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