IWDAR Chapter 36

Wooyoung raised his head with a hardened expression. Within his long, slanted eyes, pitch-black pupils stared down at him, as if to crush him. 

 

He slowly inhaled. Tae-uk couldn’t possibly know about this strange thing happening to him, yet under such a gaze, his spine stiffened involuntarily.

 

“Since I was young, I’ve heard and sung along to many songs. The Turandot aria I hummed today, I first heard it on a TV program when I was little.”

 

Half was true, and half was not.

 

Tae-uk, who had been listening intently, slowly tilted his head.

 

“What I’m hearing now sounds like Han Wooyoung is a genius.”

 

“……I don’t think I lack talent, but to call me a genius is an overstatement.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

A round face, clear eyes, slightly trembling lips, a subtly wavering focus.

 

‘What have I missed about you?’

 

Do-hoon’s skills are trustworthy. The man had a natural talent for uncovering even things the person themselves weren’t aware of. If he had this much talent, there should have been at least a line mentioning it in the report, but there was no special mention in the report that Do-hoon submitted.

 

‘If he’s hiding it himself, there’s nothing I can do.’

 

Once again, he’d have to resort to improper methods. Tae-uk, who had been staring intently into Wooyoung’s innermost thoughts, asked,

 

“Have you ever thought about learning opera formally and becoming a tenor?”

 

Wooyoung looked at Tae-uk with a strange expression. He felt uneasy at Tae-uk’s change of subject, but maintaining composure was all Wooyoung could do for now. He could answer this question without much thought.

 

“No.”

 

“…….”

 

“I’ve never, not even once, wanted that.”

 

Wooyoung, his smile gone, exuded a somewhat chilly aura. Tae-uk felt as though Wooyoung was looking beyond him, not at him.

 

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”

 

Wooyoung, who had been chasing the remnants of a gloomy emotion, blinked and looked at Tae-uk.

 

“So now, is it something you do want, Han Wooyoung?”

 

“I… don’t know.”

 

Wooyoung confessed his honest feelings. He had never deeply considered what he liked. Just one thing: whether it was children’s songs, opera, or pop songs, singing made him happy. That was all.

 

“But, I don’t dislike it at all. Even though it’s full of difficult and unfamiliar things, I want to keep trying.”

 

Tae-uk thought that Wooyoung, calmly expressing his inner thoughts, looked incredibly radiant.

 

Tae-uk, who had been looking at Wooyoung with sunken eyes, spoke.

 

“That’s enough. You don’t need to attach any grand meaning to everything you do, Wooyoung. Just keep doing things you don’t dislike.”

 

Things you don’t dislike.

 

He knew well that as you live your life, there are times when you have to do things you don’t want to do. Nevertheless, Wooyoung was grateful for Tae-uk’s kind words. 

 

With his heart pounding, Wooyoung realized that his body and mind were quite exhausted without him even knowing. It was only natural, considering he had spent all day with strangers, especially when he had hardly seen Tae-uk’s face in the past few days…

 

“Let’s go in. It’s late.”

 

Tae-uk offered his hand to Wooyoung.

 

Wooyoung stared blankly at Tae-uk’s large, straight fingers extended towards him.

 

Indeed, Tae-uk was different than usual today.

 

“……CEO, did something happen today, by any chance?”

 

Wooyoung cautiously asked about what had been on his mind. Just as Tae-uk had comforted him, Wooyoung wanted to be a source of strength for him, even if only a little. 

 

It seemed like Tae-uk wasn’t planning to directly tell him what he wanted right now.

 

Mo Tae-uk looked at Han Wooyoung for a long time. For a very long time, with a steady gaze.

 

“…….”

 

But the longer the moment lasted, the more Wooyoung felt he couldn’t grasp the man’s inner thoughts. He wished he could sense even a hint of the meaning behind the emotions reflected within those flickering black eyes.

 

“If something happened, will Han Wooyoung comfort me?”

 

“As much as you want, if that’s what you wish, CEO.”

 

“And if I don’t want it?”

 

Tae-uk asked back, tilting his head leisurely. His voice sounded somehow self-deprecating.

 

Wooyoung stared at him. Since it had rained, the day was cloudier than usual, and even with the softly lit garden lights, a dusky atmosphere lingered.

 

At that moment, the moonlight, which had been hidden behind thick clouds, slowly revealed itself. The shadowy veil covering Tae-uk’s eyelids lifted, and his dark gaze, facing forward, shone clearly. Tae-uk, revealed under the moonlight, looked somewhat precarious. Under the moonlight, Tae-uk appeared a little precarious.

 

Mo Tae-uk probably wouldn’t tell Han Wooyoung the reason for this precariousness.

 

Wooyoung found that aspect very frustrating. Han Wooyoung wanted to know more about the man named Mo Tae-uk. He was curious about him. Even though he intentionally tried to suppress his emotions, feelings were so capricious.

 

“……Even if you don’t want it, if something bad happens, I want to comfort you.”

 

“Because I’m your benefactor?”

 

“No.”

 

Give and take. He mulled over those immortal words, a formula he had heard so often it made his ears ring.

 

“It’s not for that reason.”

 

Wooyoung shook his head firmly. He didn’t want to know him just out of gratitude.

 

“It’s just… I want to do that for you, CEO.”

 

“…….”

 

“Because you told me to do what I don’t dislike….”

 

Just as Tae-uk’s vulnerability was revealed under the bright moonlight, so too were Wooyoung’s cheeks, flushed with a lovely color. 

 

The beautiful, blushing boy shyly asked,

 

“Would that be presumptuous of me?”

 

At his cautious voice, Tae-uk gritted his teeth. The deeply flushed color was lovely. And so, so agonizing.

 

From the moment he heard the boy’s opera, no, perhaps even before that…

 

‘Perhaps, every time I face you.’

 

He felt something hot, which he had been suppressing and holding back, rising up to his throat. The tranquility surrounding Han Wooyoung suddenly felt dreadful.

 

‘No time to waste. I need to copulate quickly, before this month is over.’

 

A voice filled with vulgarity gnawed at Tae-uk’s sanity.

 

Yes, he knew.

 

‘I know it well enough.’

 

Ah, really. How tiresome.

 

Extending his right hand, which he had been letting hang, Tae-uk tightly grasped Wooyoung’s slender neck.

 

“Ugh……!”

 

Large fingers mercilessly seized the delicate skin and pulled him close. It happened in an instant.

 

“Cough! CEO?”

 

“…….”

 

The soft skin was caught in his grasp. Moist eyes, tinged with bewilderment, stared at Tae-uk.

 

But even at this moment, Han Wooyoung wasn’t afraid. He simply remained quietly caught in Tae-uk’s grip. Even in a situation that would feel incredibly threatening to someone young and vulnerable, it was as if he accepted all of this.

 

‘Why?’

 

Rosy, flushed lips, reddened eyes, and within them, pupils as transparent as dew-kissed beads. He finally seemed to understand the meaning of the words, “His very existence is a stimulus.”

 

‘Tae-uk, you must live like a tiger.’

 

‘Everything must be beneath your feet. Remember that nothing can shake a tiger’s life.’

 

Live like a tiger.

 

Sharpen your heart as cruelly and sharply as possible.

 

If there’s something you want, take it endlessly, and if there’s something in your way, tear it apart with your sharp teeth.

 

Just as he had lived until now.

 

The fact that his heart was endlessly moved by something he had only treated as childish was so ridiculous that Tae-uk let out a ferocious smile.

 

Had he become a real beast after all?

 

“I told you to tell me what you truly want.”

 

“……Yes.”

 

Tae-uk held on tight to his sanity to prevent himself from biting down on the nape of the neck caught in his grasp. 

 

A sweet scent emanated from the boy pulled close to him.  Holding his breath against the rising thirst, Tae-uk exhaled close to those lips that were always so cutely parted. 

 

Wooyoung’s breath, coming in short gasps like a baby, mixed with Tae-uk’s breath, thick with longing.

 

Wooyoung stared blankly at Taeuk’s eyes, gazing at him with a frightening intensity as he gripped his neck.

 

He could see clear lust in the man’s eyes.

 

Reading another person’s lust was an incredibly easy task for Wooyoung. Depressingly so.

 

Toes lifted high, calves taut with tension, a merciless grip, a gaze that seemed ready to strip him bare at any moment.

 

‘Ah.’

 

In the end, what you want from me is….