CHAPTER 28
A cold laugh escaped Chung-Hee as Noeul cried. He knew the truth beneath his anger: Duri had awakened the fear that Noeul could heal, choose someone else, and leave him. Calling what followed punishment allowed him to turn that fear into control. He chose the lie and stepped out of the car.
The moment the passenger door opened, Noeul scrambled toward the center of the seat, searching desperately for something to hold on to. Chung-Hee grabbed his leg and pulled.
For a brief moment, Noeul resisted. “Why fight?” Chung-Hee asked almost conversationally.
“Isn’t it reasonable to bring you here? You need to reflect on your actions…
to repent.” For that single moment, he understood that he had become the danger Haneul had asked him to protect Noeul from.
Chung-Hee buried the recognition beneath cruelty before it could stop him.
***
“Let me go! I’m not getting out! What do I have to repent for? What did I do wrong?”
He pushed against the seat with both legs, fighting with everything he had. It wasn’t enough. Chung-Hee was stronger, healthier, relentless. He pinned Noeul down with his legs before grabbing a fistful of his hair and dragging him from the car.
Noeul’s screams shattered the quiet night. “Stop! Why are you so cruel? I didn’t do anything, hyung!”
Chung-Hee never answered. He dragged him deeper into the cemetery, past the last row of graves. By the time they reached Haneul’s tombstone, Noeul had no strength left to resist.
Chung-Hee threw him forward. His forehead struck the corner of the stone. Warm blood ran down the side of his face as the world tilted beneath him. Dazed, he remained half-lying across Haneul’s grave.
Without a word, Chung-Hee shoved Noeul’s face sideways against the cold granite and held it there. Pain shot through his forehead. His healing hands scraped helplessly against the stone.
“Apologize.”
Noeul couldn’t answer. His sobs echoed through the cemetery, guilt from the past tangling with the humiliation of the present.
“I said… apologize.”
This time, Chung-Hee leaned down and bit into Noeul’s shoulder until he cried out.
Only after the sound faded did he speak again.
“Have you forgotten what you did to my brother?” His grip tightened.
“Answer me. Who gave you the courage to seek intimacy with another man? To pursue happiness?” His voice remained calm.
“Do you really believe I would allow you love and joy after forcing my brother to his death?”
Noeul’s answer came as little more than a whisper. “I’m… still unworthy?” His shoulders trembled. “After all this time… hasn’t my suffering been enough to atone?”
Then Chung-Hee spread his legs beside him and slid one hand beneath the waistband of Noeul’s trousers.
Noeul froze, his eyes widening. “No…”
He twisted violently, trying to crawl away. Chung-Hee caught him with ease, forcing him back down against the ground. His breath brushed Noeul’s neck.
Chung-Hee’s hand moved lower, deliberate and unyielding, while Noeul twisted desperately beneath him.
Without another word, he violated him.
Noeul screamed. Pain tore through him. He tried to pull away, but his exhausted body refused to obey. Each attempt ended with Chung-Hee forcing him back down.
And amid the cruelty came something even harder to understand. A kiss pressed to his neck. Gentle. Almost affectionate. The contradiction hollowed him out.
The cemetery disappeared. The cold stone beneath him. The night air. The blood running down his face. Everything dissolved beneath memories he had spent years trying to bury.
Hands. Pain. Being unable to stop them. Being unable to breathe.
Eventually, his body stopped fighting. Not because he accepted what was happening, but because it no longer had the strength.
A ringtone cut through the silence.
Chung-Hee smiled. Noeul closed his eyes. For the first time since arriving, the assault stopped.
Before answering the phone, Chung-Hee leaned close enough for only Noeul to hear. “In this life,” he whispered, “you can only be the happiness of the people you’ve wronged, Noeul. I’ll make sure of it.”
Noeul didn’t understand. His body trembled. He couldn’t look at Chung-Hee, couldn’t bring himself to stand. He remained where he was, listening silently as Chung-Hee answered the phone.
“Ji-Woo,” Chung-Hee said with a smile, “I hope it wasn’t too difficult to get my number.”
“Where’s my brother, bastard?” Ji-Woo snapped.
Chung-Hee switched the call to speaker. “He’s here with me. We had a wonderful time together, didn’t we?” He looked down at Noeul. “Didn’t you enjoy it?”
Noeul lowered his gaze. He couldn’t answer.
“Answer me.” His voice remained calm. Chung-Hee crouched beside him, bringing the phone closer. “Or I can make you answer.”
Noeul’s shoulders tensed. “I… I’m fine,” he whispered. “Don’t worry.”
Ji-Woo exhaled audibly, but when he spoke again, his voice broke with anger. “Enough punishment, damn it!” he shouted, his voice breaking. “Was hurting my brother worth it? What kind of man enjoys making someone suffer? Tell me!”
Chung-Hee laughed. “Absolutely.” His eyes never left the man in front of him. “Your expression was beautiful, Noeul.” A slow smile spread across his face. “I want to see it again.”
For a brief moment, something distant crossed Chung-Hee’s features, something Noeul couldn’t name. Then it disappeared.
“Tell me where you are,” Ji-Woo demanded. “I’m coming to get him.”
“Duri,” Chung-Hee said instead, ignoring Ji-Woo completely.
He leaned down and pressed a slow kiss to Noeul’s neck, making sure the sound carried through the phone.
“Speak,” Duri said, his voice low.
“Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
On the other end, Duri closed his eyes. Every instinct told him to threaten Chung-Hee, to curse him, to promise he would never let anyone hurt Noeul again. He swallowed every word. Noeul’s safety came first.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Chung-Hee smiled. “Then I’ll be leaving now.”
He ended the call.