Harmonious Love

A Perfect Lie (10)

Strangely, after seeing it with his own eyes, a corner of his heart felt constricted, as if blocked. At this point, he thought it might be better to hear hurtful words instead.

“…Is it true? That you can’t sleep?”

Mo Yeon asked with wide eyes, as if he couldn’t believe it at all.

In the end, it only became clearer that he was the only one feeling this way. For the first time in his life, realizing that he alone was making a fuss day and night made him feel upset and irritated. Had he ever felt such self-loathing in so many ways before?

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Looking at the situation objectively, Tae Young-won was now begging a much younger junior to be his sex partner. How pathetic was that?

He never imagined such a miserable situation would occur in his life, but this was something beyond instinctual desire. If his proposal to Mo Yeon had been solely for sex, he wouldn’t have tried to fix their relationship belatedly. He could have just done it until he got bored and then ended it.

So, the reason Tae Young-won couldn’t control his impatience was different. He answered, suddenly feeling choked up.

“Think about it. If a cat left home, shit, how could you sleep comfortably…?”

“What?”

For a very brief moment, it felt like he had forgotten even his usual expression management. With a complicated feeling, he raised his hand and wiped his face.

“Could you sleep soundly if you were in my shoes? I don’t think so. This is really hard. The difficulty level is no joke. Seeing how pathetically I’m acting, I think it’s fair to say we’re really dating and breaking up, honestly.”

He wasn’t sure if it made sense, but at some point, he started thinking that way more and more each day. At this rate, it really felt like he was going through a breakup. Stepping back and thinking about this situation carefully, it was exactly like a cat running away from home.

It was all because of this damn lingering affection. The moment he found that gloomy guy cute, everything went to hell. From the start, he had been looking at Mo Yeon like an incomprehensible small animal, so the constant rejections didn’t really hurt his pride. He just wanted to peek inside his head.

“I’m offering to give you my body because I like you, and to feed you well, just like before.”

“…”

“If you haven’t developed feelings for me, why are you acting like this?”

Fortunately, from the moment he showed weakness, Mo Yeon seemed to waver a bit. As if trying to hide this fact, he bit his lip so hard it looked like it might bleed soon. Tae Young-won reached out and rubbed Mo Yeon’s lips to stop him from biting.

“You’ll bleed.”

The bitten lips were bright red, and blood was indeed visible inside. He gently rubbed the marked lips again and said, as if urging:

Seeing Mo Yeon staying still, Tae Young-won’s voice softened.

“After running to me and jumping into my arms like that… you’re just confusing me.”

During this time, Mo Yeon just blinked quietly. He didn’t seem to be backing away or thinking of other excuses.

“Come to think of it, I might be having a harder time than guys who actually got dumped by their girlfriends. It’s much more shitty and difficult when a cat runs away and doesn’t come back, compared to those idiots who date casually and break up even though they weren’t going to get married and live together for life anyway.”

Looking at it this way, it seemed that breaking up between lovers was like a pet that had been living well in one’s care suddenly leaving. What’s worse, even though Mo Yeon was right in front of him now, he couldn’t bring him back home, and because of his unpredictable way of thinking, it was even more maddening not knowing where he might go.

If breaking up with a lover was this parching and anxiety-inducing, he never wanted to date for the rest of his life.

“Mo Yeon.”

He wanted to take advantage of the mood and steer this situation more in his favor. In fact, this was the easiest thing for Tae Young-won to do.

“I’m not sure what you’re worried about, but I don’t want things to change much from before either.”

Making up appropriate words or actions for the situation and pulling it in his favor, that is. The fact that Mo Yeon was quietly listening to him meant he was wavering.

It was a rare moment of opportunity that he didn’t often show. The moment he realized this, Tae Young-won’s eyes sparkled darkly.

“I’ve grown so attached to you humanly over time, how could you just leave home in an instant? Honestly, the old memories came back too, making it doubly hard. You know about it, right? When I lost my cat…”

He had already told Mo Yeon about the sadness of losing a cat in his childhood. Tae Young-won was now subtly touching on this shared past pain to appeal to his sadness. He knew best that Mo Yeon was somewhat weak to emotions.

“So, won’t you come back? We were good even if it was fake, weren’t we?”

The handsome face, as Mo Yeon had described it, crumpled up, making the sadness on his face look even more dramatic.

“…Ha.”

However, every time certain words came out of his mouth repeatedly, Mo Yeon’s focus was elsewhere. His eyes, which were originally slightly upturned at the ends, had become much sharper than before.

“Cat?”

“Huh?”

“Who are you calling a cat?”

There was something Tae Young-won had momentarily forgotten. That Mo Yeon strongly disliked cats.

“Are you calling me a cat right now? Why am I your cat, sunbae? What do you mean I left home?”

According to Mo Yeon, he didn’t dislike them that much, but from what Tae Young-won had observed, it was closer to dislike. Even when they walked together, if there was a cat, Mo Yeon would often frown and glare at it.

“What makes you call a perfectly normal person a cat? There are dogs too, why specifically a cat? I really can’t understand. Why a cat of all things?”

Especially now, with the anger in Mo Yeon’s eyes, he could once again confirm that Mo Yeon had negative feelings towards cats.

“And the part about losing sleep is all a lie, right? I saw you smiling with your eyes just now.”

Also, Tae Young-won had overlooked the fact that Mo Yeon often noticed his pretenses, just as much as the fact that he disliked cats.

“It seems like it was all lies to seduce me. Sleeping well at night, yet saying you can’t sleep…”

“No…”

“You seem to have forgotten already. Your pretenses don’t work on me even if you fool everyone at school, so don’t try to make me talk. And earlier, I really didn’t know it was you, sunbae, so don’t get your hopes up.”

And Mo Yeon moved his feet.

“I’m not interested in your face or body anymore, sunbae, so get out of my way.”

And as he passed by, he firmly squeezed Tae Young-won’s abs.

“…”

Even after his hand slowly pulled away, both of them could feel that subtle touch from just moments ago. Mo Yeon seemed to realize that his touch had been a bit more blatant than he had imagined. He hesitated, then rolled his eyes to gauge Tae Young-won’s reaction.

And of course, Tae Young-won’s eyes, having fully felt that sensual touch, had once again turned very fierce.

“Again, your words and actions don’t match…”

“!”

Mo Yeon startled and turned to run away.

Glaring at the sight of him running away, pale as if he’d seen a ghost, Tae Young-won felt no will to chase after him this time. He burst into a hollow laugh. While he was boiling with anger inside, he was equally dumbfounded.

“Ha.”

After all, the sight of Mo Yeon desperately running towards the elevator in the same building couldn’t have looked more pathetic. The reason he didn’t follow was that he felt Mo Yeon wouldn’t give in anyway.

He had never been so hung up on persuading someone, nor had he ever lost in this way anywhere else. Yet, feeling this drained was a first in his life. And it wasn’t even after a long argument.

He rubbed his stomach where Mo Yeon’s touch seemed to linger.

How could he believe that Mo Yeon had lost interest in him, or that he had mistaken him for another man earlier?

“Shit.”

He took his hand off his stomach and moved his feet irritably. He trudged over to the outer wall of the officetel and banged his head against it.

He hit it quite hard, enough that anyone watching might have worried he’d cracked his skull, but he felt nothing. Even after hitting it a couple more times, his dizzy head and troubled heart wouldn’t calm down.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Haa. A deep sigh dispersed into the air.

Caught up in his overwhelming feelings, he failed to notice something.

That Mo Yeon was actually hiding somewhere, still watching him.