The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C83
$83
“I must have really been out of it these past few days if I couldn’t tell you were pretending to sleep.”
His words, implying he intended to keep hiding it until the end, made my head even hotter. I got off the bed entirely and glared at him. Unlike me, who was burning with excitement, he seemed coolly composed, appearing nonchalant at first glance. If I hadn’t remembered him rushing over to check my breathing earlier, I might have really believed that.
“This is why I didn’t tell you.”
“So you knew I’d get angry, and you still did this?”
Heat radiated from my body. It was evidence that I had completely failed to control my emotions. I had always been careful not to let any fire escape in any situation to avoid showing that I was the son of an arson murderer. However, Seo-heon easily broke down all those painstaking efforts.
“Don’t you remember in the dungeon? You were trying to die instead of me. Isn’t this better compared to that?”
“That again? How is this the same as that?”
“Right. At least I tried to live together. Unlike you.”
Seo-heon stopped mid-sentence. Then he turned his head and made a very pained expression as if recalling something.
“No, I shouldn’t blame you. Forget what I just said.”
Seo-heon, who had been getting heated up with me, tightly closed his mouth. He seemed to regret his words.
Kang Seo-heon regretting something? What on earth?
“Then do you want to turn me into a parasite? Do you want me to live as a worm feeding off your life?”
Seo-heon’s body stiffened.
“You think I’m treating you like a parasite? Are you serious?”
His low voice was thick with despair and anger.
“How can I not be a parasite when I have to cling to your life to survive?”
Seo-heon muttered low, “Parasite? Parasite?” then looked straight into my eyes. I flinched as if captured by that gaze.
“I said I’d die if you die.”
Seo-heon came close enough that our noses could touch.
“What kind of idiot dog treats its master, who holds its lifeline, like a parasite? If there’s such a stupid dog in this world, tell it to come out.”
Seo-heon’s lips devoured mine. I struggled to break free, but Seo-heon’s hands stopped me. His hot tongue almost pried open my mouth as it entered. His tongue, desperately roaming inside my mouth, revealed his desire better than any words could.
“Mmph.”
His tongue now moved explicitly to stimulate me. Not wanting to fall for Seo-heon’s tricks, I bit the tongue that was tickling the roof of my mouth. I tasted blood in my mouth. Even so, Seo-heon didn’t back down.
Seo-heon’s tongue continued to bleed but thoroughly explored my mouth. His tongue came in so deep it was as if he was going to lick my throat, and I had to swallow his blood gulp by gulp. A warning sounded in my head that if I stayed like this, I would be bewitched by him.
Don’t get caught up again.
I tightly closed my eyes and bit Seo-heon’s tongue hard once more. I wanted to convey that I didn’t want to mingle tongues with him, at least not now. Although I bit quite hard, he showed no sign of anger, just slightly curled his lips, grinned, and withdrew.
“Don’t try to gloss over this with something like that.”
“I have no intention to.”
Seo-heon answered firmly while caressing my shoulders. We stared at each other in silence for a long time. We neither blinked nor backed down.
“Was it Halo?”
Seo-heon asked, almost spitting out the words.
“He gave you a hint, didn’t he?”
“How did you know?”
I hadn’t ruled out the possibility that he might know. But I hadn’t thought he would ask so bluntly either.
“I saw the call history. I blocked calls from that side, so you must have contacted him.”
Kang Seo-heon was even crazier than I thought, tampering with my phone in the meantime. At the same time, the fact that he couldn’t predict my actions showed that he was confused.
Or is he so crazy that he can’t make proper judgments?
My determination to get away from Seo-heon as soon as possible only grew stronger. If I left him like this, he seemed like he would risk death, caught in his delusions. And when he comes to his senses, he’ll surely regret it.
No, even if he doesn’t regret it, I won’t be able to handle that situation.
I stepped back from Seo-heon, frightened after imagining a future I didn’t want to see even in my dreams. It was a reflexive action born from the impulse to run away.
“Woo-hyun, do you dislike me now? I guess that’s understandable.”
Seo-heon wasn’t one to miss such a keen observation. He approached even closer than before I stepped back.
“Ugh.”
I had a feeling that I shouldn’t get caught now.
However, even though I tried to move back, my feet, which had somehow touched the floor, were frozen and couldn’t move an inch. What wrapped around my feet looked close to ice, but perhaps because Seo-heon controlled it, I didn’t feel any cold.
“Did you just use a skill on me?”
I hadn’t imagined Seo-heon would use a skill on me, so I had no time to prepare.
“You’re thinking of running away. As you now know, if I don’t give you life force, you could die at any moment. That’s the one thing I can’t allow.”
“It’s something I was already prepared for.”
I wanted to use fire to escape, but I gave up, afraid of harming the hospital or other patients. Unlike outside, there were many flammable objects in the hospital, making it dangerous.
“Woo-hyun, please let me take responsibility for deceiving you.”
“Even if it’s a responsibility I don’t want?”
I didn’t fall for his desperate plea. Even though he said that, if I didn’t move according to his wishes, he would try to enforce his will by any means necessary. It was natural, as habits worn like his own clothes for a very long time don’t easily come off.
“I see.”
Seo-heon read the rejection in my silence.
“Let’s discharge you tomorrow and go to my house for now.”
Despite that, he had no intention of listening to my wishes this time either. He clearly intended to persuade me until I agreed. Even though he knew it was no different from coercion.
***
The house he took me to wasn’t his family home, but a house close to the guild. At first, I thought it was because it was a house he used often, but when I actually checked, I realized the reason was elsewhere.
“Are you planning to confine me inside? You know I can break this kind of barrier if I put my mind to it, right?”
“I’ll teleport here the moment the barrier breaks, so don’t waste your energy. There are people targeting you in retaliation among those who were in Assemblyman Kwon’s circle, so I set up the barrier. In about a week, those people will all be dealt with, so if you want to go somewhere then, we can go together.”
He said it wasn’t to confine me, but he clearly had no intention of letting me move alone even after everything was resolved. What was more irritating was that he didn’t even seem to have any intention of hiding the facts.
***
“Let’s do the treatment for today.”
“I don’t want to.”
Life force could be transferred once every three days. However, just by resonating our skills together, the loss of life force greatly decreased, and the daily pain disappeared. He called this act ‘treatment’. It was a term I found hard to accept. But Seo-heon acted as he pleased, saying this was the one thing he couldn’t compromise on.
What has he compromised on? So far, everything has been going in the direction Seo-heon wants.
It’s not that I haven’t tried relatively aggressive rebellion. Seo-heon often left the house, and I used those opportunities to burn down the barrier. I had no intention of escaping or testing him, I just wanted to rebel.
As he had warned, Seo-heon arrived in front of me in less than thirty seconds. Even though he knew I had done it, he approached only after checking sharply if anyone had entered, as if relieved.
“Are you hurt?”
Although I had burned the grass around the barrier, he didn’t care. Instead, he checked my body all over and said he was glad after confirming there wasn’t a single wound.
“You can do anything, but don’t use skills that shorten your life force.”
I had no intention of telling Seo-heon, but from the moment I learned I was using his life force, I gave up on that idea. When I was using my own life force, I used it without particular resistance, but thinking of using Seo-heon’s made me feel it was too precious.
“What could I do, trapped here?”
Although I said this, I persistently destroyed the barrier afterwards. But Seo-heon’s attitude remained consistent. He should have let his guard down at least once, like villagers tired of the boy who cried wolf, but he fell for my tricks every time. After repeating this five times, I was the one who got tired first.
He said he would check my phone call history, so it was difficult to ask for help, and it seemed unlikely that someone else would come to Seo-heon’s house. Above all, if someone helped me escape, they could become Seo-heon’s target.
Before, I wouldn’t have thought Seo-heon would harm that person, but now that he had become almost insane, I couldn’t be sure of that either. I didn’t want to cause trouble for others.
I didn’t want to use this method, but now there’s no other way.
I fiddled with the sleeping pills I had kept just in case. It was the medicine I had pretended to take at the hospital.
“I’m back.”
Seo-heon opened the front door and came in, and I hurriedly shoved the pills into my pocket.