“He seems so strange when you look closely,” Seo Eui-woo said with a faint smile, tilting his head slightly. The kind puppy-like eyes of the handsome man had somehow hardened coldly.
“Even watching him like this, I have no idea what he’s thinking.”
Seo Eui-woo gazed at Kwon Jae-jin as if trying to figure him out.
His shiny gray pupils felt distant.
“The way he talks is a bit odd too… And sometimes the way he looks at me is strange as well.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“It’s me, Eui-woo?”
“….Yes?”
“You know me, Jae-jin.”
Jae-jin’s hand holding the dining knife froze in mid-air. An invisible hand seemed to be forcibly holding up his wrist.
“Kwon Jae-jin… I know you.”
Against his will, Jae-jin’s finger joints slowly uncurled one by one, losing grip of the steak knife he had been clutching.
Just as it seemed the knife would clatter to the floor rolling around, instead of falling down it came to a precise stop in mid-air. Having flown past the counter, the dining knife neatly landed on the cutting board.
“At first you asked if I was this young when we met, and later you asked if I remembered you, Jae-jin… And you used to naturally call me Eui-woo, ask me… ”
“…..”
“How do we know each other?”
“…..”
“And why don’t I have any memory?”
With a tilt of his head, Seo Eui-woo casually pried open the hidden nuclear bomb. A chill ran down the spine and the nape of the neck prickled.
A faint scent of tranquil blue filled the kitchen.
“Don’t you think you’re a bit strange too, Jae-jin?”
Kwon Jae-jin, now empty-handed, moved his arm. Seo Eui-woo’s power seemed to have been released.
Annoyed that his hand had been forcibly moved against his will, Jae-jin clenched and unclenched his fist to regain control of his body. Confirming he had returned to normal, Jae-jin tightly curled his fist.
“…Are you saying all this just to hold me by the waist and not let go? Even taking my knife?”
“It’s obvious you’re hiding something, and you don’t seem to have any intention of telling me what it is. Then I can only keep suspecting you, no? Whether you’re thinking of running away, or something else entirely.”
Jae-jin, who had been quietly holding his breath, silently swore to himself.
After a brief moment looking down at his feet to ponder, he gave up the thought and raised his head again.
“Seo Eui-woo, are you some kind of detection dog?”
You sure are great at finding things out even when not asked.
As expected, it was impossible to deceive Seo Eui-woo. That guy had always had sharper instincts than a wild beast.
Tsk, Jae-jin clicked his tongue in irritation and furrowed his brows.
“Yes. Roughly speaking, I know about you, and you don’t remember me. That is the situation.”
A second life.
Having the answer sheet in hand while solving the problem makes one out of sync with the ordinary surroundings. No matter how hard one tries, a person living ahead of time cannot erase the sense of disconnect. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out.
In fact, Kwon Jae-jin had no intention of hiding his suspiciousness from the start.
“But. What does that matter?”
There would be no issue standing his ground.
Seo Eui-woo noticing Jae-jin’s peculiarities faster than expected was surprising, but that was it.
“Seo Eui-woo, you should just agree to the conditions I proposed from the start. Don’t get distracted with other things.”
“Get distracted?”
“What you need most right now is guiding, isn’t it? You wouldn’t care about what kind of relationship we had, or how I know you. You wouldn’t even be curious.”
“What? That’s different from what you said before. One moment you were trying to charm me, being all cute and coy to win me over.”
“That’s what I’m saying. From the beginning, I clearly stated conditions. Money, safety, treatment. These three things. That is the fastest and most certain way for Seo Eui-woo to win over Kwon Jae-jin.”
Seo Eui-woo who freely spent billions probably had no idea how huge of a charm and coyness money could be.
Injury-free safe guiding would be the same. For a young, fit, handsome guy like Seo Eui-woo, being gentle, watching for cues, and fucking carefully is charm and coy behavior. If even Kwon Jae-jin, who had never felt physical attraction to another man his whole life, fell in just 4 years, who wouldn’t? Yes, the second life Seo Eui-woo still didn’t understand. What a shame. Poor thing.
And not treating someone like a tool was so basic there was nothing more to say. Just not choking, handcuffing, or gagging him, Kwon Jae-jin was overflowing with willingness to praise “Our baby has finally done it, how great and admirable” for that simple thing.
“Money, safety, treatment… I see….”
