Affectionate Obsession - Chapter 7

“What on earth are you thinking?”

Yeonhee’s brow furrowed helplessly.

She had tried her best to hide her emotions, thinking that revealing them would only lead to doing what he wanted. But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t fathom Junhyeok’s intentions.

Knowing everything, why did he let things unfold like this?

Even though she was the one who made the choice, she began to resent Junhyeok.

“Ever since you suddenly disappeared one day, I’ve dreamed of and waited for this moment for a full 10 years.”

Suddenly, Junhyeok stood up from his seat. Then, he closed the short distance in an instant.

Yeonhee didn’t take her eyes off Junhyeok.

“Yeonhee.”

He called her name in a low voice. It was a voice that had sunk terrifyingly.

Just that alone made her skin crawl. But it wasn’t just that that made her tense.

“I just did what I could.”

“…….”

“Things I could do to get you, who abandoned me, back into my hands.”

“…….”

“I just did my absolute best.”

Yeonhee bit her lower lip hard.

Everything he uttered was far too dangerous.

What kind of time had he spent during the 10 years she was gone?

She couldn’t be sure of anything since she hadn’t seen it herself, but she felt she could know one thing.

That during the past 10 years without her, Jung Junhyeok had never let go of her, not even for a moment.

“Haa……”

She couldn’t help but sigh.

Where had it all gone wrong?

Was it accepting Yoon Sera’s dangerous proposal to treat Yeonjeong?

Was it not running away even after knowing that the man she had to live with as her husband was Jung Junhyeok?

Or perhaps, was it wrong from the start, loving Jung Junhyeok 10 years ago?

“Did you perhaps expect an apology from me? For not telling you I was the son of HN Group 10 years ago. If not that, then for apologizing for having people investigate you for 10 years to find you after you suddenly disappeared. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

His voice, twisted to the extreme, clawed painfully at Yeonhee’s eardrums.

She had merely sighed out of frustration, but it seemed to have been interpreted differently by Junhyeok.

Yeonhee offered no reply. At that, he chillingly twisted the corner of his lips upwards.

“If that’s what you wanted, then I’m sorry.”

Junhyeok came right up to her and knelt on one knee. Then, with a touch so sweet it was maddening, he clasped Yeonhee’s pale hand.

“I have no intention of apologizing to you in either case.”

His eyes, like graphite that never wavered, seemed to bore into Yeonhee’s pupils, gazing at her intently. Then, he growled like a beast crying out in pain.

“The 10 years without you were such a horrific hell that I couldn’t bear to do nothing.”

He pressed his lips against the back of her pale hand.

Slurp.

The sound of his lips making contact with her skin was exquisitely clear.

Yeonhee, who watched his every move in silence, saw Junhyeok’s distorted face reflected vividly in her eyes.

“I endured all the damned situations, gritting my teeth, just waiting for the day I could get you back.”

“…….”

“But what am I supposed to do when you look at me like that?”

Every word that escaped his lips was cold. Yet, everything else was overwhelmingly sweet.

The way his hand caressed the back of hers, the gaze that never left hers.

But amidst it all, his lips smiled without emotion.

“Junhyeok……”

Yeonhee, calling the name she had loved so much after 10 years, couldn’t continue.

She lacked the courage.

There were fewer things she could say to the man who had searched for a woman who disappeared without a word for a full 10 years than she had imagined.

“Come here, Yeonhee.”

Junhyeok gently pulled Yeonhee’s hand, which he held tenderly.

Yeonhee had no choice but to stand up, as if helplessly drawn by that slight force.

“I want to kiss you.”

It was a question seeking permission, but she knew all too well it wasn’t a genuine request for consent.

Before she could answer, their lips met.

A searing heat began to rise as his flesh roughly plunged between their lips.

Even so, Yeonhee didn’t close her eyes.

She looked directly into Junhyeok’s eyes, which were also open.

Within his pupils, she saw the clear image of the Jung Junhyeok she had loved 10 years ago, from that era.

The face she had seen just before fleeing him was looking at her without flinching, filled with resentment.

‘Why did you leave me? How could you leave without a word? How could you abandon me so cruelly after saying you loved me just moments ago?’

It felt as if he were saying exactly that.

It felt as if he were pressing down on her so hard that she couldn’t breathe from guilt.

As his tongue explored her teeth and filled her mouth completely, Yeonhee’s heart grew heavier.

“Ahhh…!”

As she was overwhelmed by the waves of emotion, unable to do anything, a dizzying moan escaped Yeonhee’s lips.

It was because her legs were suddenly lifted into the air.

When she came to her senses, her hips were already resting on the terrace railing.

Yeonhee looked at Junhyeok with a startled expression.

“You must have met someone from my family without my knowledge. They must have threatened you, and that’s why you suddenly disappeared. Right?”

Junhyeok asked impatiently, revealing his raw, unfiltered emotions.

The raw emotions, filled with resentment, pierced Yeonhee’s heart fiercely.

“After you disappeared, I thought countless times. Where did she go? Why did she disappear so suddenly without a word? Was everything you said about loving me a lie?”

His pupils trembled painfully.

Yeonhee felt her mouth go dry. Her rapidly beating heart felt like it was cracking apart.

He never took his eyes off her. Even while so close, he tried to get even closer.

As if he were anxious about losing her again if he didn’t.

He craved her like this, right before him.

“No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one answer. My father wouldn’t have acted directly, so he must have had someone meet you.”

“…….”

“Bringing up that damned HN Group.”

“…….”

“And scared you.”

She felt she had to say something. But Yeonhee pressed her lips together tightly.

If even the slightest gap appeared, she felt she would pour out all her sorrow from that day.

That there was absolutely no talk about HN Group.

Rather, they acted as if they didn’t even need to mention the ‘H’ of HN Group to someone as insignificant as her, who was less than a pebble underfoot.

But she knew all too well that saying such things now would only dig deeper into Junhyeok’s wounded heart.

“Yeonhee, to find you, I went back into this damned household I ran away from and endured for 10 years.”

“…….”

“Otherwise, I couldn’t possibly have found you.”

Yeonhee suppressed the sigh that rose within her.

It must have been.

That was the last thing she had said to the lawyer who came to find her 10 years ago.

‘Please make it so that Junhyeok can never find out my whereabouts in any way. As if I never existed in this world from the beginning.’

‘…….’

‘I’m abandoning everything, but you can do that much in exchange for ruining one person’s life, right?’

She had asked that herself.

Even that was said out of childish pride.

She couldn’t accept that fact with rational thought.

That’s why she had spoken so harshly.

At the moment she said those words, Junhyeok was nowhere in her heart.

Only her wounded heart mattered.

She had never dreamed that the actions she took to protect her pride would make Junhyeok’s 10 years so agonizing.

“Living for 10 years like a blind and deaf person, appeasing those damned old folks, only then did I start finding traces of you.”

“…….”

“I lived like that, just to find you.”

Yeonhee held her breath.

She felt guilty even breathing, as if she could understand his past 10 years without needing to hear the details.

The deeper the smile that spread across his lips, the more her heart crumbled.

Finally, as if about to deliver the climax of his prepared words, he slowly closed and opened his eyes.

“So, Yeonhee.”

“…….”

“Please, love me again like you used to.”

The moment she heard those words, her heart felt as if it were being brutally torn apart.

Why was he pleading like this?

What was she, that this man, who lacked nothing, was begging like this?

“Because I have no intention of ever letting go of you, whom I finally have back in my hands, please.”

Junhyeok buried his head in Yeonhee’s neck and cried out like a beast.

Even as he did, he gripped her hand, which he held desperately, even tighter.

Yeonhee couldn’t bring herself to push him away.

“I want to hold you.”

Him, who craved her, so insignificant as she was, so desperately.

“Please don’t push me away.”

She couldn’t possibly escape.

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