Into the Rose Garden Novel - Chapter 22.4 The Bitter with the Sweet

Kloff almost collapsed at the calm, continuous words. Even though dry words, like a thesis, were listed without special rhetoric, it felt as if all the light in the world poured out from between those rosy lips, and the terribly trembling, slender voice, far from poetry recitation, resonated more brilliantly than any heavenly sound.

Kloff’s face also grew increasingly flushed. At the same time, he sighed in exasperation. What was he trying to do? He could have just said it simply, and he didn’t know why he was beating around the bush like this. Of course, he was so happy he felt like he was dying.

“So?”

He deliberately urged him gruffly to hide the pounding in his chest, which felt like it would shatter his ribs. Then Aeroc swallowed with a slightly troubled expression and continued.

“I wanted you to only look at me, and only kiss me. But you acted as if you didn’t even see me and were with others. It made my blood boil. No matter what I said or did, you didn’t even pretend to see me. So I gradually did worse things, and eventually, I did those malicious things… probably that’s what happened. In your dream.”

His voice was so faint at the end that it was almost inaudible. Ah, what should he do with this maddeningly cute person?

“Your elaborate confession is very much appreciated. But it’s not particularly poetic, and it’s full of clichés, so it’s a little embarrassing for me to hear. Can’t you just simply say ‘I love you’?”

He asked back, teasing him slightly, as if to mock the seductress who had been so tantalizing, now making such a pure confession like a young poet experiencing first love. Aeroc then frowned and gazed at Kloff. He seemed to have a lot to say but didn’t know how, so he just mouthed words, then finally said one thing.

“They said this isn’t love.”

“Who said that?”

“…Someone.”

“You must have been scammed again.”

He only teased him a little, but at those words, Aeroc was horrified and glared at Kloff, then hit his chest hard. Kloff winced and grumbled, “It hurts.” Then Aeroc roared angrily. He was so enraged that Kloff couldn’t even stop him.

“You deserve to hurt a little!”

Kloff took a few more hits, then hugged him to prevent him from hitting any more. Then, when Aeroc tried to spout insults he didn’t even properly know, Kloff stopped him with his mouth. Whenever an insult tried to escape through his muffled sounds, Kloff would kiss him to prevent it, and Aeroc, who had been struggling, eventually calmed down.

After a moment, the long kiss broke, and Aeroc, his cheeks red, whether from anger or breathlessness or both, still indignant, pointed a finger.

“I was clearly a bad bastard, but you’re truly malicious. Why would I ever…”

Kloff grinned and retorted, “It’s no use realizing it now. You’re already mine.”

Aeroc, genuinely angry, pushed Kloff away irritably and turned over. Kloff deliberately turned him back to face him and hugged him. For a while, he gently stroked the back of his head, which was still muttering.

“So, aren’t you going to say it?”

“After you say it first.”

It was admirable how he wouldn’t give in easily until the very end. Kloff chuckled and, in a light tone, gave him what he demanded.

“I love you.”

Though it was an easy thing to say, it made his ears burn a little, feeling somewhat awkward. It was the first time he had ever uttered that combination of sounds, though he had heard it before in his life. It felt ticklish and strange. As he mumbled it once more as a trial, Aeroc froze blankly, as if he had heard the most unexpected words in the world.

“I love you.”

This time, he looked him straight in the eye and said it again clearly. Still no reaction. Kloff grew stubborn.

“I love you, I love you. I love you. I am loving you.”

He stubbornly pressed for a reaction, changing endings and tenses, until Aeroc suddenly sprang up from the bed. Kloff was a little surprised to see him almost tumble off the high mattress of the expensive bed and fall to the floor.

“Aeroc?”

To help Aeroc, who had fallen to the floor, Kloff also swept aside the sheets and got out of bed. Aeroc didn’t seem to hear his name; he didn’t look back, stood up on his trembling legs that had no strength, and began to put on the pants and shirt he had thrown on the sofa a little distance away.

As he put one leg into his pants, Kloff felt his lower body tense again, seeing something pale stream down the inside of one thigh. Aeroc himself didn’t seem to think of wiping it, just pulled on his pants and then his shirt. He was hastily buttoning it up and trying to leave, so Kloff rushed to stop him.

“Where are you going in that state!”

Before Kloff’s fingertips could even touch him, Aeroc moved quickly, opened the door, and disappeared. His complexion as he turned and left the room was deathly pale. Kloff’s blood ran cold, feeling like he would do something else reckless, so he hastily pulled on his pants and immediately ran out. He looked down the long corridor outside the door and heard the sound of bare feet running down the far end of the hallway.

He’d only truly understand how terrifying an imprinted Alpha is if Kloff shackled him to the bedpost.

Angry at his incomprehensible behavior, Kloff, truly intending to do so, chased after the fleeing Omega.

Turning the corner, Kloff, searching for his vanished partner, saw him at the end of the long corridor, snatching a hot teapot from the butler who was directing the serving of the last tea and pastries to the guests.

The startled butler cried, “Be careful, it’s boiling water,” but Aeroc didn’t listen. He snatched a fine teacup from the tray a maid was holding and immediately poured dark tea into it. And as he was about to drink it in one gulp, Kloff, horrified, rushed over. The butler, also startled, quickly caught the teapot that Aeroc was half-dropping with both hands.

“Tea isn’t good during pregnancy!”

As Kloff hastily snatched the teacup, the spilled hot liquid splashed onto his hand.

“Ugh!”

He instinctively groaned and grabbed his wrist with his other hand. Seeing this, the butler, equally startled, picked up a glass from the maid’s tray and poured cold water over it. Then he soaked the napkin draped over his arm in cold water from another glass and wrapped it around Kloff’s hand.

“It’s been cooled quickly, so it shouldn’t be a severe burn.”

The butler sighed with relief, and so did Kloff. And Aeroc, who stood frozen beside them, only breathing heavily, was also the same. With a pale complexion, he stood flustered, not knowing what to do.

“Are you alright, Young Master?”

“Ah, well.”

His eyes, watery and shimmering, turned towards Kloff. He didn’t know why, but he definitely needed to fix his habit of running away at every turn. If he let it slide this time, it would happen again in the future, and each time Kloff would either be tormented as if struck by an invisible knife, or cough up blood, or his reason would be paralyzed by a rage more intense than the burning pain on his skin, like now.

“Follow me.”

Without a word to the butler and maid, who couldn’t react to their sudden intrusion, Kloff grabbed Aeroc’s wrist and led the way. Each time Aeroc tried to speak and pull his wrist away, Kloff squeezed it tightly enough to bruise. The small sounds of pain pierced his pounding heart, but he suppressed them.

He paid no mind to the cloth wrapped around his burned hand falling off; he grabbed the doorknob, opened it, dragged the still resisting Aeroc into the room, and then threw him onto the bed. Aeroc, seemingly tireless, tried to get up and run away again, and Kloff, who had locked the door, immediately rushed over and pinned him down with his strength.

Even under Kloff’s heavy weight, Aeroc tried to get up repeatedly as if possessed, and would try to escape at the slightest opening. Amidst this, Kloff felt as if the air he inhaled turned into poisonous mist, burning his lungs, looking at Aeroc’s white, soulless, automatic-doll-like face.

“What’s wrong with you!”

Finally, a roar erupted.

“I told you you’d never escape me! Did you think the sweetness had all drained out just because I imprinted and told you I loved you, or what?! I’ll say it again. You are my Omega, and you’re pregnant with my child. Running away on your own is absolutely unforgivable!”

Seeing him flinch without answering even to his shouts, Kloff felt despair engulf him. He literally felt like breaking Aeroc’s legs. If he couldn’t use his legs, he wouldn’t be able to run away as he pleased.

An uncontrollable rage surged within him. It was a massive emotional whirlpool, on a different dimension from when he ran away from the office before. At that time, he hadn’t recognized the imprinting, so even if his heart ached, he could just bury it, but not now.

From the moment Aeroc turned the corner and disappeared until he saw his back again, in the mere blink of an eye, Kloff felt a terrible sensation, as if he repeatedly fell into an abyss and was resurrected. The solid marble corridor he strode upon became hot lava, his legs sinking deeply, and his peripheral nerves melting. A dizzying sensation. Just inhaling brought searing pain that burned his lungs alive. He never wanted to experience that again.

As his vision blurred with black smoke burning his flesh and red smoke boiling within him, he finally found the back wrapped in transparent light and barely regained his sense of reality, his paralyzed nerves beginning to function. The pain of his hand burning was nothing. He caught him, who was trying to fly away, and pushed him back into the nest, but he kept trying to escape.

Should he really break his legs? Just one…

Kloff unconsciously tightened his grip on the ankle, which was covered by thin skin.

It would twist outward much easier than expected. Like then… like then?

As Kloff’s large, strong hand gripped and twisted his ankle, Aeroc flapped his legs to shake him off, like a butterfly with twisted wings. But he couldn’t even do that. Kloff, who had been pressing him down, had lost strength in his body and collapsed on top of him.

“Then”? What “then” was he talking about? Aeroc’s ankle had never been broken. If it had, it would have been when he was young, perhaps learning to ride horses, before Kloff knew him. But he couldn’t understand why he had such a vivid feeling of having seen it. It was a delusion. Definitely. His imprinted Omega was acting incomprehensibly, so he must have been affected and was hallucinating. He must not recall such a brutal scene. Absolutely not.

Kloff breathed a little roughly, pushing away the ‘memories that shouldn’t exist,’ distorted by the imprinting. At the same time, he released the ankle of the person wriggling beneath him. Then he caressed the ankle, where red handprints must have been left. His fingers trembled, and his sense of touch wasn’t working properly, but he caressed it as lovingly as he could. He felt an intense loathing for himself, who had tried to cruelly destroy such a beautiful thing.

As if in a panic, Aeroc couldn’t speak properly or make eye contact. Kloff had released his ankle, but it seemed something serious had happened before that. Seeing him babbling incomprehensibly like an idiot and struggling, Kloff felt fear growing within him.

“Aeroc? What’s wrong, why are you like this?”

No matter how much he called, he didn’t answer, only looking into the distance and flailing. Kloff cupped his pale, flustered face, made eye contact, and called out loudly, “Aeroc!” His scattered gaze finally fixed on Kloff. Then he recoiled in horror as if he had seen a ghost, trembling. What was he so scared of? Seeing him stiffen, pale as if he had wandered through a vast darkness and encountered a monster, Kloff couldn’t speak.

Sometimes, when he had those eyes, Kloff truly felt like dying. He was hiding something, but Aeroc would never say what it was. He sometimes acted as if he had transcended everything, with a silhouette so light he seemed like a bubble that would disappear if touched. That faint gaze when he had his first seizure and pushed Kloff away, looking down at Kloff fleeing the mansion.

He wanted to cry. Like a child, he wanted to wail, shouting, “What hurts so much? Why can’t you speak?” and cling to him, crying. He was scared to death. The very fact that he was by his side but couldn’t help him become a huge blade pressing down on Kloff’s back.

But he couldn’t cry in front of his shocked Omega. Making him cry and startling him just a moment ago was enough. He barely swallowed the surge of emotion. A metallic scent of blood rose to his nostrils, but Kloff smiled with all his might. And he whispered very gently.

“It’s okay. I’m here. Don’t be scared. No one can hurt you.”

He whispered such sweet lies, despite having just tried to break his legs. Yes, these were lies. He knew it very well. Despite being an Alpha, Kloff could never give Aeroc endless protection, ensuring no misfortune would ever befall him. Even now, he still didn’t understand why Aeroc was suffering, only offering light comfort, repeating meaningless actions that anyone could do.

Even with Kloff’s trivial words and actions, Aeroc gasped and clung to him like someone trapped in a deep swamp. And he barely managed to say one thing.

“…I don’t want to sleep forever like this. I can’t sleep.”

Despairing again at his complete incomprehension, yet truly grateful to God that Aeroc had conveyed something, Kloff let out a trembling sigh.

“Why can’t you sleep? I’ll protect you. Don’t worry.”

Even though Kloff spoke gently, Aeroc gasped and whimpered, then whispered so softly that only Kloff’s ear, close to him, could barely hear.

“I woke up from a vast darkness, and it was this beautiful dream. So I can’t sleep. If I sleep in the dream, I’ll wake up again in cruel reality. When I’m exhausted from reality and close my eyes to return here, I have to be alone in that cold shack, on that hard bed. That’s too painful to bear. So…”

Kloff couldn’t understand what he was saying at all, but Aeroc, his face contorted without crying, seemed about to stop breathing. Those tear-filled blue eyes were only red-rimmed, shedding no dew. Kloff, unable to speak, could only clutch him as if they were one body. Otherwise, the heavily cracked figure, barely held together like a porcelain doll, would suddenly collapse and disappear like grains of sand through the cracks.

“This isn’t a dream, Aeroc.”

“…It’s a lie.”

“Why don’t you believe me?”

“Because you don’t love me.”

Aeroc gave a desolate laugh. It would be better if he cried. Kloff had to taste bitter despair that his sincerity had not been conveyed at all.