Passion Novel - Volume 3 - Chapter 70

“They say the heaviest thing in the world is eyelids, and I guess that’s true.” That was the first thought that surfaced in his consciousness.

Jeong Taeui blinked his heavy eyelids a few times. He vaguely wondered if he should close his eyes again, or blink a few more times. This was the fourth time he’d had this thought.

The first time he opened his eyes, everything was pitch black. He didn’t know when that was. In fact, his memory of opening his eyes was faint. It was the same the second time. At least then, he blinked a couple of times, but then he lost consciousness again. The third time he opened his eyes, he managed to turn his gaze and look at the clock. The bedside lamp, which he hadn’t noticed turning on, cast its dimmest light, allowing him to vaguely see the wall clock. It was a little before 5 AM. He must have drifted off again without realizing it while looking at that clock. And the fourth time, Jeong Taeui forced his eyelids open, heavy as lead, and looked at the clock again. It was a little past 6 AM. It felt like a considerable amount of time had passed since he last opened his eyes, but in reality, it had only been about an hour and a half. He remembered it being like this when he was rarely very ill. When you’re sick, the night feels unusually long, and you feel like you’ve slept for ages, but then you come to and realize hardly any time has passed.

Should I sleep more? But there’s something I need to think about first.

Jeong Taeui closed his eyes. He wanted to just let his fading consciousness drift away, but his slightly recovered mind concluded that he should indeed try to think. However, in the process, his consciousness must have drifted off and returned, because when he opened his eyes again, another ten minutes had passed. This time, his eyelids felt a little lighter than before.

Wait a minute. I need to think about something, but what was it? He blinked slowly once, twice, but his mind was blank, and he couldn’t recall anything. Then, the first thought that came to him was a sense of unfamiliarity amidst the familiar.

This wasn’t Jeong Taeui’s room. It wasn’t unfamiliar, but it wasn’t his own room that he was accustomed to seeing every time he woke up. This was… oh, right. Ilay’s room.

Jeong Taeui turned his head slightly, no one was there. He turned his gaze to the other side as well, but still saw no one. He felt no presence. It seemed he was alone in the room. “Why am I lying alone in a room without its owner?” Jeong Taeui thought vaguely. But it was just a thought; he wasn’t particularly curious. It was as if his brain’s thinking function had partially shut down.

He decided he should at least try to get up. Jeong Taeui tried to prop himself up with his arms to support his languid, weak body. No, he tried to prop himself up. But the moment he moved his arm, a dull ache shot through his shoulder, upper arm, elbow, and even his wrist, making him instantly frown.

“Ow…”

A groan escaped his lips involuntarily, but even that didn’t come out properly. A raspy, wind-like sound escaped his throat. As soon as he opened his mouth, a fierce thirst and a burning pain in his throat assaulted him. His lips and mouth were parched. Now that he thought about it, it wasn’t just his throat and arms. His back, stomach, legs, and even his buttock muscles, which he’d never remembered hurting before, throbbed with muscle pain.

Jeong Taeui was momentarily perplexed. This severe muscle pain, so bad it made him afraid to move, this condition where not just his muscles but even his bones ached, was incomprehensible.

He frowned at the throbbing pain, muttering “Ow, ow” in a hoarse voice, but decided to try and get up anyway. And, with his whole body groaning and aching as if it were about to break, he painstakingly managed to sit up.

No sooner had he sat up than he slid back down. His body felt like it was splitting apart. There was no sensation between his legs. The feeling of the skin on his inner thighs rubbing felt as if it wasn’t his own flesh. It was like stroking anesthetized skin. But just slightly inside, it was burning hot. Perhaps it was because pain is felt more deeply the moment you recognize it, but as soon as he thought “pain,” the inside of his thighs hurt terribly. It felt like it had been seared with fire. Yes, it felt exactly like a burn.

And in that pain, which made tears well up, Jeong Taeui regained his memory and his thoughts.

Ilay.

Ilay Riegrow.

That damned bastard.

As soon as his memories returned, indignation surged. He felt suffocated by the anger that welled up in his chest. His mind went blank.

Should I really kill this guy? Should I just go for it, risk my life, and truly kill this guy, even if it means dying myself? No matter what, if I sacrifice my own life, even if I can’t kill him, perhaps I can at least rip out that abominable thing of his.

Jeong Taeui, panting because his chest was heaving with emotion, making breathing difficult, clenched his fists. His fingernails were bloody and dry from how much he’d scraped them trying to break free from the rope that had bound his wrists. His wrists were bruised in the shape of the rope, and the skin was peeled, oozing blood. Seeing those marks, his eyes rolled back again.

“Where’d that bastard go…?”

He must have yelled so much last night; just a few mumbled words brought a metallic taste faintly to his mouth along with a raspy sound. His throat must have been bleeding.

“Where’d that damned bastard go…!”

If he were in front of him right now, he felt like he’d just charge, regardless of the difference in strength or that bastard’s dog-like personality.

“That damned bastard, I’ll find him and just put him out of his misery…!”

One part of his mind was rational, but the other seemed to have completely flown away. Even though it was impossible for him to put Ilay out of his misery in this state, unable to control his own body and aching all over, his reason refused to make that calculation. Emotions overwhelmed him.

Jeong Taeui lay sideways on the bed, trembling. Every part of his body hurt. Even his eyes were swollen from crying so much. Still, he should consider himself lucky that his face wasn’t stinging from dried tears despite all that crying. Jeong Taeui wiped his cheek with the back of a weak hand. Then, “Huh,” he paused.

His cheek was clean. He had expected it to be a sticky mess, but besides being swollen, it was dry. Come to think of it…

Jeong Taeui slowly tried to move his legs. Twitch, just moving a few centimeters sent a sharp, agonizing pain up his spine, as if his body were breaking. Again, resentment turned into curses that escaped his lips. But his legs were the same. There was no sticky or unpleasant sensation left.

Jeong Taeui tilted his head. Strange. His whole body should be a sight he couldn’t bear to look at, so why did it feel so clean? It should be sticky and slimy, making him curse spontaneously. Could this whole situation be a dream…? No way.

Feeling the throbbing pain again just from tilting his head, Jeong Taeui sighed. Come to think of it, there was something else strange. Where had that beast-like lunatic gone?

He had done that with a raging fever, so he should be unconscious again with an even higher fever, but there was no sign of anyone in this bed, or even in the room. Could he have died in the process? And then people moved his body somewhere…

Jeong Taeui sighed and shook his head. When a person’s body is exhausted and their mind is confused, they keep having idle thoughts.

Jeong Taeui slowly ran his hand over his body, which was buried deep in the blankets. It hurt just to move his arm. His body felt warmer than usual, so he probably had a fever. Well, if I didn’t get sick after that, I wouldn’t be human.

As he slowly traced his body with his fingertips, his skin hurt everywhere his hand touched. It hurt as if he had a severe flu. His sensitive fingertips brushed against swollen skin from tooth marks and bitten chest, stinging him. Suddenly, blood rushed to his face. The sensation of Ilay’s hands and lips touching him came vividly to mind everywhere his hand touched. Was there any part of his body that hadn’t been touched by those hands?

“…Damn it…”

He thought that once he recovered, he’d first scrub his body raw, as if to peel off his skin. His hand, tracing down his body, eventually reached his groin. Flinch, his hand instinctively recoiled. A cold sweat broke out on his back as he recalled the terrible pain of last night. He cautiously groped with his fingers. His hand touched his burning, swollen private parts. His body sprang up from the sting. The wound hurt so intensely, as if burning, as soon as his hand touched it, that he didn’t dare touch it further and withdrew his hand. But still, his hand was dry. There was no filth or mucus on it. Jeong Taeui frowned, glaring intently at his own hand.

It was then.

The door opened.

Jeong Taeui, who had his back to the door, flinched his shoulders. He steadied his creaking body and only turned his head. Through the open door, Ilay was entering. He looked perfectly fine.

Just a few hours ago, he had certainly boasted insane stamina, but he had also been burning with a fever. Now, he walked in with a clean face, as if nothing had happened.

“Ah, you’re awake. I thought you wouldn’t be able to get up for a few more hours.”

“…”

He was completely normal. His cool, indifferent face, with a faint, almost-smiling expression, was exactly Ilay as he always was.

“You…”

Jeong Taeui ground his teeth and opened his mouth. Seeing that brazen face, his breath hitched again.

“Thanks to you, I’m better. I woke up this morning feeling light, and my fever had come down to normal. I’m a bit weaker than usual, so I’ll have to eat only gruel for a day or two, though.”

Ilay mumbled, as if nothing had happened, and approached. Before Jeong Taeui, who had grabbed a pillow to throw whatever he could get his hands on, could swing his arm, Ilay placed the tray he was holding onto the bed—precisely on the pillow Jeong Taeui was clutching.

“I thought you wouldn’t be able to get up, so I brought a few things from the dining room. You liked plain yogurt and cheese and vegetable salad, right? Two of each.”

“…”

Jeong Taeui, who was about to erupt in anger, froze with his mouth open, glaring fixedly at Ilay. Ilay sat on the edge of the bed and turned a fork towards Jeong Taeui, then met his gaze as if asking “Why?” His head tilted, looking utterly irritating.

“You.”

Jeong Taeui spoke lowly. He bit his trembling lip once, then glared sharply at Ilay’s pale face. It looked as if he could punch that face at any moment, and it wouldn’t be out of place. Ilay slightly raised an eyebrow and then smirked. He let a wider smile bloom on his lips and gestured with his head, as if saying, “Go ahead, say what you want.”

“Why?”

Jeong Taeui clenched his fist, staring directly at that shameless face. And then he voiced the first question that came to his mind.

“Is your fever gone now, and you’re okay?”

When Jeong Taeui asked, with a very fierce face and an utterly displeased, confrontational tone, Ilay was silent for a moment. He erased all expression from his face, as if he had heard something completely unexpected, and then faintly frowned, pointing to himself.

“Me?”

“Then who else here was burning with a fever and wasn’t okay besides you?”

Currently, Jeong Taeui himself wasn’t okay, but at least he wasn’t burning with a fever. As Jeong Taeui spoke even more fiercely and displeasedly, Ilay remained silent for a bit longer, staring at him.

Then, as if a problem had suddenly arisen, he covered his mouth with one hand. His posture, rubbing his chin and lowering his head, seemed to indicate he was pondering a difficult situation. However, Jeong Taeui watched him for only a few seconds before erupting in anger. It was because he heard a low chuckle escaping between Ilay’s fingers. He wasn’t pondering; he was stifling his laughter.

“You, you—!!”

As Jeong Taeui was about to burst out in a shout, Ilay, still rubbing his laughing lips with his hand, said mockingly:

“Why? If I were still burning with a fever and uncomfortable, would you take care of me despite your own condition?”

“Am I a crazy idiot?! I’d kill the guy who raped me, not nurse him!”

“Then why was that the first thing you asked?”

“What the hell is this guy’s brain made of?” Jeong Taeui mumbled, but Ilay kept laughing as if he found it absurd. Jeong Taeui tore at his hair, keenly feeling how unfair it was to hear comments about “brain structure” from that man.

“You, what were you thinking? What do you have in your head that makes you commit rape?! Were you trying to kill me? Were you trying to kill me?! I truly thought my life was over yesterday, do you understand?!”

“Ah—sorry. My head wasn’t working properly because of the fever. You know how it is. When a person feels their life is threatened, the instinct for species preservation kicks in. That kind of instinct, to leave my seed, must have happened even when I wasn’t in my right mind. I must have been so sick that I truly felt my life was in danger.”

Ilay spoke with a rather serious face. Jeong Taeui instinctively nodded, thinking, “Come to think of it, this guy was in a pretty serious state, wasn’t he? He was in a coma for days, and his fever wouldn’t go down, so he wasn’t normal.” But then he flinched back to his senses and hurled the nearest cushion.

“What kind of ‘species preservation instinct’ is it to leave that damned seed in another man?!”

“Haha, well, you’re right about that. But if you move like that, it’ll hurt. Besides, even though I wiped the outside, it’s probably still inside, isn’t it? Isn’t it flowing out?”

Ilay, who had lightly batted away the cushion with the back of his hand, said slowly, twirling his words.

He was right.

How much could he have moved just by throwing a cushion? His back hurt so much it felt like it would break, and Jeong Taeui collapsed face down on the bed. At that moment, he vividly felt the sticky sensation of something oozing out between his legs, which had parted.

“Ugh, what is this…”

A shiver ran through him from the unfamiliar sensation he was experiencing for the first time. As Jeong Taeui froze and curled up, Ilay moved the tray onto the bedside table and quickly pulled back the blanket.

“If you leave it like that, you’ll be uncomfortable all day, so how about we slowly get it out?”

He murmured calmly, then Ilay pushed Jeong Taeui’s chest. He grabbed Jeong Taeui’s weak knees, which had splayed open, and spread them, then placed a towel he’d taken from the chair back underneath. Jeong Taeui’s face hardened. He glared at Ilay as if flames would shoot from his eyes, but Ilay seemed completely oblivious to his gaze, intently examining Jeong Taeui’s groin.

At first, Jeong Taeui was dumbfounded. Then, a furious rage welled up. He didn’t expect a sincere apology from this man. Ilay wasn’t the type to reflect. But there was a limit to how much one could belittle someone.

“Ilay. …Ilay! Let go!”

Jeong Taeui shouted in anger. As fury laced his voice, Ilay finally glanced at Jeong Taeui. He seemed to fall into thought for a moment, then released Jeong Taeui’s knees.

At that moment, Jeong Taeui, without any mercy, kicked Ilay squarely in the chest with all his might. His heel landed on Ilay’s solar plexus. Ilay’s expression twisted slightly.

Ilay, who had moved back about a step and sat down, coughed two or three times. His gaze, as he rubbed his solar plexus and glared at Jeong Taeui, was chilling. And Jeong Taeui, for a fleeting moment, regretted kicking him precisely in the solar plexus. A wrong hit there could be fatal. Fortunately, Ilay, who had only coughed a few times after falling back slightly, seemed quite alright.

“He definitely took a direct hit, this monster,” Jeong Taeui thought inwardly, frowning. But one anxiety lingered. What was he thinking to kick that monstrous bastard? Of course, he harbored enough resentment to want to grind him to dust, but facing that menacing gaze, a chill still ran down his spine.

“So what, after half-killing someone, are you going to kill me with just this?” Jeong Taeui muttered to himself, wiggling his ankles. Although he had kicked Ilay’s solar plexus, he had also taken a hit. After moving so violently, muscle pain attacked him. “Ugh,” Jeong Taeui groaned, collapsing back down.

“…Did that relieve you a little?”

Then, an unexpected remark came. Ilay, still fallen back and sitting, spoke with a displeased tone.

Jeong Taeui just blinked for a moment, unable to comprehend what this beast-like man, who would twist someone’s neck without batting an eye if things went slightly awry, had just said. Ilay clicked his tongue and grumbled, “I’m still not used to being hit. My hand almost moved on its own.”

It was unexpected. From the moment he decided he would kill this guy, he had already braced himself for the possibility of dying, but he never imagined this guy would be so compliant after being hit. Jeong Taeui patted his chest. Anyway, it seems I won’t die this time either. As he thought that, Jeong Taeui, realizing how timid he actually was, sighed dejectedly.

Ilay coughed once or twice more to clear his throat, then bent over Jeong Taeui again. And he grabbed his knees. Jeong Taeui, who had just been blaming his own timidity, instantly lost all his timidity.

“This bastard, just got hit and still—!”

“Stay still! I won’t let you hit me obediently a second time! This is the first time in my life I’ve let myself be hit so willingly, so consider yourself lucky to be alive!”

But before Jeong Taeui could shout, Ilay, with a complete reversal, yelled first. His breathing was rough, as if he was greatly offended by being hit. No, this lunatic, there’s a limit to how much one can turn the tables, who’s shouting at whom right now? Jeong Taeui thought, but with his timidity instantly returned, he couldn’t retort and only glared at Ilay. Facing Jeong Taeui, Ilay let out a displeased groan. He clicked his tongue, looking as if he regretted yelling, then bluntly spread Jeong Taeui’s legs.

Ilay stared intently at his groin. Jeong Taeui tried to shake his legs to free himself from Ilay’s hand gripping his knees, but Ilay’s grip only tightened.

Jeong Taeui thought about playing crazy and kicking him again. But then, he suddenly felt this situation was pathetic and unsightly, and all his energy drained away. Phew, a sigh escaped along with his strength. Fine, you lunatic. Do as you please. Anyway, you’ve already licked and sucked everything there yesterday, so what’s there to be embarrassed about now? As soon as he felt a sense of bother over everything, all his strength left him, and Jeong Taeui slumped against the headboard. Lying there half-reclined, with his legs spread wide in such an embarrassing posture, he was afraid to even dream about it.

Damn it. What’s so good that that lunatic is staring so intently? Did he embed gold in there?