Passion Novel - Volume 4 - Chapter 93

After grabbing that guy by the collar and threatening him once more, ‘If you so much as utter a word about me being here, all your damn pretty things will be confiscated!’, Jeong Taeui, thinking, ‘Oh well, I don’t care,’ settled back into the house. With his uncomfortable foot, he enjoyed garden strolls and afternoon naps in the yard, savoring a little more peaceful time.

His unhappiness stemmed not from staying in this house itself, but from something related to it.

Moro was staying in the room next to his. He was that old colleague, the one who wasn’t very discreet. Their relationship, even as a polite understatement, couldn’t be called good.

He could tolerate that guy staying in the next room. He wasn’t going to see him through the wall, and the wall wasn’t thin enough for his voice to be constantly heard, so the fact of him being next door was fine. Jeong Taeui’s unhappiness fundamentally stemmed from knowing that guy.

“Ah, it was so beautiful. How can such a beautiful and lovely child exist in this world? That child is an angel fallen to this world. She was sleeping lonely and desolate, but the moment my hand touched her, she bloomed more brightly than any flower, how moving it was…—”

Jeong Taeui looked at Moro, who was rambling on with incomprehensible nonsense beside him, lost in thought, with a blank stare.

This guy had been spouting this nonsense for an hour already.

An hour ago, Jeong Taeui was peacefully sitting on a beach bench by the pool, occasionally dipping his uninjured foot into the water, splashing around, and enjoying a simple time alone. Sometimes, a gardener would pass by and offer a friendly smile, which Jeong Taeui would return. If Rita passed by and scolded him for what a wounded person was doing, he would also smile sweetly at her. Jeong Taeui was having a pleasant and comfortable time.

That peaceful time was broken an hour ago.

Moro had gone out with Kyle this morning. Jeong Taeui wasn’t very interested, so he didn’t know the details, but it seemed Kyle had promised to show Moro a newly developed firearm at the company a while ago. That promise had been delayed for a few days due to company circumstances and was finally kept today. Jeong Taeui, who wasn’t very interested in guns or weapons unless they were immediately necessary, was happily playing around since Moro had left that morning, thinking there was no annoying guy around. But since people’s hearts tend to become generous when the person they dislike isn’t in sight, he even thought generously, Moro must be having fun right now, go ahead and shoot as much as you want while you’re there.

He was almost hating himself for thinking that way.

Moro, who returned alone a little past noon, in the early afternoon—Kyle had reportedly gone back to the company—was in ecstasy. His blank face was flushed red, and his eyes were hazy, as if dozens of flowers had bloomed in his head.

He must have really liked it a lot, Jeong Taeui thought, and because his body was relaxed, his mind was relaxed too, so he kindly spoke to the guy. He asked if he had seen what he wanted to see. It wasn’t something he usually did. He regretted asking.

Moro stared at Jeong Taeui with blank eyes, then approached Jeong Taeui at a frightening speed. Jeong Taeui flinched and recoiled slightly at Moro’s sudden close proximity, but Moro paid no attention and sat down right next to Jeong Taeui, grabbing his hand tightly. He didn’t seem to even realize that it was Jeong Taeui in front of him.

“I’ve never seen such a lovely child before. The moment I first saw her, I knew. I would never meet such a lovely child again. I was certain that we would fall in love with each other. Ah. Her smooth body, her shy grip, her alluring hammer…”

Jeong Taeui stared at Moro, who was crying with emotion, with a bewildered expression.

He wondered what this was all about. If it weren’t for the last part, “her smooth body, her shy grip, her alluring hammer,” he would have thought this guy had fallen in love at first sight with a girl working at the shooting range after seeing a prototype gun. But when he realized that Moro was referring to the gun he had seen today, not a person, Jeong Taeui could only show a horrified expression.

He already knew that this guy was an enthusiastic gun enthusiast. The rumor that he would go crazy with joy and happily play by himself if given a gun had already spread throughout the entire UNHRDO branch when he was there. So it wasn’t anything new, but…

Jeong Taeui looked at Moro, who was talking about guns, his face flushed red, his body twitching, and his butt wiggling, with fearful eyes, then quickly averted his gaze.

He thought he had seen something strange. He didn’t know if it was just his imagination, but the guy’s crotch seemed to be swollen.

The color drained from Jeong Taeui’s face. This was a new kind of fear he had never experienced before.

He had heard a similar kind of horrifying rumor before. A grotesque rumor about a farmer in the countryside who satisfied his sexual desires with chickens. At the time, he had heard it and thought with a bewildered expression, ‘Ugh, no way such a thing exists in the world,’ and dismissed it, but now it seemed it wasn’t something from another world.

Doing that with something non-human was called bestiality, so what should this be called, gun-iality?

Jeong Taeui furiously spun absurd thoughts in his head, not even glancing at Moro. But regardless, Moro was lost in his world of fantasy, immersed in ecstasy, endlessly rambling on. It seemed he would continue to babble even if Jeong Taeui put a scarecrow in his place. Hey, you pervert. You don’t even deserve the name ‘maniac.’ You gun pervert.

Jeong Taeui rubbed his goose-bumped arms slowly, shivering with a chill. But Moro looked happy. Moro was so happy and in such a good mood that he even held Jeong Taeui’s hand tightly and smiled kindly, praising their fateful encounter today. Jeong Taeui swung his hand to shake off Moro’s grip, but the madman was strong; no matter how much he flailed his arm, Moro wouldn’t let go. He tried to shake off his arm and shouted for him to let go, but it seemed it didn’t reach Moro’s ears, lost in ecstasy. Eventually, Jeong Taeui, exhausted and giving up, had to sit there for an hour, trapped by Moro’s hand. His ankle was already uncomfortable, making it difficult to move, so he wasn’t feeling particularly comfortable enjoying this peaceful and simple pleasure alone, but now this hateful guy was sitting next to him, rambling on about things Jeong Taeui didn’t want to hear and couldn’t understand, all while enjoying himself. Jeong Taeui was unhappy.

After about an hour, the praise finally changed. To be precise, the praise itself didn’t change. The type of pleading words changed.

“I’m so unhappy… Such a lovely child, but I can’t fall in love with her… I have to wait so long to fall in love with her. What should I do… I’m perfectly fine with her as she is now, but Kyle shakes his head, saying he can’t release her in that state. He says it’ll take at least a year, so how can I wait with this tearing heart?”

Moro whimpered gloomily, looking as if he might shed tears. And Jeong Taeui just glared at Moro with a blank stare. A tiny piece of mercy remained in his heart, preventing him from speaking his true thoughts aloud. He’s making a fool of himself… Just make a whole bouquet of a fool of yourself.

Even though Moro was crying with a pitiful face, after being tormented for an hour, Jeong Taeui couldn’t look at him kindly at all. He just muttered “gun-iality, gun-iality” to himself.

There are so many kinds of people in the world, but why are all the guys I’ve met lately like this? They all have at least one habit they can’t politely tell others about.

Jeong Taeui shook his head and sighed, then thought for a moment before shaking his head again. But perhaps that’s just how humans are. Who lives a perfectly upright life? Everyone has one or two things they can’t tell others. …It seemed the guy currently holding his hand and whimpering didn’t even know what things he couldn’t tell others.

“If you want it so badly, why don’t you ask Ilay?”

Jeong Taeui muttered indifferently, pondering how to get Moro’s hand off his own. Moro’s head shot up at the suggestion. Strange. He definitely seemed to be crying just a moment ago, but now his eyes are dry…

Jeong Taeui looked at him suspiciously. Perhaps all crazy people were like this.

Moro let go of Jeong Taeui’s hand as he wished. As his hand was finally released after almost an hour, Jeong Taeui let out a long sigh of relief. His hand felt sticky. Jeong Taeui bent down to lightly dip his hand into the rippling pool water below his feet, but he couldn’t achieve his goal. Moro, having released Jeong Taeui’s hand, had now grabbed Jeong Taeui’s shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

His gaze, gripping Jeong Taeui’s shoulder, gleamed. Jeong Taeui briefly considered simply throwing him into the pool. If only my ankle were a bit stronger, I would have done it, he thought, looking regretfully at his cast.

Jeong Taeui annoyedly brushed Moro’s hand off his shoulder. But just as Jeong Taeui wiped his shoulder with the back of his hand, Moro, who seemed to have obediently let go, grabbed his shoulder again the moment Jeong Taeui’s hand moved away.

This guy, I swear…

My ankle’s already messed up, should I just brace myself for a delayed recovery and stand up and throw this guy? He’d be quite refreshed if I threw him into the pool. It seemed like a human duty to cool his head down, even for his own sake.

Jeong Taeui grabbed Moro by the collar. Then, with a faint smile, he swung the guy, whose screws were still half-loose, over his shoulder. Moro, who soared through the air in a magnificent arc, plunged into the pool with a tremendous splash. A wave of water instantly erupted.

But a rotten sea bream is still a sea bream.

Although he didn’t look like it at all—and even knowing him well, he still didn’t look like it—Moro was a promising member of UNHRDO. He was a talented individual who had passed several stages of rigorous examinations to get in.

The moment Jeong Taeui threw Moro into the pool, he felt a sensation as if the hand that had briefly left his shoulder suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled him slightly upwards.

Oh, no…

He clicked his tongue, but it was already too late.

Jeong Taeui, caught by Moro, followed him and dived headfirst into the pool. Almost simultaneously with the first splash, another grand splash erupted.

“…—.”

Jeong Taeui shot straight up from the water like a ghost. Following him, Moro, who had been submerged beneath Jeong Taeui due to falling right after him, emerged a step later.

“I really hate you, Moro…”

“Hmm. Me too…”

Both of them thought simultaneously that this was the first time their minds had ever aligned, and they closed their mouths gloomily.

The pool wasn’t very deep. On the opposite side, it was 2 meters deep, but on the side where the beach bench was, it was only chest-deep when Jeong Taeui stood there. Jeong Taeui gazed down. He could see his cast-covered ankle in the transparent water.

“Damn it. My cast is all wet because of you. What am I supposed to do now?”

“Why are you blaming me? You were the one who tried to throw me into the pool first!”

“Then why didn’t you let go when I told you to!”

Jeong Taeui and Moro argued loudly for a while. They even threw a few punches. It hurt more when they punched each other’s faces, pushing water aside. This must be the principle of water spanking, he thought in the back of his mind.

After exchanging a few punches, they realized it wasn’t beneficial for either of them, and Jeong Taeui, who had thrown the first punch, was the first to withdraw. Moro also withdrew his fist after counting on his fingers to confirm that they had each been hit exactly three times, fair and square.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and got out of the pool. It was a warm afternoon, so it wasn’t cold, but he was soaked to the bone. Water streamed from his cast. Jeong Taeui sat on the beach bench and gazed at his bluish foot, contemplating whether to leave it out in the sun to dry well, or just go to the hospital to have it cut off and re-wrapped.

“But what did you mean by asking Ilay?”

Moro, who had followed Jeong Taeui out of the pool, wrung out his clothes and asked sulkily. Jeong Taeui inwardly sighed in relief, thinking that this guy was finally coming back to his senses, and replied just as sulkily.

“Ilay is the son of this house, isn’t he? Didn’t you know?”

“I know that, but what’s the point of asking him?”

“Why? I heard him say before that if he liked a prototype product made by the company, he’d try it out before it was even released. That means he can get it early, doesn’t it?”

At Jeong Taeui’s indifferent remark, Moro glared at him with wide eyes, then seemed to fall into serious thought. Jeong Taeui frowned and stared at him. It had been a joke, but it didn’t seem to have been taken as one.

After a long period of contemplation, Moro looked at Jeong Taeui with a serious face and asked again.

“But isn’t it a bit difficult to ask that crazy guy for a gun?”

“…Of course it would be difficult… You really want that gun, don’t you?”

Jeong Taeui muttered sympathetically. Moro, who usually exercised perfectly normal judgment and never ventured into dangerous places, must have been so captivated by that gun that he was even willing to put his head in a tiger’s mouth to covet it so desperately. Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue at Moro, who was groaning and falling back into thought, and offered some more realistic advice.

“Why don’t you try to persuade Kyle somehow instead? Even if it’s a non-commercial prototype, you’re going to keep it for yourself, not circulate it outside, right?”

“Of course! How could I let that lovely and elegant child fall into someone else’s hands! That’s absurd!”

Moro flared up and shouted at Jeong Taeui’s words. Jeong Taeui glared at him, thinking that this guy really deserved a severe water spanking.

“If you’re going to keep it for personal collection anyway, tell Kyle that and try to persuade him. Beg him, grab his pants. That’s a hundred times more likely than talking to Ilay.”

“No… it’s the opposite.”

Moro shook his head darkly at Jeong Taeui’s grumbling words. When Jeong Taeui looked at him suspiciously, Moro was tearing at his hair with a desperate expression.

“I’ve already tried it before… Seven years ago, before Sonya was even released, I did everything to get her, who I fell in love with at first sight. I lay motionless in front of the company for a week—even when security guards dragged me away, I kept going back and lying down—I camped out in the living room of this house and cried and begged every time I saw Kyle, and I even threatened to die and slit my wrist in the bathroom of this house. …But he still said no, he wouldn’t give her to me.”

Jeong Taeui, who assumed Sonya was most likely a firearm, was horrified by Moro’s subsequent words. This guy was truly insane. But Kyle, who had endured this guy’s madness for so long without flinching, was also incredible. Jeong Taeui suddenly felt like smoking and rummaged through his chest pocket. His water-soaked cigarettes tumbled out.