Apollo’s Heart - Chapter 32

Chapter 32 – A Man and a Woman (2)

Hye-seong swallowed hard as fury swirled in Tae-jun’s otherwise expressionless face. He felt like he’d touched this dragon’s inverse scale*: Yuri Han. He shrank.

[T/N: An inverse scale grows under a dragon’s chin. It is called so precisely because it is upside down. It happens to be a dragon’s most sensitive part, when touched, a dragon’s outraged to the point of killing. So, here YH is TJ’s inverse scale, right now, he is enraged to the point of destruction.]

Amidst the chaos, a distant memory resurfaced. In that, his entire body was trembling with rage, just like Tae-jun was now.

“What are you talking about?!”

“I said yes, Mr. Jin’s offer.”

“Yuri Han, are you crazy? Do you know what that means?”

To him, Yuri had always been a radiating, pure being. Beautiful and full of life, just like a fresh summer breeze. That’s how he’d felt from the moment he’d first met Yuri, a middle school student, and lived in the same house. The voice that had shattered the belief that one day she would be his bride was cruel.

“I need some money.”

“Money? You, are you kidding me? You’re gonna do that for money? You’re not that kind of woman!”

“That kind of a woman?! I’m sorry if you thought so. I was just pretending. But, I have problems, which this deal can resolve once and for all.”

“Get a hold of yourself! What do you think he’s gonna do if you agree? He just wants a doll that he can throw away at will! If it is the money you need, I’ll give you that money.”

“It was not him who made the offer but your father, Mr. Jin.”

Yuri’s tone was hopelessly calm, there were no emotions in once lively eyes. It looked like she had forsaken everyone… even hope…

A desperate Hye-seong roughly shook her soft shoulders, as if doing so would wake her up. Right then, the breeze swept her hair, revealing a slender neckline. His hands stilled as his gaze fell on the crimson marks that were glaring back at him… the evidence of coition.

His hands trembled…

“You, can’t…”

“Yes, I slept with him.”

“Yuri Han!”

“It’s nothing special; just a man, a woman.”

Hye-seong’s quivering hand slapped Yuri on the cheek. The sound reverberated, piercing his heart a zillion times.

“Listen to yourself!” Yuri shut her eyes tightly.

Then he opened his mouth again, his voice quivering. “I didn’t mean anything bad! I was just…”

Yuri shook off Hye-seong’s hand holding her shoulders. He felt his whole world crumble, despair wreathed his ashen face.

“Do you mean it?”

Yuri’s bitter, heart-wrenching laugh filled the air, drowning Hye-seong’s cries of outrage.

“Sorry.”

That was her last word.

Hye-seong was awakened from his stupor by the sound of a ‘click’. The next moment, a tremendous shock hit his left shoulder. When he looked down, he saw a scarlet spot steadily growing bigger.

It was not until a few seconds after that Hye-seong realized Jin-wook had shot him.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Hye-seong rolled on the floor screaming. Hot blood spurted and the fireball seemed to poke his shoulders.

Tae-jun lit a fresh cigarette, looking down at the man squirming and rolling on the floor with impassive eyes. The cigarette smoke rose from his long fingers, adding to the haze.

Hye-seong gritted his teeth and glared at Tae-jun.

“I can’t believe you asked him to shoot me!”

“I made it clear not to test my patience.”

Tae-jun smiled. Then he flicked the cigarette ash over Hye-seong’s wound.

SCREAM!

Once the shrieks died, Tae-jun squatted.

“The damage won’t be serious, no need to worry. It’s snuggly wedged in the bone, and will not damage the internal muscles and tendons. Fortunately, your doctor can handle gunshot wounds, quite a rare talent here in our country. It will be hard to move for months, you’ll feel a little painful for a few decades.”

“Yo-you crazy asshole!” He cursed with clenched teeth.

Tae-jun smirked, stubbed the cigarette right before Hye-seong’s eyes, and stood up.

“Clean up. Have the staff pay attention to the floor, don’t let the landlord go berserk.”

He concluded that he had nothing more to gain here so he must leave.

“Okay.”

Jin-wook lowered his gun and his head.

Hye-seong shouted behind Tae-jun, who was moving away.

“You, what if you find Yuri Han ?”

Tae-jun stopped walking. His words were like a thunderbolt.

“You have to admit she’s the best… given this whole ruse she pulled off. Are you going to bring her in too… and shoot her?”

It’s a question that was not worthy of an answer. Tae-jun walked without looking back. But as he exited the villa, his face hardened.

Was it really money?

It had all been obvious, staring him in the face. But he refused to see it.

Firstly, he’d asked President Myung-je Jin to bring the woman as bait for money. Nevertheless, he was rather upset to think that all those times with her was all a pretense, was for ‘money’.

Dammit! I should have left two more bullet holes in his shoulder. 

Tae-jun forcefully banged the car door shut.

“Jin-wook, don’t give him painkillers, keep an eye on it for a while.”