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I’m Not that Cruel Part 22
“Do you want me to get that?”
Kihyun removed his gaze from looking at the floor to Hyungwon, who was already in his work clothes, kneeling on the floor to get the control remote.
It had been a week since Kihyun had left Shownu. Days went by slow and his nights longer than he expected. In his mind, leaving Shownu was a test. Shownu didn’t get to hurt Kihyun and then expect that he stayed to listen.
There had to be some noise. Some screaming. He had been holding on for too long, maybe they both had been holding on for too long.
Oh, but how he wanted them to get along so bad. They were doing fine, better than he could have ever imagined. Their love story was out of the ordinary. Probably like Beaty and the Beast tale.
Kihyun had seen the beauty of Shownu despite his demeanor of a beast. That night the real Shownu appeared, a gentle touch that Kihyun had never felt before. It couldn’t be that the magic was wearing off, right?
There was no magic, Kihyun told himself. He needed to stop watching too many dramas. “Leave it there. I can’t even watch anything without having the urge to pee,” Kihyun said.
He was holding off the need to pee for at least another thirty minutes. He hadn’t felt comfortable in a sitting position for a few days. Only god knows how long he hadn’t felt comfortable sitting anywhere.
“Then why I’m getting my knees dirty. Aish.” Hyungwoon snickered and sat on the floor. “These pants are white.”
“You’ll be fine. “
“Says who? I bought these yesterday,” Hyungwon said. He looked away and pouted. “I don’t have time to change into other clothes.”
“Wonho is not even going to notice. He ends up looking at your lips anyway.”
“This isn’t about Wonho at all,” Hyungwoon said, making an X with his arms. ” I need to be presentable for the clients.”
Kihyun rolled his eyes.” Do I need to remind you of the time a client caught you eating hot cheetos and saw the red stain on your fingers,” Kihyun said with a smirk on his face. He would never get rid of that scene out of his mind. It was too funny.
“I told you to never mention this before. We can’t let Minhyuk know. He’ll never let it go.”
There was an outburst of laughter from the kitchen. “I know. I was going to use the secret to get back at you!”
Hyungwon’s eyes bulged and a pain of mortification passed through his body. “See what you did?”
“Don’t look at me.” Kihyun grabbed his mouth to stop himself from laughing while Hyungwon moaned and freaked out on the floor, forgetting all about his pants.
The next couple days that he had spent with Minyuk and Hyungwon had been really rough for Kihyun. He didn’t have any of his clothes with him because he was afraid that he would give in to Shownu. It was hard ignoring his calls, but Kihyun needed space to think. After finding out that his suspicions were correct, the thought of staying in Shownu’s house irritated him.
It was true, even if his mind kept telling him otherwise. The house that they were both sharing was not his. It was Shownu’s and no matter what, Kihyun had no reason to claim it as his own. The fact that this was true was really another reason why he had to leave the place. Their love had never been official, not to their colleagues and not to their families, who Kihyun assured himself didn’t need to anyways.
If Shownu was still hiding his other family then their love could never be as honest and honorable to their children. He wasn’t going to be the mistress or the pushover. Or whatever else you want to call it. His life sucked as a child, he didn’t want to make it suck for the three unborn children that were going to be born under his care.
“Are you okay?” Hyungwon poked Kihyun’s, bringing him back to face his friend.
Kihyun nodded. “Still tired.”
“One of us can stay to take care of you. I’m pretty sure Shownu won’t mind at this point,” Minyuk said.
They had eaten breakfast earlier and since Kihyun had woken up later, Minhyuk took it upon himself to feed Kihyun so that he wouldn’t starve sitting on the couch to sulk even more than he already was.
“No, you need to work. If none of you leave now there won’t be no paycheck to keep my ass from staying in the street,” Kihyun said. He took the orange juice from Minhyuk and took a sip.
“Don’t be dramatic, as if we will ever let you out in the streets,” Minhyuk said. He placed the plate on the mini table and sat besides Kihyun. He laid his hand on Kihyun’s watermelon belly. “Are you going to talk to Shownu soon?”
“I don’t know if I should.”
“Well Shownu hasn’t shown up to the office. Everyone is worried,” Hyungwon said. He was still on the floor and was now picking on the fruit that Minhyuk had cut into small squares. “Mr. Son has been coming frequently to check on Shownu’s office.”
“Did he say anything to you guys?”
Kihyun frowned. Mr. Son rarely came to the office. Sometimes it would be months if he ever stepped into his son’s business. Rumors said that Shownu hated his father and that they had both came into an agreement were he would let Shownu take care of the business just as long Mr. Son would not appear at the office.
“He looked angry, almost flipped Wonho to the Netherlands, and that is very far,” Hyungwon said. Hyungwon had a slight anger to his tone. He was getting closer to Wonho it seemed.
“Anyways, I need to get to work. Please talk to Shownu, I think something is wrong.”
Hyungwon blew them a kiss and left the apartment. After he left, Minhyuk turned his attention to Kihyun. “Has he left any messages? Calls?”
“I turned off my cell phone. I don’t want to hear his reasoning, not when all of this could’ve been avoided if he had told me from the beginning of our relationship,” Kihyun said.
Was he wrong to do this? It had been four days since he had last spoken to him. Kihyun had been angry and disappointed. The last thing on his mind had been Shownu and his well being.
“I’ll turn on my cellphone. Hold on,” Kihyun said. And as he pushed himself from the sofa to retrieve his phone from the room, a sharp pain appeared below his belly. Kihyun clutched his hip and sat back down.
“Are you okay? Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“No. It comes and goes.” Kihyun shook his head. The pain was subsiding like it had the day before.
Kihyun didn’t know when his pain had began but he noticed that the pain intensified right after he had left the house. It was probably nothing big enough that required to go to the hospital. His contractions aren’t supposed to start in another three weeks.
“Do you have the day off?”
Kihyun settled back on the sofa and took another sip of the orange juice.
“Wonho is taking over. Mr. Lee said that it was fine to take the day off,” Minkyuk said with relaxed shoulders. “He wouldn’t say anything about Shownu, if you’re wondering.”
“Maybe I’ve been ignoring him for too long.”
Sitting on his best friend’s sofa while he had a house full of stuff ready for the arrival of his children, Kihyun couldn’t stop thinking about his decision. Maybe he had been too hasty and rushed.
“I’m pretty sure if you call him, he’ll pick up and will answer every question you have in your heard right now,” Minhyuk said.
He was right. Hiding away from Shownu won’t help the situation. Kihyun closed his eyes and rubbed the place where his pain had subsided.
“You know what? I’ll prepare you a shower and then we can eat somewhere so you can regain your strength and look for your man,” Minhyuk said, his palms together and a look of seriousness Kihyun has seen in action during work.
~~~
“I see you had no trouble getting here. Sit, sit,” Mr. Son said.
Shownu dragged the chair as far as possible before he sat to faced the person he least wanted to see at the current moment.
The lack of sleep had been catching up to him that every time he blinked he was at the brink of falling asleep. Shownu didn’t need to see himself in the mirror to know that the dark circles under his eyes were the only thing that made him feel better.
He deserved all of this and more.
“If this is about my absence from work, I am returning tomorrow. Jooheon is taking care of things for me and Wonho, your precious spy, is a very good worker,” Shownu said. Saving himself the speech. “The company is in good hands.”
Mr. Son smirked. “Of course the company is in good hands. I had to calm all of our affiliations and business partners.”
“What do you mean? Everything has been going smoothly. I don’t understand-”
Mr. Son rose from his chair and walked around his oval desk to face Shownu. He leaned on the desk and crossed his arms. “There’s been rumors about your despicable relationship with Mr. Yoo and the illegitimate children that he’s bearing.”
“What does that have to do with the company?”
“This relationship is destroying the company, son. Thanks to the years your mistake has been buried, but this!” Mr. Son shook his head while adjusting his tie. “My bloodline can not be passed down to those freaks.”
“My children are not freaks. That mistake that you so call was the death of my family,” Shownu said with despair. He couldn’t stare at his father no longer. ” I have to bear this with me forever. My children are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”
“Look at what you have become. This is not the proper way to act.”
“And what is the proper way to act, father?” The images of his mom and sister flood back to his mind. Those lifeless bodies keeping him company while he sat there in shock.
“Act like you are my son.” Mr. Son rose from his chair and sat on his desk. “A proper man does not let himself be defeated. When have you seen your father defeated?” Mr. Son cupped Shownu’s jaw and stared at his eyes, no warmth in his stare.
Shownu held his breath. He wanted to scream, to push his father away and to never come back. That stare had been the same the night his mom and sister had died. It had been that same stare that had told him tough love would make him into the man his father was.
“I am not defeated. I have chosen my own path,” Shownu said, pushing his father’s hand away. “If you think me choosing to be with the father of my children makes me less than a man then you have the wrong idea of manhood.”
The room looked funny. Perhaps he lost some balanced because when Shownu tried to walk to the window that faced a bare tree, he had to grip himself on the windowsill. ” Why am I really here, father?”
“I have opened an office in Korea-“
“You’re not thinking of sending me there, are you?”
He pushed his father’s hand and went directly to face the window. His father was crazy. Absolutely. Crazy.
“This is for the best of the company,” Mr. Son said, his voice back to monotonous, the voice of his business attire.
“You never really cared for what was best for me, father, so why should I care what’s best for the company?”
The bare tree looked so pale in comparison to the trees behind it. Shownu wondered why it was never demolished, it was only in the way of the other beautiful trees.
Mr. Son grumbled. The table rattled with Mr. Son’s fist. “Why do you have to so ungrateful?”
There was a heaviness in his father’s voice that made Shownu turned around. Perhaps a hint of weakness in that old man’s voice. But it was barely there that Shownu almost drowned the cry with his father’s glaring eyes.
“Do you think I wanted you to kill your mother?”
“But you let me kill her. I killed her. I killed my sister,” Shownu said. He dropped to his knees and banged his head on his father’s legs. ” Tell me how am I being ungrateful?”
“Shownu, get up this instant.”
“All I wanted was your love, but you pushed me away. My first son was gone before I could meet him and now you don’t want me to meet my triplets.”
It had been so long since Shownu had been this close with his father, both physically and emotionally, that he couldn’t let go of his father, no matter how cruel his father was being.
Shownu had tried so hard to be independent and emotionally strong but he wasn’t. Holding his father’s leg brought him memories of before the accident, before he was an adult with no love. He wanted to be like this with his triplets, with Kihyun.
Why was the universe so dense with him? He was not going to Korea. He was not doing anything, except getting his family back.
“Do you think keeping those bastards will help you heal?” Mr. Son laughed, brining Shownu back to reality.
His father was not going to change it seems. “You broke me. I am broken,” Shownu said.
“The world is broken. You can’t fix it with sentimentality, son. Love will leave you broken, but power, will, never.”
It was Shownu’s turn to laugh. The floor was cold but so was his father’s heart and no matter what he did to warm it, no heater, would warm his heart.
“I am already healing, father.”
As he got up from the floor, his phone buzzed. Joheeon was calling and he figured it was his time to go. “I will not go to Korea. In fact, it’s time that I find my own path. I think I paid enough time of my life for the deaths of my mother and sister and the damage of the company.”
Yanking the tie that his father gave him as a present for finishing a deal, Shownu bowed down and closed the door. He knew what he had to do.
~~~
A/N: At last, an update. Long, I know. But better late than ever.
Hope you like it.
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