CHAPTER 397: SEO-JUN DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM

Seo-Jun’s steps faltered. His breath hitched without warning, and he stared, as if the world had stopped moving.

"Jo-Pil..."

The name came out like a plea, one he wished would reverse everything and make this situation seem like a lie.

Beside him, Ki-hoon’s chest tightened painfully. He’d never seen Jo-Pil like this. He looked... broken. And the sobs coming from his lips.

His knees went weak, and if he failed to contain himself, he might fall, and his knees would hit the ground.

Seo-Jun suddenly gritted his teeth, turning to Min-Cheol and aggressively grabbing him by the collar.

No matter how he looked at it, the one behind this was Min-Cheol.

There was no other reason, no one else, who would make Jo-Pil like this.

He was fine when he left.

"What happened?" he asked, his rage-filled tone furiously directed at Min-Cheol.

But Min-Cheol did not resist. He wasn’t the one behind this but even so, he lost the will to argue.

He could only say what had happened and without causing more discomfort to Jo-Pil.

"He hit Jie-Yu," Min-Cheol said. "And then tried to hit her with a chair so I stopped him. But then, he looked at me with shock and started trembling. I don’t know how it all happened. I came too late. I just... Wanted to stop him before he hurt himself but then Hyung started running."

The situation was so confusing. He wasn’t there from the start and there was no time to ask what had happened either.

But he did see it. He saw him hit Jie-Yu across the face.

"And then when we got here, he fell and began to cry. I... I don’t know what to do. He must be hurting from rolling down the stairs but I..." He looked at his trembling hand. "I don’t know what to do to help." His words cracked.

Seo-Jun took a hesitant step back, letting go of Min-Cheol’s shirt as the confusion hit him as well.

Jo-Pil hit Jie-Yu? The very girl he wanted to be friends with?

Why? It didn’t make sense.

He wanted to assume Min-Cheol was making things up but... Min-Cheol wasn’t like that and he wouldn’t gain anything from it either.

After all, he was just as obsessed with Jo-Pil as everyone else so he wouldn’t lie against Jo-Pil.

But then this is what makes everything so confusing.

He ran away as soon as he was caught?

Ki-Hoon swallowed hard, glancing briefly at Seo-Jun before saying in a low voice.

"Who’s Jie-Yu?"

"I’ll explain later," Seo-Jun said and then turned to Jo-Pil whose sobs had reduced a bit.

He was finally calming down.

The sight of him like that broke his heart.

Why was he in such a messed-up state?

After all the fun they had in the day, why did it end with him shedding such bitter tears?

It frustrated and hurt him and he shoved his fingers through his hair, wondering what to do at this point.

He walked towards Jo-Pil and crouched down beside him, his shadow falling over him, and then reached his hand out carefully, so as not to scare him.

"Jo-Pil," he called, his hand hovering over his trembling shoulder as the fear of frightening him, even a little bit, caused him to hesitate. "It’s me."

But Jo-Pil did not respond.

Seo-Jun’s chest ached. He wanted to ask a hundred questions... what happened? Why was he outside? Why did he look so terrified? Who made him this way? But he knew just asking won’t solve the issue.

First, he had to calm him down.

But... How?

He thought of so many ways he could help Jo-Pil out, assure him, and make sure he didn’t hurt anymore, but nothing came to mind. Nothing seemed to work in this issue.

No matter how many solutions he came up with in his mind... None of it... Worked.

And for the first time, Seo-Jun didn’t know how to fix a problem.

Even when Jo-Pil hated him, he had a solution for that, albeit a long process... But now... Nothing came to mind.

Nothing.

This made him feel the powerlessness that Min-Cheol was feeling just standing at the corner.

Ki-hoon walked towards them, placed a hand on Seo-Jun’s shoulder and Seo-Jun looked back at him.

"I’ll handle this." He said and Seo-Jun decided to leave it to him.

It’s not like he had a way anyway but he gritted his teeth, the shitty feeling pulling him down.

He moved aside and Ki-hoon squatted next to Jo-Pil.

He did not say anything for a while.

What could he say?

He knew asking what happened wouldn’t solve the issue and Jo-Pil might just keep shut for the rest of the night, so instead of that, he waited for Jo-Pil’s sobs to completely die down while gently patting his shoulder.

He didn’t know what was going on in the mansion. He hadn’t been away for long, but just being away from him for an hour felt like weeks, and during that time, a few changes could be made.

It just... Never occurred to him that in that time he was away, in the time that he wasn’t in contact, something major could happen that would hurt Jo-Pil this much.

’Once again, I had my back turned while you were hurting,’ he thought, pitifully, and then said, "Jo-Pil, the floor is cold and dirty. Let’s go back inside and get you washed up. You’ll fall sick otherwise."

Jo-Pil did not say anything for a while but then he turned his head, his face filled with bitterness. Furrowed eyebrows, swollen eyes, dirt on all parts of his face, a bloody nose, and a torn lip.

This was the state Ki-hoon came back to find Jo-Pil in. And this made Ki-hoon, whose heart was hurt by the sight, apologize,

"I’m sorry,"

He couldn’t handle it. The pain was just... Too much. If he could, he would cry in exchange for Jo-Pil’s comfort.

"Let’s go," he said, getting up to his feet. He leaned down and picked Jo-Pil up as well, carefully because he didn’t know where he was hurting.

He didn’t want to add to his hurt in any way.

Seo-Jun and Min-Cheol watched as Ki-hoon lifted Jo-Pil up without Jo-Pil resisting. What should’ve felt like a relief immediately made them feel complicated and somewhat inferior.

It was something simple that even they could do but it never crossed their mind.

Maybe it was because of the panic that crept into their heart that hindered them from thinking carefully and intensively. But it still didn’t change the fact that Ki-hoon was able to do it.

"Would you like to go to your room?" Ki-hoon asked but Jo-Pil grabbed his coat, squeezing tight with trembling hands.

Ki-hoon saw this and took it as him not wanting to go to his room. He nodded and said,

"I understand. I’ll take you to my room instead." He raised his head and looked at the other two. "I’ll take care of Jo-Pil. Once he’s calmed down, we’ll know what happened so for now, please take a look at the CCTV footage to get a bit of what happened from there."

He walked away with Jo-Pil in his hand and headed inside the mansion.

As he walked in, he saw the blood, and the maids were already cleaning up, and then he frowned. He walked up the stairs but then saw an unfamiliar face.

A lady with an innocent face. Her left side was covered up and then he remembered when Min-Cheol said Jo-Pil hit Jie-Yu.

Instead of calling her, he decided to ignore her for now so he turned his back and headed for his room. Even if he didn’t know what happened, it was clear Jie-Yu was a trigger to what had happened so if Jo-Pil ended up seeing her now, it would only make him tremble.

Ki-hoon got to his room and the first thing he did was head to his bathroom, dropping Jo-Pil on the bathtub.

He took off his coat and rolled up his sleeve.

He looked at Jo-Pil digging his fingers into his arm, his eyes still filled with panic and fear as he lightly trembled.

He leaned closer and whispered in his ear,

"No one can judge you. No one can hurt you. And if there’s anyone like that, you don’t have to worry much because I will help you get rid of them."

His words were heavy and sounded dangerous, but those dangerous words somehow found a way to ease Jo-Pil. But it was just for a moment.

He stopped trembling and instead, turned to Ki-hoon, making eye contact with him after all this time, and asked with shaky breath,

"What am I to you?"

Ki-hoon was taken aback by his question at first, but as he looked into those trembling eyes and uneasy gaze, he felt that one thing he needed to get rid of was the insecurity he could see in Jo-Pil.

"You’re my Omega." He said. "My one and only Omega. You’re the only one I had, have and will always give my heart to." He kissed the bruise on his temple. "Jo-Pil, you’re my everything. Please understand that."

"So..." Jo-Pil added, his lips suddenly trembling. "I’m not a slave to you, am I? Even if I was bought as a slave, you... You don’t see me as one, right? Right?" He grabbed Ki-hoon’s arm. "Please say something." His arms began to tremble again with that shaky and scared gaze. "Just tell me that I... I’m not a slave." Tears began rolling down his face as he sought the one thing he wanted to affirm the most in this life. "Tell me I’m my own person, please."