The Country Life Diary of a Gangster's Secretary - c79

This chapter is paid for by Nemuru!

Hyeseong was vacuuming as usual when it happened. 

“What? What did you just say?”

Hyeseong frowned, turned off the vacuum, and looked at Dohyun who was sitting on the living room couch using his laptop. A pleasant afternoon breeze was wafting in through the open front door left ajar for ventilation.

“Huh? I’m planning to go up to Seoul for good next week.”

Dohyun said with a chuckle. Why does he always bring up important things like this while the vacuum is running? Hyeseong quickly approached Dohyun. 

“Why all of a sudden? You never mentioned that before.”

“Well, actually…”

Dohyun smiled and told Hyeseong about what happened last time at his mother’s birthday party.  

From what he said, it sounded like Dohyun got an earful from his mother when the whole family gathered together. Not only did he quit his job on a whim and come to Korea, but he was also freeloading at his poor friend’s house without any plans. 

“You know how my mom is, Hyeseong.”

“Ah, well. Sure.”

In fact, when Hyeseong first got the call that Dohyun had wrapped up his life abroad and was returning to Korea, his biggest worry was actually whether Dohyun was alive or not. There’s no way his scary mother would have tolerated such an impulsive action.

Luckily, whether Dohyun managed to persuade her somehow or pulled some cute act, the issue of his return seemed to have passed relatively smoothly. The proof was that he had come back to Hyeseong’s house even after the birthday party.

“I thought she was starting to trust me a bit since she didn’t say anything, but when I met her last time, I realized that wasn’t the case. Do you know what my mom said to me at the end…?”

Dohyun looked at Hyeseong with a terrified expression.

“What did she say?”

“She said she’s been watching to see how long I’m going to keep freeloading and playing around at your house…”

Oh boy, Hyeseong let out a sympathetic sound without realizing it. 

This was one of the reasons Dohyun was so afraid of his mother. It’s not that she hadn’t said anything about his return to Korea. She had been observing her son to see how well he would do after suddenly quitting his job and coming back. 

And it seemed that grace period had come to an end.

“Actually, I still don’t want to work yet. I have some money saved up. But you know, Hyeseong…”

“Yeah.”

“Mom keeps appearing in my dreams…”

Dohyun collapsed face-down on the table with a miserable expression. 

He muttered with difficulty that in his dreams, his mom keeps chasing after him, yelling at him to ask when he’s going to get his act together, and that there’s no nightmare like it.

“Well, then I guess there’s no choice. Pack your bags.”

Hyeseong replied curtly and slowly got up.

“Hyeseong, you’re so cold.”

Dohyun grabbed Hyeseong’s waist as he tried to stand up, practically in tears. 

“Can’t you talk to my mom for me…?”

“Are you a child? And Dohyun.”

“Yes?”

“I’m scared of your mother too.”

Hyeseong said pointedly that it’s best to start economic activities as soon as possible, even if playing around is fun, as he tried to detach Dohyun. 

But Dohyun desperately clung to Hyeseong, begging him not to abandon him.

“Dohyun, there are times in life when you have to do things even if you don’t want to.”

“Hyeseong!”

Let go, Hyeseong tried hard to move his arms to remove Dohyun who was gripping his waist, but to no avail. 

Dohyun held on to Hyeseong with tremendous strength, as if he really didn’t want to get a job in Seoul. As if Hyeseong was some kind of lifeline.

Hyeseong turned his body and tried to walk forward. 

But Dohyun didn’t give up either and refused to let go of Hyeseong’s waist. As a result, he ended up being dragged along.

“Hey, let go while I’m still asking nicely.”

“Can you live without me, Hyeseong?”

“Yup. I can live perfectly fine.”

“You’re too much!”

Dohyun suddenly put more strength into his grip. Hyeseong’s feet got tangled and he collapsed forward with a thud. 

The sound of his forehead hitting the wooden floor was no joke, startling the sleeping Boksil who jumped up in fright.

“Gasp!”

Dohyun let go of Hyeseong in shock and covered his mouth. Oh no, his face clearly showed he knew he messed up.

“Hye-Hyeseong, are you okay?”

Dohyun crawled over to Hyeseong who was lying on his side on the floor. Hyeseong was glaring at Dohyun while holding his forehead.

“S-sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

Dohyun awkwardly laughed as he tried to get closer to Hyeseong.

“What are you doing?”

A familiar voice came from the front door. 

Hyeseong, Dohyun and Boksil’s heads all turned towards the door together.

“Ahjussi.”

Hyeseong spoke softly, still rubbing his forehead. The expression on Ihyeok’s face as he leaned against the open door was, how should I put it – a bit scary.

And with good reason. The scene that met Ihyeok’s eyes was like this:

Hyeseong was lying on his side covering his face, while Dohyun had crawled over on his knees supposedly out of concern and was positioned right at Hyeseong’s thigh area. 

In other words, not only did it look like Hyeseong was pinned under Dohyun, but Dohyun’s position was also a bit suggestive.

Ihyeok took off his shoes with an ominous air and slowly approached Dohyun. 

“Oh, hello…” 

Dohyun tensed up at Ihyeok’s scary expression and could only widen his eyes.

“Huh?”

Ihyeok grabbed Dohyun’s hood and flung him to the side. The defenseless Dohyun hit the wall with a thud. He groaned softly while rubbing the back of his head with a dazed look.

“Ahjussi, what are you doing?”  

The startled Hyeseong quickly got up and ran to Dohyun. When asked if he was okay, Dohyun replied that he was fine with a blank expression. 

Hyeseong narrowed his eyes at the culprit who had suddenly appeared and thrown the kid for no reason.

“Ahjussi, why…”

“What happened to your forehead?”

Before he could finish speaking, Ihyeok strode up to Hyeseong. Without hesitation, he grabbed Hyeseong’s cheeks with both hands and lifted his face.

The cut from before was completely healing. However, there was a distinct red mark on his forehead from hitting the floor earlier because of Dohyun. It had already started swelling up in the few minutes since then.

“No, wait…”

“I asked what happened.”

It was also because Hyeseong’s skin was delicate. With his cheeks squeezed, it wasn’t easy for Hyeseong to talk. 

Dohyun, who was standing next to them, clapped his hands as if realizing something while blankly watching the scene unfold.

“You need to let go for him to speak.”

Finally free from Ihyeok’s grip, Hyeseong took a small step back and cleared his throat. 

He couldn’t help but be flustered by Ihyeok suddenly approaching and kneading his face as he pleased. 

Hoping his face wasn’t turning red, Hyeseong turned his head slightly.

“We were just playing around and that happened.”

“Did you do this to him?”

Ihyeok glared at Dohyun with a low voice. The terrified Dohyun slowly hid behind Boksil who had come over.

“Uh, well you see…”

“What the heck were you playing at to cause this? Don’t you know his skin bruises easily?”

Why is this ahjussi acting like this? Hyeseong looked at Ihyeok strangely as he kept getting mad at Dohyun for no reason. The kid was already scared of Ihyeok as it is. Sure enough, Dohyun was sitting there with an ashen face just hugging Boksil.

“I told you, we were just playing around. By the way, what brings you here?”

Hyeseong blocked Dohyun from view. Ihyeok also averted his gaze at Hyeseong’s expression silently pressuring him to stop being angry.

“Just. To see you.”

He came to see me for no reason? His state really was a bit strange today. 

Getting mad at Dohyun over nothing, saying he came without a reason… Hyeseong quietly glanced back. Dohyun was sitting there timidly, trying to read the room.

“Cheon Hyeseong, come here. Let’s ice it.”

Checking the time, it had just passed 3pm. He must have gotten off work early today.

“It’s fine. Why even put ice on it?”

But Ihyeok ignored Hyeseong’s words and went to the kitchen to open the fridge. 

Dohyun quickly said he would go take Boksil for a walk and left in a hurry after getting ready. But they had already walked Boksil this morning. In other words, Dohyun was running away because he was scared of being with Ihyeok.

“Why did you get mad at Dohyun?”

Hyeseong asked reproachfully. But Ihyeok brought over an ice pack without a word and sat Hyeseong down in the living room.

“I said it’s really okay… Ah.”

Hyeseong bit his lip slightly at the sudden cold sensation on his forehead.

“How hard did you hit it for it to swell up like this?”

“It’s not that swollen.”

“It’s very swollen. You just didn’t look in a mirror.”

Ihyeok carefully placed the ice pack centered around the injured area. 

Hyeseong felt a bit uncomfortable. His careful touch on the forehead strangely made it feel ticklish. 

Ihyeok sat facing Hyeseong, put a hand behind his head, and kept icing the swollen part.

Honestly, it’s not like an arm was broken or anything. It would have been fine to do this much alone, but Hyeseong just stayed still. Because he liked Ihyeok’s gentle and soft touch.

“Dohyun says he’s going to Seoul.”

“Is he moving back for good?”

Hyeseong nodded.

“So be a bit nicer to the kid. He’s acting like that because you’re always so scary.”

“When was I ever scary?”

Hyeseong lightly pushed Ihyeok’s hand away at the brazen remark. The ice pack fell off but the chill still lingered on his forehead.

“You were saying something to him just now too. We were only messing around but you made a big deal out of nothing.”

“How is it nothing? You got hurt.”

Well. Does this even count as getting hurt? Sure, it hurt when he hit it and he could feel the swelling, but it wasn’t that serious. 

But Hyeseong couldn’t say anything. Because Ihyeok was looking down at him with a slightly less angry face than before, or more precisely, an expression that seemed to say he felt wronged.

Come to think of it, Ihyeok was always like that. Whenever Hyeseong got even slightly hurt in front of his eyes, he would make that angry but sad face.

Like now, and like that day when he ended up hospitalized after getting kidnapped by Kim Doo-sung, and when he got hit in the cheek by Choi’s husband, and long ago when that thing happened at the Taesung gang’s office.

This chapter is paid for by Nemuru!

Translation Notes: 

Thank you so much, Nemuru I can do the 4 chapters now! Really Thank you so much. We love you >3

-YengLi