Chapter 199.2

Chapter 199.2

“What exactly were you protecting me from?”

“Russia.”

“And every hand that ever tried to use you again.”

His jaw, sharp as if carved with a chisel, tightened. Just how much did Lee Wooshin know? Seoryeong bowed her head as childhood memories flashed by like a revolving lantern.

Did he know she had lived like a mouse in a winter castle, wearing an iron mask that squeezed her skull? That she had suffered severe headaches as if her brain were being hollowed out, and had nearly died at the hands of trainee agents almost daily?

“…Must have been a burden, having to protect Rigay’s daughter.”

At those words, Lee Wooshin let out a brief snort. Sweat gleamed on the back of his neck.

“It was difficult… because you were too beautiful.”

His forehead tightened as though he were fighting something within himself. The stubborn line of his lips softened, and he exhaled heavily.

“How could someone so young, only twenty-four, be that beautiful? After marrying Han Seoryeong, I realized for the first time that peace was possible. Kim Hyun was a man made whole because of you.”

His crotch bulged as if it might burst. She could feel the heat radiating from him, but Lee Wooshin didn’t touch the pulsing thing, simply sat with his thighs spread. Yet, when overwhelmed by uncontrollable passion, he would punch his own groin hard.

“And Lee Wooshin…”

He pressed the back of his head against the cushion, his lips bloodied from biting down too hard. His breath came out in broken gasps, a mix of pain and self-contempt.

“…is a failure, as you can see.”

Each word sounded like an admission wrung from his chest. His hands trembled as he gripped the armrest, leaving faint scratches on the polished leather. Even as the fever in his body raged, he didn’t reach for her. He simply sat there, fighting it, chained by something unseen.

“Excuses just make it even more pathetic,” he muttered, his voice raw.

He almost reached for his belt, but instead clenched his fist tight, his knuckles turning white.

“You, who no longer yells or restrains me, scare me.”

“…”

“The basics of interrogation start with restraint, but seeing you not even do that…”

“…”

“It makes me feel like your heart has become so light… and that terrifies me.”

“Did you know Joo Seolheon… is my biological mother?”

“What?”

His rough voice burst out threateningly. He shot up, only to collapse again. She had deliberately asked something potentially inflammatory to cut off his emotional momentum, but he looked genuinely pierced to the core. Like a man being strangled, Lee Wooshin clutched at her desperately. His sticky palm was as hot as molten lava.

“Who the hell said such bullshit?”

“I already know everything.”

“…”

“Tell me. Was I… born from Joo Seolheon’s operation? Did she approach Rigay on purpose to have me, and then throw me into that monastery in Sakhalin? So I…”

Seoryeong couldn’t finish. When she had heard it from Kia, it had felt distant and surreal, like chewing through old, dry flesh.

But somehow, trying to bring it up in front of Lee Wooshin made her throat feel like it was melting. Her whole body was paralyzed, as if pricked with needles.

As she gasped for breath, Lee Wooshin staggered up and embraced her as if he were collapsing.

His hands trembled like those of a patient, yet he kept soothing her frozen back with warm strokes.

“Whoever it is, tell them to shut the hell up. You were born from love.”

“…!”

An obvious lie. Another pitiful lie from Lee Wooshin. Truly, she was sick of his lies…

Kia, as vile as he was, didn’t lie as easily as he breathed like Lee Wooshin. Looking back, he had always told her things closer to the truth. So Kia’s revelations were probably somewhat true. However…

“You’re still a baby to someone. You’re still someone’s one and only love. If you hadn’t been born in this world, I would’ve wandered everywhere trying to find you.”

“…”

“Maybe I would’ve carved you out of my own bones.”

She didn’t even know why she was so angry, but something about the tension in Lee Wooshin’s expression, soothed the restless ache inside her. His warm hand brushed across her brows, gentle and trembling, and the touch made her skin prickle, her chest tighten painfully.

Seoryeong looked up at him, eyes wrapped in a strange heat. This was supposed to be an interrogation, so why did everything sound like a confession?

When she pushed her chest against him, the man was soaked all the way to his groin.