Chapter 17

“But…”
And gone was his smile.
“But.”
Jiyong repeated. That one word said everything. It made the dagger Daesung had jabbed into his heart twist a couple of times. Jiyong couldn’t pull it out, even if he wanted to. The knife was stuck, and not planning on letting go, not planning on letting the wound heal at all.

Daesung averted his eyes, looking only at the ground. He then felt his feet slowly take a couple steps backwards. Yet he didn’t get the chance to walk off just yet. Jiyong grabbed his hand and pulled him back.
“You don’t really love me.”
He tightened his grip around Daesung’s wrist.
“No, I do. I do love you.”
Daesung said. And he really did, he meant every single word he said, just not in the way Jiyong wanted him to.
“Well then?”
He pulled Daesung a little closer, making him look him in the eye.
“Then why ‘but’? If you love me, then there shouldn’t be a ‘but’. If you love me, then there’s only that...”
He leaned in until their noses almost touched, and whispered the last word of his sentence whilst closing the tiny gap there was left between their lips.
“… Love.”

When he didn’t feel Daesung responding to his kiss, Jiyong pressed his lips harder on Daesung’s; trying desperately to deepen it. As a reward, he felt Daesung’s arms slipping upwards; he had placed his two hands onto Jiyong’s chest. The latter let his arms sink towards Daesung’s lower back, until he realised that Daesung had undertaken that action in order to push him away. And it was more than just a push; it was a shove. Jiyong hadn’t expected this at all, so the surprise had made him lose his balance, and fall onto the ground. The entire time he had been keeping his eyes focused on Daesung, and now, he was looking at the younger with a rather baffled look onto his face.
It took Daesung a