Page 351 of Scarbound

Noeul stared at him. Of all the things he had imagined hearing that night, this had not been one of them.

“Why now?” he asked.

“Because saying I love you doesn’t excuse anything.” Chung-Hee looked away. “If anything, it makes what I did worse.”

They fell silent.

Something shifted inside Noeul. It wasn’t forgiveness and it wasn’t affection.

“Thank you,” he said at last.

Chung-Hee looked at him again.

“Just hearing you call it what it was matters more than you know.”

His phone buzzed.

I’m downstairs. Are you okay?

Noeul smiled before typing his reply.

Yes, my love. I’ll be there soon.

He set the phone down gently and looked back at Chung-Hee.

“To be honest,” Noeul said, “it took a long time and a lot of work to heal the wounds you left behind. There were moments when I believed you cared for me. I won’t pretend they never happened. But they don’t balance what you did.”

He paused.

“I haven’t decided whether I’ll report you.”

Chung-Hee looked at him.

“Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. But that decision belongs to me. Your apology doesn’t buy my silence, and it doesn’t require me to act before I’m ready.”

Chung-Hee lowered his gaze.

Their soup had just been cleared when the main course arrived, rich aromas filling the space between them.

Chung-Hee asked hesitantly, “Is there someone who makes your life happier?”

“There is,” Noeul said. Then he smiled faintly. “Someone who waited until I was ready, but I was already happy before him.”

Chung-Hee already knew.

“And you?” Noeul asked.

Chung-Hee drank again. His expression remained controlled, but his voice cracked.

“When you left, I lost control. I hurt the people who stood by you. For a long time, I waited for you to come back.” He looked toward the windows, at the city stretching endlessly beyond them. “Then I understood that you weren’t coming back. At least, not to me.”

Noeul said nothing.

“I started therapy,” Chung-Hee continued. “I regret what I did to you. I won’t walk that path again. No one has entered my life yet…” A faint smile touched his lips. “But I still hope.”

Chung-Hee’s eyes closed briefly.

“Is Kaiser Duri the person who sent you the message?”