Page 77 of Scarbound

“You’re hurting me.”

Noeul pulled against him, but Chung-Hee didn’t release him.

“Do you have feelings for him?”

“My personal life is none of your business!” He finally tore his hand free. “You don’t get to control me!”

Silence.

Noeul turned toward the window. His mind craved calm. Comfort. Something he wasn’t sure Chung-Hee could ever give him.

Maybe in another universe, where Haneul was still alive. But not this one.

There is no love between us.

There couldn’t be.

Beside him, Chung-Hee stared straight ahead. Noeul was drawn to another man. Not once had he said he felt anything for Chung-Hee. Not once had he acknowledged what existed between them.

Chung-Hee had never been good at accepting what he couldn’t have. Whatever people believed was beyond his reach, he took.

And Noeul was his. The thought should have shamed him. Instead, it steadied him. He recognized possession as the answer he always reached for when the fear of losing someone became unbearable. The cemetery had shown him what that answer cost. He chose it again.

“Look at me.”

Noeul didn’t.

“Hyung, I don’t want to fight.”

“Look at me.”

Noeul finally turned.

“Do you have feelings for him?”

“I already told you…”

Chung-Hee seized his wrist. Noeul flinched. Then Chung-Hee’s other hand closed around his throat and pulled him closer.

Fear settled deep in Noeul’s chest. Not the uncertainty he had felt before.

Recognition.

His body remembered what Chung-Hee was capable of before his mind could convince itself otherwise.

“He’s just a friend,” Noeul said quickly. “Now let go.”

Chung-Hee stared at him.

“You’re scaring me.”

Something shifted in Chung-Hee’s expression. His grip loosened, but his hand remained against Noeul’s neck.

“You cannot be with him,” he said quietly. “I won’t allow it.”

Noeul took a slow breath.

Ji-Woo’s words returned to him.