Untouched [minsung]

Chapter 72

I sat next to Seungmin as we watched Lee Know and Chan make everyone breakfast. Hyunjin and Changbin were both still asleep.

Chan had woken Lee Know up super early to talk about something, but when he came back to bed, he wouldn't tell me what it was about. He'd only said that it was something Chan had to share with me himself when he was ready. I was pretty sure it had to do with his feelings for Seungmin.

It was obvious yesterday with the way he hesitated to touch him, and with how red his face got upon Lee Know calling him out, that this had become more than a job for him. I selfishly wondered if that would be a good or bad thing for me.

"Did you sleep well?" Seungmin asked. He still sounded nervous when he spoke to me.

"Yeah, thanks," I smiled at him. I still wanted Seungmin to like me enough to save me. "How about you?"

He nodded and then returned to watching Chan with Lee Know. I watched as his gaze danced over Chan's entire body as he shamelessly checked him out.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked Seungmin in a low voice.

He turned to face me and nodded.

"Why did you pick Jeongin?" He looked hurt by the question. "No judgment, I just...I was just wondering what he told you to make you choose him over everyone else."

Seungmin stared at the ground, obviously ashamed of what he'd done. "He made me fall in love with him." He sighed a shaky breath. "He told me that he had been torturing you because you had information his parents needed but that he planned to let you go once you confessed. I know it sounds stupid. But I justified what he was doing because I loved him."

I tried to think about what I'd do if Lee Know was torturing someone for information. I wondered if he ever had before...

"I told myself that there was no way I could love someone who'd hurt people for no reason. He had to have a reason. He had to," his voice cracked and he kept staring at the ground.

"Let's go sit outside," I encouraged him. I didn't want Chan to see him crying...or to yell at me for making him cry.

Seungmin nodded, and we walked out to the backyard. They hadn't put out any patio furniture yet, so we sat on the steps overlooking the woods.

"He lied to me about everything. He had never planned on letting you go. He never had a reason. And he stopped calling me the second he got Lee Know and Hyunjin. It was all a lie."

I gave Seungmin a side hug as he held back tears beside me. He may have screwed us over before, but he was hurting, too, in his own way.

"I swear I thought he had a reason," he looked at me in desperation for me to believe him.

And I did.

"I know," I whispered beside him, and he laid his head on my shoulder.

Seungmin may have spent a lot of Lee Know and I's relationship resenting me, but we'd moved past that. He was clearly being sincere and vulnerable. I didn't know if I had a right to judge him for making the same choice I'd have made if Lee Know and I had been in the situation.