Chahyun’s insides boiled at the fact that he had been such an infuriating bastard. As he was doing so, Baek Woohee muttered in a questioning tone.
“But has your mind changed since then…? You seem to have become somewhat charming too.”
Charming? He’d never acted like that.
But if Baek Woohee had feelings for Chahyun, she could have felt that way on her own. To the point of finding a twenty-eight-year-old man with a sturdy build cute just because he was a beginner driver.
Sure enough, Baek Woohee looked at Chahyun with a meaningful gaze and asked.
“Can I contact you personally?”
“Hmm.”
What should he answer? Baek Woohee wasn’t a bad prospect for a spouse.
She was sufficiently attractive as a romantic interest too. An intelligent and humorous beauty with a model’s figure, nothing lacking from her family background to her educational credentials, and cool on top of that. Baek Woohee was probably the ideal lover every man dreamed of.
And Chahyun was still curious about that damn thing called dating. Chahyun met Baek Woohee’s gaze directly and recalled the thoughts he’d had when rejected by Bae Yiyoung.
‘Marriage is business anyway, and it doesn’t matter who I date.’
Even while thinking that, Chahyun immediately answered toward Baek Woohee.
“No. No matter how I think about it, the person I want to date is someone else.”
“What? What did you just say…”
Baek Woohee couldn’t finish her sentence because Chahyun rolled up the passenger seat window. As the window closed and he smoothly pressed the accelerator, he could see through the side mirror that Baek Woohee was making a dumbfounded expression. But Baek Woohee wouldn’t want to waste time on flirting that didn’t work on Chahyun at all either.
“If I’m going to date, my heart should flutter at least a little, right?”
If Chahyun was going to deliberately carve out his precious time to do it, that’s how it should be. That’s what would make it meaningful.
If he tried, it wasn’t like he couldn’t get excited about Baek Woohee, but Chahyun wanted the thrilling trembling he’d felt when kissing Yiyoung in his dream. Unfortunately, Chahyun’s fastidious heart didn’t beat for just anyone. Currently, only Bae Yiyoung made Chahyun excited.
Chahyun rubbed his forehead with his fingertips and muttered to himself.
“I’ve really gone crazy.”
This must all be because his lost memories were wreaking havoc on his unconscious.
He had no idea why he had to receive the penalty for mistakes committed by the twenty-eight-year-old Moon Chahyun.
***
Yiyoung asked Hyeyoung, who sat facing him across a grill sizzling with gopchang and sundae.
“You like alcohol so much but you’ve never tried sundae and gopchang?”
Today was the day payment had been deposited according to the settlement statement that CEO Oh Seokhyeon had given. Just when he’d wanted to celebrate, Hyeyoung had asked if he’d like to drink after work. Yiyoung readily said he’d treat.
When asked what she wanted to eat, Hyeyoung said with a shy face, “Have you tried pork gopchang?”
Yiyoung muttered while stirring the food appetizingly coated with red chili oil using a spatula.
“Rich people really don’t eat these offal parts…”
He’d thought it was a contrived setup whenever he saw chaebol characters in dramas who looked down on common people’s food but eventually fell deeply for it. He never imagined there’d be a Korean who hadn’t tried sundae and gopchang.
Hyeyoung grumbled while frowning as if embarrassed.
“Somehow I just never had the chance to try only this. I eat anything well.”
“Really? Then have you tried pork skin, chicken feet, offal soup? Things like that?”
“…No.”
Hyeyoung seemed somewhat shocked by the question Yiyoung threw out of pure curiosity.
“But those aren’t foods you can access very easily, are they?”
Right near the whiskey bar alone, there were plenty of pojangmachas and soup restaurants, but they must not have been visible to Hyeyoung’s eyes. It struck him anew that even when in the same space, Hyeyoung’s daily life must be composed very differently from his own. Yiyoung said while serving food into Hyeyoung’s bowl.
“Next time let’s go eat chicken feet. There’s a famous restaurant near the bar.”
“Feed that to Chahyun instead. If you tell him to eat that, he’ll probably faint, right?”
After mentioning Chahyun, Hyeyoung put down her chopsticks on the table with a thud as if getting angry again at the thought.
“Anyway, isn’t he a real nutcase?”
Naturally, Hyeyoung was curious about how Yiyoung was getting along with Chahyun after he lost his memory.
Hyeyoung only knew that Yiyoung had been shocked by the fact that he was a fourth-generation chaebol. After confirming from Chairwoman Moon Igyeong that Chahyun had lost his memory, she’d been a bit worried. It was only yesterday that Hyeyoung, who’d been watching Yiyoung’s mood thinking their relationship might be going badly, couldn’t hold back any longer and asked what had happened.
Yiyoung skipped the detailed explanation and only answered “I was dumped.” Just with that, Hyeyoung said about twenty times how hateful Chahyun was. Even though he’d lost his memory, she seemed shocked by the fact that Chahyun had notified him of the breakup so quickly and sharply.
Hyeyoung, who had been angry, suddenly mumbled with a deflated air.
“I didn’t introduce you so that would happen…”
“No. If you think about it, we met by coincidence. I liked him too.”
“It’s partly because I encouraged you. Saying he’s a really good guy.”
Hyeyoung looked sorry about that now. Her attitude was as if she were facing an acquaintance who’d suffered great losses from wrong stock information she’d given. Come to think of it carefully, it wasn’t an entirely wrong metaphor.
“Sorry for selling you false goods.”
Though his feelings were complicated in many ways, Yiyoung couldn’t help but laugh at Hyeyoung’s words. Yiyoung answered brightly, trying to hide his bitter mood.
“They weren’t false goods. He was really kind while we were seeing each other.”
“That’s why I got my hopes up too. Because it seemed like he was sincere with you. I’d never seen him act like that before.”
At these words, Yiyoung tilted his head, feeling slightly puzzled.
Of course, he now knew that Chahyun had a cold personality. Still, it wasn’t to an unreasonable level, and even being rude to Yiyoung had its own reasons.
But aside from that, he still belonged on the kind side. Despite everything, hadn’t he taken Yiyoung home saying he didn’t want to treat him badly?
He just didn’t like him anymore, but Chahyun fundamentally seemed to be a person with good manners. He wondered what, and how differently, Chahyun had treated Yiyoung.
“What was he usually like?”
“Um… a typical chaebol?”
Since Hyeyoung and Chahyun didn’t seem much different to Yiyoung, he didn’t quite understand the expression “typical.” Hyeyoung must have read his expression because she added an explanation.
“You seem to think I’m not much different either, but Chahyun’s family is really different. Even from my perspective as a relative, I think, so that’s what a real chaebol family is like. Among them, Chahyun grew up receiving all his family’s expectations, so he was always exceptional. I always curse him for having prince syndrome, but he’s really royalty.”
Though he’d guessed he must be quite an impressive person, it was a bit surprising to hear Hyeyoung say so by her standards too. Yiyoung still found it surreal and unbelievable that Chahyun was wealthy to that degree.
If he’d known in advance, he really wouldn’t have dared to meet him. No, he might not have even developed feelings, since Chahyun would have felt like a different species altogether.
“But that guy fell head over heels for you at first sight. And I, being immature, only thought I should make him human by getting him to date now. I’m really sorry.”
“…I understand. You don’t need to apologize anymore.”
For Hyeyoung, she might have wanted to help her cherished cousin with dating. Yiyoung didn’t regret meeting Chahyun either, so it was fine. Only the question of how Chahyun had come to like him remained.
Hyeyoung declared quite resolutely.
“If you want revenge on Chahyun, tell me. I’ll actively help you.”
…Actually, Chahyun’s words and actions had been quite hateful. Even if not revenge, it seemed fine to see his sculpture-like handsome face crumple miserably at least once. So the size of revenge Yiyoung wanted to take on Chahyun was exactly this much.
“I’d like to feed him chicken feet someday.”
Thanks to Hyeyoung bursting into laughter, Yiyoung felt a bit lighter.
***
After parting with Hyeyoung, Yiyoung headed home and only turned on his phone while opening the front gate.
Ki Taeseong had called while he was with Hyeyoung, so he’d turned off his phone for a while. Yiyoung checked the call log, expecting there would be text messages with curses and missed calls from Ki Taeseong.
Unexpectedly, there were only about five or six calls from an unsaved number.
