“…Are you, very upset?”
Kyung-heon, who had been walking beside him, suddenly asked. It seemed he misunderstood that the displeased mood was because of his family.
“No. It’s not that. I just received a not-so-welcome contact.”
“Ah… yes.”
After exchanging a few words matching Kyung-heon’s slow pace, they were already in front of the main gate. He had already declined the offer to prepare a car. Young naturally tried to go out alone. Just then, a low, slow voice flowed into his ear.
“Um…”
When Young turned around, Kyung-heon’s right hand was floating in the air. He looked at Kyung-heon’s face once, then at the hand hanging awkwardly in the air once, alternating. Then he pulled back the step he had taken forward. At the same time, he slipped his left arm right into Kyung-heon’s hand.
“Ah…”
Kyung-heon seemed flustered by the sudden contact. That’s exactly what the hesitant retreat 2 seconds later looked like. Young gave an awkward smile at that.
“Just, it seemed like the right picture.”
It was an honest feeling. For some reason, it felt like he should do that. It was an impulse manifesting from the thought of what scene might have been created if Kyung-heon had been a person with normal speed.
Kyung-heon again only said “Ah… yes.” An ambiguous response. Young just rolled his eyes for no reason before opening his mouth again.
“Uh, but why? Do you have something to say?”
After escaping from the briefly chaotic atmosphere and belatedly asking the reason, Kyung-heon started with “Um, well…”
“Earlier, I apologize.”
At the sudden apology, Young tilted his head.
“For what?”
“I should have stepped forward to handle the situation, but I couldn’t do that…”
“Ah…”
“You must have been very troubled.”
Young burst into laughter without realizing it.
Just, how should he say it. He was commendable. He was just a bit slow, but didn’t he know how to consider his position?
If it had been the type of person Young was familiar with, it was obvious they would have said, “Considering your family, isn’t this level of opposition natural?” and told him to just endure it and move on. But to receive an apology like this. His mood was quite good.
“It’s okay. That can happen.”
Young readily replied and pushed the gate.
He was ready to cross the threshold right away, but he didn’t do that. Young lightly lowered his raised foot back in place and suddenly turned to look at Kyung-heon. Then, staring at Kyung-heon’s face, which still clearly showed signs of being sorry, he brought up something new.
“But Kyung-heon ssi…”
“……”
“Do you want to do this marriage?”
Come to think of it, he had no memory of hearing Kyung-heon’s opinion about the marriage. Young had just been busy struggling alone with the single-minded determination to escape his family’s overprotection.
From Kyung-heon’s attitude of readily responding to gatherings with the families, and his attitude of just leaving him alone while he sucked up to his grandfather, it seemed like tacit consent. But it was also uncertain. If it was Kyung-heon, there was a strong possibility he would just be dragged around even if it was something he didn’t want, until he found a way to refuse.
So he asked just in case. Kyung-heon slowly blinked his large eyes. The answer flowed out several seconds after that even.
“Since childhood, I learned that marriage is something you do out of necessity…”
Even that was in an incompletely finished form.
The Kyung-heon he’d observed until now, though slow, tended to use complete sentences. But this time, his words seemed completely unorganized. It seemed like he was recalling something in his head that could be an answer, but the continuation just wouldn’t come.
Young tried to wait patiently, but the situation didn’t cooperate. It was because his cell phone, which he’d taken out while crossing the garden, was blowing up.
Noona
After brief vibrations that hadn’t stopped since earlier, now it was a call.
It was obvious. Why is it taking so long, are those guys bothering you, if they’re making you uncomfortable by holding you there I’ll barge in…. The fussing auto-replayed.
Young let out a small sigh. Then he smiled apologetically.
“Anyway, it’s not that you dislike it, right?”
“Ah… yes.”
“I keep getting contacts looking for me. I really need to go now.”
Kyung-heon offered a bow without complaint. Young also greeted him in return, and finally crossed the gate that had been awkwardly hanging open.
***
And he crossed the wedding hall door.
It was a triumph obtained by overcoming opposition piled on top of opposition. Young, with the support of President Joo and Kyung-heon’s cooperation, achieved his grand dream of independence from his overprotective family.
From the moment Young set foot in the wedding hall, the entire family except their father burst into tears. According to testimony from his friend Seong-jae, they glared with wide eyes and only shed tears drop by drop, so he thought they were sharpening blades of revenge.
So it did become a wedding that seemed full of stories, but other than that, it was uneventful. At the end of the scheduled ceremony, the marriage was declared.
Honestly, the ceremony was a façade, and the highlight was from now on. The after-party that started after the ceremony. Not only Kyung-heon’s family, but many who attended as guests opened the field of business.
“Hey, this day really came? Are you really living separately from your family now?”
“Of course. It’s quite a distance from home too. I carefully selected it in case they might rush over.”
Young, having made a round of greetings, met his friend Seong-jae and sipped champagne. When his eyes met with Joo Seong-jin, who was conversing with guests over there, he also lightly exchanged eye greetings. He turned his ear again to the words of Seong-jae, who was chattering busily beside him.
“You’re really amazing too. To do a political marriage with a beta just to leave home.”
“But he’s handsome. At this level, isn’t he livable with?”
“What good is being handsome? He’s a fruit you can’t eat.”
“Anyway, I’ve been celibate for 3 years since meeting that trash Ahn Chae-seung. I can do it, right? I just need to live holy for exactly this much longer and then let loose.”
“Amazing willpower. Respectable.”
At Young’s carefree words, Seong-jae clapped. Then suddenly saying “Hey, but,” he changed the topic.
“I see a lot of faces you couldn’t have invited.”
Only then did Young look around.
Since he’d met with Kyung-heon focusing on key figures, he hadn’t known. But looking at the guests one by one, he saw many people he didn’t really want to see.
“This scene is really small too.”
It was as Seong-jae said. Should he call it the ill effects of silver spoon education? Children from wealthy families were bound to gather in one place from a young age. So even now, over ten years later, wherever money rolled, familiar faces swarmed without fail.
For Young, who had frequent troubles being excluded for the reason of “only” having money, it was a not-so-welcome situation. Right away, even that guy greeting Kyung-heon over there was no ordinary thorn in his side.
‘Starting from middle school through high school, there was someone who kept openly dividing into classes, ostracizing and ignoring me.’
The very ‘guy’ he’d talked about to Kyung-heon, and
‘But I’m not the type to just endure, so whenever something like that happened, together…’
A person with whom the relationship couldn’t be good because of ramming into each other.
Probably even if they faced each other now, he’d skip greetings and be busy with sarcasm right away. For such a guy to be bowing and scraping to Kyung-heon with a polite face. He couldn’t stand to watch.
So even when he turned his eyes away, the situation wasn’t much different. The guys who had disgustingly fought with Young in his young days were all dressed up glossily doing business.
“It’s no different from a minefield.”
The fortunate thing was that he’d discovered it now. If he knew nothing and encountered an enemy, he’d be flustered, but if he at least knew of their existence, he could avoid them. But…
“Young-ah.”
The mine among mines that he hadn’t noticed appeared.
“So you were here.”
A guest too base to meet on this good day when he succeeded in marriage that would be the foundation of independence, breaking through fierce opposition.
‘Anyway, I’ve been celibate for 3 years since meeting that trash Ahn Chae-seung.’
The trash who gave him not only 3 years of celibacy but surveillance and restraints from his family he’d never experienced before. Ahn Chae-seung approached with a thick face and offered a greeting.
At times like this, it would be a cool move to exclude emotions and treat him with unshaken ease. But he couldn’t put it into action. Just seeing that shameless face smiling as if nothing had happened made his anger rise.
Bad memories boiled up inside with every word he spat out as if they were a relationship where contact had naturally been cut off and then coincidentally reunited.
