Yiyoung struggled to pull away, trying to remove Chahyun’s hand. Then Chahyun instead put strength into his grip and spun Yiyoung around. Having finally confirmed Yiyoung’s face, Chahyun stiffened.
“Ah.”
He seemed surprised to see Yiyoung’s eyes, which must have been bright red. Yiyoung was upset and embarrassed that only he showed such a torn and wounded face, so he unintentionally raised his voice sharply.
“This is why I said I’d go alone!”
His irritated and sharp voice rang loudly through the wide lobby. When he squeezed his eyes shut, startled by his own echo, thick droplets fell pattering onto his cheeks. Yiyoung wished his body would sink into the ground from embarrassment, or rather that he could become invisible and disappear from this spot.
Chahyun seemed to feel the same as he looked around with troubled eyes. Eventually, with an angry expression, he let go of Yiyoung’s elbow and pulled hard on his wrist instead. Chahyun brought his face close to Yiyoung’s and growled lowly in his ear.
“Don’t cry. People are staring.”
“Then let go quickly. We can just pretend we don’t know each other.”
Yiyoung covered his face with his other hand that wasn’t caught by Chahyun. He was embarrassed too, but he didn’t understand what Chahyun was thinking, participating in this commotion in front of the company where he would soon be inaugurated as CEO.
The grip that had been clutching Yiyoung’s wrist so hard it throbbed loosened. When he stealthily lowered his hand from his face, he saw Chahyun making a suddenly dumbfounded expression. He muttered quietly.
“That’s true.”
Then he fell silent for a moment as if lost in thought. During that time, Chahyun rubbed Yiyoung’s wrist with his thumb, holding it gently. Having finished thinking, he slowly opened his mouth and said something unexpected.
“I just don’t understand it right now, but I know I liked you quite seriously.”
Yiyoung was so surprised that his tears stopped. While he was flabbergasted, Chahyun added in a calm, explanatory tone.
“I saw my old phone. I don’t understand why, but it seems we dated quite prettily.”
It seemed he thought that after seeing the text messages and photo album he’d exchanged with Yiyoung. Yiyoung couldn’t understand how he could still act as coldly as he did today after seeing that.
Chahyun asked in a calm tone that even sounded somewhat kind.
“So let me take you home. I didn’t want to treat you badly.”
At the very sincere tone, Yiyoung blinked. Chahyun had an expression that showed he knew well that he had been rude to Yiyoung today. He just seemed to think it wasn’t something to apologize for. Yiyoung suddenly realized.
‘He deliberately acted cold. In case I might cling to him.’
Conversely, if Yiyoung had been unsatisfied with the compensation he was offering and stubbornly insisted they couldn’t break up, he seemed ready to torment him until he couldn’t make a peep. Certainly, the current Chahyun looked like someone who could hurt Yiyoung until his heart was tattered and still have more to spare.
‘Was he originally such a cold person?’
The Moon Chahyun that Yiyoung knew seemed to have completely disappeared. Perhaps he had never existed from the beginning.
If that was the case, then he would never encounter the Moon Chahyun he had liked again, even by chance. There was no way to meet someone who didn’t exist in the world. That fact hurt Yiyoung more than having his pride torn to shreds.
In any case, Chahyun didn’t seem likely to let Yiyoung go alone.
Yiyoung slowly twisted his wrist free from Chahyun’s grip. While rubbing his wrist because it hurt a little, he quietly nodded.
Then Chahyun, for some reason, let out a light sigh of relief and smirked. Then, not giving Yiyoung a chance to change his words, he quickly opened the passenger door. Still reluctant about Chahyun seeing him home, Yiyoung hesitantly got into the car.
***
The entire drive, Chahyun felt like he was sitting on a bed of thorns.
It was because Yiyoung kept sniffling while holding back his voice. Somehow it felt like he didn’t want to be caught crying, so Chahyun desperately pretended not to know while looking straight ahead at the road. Of course, inwardly he complained.
‘Why is he crying so much? Making the person next to him embarrassed.’
Chahyun hadn’t even cried this much when his father passed away.
It was partly because he was closer to a grandfather than a father and they had no great affection, but more so because of the family tradition of regarding showing emotion as a weakness. Even Igyeong and Juhyuk, who had relatively deep respect for their father, had held the funeral with dry eyes.
That’s why Chahyun found Yiyoung’s tears unfamiliar and bewildering. Yiyoung looked truly sad.
‘Could it be genuine? That he liked me, not my background.’
Perhaps what he said about not knowing he was from Moongang Group could be true. If so, it meant Yiyoung liked the person Moon Chahyun himself.
‘But why?’
That was something new again.
Chahyun constantly told even his close friends that they only stuck around because there was a lot to gain from him, whether money or connections. However, none of them ever showed any sign of being offended. Rather, it was typical for them to fawn over him, saying it was because he was so accomplished.
He knew they all thought ‘fucking bastard’ inwardly. Although Chahyun didn’t use such vulgar expressions himself, that was the profanity they used to refer to him behind his back anyway. Chahyun understood.
‘Even I would only be annoyed if someone this accomplished was next to me.’
Of course, since he had never seen such a person in his life, he didn’t really know.
Anyway, because those who constantly watched his mood and catered to him were convenient, Chahyun had no complaints either. Rather, he bestowed a bit of convenience quite generously. Yiyoung was also the first person to refuse what Chahyun offered to give.
While Chahyun was bewildered, the car entered a secluded neighborhood.
Chahyun climbed for quite a while up an alley so steep and winding that he wondered if it was really Seoul. Eventually, the road narrowed to the point where the car could no longer proceed. Chahyun turned his head toward Yiyoung.
“Excuse me. From here…”
He was about to tell him to get out and walk. Chahyun looked at Yiyoung, who had such a small build that he looked like he could be embraced in one arm, crumpled in the passenger seat, and shut his mouth tight. Yiyoung was facing the car window with his shoulders shaking.
Having learned manners all his life, he couldn’t quite bring himself to say ‘get out’ at this timing.
Chahyun rolled his eyes toward the car ceiling with an annoyed expression. He moved the car again to find a place to park until Yiyoung stopped crying. Leaving the route the navigation guided and climbing side roads, he soon arrived at an empty lot at the top of the neighborhood.
Chahyun turned off the engine and waited for Yiyoung’s crying to subside.
‘What kind of suffering is this after saying I’d take him home for no reason.’
But somehow he had wanted to do so earlier. So he was generous without even bothering to think about the reason. As expected, unnecessary goodwill shouldn’t be shown carelessly.
Fortunately, perhaps having calmed down quite a bit while coming home, Yiyoung stopped crying before long.
After letting out a long sigh that even sounded somewhat relieved, Yiyoung said to Chahyun.
“Thanks for bringing me home. Thinking about it, I don’t think I would have had the energy to climb up here.”
It was certainly a hill road that would have taken quite a bit of effort if he had walked. Though he didn’t know well, it seemed taxis wouldn’t want to come into a place like this either.
With red eyes, Yiyoung smiled awkwardly and pulled the car door handle.
“Get home safely. The road is narrow, so don’t scratch your car on the wall.”
Then he got out of the car without showing any regret. Chahyun stared intently at Yiyoung’s retreating figure beyond the passenger window.
‘That’s it?’
Even though he was a lover he didn’t know, it was too bland for a final farewell.
Chahyun followed Yiyoung in opening the car door and got up outside the driver’s seat. And while holding the car door, he unknowingly said to Yiyoung’s back.
“It’s a shame you’re that kind of person.”
Yiyoung stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. Since he was making a puzzled expression, Chahyun thought carefully about the sincerity he had just blurted out and continued.
“Actually, even now I find you quite attractive. Attractive enough that I would have wanted to keep seeing you if you were at a level where I could somehow make it work.”
It wasn’t a lie since he had thought he was pretty and cute from the beginning. He had also liked the coquettish texts he had sent to his twenty-eight-year-old self. He wanted to see in person the bright and lovely appearance he had seen in photos.
