It was a relationship that should never have begun in the first place.
Just being in the same space as Moon Igyeong made Yiyoung’s entire body tingle with discomfort. Naturally, Moon Igyeong had made it abundantly clear that she disapproved of Yiyoung. Even without the Chairwoman, there would be countless reasons why Yiyoung couldn’t date a fourth-generation chaebol heir.
With a frustrated heart, Yiyoung downed his drink. Using the burning sensation of the strong liquor scorching down his esophagus, he threw at Hyeyoung the question he actually wanted to demand of Chahyun.
“How could you hide something like that? You should have at least told me before we met.”
If that had happened, Yiyoung would have rejected Chahyun and given up on his feelings early on. But now Chahyun had become too precious to part ways without getting hurt.
When Yiyoung grumbled, Hyeyoung suddenly smiled with a coquettish expression and changed the subject.
“Listen… this isn’t the right time to say this, but you seem so shocked that I might as well come clean too.”
Even in his complicated state, Yiyoung looked at Hyeyoung with puzzlement. Hyeyoung scratched her forehead and confessed shyly.
“Actually, Igyeong’s dad was my maternal uncle.”
“…You’re a chaebol too, boss?”
Hyeyoung mumbled awkwardly, “My family isn’t quite at that level though.”
Come to think of it, Hyeyoung had been strange too.
The whiskey bar she had once described as “modest” was actually quite large-scale and upscale. Yet she set weekends as holidays and deliberately operated only during hours when there would be no customers.
Moreover, she continuously booked famous bands, orchestras, and singers who would never perform at a place like a bar. The reason Yiyoung had started working here was also because he loved the performances. Until now, he had simply thought Hyeyoung had exceptionally good connections, but now he realized it was a bar run by a chaebol as a hobby.
‘Am I really stupid? How can I be so clueless?’
Yiyoung stared blankly into space and muttered.
“It feels like the whole world has been deceiving me.”
“Sorry.”
Isn’t everyone actually a chaebol except me?
The fact that he alone was poor among so many chaebols suddenly felt sorrowful. Feeling inexplicably wronged, Yiyoung filled his glass to the brim and gulped it down.
As they continued drinking, night had deepened before they knew it.
From the heavily intoxicated Hyeyoung’s mouth came absurd words like “what’s life anyway?” Then Yiyoung too could briefly escape from the shocking events that had relentlessly pounded his head for the past three days.
Yiyoung opened his mouth with loosely relaxed eyelids.
“Chahyun-ssi… doesn’t seem to remember me.”
If he didn’t confide in someone, his chest felt like it would burst from frustration.
He hadn’t received a proper explanation, so he was cautious about saying it, but it was almost certain. Otherwise, the attitude Chahyun had shown in the hospital room couldn’t be explained.
Heavily drunk, Hyeyoung swayed in her seat and asked back.
“What… amnesia? Chahyun?”
Seeing that she wasn’t very surprised, Hyeyoung didn’t seem to be listening properly to Yiyoung’s words. Somehow it felt like by tomorrow she would forget their entire conversation. Nevertheless, Yiyoung continued.
“Probably.”
It seemed he had forgotten quite a long period. Though he had only seen him briefly, things like his speech, expressions, and attitude were too unfamiliar. Moreover, he had said things that the Moon Chahyun Yiyoung knew would never say.
‘He might be lying to extort something from us.’
Recalling the words he heard in the hospital room, the disappointment he hadn’t been able to feel because he was worried about Chahyun and too flustered surged up. Yiyoung clenched both fists on the table and confessed his honest feelings.
“He was so damn irritating.”
Yiyoung widened his eyes and trembled with his fists. Then Hyeyoung clicked her tongue at Yiyoung as if to say “I told you so,” speaking with pronunciation so slurred it was hard to understand.
“I told you. He only acts sweet in front of you.”
“He really had no manners.”
She had heard about it, but seeing it in person was shocking enough to make her fall over.
He wouldn’t be that rude even to a complete stranger. Yet Chahyun had immediately treated Yiyoung as someone clinging to him for money upon hearing that Yiyoung had been his lover. More than anything else.
‘…He looked disappointed.’
Yiyoung’s angry expression disappeared entirely, replaced by dejection.
It seemed clear that Chahyun, having lost his memory, thought Yiyoung was an unsuitable match for him. Apart from his rude attitude, that alone couldn’t be called Chahyun’s fault. Because it was the truth.
Suddenly he recalled a conversation he had shared with Chahyun before. It was about two weeks after they had started dating.
It was a time when he was curious about what kind of person Chahyun was, so back then Yiyoung had asked Chahyun many questions. Thinking about it now, he had skillfully evaded Yiyoung’s questions every time.
Though he had thought nothing of it, Yiyoung had vaguely felt something was off, so he had asked in a light, joking tone.
‘Do you usually not talk much about yourself, Chahyun-ssi?’
At that time, Chahyun had answered like this.
‘If you knew what kind of person I am, you wouldn’t like me very much, Yiyoung-ssi.’
‘Why do you think that?’
Mmm, Chahyun had let out a troubled exclamation and continued with difficulty.
‘Because you’d feel shabby.’
It was a cryptic answer. But he had simply thought that even a man like Moon Chahyun sometimes felt shabby about himself. It seemed he had secrets about himself he didn’t want to talk about, so from then on he had been careful not to pry.
Now he realized that Chahyun hadn’t been worried that Yiyoung would see him as shabby. He had thought Yiyoung was shabby. Chahyun had been worried about Yiyoung being intimidated by the gap between them.
‘Of course he would have.’
It was just that Chahyun was too considerate and affectionate to show such thoughts. The problem was that now it didn’t feel that way at all.
‘I can’t exactly thank him for pitying me.’
Yiyoung fiddled with the glass on the table and muttered.
“I should break up before I like him more, right?”
“Huh?”
While lost in thought, the completely drunk Hyeyoung asked back soullessly. It wasn’t a question asked expecting an answer anyway. The answer was already decided.
“Though it seems like I don’t even need to be the one to say let’s break up at this point.”
The moment Yiyoung learned that Chahyun had forgotten him, he had an intuition. Chahyun would no longer seek him out. Even if he regained his memories, continuing to date as before would be impossible. That’s how different the worlds Yiyoung and Chahyun lived in were.
Yiyoung lifted his glass and downed it in one gulp. As the whiskey went down his esophagus, his throat stung and tears welled up in his eyes.
***
Chahyun was discharged from the hospital a week later.
The one who took Chahyun to the home where he supposedly now lived was his older brother by ten years, Moon Juhyuk. Having returned from a business trip abroad, Juhyuk volunteered to play chauffeur while checking on Chahyun’s condition after the accident.
Chahyun watched Juhyuk drive with fascination and said.
“Why did you age so much in 8 years, hyung? Noona looked the same.”
“Shut up.”
Juhyuk spoke in an intimidating voice befitting his large build. Even if his face had changed, his temper remained the same. Chahyun shrugged and turned his gaze to the window.
They reached their destination in silence. As soon as the car was parked in the parking lot, Chahyun’s face lit up.
“I’m living in noona’s penthouse?”
In Chahyun’s memory, it was where his twentieth birthday party had been held just a week ago.
Even Igyeong, the chairwoman of Moongang Group, quite cherished this place. That was also why Chahyun had been prepared to get scolded unconscious by Igyeong when he threw a wild party there. The great Moon Chahyun becoming an adult deserved a space like this to celebrate.
But to think that had become his residence. The twenty-eight-year-old Moon Chahyun must really be doing well.
Chahyun, who had come up to the penthouse, looked around the interior with an overwhelmed expression. It had been decorated much more stylishly than when Igyeong had used it.
Even at an older age, Moon Chahyun’s taste was still impeccable.
Instead of boring paintings on the walls hung rare album covers that twenty-year-old Chahyun hadn’t been able to obtain. He also liked that the wooden sculptures that had given off a gloomily antique atmosphere had been completely cleared away and classic electric guitars were displayed instead.
He was making a pleased expression when Juhyuk held out a shopping bag he had been carrying.
“These are the clothes you were wearing when you had the accident and things that came out of the car. The car was scrapped.”
Then he pulled out an unfamiliar phone from inside his suit jacket pocket and handed it over.
“This is the phone you were using.”
Chahyun received the phone with a smirking face. Now he could finally check things like texts and photos exchanged with the man claiming to be Chahyun’s lover.
