Chapter 53
Though he hadn’t intended to push her roughly, Eunji was shoved back and fell, landing on her bottom.
“Fuck.”
Eunji, who’d been playing the role of a pure and pitiful heroine, showed her true colors as she stood up. Hahyun flinched at her curse.
“This is such bullshit, really.”
“…”
“Why do you dislike me so much? It’s not like you have someone else, and apart from my nasty personality, I’m not lacking compared to you in any way. But why on earth…”
After finishing her cold self-assessment, Eunji roughly rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.
Hahyun didn’t actually dislike Eunji. Her statement about not being lacking in any way was true, and he preferred her straightforward personality over someone who pretended to be nice—it matched better with his own.
But he just couldn’t develop feelings for her. Until now, he hadn’t been able to say he liked someone else because he was conscious of Chairman Seo, but now it seemed like he should tell her the real reason.
“I have someone else.”
“What?”
“You might not believe it, but it’s the truth. Hajin hyung knows too.”
Eunji stared at Hahyun with a hollow laugh.
“If you don’t like me, just say so. Don’t be a coward and make excuses about someone else.”
“Fuck, it’s true! I hate myself for being like this too, but what can I do if I can’t be with anyone but that person?”
Eunji stared intently at Hahyun. Looking at his reddened eyes and trembling lips, he didn’t seem to be lying.
‘Is it true?’
Though she was suspicious, it seemed pointless to press further since she wouldn’t get the answer she wanted.
“Fine. Since you’re so insistent, I have no choice. I’ll contact you once the paperwork is ready, so don’t ignore it and respond.”
“Yes.”
After kissing Hahyun’s cheek, saying they should at least say goodbye properly, Eunji left.
***
After confirming she was gone, Hahyun went to the laundry room to dispose of the underwear in his pocket.
“I should have put it away properly… Why did I forget about this?”
He couldn’t stand how pathetic he was. Yesterday, when Hajin and Juwon were sleeping in the same room, Hahyun had been standing guard outside their door. To prevent them from running away without him, he’d done this without fail every time they slept together.
During that time, he’d heard strange sounds from inside.
<Haah, aah…>
<Just a moment, Juwon… It’s okay, breathe.>
Hahyun was about to kick the door open, but he clenched his teeth, afraid they might really run away if he did.
As tears soaked the floor while he stayed up all night, he heard moaning sounds from the room.
Unable to bear it anymore, Hahyun went to the sofa, took care of himself, and fell asleep right there. He’d planned to clean up in the morning, but… Hajin woke up too early and was wandering around the house, so he had no choice but to hide it there.
“Haah…”
Sighing, Hahyun headed to Hajin’s room after getting rid of the evidence.
***
“That crazy bastard, that psycho, I’ll kill him!”
No amount of cursing could quell my anger. I was wrong to think I liked such a bastard, even for a moment.
The woman I saw on the CCTV screen looked about Hahyun’s age and was even pretty. Considering she came to the house, they seemed to be more than just casual acquaintances.
“Oh… Seo Hahyun, you had a girlfriend?”
At first, I didn’t think much about seeing the woman. Rather, I was curious about their relationship. Then, when Hahyun disappeared briefly, I saw what the woman was holding, and all thoughts vanished.
“That… that’s definitely my underwear. Why is it there?”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, so I blinked several times, but what the woman was holding was indeed my underwear.
I’d never once masturbated since coming to this house, and that wasn’t my room or bathroom, but the sofa in the middle of the living room. The fact that my underwear was there meant someone had put it there.
“Fuck, no way… No matter what, Hahyun wouldn’t have…”
But seeing Hahyun appear on the screen moments later, dropping his teacup in shock, I became certain.
So that bastard did it. And his girlfriend caught him with it. That’s what happened, fuck.
I wanted to burst out the door immediately and threaten to kill him if he ever spouted nonsense about liking me again. But I was a wanted person and couldn’t reveal myself. All I could do was acknowledge reality and calm my mind…
“Oh really? You two want to make a fool out of me?”
On the screen, the two were kissing with their lips pressed together. Strangely, seeing that made me even angrier, so I deliberately looked away.
That crazy bastard… Seo Hahyun, just you wait until you get up here.
My teeth ground together.
***
“Hyung, did you wait long?”
The shameless bastard opened the door, came in, and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Take your hand off.”
I glared at him as I spoke. His expression immediately crumpled like he was about to cry.
The tears of a perverted playboy meant nothing; my resolve was firm. Even if Hahyun tied me up and took me to the basement, I would no longer be manipulated by him.
I would also abolish the arrangement of spending nights with them on alternate days. Let him confine me if he wanted to.
“Hyung… why, why are you like this? Did I do something wro— Ah.”
As if something was pricking his conscience even as he spoke, Hahyun stopped abruptly. I gave him a pathetic look and turned my head away. Hahyun hurriedly came in front of me and tried to make eye contact. Of course, I never properly looked at him once.
“Hyung, it’s a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding. It’s really a misunderstanding. That underwear, well… that’s…”
“Fuck, let go. Can’t you understand when someone tells you once? I don’t like it, so take your hands off my body.”
“…”
Hahyun stared at me with a bewildered expression. Seemingly quite shocked by my true nature emerging after so long, he stared at me blankly, unable even to cry.
That’s what you get for provoking me. I’ve got a temper too…
I glared at Hahyun, trembling, then turned to leave, finding his face disgusting to look at. That’s when Hahyun grabbed my wrist.
“L-let go.”
I struggled to break free from Hahyun’s grasp. Then he hugged me, toppled me onto the bed, and held me tightly to prevent me from escaping.
“Fuck, just stay still!”
“…”
“What are you so angry about? It’s not like my crazy behavior is anything new, and after you did all sorts of things with Seo Hajin yesterday… Do you know how much I…”
What? He said he heard it?
After we agreed to take turns spending nights together, I’d removed the CCTV installed in my room. Even if there were cameras I didn’t know about, they wouldn’t record sound. So how?
Hahyun continued speaking in a sniffling voice.
“Crouching in front of the room listening to those fucking sounds… Yes, I’m sorry for doing that perverted thing. But is it worth getting this angry about?”
I was so dumbfounded that words wouldn’t come out.
“Then would it have been better if I’d barged into the room in that situation and made a scene asking what the hell you were doing?”
That would have been absolutely unacceptable. At that time, Hajin was a bit out of his mind, so if Hahyun had done that, there would have been another bloodbath.
“See? I was patient, right? Even this morning when you denied it, I didn’t press further and held back. Didn’t I?”
If he knew everything about last night but held back, that was remarkable for Seo Hahyun. But still, fuck! How could he humiliate me in front of his girlfriend and then say things like this? I suppressed my desire to hit him and spoke coldly.
“What does that have to do with anything? You were happily making out with your girlfriend, weren’t you? Ah! So you can do whatever you want, but I can’t? Wow… I didn’t think Seo Hahyun was like that…”
Hahyun stared at me for a moment and then blurted out.
“What are you talking about? What girlfriend, and when did I make out with anyone?”
I’d seen it with my own eyes, so his denial was laughable. I pointed at the screen with my finger. Hahyun looked at the screen and then stared at me as if he didn’t see what the problem was. It was so frustrating that I felt like I was going crazy from the lack of communication.
“I saw everything, so why are you saying otherwise?”
Hahyun pounded his chest in frustration and said.
“Didn’t you see me pushing Eunji away?”
“No, I didn’t? I saw you hugging and comforting her.”
As I spoke, it felt as if I was acting jealous. I looked at Hahyun to correct my words, but he seemed to have already caught on to something and started laughing like a madman.
“Puhaha.”
“What?”
“Hyung, what’s this? Are you jealous right now?”
“…”
“I see. I thought you were angry about the underwear, but that wasn’t it. You misunderstood the relationship between Eunji and me. Haha.”
“N-no, I’m not!”
I felt very flustered, as if I really was jealous.
“Anyway, I said no. Seo Hahyun, I really said no.”
Despite my words, Hahyun pressed firmly on my shoulders so I couldn’t move, and continued.
“Choi Eunji is my fiancée.”
“What? You mean you’re engaged?”
“No! Not that kind of engagement. Chairman Seo forced me to get engaged to her for his business interests. It’s a contractual relationship.”
“…”
“So I wasn’t responding to her calls, but today Eunji came and told me that if I want to terminate the contract, we should meet with our lawyers. If I hadn’t opened the door for her earlier, it would have been a disaster because she has leverage over me.”
“What kind of leverage?”
“She knows that Hajin hyung is gay.”
