Wouldn’t that be a problem? Isn’t it a problem? It’s not a problem?
“Huh? No… huh?”
His brain was paralyzed by the information pouring in all at once. As Seungyeon stammered like an idiot, Jung Sanho slammed the table with a ‘bang!’ Seungyeon barely managed to save the glass from spilling and broke out in a cold sweat. Jung Sanho still glared at Seungyeon with a provocative and aggressive gaze.
“I knew all along that you approached me aiming for my money.”
Baek Seungyeon—that is, the real Baek Seungyeon—was truly a selfish and bad person. Finding out that Jung Sanho was rich, he investigated him and decided to befriend him. If it had stopped there, he would’ve just been an obvious scammer bastard, but the real Baek Seungyeon was more of a bad scammer than an obvious one. So he made plans to exploit Jung Sanho’s trauma.
Jung Sanho’s mother had suffered from an incurable disease and taken her own life. Both Jung Sanho and his mother were part of what’s called a chaebol family, so the death itself wasn’t particularly a secret. It was the kind of gossip you could find just by googling that name, and it seemed Baek Seungyeon had also investigated Jung Sanho in that manner.
Whether he met Jung Sanho on that advice forum first, or whether he had targeted him from the beginning and followed him to the site to approach him—only the real Baek Seungyeon would know the answer to that.
In any case, Baek Seungyeon had intentionally approached Jung Sanho and deliberately spouted things like “I want to die” or “I want to end it all” in front of him frequently. He’d tried to form a relationship by exploiting someone’s indelible wound.
But Jung Sanho knew about it.
“At first, I just thought I’d watch to see how far you’d go. Since you approached me in such an obvious and childish way. It wasn’t like you were the only one, and I was like, what’s with this bastard now?”
Jung Sanho had known Baek Seungyeon’s intentions from the start. To catch him and humiliate him, he pretended to go along, pretended to be fooled. But as they talked and time accumulated, the intentions gradually became less important.
“Humans are inherently selfish and like money anyway. I thought hyung was honest and cute by comparison. We had good conversations too.”
Throughout hearing that story, question marks endlessly appeared above Seungyeon’s face. Even knowing about Baek Seungyeon’s trashy behavior, he just accepted it?
“For the reason that we had good conversations, you pretended not to know even while knowing I was deceiving you?”
Of course the conversations went well. He approached with the intention to deceive. What couldn’t he have said to the victim he planned to scam? He probably acted just like a tongue in a mouth.
The more he listened to Jung Sanho’s story, the more it felt like the truth he’d believed without doubt was being completely shaken. Seeing him ask ‘So what? What’s wrong with that?’ made it seem like he should understand with a ‘Is that so?’
“No, but still, that’s not right. Uh, listen, Sanho. I’m a bit confused right now, but I tried to deceive you…”
“I’m saying deceive me all you want? I like it, so who the fuck is going to say anything? I have lots of money, so hit on me all you want.”
Is he telling me to hit on him, or is he going to hit me? Just looking at his expression, it seemed closer to the latter. Seungyeon hastily protested.
“No…! Deceiving people is bad behavior!”
“I’m saying it’s not bad, I am! I’ll give you as much money as you want, so just close your eyes and live like before, okay? And actually, this is all hyung’s fault. If you hadn’t cut off contact, I wouldn’t have had to come find you in person like this. I was planning to never let on and just quietly let you deceive me until the end.”
Perhaps excited while talking, his voice gradually grew louder. The more he did, the more silence circulated in the cafe. The customers sitting at the next tables over also suddenly stopped their conversations and silently fiddled with their coffee cups.
Seungyeon’s common sense had absolutely no way of handling this entire situation.
“So what you’re saying is, you knew I was scamming you and it doesn’t matter at all? You just want to continue like now? Is that what you mean?”
Jung Sanho leaned back against his chair in a crooked posture. Crossing his arms and arrogantly crossing his legs too, he nodded.
“Yes.”
This is crazy. Seungyeon’s pupils shook violently. Did I understand this correctly? Really?
“This is the first time you and I are seeing each other’s faces, right? You didn’t acknowledge me when we ran into each other at the hospital either. Why was that? Don’t tell me, you already knew it was me?”
Even as he spoke, he couldn’t understand what was going on at all. When he’d met Jung Sanho on the hospital rooftop, it had been strange then too, of course, but not confusing to this degree.
I didn’t know he was a crazy bastard who acts like a thug collecting owed money while forcing me to scam him… What the hell is wrong with him?
“So then, even at that time, did you deliberately approach me?”
“No. At that time I was just surprised thinking you were a crazy person about to jump off the rooftop. But losing your wallet seemed really suspicious, so I investigated, and that’s how I found out. That it was hyung.”
Before being discharged, Seungyeon had left the wallet at the hospital desk. Since he didn’t know the contact information, it seemed easier to find that way than keeping it himself. It was good that the wallet returned to its owner as intended, but then he investigated that too?
“It’s just like a habit. So many strange people get tangled up with me.”
Now, how should he put it, it wasn’t particularly surprising anymore. After giving up on understanding, he felt rather more at ease. Seungyeon nodded with an enlightened face.
“I see.”
“I didn’t know hyung’s face because I deliberately didn’t check. I wanted to meet and face you in person. And then I saw you at the hospital…”
His gaze met Jung Sanho’s as he trailed off. Without needing to grasp what that meant, a status window popped up before his eyes.
[An increase in a Specific Person’s favorability has been confirmed! As a reward, a Penalty Nullification (1-time use) has been issued!]
A sudden tsunami-like realization rushed into Seungyeon’s head, which had one more question mark added.
‘Don’t tell me… my face is his type?’
An involuntary laugh escaped at the crazy development that strongly insisted this world was a makjang drama.
*
At Baek Seungyeon’s expression laughing as if troubled, Jung Sanho lowered his eyes. Unlike his face pretending to be fine, his heart was pounding like crazy.
Baek Seungyeon seemed very flustered by the current situation. It was a natural reaction since he’d come to his house without warning. Because he wouldn’t make eye contact well, his heart kept growing impatient.
‘Should I have just not come?’
No, he had to come here. The decision he’d made after enduring and enduring again, agonizing and agonizing again, was that. Even knowing this wasn’t the right choice, he had to do it. Without doing so, there was no way to meet Baek Seungyeon again.
“I need hyung.”
Even if it was a sand castle built on lies, it didn’t matter. Jung Sanho needed such an existence. Someone who would unconditionally take his side and listen attentively no matter what he talked about. Someone who worried about him, offered comfort, and asked after him every night.
Baek Seungyeon was the first to ask “How was your day?” Whatever his intentions, the memories of asking and answering at those times would absolutely never disappear. So, he needed Baek Seungyeon.
“I’m not asking you to like me, just to continue like before. Don’t go silent and disappear like now, let’s contact each other and see each other’s faces.”
Baek Seungyeon silently chewed on the straw. The entire time watching Seungyeon with lowered eyes, Jung Sanho was anxious. What exactly do I have to do for you to look at me? He wanted to grab Seungyeon by the collar.
However, instead of grabbing his collar, Jung Sanho only clenched his innocent fists. Seungyeon’s eyes became hazy upon discovering the trembling fists on the table. Not noticing the paling complexion, Jung Sanho gritted his teeth to suppress his emotions.
“Let’s just take the good parts from each other. Don’t you know give and take? I’ll give you as much money as you want, so just think of it as spending time on me. Come out when I call, answer when I contact you. It’s not that difficult, is it?”
“Is, is that so? I guess it’s not that difficult…”
“You’re unemployed anyway.”
At those words, Baek Seungyeon pouted his lips. Jung Sanho leaned his body forward a bit more.
“I’ll give you a million won each time we meet. Is that enough?”
If it’s not enough, I’ll give more. At the added words, Baek Seungyeon closed his mouth. Thinking his pride might be hurt and about to make excuses that he didn’t mean it that way, Baek Seungyeon asked with a serious face.
“How… much can you give?”
Sharp eyes stared intently at Jung Sanho. Baek Seungyeon’s characteristically upturned eye corners and black pupils gave the impression of seeing right through him. Jung Sanho’s cheek twitched.
The sharp eyes that didn’t look easy at all, the eyes-nose-mouth positioned in pleasing proportions, and even the light brown hair on his fist-sized white face all harmonized together to create a mysterious atmosphere. When Baek Seungyeon squinted or smiled, an Indian dimple appeared on his left cheek.
The more he looked at Baek Seungyeon’s face, the more fascinating it was. It was exactly like a gift box packed tightly with only the preferences Jung Sanho liked, to the point of wondering how it could be possible.
Literally his ideal type of a thousand years, itself.
