51.
#It’s not like that
Hayun smiled gently at Choi Yu-na, who was looking at him. Since she neither asked who he was nor ran away, it seemed she knew who he was.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked, just to confirm.
“Yes. You’re Dawoon’s older brother,” she replied in a calm voice, showing no signs of being flustered. When she naturally referred to him as “Dawoon’s,” he almost frowned.
“How do you know?” he asked, still smiling.
He had briefly encountered her once when he went to pick up Dawoon at the university, but it was just a fleeting moment. Hayun already knew her face because he had investigated her, but Yu-na didn’t. If that had been the first and only time they met, it would have been unlikely for her to remember his face accurately. Unless she had investigated separately, like him.
“You came to pick up Dawoon before, right? After that, I heard a bit about the family situation from Dawoon,” she answered casually.
It was a plausible answer. Even if she couldn’t remember him from seeing him once, if Dawoon had mentioned that he was from the Haedo Group, it would be natural for her to know about him. But it was still suspicious. Dawoon never talked about the Haedo Group or his brother Hayun on his own. He disliked being associated with the Haedo Group, so unless someone else brought it up first, he would never mention it.
“I came to pick up Dawoon, but it seems we missed each other,” Hayun said, noting that Yu-na was alone, implying that she and Dawoon had parted ways.
“He took a taxi a little while ago. His younger brother kept calling,” she explained.
It seemed Haram had been trying to reach Dawoon. If that was the case, it made sense that he would have rushed back in a taxi.
“Would you like a ride? Since I’m already here, I can drop you off,” Hayun offered suddenly.
Yu-na hesitated, not answering immediately. After all, Hayun was essentially a stranger to her, so she seemed cautious.
“I won’t eat you. You said you know I’m Dawoon’s brother,” he said in a playful tone.
“I just came all this way and ran into a familiar face, so I thought I’d offer you a ride. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable than taking the subway?” he asked, guessing that she had been walking towards the subway station.
“You’re Dawoon’s senior in the broadcasting club, right? Just think of it as me asking you to take care of our Dawoon,” he added.
With that final comment, Yu-na seemed to consider it before moving towards the car. Hayun opened the back door for her and got in, making space for her to sit.
“Excuse me,” she said as she entered the car. Her posture was impeccable. At a glance, she seemed well-educated.
“Where should we go?” he asked, although he already knew where she lived. He couldn’t show that he knew, so he asked for the destination.
“You can drop me off at the school. I live nearby,” she answered neutrally, seemingly not wanting to go all the way to her house.
Hayun smiled faintly and instructed the driver to go to the university’s main gate.
“What did Dawoon say?” he asked as soon as the car started moving.
Yu-na turned to look at him. The question seemed too broad, as if she wasn’t sure how to answer.
“You said you heard about our family situation,” he added in a gentle voice.
“Ah,” she let out a short sound of realization. “Just that his grandfather is the Chairman of Haedo Group. There was a bit of a misunderstanding, so while explaining, that came up.”
“What kind of misunderstanding…?”
“The misunderstanding that I might have approached Dawoon with ulterior motives.”
Hayun’s faint smile stiffened slightly at her words, which were exactly what he had been suspecting.
“It was hard for me to understand why he would think that. But then Dawoon mentioned that he knew about my grandfather. He said he had seen him at Haedo Group gatherings. When I heard that, I realized that from Dawoon’s perspective, it might have been possible to misunderstand.”
Hayun inwardly swallowed a laugh at her calm and composed answer. It probably wasn’t a lie. And that’s why he couldn’t read her true intentions.
“You don’t know anything about what was said between our grandfathers?” he asked in a calm voice, but there was a hint of sharpness in his words.
Yu-na’s eyes widened slightly before returning to their original expression, seemingly noticing the underlying tension in his question.
“It has nothing to do with me. Dawoon probably thinks the same,” she said with a slightly bitter smile, turning her head to avoid his gaze. Her tone, implying that she knew Dawoon well, was irritating.
“I’m a half-blood. There’s no way I’d be good enough in the eyes of the Haedo Group Chairman.”
Hayun almost frowned at her use of the term “half-blood.” He couldn’t tell if she was saying this intentionally or not, but imagining that she might have said the same thing to Dawoon, he could guess why Dawoon had come to the department store with her.
“You seem to think of yourself as an inadequate person,” he said in a neutral tone, hiding his displeasure.
Although she had used the term “half-blood” to describe herself first, Yu-na’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly at the phrase “inadequate person” coming from someone else. Hayun didn’t miss this reaction.
“It’s not about how I think of myself, but how others… will see me,” she said, her eyes briefly meeting Hayun’s before looking away. The word “others” seemed to separate Hayun from herself, almost making him laugh derisively.
“Well, that could be the case,” Hayun replied, not taking his eyes off Yu-na. He deliberately didn’t deny it, wanting to observe her reaction. The corners of her mouth twitched before forming a bitter smile. She didn’t add anything else. At a glance, she seemed to be rueful about her birth.
“Do you think Dawoon is similar to you?” Hayun asked.
Yu-na didn’t answer immediately. She didn’t show any particular reaction, nor did she look back at Hayun.
“It’s not like that,” he said abruptly, and only then did she visibly flinch.
You can’t be compared to Dawoon. You’re not on the same level.
He didn’t say it outright, but if she was perceptive, she would have already caught the meaning behind his words. Still, it was commendable that she didn’t show any reaction. Considering her age, she had good social skills.
“You know what rumors are going around about Dawoon, don’t you?”
“No…” Yu-na started to deny, but as soon as her eyes met Hayun’s, she swallowed the rest of her words. She couldn’t speak under his steady gaze. Although his voice remained gentle, the look in his eyes was colder than she had expected.
Hayun smirked as he watched Yu-na’s voice trail off. He was certain now that she was just pretending to be naive. She had reacted immediately to his gaze.
“Whatever gossips people like to spread, rumors are just rumors. Dawoon is clearly my brother,” he said.
He glanced at Yu-na’s face after saying this. He could see that she thought he could call Dawoon his brother because they shared at least half their blood.
“He was born to my mother who properly married my father and was registered in our family registry,” he added.
No matter what others whispered, even though the order of birth and marriage was wrong, Dawoon was registered as Jeong Seo-hoo’s son in the family registry. If that hadn’t been the case, their grandfather would have found a way to drive him out of the Haedo Group.
He omitted the detailed explanation, but Hayun was sure that Yu-na had grasped the intention behind his words. She must have looked into Dawoon’s background and heard the rumors surrounding him. That’s why she must have judged that Dawoon was “the same” as her.
But they weren’t the same. That’s the point he was emphasizing.
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this,” Yu-na said, lowering her gaze.
She certainly had a personality that Congressman Choi Min-guk would find too valuable to ignore. If she had been the child of his legal wife, Congressman Choi would have pushed her towards Hayun instead of Dawoon.
Neither option is acceptable, Hayun thought to himself.
“Really? I think you know exactly why, don’t you?” he said with a smirk.
Yu-na kept her gaze lowered. Only the tips of her fingers on her knee twitched slightly. She was indeed quick-witted. Hayun didn’t dislike perceptive people, as long as they used that perceptiveness to make the right judgments.
“We’re here,” he said as the car arrived at the university’s main gate.
As soon as the car stopped, Yu-na quickly opened the door and got out, as if she had been waiting for this moment.
“Thank you for the ride,” she said, bowing slightly.
“Take care,” Hayun said, lowering the window and smiling at her.
Yu-na stared at Hayun but couldn’t return the smile. Her face was noticeably more rigid than when she first got into the car.
Hayun closed the window and instructed the driver to leave.
Now, what will you do? he thought to himself.
It would be nice if she backed off after this, but with Congressman Choi Min-guk behind her, she probably wouldn’t give up easily. How far could she go with her grandfather’s backing?
In truth, he didn’t care how she would react. If Dawoon had shown no interest in her as before, Hayun wouldn’t have appeared before her directly.
However, if she intended to exploit Dawoon’s sense of kinship, that was something he couldn’t overlook. It was better to nip it in the bud so that she couldn’t stimulate that part of Dawoon anymore.
