54.
Even an urgent SOS request didn’t end up being much help. The nagging voice of his cousin, who couldn’t even offer any innovative solutions, still seemed to sting his eardrums.
Choi Jae-won returned to Ryu Ho-yeon’s room under the bright moonlight. Ho-yeon, somehow not tired of watching the clip of the problematic public proposal scene again, didn’t even turn his head when the door opened and just said, “You’re back?”
“So. Was there any progress?”
“…No.”
“Then are you thinking of skipping tomorrow?”
“That’s even more out of the question.”
“Hmm, alright. Do as you please.”
Ugh, that indifferent look that showed absolutely no expectation! Choi Jae-won felt like his heart was being torn apart, but he struggled to hold onto his aching feelings. There was no time to collapse and be dejected here. He urgently needed to come up with ideas on how to reconstruct tomorrow’s confession plan that had gone up in smoke.
First, he sent a cancellation request to the orchestra he had commissioned in advance. The orchestra’s conductor, who was fuming about canceling with only a day’s notice, immediately became gentlemanly again with a “Goodnight, sir” when Jae-won indicated he wouldn’t take back the deposit he had paid as a commission fee.
As if tempted by the proposal scene again, Ho-yeon had started watching the drama from the first episode. As Jae-won slowly squeezed himself into the seat next to him, Ho-yeon automatically lowered the volume and made a bit more space for him. Even this much could be considered significant progress.
“…”
“…”
– “Three months. Patient, you need to prepare yourself.”
“…”
“…”
– “No! Don’t leave me. How… how can you abandon me so miserably and leave… *sob sob sob*”
“…”
“Jae-won.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“How about either turning your head away or closing your eyes? It’s breaking my concentration while watching the drama. If you don’t like either option, you’re welcome to wait outside until I finish watching.”
Judging by the dialogue, Ho-yeon had just started the first episode. For a 16-episode drama, even at double speed, it would take at least eight hours. Waiting outside until the drama finished… that meant if he wouldn’t look away, he should just leave and sleep somewhere else.
Choi Jae-won quickly closed his eyes. It was a wise choice compared to actually being kicked out, as he could still peek at Ho-yeon’s face occasionally. A few days ago, he had stubbornly resisted, thinking he wouldn’t really be kicked out, but he actually was.
‘You’re not leaving? Then I’ll leave.’
‘No, no, no. I’ll go. I should go. Please let me go…’
“What if” always caught people off guard, and Ryu Ho-yeon was a man of Korea who always followed through on what he said. Unlike others, Ho-yeon’s dictionary didn’t include statements thrown out casually with a “maybe, maybe not” attitude. Jae-won decided not to make the mistake of tugging at a lion’s whiskers.
Thanks to this, Ho-yeon could immerse himself in watching the show without further distractions. Though the occasional glances in his direction hadn’t completely disappeared, he could more or less ignore them.
“…”
By the time the third episode ended and the opening scene of the fourth one began, Choi Jae-won was already fast asleep, breathing heavily. Only then did Ho-yeon turn off his phone screen and look down at Jae-won’s deeply sleeping face. Had the awake Jae-won known, he would have been overjoyed, but the one who deserved the credit was sound asleep, completely unaware of Ho-yeon’s gaze.
The power of love, which supposedly makes even normal people into fools, was indeed mighty. It could easily turn even a high-achieving student into a complete idiot.
“Maybe he’s… a bit dumber than I thought? I thought he was smart…”
Ho-yeon slowly muttered with a voice mixed with a sigh. Quite coincidentally, it was a very similar assessment to what Lee Han-seo had felt about Choi Jae-won just a few hours earlier.
That peaceful sleeping face, though probably not at ease inside, seemed somehow irritating. Ho-yeon mercilessly pinched Jae-won’s sleeping cheek hard. He must have fallen deeply asleep, as Jae-won showed no signs of waking and continued sleeping. Seeing the red finger marks left on his cheek somewhat relieved Ho-yeon’s frustrated feelings.
Really… was Choi Jae-won truly unable to guess what Ho-yeon wanted to hear, what Ho-yeon desired from him?
In fact, from the very first day Jae-won’s confession rush began, Ho-yeon had intended to immediately say “okay, let’s date” if only his desired option was added after the “I like you” part.
That was simply one statement: that he would no longer participate in the guiding enhancement experiments. In his own way, he had deliberately set the passing score for confessions at 80 points as a hint. Exactly matching the 80 percent matching rate that Jae-won was so desperately pursuing.
But even after several days, Jae-won continued his streak of failures. By now, they had reached the final week of their one-month stay.
Ho-yeon decided to listen to the next confession when morning came, and if there still seemed to be no progress, he would just explicitly state his requirements. He couldn’t bear the frustration any longer.
Ho-yeon wanted to be free now too. That thing that Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk were doing, that thing Park Woo-jun and Lee Han-seo were doing. Just thinking about it made his chest tingle with anticipation… that thing called dating, not with anyone else, but with Choi Jae-won.
* * *
“What is… this?”
“A ring.”
“I mean, what is this supposed to be?”
“…? A diamond ring.”
And so, Choi Jae-won the next morning spectacularly shattered all of Ryu Ho-yeon’s expectations.
He said it was something he had prepared to give during his confession the next day or the day after, but since he couldn’t think of any ideas, he was giving it early.
“I’m sorry, since I prepared it in a hurry, there were limitations in what I could get, so I couldn’t consider the design much. We can choose a different ring when we go back to Korea.”
Choi Jae-won, shyly presenting a 3-carat diamond ring while saying the size of the stone represents the size of love, looked… actually proud of himself.
Ryu Ho-yeon couldn’t believe it. To think he was such an empty person. To think he was so… terribly insensitive and selfish…! (This was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.) Indeed, the insensitivity of someone who had taken the great Ryu Ho-yeon for a fool was on another level entirely.
The unnecessarily large stone on the ring looked like it would bend his slender finger at any moment. Staring blankly at his left hand, which felt heavy not just at the finger but all the way to the back of his hand, Ho-yeon suddenly became convinced that if he left things to Jae-won, there would be no progress even after they arrived back in Korea.
“Jae-won.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“Jae-won.” “Yes, hyung.” These four syllables that flowed together naturally had become a set dialogue pattern between the two.
“I won’t say this twice because it’s annoying. Open your ears and listen carefully.”
“…Yes!!”
Whether it was a failing grade or outright failure, the timing for Ho-yeon’s scoring should have come long ago. But instead of the usual score, what followed was an ominous statement that anyone could tell was serious. Choi Jae-won, believing that persistence pays off, was elated thinking that his verbose confession might finally be accepted.
It had been worth voluntarily getting fleeced by paying twice the price to procure a 3-carat diamond that had already been won by someone else in a nearby auction. Perhaps the line about the size of the stone representing the size of love had worked? It was a magic phrase recommended by the middleman who claimed it never failed.
Choi Jae-won happily thought, unaware that most people tend to become more generous with lower barriers to laughter when proposed to with a 3-carat diamond ring. However, as always, the problem arose from the fact that in “most” cases, Ryu Ho-yeon was not included among “most” people.
“At this rate, we’ll never date.”
“Yes, of cour—wait, what? What kind of nonsense is that, hyung?!”
“From now on, I’ll explain the procedure for how you can become my boyfriend, so make sure you understand and act accordingly.”
“Oh! Yes, yes yes. Wait a moment, let me get my notepad!”
It had been a very long time since he had taken out his notebook, as he had long since mastered all of Ho-yeon’s minor hobbies and preferences. (Though he always carried a notebook and pen just in case there was new information to synchronize.)
“First. Declare your withdrawal from the guiding enhancement experiment.”
“Ah…”
