Chapter 73
“What? You two know each other?”
Forcing a smile, Si-yul turned his head towards Woo Hyun-se. Hyun-se’s face was expressionless. The man who usually wore a smile like a mask had his lips pressed into a straight line, his head tilted at an angle, fixing his gaze elsewhere.
The target of his stare was the white hand trapped in Woo Tae-joo’s grip. Although Tae-joo couldn’t sense pheromones at all, he seemed to vaguely understand what that gaze meant.
A forced cough broke the strange atmosphere. In Seo-hee lowered the fist that had covered her mouth and nodded at Tae-joo. At that sound, Tae-joo came to his senses and quickly put on his usual smile. However, despite his effort, the corners of his lips remained stiffly set.
“I’m In Seo-hee. Nice to meet you.”
Seo-hee extended her hand to Si-yul. Si-yul stared blankly at that white, delicate hand. It was a fine hand that suited the expression ‘untouched by a drop of water’. Should I take it? Do I have to take it? As he hesitated, Seo-hee tilted her head in confusion. Just before she lowered her hand, Si-yul quickly grasped it. Though he let go after just a few seconds.
“A date?”
At Seo-hee’s voice, Si-yul’s shoulders jolted. Before he could deny it, Tae-joo, scratching the back of his head as if embarrassed, answered faster than Si-yul.
“Yeah. …It’s a date. You too?”
“Something like that.”
Si-yul’s face grew even paler. Hyun-se raised his hand near his own neck. He fiddled with the knot as if wanting to loosen his tie. His eyes were still fixed on Si-yul. Tae-joo stepped in front of him, blocking his view.
“Well, we have an appointment, so we’ll go first. Noona, I’ll contact you later. …Hyung too.”
Tae-joo firmly gripped Si-yul’s shoulder. Si-yul, dazed and lost, stumbled along as he was pulled away. He glanced back briefly, but couldn’t fully face them and quickly looked forward again.
He wasn’t sure how he made it out of the concert hall. Led by Tae-joo’s hand, he found himself in some unnamed park. Only when Tae-joo sat him down on a bench did he come to his senses. He noticed his fingertips were red and frozen from the cold. Tae-joo wrapped Si-yul’s hands in his own.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
Si-yul opened his mouth with an “Ah,” then closed it tightly. Color had not yet returned to his cheeks. Tae-joo placed his hand on Si-yul’s cheek, which was still pale, almost greenish. Usually, Si-yul would have removed it or avoided it, but this time he gave no reaction for a long while.
“I looked for a cafe, but there weren’t any nearby. I thought you needed to rest for a bit, so we came to this park in a hurry… Should we go somewhere warm? I’ll call a taxi.”
“No. I’m fine. I think I’ll feel better after resting a bit.”
Si-yul pulled his hand away from Tae-joo and rubbed his face. The afterimage wouldn’t disappear from his sight. She was a tall, beautiful woman. Her voice was clear, and her extended hand gave off a fragrant scent. He knew by the scent that she was of the same type.
Feeling dizzy as if the ground was sinking, Si-yul bent over and looked down at his feet. Though the frozen ground was solid, he felt uneasy, as if his feet were floating in the air.
“Do you know them?”
Si-yul spoke, planting his feet firmly on the ground. Tae-joo turned his head towards Si-yul and just stared silently. At the sudden question, he nodded, but seeing Si-yul’s gaze fixed in the distance, he shortly uttered, “Yes.”
“I met Seo-hee noona at a gathering, and the one on the left… he’s my cousin.”
No wonder they looked alike. Now that he heard it, their voices were similar too. They say it’s a small world where everyone knows everyone after a few connections, but this was too close for comfort. Who would have thought Woo Hyun-se and Woo Tae-joo were relatives?
When Si-yul let out a small cough, Tae-joo abruptly stood up. While he was away getting something to drink, Si-yul took out his phone. There were no messages. Not even a missed call. Even after running into each other like that.
He didn’t need to ask what kind of relationship they had. They looked like a couple straight out of a classic fashion magazine. How long had it been going on? Was he the first, or was he the intruder? Judging by the situation, he seemed to be the latter, an uninvited guest.
What expression had Hyun-se been making? He couldn’t recall at all, as if someone had painted over his memory with black ink. He just felt lost. It was hard to tell if it was dark because of the night, or if his vision was clouded. Only the scent of the woman who stood confidently next to Hyun-se, as if it was her rightful place, remained clear.
Tae-joo came running back quickly from a distance. He was carefully holding a canned drink that wouldn’t cool down quickly even in this cold weather. He even opened the lid himself before handing it to Si-yul. Seeing his hand and the can with faint steam rising from it, Si-yul’s eyebrows contorted. Before he could do anything, Hyun-se came to mind first.
“Thank you.”
He managed to take it, hiding his choked voice. His hands were trembling violently, whether from the cold or for some other reason.
“I didn’t know you were cousins. Now that I look, you do resemble each other a lot.”
“How did you come to know Hyun-se?”
Tae-joo dropped the “hyung” after Hyun-se’s name, but Si-yul didn’t notice the oddity. His mind was too preoccupied to catch the hidden barb in those words.
Si-yul bit his lower lip hard. He didn’t want to answer. His head was a mess. It felt like a tangled skein of thread that couldn’t be untangled without cutting it with a knife had pushed out his brain and taken its place.
As he deliberately maintained silence, Tae-joo also kept his mouth shut and stared directly at Si-yul. As if protesting, urging him to open up. The first to raise the white flag in the silent air was Si-yul.
“I met him through work. That’s also how I ended up working at the shop.”
“Hyun-se helped you?”
“Something like that.”
Although it started with blackmail over dry cleaning fees, looking back, it had helped prevent him from falling deeper into a bad path. Feeling completely chilled, he quickly took a sip. Even though the lukewarm liquid warmed his esophagus, the trembling in his hands didn’t stop.
Tae-joo waited silently until Si-yul calmed down. Even after sipping and emptying the entire can, there was no sign of improvement in Si-yul’s complexion. His lower lip trembled occasionally, and the nails of the hand holding the can alternated between turning white and red.
“…Hyung, you know, I’m quite perceptive. I used to notice when kids were dating before anyone else said anything.”
In fact, at this point, it was impossible not to know. Even the most insensitive person could quickly draw a conclusion by connecting Si-yul’s pallor with the earlier situation. Tae-joo clenched and unclenched his numb hand. Fervently hoping his intuition was wrong.
“Please tell me if I’m wrong. I really hope I’m wrong.”
Si-yul glanced at him. His focus was still blurry. He seemed to be wandering in another world. Tae-joo wanted to bring that gaze back to him.
“The person you said you like, is it possibly Woo Hyun-se?”
A light returned to Si-yul’s dazed eyes. They seemed to be brimming with tears. Even without words, Si-yul’s moistened eyes were answer enough. His eyelids turned red and filled with moisture, but the tears didn’t quite fall. As if it was his last shred of pride.
With a despairing “Wow,” Tae-joo raised his head and covered his face with both hands. Never before had he wished so much for his intuition to be wrong. But as expected, his ominous premonition was not off the mark.
How, in this wide world, among so many people, did Kwon Si-yul and Woo Hyun-se end up entangled? If there was a god managing fate, they must be an incredibly twisted, socially maladjusted character.
Judging by the way Hyun-se had looked at him, it probably wasn’t just Si-yul’s one-sided feelings. The two of them had some interaction that he didn’t know about. And it seemed quite intense and strong.
“It can’t be.”
Tae-joo knew Si-yul was staring at him with wide eyes, but he turned to look a beat late. At the firm and bold response, the tears that had gathered under Si-yul’s eyes grew larger and finally, one drop fell with a plop.
Tae-joo, feeling as if he had made Si-yul cry, fidgeted uncomfortably and took out a handkerchief from his pocket to offer. But Si-yul just stared at Tae-joo without moving, his hands resting on his knees.
After biting his lips until they turned white, Si-yul finally managed to speak.
“Is it because you two are cousins? Or because I’m not good enough?”
“It’s not for those reasons.”
“Then why?”
Tae-joo hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should reveal the reason himself. Shouldn’t the person involved tell him directly? He didn’t want to speak out of turn and face criticism.
But wouldn’t Si-yul find out eventually anyway? Continuing to like someone who was about to get married would only leave Si-yul with pain. It’s better to face the truth sooner rather than later. Tae-joo wiped Si-yul’s reddened eyes with the handkerchief and spoke.
“Hyung, give up on Hyun-se.”
“…”
“He’s getting married soon anyway.”
Si-yul’s eyes widened. He was so shocked that even his tears stopped. He lowered his gaze in disbelief, then raised it again. He asked “What?” with a rising intonation. It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard, but that he wished he had heard wrong.
“With the noona who came to the concert with him today.”
Putting aside the tangled fate, Tae-joo didn’t feel good about delivering this news either. It was difficult to face Si-yul’s tear-filled eyes.
