49.
#Sense of Kinship
Throughout the afternoon broadcast, Na-eun kept glancing at Dawoon. Although the broadcast mainly focused on second and third-year students, first-year students were still required to monitor all broadcasts, so there was no time for distractions. That’s why Dawoon found Na-eun’s lack of concentration and constant glancing irritating.
“What is it?”
There was a limit to how much he could ignore it. As time passed, her staring became more blatant, so he couldn’t bear it anymore and asked her what was wrong. Na-eun looked like she had a lot to say, but instead of opening her mouth, she narrowed her eyes and stared at Dawoon’s neck. Even under her gaze, Dawoon’s expression remained unchanged.
“Why are you suddenly wearing a turtleneck?”
Na-eun asked in a hushed voice, afraid others might hear. At the same time, she pointed at Dawoon’s t-shirt with her finger.
“No reason.”
Despite his calm answer, Na-eun didn’t lower her suspicious gaze. Still, without evidence, she didn’t pry further.
“Focus on the broadcast. Don’t get scolded again.”
When there was a mistake during the broadcast and it was missed in the monitoring notes, the seniors would persistently question why it was overlooked. It was clear that they were doing something else during the broadcast, and they had to endure all sorts of unpleasant comments. So when told to focus on monitoring instead of getting distracted, Na-eun pouted and turned her head away.
Dawoon let out a small sigh only after her attention had shifted away from him. He knew that if he had come with a band-aid, it would have attracted all sorts of curiosity like last time, so he wore a long-neck knit instead of a band-aid. No one else paid any attention, but only Na-eun was sensitive to the fact that he had “covered his neck.”
The last time she discovered a kiss mark, Na-eun was the most persistent in asking how it happened. Even when he said he didn’t know, that answer didn’t satisfy her. Just looking at his face, she kept asking him to think hard about it, saying it didn’t make sense that he didn’t know how such a mark ended up on his neck. It only quieted down when Ui-hyeon eventually told her to stop, asking what business it was of hers even if it was a kiss mark.
He had made up an excuse to avoid showing anything, but if he kept wearing turtleneck shirts every day, he felt like people would eventually notice. Not just Na-eun, but others would find it strange too.
This was inconvenient for daily life even before getting rid of the bug. He thought he might need to have a serious conversation with Hayun. Until now, he had avoided it because he didn’t want to bring up an uncomfortable topic, but it seemed like it couldn’t go on like this.
“Jeong Dawoon.”
After finishing the afternoon broadcast and cleaning up, as he was about to leave, Choi Yu-na called out to Dawoon.
“Do you have a moment?”
At her question, Na-eun, who was about to leave the broadcasting club, turned back.
“If there’s something to do, I can do it!”
Na-eun raised her hand with an eager smile. Choi Yu-na gently smiled and shook her head.
“It’s something that requires Dawoon’s help.”
Na-eun was politely told she wasn’t needed.
“What is it?”
“I need to buy a birthday gift for my cousin brother…”
Choi Yu-na paused there and glanced at Na-eun with a troubled expression.
“It needs to be a luxury brand. To meet my cousin’s standards. But I don’t know much about that area.”
As she briefly revealed her family circumstances, Na-eun looked back and forth between her and Dawoon. She somewhat understood that Dawoon’s help was needed to choose a luxury item, but she seemed curious about who Choi Yu-na’s cousin was to require luxury goods.
Seeing Choi Yu-na’s expression, which suggested she didn’t want to explain further, Dawoon suppressed a small sigh. He could understand her desire not to reveal complicated family matters.
“Let’s go. I’ll help you.”
Na-eun’s eyes widened at Dawoon’s response. Although she had known him since high school, it was the first time she had seen Dawoon agree to go somewhere alone with a girl.
“Thank you.”
Choi Yu-na smiled gently at Dawoon. Na-eun puffed up her cheeks in dissatisfaction, but since Dawoon had agreed, there was no room for her to interfere. Only after Na-eun left with a disgruntled expression did Choi Yu-na approach Dawoon’s side.
“Is it okay to send her off like that? She could have come along.”
Concerned that Na-eun might be bothered, Choi Yu-na spoke worriedly. Dawoon silently picked up his bag without responding.
“Na-eun likes you, doesn’t she?”
“Do you have any brands in mind? I should tell you in advance, I don’t know much either. I usually just use what I’m given.”
Not wanting to talk at length about someone who wasn’t present, he changed the subject instead of answering. Choi Yu-na looked at him quietly for a moment, as if trying to guess his thoughts, then smiled faintly.
“I don’t have anything in mind. I really don’t know much either. But I thought you might at least know the brands or items your brother often uses, so I asked for your help.”
Seeming to have caught onto Dawoon’s intention, she didn’t mention Na-eun anymore. Instead, the topic naturally shifted towards Hayun. She had said she wanted to buy a gift for her cousin brother, and if he was around Hayun’s age, it made sense.
Dawoon thought for a moment about what brand Hayun’s wallet was. Clothes would be difficult to buy without knowing the size, and accessories were hard to guess the taste for, so a wallet seemed the most reasonable choice.
“What’s your budget?”
He asked about the budget, but in truth, Dawoon had difficulty gauging how much wallets cost. Choi Yu-na pulled out the black card she had shown Dawoon before.
“It’s not like I’ll be the one paying anyway.”
Dawoon couldn’t help but chuckle at her joke-laced comment. Right. Where would an ordinary college student have the money to buy a luxury wallet? Her preparing a birthday gift for her cousin brother was merely due to family circumstances.
***
“It was more expensive than I thought.”
Choi Yu-na stuck out her tongue, holding up a palm-sized orange shopping bag. She was shocked at how a single wallet could cost hundreds of thousands.
Dawoon found her reaction interesting. Until now, the people around him fell into one of three categories: those who could buy whatever they wanted regardless of whether it cost hundreds of thousands or millions, those who were amazed and envious at just the word “luxury goods,” and those who felt burdened but still bought what they wanted to show off.
But Choi Yu-na didn’t fit into any of these categories. She could buy what she wanted, but she felt burdened while doing so. It was a sense of dissonance that arose because her actual position and the position her heart accepted were different.
He didn’t fully understand that dissonance. Dawoon was different from her. He had grown up in the Haedo Group since childhood, and as a result, was far removed from the word “lack.” He actually lacked a sense of money. He had no standard for what was expensive or cheap. It was because he rarely bought things for himself.
For some reason, Choi Yu-na’s reaction, different from both himself and the relatives of the Haedo Group, felt more familiar.
“I bought it, but I’m not sure if he’ll like it.”
Choi Yu-na muttered, peering into the rectangular box inside the shopping bag.
“Is he someone you need to impress?”
He asked casually, but her face took on a complexity that was hard to describe.
“It’s strange, isn’t it? Needing to impress family.”
She answered with a smile, but to Dawoon’s eyes, she only looked bitter.
“It’s not strange.”
He felt he could understand the desire to impress. He had never considered cousins like her, but Dawoon had always been mindful of his grandfather and wanted to please him even a little.
“As I said before, my position is a bit different… Even small mistakes are not tolerated. It’s funny when I say it out loud. There’s no way you could understand this.”
Choi Yu-na lowered her gaze, avoiding the eyes she had been meeting. Dawoon took a deep breath and opened his mouth.
“Haven’t you heard any rumors about me?”
Her eyes turned back to Dawoon, but her expression showed she didn’t understand what he meant. As she said, if she had only lived with the shell of being Congressman Choi Min-guk’s granddaughter, she might not have heard the rumors that political and business people whispered among themselves.
“I’m not much different from you, senior.”
It was the first time he had ever spoken about his birth directly to someone outside, or to anyone for that matter. He had never even told Ui-hyeon. But why? As he listened to Choi Yu-na speak about herself in a strangely self-deprecating way, it felt like not talking about himself was like lying.
“Not much different? What do you mean?”
Choi Yu-na blinked, still not understanding.
“My mother was the second wife.”
“Second wife…?”
Her expression suggested she didn’t see what the problem was. Dawoon chuckled and turned his head away from her.
“Apparently, they met while my brother’s mother was still alive. They did officially marry after she passed away, but the people at Haedo Group still gossip about whether I’m really my father’s child.”
As he added this explanation, Choi Yu-na’s eyes finally widened.
“You don’t mean…?”
She couldn’t finish her sentence. Even without hearing the rest, he could guess what she wanted to say. She probably wanted to ask if he really wasn’t his father’s child.
“I am my father’s child. When my parents died in an accident, my brother presented my DNA test to our grandfather.”
At those words, Choi Yu-na, who had been staring with a blank expression, soon furrowed her brow. She seemed to have guessed the situation at the time, understanding why Jeong Hayun had to go as far as conducting a DNA test.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
