53.
“Wasn’t it good this time? Hyung Ho-yeon said he absolutely hates it. That it’s completely terrible. Is it really that bad? I don’t think so, it’s really not that bad… Dad said he successfully proposed to Mom with this on his first try…”
It was an unexpected nighttime call. Lee Han-seo, who had just been about to dive into bed after putting on the fluffy matching pajamas he coordinated with Park Woo-jun, intending to snuggle against his adorable boyfriend’s chest with his innocent face and angry muscles, had been practically dragged out. His face remained indifferent as he intermittently sipped through a straw, repeatedly crinkling its wrapper, completely disinterested in the other’s seemingly serious voice.
“Ah, hyung! Focus a bit, okay? I’m asking if it’s really that bad. I don’t understand what’s so terrible about it!”
This guy has the nerve to get irritated, not appreciating the mountain-like favor from his heaven-sent hyung who promptly came out at this late hour. Lee Han-seo gathered the straw wrapper he had been fiddling with and threw it at Choi Jae-won’s face.
“What the hell, are you crazy?”
You’re the crazy one… Though irritation rose like smoke from a chimney, Lee Han-seo restrained himself once more. If Choi Jae-won had just been a simple cousin with little interaction, he wouldn’t have bothered, but whether by coincidence or fate, he was Ryu Ho-yeon’s pair Guide and potential boyfriend, or something like that.
Choi Jae-won being rejected by the person he loved wasn’t the issue. This was Ryu Ho-yeon’s! His closest friend’s! First romance in his twenty-eight years of life.
Moreover, though he hadn’t explicitly mentioned it, Lee Han-seo was almost certain that this romance would be Ryu Ho-yeon’s first and last.
Choi Jae-won was, well, though it’s funny for Lee Han-seo to judge, anyway for dating purposes, he was definitely an A-grade, no, a special S-grade catch.
Maybe it was the influence of his aunt who had worked as a magazine model during college despite his uncle not being particularly large? Honestly, without favoring his own family, among the children of wealthy families, his looks would be considered top-tier. And his towering height, easily exceeding 180 centimeters.
Though when limited to Ryu Ho-yeon and those around him, there was no need to even mention Ryu Ho-yeon himself in terms of looks. Lee Jung-hyuk, Kim Jun-young, and Park Woo-jun too. All three had exceptional appearances in their own unique styles.
Park Woo-jun was unmatched in his pure and elegant appearance, while Kim Jun-young had no equal in his striking beauty that captured everyone’s attention like a poisonous rose. And what about Lee Jung-hyuk? He was traditionally handsome with a tough impression and defined features. It was almost pitiable to compare someone considered handsome by ordinary standards to them. Plus, all three towered well over 185 centimeters… So although Choi Jae-won wasn’t short, he didn’t give off that impressively tall feeling.
When he was outside, they said there were so many people waiting in line to have Choi Jae-won as a son-in-law—from other wealthy families to numerous politicians—that if they lined up from Seocho-dong, the line would reach Yeouido and beyond. Yet the person he happened to fall for, and those around that person… Lee Han-seo couldn’t help but click his tongue in sympathy.
Immediately, Choi Jae-won frowned deeply and muttered, “What are you thinking now? I feel strangely unpleasant…” His intuition was uncanny.
“No. I just don’t think you have any friends. Be honest. You don’t have any, right? None at all? Seeing how you’ve come to ask me about something that’s obviously terrible because you have no one else to ask, well, I think I know the answer, but I’m asking as a courtesy.”
It was blatant sarcasm. Usually, people would become intimidated and back off when Lee Han-seo unsheathed his verbal knife to this extent. Something about not disturbing a mad dog, or whatever.
However, Choi Jae-won was indeed no ordinary person. Without missing a beat, he shot back, “Then do you have any?”
Lee Han-seo became momentarily solemn. Come to think of it… he truly didn’t. Wasn’t he the guy who had early on determined his future goal to be Ryu Ho-yeon’s pair Guide and then relentlessly charged toward that destination like a bulldozer? Having normal friendships, managing social relationships… he had never been interested in such things.
The reason he didn’t appear to lack people around him was that, due to his impressive background, there were many who voluntarily flocked to him as followers without him having to pay attention to such matters.
“Uhh, is that so… hmm, I guess so…”
“It’s annoying, so could you please stop looking at me like I’m pitiful? Besides, apart from Hyung Ho-yeon, you’re not much different from me, are you?”
“When you put it that way, I have nothing to say…”
Absently smacking his lips and scratching his cheek a few times with his finger, Lee Han-seo finally regained his senses after a few minutes and safely returned to the main topic.
“So, seriously. You were really going to call an orchestra in a crowded plaza or something? You called me out in the middle of the night because you don’t understand why that’s so terrible?”
“Exactly. I don’t understand why it’s so terrible.”
“Sigh…”
The problem was too deep, far too deep. He didn’t even know where to begin criticizing.
Seeing Lee Han-seo’s deep sigh and empty expression, Choi Jae-won’s brazen face showed a slight disturbance, as if he had suddenly understood many things. Without being prompted, he started mumbling excuses.
“Hyung Ho-yeon has been watching this drama lately where the main character confesses like that… He enjoyed it so much that he replayed that clip several times. Wouldn’t it work well to recreate the exact favorite scene from his favorite show?”
“Oh my god, uncle… how could you raise your child to be so tactless…”
I know which drama he’s talking about. It’s a scene from the morning drama “Did I, A Terminal Patient, Tame Mr. Regret?”, an adaptation of a famous webtoon known for its provocative storylines. Lee Han-seo sometimes watched it while eating when there was nothing else on, so he roughly knew the content.
The reason why Ryu Ho-yeon and many viewers considered that proposal scene to be the climax wasn’t because they found it romantic when someone confessed noisily in a public place, causing all kinds of inconvenience.
It was because a character who had been nothing but trash in the early parts of the show, seemingly beyond redemption, later regretted his actions and followed the protagonist around desperately, begging and groveling in a satisfyingly pathetic way.
Even if he genuinely thought the scene was cool and romantic, considering Ryu Ho-yeon’s extremely introverted personality and his intense dislike of drawing others’ attention, it was obvious he would think public confessions were only beautiful when they existed solely within media.
In any case, the perfect elements of that scene included how the protagonist, who discovered that her terminal diagnosis was actually a misdiagnosis, thoroughly criticized the problematic regretful man’s public proposal.
To think he wanted to recreate a spectacularly failed proposal scene just because Ryu Ho-yeon enjoyed watching it. Despite his appearance, this was a kid who used to rank in the single digits nationally on mock exams, so he couldn’t be that stupid. The only explanation was that he liked Ryu Ho-yeon enough to willingly do something so absurd.
“I even called and asked Dad, and he said it was completely fine. Dad said he successfully proposed to Mom that way.”
“Hey, that’s…!”
No. This guy was a hopeless idiot beyond salvation. Even Lee Han-seo, who never broke into the single digits in his class rankings, let alone national ones during his school days, knew this… Something had seriously clouded his judgment.
“Are you an idiot? I see. The problem isn’t that my little cousin has no friends, it’s that he’s stupid.”
“…Why, what.”
“Did your uncle and aunt just have a love marriage? They arranged a merger of shares with lawyers from both families in advance, then fabricated some ‘love of the century’ story for a single newspaper article. That proposal, you think your uncle had any hand in preparing it? It was all the PR team’s work!”
His blood pressure was rising. Really shooting up. To the point where he wouldn’t have to worry about low blood pressure for a while.
“Oh.”
“Just try calling me out one more time to ask such nonsensical questions. You’ll be dead, seriously.”
He wanted to scream at him to just give it all up. However, it was lamentable that without someone with Choi Jae-won’s persistence and obsession, there simply wasn’t any talent capable of tirelessly scaling Ryu Ho-yeon’s high walls.
