If You Want Me - Episode 128

<Episode 128>

Ho-, honeymoon baby?

At Do-gyeom’s suggestion, Seo-won was startled and swallowed his saliva, looking around. Fortunately, no one seemed to be paying attention to them.

It seemed no one heard since everyone was immersed in their own conversations, which was fortunate, but… Isn’t this something that shouldn’t be talked about outside?

Afraid someone might hear, Seo-won lowered his voice and scolded Do-gyeom.

“Do you have no awareness that we’re outside?”

“They can’t understand Korean anyway.”

“Honeymoon baby is English though.”

“Ah, right.”

Saying it in a universal language and then saying they won’t understand… Seo-won narrowed his eyes and nagged, but Do-gyeom answered brazenly and raised the corners of his mouth. He didn’t seem to care much from the start whether the people around them heard or not.

No matter if they’d only see these people today, doesn’t he have any shame…? Seo-won’s face heated up in embarrassment. As he slightly lowered his head to cool off, a familiar voice was heard from somewhere.

“Oh, Seo-won?”

“…Huh?”

As he turned his head towards the direction of the voice, Yuncheol, whom he had run into earlier at Waikiki Beach, was standing there.

He seemed to have enjoyed swimming at the beach, as his cheeks and arms and legs were tanned red unlike before.

Seems like he enjoyed a pretty nice vacation… No, but running into him again. Seo-won blinked his eyes in surprise, then belatedly came to his senses and opened his mouth.

“Why are you here, sunbae?”

“I want to ask you that. So this is where you had a dinner reservation? I also made a reservation here, so isn’t this not a coincidence but fate at this point?”

Yuncheol showed a constantly surprised reaction, asking how they could overlap in this wide land.

It was equally amazing to Seo-won, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a situation where he could brightly welcome Yuncheol. He clearly knew that Do-gyeom had nicely refused earlier saying it wasn’t possible because of a reservation, but to think they would meet like this. Moreover, Seo-won also felt the time alone with Do-gyeom was precious and didn’t want to be disturbed.

Not knowing whether to smile or what to do, Seo-won rolled his eyes and checked Do-gyeom’s reaction. As expected, he had hardened his expression as if chewing a stone. The friendly attitude he had just now while talking about a honeymoon baby with Seo-won had long disappeared like a dream.

To Seo-won, the change in his expression was evident, but Yuncheol, who didn’t know that, even went a step further.

“Since this is also fate, shall we sit together?”

“What? Did you come to Hawaii alone, sunbae? What about your companion?”

“Didn’t I say earlier? I came alone.”

“Why, why?”

“Why, you ask? Solo travel is trendy these days and I don’t have a lover, so I came alone. My heart aches.”

When Seo-won asked, Yuncheol pretended to be in pain, placing his hand near his heart as if asking why he had to bring up a heartbreaking story.

No, that’s not the intention I asked with… Somehow, he ended up becoming someone who persistently asked a single person, “You don’t have a lover? Did you break up? You never had one originally?” He thought it was a reasonable thing to ask since Yuncheol could have come on a trip with his parents, but it didn’t seem so for Yuncheol.

Whether intentional or not, it didn’t change the fact that he had stabbed Yuncheol’s heart. As Seo-won awkwardly pressed his lips together, Yuncheol looked at Do-gyeom and asked,

“Is it okay if I join you? I can tell you what Seo-won was like when he was in college… Aren’t you curious?”

“Su-, sunbae! What are you talking about? I wasn’t popular at all!”

“No, you were quite popular among your schoolmates when you were at Korea University, even if they didn’t directly tell you, Seo-won.”

Yuncheol subtly gave a look to Do-gyeom as if asking if it wasn’t tempting. He had a face that seemed like he would spill a bundle of stories if only given permission.

Perhaps because of Yuncheol’s light attitude, Do-gyeom seemed to grit his teeth hard as the muscles in his jaw twitched for a moment. The cold gaze and twitching muscles felt like Do-gyeom’s patience was running out.

It doesn’t seem like we should leave it like this… Although it was a situation where coincidences piled up, Seo-won felt like this happened because he couldn’t properly mediate in the middle.

“Um, sunbae. When you come to Korea next time…”

“I’d like to hear it.”

As Seo-won was hesitating and trying to push Yuncheol away, saying it wouldn’t work out today and promising next time, Do-gyeom, who had been keeping his mouth shut as if he had zipped it, suddenly expressed a positive intention.

I thought he would definitely hate sitting together? The unexpected answer left Seo-won perplexed. As Seo-won looked at Do-gyeom in a daze, he continued,

“I’m curious about what Seo-won was like when he was in college. Shall we talk for a bit?”

“Haha, thank you. Then I’ll go tell the staff and come back.”

With Do-gyeom’s permission, Yuncheol laughed heartily and went to the waiter.

As Yuncheol briefly left his seat, Seo-won, who was left alone, asked Do-gyeom with a face asking why he did that.

“Hyung… Didn’t you dislike Yuncheol sunbae?”

“I dislike him.”

Do-gyeom answered immediately.

When accepting Yuncheol’s suggestion to sit together, he seemed to soften his expression a little, but now Do-gyeom’s eyes looking at Yuncheol’s back were only cold.

“But why…”

“I’m curious about what you were like when you were in school.”

He wondered why Do-gyeom had changed his mind, but it seemed he had been hooked by what Yuncheol just said.

Just for that reason? Seo-won felt somewhat deflated and spoke to him in a powerless voice.

“I can tell you that myself.”

“You’ll only say you weren’t popular. I’m curious about what kind of fly-like jerk was after you.”

“No one was after me…”

No one liked him, and there were no fly-like people at school. Seo-won retorted, but Do-gyeom didn’t seem to believe it much. It seemed to be because Yuncheol had just rambled on unnecessarily saying he was popular.

Why is he curious about that… He really wasn’t popular, and it was just a meaningless past thing to him.

Although displeased, Seo-won didn’t have the heart to chase away Yuncheol who was wagging his tail happily.

* * *

In the end, they ended up sitting together.

Yuncheol, who had gotten permission from the restaurant, brought a chair nearby and joined them. Fortunately, the table was wide, so it wasn’t cramped with one more person.

That was fortunate, but the problem was in the topic of conversation between Do-gyeom and Yuncheol. The two were having a friendly conversation about Seo-won’s past in front of him.

Yuncheol sipped the champagne he had additionally ordered and familiarly spilled stories about the past to Do-gyeom.

“Seo-won had a bit of a different vibe from the other kids, so there were a lot of kids who wanted to get close to him.”

As if to elicit a response from Do-gyeom, Yuncheol said something Seo-won had never heard of in his life.

He said he would soon join S Department Store as a team member, so Seo-won understood his intention to be favored by the CEO… But still, isn’t it absurd to say such nonsense?

Unable to listen any longer out of absurdity, Seo-won immediately retorted to Yuncheol.

“What was different about my vibe?”

“You’re asking that as a question? You just look different.”

“What do you mean…? We’re all the same people, how do I look different…”

“You already had a distinctive appearance, and you skipped every drinking gathering, so there were even rumors of mysticism. Right, there was also a rumor that you were from a chaebol family. I knew it wasn’t true since I was close to you.”

“What? Chaebol family? Me?”

There was such a rumor about him? It’s the first time hearing it.

Is he exaggerating in front of Do-gyeom? As Seo-won narrowed his brows with an unbelievable face, Yuncheol continued as if it was true, widening his eyes.

“Yeah. You always left early saying you had something to do, but the clothes you wore were luxury brands. There were even talks about whether you were being sponsored by someone.”

“What? When did I wear luxury brands?”

“Weren’t the clothes you wore all the time luxury brands?”

“No way. I’ve never bought luxury brands…”

“What are you saying? Don’t you remember? You wore a really expensive wristwatch. The kids said they could pay the deposit for a lease with the price of that watch.”

“That never…”

It really never happened. As he was about to ask when that happened, something flashed through his mind.

At that time, there were occasions when Do-gyeom would pass on clothes or accessories to Seo-won, saying he received them from a partner company or they weren’t his style.

Since Do-gyeom gave them, Seo-won thought they would be expensive, but honestly, he didn’t know most of the brands even looking at them. So he just accepted them, thinking they wouldn’t be that expensive… Were those luxury brands?

The watch he wore in college was also given by Do-gyeom. He clearly remembered because the design was clean and cool, the performance was good, and it didn’t break down, so he wore it for a long time. But… was that an expensive item worth someone’s lease deposit?

He couldn’t think of any other way since he never intentionally bought counterfeits or luxury brands. With a doubtful mind, Seo-won glanced at Do-gyeom, and he subtly avoided his gaze.

It was true… With the gaze intentionally avoiding him, he had no choice but to be certain. Seo-won frowned and immediately asked Do-gyeom.

“Were the things you gave me back then that expensive?”

“I’m not sure since I don’t know the price of those items either.”

Do-gyeom brazenly pretended as if he didn’t know.

Even back then, most of the gifts he received, he would pass them on, saying he probably wouldn’t use them or the size didn’t fit, so he really might not have known the price. But does a partner company normally give items worth a lease deposit? Isn’t that corruption at that level?

Moreover, back then, Do-gyeom wasn’t the CEO, so it didn’t seem like he would have received such items. The Do-gyeom Seo-won knew wasn’t someone whose background was dirty enough to take bribes. They had known each other for a long time and as pheromone partners, Seo-won knew almost all of Do-gyeom’s every move, so he could guarantee it. No matter how Seo-won looked at it, it seemed like Do-gyeom bought and gifted them.

Sigh, he had used them without knowing they were expensive… Seo-won felt dizzy thinking about how people must have viewed him.