If You Want Me - Episode 129

<Episode 129>

The words he wanted to argue about rose to his throat, but Yuncheol intervened and blocked them.

“A gift? Then were you and the CEO already acquainted back then, Seo-won?”

As if he couldn’t just listen quietly, Yuncheol’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

While wondering why he was showing so much interest, Seo-won felt it seemed to be a topic that would make someone who didn’t know them curious. Because no matter how you looked at it, Seo-won and Do-gyeom seemed to have no connection. And aren’t stories like a Cinderella tale of someone from a chaebol family meeting a commoner bound to be of interest?

“Hmm…”

Seo-won parted his lips to speak, then made a small noise.

He wanted to explain simply enough to satisfy the curiosity, but since they had been intertwined from a young age, it was difficult to explain.

Should he start by unraveling the story of how his mother worked as a housekeeper at Do-gyeom’s house and Seo-won went to live in that mansion? It felt a bit uncomfortable to talk about, as it was a family matter he hadn’t particularly shared with others.

Seo-won usually didn’t think there was a hierarchy to occupations and didn’t feel ashamed of his mother who had worked as a housekeeper. However, he had an aversion to revealing that he had grown up without a father. He knew that people wouldn’t care much if he actually said it, but for some unknown reason, he felt that way. Perhaps it was an inferiority complex.

As he was hesitating because of that, Do-gyeom opened his mouth before Seo-won.

“We’ve known each other for a long time. More than that, I’d like to hear more about Seo-won’s school days.”

“What? Ah, school stories…”

Do-gyeom subtly turned the conversation, as if to say ‘There’s no need to be curious about how we met, so keep talking about what you were saying.’ Because of that, Yuncheol, who had been waiting for Seo-won’s answer, made an awkward expression.

Even though he hadn’t joined the company yet, perhaps because Do-gyeom was the CEO in the near future, Yuncheol couldn’t refuse.

Giving up on hearing the story, Yuncheol continued talking about Seo-won’s college life as Do-gyeom wanted.

“Seo-won was so popular when he was in college… I don’t know if he didn’t know or what. He had such a strong iron wall that most kids gave up without even being able to talk to him properly.”

“Seo-won had a strong iron wall?”

“Yes, as I said before… Even when his classmates asked him to hang out, he wouldn’t come saying he had somewhere to go, and he didn’t come to drinking gatherings often.”

“…”

The more Yuncheol talked, the more Do-gyeom narrowed his brows and made a face as if he couldn’t understand. It was a face asking if the word ‘iron wall’ even suited Seo-won.

At Do-gyeom’s reaction, Seo-won felt an unknown embarrassment. Although he didn’t consciously put up walls and draw lines with other people, he couldn’t deny that there was a distance. It wasn’t that he disliked the people he met in college, but it was true that he didn’t focus much on college life.

At that time, Seo-won was only thinking about meeting Do-gyeom after class ended. When a departmental drinking gathering came up and they asked him to go, he refused saying he had to meet Do-gyeom, and even when a blind date was arranged with his classmates, he didn’t attend because he had someone else he liked. As a result, he naturally didn’t give a chance to meet outside of class.

So that’s how it looked like an iron wall to others’ eyes. Although it wasn’t intentional, Seo-won understood that it could have looked that way.

Unlike at school where he was like that, he was completely open-hearted to Do-gyeom. Because he had adjusted his time and lived that way only for him… Do-gyeom wouldn’t be able to understand the iron wall.

As Seo-won lowered his head deeply, Yuncheol continued.

“Even I was about to give up, but I became close to him by persistently clinging…”

“Clinging?”

As Yuncheol naturally tried to continue the story, he tightly closed his mouth at Do-gyeom’s cold voice.

Although there were multiple meanings to the word ‘clinging’, Do-gyeom seemed to take it in a sexual sense as his eyes were filled with a chilling air.

In an atmosphere where it seemed like he would grab Yuncheol’s collar at any moment, Yuncheol hurriedly explained that it was a misunderstanding.

“Ah, no! That’s not what I meant, I just meant when you have someone you want to be close to, you greet them and try to talk to them, you know.”

“…”

Yuncheol strongly explained, waving both hands, asking not to misunderstand.

However, Do-gyeom wasn’t the type of person to try to talk to someone first because he wanted to get close to them in the first place. He was inherently taciturn to people other than Seo-won, and he was the type that even without trying, everyone around him was desperate to get close to him. It was out of Do-gyeom’s scope of understanding.

Despite Yuncheol’s explanation, there was no sign of Do-gyeom’s misunderstanding being resolved. As the misunderstanding deepened, Seo-won couldn’t bear to watch and intervened in the conversation to change the subject.

“Su-, sunbae. When did I ever put up an iron wall? I did skip some drinking gatherings and events because I had things to do, but I wasn’t cold to people…”

There was also an intention to naturally progress the conversation, but he wanted to clear up the misunderstanding that there was room for misinterpretation in the words that he had put up an iron wall. Wouldn’t it seem like he had coldly treated everyone except Do-gyeom?

As Seo-won asked, “Right?” Yuncheol answered as if he had been waiting.

“You were kind to the kids. But the iron wall I mentioned wasn’t just about skipping events… It was because it was so obvious that you had someone else you liked.”

“…Me?”

“Yeah. Whenever you got a call from someone, you would smile broadly and your face would turn red. As soon as school ended, you would run out saying you had something to do.”

“…”

“What. You showed so much that you had someone you liked… You weren’t aware of it?”

At Yuncheol’s question, Seo-won was dumbfounded.

He had no idea at all. He found out for the first time today that he had been doing that. He thought it just seemed like he was putting up an iron wall because he didn’t meet his classmates privately… But that wasn’t it.

In other people’s eyes, it seemed like he was desperately in one-sided love. Thinking that way made him feel embarrassed and his face heated up.

As Seo-won lost his words and tightly closed his mouth, Yuncheol looked at him as if it was absurd. Then, as if belatedly concerned about Do-gyeom, he made an awkward expression.

“Ah, but is it okay to talk about this in front of your husband…? I talked because you said you were curious about when Seo-won was in college, but…”

The fact that someone was so desperately in one-sided love could be a sensitive issue for a spouse.

Yuncheol’s original intention was clearly to say at first that Seo-won was that popular in college. He was amazed at how the mysterious kid had already met a spouse. So he was going to tell Do-gyeom to treat Seo-won well.

But somehow, the story ended up flowing to Seo-won desperately being in one-sided love with someone when he was a college student. He was worried that he had added fuel to the fire, as Do-gyeom seemed to have antipathy just from the words that Yuncheol had clung to Seo-won.

Yuncheol, who belatedly noticed this, glanced at Do-gyeom’s reaction. But unexpectedly, Do-gyeom had a calm face.

As Yuncheol was flustered by the very different atmosphere from before, Do-gyeom calmly opened his mouth.

“It’s fine. That person is me anyway.”

The reason Do-gyeom wasn’t affected was exactly that.

It was because he knew that Seo-won putting up walls to the point of creating a mysterious image back then was all because he liked Do-gyeom.

Because he knew he was Seo-won’s first and last love. So he could be confident.

“Oh…”

“…”

Yuncheol made a round mouth in admiration, then rolled his eyes and looked at Seo-won.

As he simultaneously received Yuncheol’s amazed gaze and Do-gyeom’s satisfied gaze, Seo-won felt like his already hot face would burst.

The fact that Seo-won had liked Do-gyeom for a long time was something even he knew now. So it wasn’t something to be newly embarrassed about, but he felt embarrassed being caught that he had been more focused on love than his real life. He wanted to hide in a mouse hole if there was one.

However, not knowing his feelings or intentionally ignoring them, Do-gyeom showed signs of becoming more and more interested.

“More details about how it was…”

“Ah, le-, let’s stop talking about that now.”

As Do-gyeom was about to squeeze more out of Yuncheol, Seo-won hurriedly blocked him.

If he heard more, he felt like he would want to run away like this. No, he already felt a bit like that.

Seo-won looked at Do-gyeom with a tearful face, but he acted mean as if intentionally pretending not to know.

“Why, it’s getting interesting.”

“What’s so fun… Shall we order more drinks now?”

“There’s still a lot of alcohol left.”

“We’ll drink this much quickly. Ah, bring some more of that champagne. It was delicious earlier…”

Seo-won rambled on, trying to change the subject somehow.

He even directly called the waiter and ordered more champagne. Fortunately, perhaps his desperation got through, as they didn’t urge him to talk more about his college days.

Nevertheless, Seo-won felt unnecessarily embarrassed and downed the champagne poured into his glass in one shot. Although the alcohol content was quite high and he felt his throat burning every time he swallowed, it didn’t feel as hot as his face.