Chapter 27: A Lie to Keep His Distance

[Today’s (3/24) Corporate Finance (Periods 2–4) lecture is canceled due to the professor’s personal circumstances. Makeup class schedule will be announced later.]

Shin Joowon, who had parked his car in the Business School parking lot before checking his messages, immediately scowled.

If they had announced it the day before, he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of coming to school so early.

Moreover, since Corporate Finance was his only class today, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had made a pointless trip.

Shin Joowon, letting out a sigh, tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and leaned his head against the headrest.

Since he hadn’t gotten out of the car yet, he could just drive back out of the campus.

It was a time when his family members would be at work, so he would be able to spend some quiet, leisurely time at home.

Should he do some exercise for a change?

The foul mood from the wasted trip lasted only a moment; as he contemplated how to spend his sudden free time, his mood improved again.

“…Actually, no.”

Muttering to himself, Shin Joowon picked up his phone.

After swiping through his photo album a few times, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

The photo on the screen was Jin Yooha’s timetable, which he had coaxed out of a teaching assistant yesterday morning.

Unfortunately, Jin Yooha’s library work hours weren’t written on it, but it was still good enough to know his general schedule.

Today, the only class filling Jin Yooha’s timetable was Accounting Principles from the 5th to the 7th period.

Since the lecture started at 1:00 PM, Yooha would either eat lunch at home before coming or arrive at school a bit early to grab a light bite.

Shin Joowon tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, lost in thought for a moment.

Although he would meet Jin Yooha tomorrow since they shared a class, he hadn’t seen him yesterday either, and he didn’t want to stubbornly wait until tomorrow.

He had to see Jin Yooha often to get close quickly, so he could figure him out faster.

There was no need to postpone such an interesting task until tomorrow.

He should ask him to have lunch together.

There was no better excuse for meeting up than a meal.

Since Yooha lived far away and might eat early to rush over, it seemed best to contact him right away.

Shin Joowon immediately looked up Yooha’s number and dialed.

To the rhythm of the monotonous ringback tone, he tapped his index finger on the steering wheel again.

– Hello…?

Just as his patience was running thin due to the longer-than-expected ringback tone, the voice he had been waiting for finally came through.

It was a timid, cautious voice as usual, but it sounded only welcoming to Shin Joowon.

Involuntarily curving his lips upward, Shin Joowon leaned back and sank deep into the seat.

“Yooha, do you want to have lunch with me later?”

Without even a common greeting, he jumped straight to the main point, which carried an underlying pressure that Yooha absolutely had to have lunch with him.

Shin Joowon leaned back more relaxed, lightly tapping his foot.

Even if Jin Yooha hesitated, if Joowon pushed him just one more time, he would give a positive answer as if he couldn’t help it.

“How about around twelve? Let’s eat at the Business School.”

If they ate outside again, annoying sighting posts would pop up, so it seemed better to meet at the Business School.

At least among the Business Department students, no one would be foolish enough to get on his bad side by posting sighting threads on the community.

Although there had been a few such people in the past.

– Lunch… today?

“Yeah. Why? Don’t you have time for lunch?”

Even though he already knew the timetable inside out, Shin Joowon played dumb and asked.

If Yooha hurried a bit from home, he should be able to arrive at the Business School by twelve, but for some reason, Jin Yooha hesitated and didn’t readily accept the offer.

Shin Joowon, displeased by Yooha’s lukewarm reaction, pressed his slightly furrowed brow.

– Uh… yes, I… today is a work day for me….

“Work? At the library?”

– Yes…. I have to go straight to class after work, so… I don’t think I’ll have time for lunch….

Listening to the slow, timid voice, Shin Joowon furrowed his brow again, which he had tried to smooth out.

He had hoped to see Jin Yooha since class was canceled, but it was his own miscalculation not knowing the work hours.

Still, it wasn’t completely without harvest, since he now knew that Jin Yooha worked at the library on Tuesday mornings.

“That’s too bad. I didn’t see you yesterday either, so I wanted to see you today.”

Shin Joowon spoke with half-sincerity, idling with the steering wheel with his other hand.

Since tomorrow was a day he could meet Jin Yooha without making an appointment, he decided to let go of his disappointment for now.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

– Yes… I’m sorry….

“Why are you sorry about this? You have to work, so it can’t be helped.”

Perhaps he felt exceedingly guilty, as his voice was so small it sounded as if it would crumble away.

Having lost even the will to say anything more to Jin Yooha, who was acting excessively submissive, Shin Joowon hung up after a final greeting.

‘Let’s just go home….’

Letting out a long sigh, Shin Joowon placed his phone roughly on the console and started the engine.

Just as he was about to step on the accelerator, a thought flashed through his mind.

‘Even if we can’t eat together, I can still see his face if I go to the library, right?’

The fact that Yooha’s voice had been particularly small and cautious during the call made perfect sense if he was at the library.

Although it was a bit of a shame that he wouldn’t be able to see Yooha silently chewing his food and widening his large eyes when it tasted good, he would at least be able to see his startled face when Joowon snuck up and appeared before him.

Without further hesitation, Shin Joowon set his destination to the Central Library and immediately drove there.

As soon as he parked his car, Shin Joowon got out quickly and walked into the library, looking around busily.

At the checkout desk, only a female student who looked like a student helper was sitting, and Jin Yooha was nowhere to be seen.

Since finding Jin Yooha in this vast library would be a daunting task, he decided to get some help.

“Could I ask you something?”

Wearing the genial smile he usually showed to strangers, Shin Joowon spoke to the female student at the desk.

The student, who had been yawning in boredom, widened her eyes in surprise and stared at Shin Joowon.

Since it was one of the common reactions of people seeing him for the first time, Shin Joowon wasn’t shaken at all.

He just kept up the kind smile and continued.

“There’s a student named Jin Yooha who works here, and I was wondering if you know where he is right now? He doesn’t seem to be on the first floor.”

“Jin… Yooha?”

The female student tilted her head as if hearing the name for the first time.

If they worked together, they would at least exchange names, but it seemed there was absolutely no interaction between them.

Considering Jin Yooha was a self-proclaimed outsider even within the department, it wasn’t very strange.

Thinking about how such a Jin Yooha had approached him so actively made it impossible not to suspect him, but since he had decided to get to know him more first, Joowon set aside his prejudice for the time being.

“Just a moment.”

The female student stood up, asked for his understanding, and walked into the office behind her.

As he waited while scanning the surroundings once more, the female student soon emerged from the office with a woman who looked like an employee.

When Shin Joowon gave a polite nod, the woman gave a businesslike smile.

“Are you looking for Yooha-ssi? Have you tried contacting him?”

“I spoke with him on the phone about five minutes ago, and he said he was working at the library, so I dropped by. I have something to give him.”

Shin Joowon, lying smoothly without a change in his expression, gave a bright eye-smile.

Usually, when he smiled like this, anyone would let down their guard and act as if they’d give him their liver, but for some reason, the employee in front of him, far from lowering her guard, seemed to look at him with a deeper look of suspicion.

“Yooha-ssi said that? That he’s working right now?”

“…Yes.”

Although Yooha hadn’t strictly said he was working “right now,” Shin Joowon answered affirmatively for now.

He wondered if he had jumped to conclusions too quickly about Yooha’s work hours in his eagerness to surprise him.

His mind was racing to figure out why this woman still hadn’t let down her guard.

“Yooha-ssi isn’t on the morning shift today….”

“…Not on the morning shift?”

“Yes. Are you sure you contacted Yooha-ssi before coming?”

Before he knew it, the employee’s gaze had turned even more skeptical.

‘f*ck, what kind of situation is this now?’

It was absurd that even the female student next to her was now looking at him as if he were a strange person.

However, Shin Joowon, successfully conjuring up a gentle eye-smile, lightly locked eyes with the employee.

“I must have misheard. I’ll contact Yooha again.”

“…Yes, you should do that.”

Pretending to have kept his composure until the end, Shin Joowon finished his performance with a polite farewell and immediately walked away.

The moment he stepped out of the library doors, his face froze ice-cold.

“f*ck…….”

Clutching his phone tightly, Shin Joowon let out a curse.

It wasn’t just that it wasn’t his shift yet—he wasn’t on the morning shift at all.

The voice that said today was his work day was still clear in his ears, and to think it was all a lie.

‘Yes… I’m sorry….’

‘Was he sorry not because he couldn’t have lunch, but because he dared to lie to me?’

“Haa…….”

It felt like it was the first time in his life he had been so dumbfounded.

Letting out several hollow breaths, Shin Joowon returned to his car, got into the driver’s seat, and brushed his hair back roughly.

He couldn’t understand why Yooha, who had readily treated him to a meal on Saturday, was suddenly lying to reject his offer.

‘He couldn’t even make proper eye contact and acted so innocent, yet he dares to stab me in the back with a brazen lie?’

The boiling rage was fierce enough to cause even his tightly controlled pheromones to leak out explosively.

Closing his eyes deeply, taking several deep breaths, and repeatedly thumping the back of his head against the headrest, he was finally able to calm his mind a little.