Chapter 88: Unspoken Answers and Spicy Tteokbokki

I answered sharply, deliberately looking elsewhere. I didn’t want to face him right now. While part of it was the lingering awkwardness from yesterday, it was mostly because every time I saw his face today… I couldn’t stop thinking about that thing brushing against my thigh. I’ve lived a long time, but I never thought the day would come where I’d be staring at Choi Do Yun while having such intrusive thoughts.

In the original novel, Ji An had described it as being the size of a ‘lotion bottle,’ but I never imagined it was actually true. Moreover, I had inadvertently discovered a strange fetish I would have preferred to never know about. To think that a man who looks like a god from Greek mythology actually enjoys making people cry!

The man calling me “Hyung” no longer felt like the pretty, cute little brother from the past. This… this felt like real estate fraud. He was a puppy when he was little, but he grew up into something like an American werewolf.

While I was imagining myself screaming and banging my head against a wall, A Young spoke to Ji An.

“By the way, Ji An, has the release date for Director Kim’s movie been set yet?”

“Not yet. But it looks like it’ll be late April or early May. The story is really fun and well-done. The cast is great, too.”

While A Young and Ji An chatted about the movie they were working on, Do Yun shifted seats and slid over next to me. The mere act of him moving closer made me jump so hard I almost hopped away like a frog. Fortunately, I managed to avoid making a scene by biting my tongue hard. Do Yun looked at me with a serious expression.

“You don’t look well.”

“…Worry about yourself. You’re the one who was sick.”

“I’m really fine. I just get like that sometimes when I’m under extreme stress.”

I glared at him. What did he have to be stressed about? Did Bae Ji An reject him or something?

“What do you mean ‘like that’? The fever and the talking nonsense?”

“…How do you know about that?”

I was momentary flustered, but I managed to keep my composure and replied.

“…I heard the gist of it from your doctor. But what do you mean by ‘normally’? You weren’t like that in the past.”

He toyed with the corner of his mouth for a moment before answering.

“Since I went to the military.”

Forgetting my twisted feelings for a second, I asked with a startled face.

“Did something… bad happen in the military?”

Do Yun’s expression shifted subtly.

“No. It was just… a sickness of the heart, I suppose. It was bad for a while but I thought it had subsided. This was the first time since I returned to Korea.”

Then, he looked at me and murmured.

“It’s also been a long time since I had a dream like that….”

I flinched. “A long time”? That implies he’s had those kinds of dreams quite often before. I really didn’t want to know, but it seems Do Yun has been quite active in that department. Meanwhile, I’ve been forced into accidental celibacy in this life….

I hadn’t thought much about it until now, but realizing the male lead had been playing around so much made me feel inexplicably annoyed. Just then, Do Yun nudged me and asked.

“Hyung, by the way, when are you coming to my house?”

“I’m not.”

At my unusually firm refusal, Do Yun’s face fell.

“Why? Last time, you talked as if you’d come as soon as I got back to Korea.”

That was then. The situation has changed now. I glared at him and said:

“Why are you so obsessed with inviting me to your house anyway?”

I almost added, You degenerate. Do Yun smiled and replied.

“You used to say you wanted a house with a view of the Han River. So I bought one at the best possible location for that. I thought you’d like it.”

“…I said that?”

“You said it back when we were planning to move out and live independently. Don’t you remember?”

Do Yun lowered his eyebrows, looking hurt. Thinking back, I think I might have said something like that. I was quite shocked that Do Yun still remembered something I had said so long ago. I thought he had forgotten everything from the past….

“Since I’m going to keep living with you from now on, I decorated it with things you like.”

I felt a sudden surge of emotion. He’s going to marry Bae Ji An anyway, so I hated him for making promises he couldn’t keep. Moreover, that was all the more reason why I felt I shouldn’t go. If I let myself think for even a second that something belonging to the female lead was mine, I felt like the emotions I’m feeling now would only double. I accidentally let my inner thoughts slip out.

“Keep dreaming. Who said they’d live with you? You’ll probably just fly off again one day without warning.”

“That….”

In an instant, a deathly silence fell between us.

Do Yun opened his mouth as if to offer an excuse. I also tried to hide my momentary panic and waited for him to speak, acting indifferent, but in the end, not a single word came out of his mouth.

I was disappointed in him once again.

Fortunately or unfortunately, lunch ended around then, cutting our conversation short. Seeing that he didn’t even intend to give me an explanation made my heart ache even more.

I spent the whole afternoon in a gloomy mood until Seung Hee suddenly contacted me saying she wanted to come over today. I wasn’t feeling great anyway, so I welcomed the distraction and agreed immediately.

After Do Yun left and I started living alone, Seung Hee would often come over to order cheap street food and pair it with expensive liquor. She claimed my place was the safest….

What I didn’t expect was Do Yun’s behavior. Ten minutes before the end of the workday, he started lingering near our team and followed me closely as I left.

“What now?”

“Can we talk for a second?”

“No, I have plans.”

No matter how much I told him to go away, he wouldn’t listen. It was obvious he was bothered by his inability to answer what I’d blurted out earlier. But if he wasn’t going to tell me anyway, I wished he’d stop bothering me.

However, Do Yun ignored my protests and chased me all the way out of the building. Everyone on their way home was staring at us. The faster I walked, the faster he followed. This was the first time I felt annoyed that my office was only a ten-minute walk from home. He kept pace with his long strides and asked.

“Is it because you’re mad at me, Hyung?”

“The fact that you’re doing this right now makes me mad.”

“I’m sorry….”

“If you know that, then go.”

“But at that time, I had no other choice.”

At those words, I stopped dead in my tracks in the middle of the street. I turned to him and snapped back.

“Fine, let’s say you had your reasons then. Then why did you suddenly come back now?”

Do Yun’s mouth clamped shut like a clam again. I felt like I was going to explode from frustration. I finally lost my temper, unable to hold back the anger I had been consciously ignoring, and glared at him.

“What exactly do you think of me? Someone you can just play with when you’re bored? Someone who has to accept you when you suddenly show up and cling to them after unilaterally cutting off contact? Do you even think of me as your brother?”

At that moment, a spark ignited in Do Yun’s eyes. He stared at me for a while with a gaze that felt like it could burn me to a crisp, before finally squeezing out a single sentence.

“Hyung, you are the person I cherish most in this world.”

“…….”

I turned my head away. Ridiculously, I felt my heart waver a little at those words. Do Yun grabbed my wrist and forced me to face him again. He did this in bed, too—he really has some bad habits. I exhaled sharply and shook his hand off with force.

“Don’t just grab me whenever you feel like it.”

It was then.

A luxury foreign car pulled up to the curb beside the sidewalk where we were standing, and the window slid down. I turned my head and saw Seung Hee inside.

Do Yun and I, who had been standing in a hostile standoff as if we were about to throw punches, both looked bewildered. Seung Hee raised an eyebrow and asked us.

“You guys look busy. Are you in the middle of a fight?”

As soon as Do Yun saw Seung Hee, he stiffened slightly and gave a polite nod.

“It’s been a while, Noona.”

In the passenger seat next to Seung Hee, there was a mountain of plastic bags with the logo of a famous snack bar. It looked like she hadn’t ordered delivery but had gone to pick it up herself. Seung Hee scanned the two of us from inside the car and said to me.

“Was this supposed to be the three of us? I only bought enough for two.”

It looked like enough for ten people, regardless…. Anyway, I shook my head immediately.

“No, he’s leaving.”

Do Yun hesitated for a moment. I wondered if he was going to throw a fit, but fortunately, he backed off right away.

“I didn’t know you two had plans. I’ll come by another time.”

He made such a clean exit that I was the one left feeling flustered. But from the look of it, the way Seung Hee watched Do Yun wasn’t exactly friendly either. I only got into Seung Hee’s car after Do Yun had walked far away. The car was filled with the smell of warm tteokbokki and fried snacks. I asked Seung Hee.

“There’s nothing going on between you two, right?”

“What would be going on between me and him? It’s you who has something going on.”

“I don’t have anything going on?”

Feeling guilty for no reason, I responded like an automated machine. But Seung Hee crossed her arms and didn’t reply. We arrived at my house in less than a minute. Once inside, we spread out the food she’d bought and were about to open the wine and liquor I had when she suddenly spoke.

“Are you okay with working at the same company as him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Grandfather’s original plan was to have you marry Lia, absorb the Goryeo Daily subsidiary, and push the media side of the business to you. Though that fell through.”

“Aha….”

I laughed awkwardly and dipped a piece of sundae into the tteokbokki sauce. Seung Hee spoke with a serious face.

“If you want to go to another company, I can help you.”

I immediately cut her off.

“Noona, I’m not working here to make money. I’m doing it because I like it. You know that.”

Then Seung Hee said something out of the blue.

“Then I can kick Choi Do Yun out of there for you.”

“Whaaat?”