Watching Sun-Ha nervously, Shin-Yeon asked,
“You mean… criminals? Bad people like that?”
“Yeah. I know it doesn’t sound all that bad when you hear it put that way. Better for vicious criminals to die than survive and keep hurting people. Still, the way he handled it…”
Ding-dong!
The notification sounded right then, and Shin-Yeon got up to bring back their burger sets.
“I thought about it, and I guess it could feel uncomfortable from a third party’s perspective. But I think the victims, their families, and the people who were living in fear would probably be grateful.”
Setting the tray down on the table, Shin-Yeon suddenly remembered his own difficult childhood. His chest felt tight, so he took a sip of soda first before speaking.
“I don’t know about other people, but I would be. Wow, this looks really good. Thanks for the food.”
When Sun-Ha made an awkward face, Shin-Yeon smiled brightly for no reason and started eating his burger.
He wasn’t even sure how he managed to finish it, but after scarfing down the meal, the two of them headed into the train station.
“Uh… you go all the way into the station for pickups?”
“If the guests are foreigners or older, we come inside and wait with a sign. The people we’re picking up today are friends of my grandmother’s.”
Standing there with a welcome sign, the two of them looked up at the TV inside the station.
And once again, Kyo-Shin appeared on screen talking to reporters.
Frowning, Sun-Ha said,
“Seo Kyo-Shin got engaged to an omega seven years younger than him, and now I hear he’s getting ready to marry someone who just turned twenty.”
At Sun-Ha’s words, Shin-Yeon jolted like he’d been hit in the back of the head.
“…Wait. What did you just say?”
Seeing Shin-Yeon’s face go pale, Sun-Ha answered plainly.
“Seo Kyo-Shin kicked his former fiancé aside and is now preparing to marry a kid who just turned twenty.”
Shin-Yeon’s heart dropped. He stared blankly at Sun-Ha, shock written all over his face.
“N-no… I mean, a twenty-year-old…? Does that mean it’s over with his original fiancé?”
“If he’s getting ready to marry someone else, then probably, right?”
At that answer, Shin-Yeon went speechless, his mouth just opening and closing soundlessly. It felt like his brain was cramping.
Panic hit him all at once, and he grabbed his head with both hands. He had no idea what was going on anymore.
'Seo Kyo-Shin broke off the engagement with Kim Shin-Hee?'
“Then why would he break it off…?”
If he was going to marry Kim Shin-Hee in the end anyway, then no matter how much I flirted with him or proposed to him, didn’t he just think it was a joke? He was never taking me seriously in the first place.
If in the end he was going to marry some twenty-year-old, then I’d rather it had been me—
Ah…
So from the very beginning, I was never someone Seo Kyo-Shin took seriously.
His chest hurt with a sharp sting, like it had been sliced open by a blade. It really felt as though Seo Kyo-Shin had only been playing with him.
“…Shin-Yeon?”
To hide the redness around his eyes, Shin-Yeon lowered his head and rubbed at his face.
“Um… can I go to the bathroom for a second?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
Startled by how suddenly he’d changed, Sun-Ha bent down, trying to see his face, but Shin-Yeon avoided him and hurried away.
Watching the empty spot where Shin-Yeon had fled in an instant, Sun-Ha realized he’d made a mistake.
He clenched his fist tightly and stared at Seo Kyo-Shin on the news, then suddenly remembered the marks he’d seen on the back of Shin-Yeon’s neck the day they first met.
“…No way.”
Meanwhile, after searching for the bathroom and half falling into a panic, Shin-Yeon ended up back outside, wiping his tears in the winter wind.
“Kim Shin-Yeon, you already knew Seo Kyo-Shin didn’t think of you seriously… You knew that, and you still did everything anyway.”
Because he liked the way Seo Kyo-Shin looked at him—so attentively, as though there were no one else.
Even knowing it was pathetic, he’d wanted just one night with him.
“I got it… That should be enough, so don’t get greedy. Why are you acting like this, you idiot… Why would Seo Kyo-Shin ever like someone like me? Be realistic.”
Tears spilled down in a rush. As Shin-Yeon stood in a corner wiping them away, he noticed a pay phone not far off.
“…”
His insides felt shredded and overturned. Clenching his teeth, Shin-Yeon ran toward the pay phone.
I left so he could marry my brother in peace! So why break off the engagement? Why? Why would you do that?
By the time he reached the booth and stopped to catch his breath, he remembered the condition: if the engagement was broken, the investment money Seolgang Group had put into Suhan would be withdrawn all at once.
“Hah… hah… How can you do this?!”
Shin-Yeon stepped into the booth, fed coins into the phone, and dialed Seo Kyo-Shin’s number.
Ring— ring— click.
“How could you do this… How could you do this! Do you know how hard I tried…? I never should’ve liked you.”
The sorrow kept surging up, and his chest hurt so badly that, holding the receiver, Shin-Yeon just stood there crying and talking to himself.
“I should’ve just… given up from the start and gone to work in a factory or somewhere that paid well. I knew from the beginning you were only going to play with me, so why was I that desperate…? Hic… sob…”
Raised in a home where the mood had always been he was born, so what choice do we have but to raise him, Shin-Yeon had always tried.
He tried to be loved.
He tried to seem less bothersome.
Because his brother was so selfish, he tried his best to grow up kind.
Unlike his brother, who had been beautiful from the time he was a baby, Shin-Yeon had been born plain, always compared, always bullied, and still he smiled.
Because he didn’t want to be pushed out of the circle called family.
Because he was afraid there’d be no place left for him at home.
That was why he had wanted, no matter what, to keep the company from collapsing and the house from disappearing—even if that meant marrying in his brother’s place.
Because if everything fell apart, his family might scatter, and he, who was little more than dead weight, might be the first one cast aside.
Because he was afraid the whole world would vanish and leave him all alone.
He had worked so hard to protect his place between home and family, and this was the result.
The brother who had ruined everything and pushed the company and the family into crisis was probably still living comfortably in their parents’ arms.
No matter how badly his brother messed up, their parents always doted on him no matter what… so this time would probably be the same.
And Seo Kyo-Shin—the man Shin-Yeon had truly come to like—had wanted Kim Shin-Hee as a marriage partner too.
Just like his parents, Seo Kyo-Shin had wanted Kim Shin-Hee more than Kim Shin-Yeon, and yet he had broken off the engagement?
This is what I get for trying so hard? For proposing so desperately?
How long do I have to keep trying like this?
How long do I have to keep living on edge like this?
“What am I even supposed to do here? What more am I supposed to do? Why am I the only one…? Why am I the only one…?”
The receiver slipped from his hand, and Shin-Yeon crumpled to the floor of the booth, sobbing.
—…Where are you right now?
“…!”
—Shin-Yeon. Baby. Where are you?
At the sound of Seo Kyo-Shin’s voice coming through the phone, Shin-Yeon stopped breathing and stared blankly at the receiver.
—I’ll come get you. Baby, stop crying and tell me where you are. Wherever it is, I’ll be there within an hour. Baby, okay?
Kyo-Shin’s soft voice trying to soothe him only made the tears pour down harder. Shin-Yeon snatched up the receiver and said sharply,
“…How could you do this? No matter how many times I proposed or begged you to go easy on me, you treated it like a joke.”
—…Haah. That…
“They say you broke off the engagement. I heard you’re preparing to marry some young twenty-year-old. You said my proposal was too much, that you hated it… Ha. So what, did you find yourself a pretty omega from a good family?”
Hearing Kyo-Shin’s voice made Shin-Yeon’s head go numb and his heart feel like it was being ripped apart. He clutched at his chest.
“Maybe this was fun for you, Executive Director Seo, but it wasn’t fun for me at all. You don’t need to come get me. I want to stop making hopeless efforts now.”
Shin-Yeon poured out his anger through a tear-choked voice, and Kyo-Shin listened in silence.
The fact that he didn’t even try to defend himself hurt him even more.
—Shin-Yeon, you’ve got the wrong idea right now.
Roughly wiping away his tears, Shin-Yeon asked in a sunken voice,
“Executive Director… did Suhan go under?”
—…
“Did the house get taken too?”
—Yeah. Our investment was withdrawn all at once, and Suhan couldn’t repay it, so the house went up for auction. Your family’s as good as out on the street now too.”
At Kyo-Shin’s answer, the world spun before Shin-Yeon’s eyes.
Ah…
So in the end, the home I wanted so badly to protect is gone.
Thunk!
—Shin-Yeon!
Dizzy, Shin-Yeon slammed against the side of the phone booth. Gripping the receiver, he said,
“Then… I guess there’s no reason for us to see each other anymore. Executive Director Seo, congratulations on your marriage… and let’s never meet again. I won’t miss you anymore, and I won’t keep liking you by myself either. I’m really going to forget everything.”
Clack!
The moment he hung up on him, the situation felt so sudden that his mind couldn’t process it. If anything, he only felt more numb.
“Shin-Yeon.”
At the voice from behind him, he turned and saw Sun-Ha approaching. Sun-Ha grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the booth.
“Ah…”
“I said something I shouldn’t have. I didn’t mean to make things hard for you. I’m sorry.”
Holding Shin-Yeon, who looked like he might collapse at any moment, Sun-Ha met his eyes and spoke calmly.
“But Yeon, we’re working right now. If you really can’t handle it, I’ll take you back to the car first. But if you can endure it, let’s go welcome the guests together. What do you want to do?”
Right. I’m on the clock.
Sniffling, Shin-Yeon wiped away his tears with both hands and tried to pull himself together.
Seo Kyo-Shin was Seo Kyo-Shin, and work was work.
At the very least, he didn’t want to make a mistake and get pushed out again from the one place that had welcomed him warmly and taken him in when he had nowhere else to go.
“I’m sorry. I’m okay now. I’ll go greet the guests with you.”
“Can you do it?”
“Yes. I can.”