Chapter : 05
But soon, Yumin shook her head from side to side.
During their college years, they had both had feelings for each other, but their relationship had never developed into anything deeper with Jaejun.
After that, they had had no contact whatsoever for five years, so it would be fair to say they were practically strangers.
Therefore, thinking of him at such a desperate moment would accomplish nothing, and it would also be disrespectful to him.
Clatter—!
Just then.
The doorknob turned, and the door was roughly thrown open.
“This girl! You’re living off us, and you have the nerve to lock your door?!”
Her aunt stormed in, pointing a finger at Yumin with her eyebrows sharply raised.
“I heard you ruined the blind date. What happened—”
“What happened?! You didn’t properly go through with the blind date, did you?! Huh?!”
Suji quickly stepped past her mother and approached Yumin.
She grabbed Yumin by the hair.
“……!”
Yumin, with her hair in Suji’s fist, pressed her lips tightly together and said nothing.
As though frustrated by Yumin’s silence, Suji violently shook her head back and forth.
Even though the pain was enough to make her skull shake and feel as if every strand of hair were being ripped out, Yumin became even angrier.
She felt it was completely unfair.
Why did she have to be treated like this?
Yumin grabbed Suji’s wrist tightly and twisted it with all her strength.
Suji screamed in pain and stumbled several steps backward.
“Ah! Th-that bitch…!”
Suji glared furiously before abruptly turning toward her mother.
Her mother, who had been pushed aside by Suji earlier, was standing a few steps away, staring seriously at her phone.
“Mom! Do something about her! And did Dad or Bodhisattva contact you?”
Her mother continued staring at her phone and muttered coldly,
“Your father just texted me.”
Then she raised her eyes and glared at Yumin.
“You, really…”
Yumin was dumbfounded as she looked at her aunt, who was staring at her as though she had committed some terrible crime.
“What exactly did I do that was so wrong for you to look at me like you want to kill me? And what do you mean by an akebaegi?”
At Yumin’s clearly spoken question, her aunt flinched for a moment.
But soon, she put on an expressionless face as though nothing had happened.
“An akebaegi? Did you dream something?”
Yumin let out a hollow laugh at her aunt’s way of casually making her look like an idiot.
“I heard everything Hong Suji said. She said I’m the akebaegi. And that if I don’t go through with the blind date, Hong Suji will die.”
Her aunt’s eyes trembled.
But despite the panic in her eyes, she opened her mouth wide and forced out a laugh.
“Ha ha. This is ridiculous. Why would our Suji die if you don’t go on a blind date? Stop saying such unlucky nonsense.”
“Then why is Yoon Bodhisattva involved in this blind date? Earlier, Representative Kim kept mentioning Yoon Bodhisattva too. Didn’t you hear something strange from Yoon Bodhisattva and transfer the bad luck that Hong Suji was supposed to suffer onto me? Is that why you sent me to the blind date instead of her?”
Whether Yumin had hit the nail on the head or not, her aunt bit down hard on her lip with a distorted expression.
Then she raised her index finger and repeatedly poked Yumin in the chest while threatening her.
“Nonsense.”
“……”
“Stop this, you little bitch. If your uncle finds out about you acting like this, you’ll end up locked away in a mental hospital. Do you understand?”
A mental hospital?
Yumin felt all the strength drain from her body.
There had to be a limit to treating someone like an idiot.
These people treated her as though she were worth less than a stone lying on the side of the road.
If two people get together, they can make one person look like a fool.
No matter how clearly she explained everything they had done wrong, Yumin would be the one made to look crazy.
“Besides, we arranged such a valuable blind date for you so you could repay even a little of what you and your father owe us. And you come back after ruining it? You even brought a man with you?!”
Yumin flinched.
She had been so overwhelmed that it had never occurred to her that Representative Kim might have mentioned Jaejun.
“What?! A man?! What man?!”
Before Yumin could even respond in her confusion, Suji hurried over and grabbed her mother’s arm.
“What man?! So you’re saying this Hong Yumin bitch brought another man there and ruined the blind date?”
Her aunt didn’t answer.
Instead, she glared at Yumin again.
“You tell me. What exactly did you do during the blind date?”
Yumin squeezed her eyes shut.
How much did Representative Kim tell my uncle?
That Jaejun and I seemed to know each other? That I brought another man and ruined the blind date?
Then how much did Uncle tell Aunt?
That was when—
Smack—!
A dull impact rang out, and Yumin’s head throbbed.
Suji had struck Yumin hard on the head with her phone.
Yumin clutched the place where she had been hit and glared at Suji.
“Answer me! Are you trying to make someone so angry they’ll die from frustration?! Do you have some man you’re seeing? You don’t even know any men!”
Yumin swallowed her boiling anger toward Suji, who hit her whenever she felt like it, and ignored her question.
Instead, she looked only at her aunt and explained.
“I happened to meet a senior I briefly knew in college while I was at the blind date with Representative Kim. That’s all. Representative Kim misunderstood what he saw.”
The atmosphere became extremely cold.
Yumin didn’t care and somehow forced herself to continue.
“And I didn’t ruin the blind date because of that senior. It was because of Representative Kim. Representative Kim said all he needed was a wife who was good in bed and tried to forcibly take me to a hotel!”
As she spoke, Yumin’s anger rose and her voice grew louder.
Her aunt let out an incredulous laugh.
“This is unbelievable. How much is that body of yours worth, anyway?”
“…What did you say?”
“You were going to have marital relations with him anyway if you lived together, weren’t you? Why not just think of it as practicing beforehand?”
“Aunt!”
“What?! Am I wrong? If I were you, I’d use my body a hundred or a thousand times over if that’s what it took to repay our family for everything we’ve done for you! If that’s the ridiculous reason you ruined the blind date, I’ll arrange another meeting with Representative Kim, so go apologize and somehow change his mind!”
Her aunt casually hurled words at Yumin that she would never have dared say to her own daughter before leaving the room.
Left behind, Yumin was so dumbfounded that her lips moved like a fish gasping for air.
Suji, who had not yet left, grabbed Yumin’s wrist roughly and demanded,
“Who’s the college senior? Huh?! Don’t tell me it was Seol Jaejun?!”
“…What?”
“…So it was?! How dare you meet Seol Jaejun? Are you in contact with Seol Jaejun? Since when? Weren’t you two already over?!”
Yumin narrowed her eyes and quietly stared at Suji, who was impatiently demanding an answer.
Why does Hong Suji seem so obsessed with Seol Jaejun?
“Answer meee!”
“Hong Suji. Why are you so obsessed with Senior Jaejun?”
“What? Obsessed? N-No, I’m not!”
The Hong Suji who had been hitting and cursing at Yumin only moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
She looked extremely flustered.
“Come to think of it, it is strange. I first got to know Senior Jaejun during a liberal arts class in the second semester of my freshman year, but you were on a leave of absence then.”
“That’s because you were always hanging around Seol Jaejun, the guy everyone at school said was insanely handsome, so I knew about him!”
“Fine, I can understand how you would know about him. But why do you get so obsessed every time Senior Jaejun comes up? Even back then, whenever I came home from school, you would keep asking me until my ears were bleeding whether I had met Senior Jaejun.”
Hong Suji had always wanted Yumin to remain isolated.
At home and outside.
Whenever Yumin tried to become close with classmates or seniors, Suji would interfere and cause trouble between them.
Yumin had thought Seol Jaejun was the same.
But now that she thought about it, perhaps Seol Jaejun had been different.
Perhaps Suji had actually been interested in him.
“Did you perhaps like Senior Jaejun?”
At Yumin’s question, Suji scoffed as though it were absurd.
Then she moved so close that their foreheads nearly touched and whispered,
“Don’t be ridiculous. I just hate seeing someone like you getting involved with a rich young master like Seol Jaejun, someone you wouldn’t even dare dream of looking at.”
Ah.
So that was the reason.
Because Jaejun was a rich young master.
Is he really that wealthy?
Come to think of it, there had been plenty of rumors about Jaejun at school back then.
Some said he was the son of the chairman of an architectural firm. Others said he was the grandson of the chairman of a hospital foundation.
And so on.
But Yumin had never been curious about his background.
She simply liked Jaejun himself—the person who kept trying to give her the warmth she had never received from her uncle’s family.
Before she could even get to know him properly, she had been forced to go to Germany.
“Ah. If that’s the reason, don’t worry. There’s no chance I’ll get involved with him in any way.”
At Yumin’s words, Suji answered in a slightly relaxed voice, as though relieved.
“…Yeah. Someone like you getting involved with Seol Jaejun again is ridiculous. Anyway, don’t ruin your marriage to Representative Kim. Make sure you fix this, okay?”
Yumin hurriedly grabbed Suji, who was about to leave.
“Hong Suji!”
“Ugh, what?!”
“Tell me about the akebaegi thing, and how I’m supposed to die in your place. I heard everything you said on the phone!”
“What are you talking about? Did you dream it? You crazy bitch.”
Bang—!
Suji left and slammed the door shut.
Left alone, Yumin laughed like a madwoman because the whole situation was so absurd.
Did I really dream all of that?
Why do the members of this family, who are the ones acting abnormally, keep calling me crazy?
How long had she stood there feeling completely empty?
Unable to bear the suffocating feeling in her chest any longer, she ran downstairs.
She felt as though she would die if she didn’t get some fresh air, even for just a few hours.
“Wait. Hey, are you leaving the house?”
Her aunt, who had been talking on the phone from the sofa, briefly took the phone away from her ear and asked.
“No. With Dad being held hostage, where would I dare go?”
Yumin ignored her aunt’s angry response to her sarcasm, slammed the front door shut, and walked outside.
After leaving the gate, she walked aimlessly down the alley.
Then—
“…What?”
At some point, a black car began following closely behind Yumin.
