Chapter 7
“Did you have someone following me?”
Ryu Jin-ha’s hand, gripping the photos, trembled with rage.
In his grasp was an image from over a year agoātaken at a hotel bar, the night he first slept with Han Da-yeon. She had been the drunk one, and the photo showed him perfectly sober, supporting her.
Which meant Han Joo-ah had known everything from the very beginning. And that the excuse he had spun moments ago was a lie.
“Why? You can tail me, but I can’t do the same to you?”
Joo-ah’s reply poured fuel on the fire.
She had known everythingāeven that he had put a tail on her. And she had been scheming for over a year to make a fool of him. With Ryu Tae-ha.
Every moment he had believed he was the one deceiving her had been flipped on its head in an instant.
Perhaps she had been the one to lay the trap first. To break this engagement.
The corners of his mouth twisted into something grotesque.
“You don’t get to do that. Obviously.”
He shredded the crumpled photos into pieces.
“You think it makes sense for us to call off our engagement over something like this?”
As he took a step forward, the torn photos were crushed beneath his heel.
This didn’t matter anymore.
Noāit had never mattered from the start.
Because what they had wasn’t something that could end so easily over something like this.
“Don’t you remember? That day.”
As he took another step closer, Joo-ah’s eyes trembled as she retreated.
His dark eyes flashed with malice.
Yes, she must be terrified.
For Han Joo-ah, who still flinched at the sight of any man, that day must still be vividly alive.
It stung that he was included in that fear, but so be it.
With his lips pulled into a smile, cruel words flowed from him as casually as breathing.
“Why you walked away unscathed. Why my shoulder was ruined.”
Holding your opponent’s weakness was always useful.
It made them so easy to control.
“Joo-ah. Do you even have the right to call off our engagement?”
Han Joo-ah. You can’t stab me in the back like this.
After everything I did to get your shares.
“I’m the only man who will understand you. What man in this world would accept a woman who can’t even hold hands without panicking?”
Isn’t that right?
His eyes gleamed with something vile.
He knew.
Why she was afraid right now.
Exactly what he could do to hurt her the most.
One touch and she’d tremble all over.
Remembering that day. Paralyzed by fear again.
The moment he reached for her.
“Is it true that you saved me that day?”
The question came out of nowhere.
His face scrunched up in annoyance.
“What are you talking about?”
“It wasn’t me.”
Ryu Jin-ha let out a hollow laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Ha, now you’re distorting your own memories?”
Joo-ah looked straight at the sneering Jin-ha.
Her trembling gaze had grown clear before she knew it.
Perhaps today was the first time.
That she had faced Ryu Jin-ha’s true face. His true heart.
He had always been by her side, offering worry and comfort.
For ten full years since the accident.
“I thought that was real.”
She had been deceived since then. From the very beginning.
Not once had Ryu Jin-ha ever liked her.
With a bitter, self-mocking smile, Joo-ah spoke the truth she had finally realized.
“What you saved that day was your future. Not me.”
“What are you talking about.”
Watching his face crumple, Joo-ah felt something almost like lightness.
She had always carried a debt to him in a corner of her heart.
Because, as he said, he had been injured saving her.
That guilt and sense of obligation had led her to agree to marry him.
Even as she decided to break it off, something that had been constricting her heart was finally washed clean.
Joo-ah spoke again, her voice calm.
“If I hadn’t held Taesong shares, would you have saved me?”
“…!”
The look on his faceāstruck dead centerāwas a sight to behold.
She wished she could show him a mirror.
“If you had ever liked meāno, if you had ever thought of me at allāyou wouldn’t have used that day to blackmail me like this.”
You know better than anyone that day is still agony for me.
So from the very beginning until now. You never thought of me.
“Everything you said was a lie. You used me. From start to finish. All of it.”
I don’t owe you anything anymore.
You could see it in her eyes.
The shackle that had gripped her ankle all this time had come loose.
The justification to hold onto her had vanished like foam.
That couldn’t be. It couldn’t end like this. How had he come all this way!
“I ruined my body saving you. And this is all you have to say?”
Seeing his eyes turn sinister in an instant, Joo-ah’s feet retreated a step.
“What changes even if you think that?”
As he stepped closer, a dark shadow fell over her.
“Listen carefully, Han Joo-ah.”
A large hand came down on her shoulder.
“That day, I saved you. I got hurt because of you. That’s a fact. An unchangeable truth!”
More and more savage force pressed into that hand.
“Ah…”
“I saved you. Not Ryu Tae-ha. Me!”
He repeated his words like a mantra, ignoring Joo-ah as she groaned in pain.
I saved you. Like a man possessed.
“But now you want to call off the engagement? You think that makes sense?”
His eyes, a twisted tangle of despair and rage, flashed menacingly.
Just as Joo-ah pushed against his arm to break free.
“Does Ryu Tae-ha know? That youā”
“What should I know?”
A low, indifferent voice cut in.
Ryu Tae-ha walked in through the open door.
Taking advantage of the moment his grip loosened, Joo-ah pushed his hand away.
Seeing Tae-ha stroll over leisurely, Jin-ha gritted his teeth.
There was no point finishing his sentenceāit would only hurt him.
Because Han Joo-ah was already holding Tae-ha’s hand.
“It’s none of your business. This is our matter, so stay out of it.”
“‘Our’?”
Tae-ha let out a sharp laugh.
At the obvious mockery, Jin-ha ground his teeth.
“Seems your reading comprehension is lacking. You still haven’t figured out your position.”
With his hands tucked in his pockets, Tae-ha walked leisurely to stand beside Joo-ah.
He gestured toward Jin-ha with his chin.
“You’re the ex-fiancĆ© who got dumped. I’m the groom-to-be.”
Tae-ha took Joo-ah’s hand, as if putting on a show.
“We’re the ‘we.’ As for you,”
Tae-ha paused, pretending to think, and the corners of his mouth curled up smoothly.
“The dog who chased the chicken.”
Whether he knew his position or not, Jin-ha seemed well aware of his predicamentāunable to speak, his fist clenched until his knuckles turned white.
“But are you that desperate these days? So hard up you have to shake people down?”
“What?”
“I could hear you extorting someone all the way down the hall. Saving someone who never asked to be saved, then demanding payment.”
Isn’t that extortion?
As if aware of how shameful it was, his face and ears burned bright red.
“If you’re that desperate, come find me. Thanks to you, I’m getting married. Least I can do is throw you some crumbs.”
“I have that much courtesy, at least.” Tae-ha said with a smile.
“Ah. Make sure to wash up next time. You reek.”
The stench is overwhelming.
Tae-ha’s gaze swept over the stain still on Jin-ha’s collar.
“You should have that much courtesy too.”
Tae-ha patted Jin-ha’s shoulder as if addressing a subordinate.
“And. Don’t touch her without permission.”
The eyes that had been laughing and mocking all this time suddenly went ice-cold.
The hand that had been patting lightly gripped his shoulder.
And an incredible crushing force followed.
“If you want to keep even one shoulder.”
Ah. Ryu Jin-ha nearly let out a pained groan, biting down hard.
But he couldn’t rashly fight back. It was obvious he would lose. And he didn’t want to show an ugly sight in front of her again.
That weakling who used to look like he was going to die any day.
Damn it, he should have died back then.
If only Ryu Tae-ha didn’t exist.
His clenched fist trembled.
His rage-filled eyes wavered, lost.
Tae-ha released the shoulder he’d been crushing and patted it again.
As if telling him to do better. As if saying he’d be watching.
Holding Joo-ah’s hand and walking out of the room, Tae-ha stopped with an “Ah,” and turned back to look at Jin-ha.
“But why do you keep playing the victim?”
There was one thing he needed to set straight.
