TPUC 7

CHAPTER 7

“Pretending not to know me until the very end. How interesting.”

A few hours earlier, Jaehyuk had muttered those words under his breath as he watched Harin flee the professor’s office as though she were running away.

Kang Harin had been a girl who somehow drew people’s attention ever since she was little. She was wary like a kitten, yet always lingered around the people she cared about.

Jaehyuk had watched Harin since she was seven. She had been an affectionate little girl, the kind who kept approaching others with a bright smile despite her strict father’s constant scolding and her adolescent older brother’s prickly attitude.

Having grown up after his mother’s death without particularly feeling or expecting any familial affection, Jaehyuk had thought Harin’s behavior was meaningless.

It wasn’t his place to judge someone else’s family, but it had seemed obvious that the tender little girl’s affection would never be reciprocated.

/“Oppa Jaehyuk, this is chocolate. It’s one of my favorites, but I’m giving it to you. Don’t tell Oppa Hajun.”

“She’s cute.”

“The bunny shape is really cute, right? I made it myself.”

But the moment Jaehyuk realized that Kang Harin’s affection, which she had always showered on her family, was gradually being shared with him as well—

He found himself thinking that perhaps there could be one moment in his life when he, too, might experience such blind, wholehearted affection.

From then on, he had watched over the adorable little girl, thinking of her more as a younger sister than his own half-sibling, with whom he had nothing in common and constantly clashed over one thing or another.

Then he was given a chance to take part in her growing up.

He volunteered to tutor her in math and science during her senior year of high school.

And then…

“I like you, Oppa.”

He regretted it.

Jaehyuk pressed a hand to his forehead as he thought back to that point.

Afterward, he kept his distance under the excuse that he was busy with hospital work. Not long after that, he left for the United States, and several years passed without him seeing Harin.

But when he eventually returned to Korea and met her again, she had completely changed.

“He’s an emergency patient. Is there any basis for a decision that takes precedence over the patient?”

In the emergency room he had gone to investigate because of the commotion, a brash new paramedic had been standing up to an intern.

She had been preaching the simple truth that the patient came first.

For a moment, she overlapped with the paramedic Jaehyuk had seen when his mother had been brought in after a traffic accident when he was young.

“I’m Kang Harin, a new emergency medical technician with the Yongsung Fire Station emergency rescue team.”

And when he approached the source of that strangely familiar voice, there she was.

Kang Harin.

Her softly swaying bob had grown into long, straight hair, and the chubby cheeks she used to have had disappeared completely. Only her large, catlike eyes remained unchanged.

Happy to see her again, he had spoken to her.

But in return, she had treated him like a complete stranger.

“If you didn’t want to act like you knew me, you shouldn’t have been so damn cute. Or you shouldn’t have kept catching my eye.”

Muttering as he recalled that day, Jaehyuk received an urgent call and headed toward the operating room.

He regretted not being able to finish his conversation with Harin, but when his mind was complicated, there was nothing more satisfying than losing himself in surgery.

After finally completing an eight-hour-long operation, he was on his way home when he decided he might as well have a quiet beer. He was just about to stop by a convenience store a little farther from the hospital when—

Another familiar face entered his field of vision.

It was Kang Harin, sucking happily through a straw stuck into a blue bottle of soju.

When did the little kid grow up enough to start drinking?

Well, she wasn’t a kid anymore.

She was just starting out in society, so she had to be around twenty-five by now.

She’s grown a lot since I last saw her.

Jaehyuk decided to watch her from a little distance.

He sat on a bench near the main road, crossing his legs as he kept his eyes fixed on Harin.

He had heard that while he was in the United States for his fellowship, Harin had left home. Hajun and the rest of the family were apparently extremely worried about her.

No wonder.

Leaning lazily against the bench, Jaehyuk looked at Harin.

She was no longer a child.

She had the kind of face that could easily make a man lose his head at least once.

She had been doll-like and pretty even as a child, but now there was something deeper about her.

Her fresh, innocent, adorable features had gained a strangely seductive charm that naturally drew people’s eyes.

Having reached that thought, Jaehyuk let out an incredulous sigh.

“What the hell are you thinking about your friend’s little sister?”

He muttered to himself with a self-deprecating laugh, but then some guy appeared.

Jaehyuk’s brows immediately drew together.

The guy had suddenly shown up and Harin was saying something to him, even going so far as to fuss over him and rub his back.

With a radiant smile on her face, Harin looked up at him.

Their eyes met, and she burst into another bright laugh.

For some reason, the sight grated on Jaehyuk’s nerves.

Who the hell is that guy?

Before he knew it, he had gotten to his feet and was striding toward the convenience store.

Annoyed by Harin’s deliberate effort to pretend she didn’t know him despite his approaching her, he intentionally bought a can of beer and sat down at the table beside them.

That was when he heard a voice that instantly made his ears perk up.

“How about we go home and have another drink?”

Jaehyuk bit back the curse that nearly slipped from between his teeth and reflexively stood up, taking long strides toward them.

After somehow getting the young man to turn around, he began chatting with Harin as casually as he used to.

A fierce sense of satisfaction washed over him.

At least, it did until he heard her call him an old man.

“You should hurry home, old man. It’s cold out here. What if your face gets paralyzed?”

She chattered away with sparkling, adorably bright eyes.

The moment their eyes met, a smile naturally spread across Jaehyuk’s face, though her words still rubbed him the wrong way.

Still the same, Kang Harin.

Even though they had finally managed to reunite after so long, the little brat had done nothing but ignore him, calling him Professor, Team Leader, or whatever else.

Perhaps that was why.

You should know better than to underestimate an old man, Kang Harin.

He wanted to tease her.

Until she returned to that affectionate expression she used to show him when she was little.

Jaehyuk found himself absurdly amused by his own childish spite—something he had never even indulged in as a child.

“Why don’t we try something together, Harin?”

He imagined Harin huffing and puffing in annoyance while chattering away whenever he teased her a little, and the corners of his mouth curled upward in satisfaction.

That night, Harin dreamed.

It was a memory from the first day of the tutoring sessions she had eagerly awaited with Choi Jaehyuk.

Her parents had started looking for a tutor because Harin’s grades simply refused to improve, and, incredibly, the extremely busy Choi Jaehyuk had willingly volunteered.

For the first time, the man she had only ever been able to admire from afar as her older brother’s friend had become someone much closer to her—a teacher and his student.

Harin had tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Her eyes were puffy, but she carefully showered and lightly patted sunscreen onto her face.

It had a bit of coverage, but she didn’t think it made her look particularly pretty.

“What happened to you? And what’s with your hair?”

She rolled her somewhat-too-long bangs around a hair roller and dabbed on some lip balm.

She had tried on the dress she had worn to the last family gathering, but quickly took it off.

It’s just tutoring. It would be weird to dress up like I’m going on a date by myself.

Even so, she picked out one of the more decent-looking tracksuits she owned, put it on, and opened her book.

Just thinking that this would be her first weekend together with Jaehyuk made her heart pound wildly.

Rrrrr.

—Kang Harin! How does it feel to be tutored by the insanely handsome Choi Jaehyuk?

It was a call from her best friend, Jung In.

Taking several deep breaths to calm her overwhelming excitement, Harin answered.

“I couldn’t sleep, so my face is all swollen and I look terrible.”

—What a wonderful attitude for a student receiving tutoring. Do you even intend to study?

“Stop teasing me. Do you think I can do well?”

—Isn’t Jaehyuk Oppa going to be shocked when he finds out just how bad you are at studying?

“Hey! Seo Jung-in!”

She shouted, only to hear a soft knock at the door.

Startled, Harin hurriedly ended the call and ran to open it.

Standing outside the door were Jaehyuk and Harin’s mother, Han Sujeong.

Sujeong gave an awkward smile as she removed the roller stuck to Harin’s bangs.

“Honestly, you look like you were way too comfortable.”

“Ah, come on in, Oppa.”

“Hello.”

Jaehyuk strode into the room wearing a hoodie and comfortable sweatpants.

He was so broad-shouldered that he almost looked like an athlete, and in an instant, Harin’s room seemed to shrink around him.

Sujeong apparently felt the same way as she looked around the room.

“Harin’s room isn’t small, but it looks tiny with Jaehyuk in here. Should I clear out the study?”

“No, ma’am. This is more than enough.”

“Then please take good care of her. Our Harin isn’t exactly at the top of her class, but she really does work hard.”

“Mom!”

That was even more embarrassing!

Harin shouted, her face turning bright red, while Sujeong set down some snacks and closed the door.

“Then work hard, sweetheart!”

The door closed with a click, leaving the two of them alone.

Perhaps because she was suddenly conscious of it, Harin’s oblivious heart began pounding loudly.

As she cooled her flushed cheeks with the back of her hand, Jaehyuk dropped down beside her.

“Well, shall we get started?”

“Yes. I bought the workbook you mentioned.”

“When did you start speaking formally to me? Just talk comfortably.”

At that moment, sunlight streamed through the gap between the blinds.

The rays of light flowed delicately along his exquisitely sculpted features, making him look beautiful.

This was the first time Harin had ever seen Jaehyuk from this close.

She had never looked at him for this long, either.

With her lips slightly parted, Harin found herself staring blankly at this perfect subject without even realizing it.

Jaehyuk suddenly turned his head and looked at her from an angle.

His lips curled lazily, his eyes narrowing into a soft smile, and her heart seemed to drop straight to the floor.

“What are you staring at so hard? Aren’t you going to study?”

“Yes. Yes! Of course I am. Where should I start?”

Of course she would study.

She was going to work incredibly hard.

This tutoring session was already several times more intoxicating than she had imagined.

Determined, she tightened her grip on her mechanical pencil.

Then something red began dripping onto the paper.

“What is this? Huh?”

“You have a nosebleed.”

She had stared at Choi Jaehyuk so intensely that apparently her blood had started rushing too quickly.

This is so embarrassing. Seriously. I’m even getting a nosebleed.

Mortified, she tilted her head back.

At that moment, a large hand supported the back of her neck.

“You shouldn’t tilt your head back when you have a nosebleed. Just lean against me.”

He pressed his hand firmly against the back of her neck and guided her to lean against him.

Jaehyuk’s head came close enough that his hair brushed her cheek.

The cool scent of soap tickled the tip of her nose.

She looked up at Jaehyuk from a distance where their breaths could mingle.

His head was tilted as he gazed down at her, his eyes deep and dark.

She wanted to sink into those eyes forever.

She never wanted to escape, not until the day she died.

Her innocent first love grew and grew until it completely swallowed her.

It was the first day she became utterly immersed in Choi Jaehyuk’s orbit.