My face, which had only been smiling, twisted when she tossed crumpled money into my hand.
‘Take it. This is your errand pay.’
‘…….’
‘What? Is the money too little?’
‘Ah, no.’
When money was thrust into my hand for bringing the phone, the feeling of insignificance I felt was indescribably fragile.
It was unbearably embarrassing when Taekyung’s gaze from the window flew over at that moment.
He was a man I would never have met if I hadn’t come here and someone I would never see again in my life.
Yet, that day at the event, under Taekyung’s gaze, I felt myself shrinking.
For the first time, I envied Mrs.
‘Then I’ll be leaving now.’
‘Sure. I’ll be late today, so tell him that.’
‘Yes.’
I stuffed the crumpled money into my pocket and turned away. I was still conscious of the man’s gaze, but it didn’t change anything.
Each step I took felt as if I were a girl being punished, moving with sandbags attached, though there was nothing to trip over.
As I walked, looking only at the floor, Taekyung stopped me with his fluent English.
‘Excuse me.’
I took a deep breath, unable to exhale, feeling like my face would burst. Then, I gathered my courage.
When I raised my head to face him again, an unfathomable smile hung on his face, chilling like the devil’s temptation.
‘…….’
‘Take care of this, please.’
Taekyung held out an empty champagne glass. For a moment, unsure of what expression to make, I blushed intensely.
Mistaking me for an employee and handing me the glass, his arrogant tone without a hint of error crushed my pride.
I wanted to say no, but the words stuck in my throat, refusing to come out.
As I stood there hesitating and dazed, Taekyung spoke again, and the world seemed to stop like a lie.
“Do you want to come up with me?”
With those words, I threw the champagne glass to the ground and fled the place.
The meaning of his words remained ambiguous even years later.
I later learned that right above the floor where the event was held was a luxury hotel, and even higher was one of New York’s finest spots to watch the setting sun.
It didn’t matter.
Bitterly hating and resenting Cha Taekyung, whom I thought I’d never meet again, I worked desperately hard.
So I wouldn’t be swayed by you like that again.
Pushing the old memory aside, Woo Yeon muttered to Taekyung.
“Then and now, you’re always the same, President.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You seem like a dog in heat, wanting to play with me.”
Finally, Taekyung burst into laughter at Woo Yeon’s unabashed retort.
Even the fragile girl who blushed and ran away back then had something in her eyes that remained the same.
Twisted desire.
Perhaps similar to his own.
Taekyung liked Woo Yeon’s eyes. Perhaps from the beginning, he was drawn to her because her eyes resembled those of a man who loved sunsets.
“I knew you weren’t an employee from the start.”
“……What?”
“Just like Yun Woo Yeon kept looking at me, I was watching you too.”
“…….”
“Back then, Yun Woo Yeon had a look of expectation in her eyes. Hoping I would say something.”
Woo Yeon laughed lightly.
“You’re wrong. It was the opposite.”
“You wanted to avoid me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I felt disgusted. The world I knew and left behind clashed with the new world I encountered there. It twisted my insides. I felt like I could never have what it offered. And in that world, you seemed the most powerful.”
“…….”
“I remember everything about you there, your face, your expression. They all made me feel more pathetic.”
“What an honor.”
Taekyung looked at the corner of her lips with a shallow smile that seemed almost like a sneer.
Adding,
“I wanted to share some cliché, common stories between men and women while watching the sunset.”
“…….”
“But even that day, Yun Woo Yeon ran away, turning me into a frustrated dog, didn’t you?”
Woo Yeon covered her face and laughed. Now it was just a past story, but back then, it really hurt.
Such a trivial thing.
Woo Yeon removed her hand and stopped laughing.
“You don’t actually believe that, do you?”
“Believe it or not.”
Now without a trace of a smile on her lips, Woo Yeon revealed more truthfully what she felt that day.
It was ironic to tell this to Cha Taekyung, but believe it or not.
The weight of life is felt in the mass one carries, not in the eyes of others.
“I was only twenty-two then, but I guess I was materialistic even back then. I was always greedy, but I couldn’t have anything. It was a painfully difficult time.”
“So, what about now? Don’t you have a lot now?”
“No. It’s not much different now. I still desire and hope for a lot, President.”
At her response, he laughed out loud.
Before the afterimage of his laughter could leave a trace, Woo Yeon had already dropped him off in front of Brighton Wedding Tower.
In that world, and in this one, Cha Taekyung still appears to be the most powerful.
And so, again, a surge of annoyance welled up within her.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
