After a momentary pause, Young In’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.
“What?”
Sung Hyuk took a step forward with a nonchalant face.
“Why are you so surprised? You told me to come in, so I came in.”
“Because I didn’t know it was you, elder brother.”
“Are you saying you wouldn’t have let me in if you knew it was me?”
His brow furrowed slightly.
“Why are you discriminating against people?”
“…”
Young In was at a loss for words at his brazen statement.
Is it right to call this discrimination?
Even if it is discrimination, discriminating against an ex-boyfriend you broke up with long ago isn’t such a great sin, is it?
“Ah Rim went to the kitchen because mother called her, and Beom Jun is on the phone. No one knows I came up here, so don’t worry.”
“That’s not the important thing right now.”
“Then should I have just said I was coming up? That I’d be visiting Chae Young In’s room?”
“…”
Young In’s lips moved a few times, but she couldn’t give any response. Ridiculously, after hearing his words, she felt grateful to him for coming up without anyone knowing.
When Young In kept her mouth shut, Sung Hyuk’s lips curved gently. He slowly scanned the room with a nostalgic expression.
“It’s been over 10 years since we first met, but only today I’m seeing your room.”
The first time he came to this house was in his first year of high school, when he became classmates with Beom Jun. He didn’t come often originally, but during the six months he dated Young In, he deliberately stopped coming.
The reason was because Chae Young In wanted it that way.
The one who suggested a secret relationship, the one who said not to come to the house, it was all Young In.
Even though he seemed to act on his own at times, he followed everything she wanted, even if he didn’t like it.
In the end, even breaking up.
“It’s unmistakably Chae Young In’s room.”
It was a room that clearly reflected the owner’s personality. It was neat without any clutter. The white-toned interior gave a clean and cool feeling, just like the owner.
The only decorations were a small green plant on the side table and a frame on top of the dresser.
Before Young In could stop him, Sung Hyuk strode over to the dresser, bent down, and peered at the photo.
The subject was a little girl about five or six years old.
“You were cute when you were young.”
Seeing the braided pigtails, crescent moon eyes, and chubby cheeks, a smile naturally formed.
“I know. I’m not cute now.”
Sung Hyuk took his eyes off the photo and glanced back at Young In.
“Now you’re pretty.”
When he seriously returned her retort, which she had made because she felt oddly stung, Young In quickly changed the subject to hide her flustered look.
“If you came to see elder brother, why don’t you go see him instead of coming up here?”
“When did I say I came to see Beom Jun? I came to see you.”
“…”
Her eyes, filled with bewilderment, trembled slightly. She had been trying to ignore that he might have come to see her, but it seemed she had just wasted time unnecessarily.
“It’s true that Beom Jun invited me over, but I came wondering if I could see you. If you didn’t live in this house, I wouldn’t have come.”
Young In wanted to ask Sung Hyuk, who had approached with leisurely steps and stopped in front of her, why he was doing this, what he wanted. But anxiously wondering if someone might come up, she could only say useless words instead of what she really wanted to say.
“L-Let’s go downstairs quickly.”
Sung Hyuk simply nodded, but didn’t move. He still had something to say.
“From now on, check who it is before telling them to come in. Don’t let just anyone into your room.”
Young In let out a hollow laugh.
“This is our house.”
“Outsiders could come and go too.”
“Don’t tell me you think you’re not just anyone?”
“Of course I’m not.”
“…”
Young In was at a loss for words, dumbfounded. It was so absurd she doubted if these words really came from the mouth of the person who best fit the description of ‘outsider’ and ‘just anyone’.
And that wasn’t the end of it.
“Did you take medicine?”
Young In’s eyes narrowed, wondering what this was about now.
“What medicine?”
“Headache medicine. You have a headache now, don’t you?”
“…”
Young In tried to recall if she had told him she had a headache.
Of course, she couldn’t remember. Because she hadn’t.
“You have a habit of scrunching your nose bridge when you have a headache.”
“I do?”
As Young In’s eyes widened, a mischievous smile spread across Sung Hyuk’s face.
“Yes, you do.”
“…”
Young In silently looked up at him, who knew a habit of hers that she herself didn’t know.
“It’s not good to endure it. Take some medicine.”
Sung Hyuk left those words and turned to leave the room. Plopping down on the bed and staring at the closed door, a quiet utterance escaped Young In’s lips.
“It’s all because of you, elder brother…”
The cause of the headache, the reason she couldn’t take the headache medicine in her bag, it was all because of one person.
The one who complicated her thoughts, the one who made her unable to go downstairs to get water, was Cha Sung Hyuk.
She decided to blame everything on him.
Only by doing so did she feel her helplessly shaken self would seem less pathetic…
How much time had passed?
As Young In sat blankly with unfocused eyes, the sound of the door swinging open reached her ears. Then, an irritated voice flew in.
“Hey, come eat!”
Young In raised her dull eyes. Long resigned, she felt nothing special even when her elder sister barged in without knocking.
“I don’t feel like eating.”
“I don’t care what you feel like, Dad told me to call you down.”
Ah Rim curled her lip as if she couldn’t care less whether Young In starved to death or not.
“He’s home early.”
“Are you unhappy about that?”
“No. I’ll go down.”
Since it was an iron rule that the whole family had to sit around the table when their father was home, Young In didn’t even think of being stubborn. Unless someone was so sick they could barely move, there were no exceptions for anyone.
Why was everything going differently from what she expected?
It was a big miscalculation to think she could just stay holed up in her room. Neither Sung Hyuk coming up to her room nor her father calling her down was in her expectations at all.
“So you had a matchmaking meeting with elder brother Sung Hyuk, not elder brother Chang Geun?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It’s not a big deal.”
Ah Rim ground her teeth, riled up by the calm response.
“You cunning girl.”
“…”
“Elder brother Sung Hyuk said he wants to marry you? Stop lying. If you spout such nonsense one more time, I won’t let you off.”
With an expression that said even chewing her up wouldn’t be enough, Ah Rim gave a vicious warning and left the room.
Young In quietly followed behind.
There was no time to feel relieved at the much milder reaction than she had prepared for, because of the fact that she had to sit at the same table and eat with Sung Hyuk. She already felt nauseous.
Feeling like a cow being led to slaughter, Young In went down the stairs and entered the dining room.
A middle-aged man with a lean build and tanned face was sitting at the head of the table.
Beom Jun and Ah Rim’s biological father and Young In’s adoptive father, Chae Byung Guk.
He was the CEO of ‘Chae Seung’, a medium-sized company that manufactured and sold women’s clothing. Chae Seung was also Beom Jun and Ah Rim’s workplace.
“Welcome home.”
Young In slightly bowed her head towards CEO Chae.
“Yes, sit down.”
To the left of CEO Chae at the head of the table sat Sung Hyuk, and to the right sat Mrs. Kwak. Beom Jun was next to Mrs. Kwak, and Ah Rim, who had come down before Young In, had already claimed the seat next to Sung Hyuk.
As Young In sat down next to Beom Jun, CEO Chae picked up his spoon as if he had been waiting.
“Let’s eat.”
He had rushed home, canceling his prior appointment as soon as he received his wife’s call that Sung Hyuk was at the house.
It was to make an impression on the second son of Cha Hyun Woong, the chairman of SL Group.
SL Group was a large conglomerate ranked first in Korea’s business world, with various subsidiaries in electronics, automobiles, finance, telecommunications, distribution, and more. Its influence on Korea’s economy, politics, society, and culture was also enormous.
So it was only natural to hope that Beom Jun would remain good friends with Sung Hyuk for a long, long time.
“Is the chairman in good health?”
“Yes, he might even be healthier than me.”
“I’d like to have a meal with the chairman sometime. Sung Hyuk, could you arrange that?”
“I’ll mention it to him.”
It meant he couldn’t promise anything.
“I-I see…”
Embarrassed after his subtle attempt, CEO Chae quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, Sung Hyuk, why did you suddenly go to America?”
Sung Hyuk’s abrupt departure to SL Automotive’s U.S. subsidiary was still a mystery to many.
“At that time, I didn’t want to stay in Korea.”
It was an impulsive decision made because of a woman.
Watching that woman flinch, Sung Hyuk considered a what-if scenario.
If I had stayed in Korea then… He thought he might not have been able to resist running to Chae Young In.
“Looking back now, you were really strange then, man. I thought you might have been rejected or something.”
Beom Jun chimed in casually while busily moving his chopsticks.
“I didn’t know you noticed.”
“I’m quite perceptive, you know.”
Beom Jun chuckled and retorted, thinking Sung Hyuk was joking.
Except for Young In, no one thought Sung Hyuk’s words were true. The idea of Cha Sung Hyuk being rejected by a woman was unimaginable to them.
Clearing his throat to change the atmosphere, CEO Chae brought the conversation that had gone off on a tangent back to the original topic.
“So, has it been decided which position you’ll take?”
The answer came from Beom Jun’s mouth.
“Head of the Management Planning Division.”
Beom Jun’s face was clearly full of pride. A pleased smile also hung on CEO Chae’s lips.
“That’s great. Congratulations.”
The Management Planning Division was like the heart of SL Group. The fact that the second son became the head instead of the eldest son also meant that the succession structure had changed.
Sung Hyuk only responded with a faint smile without saying anything.
He had received the order to take the position of Management Planning Division head on the evening of his matchmaking date with Young In, during a dinner with his father.
Of course, he had accepted. There was absolutely no reason to refuse.
But now a reason had appeared.
The reason he didn’t bother to say that he might be going to a different position was because of the person who had created that reason.
A meaningful gaze was directed at Young In, who was hanging her head low.
__________
Male Lead, The Black-Hearted Lotus (Female-dominant)
Short intro by Yuushi L:
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~