Due to the secretary booking and only providing the name of the hotel, he came without knowing anything else. Judging by the size of the building, the extravagant chandelier and majestic sculptures in the lobby, it was obviously a firstclass hotel.

‘This scale of a hotel would require a significant amount of funds.’
Leon had always halfjokingly said he found booking hotels tiresome. But even if his father was a successful businessman, taking over such a business for such a reason seemed too big a task.

‘Maybe he’s planning to do business in Korea?’
That thought suddenly came to mind. Since I refused to go to America despite his insistence, could it be that father is planning to come here?

‘What if he suggests living together?’
It’s not that he disliked his father. However, Tae Ha, who had lived his entire life not even knowing what it’s like to have a family, felt that living with his father now would be very uncomfortable.

Feeling unnecessarily complicated, Tae Ha quickly shook his head to dispel such thoughts. Nothing was certain yet, so there was no need to worry needlessly.

Above all, Leon was not the type to forcefully impose something that Tae Ha didn’t like. If he were, he would have already exercised his parental rights and brought him to America during high school.

After checking in, Tae Ha headed straight to the restaurant. It was a French restaurant operated directly by the hotel.

Even though it was a weekday evening, almost all the tables were occupied. Most of them were couples, perhaps due to the nice atmosphere, and the only one sitting alone was Tae Ha.

He wasn’t usually conscious of others’ eyes, but sitting alone awkwardly made him feel out of place.

‘I should have brought someone along.’
Tae Ha naturally thought of Si Hyun. If he had explained the situation honestly and asked, she might have agreed to join him for dinner, but thinking about it made him feel bitter.

[“I’m sorry, but I think it would be best if we didn’t visit each other’s houses from now on. It seems to bother my fiancé.”] Ah, right. She had said they should keep their distance.

A little while later, the meal began with the arrival of an amusebouche served on a beautiful, exclusive dish. As each dish was served one after the other, each tasting wonderful, he thought about Si Hyun more and more.

Recalling his father’s request, Tae Ha tried his best to dine from the perspective of a reviewer.

But having lived only with his computer thus far, he couldn’t find anything to complain about. The taste was excellent, the service was kind, and even the atmosphere was perfect.

Tae Ha suddenly realized.

[The hotel restaurant is very tasty.] The request to look at it was an excuse, and he realized that his father just wanted to give him a delicious meal.

A bitter smile emerged. Even though Leon wasn’t as blunt as him, he felt the same clumsiness in expression.

‘Did I resemble my father?’
Thinking so, Tae Ha continued his meal. It was awkward to sit alone and eat, and it wasn’t an atmosphere to look at his mobile phone while eating, so his gaze naturally wandered here and there.

Then, seeing a couple sitting in a window seat diagonally across, Tae Ha unconsciously stopped his hand cutting the scallop grill.

Because the face of the man sitting towards him looked familiar.

‘Hmm?’
Even after widening his eyes and looking again, there was no doubt. It was the same face he had seen a few days ago.

Kim Woo Jin. Kang Si Hyun’s fiancé.

Unaware of Tae Ha staring intensely, Kim Woo Jin affectionately asked the woman sitting across from him.

“Shall we have another bottle of champagne?”
It was quite a different expression when he harshly reprimanded Si Hyun to put this down.

Then the woman……

It was not visible from here, but even from the back, he could tell at once that it was not Si Hyun.

‘What the hell is he doing?’
Just because a man and a woman are eating together doesn’t necessarily mean they have a special relationship. But it didn’t seem like they would eat while drinking champagne at such a fancy restaurant on a Friday evening if they had no relationship.

His heart began to beat anxiously. No way…

Tae Ha tried hard to shake his head. No, it’s impossible that someone who has Kang Si Hyun as his lover would secretly meet another woman. There couldn’t be such a foolish guy in the world.

But the two looked intimate at a glance.

He couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but Kim Woo Jin looked happy throughout, and occasionally he could hear the woman’s laughter. If he didn’t know that man was Si Hyun’s fiancé, he would definitely have seen them as lovers.

Throughout the meal, Tae Ha had been focusing all his nerves on them. He barely finished his meal without even tasting it, didn’t touch his dessert at all, and just waited aimlessly.

But for how long had he been sitting there? Finally, it seemed they had finished their meal and got up from their seat. The two of them brushed past the table where Tae Ha was sitting.

“I enjoyed the meal, oppa.”
Tae Ha, stealthily hiding his face with a napkin, looked up at the woman who was speaking in a cutesy tone.

She looked to be in her midtwenties. Her face didn’t seem unfamiliar, but he couldn’t recall exactly where he had seen her.

After the two left, Tae Ha followed a moment later, exiting the restaurant. Seeing their figures from a distance, intimately waiting for the elevator arm in arm, he felt momentarily dizzy.

As expected, it was so.

Si Hyun’s radiant expression as she announced their imminent marriage to their team members surfaced in his mind, and his fists tightened instinctively. If she found out about this…!

Suppressing the urge to grab Woo Jin by the scruff of his neck right there, Tae Ha had to grit his teeth.

Only after confirming that the two took the elevator up using their guestsonly card key, Tae Ha turned around.

He headed straight to the reception and handed over his key card.

“Due to certain circumstances, I would like to check out immediately.”
He didn’t think he could sleep in the same building as them.

((()))

Tae Ha gave up staying at the hotel and returned home. He was waiting for the elevator after parking his car when he ran into Si Hyun.

“Oh, Tae Ha. You’re just getting off work?”
Unable to look Si Hyun straight in the face, Tae Ha turned his gaze away. But still, Si Hyun asked him again in a friendly manner.

“Have you had dinner?”
“Didn’t we agree to act like we don’t know each other?”
Thinking about how she had suggested not even visiting each other because of her worthless fiancé, Tae Ha became suddenly infuriated, and his tone turned sharp.

“Hey, why are you like this? I said we shouldn’t visit each other’s houses because Woo Jin oppa might misunderstand, not that we can’t even talk. What kind of relationship do we have.”
Si Hyun tried to placate Tae Ha in any way possible.

“I have some tteokbokki. It’s too much for me to eat alone, do you want to share?”
Si Hyun showed the plastic bag in her hand, enticing him like a child. But Tae Ha found the situation absurd and replied curtly.

“Why do you have tteokbokki?”

“He was originally supposed to have dinner with me today, but he suddenly had to work overtime. He said he was sorry and went out of his way to buy this for me on his way home from work. He’s subtly caring even when he pretends not to be.”
Tae Ha stared blankly at Si Hyun as she boasted. Something welled up inside him.

Drinking champagne in a French restaurant with another woman, yet the thing he bought for the woman he was going to marry was just tteokbokki. And yet this woman thought that man was affectionate…!

Without realizing it, Tae Ha reached out and snatched the plastic bag. He then threw it into the public trash can in front of the elevator.

“Tae Ha?”
Si Hyun looked at the bag of tteokbokki that was tossed into the trash can with bulging eyes.

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