CHAPTER 6

“It’s not just Gwihyeon oppa who’s the only man in the Seorae Jeong family.”

Siyeon shrugged and answered. Ijun, who was about to say something, froze in place, lips partly open.

He stared at her, unblinking, trying to see through her. He seemed surprised but not displeased. And this time, she didn’t run away.

“…What do you mean?”

He finally spoke again after a long pause.

“I don’t want to polish brassware. I don’t even like performing ancestral rites more than ten times a year. That’s what I mean.”

Her answer caught him off guard, and his eyes widened slightly.

Siyeon felt a strange sensation in her stomach. She wasn’t sure how this statement would affect her life, but she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t want to walk down the path she already knew the outcome of. One thing was for certain – she would never marry Gwihyeon.

People pitied her when they heard that Gwihyeon and her had broken off their engagement. Ironically, she had never even properly dated Gwihyeon, yet she was now the pitiful woman left behind by him.

In truth, she knew that Gwihyeon didn’t see her as a woman. If he had insisted on marrying her, Gwihyeon’s grandfather might have approved the marriage, even if she weren’t Kim Donghan’s great-granddaughter.

But since Siyeon wasn’t a woman to him, and even if she were, Gwihyeon’s grandfather would have valued the real Kim Donghan’s great-granddaughter more. Knowing the inevitable outcome, she couldn’t afford to face the same rejection in this life as well.

“…Give me your phone.”

Ijun suddenly extended his right palm towards her. Siyeon didn’t ask why; she simply handed him her phone.

“Are you taking my number?”

“I already have your number, I’m saving my number in your phone.”

“How did you know my number?”

“Uncle.”

He furrowed his brow slightly as if bothered by the interruption.

“Does Gwihyeon oppa knows my number too?”

In response to her question, Ijun briefly glanced at her, then lowered his gaze to the phone again.

“…Would you like him to know?”

“Just curious, that’s all.”

“You’re not the type to ask such things.”

“That’s true, but… Wait, what are you looking at now?”

Siyeon’s eyes widened. Ijun had already finished saving her number, and he was now looking at the calendar on her phone’s home screen. It was a calendar with a heart marked on Gwihyeon’s birthday.

With her face turning red, Siyeon thought took the phone from his hand, feeling as if she needed to erase it immediately. Her actions from the day before had left her embarrassed about her actions today.

“Your words and actions don’t match.”

Ijun teased her for this.

“You’re the one whose words and actions don’t align.”

“In the time I haven’t seen you, you’ve become quite cheeky, huh? You’re not even older than me, but you talk back like an adult.”

“Don’t act like an adult just because you’re two years older. You’re only twenty.”

“Just twenty? Are you saying that the teens and twenties are the same?”

Although he said it teasingly, his expression showed that he didn’t really mind engaging in this banter with Siyeon.

“Why go all the way to the U.S. when there are so many universities in Korea?”

“I don’t know. Now that you mention it, it feels like I might have some regrets.”

“If you go to the US, I won’t be able to see your face anymore.”

Parting with him like this was regrettable. When they’ll meet again, Siyeon will likely have become Choi Siyeon. Would he tease her again, saying that she suits being Choi Siyeon better?

“I’ll be coming here every vacation anyway, so what’s the big deal.”

In her past life, she hadn’t met Ijun again after that. Her parents from Ichon-dong hadn’t visited his Grandfather’s house in Suwon with her anymore. They probably couldn’t bring a fake Siyeon here while having a real daughter.

“If I don’t come here, we won’t be able to meet, right?”

“Why won’t you come here?”

Ijun asked with a slightly widened gaze, looking puzzled, and someone nearby caught their attention.

“When did you two become so close?”

Gwihyeon butted in between the two with a smiling face. Gwihyeon alternated between looking at Siyeon and Ijun, intrigued by their natural conversation.

“Is it a problem if we’re close?”

“Of course not.”

Gwihyeon sent a smile to Ijun, who was frowning, and then turned around and walked away. Ijun watched his retreating back for a moment before turning his gaze back to Siyeon. She found it fascinating that she was having such a long conversation with him like this.

“I have a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you remember when you threw a fish at me when we were young? I was sitting on this porch with Grandfather and Dad.”

“The fish incident? Ah… I remember. But why bring that up?”

“Why did you throw the fish at me back then?”

Ijun paused for a moment to recall the memory and then casually replied.

“I thought you liked them, so I caught one for you. I wanted you to see it up close.”

“Did you liked me since then?”

Ijun, who was twenty right now after Siyeon had returned to being eighteen, wasn’t a difficult person at all. So, Siyeon could ask such questions without blushing.

In response to her bold question, Ijun slightly furrowed one eyebrow.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

“No?”

“Why are you suddenly like this?”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“I think you should consider getting a thorough check-up for your head.”

As he said that, he tapped his own head lightly with his right index finger, wearing a serious expression. Seoyeon burst into a light laughter at his actions.

“Don’t just brush it off, I’m serious.”

In the past, she hadn’t known. That he, beneath his stoic expression, was someone with such warm eyes.

Perhaps hearing her laughter, Gwihyeon, who had been walking away, stopped and turned around to look back. His gaze lingered on Siyeon’s smiling face.

* * *

Back home, Siyeon sat at her desk and began listing the impending crisis she was facing one by one.

The biggest one was the fact that his parents’ factory was going to close before summer, leaving them homeless, and his father to collapse from the shock. For now, there was nothing more important than that.

“The food company we used to supply to went bankrupt, and all the promissory notes we received turned into worthless pieces of paper. Your father tried his best to prevent those notes from coming back to us, going all around to various places, but in the end, it didn’t work out. If we had just managed to prevent those notes, we could have found a new supplier somehow and restarted the factory…”

Recalling her biological mother’s words, Siyeon tightly bit her lower lip. Since it was currently January, she had about 6 to 7 months until summer vacation.

Even if she had to sell the land under her name to solve the problem, Siyeon couldn’t dispose of the land alone without her parent’s consent, and she had no excuse to present to them without revealing the truth.

“What should I do…?”

Anxious, Siyeon drew a circle in her notebook. She needed to focus on her studies, but her worries about her biological parents were making it hard to concentrate.

Lost in her thoughts, a notification sound chimed on her phone. Siyeon checked her phone to see a text message.

[ Siyeon, did you get home safely? ]

Siyeon tilted her head in surprise. The sender was Gwihyeon. Up until now, he had never sent her a text or called her.

It had been the same in her past life. Except when she visited her Suwon Grandfather’s house, they never met separately or had any personal communication.

[ Yes. I got home safely. ]

Siyeon replied to him and then set her phone aside, returning her focus to her thoughts. But, she received another message from him.

[ Grandfather mentioned that it would be nice for the three of us to have a meal together before I go to the military. Let me know when you’re available, and I’ll come pick you up in Ichon-dong. ]

[ Your grandfather? ]

[ Yeah. ]

“…….”

Siyeon’s expression turned serious.

Gwihyeon’s grandfather was the chairman of Baekya Food. While she called him “grandfather,” everyone else except for family members referred to him as Chairman.

He was one of the most influential figures among the adults she knew and also cherished her the most, even beyond her family. Perhaps it was because of her status as Kim Donghan’s great-granddaughter, but for now, she remained just that in his eyes.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Siyeon sent a reply to Gwihyeon.

[ Anytime is fine. By the way, how did you get my phone number? ]

[ Since even Ijun didn’t know, I asked Professor Kim. ]

If it was Professor Kim, that meant he had asked her father. Speaking of which, why did Ijun claim not to know her phone number? It was unexpected that Ijun hadn’t given her the number, and it was also surprising that Gwihyeon had managed to find her number by directly calling her father.

Siyeon, pondering the potential implications of her different actions in this life, sent a message of acceptance to Gwihyeon.

[ Okay, please let me know once the date is set.]

[ Sure. I’ll be in touch. ]

After their conversation ended, Siyeon contemplated the new events that had unfolded, events that had never occurred in her past life. In her past life, Gwihyeon hadn’t shown any romantic interest in her, and there had been no dinner invitation from his grandfather.

The only thing she had done differently today from her past self was to treat Ijun a bit more kindly, and yet, this small shift had started to create unforeseen futures that she wasn’t aware of.

However, this wasn’t particularly unsettling or frightening for her. There couldn’t be a worse future than the agonizing one she had faced at the age of twenty-seven.

Thinking of something, she looked up Ijun’s number in her phone’s contacts.

Jeong Ijun. Jeong Ijun. Jeong Ijun…….

Swiftly scrolling down the phone screen with her thumb, she soon found Ijun’s name.

As she stared at the screen displaying his name, a sudden memory flashed in her mind—the hair comb Ijun had given her when they were younger. Wide-eyed, she left her phone behind and rushed out of the room.

“Mom! Where are the things I used when I was little?”

Excitement filled her face as she searched for her mother.

In her past life, Siyeon’s mother had carefully stored the items she used to play with as a child in several boxes. She had regarded these items as filled with Siyeon’s memories that couldn’t be easily discarded.

But, when Siyeon was about to turn twenty, her mother took out all those boxes and sent them to the recycling center, using the excuse of tidying up the house.

“Why are you suddenly looking for those things?”

“I need to find something.”

“Well, they should be in the storage room outside the balcony. But it might be dusty, so make sure to wear a mask.”

“Okay, I will.”

Siyeon opened the balcony door and headed outside, unlocking the storage room door on one side.

Several boxes came into view. On the large paper box, which was taped shut, were labels written in bold letters: “Preschool,” “Kindergarten,” “Elementary School” and more.

Siyeon pulled out a box labeled “Kindergarten” and sat down on the floor. As dust floated around, she used her palm to create a gust of wind, blowing the dust away, as she lifted the lid

She carefully removed the contents of the box, one by one, to examine them closely.

“…Found it.”

Finally, in the last plastic bag she held, there was a deep maroon-colored hair comb with a white flower design on the handle.