85

It was the moment I instinctively seized Yeo Jin-won by the shoulder and pressed my lips to his. At once, someone yanked me back hard by the shoulder.

“Ah.”

My body was dragged backward in an instant.

“……It hurts.”

I came to myself and turned my head. Yeo Hae-jeong stood there with a cold face. He was gripping my shoulder so tightly that it felt as though the bone itself might ache. I rubbed at the place and looked up at him.

“What are you two doing?”

“……”

“Cheating on me while I’m standing right here?”

My heart dropped straight to the floor. I looked from Yeo Hae-jeong to Yeo Jin-won and back again, searching their faces.

Then Yeo Jin-won let out a hollow laugh, as though dumbfounded, and stepped forward.

“What do you mean, doing? Does this look like cheating to you, hyung?”

“……”

“Can’t I even greet Jang Yeo Eun?”

Even at that aggressive tone, Yeo Hae-jeong did not blink. Facing one another, the two looked so alike they could have been drawn from the same hand. I was still blinking at that strange resemblance when Yeo Hae-jeong spoke first.

“No. You can’t, Jin-won-ah.”

“Why?”

“……”

“Why the f*ck can’t I even greet Jang Yeo Eun?”

“Because we’re dating.”

Yeo Jin-won, who had looked ready to lunge at any moment, tilted his head as though he had heard something absurd.

“……What?”

“Yeo Eun and I are dating. Must I say it twice for you to understand?”

Ha-hak, haha.

Yeo Jin-won bent over laughing, clutching at his stomach in disbelief. It was laughter meant to mock.

“Haah, ha. This is f*cking ridiculous. You expect me to believe that?”

“……”

“Didn’t you threaten her? That’s your usual method.”

At once, Yeo Hae-jeong’s face crumpled. Yeo Jin-won mocked him a little longer, then staggered forward and stopped right in front of me. Suddenly, he called my name.

“Hey, Jang Yeo Eun.”

“……Huh?”

Even I was flustered by the abrupt seriousness in his face. He bent down to my height and said something entirely unexpected.

“If he threatened you, blink twice.”

The instant Yeo Hae-jeong moved as if to step forward, Yeo Jin-won flung out a hand to stop him.

“Hyung, stay out of this.”

“You really do stir up every kind of trouble, Jin-won-ah.”

Yeo Hae-jeong spoke lightly, almost mockingly, then folded his arms as though daring him to continue. Yeo Jin-won stood before me, Yeo Hae-jeong beside me. Under those suffocating gazes, my shoulders shrank of their own accord. Jin-won stood close, staring at me with burning eyes.

I stared back, wide-eyed. It was true that I had somehow ended up dating Yeo Hae-jeong in confusion. But it had not been because of a threat. We kept looking at each other for a long while, as though locked in a contest of endurance. Beside us, Yeo Hae-jeong said nothing. He simply watched.

At last my eyes began to sting from holding them open so long. But sharper still was the sting of Yeo Hae-jeong’s gaze boring into the side of my face. Was this truly not a threat? Confused, I shifted my eyes. Then Yeo Jin-won shut his own for a moment and asked in a lower voice,

“Hey. Jang Yeo Eun. It isn’t a threat?”

“……”

When I gave the smallest nod, he suddenly cursed into the air.

“F*cking hell.”

Yeo Hae-jeong had been watching in silence. Now he stepped closer and slipped an arm around my shoulders. Then he smiled, very faintly, with the air of someone who had won.

“You see, Jin-won-ah? So from now on, don’t act familiar with someone else’s girlfriend.”

“……”

“Before I run you down with a car.”

It was a vicious threat. Jin-won knew, and so did I, that Yeo Hae-jeong was perfectly capable of such a thing. Yet he did not so much as flinch. As if to prove that he too carried the blood of the Yeo family, he even smiled.

“Hyung, it’s not acting familiar. We are friends.”

“……”

“And you know what? While Jang Yeo Eun was gone, she was with me.”

Even I was startled by the sudden revelation.

“Hey!”

The cry escaped me before I knew it. At once, Yeo Hae-jeong lowered the arm that had been around my shoulders and began removing the watch from his wrist. It was the unmistakable posture of someone about to beat someone. I hurriedly clung to his forearm. There was no question of ending up at the police station again.

“Senior, wait. Just wait.”

“Oh, so you’re mad enough over a woman to beat your own brother? Hit me, then. Go on.”

Yeo Jin-won, too, seemed to have lost his senses. He only provoked him further. I was the only one dying between them.

“Yeo Jin-won, just stay still.”

I shouted at him and tried to shove Yeo Hae-jeong back when a noisy stir rose behind us.

“What, Yeo Jin-won’s here? What’s with the atmosphere?”

A group who seemed to be Jin-won’s friends came toward us. Having sensed at once that something was wrong, they quickly gathered around him.

“Ha, Yeo Jin-won. Starting fights again?”

“What are you talking about, you bastards? Get lost. I’m busy.”

He answered with a straight face, but no one paid much heed to his drunken words. One of the men threw an arm around him and began restraining him as if handling a drunkard.

“Ah, we’re sorry. Please understand. He always gets like this when he’s drunk. We’re sorry.”

“No, let go, f*ck. It’s not like that.”

“Come on, Jin-won-ah. If you end up at the police station again, you’ll really get kicked out.”

“Let go, you f*cking bastards.”

The others joined in one by one to drag him away. However foul his temper, even he could not overcome a whole group once they moved together. I watched coldly as he was swept off like something caught in a current. That bastard. What was I supposed to do about the mess he had left behind?

“Don’t provoke me, hyung. Huh? If I put my mind to it, I can ruin the both of you.”

“……”

“You know that, right? Hey, Jang Yeo Eun. Blink. It’s not too late. Blink even now.”

Even while being dragged away, he would not stop talking. At last, the corridor fell quiet again.

Carefully, I turned my eyes toward Yeo Hae-jeong. He was calm. He was only staring at the place where Jin-won had vanished, his eyes cold and sunken. The sight of them sent a chill through me for the first time in a long while. Without thinking, I tried to take a step back. At once, he caught my wrist.

“I thought you hadn’t run away with anyone.”

“……”

“But I never imagined it would be Yeo Jin-won.”

“I didn’t run away with Yeo Jin-won. I only received the key from him.”

“……”

“At that time, everything was terrible. You had locked me up, and besides……”

I remembered how Jin-won had set the fire and fled, and resentment rose in me even as I spoke calmly. He listened without expression, then turned his eyes toward me.

“Do you like Jin-won?”

“It’s not like that. Nothing happened. Truly.”

“……”

“There’s no way I met with Jin-won. If I had……”

Then, all at once, the memory flashed through me that I had nearly kissed Yeo Jin-won. Without meaning to, I trailed off. At once, Yeo Hae-jeong’s expression hardened with irritation.

“Not Jin-won. Yeo Jin-won.”

“……”

“To you, he is Yeo Jin-won.”

Ha.

My chest tightened at once at the coldness in his voice.

“I know. I know, so stop.”

I cut him off roughly, trying to smooth things over. At that, he gave a laugh of disbelief. Then he strode right up to me and seized the wrist Yeo Jin-won had touched, pulling it toward him.

“Why do you keep making me anxious?”

“……What did I do?”

“I’m anxious because of you.”

His grip twisted my wrist with rough force. I winced at the sharp pain, and only then did he ease his hold.

“……Why are you like this? You said it didn’t matter if I didn’t like you, senior.”

“……”

“You said we would take it slowly. You said that yourself.”

He listened in silence for a moment, then muttered softly,

“I don’t know. I keep growing greedy.”

Without thinking, I lowered my gaze. He cupped my cheek and bent his face toward mine. In the next instant, our lips met.

“Mmph, hngh.”

This was a corridor in a bar. People could pass at any moment. Startled, I opened my eyes wide. Was he truly mad? The lecture hall had already seemed insane enough, but at least there the door had been shut.