His dejected face made Yu-jun look particularly young. Seeing that face, Hae-wan’s anger inevitably subsided.

At twenty-one, Yu-jun would still be comfortably in his parents’ arms if he had been born into an ordinary family.

Some might say the situation was different, but being abandoned at birth didn’t make standing on your own any easier than for others. Hae-wan knew this better than anyone. That’s why his resentment over Yu-jun’s occasional immature acts would wash away so easily.

Hae-wan quietly spoke.

“We have to return it. This money.”

Yu-jun’s head shot up.

“Hyung. Don’t do that, just listen to me. I, I looked it up online, and if someone voluntarily transfers money to your account, they can’t take it back. And I left evidence too. This is a text from yesterday…”

“You’re even contacting him separately?”

At his sharp voice, Yu-jun froze. Watching Yu-jun just gape his mouth, Hae-wan gritted his teeth and said.

“Text him right now. Tell him we’re returning the money.”

Even at this point, Yu-jun seemed to want to argue something, but faced with Hae-wan’s frighteningly hardened expression, he eventually closed his mouth and started texting.

Hae-wan squeezed his eyes shut. He knew what he had to say, but it wouldn’t come out of his throat.

Finally, after several attempts, he barely managed to speak.

“And… tell him I’m coming.”

At those words, Yu-jun’s head shot up. With a clearly flustered expression, he frantically waved his hands.

“You, you don’t need to do that. You don’t want to meet that person, hyung. I’ll really…”

“I can’t trust what you say. I’ll return it myself and…”

Hae-wan licked his dry lips. For some reason, the words coming from his own mouth sounded like they were coming from far away.

“And I need to clearly tell him that I’m not Hae-eon.”

* * *

He never thought he’d come to this place again.

Standing in front of the greenhouse where he first encountered Kang-hyun, Hae-wan wiped his sweaty palms on his pants, then took out a white envelope from his cross bag to check the amount once more.

Inside the envelope was seventeen and a half million won. Fifteen million that Yu-jun had presented to pay off the debt, one million that Yu-jun had secretly taken and spent most of, and one and a half million from Hae-wan’s broken savings account.

Even after setting up the appointment with Kang-hyun, Yu-jun kept clinging to Hae-wan, saying he could go instead and asking him to reconsider.

His obvious reluctance to let him meet Kang-hyun seemed suspicious, so when Hae-wan held him down and questioned him again, Yu-jun finally confessed that the amount he’d actually received from Kang-hyun was twenty million won, and he had pocketed the remaining five million.

He had shamelessly spent four million won having fun. And that was in just one week.

Too drained to get angry, Hae-wan said they’d talk about it later and gathered whatever money he could. Still, he was short by two and a half million. Even before meeting Kang-hyun, just standing there with insufficient money made his face burn red.

Maybe this is for the better, Hae-wan tried to think, steadying his resolve.

He shouldn’t have sent Yu-jun there in the first place. Moreover, he couldn’t pretend not to know that his own sudden flight when they first met had likely fueled Kang-hyun’s suspicions.

Rather, this would be an opportunity to look him straight in the face and clearly state that he wasn’t Hae-eon. That would be the minimum courtesy toward Kang-hyun.

As he entered the greenhouse, the warm air made his frozen fingertips tingle.

Hae-wan walked hesitantly through the greenhouse where no trace of people could be felt. Come to think of it, it had been the same last time. The arboretum entrance always seemed crowded since it had gained fame on social media, but he had never seen anyone inside this greenhouse.

Except for Kang-hyun.

“You came?”

At the voice from behind, Hae-wan jumped in surprise and turned around. Kang-hyun was standing quite close, smiling as he looked down at him.

Hae-wan unconsciously gripped the strap of his cross bag tightly. It still felt awkward being in front of someone who could look down at him like this.

“Oh, hello…”

When Hae-wan greeted him timidly, Kang-hyun tilted his head and said.

“Are you still not done pretending we’re meeting for the first time?”

Hae-wan swallowed. Even though he had practiced, he couldn’t bear the nervousness.

“We are meeting for the first time. I’m not Yoon Hae-eon.”

“Yu-jun said otherwise.”

“That, that was because that kid was immature and playing a prank. I’ll apologize for it. And I brought the money you gave us too.”

When Hae-wan hurriedly pulled out the envelope, the relaxed smile on Kang-hyun’s face vanished instantly. He didn’t hide his irritation as he scratched his dark eyebrows and sighed.

“I gave that money to you. Because I wanted to help.”

“You gave it to Yoon Hae-eon, not me. I’m not Yoon Hae-eon, no matter how many times I have to say it.”

“Then how did you get here?”

“Excuse me?”

Kang-hyun sat back against a table and spoke leisurely.

“This isn’t a place just anyone can enter. It’s where we research rare plants, so it’s not open to the general public. That side door you came through is usually locked so only authorized personnel can use it.”

“But…”

“It was open when you came in? Of course. I opened it so you could come. And the fact that the side door would be open at that time was something I only told Hae-eon. I made sure other staff members couldn’t come here at that time. So the only people who could be inside at that time were you, Yoon Hae-eon, and me.”

Hae-wan’s mouth fell open. He had found it strange that there were no people around, but he hadn’t imagined it was a place not just anyone could enter. Kang-hyun continued smoothly.

“And your claim that you’re seeing me for the first time doesn’t make sense either.”

“…”

“You ran away when you saw me. Desperately. Normal people don’t do that when they see someone for the first time. Not unless they have a reason to.”

Hae-wan’s face turned bright red, realizing that even his plan to maintain that he was just Hae-eon’s friend with no acquaintance with Kang-hyun had crumbled.

“On top of that, there’s someone who guaranteed you’re Yoon Hae-eon. With all this, is there any reason I should believe you’re not Yoon Hae-eon?”

Cold sweat ran down his back at the more persistent questioning than expected.

“I heard from Hae-eon how to get here. I’m Hae-eon’s friend. He asked me to come here at that time, so I just came.”

“…”

“And… and I was surprised to see you because… I didn’t expect to see anyone there.”

It was a weak excuse, but it couldn’t be helped. Hae-wan had never been skilled at such quick thinking.

“Really? Why? Why did he send you instead of coming himself?”

“That’s…”

Hae-wan couldn’t answer immediately. Hae-eon hadn’t talked about his reasons for orchestrating this. He couldn’t give an answer he didn’t know himself.

In that case, the only option would be to say honestly that he couldn’t know because Hae-eon had died, but setting aside the request not to reveal that, Hae-wan didn’t yet have the confidence to speak of Hae-eon’s death without breaking down.

“Is that a question you can’t answer? Then I’ll ask a different one.”

“…”

“Who are you?”

At Kang-hyun’s question, Hae-wan’s eyes, which had been wandering in confusion, reflexively turned toward him.

“You’re not Yoon Hae-eon, but you know about things between me and Yoon Hae-eon, and you’re not Yoon Hae-eon, but you smell like Yoon Hae-eon. Who are you?”

That simple question paralyzed his entire body like an ice pick piercing his heart.

He wanted to explain.

But to explain who he was, he couldn’t leave out Hae-eon’s existence.

The reason the school-age teasing of being “Yoon Hae-eon’s knockoff” had hurt Hae-wan’s heart the most was that he couldn’t deny that fact himself.

A name created after Hae-eon’s name, a birthday that followed Hae-eon’s birthday, and a scent that came from receiving Hae-eon’s pheromone glands.

Hae-eon could exist without Hae-wan, but Hae-wan couldn’t exist without Hae-eon.

And that was why Hae-wan hadn’t been able to say a single word to Kang-hyun eight years ago.

Hae-wan had first become curious about Kang-hyun because he thought Kang-hyun had smelled his nonexistent scent.

But after some time passed, he began to think that maybe what Kang-hyun had smelled was traces of Hae-eon’s scent on his body. Hae-eon’s scent was very strong and rich, so that would make more sense.

Still, he wanted to think that Kang-hyun had smelled Hae-wan’s scent. He wanted to believe that he too could be someone special to someone.

That’s why he couldn’t speak to him. He was afraid that if he spoke, he would discover that the scent Kang-hyun had smelled was actually Hae-eon’s.

Hae-wan gritted his teeth. At least to Kang-hyun, he didn’t want to be remembered that way.

“I’m nobody.”

Rather, he hoped to be remembered as someone he didn’t know.

“I’m someone you don’t need to know.”

Kang-hyun was silent for a moment. He just stared at Hae-wan with unreadable black eyes, not blinking even once.

Just as Hae-wan, unable to bear the gaze that seemed to dissect him to his core, was about to bow his head deeply, Kang-hyun suddenly spoke.

“You can’t say why Hae-eon told you about the place where he was supposed to meet me, and you can’t say who you are.”