CHAPTER 27

“Actress? No, Andrew Shiffrin. He’s a hedge fund manager at Mars Capital, and we worked together on the SPAC IPO.”

“Oh! The father. That’s great.”

“I’ll email Mr. Shiffrin tomorrow about a play date.”

Since 60% of Aster School’s undergraduate students were often associated with Wall Street finance, it’s not uncommon to hear of business connections.

However, the thought of two men running a hedge fund, sitting at their computers with serious faces, setting up dates and times for six-year-old girls’ play dates the way they set up business meetings made Minhee burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

Taejun’s hand suddenly reached out, lightly gripping Minhee’s chin, turning her face towards him. Minhee’s eyes widened, unable to hide her expression at being caught off guard, and her lips, which had been forming round curves, curled inward as she bit them. 

Taejun’s eyes softened slightly, and his gaze lingered on her lips. The thumb cupping her chin lightly brushed Minhee’s lips.

Surprised, her lips parted, and the white-paled lips, pressed against her teeth, quickly regained a flush of red as Taejun’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily, and his deep and resonant voice overwhelmed Minhee.

“The kiss that night-“

‘No! Please, not that!’

Minhee cut Taejun off with a muffled scream.

“I will never, ever misunderstand! Do not worry! It wasn’t intentional, it was just an accidental collision of lips with no s*xual connotation whatsoever. I already know that it is not a romantic kiss between a man and a woman. No man would see me that way.”

Seeing him frowning, about to say something, panicked Minhee spoke incoherently without taking a breath.

“I’ve heard it so many times before that I’m sick of it. People have said kissing me feels like kissing a little sister, or that they’d rather become gay than have s*x with me. And then I really got one guy turn gay, like, I’m a magical woman who turns straight guys gay. So, what I’m saying is—”

When Taejun looked like he was about to interrupt again, Minhee raised her arms and pretended to stretch.

“Ah, I’m suddenly feeling tired. Taejun, you must have a lot of work to do too, right? Now that our business is finished, I’ll be going now then.”

Taejun grabbed Minhee’s wrist as she was about to move out of the chair and run away.

Minhee looked up at him in panic and tried to pull her arm away. Releasing her wrist, he put his hands on her shoulders and shook her lightly.

“Minhee, stop! What on earth are you talking about? Speak so I can understand.”

Minhee looked at Taejun in a panic, and with a sudden burst of frustration, she raised her voice.

“What don’t you understand! Because of how I look, nobody wants to do anything with me, not even a kiss, let alone s*x!”

After blurting out such words, Minhee, whose face had paled, desperately looked around. Sensing that she was about to run away again, Taejun pressed her shoulder and sat her down on the chair.

With both hands on the armrests, he pinned her to the chair and leaned in close. Taejun brought his face closer. Minhee’s eyelashes fluttered, and her pupils shook uncontrollably as she lowered her gaze.

‘What on earth did I just blurt out to this man…?’

Minhee turned her head away, avoiding his sharp gaze, which was scrutinizing her from close range.

“Minhee, calm down and let me understand what this is all about. I genuinely don’t get it.”

“I don’t want to! It’s just my trivial complex.”

As Taejun’s voice lowered, Minhee’s spine shivered.

“Give it a try, slowly from the beginning. Because I want to know what button I just pushed.”

“I don’t want to kick the blanket tomorrow morning.” 

(“To kick one’s blanket” is a Korean expression that means to kick the blanket in shame and regret after suddenly remembering an embarrassing moment.)

“I can do the listening part.”

Minhee pursed her lips and studied Taejun’s expression as he stared at her, unwilling to compromise, and then let out a long sigh in resignation.

“……Do you have any alcohol in the house?”

Although the moonlight and city lights streamed through the large window, the dark living room remained dim. Minhee didn’t want to turn on the lights.

Taejun came out with a bottle of wine and two glasses between his fingers. Hesitating for a moment about where to sit, he chose to sit next to Minhee.

The large sofa set, divided into three sections was widely spaced apart, too far apart for a late-night drinking binge. Then again, Taejun had never brought anyone here in the first place, so it hadn’t even occurred to him that the couches were far apart until now.

“Do you know how to drink?”

He asked as he poured a glass of red wine intending to hand it to Minhee, but stopped, giving her a scrutinizing look, like a bartender suspecting her of being underage. Minhee, with her pride bruised by being treated like a child, nodded confidently and snatched the wine glass from his hand.

“Of course! I can drink well!”

It was a lie. A bottle of beer, two shots of soju, and a glass of wine were her usual drinking capacity. Not because she got drunk quickly, but because her face turned red, and people around her thought she was already drunk, preventing her from drinking more.

Sitting side by side on the couch in the dark living room, Taejun and Minhee sipped their wine in silence for a while. He didn’t try to force a conversation, just sat next to her with a heavy presence, quietly refilling Minhee’s glass when it was empty.

“Another glass, please.”

“Aren’t you drinking too fast? Are you okay?”

“Of course! This is no problem.”

Shrugging, Taejun stretched out his long arm, picked up the wine bottle, and filled Minhee’s glass again. It was already her third glass.

With the courage to speak out, fueled by the power of alcohol, Minhee tilted the glass, pouring another mouthful of wine. She gulped, half-drank, and shuddered at the strong red wine flavor that regurgitated into her nose and the alcoholic buzz. Unable to swallow or spit out the remaining wine, she puffed out her cheeks and scowled.

“Looks like you’ve had too much.”

With a smirk, Taejun took the glass from Minhee and placed his empty glass near her lips.

“Spit it out.”

Minhee hesitated for a moment but couldn’t hold back any longer. She spat out the liquid that burned her tender membrane.

‘What a mess. How can any man see me as a woman when I act like a child who can’t even take a sip of wine?’

Luckily, it was dark. Her face was burning, and in the light of day, she would have looked like a human strawberry.

Taejun brought a new glass, poured wine into it, and held it out to her. The sound of glasses being filled echoed loudly in the quiet living room. Hearing had become acute in the dark. The rustling of the hem of Taejun’s shirt as he lifted the wine glass sounded eerily familiar. Minhee swallowed hard.

He leaned back on the couch and stretched one arm over the backrest where Minhee sat. His long arm felt like it was enveloping her shoulders, causing her heartbeat to quicken.

‘Get a grip on yourself and stop being so nervous. Taejun didn’t mean anything by his actions!’

‘What was he trying to tell me about the kiss when we were in the study? That it was an accident? That it was a mistake? Or…….’

‘Haha. I’m so tired of losing my confidence and imagining the worst whenever I get involved with a guy. Maybe I’ll feel a bit relieved after I spill out my trauma. What will he say?’

Dizzying questions swirled through her foggy mind. Minhee’s unresolved trauma, and the complexes it had created, surged through her throat along with the scent of alcohol and eventually overflowed.

“Taejun, how old did you think I was when you first saw me?”

Quickly replacing his usual tactics, Taejun cautiously chose his response.

He initially thought she was a student when he first saw her. Judging from the nonsense she’d been spouting in the study, her complexes were clearly related to her appearance.

‘Baek Taejun, you better answer her.’

“Uh… twenty-tw-three?”

Minhee burst out laughing at Taejun’s unconfident tone, which she had never heard before.

“Taejun, don’t you know that lying to your teacher will get you in trouble?”

“….”

Seeing him struggling for words, Minhee pointed it out with a self-deprecating tone.

“You thought I was a student that day and tried to kick me out, don’t you remember?”

“That day was……. Anyway, you look twenty-five now.”

Taejun, who was in a hurry to make up for his mistake, sipped his wine hurriedly. It was just a brief moment, but he felt a momentary embarrassment for making a student-like mistake, causing a teacher to scold him.

“It’s nice of you to say so, even if it’s just empty words. The story which I unashamedly blabbered about in the study… Taejun, someone like you might not understand.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because Taejun……you’re perfect. Abilities, intelligence, appearance, wealth, and status. Who would believe that someone like you has complexes?”

“No one is perfect in …… this world.”

Taejun wondered what on earth he had done to make Minhee see him that way. He might not have complexes, but there was a gaping hole in the center of his being, dark as a cave, and his deficiencies seemed to be invisible to her.

“Americans, you know, have a hard time guessing the age of Asians, right? Have you ever experienced that, Taejun?”

“….Yes.”

Although Taejun had presented himself as an adult and worked since the age of fourteen, there were hardly any doubts about his age. His above-average height for his age played a role.

“That’s interesting, I didn’t think you’d ever had to deal with that, but I still do almost every day. I still get asked for ID when I go out for drinks. Sometimes, I even get hit on by middle schoolers on the street. I’ve come to accept it now.”