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Chapter 25

After a while, I was woken up by a loud ringing.

“Shit!”

With my eyes still closed, I frowned and searched for my phone. It was right next to my head. With one hand, I grabbed the phone and with the other, I rubbed my eyes in annoyance. I brought the phone to my eyes.

“Who the heck is it...”

I barely opened my eyes and stared at the screen. The name Lee JiHan popped up on the screen. I dropped the phone as if it had burned me. My heart, which had slowed down during sleep, started to beat wildly. This guy, does he know what time it is? Has he not heard from JiKyung yet? As I sat there frozen, the phone continued to ring loudly.

I picked up the phone, not wanting to bother the other people sleeping around me. I turned it off completely. I was suddenly struck by a strange realization. I’m sure I put my phone on vibrate...did I not?

Trying to figure out if I was remembering it incorrectly, I scratched my head in bewilderment. I could be wrong. I must be mistaken. I placed the turned-off phone next to me and laid back down with my back towards it.

A few minutes later, the phone behind me began to ring again. What’s happening? Why do I keep hearing this sound? Thinking it strange, I rolled around and found that the phone was gone. In its place stood a pair of legs. Following the legs upward, I found my phone in Lee JiHan’s hand.

With my phone held in his hand, JiHan stood with ice-cold fury in his eyes. Is this what the icy winds of the Okhotsk Sea would be like? There was not an ounce of wind in the sauna but I felt a chill that froze me to my corner.

“Uh, why are you here—”

“Is this your house?” JiHan cut me off.

“No...” I answered with my head low as if I had committed a huge crime.

“So why are you here? I thought you said there was a problem at home.”

I thought it a better option to bite my tongue than to tell him the truth: that he made my heart flutter.

“I went home to figure things out, then came here.”

“And ignored my calls. While you were just lying here?”

“I wasn’t ignoring it.”

“You checking that it was me and turning off the phone is not ignoring me? Then is that respecting me?” He was watching everything, even me turning off the phone!

I slowly sat in a kneeling position not knowing what to say. Should I raise my arms too? That might be overdoing it.

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? You can’t keep lying as you did before.”

“Lying?” I lifted my head slowly and inspected JiHan’s state. He frowned and answered angrily.

“I know it’s a lie that you went home then came here.”

“What?”

“I went to your house and you weren’t there.”

“Oh, when?”

“When my brother called me to let me know you went to your stepmother’s house.”

“Oh, we must have missed each other.”

Lee JiHan shook his head with a stony face at my excuse. “You did not stop by the house, and there was no problem at home. You think I wouldn’t have checked that with your family before I came here?”

With my head sagging lower, I quietly raised both my arms over my head.

“Why in the world would you lie about something like that?”

I remained silent.

“You said you were going home, and you weren’t there. You don’t even pick up the phone. Did you know that thanks to you, I had to hire detectives to go looking for you?”

“I mean,it wasn’t worth hiring detectives...” I looked up at Lee JiHan confused.

With both arms still in the air, I spoke. “If I wasn’t home, you could have just left it at that. It’s not like I stole your money and ran for it. I mean, why did you go to my house in the first place? If I said I’m going to my house, there’s no reason to go check. What’s that all about?”

At my questions, Lee JiHan’s eyes grew wide in anger. “Because I didn’t give you permission!”

“What?”

“I never permitted you to sleep elsewhere! So I came to catch you!”

After he finished screaming at me, he grabbed me by the arms and lifted me. Before I could even regain my balance, JiHan locked my arms with his and dragged me outside. I was dragged back to the apartment, still in the sauna clothes, and pushed through the door of my room.

“You will not think of sleeping anywhere other than this room,” he announced.

Seeing the delicate canopy draped on the bed in front of me, I winced and looked around the rest of the room. Tea table, mirrored vanity, even the carpet beneath my feet; they were all uselessly luxurious pieces that I did not need, and I was surrounded by them. The suffocating smell of money hadn’t been this extreme when I’d left.

Displeased by my half-hearted surveillance of the room, JiHan grabbed my shoulder.

“Look around more carefully,” he said.

Surprised by my heart suddenly skipped a beat and my shoulders cringed. Lee JiHan straightened them and turned me to the right.

“That a new vanity and drawer set, do you see it?”

“Uh, yes, it’s nice.”

I didn’t have enough money to afford a desk in the past, and I wondered if a dresser was even necessary, but I nodded nonetheless and pretended I liked it. JiHan turned me to the left.

“This tea table, doesn’t it feel luxurious?”

“Yes, I can feel it.”

I couldn’t feel what its purpose was, though. I continued nodding my head to appease him.

“My standards in taste are phenomenal.”

“Yes, they are.”

Lee JiHan dragged me to the bed and sat me down. Meanwhile, I tried to not make eye contact with him and lowered my head. He shoved the teddy bear into my arms. I received it without hesitation, thinking I would get in trouble if I didn’t. JiHan pushed the bear into my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around its body. Then he pinched my cheeks. I turned my head and saw him glaring at me.

“How could you leave a room like this, and stay at that prison-like place. How does that make any sense?”

JiHan shook my head to and fro thinking my actions unforgiving.

“I’m telling you one more time. You better not even think of sleeping somewhere else other than this room.”

“But...” I’m being pinched and still, my heart skips a beat!

I closed my eyes, wanting to cry and tried to dissuade him.

“I can’t do that! I want to go live at my house now. Until JiKyung comes back, I want to live by myself!”

Even with my cheeks held hostage by his hands, I said everything I wanted to. Lee JiHan stopped shaking me.

“Until my brother comes, you want to stay somewhere else. Is that it?”

I nodded with my eyes still closed. Lee JiHan let go of my cheeks and sat without speaking. Unable to stand the silence any longer, I opened my eyes and looked at him. He had his arms crossed and was staring at me with displeased eyes.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“What?”

“The reasoning behind wanting to stay somewhere else. What is it?”

“That’s...um,” I stuttered.

My heart beats furiously when I see you. I wasn’t able to tell him that so I tried to find a different excuse.

“Before I get married, I want to enjoy my final days of single life—”

“That’s not a good enough excuse. Veto.”

He cut me off before I’d even finished talking. Then he headed to the closet.

“What? Veto?” I asked JiHan’s back.

He pulled out pajamas from the closet.

“If you’re giving up on marrying my brother, then you can leave this house.” JiHan threw the pajamas at my knees. “But if that’s not it, then change into these and sleep,” JiHan commanded as he pointed to my orange sauna attire.

As if he didn’t need to hear anymore, he swiftly exited the room. What? If I don’t want to give up on the wedding, I can never leave this house? I’d wondered why he’d been nice ever since we stepped into the house...he was holding me prisoner! My heart beat erratically for a completely different reason this time. It was not a flutter but a thump of terror. I hugged the teddy bear tighter as I trembled in fear.

***

Afraid that he would come to check on me, I changed into the pajamas he’d given me and forced myself to try to try and sleep. Even after several hours, however, I couldn’t fall asleep and the sunlight soon began to filter in through the window.

Thinking I should at least try to get a few minutes of sleep, I tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position. JiKyung texted me, and the one line he sent jolted me awake immediately.

[Do you have a man?]

The out of the blue message caused me to jump out of bed and call JiKyung immediately.

“What? What are you talking about?”

[Isn’t it the crack of dawn there? What are you doing up?]

“I asked what you were talking about?”

[I got an email from Lim DaeChul. That you have a man.]

“What?!”

[That he showed up while you two were talking and then dragged him away. Who’s that?]

“Hey, that’s your brother.”

[That man said that you and I are not going to get married. That the person you love is him. You’re saying that’s my brother?]

“What in the world! Why would your brother say that!”

[I know. There’s no way my brother would say that...is there anyone else?]

“If there was another man, why would I be getting married to you?”

[Then what the heck is all this?]

“What do you think it is, your ex-boyfriend is scamming you! You can’t tell? He wants you to split up with me, so he’s trying to get us to fight!”

[Is that so? You’re saying nothing like this happened?]

“Well, your brother did drag off DaeChul sunbae...”

I remembered Lee JiHan dragging DaeChul away in front of the theater. I didn’t know what he’d said to Daechul after that though. I hadn’t seen or heard anything first hand. I only knew what JiHan had told me.

[That’s true? But what about the rest?]

“The rest...truthfully, I didn’t see what happened afterward. Your brother just told me that if DaeChul sunbae showed up in front of me again, he’d kill him.”

[That’s weird in itself. Why would he say something like that?]

“Right? I thought that was weird too. But after he explained it to me, I didn’t think much about it. He said he didn’t like DaeChul sunbae bothering me. That he was the only one allowed to do that and didn’t want to share that with anyone else.”

I explained this to JiKyung while scratching my head and the phone became silent.

“Why are you so quiet? Is something strange?”

At my question, JiKyung quietly and delicately replied.

[AhJung. Do you think my brother...likes you?]

“Ack!” A scream escaped my throat. “All of a sudden? Why would he? Why?”

[Never mind. Don’t worry about it. I must have lost my mind thinking something like that.]

“I’m going to worry about it. It worries me.”

[Don’t.]

“But it does! So tell me why you think that? What’s the reason?”

[It’s just...for most people, if you don’t like them, you think they get what they deserve if someone else is bothering them. But he spent all that time bothering you and now he’s saying he doesn’t want anyone else doing it? It’s like the psychology of an elementary kid. Pulling on her pigtails because you like her. It just seemed like that for a bit there.]

“Oh...could...could it be?”

With this new way of looking at it, I too became suspicious of JiHan’s recent actions. Yes, he might...? So the reason he was nice was because...? JiKyung interrupted my train of thought.

[No. He wouldn’t. If it was someone else, maybe. But not my brother.]

“What does that mean?”

[My brother, has high standards.]

I felt small at JiKyung’s politely toned answer.

[Don’t misunderstand and hear me out, AhJung. I’m not saying that your not great or anything. I’m just saying my brother’s standards are unbelievably high.]

“How unbelievably high could it be?”

[It’s...well it’s not you.]

“Yeah, so how high are we talking?” I asked because I was truly curious. I wanted to know what type of girl Lee JiHan liked.

[Actually, I don’t exactly know either. I’m just assuming. There wasn’t a single girl that he ever liked.]

“Not one?”

[Not one.]

“He’s not gay too is he?”

[I would know. And he’s not. He just has high standards.]

Then I guess he wouldn’t like me...

“Then if he doesn’t like me, why did he buy me all those flowers?”

[Who did? JiHan? He bought them for you?] JiKyung asked in a tone of disbelief.

“Yep. For me. After I finished the play, he gave me two bouquets and a basket of flowers.” Reminiscing, I counted them off one by one on my fingers.

[That doesn’t sound like him....]

“And he patted my head in the dressing room and complimented my acting. And uh...told me I was cute.” I blushed intensely as I remembered the best part of yesterday.

[Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?]

“Yeah, it was like a dream...” I answered in a daze, then jumped as I realized what I’d said. “Oh, no, it’s not a dream. It happened.”

[My brother would never do that. Why would he do that? Like he has feelings for you...] Lee JiKyung mumbled as if trying to understand some rare mystery.

“See?” I asked brightly. “Don’t you think he might like me?”

The door bolted open and my head snapped around in surprise. I saw JiHan watching me from the open door. Did he hear what I just said? I quickly thought up excuses to cover if he did hear me. First, I spoke into the phone.

“I love you too, JiKyung,” I said in a loud voice.

[Why’s your voice like that all of a sudden? It’s giving me goosebumps.]

“No, no. I like you more. I miss you...”

Like thunder, the door slammed shut. Frightened by the sound, I turned to find that Lee JiHan had left. I sighed in relief.

[JiHan came in, didn’t he?]

“Yeah. He just left,” I answered in a whisper.

[But why did he slam the door so hard when he left?]

“I don’t know, I guess he’s still angry that I lied to him yesterday at the sauna.”

[Now that I think about it, he dragged you back to the house when you said you wanted to go elsewhere and the way he’s acting around you is weird too...something’s up.] JiKyung said quietly in contemplation.

[But he does not like you as a girl.]

“Really?” I pouted, a bit disappointed.

[He’s probably just being nice to you as a person and he brought you back to the house so he can disprove of us more efficiently.]

“Then what Lee JiHan said to Lim DaeChul...about me liking him...”

[You said that part’s probably a lie. That he was scamming me.]

“Couldn’t it be true?”

[You just said a minute ago that he’s scamming me so we would fight with each other.]

“Oh...I did say that, didn’t I.” I sat crouched with my face buried in my knees.

With the smallest of hopes, I asked him cautiously, “If it was true, then your brother liking me...might also be true, right?”

JiKyung remained quiet at my question. Finally he spoke.

[My brother would never say something like that. Never.] Lee JiKyung told me confidently as if even thinking such a thing was unimaginable.