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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Will Soon Be Close Again
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Yeongin barely managed to lift her heavy eyelids, which felt as if a stone had been placed upon them.
Her mind was hazy, as if shrouded in fog, and her whole body felt listless. As her blurry vision cleared, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
“Where am I?”
Her questioning eyes slowly swept across the room. And she found her answer.
“Why am I here…?”
After desperately piecing together the scattered fragments of her memory, bits and pieces of yesterday started to return to her.
Just as Haeyun's assistance in leaving the room, followed by the fleeting image of Cha Seonghyeok's face in the driver's seat, came to mind, a familiar voice pierced her ears.
“Are you awake?”
It was a voice that told her this wasn't an unfamiliar place, but one she hadn't been to in a long time.
Yeongin’s memory rewound three years.
Cha Seonghyeok, who would push her all night until she had no strength left to even lift a finger, yet he himself was always energetic, showing no signs of fatigue.
“You never exercise, so I’m just giving you a workout.”
His brazen words, annoying as they were, echoed in her ears.
Yeongin, who had inadvertently fallen into old memories, faced reality and shot up into a sitting position.
No way!
Her widened eyes frantically darted downwards.
The moment she confirmed she wasn't naked, the tension drained from her shoulders, which had instinctively hunched.
“What are you doing?”
Her relief that she had at least avoided the worst-case scenario was short-lived. Yeongin instinctively recoiled, moving away from Seonghyeok as he approached the bed.
The moment her back touched the headboard, he sat on the edge of the bed. The refreshing scent of a forest, a scent that suited Cha Seonghyeok perfectly, wafted into her nostrils.
“Why? Are you worried I might have done something to you while you were unconscious?”
“…”
The words ‘You might have, couldn’t you have?’ tickled her throat, but Yeongin couldn't bring herself to say them aloud. The only problem was that her true feelings were plainly visible on her face.
A frown creased Seonghyeok's brow.
“What do you take me for?”
“…”
The person who had tried to unfairly accuse Cha Seonghyeok, despite knowing better than anyone that he wasn't such a terrible man, cast her eyes down in apparent self-reproach.
“I’m not scum enough to lay a hand on a drunk woman. Unless, of course, you wanted me to.”
At his added remark, Yeongin flared up, raising her eyes to protest.
“There’s no way I would have wanted that.”
“You never know what might happen. Don’t be so sure.”
Were they going to argue again?
Just the thought of it brought a wave of fatigue over Yeongin. She sighed heavily, dropping her gaze, and then realized Seonghyeok wasn't wearing a shirt. Her eyes, which had lingered on his firm chest, quickly dropped away.
“...Why don’t you put some clothes on?”
The fact that she had been looking at his all-too-familiar appearance without a second thought suddenly made her feel embarrassed. Once she became aware of it, she didn't know where to look.
“I just finished showering, and I came to check on you, wondering if you might be awake.”
Seonghyeok, who had been about to explain that it wasn't intentional and obediently stand up, noticed Yeongin's eyes fixed on the water bottle in his hand. He smiled slightly, twisted off the cap, and offered it to Yeongin.
“Drink.”
Yeongin didn't refuse. No, she couldn't.
With her lips parched and her throat burning with thirst, why wouldn't she drink water, even if it was offered by her sworn enemy?
Soon, the bedroom was filled with the sound of her gulping down water.
When her head, which had been tilted far back, returned to its original position, about two-thirds of the water was gone.
Seonghyeok reluctantly tore his gaze away from her impossibly white, long neck. The impure heat flickering in his eyes quickly vanished.
Taking the water bottle from Yeongin's hand, he poured the remaining water into his own mouth.
Finishing off food Yeongin had left was a habit he was intimately familiar with. It wasn't because he was unfastidious, nor because he hated waste.
If someone else had given him their leftovers to eat, he would have considered it an insult, but strangely, he willingly reached for anything Chae Yeongin left behind. Her saliva was the only saliva in the world, besides his own, that he didn't find repulsive.
Thanks to Seonghyeok changing the subject at the right moment, Yeongin forgot what conversation they had been having. Even the fact that he was still shirtless.
Once her throat was quenched and she felt more alive, all sorts of questions arose at once.
“Seonghyeok, why am I here? I was definitely with Haeyun…”
“I told Haeyun I’d take you. And you agreed.”
Seonghyeok immediately corrected himself.
“To be precise, it wasn’t agreement, but you chose me.”
Yeongin’s eyes widened.
“I did?”
“When Haeyun asked who you wanted to go with, you clearly spoke my full name yourself, didn’t you?”
“…”
Yeongin furrowed her brow, searching her memory. But nothing specific came to mind.
“If you don’t believe me, ask Haeyun yourself.”
She had no intention of asking. Because she didn't think he was lying.
However, the fact that she had chosen Cha Seonghyeok while unconscious was utterly perplexing. It made her attempts to deceive herself—that her wavering feelings for him were merely lingering regrets over a relationship she'd had to ruthlessly cut off—feel entirely pointless.
Confronting her own feelings, which she had desperately tried to ignore, was far from pleasant. It felt as if her true self had been exposed, not just to him, but to herself.
“Anyway, where did you see me?”
Her face twitched as she tried to act nonchalant.
“The lounge bar.”
“Why were you there, Seonghyeok?”
“I had plans with a friend.”
“You had plans, but you still suggested we all have dinner together yesterday?”
“You rejected me, so I was bored and moved today’s plans to yesterday.”
Yeongin let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded.
“You told me on the day and then make me out to be heartless.”
“Alright. I’ll tell you in advance from now on.”
Seonghyeok added with a smile.
“Let’s have dinner tomorrow.”
Yeongin shot a slight glare at him, seeing he never missed an opportunity, and changed the subject.
“Was that lounge bar your original meeting place?”
“No, somewhere else. I heard it was a hot spot, so I wanted to check it out and changed the meeting place.”
“Liar.”
“Yeah, it’s a lie.”
He calmly admitted it, then confessed honestly.
“I went because I was worried about Ji Seungchan, or whatever his name is. I was afraid that bastard might do something to you.”
“Why do you care what that bastard does to me?”
“Why ask when you already know why?”
“…”
Speechless, Yeongin bit her lip.
She hadn't asked because she didn't know the reason. It was simply her way of telling him not to care. But he went a step further.
“Don’t play drinking games anymore.”
“I didn’t want to. It was an atmosphere where I couldn’t be the only one to opt out.”
She had felt a sense of relief because Haeyun was there, and also, having to drink penalty shots one after another, the alcohol hit her hard, leaving her no time to do anything about it. Though something like yesterday wouldn't happen again, she couldn't deny feeling a bit unfairly treated.
“If you absolutely have to, call me. I’ll be your knight in shining armor.”
“…”
Yeongin involuntarily pictured him appearing as her knight in shining armor. The thought of everyone gasping in shock made her smile.
“If you’re not going to call me, then only drink with me from now on.”
“I quit. I’m not drinking anymore.”
“…”
Seonghyeok managed to hold back the words 'Do you really need to quit?' along with his desire to keep seeing Chae Yeongin disarmed.
“By the way, why did you bring me here? You know where my house is.”
“If I had taken you home, wouldn’t your family have thought it strange? It doesn’t matter to me, but I thought you’d dislike it, so I brought you to my place. Was that wrong?”
She wondered if anything could be stranger than waking up in her ex-boyfriend's bed after getting plastered, but imagining her sister throwing a fit made her not want to scold him for bringing her to his house.
“Coming to your place is fine, Seonghyeok. But this house has a guest room, doesn’t it?”
“Why would I make you sleep in the guest room? You’re not a guest to me.”
“If I’m not a guest, then what am I? We know each other, so should I say we’re acquaintances?”
“Neither a guest nor an acquaintance. We’re much closer than that.”
“We were close once, that’s all. Not anymore.”
Yeongin stated flatly that it was only the past, not the present. It was a statement made to him, but also to herself.
It was because she knew that if she didn't stop him now, as he rapidly closed the distance between them at an alarming pace, things would only get harder.
Unaware that it was useless against the awakened man.
“Yes, not now.”
Cha Seonghyeok was a man who knew how to retreat one step to advance two. Of course, this only applied when it came to a woman named Chae Yeongin.
Strictly speaking, Yeongin wasn't wrong. The past and present were accurate; she just hadn't mentioned the future. 'Will soon be close again' would have been precise.
“Since you didn’t treat me like the owner of the house either, let’s call it even.”
Yeongin eagerly bit the bait Seonghyeok lightly tossed out to change the subject.
“What did I do?”
“You were just calling the owner of the house by their name, and even using informal terms like 'hey' and 'you' with me.”
Yeongin's eyes shot open in surprise.
“I did?”
It was the second time she had said that today.
“Then who else would it be but you? You don’t remember at all?”
Her darting pupils suddenly froze. It was because a faint image of herself speaking informally to him came to mind.
Seonghyeok, who had been closely observing Yeongin's expression, subtly curved the corner of his lips.
“Looks like you remember.”
“No. I don’t remember anything.”
Yeongin feigned ignorance. Though she wouldn't have done so if she'd known she'd be outsmarted.
“Then you wouldn’t remember confessing your love to me either, would you?”
Yeongin’s eyes bulged as if they would pop out.
“When did I?!”
“You said you don’t remember anything, so why are you jumping? You might have.”
“There’s no way I did!”
She believed it. It had to be true.
“Then did I?”
“…”
Yeongin, unable to handle his increased playfulness, quietly shut her mouth.
Seonghyeok stood up with a laugh.
“Wash up and come out.”
Yeongin retorted tartly.
“I can just go home and wash up.”
“Then just come out and have some hangover soup. I ordered your favorite bean sprout soup.”
“…”
Yeongin silently watched the man who remembered everything turn and leave the bedroom, then got off the bed.
