-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: You're Severely Delusional
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“You wanted to meet at a random dumpling hot pot place?”
It was almost time to get off work when Eom Ji Hu finally told her the location, and he’d chosen an unexpected menu item.
Yi Yeon arrived first and sat down across from Ji Hu, who was already waiting, as she asked.
“Don’t you know dumpling hot pot is the best drinking snack? You like dumplings anyway.”
Ji Hu filled a glass with water and placed it in front of Yi Yeon as he spoke.
He grinned from ear to ear for some reason, staring at her persistently as if refusing to let her gaze slip away.
Yi Yeon found his intense look burdensome and turned her head to the side.
“I’m not drinking with you.”
“It’s a bit embarrassing to talk about it sober.”
That was his problem.
“If you don’t want to, I won’t drink.”
He didn’t have to say it so cheesily.
Ji Hu’s gaze met hers head-on, and their eyes locked.
He’d changed from the fresh-faced kid she’d known back then.
He seemed more persistent and straightforward now.
Ji Hu had apparently ordered ahead, because the dumpling hot pot was bubbling deliciously. He ladled some into Yi Yeon’s dish first.
So.
“What did you want to say?”
Yi Yeon wanted to hear whatever it was he’d been dying to tell her so she could hurry back to the safe house where An Do Hyun was.
She wanted to escape this uncomfortable situation.
She missed Do Hyun.
Just breathing the same air as him would make this unpleasant feeling vanish.
“Let’s eat first. I’m hungry.”
Unlike Yi Yeon, Ji Hu was incredibly relaxed.
Relaxed enough to make her want to smack him with that ladle.
Ji Hu seemed oblivious to what she was thinking as he scooped up a dumpling with his spoon and took a savory bite.
Yi Yeon picked up her spoon and began preparing to eat as well.
She was confident she could focus solely on eating.
Her goal was to finish as quickly as possible.
And then get rid of the guy in front of her eyes too.
Just like that, as Yi Yeon concentrated on the dumplings like a contestant in a dumpling-eating contest, Ji Hu handed her a tissue.
“You’ve got some on your mouth.”
Yi Yeon took the tissue from him and carefully wiped around her mouth.
“Back then, I confessed so suddenly that it must’ve startled you. Sorry about that. I actually regretted it a ton that day.”
Yi Yeon set down the wiped tissue and looked at Ji Hu.
“Yu Yi Yeon was always a girl to me. I never thought of you as just a friend. Every time you looked at me so prettily, it drove me crazy in the best way.”
The confession itself wasn’t the issue.
‘Do you think there’s any guy around you who’s there with pure intentions? The way you enchant men so beautifully.’
Jang Ho Yeop’s words were proven true when Yeop accepted the confession right away—it was just a matter of timing.
She’d been thrilled to have her first guy friend, but after three years, he said they’d never been friends.
“Oh, I still think about how your arm wrapped around my shoulder that day.”
Ji Hu scratched his head, embarrassed. He downed the water in front of him in one go and set the empty glass down on the table with a clink.
“So I regretted it a lot. Truthfully, getting rejected was embarrassing, and after crushing on you for over three years, it ended so anticlimactically that I was upset... So I waited, thinking maybe after some time, things between us would go back to normal.”
Ji Hu spoke while gazing at Yi Yeon with unwavering eyes.
“Then you suddenly disappeared. No one knew what happened to you. It was only later that I realized how much I regretted losing you as a friend. I figured even I would hate it if someone suddenly confessed and tried to get touchy like that.”
“…….”
“So I was really curious about how you were doing, but I never expected to run into you here.”
Yeah, she hadn’t expected it either. Who knew they’d meet like this.
She’d thought their connection had just ended there.
Yi Yeon didn’t know what to say to him.
“You must’ve felt betrayed by me back then too, and heartbroken over losing a friend. You probably cried a lot inside. I should’ve handed you this tissue and apologized right then, but I’m sorry it’s so late.”
The words flowed so smoothly from him, but Yi Yeon didn’t think Ji Hu was lying.
“Can we be friends again, Yi Yeon?”
Huh?
This was way out of left field.
“You think we can go back to being friends like before? Absolutely not.”
How do you mend a thread once it’s snapped?
Even if you forced it back together with glue, it wouldn’t last. One tug and it’d fall apart again.
How could she be friends with a guy who’d been secretly in love with her for over three years? It made no sense to Yi Yeon.
Above all, it hadn’t been long since she’d realized her feelings for Do Hyun, and she had no room to spare. Her mind was full of thoughts of that man. She had no bandwidth for anything else.
Letting him back into her life under the label of “friend” was out of the question.
It would be disloyal to her feelings for Do Hyun.
And now Yi Yeon knew.
That there was no such thing as friendship between men and women.
“It won’t be easy, but I’ll make an effort. And I’ll keep your secret safe.”
Ji Hu clung to her relentlessly, like someone desperate to apologize.
Yi Yeon couldn’t empathize with why he was apologizing the moment he saw her, or why he wanted to be friends again.
The important thing was that she’d have to keep running into him at work from now on. And that he had to keep her secret.
Realizing that crucial point made Yi Yeon think she understood his intentions a bit.
Am I being sweet-talked into a threat right now?
Like, if I don’t accept the apology, he’ll spill the secret?
“Are you threatening me right now?”
“No, it’s not like that! Don’t misunderstand. I just mean I’ll keep your secret.”
“So, if we don’t go back to being friends, you’ll expose it. That’s what you’re saying.”
Ji Hu waved his hands frantically, insisting that wasn’t what he meant. Then, as if truly sorry, he lowered his eyes from hers.
Fine. There was no upside for Yi Yeon if things soured with him.
“Honestly, being friends like before is impossible. That’s how I feel, and I can’t just force it to change. But I’ll respect the line as work colleagues.”
Don’t expect anything more.
Yi Yeon spoke firmly.
Ji Hu seemed pleased with her answer and flashed a big smile.
“Great! Perfect. Just give me a little opening to approach you. There are plenty of colleagues who are like friends!”
That’s not what I meant.
Yi Yeon ignored his last remark entirely, picked up her bag from beside her, and prepared to leave.
“Wait, Yi Yeon.”
Ji Hu urgently called out to stop her as she started to stand.
“But why are you dressing like that? It is a disguise, right? Since we’re sharing this secret, can’t you tell me why?”
“…….”
“It’s not because of me, is it?”
“……There was already an incident before that. You did give it some extra push, but your influence wasn’t that big.”
Your delusions are a bit severe?
“If you’re done eating, let’s go. Eom Ji Hu-ssi. You can cover the bill.”
Yi Yeon stood up, smiled brightly at Ji Hu as she finished speaking, then turned around with a blank expression.
“Hey, Yu Yi Yeon. What’s with the sudden formal speech and ‘Ji Hu-ssi’? It’s awkward.”
Ji Hu grumbled as he got up to follow her.
“I told you, I’ll treat you as a work colleague only? Eom. Ji. Hu. Ssi.”
Friends-like colleagues? Don’t you dare cross that line.
“Argh, fine. Just treat me like a casual colleague. My bad, I said it wrong.”
“My line stops at work colleague, so don’t even think about crossing it. Or you’ll end up worse than an enemy.”
It might sound like Yi Yeon was joking at first glance, but she was 200% serious.
“I’m going.”
“No, ride with me. I’ll give you a lift home.”
“Why would I ride in your car?”
“Colleagues can give each other rides home. The world’s too dangerous these days.”
‘Which is exactly why I shouldn’t.’
“Your hands are the dangerous ones.”
She couldn’t tell him where the house she shared with Do Hyun was.
“You didn’t even drink, so what. See you at work tomorrow.”
Yi Yeon gave a clean farewell and headed straight for the taxi stand without looking back.
⋮
Yi Yeon got out of the taxi and paced in front of the house.
She was cooling off her aching head from the day’s events.
If she went inside like this, her headache would only get worse, so she sat on a nearby bench and stroked her tight chest with her hand.
For now, she’d sealed Eom Ji Hu’s lips, but how long could the secret really hold?
She had no idea what he truly wanted.
He said to give him an opening, but was he nostalgic for their old friendship? Did he want to go back to that? Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter to Yi Yeon, but it felt off.
Her days were already far from ordinary because of Do Hyun, and now Ji Hu was going to make them even noisier.
After roughly calming her mind, Yi Yeon turned her body back toward the space where Do Hyun was.
The moment she entered the house, she saw Do Hyun sitting on the living room sofa, watching TV.
She’d seen him on the sofa a few times, but this peaceful scene of him watching TV too.
It felt like Do Hyun had finally gotten that comfortable now.
Do Hyun was lost in deep thought, rubbing his chin and staring blankly. His pupils fixed on empty space showed no sign of moving.
He didn’t even notice Yi Yeon had come home.
‘What on earth is he thinking about so deeply?’
Buri-buri, buri-buri.
‘What’s that sound?’
Yi Yeon turned her head toward the noise.
On the TV that Do Hyun had on, a cute character in a red T-shirt was shouting “Buri-buri!” while doing a butt dance.
It was a nostalgic cartoon from her childhood.
“Vice President, were you watching this?”
You grew up watching the same cartoons as me.
“I didn’t know you had a taste for animation. You should’ve said something—I could’ve watched it with you.”
Cartoons and Do Hyun didn’t match at all, but seeing them together somehow made him look cute.
Snapping out of his thoughts at the sudden sound of Yi Yeon’s voice, Do Hyun looked at her in surprise.
He really hadn’t noticed her come in.
“When did you get back? What’s this?”
You’re the one who turned it on.
“You turned it on, Vice President.”
“I was watching a different movie.”
Do Hyun looked around as if truly clueless and searched for the remote.
Whether he’d pressed it by mistake or had actually been watching the cartoon, Yi Yeon now felt like she needed to go upstairs and rest.
She was already exhausted to the max.
“Then enjoy the show. I’ll head up first.”
As Yi Yeon turned to go up to the second floor, Do Hyun stood up from the sofa where he’d been sitting.
“So, how’d it go with your friend?”
