Chapter 132: Bad Guy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 132: Bad Guy
I had never really been to a concert before, but once I stepped inside and found my seat, my heart began to flutter strangely.
Though the stage was only visible in glimpses through the crowd passing by, the sight alone was enough to fill me with anticipation.
"Wow, honestly, I thought it would be just like watching a movie, but this is totally different."
"I know. It’s my first time too, so I’m a little nervous."
Choi I-seo seemed excited about her first concert as well, a faint smile playing on her lips.
The atmosphere wasn't bad.
Because I had been hugging her while we were standing in line, others would occasionally shoot me jealous glares, but that was only a few people.
Besides, people rarely came to these concerts alone, so everyone was too busy focusing on their own partners to care much.
"Oh my god, I’m so excited."
Choi I-seo tapped her feet, struggling to suppress her thrill.
It was the first time I’d seen her act so childlike, and it felt like a new kind of cuteness. I felt proud of myself for succeeding in the ticketing process.
When I was sacrificing Han-gang and Pyo Jin-ho as offerings to get these seats, I felt occasional stabs of guilt.
But seeing Choi I-seo this happy, I felt like I could sacrifice them a few more times without any problem.
"Oh, I think it’s starting."
Right on cue, several lights dimmed, and the remaining spotlights began to focus on the stage.
I expected a roar of cheers the moment the singer appeared, but instead, a voice rang out in the silence. The audience was so captivated they couldn't even think to scream; they were simply mesmerized.
* * *
"Wow."
Having sat in one position for three straight hours, I rolled my neck around to ease the stiffness.
Choi I-seo pressed down on the back of my neck as we walked, which helped loosen it up a bit.
After receiving a brief massage and returning the favor for her, we shared our thoughts.
"I didn't know a concert could be this grand. Seeing it in person is incredible."
As I shook my head in awe, Choi I-seo nodded vigorously in agreement.
"It’s really different from listening to the digital track. It felt like I was absorbing the song with my entire body."
"Oh, that’s a great metaphor. That’s exactly it."
I nodded while massaging Choi I-seo’s slender neck. Her description was spot on.
"What should we do now? Want to grab dinner?"
The concert was over, and it was already dinner time.
The sun had set and I was feeling hungry, so I reached for my phone to see what was nearby.
"No."
Choi I-seo gently pushed my hand away.
I thought perhaps she’d had enough of the massage, but the resonance in her voice held a strangely damp weight.
The fresh, sweet atmosphere from moments ago chilled instantly in the winter wind.
Choi I-seo took a step forward, putting distance between us. My hand, which had been pressing on her neck, remained suspended in the air, looking forlorn.
As if it were mourning her departure.
"Choi I-seo?"
In my anxiety, her name escaped my lips before I could stop it.
I felt that if I didn't call out, she would leave right then and there without looking back.
"Woo-jin, listen carefully to what I’m about to say."
Choi I-seo’s navy-blue eyes were shimmering with unshed tears.
However, as if she didn't want me to notice even a glimpse of them, they pooled but did not fall.
"During the break, I worked with Yun-ji."
"..."
It was a name I wasn't particularly glad to hear.
A name that still remained like a lump in my chest, delivering a heavy blow.
"Right now, Yun-ji is working with your brother."
"I know. I heard she’s working with my Little Hyung."
I knew because my Big Hyung had told me last time.
Though I had no idea what kind of work they were actually doing.
"I was helping Yun-ji there. Actually... I wanted to hear what Yun-ji had to say about you."
"..."
"So, what I want to say is... Yun-ji hasn't forgotten you yet."
When Big Hyung said something similar before, I had imagined it.
What if Yun-ji had left me for some reason she couldn't talk about?
If that were the case, how should I react?
"Yun-ji is working for your sake right now."
"For... my sake?"
"Yes. To liberate you from the family business. So that you don't have to rely on your family's help."
A chill ran down my spine.
The family business. My family.
I felt the blood of my father within me seethe, urging me to live as the successor of the enterprise, making my body feel hot.
"It was just a slight misunderstanding... no, a misalignment that caused you two to break up."
"..."
A sense of suffocation washed over me.
During the break after the first semester, when I was living like a wreck.
The very thing I had imagined and hoped for countless times was being presented as the truth.
And of all people, it was Choi I-seo telling me this.
The woman who had helped me most in shaking off the shadow of Oh Yun-ji.
Why did it have to be her?
She was thrusting the memories of that day and the hidden truth back in my face.
My heart ached with the weight of it. My tongue wouldn't move under the heavy pressure.
I felt my eyes grow slightly moist.
As I stood there in confusion, unable to even offer a response, Choi I-seo spoke with a bitter smile.
"I'll say it first, Woo-jin."
Without hesitation.
And with total honesty.
Choi I-seo calmly laid out words that one wouldn't normally say to others.
"I feel guilty."
Why?
I should have asked that.
But all that spilled past my bitten lips was a puff of white breath.
"Yun-ji is my friend. And you were my friend's boyfriend. Even from a moral standpoint, this isn't right."
Choi I-seo’s expression began to crumble.
Because of that, tears almost fell, but she hurriedly wiped them away with her hand.
"Woo-jin, do you know what I thought after I found all this out?"
She tried to force a smile, but her cheeks were stiff and awkward.
"Just a little."
"..."
"Just a very little bit."
A wish that sounded more like a lament.
A desperate longing wrapped in sorrow.
"I wished I had met you sooner."
Only then did Choi I-seo smile at me.
A smile without tears or awkwardness—a confession of love and a parting gift.
I realized then.
Someday, when I look back on our memories.
This moment.
That bright smile of Choi I-seo’s.
That would be the epilogue of our memories, the period at the end of our brief love.
"Again."
Realizing this, I spoke.
"Do I have to go through the same thing again?"
I strode toward Choi I-seo.
The version of me that had been frozen just a moment ago felt like a lie. Huddling in the corner of a studio apartment, sobbing and pining for someone who left...
That no longer suited the person I was.
"Do you remember what you said to me on the way home the day Ahn Hyun-ho confessed?"
I reached out.
Choi I-seo stepped back to avoid it, but I didn't give up on catching her.
"You said you would give me the right to hold onto you."
I reached out again.
"Don't grab me. Things are... very different now than they were then."
This time, Choi I-seo swatted my hand away.
But I reached out once more.
I snatched her wrist as she tried to brush me off again and closed the distance between us.
We were close enough to feel each other's breath.
With emotions laced with resentment, I rebuked her.
"Do you know what I really don't like about this?"
I was angry enough to make my head throb, and there was one thing that was irritating me to no end in this situation.
Was it whoever caused the rift between Oh Yun-ji and me?
Was it my second brother, who worked with Oh Yun-ji without explaining anything?
Was it Oh Yun-ji, who made Choi I-seo work and then called her aside to explain?
No.
It was none of them.
None of it.
"The thing I'm truly angry about is...!"
It was you.
Choi I-seo.
"Why are you the one feeling guilty?!"
I hated that she was feeling guilt.
"What did you do so wrong that you're hanging your head like a criminal?!"
I hated that she was regretting the past.
Because I...
"You saved me!"
I had been helped by her.
Thanks to her, I was able to think that I could love someone again, that I could start over.
Choi I-seo was the one who made that possible.
She was the one who fixed me.
"Why are you regretting that? Why are you thinking of it like a sin? What did you do wrong?!"
If anyone was in the wrong, it was me, or Oh Yun-ji, or someone else involved.
But at the very least, it wasn't Choi I-seo.
"I'm not letting you go."
I released her wrist as she stood there, weeping silently with her mouth firmly shut.
Then, I pulled her into a soft embrace, as if hiding her in my arms.
"You are absolutely not the perpetrator. No one has the right to point a finger at you."
A "bad girl" who loved her friend's boyfriend?
No, that wasn't it.
If someone were to point a finger...
"It's not you; I'm the bad guy."
It had to be me.
"It's because I'm trash, a guy with no backbone who goes around seducing this girl and that girl."
It was the same with Seo Ye-rin and Yoo Ah-rin.
The fact that they held feelings for me and that things were in this ambiguous state was ultimately because of me.
"I'm the bad one, so don't you worry."
She had simply been unfortunate enough to meet the wrong man.
If anything, I would be the target of the stones thrown—the trash who even reached out to his ex-girlfriend's friend.
"Do whatever you want. No matter what you do, I'll be the bad guy in the end."
If you want to love, then love.
If you want to leave, then leave.
If you want to forget the past and pretend you don't know, then do that.
But.
I wanted it to be her own feelings.
I didn't want her to do it because of a guilt forced upon her by others.
Choi I-seo, sobbing, gave my chest a weak thump with her fist.
A rebuke without any strength behind it.
"How can you be like that?"
"..."
"How can you say you'll meet other people even if I'm there... and make it sound like it's for my sake?!"
"Because I'm trash?"
With a bitter smile, I tightened my embrace slightly.
"So, isn't it only natural that you can't help but like me?"
"You bastard! You bad guy!"
The strength in Choi I-seo’s fists as she pounded my chest gradually increased.
In fact, because it felt like she was returning to her usual self, a refreshing smile spread across my face despite the winter wind.
Choi I-seo looked up at me, her fists clenched as she caught her breath.
"A bad guy..."
She gave me a hint, just like when we were standing in line earlier.
"...kisses at a time like this."
Ah.
"I still have a lot to learn."
I slid one hand down to wrap around Choi I-seo’s waist and used the other to support the back of her neck as I pressed my lips against hers.