"Heehee!"
Yeona was walking while staring at her phone, a silly grin plastered across her face.
"What's so funny?"
Huila, walking beside her, tilted her head and asked.
"Ah, this? Heehee. Well... wanna see?"
Yeona wanted to keep it all to herself and never show anyone else, but still, they were friends. Family, even, since they shared the same man.
So she decided to be generous and show her.
"Huh...?"
Huila's eyes went wide when she saw Yeona's phone screen.
"......"
For a moment, she was speechless, her gaze locked on the screen.
And for good reason — the screen showed a photo of a boy she knew very well.
It wasn't just any photo either. It captured him tripping and falling while carrying ordered food — a foolish yet adorable moment, full of life.
Seeing that photo, Huila felt a desire stir within her.
"Send that to me. No, send it right now."
"This is exactly why I didn't want to show you~!"
Yeona trailed off and darkened her phone screen.
"Hey, why'd you turn it off?"
"Hmph. This is my most treasured photo. How can I just hand it over the moment you ask?"
It was a photo she'd taken by chance, but it had become the most precious one she had, aside from family photos. How could she just give it away so easily?
Even if the person asking was the second concubine of the man she'd come to love.
"Ah... just give it to me. Please, can't you?"
Yeona deliberately ignored Huila's pleas.
Huila kept clinging persistently, begging for the photo. It made Yeona's shoulders bounce with amusement, but she was starting to feel self-conscious.
Not just because of Huila's glare, but because...
Huila, with her overwhelmingly beautiful appearance and sharp features — someone who looked like she'd never begged for anything in her life — was begging, and the stares from people around them were far from pleasant.
You know how it is.
When you haven't done anything wrong but get misunderstood because of your looks.
When the person begging is insanely pretty and the person being begged is either ugly or looks rough, it creates an absurd misunderstanding.
This was the latter case.
Not that Yeona was ugly, but Huila's beauty was just too overwhelming.
Misunderstandings were piling up, but still.
"No!"
Yeona was firm.
No matter what, she couldn't change her mind.
Among Jihoon's many women, she and Huila were the oldest in age, but since she'd joined the latest, she was the youngest in the group.
She prided herself on being quite pretty — she'd received plenty of attention and confessions from guys to prove it — but compared to Jihoon's other women, her looks fell short, and her confidence was at rock bottom.
They might have seen it once and it might exist in their memories, but this photo — capturing Jihoon in a ridiculous moment — was something only she possessed. It didn't exist as a photo for anyone else.
Keeping even this to herself was the only thing that brought her some peace of mind.
So there was no way she was going to hand this photo over to Huila willingly.
She didn't want to give it up, no matter the cost.
That was how deeply Yeona had fallen for the charm of a man named Lee Jihoon in such a short time.
At first, she'd approached him out of pure snobbery, thinking he must have an enormous amount of money, and she'd given him her body and heart.
But even though she'd given her body, she hadn't truly given her heart.
And that made sense — people's hearts don't move the way you want them to.
She wanted to give it wholeheartedly, but her feelings of affection for a guy three years younger than her didn't come as easily as she'd thought.
Still, Jihoon, who treated her kindly along with the other women without making her feel bad, gradually expanded his presence in her heart.
Above all, maybe it was the regular sex. As they met often and slept together, everything about him started to seem better as time went on.
His face, which she'd thought was ordinary, began to look genuinely handsome.
Guys her age, even though they were adults, still loved to mess around and seemed like children. But Jihoon, even younger than them, was incomparably mature, relaxed, and naturally considerate.
And yet, like in the photo Yeona had, he often made cute, childish mistakes befitting his age, which only maximized his charm.
No wonder she was head over heels.
"Ha... seriously. Are you going to keep this up?"
As they descended the subway stairs underground, Huila glared sharply and spoke.
"Saying it like that is kind of scary... but still, no!"
Yeona put some distance between them to escape Huila, who was coveting her treasure of a photo.
"Haah......"
Huila let out a deep sigh, feeling like it would be hard to change Yeona's mind.
"Fine... okay."
An idea came to her for how to tempt Yeona.
"I'll pay you."
"......"
At those words, Yeona's body stiffened.
"How much do you want?"
The money Yeona had received as allowance from Jihoon had gone straight into her bank account, untouched.
He told her to spend it freely, but she didn't really have any desires. Just seeing the money in her account put her at ease.
So even though she'd accumulated a lot of money, Huila's lifestyle hadn't changed much from before.
She'd lived like this for nearly three years, and the amount she'd saved was beyond imagination.
Money is good to have, sure.
And Huila liked money.
But she wanted that photo even if it cost her all that money.
"You're... trying to buy it?"
Yeona had just entered Jihoon's harem, and after spending a little on luxuries, her bank balance was still empty.
So Huila's words were tempting.
"Yeah. I'll buy it, so tell me how much."
She could just ask Jihoon for money and he'd gladly give it... but if she were a selfish woman, maybe. Even the allowance she received now didn't sit well with her conscience.
Yeona, who had squandered the money she'd received, opened her lips slightly under Huila's sharp gaze.
"Name... your price."
Pop.
A vein bulged on Huila's forehead.
Yeona thought that might have been a bit much and was about to take back what she'd just said when —
"100 million won."
"Hic?!"
She'd been thinking she'd be happy with at least a million won, but when 100 million popped out, a shrill scream escaped her.
"100 million...? What kind of photo is it?"
"It must be that important.....!"
"She's pretty, has an amazing body, and apparently loaded too. The world is so unfair, seriously!"
It was morning, so there were countless people waiting for the subway to go to work or school.
Among them, Huila was drawing all eyes because of her beautiful appearance.
At her words, the people around were stunned.
Looks and money — having just those two would make living in this world no problem at all. But she had everything, so envy and jealousy were inevitable.
"Not enough? 200 million."
When Yeona couldn't say anything at the unexpectedly huge amount, Huila raised the price even further.
"If this isn't enough either, 5......"
"Stop...! That's too much......"
Feeling overwhelmed, and afraid she'd jump from 200 million to 500 million, Yeona urgently covered Huila's mouth and sent the photo via messenger.
"Hmm......"
Huila looked at the photo as soon as the notification sounded.
"Heh."
She laughed.
"Cute......"
She was completely smitten, staring endlessly at the photo.
Then, the announcement that the train was arriving and the loud noise brought her back to her senses, and she boarded the train.
"Ah... the money."
As they stood because there were no seats, she belatedly realized she hadn't sent the money yet.
"Should I send it now?"
She was calmly asking if she should send 200 million won right away.
Would she herself lose all sense of money like that someday?
Yeona, lost in happy thoughts, shook her head.
"No... it's fine."
"Why? You won't take it?"
"Yeah... I'll just give it to you. But don't give it to the others. And don't let them find out!"
Between friends, between family, you don't do money transactions.
A photo... it's just a photo... she could give it away... yeah, sure.
"Really? Thanks."
Huila smiled brightly and thanked her.
Honestly, Yeona was sure that if Huila had shown her that smile many times before she became Jihoon's woman, she would have fallen head over heels for Huila's looks and charm and become a lesbian without hesitation.
That's how devastating it was.
"Um... excuse me... would you like to sit down.....?"
A man sitting in front of them carefully spoke to Huila.
An unexpected offer of a seat.
"Thank you."
Huila's earlier smile was gone, replaced by a stiff, cold expression as she replied.
And then, making the person who had kindly offered his seat feel awkward —
— she immediately gave the seat to an elderly woman who was struggling to stand.
"......"
The man who had offered his seat to Huila instead of the elderly woman was the only one who ended up looking like a jerk.
"Um... are you a college student?"
Still, the man didn't give up and kept talking persistently.
At his question, the ears of the people around perked up.
Even without looking, they were full of interest in the two of them, in Huila.
"Yes, I'm a college student."
She kept her answers curt and stiff.
Was he not noticing that she was radiating dislike? He kept talking, and Huila was giving him half-hearted answers, getting more and more annoyed. Just as she was about to say something —
"Huila."
Yeona called her.
"What?"
"Let's get off here."
"Here?"
The station they were just arriving at wasn't where they needed to get off.
They still had at least five more stops to go to reach school, but Yeona just grabbed her hand and got off.
She acted first and thought later.
Anyway, they had more money than they knew what to do with.
Well, Huila did.
"Let's take a taxi."
"Yeah... let's."
Being too pretty was a problem too.
"See, you should have just accepted when Jihoon offered to buy you a car."
Yeona said in a playful tone.
She knew very well why Huila hadn't accepted, but she was just teasing.
For the record, the reason Huila refused even though Jihoon offered to buy her a car was simple.
They had both entered the same university and were living together as roommates in a house that was right by a subway station. Taking the subway to school took only ten minutes.
So there was no need for a car, and even though she'd gotten her license during winter break, she was still scared of the road.
"Then you take it."
"Heh. No way! I'm scared too!"
Joking around with each other, the two of them went up to the ground, hailed a taxi, and headed to school.