Chapter 57
Chapter 57
No matter where I went, I felt eyes on me.
No matter where I went, someone was stealing glances.
It wasn't like I had a stalker. It was just that the people around me couldn't seem to help themselves.
If it were only a rumor floating around, plenty of people would have ignored it—dismissing it as false, or not their problem.
But the situation right now wasn't just a rumor.
It had been published as an actual article in an online newspaper, complete with photos. Carrying on a public display of affection in the middle of class. And to top it off, the rumored lovers were following me everywhere I went.
The girls in the hallway, all gathered between classes 1-1 and 1-6, were mostly staring at the three of us with flushed faces. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what they were feeling, but I had a pretty good idea. They were probably imagining the three of us tangled together.
Even if it hadn't actually happened, anyone who only heard the gossip from the outside would let their mind go there.
So it was only natural the kids watching us were blushing. Their imaginations were running wild. There wasn't much I could do about it.
On the other hand, some people turned away with uncomfortable looks. They were probably the ones who didn't have a very favorable view of homosexuality.
I saw a strange sense of envy in some expressions, too. Walking down the hallway, the three of us were glued to each other. It feels a little embarrassing to say out loud, but all three of us are stunning beauties. Honestly, if you thought about dating, you wouldn't need both of them, even just dating one of them would make your life seem as incredible as Son A-reum's.
Those were the three main reactions from the girls. It was an atmosphere where fantasy, rejection, and envy coexisted. Basically, the kind of vibe you'd see from background characters in a romance manga.
So, what about the boys' reactions?
Truthfully, I almost never had a reason to walk among the male students at this school. It was co-ed, but the classes were separated by gender. If I wanted to walk where the boys gathered, I'd have to deliberately cut through the middle of their hallway.
And, though it wasn't really intentional; I was doing exactly that right now.
"......."
Ha-neul and Lee Su-a, faces beet-red, were clinging to my arms and staring hard at the floor.
I guess walking arm in arm like this was a lot more embarrassing here than it was out on the street or among other girls.
And considering the boys' reactions, I could see why.
The boys were staring at us intently.
Of course, a few snapped out of it and looked away, or turned just as red in the face.
And most of them were trying their best not to let us see the lower half of their bodies.
"......."
Alright. Having been a teenage boy myself once, I could understand it, more or less.
Three girls. And the word going around was that they were dating each other, that last night they'd had a wild night involving a student from another school, and that they even shared underwear this morning.
All three of them had faces you could genuinely call pretty. And if you'd heard they were involved in that kind of relationship... well, you imagined certain things.
Maybe they weren't just imagining three pretty girls. They might be imagining themselves in the middle of it.
I'd had those fantasies when I was younger, but becoming the target of them wasn't exactly pleasant.
I wouldn't have taken this route if it wasn't the fastest way to the Student Council President's office.
And in the boys' section...
"Hmph."
Yeah, I'd expected to run into this guy.
Leaning by the window, Yoon Da-ho was watching me from a distance. The moment he saw the three of us, he scoffed.
A few other guys stood around him. Friends, or maybe something like underlings. Compared to my personal assets, his money was pocket change, but he was still the second-richest kid at this school.
And, for starters, I was engaged to him. Even if it wasn't widely known to the general public, it was a famous story in the business world. By now, there probably wasn't a single student on campus who hadn't heard about it.
I paused for a second, wondering if I should engage, but decided to just pretend I hadn't seen him and ignore it. Talking to him would only lead to a frustrating argument. There was no reason to play along.
Besides, this marriage was a horrible deal for my side. Honestly, even if I broke the engagement off right now, their side wouldn't have a leg to stand on. An engagement like this has no legal force, anyway. And since we're both minors, it means even less.
"So, in the end, you really were 'that way,' huh."
But I ended up hearing something too absurdly stupid to just walk past.
I had just taken a step past Yoon Da-ho when I stopped walking. I slowly turned back around. Ha-neul and Lee Su-a pivoted with me, and honestly, the sight was a little amusing.
The two of them looked a bit flustered. They'd probably thought I was going to ignore him and keep walking.
"What did you say?"
I turned and asked Yoon Da-ho slowly. He just shrugged, acting like it was no big deal.
"I'm saying, you're not interested in men because you're 'that way.'"
Huh.
I looked up at Yoon Da-ho with a crooked glare. Yoon Da-ho himself didn't seem to register any threat from it, but the guys around him shuffled back a step. Ye Sa-ra's distinctive eyes must have looked a bit murderous just then.
Though I don't really get what's so scary about a pretty girl looking up at you sidelong, even if her eyes are sharp.
Or maybe it wasn't Ye Sa-ra herself that was scary, but the massive fortune backing her up?
"So, you're trying to say I'm a lesbian and that's why I'm not interested in you?"
"I was trying to say that might be the case."
Yoon Da-ho spoke while looking down at me.
"So you really aren't interested in men, then?"
Of course I wasn't. The thought of marrying a man and living with him for the rest of my life was horrific just to imagine. I was only a woman in body, after all; inside, I was a perfectly ordinary guy in his twenties.
But if my goal was to twist the knife, I couldn't just admit that.
"It's not that I'm not interested in men. I'm just not interested in you. You ugly bastard."
"......What?"
Yoon Da-ho's brow furrowed sharply.
Had he ever had the chance to hear something like that in his entire life? No, I could state with absolute certainty he hadn't. Before he met Ye Sa-ra, everyone around him had less money than he did. Sure, he was good-looking. Handsome enough that no one could casually put him down for it.
But that handsomeness meant absolutely nothing in front of me.
"Your face is ugly, and your personality is garbage. Have you ever actually talked to a woman before? What kind of lunatic calls his fiancée a pig? You seem to have completely failed to grasp why I hate you. I don't hate you because you're a man. I hate you because you have a shitty personality and you're ugly. And on top of that, you're poor."
"......."
Yoon Da-ho glared at me.
"What's glaring at me going to do? You think if you glare hard enough, your family's money will suddenly turn into 200 trillion won? No? You got engaged for money in the first place, so isn't it completely insane for you to call your ultra-rich fiancée a pig or whatever? Now that I think about it again, along with a bad personality, ugliness, and no money, you're stupid, too."
"In that case, why did you agree to get engaged to me?"
Yoon Da-ho asked after hearing me out. Surprisingly, he was controlling his emotions better than when we first met. I'd half-expected him to try to slap me. I guess he wasn't quite that bad.
Or had he changed his approach to getting close to me?
Well, that approach clearly wasn't 'acting kind to change her mind.'
"I never agreed to it, not once. The Chairwoman ordered it, so I went along. Why did you get engaged to me?"
"......."
Seeing no answer, I figured it was the same on his end. But then, if he'd gotten engaged because he wanted to, he wouldn't have any reason to hurl abuse at his fiancée.
Though, I still didn't know exactly why he hated being engaged to Ye Sa-ra.
"No, before that, let me ask you something. Why did you bother talking to me in the first place? We've never had anything close to a real conversation—not last time, and not the time before that. Every time we exchange words, we just piss each other off."
"......I."
Yoon Da-ho let out a long sigh, as if he were trying to calm himself down.
"I was going to make a proposal."
"A proposal?"
Hearing a productive word I never thought could come out of that thick skull, I found myself answering before I knew it.
"Yeah. If you're not interested in men... no, in 'me' specifically..."
Yoon Da-ho gritted his teeth for a second before continuing.
"I called you over to say, let's just go our separate ways."
"You mean, you want to break the engagement?"
When I narrowed my eyes and asked, Yoon Da-ho shook his head.
"No. It means, let's go through with the marriage, but live separate lives. It's true that neither of us likes the other. So, living apart..."
Yoon Da-ho's gaze swept once over Ha-neul and then Lee Su-a.
"...I'm saying, let's not care if the other has someone they like, whether they move in with them or whatever."
Hah.
What a massive step forward.
Or maybe this was the natural progression all along. Yoon Da-ho probably hadn't gotten engaged to Ye Sa-ra because he wanted to. He was definitely not in a position to break the engagement just because he wanted to, either. So, this proposal was him backing off as far as he possibly could.
They would still get married. Legally married, but living apart, and if either of them wanted to take a lover, they wouldn't interfere.
What was this, some kind of medieval marriage? Married on paper, with a mistress on the side.
"I don't want to."
"Does that mean you want to live with me?"
At that, my whole face scrunched up in disgust.
"No, not that. I'm saying, 'I don't want to marry you.' The marriage itself is a bad deal for me from the start. There's no reason for me to go through with it."
"I was given to understand this engagement was proposed by the Yujin Group side."
"Then I guess the Chairwoman has some interest in your family's money. I've got no intention of touching any of that."
No matter how many times I thought about it, I still couldn't figure out why she'd arranged that engagement. At first, I thought she was really planning to swallow the Homyeong Group whole, but the more I think about it, there's no reason to. It's questionable if she even could swallow them, even if she wanted to. Internationally it might not matter, but domestically, it would be a declaration of moving to an outright monopoly. No matter how much a corporation controls a country, if it rampages like that, the government might tear it apart.
Even if it wasn't torn apart, the damage to its image would be catastrophic.
In a small voice, I said, "Just a second," to Ha-neul and Lee Su-a. The two of them obediently let go of my arms.
With my hands now free, I grabbed both of them by the waist and pulled them against my sides.
"Ah."
"S-Sara...."
Ugh, honestly, this was a little embarrassing. Staying like this for long was going to make my face turn beet red, so I hurried up and spoke.
"I might not be interested in you, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in the people around me. If I'm going to get married anyway, I'd rather do it with someone I actually like. So, let's drop this now."
I could feel the warmth of the two people pressed against my sides with vivid clarity.
"I'll have to pass on a marriage proposal that has absolutely no appeal."
"...And does your Chairwoman agree with this?"
"...If she doesn't agree, I intend to make her agree. We're scheduled to meet this week."
"...Is that so...."
Yoon Da-ho stared at me for a moment, then let out a short laugh.
...What the hell.
Why does he look so pleased? It's pissing me off.
"What?"
"Nothing, it's nothing. Just, good luck with that."
No, what? It's unsettling.
When I frowned, Yoon Da-ho just shrugged it off.
"Hey, aren't you guys going home? Let's get going."
And with that, he spoke to the guys standing beside him.
"Huh? Oh, uh..."
One of the guys who'd been watching me hold two girls with a slightly envious look answered, flustered.
"No—hey! Tell me and then go! What's your deal!"
"Like I said, I told you. Good luck."
Yoon Da-ho said that to me, then spun around and walked off.
Seriously, what the hell!
I knew that grabbing Yoon Da-ho right now as he walked away would look incredibly pathetic, so I couldn't bring myself to stop him and ask.
Ugh, it's really bugging me. Dammit.