The Girl Next Door's Suggestion (2)
What does a person do when they hear something utterly flabbergasting?
Fly into a passionate rage?
Enjoy it, even?
Stare back with trembling eyes?
It must differ from person to person, but for me, nothing came to mind at all. If anything, I'd say the whole thing failed to register properly.
Am I actually understanding this right?
So, he was saying I should pretend to date Hyewon in order to catch Chaeeun's attention?
And the idea was that because it would be out of the ordinary, Chaeeun would turn around and look at me?
"What do you think?"
"……"
Honestly, my feelings were complicated. Part of me wondered if following this girl's offer—helping me get close to Chaeeun—would really get me there. Part of me, on the other hand, didn't even want to go that far. Contradictory emotions were tangled up in a messy knot inside me.
But still.
"…No."
My answer was refusal.
"I appreciate the thought, but I don't want to go that far."
"Why? Is it because I'm not your type?"
"I don't know how you got there, but it's not about you. If anything, it's my problem."
"Your problem?"
"Yeah. My problem. If I have to manufacture a fake girlfriend and bait someone's attention just to turn their heart toward me, then it's already over. It's a lost cause."
That was exactly what it meant—there was no hope left, so it was time to give up. Trying to force a spark onto that was… well, maybe there was some slim chance Chaeeun would actually look my way, but I had no strength remaining for it.
I had already crumbled to pieces. I had nothing left to patch myself together with.
Beyond that—was a relationship built like that even a real one? Suppose Chaeeun did turn my way, just as I wished. Then what about Hyewon?
What about Hyewon, who had pretended to date me, played the part of my girlfriend as a favor? Her own feelings, the way people would look at her—none of it would sit well.
"…I see."
When I laid my heart out like that, she gave a slow nod and stepped back. I continued, looking at her.
"Kim Hyewon."
"Yeah?"
"I'm grateful for the offer and the sentiment, but please don't make suggestions like this again in the future."
"…Did I make a mistake?"
I shook my head. It was a mistake, technically—but not the kind of mistake she thought it was.
"It's more that… I just wish you'd look after yourself a little better."
"…Huh?"
Her eyes widened in surprise. Feeling a bit sheepish, I scratched my head.
"If a girl as pretty as you made this kind of offer to some other guy, I guarantee he'd take it. Every single time."
I meant it.
Kim Hyewon was a girl I wasn't close with—a relationship not quite at the point where 'friend' would be the right word—but if there was one thing I could say with certainty, it was her looks.
Her face and her figure. On both counts, she was a beauty who had every single thing guys went for.
So what if she'd made this offer to a different man? What if that man happened to be someone of poor character?
Then something very bad would happen—and then some.
People hear "contract dating" and apparently picture some northern grand duke or crown prince from a romance fantasy, but reality has neither northern grand dukes nor crown princes.
And above all… a girl like Hyewon deserved better than a guy like me.
Maybe it wasn't my place to say, but I hoped she would experience a proper love. Not this unrequited pining, not a romance painted over in lies—a real one.
"Got it?"
"……"
She opened her eyes wide, then nodded carefully. Thankfully, it seemed she understood what I meant. Whether out of embarrassment or something else, she ducked her head and fidgeted with her fingers.
Watching her, I smiled faintly and handed over the drink I'd brought earlier. She accepted it with a blank look.
"Drink this, rest up a bit, and then head home."
"…Okay."
Before long, Kim Hyewon settled back onto the edge of the bed. An awkward silence hung between us for a while—partly because of everything that had just been said, and partly because we simply weren't close enough to have anything else to talk about.
Then it happened.
"Hey."
"Hm?"
"Baek Seojun, have you dated a lot?"
"…No?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Not much."
But where was this coming from?
"It's just, you seem so used to dealing with girls."
"…Me?"
"Yeah."
Hm.
That wasn't the case, though. Both in my past life and this one, I hadn't exactly been swimming in relationships with women.
Ah—well, this life even more so, seeing as I'd been glued to Chaeeun the whole time.
She fidgeted with the hand wrapped around the drink can.
"The way you talk is kind of gentle. It should've thrown you off, me dropping a proposal like that out of nowhere, but you handled it like an adult."
"…You think? I was just saying what I actually meant."
"That's what makes it gentle."
It was embarrassing, somehow. I'd truly done nothing more than speak my mind, so hearing her reaction was hard to sit through.
Which was why I scrambled to change the subject.
"Why did you even suggest something like that in the first place? I get wanting to repay me, but I don't think that alone would lead to a fake relationship."
But—
"…That's a secret."
Apparently my attempt at changing the topic had failed.
"A secret…?"
In that instant, Kim Hyewon downed the rest of her drink in one gulp. Then she rose from the bed and looked at me.
"I should get going now. See you tomorrow morning."
From beginning to end, it had been a whim.
She'd wanted to repay him for helping her little brother—nearly losing him in a major accident—and then Baek Seojun's face as he talked about his unrequited love had looked so unbearably sad.
And in some corner of her mind, she'd also thought to use him as a shield to keep all the other bothersome men from clinging to her.
That was why she'd suggested they fake-date—that she'd play the role of his girlfriend.
And yet.
"It's more that… I just wish you'd look after yourself a little better."
Instead, what came back was a refusal so unexpectedly gentle, so mature. Her body temperature had shot up in that moment—she was sure of it.
Take better care of yourself.
It was a predictable line if ever there was one, a cliché of the first order—and yet it was the first time in her life she'd ever actually heard it said to her.
And having finally heard it, she found it terribly, achingly gentle. Gentle enough to make her flush with embarrassment for a moment.
Gentle enough that she regretted having made such a shallow offer to play pretend-girlfriend.
Somehow, that one line had shaken her to the core.
…Did I fall for him?
It seemed she'd been momentarily bewitched by Baek Seojun—that handsome guy with that heartbreaking expression.
So unlike her.
So unlike Kim Hyewon, whose daily routine was keeping men at arm's length.
An utter loss of composure that no one would ever imagine from a girl who could barely hold a conversation with a man.
But—
"If a girl as pretty as you made this kind of offer to some other guy, I guarantee he'd take it."
…It wasn't an unpleasant feeling. Somehow, she found herself looking forward to tomorrow—as if, at long last, she'd found someone she could actually call a friend.
When she stepped into her home, her mother's voice greeted her.
"Did you take the side dishes over to that boy?"
"Yeah. Delivered them."
"Good. Well done."
She was heading to her room when her mother called out to stop her.
"Oh, Hyewon?"
"Yeah?"
"Your face looks a little red? Did something happen?"
"…Huh?"
Her face was red?
She hurriedly pressed her hands to both cheeks. Her body temperature had definitely spiked.
Whoosh—!
A rush of inexplicable embarrassment flooded through her, and she bolted into her room like she was fleeing a crime scene.
The day after the fake-girlfriend incident.
My phone buzzed as I was getting ready for school. When I checked it, a message from Kim Hyewon was waiting.
I'd just gotten out of the shower. All that remained was drying my hair and throwing on my uniform.
"Hm."
Walk to school together, huh.
"Is this girl really okay, after yesterday?"
Of course, I was fine. I'd wrapped things up neatly, so there was no lingering awkwardness on my end. But girls tend to be sensitive about these things—she might have found it hard to face me the very next day…
"Guess not, then."
Apparently Kim Hyewon was built a little differently.
I fired off a short reply and got straight to drying my hair.
But as I ran the dryer, a stray thought crossed my mind. Why hadn't I heard anything from Chaeeun, who practically always walked to school with me? I could let yesterday slide, but if nothing came today either, that seemed like the point where a message should show up.
Not that I was waiting for her to contact me. It was pure, simple curiosity.
In this situation, two explanations existed. Either she didn't care in the slightest whether I walked to school with her or not—or she didn't have the bandwidth to care.
And the reason for that lack of bandwidth was probably…
…She's walking with someone else.
With that man she'd recently started to like.
Just like in the original story.
My gut twisted.
Of course, this was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I was the one who never reached out first, so Lee Chaeeun owed me no obligation to do the same.
We were never that kind of relationship to begin with.
And yet.
"…Ha."
It was just bitter, that ten years of friendship and five years of unrequited love had amounted to this. But it was my own fault, so I swallowed it down in silence.
"…What am I moping about at this point? Time for school, Baek Seojun."
I gave my cheek a light slap, grabbed my uniform, and got dressed. Then I opened the door and stepped out—
"Morning."
Kim Hyewon was standing there, waving with the same easy air as yesterday.