We Got Married
Human psychology twisted far beyond anything reasonable.
Even when cold reality and undeniable fact were shoved right in front of their faces, that warped mind simply denied it all over again and twisted itself tighter.
"What are you doing?"
"Uh…?"
"Go. Confess to him."
That single line sealed the cold reality shut.
Kim Hyeongmin's expression was leisurely—warmer than usual, soft in a different, more mischievous way. He hadn't struck anyone. He hadn't even shot a sharp glare. He simply looked down at Jeong Ayeong, who was staring up at him blankly, and slowly reached out a hand with a benevolent smile.
His extended index finger pointed straight at Han Sein.
It should have been the usual violent scene. Yet the order that left Kim Hyeongmin's mouth was more than enough to change the entire atmosphere.
Kang Hyeona's face crumpled.
She had thought they would simply let it slide without another word. Instead, an even greater aftershock came crashing down.
There was no more mask left to wear.
Kang Hyeona, who had been carefully packaging her expression and reading Kim Hyeongmin's every cue, was reduced to nothing more than a spectator. All because of the man who had decided that if he could not control the situation and get what he wanted, he would simply smash it to pieces.
The stage lights now shone only on Han Sein, Jeong Ayeong, and Kim Hyeongmin. Kang Hyeona was left in the darkness the lights did not reach—nothing but a shadow forced to watch from the wings.
She wanted to reach out, but the stage was far too high. The difference between standing on the platform and standing below it was absolute.
Kang Hyeona's expression crumbled further and further. The face she made in that shadow, thankfully, went unseen by anyone. The situation had already moved on from the woman who had been nursing her private feelings; it now belonged entirely to the leads.
Jeong Ayeong's expression slowly loosened. Inside that dazed, complicated look, she simply heard the order to rise, and she obeyed. It was passive, coercive—yet her heart pounded. Because the truth contained in that command was the crystallized form of everything she had been carrying in her chest.
She turned toward the man who had not smiled gently, but who had stirred real emotion.
Lips pressed tightly shut. Han Sein's face was careful, perhaps because of the suddenness of it all. His dizzy gaze moved from Jeong Ayeong to Kim Hyeongmin, then finally settled on Kang Hyeona.
The eyes of the protagonist on stage met those of the spectator in the seats. Nothing changed. Even if the audience pleaded, the play did not rewrite itself. Even if it was a tragedy.
Just as Han Sein had once said, Kang Hyeona's eyes were terribly sorrowful. More sorrowful than when she had been forced to hit him, more sorrowful than when she had shouted and threatened him under duress. She looked at him with deeper grief than ever.
And yet, inside that twisted, re-twisted situation, a strange hope flickered in Kang Hyeona's gaze—if only for a moment.
She remembered a distant past. The first time she had faced him, the moment she and Kim Hyeongmin had burned the existence called Han Sein into their minds.
"No."
"You promised you'd teach me the math problems."
Kim Hyeongmin was the one man you were never supposed to touch. Things no ordinary student would ever dare. Han Sein had done every single one of them.
Was that why? Kang Hyeona, who had already begun to harbor feelings for him, remembered that time now.
Please.
Just once—resist.
Refuse it. Struggle against this completely unreasonable situation.
Kang Hyeona, who had always taken the lead and acted first in everything, prayed for the first time in her life. Faced with a situation that had slipped completely out of her hands, a situation she could not even insert herself into, she took a passive stance for the very first time.
"Sein…"
Jeong Ayeong's face was that of a girl on the verge of confessing. Well—since that was exactly what it was, it made sense.
Was it because of that expression? Kang Hyeona's insides began to burn. It was the usual bullying, and yet… she was supposed to confess to the boy who was being bullied right alongside her?
This was not mutual consent. This was not the pure, shy love she had always dreamed of—the kind that made your heart flutter all on its own. The heart of the girl who had longed for that kind of love began to collapse.
She denied it. And denied it again.
"W-will you go out with me?"
The trigger was pulled.
Every gaze, every scrap of attention, turned toward Han Sein. In that forced situation, Kang Hyeona's mouth clamped shut so hard that a faint trace of blood rose to her lips.
From a third-party perspective—from the objective view of an outsider—it was an understandable situation. If he refused, something far worse would clearly follow. If he did not accept the confession, even greater pain would come. It was obvious. He could accept it even without a single feeling in his heart.
But Kang Hyeona's twisted emotions would not even allow her to think that far.
The confession had been thrown. Only Han Sein remained to catch it. His lips slowly parted, and then he gave his answer.
"…Okay."
Her reason sank ice-cold. It was an unbelievable reality. No—a reality she did not want to believe. She knew it was, in a way, the natural choice. Yet the feelings she had directed toward him were crushed and buried deep.
They were not friends. They were not even ordinary classmates who simply knew each other. Because she stood on the side of the perpetrator, the distance between them could never close—and that longing only grew deeper.
If only…
If I had been the one standing in Jeong Ayeong's place.
If I weren't a prosecutor's daughter—if I'd come from an ordinary family.
I'd rather be the one getting bullied. That would be so much better.
What good was being in a position to force someone else? The more she did, the farther she would only drift away.
Her head hung low. A thin trail of blood seemed to have run from the corner of her mouth. She forced irregular breaths, trying desperately to calm herself. Her mind was colder than it had ever been, yet her heart hammered wildly.
"Congratulations. You two look good together. Now get going."
"Uh, okay…"
Pat, pat.
Kim Hyeongmin gave Jeong Ayeong and Han Sein each a light clap on the shoulder, wearing a seductive smile. He drove them off, and Park Hyorin issued the same order to clear out.
When Kang Hyeona, trapped inside her own thoughts, finally lifted her head, Kim Hyeongmin was facing her. An empty hallway. He slowly raised a hand and brushed the corner of her mouth.
"That must hurt. You okay?"
"Yeah…"
"Don't they make a great couple?"
"Yeah."
Kang Hyeona's empty eyes met his. Kim Hyeongmin looked at the blood on his finger and smiled. He asked the question openly—words that mischievously gouged into Kang Hyeona's heart. Words born from a completely selfish mind that held not a shred of consideration.
That her precious feelings were directed at someone else instead of him? For Kim Hyeongmin, that was something that simply could not be allowed. He had everything he wanted. The only person he had never been able to possess was Kang Hyeona.
If he could not have her, he would destroy her.
It was an utterly cliché line, yet it struck more viciously than ever before. Kang Hyeona's already lost heart grew even emptier. The sudden situation, the shock—it was a kind of psychological burnout.
"Let's go."
"Sure."
Kang Hyeona had gone cold. Kim Hyeongmin, still immature in matters of love, made the obvious mistake. He had no way of knowing what would happen next, no idea where any of this would lead—yet he still believed that a love that had lost its place would eventually turn toward him. That childish, foolish psychology would set off enormous waves.
No one yet knew how it would change Kang Hyeona's heart.
Thump. Thump.
By the time Jeong Ayeong came back to herself, she was already sitting in her seat beside Han Sein. The tail end of lunch period. Normally this would have been the time when the bullying dragged on until the very last second. Now it was a time filled with fluttering excitement.
She found it hard to speak. More carefully than usual, Jeong Ayeong kept glancing at Han Sein. The boy sitting right next to her looked strangely unfamiliar. Or maybe… the one who felt unfamiliar was herself?
To clear the chaos in her heart, Jeong Ayeong opened her mouth. Yet the words would not leave her lips; they simply closed again. No matter how she thought about it, the uncomfortable reality did not change.
The feelings she had always held for him had finally bloomed into a flower. Were they really dating now? What was going to happen? The fact that their relationship had been established was exciting enough to make her want to leap up from her seat and jump for joy. She liked him, loved him, and today was the first day they were no longer friends but lovers.
And yet something she could not put into words kept tormenting her heart. Like a thorn stuck in her throat—pricking and leaving a sour, uneasy ache in one corner of her chest. That anxious, uncomfortable feeling rose up between the thrills, and Han Sein's mouth proved it true.
"Sorry."
"Huh?"
An abrupt apology. Jeong Ayeong looked at him with eyes full of questions, and Han Sein fanned the flames of her already confused emotions. Why was he apologizing? Her feelings for him were still the same. She still didn't know how Han Sein felt about her, but in the end the confession had…
"You were forced to confess."
"……."
Something deep inside her heart twisted. This wasn't right. Anxiety bloomed across Jeong Ayeong's face, and Han Sein, still continuing, neatly pinched the exact uncomfortable feeling she had been carrying.
"Even though it turned out like this… you don't like it, right?"
No.
That's not it.
Jeong Ayeong tried to deny it out loud, but the guilty, apologetic look on Han Sein's face sealed her mouth shut. Something… something was wrong. A relationship created not by her own courage but by someone else's command only made her more uncomfortable, twisting reality even further than she had imagined.
"I think we should at least… pretend to be dating."
"……."
Jeong Ayeong's lips pressed tightly together. Beneath her wavering pupils, she had no courage left to say no. After all, she had not been the one to confess—it had been something ordered by Kim Hyeongmin.
Unable to look at Han Sein's face any longer, she squeezed her eyes shut and barely managed a nod.