That Look Was Getting on My Nerves
When Park Sanghyun moved into his second year of college and started sizing up the freshmen, he saw Lee Sihyun among them and fell for her at first sight.
It wasn’t as if he had no experience with women. But never once had he felt his eyes dragged away like this.
Even if this hadn’t been about romance, even if it had just been about meeting someone, Lee Sihyun among the freshmen was like a crane standing in a flock of chickens.
Her looks were so overwhelming that she stood out even from a distance.
“Hey, help me get with her.”
“Who? Oh... wow, she’s insanely pretty.”
“She might be the prettiest girl on campus.”
“She does look good with Sanghyun. Hm.”
Even his friends, the ones he’d been dragging around and paying for drinks all this time, couldn’t keep their eyes off her.
That was why he’d spoken first before anyone else could start making moves.
He couldn’t let the others get any ideas.
They all looked disappointed, but once they realized she was someone they’d never have a real shot with anyway, they decided they might as well help.
At worst, they figured they could at least get a few drinks out of it.
Separate from that, winning Sihyun over wasn’t easy.
There was a guy named Suho who stuck right by her side, guarding her. He was obviously handsome, so Sanghyun had already guessed this wouldn’t be simple.
The one bit of good news was that Suho clearly didn’t see her as a woman.
After finally pushing through all the sabotage and barely managing to set up a drinking session, now some random nobody had shown up to ruin everything.
Damn it...
And he’d only just gotten Suho drunk enough to make things easier...
Fine. Let’s do this.
If you wanted a beautiful woman, you had to claw your way through obstacles like this. That was just how it was.
Besides, compared to Suho, he didn’t look all that impressive.
Just slightly above average, really.
Luckily, the two of them weren’t taking the woman with them and had only sat down for the moment.
“How do the three of you know each other?”
“Ah, Sihyun and I got close after we became adults, since our parents know each other.”
“Oh... I see.”
From what he’d learned so far, Sihyun’s family wasn’t all that great.
Wasn’t the reason she was so sensitive about pedigree that she wanted to win scholarships so she wouldn’t have to rely on her family?
If their parents knew each other, then there was a good chance that man’s family was ordinary too.
“How old are you, by the way?”
“Ah, I’m twenty-three.”
“Oh... then are you a college student?”
“No, I’m not attending university separately.”
“I see.”
As expected, he wasn’t anything special. It was rare for rich kids not to go to college.
So that was all he amounted to.
His confidence swelled as well.
With a man like that standing next to Sihyun, she somehow looked even easier to approach.
However he thought about it, he was better than that guy.
Better family. Better looks.
“Then where do you live? If it’s too far when we head back later, we might just get rooms together.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ve got a place in Jamsil.”
What the hell...?
Was it just him who was taking this strangely?
“A place?”
“Yes.”
“You mean you’ve only got one place? Or maybe one place with your family and another place you live on your own?”
“My family lives down in the provinces, and I’m staying in Seoul. I have two places.”
“...Where exactly are they? Not some one-room place or anything, right?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of them, but I live in Signiel and Aphro River Park.”
“...”
He should know when to stop joking around.
Signiel and Aphro River Park were places even the middle class had a hard time living in, let alone both at once.
Those were places only people who were called rich could afford.
And at twenty-three, he supposedly had two of them?
He was definitely putting on airs because Sihyun was there.
So that look in Sihyun’s eyes hadn’t been ordinary after all...
He decided then and there that he would expose this bastard’s true colors tonight.
***
From the start, I hadn’t bothered hiding anything.
I didn’t like the way he was looking at Sihyun.
So I told them something even Suho and Sihyun didn’t know.
Even Sihyun only knew I had an office in Aphro River Park, but she didn’t know the details about Signiel.
She just knew I had another office there, that was all.
As soon as I said I owned two places that anyone would recognize, I could feel the reaction from around the table.
“Wow... that’s really amazing. Two houses at twenty-three...”
“Aphro River Park alone is supposed to be over a billion won.”
“Signiel was just completed recently, right? I heard units there go for tens of billions.”
“What exactly do you do?”
“Nothing special. I just make light investments.”
“As expected... investing is the fastest way to make money.”
“Hey, you think just anyone can do that? Out of a hundred people, maybe one succeeds.”
Just like that, the whole drinking session turned into a conversation about me.
At this point, I wasn’t exactly an ordinary guy anymore, so it made sense that I’d become the center of attention.
If I met someone like me, I’d probably be amazed too.
The guy who’d been aiming for Sihyun probably couldn’t swallow that.
Sure enough, he kept trying to be clever.
“Oh... my cousin actually lives in Signiel too. It’s nice there, isn’t it?”
“Really?”
“People with money usually have one or two places like that. It’s nice to stay comfortably. They even provide hotel service and everything.”
“You seem to know a lot.”
“...Of course.”
He must have been hoping I’d get flustered. Did he really think I was lying?
“By any chance, does your cousin also get invited to foreign car events? My cousin was invited by Mercedes this time and told me to come along.”
“Well, invitations do come in, but I usually don’t go because it’s a hassle. It feels wasteful to carve out the time.”
“...Seriously? Which brands invited you?”
“So far, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce.”
“...What?”
“I ended up buying more than four cars, so I started getting invitations from headquarters. Even apart from that, they do something every year...”
That part was true.
By now I’d bought so many Lamborghinis that I’d ended up ordering four of them.
Rolls-Royce was the same.
Because of that, I’d been getting invitations and open-house notices and all sorts of things, which I’d been ignoring.
It was just too much trouble to go.
“Then how many times have you been abroad? Have you ever been to Europe?”
“Not really. I did go to Japan once this time, though.”
“Seriously? Europe too...”
“But do we really have to keep talking about me? I feel like everyone else is getting bored.”
“Huh? No, no, we’re fine.”
“This is super interesting. It’s like you live in a completely different world...”
What I’d said to steer the conversation away from me...
Apparently, once the subject turned to travel, this bastard thought I was rushing to change topics because I was uncomfortable.
His eyes lit up, and he clung to the conversation until the end.
“Hyung, could our second round be at Signiel? I’ve always wanted to see it in person...”
“Doesn’t your cousin live in Signiel too?”
“I’ve never actually been there myself. I wasn’t invited either. I just want to brag to my cousin later.”
“Hm...”
“Suho, have you ever been to Signiel? I heard it’s absolutely incredible there.”
“M-me? Well... I’m not sure. But if it’s where you’re staying, then it has to be nice...”
“So you haven’t been there either. What about you, Sihyun?”
“...I’ve never been, but I’ve heard about it from oppa.”
“Looks like neither of you has been there, so could you invite us once this time?”
“S-senior, oppa showed up so suddenly, he might not have tidied the place...”
“Why not? I’m curious. Signiel rent is supposed to be in the tens of millions of won. Wouldn’t you want to see it once?”
“...”
His friends couldn’t talk him down.
They all probably wanted to go just as badly.
Even Suho was slowly sobering up enough to become interested.
“Then let’s have our second round at Signiel. We can do it downstairs at Lotte Tower.”
“R-really?”
“Whoa, damn. Signiel means...”
“...You’re really inviting us?”
“If it’s more comfortable for me, then sure. Besides, Suho and Sihyun both seem pretty drunk, so I thought it’d be better to let you rest properly.”
I’d wanted to bring Sihyun home naturally anyway.
Somewhere just the two of us could be alone.
On the trip, there’d always been other people around, so there’d never been a good chance.
Today, I had plenty of rooms, and I fully intended to send everyone home.
If anything, it was a welcome development.
I’d finally been handed a proper excuse.
Everyone brightened up and started getting ready to move.
“I’ll pay here. Consider it a thank-you for taking care of Sihyun and Suho.”
“...You don’t have to.”
“I already took care of it when I came in.”
“Wow, thank you!”
“Amazing!”
“As expected of our hyung!”
We left the restaurant and each called a taxi.
“Hyung, aren’t you calling a cab?”
“I’ve got a car here.”
“Didn’t you drink a few glasses just now?”
“I’m not the one driving.”
“Then...”
Right on cue, a Rolls-Royce rolled up toward me.
By now, the situation wasn’t exactly thrilling anymore.
It was just satisfying.
He looked visibly flustered when he saw the Rolls-Royce.
Apparently, he really had thought I was lying.
The car door opened.
“See you later.”
I took Suho and Sihyun with me and got in.
Then I drove off first.
***
After the Rolls-Royce disappeared from sight, Sanghyun stared after it and swallowed hard.
“Sa-Sanghyun... that guy really does look rich...”
“Bullshit... if I inherit my company, I could pull out a Rolls-Royce tomorrow. What’s so special about a Rolls-Royce? Those things are all bought through corporate accounts.”
“...Really?”
There was no doubt in his mind that he’d bought it as a business expense.
He’d heard enough to know how these things worked, since his own family ran a business too.
He dismissed his friend’s words and arrived in the basement of Lotte Tower.
When they took the elevator up and reached Signiel...
Was it always this big?
In truth, he had no choice but to compare it to the place his cousin owned, which he’d visited before.
The scale was different at a glance.
“Whoa... this is Signiel? It’s seriously as big as a football field...”
“Was it always this huge?”
“It’s a penthouse, so it’s probably even bigger.”
“...”
“...”
Damn it...
“How much does a place like this even cost...?”
“When I bought it, I think it was about thirty billion won, taxes included.”
“...”
“...”
“As expected of our hyung...”
“Wow...”
More than anything, Sihyun’s eyes were getting on my nerves.