Chapter 188: Your First Love Isn't Beautiful (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 188: Your First Love Isn't Beautiful (5)
A hot, deep kiss.
Perhaps we’d lost track of time, engrossed in the awkward yet eager movements of our tongues.
“Oh, my…”
My heated ears picked up a small sound, cleverly hidden amidst the club’s blaring music.
A familiar voice, laced with surprise.
I could feel a pair of eyes boring into the back of my head.
It seemed Kim Eun-bi, who had been dancing her heart out on the stage, had finally returned.
Well, this is awkward.
One unexpected thing after another.
I’d only approached the woman in front of me to make a casual acquaintance. I never thought things would get this tangled.
“Sigh…”
I peeked open my eyes and glanced at the woman’s face.
Her eyes were closed, completely lost in the kiss.
Because of that, she seemed oblivious to the fact that her close friend was watching with rapt attention as she passionately kissed a man she’d just met at a club.
What’s done is done. What matters now isn’t regret, but how to handle the fallout.
Alright.
What to do…
“Phha…”
At just the right moment, I untangled my tongue from hers, which had been moving as one.
When our lips finally parted, a thin thread of saliva stretched between them before snapping and disappearing.
The woman finally opened her eyes and stared at me with a dazed expression.
I could sense her deep disappointment.
“If you’re going to start it whenever you want, shouldn’t I be the one to decide when it ends?”
Her voice was tinged with more than just disappointment; there was a hint of irritation.
I barely managed to suppress a laugh at her cute protest, asking why I’d started and ended it on my own terms.
“Because the back of my head was starting to burn.”
“The back of your head? Ah…!”
Her eyes, finally widening their focus, spotted Kim Eun-bi standing behind me. They grew as large as they could.
“That’s your friend, right?”
“…Yeah. Ah, shit. This is so fucking embarrassing.”
And it would be.
Showing your close friend a scene of you passionately kissing a guy.
And that guy is someone you just met at a club?
Oof.
Her face flushed, she lowered her head. I cupped her chin with my hand, lifting it to meet her gaze.
“Your name.”
As if mesmerized, she answered my short question.
“Ryu, Ryujin.”
A single-character name.
“That kiss with you… wasn’t bad.”
“…What?”
She bristled at my comment.
She had clearly enjoyed it immensely, so she seemed offended that I’d merely called it “not bad.”
Ignoring her reaction, I continued.
“Your friend is here, so this intruder will see himself out.”
“Hey, wait…!”
As I started to get up, she quickly reached out and grabbed my sleeve.
“…You’re just going to leave like this?”
Ryujin looked up at me, her face a canvas of complex emotions.
“I have a policy of not getting too deep with people I meet in clubs.”
As I said that, I gently took her hand, which was still clutching my sleeve, and peeled it away. Then I leaned in close.
“But if we happen to meet outside and our connection continues, who knows.”
I whispered the last words into her ear as she flinched in surprise.
“We might end up doing things that are incomparable to this.”
I gave her dazed face a small wave and turned away without a second thought.
And came face-to-face with someone else.
“Huh…?”
Kim Eun-bi pointed a finger at me, her voice dazed.
Though I already knew who she was, I put on a look of feigned surprise to make it seem like a chance encounter and walked toward her.
“It’s you, right? From the park.”
“Ah, yes, yes. Th-that’s right.”
Her voice was incredibly shaky as she managed to reply.
Well… I could understand why.
You meet a man you thought might be your destiny, only to find him kissing another woman—your own close friend, no less.
Even I would be dumbfounded.
I spoke to the flustered woman in a cheerful tone.
“They say even brushing past someone is a sign of fate. This is already the second time we’ve met by chance.”
“Ah… r-right… is it?”
There are many proverbs about connection and destiny.
Even brushing sleeves is fate.
Once is a coincidence, twice is a connection, three times is destiny.
With that casual remark, I subtly implied that our relationship was something special.
Of course, it was all an intentional result, but she didn't know that.
“Ah, um, excuse me… Thank you so much for what you did back then!”
Kim Eun-bi bowed her head deeply, offering her thanks amidst the loud club music.
When she looked up at me, her expression was strange.
“Um… can I ask you just one thing?”
Before I could answer, she shook her head vigorously and held up two fingers.
“Ah, no, not one, two things!”
Her voice was full of charm.
It wasn't the calculated cuteness of someone who knows they’re pretty and uses it, but a natural charm that was part of her very being.
I could see why Jo Yun-kyung felt a strange jealousy toward this woman.
Unlike herself, who had to fabricate everything to be good at it, Jo Yun-kyung must have been envious of someone born with it all, who could display all sorts of desirable charms with a natural air.
“What are you curious about?”
Asking isn’t hard.
Whether I’ll answer… well, we’ll see.
“Y-You were just… kissing my friend, weren’t you?”
Kim Eun-bi’s face turned beet red as she struggled to get the word “kiss” out.
Ah, it was simply amazing and fascinating that a twenty-three-year-old woman could be so shy.
Jo Yun-kyung had told me what kind of stance to take when seducing Kim Eun-bi.
A bad boy.
A dangerous existence that you know you shouldn’t get close to, but are drawn to anyway.
But that ship seemed to have sailed.
What I was about to do felt less like a “bad boy” and more like… a “bad bastard.”
So, let’s try being a charming bad bastard.
“Ah… you saw?”
I answered with a slightly bashful yet confident attitude.
Truthfully, I had nothing to be ashamed of.
It’s not like I was in a relationship with the woman in front of me. We’d only met twice.
“I was just talking with your friend for a bit, and we kind of hit it off, so one thing led to another.”
“S-So, this is the first time you’ve met…?”
“Is that your second question?”
“Aah… N-No! I take that back!”
She waved her hands in a panic.
Everything she did when she was flustered was addictive.
It made me want to tease her more and more.
After a moment of frantic movement, she caught her breath.
Her voice, a little calmer now, delivered her real second question.
“Can you… tell me your name?”
The same question as last time.
I thought for a moment.
Wouldn’t it be okay to tell her my name this time?
But I soon shook my head and took another step closer to her.
This was to make Ryujin, who was watching from behind, even more curious about what we were doing.
I lowered my head and looked down at the nervous Kim Eun-bi with a relaxed demeanor.
“I said it earlier, didn’t I?”
“S-Said what…?”
“That today is the second time we’ve met.”
“Yeees…”
“The first time is a coincidence, the second is a connection, and the third is…”
I let my voice trail off.
“D-Destiny.”
She finished my sentence, her expression growing more excited.
It seemed the image of Ryujin and me kissing had been completely erased from her mind.
“If we’re destined, we’ll meet a third time.”
We will meet.
She will think of it as destiny, and I will accept it as the result of a cause.
Well, what does it matter either way?
As long as we’re both happy, that’s all that counts.
“Let’s exchange names then.”
In the end, I passed by her, keeping my name a secret on our second meeting as well.
But Jo Yun-kyung never told me how we were supposed to meet for the third time.
Well, I’m sure she’ll figure it out.
* * *
A heavy silence descended.
Even though the loud music was still blaring, the two of them felt a sense of stillness.
It was awkward and uncomfortable.
So much so that neither of them had any idea what to say.
The awkwardness felt even greater because they had never been at a loss for words since the day they met.
They knew each other’s personalities well.
That’s why Ryujin knew that for Kim Eun-bi to break the silence, it would take at least twice as long as the time that had already passed.
So, after downing the drink made according to the recipe he had just taught her, she shattered the silence.
“Do you know that guy from before?”
“Wh-What? Uh, um… I don’t know. Not really…”
“Tell me. How did you meet?”
At her question, a hesitant Kim Eun-bi carefully opened her mouth.
“Well, you see…”
As the story of an incident from a few days ago, one she hadn’t had the chance to tell, unfolded, Ryujin’s brow furrowed.
“Hey, how could you go through something like that and not say a single word to me!”
“S-Sorry. I was worried you’d be… worried.”
“Of course I’d be worried, we’re friends!”
“Hehe, yeah. We are.”
Feeling a deep affection at the word “friends,” which her friend had shouted with such passion, she smiled freely.
“…Anyway, the man who saved you then was him?”
“Yeah.”
“Ha, that’s really strange.”
To think that the first man she’d opened her heart to at a club was the very person who had saved her best friend.
How could things get so tangled?
Ryujin’s face grew even gloomier as she glanced at Kim Eun-bi with a look full of complicated emotions.
‘And it looks like she has feelings for him, too.’
She could tell just by the shy expression on Eun-bi’s face as she thought of the man.
Wasn’t this the exact situation she, who had always dreamed of a fateful encounter, had been hoping for?
It was obvious she held a profound interest in him.
Suddenly, Ryujin started to feel like she’d committed a terrible sin.
‘And I got caught kissing him right in front of her? Ah, seriously…!’
Of course, she had done it without knowing the whole story, but now that she knew, she felt needlessly guilty.
Is this why they say ignorance is sometimes bliss?
As she was downing drink after drink to soothe her burning insides, Kim Eun-bi spoke to her cautiously.
“Jin-ah…”
“Huh? Y-Yeah? What is it?”
“Ah, about before. You and him… you, k-k-kissed… right?”
The inevitable had finally arrived.
Her face flushing, she lowered her head and mumbled in a quiet voice.
“…Yeah.”
I wish there was a mouse hole in this club, she thought.
So I could at least stick my face in it.
“By any chance… um, do you like him…?”
To the question Kim Eun-bi had struggled to ask.
“N-No! I was just a little drunker than usual, and I got caught up in the mood, that’s all! What do you mean, like him?! How could I, after just meeting him at a club?!”
“R-Really…? Hehe, that’s a relief…”
Watching Kim Eun-bi clutch her chest in joy at her pathetic excuse.
She desperately wished that the words she had just spoken would become the truth.