Chapter 85
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: What Couldn't Be Said
After much deliberation, I only sent the arrival notice to Sujeong.
Sorry to the other two, but considering the barrage of questions that would come pouring in afterward, this was the best option.
'Now I can only hope Sujeong calms the two of them down well... Sigh.'
After sending the single text, I tossed the phone—back on silent—onto the dining table.
To settle my complicated thoughts and troubled heart, I filled the bathtub in the bathroom and prepared for a soak.
-Creak... Thud!
As I was taking off my outer clothes, I heard a noise from the direction of the door and turned around.
The doorknob turned briefly, the door cracked open about a centimeter, then slammed shut right away.
"Mokhui?"
"......"
"Youngest, you there? I'm coming out now?"
"......"
"If you're not coming out, I'm getting in the bath? Speak up if you need the bathroom."
"......!"
At the end, there was a thud against the door, but...
With no response even after waiting, I finished undressing and headed into the bathroom.
'It'll be at most an hour, so if it's not urgent, she can hold it.'
I figured she was just acting awkward about making eye contact for now, so I didn't pay much mind to Mokhui's reaction.
...Truth be told, it'd be a lie to say I wasn't worried at all, but I forced myself to repeat that it was fine.
'What can I do? The deed's done, everything's out in the open. All that's left is to pray.'
At least it was a relief that she wasn't lost in pointless fantasies like she might've been at home.
But learning about... the indecent relationship between me and Hwayeon heated my body up as much as the hot water touching my skin.
"Haaah. If only it had been with Sujeong or Geumbi instead...... Urgh, no. It doesn't matter who it was. The problem is that it happened between family."
There was no point blaming it on Hwayeon of all people.
No matter who it had been with, Mokhui's reaction would've been the same.
"So now the choices are... write it off as a drunken mistake, or face it head-on."
I cupped hot water in both hands, splashed my face, and slicked back my wet hair.
Then, leaning back in the tub and gazing up at the ceiling, I noticed water droplets beaded all over the pristine white surface.
"Either way, it's not something that'll just fade away if ignored..."
No matter how far I reached, those ceiling droplets were out of grasp.
In the end, I'd have to stand up and wipe them away myself—what to do with the moisture on my hands would be tomorrow's problem.
Whether that moisture was still warm or already cooled would only be clear then.
"...If I had to guess, it probably still feels pretty hot."
But what exactly was that heat—an emotion?
It'd be nice if it turned out to be clear anxiety like Sujeong's, or ambiguous affection like Geumbi's.
If not... I'd have to prepare an answer from my side first.
"Hwayeon, Hwayeon, huh. Hmm, Yang Hwayeon..."
I dropped my raised hand with a flop and muttered her name while cracking my neck side to side.
The name of the little sister I bickered with constantly, trading barbs almost every day... didn't carry quite the bad ring I'd imagined.
"No clue. Maybe I need to get drunk again like that time to find out."
As the heat soaked into my body and then my head, the rising steam gradually blurred my vision.
Everything hazy before my eyes, mind fuzzy—it felt just like being drunk, so I tentatively lifted a foot as if reliving that day.
Not exactly the same, of course.
My whole body, down to the muscles, felt languid, like I could collapse anywhere.
Right now I was immersed in the tub, but if I'd been on the street or in bed, I'd have easily fallen into anyone else's arms.
Is that why I'd chosen her?
Or was it that she absolutely had to be the one because of it?
I'd sunk too deep; the more I thought, the less my brain cooperated.
My heart's scales tipped back and forth, refusing to settle like my swaying body.
"...Time to get out. It's not something I can decide alone anyway."
In the end, I put off the conclusion again, hauling myself from the now-tepid bath.
Along with the tub water swirling down the drain, I decided to seal today's worries away for now.
Next time we met, I'd face her properly.
Just give me a little more time—I sent the unheard message standing at the sink.
Unfortunately, I'd left my phone in the kitchen.
So that message never reached anyone else.
About 30 minutes later, maybe.
As I stepped out towel-drying my hair in just my underwear, the living room air felt different.
'Did I stay in the heat too long? No, if anything, it's hotter than before I went in?'
Glancing around the stuffy hotel room, I checked if I'd left the living room boiler on.
But the boiler was only on in the room where Mokhui was, so finding that odd, I changed clothes and applied lotion.
Once my hair was fully dry, I tensed up thinking about any new messages and went to retrieve my phone.
But the phone I'd left on the kitchen table was nowhere to be seen.
"Huh? I definitely left it here... Or did I? Maybe on the chair or the sink?"
Feeling something off, I searched elsewhere, but there wasn't a trace of the phone.
With no choice, to call it I called out to Mokhui in the bedroom.
"Mokhui? You in there? Big bro's got something to say~."
"...What?"
"My phone's gone missing. Could you call it for me with yours?"
"...Look harder. It's not like the phone grew legs and walked off—where could it have gone?"
"That's the weird part. I definitely left it on the table and went straight to the bath... wait."
Mid-sentence, one possibility hit me.
As Mokhui said, phones don't have legs, and I hadn't wandered around the hotel.
If it wasn't in the places I'd been, that meant someone had picked it up and moved it.
"Mokhui?"
"Yeees."
"Did you take my phone, by any chance?"
"...W-Why would you think that?"
"'Cause right now it's just you and me in this room. Unless the phone crawled off on its own like you said, it couldn't have vanished."
"...That's speculation based on feelings. Wasn't me."
"Really? Then mind if I open this door?"
"W-Why the door?"
"Why? To check if my phone's in there."
"Y-You haven't even been in the room, right? So it can't be there!"
"Huh. But why do I have this feeling it's in the room... in your hands, Mokhui?"
"Th-That's baseless... pure delusion."
Her trembling voice, shrinking tone, and the doorknob jiggling faintly from the other side spoke for her.
Now with certainty rather than suspicion, I tried forcing open the door to Mokhui's room.
"Eek?! B-Big bro? You'll break the knob—stop!"
"Then open the door? I won't look at anything else. Just let me see your hands open."
"H-Hands...? N-Now there's nothing! Completely empty!"
"So you were holding something just now? What was it?"
"Th-That was... Ahh?! O-Okay, I'll open it! Stop pulling—it's really gonna break, big bro!"
The door rattled a dozen times, and hearing the massive thuds from the other side, Mokhui panicked and flung it open.
She quickly stepped aside, whipping her head away like she wasn't holding anything.
But on the bed, under the covers.
A suspicious bulge—I headed straight for it, and she leaped onto the bed in a frantic dive.
"R-Really, there's nothing! So get out!"
"Mokhui, time to confess at this point? Why'd you take my phone?"
"N-No, I just... it kept buzzing, so I took it to quiet it down."
"I'd set it to silent, so it couldn't buzz. And that basically confirms you took it?"
"Hic! I-I didn't. Really didn't... Uwuu."
Her lies piling up only made the tail grow longer, snake-like.
I stomped on that tail, finally reaching right above her back.
"Wanna tell me honestly?"
"...Yeees."
"Why'd you take big bro's phone?"
"...While you were washing, I got bored waiting and just happened tooo."
"Happened to take it—what'd you do?"
"...Saw a ton of chats and messages, so I peeked a littlle."
"And then?"
"......I-It'S yOUR fAULT, big bro! Leaving crap like that on your phone—who wouldn't get curious?!"
"Crap like what? What do you...... Urgh?!"
In that instant, I went wide-eyed, scrutinizing Mokhui's face.
That face... was far redder than mine soaking in the tub, unable to meet my eyes even for a second.
Just like right after she'd learned what happened between me and Hwayeon.
Mokhui's cheeks burned as if she'd uncovered a secret just as big—or bigger.
"......Big bro, did you... really only do that stuff with Hwayeon sis...?"
Her question flipped back on me—I froze, speechless like a mute.
Because on the phone Mokhui had been hiding... was a crystal-clear photo of Sujeong proudly displaying her bare white body.
'Why of all things—how the hell...!'
There should've been a pattern lock—how'd she unlock it?
Took it to silence the noise, but why go into the gallery?
Questions swirled, but none I could voice.
I just stayed frozen, half-pinning Mokhui to the bed, desperately suppressing my trembling fingertips.
The air in the bedroom was hotter than outside.
Only then did I finally grasp why the hotel room had heated up so much.
One thing was certain: it wasn't just the boiler inside making it swelter.