Chapter 30: A Lie's Lie
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 30: A Lie's Lie
"Honey! Yeon-ju!"
When she heard her own name follow that unfamiliar word, Yeon-ju desperately prayed she was mistaken.
Surely not. Surely, surely this isn't the kind of scene I'm imagining right now?
Turning around with a tense expression, she saw Dr. Ju cradling three or four bottles of wine in his arms.
No. I must have misheard. I definitely misheard.
"Honey, what's going on?"
But as Dr. Ju approached, pronouncing each syllable with crystal-clear precision, Yeon-ju's face went pale with shock.
Honey? Honey?!
"Honey...?"
As Eun-seong spat out the word as if tasting something foul, Dr. Ju glanced back and forth between the two of them. Yeon-ju, her face tight with tension, sent him a silent, desperate plea with her eyes.
Doctor! Please don't say another word! Please! Please!
"Yes. Honey."
Yeon-ju squeezed her eyes shut.
"Is there something you need from my wife, Mr. Im Eun-seong?"
Agh. She died on the spot.
When Dr. Ju suddenly appeared and claimed they were married, Eun-seong looked utterly bewildered. The worldview he had so perfectly constructed was crumbling to pieces.
"Ha..." Lost for words, Eun-seong let his lips part blankly. Dr. Ju set the wine bottles on the ground, straightened up, and stepped even closer to Yeon-ju.
"We were trying our best not to reveal that we're married while on set, but it seems I let it slip in front of you, Mr. Im Eun-seong."
With those words, Dr. Ju looked down at Yeon-ju. His expression softened as he gently wiped the corner of her mouth.
"You have some marshmallow on your face. Cute."
Agh. She died a second time.
As Dr. Ju wiped her lips, Yeon-ju swayed as if she might fall over. She had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to pull off a lie of this magnitude; it was far beyond her capabilities.
Lord... can you just take us both to heaven as a package deal? If that's too much trouble, I can just crack his skull open first...
Please make a quick decision, one way or the other...
Meanwhile, Eun-seong's gaze grew sharp. Dr. Ju's eyes, however, remained endlessly warm, and Yeon-ju finally lost her grip on sanity.
"Heh, heheh."
A hysterical laugh escaped her lips.
"Heh... hehehe, heh. Hehehe."
After chuckling weakly like a sick lamb, Yeon-ju straightened her back. Well, whatever happened next, one thing was certain: she could get through the immediate crisis.
Yes! Turn this crisis into an opportunity!
"I'm sorry for the late introduction, but this is my hu—hu—yes, my husband."
Was the word "husband" always this bitter and hard to say? It caught in her throat, but she forced it out anyway.
At that, Eun-seong's eyes turned deeply suspicious. He clearly hadn't let go of his doubts.
The moonlight filtering through the trees seemed to enhance the autumn atmosphere, making the scene look romantic—romantic, my ass! She was so tense she was shivering.
"Honey, why are you shaking so much? Are you cold?"
Dr. Ju gently reached out and took her hand. He slid his fingers between hers, lacing them together tightly.
Eun-seong's gaze locked onto their joined hands. Seeing this, Dr. Ju squeezed her hand even tighter, pressing his palm firmly against hers as if he would never let go.
After staring at them for a moment as if admiring a painting, Eun-seong stood up.
"You two look good together. I don't see any reason to hide that you're married."
"There was no particular reason to broadcast it, either. I'd appreciate it if you kept this a secret, Mr. Im Eun-seong."
"Sure, I will."
Glancing once more at her hand, which Dr. Ju was still holding tightly, Eun-seong suddenly smiled.
Watching him smile so easily, Yeon-ju bit her lower lip.
That look, that smile.
She knew exactly what he was thinking.
"The weather is fantastic, so I'll leave you two to enjoy your evening."
"……"
"My apologies for the intrusion. To your husband as well. Excuse me."
He hadn't fallen for it.
* * *
Only after Eun-seong disappeared did Yeon-ju sink back onto the bench. Any warmth she'd felt from the bonfire had long since vanished, and her mind was too foggy to think clearly.
She let out a sigh heavy enough to crack the earth, taking shallow, ragged breaths as if she were drowning.
"Why..."
After a long silence, she finally parted her dry lips.
"Why did you do that?"
Sitting a short distance away, Dr. Ju had been carefully reading her expression. He flinched.
"Ah... well..."
"You shouldn't have done that. You know that."
"…I'm sorry."
What else could he say? Dr. Ju bowed his head and apologized.
"I don't know what came over me either. By the time I snapped out of it, I was already holding your hand, Yeon-ju."
"……"
"To be honest, I overheard a bit of your conversation."
Is it that you don't want to show me, or is it that you don't actually have a husband?
"The moment I heard Im Eun-seong pressuring you, asking if you couldn't show him a picture of your husband because he didn't exist... I think I lost my mind. All I could think about was helping you."
Ugh. Realizing nothing he said could excuse his actions, Dr. Ju ruffled his hair in frustration. Yeon-ju merely blinked, her gaze calm and quiet.
"I'm sorry. It's entirely my fault. I lost my mind for a moment and did something I shouldn't have..."
"I have no reputation or pride to lose, so I don't care how people see me. But you're different, Doctor."
"……"
"If this lie gets out, what will people say? They'll point fingers and call you a fool. There's absolutely no reason for you to be treated like that because of me."
Dr. Ju trailed off, staring at her. When he finally met her eyes, he saw a hollow gaze, like someone who had given up on everything.
She seemed so detached, as if she had died and been reborn multiple times, completely indifferent to life and death.
"It breaks my heart that I dragged you into this and turned you into a liar, too."
"Ah... it's not like that, Yeon-ju. It's really not. I just..."
His chest felt tight, and he didn't know where to begin. The feelings were piling up faster than he could put them into words, leaving him tongue-tied.
"I just... I really just wanted to help you. You said you had to keep deceiving him until the very end, so I wanted to protect that wish of yours."
"Yes. I'm grateful, and I'm sorry... I feel both."
"Why are you apologizing? If you say that, what does that make me...?"
A wave of heat rushed through him. He had caused this entire mess, yet she was the one apologizing.
He had jumped in without thinking and blown things out of proportion, but in his own way, he had been sincere. It wasn't just a hollow lie meant to escape a tight spot.
Yeon-ju. That's how I truly felt. Can I tell you that?
...Dr. Ju bit his lip, agonizing over whether to speak his mind. Her thoughts were surely complicated enough already, and saying this would only put her in an even more awkward position—
"I'll be much more careful from now on. I won't interfere in your business again. I'm truly sorry."
"Well, maybe it's for the best. Whatever happens next, I'll deal with it later. I can do that, right?"
As she offered a soft smile, seemingly quick to resign herself to her fate, Dr. Ju was left speechless.
Just what kind of hardships had piled up inside that small frame of hers that allowed her to laugh things off as if they were nothing every single time?
What kind of path had she walked? How many things had she buried deep inside?
No matter how rude I might be, could it ever compare to you, who ghosted her after sending a single text?
...The one who looked cute eating marshmallows.
The ex-girlfriend Im Eun-seong said he was suddenly reminded of was almost certainly her.
"Doctor, shall we head back now? The others must be waiting. I think we've been gone too long."
Yeon-ju stood up, brushing herself off lightly. She urged him to go, saying everyone must be eagerly waiting for the wine.
"By the way, Doctor, we're in big trouble now. We told such a massive lie right in front of an actor. What are we going to do?"
"Well, if my lie keeps making you uncomfortable, Yeon-ju, we can just make it not a lie."
Yeon-ju, who was picking up the wine bottles from the ground, looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Huh? How?"
"There are several ways, aren't there? For instance, we could register our marriage. If we actually get married, then it won't be a lie anymore."
Huh? Yeon-ju stared at Dr. Ju, her eyes round with shock.
"How could you and I register a marriage? You're quite the joker."
"I'm not joking. I'm serious."
Even though Eun-seong had left, the scent of crushed grass still lingered where he had stood.
Even as she looked up at Dr. Ju, it was the scent of the man who had already departed that drifted to her.
Tonight, it felt as if the entire world had been dyed in his fragrance.
"Let's go, Yeon-ju."
* * *
"Ha! Husband, my ass!"
His mood had plummeted, and lacking the energy to even pretend otherwise, Eun-seong had left the gathering and gone straight to his room.
No matter how deceitful the world could be, watching that live "married couple show" right in front of his eyes had made his stomach churn and left him feeling utterly numb.
"This is driving me crazy. Ah, so that's the smokescreen they're throwing up? They're willing to go as far as playing husband and wife just to fool me?"
At first, his heart had dropped. When the word "honey" slipped from Dr. Ju's lips, he felt a bizarre sensation, as if the world had stopped and he was the only one breathing.
But one look at Go Yeon-ju's dumbfounded expression and he knew: Ah, it's a show. It's a lie.
He could tell instantly.
"Ugh, she can't even act. Does she think just anyone can do it? Not a chance."
"Ha! Ha!" A frustrated, hollow laugh kept escaping him. When they intertwined their fingers as if to put an exclamation point on their performance, he had briefly struggled with whether to jump in and expose their lie right then and there.
Pacing aimlessly around the room, he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. After gulping down more than half of it, he let out a heavy, ragged breath.
Huff. Huff. Huff...
His heavy breathing soon turned into a sigh. Leaning against the wall, Eun-seong let his arms drop limply. The image of the two of them radiating such a warm, affectionate aura seemed burned into his retinas, and he muttered in a hollow voice:
"Seeing something I shouldn't have has completely drained my energy. Sigh..."
He felt that if he had kept questioning them, Dr. Ju would have used it as an excuse to pull her into an embrace to "prove it." Once his thoughts reached that point, he had just wanted to get away.
Leaving as quickly as possible was the best way to make them let go of each other's hands.
That was why he had fled. Because he wanted them to let go of those hands immediately. Because he wanted them to separate.
"Still, at least he got to hold Go Yeon-ju's hand under the guise of being her fake husband. I'm jealous."
Something her actual ex-lover couldn't even dream of doing.
Something he couldn't even hope for unless he picked a fight just to exchange a few words.
The man who was now her past was endlessly envious of the fake husband. In this moment, that was the only thought that filled his mind.