Chapter 89
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: No Useless Connections (1)
Already half of December had passed.
There were only about two weeks left in the year, and I was spending busy days at the cafe to prepare for the end of the year.
‘This place is seriously hectic, no time to breathe.’
If it had been like before, I would have worked only in the morning and then fled in the afternoon with a ‘Su-hyun, take care of it for me!’ But now, I didn’t do that anymore.
“Su-hyun, can you handle the counter payments?”
“Yes!”
And that made sense, because Su-hyun’s inner thoughts had become reality, hadn’t they?
His resume clearly stated that he had awakened but had no skills, but I had recently looked it up online and learned that trait-type skills could activate without the person even knowing.
You never know.
Maybe without Su-hyun realizing it, he had developed a trait-type skill that curses others.
Normally, skills are something you intuitively realize and use like a part of your body, but trait-types are such a rare exception that you couldn’t rule out the possibility.
‘Before that, if the boss takes time off whenever they want at work, that’s abuse of power!’
I shouldn’t do such bad things.
It had nothing to do with not wanting to get kidney stones.
When I recalled Seo-yeon suffering in pain, my lower back ached involuntarily, but anyway, that wasn’t it!
‘Come to think of it, both of them must be busy.’
In Korea, during winter, the probability of Gate Breaks and high-rank gates appearing worldwide more than doubles.
Scholars have studied it diligently, but the reason still hasn’t been clearly identified. Based on my experiences, though, it feels like this time of year is when our dimension gets closest to the other dimensions.
The final boss was an invader from another dimension, after all.
In any case, because of that, Yu-ra noona had become extremely busy, staying at the guild and preparing for emergencies.
‘On top of that, if an emergency breaks out in Russia due to adult circumstances, she’ll have to go, so she’s bound to be several times busier than others.’
For these reasons, the only way to meet Yu-ra noona when I had time off from the cafe was to go directly to the guild.
Even amid all this busyness, Seo-yeon was just as swamped.
She was running around handling business registration, lease agreements, and such, and even undergoing loan reviews to establish her own company.
I wanted to help, but I didn’t know anything about running a company, so I couldn’t.
[Just cheering me on is more than enough. Thank you.]
Seo-yeon also wanted to blaze her own trail without my help.
With both of them so busy, I was worried whether we could even spend the end of the year together.
“No helping it. Should I do some volunteer work?”
It might sound out of left field, but I had been considering volunteer work for a while.
Specifically, ever since meeting the fortune teller lady with Seo-yeon.
‘Maybe all that talk of evil karma and good deeds is real.’
I wasn’t sure if volunteer work done for a reward could truly be called good deeds.
But at the very least, it was far better to take action—even if it was hypocritical—than to do nothing and act cynically.
‘For now, focus on work. I’ll look for volunteer spots this weekend.’
I refocused on cafe duties.
While diligently serving, helping with payments, and brewing coffee, a familiar face caught my eye.
‘That guy...’
It wasn’t because she was a regular.
The woman who entered dressed in luxurious clothes, looking around, was a connection I didn’t particularly want to see again.
‘Yoo Ha-yul?’
The woman who had threatened me and schemed something, only to get thoroughly thrashed by Yu-ra noona and disappear.
She had come back to me babbling about compensation because she was scared of Yu-ra noona, but I had told her never to show her face again.
‘Does she know noona’s busy and came back?’
But a long time had passed since then.
Since Yu-ra noona hadn’t made a move, she must know there was no chance of revenge.
Someone of chairperson level, running a whole corporation, couldn’t possibly lack that much brains.
If that was the case, she must have come for another purpose. Thinking about what she could want from me, one thing came to mind.
“Hello. Long time no see.”
Hey, she had propositioned me to be her sugar baby.
That meant, whether body or heart, she had some degree of affection for me.
Sure enough, supporting my theory, the emotions in Yoo Ha-yul’s eyes were a mix of excitement, worry, and fear-tinged affection.
‘I thought she wouldn’t come back after I said that much.’
Looks like my words fell short.
I no longer held any grudges about that incident. I wasn’t the type to bury past events in my heart, and with everything I’d been through lately, her actions didn’t even feel like crimes anymore.
Of course, if I were an average guy of this era without past life memories, I would have resented her for pressuring me with money to go after my body.
As someone with old-fashioned male sensibilities? Well...
But regardless of my feelings, I had no desire to continue any ties with her.
‘She’s not a woman I want to keep a connection with.’
More importantly, she had feelings for me, right?
Not just any feelings, but special ones between man and woman.
Yu-ra noona and Seo-yeon were more than enough for me—handling even them was a handful—and I didn’t want to create even the slimmest opening for one more person.
“Um, long time no see. It’s not great to talk here—want to step into the back for a sec?”
“Y-Yes? Oh, yes!”
So, to completely cut ties, I led Yoo Ha-yul to the staff room.
The moment the door closed, I quickly locked it, shoved her against the wall, and glared at her.
“Hey, are my words a joke to you?”
“Ah...”
“I told you never to show your face again, didn’t I?”
“Y-You did.”
I had tried first-stage hypnosis from outside, but it didn’t work, so I pressured her like this and grabbed her shoulders.
However, the skill must have judged this wasn’t righteous, as second-stage or higher hypnosis wouldn’t activate.
Must be because of my personal desires.
If so, I’d have to make her lose all interest by insulting her.
“You gonna keep pulling this crap? Do they teach family education like this on Venus or what? Tell you to toss promises to the dogs?”
“N-No!”
“Then are you Yoo Ha-yul’s twin or something? You messing with me right now?”
My villain act felt awkward even to me.
But no choice. With hypnosis not working, I had to make her understand physically.
“I think I know why you came. I guess I didn’t make it clear enough last time, leaving you with lingering feelings. This time, I’ll spell it out properly. Open your ears and listen good.”
“Eek...”
To ensure she’d never forget, I leaned in close to her ear and whispered.
“I don’t like you. No matter what you do, I’ll never like you. So drop the pointless hopes and never show up again.”
“...”
Yoo Ha-yul’s head turned away.
To check if she understood, I grabbed her chin and forcibly turned her face back toward me.
The moment our eyes met, I felt different emotions than before.
‘No, what the fuck is this!?’
The fear and excitement cleared like mist.
What remained was deep affection.
And...
‘You crazy bitch, why are you turned on at a time like this!?’
Intense sexual desire had taken root.
I had subtly insulted Venus and even her parents, right? I hadn’t felt like doing direct family digs, so I did it indirectly and aggressively—why was she feeling this!?
‘It’s gender-reversed, isn’t it? Hearing that from a physically weaker guy than her, and she likes it? And she’s the only daughter of a massive conglomerate? Getting dissed by a guy who just runs a cafe?’
In that instant, realization struck like lightning.
From my past life, I had seen perverts with bizarre sexual tastes that even other men couldn’t understand.
The realization that Yoo Ha-yul might be one of those perverts.
‘There were tons of people with insanely deviant paraphilias.’
Some guys paid younger women to insult them.
Others got off on women ignoring and hitting them.
The worst I’d seen was a guy who got aroused just by giving women money for free, like a total sucker.
Seriously, he posted online that sending money with no expectations aroused him?
‘In that sense, Yoo Ha-yul’s at least better...’
But getting excited from being insulted by a man?
She seemed like a masochist, that popular quirky taste(?) turned into an internet meme.
“...Hey, get out. Remember what I said.”
“Y-Yes!”
I opened the door, and Yoo Ha-yul bolted out.
Why did the fortune teller lady suddenly pop into my head?
“Have I accumulated some evil karma too?”
This weekend, skip meeting Yu-ra noona and go straight to volunteering.
“An orphanage sounds good.”
＊＊＊
“Ahh...”
Yoo Ha-yul got into the car waiting outside and cupped her cheeks with both hands.
Her flushed cheeks were hot like ripe eggs.
‘Damn it, what the hell is wrong with me!’
After Yoo Jun-hyuk had told her never to come back before.
She knew it was rejection and tried to move on by burying herself in work to forget him.
‘I shouldn’t have come if I knew it’d be like this.’
But she just couldn’t forget him.
Like a modern woman hooked on him.
Unadorned, truly womanly, with an old-fashioned man’s personality and outstanding looks—Yoo Jun-hyuk was a man who left her unsatisfied by any other.
So she had come today, but her confidence in knowing him well turned out hollow as she learned yet another new fact about herself.
‘No way I’m such a ridiculous woman.’
Know thyself, win every battle.
After discovering her tastes, Yoo Ha-yul had thoroughly researched old-fashioned humanity.
And among them were a minority of women who enjoyed being dominated by men.
‘Women who like bad boys...’
The forcefulness of him shoving her against the wall still lingered before her eyes.
The humiliation whispered in her ear tickled her brain, and when he forcibly grabbed her chin and turned her head, her heart nearly burst.
Being coercively dominated felt good.
Even the subtle digs at her family weren’t bad.
“Haa, should I take some libido suppressants?”
She had visited hoping to develop from acquaintance to friend.
Maybe even lover.
Not only was she firmly chased away—not even as an acquaintance—but she discovered yet another unknown taste.
“I don’t know.”
Yoo Jun-hyuk.
No, Jun-hyuk-ssi?
While fussing over how to address him, whom she might never see again, she mumbled without thinking.
“...Jun-hyuk-nim?”
A thrilling something shot up her spine and hit her head.
No matter how much she liked old-fashioned men—old-fashioned as they were—this new taste didn’t fit at all, so she shook her head vigorously.
“N-No!”
Her mouth said no.
But her expression was somehow brighter than before.