Chapter 197
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Confession (1)
Seo-rim blinked, trying to get her bearings.
“Oh dear, you must have it so tough working under our Yeon-ho.”
“How did he come to know someone so pretty? When I first saw you, I thought you were a celebrity!”
“So, what does your father do?”
The place was Yeon-ho’s family home.
The people speaking to her were Yeon-ho’s parents and relatives.
On the table before her were fruit and rice cakes.
Seo-rim once again retraced the steps that had led her here.
‘So, Sunbae…’
While they were shopping at the department store, he had suddenly let out a groan and suggested, “Since it’s come to this, want to grab a bite to eat?”
Thinking it was a date on their day off, she had readily nodded, only realizing later that “grabbing a bite” meant “eating at my place.”
Seo-rim let out a dry laugh inwardly.
‘What the heck, when I lay it all out, it’s not that big of a deal.’
They had met on a holiday, and since they were already together, he had invited her to a gathering where all his relatives were present.
That was all. Nothing special…
She froze.
‘…or is it?!’
Flash! Seo-rim’s eyes flew wide open, as if they would tear.
In that instant, all the pieces clicked into place in her mind, defining the situation.
To put it in a single phrase:
‘A gathering to introduce me to his relatives on a holiday!’
And these people were showing her kindness because they saw her as Yeon-ho’s potential bride!
Thump! Seo-rim’s heart pounded.
It was a rhythm more steep and erratic than any she had ever experienced in her life.
Seo-rim could say with certainty that her heart had never raced this crazily, not even when she had run a half-marathon.
It was just that monumental of an event!
Seo-rim’s face instantly turned the color of a tomato.
Her body began to stiffen, and the corners of her mouth twitched up and down like sharp needles.
To use a more cartoonish expression, her pupils were practically spinning in circles.
“Th-that…!”
Her words came out in fragments.
Yeon-ho’s mother, interpreting Seo-rim’s tension as shyness, smiled with deep satisfaction.
“My, my, I’ve seen your face in the news, but you’re so much prettier in person. You’ve worked with Yeon-ho since college?”
“Y-Yes…! Just the two of us…!”
“The two of you?!”
Yeon-ho’s father’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
Then, after a moment of silence, he asked a question.
“From when, exactly?”
“Um… when I was a freshman. So, when Sunbae returned to school…”
“Ah, yes! Honey, that’s right!”
“Hmm? What are you trying to say, beating around the bush like that?”
“After he came back from the military! That’s when that boy started staying out late! Always coming in at dawn and leaving in the morning!”
“Ah!”
A stir went through the room at their exchange.
“Oh my goodness, look at him, acting like he knew nothing. What a sly fox!”
Yeon-ho’s aunt exclaimed with a giggle. At her voice, Yeon-ho, who had been engrossed in playing the Nintendo he’d bought for his nephew under the pretext of “let me show you how,” finally looked up.
“Yes?”
“My, my, Yeon-ho, you’re quite the man!”
“?”
At last, Yeon-ho himself had taken the stage.
By this point, Seo-rim’s brain was so pickled in dopamine that rational thought had become impossible.
And here, a certain trait of hers emerged.
“Goodness, now I see you were our Yeon-ho’s savior! If it weren’t for you, miss, Yeon-ho wouldn’t have become a president or been on the news!”
“Oh no! It wasn’t that much. It’s just that Sunbae came to me and asked me to do it with him…”
“Yeon-ho approached you first?!”
Han Seo-rim, a monster driven by the need for approval.
She had a bad habit of getting cocky the moment people started praising her.
“Yes, he made such a fuss, saying it had to be me or no one, and then he basically locked me in the club room for half a year.”
“Oh my, he locked you up!”
“Well, it was fun, though.”
“And it worked out so well!”
His aunt’s enthusiastic interjections were almost overwhelming.
Seo-rim, as if her earlier nervousness had never existed, began to speak freely.
“Even after we finished developing it, he kept asking me to work with him, saying we had to be together for life…”
“Aaaah!”
This time, the shriek came from Cheon Mi-rae.
It was followed by a question from Yeon-ho’s father.
“What does your father do?”
“My family is in the construction and real estate business, just a little…”
“She’s a lady! A proper lady!”
His aunt clapped her hands like a seal.
Seo-rim’s face relaxed, her need for approval filled to the brim and beyond in more ways than one.
“I ran into him at the department store by chance today, too. He suggested we get a bite to eat, so I agreed, but I didn’t know it was this kind of gathering, so my outfit is a little…”
She said this while decked out from head to toe in luxury brands.
His mother shook her head vigorously.
“No, no, you look so lovely!”
At some point, her tone toward Seo-rim had become honorific.
Indeed.
How many years had it been since she started worrying that her son, who lacked nothing and was so capable, couldn’t seem to get married?
She had just reached the point where she was thinking, ‘Please, I don’t care who it is, just get married.’
But now, it wasn’t just “anyone.” It was someone so exceptional she felt like bowing down in gratitude, and what’s more, a trustworthy colleague of her son’s, who had appeared in such a manner. How could Yeon-ho’s mother not wonder if she should take up a religion just to offer thanks?
Honorifics born from gratitude for her very existence!
That once again made Seo-rim’s shoulders puff up with pride.
“Oh, not at all!”
Seo-rim’s form of address shifted just as smoothly.
“You’re far more lovely, Mother!”
Mother.
In that moment, the atmosphere in the room shifted once more.
It was the completion of a world where everyone was happy, a perfect win-win situation.
***
The gathering went on for quite a while.
I was starting to feel a little sorry for Han Seo-rim.
‘Was I too hasty in calling her over?’
I had no idea who the culprit was, but one of my siblings must have told my mother about Han Seo-rim.
Ignoring that and parting ways with her would have led to trouble later, so I had asked her in a rush. To my surprise, Han Seo-rim was handling my relatives remarkably well.
I felt grateful, even proud, and for a moment, I wondered how I could repay her. But now, that feeling was turning into guilt for making her go to such lengths.
How should I end this gathering?
As I pondered, time thankfully came to my aid.
“I’ll take her home now. It’s already nine.”
“Oh? It’s that late already?”
“Sunbae, I’m fine…”
“No. You need to get home, too.”
I helped Han Seo-rim to her feet.
After a moment of fidgeting, Han Seo-rim bowed her head and bid farewell to my family.
I was even grateful for how polite she was to the very end.
As we stepped outside, the night air wrapped around us.
I could see my breath.
From here, it was a thirty-minute walk to Han Seo-rim’s place.
It wasn’t an impossible distance, so I was walking her home, partly to escape the barrage of questions.
Suddenly, Han Seo-rim spoke.
“Your relatives are very nice people.”
“They are. Except for the fact that they’re obsessed with my marriage.”
“Anyone would be worried, with someone like you, Sunbae.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere.”
“Really? Nothing at all?”
“I’ll have to repay you, of course.”
I replied immediately to her words, which she’d delivered with narrowed eyes.
“Thanks. For handling today so well without a proper explanation. I can rest easy until the next holiday, at least.”
“Are you going to call me again next time?”
“I don’t want to think about that right now.”
“Well, I’ll help you out until next Chuseok. As a special favor.”
Han Seo-rim giggled.
Frankly, I was more worried about what would happen after I got home today than about the next holiday.
Just thinking about the interrogation that awaited me was giving me a headache.
As I was lost in such thoughts, a complaint slipped out.
“It’s a pain, how they’re so desperate to set me up with anyone. And I can’t keep asking you for favors forever.”
It was then.
Snap—
Han Seo-rim stopped walking.
When I turned my head, what I saw was…
“…Seo-rim?”
For some reason, Han Seo-rim’s expression was frozen solid.
***
Seo-rim thought to herself, without meaning to.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t be like this.’
Of all times, why did her mood have to plummet right now?
Perhaps because she had been so elated all day, the sudden dose of reality made the fall feel especially sharp, and she couldn’t control her expression.
“Seo-rim, what’s wrong?”
Seo-rim couldn’t answer.
She felt that whatever she said, it wouldn’t come out in a pleasant tone.
It was a disappointment born from expectation.
The expectation that came from him asking her, of all people, to be in this situation today—even if they met by chance—and introducing her to his family.
But in truth, Seo-rim knew.
‘That man was never interested in things like that.’
She often got excited and jumped to conclusions, but Yeon-ho had never been interested in romance to begin with.
The way he looked at her wasn’t as a woman, but as a colleague.
When he said she was the only one, that they should be together for life, that he would take responsibility…
All those declarations weren’t because he never wanted to lose her as a romantic partner, but were simply business-like entreaties directed at an outstanding and irreplaceable employee.
Of course, Seo-rim herself had only recently begun to feel differently, so how much more so for him?
‘I know, but…’
But why now?
Why did it have to be right now?
Why did the emotional whiplash have to hit her right at this moment?
It just hurt her pride.
“Are you not feeling well? Did my relatives ask you any uncomfortable questions?”
Seo-rim said inwardly.
‘It’s because of you.’
She looked up at Yeon-ho.
The nerve of him, looking at her with such worried eyes, his voice laced with such gentle concern. It was so vexing.
Realizing she would lean on this kindness again made her feel a little miserable.
*It’s nothing. I’m just cold.*
She could say that and start walking again.
Then today would pass just like any other day.
Tomorrow would be the same, and the day after, and the day after that.
The relationship might not move forward, but at least it wouldn’t regress.
‘Am I going to be the only one agonizing over this again?’
Her fists clenched.
She would fret over a thoughtless word he tossed out, and if he said something with a double meaning, she would over-analyze it and grin foolishly.
She would only realize it was all a misunderstanding after watching his unchanging behavior for a long time.
And then, trembling with embarrassment, she would delete the excited posts she had spammed all over the community forums.
Suddenly, she asked herself.
‘For how long?’
She liked Yeon-ho.
Seo-rim no longer hid or denied it.
The person before her was special, and she wanted to be special to him.
That fact would not change, and because of it, there was a future she yearned for.
But she didn’t know how to get there.
No one had ever told her how, and this wasn’t a game where she could try again.
If she failed, could she bear it?
If she tried to change things and was met with the verdict that she could never be special to him, could she willingly accept it?
That thought created anxiety.
It bred fear and wove a tapestry of sorrow.
To take a single step forward, she had to navigate through so many negative things.
The courage that others spoke of so easily was something that could only be grasped after overcoming such difficult hurdles.
Seo-rim didn’t have that kind of courage.
As she tried to face the possibility of growing distant from Yeon-ho, Seo-rim felt a heat rise to her face.
It was a relief.
The weather was cold, and her face was already red from the chill.
These feelings wouldn’t be any more obvious than they already were.
That should have been the case, but Seo-rim’s lips were pressed into a tight line.
‘Is that really a relief?’
Yeon-ho still didn’t know.
He was just looking at her with a puzzled expression.
It would be like this forever.
Forever, no matter how much she agonized internally, this person would never know.
‘Then…’
If so, how long did she have to keep fretting like this?
Why did it have to be only her?
The moment she had that thought, her mouth fell open.
“Why.”
It wasn’t courage.
“Huh?”
“…Why can’t you ask me for favors forever?”
It wasn’t courage, but words spat out from pent-up resentment.
It was so unfair and sad that Seo-rim felt she had no other choice.
“You said we’d be together for life. So I can play that role for life, can’t I?”
The words were tossed out, as if dropped on the floor, but they were clearly delivered.
Seo-rim’s gaze was fixed squarely on Yeon-ho’s eyes.
Yeon-ho didn’t understand her words at first.
Seo-rim thought, *‘See? He won’t get it unless I’m more direct. If this continues, I’ll be the only one agonizing again,’* and opened her mouth.
“I’m fine with that. …No.”
Seo-rim’s head grew hot.
The mouth forming the words was not the least bit rational.
Her expression held not a trace of shyness.
Her words stopped for a moment.
The next phrase was stuck in her throat like a thorn, wreaking havoc.
Seo-rim tried to pull it out.
To be clear, what was in progress was not courage.
Because she could never do it with courage alone.
Because it felt like she had found an easier way.
So she lifted her head, reached out and clasped his hand, squeezed it as if to crush it, and after gritting her teeth, she faced that infuriatingly placid face.
“…I’d like that.”
Seo-rim’s love was spewed out with resentment.
“I like you, Sunbae.”
It was the most Seo-rim-like confession.