No... This Can't Be (2)
I no longer knew how many days of peace it had been.
Min Seonye sat by the café window, elegantly lifting her coffee cup with a thoroughly satisfied smile.
That thorn in her side, Han Yuri—the little bitch—had not shown her face for days.
Thanks to that, Seonye could leisurely spend her time fully appreciating the sight of Sihyun at work.
Of course she had once again tossed her company duties aside and come here, but so what?
Ah~ Sihyun is just too cute today, too~
Seonye gazed, utterly entranced, at Sihyun’s face as he moved busily behind the counter.
Then the faint red marks and lingering scrapes on his jawline and the back of his hand caught her eye.
Hmm… what are those wounds really from? That crazy bitch Han Yuri didn’t actually lay a hand on him, did she?
The question flickered through Seonye’s mind, but she did not dig any deeper.
She had casually asked Sihyun once and received the answer that it was nothing…
More importantly, Yuri was gone.
In other words, right now this café belonged to just the two of them—herself and Sihyun. (Not quite.)
When it looked as though Sihyun was finishing up and about to start cleaning, Seonye rose from her seat and walked to the counter.
“Sihyun, this is a new one—try it~ I specially brought it just for our Sihyun~”
She held out a set of macarons that looked as if they had been freshly fetched from the finest bakery in the city.
As always, Sihyun’s brow furrowed slightly and he shook his head.
“No thanks, noona. I still have work to do.”
“Come on, just a little taste, okay?”
Seonye refused to back down, coaxing him in a coaxing, cutesy voice, until Sihyun finally accepted one of the macarons with a small sigh of defeat.
Ah~ Sihyun is really too cute…
Watching him always push her away yet still end up accepting whatever she offered filled Seonye with a warm, contented smile.
She continued speaking while savoring the sight of him chewing the macaron.
“Sihyun, let’s have lunch together later too! Okay?”
“Haa… Fine.”
It was another reluctant answer, but for Seonye the important thing was that he had agreed.
Lately that girl Yuri had stopped making a fuss even when Seonye kept Sihyun a little longer after his café shift ended, and that fact alone put her in an excellent mood.
Could it be… that crazy bitch Han Yuri has already lost interest in him?
The thought crossed her mind for a moment.
Well, good for me~ Sihyun was always going to be mine anyway!
Just as Seonye was fully drunk on her sense of victory—
Bang—!
The café door slammed open with a violent crash and a disheveled woman came rushing inside.
Her eyes held an unreadable mix of terror and rage.
Oh my? Isn’t that the bitch who threw a tantrum at Sihyun last time? Why does she look like that?
Seonye’s brow furrowed slightly.
She had finally managed a cozy little moment with Sihyun, and now an unwelcome guest had appeared.
Sure enough.
That woman—Lee Suhyeon—charged straight at Sihyun and began to scream.
“Kim Sihyun! This is all because of you!!!”
At the sudden entrance and shout, Sihyun, Seonye, and even the manager and Areum who had been working nearby all turned to stare at her in shock.
“Lee Suhyeon…”
“You ruined everything! My parents’ marriage! Dad’s company! My entire life! And what the hell are you even doing here right now? Huh!?”
Suhyeon poured her resentment onto Sihyun as if she were wailing.
Seonye was bewildered at first, but as she listened she quickly pieced the situation together.
Blaming Sihyun for her family’s company going under… Aha!
Sihyun’s lingering wounds.
Yuri who had been conspicuously absent lately.
And Suhyeon bursting in out of nowhere, screaming.
She must have tried something on Sihyun again without learning her lesson. That’s why she got completely wrecked by that pissed-off crazy bitch.
Seonye knew exactly how vicious Han Yuri could be.
There had been a lot of noise lately about Jinmyeong Construction; this girl was probably the daughter of that family.
Having reached that conclusion, Seonye cheered inwardly.
Stupid bitch, daring to touch him? Well, thanks to her that girl Yuri is also out of the picture… Hehe, this is basically a gift from heaven!
Seonye decided to turn the moment into a golden opportunity to score points with Sihyun.
“Oh my, aren’t you the customer who was throwing her weight around at Sihyun last time? What on earth are you doing barging in and causing a scene? Last time and now—why do you keep harassing him?”
She stepped firmly in front of Sihyun, expression stern.
But the crazy woman in front of her only spat back,
“Shut up! You big-titted whore! Who the hell are you to stick your nose between me and Kim Sihyun!”
No, seriously—these bitches always lose their minds over my chest the second something happens!?
Seonye’s eyebrows twitched, yet she immediately put on an even more fragile, wounded expression, as if she had been waiting for exactly this.
Then she slipped half-hidden behind Sihyun’s back and tightly clutched his arm with both hands.
“Hiiing… Sihyun, I’m so scared~”
Tears welled up as though they would spill at any second.
Clinging to him in a delicate voice, she looked for all the world like a helpless victim designed to trigger every protective instinct.
And, for Suhyeon’s eyes alone, she silently mouthed the words with pure contempt and mockery:
Retard.
That was the final straw.
Crack—!
The last thread of reason snapped inside Suhyeon’s skull.
“You fucking bitch!!!”
Screaming like a demon, she scanned the room and spotted a tray left on the neighboring table where a customer had just stepped away.
Without a second’s hesitation she snatched it up. The tray—still cluttered with empty cups, straws, and napkins—came flying straight at Seonye and Sihyun.
Whoosh—!
“Kyaa~! Sihyun, I’m so scared~!”
Seonye let out an exaggerated shriek and completely vanished behind Sihyun’s back.
Sihyun reflexively raised an arm and knocked the tray aside.
Crash—!
A cup shattered on the floor; its contents splattered in every direction.
“Oh my god! She’s completely insane!”
“Aaaah! Not my café again—!”
“Kyaaaak—!”
The remaining customers cried out in shock and panic. The manager and Areum ducked behind the counter, screaming.
Suhyeon’s eyes had completely rolled back.
Throwing the tray was not enough; she seized a nearby empty chair and raised it, ready to swing at Seonye and Sihyun.
“All of you die!!!”
In an instant the café became a hellscape of screams and flying debris.
At that exact moment—
“This fucking bitch?”
An ice-cold female voice cut through the chaos and into Suhyeon’s ears.
Flinch!
Like a dog that had just heard Pavlov’s bell, Suhyeon’s body locked up on pure reflex.
She slowly turned her head.
Sharp blue eyes were boring into her with freezing intensity.
“Hey. I told you never to show your face again, didn’t I?”
Yuri’s voice carried a chill so deep it felt as if the floor itself had turned to thin ice.
“Not in front of me. And not in front of him either.”
Her gaze was pure murder; killing intent far beyond a mere warning radiated from her.
Thud!..
The chair slipped from Suhyeon’s trembling fingers and clattered to the floor.
“Hic…!”
Terror squeezed her lungs so tightly she could barely breathe.
“You were really putting on quite the dog-show, huh?”
Yuri walked toward her with deliberate, unhurried steps.
Then—
Slap—!
“Kyaaaak—!”
Suhyeon clutched her cheek and screamed.
“I-I’m sorry! I was wrong!”
She dropped to her knees on the floor at once and began to beg.
Yuri only looked down at her with that same frigid expression.
“P-please forgive me. Father and Mother didn’t do anything wrong!”
Suhyeon kept pleading.
“Hmph.”
Yuri snorted, regarding her the way one might look at an insect.
Only then did Sihyun finally grasp the full picture. He stepped up to Yuri and asked,
“Employer, what exactly have you done?”
“Ah. You don’t need to know.”
Yuri turned her head away and answered curtly.
“No. Tell me. I told you everything, didn’t I?”
Sihyun refused to back down, meeting her eyes head-on.
Yuri exhaled a resigned sigh.
“Haa… Fine. But first let’s clean up this mess.”
The café was still a disaster of shattered glass and spilled food.
Every last customer had already fled in terror.
“…Alright. Lee Suhyeon, get up. We need to clean.”
Sihyun’s voice as he spoke to the woman still prostrate on the floor was completely cold.
Not a single shred of old pity or sympathy remained.
“….”
Suhyeon gave no answer. She simply trembled where she lay, face pressed to the floor.
Fear and humiliation toward Yuri.
Betrayal and heartbreak at being rejected by Sihyun.
Every emotion tangled together and finally broke free.
“Keuk… heuk…”
Unable to hold it in any longer, she let out a choked, sorrowful sob.
Yuri clicked her tongue in pure disdain.
“What the hell did you do that was worth crying over?”
“Hic…! I-I’m sorry.”
In the end Suhyeon could not even cry properly; she could only stifle tiny, broken whimpers.
Watching the scene, Seonye clicked her tongue and took charge.
“What are you doing, Manager? Get over here and help clean. You too, part-timer—lend a hand.”
She issued orders to the staff as if she owned the place.
“Y-yes! Right away!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The manager and Areum hurriedly joined Sihyun in cleaning up the store.
Seonye herself pitched in as well.
And all the while—
Ah, seriously… look at that girl’s perfect timing coming back…
She grumbled inwardly and swallowed her disappointment.
The private lunch date with Sihyun had already gone completely down the drain.