My Fiancé
I've lost track of how many times I've spent time like this without a single thought in my head.
I was wandering around the inside of the cruise ship as if it were my own home.
When I first stepped inside, everything had felt completely unfamiliar.
People dressed in expensive suits.
Others laughing and chatting while holding glasses of wine.
The children of companies whose names I'd heard somewhere at some point.
Honestly, I had felt a little out of place.
*Was I even allowed to be here?*
I had even thought that.
But once I started walking around, it turned out there was nothing special about it after all.
"People's lives are basically the same everywhere."
Of course there was a difference in how much money they had, but in the end, they were still just people living.
Laughing, chatting, drinking, and having fun—that was all it took.
And this cruise ship, made for exactly that kind of socializing, really had nothing missing.
A wine bar, art galleries, a casino, swimming pools...
*Just how much did they spend?*
I could feel the power of Seohan Group with my own body.
That's how I spent the day wandering the ship.
At first I really had only come to look around.
I went to the wine cellar, chatted with the sommelier, visited the gallery to admire the art, and even sat at a poker table out of curiosity.
I had expected it to be incredibly stiff since it was supposed to be a gathering of chaebols, but the truth was it was surprisingly fun.
That's how I kept walking around the place and place, and suddenly several hours had passed.
"..."
I stopped walking and looked around.
I had come back to the main hall where Seo Jia and I had first stepped off the ship.
Gleaming chandeliers and soft music playing in the background.
The laughter of people.
The space that had seemed completely unfamiliar just a few hours ago now felt rather familiar.
And at that moment, I suddenly realized.
"Wait a second."
What am I even doing here?
When I thought about it properly, it seemed strange.
I had come to find clues to gain points, but what were the results?
I drank wine, looked at art, played poker...
I had simply become a guy who was just having fun.
"This is just the playboy youth excuse."
If I tried to make an excuse that wasn't an excuse, it was because there had been real reasons.
To gain points, I needed an event or a clue.
To get that, I had to wander around inside the cruise ship.
And while I was walking around seriously, I just happened to notice the wine, the art, and the casino.
I hadn't gone there intending to have fun.
I nodded to myself inwardly.
*This is investigative activity.*
Originally, the points were a system matter that didn't have correct or incorrect answers.
No one knew when the system would respond.
Maybe I would suddenly start playing poker and have a message pop up like 【You have NTR'd the other party's wealth!】
That's how I had been continuing with my flimsy excuse.
"Hyung."
A familiar voice came from behind.
I turned my head, and there was Seo Jia.
The atmosphere was a little different from when I had seen her at the entrance earlier.
All the playful energy she had shown when we first met was gone, and her shoulders were slightly slumped.
Normally, the person who would have been bouncing around energetically right now looked like someone who was clearly exhausted, no matter who looked at her.
"You look really tired."
At my words, Seo Jia immediately let out a sigh.
"Ugh."
And she pressed her temples with her hand.
"Don't even say it. Dealing with people is really hard."
"Me?"
"Yeah. I'm a person too."
Seo Jia looked at me with an expression that said it couldn't be helped.
"You're greeting in place of my father, smoothing over the chairman's moods, talking to the young ladies... How many times have you just been smiling for the last few hours?"
"I don't know."
"I don't know either. I gave up counting."
Seo Jia, who had normally just been playful, had a genuinely exhausted expression on her face, something rare for her.
Even the youngest daughter of a conglomerate ranked third in the business world had found these kinds of places difficult.
Unlike the deflated Seo Jia, I was feeling quite pleased with myself.
She immediately noticed that.
"Why do you look so happy compared to earlier?"
Seo Jia narrowed her eyes.
"Happy? We're having a party on a super-luxury cruise ship."
"What did you do all this time?"
"Just looked around."
"Just looked around..."
Her words trailed off as if she had suddenly remembered something, and she lifted her head.
"That's right, pig."
Seo Jia stared at me for a moment, then tilted her head in confusion.
"You... were interested in art?"
"...What?"
It was a sudden question.
Seo Jia looked at me with narrowed eyes, as if she couldn't understand the story she had just heard.
"No, in the gallery."
She gestured with her hand as she spoke.
"People were saying that when you were listening to the curator's explanation, you said something sounded strange."
"Ah."
I remembered it belatedly.
That thing.
I had just walked by and it caught my eye, so I had said something.
But it seemed that story had spread to Seo Jia as well.
"So how did you find out? Is there a problem with the art? You knew how to look at paintings?"
Seo Jia stared fixedly at my face.
"No."
"No? Then what is it?"
"...It just seemed strange, so I said it."
It was the effect of the Observer's Eye.
Since the skill had upgraded a level, things that had been invisible now became visible.
"And."
Seo Jia crossed her arms.
"Why did you take Inha Group's youngest son's money?"
"Who is the Inha Group youngest son?"
"I don't know?"
Seo Jia looked at me with an astonished expression.
"They said you took all his money at the casino."
"..."
I remembered then.
That guy.
The kind-hearted young man.
"We played together."
I took some casino chips out of my pocket.
And I casually handed them to Seo Jia.
"Here, take these."
Seo Jia took the chips.
"...What is this?"
"Chips."
Seo Jia looked down at the chips.
In gambling, you were supposed to give part of the winnings back.
It wasn't in famous gambling movies, but you were supposed to take only half the winnings.
With that spirit, I had given some of the winnings from the young man, but his reaction wasn't great.
"I wasn't mocking the guy... it just made me angry."
Seo Jia let out a helpless laugh.
"More importantly, how much is this? Did you take it all from him?"
I nodded.
"That friend had a lot of money."
"He's not a friend."
"But friends with money are good friends."
"What are you talking about? You're acting weird today."
Seo Jia shook her head.
A smile was on the corners of her lips. She seemed a little more energetic than before.
"You know how to play poker too?"
Seo Jia asked with suspicious eyes.
I knew the rules, at least.
I knew the card rankings and how the game worked.
But I had never actually played it properly.
"Just know the rules."
I shrugged roughly.
Seo Jia made an expression of disbelief.
"Then you stole from the Inha Group youngest son?"
"...I was lucky."
I had thought I was lucky at first too.
But as a few hands went by, I had vaguely realized.
What the opponent was holding in their hand.
When they were bluffing and when they were shaking.
Everything was visible.
The tiniest changes in expression, the movement of fingertips, the slightly rougher breathing...
Thanks to that, I could properly evaluate how far my evolved skill would reach.
Seo Jia, having heard my clumsy explanation, blinked a few times before laughing with a "he he."
"You met her, didn't you?"
"Who?"
"The Inha Group youngest son."
Seo Jia shook the chips in her hand as she said it.
"He has a reputation for being a total jerk."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Seo Jia threw the words out as if it didn't matter.
"The guy who always messed with other people. This time, he got what he deserved."
The expression on her face was clearly one of gloating, no matter who looked at it.
"Good job, pig."
I blinked at the unexpected praise.
Seo Jia looked at me with a slightly nostalgic expression.
"...You've changed a lot."
She scanned my face from top to bottom.
"Before, you just had a huge body and were super scared."
"I was?"
Seo Jia giggled.
"Who would say something and get a hurt expression and hide in the corner."
That wasn't wrong.
Even in Kang Taeseong's memories, there had definitely been a scene like that.
He was big, but he couldn't handle people's gazes.
Because of his terrifying appearance, no one had come to approach him, and because he knew that, he had been extra careful.
At least until his teenage years.
"But."
Seo Jia said with a meaningful smile.
"Now you can eat people too, huh?"
"..."
She shook the casino chip she was holding in her hand with a satisfied look on her face.
"Even against the Inha Group youngest son."
"Is it that strange?"
There were quite a few people who had known Kang Taeseong for a while.
People I had met a few times at chaebol gatherings.
People tied to me through company relationships.
And beyond that, the connections that had continued since childhood.
Among them, Seo Jia was a little different.
She had been around Kang Taeseong since she was little.
She was the person who knew closest what kind of person the original Kang Taeseong was.
In front of her, I couldn't hide it.
Because the old Kang Taeseong and I now were too different.
Seo Jia shrugged.
"No, you look much better than before."
Seo Jia laughed playfully.
"People can change their personalities. It's normal for people to change."
She looked toward the casino again.
"And guys like that should get what they deserve sometimes. Good job."
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly while Seo Jia playfully poked my forearm.
"Jia-ya?"
A strange voice came from the side.
Seo Jia's expression hardened.
I naturally turned my gaze in the direction the voice had come from.
A man was walking toward us.
"Ah."
He smiled as if he had been relieved.
"There you were."
The man approached with a kind smile on his face.
At first glance, he had a refined appearance.
A perfectly tailored suit and relaxed steps.
Eyes that looked like they made people comfortable.
A handsome man.
He could be called a parasite playboy type. His skin was fair and his face small, like some idol.
But what I focused on was something else.
*He has double eyelids?*
The kind of characters who often appeared in comics and animations.
They rarely opened their eyes wide and always had kind smiles or something.
The man in front of me was exactly like that.
"You didn't even say where you were going."
The man said to Seo Jia.
"How long have you been looking?"
Seo Jia let out a sigh.
"Haa."
She muttered quietly.
"I told you not to call me by the informal form."
The man hesitated for a moment, then gave an awkward smile.
"Sorry."
"We're not at that level of closeness yet. Why do you keep doing that?"
The man raised his hand with a laugh.
"Sorry, sorry. Maybe our Jia got upset?"
"..."
Seo Jia's eyebrows twitched.
A small mutter came out.
"...Our Jia is crazy."
Seo Jia let out a big sigh, then looked at me.
"Kang Taeseong... I'll introduce you. This is—."
She hesitated a little, her gaze shifting toward the man.
There was a strange hesitation, as if she didn't want to.
Her mouth opened a beat later.
"...He's my fiancé."